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The  Open  Court, 


Fortnightly  Journal, 


Devoted  to  the  Work  of  Establishing 

Ethics  and  Religion  upon  a 

Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I 


CHICAGO: 
The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.  a 


[887-88. 


V 


JUrrL.    J  J  Iff 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


VOLUME    I. 


SPECIAL  CONTRIBUTIONS. 


PAGE. 

Adam,  Putting  off  the  Old  Man.     IV.  D.  Gunning 67 

Agnosticism  Produce   Better   Results  than   Christianity?  Does       W.    L. 

Garrison,  Jr '53 

Anarchists?  What  Shall  be  Done  with  the.     W.  M.  Salter 530 

Anniversary  of  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  of  Chicago,  The  Fourth.  ..    164 
Aphorisms  from  the  Study.     Xenos  Clark 14 


Rlue  Laws,  The.     Frederick  May  Holland 

Breadth  and  Earnestness.     Celia  P.  Woolley. ...    

Buddhism  Influence  Early  Christianity?    Through    what  Historical  Chan- 
nels Did.     Gen.  J.  G.  R.  Forlong 382,   fi6, 


02 


K at zen jammer.     W.  D.  Gunning 4 

Labor,  The  Future  of.     Robert  C.  Adams 575 

Labor,  The  Laokoon  of.     Wheelbarrow  .    . 410 

Labor  Cranks.    James  Parte  n 113 

Language.     E.  P.  Powell.  6S4,  750 

Language,  'I  he  Simplicity  ot.     I  rof.  F.  Max  Muller 225,  253 

Language  and  Thought,  The  Identity  of.     Prof.  F.  Max  Muller 2Sj,  309 

Laws  in  Harmony,  All.     Mrs.  R.  F.  Baxter .         _•<  7 

Liberty  and  Labor,  The  Poets  of.     Wheelbarrow 41s  1,  745 

Live  and  Not  Let  Live.     Wheelbarrow zfii 


Character  and  iis  Relation  to  the  Commonweal,  The  Evolution  of.     Miss 

M.  S.  Gilliland 63 

Chimpanzee,  Chats  with  a.     Mori  cure  D.  Conway. 

62,  126,   177,  -,3'.  3H.  403.  5'5-  546 

Chopping  Sand.     Wheelbarrow 353 

Christianity  and  the  Moral    Law.      Clara  Lanza 203 

Church  Worth  Saving?  Is  the.     Lewis  G.Janes 120 

Church  and  State,  Separation  of.      Prof.  Albert  Reville 369,  396 

Church,  The  Stronghold  of  the.     Col.  T.  W.  Higginson 477 

Coal  Upon  Our  Atmosphere,  The  Influence  of  the  Combustion  of.     Ttans- 

lated  from  the  German  of  Dr.  Clemens  Winkler 197 

Consciousness.     E.  P.  Powel  1 ]  25 

Crusade,  The  Cross  of  the  New.     Prof.  Van  Hurcn  Denslow 262 

Democratic  Theory  and  Practice.     W.  L.  Garrison,  Jr 316 

Determinism  versus  Indeterminism.     Prof.  Georg  von  Gizycki 729,  75S 

Douglass  in  Paris,  Frederick.     Theodore  Stanton 151 

Dress  Upon  Development,  The  Influence  of.     Flora  McDonald 40S 

Economics,  The  Ethics  of.     Geo.  M.  Gould 6S9,  721,  747 

"ducation  of  Parents  by  their  Children,  The.     Cams  Sterne 642,  670 

^chatology  and  Ethics.     M.  C.  O'Byrne 190 

Ethical  Movement,  The  Aim  of  the.     Address  by  Prof.  Felix  Adler (-.00 

Ethical  Societies,  The  American.     Mrs.  McCullom 601 

Ethics,  The  Basis  of.     Edward  C.  Hegeler iS 

Remarks  by  Messrs.  Prussing,  Stern,  Underwood  and  Zimmerman...,      22 

Comments  on  Mr.  Hegeier's  Essaj'.     W.  M.  Salter 51 

Further  Comments  on  Mr.  llegeler's  Essay $2 

Ethics,  Amendments  and  Answer  to  Criticisms  ot  His  Essay  on  the  Basis 

of.     Edward  C.  Hegeler 94 

Ethics,  Darwinism  in.     W.  M.  Salter 77 

Ethics  in  Public  Affair-.      M.  M.  Trumbull 1S2 

Ethnological  Studies.     Theodore  Stanton 13 

Evolution,  Montgomery  on  the  Theology  of.     Prof.  E.  D.  Cope 2S5,  35S 

Evolution,  Cope  s  Theology  of.      Edmund  Montgomery 160,  217,  274,  300 

Ja: 


Evolution,  Thoughts 
Evolution  and  Ideali* 


James  Eddy 463 

Prof.  E.  D.  Cope 655 


Flowers  and   Pot  ts.      Anna  Olcotl  Commelin 90 

Folk- Lore  Studies.     I..  J.  Vance 612,  662 

Fool  in  the  Drama,  The.     Translated   from  the  German  of  Franz  Helbig. 

607,  657,  687 

Franklin,  A    Hint  from.     John    Burroughs $5 

Free    Religious  Association   and    its  Approaching    Annual    Meeting,  The. 

Wm.  J.  ] 'otter 179 

Free  Religious  Association,    Twentieth  Annual  Convention  of  the.      F.  M. 

Holland 235 

Free  Thought  Education,  The  Need  for.    Thomas  Davidson 3 

Free  Thought  in    England.      Hypatia  Bradlaugh  Bonner. 147 

Free   Thoughts.     Felix  L.  Oswald,  M.  D 433 

Future  Life,  Common  Consent  and  the.     Richard  A.  Proctor 237 

Gravity,   The  Mystery  of.     George  Stearns 557 

Hein/en,  Karl.     K.  Peler 451 

Hemispheres,  The    Two.     B.  W.  Ball 11 

History,  The  Value  of  Doubt  in  the  Study  of.     Gen.  M.  M.   Trumbull 715 

Idealism  and  Physical  Science.      W.  M.  Salter 552 

Idealism,  A  Misconception  of.      W.  M.  Salter 47S 

Immortality,  Personal.      Daniel  Greenleaf  Thompson 172 

Immortal  it  v  that  Science  Teaches,  The.      Lester  I  .  Ward,  A.  M 199 

Industries,  Diffusion  of.      F.  B.  Taylor 565 

Jails  and  Jubilees.     Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton 175 

and  Jubilees.     A  Criticism  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton's  Article. 

Pr<  -en led  by  Edward  C.  Hegeler , 212 

A  Rejoinder  to  Mis.  E.C.Stanton.      Edward  C.  Hegeler 407 

thah's  Daughter  at  Honolulu.      Moncure  D.  Conway 86 


Man  of  the  Sea,  The  Old.      Prof.  W.  D.  Gunning 507 

Memory,  Th.  Ribot  on.     Dr.  Paul  Cams 264 

Memory,  Th.  Ribot  on  Diseases  of.     Dr.  Paul  Carus 344 

Memory.     Prof.  W.  D.  Gunning,  M.  D 361 

Memory   as    a    General    Function   of  Organized    Matter,  On.     Translated 

from  the  German  of  Ewald  Hering 141,  169 

Menial  Science,  Monistic.      S.  V.  Clevenger,  M.  D 400,  429,  484,  553 

Mind?  Are  We  Products  of.    Edmund  Montgomery,  M.  D. 

423,  459,  4S0,  512,  587,  617 

Mind  to  Matter,  The  Relation  of.     Prot.  E.  D.  Cope. 527 

Mind  to  Morality  and  Progress,  Some  Relations  of.  G.  Gore,  LL.D..  F.R.S  555 

Mind -Reading,  Etc.     Minot  J.  Savage .  149 

Mind-Reading,  Etc.  *  A  Reply  to  M.  J.  Savage.    J.S.Ellis 230 

Monism   in  Modern  Philosophy  and   the  Agnostic  Attitude  of  Mind.     Ed- 
mund Montgomery 9,  37,  65 

Monism,  Dualism  and  Agnosticism.     Paul  Carus,  Ph.  D 209 

Monism,  A  New  Theory  of.     Rev.  William  I.  Gill,  A.  M ...,  454 

Monism,  Quotations  on 384 

Monopoly  on  Strike.      Wheelbarrow 5^9 

Montgomery,  Dr.  Edmund  103 

Moral  Unity.     William  J.  Poitei .' 88 

Mythology,  The  Decadence  of  Christian.     W.  S.  Kennedy 71 

Mystery- Play,  A  Modern.     M.  C.  O'Byrne 250- 


Nervous  System,  The  Specific  Energies  of  the. 
man  ot  Ewald  Hering 


Translated  fn 


1  the  Ger- 

oco,  664 


Occult   Sciences  in   the  Temples  of  Ancient  Egypt,  The.     Georgia  Louise 

Leonard 470,  496 

Orthodoxy,  Progressive.     C.  K.  Whipple 71 S- 

Pain  in  a  New  Light,  The  Mystery  of.     Xenos  Clark 42S 

Paradox,  A  Theological.    Mi  not  J.  Savage 36 

Penalty,  The  Death.     A.  M.  Griffen 572 

Persona.     Prof.  F.  Max  Muller 505,  543 

Picture,  A  Notable.     Raymond  S.  Penan 28S 

Population   to   Social    Reform.     The  Relation   of  the  Doctrine  of.     Prof. 

Henry  C.  Adams 22S 

Possibilities.     Rowland  Connor 30 

Poverty,  The  Art  of  Making.      M.  M.    Trumbull 57»  97 

Present  Aims.     Arthur  R.  Kimball 343 

Progress,  The  Process  of.     Rudolf  Weyh  r 683 

Prometheus  Unbound.     F.  M.  Holland 4S3 

Prophecy,  Touched  by.     Elizabeth  Oakes  Smith 513 

Prophets,  Two.     Alfred  H.  Peters 329 

Protestantism,  Aristocratic.     C.  K.  Whipple 373 

Protestantism  and  the  New  Ethics.     William  Clarke 233 

Psychiatry,  or  Psychological  Medicine.     S.  V.  Clevenger,  M.  D 207,  241 

Punishment,  The  Rationale  of.     Celia  P.  Woolley 134 

Question.    That  Previous.     J.    II.    Fowler 70 

Radical,   The.      Ednah  D.  Cheney 1 17 

Radical  Method,  Failure  of  the.      Rev.  Julius  II.  Ward 292 

Reason  and  Predisposition.     John  Burroughs 115 

Reflex  Motions.     Translated  from  the  German  of  G.  II.  Schneider. 696 

Reform  Problems.     Felix  L.  Oswald 122 

Religion,  Natural.     Rev.  John  W.  Chad  wick 205 

Religion  and  Science.     Dr.  Paul  Carus 405 

Religion  Have  a  Scientific  Basis?  Can.     Lewis  G.Janes 350 

Religion  and  Ethics,  New  Views  of.      F.  M.  Holland 519,   581 

Religion  of  Humanity,  The.     William  Chatterton  Coupland 577 

Religions,  Mythologlc.     Charles  D.  B.  Mills 201 

Religious  Progress  in  Scotland.     Rev.  Robert  B.  Drummond 257 

Religion,  From  Despotism  to  Republicanism  in.    John  Burroughs 541 

Religion,  Separateness  in.     George  Jacob  Holyoake 510 

Religion,  'The  Secularization  of.     M.  C.  O'Byrne CS2 


.*° 


no   < 


THE    OPEN    COURT— Index  to  Volume  I. 


SPECIAL  CONTRIBUTIONS— Continued. 


PAGE. 

Science  to  Morality  and   Progress,  Some   Relations  of.     G.  Gore,  LL.D.. 

F.R.S ." 421,  45$ 

"Science,  Christian."'     S.  Y.  Clevenger,   M.D 330 

Science  in  the  New  Church.     Edward  Crunch,  Ph.  B.,  M.  I* 374 

Scientific  Studies,  Religious  Value  of.     Lewis  G.  Janes 571 

Secularism,  The  Mission  of.     Felix  L.  Oswald,  M.  D 29 

Shakers  and  Shakerism.     Hester  M.  Poole.      149 

Shakespeare- B  icon  Controversy,    The.      IS.  W,   Ball 5S5 

Skeptic,  The  Modern.    John  Burroughs 239,  $22 

Skepticism  a  Self- Evident  Error.     Clinton  Collin*  723 

Social  Prohlem  and  the  Church,  The.      Morrison  I.  Swift                              . ....  050 

Society  and  the  Individual.     William  J.  Potter.                         1 

Soul,  The.     Edward  C.  Htgeler 30.; 

Spencer,  Herbert,  as  a  Thinker.     Richard  A.  Proctor 145 

Spheres,  The  Harmony  of  the.     P.  Carus,  Ph.  D.. 3; 

Sun  and  Savior,   The  World's.     Richard  A.  Proctor 312 

Sunday  Worship.     Charles  K.  Whipple 05 

Sympathy,  The  Merit  and  Vice  of.     Celia  Pa  ker  Wool  ley 550 

Temples  and  Temple  Cities.     B.  W.  Ball 351 

Tempted  Generation,  A  Sorely.     Alfred  1 1.  Peters 11S 

Theism,  A  Review  of  Francis  Ellinirwood  Abbot's  Scientific.       L.  Carrau  .  340 

Theism,  Th.  Rihot  on  Dise:i-rs  ofMemory.     Or.  Paul  Cams 314 

Remarks  on  the  Two  Foregoing  Articles.     Edward  C.  Hegeler  34S 


I'AG  E. 

Thought,  the  Parent  of  Originality.     Mary  E.  L  ole       743 

Thought   Without   Words.      Conclusion  of  Correspondence  between  Mr. 

Arthur  Xicols,  et  al.,  and   Prof.  F.  Max  Muller 40S 

Thought,  The  Simplicity  of.     Prof.  F.  Max  Muller 337,  365 

To  Arms.     Wheelbarrow 615 

Tobacco,  The  Rights  of  Those  Who  Dislike.     Anna  Gar)  in  Spencer 60 

Tolstoi  and  Primitive  Christianity.     W.  D.  Gunning 39S 

Trades,  Competition  in.     Wheelbarrow  ....    203 

Truth,  Love  of.     Celia   Parker  Woolly  720 

Unitarianisin  and  Its  Grandchildren.     Moncure    l>.  Convi  av 46 

Viking   \ncesiors,  and  What  We  Owe  to  ["hem,  Our.      Samuel  Knee  land,- 

M.D   259 

\"irtues,  The  Positive.     Prof.  Thomas  Davidson 426,  490,  517 

Voltaire,  King.     Fruderii -k   May  Hollan  1  6 

Will,  Th.  Ribot  on.      Or.  Paul  Carus    (.55,    |S7 

"Woman,  The  Worst  Enemy  of  Woman  is."     Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton.         34S 
Worlds,  Varied  Life  in  Other.     Richard  A.  Proctor 595 

Xe  ions,  Goelhe  and  Schiller's.     Dr.  Paul  Carus 31I* 


POETRY  AND  FICTION. 


Age,  The.     W.  F.   Barnard 54 

Cat,  The.     A  Parable.     F.  A.  Krummacher,  641 

Conclusion.      |.  F.  D 3S1 

Creedman,  The.     Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cakes  Smith.  2o,3 

Death.     A.  B 700 

Death  in  the  Cage.     George  Wentz 1 1 1 

De  Profundis.     Elizabeth  Oakes  Smith 212 

Dial,  The.     Walter  Crane i^ 

Doubt.     George  E.  Montgomery :2i 

Down  and  Up.     Anna  Olcott  Commelin 214 

Drifting.     W  alter  Crane 54 

Egoitv.     Emma  Tuttle ...  244 

Finishing  "  The  Ruins,"  On.    *    *     49a 

Gospel  Village,  The.     Bv  One  Who  Sojourned 

There 30,? 


PAGE. 

Hi nihi  Li  gend.     Gertrude  Alger 324 

Ho  Theos  Meta  Son.     Gowan  Lea v> 

Ideal,   The.      W.  F.  Barnard 137 

Ideals.     Gowan  Lea 7-4 

"  [  Do  Not  Know."     Sara  A.  Underwood 273 

Immortality.     Solomon  Solis-Cohen 700 

Immortality.     Matthew  Arnold 724 

Lenau,  Translation  from 6iO 

Lost  Manuscript,  The.    Gustav  Freytag.   Com- 
mencing in  No.  22,  p.  646,  and  continued  there 

from 

Love.     Mrs.  Emma  Tuttle 469 

Magnanimity.     Sara  A.  Underwood 43S 

Nature's  Lesson.     W.F.Barnard 354 

Open  Court,  The.      Nelly  Booth  Simmons 205 

I'ro  Confesso.     Ge<  rge  Went/ 150 


f'AGF- 

Questionings.     Wil  is  Fletcher  Johnson 753 

Responsum    N  itur.e.      A.  C.  Bowen  .  .    52! 

Schiller's  Gods  of  Greece.      B.   W.  Ball.  S3 

Separation.     Joel  Benton 1    1 

Silent  Intruder,  A.     Lee  Fairchild 1S4 

Sin  of  the  Atom,  The.     Yiroe  ...         4JS 

Snow,  The  First.     Sonnet.     Gowan   Lea 550. 

Socrates.      W.  F.  Barnard 273 

Song.     Horace  L.  Traubel (69 

Sonnet.     Gowan  Lea 492 

Sonnet.      Ilda    Poesche 212 

Sursum.     By    *    *    *  . .  5JQ 

To-Morrow.     Gowan  Lea.  419 

Tributes.     Lee  Fairchild 641 

Two  Preachers.     Sara  A.  Under  \  nod 590 

Un revealed.     Helen  T.  Clark 437 

When  Sumac  Glimmers  Red.   EHssn  M.Moore.  469 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


CAGE. 

Barnard's  Defense  of  His  Criticism,  Mr 475 

Concluding  Comments  by  Dr.  Carus 475 

Boston  Correspondence.     Clayton 10S 

Boston,  A  Letter  from.      Ednah  Dow  Cheney 52 

Catholicism  and  Democracy  in  France.     Theodore  Stanton 566 

Character.    James  Eddy 391 

Common  Consent,  the  Soul.  Immortal  Life,  and  the  Godhead.      Richard    \. 

Proctor 386 

Conway's  Work  in  England.     Mr.  George  Jacob  Holyoake 137 

Cope-Montgomery  Controversy,  The.     S.  V.  Clevenger,  M.  D 3S9 

Cremation,  Dr.  Samuel  Kneeland  on 220 

Cross,  Reply  to  Mr.  Benjamin.     Ella  E.  Gibson 703 

Davis  of  Boston,  A  Statement  Concerning  Rev.     IT.  B.  Hastings 672 

Economic  Theology,  Henry  George  and  the  School  Girl.     Edge  worth 507 

England,  A  Letter  from.     "Hypatia  Bradlaugh  Bonner 362 

Ethical  Culture  and  Monism.     R.  B.  Westbrook 54 

Ethical  Movement  in  England,  The.     William  Clarke ..  444 

Free  Religious  Association.      F.  M.  Holland 105 

Free  Religious  Association,  Resolutions  bv  the.     Fred.  M.  Holland §3 

Free-Thought  Congress,  1SS7,  International.     Charles  Bradlaugh 36} 

Free-Thought  Education.     M.  D.  Leahy 10S 

Free-Thought  Education.     Janet  E.  Runt/   Rees 136 

Free-Thought  Education.     Thomas  Davidson 166 

Free-Thought  Lyceums.    Thomas  H.  Jappe 53 

Gibson,  A  Reply  to  Ella  E.     Benjamin  Cross 673 

(iood  and  Bad.     C.  K.  D 221 

Gravitation,  The  Cause  of.     Ely  Shefford 736 

Gravity,  On.     L.  J.  Ives 704 

Human  Feeling,  Limitations  of  the.     F.  B.  Taylor 53 

Human  Suffering,  The  Study  of.     Xenos  Clark^ .-603 

Idealism  and  Realism.     Francis  C.  Russell 604 

Idealism,  The  Misconception  of.     F.  L.  Carpenter 569 

Individual  Immortality.     C.  Billups 734 

"  Institutional  Order,  The."     A.  N*.  Adams 390 

Ireland,  The  English  Government  of.    J.  G.  W. ...                                            ...  306 

Jerusalem  Correspondent,  A  Letter  from  Our.     "  Special  "  24 


"  Labor  Cranks"  Criticised,  Mr.  Parton's  Article  on.     John  Basil  Barnhill.  363 

Labor  Cranks  Again,  James  Parton  on 445 

Labor  Question, "The.     A.  Bate - 4'9 

London,  A  Letter  from.     Hypatia  Bradlaugh  Bonner 249 

London.  A  Letter  from.     Charles  D.  B.  Mills 535 

Mai-Observation  and  Lapse  of  Memory,  as  Viewed  hy  Richard    Hodgson. 

LL.D.,  The  Possibilities  of.     Ella  E.  Gibson "7  ' 

Memory  Necessary  to  Conscious    Mental  Life?  Is.      Janet  E.  Runtz-Rees.  306 

Memory  and  Conscious  Mental   Life,     Daniel  Greenleaf  Thompson 363 

Mind-Reading.    Paul  Cams 105 

Mind-Reading,  Etc.,  Again— A  Correction.     M.  J.  Savage 305 

Miracles.     Smith  John,  D.  D .250 

Montana  Industrial  School  for  Indians.    1  he.     J.  F.  B.  Marshall  _*23 

Murderer?,  Ecclesiastical  Atten'ions  to      Georgejacob  Holyoake.,  331 

193,  ^7  ;ss 


New  \  ork.  Letter  from.     Hester  M.  Poo 
Open  Court,  The.     -Mien  Pringle 


104 

'94 
277 
7°3 
M* 


Parker  Tomb  Fund.  The.     Theodore  Stan1*"''. 

Philadelphia,  Letter  from.      C.  P 

Prison  Reform  ?  What  is.     Eugene  I  lough 

Proctor  on  "Common  Consent,"  Reply  to.     H.  1>.  Stevens 
Pulpit,  Criticism  of  the.     Georgejacob  Holyoake 

Quaker,  A  Letter  from  a.      David   Newport 7°3 

Radical  Method,  Success  to  Ihe.      Robert  C.  Adams 569 

Religion  and  its  Correlations.     Joseph  Rodes    Buchanan 502 

Religion  an  i  The  Open  Court,  Two   Letters.      Rev.  II.  H.  Higgins  and  G. 

H.  Scheel 73 1 

Salter,  A  Replv  bv  Mr.  William  M.  10  William  I.  Gill 703 

Sense,  Reality  and  Illusion  as  to.     Wm.  I.  Gill 702 

Seybert  Commission  Report,  The.     Ella  E.  Gibson 3S9 

Social  Democrats.  Third  Congress  of  the  German.     Laura  La  (argue 602 

Social  Studies.      Hester  M.  Poole 700 

Subscriber,  A  Question  from  a 763 

Sundav  Laws  are  Manufactured,    How.      H no 

Thought  Without  Words.  Correspondence  between  Francis  Galton,  the 
Duke  of  Argyll,  Mr.  Hyde  Clarke.  Mr.  T.  Mellard  Reade.  S.  F.  M.  Q. 
and  Max  Mufler 41 


THE    OPEN    COURT— Index  to  Volume  I. 


CORRESPONDENCE— Continued. 


Thought    Without    Words.       Correspondence    between     Ft. in.  is     Gallon, 

I  ieorgc  Romanes,  J.  J.  Murphy,  etc.,  and  Max  Muller 472 

.Nuisance,   The.     Caroline  M.  Everhard 221 

Tolstoi.    J.  S.  B 5°* 

Trades-Unions  and  Monopoly.     Harr\  C.Long.  642 

Trades  Union  Methods,  The  Practical  Justification  of.     Ham  C.  Long  ..  762 

Underwood,  A  Letter  from  Mr.  1".  F.,  dated  Aug.  ao,  tSS6       76+ 

\\  .1  .--■    .      P  .ems,  I>.  A.     Kdnaii  D.  Cheney 279 


HAGS. 

Wheelbarrow,  Reply  by 044 

Widow,  His.     CM.  Everhard ;oo 

Woman,  Woman's  Worst  Enemy  Is.     II.  IS.  Clark 568 

Woman  Suffrage,  An  Argument  for.      F.  M.  Holland 502 

Words  and  Thoughts.     F ^3? 

Word  Species,  The.      Elissa  M.  Moore 537 

Xcnions,  Goethe  and  Schiller's.      A  Criticism.      W.  F.  Barnard      445 

Dr.  Cams'  Reply 446 


EDITORIALS. 


Alcohol  Question,  The 413 

American   Economic  Association,  Second   An- 
nual Meeting  of  the 246 

Anarchism  and  Socialism 75  \ 

Anarchy  and  the  Anarchist-  464 

Ass  iciations  for  the  Advancement  of  Women,  561 

Blasphemy -  J 4 

Books  for  Young  People,  <  om  ernin*;      377 

Brains  and  Sex 

Christmas  Gifts 669 

Competition  a  Condition  of  Progress 271 

Competition,  The  Primitive  Struggle  and  Mod- 
ern                                                    1S5 

Concord  School  of  Philosophy,  The.. ..          —  355 
Convention  of  the  Union  of  the  Ethical  Culture 

Societies,  Annual 592 

Co-operative  Congress  in  England 29S 

Culture,  Genuine  vs.  Spurious 131 

Dangerous  Classes.  The 524 

Darwin  and  His  Work 40 

England,  A  Letter  from.     Chappellsmith     ..  .,  757 

Ethos  Anthropoi  Daimon 695 

Evolution  and  ImmortaIit\ ~y'> 

Farewell  to  the  Re  idersof  the  Open  Court,  The 

Editors' 591 


HAGE. 

Free  Religious  Association.  The ^2; 

Freytag,  Gustav.     Edward  C.  Hegeler 640 

George's  Theory  Proved  and  Disproved  by  The- 
ology..                  ...  247 
« rt  rman  Influence  in  America 357 

'•  Heathen,  An  Unconverted  " 150 

Hypnotism, ,. 207 

Ideas,  The  Life  and  Growth  of 756 

"  It  Think--." 64] 

Journalism,  Vicious 129 

Li  beralism ji  ^ 

Lost  Manuscript,  The 040 

Mental  He.iling  Craze,  The 269 

Metaphysicism  to  Positivism,  From 695 

Monistic  Religion  is  to  Me,  What  the.  A  Letter 
-   to    a     Highly    Esteemed    New    Contributor. 

Edward    C.  Hegeler 72^ 

Monism  and  Monistic  Thinkers 376 

Monism  and  Religion 6  i\ 

Monuments 521 

Mora!  and  Scientific  Progress.  1    -' 

Oracle,  An  0\  er taxed 411 

Phrenology,  The  Old  and  New        433 

Pleasure  and  Pain 495 


Politician,  The  Shark} ;oj 

Public  Opinion 29-  > 

Pulpit  Influence  on  Vital  Questions tS6 

Quid  Pro  Quo 245 

Readers  of  the  (.'pen  Court,  To  the.     Edward  C. 

Hegeler 62  1 

Relativity 564 

Religion  in  the  Public  Schools 73 

Religion  Upon  a  Scientific  Basis 5<o 

Resignation  of  the  Late  Editors,  Supplement  to 

the  Statements   Relating  to  the.      Edward  C. 

1  legeler 693 

Revivalists  We  Have  and  the  Revivalists  We 

Xeed,  The 73 

Salutatory '5 

Science  and  Immortality 132 

Science  to  Morals,  The  "Relation  of 154 

Science  vs.  Theology 43 

Smyth,  The  Case  of  Prof.  Egbert  C  296 

Thinking,  Right 99 

Unknowable,  The '167 

Vacation  Time 27 

Volapuk,  the  Universal  Language 523 

Woman  Suffrage,  The    Rock  Ahead  in 326* 


BOOK    REVIEWS. 


1 68 


Absolute  Relativism.     William  Bell  McTaggart .... 

Allston,  and  Other  Papers,  Last  Evening  with.     Elizabeth  P.  Pea  bod  \  .         223 
Aphorisms  of  the  Three  Threes.     Edward  O wings  Towne 564 


Bible,  what  is  It?   I  he.      Divinity  of  Christ,  The,     I.  D.  Shaw. 
Botany,  Elements  of.     Edson  S'.  Bastin,  A,  M.,  F.  11.  M.  S... . 


44^ 
30 


Chicago  Law  Times,  The 56 

Christianity,  Crimes  of.     G.  W.  FootcandJ.  M.  Wheeler 539 

istianity,  Review  of  the  Evidences  of.     Abner  Kneeland,  4  4.8 

Christian  Science  Pamphlets  and  Recent  Literature  on  Mind  Cure 447 

Columbus;  or,  A  Hero  of  the  New  World.     D.  S.  Preston , .  308 

Darwinism,  The  Ethical  Import  of.     J.  G.  Schurman I'1 

Earth  in  Space,  The.     Edward  P.  Jackson,  A.  M 540 

Emancipation  of  Massachusetts,  The.     Brooks  A. lam--  364 

Emerson,  A  Memoir  of  Ralph  Waldo.    James  Elliot  '  ....   537 

Entwickelung  und  Gluckseligkeit.     B.  Carneri 2^1 

Ethics.  The  Foundation  of.     Edwarde  Maude,  M.  A  251 

Ethik,  Vorfragen  der.     Dr.  Christoph  Sigwart.,  417 

Evolution  and  Christianity.    J.  C.  F.  Grumbine,  539 

Gedenkbuch.     Erinnerung  an  Karl  Hetnzen. 
Geometry,    First   Steps   in.     La--     Lessons    in    thi 

Richard  A.  Proctor 

God'  What  and  Where  is.     IL  B.  Philbrook 


Diffi  rential   Call  ulus. 


lite  Psvchologique.     Th.  Ribot 

Heredity,  Th.  Ribot's 

Heredity  from  God,  Our.      E.  I*.  Powell 

High-Caste  Hindu  Woman,  The.     Pundita  Ramabai  SarasvatL. 

Higher  Ground.     Augustus  Jacobson 

Histoire  R-eliune^sL'  du  Feu.     Introduction  a  I'Histoire  Generate  de 

ion  .     Com  to  Goblet  d'Alviella 

Historical  Jesus,  and  Other  Lectures,  The.     Gerald  Massey 

Hi  itory   01    England    in   the    Eighteenth    Century,    A.     vols.    V     md 
l  Edward  I  lartpole  Lecky .  


Relig 


In  the  Wrong  Paradise,  and  Other  Stories.     Andrev    1     ■   ; 
Isaure,  and  Other  Poems.    W.  Stewarl  Ros; 


Journal  d'un  Philosophe.     Lucien  Arrcal     

Keats,  John.     Sidney  Col vin 

Leben  i     I  nGi  eines  Heimathlosei     1    n  

Legend     Iron.  Story-Land.     James  Vila  Blake 

Lcspinas.se,  Lettres  Medites  de  Mademoiselle  de,    Charles   Fleury. 
i  nd  Theology.     Cclia   Parker  Woolley 

Makii   ■  :  Great  West,  'the.     Samual  Adam-  Drakt  


280 

673 

57o 

133 
139 

-1: 
I1 11 
7.17 

22  t 
33  5 

420 

196 

22\ 

]:'■ 

705 

2- 

7'" 

55 
S3* 


PAGE. 
Marriage  and  Divorce,  The  Clerical  Combination  to  Influence  Ci\  il  Legis- 
lation on.      Richard  Brodhead,  D.D.,  LL.D ....  54O 

Monk's  Wedding,  The.     Conrad  Ferdinand  Meyer 417 

Mind . 27 

Mental  Healing.  Facts  and  Fictions  of.     Charles  M.  Barrows.. 446 

Origin  of  the  Fittest,  E.  D.  Cope's  The.     E.  D.  Powell ill 

Parleyings  with  People  of  Importance  in  Their   Day.     Robert  Browning.  112 

Philosophische  Kriticismus,  Prof.  A.  Riehl's  Der.    G.  V.  Gizycki 105 

Philosophical  Realism.     William  Icrin  Gill.. .            S3 

Phvsiologv  and  Psychology .  S.  V.  Clevenger's  Comparative 139 

Pine  and  Palm.     M.D.Conway 604 

Pioneer  Quakers.  The.     Richard  P.  HallowelJ 16S 

Poems.     By  David  At  wood  Wasson 674 

Poems  and  Essays.    James  Vila  Blake 54' 

Poems  and  Translations.      By  Mary  Morgan  (  Gowan  Lea  1 &? 

Poet  Laureate,  To  the 

Practical  Piety.     Jenkins  Llovd  Jones 

Problem  of  Evil.  The.      Daniel  Greenleaf  Thompson 334 

Progress,  The  Scientific  Basis  of.     G.  Gore,  LL.D.,  F.R.  S 447 

Property  and  the  Ownership  of  Land,  The  Right  of.      W.  T.  H    rris 60; 

Psalms,  The  Story  of  the.     Henry  Van  Dyke,  P.D 7.s7 

Publications  of  John  B.  Alden,  Recent $& 

Random  Recollections.     Henry  B.  Stanton 54° 

Recollections  of  a  Minister  to  France,     E.  B.  Washburne,  LL.D 605 

Religious  Sentiment,  The.     Daniel  G.  Brinton,  A.  M.,  M.  D 107 

Religiose  und   Wissenschaftliche  Weltanschauung,  LTeber.      Prof.  Dr.  L. 

Buchner 5°3 

Sailing  of  King  Olaf  and  Other  Poems,  The.    Alice  Williams  Brotherton,,  30S 

Shakespearean  Drama,  The.     Denton  J.  Snider 005 

Shayhaeks  in  Camp,  The:    Ten  Summers   Under  Canvas.     Samuel  J.   Bar- 
rows and  Isabel  C  Barrows 393 

Skat,   the    German    Game  of    Cards,    An   Illustrated    Grammar    of.     Ernst 

Eduard  Lemcke 252 

Social  Equilibriums  and  Other  Problems,  Ethical  and  Religious.     George 

Batchelor 57° 

Sunday  Law  of  Massachusetts,    The 27 

Thackeray,  A  Collection  of  Letters  of 539 

Trv-Square,  or  The  Church  of  Practical  Religion.     Reporter 2S0 

Uplifts  of  Heart  and  Will 252 

Utilitarianism,  Sketch  of  a  New.     W.  Douw  Eighth  all,  M.  A.,  B.  C.  L..  ..  447 

White  Cockades.     Edward  Irenams  Stevenson 570 

Wundt's  Ethics.     Paul  Cams 13S 

Zury:  The  Meanest  Man  in  Spring  County.    Joseph  Kirkland 252 


■  rial  articles  from  page  640   to  end  of  present   volume  were  written  under  the  editorial  management  of  Dr.  Paul  Carus; 
under  tin'  editorial  management  of  Mr,  and  Mrs   IV  V.  Underwood. 


The  Open  Court 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work   of    Establishing    Ethics   and   Religion    Upon   a   Scientific   Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  i. 


CHICAGO,  FEBRUARY  17,  1887. 


\  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
)  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


SOCIETY  AND   THE   INDIVIDUAL. 
BY  WILLIAM  I    POTTER. 

It  the  fundamental  question  of  the  relation  of  indi- 
vidual existence  and  of  individual  welfare  to  the  aggre- 
gate power  and  well-being  of  societv  could  he  settled, 
with  it  some  of  the  foremost  problems  of  the  day  in 
social,  political  and  ethical  philosophy  would  find  their 
solution.  This  fundamental  question  is  behind  the 
struggle  that  is  going  on  between  labor  and  capital.  It 
is  involved  in  the  various  theories  of  socialism,  commun- 
ism, anarchism,  which  are  now  claiming  public  atten- 
tion. In  political  science,  it  is  behind  the  problem 
whether  government  shall  be  protective,  educational, 
paternal,  or  merely  representative  of  such  conditions  and 
needs  as  are  strictly  common  to  all  individual  citizens. 
And  in  ethics  the  most  perplexing  problems  are  con- 
cerned, not  with  the  relation  of  one  individual  to  another, 
but  with  the  relation  between  a  single  individual  on  one 
side  and  the  whole  aggregate  of  individuals,  as  repre- 
sented bv  public  opinion,  custom,  law,  on  the  other  side. 
Are  there,  then,  anv  general  principles  bearing  upon 
this  central  question  of  the  relation  of  the  individual  to 
society  which  will  help  toward  a  solution  of  these  spe- 
cific problems? 

It  seems  to  me  that  there  are  such  principles.  And 
one  of  the  first  among  them  is  that  nature  in  this 
matter  should  be  our  teacher;  not  material  nature 
merely,  but  nature  in  its  broad  meaning  as  including 
man  as  well  as  the  physical  universe — nature  as  cover- 
ing the  whole  of  that  spinal  world-plan  by  which,  as 
science  assures  us,  from  the  amorphous,  chaotic  mass  of 
primitive  matter,  with  whatever  forces  were  inherent  in 
it,  there  came  successively  all  the  various  orders  of  being 
known  to  earth,  on  an  ascending  scale  of  organic  capac- 
ity and  function,  until  man  was  reached,  with  his  com- 
manding intellect,  his  moral  sense,  his  creative  purpose 
and  will  to  be  guided  by  reason  and  right. 

And  how  has  nature,  or  the  power  within  or  behind 
nature,  wrought  in  this  world-process?  Not  to  go  into 
details,  it  has  worked  by  the  method  of  differentiation; 
that  is,  by  successive  separations  of  the  amorphous  mass 
of  primitive  matter  and  the  gradual  production  of  spe- 
cific and  individual  forms  of  existence,  each  still  in  some 
way  dependent  upon  or  related  to  the  parent  mass  and 
its  forces,  but    taking  on   organic  vitality,  functions  and 


power  of  its  own.  As  this  process  of  concentrating  the 
forces  of  existence  and  life  in  specific  forms  has  con- 
tinued, the  organism  has  become  more  complex  and 
capable,  its  functions  more  various  and  effective,  its 
power  both  more  extensive  and  more  exquisite.  To 
make  strong  species  and  individuals  as  instrumentalities 
for  continuing  its  energy  and  developing  its  life,  appears 
to  be  nature's  aim.  And  this  is  done  through  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation;  or  the  natural  impulse  of 
every  organic  existence  to  maintain  and  hold  its  exist- 
ence against  all  opposition.  From  this  instinct  have 
come  the  labor  and  struggle  for  food,  the  storing  of  food 
for  future  use,  the  efforts  to  defend  life  and  strengthen 
its  powers  of  resistance  to  disaster,  the  desire  and  acquisi- 
tion of  property,  and  the  strife  for  property  beyond  anv 
immediate  need  as  representing  enlarged  means  of  living. 
Some  of  the  developed  phases  of  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  are  common  to  all  orders  of  animal  life 
and  some  of  them  are  peculiar  to  the  human  race.  In 
short,  it  may  be  said  that  nature  produces  strong,  capa- 
ble, masterful  individuals  and  races  through  the  princi- 
pal of  selfism ;  or  of  each  being  put  under  necessity  to 
care  for  its  own  existence,  to  maintain  its  own  rights,  to 
provide  for  its  own  sustenance  and  prosperity.  Thus 
faculty  is  trained  and  skill  and  power  acquired. 

But  this  concentration  of  energy  in  individual  faculty 
and  power  is  clearly  not  nature's  highest  nor  final  achieve- 
ment. This  is  means,  not  an  end.  So  far,  at  least,  as 
concerns  the  forms  of  life  below  man,  it  does  not  appear 
that  the  individual  organism  exists  for  its  own  sake,  but 
for  the  sake  of  the  species  to  which  it  belongs;  and  the 
species  again,  it  may  be,  for  the  sake  of  some  larger 
realm  of  life.  Nature  insists,  by  the  necessary  condi- 
tions of  existence,  that  the  individual  shall  make  itself 
as  strong  and  bring  itself  as  near  to  perfection  as  possi- 
ble; yet  not  for  the  sake  of  its  own  power  and  glory 
(for  these  soon  pass  away  ),  but  that  it  may  transmit  so 
much  of  added  power  and  organic  perfection  to  the 
common  stock  of  the  race  of  which  it  is  a  part.  Nature's 
aim  is  higher,  broader,  richer  life;  better  forms  for 
retaining  and  maturing  life;  organisms  in  which  intel- 
lectual emotion  and  skill  shall  attain  mastery  over  brute 
force.  Though  the  individual,  therefore,  is  instinctively 
compelled  to  live  and  struggle  for  self-existence,  yet  the 
outcome  of  individual  existence  is  by  no  means  confined 
to    the  individual   career   and   attainment,  but  it  goes  to 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


shape  and  modify  the  current  of  this  unceasing  tide  of 
ascending,  universal  life. 

What,  then,  is  the  application  of  this  lesson  from 
nature  to  the  problem  of  the  relation  between  individual 
man  and  human  society?  The  lesson,  in  its  first  part,  is 
plainly  this:  There  can  be  no  sound  plans  for  the  devel- 
opment of  human  society,  no  social-reform  schemes,  no 
settlements  of  disturbing  social  problems,  which  ignore 
and  try  to  leave  out  of  account  this  element  of  natural  en- 
ergy applied  to  individualistic  ends;  this  instinct  to  seek, 
acquire  and  preserve  the  things  that  gratify  individual 
life.  The  instinct  may  take  a  high  form  or  it  may  take 
a  low  form.  It  may  be  degraded  to  the  miser's  passion, 
which  merely  clutches  and  hordes  possessions  without 
caring  for  their  uses;  or  it  may  appear  in  the  daily  indus- 
try and  economy  of  the  mechanic,  to  the  end  that  he 
may  have  a  house  of  his  own  for  his  wife  and  children, 
and  put  within  it  the  things  that  shall  make  it  a  home; 
or  it  may  show  itself  in  the  sagacity  and  enterprise  of 
the  merchant  or  manufacturer,  who  easily  makes  a  mill- 
ionaire's fortune,  while  he  organizes  industries  on  a  large 
scale  and  furnishes  employment  to  a  whole  community. 
The  impulse  to  individual  acquisition  and  to  secure  a 
more  advantageous  position  in  the  world  may,  of  course, 
be  nourished  to  excess  and  become  an  unjust  and 
grasping  passion;  it  may  grow  abnormal  and  become  a 
disease;  but  in  itself  it  has  been  such  a  fundamental  con- 
dition of  the  world's  evolution  and  progress,  both  in 
physical  nature  and  in  humanity,  that  I  think  that  those 
persons  who  now  propose  to  reorganize  society  without 
this  factor  should  understand  that  their  scheme  not  only 
revolutionizes  human  society  to  its  foundations,  but  goes 
below  humanity  to  antagonize  the  order  of  things  in 
nature;  and  for  success,  therefore,  their  first  measure 
should  be  to  ask  for  a  different  plan  of  the  universe  than 
that  under  which  mankind  have  come  into  being.  Dan- 
gerous as  is  the  impulse  to  individual  acquisition  when 
developed  to  excess,  it  is  not  so  fatally  dangerous  as 
would  be  the  organization  of  society  without  this  impulse 
at  all,  if  such  a  thing  were  possible.  The  former  pro- 
duces very  serious  evils,  but  evils  which  society  as  it 
advances  may  throw  off.  But  the  latter  would  produce 
stagnation  and  stop  the  wheels  of  all  advance.  With 
all  its  evils,  the  impulse  to  individual  property,  individual 
freedom,  individual  advantage,  has  been  the  main  motive- 
power  of  the  world's  progress.  It  has  been  the  nour- 
isher  of  noble  ambitions.  Through  it  human  faculty 
has  been  elicited,  intellectual  resources  have  been  devel- 
oped as  would  not  otherwise  have  been  possible,  and 
character  has  been  disciplined  to  self-control  and  to  mas- 
tery of  material  forces.  The  time  certainly  has  not  yet 
come  for  omitting  this  factor  from  the  motives  of  human 
activity. 

But  there  is  a  second  part  to  nature's  lesson.  The 
various  schemes  of  social   reorganization   that  are  pro- 


claimed have  their  cause  in  certain  social  evils  which 
cry  aloud  for  remedy.  The  ambitions  and  energies  of 
individuals  in  enlarging  the  sphere  of  their  own  exist- 
ence, though  to  so  great  an  extent  the  motive-power  of 
civilization,  are  constantly  running  to  excess  and  driv- 
ing on  rough-shod  over  the  weaker  members  of  society. 
Hence,  there  are  wrongs,  injustices  and  cruelties;  selfish 
and  despotic  assertion  of  power  on  the  one  side,  unjust 
deprivations  and  slaveries  on  the  other  side.  Yet  here, 
too,  nature  may  teach  us  and  indicate  the  remedy.  In 
the  lower  realm  of  life,  while  the  individual  is  carefully 
trained  as  a  concentrator  and  distributor  of  vital  energy, 
the  individual  development,  activity  and  aggrandizement 
are  not  the  end.  These,  we  have  seen,  are  only  instru- 
mental. The  end  is  the  furthering  and  improving  of 
the  life  of  the  species.  The  end,  therefore,  is  not  indi- 
vidual, but  general,  universal.  The  same  law  holds 
good  for  humanity,  with  the  added  force  that  it  becomes 
for  humanity  a  moral  law.  Individual  human  beings, 
through  the  instincts  of  self-preservation  and  self- 
aggrandizement,  which  are  by  nature  especially  strong 
in  the  earlier  years  of  life,  are  made  concentrators  of 
those  energies  which  keep  the  whole  social  organism  in 
healthful  activity  and  progress.  Nature  has  put  a  tremen- 
dous force  into  these  instincts  and  has  thereby  produced 
strong  individual  agents  as  effective  centers  of  her 
power.  But  individual  acquisition,  pleasure,  power, 
are  not  the  end  with  man  more  than  with  the  orders  of 
life  below  him.  The  end  is  the  common  good,  the  gen- 
eral well-being.  Every  individual  right  maintained, 
every  individual  acquisition  gained,  every  position  of 
individual  advantage  secured,  carries  with  it  a  corre- 
sponding obligation  to  society. 

And  here  is  where  the  law  of  ethics  and  the  obliga- 
tions of  religion  bear  upon  social  problems.  Man 
knows  through  his  reason  and  conscience  that  there  is  a 
higher  realm  of  life  than  that  which  is  indicated  in  the 
natural  impulse  to  seek  individual  property,  pleasure 
and  power.  He  knows  the  higher  and  larger  objects 
which  all  individual  acquisitions  should  be  made  to  serve. 
He  is  gifted  with  the  faculty  to  judge  life  by  its  mental, 
moral  and  affectional  wealth.  Though  he  sees  that  no 
statute-law  can  or  ought  to  equalize  all  human  beings  in 
respect  to  faculties,  acquisitions  or  influence,  yet  he  recog- 
nizes that  the  law  of  justice  should  come  to  the  aid 
of  the  weak  and  ill-conditioned  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  strong  and  the  excesses  of  self-interest, 
and  that  precisely  in  proportion  as  any  person  has  been 
able  to  utilize  the  vital  energies  of  the  universe  to  his 
own  profit  and  power,  such  person  owes  back  to  the 
universe  a  corresponding  service  of  benefit.  The  spe- 
cial acquisition,  whatever  it  be — wealth,  sagacity,  learn- 
ing— is  not  his  to  use  for  his  own  selfish  pleasure  and 
increased  advantage.  It  belongs  to  the  great  world- 
forces    whence    it    came.     Their   aim    is   ever     larger, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


better,  nobler  life,  and  to  the  furtherance  of  that  aim  he 
is  bound  by  the  highest  moral  and  religious  obligation 
to  give  back  his  special  talents  with  interest. 

Nor  let  it  be  said  that  this  is  to  apply  a  merely  ideal 
ethics  to  evils  that  require  the  stern  treatment  of  law  and 
governmental  authority.  Statute-law  should,  indeed,  be 
dictated  by  justice,  and  governmental  authority  must 
meantime  keep  the  peace  between  clashing  self-interests. 
Yet  the  appeal  to  moral  law  is  no  idle  nor  ineffective 
method  for  dealing  with  practical  social  evils.  Again 
and  again  have  classes  and  races  of  mankind  been  lifted  to 
the  enjoyment  of  their  rights  and  liberties  by  the  surely 
wrought  effects  of  that  appeal.  These  are  the  meliora- 
tions which  mark  the  progress  of  the  higher  civiliza- 
tion, for  which  individual  self-interest  and  enterprise 
only  furnish  the  rough  material. 


THE  NEED   FOR  FREE  THOUGHT  EDUCATION. 

BY    THOMAS    DAVIDSON. 

How  little  the  American  people  really  understand 
the  nature  of  true  freedom  is  shown  by  the  disrepute 
which  attaches  to  the  term  free-thinker.  The  merest 
tyro  in  ethics  knows  that  free  thinking  is  the  very  first 
condition  of  all  freedom;  that  without  it  no  freedom  of 
any  kind  is  possible.  The  man,  or  body  of  men,  that 
can  enslave  thought,  that  can  dictate  what  others  shall, 
and  shall  not,  think  and  believe,  has  his  gyves  on  the 
wrists,  and  his  hand  on  the  throat,  of  Freedom.  Nay, 
more,  he  who  would  bind  Freedom  hand  and  foot,  must 
put  a  stop  to  free  thought.  If  thought  be  free,  all  else 
will  soon  be  free;  if  thought  be  in  bonds,  all  else  will 
soon  share  its  captivity.  And  this  the  oppressors  of  the 
earth  have  at  all  times  known  but  too  well;  they  know 
it  but  too  well  to-day.  The  greatest  foe  to  human  liberty 
at  this  hour,  the  greatest  foe  to  our  Republic  and 
all  that  it  means,  is  the  Church,  which  combats  and  dis- 
credits freedom  of  thought. 

Partially  conscious  of  this,  we  have,  in  our  political 
theory,  drawn  a  sharp  line  between  the  State  and  the 
Church,  declaring  that  the  two  have  separate  and  inde- 
pendent functions.  So  far,  this  is  well.  But,  so  long 
as  the  Church  is  allowed  to  teach  her  doctrines,  without 
being  called  upon  to  defend  them  at  the  bar  of  science, 
so  long  will  she  exercise  a  darkening  and  enslaving  in- 
fluence upon  men,  so  long  will  she  unfit  men  for  being 
worthy  citizens  of  a  free  Republic. 

And  yet,  while  the  Church  is  so  strongly  entrenched 
in  the  affections,  habits  and  prejudices  of  the  people 
whom  she  has  enslaved,  we  cannot  hope  to  cite  her  be- 
fore the  bar  of  reason  and  compel  her  to  show  cause 
why  she  should  not  be  treated  as  a  spiritual  charlatan. 
Indeed,  so  far  has  the  tvrannical  influence  of  the  Church 
extended   that  even  men  who  are  ready  enough   to  dis- 


pute her  claims  have  been  bamboozled  into  thinking  that 
it  is  bad  taste  to  speak  against  them.  Charlatanry  has 
surely  won  its  crowning  victory,  when  it  has  stopped 
the  mouth  of  honesty  and  surrounded  itself  with  the 
halo  of   reverend  sainthood. 

But,  though  we  cannot  at  present  call  upon  the 
Church  to  substantiate  her  supernatural  claim  to  direct 
and  enthrall  men's  thoughts,  we  may  d©  something  to 
weaken  her  influence  and  to  protect  a  portion,  at  least, 
of  our  people  from  her  obscuring  teachings. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  thought  sufficient  for  this  end,  if 
young  people  are  prudently  kept  away  from  those  places 
where  these  teachings  are  to  be  heard,  and  if  such  teach- 
ings are  excluded  from  the  public  schools;  but  this  is,  in 
reality,  a  mistake.  If  we  will  protect  young  people 
from  ecclesiastical  obscurantism,  we  must  go  farther 
than  this  and  put  something  in  the  place  of  the  Church's 
teachings.  The  truth  is,  these  teachings  are  pretended 
solutions  of  questions  that  not  only  exist,  but  that  force 
themselves  upon  every  thoughtful  man  and  claim  his 
deepest  attention.  To  put  men  off,  as  the  Church  does, 
with  an  authoritative  answer,  which  is,  indeed,  no  answer 
at  all,  is  a  piece  of  the  most  utter  frivolity,  an  unsurpass- 
able lesson  in  intellectual  impiety  and  dishonesty  —  the 
source  of  all  other  dishonest}'.  The  great  questions 
with  which  the  Church  deals  we  must  ourselves  take  up, 
bring  them  to  the  attention  of  young  people  and 
encourage  these  to  exercise  their  deepest  reflection  on 
them.  It  is  by  no  means  necessary  that  we  should  offer 
complete  answers  to  these  questions,  as  the  Church  does; 
indeed,  we  cannot  do  so,  without  imitating  the  Church's 
impiety;  but  we  can  state  the  questions  correctly  and 
encourage  persons  to  place  themselves  in  an  earnest, 
scientific  attitude  toward  them.  Only  in  this  way  can 
we  rear  a  race  of  earnest  men,  bravely  conscious  of  their 
own  limitations  and  of  the  awful  mystery  that  surrounds 
their  lives. 

I  think  the  advocates  of  free  thought  have  been  far 
too  remiss  in  this  matter.  They  have  not  sufficiently 
guarded  those  whose  education  was  in  their  hands  from 
obscurantist  influences,  and  they  have  not  prepared  any 
means  for  increasing,  by  a  rational  and  scientific  educa- 
tion, the  number  of  intelligent  and  devoted  free-think- 
ers. While  every  obscurantist  sect,  small  or  large,  has 
its  educational  institutions,  in  which  its  soul-enslaving 
dogmas  are  taught  and  impressed  with  more  or  less 
tremendous  sanctions,  free-thinkers  have  not  a  single 
institution  where  pure  science  and  the  earnest  scientific 
attitude  with  reference  to  all  cpiestions  are  inculcated; 
nay,  they  even  permit  institutions  founded,  like  Girard 
College,  for  the  furtherance  of  free  thought,  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  enslaved  thinkers. 

And,  yet,  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  our  battle  for 
free  thought  against  the  powers  of  time-honored  char- 
latanry   will  be  in  vain,  until  exercise  in  free  thought  is 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


made  an  essential  part  of  education,  until  perfect  piety 
of  intellect  is  made  the  basis  of  morality.  It  is  not 
enough  to  refrain  from  the  Church's  teachings  and 
methods;  we  must  replace  them  by  other  teachings  and 
methods.  Above  all,  we  must  have  institutions  where 
there  is  an  atmosphere  of  free  thought — a  thing  which 
is  sadly  lacking  in  our  public  schools  and  in  main  higher 
institutions  of  learning  that  do  not  professedly  teach 
the  Church's  doctrines.  Our  attitude  toward  science  in 
the  highest  things  must  not  be  merely  negative  to  the 
Church's  attitude,  it  must  be  positive.  If  we  could  only 
make  it  so,  we  should  soon  come  to  the  conviction  that 
our  public  education  needs  to  be  reformed  from  the  very 
foundation  —  to  be  stripped  of  its  mediaevalism,  its 
sentimentality,  its  formality,  and  placed  upon  a  basis  of 
science  and  of   nature. 

I  shall  never  believe  that  the  free-thinkers  of  the 
United  States  are  really  in  earnest,  until  thev  begin  to 
establish  schools  of  their  own  for  the  diffusion  of  the 
principles  and  methods  of  free  thought.  Here  we  have 
much  to  learn  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  whose 
members,  while  compelled  to  pay  their  share  of  the 
public  school  tax,  nevertheless  establish  schools  of  their 
own,  in  order  that  their  children  may  be  reared  in  the 
teachings  and  atmosphere  of  their  faith.  If  free- 
thinkers had  half  the  earnestness  of  Roman  Catholics, 
free  thought  would  make  more  rapid  progress  than  it 
does. 

I  hope  a  new  impulse  will  be  given  to  free  thought 
and  intellectual  piety  by  The  Open  Court.  If  so,  I 
wish  to  take  advantage  of  that  impulse  to  call  the  atten- 
tion of  free-thinkers  to  the  need  of  a  new  education 
conducive  to  free  thought.  I  wish  to  see  whether, 
among  the  open-handed  free-thinkers  of  our  country, 
there  be  not  one  or  two  who  would  turn  their  liberality 
in  the  direction  of  an  educational  institution  for  the 
children  of  free-thinkers,  and  whether  there  be  not 
earnest-minded  teachers,  weary  of  the  trammels  of 
orthodoxy  and  intellectual  slavery,  who  would  combine 
to  establish  an  educational  institution  pledged  to  impart 
a  scientificallv-based  education  extending  to  all  the  facul- 
ties of  body  and  soul.  I  am  convinced  that  the  results 
attained  by  a  single  such  institution,  managed  by  persons 
aware  of  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  the  enter- 
prise, would  be  so  striking  that  it  would  soon  be  imitated 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  wherever 
there  are  men  and  women  that  have  not  bowed  the  knee 
to  the  Baal  of   authority  and  habit. 

What  is  needed,  to  begin  with,  is  an  institution  of 
higher  education,  a  college  or  academy  for  voung  men 
and  women  who  have  arrived  at  that  period  of  life 
when  thev  begin  to  frame  for  themselves  a  theorv  of 
the  universe  and  of  life  and  to  lay  out  their  life  plans. 
It  is  then  that  young  people  can  best  acquire  that  habit 
of  earnestness   and    pietv    to    truth    which    is    the   very 


essence  of  free  thinking.  Who  then  will  aid  in  raising 
that  first  bulwark  of  free  thought  —  a  free-thought 
college? 


KATZENJAMMER. 

BY  W.  D.  GUNNING. 

Katzenjammer  is  a  German  word  which  means  "cat- 
sickness."  Our  neighbors  on  the  Rhine  express  by  this 
word  a  mood  of  mind  or  malady  of  bodv  which  results 
from  night-life. 

The  cat,  as  every  one  knows,  is  addicted  to  the  old 
vice  of  the  feline  race,  nocturnal  wanderings,  leading 
often  to  noisy  demonstrations  on  roof-poles.  Domesti- 
cation has  not  eradicated  the  old  jungle-habit  of  the  race. 

If  there  is  one  lesson  which  nature  teaches  to  all  her 
children  more  clearly  than  any  other  it  is  that  day  is  the 
time  for  action  and  night  the  time  for  sleep. 

"  Now  c;ime  still  ev'ning  on  and  twilight  gray 
Had  in  her  sober  liv'ry  all  things  clad. 
Silence  accompanied;  for  beast  and  bird, 
They  to  their  grassy  couch  and  these  to 
Their  nests  were  slunk." 

This  is  Milton's  picture  of  nature  in  times  when  the 
world  was  paradise,  that  is,  a  garden  of  delight. 

From  the  inwreathing  of  Orion's  nebula  will  come 
the  axial  rotation  of  the  planets  to  be  born  of  that  nebula. 
The  oldest  fact  recorded  in  the  history  of  a  globe  is  its 
axial  rotation.  But  when  the  stomach  came  nature  was 
stronger  in  hunger  than  in  the  rotation  which  brought 
the  alternation  of  day  and  night.  Struggle  to  supply 
the  need  of  the  stomach  drove  many  forms  of  life  into 
night-work.  The  owl,  the  night-hawk,  the  whip- 
poor-will  became  nocturnal.  All  the  felines  became 
night-prowlers. 

Nature,  speaking  one  language  to  her  children  in 
light,  spoke  another  language  in  heat.  The  sun  with 
his  shafts  of  light  to  waken  the  sleeper  sent  shafts  of 
heat  to  drive  him  deeper  into  the  shade.  All  tropical 
lands  have  been  given  over  to  Katzenjammer.  Like 
the  stillness  and  solitude  of  a  polar  night  is  the  stillness 
of  a  tropic  day.  Like  the  noises  of  Bedlam  are  the 
screachings  and  howlings  of  a  tropic  night.  Our  own 
Arizona,  in  summer,  is  a  scene  of  Katzenjammer. 
Neither  insect  nor  scorpion  nor  rattlesnake  will  disturb 
you  by  day.  The  heat  makes  them  nocturnal.  As  the 
cat,  transplanted  to  other  climes,  retains  something  of 
the  old  equatorial  cat,  so  does  tropic  man,  transplanted, 
retain  a  tendency  to  night-life.  I  have  observed  in  the 
colored  men  of  the  South  a  strong  tendency  to  Katzen- 
jammer. The  pine  woods  of  Florida  are  often  vocal 
with  their  night  melodies. 

We  have  gone  astray  with  the  cat.  Katzenjammer 
is  an  old  disease  and  in  one  phase  it  has  killed  more 
human  beings  than  all  microbes,  those  shafts  of  unarmed 
Mars.  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  the  best  act 
recorded    of    any    god    was    an    act    of    father    Zeus    on 


the:  o  p  k  n  co  it  rt. 


Olvmpus.  Zeus  was  not  permitted  to  rattle  a  thunder- 
bolt at  a  man  without  the  consent  of  the  synod  of  gods. 
He  was  not  allowed  to  hurl  a  bolt  without  the  consent 
of  the  Involuti,  the  solemn  veiled  gods.  Once,  from 
his  throne  on  Olvmpus,  he  saw  a  man  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain  in  the  most  unnatural  Katzenjammer.  He- 
sprang  to  his  feet,  seized  the  hottest  bolt  in  the  armory 
of  Olvmpus,  wrote  on  it  sus  philco  and  hurled  it  at  the 
unnatural  wretch.  It  struck  and  stuck  and  from  that 
dav  the  disease  which  spread  among  mortals  has  been 
known  under  the  name  which  Zeus  wrote  on  his  thunder- 
bolt. The  only  crime  which  was  flagrant  enough  to 
cut  the  red  tape  of  heaven  was  that  which  gendered  a 
contagious  and  hereditary  scourge.  That  scourge  has 
destroyed  nations.  The  Katzenjammer  of  King  David 
destroyed  the  autonomy  of  the  Jews.  The  debased  old 
King  died  of  the  disease  gendered,  according  to  Greek 
mythology,  at  the  foot  of  Olympus.  The  bolt  which 
Zeus  threw,  by  a  fiat  of  Olympus  or  Sinai  or  Mem,  or 
any  other  god-throne,  would  stick  in  his  posterity  to  the 
end  of  his  line.  Solomon  came  with  the  bolt  which 
rotted  the  loins  of  his  father,  burning  his  blood.  Reho- 
boam  came,  a  copy  of  his  father  Solomon.  Then  came 
the  cry  "  To  your  tents,  O  Israel,"  and  the  Jewish  nation 
was  rent  in  twain. 

What  a  young  fellow  for  Katzenjammer  was  Alci- 
biades!  Politician  and  night-prowler  he  was.  The 
Athenian  dinner  part)'  was,  like  our  own,  an  affair  of 
the  night  and  the  bill  of  fare,  like  our  own,  was  written 
in  a  foreign  tongue.  Unlike  our  own,  it  was  not  graced 
with  the  presence  of  woman.  At  the  Athenian  dinner 
party,  Socrates,  who,  with  all  his  virtues,  was  somewhat 
addicted  to  Katzenjammer,  was  a  good  symposiarchos, 
a  majister  bibendi.  He  is  said  to  have  played  on  musical 
instruments  late  at  night  and  doubtless  this  was  the  real 
and  sufficient  cause  of  his  taking  off.  But  the  best  pict- 
ure of  Athenian  night-life  was  Alcibiades  prowling 
about  the  streets  and  entering,  an  unbidden  guest,  any 
house  where  he  saw  the  lights  and  heard  the  night  revel. 
His  cat-sickness,  Katzenjammer,  wreaked  itself  in  the 
cutting  off  of  the  tail  of  his  dog.  Katzenjammer  was 
a  large  factor  in  the  decline  of  Athens  and  the  chief 
factor  in  the  fall  of  Rome.  What  a  Katzenjammer 
band  was  that  of  Cataline!  What  Katzenjammer  was 
that  of  Nero,  fiddling  to  the  light  of  burning  Rome! 

Still  greater  was  the  Katzenjammer  of  Ahasuerus, 
written  in  Hebrew  scripture.  This  great  king,  with  his 
court  and  his  satraps,  was  on  a  drunken  revel  one  hundred 
and  eighty  days.  It  closed  in  a  grand  climax  lasting 
a  week.  The  government  of  Persia  was  gloriously 
drunk.  The  king  sent  messengers  to  Vashti,  the  queen, 
demanding  that  she  present  herself  to  his  night  revelers. 
She  refused  to  go.  Her  language  is  not  reported,  but 
I  think  the  letter  she  sent  to  her  husband  was  in  words 
like  these  : 


My  Dear  Has  : 

When  you  have  had  enough  of  this  Katzenjammer 
and  you  and  your  ministers  of  state  and  satraps  are 
sober  and  washed  and  your  palace  is  fumigated  it  will 
give  me  pleasure  to  hold  a  reception  with  you.  But  you 
will  excuse  me  from  presenting  myself  as  an  exhibi- 
tion   to    the    caterwauling    government    of    Persia    and 

Medea.  -.-  ,   , 

1  our  most  loving, 

Vash. 

What  was  the  sequel?  •  Vashti  was  dethroned  and 
divorced,  the  Supreme  Court  of  Persia  deciding  that  such 
an  example  of  insubordination  must  not  stand  as  a  "  prec- 
edent "  to  other  wives.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Persia 
made  a  sort  of  Dred  Scott  decision.  It  ruled  that  a 
decent  wife  has  no  rights  which  a  drunken  husband  is 
bound  to  respect.  (Lawyers  and  judges  who,  time  out 
of  mind,  have  sought  the  highest  wisdom  in  the  remotest 
antiquity,  may  find  this  decision  in  Parmashata  Reports. 
Volume  2Sth,  Has  vs.  Vash;  decision  rendered  by  Chief 
Justice  Parshandatha;  associate  Justices,  Daphlon,  Aspa- 
tha  and  Hammedatha;  no  dissenting  opinion.  Our 
courts,  reverend  conservators  of  society,  will  find  much 
in  this  decision  to  buttress  their  opinions  on  the  woman 
question.) 

Ahasuerus  then  married  a  Jewess  whose  name  was 
Esther,  and  this  Esther,  with  the  crown  of  Vashti  on 
her  brow,  instigated  a  bit  of  night-work  on  her  own 
account.  It  began  with  the  hanging  of  Hainan  and  ended 
with  the  murder  of  seventy-five  thousand  men,  women  and 
••little  ones."  No;  this  was  not  quite  the  end.  Ahas- 
uerus called  on  the  godly  Esther  and  said  (I  give  a  free 
translation):  "My  dear,  your  wishes  have  been  carried 
into  execution.  I  cannot  tell  you  exactly  what  has  been 
done  in  other  parts  of  the  kingdom,  but  here  in  the  royal 
palace  alone  are  five  hundred  murdered  men  lying  in  their 
gore.  You  can  dabble  your  hands  in  their  blood  if  you 
wish.  And  now,  my  dear,  my  lamb,  is  there  anything  else 
I  can  do  for  you?"  And  Esther  said:  "Yes,  let  men 
hang.  (This  is  literal.)  Let  the  Jews  do  to-morrow 
as  they  have  done  to-day  and  let  the  ten  sons  of  Haman 
be  hanged."  And  Ahasuerus  said:  "Very  well,  my 
dove,  it  shall  be  done  according  to  the  sweetness  of  your 
will."  It  was  done,  and  a  modern  pulpiter,  whose  name 
is  Talmage,  preaches  a  sermon  in  praise  of  the  noble 
Esther  and  reprobation  of  the  "flashy"  (his  own  word), 
the  flashy  Vashti. 

This  is  rather  a  sickening  sequel  to  a  hundred  and 
eighty  nights  of  Katzenjammer.  I  am  afraid  that  Will 
Shakespeare  was  addicted  to  a  mild  sort  of  Katzenjam- 
mer. Byron's  life  was  filled  with  Katzenjammer  and 
the  vices  incident  to  night-life.  Byron  died  early  of 
cat-sickness.  And  poor  Burns,  instead  of  going  to  bed 
early  and  honestly  like  his  Cotter,  went  Katzenjammer 
like  his  Tam   O'Shanter. 

"  Gie  me  a  canny  hour  at  e'en, 
My  arms  around  my  deary," 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


I  am  afraid  the  canny  hour  with  his  Anna  was  long 
drawn  out. 

"  The  Church  and  State  may  join  to  tell, 
To  do  such  things  ye  maun  na, 
The  church  and  state  may  gang  to  hell, 
And  I'll  gang  to  my  Anna." 

The  Church  and  State  were  right  and  Burns  went  to 
his  Anna — and  his  grave.  How  fares  it  with  us?  The 
army  of  night-toilers  is  increasing  and  night-revelers 
are  multiplying.  The  world  of  business  and  fashion 
dines  at  six  and  goes  Katzenjammer  till  the  small  hours 
of  the  morning.  Our  White  House  was  given  over 
during  the  last  administration  to  social  Katzenjammer — 
and  the  President  is  dead. 

"  Can  these  things  be 
And  overcome  us  like  a  summer's  cloud?" 

The  struggle  of  the  organic  world  is  two-fold,  for 
sunshine  and  for  nutriment.  What  has  sent  the  Se- 
quoia of  California  spiring  up  into  the  heaven  three 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  ?  Search  for  the  sun.  Environed 
by  shrubs  this  tree  itself  would  have  been  a  shrub.  But 
its  neighbors  are  pines  and  cedars  which  rise  to  the 
height  of  two  hundred  feet,  weaving  a  curtain  of  inter- 
lacing bows  between  the  sun  and  the  weeds  below. 

Plant  your  potato  in  a  cellar  and  mark  the  pale  and 
sickly  hue  of  the  vine  which  attempts  to  grow  from  it. 
Its  disease  is  Katzenjammer,  that  is,  night-sickness.  Look 
at  your  pea-nut.  Struggle  against  enemies  in  the  air  has 
driven  this  member  of  the  pea  family  to  develop  its  pod 
in  the  ground  and  the  vegetal  virtues  which  come  from 
impact  of  light  and  actinic  beams  of  the  sun  are  wanting 
in  this  plebeian  nut — which  is  no  nut  at  all.  Look  at 
the  mole  and  then  at  the  bat.  Their  embryotic  history 
shows  that  they  were  derived  from  a  common  ancestor. 
Struggle  for  life  drove  certain  members  of  this  family 
higher  into  the  air  and  others  into  the  ground.  The 
sun-seeker  gained  in  eye  and  brain.  The  earth-burrower 
lost  its  eyes  and  retained  only  brain  enough  to  guide  it 
through  the  ground.  The  bat  lapsed  when  it  fell  into 
Katzenjammer,  that  is,  night-prowling. 

I  do  not  know  what  was  the  health  of  the  tiger  and 
lion  before  they  went  into  Katzenjammer.  The  dissect- 
ing knife  of  Gerard  shows  that  now  these  nocturnal 
felines  suffer  much  from  consumption.  I  know  not  the 
flavor  of  the  ancient  pea  before  it  became  a  pea-nut.  I 
know  that  the  topmost,  sun-drinking  peach  has  a  richer 
flavor  than  the  peach  below.  I  know  the  character  of 
the  ancient  orange  which  grew  in  the  shaded  recesses  of 
the  tree,  for  it  survives  in  the  wild  orange.  I  know  that 
the  fruit  grew  luscious  as  the  tree  learned  to  push  it  out 
on  the  sun-lit  periphery. 

On  the  tree  of  life  where  now  is  our  peripheral  hu- 
manity? With  less  wisdom  than  the  orange  tree  Ig- 
drasil  has  been  pushing  its  human  fruit  inward  to  the 
shade.  We  want  a  peripheral  humanity,  lit  by  beams 
of  science  and  sweetened  and  mellowed  by  actinic  rays 
of  the  sun  of  righteousness. 


In  these  thoughts  I  am  saying  my  words  of  welcome 
to  a  new-born  journal  which  through-  long  years  to  come 
may  do  noble  work  in  winning  men  from  spiritual 
Katzenjammer.  Scratched  and  thorned  your  hands  may 
often  be  in  trying  to  reach  the  shaded,  centripetal  fruit 
on  Igdrasil  and  bring  it  out  to  the  periphery.  Ances- 
tral tendencies  are  against  you,  but  they  are  not  omnipo- 
tent. By  pruning  and  enriching  I  have  lifted  the  state  of 
an  orange  tree,  abolishing  thorns  and  letting  the  sunlight 
in  to  dispel  the  infestations  which  in  dark  coverts  were 
eating  the  tree's  life.  In  hopeful  moods  I  have  thought 
that  I  may  have  wrought  similar  amelioration  on  men, 
here  and  there  a  man,  causing  thorns  of  bigotry  to  abort 
and  sending  shafts  of  light  into  the  dark  recesses  of  the 
mind  where  infestations  of  superstition  were  eating  the 
soul's  life. 

Prune  and  fertilize;  fertilize  to  fullness  of  life  and 
healthful  growth  and  the  vis  viva  will  prune.  Let  your 
shafts  of  light  in  on  the  dark  coverts  where  superstitions 
do  knot  and  gender. 

In  the  darkest  covert  dwelt  Yahweh,  the  god  of  Israel. 
No  beam  of  light  pierced  the  shekinah,  the  holy  of 
holies,  where  Yahweh  was  enthroned.  Even  his  throne 
on  the  firmament  was  pavilioned  with  darkness. 

"He  bowed  the  firmament  and  came  down 
With  storm-clouds  under  his  feet. 
He  rode  on  a  thunder-cloud  and  flew 
And  shot  forth  on  the  wings  of  the  wind. 
He  veiled  himself  in  a  mantle  of  darkness 
And  shrouded  himself  in  dark  waters  and  masses  of  cloud." 

His  shekinah  to-day  is  the  sunless  recesses  of  the  human 
mind.  Let  the  shekinah  of  your  temple  be  all  ablaze 
with  light!  Couch  not,  shudder  not,  before  the  awful 
sanctities  of  darkness. 


KING  VOLTAIRE. 


BY  FREDERIC  MAY  HOLLAND. 


The  seventy  years  of  preparation  for  the  French 
Revolution  can  have  no  name  so  appropriate  as  the 
Reign  of  Voltaire.  His  literary  -influence  began  in 
1 7 1 S  and  gradually  became  greater,  especially  during 
his  last  thirty  years,  than  any  other  author  has  ever 
wielded  consciously  for  so  long.  Luther's  leadership 
was  comparatively  brief,  and  Goethe's  had  no  such  defin- 
ite aim  or  triumphant  success.  No  other  thinker  ever 
saw  the  great  reform,  which  cost  him  a  whole  life  in 
exile,  finally  become  through  his  efforts  universal  and 
permanent  in  all  civilized  lands.  Rightly  does  Lowell 
say  that:  "To  him  more  than  to  any  other  man  we  owe 
it  that  we  can  now  think  and  speak  as  we  choose."  He 
led  Europe  out  of  the  persecutions  and  religious  wars 
which  had  cursed  mankind  ever  since  the  advent  of 
Christianity.  The  tolerant  and  otherwise  human  meas- 
ures of  Frederic  of  Prussia  and  Catherine  of  Russia 
were  avowedly  accomplished  under  his  direction ;  and  so, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


7 


in  reality,  were  the  corresponding  reforms  in  all  Roman 
Catholic  lands.  Even  the  Pope  acknowledged  Vol- 
taire's primacy  and,  when  he  plavfullv  expressed  a  wish 
to  get  the  ears  of  the  grand  inquisitor,  sent  him  word 
that  the  inquisition  no  longer  had  either  ears  or  e\  es. 
The  English  sovereigns  and  archbishops  openly  favored 
his  great  work;  as  did  the  Swedish,  Danish  and  Polish 
rnonarchs;  so  that  he  said:  '•  I  always  manage  to  keep 
four  kings  in  my  hand."  Goethe  calls  him  the  univer- 
sal source  of  light;  Condorcet  declares  that  no  one  else 
ever  had  such  an  empire  over  men;  and  Rousseau  con- 
fesses that  from  him  came  his  own  original  inspiration. 
Among  other  contemporaries  who  owned  Voltaire's 
supremacy  were  Chatham,  Franklin,  Turgot,  Diderot, 
D'Alembert,  Gibbon  and  Goldoni.  No  wonder  that  his 
out-of-the-way  retreat  was  crowded  with  admiring  visi- 
tors; or  that  his  last  visit  to  Paris  was  such  an  ovation, 
as  was  never  received  bv  any  other  author.  It  was  all 
the  more  glorious  because  the  nominal  king  did  not  dare 
to  let  him  enter  the  palace  or  be  honored  with  a  public 
burial.  Even  the  announcement  of  his  death  was  for- 
bidden, in  a  terror  amply  justified  in  1791,  when  free 
France  carried  his  ashes  to  the  Pantheon,  with  such 
universal  homage  as  few  other  dead  men  have  ever 
received  and  none  of  them  deserved  so  well. 

His  greatness  as  an  author  would  be  more  apparent 
if  the  man  had  not  been  greater  still,  so  great,  in  fact, 
as  to  devote  himself,  from  first  to  last,  to  fighting  one  of 
the  worst  of  evils,  with  a  zeal  which  made  him  seek  to 
give  point  and  force,  rather  than  luster  or  finish,  to  his 
works,  and  own  that  he  had  too  much  baggage  to  reach 
posterity.  He  wrote  for  his  day ;  and  it  was  dark  and 
bloody  enough  to  need  every  word.  The  wealth  which 
he  won  in  commerce  was  freelv  spent  in  finding  read- 
ers. Among  his  most  kingly  words  are  these:  "Those 
who  say  I  sell  my  books  are  wretches,  who  try  to  think 
in  order  to  live,  f  have  lived  only  to  think.  No,  I 
have  never  peddled  my  thoughts!"  His  use  of  more 
than  a  hundred  fictitious  names  is  not  like  an  ideal  king; 
but  most  of  the  actual  ones  have  been  only  too  ready  to 
employ  worse  frauds.  Very  few  have  been  so  ready  as 
he  to  take  sides  with  the  persecuted.  His  treatise  on 
Toleration,  which,  according  to  Franklin,  dealt  bigotry 
so  unexpected  and  heavy  a  blow  as  was  almost  fatal, 
was  called  out  by  a  wrong  which  the  government  at 
first  refused  to  right,  and  which  his  friends  advised  him 
to  overlook.  An  aged  Protestant,  named  Calas,  was 
tortured  to  death  at  Toulouse,  early  in  1762,  on  the 
charge  of  haying  murdered  his  son,  in  order  to  prevent 
his  conversion  to  the  Catholic  church,  which  had,  in 
fact,  so  blighted  the  voung  man's  career  as  to  make  him 
hang  himself.  All  the  property  was  confiscated,  and 
the  daughters  of  the  family  were  imprisoned  in  convents 
in  order  to  force  them  into  apostasy.  This  outrage  on 
Piutestaul    girls  had  long  been  customary  and  had  been 


joined  in  by  Fenelon.  Another  such  victim,  Elizabeth 
Sirven,  had  been  scourged  into  insanity  and  had  drowned 
herself  soon  after  her  release.  Her  father,  mother  and 
sisters  escaped  the  fate  of  Calas  bv  a  flight  which  left 
them  beggars  ami  cost  the  life  of  an  unborn  child.  Roth 
families  found  a  deliverer  in  Voltaire.  It  cost  him  ^o,- 
000  francs  and  three  years  of  constant  labor,  including 
the  writing  of  countless  letters  and  the  publication  of 
seven  pamphlets,  to  get  the  sentence  of  Calas  revoked, 
the  daughters  released  and  the  family  provided  for.  To 
obtain  justice  for  the  Sirvens  took  ten  years,  though 
their  trial  had  lasted  but  two  hours.  These  iniquities 
were  probably  not  the  first  of  the  kind;  but  we  owe  it  to 
Voltaire  that  they  were  the  last;  just  as  his  protests, 
when  La  Barre  was  beheaded,  in  1  766,  with  the  approval 
of  Louis  XV.,  for  some  boyish  ebullitions  of  irreverence, 
saved  the  history  of  France  from  being  stained  bv  anv 
more  such  records.  This  time,  however,  the  sentence 
was  not  annulled;  nor  was  another  of  the  young  blas- 
phemers, who  had  fled  to  Prussia,  ever  permitted  to 
return.  Indignation  at  these  outrages  and  their  apolo- 
gists moved  Voltaire  to  keep  St.  Bartholomew's  day  in 
anger  and  humiliation  (  while  Toulouse  and  other  cities 
made  it  a  public  jubilee),  to  sign  letter  after  letter  with 
that  war-cry  against  the  bloody  church,  "  Ecrasc:  TJIn- 
fame"  to  write  his  sharpest  books  and  to  scatter  them 
broadcast  by  every  artifice.  He  was  nearly  seventy  at 
the  time  of  the  execution  of  Calas,  but  before  reaching 
eighty  he  published  a  hundred  new  books,  mostlv  satires 
of  the  persecutors,  or  pathetic  pictures  of  the  sufferings 
of  the  victims,  among  whom  Servetus  was  not  forgot- 
ten. To  this  period  belong  some  of  his  most  impressive 
and  original  writings,  those  tales  now  fortunately 
accessible  to  English  readers  in  Eckler's  spirited  ver- 
sion. And  he  then  compiled,  in  part  from  matter 
already  published,  that  stupendous  arsenal  of  weapons 
against  bigotry,  the  Philosophic  Dictionary,  of  which  a 
good  translation  was  bequeathed  us  by  Abner  Kneeland. 
The  main  difficulty  in  giving  any  adequate  idea  of  the 
merits  of  Voltaire's  writings  is  that  the  keenness  of  his 
wit  is  dulled  by  handling.  Perhaps  this  extract  from 
a  work  of  his  not  yet  translated,  nor  likely  to  be,  Le 
Soitisier,  may  give  some  hint  of  the  pleasure  which  can 
be  enjoved  bv  reading  him  in  the  original.  A  Jesuit 
was  once  asked,  why  so  many  fools  were  admitted  into 
his  order.  "Oh,  well,"  he  answered,  -'we  have  to 
have  some  saints  of  our  own."  Put  Voltaire's  best 
works  were  those  commemorated  in  the  inscription 
placed  upon  his  sarcophagus,  in  the  majestic  ovation  of 
17c)!.  ••  He  avenged  Calas,  Sirven,  La  Barre." 

With  these  names  was  recorded  that  of  Montbailli, 
who  was  executed  on  a  false  charge  of  murdering  his 
mother.  His  innocence  was  established,  and  his  wife 
saved  from  perishing  likewise,  by  Voltaire,  One  more 
name,  itt   least,  ought   to  hayc  been  placed   beside  the-; 


8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


four.  General  Lally  had  been  beheaded  in  1 766  as  a 
traitor,  because  he  could  not  prevent  the  English  from 
conquering  India.  For  thirteen  years  he  had  an  indefat- 
igable champion,  who  called  himself  "  The  Don  Quixote 
of  the  unfortunate,"  kept  busy  at  it  night  and  dav,  even 
when  he  was  almost  eighty,  and  signed  his  letters  as 
'The  Ghost  of  Voltaire."  Finally,  as  he  was  on  his 
death-bed,  a  message  came,  saying  that  Lally  had  been 
pronounced  innocent.  He  ordered  the  good  news  to  be 
written  out  in  large  hand  and  set  up  before  his  eyes,  and 
then  dictated  his  last  letter  to  the  son  of  the  murdered 
soldier,  saying  that  the  dying  man  revived  at  hearing  of 
this  great  act  of  justice  and  would  die  in  peace.  This 
we  know  he  did,  four  days  later,  May  30,  177S.  He 
had  the  more  right  to  do  so,  as  he  might  have  thought, 
not  only  of  the  Sirvens  and  Calas,  but  of  other  Protest- 
ants rescued  from  the  galleys  where  they  had  been  sent 
for  sheltering  their  ministers  of  girls  made  happv  and 
honored  mothers,  instead  of  wretched  nuns,  of  cottages 
built  and  marshes  drained  for  poor  peasants,  of  large  sums 
loaned  without  interest,  of  debtors  released  from  prisons, 
of  servants  assisted  by  the  master  they  had  robbed  to 
escape  the  gallows  and  become  honest  men,  of  free 
schools,  plantations  of  trees  and  great  improvements  in 
agriculture,  of  the  reduction  of  taxation  throughout  an 
entire  province,  of  the  sale  of  grain  at  low  prices  during 
famine,  of  a  colony  of  more  than  a  hundred  families  of 
exiles  furnished  with  comfortable  homes  and  provided 
with  the  best  of  markets  for  their  watches  and  other 
manufactures,  of  a  hospitality  which  filled  his  house, 
notonlv  with  transient  visitors  from  all  parts  of  Europe, 
but  with  permanent  dependents,  so  that  Ferney  has  been 
called  a  Noah's  Ark  crowded  with  all  the  wild  and  tame 
beasts;  of  a  boundless  charity  attested  by  a  formal  declar- 
ation of  the  village  officials,  that  no  one  who  dwelt  there 
had  ever  asked  relief  in  vain,  and  of  a  sunny  gayety 
and  courtesy  which  kept  his  home  always  bright.  He 
delighted  to  say:  "  I  have  done  a  little  good;  it  is  my 
best  work."  He  would  have  done  much  more  if  greater 
heed  had  been  given  to  his  entreaties,  that  war  should 
be  given  up,  all  serfs  emancipated,  women  kept  no 
longer  in  subjection,  all  classes  protected  equally,  com- 
merce relieved  from  heavy  tariffs,  the  clergv  and  nobil- 
ity compelled  to  pay  their  share  of  the  taxes,  meat 
allowed  to  be  sold  and  eaten  in  Lent,  Paris  supplied 
with  water-works,  the  weights,  measures  and  laws  made 
uniform  all  over  France,  capital  punishment  restricted 
greatly,  or  else  relinquished,  trial  by  jury  introduced, 
torture  of  prisoners  and  confiscation  of  property  of  crim- 
inals abolished,  lawyers  heard  for  the  accused,  witnesses 
examined  publicly  and  prisons  cleansed  from  the  diseases 
then  so  deadly.  "You  have  a  right  to  say,  'The 
nations  will  pray  that  their  kings  may  read  me,'  "  writes 
an  admiring'  monarch. 


Voltaire  was  more  of  a  reformer  than  a  revolution- 
ist. His  earlier  writings  praise  England  as  a  political 
model;  but  in  1762  he  published  his  opinion,  that  the 
best  of  all  governments  is  a  republic.  His  declarations, 
that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal,  and  that  despotic 
and  monarchical  mean  the  same  to  all  sensible  men, 
were  made  before  our  Revolution,  which  he  favored  so 
warmly  as  to  lament  the  reverses  of  the  Continentals 
and  strike  a  medal  to  Washington.  A  quarter  of  a 
century  before  the  taking  of  the  Bastile,  he  stirred  up 
great  excitement  in  Paris  by  predicting  the  French 
Revolution.  Rightly  did  it  honor  him  among  its 
prophets.  After  it  had  failed  for  the  time,  his  memory 
was  still  so  mighty  against  Napoleon,  that  he  did  his 
utmost  to  blacken  it. 

It  was  love  for  liberty  and  humanity  which  led  Vol- 
taire to  make  war  upon  Christianity,  then  much  less 
innocent  of  cruelty  or  tyranny  than  now.  His  main 
arguments  are  the  persecutions  which  the  Church  was 
then  carrying  on,  and  the  atrocious  precepts  and  exam- 
ples in  the  Old  Testament,  still  too  much  in  honor  for 
the  safety  of  morals.  Ingersoll's  indictment  is  not  more 
complete  or  more  witty  than  his;  but  Voltaire  was  much 
less  shocked  by  the  absurdities  in  the  Bible  than  by  the 
immoralities.  He  anticipated  Colenso,  and  declared 
that,  if  he  should  see  the  sun  stand  still  and  the  dead 
arise,  he  should  exclaim :  "  Behold  the  evil  principle 
undoing  what  the  good  has  wrought!"  But  he 
objects  to  no  miracle  so  sharply  as  to  that  of  Ananias 
and  Sapphira,  which  enabled  the  clergy  to  say:  "Give 
me  all  thy  property,  or  I  will  bring  about  thy  death." 
He  calls  Paul  the  real  founder  of  Christianity,  but 
always  speaks  of  Jesus  with  respect,  saying:  "  He  would 
have  condemned  our  Christianity  with  horror,"  "  I 
defend  Jesus  against  you,  in  denying  that  he  scourged 
the  innocent  buvers  and  sellers  in  the  temple,  or  drowned 
the  two  thousand  pigs  and  withered  the  fig-tree,  which 
were  the  property  of  others."  Among  the  texts  against 
which  he  protests  is:  "  Wives,  submit  yourselves  unto 
your  own  husbands,  as  unto  the  Lord."  He  pictures  a 
fair  Parisian  reading  this  for  the  first  time  and  throwing 
down  the  book.  .She  is  told  that  the  author  is  St.  Paul, 
but  answers:  "  I  don't  care  who  he  is:  he  is  very  impo- 
lite. My  husband  does  not  write  to  me  in  that  way. 
Are  we  slaves?  Nature  does  not  tell  us  so."  The  sight 
of  all  these  errors  did  not  lead  Voltaire  to  deny  the 
necessity  of  religion;  though  to  the  question  what  he 
would  put  in  place  of  Christianity,  he  answers:  "  What! 
A  ferocious  animal  has  sucked  the  blood  of  my  neigh- 
bors; I  tell  you  to  get  rid  of  it;  and  you  ask  me  what 
is  to  be  put  in  its  place?"  His  own  faith  in  God  was 
proof  against  not  only  the  sins  of  his  worshipers,  but 
the  defects  of  his  works,  though  the  Lisbon  earthquake 
made  it  necessary  to  suppose  that  there  are  limits  to  his 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


power.  Voltaire  was  undoubtedly  sincere  in  building 
the  first  church  ever  dedicated  to  God;  and  we  may 
hope  that  there  was  something  besides  cowardice  in  his 
occasionally  taking  the  consecrated  wafer  and  express- 
ing, on  his  death-bed,  his  hope  to  die  in  the  Catholic 
religion  and  be  pardoned  by  the  Church.  It  would 
have  been  more  manly,  if  not  more  kingly,  for  him  to 
have  adhered  to  the  declaration  made  a  few  days  earlier: 
"  I  die  worshiping  God,  loving  my  friends,  hating  none 
of  my  enemies  and  detesting  superstition." 

He  found  much  that  deserves  hatred  in  what  was 
then  called  religion ;  and  he  pointed  this  out  so  plainly 
that  he  holds  a  place  in  history  among  the  unbelievers. 
This  makes  it  important  to  remember  that  he  is  one  of 
the  great  philanthropists.  It  would  be  scarcely  fair 
to  say  that  he  was  a  philanthropist,  because  he  was  an 
unbeliever.  Voltaire  was  an  unbeliever,  because  he  was 
a  philanthropist. 

The  real  grandeur  of  his  life  cannot  be  realised  with- 
out careful  studv  of  such  biographers  as  Parton  and 
Morley  in  English,  Pompery,  Bungener  and  Desnoir- 
esterres  in  French,  or  last  and  best  of  all,  the  German 
Mahrenholtz.  His  irritability,  vanity,  duplicity  and 
timidity  are  not  to  be  denied ;  but  they  did  not  make 
him  less  of  a  king  than  Louis  XV.,  who  sinned  much 
more  deeply  against  the  seventh  commandment.  All 
Voltaire's  faults  are  unimportant  in  comparison  with 
that  broad  and  lofty  philanthropy  which  he  practised 
constantly,  even  toward  those  who  wronged  him,  and 
which  he  often  expressed  thus:  "  The  noblest  privilege 
of  humanity  is  the  power  of  doing  good."  "  I  know  of 
no  really  great  men,  except  those  who  rendered  great 
services  to  our  race."  "  I  am  ashamed  of  having  peace 
and  plentv  in  my  own  house,  when  three-fourths  of 
Europe  suffers."  "  My  health  grows  weaker  day  by 
day;  and'  I  must  hasten  to  do  good."  "The  more  we 
think,  the  less  unhappy  men  will  be;  you  will  see 
golden  days;  you  will  make  them;  this  idea  brightens 
the  last  of  mine." 


MONISM    IN    MODERN    PHILOSOPHY  AND    THE 
AGNOSTIC  ATTITUDE  OF  MIND. 

BY    EDMUND    MONTGOMERY. 
Part  I. 

Descartes  opened  what  is  generally  called  modern 
philosophy  by  pointing  out,  as  immediately  evident,  only 
our  own  individual  thinking.  He  then  professed  to  dis- 
cover, as  innate  part-content  of  such  thinking,  the  cer- 
tainty of  the  existence  of  a  supreme  being.  And,  as 
deception  is  altogether  incompatible  with  divine  perfec- 
tion and  holiness,  he  thought,  moreover,  that  our  unhesi- 
tating belief  in  the  existence  of  an  extended,  outer  uni- 
verse^must  necessarily  be  grounded  on  its  actual  reality. 

With  the  help  of  these   three  existential  statements, 


Descartes  set  about  explaining  the  phenomena  of  the 
two  worlds — the  world  of  thought  and  the  world  of 
extension.  But,  in  order  to  operate  on  a  sufficiently 
solid  basis,  he  let  unwittingly  slip  in  two  more  supposi- 
tions. He  assumed  in  support  of  our  thinking  a  per- 
manent unitary  substratum,  calling  it  thinking  substance. 
And  dealing  similarly  with  extension,  which  he  believed 
to  be  the  fundamental  characteristic  of  the  outer  world, 
he  assumed  an  extended  substance. 

These  sundry  distinctions  form  the  leading  princi- 
ples or  elements  of  his  system.  And  it  is  an  historical 
fact  that  most  problems  which  have  occupied  modern 
philosophy  have  grown  out  of  the  attempt  to  unify  the 
various  existential  presuppositions  thus  prominently 
brought  to  notice  by  Descartes.  For  genuine  thinkers 
cannot  rest  satisfied  until  they  believe  they  have  discov- 
ered the  veritable  bond  of  union  that  holds  together  the 
divers  facts  of  the  universe.  The  multifarious  phenom- 
ena of  our  varied  world,  how  they  come  to  form  the 
one  closely  connected  whole  which  we  mentally  realize, 
this  precisely  is  the  quest  that  from  time  immemorial 
has  been  the  ruling  passion  of  the  philosophical  mind. 

The  most  stubborn  of  all  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
unification  arose  at  once  from  the  impossibility  of  con- 
ceiving ho*v  the  two  substances  of  our  known  world — 
being  evidently,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  closest  intercom- 
munication— at  all  manage  thus  to  influence  each  other. 
It  is  obviously  quite  incomprehensible  how  a  material 
substance,  with  its  space-occupying  motions,  can  in  any 
way  affect  or  be  affected  by  a  spaceless  mental  entity- 
possessing  no  parts  to  be  moved  and  having  no  sort  of 
community  of  nature. 

This  psychophvsical  riddle  has  ever  since  formed 
the  central  problem  of  philosophy  and  the  most  essential 
impediment  to  any  kind  of  monistic  view.  In  spite  of 
all  efforts  at  solution,  it  remains  to  this  very  day  utterly 
unintelligible  how  the  mere  moving  to  and  fro  of  brain- 
molecules  can  at  all  induce  or  cause  the  conscious  state, 
with  which  we  actually  find  it  connected,  or  how  our 
spaceless  and,  therefore,  immovable  volition  is  capable  of 
imparting  motion  to  our  bodily  members. 

The  Cartesians,  in  order  to  account  for  so  utterly 
enigmatical  an  occurrence  as  the  intercommunication  of 
body  and  mind,  felt  compelled  to  assume  what  they 
called  a  concursus  divinus,  each  time  body  acted  on 
mind  or  mind  on  body.  And  with  this  introduction  of 
miraculous  intervention  they  here,  at  the  start,  relin- 
quished for  good  the  philosophical  ambition  of  construct- 
ing a  monistic  world-conception. 

The  monistic  task  was,  however,  soon  undertaken 
from  another  point  of  view.  Descartes  himself  had 
expressed  the  idea,  without  working  it  out,  that  the  two 
substances  may  possibly  exist  united  in  the  divine  being. 
Spinoza,  through  monotheistic  and  cabalistic  associa- 
tions probably  already  predisposed   to  Monism,  devoted 


IO 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  best  part  of  his  beautifully  contemplative  life  to  the 
philosophical  unification  of  the  divers  and  disconnected 
principles  of  the  Cartesian  system.  This  he  conceptu- 
ally effected  1>\  imagining  the  supreme  being  to  be  itself 
an  absolute,  all-containing  substance,  of  which  thinking 
and  extension  are  but  two  of  an  infinite  number  of  other, 
to  us,  unknown  attributes.  The  different  bodilv  things 
he  looked  upon  as  so  mam  divers  modes  of  the  infinite 
attribute  of  extension  and  the  different  souls  or  minds  as 
so  many  special  modes  of  the  divinely-rooted  attribute 
of  thinking.  And,  harmonizing  both  spheres,  he 
assumed,  in  eternal  accordance,  the  order  and  connec- 
tion of  thought  to  be  ever  the  same  as  the  order  and  con- 
nection of  things.  The  divine  substance,  with  its  attri- 
butes, is  thus  the  natnra  naturans,  the  all-enfolding 
matrix  and  manifesting  ground  of  the  individual  souls 
and  extended  things  which  constitute  the  natura  nat- 
i/rata  or  that  which  assumes  conscious  and  particular 
being  through  partial  revelation  of  the  all-comprehend- 
ing and  undivided  potentiality  of   God. 

This  kind  of  Monism,  based  on  our  conception  of 
substantiality,  to  which  Spinoza  gave  most  perfect  and 
classical  expression,  a  Monism  identifying  God  and 
nature — Dcn.i  sive  iiatiira — has  always  irresistibly  fas- 
cinated main-  of  the  greatest  minds.  And  when  we 
remember  the  pantheistic  turn  all  religions  are  ap!  to 
take;  when  we  consider,  furthermore,  what  a  central 
influence,  through  the  Eleatic  sages,  the  same  monistic 
conception  gained  on  the  philosophical  thought  of 
antiquity;  what  vivifying  inspiration  during  all  the  rigid 
lengths  of  the  middle  ages  it  has  afforded  to  the  religious 
contemplation  of  Christian  mystics;  how,  in  the  rise  of 
modern  free  thought,  it  nerved  to  sublime  martyrdom 
the  dauntless  mind  that  first  on  our  earth  conceived  the 
infinity  of  worldcd  space  with  one  mighty  pulse  of 
quickening  power  throbbing  through  it  all;  what  source 
of  liberating  enthusiasm  and  rapturous  delight  Spino- 
zismus,  with  its  Got/  trunkenheit,  then  came  to  be  to 
such  men  as  Lessing,  Goethe,  Novalis,  Schelling.  and 
through  them,  to  the  whole  civilized  world;  what  honor 
has  been  done  in  our  own  days  to  thai  once  so  execrated 
name  by  representative  thinkers  of  all  nations  and 
denominations;  when  we  consider  all  this,  we  may  rest 
assured  that  the  Monism  of  Substantiality  will  not  soon 
lose  its  magic  spell  over  the  brooding  mind  of  man. 

Vet,  nevertheless,  it  is  clear  that  within,  as  well  as 
without,  the  divine  substance  the  phenomena  of  thought 
anil  those  of  extension  remain  to  our  understanding 
totally  unrelated  to  each  other,  so  far,  at  least,  as  their 
actual  intercommunication  is  concerned.  This  philo- 
sophical inclusion  within  one  and  the  same  absolute 
renders  in  no  wise  intelligible  bow  the  experienced 
interaction  or  correspondence  is  brought  about.  Indeed, 
Spiuozistie  Monism  really  rests  on  the  erroneous  iden- 
tification  of    logical    reason   in    (he  sphere    of    though! 


with  actual  cause  in  the  sphere  of  reality.  Its  princi- 
ple of  explanation  is  ratio,  not  causa.  A  logical  reason, 
however,  though  definite  concepts  may  consistently 
follow  from  it,  is  utterly  impotent  to  produce  any  effect- 
ive display  whatever  among  the  actual  things  of  the 
extended  universe.  And  this  alone  is  sufficient  reason 
why  Spiuozistie  Monism  cannot  be  a  correct  interpreta- 
tion of  our  world. 

To  the  orthodox  world  Spinoz.a's  naturalistic  panthe- 
ism seemed  simply  an  impudent  and  offensive  display  of 
atheism.  Vet,  for  all  that,  among  the  faithful  them- 
selves, the  same  monistic  propensity  labored  through 
Father  Malebranche's  meditation  to  bring  comprehen- 
sive unity  into  Descartes'  distracting  trilogy  of  God, 
Thought  and  Extension. 

Had  not  Descartes  when,  while  doubting  every- 
thing, he  began  to  cast  about  for  immediately  evident 
reality  and  truth,  actually  found  the  idea  of  an  all-perfect 
God  as  the  most  certain  of  the  contents  of  thought? 
And  was  it  not  this  certainty  of  the  existence  of  such  a 
most  real  being  that  alone  rendered  sure  the  reality  also 
of  the  extended  world  ?  It  is  quite  clear  that  our  percep- 
tion of  things  is  no  effect  or  result  of  our  own  doing. 
It  is  clear,  also,  that  extended  things  cannot  of  them- 
selves affect  in  any  way  our  thought;  consequently,  it  is 
only  through  God  that  we  perceive  them.  We  have 
obviously  no  perception  of  things  save  in  the  world  of 
thought.  These  things  in  the  world  of  thought  come 
to  us  through  God.  Therefore,  we  see  all  things  in  God 
and,  "  with  St.  Paul  let  us  then  believe  *' — so  exclaims 
Malebranche — "  that  in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being." 

The  reverend  Father,  entangled  in  these  monistic 
thoughts,  innocently  believed  he  had  saved  his  ortho- 
doxy- which  prescribes  a  personal  creator  separate  from 
created  things — by  simply  declaring  that  these  things, 
besides  being  seen  by  us  in  God,  have  also  an  existence 
of  their  own  external  to   God. 

Main  of  our  theologians,  at  present,  partly  or  wholly 
imbued  with  the  Monism  of  transcendental  idealism  or 
with  that  of  substantiality,  are  laboring  with  all  their 
might  to  reconcile  the  two  utterly  incompatible  concep- 
tions, the  conception  of  personality,  namely,  with  that 
of  immanency.  Persons,  indiscerptible,  ever  identical 
monadic  existencies,  can  neither  include  as  part  of 
themselves  other  persons  or  things;  nor  can  they  be 
included  as  integrant  part  by  any  kind  of  other  sub- 
stance or  being.  It  is  of  the  essence  of  personality 
to  be  rigorously  autonomous.  Leibnitz  rightly  said 
monads  have  no  windows  and  he  made  them,  conse- 
quently, evolve  all  their  conscious  states  from  within, 
every  monad  in  utter  isolation,  only  for  itself.  This 
compelled  him  to  have  recourse  to  miraculous  interven- 
tion, in  order  to  make  the  countless  hosts  of  monads 
compose       in     spite    of    their    separateness  -out'    one, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


1 1 


all-involving  cosmos  of  interacting  existents.  Leibnitz 
who,  with  his  keenly  logical  mind,  had  long  dwelt  on 
the  subject,  knew  right  well  that  the  conception  of  an 
autonomous,  spiritual  entity  excludes  the  possibilty  of 
its  acting  on  other  existents  or  its  being  acted  upon  by 
them.  It  is  a  fanciful  illusion  to  indulge,  as  many  do, 
in  the  notion  that  such  a  spiritual  entity,  by  getting 
somehow  a  body,  may  become  competent  to  act  by 
means  of  it  on  other  spiritual  entities.  The  construc- 
tion of  such  a  body  and  the  action  upon  it  are  precisely 
the  riddles  we  desire,  above  all,  to  have  solved.  Monism 
is  altogether  incompatible  with  a  world  consisting  of 
monads  and  it  is  time  that  this  should  be  distinctly 
understood.  Whoever  adopts  Monism  of  any  kind  has 
to  drop  indiscerptible  personality  for  good.  And  who- 
ever believes  in  spiritual  personality,  divine  or  human, 
can  never  consistently  become  a  monist.  Spiritual 
persons  of  an  anthropomorphic  constitution  are,  in  truth, 
what  Professor  Haeckel  so  characteristically  calls  them, 
"gaseous  vertebrates,"  a  type  of  being  so  well  known 
among  us  that  our  many  spiritualistic  fellow  citizens  find 
no  difficulty  whatever  of  visibly  realizing  any  desired 
number  of  specimens. 

Kant,  like  Descartes,  formed  a  starting  point  and 
nucleus  for  various  monistic  speculations.  For,  though 
he  had  centralized  the  faculties  of  the  understanding  in 
the  synthetical  unity  of  apperception,  an  all-combining 
power  emanating  from  the  intelligible  world,  and  con- 
stituting our  intelligible  Ego,  he  left  within  our  mental 
constitution  unconnected  the  different  categories  and  the 
two  forms  of  sense-presentation.  He  left  also  com- 
pletely in  the  dark  the  way  in  which  the  things-in- 
themselves  affect  through  our  senses  our  general  sensibil- 
ity, though  such  affection  was  the  only  evidence  he  had 
of  the  existence  of  such  things-in-themselves.  Lastly, 
besides  our  world  of  experience  within  time  and  space, 
and  besides  the  world  of  things-in-themselves  inferred 
from  sense-affection,  he  assumed  also  an  intelligible 
world,  the  veritable  home  of  the  supreme  intelligence  and 
of  our  own  innermost  being.  The  nearest  approach  he 
himself  ever  made  toward  Monism  consisted  in  the  sug- 
gestion, that  possibly  the  reality  peripherically  affecting 
our  sensibility  may  be  the  same  reality  which  centrally 
constitutes  the  intelligible  world. 

On  the  uncertainty  of  things-in-themselves,  Fichte 
soon-constructed  his  Monism  of  the  almighty  Ego.  As 
we  cannot  possibly  know  from  experience  through  what 
kind  of  influence  our  perceptions  arise,  why  may  thev 
not  altogether  originate  through  some  intrinsic  activity? 
Had  not  Kant  shown  that  such  an  intrinsic  activity, 
endowed  with  free  causation,  constitutes  the  moral 
kernel  of  our  being.  And,  indeed,  our  productive 
imagination  is  quite  equal  to  bring  forth  the  world.  Is 
not  the  world,  representing  spectacle  displaying  itself 
in    dreams,   undeniably    the    exclusive   creation    of   that 


intrinsic  faculty?  It  stands  to  reason,  then,  that  it  is  the 
originating  act  of  the  Ego  itself  that  creates  the  world 
we  know — the  world  which  is  thus,  in  fact,  only  the 
expression  of  the  vivifying  self-movement  of  produc- 
tive thought.  This  view,  not  quite  absolute  yet,  may 
lie  called  the  Monism  of  subjective  idealism  or  of  self- 
acting  thought. 

In  the  course  of  time  moral  considerations,  which 
were  really  grandly  predominant  in  Fichte,  induced 
him  theoretiallv  to  admit  the  existence  of  fellow  crea- 
tures, that  is,  the  existence  of  ever  so  many  cither 
world-creating  Fgos.  And  to  explain  how  the  produc- 
tive imaginations  of  the  sundry  Egos  are  actually  real- 
izing, not  each  a  different  world,  but  only  a  different 
aspect  of  one  and  the  same  world;  to  solve  this  very 
ancient  riddle,  he  simply  assumed  a  unitary  power  present 
in  them  all  and  directing  their  thought  in  harmony  with 
an  all-comprehensive  plan. 

Such  an  amplification  reduces,  however,  the  monistic 
system  virtually  to  a  monadology,  which  we  have  seen 
can  never  become  monistic. 


THE   TWO    HEMISPHERES. 

IIV   11.  VV.   11  W.I.. 

In  the  present  cosmopolitan  condition  of  the  civilized 
world  the  two  hemispheres  are  such  close  neighbors  that 
thev  are  daily  and  hourly  interchanging  gossip.  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  in  his  latest  lecture  dwells  complacently 
on  the  contrast  between  Europe  and  this  great  continent 
of  America  in  the  fact  that  while  Europe  presents  the 
aspect  of  a  regular  field  of  Mais  and  bristles  with  the 
bayonets  of  standing  armies,  this  continental  country  is 
held  in  subjection  by  i  5,000  soldiers  all  told.  While 
this  is  a  gratifying  fact  to  us  dwellers  of  the  New 
World,  we  know  very  well  that  if  this  continent  of 
North  America  was  as  populous  as  Europe  and  was 
occupied  by  a  number  of  great  nationalities  speaking 
different  languages  and  actuated  by  immemorial  rivalries 
and  hostile  tendencies  and  traditions,  to  say  nothing  of 
differences  of  race  and  creed,  it  would,  like  Europe, 
doubtless  present  the  spectacle  of  vast  standing  armies 
ready  at  a  moment's  warning  to  become  belligerents. 
For  why  should  not  like  causes  and  conditions  produce 
like  effects  here  as  elsewhere?  But  fortunately  for  the 
peace  of  this  hemisphere  we  are  the  only  great  nation- 
ality in  it.  We  are  America  in  fact  and  when  the  word 
America  is  used  it  is  understood  to  mean  the  United 
.States,  which  are  a  new-world  community  in  their  entire 
social  and  political  organization.  Our  neighbors  are  not 
at  all  formidable  in  a  military  sense  and  all  of  them  com- 
bined would  be  no  match  for  us.  Thus  we  are  not  under 
the  necessity  of  living  in  an  armed  state. 

We  are  wholly  outside  of  the  European  group  of 
nations,  not  more  isolated  from  them  physically  by  an 
intervening  ocean  than  we  arc  socially  and  politically  by 


12 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


our  unprecedented  institutions.  Our  relations  with  Euro- 
pean states  are  almost  wholly  commercial,  so  that  consuls 
are  alone  needed  to  take  care  of  our  foreign  interests.  It  is 
true  that  there  are  American  ministers  resident  at  the 
various  European  courts,  but  they  are  rather  gentlemen 
of  leisure,  seeing  Europe  at  the  expense  of  the  federal 
treasury,  than  actual  diplomatists.  Such  appointments 
are  rather  the  rewards  of  political  partisanship  than 
serious  ones  meaning  business.  This  great  continent  01 
America  is  even  now  largely  a  wilderness,  wild  nature 
being  in  the  ascendant  over  most  of  its  surface  still.  It 
probably  does  not  contain  a  population  of  a  hundred 
millions  all  told,  while  Europe  territorially  its  inferior, 
contains  certainly  three  or  four  hundred  millions,  more 
or  less,  of  men  of  different  races,  languages  and  relig- 
ions, ranging  all  the  way  from  Englishmen  and  French- 
men, in  the  northwest,  to  Slavs,  Turks  and  Greeks,  in  the  - 
southeast.  Man  here  is  not  yet  a  weed,  as  he  is  in 
crowded  Europe.  We  are  thus,  by  reason  of  our  isola- 
tion and  favorable  environment  and  the  continental 
roominess  which  our  fifty  or  sixty  millions  of  popula- 
tion enjoy,  a  pacific  community  attending  to  business 
and  party  politics  principally.  But  if  there  were  rival 
social  systems  here  and  race  hostilities  and  if  the 
old  and  the  new  stood  face  to  face  here  as  they  do  in 
Europe,  we  should  probably  exhibit  a  European  bellig- 
erency and  preparation  for  conflict.  Our  late  civil  war 
showed  that  we  can  throw  ourselves  into  war  as  furiously 
as  we  do  into  business  pursuits  and  money-making. 
Only  a  war  here  means  necessarily  a  civil  war,  because 
we  must  fight  each  other  when  we  fight  for  want  of 
outside  foemen  worthy  of  our  steel.  Of  course  our 
little  standing  army  is  a  mere  frontier  police.  It  does 
not  hold  anybody  in  subjection  at  all,  except  possibly  a 
few  Indians.  An  English  writer  who  has  recently  been 
making  the  tour  of  this  great  continental  country,  says, 
in  his  account  of  it,  partly  in  joke  and  partly  in  earnest, 
that  "in  a  few  generations  the  whole  earth  will  be  one 
big,  dead-level  America,  as  like  as  two  peas  from  end  to 
end,  and  dressed  in  the  same  stereotyped  black  coat  and 
round  felt  hat,  enjoying  a  single,  uniform  civilization." 
Doubtless  the  cosmopolitan  civilization  of  to-day  tends 
to  uniformity  social  and  political  and  to  a  uniformity  of 
dress,  language,  ideas  and  modes.  But  the  uniformity 
of  European  and  American  civilization  never  will  take 
the  form  of  a  dull,  unvarying  Chinese  stationariness 
presenting  just  the  same  unchanging  aspect  from  cen- 
tury to  century.  It  will  be  a  uniformity  of  movement 
and  progress  attaining  to  ever  new  plans  of  elevation 
and  amelioration.  Our  institutions  being  most  in  accord 
with  reason  and  common  sense  are  likely  to  become 
universal.  Dc  Tocqueville,  over  half  a  century  ago, 
came  hither  to  study  the  workings  of  popular  govern- 
ment, because  he  saw  that  the  Old  World  was  moving 
in  a  democratic  direction. 


Europe,  though  the  smallest  of  the  continents,  yet, 
by  reason  of  the  vastness  of  its  sea-coast  and  its  inter- 
penetration  by  midland  seas,  is  in  all  respects  the  most 
powerful.  In  fact,  it  has  been  and  is  the  focus  and 
radiating  center  of  civilization.  But  its  nationalities 
present  this  anomaly,  that  while  their  upper  classes 
and  intellectual  circles  are  the  very  high  water-mark  of 
humanity,  its  lower  orders  or  masses  are  left  in  a  state 
of  semi-barbarism,  as  we  know  in  our  large  cities  to  our 
cost.  For  the  stream  of  proletarian  immigration  from 
abroad  begins  to  be  a  menace  to  popular  government  in 
our  great  centers  of  population.  As  I  have  said,  Europe 
being  the  continent  that  dominates  all  the  rest,  until  the 
European  nations  disarm,  war  will  continue  to  be  more 
or  less  the  normal  state  of  mankind,  as  Hobbes  insisted 
that  it  was. 

We  are  told  that  it  is  a  period  of  the  reign  of  force 
in  Europe  emphatically  at  the  present  time.  Each  of 
the  great  European  powers  is  armed  cap-a-pie,  because 
the  rest  are.  Germany,  the  foremost  of  the  European 
group  of  nations  since  1S70,  owes  her  leadership  to  the 
fact  that  she  has  been  and  is  disciplined  for  war  as  no 
other  nation  is.  In  fact,  the  traditions  of  Prussia,  the 
central  state  of  the  German  Empire,  are  all  martial. 
She  was  created  by  the  sword  of  her  great  warrior- 
king,  Frederick,  who  fought  nearly  all  the  continental 
nations  for  years  single-handed  to  make  his  country  the 
nation  that  she  is.  Germany  is  compelled  by  her  posi- 
tion, political  and  geographical,  both,  flanked  as  she  is 
on  the  one  hand  by  France  and  on  the  other  by  Russia, 
to  be  armed  to  the  teeth.  Semi-barbaric  Russia,  with 
her  vast  population  wielded  by  a  single  despot,  whose 
whim  is  law,  and  with  her  traditional  gravitation  toward 
Constantinople,  is  a  constant  menace  to  all  the  states  of 
western  Europe.  Since  her  humiliation  in  1S70,  France 
has  put  herself  in  such  a  state  of  military  preparedness 
as  she  was  never  in  before,  even  in  the  palmy  days  of 
Napoleon  I.  She  is  impregnably  fortified  on  her  north- 
eastern frontier,  where  she  suffered  such  ignominious 
defeat,  so  that  a  German  army  can  only  invade  her  a 
second  time  by  way  of  Belgium.  Her  military  force  is 
counted  by  millions.  Of  the  three  military  empires  of 
Europe,  Austria  is  the  weakest  and  it  is  said  that  with- 
out the  backing  of  Germany  she  would  be  no  match  for 
Russia,  in  case  of  a  war  with  that  power.  But  Bismarck 
is  anxious  to  keep  the  peace  with  Russia,  as  long  as  there 
is  a  probability  of  another  conflict  with  France.  As 
for  Great  Britain,  she  does  not  pretend  to  be  a  land- 
power  in  the  sense  in  which  Germany,  Russia  and 
France  are.  Furthermore,  she  is  not  merely  a  European 
power  but  a  sort  of  cosmopolitan  empire,  extending 
round  the  whole  globe.  She  is  never  in  readiness  for 
war  at  short  notice,  as  the  great  continental  powers  are, 
because  "  the  silver  streak  "  makes  invasion  of  her  diffi- 
cult.     But   her  vast  wealth  and  unlimited   mechanical 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


J3 


means  of  arming  herself  by  sea  and  land  are  such  as  to 
make  her  an  invincible  adversary  in  the  long  run,  when 
she  is  fairly  in  for  a  serious  struggle.  As  for  Italy,  since 
her  unification  and  the  reduction  of  the  Pope  to  the 
civil  level  of  an  ordinary  subject,  she  must  be  classed  with 
the  great  European  powers.  As  for  Spain,  Denmark 
and  Sweden,  they  are  of  as  little  military  account  as 
Belgium.  Thus  is  the  continent  of  Europe,  near  the 
close  of  this  nineteenth  century,  an  armed  camp  through- 
out or,  in  the  language  of  Plutarch,  "  an  orchestra  of 
Mars,"  its  chief  nationalities  relying  solely  upon  a  dis- 
play of  force  to  maintain  their  rank  and  prestige.  When 
we  take  into  account  the  current  enginery  and  terrible 
instruments  of  destruction  and  havoc  which  are  employed 
in  the  battles  of  the  present  day,  the  historic  periods 
most  noted  for  violence  and  bloodshed  in  the  matter  of 
warlike  capability  sink  into  insignificance  when  com- 
pared with  the  present. 

Europe  has  everywhere  a  redundant  population  strait- 
ened for  room  and  for  means  of  subsistence.  In  view 
of  this  fact,  it  would  seem  that  it  would  be  wiser,  as  it 
certainly  would  be  more  humane,  to  expend  the  enor- 
mous sums  which  are  necessary  to  support  her  standing 
armies  in  transporting  her  superfluous  myriads  to  wil- 
derness regions  of  the  earth,  to  the  fertile  solitudes  of 
the  dark  continent,  for  such  a  disposition  of  them  would 
increase  the  area  of  civilization  and  a  civilized  occu- 
pancy. Of  course,  military  discipline  is  not  without  its 
advantages.  It  is  a  promoter  of  manliness  and  of  the 
spirit  of  order  and  subordination  without  which  society 
would  be  disintegrated,  as  it  is  likely  to  be  here  if  things 
go  on  as  they  are  going  now.  Prussia,  the  foremost 
nation  of  Europe  in  the  intelligence  and  high  average 
of  its  population,  has  been  under  a  strict  military  dis- 
cipline from  the  days  of  the  father  of  Frederick  the 
Great  down  to  the  regime  of  Bismarck  and  Von 
Moltke. 

A  nation  may  be  demoralized  and  debased  by  an 
excessive  devotion  to  the  sordid  pursuits  of  peace,  such 
as  gambling  in  stocks,  political  log-rolling  and  a  too 
eager  chase  after  lucre.  Thus  far  no  nation  has  been 
recognized  as  great  and  formidable  which  has  not  been 
first-class  in  the  matter  of  force,  whether  for  purposes 
of  aggression  or  defense.  The  lion  and  the  eagle  have 
been  thus  far  the  favorite  emblems  of  national  power 
and  greatness.  It  was  not  the  philosophy  of  Kant,  or 
the  poetry  of  Goethe  and  Scheller,  or  the  science  of 
Humboldt,  which  gave  to  Germany  the  leadership  of  the 
European  group  of  nations  and  brought  her  suddenly  to 
the  front  in  continental  politics,  but  the  invincible 
legions  and  victories  of  Kaiser  Wilhelm,  Bismarck  and 
Von  Moltke  won  against  Austria  and  France  at  Sadowa 
and  Sedan.  These  exhibitions  of  martial  power  changed 
the  opinion  of  the  nations  of  both  hemispheres  at  once 
in  regard  to  Germany,  whose  people  had  been  previously 


regarded  as  impracticable  dreamers.  Now  the  German 
language  has  everywhere  superseded  the  French  as  a 
necessary  study  by  those  who  would  obtain  a  liberal 
education. 

It  was  Germany's  display  of  overwhelming  military 
power  which  called  the  world's  attention  to  the  fact  of 
her  intellectual  supremacy.  Generally  the  strongest 
nations  are  the  foremost  in  every  respect.  When  Greece 
could  boast  of  an  Alexander  the  Great,  the  conqueror 
of  Asia,  she  could  at  the  same  time  show  one  equally 
great  in  the  intellectual  order,  viz.:  his  tutor,  Aristotle. 

The  nations  of  Europe  have  not  only  been  able  to 
conquer,  colonize  and  hold  in  subjection  the  outside 
world,  with  its  barbaric  continents  and  isles,  but  they  have 
also  produced  the  noblest  poetry  and  reflective  thought, 
while  science  and  civilization,  in  its  highest  sense,  are 
European.  We  are  an  outpost  and  projection  of  Europe 
toward  the  sunset,  but  greatly  modified  in  figure  and 
feature  and  intonation  and  inflection  of  voice  by  nearly 
three  centuries  of  new-world  inhabitancy.  Thus  have 
the  most  virile  and  martial  of  races  and  nations  been 
also  the  most  intellectual. 


ETHNOLOGICAL  STUDIES. 

BY  THEODORE  STAXTON. 

One  of  most  interesting  books  in  the  department  of 
sociology  that  has  recently  appeared  here  is  M.  Elie 
Reclus's  Les  Primitifs.  The  author  belongs  to  that 
distinguished  French  family,  all  of  whose  members 
seem  to  be  devoted  to  some  literary  or  scientific  work. 
The  best  known  of  the  Recluses  is  Elisee,  the  famous 
geographer  and  ardent  socialist.  Elie,  whom  I  have 
just  mentioned,  is  the  elder  brother  of  Elisee  and,  if 
he  does  not  enjoy  such  a  wide-spread  reputation,  is  a 
man  of  no  ordinary  parts.  Another  brother,  Onesime, 
has  published  books  of  travel,  while  a  fourth,  Armand, 
an  engineer  by  profession,  has  associated  his  name  with 
the  Panama  canal,  about  which  enterprise  he  has  printed 
several  reports  and  pamphlets.  A  fifth  brother,  Paul, 
is  one  of  the  ablest  Paris  surgeons.  The  three  sisters  of 
these  remarkable  brothers  have  published  translations, 
novels  and  scientific  studies.  A  cousin,  Mme.  Pauline 
Kergomard,  nee  Reclus,  is  an  authority  in  France  on  the 
education  of  children  and  has  written  largely  on 
pedagogic  subjects.  I  do  not  know  whether  I  have 
exhausted  the  list  of  the  notable  members  of  this  famous 
family,  but  I  have  said  enough  to  show  you  that  it  is 
worthy  of  Galton's  attention.  But,  perhaps,  the  most 
interesting  fact  for  us,  at  least  in  connection  with  the 
Recluses,  is  that  all  of  them — I  think  there  is  no 
exception — are  outspoken  free-thinkers. 

A  friend  gives  me  the  following  account  of  M. 
Elie  Reclus's  last  volume,  mentioned  at  the  beginning 
of  this  letter:  "  The  work,"  we  are  told,  "is  a  study  in 


H 


T  H  K    O  P  B  N    COU  RT. 


comparative  ethnology,  the  first  in  a  projected  series,  and 
is  to  be  supplemented  by  another  volume  if  this  one  is 
favorably  received.  The  present  studies  are  rive  in 
number,  and  one  chosen  in  extremes  of  latitude,  thus 
offering  a  diversity  of  customs  and  manners  peculiarly 
interesting.  One  is  astonished  to  find,  in  regions  so 
remote  from  what  we  are  pleased  to  call  civilization, 
features  of  life  so  strikingly  indicative  of  the  social  as 
well  as  the  generic  unity  of  the  human  family.  The 
hyperborean  amid  his  eternal  snows  and  ices,  dominated 
by  a  bleak  monotonous  nature,  is  as  tenacious  of  his  claim 
to  manhood  as  is  the  most  polished  metropolitan.  It  is 
remarkable  that  these  benighted  races  of  the  western 
hemisphere,  commonly  called  Esquimaux,  or  eaters  of 
raw  flesh,  invariably  distinguish  themselves  from  the 
rest  of  humanity  bv  the  name  of  aitoit,  which  signifies 
man.  M.  Reclus  divides  them  into  two  peoples — the 
oriental  and  the  occidental,  the  T adits  of  Greenland  and 
the  Tadits  of  Alaska.  While  his  graphic  pictures  of 
their  family  and  community  life  reveal  to  us  a  far  from 
civilized  state  of  existence,  yet  we  are  bound  to  recog- 
nize here  and  there  striking  resemblances  to  familiar 
institutions. 

"Such  discoveries  rather  detract  from  our  boasted 
superiority  and,  from  an  evolutionary  point  of  view,  thev 
are  profoundly  significant.  Thev  show  us,  as  above 
remarked,  the  oneness  of  mankind  and  lead  us  to  con- 
sider in  a  new  light  the  complex  fabric  called  modern 
civilization.  A  just  pride  in  the  gigantic  achievements 
of  the  scientific  world  disposes  us  to  exaggerate  the 
merits  of  a  society  whose  every  institution,  after  all, 
is  but  a  medieval  heritage.  Such  books  as  M.  Reclus's 
are  calculated  to  awaken  healthful  reflections  on  this 
point  and  to  call  attention  to  imperfections  nearer  home. 

•'  But  the  crude,  discordant  side  of  primitive  life  is 
not  all  that  is  given  in  these  studies.  A  chapter  on  the 
Nai'rs,  or  warrior  nobility,  on  the  coast  of  Malabar, 
reads  like  a  romance.  It  is  a  people  dominated  by  the 
feminine  principle.  Hereditary  descent  is  on  the  side  of 
the  mother,  the  priestess  of  the  household,  whose 
prime  minister  is  the  eldest  daughter,  and  in  whose 
presence  her  sons  never  sit  without  invitation.  Of 
this  marvelous  race,  called  prehistoric,  but  a  frag- 
ment remains.  They  are  hedged  about  by  a  new 
and  unsympathetic  civilization  with  which  they  refuse 
to  mingle,  preserving  with  singular  tenacity  their  antique 
customs  and  a  proud  individuality  that  is  the  admiration 
of  all  who  come  in  contact  with  them.  A  traveler,  at 
tiie  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  describes 
them  as  a  splendid  people.  '  The  Nai'rs  of  the  antique 
type,'  he  says,  ■  unite  the  martial  boldness  of  the  Spar- 
tan with  the  grace  and  gallantry  of  the  middle  age 
-  hevalier.  livery  Nai'r  is  a  lord  in  his  country,  living 
upon  his  revenues  or  on  a  pension  conferred  by  the 
king.     They  are  the  best  formed,  the  most  gracefully- 


proportioned  and  the  handsomest  people  that  I  have  ever 
seen  and  they  make  the  finest  soldiers  in  the  world.'  But 
thev  fight  only  with  their  equals.  A  Nai'r  would  con- 
sider himself  utterly  disgraced  should  he  cross  arms 
with  an  inferior  race.  The  women  also  are  spoken  of 
as  nobly  proportioned  and  beautiful  in  face.  They  wear 
but  little  clothing  and  prefer,  as  has  been  shown,  to 
leave  their  native  shores  rather  than  submit  to  be  cos- 
tumed according  to  the  requirements  of  a  '  more  refined 
civilization.' 

"It  is  very  interesting  as  well  as  instructive  to  follow 
M.  Reclus  through  all  the  complexities  of  his  many- 
sided  studies.  It  may  fairly  be  said  that  'truth  is 
stranger  than  fiction.'  Few  brains  would  be  able  to 
weave  an  imaginary  picture  that  could  rival  these  real 
ones.  And  when  we  consider  how  intimately  all  these 
distinct  phases  of  society,  however  obscure,  are  linked 
in  with  the  philosophy  of  the  great  whole,  we  cannot 
too  highly  appreciate  the  author's  effort  to  introduce 
these  remote  peoples  to  modern  progressive  thought  as 
subjects  of  serious  stud  v.  In  this  work  wc  see  the 
infantile  beginnings,  the  gropings  of  blind  instinct  of 
races  without  industry,  art  or  science,  the  victims  of 
helpless  ignorance.  We  also  see  the  strange,  grotesque 
perversions  of  human  nature  under  such  abnormal  cir- 
cumstances. 

"Thoroughly  versed  in  the  historical  and  socio- 
logical sciences,  M.  Reclus  has  gone  into  this  work  with 
a  view  not  only  to  amuse  the  curiosity  of  his  readers, 
but  to  aid  in  laving  the  foundation  of  exactness  in  those 
sciences  which  are  of  primary  importance  to  humanity 
at  the  present  day,  as  thev  are  the  condition  of  con- 
structive social  progress.  We  hope  soon  to  see  the 
second  of  the  series,  which  will  certainly  be  greeted 
with  interest." 

Paris,  December. 


APHORISMS    FROM    THE   STUDY. 
BY  XENOS  CLARK. 

The  most  exasperating  thing  about  a  foolish  man 
is  that  he  never  perceives  his  own  folly. 

By  a  man's  opinion  of  death  you  may  learn  what  he 
has  done  in  life. 

The  chief  objection  to  puns  is  the  company  thev 
commonly  keep. 

The  same  knowledge  that  teaches  us  to  criticise 
compels  us  to  forgive. 

Poetry  is  the  sunrise  of  the  mind. 

The  love  of  life  in  those  whose  life  is  lovely  is  so 
strong  that  it  even  can  lead  them  to  think  the  dread  of 
life  in  those  whose  life  is  dreadful  a  needless  illusion. 

The  difficulty  of  attaining  good  ends  measures  their 
stability  when  achieved. 


THF,    OPEN    COURT. 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published   every  other   Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  |  Nixon 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 


B.  V.  UN  DEI?  WOOD, 

Editor  and  Max.vgkk. 


SARA   A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and   him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
for  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generdus  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  13.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY   17,  1887. 


SALUTATORY. 

A  country  like  this,  vast  in  extent,  with  resources 
undeveloped  and  with  such  a  sparse  population  to  the 
square  mile,  is  not  a  country  of  a  leisurely  class  of  men 
devoted  to  purely  intellectual  pursuits,  to  the  dissemina- 
tion of  ideas  and  the  advancement  of  truth  for  its  own 
sake.  But  absorbed  as  the  people  of  this  new  country 
necessarily  are  in  material,  industrial  interests,  yet  there 
are  many  who,  in  the  intervals  of  business  and  exacting 
bread-and-butter  pursuits,  desire  to  keep  themselves  in- 
formed in  regard  to  the  best  thought  of  the  day.  They 
know,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  professors  and  teachers  of 
the  old  theologies  still  keep  droning  formulas  and 
creeds  which  have  ceased  to  live  in  the  faith  of  reason, 
as  though  nothing  had  occurred  to  discredit  them,  that 
a  radical  change  has  come  over  the  spirit  of  the  world's 
dream;  and  although  a  people  as  prosperous  as  the 
American  people  must  be  more  or  less  conservative  in 
both  religion  and  politics,  whatever  the  established  order 


of  things,  temporal  or  spiritual,  there  is  an  increasing 
number  who  are  hungry  for  ideas,  for  new  truth,  for  the 
advanced  thought  of  the  time,  who  have  ceased  to  be- 
lieve in  the  traditions  of  the  past,  however  hoary  with 
years  and  authoritative  they  may  be;  who  know  that  all 
the  truths  which  enlighten  mankind  and  advance  civili- 
zation, are  the  acquisitions  of  experience  and  the  revela- 
tions of  reason,  and  that  the  canon  of  truth  is  by  no 
means  closed,  but  still  open  for  ever  new  additions  and 
amendments  as  the  years  roll  away  and  the  mind  pene- 
trates ever  deeper  the  mystery  of  things. 

Thus,  while  political  and  commercial  journals  with 
their  news  from  all  lands  and  their  comments  on  current 
events  reflecting  the  popular  mind,  and  that  portion  of 
the  press  devoted  to  the  old  orthodoxies  by  whatever 
name  they  are  called,  are  certain  of  a  most  liberal  sup- 
port, there  is  room,  we  trust,  for  a  journal  like  The  Open- 
Court,  which,  recognizing  an  element  of  truth  in  all  re- 
ligious systems,  will  aim  to  distinguish  between  this  and 
the  errors  with  which  the  truth  is  encrusted  and  to  give 
to  rational  religious  thought  a  firm  basis  in  science. 

The  Open  Court  will  encourage  freedom  of  thought 
untrammeled  by  the  authority  of  any  alleged  book- 
revelations  or  traditional  beliefs,  afford  an  opportunity 
in  its  columns  for  the  independent  discussion,  by  able 
thinkers,  of  all  those  great  ethical,  religious,  social  and 
philosophical  problems  the  solution  of  which  is  now  de- 
manded by  the  practical  needs  of  the  hour  with  an 
urgency  hitherto  unknown,  treat  all  such  questions 
according  to  the  scientific  method  and  in  the  light  of  the 
fullest  knowledge  and  the  best  thought  of  the  da}-,  advo- 
cate the  complete  secularization  of  the  State,  entire  free- 
dom in  religion  and  exact  justice  for  all,  help  substi- 
tute catholicity  for  bigotry,  rational  religious  thought  for 
theological  dogmatism  and  humanitarianism  for  secta- 
rianism, and,  at  the  same  time,  emphasize  the  supreme 
importance  of  practical  morality  in  all  the  relations  of  life 
and  of  making  the  well-being  of  the  individual  and  of 
society  the  aim  of  all  earnest  thinking  and  reformatory 
effort. 

While  the  critical  work  which  is  still  needed  in  this 
transitional  period  will  not  be  neglected,  the  most 
prominence  will  be  given  to  the  positive,  affirmative  side 
of  radical  liberal  thought.  Subjects  of  practical  interest 
will  have  preference  over  questions  of  pure  speculation, 
although  the  latter,  with  their  fascination  for  many 
minds,  which,  as  Lewis  says,  "the  unequivocal  failure  of 
twenty  centuries"  has  not  sufficed  to  destroy,  and  the 
discussion  of  which  is  not  without  value,  will  by  no 
means  be  wholly  ignored. 

The  Open  Court,  while  giving  a  fair  hearing  to 
representatives  of  the  various  schools  and  phases  of 
thought,  will  be  thoroughly  independent  editorially, 
asserting  its  own  convictions  with  frankness  and  vigor. 
It    will  aim  to  be  liberal   in  the  broadest    and   best  sense 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


and  to  merit  the  patronage  of  that  large  class  of  intel- 
ligent thinkers  whom  the  creeds  of  the  churches  and  the 
mere  authority  of  names  can  no  longer  satisfy. 

Bound  by  allegiance  to  no  particular  party  or  relig- 
ious sect,  this  journal  will  sound  a  note  of  warning  on 
occasion  of  any  ecclesiastical  encroachment  upon  Amer- 
ican liberty,  whether  threatened  by  the  powerful  hier- 
archy whose  head  resides  in  Europe,  where  it  is  the  un- 
disguised enemy  of  popular  freedom  and  popular  edu- 
cation and  whose  assaults  upon  the  free  common  school 
of  America  is  as  insidious  as  it  is  persistent,  or  by  that 
restless  pietism  which'  aims  to  arrest  liberal  thought  in 
its  practical  effect,  by  the  revival  of  ecclesiastical  laws 
in  the  professed  interests  of  morality,  and  which,  not 
satisfied  with  so  much  of  the  union  of  Church  and  State 
as  still  survives  in  this  Republic,  in  existing  anomalous 
statutes  and  established  customs,  is  zealously  working 
for  additional  legislation  to  secure  the  official  recog- 
nition of  theological  dogmas  by  the  National  and  State 
governments. 

American  liberty  is  by  no  means  what  it  ought  to  be, 
even,  so  long  as  honest  convictions  anywhere  within  our 
bounds  disqualify  a  man  as  a  witness,  or  the  property  of 
ecclesiastical  bodies  is  exempted  from  it  just  proportion  of 
taxation,  or  theological  teaching  is  included  among  the 
compulsory  exercises  of  our  public  schools,  or  public 
money  is  appropriated  for  the  endowment  of  sectarian 
institutions,  or  any  class  suffer  legal  disability  of  any 
kind  on  account  of  their  religious  opinions.  While  these 
evils  remain,  a  journal  devoted  to  equal  and  exact  justice 
for  all,  irrespective  of  religious  belief,  cannot  be  without 
a  mission. 

The  Open  Court  will  aim  to  keep  the  banner  of 
truth  and  reason  waving  above  the  distractions,  party 
contentions,  theological  controversies  and  social  and 
political  crazes  of  the  hour;  to  submit  all  opinions  to  the 
crucial  test  of  reason  and  recall  men  from  their  aberra- 
tions to  sanity  and  the  pathway  of  truth. 

To  the  American  people,  cosmopolitan  in  character 
and  quick  alike  in  opposition  to  wrong  and  sympathy 
with  right,  so  far  as  they  can  recognize  them,  we  confi- 
dently appeal,  sure  in  the  end  of  a  favorable  verdict  from 
such  a  tribunal  on  the  great  questions  which  are  to  be 
tried  in  The  Open  Court. 


Mr.  Moncure  D.  Conway  has  kindly  sent  us  for 
publication  in  the  next  issue  of  The  Open  Court  his 
paper  on  "  Unitarianism  and  its  Grandchildren."  This 
remarkable  production,  by  one  of  America's  most  radical 
thinkers  and  brilliant  writers,  has  been  read  before  several 
eastern  societies,  and  it  has  made  a  marked  impression ; 
but  it  has  never  been  printed,  having  been  reserved  at 
our  request  for  the  columns  of  this  new  journal,  whose 
readers  may  expect  in  the  essay  a  rare  intellectual  treat. 


In  an  article  printed  in  The  Index,  entitled  "  The 
Incomplete,"  Professor  W.  D.  Gunning,  referring  to  the 
Plateau  experiment,  observed  that  its  "analogue  is  the 
material  universe,"  and  he  added  that  "no  thoughtful 
man  can  witness  the  Plateau  experiment -without  feel- 
ing that  his  mind  may  be  standing  at  the  very  threshold 
of  creation."  The  Plateau  experiment  has  often  been 
applied  to  typify  the  genesis  of  the  solar  system.  It 
may  be  tried  by  anyone  who  has  a  delicate  touch.  Put 
alcohol  into  water  until  the  mixture  will  hold  olive  oil 
in  suspension.  Fill  a  glass  globe  with  this  fluid  and 
pour  into  it  olive  oil.  The  oil  will  diffuse  itself  through 
the  fluid  which  will  hold  it  as  the  heavens  hold  a  nebula. 
Take  a  stiff  wire  and  bend  it  at  one  end  into  a  crank  by 
which  you  can  rotate  it.  Let  the  other  end  be  smooth 
enough  to  turn  freely  in  a  socket,  which  must  rest  firmly 
on  the  bottom  of  the  glass  globe.  Insert  on  the  middle 
of  the  wire  a  little  disc,  jagged  on  the  rim.  Place  this 
wire  in  the  globe  and  rotate  it.  For  delicate  experiment 
the  rotation  should  be  accomplished  by  clock-work. 

*  #         * 

Col.  John  C.  Bundy,  editor  of  the  Religio-Philo- 
sophical  Journal,  in  a  remarkably  thoughtful  paper  on 
"  The  Country  Press  in  Ethics,"  read  before  the  Illinois 
Press  Association  a  few  days  ago  at  its  annual  conven- 
tion, said : 

In  the  words  of  the  immortal  Lincoln  ours  is  a  "government 
of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people."  Hence  the  purity, 
strength  and  permanence  of  our  form  of  government  and  its 
benign  influence  upon  the  great  family  of  nations  rests  upon  the 
morals  of  the  masses.  And  in  turn  the  moral  sense  of  the  masses 
is  to  a  considerable  and  steadily  increasing  degree  due  to  the 
ethics  taught  by  the  country  press.  The  cause  of  this  increasing 
influence  of  the  press  in  ethics  is  neither  remote  nor  obscure. 
With  increasing  intelligence  among  the  people,  morals  steadily 
tend  toward  a  non-theological  basis.  A  scientific  foundation 
for  ethics  is  rapidly  becoming  an  imperative  necessity,  without 
which  a  moral  interregnum  impends.  A  regulative  system  based 
on  theological  dogmas  has  ceased  to  regulate  with  any  great  force. 
Old  theology  is  moribund  and  with  its  decay  dies  its  regulating 
power.  It  no  longer  is  master  of  the  public  conscience;  its 
foundations,  built  on  the  superstitions  and  idiosyncrasies  ot 
visionaries  and  ambitious  men  have  given  way  and  under  its 
crumbling  walls  the  influence  of  its  moral  code  is  fast  disappear- 
ing. In  the  place  of  the  supernatural,  people  seek  a  code  of 
natural  ethics.  This  will  not  be  found  in  the  average  preacher's 
study,  but  it  should  and  will  in  good  time  be  reached  through  the 

editorial  sanctum. 

*  #  # 

Prof.  Ernst  Haeckel  states  his  "  Monistic  thought  " 
as  follows: 

Scientific  materialism,  which  is  identical  with  our  Monism, 
affirms  in  reality  no  more  than  that  everything  in  the  world  goes 
on  naturally — that  every  effect  has  its  cause  and  every  cause  its 
effect.  It  therefore  assigns  to  causal  law — that  is,  the  law  of  a 
necessary  connection  between  cause  and  effect — its  place  over  the 
entire  series  of  phenomena  that  can  be  known.  ' 

********* 

In  order,  then,  to  avoid  in  future  the  usual  confusion  of  this 
utterly  objectionable  Moral  Materialism  with  our  Scientific  Mate- 
rialism, we  think  it  necessary  to  call  the  latter  either  Monism  or 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


17 


Realism.  The  principle  of  this  Monism  is  the  same  as  what  Kant 
terms  "the  principle  of  Mechanism"  and  of  which  he  expressly 
asserts  that  without  it  there  can  be  no  natural  science  at  all.  This  prin- 
ciple is  quite  inseparable  from  our  Non-miraculous  History  of 
Creation  and  characterizes  it  as  opposed  to  the  teleological  belief 
in  the  miracle  of  a  Supernatural. —  The  History  of  Creation,  vol.  1, 

t-37- 

Strictly,  however,  our  "Monism"  might  as  accurately  or  as 
inaccurately  be  called  Spiritualism  or  Materialism.  The  real  mate- 
rialistic philosophy  asserts  that  the  vital  phenomena  of  motion,  like 
all  other  phenomena  of  motion,  are  effects  or  products  of  matter. 
The  other,  opposite  extreme  spiritualistic  philosophy,  asserts,  on 
the  contrary,  that  matter  is  the  product  of  motive  force  and  that 
all  material  forms  are  produced  by  free  forces  entirely  independent 
of  matter  itself.  Thus,  according  to  the  materialistic  conception 
of  the  universe,  matter  or  substance  precedes  motion  or  active 
force.  According  to  the  spiritualistic  conception  of  the  universe 
on  the  contrary,  active  force  or  motion  precedes  matter.  Both 
views  are  dualistic  and  we  hold  them  both  to  be  equally  false.  A 
contrast  to  both  views  is  presented  in  the  Monistic  philosophy, 
which  can  as  little  believe  in  force  without  matter  as  in  matter 
without  force. —  The  Evolution  of  Alan,  vol.  2,  p.  456. 

Monism  and  Dualism  —  Unitary  philosophy  or  Monism,  is 
neither  extremely  materialistic  nor  extremeiy  spiritualistic,  but 
resembles  rather  a  union  and  combination  of  these  opposed  prin- 
ciples, in  that  it  conceives  all  nature  as  one  whole  and  nowhere 
recognizes  any  but  mechanical  causes.  Binary  philosophy,  on  the 
other  hand,  or  Dualism,  regards  nature  and  spirit,  matter  and 
force,  inorganic  and  organic  nature,  as  distinct  and  independent 
existences. — HaeckeVs  Ibid,  vol.  2,J>.  461. 

With  many  the  word  Agnostic  means  simply  one  who 
neither  affirms  nor  denies  the  existence  of  a  personal, 
intelligent  Deity ;  one  who  feels  that  the  data  he  pos- 
sesses are  insufficient  to  warrant  affirmation  or  denial  in 
regard  to  the  matter.  To  this  class  evidently  belonged 
Mr.  Darwin.  In  one  of  his  letters  published  since  his 
death,  he  wrote : 

I  am,  indeed,  asked  to  attach  a  certain  amount  of  weight  to 
the  judgment  of  the  large  number  of  intelligent  men  who  have 
implicitly  believed  in  God,  but  here  again  I  see  what  an  insufficient 
kind  of  proof  this  is.  The  safest  conclusion  seems  to  be  that  the 
whole  subject  lies  beyond  the  range  of  human  understanding. 
And  yet  a  man  can  do  his  duty. 

In  another  letter  ( to  John  Fordyce)  Mr.  Darwin 
wrote: 

Moreover,  whether  man  deserves  to  be  called  a  Theist 
depends  upon  the  definition  of  the  term,  which  is  much  too 
large  a  subject  for  a  note.  *  *  *  I  think  that  generally  (and 
more  and  more  as  I  grow  older),  but  not  always,  that  an  Agnostic 
would  be  the  more  correct  description  of  my  state  of  mind. 

But  of  all  the  definitions  and  statements  of  Agnostic- 
ism, those  of  Prof.  Huxley  are,  perhaps,  the  most 
important,  for  he  brought  the  word  into  use.  In  18S4 
he  wrote: 

Some  twenty  years  ago,  or  thereabouts,  I  invented  the  word 
"Agnostic"  to  denote  people  who,  like  myself,  confess  themselves 
to  be  hopelessly  ignorant  concerning  a  variety  of  matters,  about 
which  metaphysicians  and  theologians,  both  orthodox  and  hetero- 
dox, dogmatize  with  the  utmost  confidence;  and  it  has  been  a 
source  of  some  amusement  to  me  to  watch  the  gradual  acceptance 
of  the  term  and  its  correlate,  Agnosticism.  *  *  *  Thus  it  will 
be  seen  that  I  have  a  sort  of  patent  right  in  "Agnostic."   It  is  my 


trade  mark  and  I  am  entitled  to  say  that  I  can  state  authentically 
what  was  originally  meant  by  Agnosticism.  Agnosticism  is  the 
essence  of  science,  whether  ancient  or  modern.  It  simply  means 
that  a  man  shall  not  say  he  knows  or  believes  that  which  he  has 
no  scientific  grounds  for  professing  to  know  or  believe.  *  *  *  I 
have  no  doubt  that  scientific  criticism  will  prove  destructive  to 
the  forms  of  supernaturalism  which  enter  into  the  constitution  of 
existing  religions.  On  trial  of  any  so-called  miracle,  the  verdict 
of  science  is  "not  proven."  But  Agnosticism  will  not  forget  that 
existence,  motion  and  law-abiding  operation  in  nature  are  more 
stupendous  miracles  than  any  recounted  by  the  mythologies  and 
that  there  may  be  things,  not  only  in  the  heavens  and  earth,  but 
beyond  the  intelligible  universe,  which  "are  not  dreamt  of  in  our 
philosophy."  The  theological  "'gnosis"  would  have  us  believe 
that  the  world  is  a  conjurer's  house ;  the  anti-theological  "  'gnosis" 
talks  as  if  it  were  a  "dirt-pie"  made  by  two  blind  children,  Law 
and  Force.  Agnosticism  simply  says  that  we  know  nothing  of 
what  may  be  beyond  phenomena. 

Count  Goblet  d'Alviella,  in  his  "  Contemporary 
Evolution  of  Religious  Thought,"  refers  to  "Monistic 
solutions  in  which  mind  is  looked  upon  as  the  property 
or  manifestation  of  matter  (Materialism) ;  where  matter 
is  made  the  outcome  of  mind  (Spiritualism),  or,  in  the 
third  place,  when  mind  and  matter  are  taken  to  be  the 
opposite  of  one  and  the  same  mysterious  reality  (Monism 
proper)." 

Haeckel  wrote  in  1SS4: 

I  believe  that  my  Monistic  convictions  agree  in  all  essential 
points  with  that  natural  philosophy  which  in  England  is  repre- 
sented as  Agnosticism.  *  *  *  I  also  believe  that  the  Monistic 
natural  religion  will  slowly  and  gradually,  but  surely  and  steadily, 
supplant  the  supernatural  ecclesiastical  religions,  at  least  in  the 
consciousness  of  the  educated  classes. 

G.  H.  Lewes  wrote  as  follows: 

It  may  be  noted  that  Metaphysics,  refusing  to  adopt  the 
Methods  of  Science,  has  received  the  protection  of  Theology, 
but  only  such  protection  as  is  accorded  to  a  vassal,  and  which  is 
changed  into  hostility  whenever  their  conclusions  clash,  or  when- 
ever argument  threatens  to  disturb  the  secular  slumber  of  dogma. 
Treated  as  a  vassal  by  Theology,  it  is  treated  by  Science  as  a  vis- 
ionary.    Is  there  no  escape  from  this  equivocal  position. 

Says  Prof.  Huxley  in  Lay  Sermons :  "  The  improver 
of  natural  knowledge  absolutely  refuses  to  acknowledge 
authority  as  such.  For  him,  scepticism  is  the  highest 
of  duties;  blind  faith  the  one  unpardonable  sin.  And 
it  cannot  be  otherwise,  for  every  great  advance  in  nat- 
ural knowledge  has  involved  the  absolute  rejection  of 
authority,  the  cherishing  of  the  keenest  scepticism,  the 
annihilation  of  the  spirit  of  blind  faith;  and  the  most 
ardent  votary  of  science  holds  his  firmest  convictions, 
not  because  the  man  he  most  venerates  holds  them,  not 
because  their  verity  is  testified  by  portents  and  wonders, 
but  because  his  experience  teaches  him  that,  whenever 
he  chooses  to  bring  these  convictions  in  contact  with 
their  primary  source,  nature,  whenever  he  thinks  fit  to 
test  them  by  appealing  to  experiment  and  to  observa- 
tion, nature  will  confirm  them.  The  man  of  science 
has  learned  to  believe  in  justification;  not  by  faith,  but 
by  verification." 


IS 


THK    OPEN    COURT. 


THE  BASIS  OF  ETHICS. 


A  PAPER  tSOMEWHAT  REVISED  .\ND  WITH  A  FEW  ADDITION'S) 

READ  BEFORE  THE  SOCIETY  FOR  ETHICAL  CULTURE 

OF  CHICAGO  JANUARY   14,  1**7.* 

BY    EDWARD   C.   IIEGEI.KK. 

Fellow  Members  of  tlw  Society  for  Ethical  Culture— 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

We  arc  associated  here  as  a  society  for  ethical  cul- 
ture, so  it  behooves  us  above  all  to  be  clear  and  definite 
as  to  what  is  the  basis  of  ethics  or  what  is  good  and  bad. 

Let  us  now  consider  some  examples  of  the  use  of 
the  word  "good."  What  is  good  for  a  clock?  If  it 
is  protected  from  being  broken;  if  it  is  kept  well  oiled; 
if  it  is  so  altered  that  it  keeps  more  correct  time — all  this 
is  called  good  for  the  clock,  irrespective  of  any  benefit 
the  owner  may  have  from  it,  but  looking  upon  it  exclu- 
sively as  a  mechanism.  What  is  "good"  in  this  case? 
It  is  the  preservation  of  the  clock  from  destruction,  sud- 
den or  slow;  it  is  an  increase  of  that  specific  quality 
which  is  the  special  feature  of  the  clock — that  of  keep- 
ing time. 

What  is  good  for  the  sparrow?  I  mean  the  sparrow 
tribe.  If  it  has  plenty  to  eat;  if  the  weather  is  mild; 
if  there  are  no  birds  of  prey  that  may  kill  it;  if  there 
are  no  other  animals  that  will  eat  the  always  limited 
amount  of  food  upon  which  it<;  existence  depends;  if  the 
strength  and  intelligence  of  the  sparrow  tribe  increase, 
so  as  to  better  endure  the  hardships  of  its  struggle  for 
life  and  a  living;  if  it  takes  good  care  of  its  young  so 
that  they  all  reach  maturity — what  is  the  good  in  these 
cases  for  the  sparrow  tribe?  It  is  its  preservation  from 
destruction;  its  growth;  the  strengthening  of  its  powers 
of  self-preservation;  but,  especially,  the  increase  of  its 
intelligence.  To  the  sparrow  tribe  the  various  circum- 
stances tending  to  its  preservation  are  accompanied  by 
sensations  of  pleasure;  those  tending  to  its  destruction 
are  generally,  though  not  always,  accompanied  by  pain. 
When  we  speak  of  what  is  good  for  the  sparrow  tribe, 
we  think  of  pleasures  and  pains  only  as  a  secondary 
consideration. 

What  do  we  call  good  for  men?  In  the  first  place 
all  that  we  found  to  be  good  for  the  sparrow,  with  the  same 
general  conclusion  :  That  good,  for  man,  is  his  preserva- 
tion or  growth — bad,  his  destruction  or  decline. 

What  do  we  call  good  for  our  child  ?  Firstly,  we 
assume  that  whatever  causes  pleasure  is  also  beneficial 
to  it;  that  whatever  causes  pain,  is  in  some  way  hurtful 
to  it.  We  use  here  the  words  "beneficial  to  it."  Does 
that  not  mean  again  •' what  preserves  it  and  makes  it 
grow?"  We  all  agree,  I  think,  that  we  call  good  for 
our  child  (without  thinking  of  its  pleasure  or  pain  now 


*I  wish  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  Messrs.  Ernst  Trussing,  W.  M. 
sailer,  II.  F.  Underwood  and  my  daughter  Mary  for  assistance  in  giving  my 
ideas  literar)  form,  the  latter  also  for  assistance  in  originally  preparing  the 
paper. 


or  later)  that  which  makes  it  grow  bodily  and  mentally. 
We  deem  good  for  it  all  that  will  make  it  equal  to  or 
greater  than  ourselves. 

I  find  it  necessary  to  give  some  explanations  here 
which  may  at  first  appear  to  be  outside  of  the  scope  of 
this  discussion.* 

What  I  think  a  conception  to  be:  If  a  child  sees  an 
apple  for  the  first  time,  the  lens  of  the  eye  will  throw 
a  photograph  of  it  on  the  retina,  which  photograph,  as 
we  now  know,  is  fixed  there  for  a  short  time,  in  a  simi- 
lar way  as  in  a  photographer's  camera.  From  this  pho- 
tograph, through  nerve-fibers,  an  analogue  of  the  pho- 
tograph is  assumed  to  be  brought  to  the  gray  matter  of 
the  child's  brain,  making  a  record  there  upon  living, 
feeling  matter;  this  has  received  the  name  photogram — 
in  this  case  the  photogram  of  an  apple. 

We  may  assume  that  at  the  same  time  the  child  first 
sees  the  apple  it  also  tastes  and  smells  and  eats  the 
same.  Through  the  tongue  and  connecting  nerves  a 
record  of  its  taste  upon  living,  feeling  matter  is  pro- 
duced in  the  gray  matter  of  the  child's  brain  simultane- 
ously with  the  photogram.  So  it  is  with  the  odor  of 
the  apple  through  the  nose  and  the  nerves  connecting 
it  with  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain;  and  so,  also,  living 
records  of  the  several  motions  and  sensations  in  eating  the 
apple  are  simultaneously  made  on  the  child's  brain.  The 
gray  matter  of  the  brain  lies  on  the  surface  thereof  and 
is  recognized  as  the  seat  of  conceptions  and  ideas.  It 
consists  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  brain  cells,  which 
again  are  little  oblong  globes  of  living  protoplasm.  The 
gray  matter  is  underlaid  by  the  white  matter,  which 
consists  of  innumerable  nerve-fibers  connecting  the 
various  parts  of  the  gray  matter  in  all  directions  between 
its  parts  and  with  the  various  organs  of  the  body.  The 
cells  of  the  gray  matter  bearing  the  photogram  or  sight- 
record  and  those  cells  bearing  the  taste-record  of  the 
apple  being  in  a  conscious  or  active  state  with  increased 
blood  circulation  at  the  same  time,  it  suggests  itself  that 
the  connecting  white  nerve-fibers  are  especially  stimu- 
lated thereby  to  an  increased  blood  circulation  and 
growth.  If  later,  of  the  photogram  and  taste-gram, 
the  one  is  stimulated  to  consciousness  by  excitation 
through  the  eye  or  tongue,  the  other  is  stimulated  to 
partial  consciousness  through  the  connecting  white  nerve- 
fibers  without  external  excitation. 

So  if  the  child  sees  the  apple  again  at  another  time, 
it  is  the  living,  feeling  photogram  of  an  apple  resulting 
from  its  first  sight,  which  is  stimulated  thereby  and 
feels,  or,  as  we  sav,  becomes  conscious  of  the  apple. 
This  photogram  is  the  ego,  for  the  instant;  it  has  been 
asleep  until  the  newly-formed  photogram  of  the  apple 
awakens  it — that  is,  brings  it  into  a  state  of  conscious- 
ness. 


*  I  bring  forward  here,  I  believe,  substantially  the   views  of  the  great 
French  psychological  investigator,  Th.  Ribot, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


19 


For  further  explanation,  let  me  state  that  instead  of 
one  photograph  and  one  photogram  being  formed  by 
the  first  sight  of  the  apple,  a  very  large  number  of  sim- 
ilar photograms  is  formed.  The  apple  must  be  pre- 
sumed to  be  moving  when  the  child  sees  it;  the  child 
changes  its  position  when  it  looks  at  the  apple.  This 
explains  more  easily,  too,  how  the  photograms  produced 
by  the  second  sight  "of  the  apple  find  the  photograms 
produced  bv  the  first  sight. 

The  photogram  of  the  apple  will  excite  the  memory 
or  living  record  made  bv  the  taste  of  the  apple.  This 
will  enter  into  partial  consciousness  without  a  new  exci- 
tation coming  through  the  tongue  and  in  a  similar  way 
hundreds  of  other  living  records  or  memories  will  be 
partially  excited  indirectly.  This  combination  of  living 
records  makes  the  conception  of  an  apple. 

An  idea  I  deem  to  be  a  combination  of  conceptions 
and,  therefore,  to  be  embodied  in  the  form  of  very 
complicated  combinations  of  living,  feeling  organisms  in 
our  brains. 

Now,  what  is  good  for  ideas,  or  rather  for  the 
organisms,  the  forms  of  which  are  the  ideas?  It  is 
their  preservation,  their  gaining  strength,  their  growth, 
the  increase  of  their  combinations  with  other  idea- 
organisms  and  the  increased  control  over  them. 

The  organized  whole  or  society  of  our  living  ideas 
constitutes  our  soul. 

What  has  been  stated  as  good  for  an  idea  is  also 
good  for  their  organized  society,  the  soul,  to  wit:  Pres- 
ervation and  evolution  of  its  activities  and  sensations, 
especially  their  form. 

Of  the  reality  (that  is  the  whole)  we  observe,  matter* 
is  an  abstraction;  energy  is  an  abstraction;  life  is  an 
abstraction;  feeling  is  an  abstraction,  and  form  is,  to  us, 
the  most  important  abstraction. 

The  following  has  been  given  to  me  by  our  fellow 
member,  Mr.  Alexander  S.  Bradley,  as  Herbert  Spencer's 
theory  of  the  basis  of  ethics:  "'All  conduct  conceived  of 
as  good  is  such  as  must  necessarily  tend  to  happiness. 
You  cannot  imagine  any  conduct  conceived  as  good 
which  would  tend  to  unhappiness.  That  is  the  ultimate 
standard  of  right  and  wrong,  what  conduces  to  the 
happiness  of  the  human  race  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
word.'1  Upon  my  remark:  '-Then  the  good  conduct 
of  an  individual  may  result  in  unhappiness  to  himself 
individually?"  Mr.  Bradley  continued:  "Proximate 
pleasures  and  pains  are  to  lie  disregarded  in  considera- 
tion of  remote  results,  in  the  same  way  as  we  take  disa- 
greeable medicine  or  have  a  leg  amputated  because  we 
anticipate  a   greater  amount  of   happiness  as  the  result.'' 

1  answered  him:  -'I  will  illustrate  my  idea  of 
what  is  good  by  an  example  from  the  animal  kingdom. 
A  favorite  dog  of  mine  attacked  a  hen  with  a  brood  of 
chickens.      The  hen,  although  bv  far  the  weaker  animal, 


*  I  have  this  from  my  venerable  friend.  Profess..]-  K..  Th.  Bayrhoffer 


re-attacked  the  assailant  and  pursued  it,  risking  even 
death  or  long  misery  from  wounds  as  a  consequence  of 
her  action,  and  bravely  drove  oil"  the  enemy.  This  act 
of  the  hen  to  protect  her  young,  regardless  of  her  own 
safety,  we  all,  1  think,  call  good." 

Mr.  Bradley  replied:  "I  think  your  example  dors 
not  conflict  with  the  \  icw  of  Spencer.  The  happiness 
that  all  beings  feel  in  the  love  to  their  offspring  has 
become  a  permanent  quality  of  animal  nature  by  inher- 
itance ami  development.  Acts  conducive  to  the  happi- 
ness of  the  offspring  are  acts  conducive  to  the  happiness 
of  the  parent.  These  acts  are  undertaken  instinctively, 
impulsively,  without  thought  of  consequences,  but  they 
are  more  or  less  the  acts  tending  to  the  happiness  of  indi- 
viduals. The  fear  of  proximate  pain  from  the  dog  was 
overmastered  by  the  impulse  for  acts  conducive  to  the 
happiness  of  the  hen   tribe." 

I  said:  "  I  think  it  is  only  the  impulse  of  self-preser- 
vation— the   hen  viewing   the  young  as  part  of   herself." 

Mr.  Bradley:  "Yes,  but  that  instinct  arose  in  the 
race  from  the  experience  of  individual  members  that 
such  acts  produced  a  larger  surplus  of  happiness  than 
acts  detrimental  to  self  and  offspring."  (Here  ends  the 
dialogue.) 

My  opinion  is  that  the  self-sacrificing  moral  sense  of 
the  human  mother  for  the  protection  of  her  child,  as 
that  of  the  hen  for  the  protection  of  her  chickens,  is 
evolved  by  what  Darwin  calls  "the  survival  of  the 
fittest." 

At  first,  in  the  hen  tribe,  an  attack  of  a  dog  on  the 
chickens  would  cause  pain  to  the  hen,  and  as  a  simple 
reflex  action  she  woidd  bite  back,  the  same  as  she 
would  if  personally  attacked.  The  idea  of  attachment 
to  the  chickens  (which  is  a  living  organism  in  the 
brain)  and  simultaneous  therewith  that  of  her  fighting 
talent  (also  such  an  organism)  began  to  form,  or  if  they 
already  existed  separately  they  combined.  Their  com- 
bination (in  the  white  nerve-fibers)  began  to  get  stronger 
and  a  moral  sense  was  formed,  perhaps  with  certain 
members  of  the  hen  tribe  in  a  higher  degree  than  with 
others.  As  the  hen  tribe  grew  numerically  stronger  and 
the  attacks  of  dogs  were  often  repeated,  such  hens  and 
their  offspring  survived  in  whom  the  above-mentioned 
organisms  of  ideas  and  their  combination  were  most 
evolved.  This  process  continued.  In  each  hen  the  above- 
mentioned  organisms  of  love  and  fighting  talent  and  their 
combination  was  stimulated  to  growth  bv  their  use,  so 
that  they  generally  became  stronger  than  the  living  organ- 
isms of  the  idea  of  fear.  Moral  sense  became  prominent 
in  the  society  of  idea-organisms.  It  preserved  the  tribe; 
and  because  of  its  power  of  preservation  we  call  it 
"  good." 

Mr.  Bradley  has  quoted  Mr.  Spencer  as  saying: 
"You  cannot  imagine  any  conduct  conceived  as  good 
which  would  tend  to   unhappiness."      My  idea   ut'   this   | 


20 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


will  convey  in  an  example.  I  think  a  physician  may 
frequently  be  in  the  position  of  treating  a  critical  patient 
so,  that  he  will  suffer  pain  up  to  his  death  for  the  pur- 
pose of  attempting  to  save  his  life.  Such  life  thereafter 
probably  has  an  equal  measure  of  happiness  and  unhap- 
piness,  so  that  the  idea  in  saving  it  must  be  that  ordinary 
human  life  itself  is  a  great  boon. 

In  revising  this  paper  I  introduce  from  Herbert 
Spencer's  Data  of  Ethics  the  following: 

"  Among  the  best  examples  of  absolutely  right 
actions  to  be  named,  are  those  arising  where  the  nature 
and  the  requirements  have  been  molded  to  one  another 
before  social  Evolution  began.  Consider  the  relation  of 
a  healthy  mother  to  a  healthy  infant.  Between  the 
two  there  exists  a  mutual  dependence  which  is  a  source 
of  pleasure  to  both.  In  yielding  its  natural  food  to  the 
child,  the  mother  receives  gratification,  and  to  the  child 
there  comes  the  satisfaction  of  appetite — a  satisfaction 
which  accompanies  furtherance  of  life,  growth,  and 
increasing  enjoyment.  Let  the  relation  be  suspended, 
and  on  both  sides  there  is  suffering.  The  mother 
experiences  both  bodily  pain  and  mental  pain;  and  the 
painful  sensation  borne  by  the  child,  brings  as  its  results 
physical  mischief  and  some  damage  to  the  emotional 
nature.  Thus  the  act  is  one  that  is  to  both  exclusively 
pleasurable,  while  abstention  entails  pain  on  both; 
and  it  is  consequently  of  the  kind  we  here  call  abso- 
lutely right." 

Is  not  here  the  preservation  of  the  human  race, 
depending  on  such  act,  fundamental  to  the  pleasure 
sensation? 

In  the  education  of  children  by  their  parents,  which 
will  be  generally  recognized  as  a  moral  proceeding,  the 
society  of  ideas  of  the  parents  in  respect  to  the  later  life 
of  the  child  (which  ideas  are  living  organisms  in  their 
brains),  are  by  their  activity  stimulated  to  growth,  which 
growth  is  accompanied  by  pleasure  sensations  to  them. 

Experience  of  the  parents  in  education  will  result  in 
the  formation  of  additional  ideas,  which  will  intimately 
unite  with  the  society  of  ideas  already  in  their  brains. 
This  also  will  bring  with  it,  growth  to  the  idea-organisms. 

The  sensations  of  pleasure,  of  these  idea-organisms 
are  the  pleasure  in  education;  and  as  education  is  "good," 
are  the  pleasure  in  the  "good."  The  action  of  this 
society  of  ideas  ensures  the  preservation  and  the  mental 
and  physical  advance  of  the  family. 

As  by  experience  growing  life  is  accompanied  by 
pleasure  sensations,  that  of  civilized  man  (in  his  last 
evolved  part,  his  brain)  more  so  than  that  of  the  sav- 
age, and  still  more  so  than  that  of  the  animal;  the 
thought  of  the  further  evolution  of  its  form  and  its  long 
continuance  causes  pleasure  in  us,  that  is,  awakens  in 
our  brain  the  memories  of  pleasures  actually  experi- 
enced. 


When  deeming  it  the  greatest  good  we  can  do  for 
ourselves  to  work  for  immortality,  which  work  is  a 
pleasure  in  itself,  we  think  of  the  pleasures  (the  rewards) 
it  will  bring  us  in  the  future,  only  as  as  a  second  thought. 
If  we  think  of  such  pleasures  however,  we  may  think 
of  them  as  further  evolved  from  those  we  feel. 

A  verse  of  a  hymn  (sung  to  a  beautiful  melody)  to  me 
and  two  comrades,  about  the  age'of  fifteen,  and  which 
has  been  strongly  refreshed  in  my  memory,  while  study- 
ing this  thought,  describes  them  best.     The  verse  is: 

Was  noch  kein  Ange  sah, 

Was  noch  kein  Ohr  vernahm, 

Was  je  hienieden 

Kein  Menschenherz  empfand: 

Das  hat  Gott  denen 

Mit  Iluld  beschieden, 

Die  bis  ans  Ende 

Getren  ihn  lieben. 

This  course  of  thought  has  led  us  to  the  conviction 
that  we  cannot  reach  the  basis  of  ethics  without  taking 
immortality  into  consideration.  Examining  Mr.  Spen- 
cer's standpoint,  that  there  must  be  a  surplus  of  pleasure 
over  pain  to  make  life  desirable,  in  the  view,  that  ordin- 
ary healthy  growing  life  is  a  pleasure  in  itself,  we  are 
also  led  to  the  thought,  that  the  long  lasting  continuance 
of  the  most  evolved  form  of  human  life,  that  is,  immor- 
tality, is  the  important  question  in  determining  what  is 
good  for  man. 

If  good  be  happiness  only,  then  the  higher  degree, 
the  more  evolved  form  of  happiness,  is  a  greater  good. 
But  as  all  happiness  has  the  factor  of  time  as  an  essen- 
tial element,  its  duration  must  be  considered  in  determin- 
ing its  value.  This  consideration  alone  brings  us  to 
immortality,  so  that,  whether  we  adhere  to  the  happi- 
ness theory,  or  to  the  existence  theory  (meaning  preser- 
vation and  growth),  if  we  will  do  good,  do  our  duty, 
we  must  endeavor  to  learn  about  immortality  all  we 
possibly  can.  If  some  people  are  indifferent  about 
this  idea  as  far  as  they  are  personally  concerned,  they 
still  should  be  concerned  about  it  for  the  sake  of  their 
children  and  other  relatives  and  friends,  yes,  and  their 
people. 

We  owe  this  equally  to  our  ancestors,  going  back  to 
the  first  we  can  trace — those  who  lived  millions  of  years 
before  us.  If  we  are  here  to-day,  we  owe  it  to  our 
ancestors'  long  and  successful  work  and  struggle — to  the 
always  repeated  self-sacrifice  of  mothers  for  their 
offspring.  We  owe  it  to  them  especially,  to  do  our 
utmost,  to  preserve  the  greatest  result  of  their  work  and 
struggle  and  suffering,  the  greatest  result  of  evolution, 
namely,  the  human  sou!,  and  to  help  its  further  growth. 

Think  of  the  relation  of  a  man  to  his  own  chil- 
dren, lie  can  so  educate  them  and  provide  for  them 
that  they  may  have  as  large  a  surplus  of  happiness  in 
life  as  possible.  This  surplus  may  be  reached  at  the 
expense  of  the  duration  of  existence  of  his  children  or 
their  offspring. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


21 


If  I  imagine  a  given  territory  occupied  by  two  socie- 
ties of  equal  strength  in  daily  intercourse  and  inter- 
mingled with  each  other — one  society  believing  that  the 
surplus  of  happiness  in  life  is  the  good,  and  the  other 
that  existence  is  the  fundamental  good — I  feel  certain 
that  m  the  competition  for  existence,  which  is  unavoida- 
ble, the  former  will  gradually  disappear  from  the  scene, 
anil  the  latter  will  eventually  occupy  the  whole  territory 
alone. 

So  I  deem  it  of  the  greatest  importance  that  we 
have  as  the  leading  member  of  the  society  of  ideas, 
which  is  our  soul, — as  our  conscience  or  leading  inner 
voice  (what  it  really  is),  this: 

Preserve  and  evolve  the  human  form  of  life,  above 
all  the  human  soul,  regardless  of  pleasure  or  pain. 

I  think  we  all  admit  that  so  far  the  basis  of  ethics  or 
the  good  has  been  a  vague  generalization  of  all  generally 
accepted  special  cases  of  good.  This  offers  an  analogy  to 
the  "  composite  photograph "  that  Mr.  Galton  pro- 
duces from  many  photographs,  assumed  to  have  some- 
thing in  common. 

What  we  now  call  good,  besides  preservation,  is  that 
which  we  observe  in  nature  and  call  evolution.  To 
make  a  further  definition,  it  is  that  process  in  nature,  by 
which  on  our  globe,  from  simple  organisms,  the  plant, 
the  animal,  the  savage  man,  the  civilized  man  have  been 
gradually  developed,  which  process  is  now  continuing, 
evolving  the  man  of  the  future.* 

Especially  good  I  deem  to  be  the  evolution  of  form, 
through  which  thereafter,  the  same  labor  will  produce  a 
greater  evolution  than  it  did  before. y 

The  process  of  evolution  is  an  inherent,  self-acting 
process.  The  continuance  of  evolution  on  our  globe  is 
the  widest  generalization  of  "good,"  at  present,  possible. 
So  far  we  cannot  do  anything  beyond  our  planet.  Sci- 
ence gives  us  the  conviction,  however,  that  evolution  is 
taking  place  throughout  the  universe — that  God  and  the 
universe  are  one — are  the  continuous  ALL  of  which 
man  is  a  limited  part  and  phenomenon. 

When  thinking  of  what  is  good  or  bad  for  man,  of 
whom  do  we  think?  Honestly  speaking,  perhaps  first 
of  ourselves  and,  in  this  connection,  not  of  our  bodily 
but  of  our  spiritual  welfare.  Though  probably,  in  the 
first  place,  of  our  welfare  in  this  life,  still  I  am  sure  that 
nearly  all  of  us  are  thinking  in  a  vague  manner  of  some 
kind  of  immortality,  some  kind  of  existence  after  death, 
as  the  thought  naturally  suggests  itself  that  what  is 
good  in  our  present  life  will  also  be  good  for  the  future. 
I  wish  to  lay  great  stress  upon  what  I  say  here :  This 
thought  of  a  life  after  death  is  the  most  important 
feature    of  the  "what  is  good  for  ourselves  and   those 


*  This  is  substantially  Herbert  Spencer's  definition  of  evolution. 
f  Prof.  Ernst  Much  points  out  that  the  nature  of  science  is  labor-saving  in 
thinking. 


who  are  dear  to  us"  (even  if  we  look  upon  immortality 
as  a  possibility  only,  not  a  probability)  when  we  take 
the  relative  length  of  time  of  this  life  and  that  of  the 
beyond  into  consideration. 

What,  then,  is  good  for  the  beyond?  I  answer,  what- 
ever will  make  the  beyond  more  certain  to  us  and  what 
will  make  us  greater  in  the  beyond.  That  is  the  real 
basis  of  ethics.  I  hear  the  protest :  "  But  we  do  not  and 
cannot  know  anything  of  the  beyond."  To  this  I  must 
answer:  That  is  an  error;  we  can.  Let  us  look  first  to 
a  most  simple  living  individual  being,  the  amoeba.  It 
is  a  lump  of  protoplasm,  which  absorbs  food  and  grows, 
then  divides  in  two  and  makes  two  beings,  like  the 
parent  being,  only  smaller  at  first;  the  latter  absorb 
food,  grow  and  divide  again.  There  is  no  natural 
death  among  the  amoeba.  Death  can  only  result  from 
want  of  food  or  forcible  destruction.  Immortality  is  the 
natural  state. 

And  now  let  us  look  to  man.  Physiology  shows  us 
that  our  children  are  the  continuance  of  our  bodily  exist- 
ence, not  of  what  we  are  to-day,  but  of  what  we  were 
near  the  time  they  were  born.  Of  what  we  were  at 
that  time,  they  are  the  continued  existence,  as  much,  if 
not  more  so,  than  we  ourselves  are  to-day.  The  living, 
feeling  so-called  matter,  which  then  lived  and  felt  and 
thought  in  our  form,  has  been  replaced  hy  other  matter 
again  and  again.  The  form  only  is  what  has  continued 
in  us.  In  our  children  the  form  gradually  developed;  in 
us  it  commenced  to  decline. 

A  deeper  insight  into  the  nature  of  the  soul  is  fur- 
nished by  modern  psychology;  an  erroneous  conception 
of  its  individuality  is  destroyed,  but  its  immortality 
is  given  back  to  us.  The  souls  of  posterity,  it  is 
shown,  will  be  the  further  evolved  souls  of  men  of 
t.o-day — that  is,  the  totality  of  the  souls  of  the  human 
beings  of  the  future  is  evolved  from  the  souls  of  the 
human  beings  of  this  day.  Modern  psychology  has 
been  called  a  psychology  without  a  soul.  This  is  a  great 
error.  Nothing  but  the  bad,  egoistical  part  of  the  soul- 
conception  has  been  removed — that  is,  the  permanent 
barrier  between  our  soul  and  that  of  our  fellow  beings 
and  also  the  permanent  barrier  between  each  of  us  and 
the  great  continuous  ALL ;  the  conviction  is  settled  that 
we  are  but  temporarily  individualized  parts  thereof. 

I  have  expressed,  before,  to  the  society  my  view,  that 
it  is  a  duty  to  hold  firm  to  the  conviction,  that  we  can 
understand  the  nature  of  ethics.  I  will  here  quote  from 
Goethe:  "Man  must  hold  firm  to  the  belief  that  what 
appears  incomprehensible  to  him  is  comprehensible, 
since  otherwise  he  will  not  investigate."  I  will  now  say 
that  I  deem  it  of  the  utmost  importance  for  us  all,  to 
convince  ourselves,  that  the  future  of  our  souls,  their 
preservation  and  evolution,  lies  in  our  posterity*;  that 


*To  impress  this  idea  has  been  Gustav  Freitag's  life  work. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


is,  however,  only  if  we  are  good.  Decline  and  annihi- 
lation, sooner  or  later,  are  the  nature  of  the  bad. 

Preservation  and  evolution,  then  —  that  is  immor- 
tality—  of  our  soul,  that  is  the  true  basis  of  ethics. 
What  we  value  in  us  as  our  soul,  what  places  us 
above  the  savage,  is  form.  Gradually  there  has  been 
evolved  from  the  rude  soul  of  our  distant  ancestors  our 
soul  of  to-da) — our  present  civilization — and  we  hope  it 
will  further  evolve  in  our  posterity. 

Matter  is  indestructible,  energy  is  indestructible,  life 
is  indestructible,  though  it  can,  apparently,  be  put  to 
long  rest,  while  form  can  be  destroyed;  but  there  is  also 
no  limit  to  its  possible  evolution.  The  capacity  to  evolve 
form  again  is  indestructible,  but  to  evolve  the  form  of 
life  which  we  name  the  human  soul,  that  is  the  work 
and  struggle  of  millions  of  years. 


DISCUSSION   OF   MR.   HEGELERS   ESSAY. 

A   stenographic   report  of  the  discussion  which  fol- 
lowed the  reading  of  Mr.  Hegeler's  essay  is  given  below: 

Remarks  by  Mr.Prussing: 

In   the  views  which  Mr.  Hegeler  lias  expressed   of  matter  and 
form   in   general,   I   helieve  I  coincide,  if  I  have  correctly  under- 
stood  his  meaning.     As   he   wished   to  give   the  hasis    of  ethics, 
in  accordance  with  his  views  of  the  existing  world  (and,  of  course, 
we  can  only  speak  of  ethics  if  we  limit  our  province  to  our  earth). 
I  understood  him  to  say  that  the  basis  of  our  ethics  is  the  growth 
and   preservation  of  the   soul  of  mankind — perhaps  I  do   not  use 
his   very   words — preservation   and   development   of  the    soul    of 
mankind.      He  calls    that  immortality   of  the   soul.     It   may    be 
granted   that  there  is  a   reason  for  using  that  expression,  just  as 
well  as  any  similar  one,  as  long  as  we  mean  by  it  that  the  soul 
of  mankind,  what  he  in  another  term  expresses  to  be  our  civiliza- 
tion, has  the  nature  of  the  immortal,  as  it  will  exist  as  long  as  man- 
kind will  itself  exist;  provided  that  it  cannot  go  beyond  the  exist- 
ence of  mankind  in  its  abode  on  this  globe.     If  this  is  the  sense 
of  his  meaning,  I  coincide  with  him  fully.     I  believe  that  actually 
our  faith  and  our  belief  that  mankind  will  exist  forever,  as  far  as 
we  are  concerned   or  our  children,   is  a  great  spur  for  our  action. 
Xobodv  who  is  kind  at  heart  can  do  without  this  spur.    And  as  this 
has  been    the  experience  with  all  nations  that  have  tried   to  step 
forward  in  the  course  of  civilization,  it  has  formed  itself  into  the 
belief  or  creed  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.     If  this  belief  has. 
in  religions,  taken   a  different  form  from  that  which  Mr.   Hegeler 
has  depicted  to   us,  it  was  perhaps  what  we  would  call   supersti- 
tion; and  we  have  had  to  struggle  hard  with  the  consequences  of 
such  superstition  ;  perhaps,  for  that  reason,  it  may  be  advisable  at 
present  to  use  different  terms  for  this  idea.   If  you  speak  to  a  Chris- 
tian or  to  a  Mohammedan  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  he  will 
mean  the  immortality  of  his  own  personal  inward  being,  his  soul, 
that  of  the  individual.     He  will  connect  with  that  idea  an  eternal 
life  somewhere  else,  in  heaven  we  will  say,  not  on  this  earth.     As 
this  belief,  a-    I    have  said   before,    has  caused  great  harm  to  the 
world,    to   mankind  on  earth,  I   mean — sometimes  it  has   called 
forth  good  actions,  but   I   believe  the  balance  is  loaded  down  by 
the  great  woe  it  has  given   rise   to   in   this  world — as  this  belief, 
I  say,  has  brought  more  evil  into  this  world  than  good,  we  should 
be  very  careful  in  using  such  terms    Immortality  of  the  soul,  in  the 
sense  which  Mr   Hegeler  has  used  it,  means  nothing  more  than 


'•  the  good  of  mankind  as  long  as  it  may  exist  on  this  globe."  With 
the  destruction  of  mankind  there  can  be  no  immortality  of  the 
soul  any  more,  and,  therefore,  translated  into  plain  English  so 
that  everybody  can  understand  it,  it  means :  We  must  work,  if  we 
want  to  act  ethically,  for  the  good  of  mankind,  for  those  that  live 
with  and  come  after  us.  Of  course  we  cannot  benefit  those  that 
have  gone  before  us,  those  that  are  dead.  They  have  benefited 
us,  and  all  we  can  do  regarding  them  is  to  honor  ourselves 
by  revering  them  in  a  grateful  mind. 

Now,  the  question  is  whether  we  can  reconcile  this  idea  of  an 
ethical  basis  with  the  views  that  Mr.  Hegeler  has  given  us  of  the 
work  of  nature.  If  I  understand  him  correctly,  he  says  preserva- 
tion and  growth,  or  development,  is  in  itself  "  the  good  "  for  the 
world,  and  whatever  is  good  for  the  world  is  the  basis  of  ethics. 

I  cannot  concede  that.  I  have  found  cases  of  development  in 
the  world  which  have  not  served  the  good  of  mankind.  Devel- 
opment is  not  always  a  right  development.  Mere  growth  is  not 
always  growth  in  a  right  direction.  Mr.  Hegeler  says  the  fittest 
will  survive.  Yes,  so  they  will,  but  the  fittest  for  survival  are  not 
always  the  good,  are  not  always  the  best.  I  do  not  take  it  that 
mere  force,  mere  strength,  which  is  actually  the  cause  of  surviv- 
ing, must  naturally  be  good,  ethical,  virtuous.  I  have  a  different 
basis  for  my  ethics,  although  I  say  that  development  is  a  part  of 
that  basis,  but  not  all  of  it.  I  consider  development  the  means 
for  the  attainment  of  the  real  end  or  intention  (if  I  can  use  that 
expression,  although  it  is,  perhaps,  not  well  chosen) ;  but  let  us  say 
for  the  present  that  it  is  the  intention  of  mankind  to  develop.  I 
know  that  development  gives  pleasure  and  that  it  generally  con- 
duces to  the  well-being  of  mankind;  but  not  every  development,  not 
development  in  every  direction,  leads  to  that  end.  Suppose  that 
you  want  to  acquire  the  properties  of  beauty:  You  will  do  it  by 
developing  your  body  in  such  forms  as  will  be  considered  by  the 
majority  of  the  opposite  sex,  or  by  your  own  sex,  or  your  tribe,  as 
beautiful ;  gvmnastics  are  a  means  for  it,  dancing  another,  etc. 
Instead  of  developing  his  body  now  in  a  harmonious  way,  suppose 
some  man  goes  on  to  develop  it  until  he  converts  himself  into  an 
athlete.  He  will  be  highly  developed,  but  the  beauty  will  be 
gone.  He  may  astonish  you,  he  may  frighten  you.  He  may 
enact  tool-hardy  things  which  will  be  called  almost  barbarous. 
He  is  so  highly  developed  that  it  overreaches  all  beauty.  Is  the 
development  in  this  case  actually  of  great  value?  I  can  find  no 
other  basis  of  ethics  than  this :  Good  is  that  ■which  tends  to  the 
best  interests  of  mankind,  -.hat  -.ill  make  mankind  the  happier 
in  th,'  very  best  sense  of  the  word.  Do  not  take  it  to  mean  that 
every  individual  must  be  happy.  On  the  contrary,  a  man  may 
sacrifice  his  personal  happiness,  yea,  even  his  life,  in  order  to  enjoy 
that  happiness  which  makes  him  an  ethical  person;  but  if  he  does 
it,  if  he  sacrifices  his  life  for  the  good  of  society,  for  the  good  of 
mankind,  all  other  considerations  conducing  to  his  own  happiness 
are  of  trifling  worth  to  him.  The  idea  that  he  does  act  for  the  good 
of  mankind,  for  posterity  or  for  the  present,  for  mankind  in  gen- 
eral, elevates  him  above  all  merely  personal  considerations.  This 
is  his  principle;  to  act  it  out,  his  highest  happiness,  his  dignity, 
his  honor,  the  worthiest  object  of  his  life.  I  base  my  ethics  on 
this  idea  that  we  must,  under  all  circumstances,  seek  the  best 
interests  of  mankind,  irrespective  of  our  personal  happiness,  and 
that  the  means  to  that  end  are  development  of  body  and  soul, 
continuous  growth,  in  short,  what  we  call  education.  The  edu- 
cation, then,  of  our  children  should  be  such  as  to  teach  them  what 
is  good  for  mankind;  that  those  measures  which  we  should 
employ,  in  order  to  lead  an  ethical  life,  are  what  we  style  virtues. 
They  are  not  the  end  of  our  acting.  They  are  the  means  employed 
by  us  in  the  same  way  as  the  architect  or  the  builder  will  employ 
his  square  to  lay  it  to  the  column  with  which  he  wants  to  support 
the  building  Just  in  the  same  way  we  should  act  squarely,  we 
should  act  right  and  true,  because  it  is  the  means  of  producing 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


23 


the  greatest  happiness  of  all  mankind.  As  long  as  we  have  that 
view  and  keep  it  in  our  mind,  we  will. never  act  wrongly.  As 
soon  as  we  leave  that  out  of  our  consideration,  we  will  be  apt  to 
act  in  our  own  personal  interest.  We  would  probably  act  selfishly 
instead  of  for  the  general  good.  So,  then,  what  we  call  right  is 
the  employment  of  such  means  as  will  be  approved  and  com- 
mended by  every  reasonable  being;  but  the  end  and  object  of  our 
acting  is  and  always  should  be:  The  greatest  happiness  of  man- 
kind in  general. 

Remarks  by  Mr.  Stern: 

I  find  it  at  all  times  exceedingly  difficult  for  me,  as  a  layman, 
and  I  apprehend  it  is  the  feeling  of  the  majority,  not  only  to  dis- 
cuss but  to  picture  to  my  mind  such  abstractions  as  those 
to  which  the  essayist  of  the  evening  has  been  treating  us. 
Like  the  inexperienced  swimmer  on  the  shore,  I  try  to  cling 
to  a  life-line  to  avoid  getting  into  deep  water. 

Now,  we  will  all  admit  that  the  basis  of  ethics,  the  true  basis 
of  ethics,  is  the  seeking  and  furthering  of  the  good.  Of  course  the 
question  comes  in  what  is  good?  Good  is  not  an  absolute  thing. 
It  is  relative.  Then  it  is  the  best  we  know.  The  essayist  of  the 
evening  has  given  us  one  of  the  starting  points  by  which  to  judge 
of  the  good,  experience.  Survival  is  the  result  of  the  experience 
of  the  past  and  the  general  tenor  of  the  essayist's  remarks 
tended  that  way.  I  admit  the  efficacy  of  that,  but  the  potent 
force  in  the  advancement  of  ethical  good  is  the  imagination,  with- 
out which  there  is  no  ethical  progress.  Without  the  imagination 
there  is  no  true  ethics.  I  think  that  the  essayist  appreciates  and 
knows  it,  but  he  did  not  touch  upon  it.  That  is  the  life-line,  and 
the  only  one  that  I  know  of,  that  will  keep  us  safe  in  any  of  these 
abstract  subjects.  It  is  only  by  projecting  ourselves  by  aid  of  the 
imagination  into  an  advanced  moral  state  that  we  can  gradually 
bring  ourselves  and  humanity  up  to  it.  I  see  no  other  way. 
Experience  alone  teaches  us  only  of  the  past.  It  is  imagination 
which  represents  progress  in  ethics.  The  form  of  immortality  of 
the  soul  that  was  shown  to  us  here  is  a  sort  of  sublimated  panthe- 
ism. I  recognize  in  it  nothing  else.  How  can  we  imagine  such 
a  state;  how  can  we  picture  to  ourselves  such  a  state  by  the  mere 
nhotogram  that  has  been  imprinted  upon  our  minds  from  actual 
experience?.  By  imagination  we  are  projected  beyond  ourselves 
into  that  which  might  be  and  which  we  can  attempt  to  follow. 
Taken  in  that  view,  I  think  that  the  constant  search  for  the  right, 
for  that  which  is  good,  which  tends  to  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
and  the  bettering  of  our  conditions,  is  true  ethical  progress. 
Upon  all  other  matters  I  think  the  essayist  has  only  done  justice 
to  his  subject.  I  mean  this  not  as  a  criticism,  but  simply  to  sup- 
plement a  point  that  I  think  the  gentleman  did  not  fully  explain, 
and  one  which  assists  me  at  all  events  in  forming  a  connecting 
link  between  his  various  ideas  and  give  them,  to  my  mind,  an 
appreciable  life  and  intensity. 

Remarks  by  B.  F.  Underwood: 

My  calling  here  this  evening  was  accidental  and  your  kind 
invitation  extended  to  me  to  participate  in  this  interesting  discus- 
sion, although  highly  appreciated,  is  quite  unexpected;  and  the 
few  remarks  I  can  now  make  will  add  nothing  to  the  value  of  the 
discussion.  The  essayist,  and  the  speakers  who  have  followed 
him.  have  spoken  best,  I  think,  in  what  they  have  affirmed.  Mr. 
Hegeler's  statement  of  his  own  position  was  stronger  and  more 
satisfactory  than  his  criticism  of  Spencer's  ethics,  the  main  truth 
of  which  is  that  the  ultimate  test  of  morality  is  happiness.  An 
act  is  right  or  wrong,  as  it  benefits  or  injures  mankind,  as  it 
augments  or  diminishes  the  sum  total  of  human  happiness.  If 
the  transcendentalist  speaks  of  the  "categorical  imperative,"  and 
declares  that  "  I  ought,"  is  more  authoritative  than  any  consid- 
erations of  utility ;  still,  in  order  to  know  what  we  ought  to  do, 
we  have  to  go  to  experience  and  learn  what  has  been  promotive 


of  happiness.  The  whole  history  of  civilization,  from  the  dawn 
to  the  present  time,  is  a  record  of  experiences  which  have  edu- 
cated us  into  our  present  moral  conceptions  and  emotions. 

If  you  say  that  a  moral  act  often  involves  suffering  to  the 
individual  who  performs  it,  the  reply  is  that  society  is  an  organism, 
so  to  speak,  of  which  individuals  are  but  so  manv  units,  and  since 
the  well  being,  and  even  the  existence,  of  the  individual  members 
depend  upon  the  existence  and  security  of  the  collective  body,  its 
interests  become  of  primary  importance  and  must  be  guarded, 
even  though  individual  members  suffer.  Whatever,  therefore,  pro- 
motes the  highest  social  interests  is  pronounced  right.  This  is 
public  utility,  the  general  good. 

But  we  do  not  always  stop  to  consider  a  vast  train  of  circum- 
stances that  must  follow  a  given  act.  A  large  part  of  our  moral 
life  is  lived  without  calculation,  without  deliberation.  We  have 
in  us  the  organized  experience  of  countless  generations  who  pre- 
ceded us,  and  who,  having  through  ages  acted  in  accordance  with 
moral  rules  and  principles,  slowly  learned  by  experience,  have 
transmitted  to  civilized  men  of  to-day  the  results,  as  a  legacy,  in 
the  form  of  moral  intuition.  The  moral  sense,  as  it  is  called, 
thus  evolved  from  the  multiplied  experience  of  men,  has  become 
a  part  of  our  mental  constitution  and  may  be  as  sensitive  to  a 
moral  bruise  as  tactile  sense  is  to  the  prick  of  a  pin.  The 
lowest  creatures  have  no  sight,  no  hearing,  no  taste.  Their 
whole  structure  serves  the  general  purpose  of  performing,  with- 
out division  of  labor,  the  simple  functions  of  life.  Slowly  life,  as 
it  is  developed,  differentiates  into  several  senses, —  taste,  hearing, 
seeing,  etc.,  with  corresponding  organs.  Similarly  there  has  been 
evolved  out  of  experiences  of  men  who  originally  could  have 
made  no  ethical  distinctions,  the  lofty  moral  conceptions  of  to-day. 
The  race  has  learned  by  experience  courses  of  conduct  which  are 
promotive  of  its  well-being  and,  at  the  same  time,  it  has  acquired 
a  moral  sense,  which  intuitively'  responds  to  the  distinctions 
which  we  have  learned  to  make.  This  is  Spencer's  position 
briefly,  and  of  course  very  imperfectly,  stated. 

Remarks  by  Mr.  Zimmerman: 

This  subject  is  one  that  seems  ever  to  be  young  and  ever  to  be 
fresh  and  promises  never  to  be  settled.  As  many  different  indi- 
viduals as  there  are,  as  many  different  opinions  of  what  is  right 
and  what  is  wrong.  What  is  right  and  what  is  wrong?  What 
is  good  and  what  is  bad?  Those  four  words  comprise  the  whole 
foundation  of  ethics;  but,  as  has  been  remarked  by  all  the  speak- 
ers, I  think,  preceding,  right  and  wrong  are  relative  things,  not 
absolute.  Suppose  that  you  transplanted  an  Ethiopian  from  the 
deserts  of  Africa  into  our  city  and  gave  him  full  swing,  present- 
ing him  with  some  of  our  fine  buildings,  and  tell  him  that  he  will 
be  much  happier  here  than  in  the  desert,  running  about  without 
any  clothing,  without  any  decent  food,  without  any  of  the  other 
luxuries  that  we  have,  would  he  be  happy?  There  would  not  be  a 
thing  that  he  could  enjoy  of  these  luxuries  that  you  have  and 
enjoy  so  abundantly.  That  which  he  was  brought  up  to  he  would 
much  rather  have  than  what  you  have  got.  So  with  right 
and  wrong.  Where  do  they  originate?  That  is  the  vital  question. 
My  answer  is  with  the  beginning  of  life  right  and  wrong  originate. 
The  amceba  which  Mr.  Hegeler  referred  to,  one  of  the  lowest 
forms  of  animal  life,  is  nothing  more  or  less  apparently  than  a  mass 
of  gelatine  or  some  substance  like  that;  it  breaks  in  two  and  the 
two  creatures,  the  parent  and  its  offspring,  turn  and  attempt  to 
devour  each  other.  You  look  on  with  your  natural  sympathies; 
you  see  them  struggling,  contending  one  against  the  other,  one 
to  overcome  the  other.  Now,  when  you  look  at  that  you  say 
there  is  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong  developed  there  and  you  cannot 
avoid  a  feeling  that  there  is  something  going  on  which  is  the  germ 
of  right  and  wrong.  The  one  that  is  devouring  the  other  feels 
that  it  is   doing  right;  the  other  that  it  is  being  wronged   and, 


^4 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


therefore,  the  sense  of  right  and  wrong  begins  there.  You  feel 
this  same  idea  up  to  the  highest  development  of  animal  life,  but 
it  is  the  same  thing.  All  life  is  a  contention,  a  fight,  a  struggle. 
The  inferior  must  ever  give  way  to  the  superior.  The  one  that  has 
to  give  wav  is  always  the  one  that  is  wronged.  The  one  that  is 
successful  does  not  see  it  in  that  light  at  all.  Right  and  wrong 
are  relative,  not  absolute,  things.  So,  therefore,  what  is  good  and 
bad,  in  the  same  way,  is  relative,  not  absolute.  What  is  good  to 
one  is  bad  to  the  other  invariably. 

As  our  time  is  so  limited,  I  have  brought  a  number  of  notes, 
but  I  will  only  read  you  one,  which  expresses  my  ideas  very 
closely.  It  is  from  a  law  book  on  criminal  law,  from  a  class  of 
lawver:-,  who  are  regarded  perhaps  with  a  little  aversion  by  ethical 
people;  but  this  is  the  expression  which  the  author  substan- 
tiallv  gives.     I  have  modified  and  abbreviated  it  somewhat. 

"  In  all  nations  and  countries  the  highway  of  human  progress 
is  paved  with  the  bones  of  its  weaklings,  which  are  cemented 
together  with  their  blood.  The  strong  tread  down  and  trample 
out  the  feeble  and,  by  ending  them,  diminish  the  average  weak- 
ness of  the  race,  while  the  survivors  from  this  ever-raging  con- 
flict are  those  who  are  strongest  and  who  are  thus  strengthened 
in  both  body  and  mind  can  transmit  their  acquired  vigor  to  suc- 
ceeding generations  until  the  acquired  vigor  falls  under  opposition, 
when  a  decav  sets  in  until  the  strong  again  become  weak  and  are 
themselves  overthrown." 

This  is  virtually  a  synopsis  of  the  world.  You  saw  the 
Roman  Empire,  its  rise,  its  flourish  and  its  fall;  the  Grecian,  the 
Egvptian,  the  Peruvian,  the  Mexican,  in  fact  all  nations  of  past 
histories  have  gone  through  just  this  process  and  it  is  ever 
going  on. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 


LETTER  FROM  OUR  JERUSALEM  CORRESPONDENT 
—A   REMARKABLE  INTERVIEW. 

To  the  Editor :  Jerusalem,  January   2S,   1SS7. 

Since  midnight  of  the  7th  of  January  this  city  has,  as  you 
know,  been  the  scene  of  the  most  tumultuous  and  maniacal 
excitement,  it  is  safe  to  say,  that  has  been  known  among  human- 
kind since  in  Noah's  time  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  were 
broken  up  and  hurled  in  all-engulfing  inundation  upon  the  dis- 
tracted sons  and  daughters  of  Belial.  Immediately  preceding 
that  terrible  hour  Jerusalem  seemed  to  give  tair  promise  of 
remaining  forever  in  the  semi-unconscious  condition  which  has 
been  its  lot  during  so  many  centuries.  The  spirit  of  slumber 
seemed  to  pervade  the  place  no  less  during  sunshine  than  after 
dark.  The  motley  inhabitants  walked  through  the  narrow  and 
crooked  streets  of  the  ancient  city  as  if  they  were  the  bodies  of 
the  saints  which  once  arose  in  their  grave  clothes  and  came 
forth  from  their  sepulchers  and  appeared  to  many.  Scarcely 
even  could  it  be  said  that  in  the  market-places — where  the  sleepiest 
Jew  or  American  generally  is  aroused  into  a  semblance  of  anima- 
tion—  was  there  any  interest  manifested  in  the  things  of  this 
world.  The  contingent  of  pilgrims  that  is  always  to  be  found  in 
the  Holy  City  had  dwindled  to  a  handful  and  even  they  were  not 
of  the  enthusiastic  kind.  Jerusalem  was  in  danger  of  passing 
from  sleepiness  to  coma.  Upon  this  lethargic  city,  with  its  drowsy 
people,  suddenly  was  sprung  the  most  tremendous  seismic 
cataclysm  of  history,  accompanied  by  phenomena  which  make  it 
in  the  eyes  of  many  the  chief  event  in  the  career  of  the  globe. 
The  daily  papers  have  given  you  full  accounts  of  that  awful 
diapason  of  world-discord,  that  hideous  outburst  of  hell-music 
which  aroused  the  slumbering  city  at  the  ushering  in  of  the  7th 
of  January  and  which  awakened  a  third  of  the  children  and 
delicate  women  only   to  send  them  into  convulsions  and  speedv 


but  merciful  death.  They  have  told  you  that  when  the  par- 
alyzed survivors  succeeded  in  making  their  way  to  the  doors 
and  windows  of  their  houses  they  were  met  by  the  appalling 
spectacle  of  an  ocean  of  phosphorescent  flame  which  surrounded 
their  city  on  all  sides,  rising  in  enormous  billows  of  light 
up  and  up  till  it  reached  the  zenith  and  casting  a  brilliant 
but  unearthly  radiance  over  all  objects  in  heaven  and  on 
earth;  that  in  the  clear  space  in  the  center  of  this  well  of 
flame,  in  the  remotest  heavens  suddenly  appeared  a  figure  of 
dazzling  splendor,  begirt  with  iridescent  garments  and  wearing 
a  chaplet  of  diamonds  "  each  one  of  which  (in  the  language  of  a 
Chicago  reporter  then  stopping  at  Jaffa  and  who  came  up  to 
Jerusalem  the  next  day)  was  estimated  by  a  Jewish  diamond 
broker  to  be  worth  at  least  as  much  as  the  Koh-i-noor."  Circling 
about  in  mid-air,  and  slowly  descending,  this  figure  was  soon 
recognized  by  a  Second  Adventist  tourist  from  America  —  Abijah 
Higgins  by  name  —  who  happened  to  be  out  for  a  promenade 
along  the  Via  Dolorosa  by  moonlight,  to  be  none  other  than  the 
long-looked-for  Messiah.  Terror  had  up  to  this  moment  sealed 
the  lips  of  the  dumbfounded  populace;  but  upon  Abijah's  rushing 
frantically  through  the  streets  yelling,  -'It's  my  Lord,"  the 
word  was  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth  and  in  a  short  time  the 
most  hideous  possible  hullaballoo  and  confusion  arose.  The 
heterogeneous  character  of  the  city's  population  gave  rise  to  the 
most  various  ebullitions  of  feeling.  The  Christians  were,  of  course, 
exultant.  Although  there  were  not  many  of  them  who  had 
believed  with  any  vital  faith  in  the  doctrine  of  millenarianism, 
there  was  a  more  than  Pentecostal  conversion  among  them,  and 
they  ran  about  the  city  wildly  crying,  "  Hallelujah!  He's  come! 
He's  come!"  And  to  the  shrinking  Jew  or  incredulous  Moham- 
medan whom  they  met  would  be  addressed  the  triumphant  cry, 
"Didn't  we  tell  you  so?"  The  Jews  were  divided  in  opinion  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  phenomenon.  Some  said  it  was  Elijah  come 
again ;  others,  that  it  was  Jehovah  himself  come  to  sweep  their 
persecutors  from  the  face  of  the  earth ;  others  said  that  they  were 
sore  afraid  that  it  was  the  Christians'  God;  others  were  simply 
nonplused  and  said  they  should  wait  till  daylight  before  giving 
up  all  hope.  The  Mohammedans  were  at  first  convinced  that  the 
Prophet  had  made  his  visible  appearance  again,  in  order  to  earn- 
on  a  crusade  against  the  Giaours  who  are  pressing  the  Ottoman 
Empire  so  hard;  but  upon  observing  that  the  person  was  unac- 
companied by  female  attendants,  they  lost  hope  and  joined  their 
howls  of  despair  to  the  Jews'  wails.  The  luminous  figure  mean- 
while descended  toward  that  part  of  the  city  in  which  the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  is  located  and  when  it  was  about  a  thou- 
sand feet  from  the  earth  a  stentorian  voice  split  the  air,  seeming 
to  penetrate  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  city,  saying,  "  At  last! 
At  last!  I  am  come  to  claim  mine  own.  Tremble,  O  _ve  Gentiles! 
The  day  of  your  reckoning  is  at  hand.  I  am  he  ye  call  Jesus." 
And  the  figure  sank  gently  to  the  earth  and  disappeared  within 
the  precincts  of  the  Holy  Church. 

All  this  happened  three  weeks  ago.  Since  that  time,  what  a 
prodigious  change  has  come  over  this  once  sleepy  town !  All  the 
world  over  the  news  went  flying  that  the  Lord  had  reappeared  in 
Jerusalem  and  the  most  unparalleled  excitement  has  ensued. 
From  every  point  on  the  globe  where  the  knowledge  of  Chris- 
tianity has  penetrated  expeditions  have  been  crowding  in  upon  us. 
Asiatics,  Africans,  Europeans  and  Americans  have  swept  in  bv 
the  thousand  and  those  now  here  are  only  the  advance  guard  ot 
the  mighty  host  upon  the  way.  From  thirty  thousand  people 
within  the  walls  Jerusalem's  population  has  alreadv  swelled  to 
near  a  million,  within  and  immediately  without  the  gate6.  From 
all  over  the  world  the  telegraph  brings  accounts  of  the  organizing 
by  pastors  and  Sunday-school  superintendents  of  excursions  to 
the  Holy  Land  to  see  the  Lord,  and  the  latest  report  is  that  the 
great  transatlantic  steamship  companies  have,  at  a  special  meeting 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


2  5 


of  their  stockholders,  resolved  to  withdraw  their  vessels  from  the 
British  and  American  trade  and  carry  passengers  direct  to  the 
Holy  Land,  via  the  Mediterranean,  if  the  craze  continues.  The 
question  how  to  feed  this  great  multitude  of  strangers  is  already 
causing  some  anxiety.  Only  yesterday  there  was  a  report  that 
an  aged  Millerite  from  Maine  had  been  found  wandering  about 
the  plains  outside  the  Zion  gate  in  a  semi-demented  condition 
from  lack  of  food.  To-day  a  delegation  of  the  leading  citizens 
and  most  prominent  visitors  of  the  place  called  on  the  Lord  at  his 
temporary  headquarters  in  the  Church,  with  the  request  that  he 
take  into  consideration  the  question  of  the  physical  sustenance  of 
the  great  army  of  pilgrims.  Upon  his  saying  that  he  thought 
they  ought  to  be  able  to  manage  the  commissary  department  for 
themselves  if  he  took  charge  of  the  army  on  Held  days,  I  am 
told  the  committee  suggested  that  he  might  feed  the  multitude  as 
he  did  before  in  another  place.  I  am  told  that  his  reply  was  to 
the  effect  that  the  times  had  changed,  that  it  was  no  longer  neces- 
sary to  perform  that  kind  of  miracle,  and  that  during  his  present 
sojourn  on  earth  he  should  utilize  natural  forces  as  far  as  possible, 
making  use  of  supernatural  expedients  only  as  a  last  resort  and 
mainly  in  the  interest  of  missionary  work  among  the  infidels  and 
heathen,  which  work  would  take  up  a  large  share  of  his  time  and 
energy  during  the  next  thousand  years. 

Much  of  the  foregoing  information  has  been  communicated  to 
vou  through  the  daily  press.  But»you  will  remember  that  almost 
the  first  manifesto  which  the  Lord  issued  to  the  world  since  his 
descent — a  manifesto  promulgated  through  the  Archangel 
Michael  on  the  morning  of  the  9th  and  published  in  the  New 
York  daily  papers  of  the  10th  inst. — was  to  the  effect  that  he 
would  see  no  newspaper  men  ;  that  he  had  heard  they  always  made 
mistakes  in  reporting  conversation  and  that  he  was  preparing  an 
announcement  which,  when  completed,  would  be  given  to  the 
press.  As,  however,  he  expressed  in  the  same  manifesto  his 
willingness  to  see  other  professional  men,  provided  they  were 
duly  respectful — he  had  always  admired  humility — and  did  not 
ask  for  personal  favors,  I  concluded  that  I  would  risk  a  call, 
knowing  as  I  did  that  I  should  probably  find  him  at  leisure,  as 
the  awe  of  his  followers  is  so  great  that  they  are  afraid  of  close 
association  with  him,  preferring  to  see  him  afar  off,  when  he  takes 
his  daily  walk  along  the  Via  Dolorosa  for  exercise. 

As  I  had  at  the  time  of  calling  no  intention  of  reporting  the 
interview,  I  consider  this  report  to  be  in  no  sense  a  violation  of 
good  faith.  Furthermore,  when  I  called  I  announced  that  I  had 
"  come  upon  an  errand." 

Going  toward  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  at  about 
half-past  ten  yesterday  morning,  I  found  the  edifice  surrounded 
by  an  immense  crowd  and  was  obliged  to  obtain  the  services  of 
a  guard  before  I  could  gel  near  the  entrance.  Having  final! v 
reached  the  church,  I  delivered  my  card  to  a  very  important 
looking  functionary  who  stood  at  the  portal,  and,  having  looked 
me  over  rather  contemptuously,  I  suppose  on  account  of  my 
modest  raiment,  he  at  last  opened  the  door  and  told  me  to  pass 
within.  A  lackey  dressed  in  gorgeous  ecclesiastical  vestments 
bade  me  follow  him  and  led  me  past  the  various  chapels  of  the 
place,  in  which  the  warring  sects  of  Christendom  had  been 
accommodated  by  the  lordly  Mohammedan  rulers,  and  on  an 
extemporized  dais  in  the  center  of  the  church  I  beheld  a  man  of 
magnificent  physique,  of  kingly  bearing  and  of  a  stern  but 
thoughtful  countenance,  who  was  engaged  in  writing  upon  a 
parchment.  Unaccustomed  to  regal  pomp  and  ceremony  and 
having  in  mind  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus  of  old,  I  was  about  to 
go  up  to  the  personage,  offer  my  hand  and  announce  the  object  of 
my  visit,  when  the  functionary  at  my  side  commanded  me  to  bow 
three  times  to  the  earth  and  say,  "  All  hail,  King  of  heaven  and 
earth."  This  done,  I  wa6  permitted  to  advance  to  a  low  seat  in 
front    of   the  king,   where   I    sat  down   and   waited   his  pleasure 


Looking  up  from  his  writing,  presently,  the  Lord  saw  me  and 
immediately  opened  conversation.  His  voice  was  strong  and  reso-' 
nant;  he  spoke  rapidly,  without  gesticulation,  and  in  forcible  but 
not  euphuistic  English,  a  slight  imperfection  in  his  pronunciation 
of  the  th  indicating  that  English  was  not  his  native  tongue. 

"I  perceive  that  you  are  an  American,"  he  said.  "I  am 
always  glad  to  meet  persons  from  your  country,  although  the 
pleasure  is  one  which  I  do  not  often  experience,  owing  to  tin 
heterodox  opinions  of  most  of  your  countrymen." 

"  Yes,  Sire,"  I  said,  "it  is  true  that  but  few  of  us  have  credited 
the  predictions  of  your  reappearance,  but  I  trust  that  the  holv  and 
useful  lives  that  have  been  led  by  many  of  our  great  men  ma\ 
have  enabled  them  to  find  grace  in  your  eyes.  There  are  Wash 
ington,  and  Jefferson,  and  Emerson,  and  Longfellow — " 

"  My  humble  friend,"  interrupted  the  Lord,  "  the  names  vou 
mention  are  indeed  familiar  to  me,  but  I  do  not  remember  meet- 
ing the  gentlemen  to  whom  you  refer.  You  must  certainly  know 
that  mere  morality  is  not  sufficient  to  admit  a  soul  to  the  sacred 
presence.  I  said  of  old,  and  I  repeat  it  now,  '  Unless  a  man 
believe,  he  shall  be  damned.'  " 

"  Hut,"  I  interjected.  "  I  thought  the  learned  doctors  had 
decided  that  you  meant  to  prefix  a  syllable  to  that  word  and 
change  the  vowel  and  make  it  read  'condemned.'" 

"What  I  said  I  said,"  was  the  reply,  "and  I  have  no  patience 
with  the  sickly  effeminacy  which  would  seek  to  change  that  good 
old  English  word  damn  into  demn  in  order  to  please  the  grannv  1 
school  in  the  Church.  God  is  God  in  all  tongues  and  damn  is 
damn.  What  would  be  the  use  of  a  hell  unless  there  were  damna- 
tion ?" 

Receiving  no  reply,  he  continued: 

"  Did  I  not  say,  emphatically,  that  I  would  come  again,  in 
power  and  great  glory  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  that  '  this 
generation  should  not  pass  away  until  all  these  things  should  be 
fulfilled?'  I  never  heard  that  the  worthies  vou  speak  of  believed 
this  word." 

"  They  could  not  believe  it,  Sire,  because  they  could  not  recon 
cile  it  with  the  fact  that  that  generation  to  which  you  spoke  had 
passed  away  without  the  fulfillment  of  the  prediction,"  I  ventured 
to  interpose. 

"  Facts  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  virtue  of  belief,"  was  the 
reply.  "They  should  have  believed  in  spite  of  facts.  Indeed, 
that  statement  was  made  simply  as  a  shibboleth  by  which  to  sort 
out  the  sheep  from  the  goats.  The  design  was  that  each  genera- 
tion  must  take  that  asseveration  to  refer  to  itself  and  believe  and 
act  accordingly.  How  many  in  each  generation  since  the  other 
time  have  had  this  faith?  Very  few.  They  are  the  sheep.  Your 
fellow-countryman,  William  Miller,  was  one  of  the  greatest  01 
these  sheep.  He  was  worth  a  dozen  strait-laced  Washingtons  or 
pantheistic  Emersons  and  great  is  to  be  his  reward.  In  a  few 
weeks,  when  my  arrangements  are  completed  for  the  resurrection 
of  the  just,  I  shall  raise  him  first  and  appoint  him  Grand  High 
Herald  of  the  Kingdom." 

"Sire,"  I  asked,  "do  you  mean  by  'the  resurrection  of  the 
just'  those  of  righteous  and  honorable  lives  who  have  been  upon 
the  earth  in  times  past?" 

"  By  no  means,"  was  the  reply.  "That  is  a  common  misun- 
derstanding ol  the  phrase.  By  it  I  mean  just  those  who  have  in 
the  past  believed  that  this  (their)  generation  was  to  behold  the 
second  advent.  The  resurrection  of  all  merely  good  men  might 
overpopulate  the  earth.  But  we  can  easily  accommodate  all  who 
have  believed,  at  any  given  time,  in  the  immediate  advent  of  the 
Son  of  Man,  so  called.  If  the  number  proves  greater  than  I 
expect — I  have  not  made  any  very  careful  calculations;  I  leave 
all  arithmetical  work  to  my  servant  Daniel  —  we  can  easily 
hitch  another  planet  to  the  earth  and  establish  an  overflow  meet- 
ing  of  the  saints,  as  it  were." 


26 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


"My  Lord,"  said  I,  "would  you  object  to  giving  to  a  poor 
man  a  brief  outline  of  what  you  propose  to  do  while  you  are 
here?  It  is  a  subject  of  great  importance  to  me  and  my  future 
movements  will  be  largely  controlled  by  any  information  you 
mav  vouchsafe." 

The  lord  looked  at  me  searchingly.  "  You're  not  one  of  those 
newspaper  men  in  disguise,  are  you?"  he  said.  "You  don't 
intend  to  sell  this  news?" 

"  I  have  no  such  intention  at  present,"  I  said,  guardedly. 

"Well,  mv  humble  servant,"  continued  his  omnipotence,  ".. 
may  sav  that  the  first  thing  I  shall  do  after  issuing  my  pronun- 
ciamento  will  be  to  apply  the  torch  to  various  portions  of  the 
habitable  globe.  This  in  order  that  the  Scripture  may  be  ful- 
filled. '  The  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat,  the  earth,  also, 
and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be  burned  up.'  " 

"  But,  Most  Worthy  Master,"  I  remonstrated,  "that  will  surely 
subject  you  to  the  reproach  of  being  called  an  Anarchist  and  will 
besides  cause  a  great  deal  of  suffering  and  great  loss  of  ecclesias- 
tical and  other  precious  property." 

"I  can't  help  that,"  was  the  reply.  "It  is  necessary  that 
there  should  be  a  general  house-cleaning  in  this  old  world  and 
fire  is  a  great  purifier.  And  the  fulfillment  of  prophecy  cannot 
be  staved  by  considerations  of  individual  convenience. 

"  Following  the  great  conflagration  will  come  the  first  resur- 
rection. This  process  will  probably  occupy  several  days,  on 
account  of  the  great  care  which  the  Recording  Angel  must  exer- 
cise in  determining  just  who  are  to  be  raised  and  in  bringing  the 
work  well  up  to  date.  It  would  be  very  embarrassing,  you  know, 
if  one  of  my  subordinates  should  resurrect  a  man  whom  I  should 
subsequently  discover  must  be  reinterred.  The  next  thing  to  be 
done  will  be  the  remodeling  and  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem.  My 
present  quarters  in  this  church  are  very  unsatisfactory  and  not  at 
all  of  the  kind  to  which  I  have  been  accustomed.  I  must  say 
that  I  like  more  majesty  and  grandeur  and  extension  about  my 
habitation,"  and  the  Lord  gazed  discontentedly  about  at  the  some- 
what contracted  area  and  tawdry  decorations  of  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Sepulcher.  "You  should  see  my  official  mansion  in  the 
City  of  God;  no  gilt  work  there — foundations  and  superstructure 
all  of  the  genuine  yellow  metal,  veneered  with  gems.  I  haven't 
time  to  mention  all  the  particulars,  but  you  can  read  all  about  the 
materials  in  Rev.  xxi:i8-2i,  for  the  palace  is  built  to  harmonize 
with  the  walls.  I  do  not  know  but  I  shall  bring  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem down  from  home — perhaps  it  would  be  as  easy  as  to  try  to 
make  over  this  old  nest  of  rookeries.  But  in  some  way  I  shall 
certainlv  establish  quarters  to  which  I  shall  not  be  ashamed  to 
invite  Pa  and  Parry. 

"  Next  I  propose  to  take  in  hand  the  infidels.  I  shall  send  out 
some  of  the  resurrected  Millerites  and  Chiliasts  of  all  descriptions 
— men  of  gigantic  intellects  all  of  them — to  convert  the  so-called 
scientists,  and  if  they  do  not  readily  succumb  to  argument,  I 
shall  try  other  means  of  bringing  them  to  their  senses,"  and  the 
Lord  toyed  significantly  with  an  elaborately  ornamented  gold 
paper-knife,  in  the  shape  of  a  Turkish  yataghan,  which  lay  on 
his  writing  table.  "Of  late  years  these  men  have  become  very 
bold  and  I  must  give  them  a  lesson.  This  is,  indeed,  the  main 
reason  for  my  advent  at  this  time.  A  few  years  more  and  it 
would  have  been  too  late.    There  is  one  particularly  blatant  infidel 

in    your    country,    one    B I by    name,    who   some 

years  ago  caused  great  travail  of  spirit  to  one  of  my  most  doughty 

lieutenants,    T *,   of    Brooklyn.       I   know  all   about  it,  for 

T gave  us  full   particulars  one  morning  in  his  prayer.     I 

mean  to  have  a  personal  interview  with  that  fellow  and  if  he 
doesn't  come   round  verv  quickly,  I — I'll  have  him  bastinadoed." 


*I   suppress   these   names,   not   desiring  to  anticipate  the  Lord's  work  of 
warning  or  of  reassurance. 


"  Most  Potent  Seignior,"  I  here  interjected,  "  there  is  at  pres- 
ent in  my  country  a  controversy  raging  with  respect  to  the  future 
lot  of  the  heathen  who  have  not  heard  the  '  glad  tidings  of  great 
joy.'  One  party  says  that  these  heathen,  inasmuch  as  they  have 
not  accepted  the  only  Saviour,  are  doomed  to  hell.  The  other 
party  says  that  as  such  heathen  have  not  accepted  Thee,  because 
they  never  heard  of  Thee,  it  were  unjust  to  punish  them  for 
their  misfortune  and  that  they  will  have  a  chance  of  knowing 
Thee  in  the  future.   What  is  the  truth  about  this  matter,  O  King?" 

"  About  the  heathen  who  are  already  dead,"  was  the  answer, 
"  I  cannot  now  speak.  But  those  who  are  now  alive  and  have 
not  heard  of  me,  will  hear  very  shortly  and  with  no  uncertain 
sound.  You  remember  the  promise  in  the  second  Psalm,  '  I  shall 
give  thee  the  heathen  for  thine  inheritance:  thou  shalt  break 
them  with  a  rod  of  iron;  thou  shalt  dash  them  in  pieces  like  a 
potter's  vessel.'  That  doesn't  look  as  though  we  were  going  to  1 
err  on  the  side  of  pusillanimity,  does  it?  I  purpose  sending  out 
very  soon  an  immense  army  of  my  retainers  to  conquer  the 
heathen  and  bring  them  before  my  throne  and  they  will  soon 
cease  their  troubling.  At  any  rate,  I  am  determined  they  shall 
all  be  baptized.  Any  who  demur  will  be  broken  with  a  rod  of 
iron,  as  promised.  And  death  will  not  come  to  end  their  suffer- 
ings. Everybody  has  got  to  live  a  thousand  years.  Oh,  we  shall 
all  be  very  happy." 

"But  it  will  be  a  big  job _ to  convert  all  the  heathen  and  the 
infidels,"  I  ventured  to  remark. 

"Not  after  I  bind  Satan,"  was  the  reply.  "The  Devil  is  at 
the  bottom  of  most  of  the  antagonism  to  Us.  He  received  a 
'  dreadful  scaring  the  other  night  and  fled  to  the  uttermost  parts  of 
hell  when  I  came  down,  and  as  he  is  an  exceedingly  crafty  and 
fleet-footed  personage,  I  suppose  it  will  be  some  time  before  my 
servants  take  him.  But  as  soon  as  he  is  safely  bound  and  tumbled 
into  the  pit,  our  work  will  be  much  simpler." 

"  If  no  one  is  to  die  for  a  thousand  years,"  I  observed,  "and 
marrying  and  giving  in  marriage  are  to  continue,  how  will  the 
world  contain  the  vast  population  that  will  come  upon  it,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  large  number  who  are  to  be  resurrected  ?" 

"The  population  will  not  increase  so  rapidly  as  you  think,  my 
unsophisticated  friend.  You  remember  my  servant  Isaiah  said 
that  in  the  millennium  '  the  child  shall  die  an  hundred  years  old;' 
that  is,  the  child  shall  cease  to  be  a  child  and  become  a  man  at 
that  age.  Now,  if  parents  find  that  their  children  are  to  be 
dependent  on  them  for  a  hundred  years  instead  of  a  dozen,  will 
not  there  be  a  positive  check  to  increase  of  population?  Think 
of  the  misery  of  nursing  a  lad  of  sixty  through  an  attack  of 
the  measles,  or  listening  to  the  wailings  of  a  girl  of  thirty-five  in 
the  agonies  of  teething!  The  birth-rate  of  the  world  will  greatly 
diminish  as  a  result  of  this  wise  provision." 

"Then  the  Talmudian  calculation  that  in  the  millennium  each 
Israelite  will  have  sixty  thousand  children,  or  as  many  as  the 
total  number  of  the  Israelites  who  went  out  from  Egypt,  is 
incorrect?" 

"Obviously." 

"The  Sibylline  books  declare  that  in  the  millennium  there 
will  be  no  more  seas,  no  more  winters,  no  more  nights;  that  ever- 
lasting wells  will  run  honey,  milk  and  wine.  Is  this  prophecy 
correct?" 

"  I  do  not  think  we  can  escape  the  obligation  of  drying  up  the 
sea.  Rev.  21  :i  says  plainly,  'There  shall  be  no  more  sea,'  so  we 
shall  have  to  get  rid  of  the  ocean  in  some  way.  Probably  we  will 
turn  it  into  fire  at  the  time  of  the  universal  conflagration.  But 
the  other  predictions  were  only  the  vagaries  of  a  distempered 
intellect,  as  was  -also  the  prediction  that  during  the  millennium 
men  would  be,  as  before  the  fall,  two  hundred  yards  high." 

"  How,  mav  I  ask,"  said  I,  "  do  you  reconcile  the  promise  of 
your  universal  and  triumphant  reign  during  the  millennium  with 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


27 


the  statement  in  Revelation  that  at  the  end  of  the  thousand  years 
'the  nations  of  the  earth  shall,  under  the  leadership  of  the  liber- 
ated Satan,  attack  the  saints  in  their  stronghold?" 

"  Now,  now,  my  good  fellow,"  was  the  somewhat  testy  reply, 
"  you  mustn't  ask  me  to  explain  the  Apocalypse.  There  are  limits 
to  even  omniscience.  I  doubt  if  the  Holy  Spirit  himself,  who 
dictated  Revelation,  could  explain  it.  Now,  I've  got  other  things 
to  do  besides  talking  to  you.  I  haven't  been  so  busy  in  a  million 
years.     So  I'll  wish  you  good  morning." 

"  But,  Sire,  the  beasts  in  Rev " 

"  Beast  me  no  beast.  Good-day.  Raphael,  show  this  person  the 
way  out.  If  I  am  so  pestered  with  questions  again  I'll  have  to 
forbid  the  premises  to  these  callers." 

And  taking  up  his  pen,  the  Lord  went  on  with  his  writing,  not 
noticing  the  profound  salaams  with  which  I  signalized  my 
departure.  I  fear  that  I  offended  him  by  my  last  questions.  This 
may  prove  very  unfortunate  to  me.  The  ways  of  the  East  are 
dark,  and  in  case  you  do  not  hear  from  me  again,  you  may 
surmise  that  your  correspondent  has  met  the  fate  of  those  who 
incur  the  enmity  of  powerful  eastern  potentates.  But  if  this 
letter  reaches  you  and  gets  in  type,  and  helps  to  dispel  the 
prevalent  illusions  and  wild  reports  concerning  the  Lord  and  his 
plans,  I  shall  be  content.  Special. 

BOOK   NOTICES. 


To  the  Poet-Laureate.    Louis  Be/rose,  Jr.    Brentano's,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  1SS7. 

This  spirited  and  musical  poem,  in  the  fascinating  meter  of 
Lockslcy  Hall,  is  a  defence  of  scientific  thought  against  Lord 
Tennyson.  Whatever  doubt  may  exist  about  the  meaning  of 
Lockslcy  Hall  Sixty  Fears  After  ought  to  disappear  after  a  careful' 
perusal  of  the  longer  and  much  poorer  poem  published  with  it 
The  whole  volume  is  meant  to  discredit  liberal  views  of  science 
and  politics,  by  making  them  appear  hostile  to  morality,  and  Mr. 
Belrose  is  entitled  to  the  thanks  of  the  friends  of  intellectual  lib- 
rety  and  popular  government  for  his  defence  of  scientific  thought. 


venting  prosecution  for  fraud.  Due  attention  is  called  to  the  fact 
that  the  Sabbath  is  openly  broken  with  impunity  by  railroads  and 
other  corporations,  the  community  appearing  to  be  in  favor  of  the 
law  but  against  its  enforcement.  To  get  rid  of  the  demoralizing 
effects  of  laws  which  people  are  not  expected  to  obey,  it  is  urged 
that  the  Sundav  statutes  be  reduced  in  Massachusetts,  as  they 
have  been  in  other  States,  sufficiently  to  make  it  possible  to  carry 
them  out.  The  plan  in  the  pamphlet  is  to  forbid  all  labor  not 
needed  to  secure  "reasonable  personal  comfort"  or  rescue  of 
property  "from  actual  waste,"  and  make  proper  allowance  for 
travel  as  well  as  for  "  recreation,  social  intercourse  or  whatsoever 
other  pastimes  be  of  good  report."  These  recommendations  will 
have  all  the  more  effect  from  the  scholarly  and  dispassionate  tone 
in  which  they  are  offered.  But  it  should  be  remembered, 
that  what  needs  most  to  be  reformed,  not  only  in  New  England 
but  even  in  Chicago,  is  public  opinion,  which  at  present  looks  at 
Sunday  amusements  with  a  cowardly  asceticism  worthy  of  St. 
Simon  Stylites. 


Ein   Leben   in   Liedern,  Gedichte   eines   Heimathlosen. 
Milwaukee,  Wis.     Freidenker  Publishing  Co. 

This  little  volume  of  poems  contains,  as  its  title  suggests,  the 
portrayal  of  a  life  in  song.  The  author  is  an  evolutionist  and  his 
work  has,  in  addition  to  its  poetic  merit,  a  scientific  interest.  He 
acquaints  us  with  the  various  stages  of  his  intellectual  develop- 
ment and  religious  growth,  the  rise  of  his  hope&  and  fears,  his 
early  faith,  his  first  doubts,  his  despair  in  feeling  the  basis  of  his 
religious  belief  crumbling  away  and,  at  last,  his  satisfaction  and 
joy  as  he  grew  into  broader  thought  and  attained  to  higher  ideals 
of  life  and  duty.  The  love  songs  abound  in  fine  sentiment  and 
show  a  refined  taste  and  love  of  nature.  The  ideas  are  elevated 
and  the  language  simple  and  elegant. 


The  Sunday  Law  of  Massachusetts.  What  it  is  as  construed 
and  interpreted  by  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court.  How  it  is 
observed  and  non-observed  and  what  had  better  be  done  in 
relation  thereto.  By  a  Member  of  the  Massachusetts  Bar. 
Cupples,  Upham  &  Co.,  Boston,  1887. 

This  little  pamphlet  gives  not  only  all  the  statutes  in  full, 
which  cannot  be  found  together  elsewhere,  but  also  an  accurate 
and  impartial  summary  of  the  decisions,  some  of  which  have 
great  effect,  for  instance,  in  destroying  the  value  of  notes  and  pre- 


Mind,  the  English  quarterly  review  for  January,  contains  very 
interesting  essays  in  philosophical  and  psychological  research,  the 
first  of  which  is  on  "The  Perception  of  Space,"  by  Prof.  Wm. 
James,  which  he  discusses  in  a  matter-of-fact  way  with  great  pen- 
etration in  his  quaint  and  original  style.  Prof.  H.  Sedgwick  treats 
of  "Idiopsychological  Ethics,"  in  reply  to  the  views  of  Dr.  Mar- 
tineau.  James  Ward  continues  his  papers  on  "  Psychological 
Principles."  Under  the  general  head  of  "  Research,"  J.  M.  Cat- 
tell  details  "Experiments  on  the  Association  of  Ideas";  J.  Jacobs, 
"Experiments  on  Prehension";  Francis  Galton,  F.  R.  S.,  gives 
supplementary  notes  on  "  Prehension  in  Idiots."  Prof.  J.  Dewey 
discusses"  Illusory  Psychology,"  and  replies  to  Shadworth  Hodg- 
son's strictures.  Prof.  C.  L.  Morgan  discusses  "  The  Generaliza- 
tions of  Science."  There  are  able  critical  essays  by  Prof.  H. 
Seth,  T.  Whittaker,  J.  Sully,  Grant  Allen  and  Prof.  R.  Adamson. 
The  book  notices  include  an  account  of  recently  published  philo- 
sophical and  psychological  works.  Edited  by  G.  Croom  Robert- 
son, and  published  by  Williams  Sc  Norgate,  London. 


The  Art  Amateur  for  February  offers  a  premium  of  $100 
for  the  best  design  for  a  new  cover  for  the  Magazine.  This  will 
give  a  fine  opportunity  for  young  designers  to  try  their  skill. 
The  drawings  must  be  sent  by  the  first  of  March,  18S7.  This 
number  opens  with  a  fine  bold  sketch  of  Tennyson  made  in  Octo- 
ber, 1886.  The  old  poet  certainly  does  not  look  as  if  he  had  lost 
either  vigor  or  independence  by  becoming  a  lord.  Montezuma  gives 
a  fot-pourri  of  entertaining  gossip  and  Greta  her  usual  Boston  cor- 
respondence. There  is  an  interesting  account  of  the  Stewart  col- 
lection which  is  to  be  sold  by  auction  in  New  York  in  March.  This 
is  well  illustrated  by  spirited  sketches  from  paintings  of  Meis- 
sonier  and  Gerome.  Among  the  decorative  designs  is  a  charm- 
ing little  panel  representing  Winter  by  Froment.  A  good  deal  of 
6pace  is  given  to  architecture  and  the  decoration  of  rooms  in  city 
and  country  houses  while  ceramics,  amateur  photography  and 
needle-work  have  their  due  share  of  attention  and  those  who  wish 
to  employ  the  Lenten  Season  in  the  pious  work  of  embroidering 
chasubles  and  other  vestments  can  find  instructions  for  that  also. 
The  ever-entertaining  correspondence  suggests  as  many  questions 
as  it  answers.  The  Art  Amateur  continues  its  good  work  of 
diffusing  sound  principles  of  art  through  the  country,  besides 
affording  much  practical  assistance  to  the  amateur  who  cannot 
obtain  professional  instruction.  We  wish  it  would  give,  aho,  a 
little  more  art  matter  suited  to  the  general  reader,  such  as  biogra- 
phies of  living  artists,  criticisms  of  schools  and  of  celebrated 
works. 


28 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


UNAWARES. 

A  song  welled  up  in  the  singer's  ru-:irt, 

(Like  a  song  in  the  throat  of  a  bird). 
And  loud  he  sang,  and  far  it  rang,— 

For  his  heart  was  strangely  stirred; 
And  he  sang  for  the  very  joy  of  song, 

With  no  thoughts  of  one  who  heard. 

Within  the  listener's  wayward  soul 

A  heavenly  patience  grew. 
He  fared  on  his  way  with  a  benison 

On  the  singer,  who  never  knew 
How  the  careless  song  of  an  idle  hour 

Had  shaped  a  life  anew. 

— Alice  Williams  Brothtrton  in  'January  Atlantic 


So  strong  was  the  bent  of  his  mind  in  an  humorous 
direction  that  some  theologians  have  accused  him  of 
want  of  reverence  for  religion;  which  accusation  may 
lie  true  of  the  sticks  and  stubble  men  call  religion,  but 
not  of  the  genuine  article,  as  we  will  see  by  and  by. 
Some  of  the  more  strenuous  patriots  desired  the  Com- 
mittee of  Safety  to  require  the  Episcopal  clergy  to 
refrain  from  praying  for  the  King.  "The  measure," 
said  Franklin,  "is  quite  necessary;  for  the  Episcopal 
clergy,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  have  been  constantly 
praying  these  twenty  years  that  God  would  give  to  the 
King  and  his  council  wisdom,  and  we  all  know  that  not 
the  least  notice  has  ever  been  taken  of  that  prayer." 

In  one  of  his  conversations  with  John  Adams  he 
wittily  distinguished  Orthodoxy  from  Heterodoxy  by 
saying  "Orthodoxy  is  my  doxy  and  Heterodoxy  isyour 
doxy."  In  another  place  he  remarks,  "Steele  says  that 
the  difference  between  the  Church  of  Rome  and  the 
Church  of  England  is  only  this:  that  the  one  pretends 
to  he  infallible  and  the  other  to  be  never  in  the  wrong. 
In  the  latter  sense  we  are  most  of  us  Church  of  England 
men,  though  few  of  us  confess  it  and  express  it  so 
naturally  and  frankly  as  a  certain  ladv  here,  who  said, 
1  do  not  know  how  it  happens,  but  I  meet  with  nobody, 
except  myself,  that  is  always  in  the  right." 

It  is  related  of  Franklin,  but  I  do  not  know  how 
truthfully,  that,  when  a  boy,  he  slyly  advised  his  father 
to  say  grace  over  the  whole  barrel  of  pork  and  so  save 
time  at  dinner. 

He  specially  excelled  in  delicate  irony.  In  a  letter  to 
his  friend  De  Chamount  (  whose  house  he  had  occupied 
at  l'assy)  he  says:  "As  to  Tinck,  the  maitre  d'  hotel, 
he  was  fairly  paid  in  money  for  every  just  demand  he 
could  make  against  us  and  we  'nave  his  receipts  in  full. 
Hut  there  are  knaves  in  the  world  no  writing  can  hind, 
and,  when  you  think  you  have  finished  with  them,  they 
come  with  demands  after  demands  sans  fin.  He  was 
continually  saying  of  himself,  I  am  an  honest  man,  I  am 
an  honest  man.  Hut  I  always  suspected  he  was  mis- 
taken, and  so  it  proves." — From  a  lecture  on  Benjamin 
Franklin  by    IV.  Symington  Brown. 


Eny . 


THE    PARKER   TOMB    FUND. 

A  fund  is  now  being  raised  by  the  friends  and  admirers  of  Theodore  Par- 
ker to  improve  the  condition  of  his  tomb,  in  the  Old  Protestant  Cemetery,  Flor- 
ence, llaly.     The  list  of  subscribers  to  date  is  as  follows  : 

Miss  Frances  Power  Cobbe,  England, 

Rev.  James  Martineau,  D.D  ,         " 

Professor  F.  W.  Newman, 

Miss  Anna  Swanwiek,  " 

Rev.  Peter  Dean, 

Mrs.  Catharine  M.  Lyell, 

Miss  Florence  Davenport-Hill,     " 

William  Shaen,  Esq., 

Mme.  Jules  Favre,  Directress  of  the  Slate  Superi 

Sevres,  France, 
M.Joseph  Fabre,  ex-Deputv,   Paris,  France, 
M.  Paul  Bert,  of  the  Institute,     "  " 

Professor  Albert  Reville, 

M.  Ernest  Renan,  of  the  French  Academy,  P.iri 
R.  Rheinwald,  publisher,  Paris,  France, 
Mme.  Griess-Traut,  "  " 

Rev.  Louis  Leblois,  Strasburg,  Germany, 
Miss  Matilda  Goddard,  Boston,  Mass., 
Mrs.  R.  A.  Nichols, 
Caroline  C.  Thayer,  " 

F.  H.  Warren,  Ohelmsford,  " 

F.  W.  Christern,  New  York, 
Mrs.  E.  Christern,         " 
Louisa  Southworth,  Cleveland,  <  >. 
S.  Brewer,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 
E.  D.  Cheney,  Boston, 
A.  Wilton,  Alexandria,  Minn., 
David  G.  Francis,  New  York, 
Robert  Davis,  Lunenburg,  Mass., 
H.  G.  White,  Buffalo,  N.   Y., 
M.  D.  Conway,      " 

A.  B.  Brown,  Worcester,  Mass., 
Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  Tenarly,  N.J., 
Theodore  Stanton,  Paris, 
J.  Cary,  M.  D.,  Caribou,  Me., 
Mrs.  Stanton-Blatch,  B.  A.,  Basingstoke, 
A  Friend,  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
Jacob  Hoftner,  Cincinnati,  O., 
Charles  Voysev,  London,  England, 
Count  Goblet  d'Alviella,  Brussels,  Belgium, 
Luther  Colby  (Editor  Banner  of  Light), 

B.  F.  Underwood,  Boston,  Mass., 
James  Eddy,  Providence,  R.  I., 
Chas.  Nash  and  Sister,  Worcester,  Mass., 
Fred.  H.  llenshaw,  Boston,  Mass., 
Rose  Mary  Crawslay,  Breconshire,  Eng., 
Geo.  J.  Holyoake,  Brighton, 
James  Hall,  St.  Denis,  Md., 
S.  R.  Urbino,  Boston,  Mass., 
E.  C.  Tahor,  Independence,  Iowa, 
Menvia  Taylor,  Brighion,  Eng., 

G.  W.  Robinson,  Lexington,  Mass., 
G.  P.  Delaplaine,  Madison,  Wis., 
Mrs.  L.  P.  Danforth,  Philadelphia,  Pa.. 
P.  B.  Siblev,  Spearfish,  Dak., 
M.J.  Savage,  Boston,  Mass., 
Wm.  J.  Potter,  New  Bedford,  Mass., 
Caroline  de  Barrau,  Paris, 
Joseph  Smith,  Lambertville,  N.J., 
John  H.  R.  Molson,  Montreal,  Canada, 
Miss  Kirstine  Frederikson,  Denmark, 
Mrs.  T.  Mary  Broadhurst,  London,  Eng., 
Miss  A.  L.  Browne,  "  " 
R.  Ileber  Newton,  Garden  City,  N.  Y., 
S.  C.  Gale,  Minneapolis,  Minn., 
R.  E.  Grimshaw,  Minneapolis,  Minn., 
E.  M.  Davis,  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
Mrs.  Rebecca  Moore,  London,  Eng., 
Axel  Gustafson, 

Zabel  Gustafson,  " 

Mrs.  Laura  Curtis  Rullard,  New  York. 
Annie  Besant,  London,  Eng., 
Fredrik  Bajer,  Deputy,  Copenhagen,  Denmark, 
Mile.  Maria Deraismes,  President  y  theSeine-et 

Federation,  Paris, 
Rjornstjerne  Bjornson,  Norway, 
II.  L.  Bra*kstad,  London,  Eng., 
M.  Godin,  Founder  of  the  Familistere,  Guise,  F 
Jane  Cobden,  London,  Eng., 
H.  E.  Berner.  Christiana,  Norway, 
J.  M.  Yeagley,  Lancaster,  Pa., 
Dr.  Samuel  L\  Young,  Ferrv  Village,  Me., 
J.  W.  Braley,  New  Bedford," Ma  s., 
M.  M.  Manigasarian,  Philadelphia,  Pa.. 
Miss  Leigh  Smith,  Algiers,  Africa, 
Dr.  J.  F.  Noves,  Detroit,  Mich., 
John  C.  Hayhes,  Boston, 
M.  T.  Adams,  Boston,  Mass., 
Rosa  M.  Avery,  Chicago,  111., 
Miss  Abbie  W.  May,  Boston,  Mass., 
Rev.  R.  Fisk,  Watertown,  N.  Y., 
Henry  W.  Brown,  Worcester,  Mass., 
JosepTi  Wood,  Bar  Harbor,  Me., 
W.  M.  Salter,  Chicago,  III., 
S.  B.  Weston,  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
W.  L.  Sheldon,  St.  Louis,  Mo., 
Charles  D.  Presho,  Boston, 
James  D.  Atkins,  Florence,  Mass., 
W.  L.  Foster,  Hanover,  Mass., 
Felix  Adler,  New  York, 

Subscriptions  may  be  sent  to  The  Open  Court  or  to  John  C.  Haynes,  451 
Washington  street,  Boaton,  Mas*. 


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The  Open  Court 


A  Fortnightly  journal, 


Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon   a  Scientific   Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  2. 


CHICAGO,  MARCH  3,  18S7. 


I  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
"(  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


THE  MISSION   OF  SECULARISM. 

BY    FELIX    L.  OSWALD. 

In  the  pursuit  of  all  human  enterprises  a  clear  defini- 
tion of  purpose  is  a  chief  condition  of  success.  It  secures 
efficient  co-operation;  it  prevents  aberrations;  it  ob- 
viates illusions  and  misconstructions.  The  progress  of 
Secularism  has  undoubtedly  been  retarded  by  such 
stumbling-blocks.  Its  doctrine  has  been  mistaken  for 
a  gospel  of  sensuality  and  egotism,  for  a  depreciation  of 
the  higher  in  favor  of  the  lower  propensities  of  the 
human  mind.  "  Earthlv  things  should  subserve  the 
divine,"  says  our  pious  brother.  "  We  should  encourage 
the  beautiful,  the  useful  will  encourage  itself,"  says  our 
aesthetic  sister. 

Now,  the  truth  is  that,  in  a  normal  state  of  social 
conditions,  the  beautiful  and  the  divine  (i.  e.,  the  moral 
metaphysical  principle),  as  well  as  the  useful,  will  en- 
courage themselves,  an  excess  on  either  side  being  natur- 
ally followed  by  a  reaction  in  the  opposite  direction. 
When  the  pursuit  of  power  and  wealth  had  secured  the 
citizens  of  Rome  a  surplus  of  material  blessings,  the  love 
of  arts  began  to  unfold  a  profusion  of  spontaneous 
blossoms.  When  the  sophists  of  Greece  wasted  an 
undue  proportion  of  time  on  hyperphysical  speculation, 
the  satire  of  Aristophanes,  and  the  practical  protest  of 
the  Cynics,  brought  their  countrymen  back  from  cloud- 
land  to  earth.  After  the  rush  for  paradise  had  led  the 
hosts  of  Islam  from  conquest  to  conquest,  the  victors 
devoted  their  leisure  to  architecture,  to  rational  agricul- 
ture and  science.  When  the  population  of  China  seemed 
to  sink  in  tie  marasmus  of  selfish  sensuality,  Confucius, 
with  signal  success,  though  without  an  appeal  to  the 
authority  of  any  supernatural  agencies  whatever,  incul- 
cated the  duties  of  a  sublime  altruism.  Speculative 
religion,  i.  e.,  the  study  of  spiritual  manifestations  and 
cosmological  traditions,  has  received  all  the  attention  it 
deserves,  even  among  barbarous  nations,  in  the  very 
earliest  ages  of  authentic  history.  The  normal  progress 
of  social  development  leads  from  militant  barbarism  to 
the  organization  of  a  military  commonwealth,  to  political 
stability  and  the  recognition  of  civil  rights,  to  co-opera- 
tion, industry  and  wealth,  to  art,  literature,  refinement 
and  science.  Nations  grow  as  trees  grow  and  have  to 
spread  their  roots  and  acquire  stamina  before  they  can 
produce  flowers  and    fruit.      The  promise  of    the   rose 


slumbers  in  the  unsightly  root  of  the  thorn,  and  spring- 
time will  swell  the  buds  of  the  wild  mountain-flower  as 
well  as  of  the  best-nursed  garden  plant. 

But  about  the  time  which  forms  the  significant  turn- 
ing-point of  our  chronological  era  the  nations  of  the 
Aryan  race  were  stricken  with  the  plague  of  a  moral 
epidemic.  An  Asiatic  pest,  the  poison  of  the  life-blight- 
ing doctrine  of  pessimism,  crept  over  the  moral  atmos- 
phere of  the  mediaeval  god-gardens;  for  a  series  of 
centuries  the  light  of  reason  underwent  an  eclipse,  the 
ethical  standards  of  millions  of  our  ancestors  were  per- 
verted, first  by  an  insiduous  depreciation,  and  afterward 
by  a  remorseless  suppression  of  their  normal  instincts. 
The  ideal  of  human  endeavors  was  no  longer  the  Beau- 
tiful or  the  Useful,  but  the  Woeful;  a  capacity  for  self- 
torture  became  the  standard  of  human  virtue,  the  renun- 
ciation of  all  earthly  blessings  the  measure  of  human 
merit;  health,  manhood,  freedom,  science  and  industry 
were  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  antinaturalism,  and  during 
a  millennium  of  madness  the  progress  of  sixteen  nations 
of  the  noblest  race  was  limited  to  the  invention  of  new 
instruments  of  torture. 

As  the  waters  of  the  pent-up  stream  gradually  rose 
against  the  dam,  its  embankments  were  constantly 
strengthened;  the  vast  and  powerful  organization  of  the 
mediaeval  church  seemed  to  defy  the  very  hope  of 
resistance;  but  nature  at  last  prevailed.  The  pressure 
of  the  accumulated  waters  finally  burst  their  fetters,  and 
the  flood  of  revolt,  forcing  its  way  through  ever-widen- 
ing gaps,  inaugurated  that  era  of  rapid  progress  which 
in  the  course  of  the  last  fourteen  decades  has  tried  to 
retrieve  the  delay  of  a  long  series  of  centuries. 

But  the  guilt  of  a  thousand  years'  crime  against 
Nature  has  not  yet  been  expiated.  The  river  has  broken 
its  dam,  but  its  ancient  bed  has  been  overgrown  with 
weeds  and  choked  with  drift-sand;  the  rushing  flood  has 
torn  out  new  channels  and  wastes  its  waters,  surging  in 
eddies  and  shallows  here,  dashing  against  hopeless 
obstacles  there;  an  undoubted  advance  in  the  right 
direction  is  attended  with  an  undoubted  aberration  and 
abuses  of  a  suddenly-regained  freedom. 

Orthodoxy,  the  religion  of  antinaturalism,  proposes 
to  remedy  the  evil  by  reconstructing  the  dam,  and  thus 
putting  an  end  to  further  progress,  as  well  as  to  its  abuse. 

Secularism,  the  religion  of  reason,  proposes  to  confine 
the  river  to  its  normal  banks,  and  limit  its  waste  without 


3° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


hindering  its  progress.  Anarchism,  the  religion  of 
revolt,  proposes  to  break  all  flood-gates  and  give  Nature 
a  chance  to  work  out  her  own  salvation. 

Time  has  proved  the  futility  of  the  first  plan  by  the 
power  of  a  reaction,  which  was  only  strengthened  by 
resistance  and  delay.  But  the  violence  of  that  reaction, 
though  its  unaided  strength  may  surmount  all  obstacles, 
cannot  dispense  with  guidance  on  its  forward  way. 
Nature  cannot  at  once  accommodate  herself  to  abnor- 
mally-changed circumstances,  and  we  must  admit  that 
the  normal  instincts  of  the  human  race,  which  anti- 
naturalism  has  failed  to  suppress,  have  at  least  been 
sadly  perverted.  The  long-suppressed  love  of  personal 
liberty  has  been  perverted  into  a  love  of  license,  a  hatred 
of  laws  and  authority,  a  tendency  to  nihilism  and  reckless 
self-help.  The  suppression  of  harmless  recreations  has 
begot  a  furtive  delight  in  vicious  pleasures  and  a  tend- 
ency to  evade  the  appeals  of  reform,  asceticism  having 
masqueraded  in  the  guise  of  virtue  till  its  victims  have 
forgotten  to  distinguish  her  garb  from  its  counterfeit. 
The  suppression  of  natural  science  has  driven  the  submis- 
sive into  stolid  nescience — contented  renunciation  of  in- 
tellectual pursuits — the  bolder  into  pseudo-science,  the 
morbid  mysticism  and  neo-gnosticism  that  finds  support- 
ers in  the  ranks  of  the  most  sincere  apostates  from  the 
tenets  of  the  established  creed.  They  have  exchanged 
the  drugs  of  their  spiritual  poison-mongers  for  an  equally 
baneful  antidote,  like  opium-eaters  who  break  the  thral- 
dom of  their  habit  only  to  find  themselves  fettered  by  the 
bane  of  the  liberating  specific.  The  suppression  of  free 
inquiry  has  fostered  the  loathsome  vice  of  hypocrisy. 
People  who  for  generations  saw  their  holiest  rights 
outraged  in  the  name  of  a  pretended  truth  of  revelation, 
have  avenged  their  wrongs  on  truth  itself,  by  making 
ethics  a  synonyme  of  cant  and  hiding  their  private 
theories  on  the  highest  interests  of  their  species  behind  a 
mask  of  habitual  dissimulation. 

The  main  purpose  of  Secularism  has  been  tersely 
defined  as  the  problem  of  rescuing  the  human  mind 
from  its  exile  in  ghost-land;  but  many  of  our  brethren 
have  endured  that  exile  till  they  have  become  strangers 
in  the  house  of  their  Mother  Earth.  They  are  still 
biased  by  an  hereditary  lack  of  trust  in  the  competence 
of  their  natural  instincts,  and  it  is  the  mission  of  Secular- 
ism to  revive  that  trust.  We  must  redeem  the  impu- 
tation of  ivorldliness  from  its  implied  reproach,  and 
restore  the  cosmos  of  our  wonderful  earth  to  its  ancient 
associations  of  beauty,  bounty  and  self-maintaining  order. 
We  must  replant  the  groves  of  Pan  and  awaken  the 
God  of  fields  and  forests  from  his  long  slumber;  we 
must  teach  the  votaries  of  Nature  to  worship  their  God 
in  his  own  temple.  Earth  must  once  more  become  the 
cherished  home  of  all  her  children.  Her  blessings 
must  no  longer  be  sacrificed,  neither  in  offerings  to  the 
Moloch    of    supernaturalism,     nor   in   the   mad   riots    of 


rebellious  vice.  We  must  demonstrate  the  identity  of 
virtue  and  happiness  by  teaching  the  refugees  from  the 
bondhouse  of  asceticism  to  distinguish  the  monitions  of 
their  normal  instincts  from  the  morbid  cravings  of  vice, 
and  the  rights  of  natural  liberty  from  the  claims  of  law- 
less insolence.  A  religion  of  reason  and  science  will 
make  conformity  an  honor  rather  than  a  reproach  to  its 
confessors,  and  reduce  dissent  to  a  synonyme  of  infidelity 
to  the  laws  of  Nature.  The  exponents  of  that  religion 
will  invite,  rather  than  discourage,  free  inquiry;  knowl- 
edge will  become  an  aid  to  faith,  and  converts  will  no 
longer  be  obliged  to  renounce  their  allegiance  to  truth 
and  self-respect. 

Secularism  will  be  at  peace  'with  all  other  religions, 
except  the  pseudo-religion  of  that  earth-blighting  insan- 
ity that  teaches  the  antagonism  of  body  and  mind,  and 
would  sacrifice  the  living  to  the  dead  as  it  sacrifices  the 
realities  of  the  present  world  to  be  chimeras  of  ghost-land. 
Against  the  life-poisoning  delusions  of  that  dogma, 
Secularism  invites  the  alliance  of  all  saner  creeds,  even 
in  the  name  of  religion  itself,  since  neither  physical  nor 
moral  health  has  ever  encountered  a  deadlier  foe  than 
the  system  that  inculcates  the  vanity  of  secular  pursuits 
and  depreciates  the  blessings  of  earth  as  so  many  evils 
in  disguise.  To  how  large  an  extent  that  truth  has 
already  been  tacitly  recognized,  may  be  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  millions  of  our  fellow-men  even  now  devote 
all  the  energy  of  their  working  days  to  a  pursuit  of 
those  temporal  blessings  which  their  Sunday  creed  con- 
tinues to  denounce  as  sinful  vanities.  The  doctrine  of 
Pessimism  has  thus  in  a  two-fold  sense  become  a  sham- 
religion,  and  the  mission  of  Secularism  involves  the  task 
of  obviating  the  danger  of  the  moral  interregnum 
threatened  by  the  collapse  of  a  more  and  more  evidently 
spurious  basis  of  ethics.  The  solution  of  that  task  does 
not  require  the  preternatural  aid  of  a  new  revelation,  but 
only  the  re-establishment  of  a  truth  which  long  guided  the 
pursuit  of  happiness  before  the  world  of  our  forefathers 
was  darkened  by  the  shadow  of  the  dreadful  eclipse, 
the  truth,  namely,  that  the  highest  physical  and  the 
highest  moral  welfare  of  mankind  can  be  only  conjointly 
attained. 


POSSIBILITIES. 


BY    ROWLAND    CONNOR. 


The  first  clear  indications  of  human  existence  in  this 
world  seem  to  come  from  the  last  pre-glacial  period. 
The  date  of  these  indications  cannot  be  given  with  any 
approach  to  accuracy.  The  flung-out  hypotheses  of  our 
wise  men  will  lasso  the  exact  truth  some  day;  but  as 
yet  we  can  only  affirm  that  the  race  of  man  is  many 
thousands,  possibly  even  hundreds  of  thousands,  of  years 
old.  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  pre-glacial  man, 
alike  in  Africa,  Asia,  Europe   and   America,  was  only  a 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


31 


hunter  of  other  wild  animals  and  a  miserable  savage. 
L,ong  ages  passed  before  the  cave-dwellers  ceased  to 
break  the  marrow-bones  of  the  ancient  mammals  of 
Europe,  and  through  all  those  ages  man  was  still  a 
savage.  His  progress  at  first  seems  to  have  been  almost 
immeasurably  slow.  The  germ  of  nothing  that  can  be 
called  civilization  is  discoverable  until  a  comparatively 
recent  time,  and  what  that  germ  was,  or  when  it  first 
appeared,  is  more  a  matter  of  speculation  than  of  knowl- 
edge. But  there  was  a  germ;  and  it  grew;  and  real 
civilizations  budded  from  it  in  the  Nile  and  Euphrates 
valleys,  and  a  few  other  spots,  and  blossomed  brightly 
some  five  or  six  thousand  years  ago. 

But  these  blossoms  could  not  live.  They  were 
hemmed  in  bv  the  wilderness  growths  of  savagery,  and 
slowly  died.  But,  dying,  some  pollen  was  blown  to 
Eur  >pean  soil,  and  there  helped  to  fertilize  some  other 
early  blossoms  that  gave  us  the  greater  civilizations  of 
Greece  and  Rome.  But  these,  too,  were  blighted. 
Northern  and  Eastern  hosts  of  barbarians  were  flung 
upon  and  trampled  over  them,  and  for  a  thousand  years 
civilization  struggled  to  live.  Only  recently  has  a 
civilization  bloomed,  so  profuse,  so  hardy,  with  roots  so 
deep  and  spreading,  that  savage  growths  recede  before 
it.  It  cannot  be  crushed,  or  even  badly  injured,  by  the 
same  enemies  that  dealt  so  cruelly  with  its  immature 
and  restricted  predecessors  of  former  times.  This  last 
civilization  is  destined  to  possess  the  earth. 

What  are  some  of  its  possibilities? 

Although,  compared  with  the  age  of  his  ancestral 
tree,  the  civilized  being  is  very,  very  young,  already  the 
distance  between  him  and  the  savage  is  so  vast  that  they 
seem  to  belong  to  distinct  orders.  The  anatomist's 
probe  and  scalpel  may  find  them  both  alike,  but,  between 
the  beastly  savage  who  cannot  add  two  and  two,  and 
the  man  who  can  lovingly  read  The  Data  of  Ethics, 
there  is  apparently  less  real  kinship  than  between  the 
former  and  the  chimpanzee.  And  yet  the  disciple  of  the 
philosopher  has  sprung  from  his  barbarian  ancestor 
almost  as  suddenly  as  the  butterfly  springs  from  the 
grub.  There  is  a  mysterious  potency  in  civilization.  It 
puts  an  elixir  into  the  blood,  or  recombines  the  atoms  of 
the  gray  matter  of  the  brain,  or  mingles  a  new  element 
somehow  or  somewhere  with  the  chemistry  of  man's 
make-up,  so  that  he  is  transformed,  and  we  cannot  from 
his  long  past,  but  only  from  his  recent  development, 
prophecy  what  he  may  become.  Ages  of  worm-life 
and  a  thousand  years  of  chrysalis,  but  the  wings  began 
to  unfold  only  yesterday. 

I  put  especial  emphasis  upon  the  comparative  new- 
ness, as  well  as  the  assured  perpetuity,  of  modern  civili- 
zation, because  only  as  we  do  so  can  we  rationally 
account  for  the  amazing  growths  it  must  soon  produce. 
The  "lost  arts"  of  the  ancients  have  caused  some  scep- 
tics    to  question    the    permanency     of     our    analogous 


modern  productions.  But  circumstances  have  changed. 
What  is  born  to-dav  in  invention,  or  art,  or  science,  or 
philosophy,  will  live  forever,  if  we  wish  it  to  live.  And 
it  will  not  only  live,  but  it  will  continually  reproduce. 
Printing,  for  instance,  which  is  practically  new,  has 
given  us  within  the  last  fifty  years  a  host  of  other  arts, 
and  professions,  and  machines  innumerable;  but  a  hun- 
dred experimenters,  who  are  carefully  watching  it, 
could  prophesy  with  calm  conviction  concerning  a  host 
of  other  arts  just  starting  from  it.  Men  are  yet  living 
who  trod  the  deck  of  the  first  steamboat  on  the  Hudson 
river,  and  men  are  not  old  who  ante-date  the  familiar 
railway  and  telegraph;  but  of  what  are  these  not  the 
parents,  and  of  what  children  yet  unborn  will  they  not 
be  the  sires  hereafter! 

Not  only  is  inventive  genius  more  fertile  with  each 
succeeding  year,  but  our  assimilation  of  inventions  is 
more  rapid.  Less  than  ten  years  ago  the  writer  listened 
to  the  first  lecture  on  the  telephone  in  New  York  city, 
and  was  amused,  with  other  auditors,  when  the  curious 
little  toy  reproduced  the  notes  of  a  choir  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  river.  Its  practical  usefulness  was  then  a 
dream  of  the  inventor.  But  three  years  afterward,  in 
the  primeval  woods  of  the  great  Northwest,  he  sat  in  the 
locomotive  cab  of  a  logging  railroad  while  the  engineer 
climbed  down  to  unlock  a  rough  box  nailed  to  a  tree,  that 
the  telephone  within  it  might  bring  him  his  orders  from 
the  camp  "  boss."  Our  progress  in  inventions  and  in 
the  practical  assimilation  of  their  results  will  be  much 
more  rapid  in  the  next  fifty  than  in  the  last  fifty  years. 
We  have  not  yet  fairly  learned  to  handle  the  new  tools 
we  are  working  with. 

Attempts  to  predict  the  future  of  man  on  the  earth 
have  been  made  very  often,  but  are  mostly  of  a  fanciful 
nature.  They  have  been  designed  to  furnish  amusing 
reading,  and  have  seldom  paid  much  regard  to  the 
necessity  of  a  basis  of  fact.  Utopias,  also,  are  many, 
but  their  authors  have  written  them  chiefly  as  pleasing 
methods  of  advocating  some  pet  social  theory,  and  they 
are  therefore  useless  for  our  present  purpose.  By  con- 
fining ourselves  strictly  to  legitimate  deductions  from 
present  knowledge,  I  believe  that  some  broad  outlines 
of  the  future  may  be  drawn  with  considerable  accuracy. 
The  unavoidable  errors  will  be  those  arising  from  a 
non-consideration  of  unknown  forces  yet  to  be  dis- 
covered. 

Of  mechanical  inventions  there  are  several  just  at 
hand  which  will  be  followed  by  results  fully  as  impor- 
tant as  those  due  to  the  steam  engine.  One  of  the  first 
in  order  of  time  will  be  the  submarine  boat.  Its 
feasibility  has  already  been  demonstrated  in  New  York 
harbor — a  feeble  beginning,  indeed,  but  no  more  im- 
perfect than  the  beginnings  of  gunpowder  and  the 
printing  press.  Of  the  knowledge  to  be  acquired 
under  the  waves,  and  of  the   changes  in   commerce   and 


32 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


naval  warfare  sure  to  follow  the  practical  success  of 
submarine  navigation,  there  is  room  for  abundant  specu- 
lation. But  we  may  be  reasonably  certain  that  Jules 
Verne's  imaginary  Twelve  Thousand  Leagues  Under 
the  Sea  will  have  its  wonders  surpassed  by  the  stub- 
born facts  of  one  hundre  1  years  hence. 

Closely  following  submarine  navigation,  o  perhaps, 
preceding  it,  will  come  the  safe  navigation  of  the  air. 
The  inflated  balloon  has  blocked  the  way  of  invention 
for  many  years,  but,  now  that  its  principle  is  seen  to  be 
erroneous,  and  we  know  that  the  successful  flying- 
machine  must  be  heavier  and  not  lighter  than  the  at- 
mosphere, the  production  of  a  practical  machine  may  be 
looked  for  during  this  generation. 

Of  more  curious  interest,  though  not  likely  to  be 
followed  by  as  important  practical  results,  will  be  the 
perfecting  of  the  "electroscope" — that  remarkable  in- 
strument which  virtually  telegraphs  rays  of  light,  and, 
by  throwing  them  upon  a  metallic  disk,  enables  us  to 
look  upon  actions  taking  place  at  a  distance  with  the 
same  ease  and  distinctness  with  which  we  now  receive 
sounds  by  the  telephone.  Some  combination  of  these 
two  instruments  will  enable  us  in  the  future  not  only  to 
talk  with  distant  friends  but  to  look  at  them  while  we 
are  talking;  and  that  which  is  possible  to-day  within  a 
distance  of  fifty  miles  becomes  possible  on  the  morrow 
across  the  Atlantic  ocean. 

Long  before  any  one  of  the  above  inventions  is 
brought  to  perfection,  however,  the  new  glass,  recently 
invented  in  Germany,  and  which  is  said  to  add  almost 
fabulously  to  the  power  of  the  microscope,  will  become 
the  agent  of  wonderful  discoveries,  and  presumably,  at 
a  later  date,  we  may  expect  analogous  additions  to  the 
power  of  the  telescope. 

It  is  evident  that  we  stand  at  the  thresholds  of  four 
wonderful  worlds,  and  hold  in  our  hands  the  crude 
weapons  to  be  perfected  for  their  conquest — the  ocean 
world,  the  aerial  world,  the  world  of  the  infinitely  little, 
and  an  astronomical  world  as  far  surpassing  our  present 
one  as  that  of  the  observer  with  a  Lord  Rosse  telescope 
exceeds  that  of  the  Chaldean  shepherds.  And  instru- 
ments, of  which  the  present  electroscope  is  the  forerun- 
ner, will  bind  together  the  scientific  conquerors  of  these 
worlds  in  so  close  a  communion  of  workers  that  they 
will  seem  to  he  the  inmates  of  a  common  workshop, 
am!  each  one  will  have  the  help  of  the  accumulating 
riches   of  all. 

Thai  ali  railways,  including  those  of  city  streets, 
will  soon  lie  run  by  electricity,  and  that  all  heavy  truck- 
ing and  other  similar  work  will  be  done  by  the  same 
agent,  rendering  horses  useless,  except  for  pleasure  pur- 
poses, I  regard  as  almost  a  self-evident  proposition.  The 
same  agent  will  also  he  employed  in  the  domain  of 
household  economy  in  manifold  ways,  lessening  greatly 
the  disagreeable  and  enervating  drudgery   now  insepar- 


able from  housekeeping  employments.  When  breakfast 
can  be  prepared  with  about  the  same  amount  of"  labor 
as  now  attends  the  touching  of  an  electric  button,  as  it 
will  be  some  day,  the  momentous  and  perplexing  servant 
girl  problem  will  be  forever  solved. 

Our  sources  of  mechanical  power  will  greatly  change. 
We  now  dig  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  at  great 
expenditure  of  labor,  the  compact  sunshine  of  the  coal- 
beds,  stored  away  ages  ago,  and  neglect  entirely,  as  a 
source  of  power,  the  sun-heat  poured  daily  upon  the 
surface  of  the  earth.  Invention  has  already  been 
directed  toward  this  source,  and  must  soon  succeed. 
Sun-power  should  before  this  have  taken  the  place  of 
coal  in  all  inland  places.  On  the  sea-coast,  however, 
the  immense  tidal  energy,  which  now  daily  goes  to 
waste,  may  profitably  replace  it.  I  do  not  think  our 
coal  mines  will  ever  be  exhausted.  Long  before  that 
point  can  be  reached,  mankind  will  be  using  a  more 
economical  source  of  power. 

Vast  commercial,  industrial  and  social  changes  will 
follow  the  attainment  of  the  possibilities  already  indie  ted 
and  will  largely  occur  within  the  next  one  hundred 
years.  Still  greater  changes,  however,  will  follow 
certain  other  attainments,  which,  fortunately  or  unfor- 
tunately, will  be  of  later  date,  and  will  be  reached 
gradually.  One  of  the  greatest  of  these,  to  come  with 
measured  tread,  and  to  he  perfected  many  years  hence, 
will  be  the  preparation  of  all  food  by  laboratory  manu- 
facture. Organic  chemistry  is  steadily  moving  in  this 
direction,  and,  eventually,  the  nutrition  needed  will  be 
exactly  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  body,  and  will  be 
furnished  on  demand.  At  present  we  are  fed  bunglingly. 
The  processes  of  digestion  are  seldom  completed. 
Bodilv  force  is  dissipated  in  the  disposal  of  waste  and 
injurious  matter,  and  the  normal  energy  of  each  person 
is  kept  very  far  below  its  possible  or  maximum  limit. 
Of  course,  all  kinds  of  farming  and  pastoral  life,  for 
profit  and  livelihood,  will  he  ultimately  abolished,  and 
the  forms  of  social  organizations  will  be  correspondingly 
changed. 

Side  by  side  with  the  gradual  attainment  of  this 
result  will  be  the  mastery  over  all  contagious  and  in- 
fectious diseases,  whether  their  origin  be  traceable  to 
poisonous  effluvia  or  microscopic  germs.  But  long 
before  the  abolition  of  diseases,  we  may  expect  the  ex- 
termination of  all  ferocious  and  unnecessary  animals, 
noxious  weeds  and  insects,  and  the  numerous  parasites 
which  now  infest  the  human  body  and  rob  it  of  much 
strength.  Moreover,  it  is  apparent  that  the  abolition  of 
disease,  the  extermination  of  all  varieties  of  animal  and 
vegetable  enemies,  the  possession  of  a  perfectly  adapted 
and  nutritious  food,  and  the  accompanying  discoveries 
which  will  prevent  the  ossification  of  the  tissues,  or  those 
equivalent  and  analogous  changes  which  produce  old 
age,  together  with  the  cessation  of  that  large  part  ol  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


33 


struggle  for  existence  which  is  connected  with  these 
important  factors,  will  result  in  a  great  prolongation  of 
human  life — not  an  old  age  of  "  labor  and  sorrow,"  but  a 
lengthened  maturity  of  vigor  and  wholesome  enjoyment. 

Thus  far  the  possibilities  indicated  are  supposed  to 
be  desirable,  or  at  least  not  objectionable,  and  may  come 
to  pass  without  the  necessity  of  any  serious  revolution 
in  human  nature.  And  if  all  men  were  thoroughly 
moral,  and  were  disposed  to  exercise  whatever  power 
they  might  possess  for  the  good  of  their  fellow  men,  no 
.one  need  wish  for  any  limit  to  their  future  greatness. 
But,  unfortunately,  of  some  men  it  mav  be  said  that  they 
are  thoroughly  immoral,  and  many  others,  if  not  im- 
moral, are  certainly  weak  or  stupid.  The  great  bulk  of 
men  have  not  that  intellectual  and  moral  development 
which  would  allow  them  to  possess  power  with  safety 
to  themselves  and  others.  No  right-minded  person,  for 
instance,  would  wish  to  give  to  the  brutalized  Russian 
serfs  dynamite  enough  to  blow  up  the  Ural  mountains. 
They  might  use  it,  instead,  to  annihilate  the  German 
Empire.  But  we  must  face  the  fact  that  this  supposed 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  ignorant  serf  may  at  some 
time  in  the  future,  and  perhaps  very  soon,  become  the 
real  power  of  every  man,  good,  bad  or  indifferent. 
The  discovery  of  our  ability  to  store  or  box  electricity  is 
a  terrible  fact,  when  we  consider  its  possible  conse- 
quences. As  yet  only  a  few  are  masters  of  the  secret; 
but  it  will  become  a  common  property,  and  is  susceptible 
of  astounding  modifications.  To-morrow,  any  man, 
good  or  bad,  may  have  in  his  pocket,  or  in  his  pipe,  power 
enough,  and  subject  only  to  his  will,  to  annihilate  whole 
communities.  That  the  ordinary  man  of  the  world 
will  be  forced  to  assume  this  awful  responsibility,  it 
seems  to  me  no  one  can  doubt.  Will  he,  before  that 
time  comes,  cease  to  be  the  same  man  with  whom  we 
are  now  most  intimately  acquainted  ?  Give  to  our 
present  biped  acquaintance  the  ability  to  exterminate 
armies  with  a  lightning  flash,  added  to  the  power  of 
sailing  at  will  through  the  air,  or  of  passing  at  will  and 
in  safety  beneath  the  ocean  waves,  and  he  would  de- 
populate the  earth. 

If  the  human  race  is  to  be  preserved,  the  progress  of 
scientific  invention  and  discovery  will  make  necessary 
the  complete  extinction  of  all  immoral  and  weak  men. 
This  may  be  effected  by  natural  causes  or  by  social 
decree.  I  mention  these  two  methods  because  I  believe 
that  our  rapidly-developing  civilization  can  be  assimi- 
lated only  by  certain  progressive  races,  and  by  the  best 
portion  of  these  races.  It  is  a  well-ascertained  fact  that 
few  savage  races,  if  any,  can  endure  civilization.  They 
are  blighted  by  its  glare,  and,  in  close  contact  with  it, 
perish  in  a  few  generations.  This  process  will  continue 
more  rapidly  hereafter.  There  is  no  hope  of  an  earthly 
immortality  for  the  great  mass  of  mankind,  and, 
among  the  progressive  and  enlightened   races,  self-pres- 


ervation will  necessitate  the  extinction  of  vice  and  crime 
of  all  kinds,  as  well  as  the  cessation  of  all  war.  Social 
convulsions  of  the  most  gigantic  kind  may  first  inter- 
vene, but  I  have  no  doubt  that  ultimately  power  will 
remain  in  the  hands  of  those  who  are  most  worthy  to 
use  it.     In  the  nature  of  things  nothing  else  is  possible. 

When  the  storms  have  blown  over,  the  survivors  of 
mankind  will  possess  powers  almost  divine.  Bodily 
energy  and  brain  force  will  be  wonderfully  developed. 
Men  will  perceive  more  clearly,  learn  more  readily, 
think  more  accurately  than  they  do  now.  Problems, 
now  difficult,  will  almost  solve  themselves.  All  mere 
schooling  will  become  exceedingly  rapid.  Difficulties 
■which  now  vex  the  ablest,  will  be  readily  disentangled 
by  immature  minds. 

And  perhaps,  even,  at  last,  men  may  be  able — 
say  one  thousand  years  from  now — to  evolve  a  religious 
and  philosophical  creed  which  shall  contain  imperisha- 
ble germs. 


THE  HARMONY  OF  THE   SPHERES. 

BY  PAUL  CARUS,  PH.D. 

Some  months  ago  a  pamphlet  was  published  by 
Dr.  B.  M.  Lersch,  Ueber  die  Syinmetrischen  Verhaelt- 
nisse  dcs  Plancten  Systems,  (On  the  Symmetrical  Pro- 
portions of  the  Planetary  System),  which  is  of  more 
than  ordinary  interest,  since  it  is  the  conclusion  of  a 
series  of  scientific  aspirations,  thus  affording  an  unusual 
gratification  to  the  human  mind.  Its  subject  is  the 
arrangement  of  the  planets  in  our  solar  system,  and  its 
result  is  the  discover}'  of  the  law  which  governs  the 
revolutions  of  the  celestial  bodies — a  law  revealing  the 
simplicity  which  underlies  the  most  complicated  phenom- 
ena and  furnishes  evidence  of  the  harmonious  grandeur 
of   the  creation. 

Even  in  the  Pythagorean  era  the  harmony  of  the 
spheres  was  recognized  and  taught  as  the  rythmical 
sounds  produced  by  the  proportionate  motion  of  the 
celestial  bodies;  and  although  the  idea  was  rejected  by 
Aristotle,  who  considered  it  an  ingenious  but  erroneous 
hypothesis,  it  has  been  'transmitted  to  us,  not  because 
accepted  by  the  people  of  later  ages — who  rather  agreed 
with  Aristotle's  view — but  for  the  reason  that  the  idea 
was  too  striking  to  be  easily  forgotten. 

The  fact  that  we  do  not  hear  the  music  of  the  skies 
does  not  disprove  it;  because,  as  Pythagoras  said,  we  are 
accustomed  to  it  from  our  infancy,  and  modern  physi- 
cists, who  cannot,  on  the  ground  of  their  scientific 
theories,  object  to  the  possibility  of  sound  produced  by 
the  motion  of  heavenly  bodies  in  ether,  may  say  that 
at  least  the  human  ear  is  incapable  of  perceiving  sounds 
with  such  long  intervals  of  undulation. 

Interesting  though  it  may  be,  the  question  whether 
the  orbits  of  the  stars   resound  with   music   will   not  be 


34 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


included  in  this  discussion,  which  shall  be  strictly  con- 
fined to  the  consideration  of  whether  the  planets,  in 
their  circuits,  are  harmoniously  arranged.  However 
romantic  this  idea  seems  to  be,  it  is,  nevertheless,  more 
than  simple  poetry  and  it  contains  the  germ  of  a  cosmic 
truth. 

Pythagoras'  doctrine  of  the  harmony  of  spheres 
rests  on  the  theory  that  number  is  the  essence  of  tlii)igs. 
Modern  chemistry  shows  the  importance  of  the  numer- 
ical proportions  in  the  elements  of  the  different  sub- 
stances; and  more  marvelous  still,  as  we  learn  from  the 
Law  of Multiples,  the  different  chemical  combinations 
take  place  according  to  geometrical   principles. 

Of  all  geometrical  proportions  that  of  the  extreme 
and  mean  ratio  is  at  the  same  time  the  most  simple  and 
comprehensive  in  its  application.  Euclid  understood 
it  and  the  subject  is  treated  in  his  30th  proposition  of 
the  6th  book.  Owing  to  its  many  remarkable  corolla- 
ries, the  ancients  called  it  proportia  divina;  it  is 
known  in  Germany  as  the  golden  cut. 

It  depends  on  the  division  of  a  line  into  two  unequal 
parts,  in  such  proportion  that  the  smaller  segment  is  to 
the  larger  as  the  latter  is  to  the  whole.  The  rectangle 
constructed  with  the  smaller  part  and  the  whole  is  equal 
to  the  square  of  the  larger.  Again,  if  a  right-angled 
triang  e  be  erected  upon  the  whole  line,  with  its  right 
angle  situated  in  the  perpendicular  line  drawn  from  the 
point  of  division,  then  the  smaller  of  the  sides  contain- 
ing the  right  angle  is  equal  to  th  arger  portion  of  the 
line  which  is  thus  divided  in  the  mean  and  extreme  ratio. 


A  C 

I 1 

AC   :   C  B  =  B  C 


B 


1!  A. 


a 

a .  (  a  +  b  ) 

a 

b 

1 

V s 

1 
1 

a  +  b 

1 

1 

1 
1 

1 

bl 

a  .:  b  =  b   :  (a  +  b ) 

i- 

a.  (a  +  b )=b  2 

02 


\a 


U- 


A  C  B 

AC   :  C  B  =  B  C   :    B  A. 

A  D  =  C  B 


These  and  other  corollaries  are  of  great  interest  to 
mathematicians,  and  whoever  understands  something  of 
the  seductive  harmony  of  geometry  must  be  impressed 
with  its  grandeur  and  beauty,  as  other  people  are  by  the 
harmony  of  music  or  beauty  of  form,  which,  we  must 
remember,  is  merely  applied  mathematics. 

The  harmony  of  the  universe  which,  in  addition  to 
other  evidences,  favors  the  truth  of  that  philosophic 
view  which  I  call  A/onism,  is  in  its  ultimate  principles 
based  on  mathematics  and  can  be  proved  from  geomet- 
rical axioms. 

Johannes  Kepler,  the  first  strong  adherent  and  most 
powerful  defender  of  the  Copernican  system,  held,  if,  as 
Pythagoras  taught,  our  planets  in  their  circuits  round 
the  sun  move  in  rythmical  distances,  a  planet  should 
exist  between  Mars  and  Jupiter.  He  considered,  the 
space  between  their  orbits  was  too  great  to  correspond 
with  the  intervals  between  the  other  planets,  which 
revolve  around  the  sun  in  distances  regularly  increasing. 

This  suppositional  planet  could  not  be  found,  but 
Kepler  indicated  the  region  in  the  skies  in  which  it 
should  be  situated. 

Two  centuries  afterward  Kepler's  idea  was  verified ; 
for,  although  the  missing  planet  was  not  found,  a  larger 
number  of  smaller  ones,  generally  called  asteroids  or 
planetoids,  were  discovered  to  be  in  this  area.  They 
amount  to  about  300  in  number  and  are  either  a  failure 
of  a  planetary  formation  or  the  ruins  of  a  larger  body 
which,  by  some  unknown  agency,  was  shattered  into 
many  fragments. 

This  discovery,  based  upon  the  theory  of  celestial 
harmony,  revived  the  interest  in  the  law  of  proportion 
regulating  the  intervals  between  the  orbits  of  the 
heavenly  bodies. 

Professor  Titus,  of  Wittemberg,  was  the  first 
astronomer  who  hazarded  and  established  a  formula  of 
the  distances  between  the  planets.  He  said  that  in  round 
numbers  the  distance  from  the  sun  to  the  first  planet, 
Mercury,  was  S,ooo,ooo  geographical  miles  (each  geo- 
graphical mile  equaling  4.66  English  miles);  to  the 
second,  Venus,  S-\-6  million  miles;  to  the  third,  our 
Earth,  8+  (6x2);  then  to  Mars,  8+  (6x4);  to  the  Aster- 
oids, 8-)-  (6x8);  to  Jupiter,  8+  (6x  16);  to  Saturn,  8-f- 
(6x  32)  and  to  Uranus  8-f-  (6x  64)  million  miles — a  mixt- 
ure of  an  arithmetical  and  geometrical  series,  as  math- 
ematicians would  style  it. 

Facts  agreed  pretty  well  with  this  theory,  although 
there  are  trifling  differences,  and  Titus''  series,  as  it  was 
called,  served  for  a  long  time  as  an  excellent  aid  for  re- 
membering the  distances  of  the  planets  in  round  numbers. 
But  when,  in  1S46,  Gal/e,  at  that  time  director  of  the 
Observatory  in  Breslau,  discovered  the  most  remote 
planet,  Neptune,  and  calculated  that  its  distance  from 
the  sun  is  about  600,000,000  miles,  while,  according  to 
Titus,  it  should   be   over   700,000,000,  the   reliability  of 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


35 


this   series   was  destroyed   and,  consequently,  it    is   now 
regarded  by  astronomers  as  a  mere  curiosity. 

Notwithstanding  this  failure,  the  aspiration  of  find- 
ing the  law  of  the  rhythm  of  our  solar  system  was  not 
abandoned.  Professor  A.  Troska,*  ceasing  to  regard 
distances  as  the  proper  clue  to  the  solution  of  the  ques- 
tion, ventured  on  a  new  explanation,  which  he  pub- 
lished in  1S75. 

His  theory  is  that  twice  the  time  of  one  planet's  rev- 
olution is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  revolutions  of  its  two 
neighbors.  Thus,  twice  the  period  of  the  circuit  of 
Venus,  which  is  450  days,  is  approximately  equal  to  the 
revolution  of  Mercury,  its  interior  neighbor,  and  that  of 
the  Earth,  its  exterior,  for  Mercury  revolves  in  87  and 
our  Earth  in  365  days,  which  make  452.  Again,  by 
doubling  this  number  (452  X  2  =  904),  we  have  the  sum 
of  the  revolutions  of  Venus  (225)  ami  Mars  (6S6), 
which  together  are  91 1  days. 

Again,  this  number  doubled  (=1822),  is  about  equal 
to  the  addition  of  the  revolutions  of  Earth  (365)  and 
one   of  the  Asteroids  (1,500),  together  1,865  da)'s- 

This  proportion  is  also  applicable  to  the  orbits  of  the 
exterior  planets.  The  sum  total  of  the  periods  in  which 
Saturn  and  Neptune  complete  their  circuits  is  10,759-)- 
60,186  =  71,045,  which  is  nearly  equal  to  twice  the  rev- 
olution of  Uranus,  that  is,  61,374  (the  exact  period  being 
30,687). 

When  we  consider  the  entire  series  of  the  planets, 
"the  law  of  duplication"  is  still  sustained;  for  the  sum 
of  the  days  of  revolution  of  Mercury  (1),  Earth  (3), 
one  medium  Asteroid  (5),  Saturn  (7)  and  Neptune  (9), 
occupy  nearly  twice  the  period  necessary  for  the  revolu- 
tions of  the  interposed  planets — Venus  ( 2  ),  Mars  (4), 
Jupiter  (6)  and  Uranus  (8). 
Mercury S7.97  days 


Earth 365-26 

Asteroids ii5°o. 

Saturn 10,759.22 

Neptune 60,125. 


Venus 224.70  days 

Mars 6S6.9S    " 

Jupiter 4.33-59    " 

Uranus 30,686.82    " 


3S.928. 
x  2 


days 


72,836.      days  71,836.     days 

Showing  the  slight   difference  of   about  ,*,  of  the  total. 

Professor  Troska  admitted  that  this  ratio  is  only 
approximately  1:2;  if  calculated  with  more  accuracy, 
it  is  1  :  2.03. 

Other  investigators  have  approached  the  problem 
from  a  different  standpoint  and  in  the  year  1S54  an 
exceedingly  interesting  work  was  published  by  Pro- 
fessor A.  Zeising,  who  recognized  that  nature  mani- 
fested a  wonderful  tendency  to  construct  according  to 
the  proportion  of  the  extreme  and  mean  ratio.  We 
constantly  detect  the  application  of  this  law;  it  controls 


the  shape  of  many  crystals  and  flowers,  the  construc- 
tion of  animals  and  particularly  of  the  human  form. 
Wherever  a  constant  proportion  exists,  it  generally 
depends  upon  that  ratio  which  is  termed  the  golden  cut  • 
and  it  is  with  awe  and  amazement  that  we  thus  recog- 
nize the  mathematical  harmony  of  the  world. 

It  is  additionally  interesting  to  discover  that  artists 
in  their  creations  unconsciously  apply  the  same  remark- 
able principle.  In  architecture,  as  well  as  in  statuary 
and  in  painting,  as  Zeising  showed  in  the  above  men- 
tioned book,  the  proportio  divina  is  repeatedly  intro- 
duced, as  in  the  Sixtina  Madonna,  by  Raphael,  and  other 
masterpieces. 

Professor  Pfeiffer,  of  Dillingen,  lately  enlarged 
Zeising's  doctrine  and,  among  other  additional  observa- 
tions, he  corroborated  the  importance  of  this  proportion 
in  the  planetary  system.  The  apparent  lack  of  regu- 
larity in  Professor  Troska's  series  subsequently  induced 
other  scientists  to  re-investigate  the  question  and  thus 
led  to  its  final  solution. 

A  mathematician,  Dr.  M.  B.  Lersch  calculated  the 
periods  of  revolution  when  bodies  revolve  in  distances 
of  the  extreme  and  mean  ratio,  which  is  1  :  1.6 1.  Basin"- 
his  calculation  on  the  famous  law,  which  is  established 
by  Kepler,  that  the  squares  of  revolution  are  propor- 
tionate to  the  cubes  of  the  mean  distance,  he  discovered 
that  if  two  planets  move  at  distances  of  1:  1. 61,  they 
must  revolve  in  periods  which  are  as  1  :  2.03.  This 
number,  however,  agrees  better  than  Professor  Troska's 
"law  of  duplication "  with  facts  and  concurs  strictly 
with  the  ratio  of  the  periods  in  which  the  planets 
revolve.  From  this  we  may  fairly  infer  that  the  Divine 
proportion  is  the  regulative  law  of  the  circuits  of 
heavenly  bodies. 

In  consequence  of  this  consideration,  we  cannot  deny 
that  the  revolutions  of  the  fixed  stars  may  follow  the 
same  principle;  we  must  recognize  it  as  a  universal  law 
which  governs  the  movements  of  the  ponderous  masses 
of  suns  as  well  as  the  formation  of  the  tiny  limbs  of  the 
smallest  insects. 

Thus  the  harmony  of  the  cosmic  laws  mav  be  recog- 
nized as  an  established  fact;  and  the  most  advanced 
scientists  of  to-day,  like  Pythagoras  of  yore,  look  for 
explanations  of  the  problems"  of  nature  in  the  mysteries 
of  number  or  proportion. 

There  is  unity  in  the  structure  of  the  universe  and 
there  is  unison  in  the  laws  of  nature.  If  the  scientist 
presupposes  such  harmony  to  exist  universally  in  the 
domain  of  his  investigation,  he  will  never  err,  because, 
as  Plato  said,  the  Laws  of  Nature  arc  geometrical 
thoughts  of  God. 


*I  am  indebted  to  Professor  Troska  for  the  facts  here  mentioned,  through 
an  item  from  his  pen  in  Was  Ihr  Wollt,  Leipzig,  1S86. 


Conscience  does  not  come  from  natural  or  hereditary 
good,  but  from  the  doctrine  of  truth  and  good,  and  a 
life  according  thereto. — A.  C.  620S. 


36 


THE    OEEN    COURT. 


A  THEOLOGICAL  PARADOX. 

BY  MINOT  J.  SAVAGE. 

That  a  house  should  seem  to  stand  and  the  people 
continue  to  live  in  it  as  though  nothing  had  happened, 
and  this  after  all  of  its  foundations  had  been  removed — 
this  is  the  paradox  which  I  have  in  mind.  Ami  it  is 
one  of  so  striking  a  nature  that  one  will  hardly  find  it 
true  in  any  other  domain  except  that  of  theology.  So 
remarkable  a  sight  as  this  is  worth  looking  at.  Let  us, 
therefore,  consider  it  a  little  and  see  what  lessons  it  may 
have  for  us. 

The  theological  structure  which  orthodox  Chris- 
tianity has  erected  is  clear-cut  in  outline,  bound  part  to 
part,  and  thoroughly  consistent  with  itself.  As  now  we 
examine  a  few  of  the  main  features  of  the  "plan  of  sal- 
vation," all  this  will  appear. 

ist.  This  world  —  a  province  of  God's  universal 
kingdom — is  in  a  state  of  rebellion.  Every  man,  woman 
and  child  is  born  into  this  rebellious  condition.  The  state 
of  nature  is  one  of  alienation  from  God  and  all  good.  No 
matter  Low  good  a  man  may  be,  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  word,  he  is  a  rebel;  and  this  fact  taints  all  that  he 
is  or  does.  And  until  he  "throws  down  the  arms  of  his 
rebellion,"  no  natural  virtues  can  at  all  avail  to  put  him 
in  right  relations  to  God. 

This  is  perfectly  reasonable  on  this  governmental 
theory  of  the  world.  Sir  Harry  Vane's  virtues  did  not 
make  him  any  the  less  a  traitor  to  the  king.  So  it  is 
rational  and  logical  for  Mr.  Moody  to  say:  "Morality 
don't  touch  the  question  of  salvation."  Of  course  not, 
on  the  basis  of  this  supposed  theory  and  the  supposed 
facts. 

2d.  God,  against  whom  this  causeless  and  wicked 
rebellion  has  been  raised,  has  a  perfect  right  to  choose 
as  to  what  terms  he  will  require  as  the  condition  of  for- 
giveness. Man,  who  deserves  only  death,  has  nothing 
to  say  on  this  subject. 

3d.  In  order  to  maintain  the  majesty  of  his  govern- 
ment and  the  inviolability  of  his  laws,  God  is  under  the 
necessity  of  making  Mich  a  public  example  of  his  hatred 
of  sin,  as  well  as  of  his  love,  as  will  justify  in  the  eyes 
of  his  intelligent  creation  his  extending  a  free  pardon 
to  rebellious  man.  To  this  end  the  second  person  of  the 
Trinity  takes  on  human  nature  and  suffers  the  penalty  of 
the  1  roken  law.  This  secure.,  the  double  end  of  vin- 
dicating God's  justice  and  displaying  his  forgiving  love. 
4th.  Now  he  is  free  to  pardon  all  those  who  accept 
this  offering  as  made  on  their  behalf.  And  they  have 
no  right  to  complain  if  pardon  is  refused  on  any  other 
terms. 

5th.  On  this  theory  the  Church  is  made  up  of  those 
who  have  accepted  these  terms.  Such  persons  become 
the  nucleus  of  a  growing  army  of  loyalists.  It  is  their 
business  to  fight  against  whatever  tends  to  continue  this 


rebellion  and  to  do  all  they  can  to  induce  God's  enemies 
to  la'-  down  their  arms. 

6th.  Those  who  become  loyal  are  the  willing  sub- 
jects of  God's  kingdom  and  so  entitled  to  share  God's 
final  victory  and  the  blessings  of  his  heaven.  Those 
who  remain  rebellious  are  followers  and  friends  of  Satan, 
the  leader  of  God's  enemies,  and  must  expect  to  share 
his  ultimate  defeat  and  the  pains  and  penalties  of  his 
prison-house. 

This  is  the  general  scheme  of  things  on  which  all 
the  activities  of  the  Orthodox  Church  are  based. 

Now,  everybody  knows  that  the  entire  foundation 
of  this  whole  theological  structure  is  the  storv  of  the 
Garden  of  Eden  and  the  fall  of  man.  If  man  has  not 
fallen,  then  this  world  is  not  a  rebellious  province  of 
God's  great  kingdom.  If  man  is  not  fallen,  all  the 
talk  about  providing  terms  or  conditions  of  forgive- 
ness is  uncalled  for.  If  man  is  not  fallen,  there  is 
no  need  of  the  stupendous  miracle  of  an  incarnate  and 
crucified  God.  If  man  is  not  fallen,  the  radical  dis- 
tinction between  the  Church  and  the  world  '  reaks  down. 
If  man  is  not  fallen,  the  popular  dreams  of  heaven  and 
hell  are  only  dreams  and  do  not  accurately  represent  the 
future  destiny  of  man  and  woman. 

How  stands  this  question  then?  Plainly,  thus:  In 
no  civilized  country  to-day  is  there  a  bo}-  or  girl  of  four- 
teen years  of  age  who  has  not  the  means  of  knowing 
that  the  story  of  the  fall  of  man  has  no  more  reasonable- 
basis  of  belief  than  have  the  stories  of  Hercules.  Not 
only  has  it  no  rational  support,  it  is  beyond  question 
disproved.  That  is,  another  story  as  to  man's  origin 
and  nature  is  so  thoroughly  established  that,  but  for 
theological  bias,  no  intelligent  person  could  be  found  who 
would  think  for  one  moment  of  questioning  it. 

Even  the  Biblical  support  for  the  story  of  the  Fall 
is  almost  wholly  confined  to  the  theological  discussions 
of  one  man,  Paul.  T1t  older  and  greater  prophets 
say  nothing  about  it.  It  appears  in  the  Old  Testament 
only  after  the  contact  of  the  Jews  with  the  Persians,  at 
the  time  of  the  captivity.  For  all  competent  scholars 
know  that  the  early  parts  of  Genesis,  containing  the 
story,  were  not  composed  until  the  time  of  or  after  the 
captivity.  This,  then,  is  a  Pagan,  Persian  legend,  and 
only  that.  It  is  a  Pagan  way  of  trying  to  account  for 
the  sorrows  and  evils  of  life.  According  to  the  ortho- 
dox theory,  Jesus  was  God  coming  to  earth  to  save  man 
from  the  results  of  the  Fall.  And  yet,  curiously  enough, 
he  does  not  seem  to  know  anything  about  it. 

But  even  though  the  Bible  were  full  of  it,  from 
beginning  to  end,  still  we  know,  on  other  grounds,  that 
it  is  not  true.  A  belief  in  the  Ascent  of  man  has  taken 
the  place  of  a  belief  in  his  Fall  in  the  minds  of  all  free 
and  competent  students. 

Of  course,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  all  those  who  still 
believe    the  story   of  the  Fall   should    keep  on  in  their 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


37 


endeavors  to  "save"  people  after  the  old  methods.  But 
now  comes  the  wonder  of  our  theological  paradox. 
Those  who  si  ill  believe  this  story  are  not  nearly  enough 
to  continue  the  activities  of  the  Churches  on  their  present 
basis.  Thousands  of  persons  who  do  not  believe  it  at  all 
anv  longer  still  help  to  continue  all  these  old  activities 
just  as  though  nothing  had  happened.  Many  among 
those  who  do  this  are  ministers;  that  is,  they  have 
seen  the  entire  foundation  of  their  theological  house 
taken  out  and  yet  go  on  living  in  it,  and  asking  others 
to  come  into  it  for  safetv,  as  though  they  believed  it  still 
founded  on  the  everlasting  rock.  And  yet  it  ought  to 
be  plain,  to  even  the  feeblest  intellect,  that  if  this  race 
of  ours  is  not  a  "fallen"  one,  then — whatever  else  it 
may  need — it  does  not  need  to  be  "saved  from  the  effects 
of  the  Fall." 

Let  us  now  note  two  or  three  great  evils  that  result 
from  this  paradoxical  condition  of  affairs. 

ist.  It  is  kept  up  at  a  terrible  cost  of  the  sincerity  of 
those  who  are  even  "silent  partners"  to  what  must  here- 
after be  only  a  pretense,  though  ever  so  "pious"  a  one. 

2d.  Only  less  serious  than  this  is  another  evil.  If  a 
physician  thinks  a  patient  is  ill  of  a  certain  disease,  of 
course  he  will  treat  him  for  that.  But  should  he  find 
out  that  the  disease  was  of  entirely  another  character, 
what  would  he  do?  And  what  would  people  be  justi- 
fied in  saying  if  he  should  keep  on  doctoring  him  for 
the  first  supposed  disease?  If  the  human  race  has 
fallen,  and  the  old  theory  about  it  is  true,  then,  of 
course,  a  certain  method  of  treatment  is  rational  and 
helpful.  But  if  it  has  not,  and  the  old  theory  is  not 
true,  then  the  old  treatment  is  not  only  injurious,  but  it 
stands  square  in  the  way  of  such  a  course  of  medicine  as 
might  put  the  patient  on  his  feet.  Consider,  therefore, 
the  waste  of  time,  of  money,  of  thought,  of  devotion 
and  enthusiasm  that  has  been  going  on  for  a  thousand 
vears.  That  the  world  has  gradually  been  improving 
is  no  justification  of  these  theories.  For,  in  the  first 
place,  it  has  improved  more  rapidly  by  as  much  as  these 
old  beliefs  have  become  less  and  less  influential.  And,  in 
the  second  place,  patients  often  improve  in  spite  of,  and  not 
because  of,  their  doctors.  And,  in  the  third  place,  dur- 
ing the  periods  of  the  most  rapid  improvement,  a 
thousand  other  agencies  have  been  at  work,  through  the 
activity  of  thousands  who  had  rejected  the  old  beliefs. 

If  only  all  the  intelligence,  the  time  and  the  money 
of  the  civilized  world  (which  are  now  wasted  on  the  old 
methods)  could  be  directed  to  finding  and  curing  the 
real  evils  of  the  world,  the  long-dreamed-of  "kingdom 
of  God  "  (the  real  kingdom  of  man)  might  be  brought 
to  pass  in  a  single  century.  In  the  nature  of  things 
there  is  no  reason  why  this  old  world  should  not  become 
a  garden,  filled  with  intelligent  and  happy  peoples. 

In  giving  up  the  dreams  and  legends  of  the  past, 
nothing  is  lost  but  illusions;  and  what  is  found  is  "the 


truth  that" — in  old  theological  phrase — "is  able  to 
make  men  wise  unto  salvation."  And  this  salvation  is 
from  the  real  evils  that  destroy  human  happiness  and 
human  life,  and  not  from  shadows. 


MONISM    IN    MODERN    PHILOSOPHY  AND    THE 
AGNOSTIC  ATTITUDE   OF  MIND. 

BY    EDMUND   MONTGOMERY. 
Part  I!. 

And  now  to  Schelling's  Monism,  which,  together 
with  Hegel's,  fruitfully  and  nobly  inspired  so  many 
minds,  but,  it  must  be  confessed,  also  deranged  not  a  few. 

Drawing  strength  from  Kant,  from  neo-Platonic  tra- 
ditions, from  the  great  mystic,  Jacob  Boehme,  from  Bruno 
and  from  Spinoza,  Schelling  worked  out  a  monistic 
system  of  transcendental  realism.  Transcendental  real- 
ism it  has  been  called,  because  it  assumes  that  the  object- 
ive world  is  not  merely  a  product  of  thought,  but  that  it 
pre-exists  as  eternal  reality  within  the  source  of  all 
being.  When  the  creative  Ego,  by  force  of  its  pro- 
ductive imagination,  evolves  the  world,  as  Fichte 
taught,  surely  it  does  not  evolve  it  at  random  out  of 
nothing  but  mere  fancy.  The  process  of  mental 
realization  can  lie  only  a  bringing  into  consciousness 
of  some  definite  content  already  subsisting  in  the 
depth  of  being.  On  the  one  side  there  is  the  power  of 
consciously  realizing  this  content;  but  on  the  other  side 
there  is  the  content  itself.  Both  these  moments,  sub- 
ject and  object,  the  ideal  and  the  real,  spirit  and  nature, 
are  thus  identical  and  constitute  together  the  absolute 
reality,  which  is  the  all-containing  and  ail-efficient  matrix 
of  whatever  there  is  in  existence.  We  find,  then,  two 
different  propensities  operative  in  the  absolute.  The 
one  "positive,  real,  productive,  realizing  the  infinite  in 
the  finite.  The  other  negative,  limiting,  ideal,  redissolv- 
ing  the  finite  into  the  infinite."  The  former  in  it> 
manifestations  constitutes  the  realm  of  nature,  the  latter 
that  of  intelligence;  both  together,  our  known  world. 

In  this  kind  of  world-conception  a  source  of  being, 
potentially  containing  everything,  is  presupposed  and 
treated  as  a  logical  totality,  from  which  any  sort  of  par- 
ticular configuration  of  concepts  may  be  conveniently 
deduced.  And  the  interest  we  may  take  in  such  an 
interpretation  of  nature  depends  thus  wholly  on  the 
genius  of  the  propounder  and  very-  little  on  the  actual 
truth  of  nature  itself.  The  logical  drift  of  all  systems  of 
transcendental  realism  is  to  conceive  the  source  of  being 
as  unconscious.  Hartmann,  in  our  time,  has  made  this 
conception  the  central  idea  of  his  system,  a  Monism  of 
unconscious,  transcendental  will,  logically  evolving  the 
world. 

Hegel,  the  classical  propounder  of  transcendental 
Idealism,  is  an  extreme  representative  of  the  anti-natural- 
istic mode  of  interpreting  nature.  His  system  is  unmiti- 
gated   Panlogism,  a    Monism    of    self-evolving    logical 


3« 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


reason,  of  the  formal,  deductive  sort.  Thought,  with 
Hegel,  is  uncompromisingly  identical  with  being.  The 
task  he  proposes  is  to  gain  an  understanding  of  the  all- 
comprehending  ground  of  such  being,  which  ground  he 
unhesitatingly  pronounces  to  be  eternal  and  absolute 
reason  and  nothing  else.  To  be  able  to  accomplish  this 
task,  we  have  to  place  ourselves  in  an  attitude  of  expect- 
ancy and  observation,  merely  noticing  and  confirming 
with  our  discoursive  reason  the  self-unfolding  of  the 
content  of  absolute  reason.  This  occurs  by  dint  of  a 
dialectical  process,  which  begins  with  the  most  compre- 
hensive concept  coming  into  ken  and  bringing  with  it 
its  equally  comprehensive  negative.  The  synthesis  of 
this  thesis  and  antithesis  evolves  a  less  comprehensive 
but  more  concrete  concept,  which  again  brings  with  it 
its  negative  and  so  on  and  on,  till  the  most  concrete 
concepts  are  reached.  The  keeping  in  mind,  then,  as 
much  as  possible,  of  the  whole  series  of  evolved  concepts, 
together  with  the  manifold  relations  they  bear  to  one 
another,  and  unifying  the  whole  in  as  complete  an  "idea" 
as  we  can  form — in  proportion  as  we  succeed  in  this 
our  individual  reason  approaches  absolute  reason. 

Hegelianism  has  indulged  in  such  absurd  abuses  of 
productive  imagination  that  it  is  no  wonder  it  became 
the  laughing  stock  of  natural  science.  But  the  idea  of 
the  universal  reason  progressively  evolving  itself  in  the 
revealed  world,  imparted  suddenly  meaning  and  order 
to  the  scattered,  disconnected  and  seemingly  purposeless 
facts  of  human  history.  And  it  is  chiefly  to  this  Hegelian 
"idea"  that  we  owe  the  manifold  and  very  successful 
attempts  to  discover  in  the  records  of  the  past  the  course 
of  development  in  human  affairs. 

Pessimism  is,  in  truth,  the  consistent  practical  outcome 
of  any  kind  of  system,  assuming  as  pre-existent  an  all- 
containing  and  all-efficient  potency,  through  whose 
affections,  emanations,  manifestations  or  creations  our 
known  world  comes  into  being.  For,  according  to  our 
moral  standard,  the  production  of  something  not  only 
infinitely  lower  than  its  producer,  but  destined,  more- 
over, to  pass  through  a  life  full  of  strife  and  misery, 
must  be  looked  upon  as  a  most  grievous  and  deplorable 
misdeed,  to  be  atoned  for  only  by  utter  inhibition  of  the 
mischievous  activity.  This  sentiment,  finding  expression 
in  one  form  or  another,  has  played  a  very  prominent 
part  in  religious  life.  Its  awful  implications  seized  hold 
of  and  goaded  almost  to  misanthropic  madness  the 
impetuously  emotional  mind  of   Schopenhauer. 

Deep  down  at  the  root  of  our  being,  where  Kant 
had  shown  that  our  innermost  nature,  the  intelligible,  or, 
far  more  truly,  the  volitional  Ego,  issues  with  its  power 
of  free  causation  into  manifest  existence,  morally  to  con- 
trol and  to  overcome  the  baneful  enchainment  of  natural 
events,  into  whose  torturing  meshes  its  own  pernicious 
cupidity  had  entangled  itself;  there,  at  the  root  of  our  own 
and  of  all  being,  the  blissful  peace  of  eternal  tranquillity 


was  ruthlessly  broken  and  convulsed  by  that  enormous 
guilt  that  brought  in  its  train  a  world  of  endless  suffering 
— the  life-creating,  malefic  guilt  that,  with  blind  and  friv- 
olous desire,  followed  the  treacherous  allurements  of 
temporal  existence. 

This  is  the  central  idea  of  the  Monisn  of  Will,  the 
philosophical  enunciation  of  which  filled  the  life  of  that 
strange  human  being,  who  fretted  through  his  allotted 
span  of   time   under  the  name  of  Arthur  Schopenhauer. 

Hume  was  the  first  to  draw  prominent  attention  to 
one  of  the  most  significant  of  all  contrasts,  the  one, 
namely,  obtaining  between  the  logical  nexus  connecting 
ideas,  and  the  causal  nexus  connecting  matters  of  fact. 
The  former  is  purely  analytical,  the  latter  altogether 
synthetical.  Kant  made  this  all-important  distinction 
the  pivot  of  his  entire  philosophy.  Before  him  all 
thinkers  had  proceeded  according  to  the  logical,  analyti- 
cal method.  They  endeavored  to  evolve  the  particu- 
lars of  knowledge  from  a  pre-existing,  all-including 
totality.  Kant  set  about  constructing  knowledge  from 
the  scattered  and  unconnected  particulars  given  to  sense 
by  dint  of  definite  combining  powers,  with  which  our 
mind  finds  itself  endowed. 

Kant,  in  spite  of  most  strenuous  efforts,  could  not 
see  his  way  to  a  monistic  system  on  this  basis,  for — and 
this  is  the  emphatic  conclusion  of  his  entire  theoretical 
philosophy — the  combining  faculties  of  our  mind  refuse 
to  work  on  any  kind  of  material  which  is  not  given 
through  the  senses.  How  this  sense-material  is  actually 
given  remains  to  Kant  as  enigmatical  as  to  the  philos- 
ophers of  the  seventeenth  century,  only  their  world  of 
extended  material  things  outside  the  mind  has  become 
to  Kant  a  world  of  unknown  things-in-themselves,  and 
this  through  the  discovery  of  the  mental  constitution  of 
sensible  qualities  and  of  time  and  space. 

Now,  on  the  strength  of  Kant's  assumption  of  a  syn- 
thetical power  of  a  purely  mental  or  spiritual  nature, 
our  neo-Kantians,  probably  at  present  the  most  influen- 
tial school  of  thinkers,  are  teaching  a  spiritual  Monism, 
which  generally  goes  by  the  name  of  Transcendental 
Idealism,  but  which  is  distinguished  from  Hegel's 
Transcendental  Idealism  by  being  synthetical  instead  of 
analytical.  They  simply  deny  that  any  sense-material 
is  given  from  outside.  All  our  conscious  states,  even 
the  most  elementary,  are  already  through  and  through 
synthetical  products,  and  form  in  every  respect  inte- 
grant parts  of  one  and  the  same  unitary  consciousness. 
And,  as  the  combining  and  conscious  power  is  of  a 
mental  or  spiritual  nature,  it  follows  that  the  entire  con- 
tent of  consciousness  must  necessarily  be  a  product  of 
that  synthetizing  power.  Thought  is  then  identical 
with  being. 

Truth  or  knowledge  is  the  rethinking  on  our  part 
of  the  eternal  thought  of  the  universal  intelligence.  And 
as  thought  is  identical  with  being,  it  is  clear  that  so  far 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


o9 


as  our  thought  has  become  identical  with  the  divine 
thought,  we  have  ourselves  become  divine  beings. 

This  monistic  system  is  incontestable,  as  soon  as  we 
admit  that  the  only  synthetizing  power  in  the  world  is 
intelligence.  But  it  is  obvious  enough  that  intelligence, 
as  such,  has  not  the  very  slightest  power  to  originate 
and  to  endow  with  efficiency  the  forces  that  make  up 
our  real  world. 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  under  the  inspiration  of  the 
two  great  generalizations  of  our  scientific  era,  the  inter- 
convertibility  of  forces  and  the  evolution-hypothesis,  has 
worked  out  with  most  comprehensive  grasp,  profound 
penetration  and  exquisitely  subtle  thought  that  great  sys- 
tem of  "  Synthetic  Philosophy,"  which  we  all  so  highly 
admire.  Following  with  genuine  philosophical  zest  the 
monistic  bent,  he  has  also  attempted  to  crown  the  whole 
majestic  structure  by  an  all-comprehensive  outlook, 
showing  how  the  infinite  variety  of  physical  and  mental 
phenomena  forming  our  manifest  world  all  issue  from 
one  single  absolute  power.  According  to  this  concep- 
tion, all  physical  occurrences,  as  well  as  all  mental  states, 
are  but  so  many  different  modes  of  this  one  Absolute. 

Now,  it  is  evident  to  Mr.  Spencer  himself  that  the 
only  immediate  knowledge  we  have  of  the  physical 
world  consists  in  mental  states  of  our  own.  ff,  then, 
as  Mr.  Spencer  teaches,  these  mental  states  are  them- 
selves really  modes  of  the  eternal  power,  on  which  they 
would  then  entirely  depend,  there  is  not  the  slightest 
reason  why  we  should  assume,  moreover,  another  sec- 
ond source  of  dependence  outside  that  power.  We 
would  then  see  all  things  directly  in  and  through  the 
only  and  infinite  source  of  existence  —  this  being 
exactly  what  Father  Malebranche  once  taught.  Our 
mental  states,  in  all  their  diversity  and  complexity, 
including  every  kind  of  awareness  of  our  own  exist- 
ence and  nature,  body  and  all,  would  then  be  nothing  but 
passively-received  flashes  of  revelation,  coming  to  us 
from  the  impenetrable  depth  of  the  all-efficient  but 
unknowable  energy. 

This  is  one  of  the  ways  of  showing  the  utter  unten- 
ability  of  Mr.  Spencer's  Monism  of  the  Unknowable. 
There  are  other  ways,  which  we  will,  however,  not  at 
present  follow. 

The  truth  is,  our  conscious  states  are  in  no  wise 
modes  of  any  infinite  and  eternal  power,  whether 
knowable  or  unknowable.  They  are  simply  that 
which  science  proves  them  to  be,  namely,  very  definite 
functions  of  a  most  specific  organ — an  organ  minutely 
and  accurately  known  by  us  in  a  symbolical  manner 
within  our  own  perception,  but  whose  intimate  nature 
as  a  thing-in-itself  remains,  thus  far,  entirely  unknown. 
This  is  evidently  the  actual  state  of  things.  Why 
should  we  want  to  make  it  appear  otherwise? 

Professor  Bain  has  likewise  sought  to  establish  a 
monistic  view    of  matter  and  mind,  and  this  within  the 


limits  of  the  subjective  idealism  of  the  association-phi- 
losophy; a  system  of  thought  which,  in  its  entire  scope, 
he  has  elaborated  with  consummate  psychological  tact, 
extensive  knowledge  and  admirable  accuracy  of  obser- 
vation and  statement.  With  him  matter  and  mind  are 
only  different  expressions  for  objective  and  subjective 
consciousness,  the  former  having  extension,  the  latter 
being  extensionless.  The  same  being  or  substance  is 
"by  alternate  fits  object  and  subject,"  experiencing  at 
one  time  extended,  at  another  time  unextended  con- 
sciousness. We  have,  then,  "  one  substance  with  two 
sets  of  properties,  the  physical  and  the  mental — a  double- 
faced  unit)  ." 

As  this  two-sided  monistic  manifestation  of  many 
things  and  feelings  takes  place  altogether  within  our 
own  individual  consciousness,  we  are  naturally  some- 
what curious  to  know  whether  there  are  other  double- 
faced  beings  in  existence  besides  ourselves;  also 
whether  there  are  things  outside  our  consciousness 
corresponding  to  its  material  perceptions.  And,  if  so, 
we  wish  to  gain  some  little  insight  how  all  these  double 
and  single-faced  substances  come  in  reality  to  be  inter- 
dependent parts  of  one  and  the  same  world.  Perhaps 
some  one  some  day  will  inform  us. 

Materialism  is  ill  adapted  for  monistic  purposes.  Its 
presupposition  has  to  be  dualistic.  It  must  start  either 
with  ultimate  elements  of  matter  and  force,  or  with 
ultimate  quantities  of  mass  and  motion.  When  it 
transcends  its  realism,  it  becomes  something  quite  differ- 
ent, something  that  generally  goes  by  the  name  of 
Dynamism.  We  have,  then,  in  existence  only  the  recip- 
rocal play  of  immaterial  forces,  usually  conceived  as  a 
plenum  of  energies,  irradiating  from  centers  of  power. 
On  such  a  foundation,  Priestley  already  sought  to  estab- 
lish a  monistic  view  of  body  and  mind,  and  this  by  means 
of  the  very  simple  device  of  making  mental  efficiencies 
form  part  of  the  forces,  that  in  their  interaction  consti- 
tute the  world.  Many  thinkers  have  followed  his 
example,  and,  of  course,  one  cannot  be  much  astonished 
to  find  individual  power-complexes  display  mental  prop- 
erties when  one  has  oneself  introduced  these  very  prop- 
erties into  their  constituent  elements. 


The  Brooklyn  Citizen,  after  examining  the  official 
reports  of  the  standing  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church 
in  this  country,  published  in  Sadlier^s  Catholic  Direct- 
ory for  1887,  says: 

Boston,  the  metropolitan  see,  to  which  the  other  two  dioceses 
of  Massachusetts  are  suffragan,  has  400,000  Catholics.  Truly  is 
"  the  Boston  of  Collins  and  O'Brien  "  not  "  the  city  of  Winthrops 
and  the  Puritans."  Last  year  there  were  born  there  over  eleven 
thousand  children,  and  of  this  number  over  seven  thousand  were 
Catholics.  "  A  steady  annual  growth  of  seven  in  eleven,"  says 
the  Boston  Pilot,  "independent  of  the  gain  by  immigration,  will, 
in  the  course  of  one  generation,  make  Boston  the  most  distinctly 
Catholic  city  in  the  world." 


4° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published  every  other  Thursday  at   169  to   175  La  Salle  Street  (Nixon 
Building',  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
for  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fiftv  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  MARCH  3,   18S7. 

DARWIN  AND   HIS  WORK. 

Charles  Darwin,  the  great  naturalist,  died  on 
Wednesday,  April  19th,  1SS2,  at  his  quiet  home  at 
Down,  England.  So  retired  was  the  life  led  by  him, 
that  not  until  two  days  after  his  death  did  the  news 
reach  the  London  papers,  but  everywhere,  as  soon 
as  the  sad  fact  was  announced,  then,  was  a  sponta- 
neous outburst  of  loving  regret  from  the  people  of 
every  nation  where  his  work  was  known.  Rarely 
in  the  world's  history  has  a  man  of  science  been  so 
wide''  co  nized  during  his  lifetime,  or  so  sincerely 
mourned  at  the  time  of  his  death.  His  own  country- 
men sh  ,vi  d  him  all  the  honor  possible,  in  a  national 
way,  by  claiming  fur.  and  awarding  him,  a  place 
among  their  immortals  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and 
among  his  coffin-bearers  were  the  great  scientists, 
Wallace,  Hooker,  Huxley,  Lubbock,  and  others  as 
distinguished. 

Soon   after   his   death   the  general  desire  to  show 


honor  to  his  memory  for  his  grand  work  of  enlight- 
enment found  expression  in  a  Darwin  fund,  to  which 
came  contributions  from  Austria,  Belgium,  Brazil, 
Denmark,  France,  Germany,  Holland,  Italy,  Norway, 
Portugal,  Russia,  Spain,  Sweden,  Switzerland  and 
the  United  States,  in  addition  to  what  was  given  by 
his  own  nation  and  its  colonies.  A  part  of  this  large 
fund  was  used  in  the  erection  of  a  commemorative 
statue,  while  the  surplus  is  held  in  trust  by  the 
Royal  Society  of  Great  Britain  to  be  used  in  the 
promotion  of  biological  research. 

The  statue,  when  completed,  was  unveiled  in  the 
great  hall  of  the  Natural  History  Rooms  of  the 
British  Museum,  on  the  9th  of  June,  1S85,  the 
addresses  being  made  by  Prof.  Huxley,  in  presenta- 
tion, and  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  acceptance  for 
the  Museum.  It  is  recorded  that  on  that  occasion 
"around  the  statue  were  congregated  the  most  repre- 
sentative men  of  every  branch  of  culture,  from  the 
Prince  of  Wales  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to 
,  the  opposite  extremes  of  radicalism  and  free  thought. 
Indeed,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  there  can 
scarcely  ever  have  been  an  occasion  on  which  so 
many  illustrious  men  of  opposite  ways  of  think- 
ing have  met  to  express  a  common  agreement  upon 
a  man  to  whom  they  felt  that  honor  was  due." 

What  were  the  services  which  commanded  for 
this  modest,  unpretentious  student  this  world-wide 
admiration  and  appreciation?  He  had,  living,  made 
no  claims  to  superiority  of  intellect  or  knowledge;  he 
was  a  man  of  domestic  tastes,  quiet  habits  and  unas- 
suming mode  of  life.  He  had  never  been  prominent 
on  public  occasions,  was  rarely  heard  at  great  din- 
ner parties;  he  cared  nothing  whatever  for  the  world 
of  fashion,  was  no  authority  on  art,  shone  little  in 
the  phosphorescent  light  of  belles-lettres.  Huxley 
answers  our  question  in  his  address  in  behalf  of  the 
Darwin  Memorial  Committee:  "The  causes  of  this 
wide  outburst  of  emotion  are  not  far  to  seek,"  he 
said.  "We  had  lost  one  of  those  rare  ministers  and 
interpreters  of  nature  whose  names  mark  epochs  in 
the  advance  of  natural  knowledge.  For  whatever 
be  the  ultimate  verdict  of  posterity  upon  this  or 
that  opinion  which  Mr.  Darwin  propounded;  what- 
ever adumbrations  or  anticipations  of  his  doctrines 
may  be  found  in  the  writings  of  his  predecessors, 
the  broad  fact  remains  that  since  the  publication, 
and  by  reason  of  the  publication,  of  'The  Origin  of 
Species'  the  fundamental  conceptions  and  the  aims 
of  the  students  of  living  nature  have  been  completely 
changed.  From  that  work  has  sprung  a  great 
renewal,  a  true  'instauratio  magna'  of  the  zoological 
and  botanical  sciences.  *  *  *  The  impulse  thus 
given  to  scientific  thought  rapidly  spread  beyond  the 
ordinarily  recognized  limits  of  biology.    Psychology, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


41 


ethics,  cosmology,  were  stirred  to  their  foundation, 
and  'The  Origin  of  Species  '  proved  itself  to  be  the 
fixed  point  which  the  general  doctrine  of  evolution 
needed  to  move  the  world." 

Intellectually,  Darwin  was  of  royal  pedigree  and 
family.  His  paternal  grandfather,  Dr.  Erasmus 
Darwin,  was  one  of  the  pioneer  teachers  of  the  theory 
of  evolution  long  before  his  illustrious  grandson  was 
born;  he  was  a  thinker,  philosopher  and  poet,  author 
of  "  Zoonomia,"  "The  Botanic  Garden,"  "The 
Temple  of  Nature,"  and  other  works.  His  great- 
grandfather, Robert  Darwin,  is  described  in  local 
records  as  "  a  person  of  curiosity,"  with  "  a  taste  for 
literature  and  science,"  and  "  an  embryo  geologist." 
His  grand-uncle,  Robert  Darwin,  was  the  author  of  a 
work  on  botany  of  considerable  repute.  His  father, 
Robert  Waring  Darwin,  was  a  physician  of  eminence 
at  Shrewsbury  and  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society. 
His  father's  brother,  Sir  Francis  Darwin,  was  noted 
as  a  keen  observer  of  animals.  Another  uncle, 
Charles  Darwin,  who  died  at  twenty-one,  was  author  of 
a  valuable  medical  work.  His  mother,  who  died  while 
he  was  yet  a  child,  was  a  daughter  of  the  famous 
potter,  Josiah  Wedgewood,  a  careful  and  painstaking 
observer.  Among  his  cousins,  on  the  mother's  side, 
were  Hensleigh  Wedgewood,  the  Philologist,  Sir 
Henry  Holland,  and  Francis  Galton,the  scientist  and 
authority  on  heredity..  His  wife  was  a  Miss  Wedge- 
wood,  his  cousin,  and  his  sons  are  eminent  in 
science. 

But  not  wholly  to  pedigree  or  family  predilections 
is  the  work  and  fame  of  Darwin  due.  That,  in  great 
part,  is  owing  to  rare  personal  qualifications — to  his 
unswerving  devotion  to  the  study  of  Nature,  to  his 
phenomenal  patience,  to  his  careful  observation,  to 
his  unwearied  perseverance  and  continuity  of  pur- 
pose, to  his  generous  recognition  of  fellow-students, 
to  his  genuine  and  rare  modest}',  and  to  his  grandly 
simple  rectitude  of  character. 

Charles  Robert  Darwin — the  Darwin  of  the  Dar- 
wins — was  born  at  Shrewsbury,  England,  February 
12th,  1809.  His  family  were  in  good  circumstances, 
and  no  unpropitious  "environments"  hindered  his 
natural  bent  toward  scientific  investigation.  Family 
connections,  neighborhood  tendencies,  and  inherited 
proclivities  combined  to  make  him  the  fine  character 
he  was. 

His  scholastic  education  commenced  at  Shrews- 
bury, where,  as  a  school-boy,  "  coming  events  cast 
their  shadows  before,"  in  his  delight  in  collecting 
shells,  minerals,  eggs,  coins,  etc.,  showing  his  bias 
toward  investigation  and  classification.  At  sixteen  he 
was  sent  to  the  University  at  Edinburgh,  where  one  of 
his  earliest  papers,  prepared  for  an  Academical 
Society,  was  on  "The  Floating  Eggs  of  the  Common 


Sea-Mat,"   setting  forth  his  discovery  of   organs    of 
locomotion  in  this  low  form  of  marine  life. 

From  1S27  to  1S31  he  was  a  student  at  Christ 
College,  Cambridge,  where  he  was  fortunate  in  having 
the  companionship  and  guidance  of  such  thinkers  as 
Prof.  Henslow,  Airy,  Sidgwick,  Ramsay  and  others. 

He  was  only  twenty-two,  an  age  at  which  most 
young  men  are  busy  "  sowing  their  wild  oats,"  when 
the  chance  of  accompanying  Capt.  Fitzroy,  on  the 
government  ship  Beagle,  on  a  voyage  of  scientific 
discovery  round  the  world,  was  presented  to  him. 
Though  he  understood  that  the  trip  would  be  of 
several  years  duration,  and  might  be  in  some  respects 
dangerous;  though  his  services  were  to  be  gratuitous 
(with  the  privilege  only  of  retaining  as  his  own  the 
specimens  collected  on  the  trip),  yet  he  eagerly 
accepted  the  opportunity;  and  his  five  years  of  exile 
from  home  and  friends  were  years  of  delight  to  his 
soul,  and  during  those  years  was  laid  the  foundation 
of  all  his  noble  after-work  of  discover}'  and  experi- 
ment. His  work  as  a  writer  began  when,  after  his 
return,  he  contributed  three  volumes  to  the  series 
recording  the  observations  made  during  the  voyage 
of  the  Beagle — "  Volcanic  Islands,"  "  Geological 
Observations  on  South  America,"  and  his  valuable 
Essay  on  "  Coral  Reefs." 

Three  years  after  his  return,  at  the  age  of  thirty, 
he  married  a  cousin,  Miss  Emma  Wedgewood, 
daughter  of  his  uncle  Josiah  Wedgewood.  Within 
a  few  years  of  his  marriage  he  built  his  family  man- 
sion at  Down  and  instituted  the  beginnings  of  his 
series  of  practical  experiments,  the  results  of  which, 
when  long  afterward  presented  to  the  public  in  his 
"Origin  of  Species,"  were  accepted  as  indisputable 
testimony  to  the  truth  of  what  had  been  until  then 
held  as  theory  only,  but  which,  when  thus  fortified, 
was  accepted  by  the  world  at  large,  as  well  as  by 
brother  scientists,  as  incontrovertible  and  demon- 
strated truth. 

He  gave  the  best  years  of  his  life  to  these  experi- 
ments, forsaking  for  them  all  public  emoluments 
and  honors,  and  all  other  pursuits.  "Early  to  bed 
and  early  to  rise;  wandering  unseen  among  the  lanes 
and  paths,  or  riding  slowly  on  his  favorite  black  cob, 
the  great  Naturalist  passed  forty  years  happily  and 
usefully  at  Down,  where  all  the  village  knew  and 
loved  him,"  wrote  Grant  Allen;  yet,  every  day  prob- 
ably, in  all  these  years,  he  was,  with  deliberation, 
with  careful  exactness  and  thoughtful  judgment, 
making  experiments  of  all  kinds  with  plants,  insects, 
birds  and  animals;  browsing  in  all  the  highways  and 
byways  of  literature  and  ferreting  out  the  secrets  of 
individual  experience  for  facts  bearing  on  the  subjects 
in  mind;  trying  in  every  thinkable  way  to  test  the 
accuracv  of  his  biological  surmises.     His  admiring 


42 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


and  admirable  friend  and  scientific  compeer,  Alfred 
R.  Wallace,  says,  on  this  point,  that  soon  after  his 
return  from  his  memorable  Beagle  voyage  "he  had 
already  perceived  that  no  explanation  but  some  form 
of  the  derivation  or  development  hypothesis,  as  it 
was  then  termed,  would  adequately  explain  the 
remarkable  facts  of  distribution  and  geological  suc- 
cession which  he  had  observed  during  his  voyage, 
yet  he  tells  us  that  he  worked  on  for  five  years  before 
he  allowed  himself  to  speculate  on  the  subject,  and 
then,  having  formulated  his  provisional  hypothesis  in 
a  definite  shape  during  the  next  two  years,  he 
devoted  fifteen  years  or  more  to  continuous  observa- 
tion, experiment  and  literary  research,  before  he 
gave  to  the  astonished  scientific  world  an  abstract  of 
his  theory  in  all  its  wide-embracing  scope  and  vast 
array  of  evidence  in  his  epoch-making  volume,  "The 
Origin  of  Species."  If  we  add  to  the  period  enume- 
rated above,  the  five  years  of  observation  and  study 
during  the  voyage,  we  find  that  this  work  was  the 
outcome  of  twenty-nine  years  of  continuous  thought 
and  labor  by  one  of  the  most  patient,  most  truth- 
loving  and  most  acute  intellects  of  our  age." 

Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  with  a  modesty  charac- 
teristic of  both  himself  and  Darwin,  omits  to  state,  in 
the  sketch  from  which  the  foregoing  paragraph  is 
taken,  that  the  publication  of  the  "Origin  of  Species" 
was  hastened  because  of  a  striking  memoir  which  he 
(then  absent  on  a  voyage  of  tropical  discovery)  had 
sent  on  to  Darwin  in  1S58,  with  a  request  that  he  for- 
ward it  to  Sir  Charles  Lyell  for  presentation  to  the 
Linnean  Society.  To  Darwin's  surprise  he  found,  on 
reading  it,  that  it  contained  his  own  theory  of  natural 
selection,  not  worked  out  in  detail  as  he  himself  was 
working  it  out,  but  still  complete  in  spirit  and 
essence.  Sir  Charles  Lyell  and  Sir  Joseph  Hooker, 
who  were  aware  of  Darwin's  own  unpublished  work, 
both  urged  him  to  publish  a  few  extracts  from  that 
work  in  the  same  journal  in  which  Wallace's  paper 
was  to  appear,  and  the  two  contributions  were  read 
together  before  the  Linnean  Society,  July  1,  1858. 
"That  double  communication"  says  Grant  Allen, 
"marks  the  date  of  the  birth  of  modern  evolution- 
ism." Darwin  decided  that  it  was  time  to  give  to 
the  world  some  of  the  results  of  his  experiments 
with  his  conclusions  in  regard  to  them  and  "The 
Origin  of  Species"  was  published  in  November  of 
the  following  year,  1859.  Says  the  writer  last  quoted 
from,  "that  book  was  one  of  the  greatest,  the  most 
learned,  the  most  lucid,  the  most  logical,  the  most 
crushing,  the  most  conclusive  that  the  world  has  ever 
yet  seen.  Step  by  step,  and  principle  by  principle, 
it  proved  every  point  in  its  progress  triumphantly 
before  it  went  on  to  demonstrate  the  next." 

The    work     excited     immediate      attention     and 


aroused  hot  discussion,  and  in  less  than  six  weeks 
after  its  publication  was  in  such  demand  that  it  had 
become  famous  and  a  second  edition  was  called  for 
and  put  upon  the  market.  Darwin  was  over  fifty 
when  "  The  Origin  of  Species  "  was  published.  It  was 
to  have  been  one  of  a  long  series  which  he  contem- 
plated, but  ill  health  prevented  him  from  finishing  that 
series  to  his  own  satisfaction  before  his  death,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-three,  though  doubtless  the  most  im- 
portant ones  were  given  to  the  public, since  other  scien- 
tists, by  their  work  in  the  same  direction,  filled  up  the 
gap  thus  left.  In  spite  of  his  constant  work  and 
study  Darwin  was  for  a  great  part  of  his  life  a  semi- 
invalid,  but  he  made  every  moment  of  available  time 
of  purpose  to  science.  Among  the  works  published 
by  him  were  "The  Descent  of  Man,"  which  awoke 
still  further  opposition  and  discussion  from  orthodox 
thinkers,  though  the  battle  had  been  in  effect  won 
by  the  earlier  work,  "  The  Variation  of  Animals  and 
Plants  Under  Domestication,"  "  Emotional  Expres- 
sions of  Man  and  the  Lower  Animals,"  "  Insectivo- 
rous Plants,"  "  Fertilization  of  Orchids,"  "  Move 
ment  and  Habits  of  Climbing  Plants,"  "  The  Effect 
of  Cross  and  Self  Fertilization,"  "  Power  of  Move- 
ment in  Plants,"  and  "The  Formation  of  Vegetable 
Mould  Through  the  Action  of  Worms."  In  regard 
to  this  last  work  it  may  be  noted  as  an  instance  of 
his  remarkably  painstaking  experimenting,  that 
having  early  had  his  attention  called  to  the  subject, 
from  a  suggestion  from  his  father-in-law,  Josiah 
Wedgewood,  soon  after  he  built  his  family  man- 
sion at  Down,  in  1842,  he  began  to  spread  broken 
chalk  over  a  certain  field,  which  he  let  remain  undis- 
turbed to  the  action  of  earth-worms  until  1S71,  when 
a  trench  was  dug  to  test  the  results,  an  experiment 
taking  twenty-nine  years! 

His  experiments  were  never  absent  from  his 
thoughts.  In  his  garden  and  his  conservatory  some 
of  these  were  ever  in  progress.  Col.  Higginson  tells 
us  how,  on  a  certain  visit  to  Darwin,  when  he 
remained  over  night,  he  happened  to  look  out  of  his 
window  very  early  in  the  morning  and  "  seeing  him 
hurrying  in  from  the  remoter  part  of  the  green  gar- 
den with  a  great  shawl  wrapped  around  his  head,  his 
white  hair  and  beard  emerging  from  it — a  singularly 
unconscious,  absorbed,  eager  figure.  I  asked  his  son 
afterward  what  his  father  was  out  there  at  that  time 
in  the  morning  for  in  his  impaired  condition  of 
health?  '  O,  yes,'  said  his  son,  'he  is  always  at  it. 
He  always  says  he  is  not  doing  anything  at  all.  But 
he  always  has  one  of  his  little  experiments,  as  he 
calls  them,  going  on  out  there  in  the  garden,  and  he 
has  to  look  at  them  two  or  three  times  every  night.' " 

Every  one  who  ever  met  the  great  Naturalist — 
lofty  and  noble  in  figure,  as  in  mind — bears  testimony 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


43 


to  his  lovable  qualities.  "  To  that  charming  candor 
anil  delightful  unostentatiousness  which  everybody 
must  have  noticed  in  his  published  writings,"  says 
Mr.  Allen,  ''he  united,  in  private  life,  a  kindliness  of 
disposition,  a  width  of  sympathy,  and  a  ready  gen- 
erosity which  made  him  as  much  beloved  by  his 
friends  as  he  was  admired  and  respected  by  all 
Europe."  No  one  was  so  much  surprised  at  the 
honors  shown  him  as  himself.  John  Fiske  says: 
"When  I  first  met  Mr.  Darwin  in  London,  in  1873,  he 
told  me  that  he  was  surprised  at  the  great  fame 
which  his  book  instantly  won,  and  at  the  quickness 
with  which  it  carried  conviction  to  the  minds  of  all 
the  men  on  whose  opinions  he  set  the  most  value." 

He  mingled  little  in  general  society,  but  enjoyed 
the  personal  acquaintance  and  friendship  of  most  of 
the  leading  scientific  men  of  Europe  and  this  coun- 
try. Two  or  three  years  of  his  earlier  married  life 
were  spent  in  London,  and  we  read  of  him  at  this 
period  in  the  Carlyle  reminiscences  as  dropping  in 
of  an  evening  for  a  friendly  chat  with  Mrs.  Carlyle, 
or  of  her  taking  a  drive  with  him  to  see  his  new  house 
at  Down,  and  again  of  Carlyle  being  absent  "  at 
dinner  at  Darwins,"  etc.  He  was  not  at  all  a  self- 
assertive,  self-conscious  man  or  Scientist,  but  only  a 
sincere  lover  of  science,  and  an  ardent  investigator 
of  the  ever-tempting,  tantalizing  and  beckoning 
promises  of  revealment  of  the  wonderful  mysteries 
of  the  Universe.  His  grandfather's  words  in  his 
poem,  "The  Temple  of  Nature,"  might  have  been  his 
own  invocation. 

"  Priestess  of  Nature!  while  with  pious  awe 
Thy  votary  bends,  the  mystic  veil  withdraw; 
Charm  after  charm,  succession  bright,  display, 
And  give  the  goddess  to  adoring  day!  " 

S.  A.  U. 


SCIENCE  vs.  THEOLOGY. 


Science  emphasizes  the  importance  of  investigation. 
It  says  investigate  and  then  believe  or  disbelieve  accord- 
ing to  the  weight  of  evidence.  Theology  says,  believe 
first  and  then  investigate  if  you  choose,  but  be  careful 
that  investigation  does  not  weaken  your  faith.  Science 
teaches  that  doubt  is  necessary  to  inquiry  and  that 
inquiry  is  necessary  to  intellectual  progress.  Theology, 
by  condemning  doubt,  discourages  impartial  search  for 
truth  and,  at  the  same  time,  courage  and  independence 
of  thought.  The  faith  of  the  man  of  science  is  convic- 
tion founded  upon  evidence.  Theological  faith  does  not 
admit  of  proof  or  verification.  The  authorities  of 
science  are  those  who  have  made  their  subjects  matters 
of  years  of  laborious  study ;  yet  an  appeal  from  their 
statements  is  always  open  to  any  one  who  can  show  their 
error  or  inadequacy.  The  authorities  of  theology  are 
ancient  characters  who  are  held  in  veneration  on  account 


of  their    alleged    inspiration,    and    appeal    from    whose 
declaration  is  pronounced  sinful  and  perilous. 

The  object  of  science  is  Nature — the  world  of  phe- 
nomena, whose  ongoings  are  open  to  our  observation 
and  contemplation.  The  object  of  theology  is  the 
supposed  attributes,  plans  and  purposes  of  the  unknown 
cause  of  phenomena.  Science  is  knowledge  classified 
and  methodized.  For  convenience  we  label  a  certain 
class  of  facts  astronomy,  geology,  chemistrv,  biology, 
etc.,  but  all  these  sciences  are  but  segments  of  a  circle, 
parts  of  one  great  science — the  science  of  the  universe. 
All  the  sciences  being  related,  there  can  be  no  complete 
knowledge  of   any   without  thorough  knowledge  of  all. 

When  we  go  beyond  the  region  of  observation  and 
experience,  and  beyond  the  possibility  of  data  for  our 
beliefs,  we  pass  from  the  region  of  science  to  that  of 
theology.  Theolog\'  begins  where  knowledge  ends. 
The  empire  of  science  is  continually  enlarging,  while  that 
of  theology  is  yielding  its  territory  just  as  fast  as  the 
complex  groups  of  phenomena  in  which  it  entrenches 
itself  are  shown  by  scientific  discoveries  to  belong  to 
the  region  of  law  and  causation.  Miracles,  like  ghosts, 
vanish  as  the  light  approaches.  Theologj'  is  retreating 
from  field  to  field,  and  is  now  pleading  for  the  right  to 
recognition  as  the  science  of  that  which  is  beyond  phe- 
nomena— the  light  that  never  was  on  land  or  sea.  The 
various  conceptions  of  the  eternal  mystery  in  regard  to 
which  theology  dogmatizes  are  but  so  many  mirrors  from 
which  men  see  reflected  their  own  mental  and  moral 
faces.  Man  projects  ideally  his  own  intelligence  and 
volition  out  upon  the  field  of  phenomena  and  imagines  that 
he  is  studying  the  plans  and  purposes  of  God,  when  he 
is  unconsciously  studying  his  own  nature.  This  illusion 
is  the  foundation  of  theology  which,  carefully  analyzed, 
reveals  not  the  plans  and  purposes  of  Infinite  Intelli- 
gence, but  the  conceptions  and  feelings  of  man,  formu- 
lated into  dogmas  and  made  realizable  to  the  ignorant 
by  ritualisms  which  appeal  to  eye  and  ear.  The 
key  to  theology  is  anthropology,  because  the  actual 
object  of  theology  is  a  conceptual  being  entirely  human 
in  its  intellectual  and  moral  characteristics.  The  exist- 
ence of  that  power  in  which  we  move  and  live,  which 
rounds  a  pebble  and  forms  a  planet,  which  germinates 
a  seed  and  evolves  an  animal,  even  the  wonderful 
structure  and  yet  more  wonderful  mind  of  man,  is  indubi- 
table, though  one  declines  to  limit  it  by  definitions  or  to 
give  it  human  attributes. 

Science  shows  that  the  present  order  of  things  is  the 
product  of  the  modification  of  pre-existent  orders.  All 
leading  scientific  thinkers  regard  evolution  so  well  estab- 
lished as  not  likely  to  be  shaken  in  its  main  conclusion. 
From  simple  conditions  has  grown  a  world  diversified 
in  appearance  and  teeming  with  differentiated  life.  The 
higher  forms  have  a  genetic  kinship  with  lower  forms. 
As  structural  modifications  have  resulted  in  the  body,  so 


44 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


mental  modifications  have"  resulted  in  the  mind  of  man. 
Language,  government,  art,  morals  and  religion  have 
grown  from  the  most  rudimentary  conditions.  Judaism 
and  Christianity  can  be  shown  to  have  grown  out  of 
earlier  religious  systems.  Christianity  gained  its  great 
conquests  only  when  it  had  assimilated  much  of  the 
Paganism  with  which  it  was  confronted,  and  it  persists 
to-day  only  because,  ignoring  those  portions  of  the  New 
Testament  teachings  which  are  ascetic,  or  impracticable 
in  this  age,  it  adopts  the  maxims  and  conforms  to  the 
requirements  of  our  modern  industrial  civilization. 

Fortunately  moral  character  and  conduct  do  not 
depend  upon  theological  dogmas.  Ethics  is  the  science 
of  human  relations.  The  moral  law  is  a  generalized 
expression  for  the  sum  total  of  actions  conducive  to  our 
well-being.  The  moral  sense  is  no  doubt  innate,  but  it 
is  an  implication  of  evolution  that 'innate  or  connate  tend- 
encies are  the  acquisitions  of  centuries,  the  experi- 
ences of  ancestors  organized  in  the  race  in  the  form  of 
predispositions;  so  that  instincts  and  intuitions,  and  even 
the  old  metaphysical  a  priori  "forms  of  thought,"  are 
experiential  in  their  nature — a  priori  in  the  individual 
but  experiential  in  the  race. 

Modern  science,  in  a  truly  reconciliative  spirit,  fuses 
into  a  synthesis  whatever  valuable  there  is  in  the  old 
conceptions  with  the  newly-discovered  truth,  and  it  is 
equally  opposed  to  the  dogmatism  of  theology  on  the  one 
hand  and  to  mere  iconoclasm  on  the  other.  It  destroys 
only  to  rebuild,  only  to  get  possession  of  the  ground  ;  and 
it  would  preserve  whatever  valuable  materials  there 
are  in  the  old  structure,  for  use  in  the  erection  of  a 
fairer  and  nobler  edifice  for  humanity. 


In  an  article  giving  "A  Thought-Reader's  Experi- 
ences," in  the  December  number  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  Stuart  Cumberland,  the  most  celebrated  of  the 
so-called  mind-readers,  says  that  in  his  experiments  he 
is  always  blindfolded  so  that  his  attention  may  not  be 
distracted  by  light  or  movement,  that  in  working  out 
actions,  such  as  imaginary  murder  tableaux,  he  prefers 
holding  the  patient's  hand  in  his  own,  "so  that  all  the 
nerves  and  muscles  may  have  full  play."  He  never,  he 
says,  gets  a  "mental  picture"  of  what  is  in  the  subject's 
mind  and  depends  wholly  upon  impressions  conveyed 
to  him  through  the  actioivof  the  subject's  physical  sys- " 
tern  while  his  attention  is  concentrated.  Mr.  Cumber- 
land states  that  he  has  never  seen  a  successful  experi- 
ment of  reading  thoughts  without  contact,  "  unless  there 
had  been  opportunities  for  observing  some  phase  of 
physical  indication  expressed  by  the  subject,  or  unless 
the  operator  was  enabled  to  gather  information  from 
suggestions  unconsciously  let  fall  by  somebody  around. 
I  have  on  several  occasions  managed  to  accomplish  tests 
without  actual  contact,  but  have  always  been  sufficiently 


near  to  my  subject  to  receive  from  him — and  to  act 
upon  accordingly — any  impression  that  he  physically 
might  convey."  "In  my  case,"  he  adds,  "thought- 
reading  is  an  exalted  perception  of  touch.  Given  con- 
tact with  an  honest,  thoughtful  man,  I  can  ascertain  the 
locality  he  is  thinking  of,  the  object  he  has  decided 
upon,  the  course  he  wishes  to  pursue,  or  the  number  he 
desires  me  to  decipher,  almost  as  confidently  as  though 
I  had  received  verbal  communication  from  him. 

David  A.  Wasson,  who  died  in  Medford,  Mass.,  in 
January,  after  a  long  and  painful  struggle  with  dis- 
ease— the  result  of  an  injury  to  his  spine  sustained 
many  years  ago — was  a  philosophical  thinker,  a  poet 
and  a  man  of  exalted  character.  His  papers,  contrib- 
uted to  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  the  North  American 
Reviezv,  The  Index  and  other  publications,  are  all 
marked  by  vigor  and  originality  of  thought,  an  earnest 
and  conscientious  spirit  and  fine  literary  taste,  and  many 
of  them  are  worthy  of  collection  and  reproduction  in 
permanent  form.  Hampered  though  he  was  by  phys- 
ical infirmities,  which  increased  year  by  year,  whatever 
he  wrote  bore  the  stamp  of  the  thinker  and  the  artist. 
No  one  who  knew  him  well  can  forget  the  charm  of 
his  personality,  and  none  familiar  with  his  writings,  who 
know  under  what  painful  disadvantages  most  of  them 
were  produced,  can  fail  to  feel  a  deep  and  pathetic  inter- 
est in  his  philosophical  and  literary  work. 

#  #  * 

The  papers  announce  that  Mr.  Beecher  is  now  at 
work  on  his  Life  of  Christ,  that  after  its  completion 
he  will  write  his  own  life  and  that  then  the  two  works 
will  be  sold  together  by  subscription.  The  Springfield 
Republican  gives  the  publisher  a  hint  as  to  the  heading 
of  their  announcement,  thus:  "The  Lives  of  Christ  & 
Beecher,  by  the  Latter."  The  Republican  mentions 
that  Rev.  E.  F.  Burr,  author  of  "Ecce  Caelum,"  dedi- 
cated one  of  his  books  to  President  Seelye,  of  Amherst 
College,  and  another  to  the  Supreme  Being. 

#  *  * 

In  a  tribute  to  her  husband,  whose  death  was  an- 
nounced a  few  weeks  ago,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton 
gives  this  illustration  of  Mr.  11.  B.  Stanton's  readiness? 
when  addressing  an  audience,  to  take  advantage  of  any 
unexpected  occurrence : 

On  one  occasion  he  was  delivering  a  temperance  lecture  on  the 
platform  covered  by  a  thick  oil-cloth  that  protruded  two  or  three 
inches  over  the  edge  of  the  boards  in  front.  In  the  midst  of  one 
of  his  most  eloquent  passages  he  was  comparing  the  inebriate's 
downward  course  to  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  and  the  struggle  with 
drink  to  the  hopeless  efforts  of  a  man  in  the  rapids.  Just  as  he 
reached,  in  his  description,  the  fatal  plunge  over  the  precipice,  he 
advanced  to  the  edge  of  the  platform,  the  oil  cloth  gave  way  under 
his  feet  and  in  an  instant  he  went  down  headlong  into  the  audi- 
ence, carrying  with   him   desk,  glass,   pitcher  and  water.     Being 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


45 


light  and  agile,  he  was  quickly  on  the  platform  again,  anil  im- 
mediately remarked  with  great  coolness:  "  I  carried  my  illustra- 
tion farther  than  I  had  intended  to.  Yet  even  so  it  is  that  the 
drunkard  falls,  glass  in  hand,  carrying  destruction  with  him.  But 
not  so  readilv  does  he  rise  again  from  the  terrible  depths  into 
which  he  has  precipitated  himself."  The  whole  house  cheered 
again  and  again,  and  even  Gough  never  struck  a  more  powerful 
blow  for  temperance. 

*  *  * 

A  lady  relates  this  of  her  servant,  a  spinster  about 
forty  years  old,  who  had  a  settled  aversion  to  the  male 
portion  of  mankind:  "One  day  she  asked  for  my 
library  ticket  to  go  to  our  village  library  for  a  book  to 
read.  I  recommended  two  or  three  books  which  I 
thought  she  would  find  within  her  capacity,  but  she 
found  that  they  were  all  out  and  she  choose  a  book 
for  herself.  It  was  Darwin's  'Descent  of  Man.'  'Why 
did  you  pick  out  this  book,  Biddy?'  I  asked  her,  in  sur- 
prise. 'Sure,  ma'am,'  she  replied,  'it  says  its  about  a 
daycent  man,  and  if  there's  one  daycent  man  top  of 
ground  I  thought  I'd  like  to  be  radin'  about  him;  but 
it  ain't  about  any  man   at  all,   ma'am;  its  all  about  mon- 

keys,  sure. 

*  *  * 

Dr.  Edmund  Montgomery  writes: 

I  perfectlv  agree  with  Mr.  Hegeler  that  living  faith  in  the 
unbroken  continuity  of  organic  "form"  and  conscious  participa- 
tion in  its  further  development,  have  to  become  the  positive  and 
central  inspirations  of  the  scientific  creed.  It  is  this  iact  ot 
nature  which  is  really  the  superindividual,  realistic  basis  of  the 
unity  of  mankind  and  of  all  its  social  and  ethical  striving.  The 
mystery  of  love  in  all  its  phases  arises  from  the  fundamental 
organic  unitv — a  unity  rendered  wondrously  mystic  and  mag- 
netic through  the  estrangement  of  individuated  personality.  Every- 
one so  isolated  and  yet  so  completely  one  with  all  the  rest.  The 
readv  self-sacrifice  for  Love's  sake,  and  especially  the  joyous  sacri- 
fice of  parents,  attest  sufficiently  how  deeply  and  instinctively 
rooted  this  feeling  of  organic  unity  really  is.  Being  universal  among 
unperverted  clashes  of  humanity,  it  affords  an  organized,  im- 
pressible and  altruistic  medium  for  the  emotional  reception  of  the 
scientific  creed.  But  as  the  same  nature-rooted  sentiment  has 
been  falsely  interpreted  by  supernatural  and  anti-social  theories 
of  life,  it  devolves  upon  science  to  give  it  a  solid,  incontestable 
basis  in  vital  organization. 

*  *  * 

The  Century  Magazine  prints  for  the  first  time  the 
words  of  Abraham  Lincoln  given  in  an  official  repri- 
mand to  a  young  officer  who  had  been  court-martialed 
for  quarreling:  "Yield  larger  things  to  which  you 
can  show  no  more  than  equal  right,  and  yield  lesser 
ones,  though  clearly  your  own.  Better  give  your  path 
to  a  dog  than  be  bitten  by  him  in  contesting  for  the 
right.  Even  killing  the  dog  would  not  cure  the  bite." 
This  is  not,  in  our  opinion,  sound  moral  teaching. 
It  would  never  develop  strength  of  character  nor 
promote  a  strong  sentiment  of  justice  among  men, 
with  respect  for  the  right  of  one  another.  The  man 
who  voluntarily  allows  others  to  impose  upon  him 
encourages   imposition.     The    man    who   submits   to 


injustice  to  himself,  when  he  can  prevent  it,  encour- 
ages injustice  to  others,  and,  however  amiable  his 
disposition  or  good  his  intentions,  his  conduct  weakens 
the  safeguards  <>i  social  order.  The  truly  just  man 
respects  the  rights  of  his  fellow  men,  and  insists 
upon  his  own.  "The  killing  of  the  dog  would  not 
cure  the  bite,"  but  it  would  prevent  his  biting  some 
other  person  less  able,  perhaps,  to  escape  or  to  defend 

himself. 

-::-  *         * 

Auberon  Herbert,  in  A  Politician  in  Trouble  About 
His  So///,  sriys  of  Herbert  Spencer: 

With  the  most  faithful  appreciation  of  scientific  work,  he  has 
seen  that  the  world  belonged  neither  to  the  physicist,  nor  to  the 
chemist,  nor  to  the  biologist;  but  that  it  was  something  larger 
than  any  world  of  theirs.  He  has  seen,  as  Carlyle,  and  Emerson, 
and  Ruskin,  and  Walt  Whitman  have  seen,  each  in  his  own  way, 
the  wonder  and  the  miracle  in  which  we  are  all  enveloped — the 
marvel  of  the  knowable  world  and  the  marvel  of  the  unknow  able 
world,  lying  bevond  the  enchanted  mountains  and  their  impas- 
sable barrier;  he  has  looked  through  the  nature  that  surrounds  us 
to  the  meaning  at  the  heart  of  it  all;  he  has  used  science  as  the 
interpreter  of  the  sacred  thing,  but  not  stayed  in  it,  as  if  it  were 
the  sacred  thing  itself.  We  owe  it  to  him  more  than  to  any  man — 
unless,  perhaps,  it  be  Emerson — the  power  to  realize  the  harmony 
and  unity  embracing  all  things,  the  perfect  order  and  the  perfect 
reason,  in  the  light  of  which  men  may  walk  confidently  with  sure 
aims.  We  owe  to  him  new  possibilities  of  that  faith,  of  which  the 
theologian,  with  his  combined  pettiness  and  rashness,  has  almost 
robbed  the  world. 

*  #  * 

The  following  notice  of  The  Open  Court  is  from 
the  editorial  columns  of  the   Boston  Herald  of  Feb.  24: 

The  Open  Court,  which  takes  the  place  of  the  Index  a!  d  is 
now  published  at  Chicago  as  a  fortnightly,  is  a  great  improve- 
ment on  that  rather  unequal  journal  and  brings  to  the  front,  with 
their  affirmations  of  positive  thought,  the  principal  radical  think- 
ers of  the  country.  There  is  a  welcome  field  for  such  a  paper, 
though  its  home  would  seem  to  be  in  the  East  rather  than  in  the 
West.  But  one  is  too  happy  to  have  such  a  paper  in  existence  to 
be  too  critical  as  to  the  quarter  of  the  country  in  which  it  appears. 
Many  of  the  old  stand-bys  are  here  in  their  proper  place,  but  one 
recognizes  a  more  philosophical  tone  of  thought,  a  more  con- 
structive view  of  life,  a  stronger  grip  on  things  essential.  This  i- 
to  he  encouraged.  An  objection  to  much  that  is  called  new 
thought  is  that  it  is  nothing  but  articulated  nonsense.  The 
Open  Court  in  its  initial  issue  is  comparatively  free  from  this 
sort  of  utterance.  There  is  not  an  article  in  it  which  a  thinking 
man  can  afford  to  skip  and  if  the  periodical  can  be  maintained  at 
its  present  level  it  will  speedily  become  one  of  the  influential 
papers  of  the  United  States  in  all  that  pertains  to  vital  think 
It  will  be  an  honor  to  any  man  to  reach  the  public  through   its 

columns.  \ 

*  *  * 

Mr.  Zimmerman's  speech  in  the  last  issue  of  The  ( 
Court  was  the  only  part  of  the  discussion  of  Mr.  HegtUr's 
essav  that  was  printed  from  the  stenographer's  notes  without 
revision  or  correction,  and  it  contains  some  errors  which  in  jus- 
tice to  Mr.  Zimmerman  should  be  indicated.  In  the  fifth  line 
for  "  those  for "  read  these  few;  in  the  seventh  line  instead  ol 
"can"  read  again.  In  the  eighth  line  after  "until"  read 
at  last,  and  after  "  vigor  "  omit  "  falls  under  "  and  substitute  fa  U 
no  invigorating. 


46 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


UNITARIANISM  AND  ITS  GRAND- 
CHILDREN. 

BY  MONCURE  D.  CONWAY. 

In  the  statistics,  Unitarianism  appears  one  of  the 
smaller  sects.  In  reality,  it  is  the  largest.  The  fallacy 
arises  from  the  fact  that  Unitarianism  is  not  viviparous, 
does  not  bring  forth  its  young  alive;  it  is  oviparous, 
and  most  of  its  eggs,  like  those  of  the  cuckoo,  are 
hatched  in  other  nests  than  its  own.  The  bad  name  of 
the  cuckoo  comes  from  the  European  species,  which 
shove  other  eggs  out  of  the  nests  they  invade  before 
depositing  their  own.  The  American  cuckoo  respects 
the  brood  of  other  birds,  and  leaves  its  child  to  be 
brought  up  with  them,  and  for  a  time  be  confused  with 
them.  When  the  broader  wing  develops  in  the  Con- 
gregational nest,  or  the  Episcopal,  or  the  Quaker  nest, 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  fluttering  and  scolding  among 
the  parent  birds;  but  the  new  creature  is  strong,  not 
easily  pitched  out,  and  is  gradually  adopted  as  one  of 
the  family.  If  Unitarianism  recognized  all  its  children 
in  other  churches,  and  outside,  of  all  churches,  it  would 
feel  patriarchal  as  Abraham,  the  father  of  generations. 
The  late  Dean  Stanley  said  that,  while  he  was  in  Amer- 
ica, every  sermon  he  preached  had  some  of  Channing  in 
it,  and  every  sermon  he  heard  was  largely  from  Emer- 
son. Yet  he  did  not  attend  any  Unitarian  Church. 
Channing  is  a  Unitarian  father;  Emerson  one  of  his 
children,  Theodore  Parker  another.  These  two  chil- 
dren were  from  eggs  laid  in  the  nest  once  called 
"infidel;"  they  were  repudiated,  but  are  now  objects  of 
parental  pride.  Then  Parker  and  Emerso-n  found  nests 
in  which  to  lay  their  young.  Transcendentalism  and 
Parkerism,  children  of  Unitarianism,  gave  birth  to  the 
germs  of  new  departures.  The  Free  Religious  Asso- 
ciation, the  Ethical  Society  Union,  the  Agnostic  philoso- 
phy, are  thus  grandchildren  of  Unitarianism.  If  all 
who  are  really  of  one  blood  could  be  gathered  together, 
a  great  force  might  be  generated.  There  is  a  growing 
tendency  in  the  old  household  of  liberal  faith  to  build 
for  itself  a  larger  mansion;  so  that  its  grandchildren 
may  mingle  with  its  children,  and  not  merely  come  for 
an  occasional  visit,  but  stay  for  a  long  time.  On  the 
other  hand,  some  of  us  fear  that  the  homestead  is  not 
large  enough  for  a  house  that  can  include  ail  the  liberal 
family.  We  know  that,  whether  beside  Tiberias  or 
Winnipesaukee,  such  houses  of  the  true  and  free  cannot 
be  made  with  hands;  and  suspect  that  it  might  even  be 
better  if  Unitarianism  were  to  give  up  denominational 
housekeeping  altogether  and  live  on  its  children  and 
grandchildren,  who  would  be  all  the  better  for  its  cul- 
ture and  experience. 

Thirty-five  years  ago  I  came  from  an  orthodox 
church  into  the  Unitarian  Church  to  find  it  hotly  mili- 
tant.     Many  besides   myself   must    look    back   on   those 


old  disputes  with  sorrowful  wonder.  The  polemical 
spirit  of  those  days  has  passed  away  before  a  discovery 
which  has  changed  every  thinker's  point  of  view.  We 
are  now  evolutionists.  We  regard  each  other  not  as 
soldiers  of  one  or  another  camp,  but  as  minds  represent- 
ing various  stages  of  development — buds  or  blossoms, 
or  fruits  more  or  less  ripe,  to  be  dealt  with  not  by  bruises 
but  sunshine.  We  have  also  learned  two  other  things: 
i.  That  the  persistence  or  decline  of  doctrines  depends 
much  less  than  we  used  to  think  on  their  truth  or 
untruth.  The  world  is  fashioned  by  evolutionary  forces. 
Even  an  untrue  dogma  may  survive  so  long  as  it  pro- 
duces the  man  valued  by  society  and  helps  the  average 
world  better  than  the  truth.  2.  We  have  learned  that 
dogmas  may  not  be  what  they  seem,  and  that  where 
any  faith  bears  sweet  fruit,  loveliness  of  life,  charity  to 
all,  the  mere  orthodox  name  does  not  alter  the  organic 
truth  of  that  faith  any  more  than  it  would  affect  the 
character  of  a  peach  tree  if  you  should  label  it  prickly 
pear.  He  that  deviseth  liberal  things  is  liberal,  whether 
he  can  rightly  analyze  his  liberalism  or  not. 

The  controversial  method  is  thus  discredited.  Our 
zeal  is  transferred  from  the  abstract  to  the  practical  side 
of  our  truth.  To  propagate  a  doctrine  means  to  make 
it  a  factor  in  human  evolution.  The  more  we  fight  for 
it  the  less  we  advance  it,  for  the  man  we  fight  is  the 
man  we  have  got  to  enlighten.  And  if  we  cannot  show 
in  ourselves,  in  our  families,  in  our  societies,  better  types 
of  character  than  his,  we  cannot  by  any  reasoning 
touch  the  spring  that  moves  that  man — who  is  average 
mankind,  organized  through  ages  by  ecclesiastical  selec- 
tion, but  moralized  by  social  selection. 

The  defect  of  most  liberal  organizations  arises  from 
the  fact  that  they  were  pre-Darwinian.  Positivism, 
with  its  elaborate  scheme  for  a  Church  of  Humanity, 
already,  in  its  second  generation,  appears  antiquated. 
Transcendentalism  included  the  idea  of  development,  but 
it  was  based  on  the  optimistic  view  of  nature;  the  law 
of  evolution  reveals  nature  "red  in  tooth  and  claw," 
dependent  on  man  for  restraint  and  direction.  The  Free 
Religious  Association  was  a  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, and  it  was  followed  by  a  sort  of  confederation  for 
the  security  of  individualism  rather  than  for  co-opera- 
tion. The  union  of  societies  for  ethical  culture,  formed 
this  year  in  New  York,  is  the  only  liberal  organization 
constituted  since  the  revolution  in  the  aims  and  methods 
of  progress  caused  by  study  of  the  laws  of  evolution. 
We  may,  in  a  sense,  call  that  ethical  movement  the 
great-grandchild  of   Unitarianism. 

Nearly  every  Unitarian  feels  that  he  is  able  to  keep 
abreast  of  most  movements.  He  has  no  creed  to  keep 
him  from  being  a  Free  Religious  Associate,  a  transcend- 
entalism a  rationalist,  an  ethical  culturis',  an  agnostic- 
even.  And  yet  these  new  departures  have  had  to 
develop  themselves  outside  of  Unitarianism.      Somehow 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


47 


they  have  not  found  the  ancestral  atmosphere  congenial 
to  a  farther  religious  and  ethical  evolution.  Is  there 
any  necessary  cause  behind  this  fact? 

What  are  the  aims  of  a  liberal  Church?  Its  primary 
aim  is  to  cultivate  the  whole  higher  nature  of  every  indi- 
vidual it  can  reach.  This  is  a  great  task.  Every  soul  is 
dogged  through  life  by  its  hereditary  animal;  to  restrain 
that  animal,  tame  it,  domesticate  /it,  and  harmonize  it 
with  the  higher  purposes  of  life,  is  a  work  requiring  the 
finest  art  and  profound  science.  The  good  shepherd  of 
the  new  age,  unable  to  frighten  the  wolf  from  his  edu- 
cated flock  with  incredible  hells,  nor  bribe  it  with  a 
upine  paradise,  must,  nevertheless,  alarm  animalism  with 
the  actual  consequences  of  evil,  and  invest  virtue  with 
her  every  charm,  that  the  sense  of  honor  may  grow 
strong  enough  to  subdue  every  degrading  tendency. 
For  that  work  the  Unitarian  society  seems  fairly  con- 
stituted. It  holds  two  great  doctrines  which  fit  it  for 
such  ethical  service — the  dignity  of  human  nature,  and 
the  salvation  of  every  man  by  his  own  merits.  A  gen- 
eration thoroughly  trained  on  those  two  principles  would 
be  a  virtuous  generation. 

I  heard  Emerson  sav — it  was  more  than  thirty  years 
ago — "  I  do  not  hear  the  preacher,  but  gladly  help  in 
his  support;  it  is  important  to  have  in  town  a  man  occu- 
pied with  its  humanities."  I  could  not  help  feeling  that 
something  must  be  wrong,  or  else  he  himself  would  be 
still  the  great  preacher  in  his  ancestral  church.  The 
three  greatest  intellects  of  our  own  time — Emerson, 
Darwin,  Carlyle — were  all  trained  for  the  pulpit;  but 
neither  found  it  adequate  for  his  large  aim.  It  might 
do  for  "the  humanities,"  but  not  for  humanity.  And 
this  brings  us  to  consider  another  aim  of  every  liberal 
church.  It  must  have  some  mission  to  the  world.  It 
must  not  merely  cultivate  individual  natures  for  personal 
happiness,  domestic  life,  or  the  social  circle;  it  must 
influence  the  state,  the  world,  the  conditions  under  which 
society  is  evolved,  the  forces  by  which  humanity  is 
fashioned.  Self-culture  is  but  a  variety  of  selfishness 
unless  it  is  humanized.  Science  studies  all  things 
impartially;  morality  distinguishes  the  good  from  the 
evil;  but  religion  means  to  fall  in  love  with  the  good. 
To  seek  it  everywhere,  to  make  sacrifices  for  it,  to 
demand  the  whole  world  for  it,  is  as  essential  to  rational 
religion  now  as  it  was  to  those  who,  of  old,  gave  their 
lives  joyfully  in  hope  of  a  renovated  earth. 

Jesus  was  an  evolutionist.  The  travail  of  his  soul 
was  a  purified  and  renewed  earth.  It  was  to  be  brought 
about  by  human  toil  as  a  harvest.  A  small  seed  fed  and 
watered  till  as  a  tree  it  fills  the  earth,  was  the  similitude 
of  his  faith.  But  his  truth  fell  amid  briers  of  supersti- 
tion; it  was  choked  as  it  sprung  up.  When  he  died  and 
appeared  no  more  among  men,  his  followers  located  his 
new  earth  beyond  the  clouds,  where  they  supposed  he 
had  gone;  they  lavished  their  enthusiasm  anil  their  sacri- 


fices on  another  world,  and  abandoned  this  to  its  sup- 
posed diabolical  ruler.  The  aim  of  the  living  Jesus 
was  thus  overthrown  by  the  phantom  of  a  risen  Christ. 
After  its  long  slumber  of  centuries  the  idea  of  Jesus 
has  awakened,  in  our  own  time;  again  there  rises 
before  religious  faith  the  vision  of  a  renovated  world  to 
be  secured  by  human  effort.  The  dream  of  immortal- 
ity remains,  but  the  rosy  heaven  which  so  long  absorbed 
religious  enthusiasm  is  steadily  superseded  by  the  hope 
that  this  great  lump  of  earth  is  to  be  leavened  with 
truth,  and  justice,  and  beauty;  and  bv  the  belief  that  it 
is  to  be  brought  about  by  the  labors  of  man. 

Yes,  in  our  own  age,  for  the  first  time  since  Jesus 
went  silent,  has  the  cry  of  the  poor  been  heard  bv  relig- 
ion, and  the  salvation  of  man  from  actual  evils  become 
the  supreme  end  of  any  church.  Good  men  in  many 
churches  have  indeed  heard  that  cry,  churches  have 
adopted  their  charities;  but  Christianity  never  promised 
the  salvation  of  this  world  from  the  evils  which  afflict 
and  degrade  it,  never  proposed  to  exterminate  pauper- 
ism, disease,  despotism,  never  threw  itself  on  the  side  of 
any  cause  that  concerned  man  simply  in  his  earthly  con- 
dition. It  was  heresy  to  deal  with  human  sufferings  as 
not  included  in  the  providence  of  God;  it  was  sacri- 
lege to  devote  to  man  any  treasures  consecrated  to 
God.  If  that  providence  had  done  for  man  as  much  as 
man  has  done  for  him,  every  human  desert  would  be 
blossoming  like  the  rose. 

If  now  once  more  the  brave  voice  of  Paul,  warn- 
ing the  Athenians  that  God  needs  nothing  at  all  at 
men's  hands,  is  heard,  we  owe  it  primarily  to  the  Unita- 
rian movement.  The  germ  of  a  human  religion  was 
planted  when  reverence  ceased  to  believe  that  man's 
chief  end  was  to  glorify  God,  to  pay  God  for  dying  for 
him,  to  sound  his  praises  for  the  surprising  mercy  of 
not  damning  the  whole  human  race  to  all  eternity. 
Unitarianism  proclaimed  a  new  God  and  a  new  man;  that 
implied  presently  a  new  heaven;  that  again  a  new  earth. 

But  every  new  divinity  must  for  a  time  propitiate  the 
preceding  one.  The  old  forms  and  phrases  are  used, 
though  with  new  meanings,  and  there  is  apt  to  be  a  sort 
of  compromise — a  father-and-son  arrangement.  By  that 
means  Christianity  inherited  the  temples  of  Paganism, 
and  by  a  like  process  Unitarianism  inherited  the  temples 
of  Puritanism.  The  father  generally  holds  a  mortgage 
on  the  estate  of  the  son,  but  when  the  grandson  comes 
the  continuity  becomes  strained.  For  this  third  person 
is  the  spirit  which  finds  the  letter  a  burdensome  heritage. 
The  living  spirit  is  sharper  that  a  two-edged  sword ;  it 
is  always  a  divider.  It  questions  the  forms  which  the 
new  faith  has  derived  from  the  old.  And  that  is  the 
spirit  which  is  searching  Unitarianism  to  find  whether 
it  is  able  to  meet  the  demand  it  has  awakened — to  deal 
with  the  social,  moral,  national,  human  questions  which 
have  supplanted  theology.    Fifty  years  ago  Unitarianism 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


gave  up  from  its  pulpit  the  noblest  genius  this  country 
ever  produced,  because  he  could  not  celebrate  the  sacra- 
mental symbol  of  a  dogma  which  Unitarianism  had 
taught  him  to  repudiate:  yet  fifty-five  years  ago  that 
same  preacher,  Emerson,  was  able  to  bring  an  humble 
abolitionist  from  Boston  common  into  his  pulpit,  from 
which,  for  the  first  time,  the  slave's  cause  was  heard  by 
people  of  wealth  and  influence.  And  during  all  that 
struggle  for  humanity  the  Unitarian,  alone  among 
churches,  had  a  witness  for  justice  in  every  community 
and,  above  its  official  hesitations,  wrote  in  faithful  and 
fearless  pulpits  a  record  of  which  it  need  not  lie  ashamed. 
Fifty  years  is  a  long  time.  It  is  probable  that  in 
most  Unitarian  congregations  a  preacher's  eloquence 
would  outweigh  his  dissent  from  their  theology  and  dis- 
use of  any  sacrament.  But,  in  the  presence  of  great 
issues  affecting  humanity,  men  whose  hearts  burn  within 
them  lose  their  interest  in  theology,  in  ceremonies;  the 
ritual  solemnities  become  literally  impertinent.  The 
adequacy  of  a  church  to  the  issues  of  its  time  is  solely  a 
question  of  whether  that  church  is  able  to  attract  to 
itself  the  moral  genius  of  its  time.  And  that  no  church 
can  do  without  being  the  very  best  organ  through 
which  moral  genius  can  influence  the  fine  issues  for 
which  it  is  finely  touched.  Is  Unitarianism  drawing  to 
itself  and  giving  free  course  to  the  moral  genius  of  its 
time?  Yes,  in  one  sense;  no,  in  another.  Yes,  if  its 
children  and  grandchildren  be  reckoned  with  it,  and  its 
sons  who  have  carried  its  thunder  into  certain  orthodox 
churches.  Sydney  Smith  once  wrote  to  a  friend :  "I 
preached  a  sermon  this  morning  on  peace,  as  good 
as  any  of  Dr.  Channing's;  in  fact  it  was  Dr.  Chan- 
ning's."  The  like  may  be  said  of  man}-  sermons  now 
charming  Boston  and  New  York,  only  they  are  somewhat 
more  heretical  than  Channing's;  for  the  meal  may  be 
bear's  meat  if  the  grace  is  liturgical.  When  some  one 
spoke  of  the  apparent  decline  of  Unitarianism,  Dr. 
Bellows  said  a  better  phrase  were  the  decline  of 
apparent  Unitarianism.  The  suggestion  seems  still 
true. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  Unitarianism  which 
is  leavening  churches  called  orthodox,  I  cannot  help  feel- 
ing that  the  societies  which  have  no  theological  tests 
ought  to  be  able  to  form  a  unity  so  complete,  a  frater- 
nity so  free,  a  ministration  so  various,  that  the  religious 
genius  now  starved  in  uncongenial  professions  shall  be 
recalled.  Very  slight  modifications  of  structure  may 
be  followed  by  vast  changesof  function;  a  grain-weight 
of  bone  may  make  all  the  difference  between  the  earth- 
bound  and  the  heaven-soaring  creature;  and  it  maybe 
that  some  small  changes  might  make  Unitarianism  into 
the  real  American  Church. 

Simply  to  drop  the  name  Unitarian  might  have  great 
results.  The  question  of  the  Trinity  is  now  of  only 
infinitesimal  importance.   What  serious  person  is  willing 


to  sever  himself  from  his  ancestral  church  on  so  paltry  a 
question  as  whether  the  deity  exists  in  three  persons  or 
one?  People  are  concerned  now  to  know  whether 
there  be  anv  God  at  all  or  not,  but  whether  he  has  three 
persons  or  three  or  three  thousand,  is  of  no  importance 
whatever.  That  battle-field  is  cold.  The  Unitarian 
surrendered  the  whole  thing  with  the  authority  of  the 
Bible.  If  the  Bible  is  not  God's  Word,  what  it  teaches 
about  his  personality  is  of  mere  literary  interest.  For 
.  reason  or  science  there  can  be  no  such  question.  The 
man  who  believes  God  has  several  persons,  or  a  million, 
has  as  much  fact  to  support  him  as  the  man  who  says  he 
has  one,  since,  apart  from  "revelation,"  neither  knows 
anything  at  all  about  it.  The  Unitarian  name  is  an 
anachronism,  and,  I  suspect,  is  kept  up  from  loyalty  to 
the  fathers  and  a  lingering  militantism. 

But  more,  the  Unitarian  name,  arrogant  toward 
orthodoxy — as  if  alleging  that  it  does  not  hold  the 
divine  unity,  a  sort  of  "bloody  shirt"  waved  in  its 
face — on  the  other  hand  misrepresents  the  thinkers 
so  labeled.  It  obstinately  suggests  that  they  are 
devoting  their  lives,  their  scholarship,  their  freedom  and 
power,  to  a  small  theological  negation.  So  long  as 
people  can  hear  preached  in  Trinitarian  churches,  as  they 
do,  the  fatherly  tenderness  of  God  once  distinctive  of 
Unitarian  doctrine,  the  humanity  of  Jesus,  the  sacredness 
of  man,  they  will  not  care  for  the  mystical  word  with 
which  such  realities  are  connected.  And  if  it  be  said 
that  such  preaching  in  orthodox  churches  is  dishonest, 
the  Trinitarian  may  ask  whether  it  be  any  more  honest 
for  those  who  affirm  the  Universal  Love  to  prompt  that 
love  with  prayers;  or  for  those  who  reject  the  vicarious 
atonement  to  still  consecrate  the  blood  of  Jesus? 

However,  names  are  difficult  things  to  deal  with; 
they  get  into  trust  deeds,  and  bind  the  living-  to  bury  the 
dead.  Therefore,  the  only  way  to  get  rid  of  such  a  mis- 
nomer as  "Unitarian,"  is  to  earn  the  right  characteristic 
name,  to  work  up  to  it,  live  up  to  it,  until  the  world  can 
read  the  true  name  on  their  forehead,  as  they  read 
"Quaker"  on  the  brow  of  George  Fox  and  "  Methodist" 
on  that  of   Wesley. 

The  ear  of  the  world  has  never  been  caught  but  by 
some  gospel  of  salvation.  But  from  what  can  a  Unita- 
rian save  the  world?  He  cannot  aspire  to  convince  the 
world  of  the  truth  of  a  theological  creed,  for  he  has 
none;  be  cannot  propose  to  save  the  world  from  hells 
and  devils  that  do  not  exist.  From  what,  then,  can 
he  save  it?  The  world  is  daily  teaching  us  how  and 
from  what  it  must  be  saved.  Outside  of  the  churches — 
alas!  outside — societies  are  formed  to  confront  the  mani- 
fold evils  of  the  world — temperance  societies,  purity 
societies,  woman's  rights,  man's  rights,  anti-capital,  social- 
istic leagues.  Each  a  satire  on  the  churches,  and  each 
a  rough-hewn  stone  in  the  church  of  the  future — the 
Church  of  Man.     They  are  rough,  these  movements, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


49 


out  of  proportion,  stumbling-blocks  to  the  refined  and 
reasonable,  because  they  are  detached  from  the  centers 
of  religious  sentiment  and  culture,  which  alone  might 
shape  and  polish  them. 

But  who  is  equal  to  these  things?  Religion  has  so 
long  been  occupied  with  making  poor  God  comfortable, 
and  pleased  with  himself,  that  we  have  no  training  for 
these  social  and  moral  issues.  A  poet  says  "new  occa- 
sions teach  new  duties,"  but  they  do  not  teach  us  how  to 
fulfil  them.  The  Bible  having  ceased  to  be  a  guide, 
because  it  requires  casuistry  to  make  it  out  a  moral  book, 
we  have  been  left  to  the  laws  of  nature;  and  now  find 
nature  even  less  moral  than  the  Bible.  The  anxious 
mother  asks  her  liberal  pastor:  "Will  you  please  give 
me  a  reason  for  my  son  why  he  should  not  gamble?" 
"Well,  we  didn't  study  that  subject  at  the  divinity 
school."  "Or,"  she  proceeds,  "perhaps  you  will  give 
me  an  answer  for  my  daughter  who,  after  hearing  your 
beautiful  sermon  on  God  as  revealed  in  nature,  asked 
whether  we  should  follow  our  nature."  "Ah,  Madame, 
that  is  a  difficult  question.  I  must  look  it  up  some  day. 
By  the  way,  how  did  you  like  my  view  of  agnosticism 
last  Sunday  ?  " 

When  our  good   minister  goes  out  into  the  world  he 
is  even  more  helpless.     There  he  finds  capital  entrenched 
in  the   natural    law    of  supply    and    demand,  and   labor 
hurling  at  it  the  equally  natural   stone  with  which  con- 
servation of  force  supplies  its  hand.     The  Golden  Rule  is 
transformed  to  the  Rule  of  Gold.     It  is  the  struggle  for 
existence.      The    millionaire   cannot    exist    without    his 
million    any    more    than    the    workman    without    more 
wages.     Steadily  rises  the  storm.     They  used  to  tell  us 
in  the   anti-slavery   agitation   that   God    would   end   the 
wrone   in  his   own   grood  time;  but  when    it  was  ended 
that  way,  so  much  hell- fire  was  brought  to  the   work, 
that  it  looks  as  if  it  might  have  been  better  to  do  the 
work     ourselves.     If    the     people     had    been    as    fully 
instructed  by  their  pulpits  in   the  moral   facts  of  their 
own  country,  as  in  those  of  ancient  Judea,  there  would 
have  been  no  slavery  and   no  war.     And  as  one  sees  an 
anarchist    nation    steadilv    forming   in    hostility    to    the 
existing   nation,    while  its   moral   guides   are   exhuming 
Jerusalem   or  speculating  on   the  unseen  world,  a  shud- 
dering fear   arises  lest  what  we  are  witnessing  should 
turn    out  to   be  the    reversion    of  a  race   to    barbarism. 
What  corruption  in  great  corporations,  what  baseness  in 
politics!     With  what  cynical  hypocrisy  is  the  polygamy 
of  Utah  outlawed   in  such  ingenious  terms  as  to  leave 
unrestrained   the  baser   polygamy  of  our  cities,   which 
leaves  its    victims  without    respect    or    shelter!     What 
rebuke   of    this    do    we    hear?     Where    is    any    Sinai? 
Among  all  the   exhausted  craters  I  see  but  one  summit 
beginning    to  dart   out  the   sacred   flame.     The    move- 
ment which  in  largeness,  freedom,  influence,  may  claim 
to   be   successor   to    that   of    Channing,    of   Parker,    of 


Emerson,  is  one  in  New  York,  which  is  trving  to  found 
religion  on  pure  morality — on  the  actual  salvation  of  man. 
The  moral  ignorance  of  educated  people  is  a  necessary 
result  of  the  long  confusion  of  morality  with  theology. 
A  learned  and  veteran  Unitarian  minister  has  lately 
stated  that  we  liberals  are  all  living  morally  on  elements 
bequeathed  from  orthodoxy  to  our  atmosphere.  I  fear 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  truth  in  that.  It  may  account 
for  the  feebleness  of  our  protest  against  the  combination 
of  churches  to  defy  constitutional  rights  of  conscience  and 
establish  their  average  theology,  their  Sabbath,  their 
bible  in  every  State;  and,  by  exempting  their  church 
property  from  taxation,  tax  every  man  so  far  for  their 
support.  It  accounts  for  the  fact  that  Bible  societies  go 
on  circulating  a  Bible  containing  thousands  of  admitted 
errors,  while  one  in  which  most  of  them  are  cor- 
rected is  at  hand.  That  deliberate  circulation  of  exposed 
falsities  as  the  Word  of  God  could  not  continue  if  the  lib- 
eral teachers  of  this  country  were  not  infected  by  an 
atmosphere  inherited  from  ages  of  pious  fraud. 

I  do  not  mean  to  intimate  that  these  orthodox  men 
are  not  good  men.  But  they  are  under  the  epoch  of 
religious  militantism.     We  know  the  duty  of  soldiers. 

"Theirs  not  to  reason  why, 
Theirs  but  lo  do  .ma  die." 

The  captain  vvho,  in  private  life,  would  scorn  untruth, 
on  the  battle-field  will  deceive  his  foe  by  every  strata- 
gem. For  himself  he  would  not  harm  a  fly;  for  his 
flag  he  will  kill  thousands  of  men.  So  have  many 
tender-hearted  men,  enlisted  as  soldiers  of  the  church 
militant,  slain  and  burnt  those  whom  they  regarded  as 
enemies  of  Christ;  and,  now  that  holy  massacres  of 
heretics  are  out  of  date,  they  resort  to  deception  and 
stratagem.  But  it  is  all  to  win  souls  for  Christ.  It  is 
to  save  human  beings  from  a  fearful  doom.  "  E'en  their 
vices  lean  to  virtue's  side."  They  are  zealous  to  save 
men  from  a  fictitious  hell.  I  wish  we  were  all  as  zeal- 
ous in  saving  men  from  real  hells.  When  the  Christian 
soldier  lays  aside  his  armour  you  have  a  kindly,  honest, 
moral  man.  He  will  vote  with  his  theological  antago- 
nist for  the  right  thing.  If  we  could  only  get  all  the 
good  moral  men  who  make  such  sacrifices  for  their 
theologic  flag — even  sacrifices  of  veracity  and  charity — 
to  set  our  common  cause,  the  salvation  of  man  from 
moral  and  social  evil,  above  their  creed,  above  the  cere- 
monial service  of  God,  the  millennium  might  cease  to  be 
a  mere  dream.  Men  cannot  thoroughly  serve  two 
masters.  So  long  as  they  believe  in  a  deity  who  needs 
something  at  men's  hands,  that  service  will  be  the 
supreme  thing. 

Positive  begets  negative.  The  militantism  of  the 
church  produces  an  antagonist  militantism.  So  long  as 
the  barbarous  laws  of  Moses  are  imposed  on  us — Sabba- 
tarian law,  law  of  blood  for  blood,  blasphemy  laws — 
there  will  be  revivalists  of  common  sense  to  show  up 


5° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  mistakes  of  Moses.  Biblical  immoralities  and 
absurdities  cannot  be  consecrated  without  recoiling  in 
resentment  and  ridicule. 

But  the  time  seems  ripe  for  the  formation,  between 
these  militant  hosts,  of  a  religion  based  on  what  all 
believe — on  what  no  sane  man  doubts.  The  Ethical 
Society  marks  an  era.  A  hundred  years  ago  five  Amer- 
ican colonies  sent  a  few  delegates  to  Annapolis  to  consult 
whether  there  might  not  be  established  in  the  confeder- 
ated colonies  some  kind  of  uniformity  in  trade  laws  and 
other  urgent  matters.  They  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  nothing  could  be  done  so  long  as  the  States  were 
isolated  by  jealousy  and  without  political  solidarity ;  so 
they  issued  a  summons  to  the  States,  and  our  Union  was 
formed,  each  State  reserving  its  self-government,  but 
each  contributing  to  form  a  central  power  representing 
interests  they  hat!  in  common.  Puritan  colony,  Quaker 
colony,  Episcopal  Virginia,  Catholic  Maryland,  Baptist 
Rhode  Island,  and  the  rest,  formed  a  Union,  neutral  as 
to  their  creeds,  but  strong  to  protect  and  advance  them 
all,  and  guarantee  the  freedom  of  all  in  each.  A 
hundred  years  from  now  the  historian  of  religion  may 
have  to  trace  moral  results  proportionately  grand  to  the 
recent  convention  of  delegates  from  four  or  five  socie- 
ties for  ethical  culture.  Among  those  delegates  were 
several  varieties  of  theoretical  belief.  But  it  is  no 
theory  that  right  is  right  and  wrong  wrong;  that  the 
evils  of  the  time  should  be  dealt  with ;  that  the  ethics  of 
society  and  of  the  home  should  be  studied  with  more 
care  and  taught  with  more  earnestness  and  wisdom. 

Such  co-operation  does  not  demand  that  men  should 
abandon  their  several  creeds  or  churches.  We  all 
believe  in  justice,  charity,  freedom,  truth;  let  us  study 
the  moral  laws  and  their  application  to  our  condition. 
To  some  this  may  be  subordinate  to  a  doctrinal  scheme, 
but  they  can  lend  a  hand,  be  it  only  a  left  hand.  But 
to  Unitarianism,  and  to  the  phases  of  liberalism  descended 
from  it,  this  ethical  religion  supplies  the  only  hope  of 
any  renewal  of  the  life  which  once  made  the  land  bud 
and  blossom  under  the  breath  of  great  spiritual  leaders. 
The  wine  of  those  great  vintages  has  gone  into  old 
bottles.  All  the  better.  The  ethical  union  is  not  for 
any  denomination,  but  for  mankind.  In  the  ethical 
union  advantage  may  be  derived  from  the  varieties  of 
experience  ami  training  represented  in  the  different 
sects.  They  have  all  progressed  farther  than  is  sup- 
posed. In  London  Cardinal  Manning  once  invited  my 
co-operation  to  secure  purer  and  cheaper  water  for  the 
poor  of  the  city.  Dr.  Adler  tells  me  that  he  is  receiv- 
ing letters  of  encouragement  for  his  Society  for  Ethical 
Culture  from  orthodox  clergymen.  All  these  have  the 
same  practical  problems  to  deal  with  as  the  unorthodox — 
social,  domestic,  moral.  The  same  ethical  chaos  sur- 
rounds us  all — good  instincts  vulgarized  by  fanaticism, 
impurities   fostered  by    false    methods   of    dealing   with 


them,  popular  sentiment  utilized  by  demagogues  for 
base  ends,  crime  flourishing  through  unscientific  codes, 
the  reformer  doing  that  which  seems  right  in  his  own 
eyes,  without  trying  to  see  eye  to  eye  with  his  brother. 
What  heart  can  see  any  dove  hovering  over  this  chaos 
without  an  emotion  of  hope  that  its  brooding  may 
bring  peace  and  order? 

What  can  a  liberal  society  do?  Let  it  found  in  its 
community  a  society  for  ethical  culture.  Let  it  invite 
all,  especially  all  public  teachers,  to  come  and  consider 
purely  moral  and  social  subjects,  theoretical  and  practi- 
cal, social  and  domestic,  local  and  national.  Let  the 
prevailing  moral  ideas  be  thoroughly  searched.  Let  the 
practical  methods  be  revised.  Discipline  in  the  home, 
the  school,  the  prison;  corporal  punishment;  the  pur- 
pose of  punishment,  and  its  methods;  the  difference 
between  vice  and  crime;  how  to  deal  with  intemperance, 
licentiousness,  pauperism;  what  instruction  should  be 
given  boys  and  girls  concerning  sex,  and  the  dangers, 
bodily  and  moral,  amid  which  they  move;  marriage 
laws;  poor  laws;  labor  laws;  amusements  and  pleasures: 
these  and  other  urgent  matters,  about  which  there  might 
be  a  harmony  such  as  that  which  prevails  among  scien- 
tific men  as  to  principles  and  methods,  are  left  in  crude 
confusion  because  the  comparative  study  which  elicits 
truth  is  here  wanting.  The  clergy,  to  whom  moral 
instruction  of  the  people  is  entrusted,  have  no  means 
of  having  their  traditional  notions  checked.  The  preach- 
ers are  not  preached  to.  Dr.  Holmes  once  suggested 
the  danger  that  the  pulpit  might  relapse  into  Paganism 
for  lack  of  moral  instruction.  Most  of  the  clergy  are 
cultivating  American  fields  with  the  ploughs  of  ancient 
Palestine.  If  a  better  plough  were  shown  them  there 
is  really  nothing  to  prevent  their  adopting  it,  though 
they  might  label  it  Palestinian.  There  ought  to  be 
an  ethical  school  in  every  community  in  which  moral 
science  shall  be  studied.  Sir  James  Mackintosh  said 
that  "morality  admits  no  discoveries;"  he  declared,  and 
Buckle  followed  him,  that  there  has  been  no  important 
variation  in  the  moral  rules  of  life  for  three  thousand 
years.  That  stationariness  has  been  due  to  the  domina- 
tion of  dogma  over  the  social,  domestic,  and  political 
life  of  mankind.  It  is  not  true,  however,  that  no  pro- 
gress in  moral  ideas,  even  with  these  disparagements. 
The  virtue  of  self-truthfulness,  impossible  so  long  as 
the  self  was  believed  satanic,  has  appeared.  Compas- 
sionateness  for  animals,  unknown  to  the  Bible,  has  been 
arising  under  the  Darwinian  era.  Toleration,  on 
moral  grounds,  is  a  new  virtue,  though  feeble  as  yet  and 
not  able  to  keep  the  atheist  from  being  boycotted.  These 
latest  moral  buds  and  fruits  prove  that  while  theories 
grow  gray  the  tree  of  life  is  renewed.  Ecclesiastic 
cherubim  no  longer  guard  it  from  our  approach. 
Its  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nation.  Its  fruit 
shall    be  righteousness,  joy,  and    peace.      But  the  time 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


5i 


of  its  ripe  fruit  is  not  yet.  Morality  is  still  largely 
monastic,  puritanical,  sour.  The  virtue  of  youth  is 
bruised  because  the  young  man  is  taught  by  his  mother 
and  his  pastor  lessons  of  life  which  he  presently  finds 
do  not  correspond  with  the  facts.  We  have  free 
thought;  we  now  want  mature  thought.  Theology  has 
run  its  career  and  now  rests  in  the  tomb  of  the  unknow- 
able. Nothing  is  heard  there  but  the  tolling  of  the  bell 
and  chant  for  the  soul  of  the  departed.  However  we 
may  long  to  know  the  unknowable,  to  pierce  the  veil 
of  the  future  beyond  this  life,  we  must  turn  from  such 
longings  and  make  the  most  of  what  is  left  us — the 
power  to  be  ourselves  a  providence  and  to  answer  pray- 
ers. If  you  cannot  get  what  you  have  set  your  hearts 
on,  you  must  set  your  hearts  on  what  you  can  get. 


COMMENTS  ON   MR.   HEGELER'S   ESSAY.* 

BY  W.  M.  SALTER. 

I  consider  that  Mr.  Hegeler  has  given  us  an  im- 
portant philosophical  theory  of  ethics.  His  view  seems 
to  go  with  Spencer's  up  to  a  certain  point.  That  is 
good  which  tends  to  the  continuance  of  life,  in  ourselves 
and  in  others,  and  not  only  that,  but  to  a  greater  quan- 
tum (quantity)  o  life,  M  Hegeler  laying  special  stress 
upon  the  soul-life  as  distinguished  from  the  merely 
physical -life. 

Spencer  says  that  all  our  judgments  of  good  and 
bad  imply  that  life  is  desirable.  Mr.  Hegeler  does  not 
dispute  this.  But  Spencer  says,  desirable,  because  life 
affords  a  surplus  of  pleasure  over  pain.  Mr.  Hegeler 
says,  irrespective  of  this;  according  to  him,  life  is  desir- 
able for  itself  alone.  Spencer  holds  that  if  there  were 
not  more  pleasure  than  pain,  or  if  there  were  only  equal 
amounts  or  more  pain  than  pleasure,  life  would  not  be 
desirable;  and  then  good  and  bad  would  have  opposite 
meanings  to  those  they  now  have;  good  would  mean 
those  actions  that  tend  to  shorten  life  and  bad  those 
actions  that  tend  to  prolong  it.  Mr.  Hegeler  holds  that 
even  if  there  is  no  surplus  of  pleasure  or,  I  should  sup- 
pose, if  there  is  an  actual  surplus  of  pain,  life  is  still  to 
be  desired,  for  it  is  a  good- in  itself. 

What,  then,  according  to  Mr.  Hegeler,  are  the  func- 
tions of  pleasure  and  pain?  They  are  not  ends  in 
themselves,  but  rather  signs  that  ends  are  being  accom- 
plished; pleasure  accompanies  the  maintenance  and 
growth  of  life,  pain  its  disintegration  and  decay.  By 
our  desire  for  pleasure  and  our  dislike  for  pain  we  are 
influenced  in  the  direction  of  those  actions  that  tend  to 
build  up  life  and  hindered  from  doing  those  that  lead 
to  destroy  it.  But  pleasures  are  not  rationally  to  be 
sought  for  their  own   sake,   but   because   they    are   con- 


*  At  a  meeting  of  the  Societv  for  Ethic  il  Culture  of  Chicago  succeeding 
that  at  which  was  read  "The  Basis  of  Ethics"  by  Mr.  E.  C.  Hegeler, 
printed  in  the  first  issue  of  this  Journal.  In  the  next  number  will  be  given 
still  fur. her  comments  and  criticisms  made  that  evening. 


joined  with  those  actions  that  promote  life.  Spencer, 
on  the  other  hand,  cannot  speak  of  the  functions  of 
pleasure  and  pain,  because  they  are  ends  in  themselves, 
the  one  to  be  sought,  the  other  to  be  avoided;  but  he 
can  speak  of  the  functions  of  life,  namely  to  give  us  a 
surplus  of  pleasure  over  pain.  We  naturally  crave 
pleasure  and  avoid  pain;  according  to  such  a  view  as 
Mr.  Hegeler's,  these  desires  are  the  machinery  by  which 
life  is  built  up;  only  by  using  the  machinery  do  we 
accomplish  anything ;  but  the  structure  to  be  reared  is 
different  from  the  machinerv  to  be  used.  According  to 
Spencer,  the  "  machinery  "  becomes  the  end.  To  take 
another  illustration;  a  locomotive  is  fed  with  coal  and 
gives  forth  steam ;  onlv  on  this  condition  does  it  run; 
but  its  end  is  to  run.  Suppose  now  that  it  became  a 
conscious  being  and  felt  pleasure  in  consuming  the  coal 
and  emitting  the  steam,  and  thereupon  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  pleasure  was  the  purpose  for  which  it 
existed,  it  would  be  like  the  man  who  because  he  finds 
pleasure  in  the  things  that  build  up  his  life  thinks  that 
pleasure  is  the  end  and  not  life  itself.  Suppose  that  the 
things  that  gave  pleasure  tended  to  destroy  life,  as  does 
in  some  rare  instances,  perhaps,  happen;  suppose  the 
ordinance  of  nature  were  different  from  what  it  is;  then, 
according  to  the  logic  of  Spsncer's  view,  we  should  seek 
pleasure  though  life  were  destroyed,  on  the  ground  that 
cessation  of  life  is  better  than  a  surplus  of  pain  ;  while  ac- 
cording to  Mr.  Hegeler's  view  we  should  endure  pain 
and  renounce  pleasure,  because  this  would  be  the  only 
means  by  which  we  could  live,  and  life  is  the  paramount 
end.  Possibly  I  am  in  this  overstating  Mr.  Hegeler's 
personal  convictions,  but  I  am  only  seeking  to  bring 
out  the  implications  of  his  theory.  If  Mr.  Hegeler 
would  not  hold  that  life  is  desirable  in  case  it  is  attended 
with  more  pain  than  pleasure  (even  with  much  more), 
then  the  distinctness  of  his  theory  vanishes,  and  instead 
of  life  alone  he  admits  pleasure  also  as  an  end;  and  then 
his  theory,  to  have  any  philosophical  value,  would  have 
to  tell  us  hoxu  much  pleasure  must  be  in  life  to  make 
it  supportable  or  desirable?  He  has  expressly  said,  not 
necessarily  a  surplus  of  pleasure  over  pain ;  must  it 
then  be  an  equal  amount?  or,  if  not  so,  then  half  or 
quarter  as  much?  It  seems  to  me,  we  are  driven  to 
rough  calculations  of  this  sort,  if  on  the  one  hand  we  do 
not  hold  with  Spencer  that  pleasure  is  the  paramount 
end,  and  yet,  on  the  other,  allow  that  it  is  something  of 
an  end  and  admit  that  life  absolutely  without  pleasure 
and  full  of  pain  would  nut  be  desirable. 

Which  is  the  right  theory?  I  shall  not  attempt  to 
answer.  I  have  wanted  to  bring  out  clearly  Mr. 
Hegeler's  theory  in  my  own  mind,  rather  than  to  criti- 
cise it.  I  think,  however,  as  between  the  two,  that  Mr. 
Hegeler's  theory  comes  nearer  the  facts  of  life.  The 
life-instinct  is  wonderfully  deep  in  the  race.  There  is 
nothing-  that   we  shudder  at   so    as  destruction.     There 


52 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


may  even  be  those  who  would  rather  live  on  in  entire 
unhappiness  than  be  blotted  out  altogether.  They 
would  rather  live  in  misery  than  cease  to  be.  And 
though  there  be  few  in  number,  there  are  many  who 
would  rather  live,  if  but  a  little  happiness  Is  granted 
them  once  in  a  while,  and  all  the  rest  of  their  existence 
is  unhappy.  The  little  oases  in  the  midst  of  which 
they  may  linger  now  and  then,  redeem  the  dreariness  of 
the  desert  through  which  they  pass;  they  would  rather 
go  on,  if  an  oasis  is  somewhere  ahead,  than  give,  up  the 
march  because  the  desert  is  so  wide.  I  suspect  there  are 
many  people  who  do  not  have  as  much  happiness  as 
unhappiness  in  life;  occasionally  we  hear  of  one  willing 
to  die,  yes,  even  to  take  his  or  her  life;  the  number  of 
suicides  is  actually  increasing.  But  I  suspect  that  the 
mass  of  those  to  whom  life  is  a  long  struggle,  with  many 
disappointments  and  little  pleasure,  would  yet  rather  go 
on,  and  look  on  death  with  dread,  altogether  apart,  too, 
from  fears  of  what  may  come  after.  For  myself,  I 
would  say  that  in  searching  for  the  truth  I  would  rather 
be  baffled  a  thousand  times  and  have  the  discomfort  and 
sense  of  frustration  accompanying  such  experiences,  if 
the  thousand  and  first  time  I  found  the  truth,  than  to 
forego  the  search  at  the  outset,  because  I  knew  there 
would  be  more  pain  than  pleasure  attending  it.  Others 
might  not  think  the  result  worth  the  trouble;  I  should. 
I  should  rather  have  the  mortification  and  shame  of 
defeat  in  the  wrestle  with  an  evil  habit  a  hundred  times 
over  and  at  last  win  the  victory,  though  I  never  thought 
of  it  again  or  my  life  ended  immediately  thereafter,  than 
not  undertake  the  struggle  because  there  was  to  be  more 
mortification  than  joy  attending  it.  The  amounts  of  pleas- 
ure and  pain  in  a  life  or  in  the  life  of  a  race  seem  to  me  a 
poor  means  of  estimating  its  value;  but  the  amount  of 
life,  the  amount  of  attainment,  physical  attainment, 
intellectual  attainment,  moral  attainment,  this,  whether 
applied  to  an  individual  or  the  whole  race,  seems 
to  me  a  high  way  of  estimating  the  worth  of  their 
existence. 

But  here  I  am  trespassing  on  the  field  of  criticism 
which  I  had  not  meant  to  enter.  The  question,  however, 
is,  not  which  do  I  happen  to  regard  as  supreme,  life  or 
happiness,  or  which  do  any  of  us,  but  which  is  it 
rational  to  regard  as  supreme?  It  may  be  that  because 
Mr.  Hegeler's  theory  comes  nearer  to  the  facts  of  life  it 
is  thereby  no  truer  as  a  theory;  for  though  men  do 
regard  life  as  worth  having,  though  it  brings  to  them 
more  pain  than  pleasure,  it  may  still  be  asked  are  they 
reasonable  in  so  doing,  and,  on  those  conditions,  would 
not  a  perfectly  rational  mind  rather  not  live  at  all?  So 
Spencer  thinks,  and  Spencer's  view  may  be  truer  as  an 
ethical  theory  though  Mr.  Hegeler's  comes  nearer  t<>  the 
facts  of  life.  As  to  whether  Spencer's  theory  is  the 
true]'  of  the  two  I  shall  not  undertake  to  say,  though  I 
incline  to  think  not. 


THREE   LIVE  THOUGHTS. 

Whosoever  is  afraid  of  submitting  any  question, 
civil  or  religious,  to  the  test  of  free  discussion,  is  more 
in  love  with  his  own  opinion  than  with  truth. —  Watson. 

Be  perfect!  Countless  harmonies  slumber  in  thee, 
to  wake  at  thy  bidding — invoke  them,  call  them  into 
life  by  means  of  thy  nobility!  Canst  thou  suffer  the 
base,  the  perishable  in  thy  nature  to  put  to  silence  the 
noble  and  the  immortal? — Schiller. 

The  repressed  and  unhappy  are  in  ten-fold  more 
danger  from  temptation  than  those  who  feel 
they  are  having  their  share  of  life's  good.  The 
stream  that  cannot  flow  in  the  sunshine  seeks  a  subter- 
ranean channel;  in  like  manner,  when  circumstances  or 
the  inconsiderate  will  of  others  impose  unrelenting 
restraint  upon  the  exuberant  spirit  of  youth,  it  usually 
finds  some  hidden  outlet  which  cannot  bear  the  light. 
— E.  T.Roe. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

A   LETTER   FROM   BOSTON. 

To  the  Editors:  Jamaica  Plains,  Mass.,  Feb.  10,  1S87. 

We  are  a  little  lonely  here  in  Boston  without  The  Index  com- 
ing punctually  every  week  with  its  inspiration  of  noble  words, 
turning  our  thoughts  to  large  and  commanding  themes  of  interest. 

Somehow  I  feel  as  we  might  when  there  had  been  a  wedding 
in  the  family  and  the  bride  has  gone  far  away.  We  hope  the 
change  is  for  happiness  and  good  to  all,  and  are  disposed  to 
treat  the  bridegroom  who  has  borne  away  our  treasure  with  all 
courtesy  and  prospective  affection,  but,  nevertheless,  we  do  feel 
lonely  and  a  change  has  come  over  the  old  relations.  So,  while 
we  welcome  The  Open  Court  and  are  hopeful  of  all  the  good 
it  is  to  bring  us,  we  yet  wonder  if  anything  can  be  as  good  as  the 
old  familiar  friend,  and  we  trust  that  they  who  receive  it  will  like  a 
letter  from  the  old  home. 

Yesterda3'  was  the  day  appointed  for  the  woman  suffrage 
hearing  at  the  State  House,  and  the  weather  smiled  upon  it  as- 
it  has  hardly  smiled  for  two  months,  and  the  occasion  was 
worthy  of  the  weather.  The  audience  was  large,  as  usual, 
and,  while  mostly  composed  of  the  staunch  men  and  women 
who  have  followed  this  movement  for  years,  there  were  some  new 
faces  and  a  sprinkling  of  remonstrants.  The  committee  were 
thoroughly  courteous  and  considerate.  The  cause  of  the  petition- 
ers for  municipal  suffrage  was  represented  by  Mr.  Blackwell,  Mrs. 
Stone,  Mr.  Garrison,  Mrs.  Shattuck  and  others,  and  Mr.  Fay,  a 
very  gentlemanly  lawyer  from  Brookline,  appeared  for  the  remon- 
strants: 

While  fortunate  in  their  choice  so  far  as  the  personal  traits  of 
their  representative  appeared,  he  was  hardly  a  powerful  advocate, 
for  he  gave  away  the  whole  general  principle,  by  showing  some- 
thing very  like  approbation  for  the  plan  of  allowing  women  to 
vote  on  the  license  question,  and  was  only  strenuous  in  his  oppo- 
sition to  municipal  suffrage,  especially  in  large  cities. 

He  took  occasion  to  thank  Col.  lligginson  for  his  article  in 
The  Forum,  wherein  he  has  stated  all  possible  objections  to 
woman  suffrage  with  an  ability  which  the  remonstrants  have 
never  been  able  to  command.  This  brought  up  the  veteran 
colonel,  whose  trumpet  gave  forth  no  uncertain  sound.  Distinctly 
ranking  himself  with  the  petitioners,  he  fortified  the  claim  for 
woman's  suffrage  with  the  noblest  words  of  James  Otis,  and  Benja- 
min Franklin,  and  Charles  Sumner,  and  showed  that  the  women 
who  had  spoken  had  adhered  closely  to  these  doctrines  which  were 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


S3 


at  the  foundation  of  ourcivil  constitution.  Those  who  had  misun- 
derstood his  position  and  feared  that  the  mists  of  conservatism 
were  obscuring  his  light,  rejoiced  with  exceeding  joy  over  this 
full  and  candid  utterance. 

The  meetings  of  the  Hermetic  Club  have  been  noteworthy 
this  winter.  Mr.  W.  T.  Harris  has  on  two  Tuesdays  expounded 
the  Bhagavadgita,  and  at  the  last  session  Mr.  Emery,  of  Con- 
cord, took  his  place  as  chairman  and  conducted  the  discussion 
with  great  ability.  It  was  curious  to  hear  the  old  veteran, 
Mr.  Pillsbury,  bringing  out  his  stern  plea  for  practical  work  in 
the  midst  of  this  philosophic  speculation. 

A  lady  of  Boston  has  received  as  her  guest,  and  kindly  given 
to  manv  the  opportunity  of  meeting  at  her  house,  Mr.  Mohini,  a 
Brahmin  of  remarkable  scholarship  and  eloquence.  Having  had 
in  early  life  the  advantages  of  education  in  an  English  school,  he 
speaks  our  language  with  great  correctness  and  beauty,  and  is 
thoroughly  versed  in  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures.  I  am 
told  that  he  is  equally  at  home  in  both  the  French  and  Italian 
language  and  literature.  Having  passed  through  a  period  of 
doubt  and  agnosticism,  as  he  says  most  young  Brahmins  do,  he 
is  now  a  devoted  Brahmin,  accepting  revelation  as  authorita- 
tive, but  not  confining  it  to  the  sacred  books  of  his  own  nation, 
but  believing  that  the  divine  light  shines  through  all  sacred  books 
and  all  religions.  While  we  may  not  accept  his  beliefs,  we  can- 
not but  admire  the' breadth  and  catholicity  of  this  thought.  He  is 
still  quite  voung  and  very  pleasing  in  appearance  and  manners, 
and  his  influence  is  very  strong  upon  some  of  his  hearers.  It 
indicates  a  wonderful  advance  in  freedom  of  thought  and  in  real 
liberality  in  religion,  that  those  whom  in  our  childhood  we  were 
taught  to  renounce  as  heathen  are  now  welcomed  among  us  to 
teach  us  of  their  wisdom  as  well  as  to  learn  of  ours. 

The  "  ladies'  night  "  of  the  Liberal  Union  Club,  on  February 
26th,  will  be  an  interesting  occasion.  Miss  Eastman  will  be  the 
speaker.  She  always  speaks  on  religious  themes  with  great 
earnestness,  true  insight  and  wide  observation.  Liberals  need 
bonds  of  union,  not  to  separate  them  from  others,  but  for  richer 
communion  among  themselves  and  for  making  their  work 
broader  and  more  effective. 

With  best  wishes  for  the  success  of  The  Open  Court,  I  am, 
Very  truly  yours, 

Ednah  Dow  Cheney. 


LIMITATIONS  OF  THE  HUMAN  FEELING. 
To  the  Editors.:  Fairfield,  Iowa,  Feb.  20,  1887. 

An  aged  negro  couple,  living  alone  in  the  Skunk  river  valley, 
in  Lee  county,  Iowa,  frightened  by  rising  water,  attempted  to 
reach  higher  ground  in  their  wagon.  The  water  was  but  two  or 
three  feet  deep,  yet,  reaching  a  bad  place  in  the  road,  the  team 
was  unable  or  refused  to  go  farther  and  the  old  couple  were  left 
there  in  helplessness  and  peril,  although  their  cries  were,  after 
awhile,  answered  from  the  shore  and  the  calling  back  and  forth 
lasted  some  time;  so  far  as  is  known,  no  serious  effort  was  made 
to  rescue  the  unfortunates.  They  remained  there  prisoners  all 
night  in  bitter  and  increasing  cold,  awaiting  the  rescuing  party 
that  never  came.  On  the  following  morning  cries  were  again 
heard  bv  those  living  near,  yet  or  some  inexplicable  reason  no 
aid  was  sent.  Not  until  late  on  the  second  day  did  any  one  go 
to  them ;  then  they  were  both  found  dead  in  the  now  frozen 
water  beside  their  wagon,  having  attempted  to  unhitch  the 
team. 

All  accounts  of  this  heart-rending  tragedy  agree  that  the  old 
couple  were  of  that  simple,  child-like  purity  of  life  so  common 
among  the  older  generation  of  colored  people  and  were  dearly 
beloved  by  their  white  neighbors,  and  that  the  water  was  at  no 
time  so  deep  or  the  current  so  swift  as  to  render  it  impossible  or 


even  hazardous  for  strong  men  to  reach  them.  Why,  then,  this 
apathv  and  inhuman  inaction  on  the  part  of  those  who  knew  the 
situation?  I  have  seen  men  swim  torrents  to  rescue  animals 
from  a  less  painful  and  perilous  situation!  It  would  seem  that 
of  all  suffering  and  danger  this  case  should  have  been  most 
powerfully  appealing.  Reverence  for  age  and  piety,  sympathy 
for  helplessness,  added  to  the  common  feeling  of  humanity, 
should  irresistibly  have  drawn  any  normal  person  to  share  theii 
peril  and  suffering  in  an  attempt  to  relieve  them.  The  people 
who  stood  by  and  saw  these  venerable,  virtuous  and  helpless  ones 
of  their  own  kind  perish  miserably  were  not  savages  nor  brutal-; 
ized  peasants.  They  were  average  people  of  the  middle  working 
class. 

The  case  is  a  disheartening  puzzle.  Shame  and  indignation 
seem  more  appropriate  to  it  than  philosophizing,  yet  doubtless  it 
shows  a  limitation  of  the  feeling  of  humanity  which  may  be  in 
some  degree  traced  out  and  accounted  for.  A  son  or  any  relative 
would  have  rushed  impetuously  into  danger  to  rescue  the  loved 
ones.  Is  it  not  almost  as  certain  that  near  friends  and  associates 
on  an  equality  would  have  done  the  same  thing?  We  are  forced 
to  believe  that  had  the  old  couple  been  white  instead  of  black 
they  would  not  have  been  left  to  their  pitiable  fate.  No  one  with 
highly-developed  altruistic  feelings  can  see  any  human  creature 
perish  so  without  desperate  efforts  to  save  them. 

The  limitations  then  are  the  various  degrees  of  selfishness  left 
in  human  kind  by  an  imperfect  and  faulty  system  of  moral  and 
emotional  training.  The  sympathies  of  most  people  very  much 
need  broadening.  Their  love  is  intense  enough  when  it  comes 
near  to  themselves,  but  it  rapidly  loses  force  as  it  reaches  out 
toward  the  great  body  of  the  race  and  is  well  nigh  intercepted 
by  the  slight  barrier  of  race  difference.  When  the  religious  sen- 
timent is  centered  more  on  humanity  and  less  on  self  and  the 
supernatural,  such  an    incident  as  that  on  which  these  thoughts 

are  founded  will  be  impossible. 

F.  B.  Taylor. 


FREE-THOUGHT   LYCEUMS. 

To  the  Editors: 

In  the  first  issue  of  your  new  fortnightly  I  find  an  article  by 
Thomas  Davidson  on  the  need  for  free- thought  education.  It 
interested  me  very  much,  the  more  because  I  have  here  since 
1SS4  argued  the  necessity  of  a  more  liberal  and  comprehensive 
intellectual  education  than  that  given  in  the  public  schools.  Will 
you  kindly  grant  me  the  space  for  a  few  remarks  on  the  proposi- 
tion with  which  Mr.  Davidson  closes  his  paper. 

I  think  he  is  mistaken  if  he  believes  that  a  free-thought  college 
will  do  much  good ;  it  is  not  in  the  colleges  that  the  mind  is 
framed,  as  far  as  the  feelings  of  fear  and  hope,  of  reverence  and 
esteem,  are  concerned.  It  seems  to  me,  at  least,  that  the  young 
people  of  about  eighteen  years,  or  of  whatever  age  they  may 
enter  a  college,  should  be  sure  already  of  being  and  remaining  on 
the  right  side.  The  time  for  imbuing  them  with  really  liberal  princi- 
ples, even  though  they  do  not  at  once  grasp  all  the  consequences 
thereof,  is  when  the  period  of  maturity  begins;  and  then  the 
instruction  they  receive  should  cease  to  be  merely  elementary. 
The  time  usually  decisive  in  determining  the  moral  and  religious, 
as  well  as  the  intellectual,  character,  is,  on  an  average,  that  from 
the  age  of  thirteen  to  eighteen.  What  free-thinkers  want,  therefore, 
in  mv  opinion,  is  a  good  free-thought  lyceum,  to  which  pupils 
can  go  after  graduating  from  the  grammar  room.  A  carefully- 
educated  and  half-way  diligent  boy  or  girl  ought  to  be  ready  for 
the  lyceum  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  and  if  he  has  then  gone 
through  a  course  of  instruction  of  half  a  decade,  he  may  safely 
be  allowed  to  go  to  any  college  or  university,  no  matter  who 
manages  it,  or  what  the  religious  views  of  the  faculty  are. 


54 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


Let  nobody  say  that  a  free-thought  school  for  children,  or  a 
free-thought  kindergarten,  might  as  well  be  proposed.  With  chil- 
■dren  under  thirteen  years  almost  everything  depends  upon  the 
home  in  which  they  are  brought  up.  Of  course,  it  would  be  best 
not  to  send  them  to  the  public  schools  at  all,  considering  their 
average  character;  but  then,  here  a  little  care  on  the  part  of  the 
parents  may  prevent  bad  consequences,  while  beyond  the  age  of 
thirteen  it  cannot.  My  idea  is  that  to  the  lowest  class  of  such  a 
lyceum  pupils  should  not  be  admitted  under  thirteen  nor  over 
sixteen ;  they  should  be  ready  for  the  best  of  American  universities 
latest  at  the  age  they  become  citizens.  Let  there  be  no  more 
colleges  in  the  United  States,  but  better  schools  preparing  for 
them,  as  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Paul  Carus  in  one  of  The  Index  issues 
■of  July,  1SS6. 

Very  respectfully, 

Thos.  H.  Jappe. 


ETHICAL  CULTURE  AND   MONISM. 

To  the  Editors:  Philadelphia,  Feb.  22,  1887. 

I  have  just  received  the  first  number  of  your  new  paper,  and, 
as  I  am  a  lawyer,  as  well  as  a  theologist,  I  want  to  make  a  polite  bow 
in  Open  Court  and  respectfully  ask  to  be  admitted  to  your  bar. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  ethical  culture  is  to  have  prominent  stand- 
ing in  your  Court,  and  it  deserves  it;  and,  because  I  am  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  new  movement,  I  desire  to  enter  a  brief  "demurrer" 
to  the  policy  of  some  of  its  chief  appostles. 

I  think  they  are  too  outspoken  and  unguarded  in  so  frequently 
publishing  their  negations  in  regard  to  God,  prayer  and  the  future 
life.  They  have  a  perfect  right  to  proclaim  their  opinions,  but  I 
fail  to  see  what  these  questions  have,  necessarily,  to  do  with  ethical 
culture.  I  do  not  believe  in  concealment  and  hypocrisy,  but  I 
would  not  unwittingly  shock  and  drive  away  any  person  whose 
•co-operation  is  to  be  desired.  All  intelligent  men  know  that 
belief  has  very  little  tc/do  with  morals,  and  that  some  of  the  best 
men  have  been  known  as  atheists  and  agnostics,  and  that  the  same 
is  true  of  many  theists  and  believers  in  prayer  and  the  future  life. 
Why  cannot  all  liberals  work  together  in  the  new  departure  of 
■ethical  culture  without  having  their  respective  peculiar  opinions 
continually  paraded?  I  have  reason  for  thinking,  from  personal 
observation,  that  this  friendly  hint  deserves  careful  consideration. 

Let  not  this  ethical  culture  movement  be  hampered  with  a 
creed,  written  or  implied.  I  have  not  had  time  to  examine  Dr. 
Montgomery's  Monism,  and  shall  reserve  my  opinion  until  the 
case  is  fully  heard  in  Open  Court.  I  call  myself  a  Rationalistic 
Theist,  but  I  find  my  theism  well  expressed  by  Professor  Haeckel, 
as  follows: 

"The  more  developed  man  of  the  present  day  is  capable  of, 
and  justified  in,  conceiving  that  infinitely  nobler  and  sublimer 
idea  of  God  which  alone  is  compatible  with  the  monistic  concep- 
tion of  the  universe,  and  which  recognizes  God's  spirit  and 
power  in  all  phenomena  without  exception.  The  monistic  idea 
of  God,  which  belongs  to  the  future,  has  already  been  expressed 
by  Giordano  Bruno  in  the  following  words:  'A  spirit  exists  in  all 
things,  and  nobody  is  60  small  but  contains  a  part  of  the  divine 
substance  within  itself,  by  which  it  is  animated.'" 

I  close  this  hasty  note  with  a  suggestion  I  have  made  in  another 
connection  : 

"  It  was  once  said  by  a  master  of  English  literature  and  a 
keen  observer  that  'language  is  a  device  to  conceal  one's  ideas;' 
and  may  it  not  be  possible  that,  after  all,  truly  scientific  and  can- 
did men  have  substantially  the  same  theory  of  the  universe,  and 
really  mean  the  same  thing,  while  they  use  very  different  words 
to  express  their  meaning?" 

R.  B.  Westbrook. 


DRIFTING. 

FIRST  VOICE. 
Drifting,  along  the  dreary  waters  drifting-. 

Night  on  the  waves,  and  ne'er  a  star  o'erhead, 
Never  a  gleam  o'er  all  the  waste  uplifting, 

Never  a  ray  thro'  all  the  darkness  shed. 
Drifting,  along  ihe  dreary  waters  drifting. 

Whither  away,  O,  soul  across  the  ocean  ? 

Dark  is  the  night  and  dangerous  is  the  sea, 
Sweeter  were  life  with  all  its  wild  commotion, 

Better  were  death  than  life  like  this  can  be. 
Whither  away,  O,  soul  across  the  ocean? 

SECOND  VOICE. 

O,  heart,  why  wilt  thou  weary  me  with  wailing? 

Worn  are  we  both  and  wasted  with  the  strife, 
Far  Irom  the  toil  ;ind  tears  we  twain  are  sailing, 

Leaving  behind  the  bitterness  ol  life. 
O,  heart,  why  wilt  thou  weary  me  with  wailing? 

Be  still,  sad  heart,  and  cease  thy  vain  repining — 

Be  patient,  lor  the  night  will  soon  be  past, 
.Somewhere  alar  a  golden  shore  is  shining, 

Thither  the  flood  will  bear  us  at  the  last. 
Be  still,  sad  heart,  and  cease  thy  vain  repining. 

Walter  Crane. 


There  has  never  been  a  great  man  who  has  not  been 
either  the  victim  of  laws  or  the  object  of  human  in- 
gratitude.— -  Castelar. 


THE  AGE. 

WRITTEN  AFTER  READING  "LOCKSLEY  HALL  SIXTY  YEARS  AFTER." 
BY  W.  F.  BARNARD. 

This  our  age  that  wears  upon  its  front  the  symbol  of  the  truth, 

Grandest  age  of  all  the  ages  in  the  promise  of  its  youth, 

Seeking  out  the  great  world- purpose,  seeking  it  but  to  obey, 

Lifting  man  up  into  manhood,  thrusting  ignorance  away, 

Bearing  all  of  gathered  knowledge  that  the  human  mind  has  jvon 

From  the  distant  primal  ages  to  the  latest  cycles  run, 

Very  light  of  light  within  it,  light  nf  truth  if  th;it  be  light; 

Throwing  gleams  upon  its  pathway  that  erstwhile  had  slept  in  night, 

This,  this  age  finds  its  accuser  in  a  lover  of  the  past, 

Blaming  all  our  growing  freedom,  saying  we  have  failed  at  last. 

He  who  sang  in  early  manhood  songs  that  filled  all  men  with  strength, 

Ends  his  singing,  falls  in  darkness,  lays  his  lyre  down  at  length. 

Broken  spirit,  broken  purpose,  all  his  nobler  hope  resigned; 

Crying  alter  vanished  shadows  in  the  blindness  of  his  mind. 

Oh  the  woe,  the  silent  anguish,  when  a  heart  that  once  was  free, 

Free  in  hope  and  free  in  purpose,  murmurs  "Night:  I  cannot  see." 

If  the  blind  say  in  the  mornina  "Day  is  vanished  it  is  ni^ht." 

Is  the  morning's  glory  lessened?  is  there  aught  the  less  of  light? 

To  us  all  the  past  is  vanished ;  to  us  comes  a  newer  earth: 

All  the  present  days  and  deeds  are  but  the  pangs  and  throes  of  birth. 

Say  you  there  is  more  of  sorrow;  say  you  there  is  more  of  tears; 

Backward  turn  your  Ihoughts  and  borrow  nobler  days  or  grander  years. 

Nobler  days;  of  truer  purpose.     Noblest  days  are  those  that  find 

Man  through  freedom  working  upward;  granting  kingship  to  the  mind. 

Wickedness,  aye,  yes  and  virtue:  virtue  for  its  own  true  sake; 

Needing  not  the  fear  of  hell  to  keep  its  little  life  awake. 

Sadness,  badness,  yes  we  own  it.     Was  the  pa^t  the  better  then? 

Were  men  good  for  love  of  goodness,  Or  from  fear  of  God  and  men? 

Crave  you  happiness;  deserve  it  by  the  greatness  of  vour  lives; 

He  alone  is  truly  happy  who  most  truly  lives  and  strives. 

Is  it  better  that  a  nation  knows  no  wish  but  to  obey? 

Is  the  squalid,  dumb  agreement  better  than  the  righteous  fray? 

Shall  we  leave  the  larger  ocean  where  the  freer  spirit  strives 

For  the  stagnant  pool  of  custom  with  its  scum  of  lying  lives? 

Is  there  woe  and  death;  diseases  feeding  on  earth's  helpless  brood? 

Falter  not  then,  ceaseless  effort;  that  alone  will  bring  the  good. 

Ask  not  thou  if  all  are  moving  to  the  same  ideal  ends; 

Blame  not  thou  our  larger  freedom  if  the  lower  man  descends. 

Art  thou  moving  toward  the  summit,  dost  thou  hear  the  higher  call, 

Then  thou  shall  not  cease  from  lnbor  though  the  stars  and  heavens  fall. 

They  who  learned  the  falser  lessons  stagger  now  the  truth  is  known; 

They  who  did  their  tasks  with  trembling  shirk  them  now  the  fear  is  gone. 

Truth  is  truth  nor  will  it  linger  e'en  to  save  a  thousand  lives; 

Let  it  come;  and  you  who  fear  it,  back  again  into  your  hives! 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


55 


Progress  from  the  thought  that  held  mankind  accursed,  steeped  in  sin. 

To  the  higher  thought  that  points  but  to  the  soul's  own  law  within, 

Is  not  universal  progress;  not  all  men  will  love  the  high; 

Many  who  through  fear  mocked  virtue,  now  will  grovel  till  they  die. 

Let  them  die;  we  will,  not  li  >ger  for  the  sake  of  those  who  need 

Promises  or  threats  to  keep  them  in  their  little  space  of  creed. 

Freer  souls  must  needs  yearn  upward,  something  dwelleth  in  the  breast, 

Making  all  the  past  seem  sordid  with  a  vision  of  the  best. 

Forward  toward  the  perfect  day,  and  forward  toward  the  higher  man; 

Springs  the  greater  from  the  lesser,  'twas  for  this  our  life  began. 

Man  is  holv,  let  him  learn  it,  let  him  know  the  right  of  right; 

Though  it  take  a  thousand  seasons  passed  in  struggle  with  the  night. 

Evolution:  man's  own  effort  is  its  very  seed  and  strength; 

By  his  striving  it  will  conquer,  bringing  perfect  day  ;it  length. 

Oh  the  vast  and  mighty  purpose,  man  and  his  true  self  apart; 

Oh  the  thirst,  the  aspiration;  Oh  the  throbbing  human  heart! 

Visions  fall  upon  my  eyes ;  I  see  the  higher  man ;  his  face 

Set  on  the  sun -path;  see  him  moving,  merging  in  the  crowning  race. 

See  him  standing  all  transfigured  on  that  far  ideal  height, 

Gained  at  last  to  find  new  vistas  stretching  toward  the  infinite. 

Oh  the  mystery  of  being!     Oh  the  sacredness  of  man! 

Oh  the  light  of  life  within  us!     Oh  the  future  we  can  scan! 

Come  the  waves  of  deep  emotion  rolling  silent  through  the  soul — ; 
Man  is  holy;  let  him  learn  it;  he  shall  gain  the  perfect  goal. 

BOOK   NOTICES. 

Letters  Medites  de  Mademoiselle  de  Lespinasse.  Pub- 
lished with  new  documents  and  line  etude.  By  Charles  Flettrw 
E.  Deuter,  Galerie  d'Orleans,  Palais-Royal,  18S7. 

Time  evokes  quaint  contrasts  in  the  march  of  centuries,  and 
the  distance  that  "  lends  enchantment  "  gives  to  eighteenth  cen- 
tury chronicles  a  peculiar  charm.  From  an  esthetic  as  well  as 
literary  point  of  view  it  was  the  great  century  of  France.  Then 
it  was  that  the  national  spirit  had  reached  its  most  characteristic 
expression;  when  classical  ideals  and  foreign  influence  had 
dissolved  away  in  the  birth  of  a  new  order  and  an  individuality 
sufficiently  pronounced  to  cast  its  reflex  throughout  the  civilized 
world,  gave  to  the  nation  its  independent  personality.  It  was  the 
eighteenth  century  that  lifted  France  to  her  present  rank  as  the 
leader  in  modern  arts  (a  reputation  which  modern  artists  seem 
doing  their  best  to  forfeit).  It  was  the  eighteenth  century  that 
popularized,  through  the  trenchant,  fascinating  pens  of  its  literary 
lights,  the  new  intellectual  order  destined  to  culminate  in  the 
bloody  tragedy  of  its  close.  The  encyclopedists,  the  Voltaires  and 
the  Rousseaus,  are  but  types  of  the  genius  of  the  epoch  when 
France  was  a  torch-light  on  the  hill-top  of  civilization. 

It  is  among  the  relics  of  this  rich  past  that  the  materials  of  the 
present  volume  were  found.  Those  precious  archives  of  unpub- 
lished history — the  great  Paris  libraries — are  exhaustless  fields 
of  such  literary  exploits.  Old  MSS.  bequeathed  in  dying  testa- 
ments; biographical  sketches  too  faithful  to  bear  the  light  of 
contemporaneous  scrutiny ;  autograph  letters  palpitating  with 
personal  intimacies,  designed  only  for  private  perusal.  One  alter 
another  these  faded,  worm-eaten,  half-illegible  souvenirs  of  a 
society  gone  by  are  dragged  from  their  hiding-places  as  national 
heirlooms. 

"  The  Kings  of  Egypt,"  says  Cochin  in  his  caustic  criticism 
of  the  Count  de  Caylus,  "were  not  judged  till  after  their 
death;  a  wise  provision,  since  no  one  would  have  dared  to  judge 
them  living."  Thus  is  offered  to  public  perusal,  for  the 
first  time,  bits  of  personality,  philosophic  and  political  disserta- 
tions, fragments  of  individual  history,  etc.,  which  time  alone 
could  render  publishable.  Legendary  rehearsals  of  scenes  in 
which  the  actors  come  back  like  ghosts  to  repeat  the  old  and  even 
new  story  of  life's  serio-comedy.  The  ambitious,  the  speculative, 
the  hopeful,  the  joyous  and  the  suffering — each  tells  his  tale. 


In  this  last  category  may  be  ranged  Mademoiselle  de  Lespi- 
nasse. Born  ignobly,  though  of  noble  parentage,  given  an 
education  calculated  to  intensify  a  native  sensitiveness,  and  then 
left  fortuneless  by  the  death  of  her  fond,  remorseful  mother,  just  at 
an  age  requiring  guidance  and  protection,  this  young  lady  started 
in  society  at  evident  odds;  and  yet  she  became^  at  the  age  of  24, 
one  of  its  pivots. 

In  the  salon  of  Madame  DefTand,  the  scene  of  her  first  success, 
she  became  the  center  of  a  coterie,  which  later,  when  the  jeal- 
ousy of  her  protectress  determined  their  separation,  grew  into  a 
wider  circle.  Here  came  Turgot,  the  Count  de  Guibert,  the  Count 
de  Crillon  and  the  "  bon  "  Condorcet,  to  whom  she  writes  with 
such  solicitude:  "Spare  your  eyes  and  take  frequent  baths. 
They  will  cool  your  blood  overheated  by  work."  For  twenty 
years  the  salon  of  Mademoiselle  de  Lespinasse  was  the  resort  of 
talent  and  rank.  "  D'Alembert  drew  and  she  held,"  was  said  of 
these  two  friends  whose  lives  were  closely  associated  for  years; 
a  tie  severed  for  d'Alembert  only  by  her  death. 

And  yet,  despite  this  social  success — the  admiration  of  an 
ilite  world  by  the  force  of  that  personality  which  made  her 
queen  in  her  realm — Mademoiselle  de  Lespinasse  was  an  unhappy 
woman.  One  of  that  vast  multitude  victimized  by  blind  senti- 
ment, she  wasted  her  best  powers  in  a  fatal  alternation  between 
passion  and  remorse.  Her  restless  soul,  bewildered  by  an  imagi- 
nation forever  pursuing  phantoms,  knew  no  peace,  and  the  strain 
proved  too  much  for  her  physical  organization.  She  fell  into  a 
state  of  melancholy  which  led  rapidly  to  the  end,  hastened, 
probably,  by  her  own  hands. 

The  letters,  inspired  by  this  state  of  depression,  are  profound 
psychological  studies.  It  would  be  impossible,  without  quoting 
extensively  from  them,  to  give  the  varied  shades  of  this  sad 
spirit.  She  grew  touchingly  candid  at  the  close  of  her  career, 
and  her  last  letter  to  d'Alembert — the  patient,  devoted  lover 
through  every  phase — lays  bare  the  woman's  soul.  One  feels 
that  every  disguise  is  here  thrown  aside  in  the  agony  of  a 
supreme,  final  moment. 

It  is  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  a  few  days  before  her 
death,  that  she  writes : 

"  I  owe  you  everything.  I  am  so  sure  of  your  friendship  that 
I  exert  all  my  remaining  force  to  sustain  a  life  in  which  there  is 
for  me  no  longer  hope  or  fear.  For  my  sorrow  there  is  neither 
remedy  nor  consolation,  and  yet  I  feel  that  I  owe  you  a  prolonga- 
tion of  these  days  which  inspire  me  with  horror. 

"Nevertheless,  I  cannot  count  on  my  will.  It  may  give  way 
to  my  dispair;  and  I  take  the  precaution  to  write  to  ask  you  to 
burn,  without  reading,  all  the  papers  in  the  large  black  forte- 
feuiUe.  I  should  die  to  look  upon  the  writing  of  mon  ami  (the 
Count  de  Mora,  then  dead).  I  have  also  in  my  pocket  a  rose- 
colored  fortc-feuille  containing  his  letters  that  I  pray  you  to  burn. 
Do  not  read  them,  but  keep  his  portrait  for  my  sake.  *  *  *  * 
Farewell,  my  friend  ;  do  not  regret  me.  Think  that  in  leaving  this 
world  I  find  a  repose  I  can  no  longer  hope  for  here.  *  *  *  * 
My  death  is  but  a  proof  of  my  love  for  Monsieur  de  Mora,  while 
his  has  proven  a  response  to  my  sentiment  deeper  than  I  ever 
thought. 

"Alas!  when  you  read  this  I  shall  be  delivered  of  the  weight 
that  is  crushing  me.  *  *  *  *  I  wish  to  be  buried  with  the 
ring  I  have  on  my  finger.     Farewell,  my  friend,  forever!" 

Poor  d'Alembert.  How  much  the  revelation  contained  in 
the  dying  appeal  of  his  friend  must  have  added  to  the  poignancy 
of  his  bereavement.  The  nature  of  his  sentiment  for  her  is 
nobly  expressed  in  his  effusion:  "To  the  shades  of  Mademoiselle 
de  Lespinasse"  where  he  says:  "Alas!  I  have  lost  with  you 
sixteen  years  of  my  life." 

He  it  was,  the  unwearied  friend  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of 
her  restless  career,  and  to  him  was   left  the  execution  of  her  last 


56 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


will  and  testament,  which  begins  with  a  request  that  six  hours 
after  her  death  her  head  shall  be  opened  by  a  surgeon  of  "  La 
Charite,"  or  any  other  hospital,  and  that  she  may  be  buried  as  a 
pauper,  "  without  being  exposed  under  the  doorway." 

Proud  and  passionate  to  the  end,  the  last  hours  of  this 
unhappy  woman  are  a  strange  mingling  of  strength  and  weak- 
ness.    There  is  now  nothing  left  her  but  to  die — she  must  die. 

On  the  night  of  Mav  23,  1776,  friends  gather  about  her  bed- 
side, knowing  it  is  the  end,  and  the  loss  seems  to  them  irrepara- 
ble. With  a  supreme  effort  she  begs  d'Alembert  to  forgive  her 
and  falls  back  unconscious. 

Her  last  words  were  those  of  an  American  statesman :  "  Do  I 
still  live!" 


John  B.  Alden,  New  York,  has  recently  issued  the  first  vol- 
umes of  a  new  edition  of  Guizot's  "History  of  France"  in  hand- 
some dark  morocco,  the  edges  neatly  marbled.  Price  for  the 
entire  set,  to  consist  of  eight  uniform  volumes,  $6.00  per  set. 
Other  new  publications  by  the  same  publisher  are  a  small  "Handy 
Atlas  of  the  World,"  containing  nearly  juo  pages,  with  a  map  on 
every  second  page,  the  opposite  page  being  occupied  with  descrip- 
tion and  statistics.  Also  Drummond's  "Natural  Law  in  the 
Spiritual  World,"  which  Bishop  Doane  calls  "  a  great  work." 
Nearly  200  pp.;  cloth,  40  cts. 


We  welcome  to  our  exchange  table,  with  much  pleasure,  the 
first  number  of  The  Chicago  Law  Times,  a  handsome  quarterly 
magazine  of  over  100  pages,  edited  by  a  woman,  Mrs.  Catherine 
V.  Waite  of  this  city.  Of  the  dozen  leading  articles  which  it 
contains  three  are  by  women:  "  Chief  Justice  Chase,"  by  Mrs. 
H.  M.  Tracy  Cutler,  which  is  accompanied  by  a  fine  frontispiece 
portrait;  "Women  Jurors  in  Washington  Territory,"  by  LeliaJ. 
Robinson,  L.L.B.,  and  "Admission  of  Women  to  the  Bar," 
by  Ellen  A.  Martin.  11  future  numbers  keep  up  to  the  high 
level  of  this  first  one,  the  magazine  will  be  not  only  a  credit  to 
the  lady  who  edits  it,  but  to  the  legal  profession  at  large. 


St.  Nicholas  for  March  is  as  breezy  in  tone  as  the  month  is 
expected  to  be  in  weather.  Among  its  many  delightful  things  in 
the  way  of  pictures,  stories,  etc.,  are  continuations  of  the  Mexican 
story,  "Juan  and  Juanita,"  an  Alaskan  story  ;  an  interesting  bit 
of  biography  in  "The  Boyhood  of  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich,"  now 
editor  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  and  a  new  "Brownie"  poem  and 
pictures,  by  Palmer  Cox. 


Surfeited  as  we  are  with  the  reminiscences  and  letters  of 
our  traveling  scribes,  we  welcome  none  the  less  heartily  what 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  begins  to  tell  us,  in  the  Atlantic  for 
March,  of  "  Our  Hundred  Days  in  Europe,"  confident  that  he  will 
make  us  feel,  ere  its  close,  that  that  time  is  all  too  limited  for  our 
pleasure  in  the  recital.  James  Breck  Perkins  gives  a  sketch  of 
Theophile  Gautier,  the  French  critic;  "Longfellow's  Art"  is 
criticised  and  enlarged  upon  by  H.  E.  Scudder;  "The  Hippo- 
lytos  of  Euripides"  is  the  subject  of  an  article  by  W.  C.  Lawton, 
and  Agnes  Repplier  lias  a  bright  and  readable  paper  on  "The 
Curiosities  of  Criticism."  There  are  poems  by  James  Russell 
Lowell,  Louise  Chandler  Moulton  and  others,  of  which  the  best 
is  "Blindfold,"  by  Andrew  Hedbrooke.  "The  Lady  from  Maine," 
a  short  story,  is  concluded  in  this  number.  The  continued  stories 
are  by  Crawford,  and  the  combination  novel  by  Mrs.  Oliphant 
and  the  editor  of  the  Atlantic. 


The  Century  for  March  is  quite  an  art  number.  Mr.  W.J. 
Stillman,  the  art  critic,  has  an  article  on  "The  Coinage  of  the 
Greeks,"  from  the  artistic  point  of  view.  The  third  of  Mr. 
Brownell's  notes  on  "  French  Sculptors,"  in  this  number,  has  four 
full  page  illustrations,  examples  of  the  work  of  Barrias,  Delaplanche, 
Le  Feuvre  and  Fremiet.  The  introductory  paper  is  given  of  Mrs. 
Van  Rensselaer's  series  on  "The  Cathedrals  of  England,"  which 
is  said  to  be  one  of  the  most  important  art  enterprises  ever  under- 
taken by  this  magazine.  An  article  by  John  T.  Stoddard,  on 
"  Composite  Photography,"  which  gives  several  examples  of  the 
combined  loveliness  of  the  "sweet  girl-graduates"  of  Smith 
College,  blending  each  class  into  one  mysterious  whole.  Of  one 
of  these  composites,  the  "  Lounger,"  in  a  late  Critic  says:  "  It  was 
a  peculiar,  a  rather  uncanny  sensation  that  I  experienced  in 
gazing  at  these  nine-and-forty  sweet  girl-graduates  baked  into  a 
photographic  pie,  as  -it  were,  and  served  at  a  Barmacide  feast 
where  one  might  see  and  scent  the  savory  dish,  yet  must  forever 
fail  to  taste  it.  It  struck  me  that  a  writer  like  Mr.  Stockton 
might  make  much  of  the  idea  of  a  sentimental  young  man's 
quest  in  Northampton  of  the  original  of  this  portrait,  and  his 
being  beset  by  faces  singularly  like,  yet  in  no  instance  identical 
with,  the  one  that  had  charmed  him.  I  make  the  suggestion 
now,  without  charge  to  any  one  who  cares  to  act  on  it  and  is 
competent  to  do  so."  A  second  paper  on  "Faith-Healing  and  its 
Phenomena,"  by  Rev.  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley,  is  preceded  by  an  arti- 
cle by  Mr.  R.  Kelso  Carter,  one  of  the  leading  disciples  of  the 
faith-cure.  The  Lincoln  history  is  given  considerable  space,  and 
the  one  complete  story  is  by  Geo.  W.  Cable. 


OPINIONS  OF  THE    OPEN    COURT. 

Capital  is  the  lust  number  of  The  Open  Court. — Prof.  W.  D.  Gunning. 

I  like  the  appearance  of  The  Open  Court  very  much.  It  is  neat  and  unos- 
tentatious. I  prefer  the  smaller  size  of  the  page,  and  the  wider  space  between 
the  lines  is  also  an  improvement.  Desp  te  Mr.  Abbott's  injunction,  it  is  the 
Index  resuscitated  under  more  propitious  conditions.  The  old  companions  are 
all  there.  I  thought  it  very  considerate  of  you  to  let  your  former  colleague  to 
have  as  usual  the  honor  of  opening  the  Court.  What  serious  and  arduous  work 
you  have  now  before  you.  To  establish  Ethic  and  Religion  npoji  a  scientific 
basis.     It  is  the  greatest  of  all  reformatory  tasks. — Dr.  Edmund  Montgomery. 

Your  new  craft  sails  well  and  has  good  freight. — Thomas  Davidson. 

Your  first  number  is  here  and  looks  finely.—  M.  J.  Savage. 

I  have  glanced  at  The  Open  Court,  like  its  exterior,  form,  paper,  type,  its 
tout  ensemble,  and  also  the  articles  under  the  different  headings,  as  now  only 
glanced  at.  Hope  the  O.  C.  will  succeed  in  bringing  much  folly  to  deserved 
judgment  and  condign  punishment. — Wm.  Zimmerman,  Chicago. 

The  Open  Court  is  received.  It  is  evidently  going  to  have  some  of  the 
good  things  which  gave  value  to  the  Index. — Chas.  Eaton,  Toledo,  O. 

Came  duly  in  receipt  of  No.  1.  Am  highly  gratified  with  its  appearance  and 
contents.  It  is  an  honor  to  the  great  cause  of  Humanity  and  Reform.  Shall  do 
my  best  to  obtain  subscribers  for  you. — Otto  Wittstein,  Rochelle,  III. 

I  was  so  mournful  for  the  old  Index,  hut  it  seems  to  me  that  a  phcenix  is 
arising  from  the  old  ashes  that  bids  fair  to  wear  more  attractive  plumage  than 
even  the  dear  Index.  *  *  I  have  not  yet  read  thoroughly  Mr.  Hegeler's 
Essay,  but  I  am  sure  I  like  it  pretty  well,  at  least. 

Lita  Bai'NEY  Sayles,  Killingly,  Conn. 

I  have  just  finished  reading  the  sample  first  number  of  vour  Journal  and  it  is 
not  to  natter  when  I  say  it  more  than  pleases  me.  It  contains  several  articles 
of,  it  seems  to  me,  great  merit.  Especially  that  of  my  namesake,  Mr.  Potter, 
"  The  Need  for  Free-thought  Education,"  is  very  timely  and  should  be  repeated 
by  every  Liberal  paper  in  the  country. — A.  L.  Potter,  I. a  Mott,  la. 

The  first  number  of  The  Open  Court  is  full  of  promise  of  a  great  and 
useful  future. — T.  P.  Wilson,  M.  D.,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

The  first  number  of  The  OrEN  Court  has  a  cordial  welcome.  Clean  it 
looks,  clear  and  bright  it  is. — F.  A.  Angell,  Montclair,  NT.  J. 


The  Open  Court, 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon   a   Scientific   Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No. 


CHICAGO,  MARCH  17,  1887. 


t  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
1  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


THE  ART  OF   MAKING   POVERTY. 

BY  M.  M.  TRUMBULL. 

Part  I. 

It  is  a  grievous  fact  and  "a  grievous  fault"  that 
much  poverty  exists  in  the  United  States  to-day.  That 
it  ought  not  to  exist  in  a  land  of  such  abundance  is 
plain.  The  extent  of  it  is  beginning  to  cause  alarm 
and  some  people  think  thev  hear  the  rumblings  of  a 
social  earthquake  near  at  hand.  Reformers  moralize 
about  this  poverty  and  seek  to  relieve  it  in  a  superficial 
way,  hut  the  art  and  privilege  of  making  it  are  "  vested 
rights,"  which  may  not  be  disturbed.  So  many  people 
of  influence  are  interested  in  the  business  of  making 
poverty,  that  laws  are  enacted  for  their  especial  benefit, 
which  all  the  political  parties  promised  to  maintain.  To 
make  poverty  is  the  work  of  Congress,  of  the  State  Leg- 
islatures, of  the  Knights  of  Labor  Parliament,  of  the 
Trades  Union  Councils  and  of  the  local  statutes  passed 
by  all  the  mercantile,  professional  and  industrial  asso- 
ciations, from  the  lawyers  and  doctors  down  to  the 
"  brotherhoods  "  of  carpet-layers,  car-drivers  and  scav- 
engers. 

So  much  poverty  is  concealed  by  pride  and  self- 
respect,  that  the  full  extent  of  it  is  not  easy  to  know. 
The  most  reliable  measure  of  it  that  we  are  likely  to 
get  is  found  in  the  recent  leport  of  Mr.  Carroll  D. 
Wright,  Commissioner  of  Labor.  In  this  report,  which 
is  official  and  rather  conservative,  Mr.  Wright  expresses 
the  opinion  that  there  are  one  million  working  men  out 
of  employment  in  the  L>nited  States,  seven  and  a  half 
per  cent,  of  all  the  men  ordinarily  engaged  in  agricul- 
ture, trade  and  transportation,  mechanical  and  mining 
industries  and  manufactures.  This  is  probably  an 
under  estimate,  but  even  thus,  it  exposes  a  substratum 
of  poverty  in  our  social  system  quite  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  present  unrest  and  discontent  of  labor. 
By  this  estimate  we  can  measure  the  dimensions  and 
extent  of  the  distress  and  crime  which  now  abound  in 
that  curious  mixture  of  contrasts  which  we  call  the  civil- 
ization of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  gives  results  as 
truly  as  the  merchants  yardstick.  It  proves  that  the 
other  millions  who  are  not  out  of  work  are  insufficiently 
paid.  A  million  idle  workmen  looking  for  a  job  must 
lower  the  wages  of  all  those  who  are  at  work,  first, 
by    force   of    competition,    and   secondly,   because    they 


add  nothing  to  the  aggregate  wealth  out  of  which  all 
wages  must  be  paid.  A  million  of  workers  out  of 
work  means  a  surplus  of  human  muscle,  an  overpro- 
duction of  men.  A  million  of  artisans  and  laborers  so 
cheap  as  to  be  worth  nothing,  must  cheapen  all  the  rest. 
If  only  one-half  of  them  are  married,  we  behold  a 
half  a  million  women  and  a  million  children  hungry. 
In  this  low  plane  of  poverty  we  find  the  recruiting  sta- 
tions for  a  great  army  of  sports,  and  tramps,  and  thieves. 
Dr.  Watts  himself  never  suspected  how  much  political 
truth  was  wrapped  up  in  his  warning  to   lazy  bovs,  that 

"Satan  always  finds  some  work  lor  idle  hands  to  do." 

He  only  spoke  to  willing  idlers  in  that  song,  but  the 
moral  of  his  verse  will  apply  to  unwilling  idlers  too. 
Taking  income  as  the  standard  of  life,  we  shall  find 
that  the  magnetic  power  of  this  substratum  is  great 
enough  to  drag  down  every  class  in  the  community  one 
degree  lower  in  the  scale  of  living  than  it  ought  to  be, 
excepting  the  limited  classes  for  whose  benefit  the  pov- 
erty is  made. 

To  divert  ourselves  and  others  from  this  gloomy 
spectacle,  we  beat  the  patriot  gong;  we  call  attention 
to  the  multiplying  riches  of  the  land;  we  boast  of  the 
height  of  our  steeples  and  the  splendor  of  our  palaces. 
It  is  the  daily  task  of  newspapers  to  dazzle  us  with 
golden  rhetoric,  to  describe  for  us  the  glory  of  the  dia- 
monds that  sparkled  at  Mrs.  Plutus's  reception,  and 
the  profusion  of  the  midnight  feast  that  tilled  a  thous- 
and guests  with  terrapin  and  wine.  We  borrow  the 
cloak  of  Dives  to  hide  the  sores  of  Lazarus,  and  boast 
that  we  have  cured  them;  but  the  sores  are  still  there; 
their  poison  taints  the  air  we  live  in  and  multiplies  the 
Lazaruses.  With  amiable  goodness  we  organize  charity, 
found  as\  lums,  endow  reformatories,  and  having 
prescribed  for  the  symptoms,  we  neglect  the  disease. 
We  leave  in  active  operation  the  social  and  political 
machinery  that  creates  the  poverty.  We  make  the 
greedy  doctrine  of  ''self-preservation  "  the  active  prin- 
ciple of  life,  and  for  our  social  code  we  borrow  the 
ethics  of  the  fishes  in  the  sea.  We  devour  one  another, 
and  call  our  civilized  cannibalism  an  act  of  "self-pres- 
ervation." When  we  grow  rich  at  the  expense  of 
others,  we  pity  them,  as  the  victims,  not  of  us,  but 
of  that  lately-discovered  law  called  the  survival  of  the 
fittest.  A  comforting  philosophy  teaches  us  that  we 
survive,  not   because  of  cunning,  strength   and  appetite. 


5§ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


but  because  we  are  the  "  fittest. "  "  The  world  owes  me 
a  living,"  says  the  tramp,  "and  I'm  agoing  to  have  it." 
We  call  that  a  low  sentiment,  and  easily  prove  that  it 
is  morally  unsound,  but  if  we  follow  the  trail  of  it 
upward  through  its  devious  windings  in  and  out,  even 
to  Plutus's  parlor,  we  shall  rind  that  it  is  the  inspiration 
of  much  that  we  dignify  as  "  business."  '1  o  restore  the 
social  health  we  must  unmake  the  poverty.  We  must 
reverse  the  machinery  of  self-preservation  and  direct  it 
to  the  preservation  of  us  all. 

From  the  etherial  regions  of  sentimental  philan- 
thropy we  must  descend  to  the  prosy  earth.  We  must 
discuss  the  moral  qualities  of  such  coarse  thing  as  taxes, 
wages,  rent,  bread,  fuel,  clothes.  These  may  be  unin- 
spiring themes,  but  in  the  relations  they  bear  to  politics 
ami  law,  we  shall  find  the  mitigation,  if  not  the  cure, 
of  poverty.  The  working  man's  poverty  is  absolute 
and  relative.  Absolute  in  his  want  of  money,  rela- 
tive in  the  dearness  of  what  he  must  buy.  Whatever 
deprives  him  of  work,  whatever  lowers  his  wages, 
whatever  increases  the  cost  of  existence  to  him  and  his 
family,  helps  to  make  him  poor.  Taxes  weaken  him, 
though  his  name  is  not  found  on  the  assessor's  books. 
1  Le  is  not  classed  as  a  "tax-payer,"  even  when  he  pays 
most  of  the  taxes.  Out  of  the  proceeds  of  his  labor  a 
very  large  proportion  of  the  taxes  must  be  paid  before 
we  come  down  to  the  wages-fund  at  all.  The  city, 
county  and  State  taxes  may  seem  to  concern  him  not, 
but  he  will  find  them  in  the  rent  he  pays  for  his  tene- 
ment, and  in  the  price  of  whatever  he  buys  at  the  store. 
That  the  laborer  is  such  a  "  heavy  tax-payer  "  is  one  of 
the  chief  causes  of  his  penury.  The  layer  of  poverty  at 
the  base  of  our  social  system  grows  thicker  and  thicker 
in  the  direct  ratio  of  increasing  taxation. 

Here  we  come  to  a  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
social  reform,  the  claim  of  the  politicians  to  a  monopoly 
of  party  questions,  or  whatever  for  the  time  being  they 
choose  to  regard  as  "  politics."  The  political  econo- 
mist, the  professor  of  social  science,  and  the  teacher  of 
moral  pholosophy,  are  all  warned  off  the  premises  occu- 
pied by  the  "two  great  parties."  The  intruders  obey 
the  warning,  partly  because  they  recognize  the  claim, 
and  partly  because  they  themselves  fear  to  be  classed  as 
politicians.  The  domain  of  social  science  includes 
every  political  question,  and  the  methods  of  taxation  are 
not  the  exclusive  property  of  partisan  conventions. 
Political  economy  is  nothing  more  than  household 
economy  enlarged  to  the  dimensions  of  the  nation. 
Fearing  to  enter  the  domain  of  politics,  reformers  con- 
fine themselves  to  the  task  of  soothing  pain,  instead  of 
curing  it.  They  strive  to  ease  distress  by  acts  of 
charity,  leaving  the  big  driving-wheel  that  makes  the 
poverty  to  whirl  round  and  round  forever.  They 
moralize  instead  of  reversing  the  engine,  because  they 
think  that  only  the  partv  boss  has   any  right  to  touch  it, 


and  they  are  afraid  to  "  speak  to  the  man  at  the  wheel." 
They  talk  to  classes  numbering  millions,  as  if  they  were 
talking  to  two  men.  They  advise  employers  to  be  just 
to  the  employed,  and  they  tell  the  employed  to  recipro- 
cate the  justice.  They  forget  that  in  the  competition 
of  business  the  selfish  men  dictate  the  policy  of  all.  The 
law  makes  giants,  and  then  kind-hearted  moralists  quote 
Shakespeare  to  them,  and  remind  them  that, 

"Tis  well  to  have  :i  giant's  strength, 

But  tyrannous  to  use  it  like  :t  giant." 

In  their  admiration  for  the  sentiment,  they  do  not  notice 
that  it  is  philosophically  unsound,  because  in  actual 
competition  a  giant  cannot  use  his  strength  to  its  full 
advantage  in  any  other  way  than  "  like  a  giant."  In 
discussing  social  remedies  and  the  causes  that  make 
poverty,  we  must  consider  not  only  the  personal  vices  of 
improvidence  and  drink,  but  the  public  vices  which  lie 
concealed  in  the  extent  and  methods  of  taxation,  ami  in 
the  methods  of  the  •'  self-preservation  "  societies  of 
every  degree. 

Our  grammar  admits  of  three  degrees  of  compari- 
son, and  in  analogy  we  separate  society  into  three 
classes,  the  upper,  lower  and  middle.  Each  of  these, 
however,  may  be  subdivided  into  a  hundred  different 
grades  of  "  quality."  We  have  many  flights  of  social 
stairs  rising  one  above  another,  from  the  abject  plane 
of  mere  hopeless  animal  existence,  to  the  gorgeous 
upper  floor  whose  velvet  carpets  are  trodden  only  by 
millionaires.  The  purpose  of  life  is  to  climb  from  the 
stair  we  occupy  now  to  the  one  above.  Our  method  of 
doing  it  is  to  pull  down  those  on  the  upper  step  to 
make  room  for  ourselves,  and  to  push  down  those  on 
our  own  level  to  the  tier  directly  below.  This  is  called 
the  "struggle  for  existence,"  the  "battle  of  life." 
While  there  is  much  varying  fortune  in  the  conflict,  and 
many  ups  and  downs,  yet  the  killed  and  wounded  in  our 
present  social  war  far  outnumber  in  four  years  the  losses 
inflicted  by  the  civil  war  from  1S61  to  1865.  The  cost 
of  the  social  war,  in  actual  wealth,  dwarfs  the  cost  of 
the  civil  war  to  nothing.  Where  opportunities  are 
unequal,  the  balance  of  advantage  in  this  fight  must  be 
with  wealth  and  cunning.  In  this  elbowing  and  hust- 
ling, thousands  of  the  "unfittest"  are  crowded  lower 
and  lower  down  even  to  the  bottom  step,  and  from 
there  into  the  pit  of  actual  want;  aye,  into  that  lower 
deep  still  where  pestilence  breeds,  and  out  of  whose 
dingy  slums  crime  sallies  forth  at  night. 

Combination  to  limit  production  and  increase  prices, 
is  an  active  maker  of  poverty.  Aided  by  the  principle 
of  exclusion  or  the  "  freeze-out  "  process,  its  mischiev- 
ous operation  is  very  great.  The  consolidation  of 
capital  into  "pools"  is  continually  reducing  the  number 
of  "hirers"  and  adding  to  the  number  of  the  "hired." 
As  to  the  self-employer,  he  is  rapidly  becoming  extinct. 
Time  was   when  an   energetic   man,  with  a  set  of  tools 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


59 


and  a  trade,  could  start  for  himself  and  make  his  own 
living ;  he  can  rarely  do  so  now,  except  as  a  cobbler  and 
mender.  He  is  crowded  into  the  ranks  of  the  "hired," 
to  intensify  the  struggle  for  existence  among  them. 
This,  too,  is  the  impending  fate  of  the  smaller  manu- 
facturers and  of  nearly  all  the  business  classes  of  limited 
capital. 

Combinations  to  limit  production  and  increase  prices 
are  criminal  by  the  moral  law,  and  yet  they  are  encour- 
aged and  assisted  by  the  statutes  of  the  land.  The  trib- 
ulations of  a  lump  of  coal  in  its  travels  from  the  mine  to 
the  mechanic's  grate,  furnish  dramatic  evidence  of  the 
poverty-making  ability  of  these  combinations. 

Before  the  mine-owners  will  allow  a  pick  to  touch 
the  coal,  thev  require  that  seventy-five  cents  a  ton 
be  added  to  the  price  of  it  by  Act  of  Congress.  This 
•done,  they,  instead  of  making  coal  plentiful  by  going  to 
work  and  developing  the  mines  in  competition  with 
each  other,  actually  form  a  "pool"  and  agree  to  limit 
production  in  order  to  make  it  scarce.  They  literally 
make  an  "allotment"  to  each  member  in  the  syndicate 
of  the  quantity  he  shall  mine.  They  then  fix  the  price 
at  which  the  coal  shall  be  sold:  By  this  time  the  lump 
•of  coal  is  out  of  the  ground  and  ready  to  be  sent  to  the 
market.  Here  the  railroads  are  taken  into  the  con- 
spiracy, and  they  agree  to  assist  the  syndicate  by 
discriminating  tariffs  against  all  competitors.  To  com- 
pensate them,  a  few  cents  more  must  be  added  to  the 
price  of  coal.  The  lump  now  gets  to  the  wholesale 
market  where  the  wholesale  merchants  dump  it  into 
another  "  pool,"  which  they  have  made  for  their  own 
monopoly.  They  add  another  artificial  price  to  it  by 
various  boycotting  devices,  and  especially  by  forbidding 
mine-owners  to  sell  directly  to  the  retail  trade.  The 
lump  of  coal  now  passes  into  the  "  pool  "  of  the  retail 
dealers,  who  have  already  formed  a  combination  to  boy- 
cott the  wholesale  dealers  if  they  dare  to  sell  directly  to 
the  consumers.  The  retail  dealers  fix  the  final  price 
of  the  lump  of  coal.  At  every  step  of  its  way,  from 
the  coal-cellar  where  nature  stored  it  away  in  the  ages 
long  ago,  to  the  stove  in  the  poor  man's  home,  an 
unnatural  piece  has  been  added  to  the  lump  of  coal  by 
artificial  methods  in  violation  of  good  morals  and  con- 
trary to  public  policy.  At  every  stage  of  its  progress 
honest  men,  who  would  not  join  the  syndicates,  and  poor 
men,  who  could  not  join  them,  have  been  "  frozen  out" 
and  driven  into  other  business,  or  else  into  the  over- 
crowded ranks  of  the  hired  classes,  or  else  into  the 
army  of  idlers  and  the  inevitable  "pool"  of  poverty. 

The  above  example  may  be  multiplied  by  nearly  the 
full  number  of  articles  necessary  for  existence.  Like 
the  lump  of  coal,  everything  we  use,  from  the  wheat  in 
th»  stack  to  the  washerwoman's  paper  of  starch,  is  put 
to  the  torture  at  every  step  of  its  progress  from  the 
place   of  its   production  to   the  consumer's   home.     The 


result  of  the  process  in  the  manufacture  of  a  very 
troublesome  grade  of  poverty.  A  few  specimens,  taken 
at  random  from  the  newspapers,  will  show  the  method 
and  quality  of  the  work.  The  "  Barbed  Wire  Men " 
met  at  the  Sherman  House  in  Chicago,  Nov.  17,  1S85. 
It  was  announced  that  "the  object  of  the  meeting  was 
to  effect  the  formation  of  a  strong  pool  which  would 
completely  control  the  production  of  the  entire  wire 
manufacturing  interests  of  the  country  and  arrange  an 
unalterable  scale  of  prices  to  which  all  must  adhere.  It 
was  resolved  that  a  curtailment  of  the  product  was  the 
only  means  to  maintain  high  prices  and  enable  the 
manufacturers  to  reap  corresponding  profits." 

On  the  15th  of  June,  1S86,  at  Erie,  Pa.,  there  was  a 
meeting  of  "  The  Tarred  Felt  Paper  Association  "  The 
dispatch  announcing  the  meeting,  says :  "  There  were 
represented  in  person  and  by  proxy  a  capital  of  $22,- 
000,000,  which  was  pooled  for  one  year.  It  is  believed 
that  it  is  the  intention  to  crowd  out  the  small  manufact- 
urers.'''' 

On  the  14th  of  April,  1886,  a  meeting  of  starch 
manufacturers  was  held  at  Chicago.  The  report  of 
it  says:  "The  specific  object  of  the  meeting  was  to 
form  a  pool  to  control  the  price  of  starch.  For  several 
months  past  this  article  has  been  cheaper  than  is  strictly 
necessary  for  the  benefit  of  the  manufacturers,  and  the 
scheme  is  to  form  a  combination  strong  enough  to  brace 
up  the  prices.  It  was  not  definitely  decided  whether  to 
limit  the  product  of  each  manufactory  to  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  its  capacity,  or  to  adopt  some  other  method 
of  retrenchment." 

On  the  10th  of  February,  1SS6,  "  The  Western 
Wooden  Ware  Manufacturers"  met  in  Chicago.  Here 
is  an  extract  from  the  report  of  the  proceedings:  "  The 
prevailing  schedule  of  prices  and  productio?!  was 
ordered  to  remain  in  full  force  until  the  quarterly  meet- 
ing, when  a  general  overhauling  of  prices  will  be  had, 
and  those  who  are  accused  of  underselling  will  be  called 
to  a  strict  accountability." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  report  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  "  Mattress  Makers  " :  "  The  manufact- 
urers of  woven-wire  mattresses  yesterday  completed 
the  arrangements  for  the  formation  of  a  permanent 
organization  to  control  the  trade  in  their  particular  line 
of  goods.  The  combination  will  be  called  the  National 
Wire  Mattress  and  Spring  Bed  Association,  and  will 
have  for  its  object  the  mutual  protection  of  its  members, 
and  will  exercise  full  control  over  the  percentage  of 
production  and  the  regulation  of  market  prices  for 
goods." 

These  are  a  few  specimens  that  might  be  multiplied 
indefinitely.  They  are  enough  to  show  some  of  the 
evils  of  the  social  war.  To  limit  production  is  to  limit 
the  sum  total  of  possible  wealth,  and  thereby  to  make 
poverty.      To   increase    prices   by   making  scarcity  adds 


6o 


THB    OPBN    COURT. 


to  the  cost  of  existence.  This  to  the  rich  man  is  an 
inconvenience,  to  the  man  of  moderate  means  a  hard- 
ship, to  the  laborer  hunger,  cold,  and  sickness.  It  is 
well  for  us  that  some  of  those  conspiracies  fail,  but  it  is 
deplorable  that  many  of  them  succeed,  and  the  aggregate 
result  of  them  is  a  vast  quantity  of  machine-made  pov- 
erty that  needs  only  organization  and  leadership  to 
smite  society  as  the  hammer  of  Watt  Tyler  smote  the 
tax-gatherer.  We  thank  the  Creator  for  abundance,  and 
then  make  laws  and  regulations  to  promote  scarcity. 
To  make  dearness  is  to  make  poverty,  to  limit  produc- 
tion is  to  throw  laborers  out  of  work  and  into  destitu- 
tion. 

The  fiercest  fighting  on  this  unnatural  battle-field  is 
not  over  there  on  the  right  flank  where  capital  and 
labor  are  contending,  nor  over  yonder  on  the  left  where 
organized  monopolies  in  battalion  columns  are  trampling 
down  all  weaker  competition,  and  all  independent 
rivalry;  it  is  right  here  in  the  center  of  the  field  where 
labor  is  wasting  its  powers  in  a  senseless  wrestle  with 
labor.  The  so-called  "  conflict  "  between  capital  and 
labor  is  mere  friendly  emulation  when  compared  with 
the  bigoted  conflict  between  labor  and  labor.  Shaped 
into  trades-union  legislation  the  jealousy  of  working 
men  toward  each  other  is  an  active  make  of  poverty. 


THE  RIGHTS    OF   THOSE  WHO   DISLIKE   TOBACCO. 

UV     ANNA    GARI.IN     SPENCER. 

A  woman,  not  overstrong,  and  tired  with  a  year's 
hard  work,  starts  for  a  sea-shore  resort  to  spend  the 
summer  vacation  and  get  rested  and  well.  She  first 
takes  a  comfortable  seat  in  a  parlor-car.  At  the  end  of" 
the  car  and  near  her  chair  is  partitioned  off  a  select 
"  smokers'  apartment."  The  fumes  from  within  that  en- 
closure steal  out  and  make  her  feel  ill.  She  asks  of  the 
porter  the  privilege  of  exchanging  her  seat  for  one 
further  removed  from  this  smokers'  apartment.  Her 
request  fortunately  can  be  granted.  She  makes  herself 
comfortable  once  more,  with  an  inward  protest  against 
the  favoritism  which  allows  smokers  to  so  nearly  defraud 
her  of  the  better  air,  for  which,  together  with  the  more 
room,  she  has  paid  her  extra  fare.  A  seat  next  to  her 
new  resting-place  is  vacant,  but  she  sees  a  bag  and 
papers  which  indicate  that  it  has  an  occupant  to  come. 
Soon  the  owner  of  the  seat  appears.  He  has  been  hav- 
ing a  chat  with  friends  and  a  smoke  in  the  "  regular," 
not  the  parlor-car  "  smoker."  His  clothing  and  person 
are  saturated  with  old  and  new  flavors  of  the  weed.  He 
removes  a  heavy  woolen  coat,  and  puts  on  a  cool 
"duster."  The  coat  is  hung  on  the  hook  next  our  trav- 
eler, and  the  air  from  the  ventilator  which  she  has  had 
opened  for  her  benefit,  wafts  its  condensed  aroma  directly 
to  her  nostrils.      By  and  by  a  gentleman  from  the  "par- 


lor-car smoker  "  comes  in,  and  greets  cordially  the  gen- 
tleman from  the  "  regular  smoker,"  and  asks  him  "  to  have 
a  game"  in  the  little  room  sacred  to  the  smoking-clan; 
and  all  the  while  he  is  talking  about  matters  and  things. 
in  general,  leaves  the  door  of  said  apartment  open.  The 
woman  traveler  begs  the  porter  to  "  shut  that  door." 
As  he  does  so  the  two  men  look  at  her  as  if  she  must  be 
a  trifle  peculiar.  They  then  leave  her  for  their  game, 
and  doubtless  another  smoke;  to  return  in  a  half-hour, 
take  seats  on  either  side  of  her,  and  industriously 
"season"  her  with  breath  and  clothing  to  the  secondary 
aroma  of  pipe  and  cigar.  An  aching  head  and  a  rebel- 
lious stomach  almost  forbid  brain  exercise,  but  the  suf- 
ferer cannot  help  starting  a  train  of  wondering  some- 
thing after  this  fashion:  "Wonder  why  the  same  mo:  ey 
buys  a  non-smoker,  or  any  man,  the  use  of  two  and  even 
three  seats-  -one  in  the  regular  smoker,  one  in  the  par- 
lor-car smoker,  and  one  in  the  ordinary  or  parlor-car, 
and  buys  a  woman  only  one  seat?  Wonder  why  the 
railroad  officials  don't  secure  the  woman  that  one  free 
from  tobacco  smoke?  Wonder  if  smokers  know  how 
offensive  they  make  themselves  to  many  people?  Wonder 
if  they  would  care  if  they  did  know?  Wonder  if  there 
is  anything  in  'the  weed'  which  makes  men  less  gentle- 
manly, as  they  assuredly  are,  respecting  smoking  than  in 
any  other  particular?  Wonder  if  there  is  any  place  this 
side  of  heaven  where  one  can  breathe  pure  air?" 

At  this  point  her  station  of  exchange  for  another 
road  is  reached,  and  our  traveler  goes  from  the  hot  car 
into  a  stifling  little  waiting-room.  A  card  in  the  ladies' 
room  says  "  no  smoking  allowed,"  but  the  gentleman's 
room  is  divided  from  her  waiting-place  only  by  an  open 
archway,  and  almost  all  the  occupants  of  it  seem  inclined 
to  the  favorite  "nerve-soother." 

After  a  little  more  car  travel  the  steamboat  is  reached 
which  is  to  take  the  Pilgrim  to  her  destination.  Even 
the  "ancient  and  fish-like  smell  "  of  the  wharf  is  refresh- 
ing, and  with  delight  she  establishes  herself  on  the  for- 
ward deck,  which  will  be  the  shady  and  breezy  end  of 
the  boat  when  the  steamer  turns  out  into  the  broad  bay. 
A  seat  is  selected  where  the  back  can  be  rested  against 
the  walls  of  the  upper  saloon,  and  with  only  a  few  heads 
in  sight,  and  those  of  strangers  who  are  naught  to  herT 
and  who  do  not  much  obstruct  her  view,  our  traveler's 
joy  begins.  "The  sea,  the  opaline,  the  beautiful,  the 
strong,"  what  a  magic  cure  is  it  for  the  headache  and  the 
heart-weariness  and  the  temper-annoyance.  The  breeze 
freshens,  the  billows  dance,  the  swell  grows  heavier. 
Ah!  this  is  life!  What  grateful  thoughts  well  up  in 
answer  to  nature's  bounty  of  healing  and  of  joy.  Worth 
while  is  the  strain  and  stress  of  laborious  days  if  by  them 
one  earn  the  right  to  so  enjov  this  glorious  summer 
world ! 

Just  at  this  moment  of  content  and  happiness,  the 
quick  senses  of  the  traveler  detect  the   familiar  and  hated 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


6 1 


tobacco  smoke.  There  is  her  neighbor  of  the  parlor- 
car.  He  is  indulging  in  another  cigar.  He  leans  over 
the  rail  in  front  of  his  victim,  and  puffs  and  puffs  his 
column  of  airy  contamination  right  into  the  sea  breezes 
which  were  so  full  of  healing  for  body  and  mind  but  a 
minute  before.  The  glory  is  gone.  The  little  tobacco 
fiend  gains  a  speedy  victory  over  great  nature's  purity 
and  peace. 

The  purser  comes  around,  and  "  Is  smoking  allowed 
on  this  boat?"  is  the  dispairing  question. 

"  Yes'm,  on  this  forrard  part.  There's  nobody  smok- 
in'  at  the  other  end." 

"  But  the  other  end  is  sunny  and  has  no  breeze.  Here 
is  where  I  wish  to  stay,  and,"  raising  her  voice  a  little, 
"  tobacco  smoke  is  very  disagreeable  to  me  and  makes 
me  ill." 

"Sorry,  num.  Perhaps  you'd  like  to  go  into  the 
saloon.      Ladies  mostly  do." 

The  saloon!  Hot,  stuffy,  and  with  a  party  of  excur- 
sionists dancing  as  nimbly  as  the  motion  of  the  boat  will 
allow,  to  the  wheezes  of  a  parlor  organ  from  which  an 
unwilling  waltz  is  being  coaxed!     Saloon,  indeed! 

The  gentleman  with  the  cigar  has  heard  the  remon- 
strance and  gallantly  throws  the  end  of  his  cigar  into  the 
sea,  but  looks  as  if  a  woman  who  "would  make  a  fuss 
over  a  good  cigar  in  a  public  place"  was  beneath  con- 
tempt. 

A  little  peace,  and  then  three  men  sit  near  the  rail  of 
the  lower  deck  and  smoke.  And  several  promenaders 
come  and  go  with  pipes  and  cigars  and  the  traveler 
gives  it  up,  she  can  keep  her  seat  no  longer. 

She  perches  herself  on  the  outermost  seat  of  the 
deck,  hanging  to  the  rail  in  most  uncomfortable  fashion, 
still  fighting  for  pure  air. 

At  last  the  journey  is  ended;  the  hotel  reached;  the 
good  supper  dispatched  with  an  already  quickened  appe- 
tite; and  the  piazza,  which  has  been  recommended  as 
among  the  chief  attractions  of  the  place,  is  eagerly 
sought.  It  is  indeed  an  entrance-way  to  one  of  nature's 
grandest  temples.  The  fierce  hot  day  is  going  out  gently 
to  meet  the  lovely  night.  A  broad  stretch  of  heaving 
sea  mirrors  the  gorgeous  sunset  sky,  and  the  trees  near 
the  cliff-walk  show  grand  and  gloomy  in  the  twilight. 
"  Perfect,"  sighs  the  traveler  in  blissful  praise. 

But  here  comes  the  crowd  of  people  from  the  dining- 
room.  And  ten  out  of  the  fourteen  men  light  cigars 
and  seat  themselves  within  a  few  feet  of  our  new-comer. 
She  must  either  endure  the  sickening  annoyance,  or  go 
in  out  of  the  glory;  into  her  little  close  room  which  is 
not  on  the  "  view  "  side  of  the  house.  She  is  too  tired 
to  walk  beyond  the  range  of  her  tormentors  to-night; 
but  she  foresees  that  she  will  have  to  do  that  all  the  sum- 
mer or  lose  her  sunset  beaut}'.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
her  blissful  mood  is  again  destroyed  when  she  considers 
that  she  is  paving  as  much   for  the  privilege  of  being 


driven   from   the  common   piazza   as  these   men  are   for 
using  it? 

Men  and  brethren,  ought  these  things  so  to  be? 
Is  there  not  a  question  of  right  involved  in  a  con- 
dition which  bears  so  hardly  upon  one  side  and  gives 
the  other  so  vast  an  advantage?  Why  should  the  smoker 
be  given,  or  take,  the  mean  privilege  of  driving  from 
comfort  to  misery  all  those  who  dislike  tobacco,  even  in 
the  most  public  places?  Can  anyone  explain  on  prin- 
ciples of  justice,  or  good-breeding,  the  right  of  the 
smoker  to  render  the  air  of  cars,  steamboats,  public 
coaches,  hotels  and  boarding-houses,  and  all  other  places 
where  he  elects  to  be,  disagreeable  and  often  sickening? 
It  has  been  truly  said  that  "smoking  is  the  only  vice  that 
all  people  are  compelled  to  share  the  effects  of  in  their 
own  persons."  If  my  neighbor  drinks  whisky  I  am -not 
obliged  to  take  even  a  drop  into  my  system.  But  if  my 
neighbor  smokes,  I  am  obliged,  as  long  as  he  remains 
my  neighbor  on  the  piazza  or  other  place  of  resort,  to 
inhale  some  of  the  poison  he  is  consuming.  There  is 
much  to  say  about  the  pecuniary  waste  and  physical 
harm  of  tobacco-using  as  a  personal  habit.  But  the  sole 
purpose  of  this  article  is  to  draw  attention  to  the  infringe- 
ment upon  the  rights  of  those  who  dislike  tobacco,  per- 
petrated by  tobacco-users,  and  sanctioned  by  those  who 
cater  to  a  tobacco-using  public.  This  aspect  of  the 
question  has  passed  beyond  the  boundaries  of  taste,  or 
preference,  or  conventional  good  manners.  It  has 
entered  the  domain  of  ethics.  The  point  now  to  be 
determined  is  in  brief  this:  Have  those  who  dislike 
tobacco  any  rights  which  tobacco-users  are  bound  to 
respect  ? 

If  my  neighbors  in  the  city  like  the  smell  of  decay- 
ing garbage  about  their  houses,  or  think  it  wholesome 
and  pleasant  to  keep  a  dirty  pig  in  the  cellar,  I  can  com- 
plain of  them  to  the  sanitary  authorities,  and  have  the 
nuisance  removed,  in  spite  of  their  personal  tastes  in  the 
matter.  But  if  I  take  a  sick  baby  into  the  country  for 
pure  air  and  wholesome  surroundings,  and  the  inmate  of 
the  room  next  mine  chooses  to  poison  the  atmosphere  of 
his  own  and  my  apartment  through  the  open  windows 
and  thin  partitions  with  a  nasty  pipe,  or  a  meaner  cigar- 
ette, I  have  probably  no  redress  but  to  change  my  board- 
ing-place. So  debauched  is  the  public  conscience  in  this 
regard  that  any  complaint  of  the  omnipresent  pollution 
is  considered  a  foolish  personal  idiosyncrasy,  to  be  disre- 
garded as  soon  and  as  often  as  desired.  It  is  considered 
by  the  majority  of  hotel -keepers,  railroad  and  steamboat 
officials  and  servants,  and  all  who  purvey  to  the  taste  of 
travelers  and  boarders,  that  the  smoker  has  the  right, 
and  that  the  complainant  is  seeking  to  enforce  a  peculiar 
hobby  of  his  own.  The  good-natured  smoker  will 
throw  away  his  cigar  if  you  frankly  say  it  is  disagree- 
able to  you,  but  he  very  evidently  thinks  he  is  making 
concession  to   an  extraordinary  weakness  on  your  part, 


62 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


anil  that  that  weakness  will  soon  make  you  as  disagree- 
able in  his  eyes  as  his  cigar  can  be  in  your  nostrils. 

It  is  high  time  that  this  inversion  of  the  principles  of 
right  was  exposed  to  just  light.  It  is  high  time  that  the 
man  who  uses  a  public  place  for  the  indulgence  of  a 
private  habit  which  is  positively  injurious  and  disagree- 
able to  many,  who  have  paid  as  high  a  price  for  their 
use  of  that  public  place  as  he,  should  understand  that  lie 
is  iltc'off  aider  against  right  and  propriety,  and  not  the 
person  who  complains  of  his  pipe  or  cigar.  It  is  high 
time  that  petitions  setting  forth  the  injustice  of  the  present 
favoritism  shown  tobacco-users  were  presented  to  all  who 
now  pander  to  this  false  sentiment  and  discrimination, 
and  the  rights  of  those  who  want  pure  air  insisted  upon. 

We  cannot  hope  to  cleanse  our  streets  of  the  filth 
and  foul  air  that  smokers  and  chewers  torment  the  cleanly 
with.  It  may  be  too  much  to  ask  that  the  man  who 
elects  the  smoking-car  for  the  first  half  of  his  journey 
be  forced  to  stay  in  it  for  the  second  half,  rather  than  to 
make  himself  a  nuisance  to  some  one  else.  But  at  least, 
let  us  "strike"  for  the  abolition  of  the  smokers'  apart- 
ment in  the  parlor-car,  and  for  unconditional  prohibition 
of  smoking  in  and  about  the  pleasantest  places  of  resort 
in  hotels,  and  public  parks,  and  gardens,  and  all  the 
nooks  and  corners  where  the  non-smoking  class  most  do 
congregate.  And  let  this  be  demanded  as  a  right;  not 
begged  as  a  kindness. 


CHATS   WITH   A   CHIMPANZEE. 

P.Y  MON'CCRE  I).  CONWAY. 
Part  I. 

On  a  fair  day  I  found  myself  in  Benares,  sacred  city 
of  the  Hindus.  I  had  seen,  many  cities  built  by  men, 
but  now  for  the  first  time  beheld  one  built  by  gods.  It 
is  a  City  of  Temples,  and  houses  ministrant  to  temples. 
It  has  no  trade  save  in  gods.  Its  population  is  a  pro- 
cession of  pilgrims  which  started  out  in  immemorial 
time;  every  day  a  new  population  following  that  which 
departs,  while  outside  may  be  seen  through  the  night  the 
watch-fires  of  those  who  on  the  morrow  will  fill  street 
and  temple,  kneel  at  a  thousand  shrines,  consult  the 
oracular  well,  buy  gilt  gods  with  shell  currency,  receive 
baptism  in  the  Ganges,  partake  of  sacramental  food, 
offer  sacrifices,  and  pass  onward.  As  I  wander  through 
the  streets,  stopping  here  and  there  to  purchase  little 
deities,  or  float  slowly  on  the  Ganges,  some  vista  opens 
occasionally  into  my  own  past.  Once  I  too  knelt 
with  that  ashen  fakir  before  Siva, — the  Consuming  Fire. 
These  throngs  whom  priests  are  immersing — have  I  not 
seen  them  in  the  Rappahannock  river?  Have  I  not 
tasted  those  little  eucharistic  cakes  blest  and  distributed 
to  the  "  new  creature,"  who,  born  again  of  the  water 
and    spirit,    must    eat    onlv    divine    food,    manna,    wild 


honey?  How  often  to-day  have  I  seen  John  the  Baptist 
clad  in  camel's  hair?  The  pyre  is  aflame.  The  widows, 
no  more  permitted  to  ascend  in  the  fire-chariot  with  their 
lords,  bathe  in  the  river  near  by.  One  body  the  pariahs 
are  burying — one  that  died  of  small-pox.  The  Small- 
pox is,  bv  euphemism,  a  deity;  it  is  angry  if  any  form 
whereof  it  takes  possession  is  burnt,  and  its  sacred  self 
scorched.  Therefore,  here  is  the  one  exception  to  cre- 
mation. Small-pox  superstitions  are  not  confined  to 
India;  thousands  of  Canadian  peasants  believe,  it  is  said, 
that  they  who  suffer  that  disease  receive  a  certain  con- 
secration— no  doubt  a  survival  from  the  Hindu  faith. 
Indeed,  as  I  roam  through  Benares,  few  incomprehen- 
sible things  meet  my  eye.  I  carry  a  large  bunch  of  old 
keys,  gathered  from  the  spiritual  lands  through  which 
my  own  pilgrimage  has  led  me,  one  or  another  of 
which,  with  some  filing,  will  fit  the  most  complex  of 
these  ancestral  locks.  But  these  keys,  long  kept  in  my 
mental  museum,  unlock  similar  doors  to  dissimilar  scenes 
in  East  and  West.  Behind  the  Western  altar  and 
sacrament  are  substantial  secularities;  the  old  charms 
are  turned  to  uses  not  evolved  from  them,  just  as  my 
purse-full  of  cowries  (shells)  turn  into  brass  idols,  unre- 
lated to  the  mollusks  that  shaped  them.  In  London  or 
New  York  my  creed  or  sacrament  shall  bring  me  vari- 
ous profit  and  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is.  But  here 
at  Benares  the  creed  and  sacrament  are  not  cast  shells 
turned  to  currency;  they  are  alive;  the  whole  of  human 
life  is  turned  into  an  inorganic  formation  on  which  dwell 
and  move  forms  fossilized  in  the  West,  or  represented 
if  at  all  in  some  fanatical  lusus  natures. 

One  morning  I  thought  I  had  made  a  discovery.  I 
set  out  before  me  the  gods  and  goddesses  purchased  at 
their  bazaar  on  the  previous  day,  and  meditated  on  them. 
I  thought  of  the  masses  I  had  seen  almost  treading  one 
on  the  other  to  get  near  the  images  here  copied, — the 
Destroyer,  the  elephant-headed  god,  and  other  monstrosi- 
ties; above  all  the  hideous  Kali,  skull-girt,  blood-lap- 
ping, in  one  hand  a  sword  in  the  other  a  cut-off  head. 
Then  a  little  monkey-god  caught  my  eve,  and  the  secret 
of  the  whole  thing  flashed  on  me.  What  I  was  wit- 
nessing at  Benares  stood  revealed  as  a  survival  of  super- 
stitions not  merely  pre-historic  but  pre-human!  It  was 
the  ancient  anthropoid  beliefs  which  man  had  here 
inherited,  and  embodied  in  symbols  and  shrines. 

Thereupon  it  occurred  to  me  that  I  had  not  yet 
visited  one  of  the  most  famous  temples  in  Benares,  or 
even  in  India — the  Monkey  Temple.  Straightway  I 
summoned  my  interpreter,  a  Mohammedan,  and  jour- 
neyed to  that  Temple.  Near  the  outer  door  the  pave- 
ment was  wet  with  blood  of  the  morning  sacrifice;  I 
had  to  pick  my  way  to  the  entrance.  A  priest  met  me 
and  threw  around  my  neck  a  wreath  of  yellow  flowers, 
—nasturtium-like, — which  rendered  me  sacred  enough 
to    enter.     At    an    inner   door    a    pretty  boy   appeared 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


63 


holding  a  salver  piled  with  honey-cakes  and  sweet- 
meats, of  the  kind  desired  hv  monkeys.  I  bought  a 
liberal  allowance  and  was  conducted  within.  My  inter- 
preter, remembering  from  a  previous  ramble  my  inter- 
est in  Sacred  Trees,  guided  me  to  a  huge  and  very 
ancient  one  in  the  farther  court, around  which  holy  men 
were  engaged  in  austerities.  In  the  hollow  of  that  tree 
lay  a  monkey  and  her  new-born  babe.  I  saw  the 
mother's  soft  eves  looking  out*  without  fear.  Before 
my  vision  rose  a  scene  of  some  simian  cult,  out  of  which 
that  of  cruel  Kali  could  hardly  be  developed.  This 
was  better  than  butchering  kids  before  a  fury.  I  felt 
a  thrill  of  happv  emotion  that  beyond  the  blood-stained 
pavement  I  had  found  this  consecration  of  the  maternal 
principle  even  in  the  humblest  beginnings  of  our  race. 
But  my  new  theory  was  slightly  shaken. 

From  this  point  we  passed  into  the  main  court.  The 
temple  mainly  consists  of  roofless  courts  within  courts: 
into  the  roofed  parts  I  did  not  enter.  Here  was  a  won- 
drous, a  charming  scene!  Hundreds  of  monkevs  were 
engaged  in  their  slumberous  sun-worship  on  the  roofs, 
their  furzy  forms  decorating,  as  if  with  animated  moss, 
the  maro  >n-grav  walls,  some  of  the  vounger  ones  play- 
ing like  children  in  a  corner  of  the  court.  Some  two 
score  were  seated  along  the  quaintly-carven  cornices, 
and  when  thev  saw  me  enter,  my  hands  full  of  sweet- 
meats, slowlv  descended.  There  was  no  rus  ing,  no 
scramble;  indeed  they  appeared  rather  desirou£  of 
according  a  polite  welcome  to  the  visitor  than  of  receiv- 
ing anything  from  him.  Thev  descended  lazih  an  ! 
gracefully — here  a  foot  on  some  saintly  symbol,  there  a 
hand  on  some  holv  image,  swinging  gently  to  the  paved 
floor.  Thev  approached  without  any  f<  ar  or  pert  curi- 
osity; they  did  not  holdout  begging  hands,  nor  propose 
to  take  up  a  collection.  No  one  prayed  to  another, 
nor  to  the  Brahman,  nor  to  me.  When  I  offered  cakes 
and  swei  tmeats  some  accepted,  and  munched  languidly. 
Their  plump  bodies  were  plainly  made  of  plenitude  of 
sweetmeats,  but  thev  ate  a  little,  as  if  not  wishing  to 
hurt  mv  feelings.  There  were  several  varieties  of 
them;  there  were  dark  faces  anil  light  faces,  and  some 
that  bore  witness  to  the  legalitv  of  miscegenation. 
There  was  evidently  no  color  line  in  this  happv  com- 
munitv.  After  a  few  minutes  the  young  ones  returned 
to  their  play,  I  observed  that  thev  danced  around  in 
a  ring,  as  the  Hindus  never  do.  Indeed,  the  Hindus  never 
dance  at  all  for  amusement;  their  only  dancers  are  the 
temple-dancers  (Nautch  girls)  who  merely  describe  a 
passion  or  poem  with  pantomimic  gesticulation.  An 
old  Anglo-Indian  said  that  a  Hindu  gentleman  would 
rather  commit  any  crime  than  dance,  and  it  cannot  be 
far  from  the  truth.  The  younger  monkevs  danced;  the 
middle-aged  poked  a  little  mild  fun  at  each  other;  the  old 
ones  climbed  again  to  their  cornices,  and  to  slumber  in 
the  soft  sunshine. 


Gradual!)  all  of  them  left  me  save  one.  This  one 
had  attracted  mv  attention  at  first  because  he  seemed  to 
be  a  Chimpanzee,  a  species  not  to  be  expected  in  that 
region.  He  may  not  have  been  one  zoologically,  but  I 
shall  call  him  one  because  he  was  such  cerebrallv — I 
may  even  sav  spiritually.  I  had  given  him  at  first  the 
finest  cake  I  had;  he  had  tasted  it  and  smacked  his  lips, 
giving  me  to  understand  that  it  was  delicious;  but  I  s  iw 
that  he  did  not  care  for  it  at  all,  and  when  a  young 
monkey  came — his  spoilt  daughter  perhaps — and 
snatched  it  out  of  his  hand  he  only  matte  a  show  of 
pursuing  her.  While  she  sat  quite  near,  eating  it,  this 
sage  old  monkey  seemed  satisfied.  When  she  had  gone 
after  the  rest  he  remained  and  looked  at  me  steadily; 
also  with  a  certain  humor  in  his  countenance,  which 
inspired  both  confidence  and  interest.  There  was  some- 
thing in  his  expression  which  reminded  me  of  the 
negro's  remark  when  an  organ-grinder  brought  his 
ape  through  the  plantation:  he  had  no  doubt  the  little 
brother  could  talk  easily  enough  if  he  wasn't  afraid 
of  a  hoe  being  put  in  his  hand.  1  felt  a  desire  to 
be  with  this  quiant  acquaintance  when  Brahman  ami 
Moslem  eyes  were  not  on  us.  I  dismissed  my  inter- 
preter and  the  priest,  sat  down  on  a  stone  bench,  and 
offered  the  Chimpanzee  mv  remaining  sweetmeats. 
He  regarded  this  as  a  friendly  overture",  and  came  a 
little  closer.  He  climbed  on  a  little  parapet  of  the  wall, 
where,  half  reclining,  he  was  still  as  any  other  god  in 
his  shrine.  Then  occurred  the  first  of  a  series  of  inter- 
views which  I  consider  interesting  enough  to  pass  from 
the  Temple  Court  of  Benares  to  The  Open  Court  of 
Chicago. 


THE  EVOLUTION    OF   CHARACTER   AND    ITS  RELA- 
TION   TO   THE   COMMONWEAL. 

BY    MISS   M.   S.  GILI.II.ANI>. 

The   attainment  of  the  greatest   possible  amount  of 

social  happiness  I  take  to  be  the  noblest  of  human  aims; 

the  highest  within  the  range  of  our  faculties;  and,  being 

within  that  range,  worthy  of   belief,  hope   and  endeavor 

the  highest  endeavor  of  rational  beings. 

The  importance  of  this  subject  needs  no  demonstra- 
tion to  students  of  ethics.  There  is.  however,  a  large 
class  in  whom  the  feeling  which  long  ago  found  utter- 
ance in  the  "how  long,  oh  Lord,  how  long;"  the 
revolt  against  the  miser)'  of  the  world  with  the  wild 
wish  to  help  it,  often  occurs  as  the  result  of  some  jar 
(alas,  how  common!)  to  the  social  sympathies,  but  in 
whom  the  wish  dies  down,  drowned  in  an  ocean  of 
hopelessness  as  to  the  bettering  of  social  relations,  or 
chilled  to  death  by  the  mist  of  a  supposed  pious  sub- 
mission to  "the  order  of  things."  To  those  who  feel 
but  do  not  see,  I  should  like  to  give  what  little  help  I  can. 

There  is  another  class,  those  who  do  not  think 
about  it  at  all,  whose  individual   aims  absorb  their  entire 


64 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


attention.  To  them  I  should  like  to  point  out  the  sim- 
ple fact  that  the  conditions  most  essential  to  the  happi- 
ness of  their  fellows  are  precisely  the  conditions  most 
essential  to  the  attainment  of  their  own;  so  that  by  pro- 
moting the  former  they  inevitably  promote  the  chances 
of  the  latter.  A  short-sighted  egoism  continually 
defeats  itself. 

First  then  to  those  who  would  fain  better  things 
but  know  not  how. 

We  bear  the  burden  of  many  sorrows  and  suffer, 
on  all  sides,  the  pain  of  baffled  desires.  Is  there  no 
help  for  us? 

Must  we  console  ourselves  with  the  pious  by  saying: 
"  Here  we  have  no  abiding  city ;"  "  we  are  but  strangers 
and  pilgrims  bound  for  another  shore."  "  Yonder"  lies 
our  home.  "  Here  we  are  on  our  trial,  'tis  a  state  of  pro- 
bation ;  we  will  bear  it  as  such  and  try  to  be  virtuous, 
knowing  that  our  lot  beyond  depends  upon  our  action 
here."  Or,  if  this  belief  be  taken  from  us,  must  we  lose 
all  hope?  Must  we  regard  humanity  as  a  forlorn 
stream  of  sentient  beings,  doomed  forever  by  a  deluding 
instinct  to  propagate  their  species,  born  forever  into 
hope,  and  pass  forever  through  Disillusion  to  Despair, 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  iron  law,  flinging  themselves 
against  Fate  like  impotent  waves  that  dash  against  the 
rocks  and  chafe  only  themselves?  Our  outlook  is  for- 
tunately not  restricted  to  these  two  views,  neither  of 
which  give  us  much  hope  for  our  life  here  and  now. 

There  is  a  third  view  which  would  teach  us  that 
'•  all  evil  results  from  non-adaptat  on  of  constitution  and 
conditions,"  and  that  this  evil  is  ever  tending  to  disap- 
pear by  the  gradual  adaptation  of  constitution  every- 
where going  on.  The  special  non-adaptation  with 
which  we  have  here  to  do  is  that  of  the  human  race  to 
a  social  state.  Long  continuance  of  savage  life  and  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  for  such  a  life  produced  a  charac- 
ter in  many  respects  opposed  to  that  necessary  for 
comfortable  social  relations.  Egoism  was  enormously 
developed;  Right  meant  simply  Might;  Sympathy  was 
prevented  from  developing,  partly  bv  the  warlike 
habits  of  the  savage  and  partly  by  the  individual 
independence  which  gave  rise  to  but  few  occasions  of 
common  suffering  or  common  rejoicing.  Necessity 
formed  habit  and  habit  formed  character.  But  condi- 
tions were  gradually  changing.  Increase  of  popula- 
tion necessitated  the  agglomeration  of  tribes,  a  division  of 
labor  and  an  immense  increase  in  the  amount  of  labor, 
needful  to  supply  so  largely  increased  a  community. 
The  wants  and  needs  became  vastly  multiplied  too,  in 
accordance  with  a  universal  law,  that  "  every  change 
produced  a  diversity  of  effects."  Hut  change  of  char- 
acter must  ever  lag  behind  change  of  conditions; 
because  the  former  is  the  product  of  the  latter.  Hence 
it  is  that  this  heterogeneous,  complex  social  life  has 
evolved    needs  and   wants  on  every  side,  which,  as  yet, 


humanity  is  incapable  of  responding  to.  The  constitu- 
tion is  not  adapted  to  the  conditions,  hence  the  evil. 
Have  we  careles  servants;  have  we  slothful  men  of 
business;  have  we  lying,  thieving  officials;  have  we 
aching  heads  from  overstudy  or  aching  backs  from  over- 
work ;  each  and  all,  and  a  host  of  other  ills  with  them  are 
to  be  attributed  to  the  same  general  cause — the  imperfect 
adaptation   of  mankind  and  the  needs  of  social  life. 

This  view  casts  a  flood  of  light  on  our  condition, 
gives  us  a  ground  of  hope  for  the  gradual  amelioration 
of  our  lot  and  enables  us  to  give  a  reason  for  the  hope 
that  is  in  us.  But  it  does  more.  In  showing  us  the 
good  it  incidentally  reveals  to  us  the  means  of  attainment. 
Complete  adaptation  of  character  to  the  needs  of  social 
life  is  the  goal;  necessity,  as  we  have  seen,  compels 
habit  or  crushes  the  rebel ;  and  habit  forn  s  character. 
Here  we  have  at  once  a  guide  for  our  individual  lives 
and  for  our  endeavor  for  the  lives  of  others.  Do 
we  want  to  become  a  clever  pianist,  we  practice  play- 
ing the  piano;  do  we  want  to  teach  a  child  to  sew, 
we  make  it  practice  sewing.  "  Practice  makes  per- 
fect" is  the  pronouncement  of  general  experience  on  the 
subject;  and  we  shall  find  it  as  true  of  virtues  and 
tastes  as  of  any  mechanical  dexterity. 

Let  us  then  in  our  own  lives  endeavor  to  form 
desirable  habits;  and  in  so  far  as  we  may  be  able  to 
influence  the  lives  of  others,  let  us  try  to  demonstrate 
to  fehem  the  all-importance  of  this  magician  habit,  and 
let  us  try  to  remove  stumbling  blocks  from  his  path. 
This  last  much-needed  aid  may  be  rendered  by  us  in 
various  ways. 

First — Bv  the  avoidance  of  an  indiscriminate  charity. 
Let  us  try  to  help  those  most  who  are  most  able  to 
help  themselves,  those  upon  whom  the  pressure  of  out- 
ward circumstances  has  been  calamitous,  rather  than 
those  out-distanced  in  the  race  of  life  by  reason  of  i  er- 
sonal  incapacity,  whether  physical,  mental  or  moral. 
It  is  a  most  salutary  law  that  punishment  should  fall 
upon  defect,  and  we  are  wrong  and  retard  that  so  desir- 
able adaptation  of  character  and  capacity  to  the  needs  of 
social  life  when  we  help  to  make  punishment  inappre- 
ciable. 

Secondly — By  our  advocacy  of  independence  in 
every  individual  member  of  the  community.  Let  us  not 
forget  the  rule.  Necessity  fotms  habit  and  habit,  alone, 
forms  character.  How  short-sighted,  then,  is  the  policy 
that  would  take  from  those  least  developed  and  least 
fitted  for  social  duties  the  pressure  of  that  necessity 
which  is  above  all  things  best  fitted  to  develop  their 
capacity  a'  d  fit  them  for  efficient  membership  of  the 
body  social.  Would  we  see  industry  flourish  ami  idle- 
ness become  irksome?  Let  us  encourage  no  law  which 
would  secure  to  any  class  a  life  of  luxurious  idleness. 
Would  we  see  thrift  grow  and  waste  disappear?  Let 
us  not  lighten   responsibility  nor  lift   burdens   natural  to 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


65 


any  given  relation.  The  paternal  government  which 
would  save  a  people  not  from  their  sins  but  from  their 
sin's  consequences,  which  would  interfere  between  an 
act  and  its  natural  results  whether  it  be  bv  lifting  from 
the  shoulders  of  prostrate  female  virtue  the  burden  of 
the  support  of  illegitimate  offspring,  or  from  parental 
shoulders  in  gene  al  the  burden  of  children's  education, 
or  in  any  other  way  whatsoever  that  government  does 
its  people  grievous  wrong.  It  keeps  them  children, 
not  indeed  with  the  innocence  and  teachableness  of 
childhood,  but  with  its  ignorance,  incapacity  of  self- 
help  and  inadequate  sense  of  responsibility. 

These  things  I  say  chiefly  with  regard  to  laws  and 
enactments,  and  our  intelligent  attitude  toward  them. 
Help  may  be  given  personally  where  the  results  of 
incapacity  press  with  extreme  severity;  but  let  it  be 
personal  help,  let  it  at  least  develop  sympathy  in  the 
helper;  and  let  it  be  judicious.  Let  it  never  be  of  a  kind 
to  encourage  the  moral  offender  to  offend  with  impu- 
nity, or  to  place  inferiority  of  any  kind,  on  a  par  with 
superiority. 

That  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  the  third  and 
perhaps  greatest  of  all  the  means  at  our  disposal  for 
helping  our  fellows:  the  development  of  sympathy. 
Tust  as  egoism  is  the  chiefest  preventive  to  happiness  in 
the  social  state,  so  is  sympathy  its  principal  producer. 
All  those  ills  at  least,  which  we  suffer  from  one 
another,  ills  of  omission  and  commission,  all  are  attrib- 
utable to  poverty  of  sympathy.  Did  we  realize  clearly 
the  vexations  caused  by  our  misdeeds,  and  did  the 
realization  pain  us,  we  would  certainly  act  better. 
How  then  to  cultivate  this  sympathy?  It  must  be  the 
business  not  of  laws  at  all,  but  of  individual  effort. 
Let  us  enter  into  relation  with  others  as  widely  as  pos- 
sible, let  us  encourage  co-operation  of  every  kind,  so 
that  we  may  kindle  our  fellow-feeling  and  have  occa- 
sions of  common  sorrow  and  joy;  and  let  us  help  per- 
sonally. Even  if  at  first  we  must  need  force  ourselves 
to  do  so,  eventually  the  desire  will  reward  the 
habit.  Interest  in  those  we  help  flourishes  marvelously 
quickly. 

Let  us  try,  too,  to  break  down  class  prejudices,  to 
do  justice  in  our  own  estimates  of  those  who  differ  most 
widely  from  us,  and  to  promote  that  mutual  knowledge 
of  classes  which  best  helps  each  to  do  justice  and  feel  for 
the  other.  But,  above  all,  let  us  try  to  make  our 
interest  identical  by  equitable  relationships  that  shall  be 
complimentary  rather  than  rival— remembering  that  "a 
fellow-feeling  makes  one  wondrous  kind." 

Necessary  limitations  of  space  scarcely  admit  of  my 
saying  anything  to  that  second  class  to  whom  I  would 
address  myself:  those  who  do  not  care  about  the  com- 
mon weal  or  happiness,  whose  interest  is  purely  egotisti- 
cal. One  would  indeed  almost  feel  inclined  to  leave  them 
without  a    word — for  they    are   a    contemptible   class 


but  that  they,   by   their   action,    may  imperil   that    weal, 
about   which  if  they  do  not  care  we  do. 

Know  then,  O  thou  narrow  and  miserable  soul, 
that  thv  so  much  prized  happiness  js  to  be  accomplished 
in  no  other  way  than  by  just  the  very  means  which  has 
been  recommended  to  thy  nobler  brother.  Think,  all 
ve  such,  if  you  can  think,  and  learn!  Are  you  cheated 
by  your  grocer?  Are  you  pilfered  from  bv  your 
servants?  Do  you  lose  money  over  inefficient  and  lazy- 
work-people?  Do  the  shafts  of  your  carriage  break 
upon  sudden  strain  because  of  unsound  wood?  Do  you 
lose  your  nearest  and  dearest  or  do  you  yourself  run 
the  risk  of  being  plunged  into  death  by  the  breaking  of 
hridges  immorally  constructed?  Are  you  poisoned  by 
evil  odors  from  badly-made  drains,  or  reduced  to  beggary 
by  the  dishonesty  of  debtors?  Are  you  suffering  from 
any  of  all  the  thousand  ills  which  rascality  and  inefficiency 
daily  subject  us  to?  Know  then:  all  these  ills  are  trace- 
able to  the  s  1  me  general  cause:  non-adaptation  of  constitu- 
tion to  conditions,  inefficiency  of  character  to  meet  the 
needs  of  social  life.  And  think  :  does  it  not  concern  yoti 
personally  that  those  conditions  shall  bemiintained  which 
alone  will  mould  character  in  the  necessary  direction? 
I  pray  thee  think!  State  interference  or  non-interfer- 
rence;  individual  independence  or  meddling  supervision; 
personal  kindliness  or  indifference  and  rudeness:  these, 
things  seem  far  apart  from  railway  accidents,  typhoid 
fevers,  trade  peccadillos  or  work-people's  stupidity; 
but  I  tell  you  they  all  belong  together,  they  have  t  lie- 
most  intimate  connection,  even  that  relation  of  relations, 
the  relation  of  cause  and  effect.  Are  you  callou-? 
You  are  so  at  your  peril. 


MONISM    IN    MODERN    PHILOSOPHY  AND    THE 
AGNOSTIC  ATTITUDE  OF  MIND. 

BV     EDMUND    MONTGOMERY. 
Part  III. — Conclusion. 

Professor  Haeckel,  who,  as  every  one  knows,  has 
furnished,  through  his  classical  biological  investigations, 
manifold  direct  proof  in  support  of  the  evolution 
hypothesis,  and  who,  through  his  popular  works  and 
lectures,  has  probably  done  more  than  any  other  single 
person  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  that  great,  life- 
elevating  doctrine,  is  also  the  advocate  of  a  Monism 
that — though  essentially  based  on  hvlozoistic  as  ump- 
tions — pretends,  nevertheless,  to  explain  everything  im 
strict  keeping  with  mechanical  principles.  Acconling- 
to  it,  every  atom  is  eternal  and  has  an  eternal  soul.  This, 
soul  possesses  the  properties  of  "sensation  and  volition,, 
pleasure  and  pain,  desire  and  aversion,  attraction  and 
repulsi  >n."  Atoms  aggregate  to  molecules,  molecules  to 
crystals  or  plastidules,  plastidules  to  cells  and  cells  to  com- 
plex organisms.  All  this  is  said  to  occur  in  rigorous  obedi- 
enceto  general  mechanical  laws,  notwithstanding  that  it  is 


66 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


volition  which  impels  atoms  to  form  chemical  combina- 
tions and  that  the  plastidules  transmit  to  other  matter, 
by  dint  of  a  faculty  of  reproduction,  the  complex  motion 
received  during  their  evolution,  the  motion,  in  fact,  in 
which  their  specific  nature  consists.  And  this  faculty  of 
reproduction,  which  thus  renders  possible  organic  growth 
and  propagation,  is  really  unconscious  memory,  a  faculty 
of  the  soul.  Parallel  to  the  aggregation  of  the  material 
particles,  their  souls  also  aggregate,  forming  complex 
souls,  our  own  soul  being  the  most  complex  of  all. 

The  original  dualism  of  body  and  mind  within  the 
atom  is  thus  made  to  form,  by  mere  grouping,  what 
Professor  Haeckel  calls  Mechanical  Monism. 

The  philosophers  of  the  seventeenth  century,  to 
whom  the  connection  of  soul  and  body  was  such  a 
vexed  question,  believing — as  all  mechanical  scientists 
since  Descartes  have  believed  that  each  of  the  two 
modes  of  existence  displays  its  own  series  of  phenomena 
without  the  least  interference  from  the  other,  these 
benighted  philosophers  would  no  doubt  be  greatly  aston- 
ished at  this  easy  solution  of  'heir  central  problem.  You 
have  only  to  lock  up  the  two  incommensurable  elements 
together  in  the  smallest  possible  compass  and  you  will 
find  them  ready  ever  after  to  help  each  other  out  of 
every  imaginable  difficulty. 

An  atomistic  unification  of  body  and  mind  on  a 
hvlozoistic  foundation  was  also  not  long  ago  attempted 
by  a  highly  accomplished  scientist,  whose  truly  |  henom- 
enal  career  "the  stupidity  of  death"  cut  shot  t  lone 
before  it  had  reached  its  climax.  Clifford  tried  to  prove 
in  a  quasi-mathematical  way  that  the  reality  which  cor- 
responds to  our  mental  perception  of  things  is  made  of 
the  same  stuffas  the  mental  perception  itself.  It  would 
occupy  too  much  space  to  expose  here  the  fallacy 
of  his  specious  argument.  This  the  present  writer  has 
undertaken  in  The  Index  of  December  24,  18S5,  pp. 
307-8,  where  he  has  disproved  this  hypothesis  of  men- 
tal atomism  or  mind-stuff  and  shown  that  complex  individ- 
ual consciousness  is  the  only  kind  of  mental  existent  we 
know  or  can  legitimately  infer. 

When  it  became  highly  probable,  if  not  quite  cer- 
tain, that  to  each  conscious  state  there  corresponds  a 
definite  molecular  motion  in  the  brain,  scientific  philoso- 
phers, and  among  them  Lewes,  tried  to  establish  a 
monistic  view  on  the  strength  of  this  correspondence. 
This  is  the  vievs  usually  known  as  the  two-sided  aspect, 
or  as  Psychophysical  Monism.  According  to  it.  the  brain- 
motion,  the  functional  tremor  of  brain  molecules,  is  only 
another  aspect  of  the  corresponding  conscious  state, 
which,  in  truth,  is  the  same  fact  of  nature,  only  sub- 
jectively realized,  while  the  motion  is  objectively  real- 
ized. 

But  it  is  cptite  e\  ident  that  another  person  can  realize, 
as  percept  of  his  own,  the  brain-inntiott,  while  the  per- 
son   to     whom    the     brain     belongs   is   experiencing   the 


corresponding  couscous  state.  These  two  different 
tacts,  oceuri  ing  in  two  different  minds,  cami'  t  possibly  be 
one  and  the  same  identical  fact  of  nature,  ^o,  here 
again,  we  find  ourselves  baffled  in  our  monistic  efforts. 
How,  then,  does  science,  as  now  constituted,  really 
bear  upon  a  monistic  interpretation  of   nature? 

Science  proceeds  on  the  basis  of  an  unfaltering  con- 
viction and  ever-verified  supposition  that  the  things  we 
perceive,  by  means  of  our  senses,  are  real  existents,  inde- 
pendent in  their  intrinsic  nature  of  our  perception  of 
them.  Those  scientists,  who  believe  themselves  to  be 
idealists,  have  merely,  during  their  philosophical  excur- 
sion, let  drop  into  unconsciousness  the  leading  principle 
of  their  craft.  The  dilemma,  which  our  present  science 
encounters  on  its  way  to  a  monistic  world-conception,  is 
unavoidable.  We  find  in  the  world,  as  it  actually  pre- 
sents itself  to  us,  highly  complex  bodies,  possessing 
manifold  properties,  some  of  them  displaying  activities 
and  experiencing  affections  of  a  marvelous  kind.  In 
analyzing  these  compound  structures  science  reacb.es 
more  and  more  elementary  constituents,  out  of  whose 
combination  these  compound  structures  are  most  unmis- 
takably formed.  Dissolving  thus  all  bodies  into  their 
ultimate  constituent  parts,  not  in  philosophical  thought 
or  imagination  merely  but  in  all  reality,  there  seems,  ;«t 
last,  nothing  left  but  a  number  of  elements  which,  in 
their  most  simple  state,  constitute  gases,  whose  manifest 
properties — the  only  properties  which  science  is  allowed 
to  reckon  with  ate  all  of  the  most  primitive,  physical 
kind. 

Now  the  dilemma  is,  how  have  the  marvelous  hpyer- 
physical  endowments  of  complex  bodies  got  into 
structures  that  are  made  up  of  nothing  but  physically- 
endowed  elements? 

To  take  the  qualities  known  only  in  connection  with 
complex  structures,  and  place  them  in  ever  so  minimized 
a  condition  into  their  elements,  is  simply  begging  the 
question  and  completely  breaking  through  the  limita- 
tions of  the  scientific  method.  Science,  prying  into  the 
origin  of  things,  has  thus  come  to  a  beginning,  con- 
sisting of  a  vast  multitude  of  interacting  but  disunited 
elements, .and  this  is  certainly  not  Monism. 

As  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  that  the 
universe  is  not  made  up  through  mere  aggregation  of 
autonomous  monads  or  atoms;  but  is  truly  a  cosmos, 
whose  diversified  and  manifoldly  endowed  parts  are 
all  closely  interdependent  constituents ;  our  attempts  at 
iuterpretati'  n  have  to  proceed  in  this  monistic  direction, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  approach 
nearer  and  nearer  the  solution. 

I  Jut  is  there  anyone  to  be  found  in  any  time  who  with 
bis  understanding  has  yet  penetrated  the  secret?  And,  if 
not,  why  should  "Agnostic"  be  a  name  of  reproach?  The 
term  "Agnosticism  "  as  now  used  designates  not  a  creed, 
but  merely  a  mental  attitude,  a  wise  suspense  of  judgment 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


67 


regarding  certain  vital  questions  passionately  pre- 
judged bv  the  society  in  which  so-called  Agnostics  are 
living.  Formerly  such  dissenters  from  authoritatively 
pre-cribed  articles  of  faith  were  simply  burned  alive, 
and  that  not  so  very  long  ago.  In  some  parts  of  what 
is  called  the  civilized  world  they  are  still  ostracized.  In 
England  an  "  Infidel,"  up  to  very  recently,  was  almost 
universally  despised,  and  had  a  very  poor  chance  in  life. 

To  the  indefatigable  exertions  and  eminent  social 
qualifications  of  such  men  as  Professors  Huxley  and 
Tyndall  is  chiefly  due  the  great  change  that  has  taken 
place  in  public  opinion  among  the  educated  of  the 
English-speaking  nations;  a  change  which  allows  the 
mild,  more  pitying  than  condemning,  if  not  even  half 
or  wholly-shared  name  of  "Agnostic"  to  displace  the 
harsh  and  spiteful  epithet  "Heretic"  or  "Infidel." 
Through  generous  sympathy  with  all  the  higher  inter- 
ests of  humanity  at  large  and  of  Englishmen  in  particu- 
lar; through  an  amiable,  open  disposit.on,  ever  readv  to 
give  fair  play  to  an  adversary,  and  to  enter  amicably 
into  his  mode  of  thought;  and  withal  armed  with  the  irre- 
sistible and  masterly-wielded  weapons  of  science;  these 
men — speaking  the  genuine  human  language — have 
gained  a  candid  hearing  for  their  cause  from  the  very 
foremost  leaders  of  public  opinion.  As  prominent 
svmptoms  of  the  radical  change  that  has  thus  latelv 
been  wrought  in  the  direction  of  complete  tolerance, 
may  be  named  the  "  Metaphysical  Society  "  of  London 
and  the  "Nineteenth  Century,"  where  Roman  Catholic 
Cardinals,  Anglican  Bishops  and  the  master  minds  of 
dissenting  denominations  have  discussed  and  are  still 
discussing  with  free-thinkers  of  all  shades  the  questions 
thev  all  have  most  at  heart. 

"  Agnosticism,"  as  commonly  understood,  has  refer- 
ence principally  to  the  two  great  transcendental  questions, 
the  existence  of  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
Strictly  speaking,  all  who  do  not  base  their  knowledge, 
their  gnosis,  on  supernatural  revelation  are  Agnostics, 
whether  they  call  themselves  so  or  not.  For,  it  is  a  fact, 
that  the  keenest  and  most  profound  thinkers  among  the 
theologians  themselves  have  now  admitted,  that  reason — 
not  less  than  science — is  incapable  of  bringing  us  positive 
knowledge,  not  only  concerning  the  particular  nature  of 
God  and  the  particular  mode  of  existence  in  a  future 
life,  but  concerning  the  very  existence  of  God  -and  a 
future  life.  The  logical  proofs  of  Anselm  and  Des- 
cartes, the  teleological  proof,  the  proof  from  causality, 
from  free  will,  etc.,  etc. ;  all  have  turned  out  to  be  falla- 
cious. Those  then,  who  do  not  believe  in  supernatural 
revelation — and  who  knows  how  many,  there  are  of 
such  even  among  professed  theologians — have  to  ground 
and  actually  do  ground  their  belief  in  God  solely  on  the 
feeling  of  the  utter  dependence  of  existence  and  life 
upon  a  power,  not  themselves.  What  the  intrinsic 
nature   of   this   creating   and   sustaining   power   may   be 


remains  wholly  enigmatical,  however  much  the  noble 
stirrings  of  their  emotional  nature  may  prompt  them  to 
identify  it  with  its  own  highest  sentiment  and  aspiration. 
Dim  and  confused  is  in  truth  the  boundary  that  sep- 
arates at  the  uttermost  reach  of  thought  earnest  and 
open-minded  seekers  after  truth,  on  whichever  side  of 
providential  Faith  and  personal  Hope  their  conviction  or 
doubt  may  incline. 

The- insistence  on  the  supreme  truth  of  supernatural 
tradition  ends,  of  course,  all  discussion.  Our  human  life, 
however,  is  being  more  and  more  exclusively  molded  on 
natural  revelation.  This  it  is,  that  makes  the  spirit  of 
our  scientific  era  more  ami  more  humanely  moral,  but 
also  more  and  more  agnostic,  as  regards  the  constitution 
of  the  intelligible  world,  so  minutely  known  and  de- 
scribed bv  our  forefathers.  Agnosticism  in  reference  to 
the  supernatural  world,  involves  by  no  means  a  gener- 
ally negative  attitude  of  mind.  Quite  the  contrary,  it 
leaves  us  all  the  freer  to  appreciate  the  positive  marvels 
of  nature,  and  to  work  at  a  progressive  development  of 
our  race. 

The  mystery  of  Being  and  Becoming!  Who  in  his 
right  senses  dares  for  a  moment  to  assert  that  the  least 
glimpse  of  its  origin  and  intimate  workings  has  been 
vouchsafed  to  him. 

George  Eliot — truly  a  representative  genius  of  the 
highest  aspirations  of  our  age — with  a  receptiveness  as 
open  as  a  child's,  with  knowledge  as  wide  as  human 
understanding,  with  sympathy  as  deep  as  the  human 
heart;  in  vain,  O  in  vain,  has  her  humble  beseeching, 
her  keen  and  tender  gaze  rested  with  life-long  question- 
ing on  the  silent  secret  "behind  the  veil,  behind  the 
veil." 

And  how  many  cultured  persons  arc  there,  now-a- 
days,  who  would  consider,  for  instance,  St.  Augustine, 
Luther  or  Calvin  to  be  more  lovable  as  human  beings, 
and  deem  their  views  of  human  life  more  truly  moral 
and  estimable  than  those  of  her,  who  had  the  full 
courage  of  her  free,  undogmatic  convictions? 


PUTTING   OFF  THE   OLD   MAN   ADAM. 
BY  W.  1>.  GUNNING. 

A  few  years  ago  Dr.  Ellsberg,  to  account  for  the 
facts  of  heredity,  proposed  a  theory  which  has  been 
accepted  by  Haeckel.  A  certain  number  of  "physio- 
logical units,"  plastic  and  therefore  called  " plasticules " 
bv  Ellsberg,  pass,  not  organized  into  body,  from  parent 
to  child,  to  grandchild,  down  along  the  line  in  dimin- 
ishing ratio  until  at  last  they  fade  out.  Let  us  hypothe- 
cate an  Adam  and  Eve  physiologically.  The  child  is 
not  a  new  being,  but  a  projection  of  the  parents.  In  its 
body,  but  not  incorporated  with  it,  are  plastidules  of 
Adam  and  Eve.  The  child  grows  to  manhood  and  a 
portion  of  these  plastidules  pass,  with  his  own,  into  the 


68 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


1  T.cly  of  his  child.  A  portion,  still  remaining  free,  will 
pass  into  the  next  generation.  A  time  comes  when  all 
the  Adamic  plastidules  will  he  cut  off".  "Abbreviated 
heredity"  intervenes.  The  man  has  "put  oft"  the  old 
man  Adam." 

This  may  seem  fanciful,  but  it  is  no  more  fanciful 
than  Darwin's  theoiy  of  Panganesis,  and  the  facts  of 
biology  would  seem  to  necessitate  one  theory  or  the 
other,  or  both.  Nature  remembers  long  but  she  for- 
gets at  last.  The  unfolding  human  body  does  not  epit- 
omize completely  the  history  which  lies  behind  it.  At 
last  the  body  ioigets  its  heraldry,  f  weep  not  over  the 
grave  of  Adam.  His  plastidules  have  long  been  cut  off. 
Between  him  and  me  there  is  no  bond  of   kinship. 

Physiological  plastidules  may  be  long  persistent;  the 
spiritual  persist  still  longer.  We  have  worked  the  tiger 
out  of  our  teeth  and  nails,  but  the 

"Tiger,  tiger  burning  bright 
In  tile  forests  of  the  night," 

lingers  in  our  passions.  The  mind  is  still  toothed  and 
clawed,  but  not  so  much  as  of  old.  With  the  fading 
out  of  old  organic  plastidules  fades  out  their  manifesta- 
tions in  the  mind.  In  what  mental  kinship  do  you  stand 
to  your  Adam?  In  the  higher  range  of  faculties  you 
sustain  no  kinship  at  all  to  this  protoplast. 

And  those,  vour  remote  ancestors  in  India,  in  Egypt, 
in  Palestine,  how  much  of  their  mind-plastidules  remain 
in  you?  Fix  your  attention  on  a  segment  of  history. 
I  place  it  here  on  this  page  not  to  excite  merriment  or 
derision,  but  to  point  a  moral.  It  is  the  history  of  an 
ark,  chest,  or  box,  holding,  perhaps,  a  few  pebbles.  It 
was  captured  by  the  Philistines  from  the  Israelites  and 
taken  to  Ashdod.  The  capture  and  burning  of  all  our 
metropolitan  cities  would  not  smite  us  with  such  con- 
sternation as  the  capture  of  this  box  smote  into  the 
minds  of  Israel.  While  Israel  shuddered  with  horror, 
Ashdod  broke  out  into  pustules.  To  speak  with  ancient 
Israel,  the  box  was  doing  a  right  godly  work,  throwing 
down  the  statue  of  Dagon  and  smiting  its  votaries  with 
pestilence.  Terrified  Ashdod,  not  daring  to  burn  it,  took 
it  to  Gath.  In  Gath  it  wrought  the  same  pestilence  as 
in  Ashdod,  and  the  Gadites  took  it  to  Ekron.  The  box, 
at  once,  smote  Ekron  with  pustules  and  mice.  What 
could be  done  with  this  god-box?  Palestine  was  aghast. 
No  man  would  destroy  it  and  no  city  would  receive  it. 
Ekron  took  it  out  and  left  it  on  an  open  field.  There 
it  kept  right  on  creating  ulcers  and  mice.  What  could 
be  done  ?  What  we  will  call,  by  accommodation, 
"  the  human  mind,"  lit  on  an  expedient.  The  box,  or 
god-in-the-box —  I  do  not  think  the  "human  mind"  dif- 
ferentiated them  clearlv — seemed  to  deal  chiefly  in  ulcers 
and  mice.  "Let  us,"  these  ancient  men  said,  "let  us 
buy  it  off  by  giving  it  five  gold  ulcers  and  five  gold 
mice,  modeled  after  those  it  has  sent  upon  us."  The 
gold  mice  and  ulcers  were  put  in  a  little  box  which  was 


placed  on  the  Jahweh-box,  and  the  Philistines  took  the 
two  boxes  on  a  new  cart  to  Bath  Shemesh.  This  city, 
being  Jewish,  welcomed  the  box  with  rejoicing,  tore  up 
the  cart  for  sacrifice,  and  killed  the  cows  which  drew  it. 
Hut  some  of  these  men  (it  is  not  said  that  they  were 
women)  looked  into  the  box,  and  "it  smote  the  men  of 
Hath  Shemesh  fiftv  thousand,  three  score  and  ten."  It  does 
not  appear  whether  it  killed  this  time  with  mice  and  ulcers. 

No  wonder  that  the  survivors  of  Bath  Shemesh  sent 
messengers  to  Kirjath-jearim  asking  that  city  to  take  the 
box.  Kirjath  took  it  and  appointed  a  priest  to  serve  it, 
that  is,  kill  birds  and  bullocks  "and  rams  for  it.  It 
bcha-ved  very  well  for  three  months,  till  King  David 
"stirred  up  all  Israel  from  Shihor  of  Egypt  even  to  the 
entering  of  Hamath"  to  bring  it  to  Jerusalem.  Thev 
went,  a  whole  nation  as  we  are  told,  to  Kirgath-jearim 
for  this  terrible  box.  "  And  thev  carried  the  ark  of 
Jahweh  in  a  new  cart  out  of  the  house  of  Abinadab  and 
Uzza  and  Ahiv  drove  the  cart.  And  David  and  all 
Israel  played  before  Jahweh  with  all  their  might  with 
singing  and  with  harps  and  with  psalteries  and  with 
timbrels  and  with  cymbals  and  with  trumpets."  But 
when  they  came  to  the  threshing-floor  of  Chidon  the 
oxen  stumbled,  the  cart  tipped,  the  box  toppled,  and 
Uzza  put  forth  his  hand  to  support  it.  "And  Jahweh 
sBiote  him,  and  he  died  before  Jahweh."  The  terrible 
box!  "And  David  was  displeased  hecause  Jahweh  had 
make  a  breach  upon  Uzza."  The  diabolical  box!  It 
was  left  there  at  the  house  of  Obed  Edom,  and  Israel 
dispersed.      It  was  too  much  for  a  nation! 

Three  months  passed  and  the  nation  tried  again. 
David  g  itheied  all  Israel  to  Jerusalem  to  bring  the  box 
from  t'-':  house  of  Obed  Edom.  They  went  now  with 
priests  L  roperly  sanctified  for  the  task.  On  approach- 
ing the  dreaded  box  thev  sacrificed  to  it  seven  bullocks 
and  seven  rams.  The  historian  does  not  tell  us  what  it 
had  done  with  its  gold  mice  and  pustules.  This  final 
expedition  was  successful.  The  box  entered  Jerusalem 
in  triumph,  King  David  in  a  short  linen  frock,  a  kind  of 
"  Culty  sack,"  dancing  before  it  "in  the  face  of  Jah- 
weh," much  to  the  shame  of  one  of  his  wives. 

What  have  we  been  reading?  How  does  the  storv 
move  you?  What  kinship  do  vou  feel  with  these  peo- 
ple? Hardly  more  than  you  feel  with  the  grain-gath- 
ering ants  of  Texas,  whose  psychic  life  has  been  de- 
scribed by  Cook.  They  gathered  into  barns,  so  do  vou 
and  so  do  the  ants,  and  here  the  kinship  ends.  Their 
mind-plastidules  have  been  cut  off.  Their  mind  life  is 
no  more  to  you  than  that  of  the  pithecanthropos.  But 
it  has  been  the  bane  of  theology,  pagan  as  well  as 
Christian,  to  gather  up  the  cast-off  robes  of  the  race  and 
make  them  enrobe  religion.  We  mend  an  old  fiddle 
with  a  piece  of  another  old  fiddle.  I  would  build  the 
orchestra  anew,  using  not  a  slued  from  the  timbrel  of 
Deborah  or  harp  of   David. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


69 


I  know  that  the  past  holds  the  root  of  the  present. 
I  know  that  we  stand,  body  and  mind,  in  generic  rela- 
tions with  all  the  life  which  has  gone  before  us.  So 
stands  the  fern  on  relations  with  the  liverwort.  But  the 
liverwort  was  such  a  remote  ancestor  that  every  grow- 
ing fern  to-day,  although  springing  from  a  liverwort 
thallus,  sluffs  that  thallus  from  the  root  and  lives  its  own 
proper  fern-life.  I  would  have  Christianity,  wise  like 
the  fern,  sluff  from  its  root  the  low  thallus  of  Judaism. 
The  young  dodder  is  rooted  in  the  ground,  but  as  it 
grows  and  climbs  and  less  and  less  nutriment  flows  into 
it  from  the  soil,  at  last  it  sluffs  off  its  root  and  lives  only 
from  the  upper  world  of  air.  I  would  have  religion 
and  philosophy,  wise  like  the  dodder,  cut  themselves 
loose  from  devitalized  roots. 

How  many  a  thallus  is  sticking  to  our  roots!  How 
■many  shriveled,  sapless,  pulseless  roots  this  climbing 
•dodder  called  humanity  still    holds  clinging  to  its  trunk! 

I  have  tried  a  cruel  experiment  on  an  infant.  The 
child  was  sucking  milk  from  a  bottle  through  an  India- 
rubber  tube.  I  pinched  the  tube  and  cut  off.  the  How. 
How  lustily  the  babe  continued  to  suck — the  empty  air! 
Babes  are  thev  whose  milk  bottles  are  in  ancient  Pales- 
tine and  who  suck  through  the  long  elastic  tubes  of  tra- 
dition. They  suck  up,  now  a  litter  of  gold  mice  and 
now  a  long-haired  hunter  of  foxes;  now  a  syphilitic 
king  and  now  a  blood-spaltered  seer;  now  a  seraph 
snake  and  now,  and  with  every  gulp,  the  Jewish  Jah- 
weh.  I  would  pinch  the  tubes.  The  heaven-mother 
has  lacteal  glands  whose  flow  is  perennial. 

You  enter  a  great  library  and  your  eye  ranges  over 
the  thousand  thousand  volumes.  Here,  vou  say,  is  the 
history  of  all  peoples,  are  the  thoughts  of  all  thinkers, 
is  the  record  of  man  from  troglodyte  beginnings  till 
now.  To  be  a  full  man,  standing  tip-toe  over  the  ages, 
you  must  read  all  these.  Think  a  moment  and  take 
courage.  You  must  not  read  all  these,  nor  a  thousandth 
part  of  them.  A  thousand  to  one  they  are  sapless  roots. 
Take  down  the  old  literature  of  Palestine.  I  am  always 
glad  to  see  in  a  family  Bible  the  Old  Testament  trans- 
formed into  an  herbarium  for  autumn  leaves  and  a  hid- 
ing place  for  old  family  letters.  The  book  is  not  read, 
an  indication  of  good  spiritual  health.  This  family  is, 
as  a  dodder,  cutting  off  a  sapless  root. 

Here  are  ponderous  tomes,  Rawlinson's  Ancient 
Empires.  You  need  not  tarry  long  on  these.  What  is 
Tadmor  in  the  wilderness  to  you  in  this  garden  of  the 
Lord?  Tadmor,  Babylon,  Nineveh,  they  were  products 
of  an  extinct  order  of  thought.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
your  mind-growth  to  know  their  kings  or  their  conquests. 

And  here  are  many  ponderous  tomes  on  ancient 
Egypt — Bunsen,  Lepsius  and  the  rest.  You  are  tempted 
to  tarry.  Mysterious  as  their  sphinx  were  these  worship- 
pers of  leeks  and  onions  and  beetles  and  crocodiles,  but 
that  very  worship  cuts  them  off  from  you.      Egypt,  with 


her   Nile-brood,   is    a  shed    thallus    from    our   fern-root. 

The  thin  volume  of   Renouf   will  give  you  all  vou  need 
to  know  of   Egypt. 

Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire — 
what  ponderous  and  learned  tomes!  But  why  should 
you  burn  the  oil  of  midnight  to  learn  an  inventory  of 
emperors,  chiefs,  battles,  butcheries,  as  infructuous  as  an 
inventory  of  autumn  leaves  storm-cast  to  the  ground? 

Hallam's  Middle  Ages — lore  interminable,  and  what 
lore!  Fifteen  hundred  years  after  Plato,  the  toe-nail  of 
a  man  who  had  shown  himself  a  saint  bv  standing  ten 
years  on  a  stone  column  in  hunger  and  filth  and  rags, 
the  toe-nail  of  such  a  man  was  of  more  value  in  any 
city  of  Europe  than  a  telescope  or  a  whole  library  of 
Greek  thought!  History  of  the  Middle  Ages — history 
of  crows  and  kites!  Thoughts  of  the  Schoolmen — 
thoughts  of  men  whose  highest  problem  was  "  whether 
God  can  know  more  than  he  knows  that  he  knows?" 

Read  De  Coulanger's  Ancient  City,  Maine's  Ancient 
Law,  Draper's  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe, 
Lecky's  History  of  European  Morals,  and  you  will  get 
almost  all  the  sap  from  these  ancient  roots — all  the  roots 
save  one. 

Greece!  In  this  alcove  of  the  Greek  you  may  linger. 
Here  is  a  proliferous  root  which  the  human  tree,  let  it 
spire  up  never  so  high,  will  never  rescind.  Homer, 
.-Eschylus,  Sophocles  and  Euripides  sang  for  all  time. 
Plato,  Pythagoras,  Aristotle,  Socrates,  thought  for  the 
race  as  long  as  the  race  should  be.  The  Greek,  the 
people,  singing  and  speaking  in  that  matchless  language 
of  their's,  how  little  did  they  dream  that  in  distant  ages, 
over  all  Europe  and  over  a  world  unknown  to  them, 
men,  as  they  pushed  out  the  boundaries  of  knowledge 
and  struck  higher  notes  in  the  gamut  of  thought,  would 
draw  from  their  speech  the  drapery  in  which  to  express 
their  inventions  and  robe  their  thoughts  until  the  English 
of  science  and  philosophy  would  become  an  Anglecised 
Greek! 

In  another  alcove,  side  by  side,  it  may  be,  with  Duns 
Scotus,  with  Zurgetius  de  Statu  Servorum,  with  com- 
mentaries on  the  curse  of  Canaan,  with  philological  dis- 
sertations on  the  Tower  of  Babel,  with  disquisitions  on 
the  deluge,  you  may  find  a  novel  by  a  recent  author;  a 
novel  whose  hero  was  the  pithecanthropoid  who  left  his 
skull  in  the  Neanderthal  cave,  and  whose  times  were  the 
far-off  stone-age  when  man  was  emerging  from  the 
jungle.  Read  it  if  you  can.  Cry  if  vou  can  over  the 
woes  of*  Red,  the  hero.  A  growing  babe  was  the 
author,  trying  to  suck  sentiment  through  long  tubes 
from  the  age  of  clubs  and  claws.  The  tube  is  pinched. 
The  plastidules  of  Neanderthal  are  cut  off.  Red  is  dead, 
thoroughly  dead. 

"Atrugelos,"  unfruitful,  is  the  word  which  Homer 
wrote  against  the  sea.  Atrugelos  write  against  the 
million  parchments  and  tomes   cast   up  from  the  restless 


THE    OPEN    COU  RT. 


sea  of  human  life.  From  "Thalassa,"  the  laughing- 
sea  are  the  volumes  of  Rabelais;  from  "polyphoisboids," 
the  many-voiced,  are  the  pages  of  Shakespeare;  from 
the  hitter-salt  sea  are  the  volumes  of  Swift  and  later 
poems  of  Tennyson;  from  the  storm-wracked,  thunder- 
ous ocean,  are  the  Ocianides  of  .Eschylus  and  night- 
cries  of  Carlyle;  from  the  serene  deeps  are  the  thoughts 
of   Plato,  Goethe,  Emerson,  Spencer. 


THAT   PREVIOUS  QUESTION. 

BY  J.  H.  FOWLER. 

The  world  is  a  mirror  reflecting  self:  yet  it  is  the  die 
that  stamps  experience.  The  sun  is  obscured  by  our 
own  atmosphere;  yet  it  is  the  source  of  all  life.  Man  is 
neither  fish  nor  worm,  but  aerial  and  ideal.  He  voyages 
in  celestial  space  and  finds  terrestrial  kinship  in  the  re- 
motest star,  yet  he  may  explore  the  exclusive  Ego  to  the 
north  pole  of  metaphysics,  but  the  lie  of  his  assumption 
freezes  in  his  teeth  while  his  crystal  logic  dissolves  in 
suffering,  sympathy,  love,  worship,  joy.  Every  form  of 
experience  relates  him  to  facts  objective  and  to  beings 
other  than  self.  Egoism  and  devotion  are  antipodes. 
One  must  go  out  of  self  that  heat  and  light  may  come 
in.      Exit  Ego,  enter  Hero. 

Whatever  the  game,  Faith  is  a  trump  card  and  with 
a  Heart  makes  a  good  hand.  But  Faith  is  content  with 
error  and  should  be  confined  to  recreation.  Trust,  with 
plenty  of  dry  powder  is  the  thing  for  work.  Skepticism, 
the  opposite  of  faith,  tends  to  eliminate  error;  but  dis- 
trust inclines  to  pessimism  while  trust  ever  points  to  the 
best.  Life  commences  in  trust.  Through  all  the  long 
voyage  paleozoic  fish  to  modern  man,  Life  has  safely 
trusted  the  polar  stars  of  sense.  No  magic  of  intellection 
can  charm  them  out  of  their  nature-fixed  orbits  or 
weaken  our  hereditary  trust  in  them.  And  yet  these 
orbs  did  not  adorn  the  sky  of  primitive  life. 

There  is  a  field  of  trust  whereon  the  light  of  sense 
never  beamed,  a  day  of  senseless  life,  yet  not  of  blind 
life.      If  it  was  not  light  it  was  not  wholly  dark. 

Objective  presence  dawned  upon  it  and  was  recog- 
nized. There  was  no  seeing,  no  hearing,  no  tasting,  no 
smelling,  no  feeling,  but  there  was  the  contact  of  dis- 
criminate touch :  organism  selecting  from  environment 
the  congenial  and  rejecting  from   self  the   inappropriate. 

The  most  simple  and  primitive  vital  organism  is  and 
must  ever  have  been,  from  the  very  beginning,  function- 
ally endowed  with  passivity  to,  and  adjustivity  toward, 
environment  impressible  and  self-adjusting.  Endowed 
-with  less  power  and  guidance,  Life  would  have  wrecked 
at  every  outset,  never  could  have  made  the  long  rough 
passage  to  the  land  of  specialization  sense.  With  no 
power  of  detecting  the  objective  fact  and  of  self-adjust- 
ment thereto,  the  vital  organism  were,  of  all  things  con- 
ceivable, the  most  unfit  for  survival,  and  at  any  moment 
life  were  liable  to  be  swallowed  up  by  environment. 


The  phenomena  of  life  are  known  only  through 
organism.  This  two-fold  functional  endowment  so 
essentially  inheres  in  the  vital  organism  that  we  are 
unable  to  conceive  of  life  without  it. 

Life,  Organism,  Function,  Environment,  axe.  terms 
so  essentially  correlated  and  interlinked  by  nature,  that 
no  force  of  logic  can  put  them  asunder.  The  whole- 
process  of  organic  evolution  consists  in  the  progressh  e 
specialization  of  structure  better  and  better  adapted 
to  the  performance  of  this  fundamental  duplex  function. 
Experience  is  the  formative  factor.  It  moulds  structure 
and  by  heredity  secures  permanency,  subject  to  per- 
petual modification.  Individuals  perish,  but  life  endures, 
and  experience  is  perpetuated  and  cumulative,  storing  in 
pepetuallv  modified  structure.  Thus  the  vito-mechan- 
ical  impulse,  and  chemico-vital  reaction,  experienced  by 
the  earliest  progenitors,  becomes  the  habit  of  succeed- 
ing generations  and  in  the  more  remote  offspring  is 
organically  fixed  as  instinct.  '  The  objective  impulse 
and  subjective  response  repeated  give  to  organism  the 
infinitesimal  touch  of  change  which  ultimates  in  the 
intuition  of  objective  reality. 

The  simple  protoplasmic  organism  is  the  constituted 
subject  of  impulse  and  lays  direct  hold  upon  the  object- 
ive fact,  not  as  light,  heat,  sound  or  any  form  of  force 
in  space  or  time,  but  simply  as  objective  presence,  con- 
genial or  uncongenial,  attractive  or  repulsive. 

From  this  simplest  and  most  primitive  psycho-vital 
function  there  arises  within  the  organism  a  perpetual 
struggle  with  a  constantly-increasing  effort  or  tenden  y 
to  enlarge  and  intensify  the  receptive  capacitv  and  to 
increase  the  power  of  the  adaptive  faculty. 

Our  five  senses  are  inventions  of  life  through  experi- 
enced necessity  for  larger  and  more  special  capacities  of 
impression  from,  and  of  readjustment  to,  the  external 
world.  They  are  instruments  of  life  by  which  special 
groups  of  phenomena  are  gathered  up  and  utilized — 
instruments  of  conquest  and  defense  in  Life's  warfare 
with  environment. 

Life  has  come  to  know  and  conquer,  and  through 
every  organism  may  report  as  truly  as  the  great  Caesar: 
Vent,  vidi  vici. 

The  greatest  American  economist  defined  wealth  as 
mans  power  to  control  the  forces  of  nature.  So  the 
grade  of  any  being  in  the  ascending  movement  is  deter- 
mined   by    its  conquests,   what    it   knows,    what    i!    does. 

But  philosophic  truth  needs  no  rhetorical  setting. 

Let  us  renew  our  research.  See  what  we  can  know 
as  to  the  whence  and  what  of  that  primitive  organic 
experience  which,  as  mind-stuff,  Life  forms  into  our 
highest  psychic  being. 

We  find  it  unmistakably  in  every  organism,  plant 
or  animal.  It  must  have  been  simultaneous  wit^  the 
dawn  of  Life  and  could  not  have  been  the  result  of  her- 
iditv.      This     simple    primitive    passivity   or  impressive 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


susceptibility  of  unspecialized  protoplasm  bears  the  same 
relation  to  the  senses  proper  that  this  primitive  form  on 
protoplasmic  structure  hears  to  the  specialized  organisms. 
It  may,  therefore,  most  appropriately  be  termed  Proto- 
sc/tse,  for  it  is  the  first  form  of  sense  unspecialized,  sense 
simply  of  objective  presence. 

At  present  we  know  no  more  of  its  origin  than  we 
do  of  the  simple  structure  which  bears  it.  When  we 
shall  have  determined  the  origin  of  life  we  may  be  pre- 
pared to  know  the  first  cause  of  that  organic  suscepti- 
bility to  objective  impress  and  power  of  self-adjustment 
thereto,  which  antedates  all  experience,  nav  which  is  the 
source  of  experience. 

Certainly  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  first  and  simplest 
vital  organism  performed  these  functions  as  trustingly, 
so  to  speak,  as  we  ourselves  with  our  highly  specialized 
instrumentalities  perform  them.  And  shall  we  now  for 
the  first  time  call  in  question  the  rectitude  of  nature  in 
this  performance ?  Suspect  her  first  impress  upon  or- 
ganism and  pronounce  all  subsequent  experience  illu- 
sion? Shall  we  not  rather  exalt  this  primitive  trust 
into  a  moral  element,  having  learned  by  the  persistency 
of  identity  and  difference,  the  law  of  fact  presentation, 
to  which  we  are   morally  bound? 

Organism  is  a  creature  of  nature  specialized  by  ex- 
perience. How  could  nature  misrepresent  herself  to 
her  own  creature?  How  could  nature  which,  tends 
always  to  the  elimination  of  all  possible  error,  misdirect 
the  specialization  of  organ  and  function  so  as  to  subvert 
the  impress  of  nature  and  alienate  the  creature?  When 
our  mental  faculties  have  been  created  by  nature  and 
evolved  through  experience  in  contact  with  nature,  ex- 
perience which  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the  fittest 
always  survives,  how  can  we  distrust  our  senses,  through 
which  experience  comes,  and  declare  that  what  we  think 
we  know  through  nature  is  not  real  knowledge?  That 
■  >u-  sense  percepts  give  us  no  clue  to  objective  realities? 
That  the  world  as  we  think  we  know  it  is  by  no  means 
the  world  as  it  is?  That  time  and  space  are  purely 
mental  concepts? 

Convince  the  laborer  who  saws  wood  by  the  hour 
to  fit  your  stove !  I  confess  equal  stubbornness — I  cer- 
tainly do  "fail  to  realize  that  distance  and  position,  as 
well  as  all  other  space  relations  are  truly  subjective  phe- 
nomena."* Notwithstanding,  I  am  "quite  certain  that  all 
our  faculties  are  strictly  determined  by  our  organization 
and  wholly  encompassed  within  it,"  "our  knowledge  is 
relative,"*  but  nevertheless  true  knowledge.  When  I 
know  that  a  thing  is  so  and  not  otherwise,  satisfaction  is 
not  conceit.  I  trust  my  own  organism  and  well  know 
that  I  am  a  moral  being,  and,  as  such,  related  to  all 
being.  In  my  human  fellow  I  recognize  and  reverence 
this  transcendant  worth,  striving  with  him  for  the 
higher  fulfillment. 


*  From  an  article  by  Dr.  Kdmund  Montgomery  printed  in  T/i?  hide. 


THE   DECADENCE   OF   CHRISTIAN    MYTHOLOGY. 

KY    W.   s.    KKS  VI-DV. 

'■/:'  pur  si  innove." — GALII.frO. 
Let  the  old  gray-beard  Tuscan's  now  somewhat 
hackneyed  phrase  serve  (for  want  of  a  better)  as  our 
motto.  The  physical  globe  is  in  motion  indeed;  but 
how  many  would  suspect  it  if  left  to  their  own  wisdom? 
Round  and  round  whirls  the  vast  rock-shell,  and  for- 
ward forever  Hies,  age  after  age  ploughing  its  viewless 
furrows  in  the  eternal  void  and  swerving  not  a  foot 
from  its  appointed  co«rse  along  the  old  aeonian  road. 

"  Tumhling  on  steadily,  nothing  dreading, 
Sunshine,  storm,  cold,  heat,  forever  withstanding,  passing,  carrying, 
The  soul's  realization  and  determination  slill  inheriting. 
The  Huid  vacuum  around  and  ahead  still  entering* and  dividing. 
The  divine  ship  sails  the  divine  sea." —  Whitman. 

Here,  then,  we  are  actually  whirling  around  at  the 
speed  of  a  cannon-ball,  and  vet  would  never  know  it. 
A  glacier  is  in  continuous  motion,  yet  seems  to  move 
not  at  all;  the  foundations  of  a  great  building  may, 
little  by  little,  be  sapped  by  the  sea,  and  vet  how  firm 
and  majestic  and  apparently  impregnable  the  noble  pile 
will  seem  only  an  hour  before  the  thunder  of  its  fall! 
A  vast  pile  of  cumulus  cloud,  floating  in  as  seeming- 
quiet  a  midsummer's  sky  as  vou  please,  is  yet  always 
imperceptibly  drifting,  drifting  with  the  air,  and  slowly 
melting  away  in  the  fiery  furnace  of  the  solar  heat.  And 
so  is  it  with  an  outworn  religious  system  ;  so  is  it,  I  believe, 
with  the  atrocious  evangelical  theology  of  our  day.  It  is 
like  a  scroll  cast  into  the  fire,  the  writing  is  legible  long 
after  the  vital  cohesion  of  the  fibers  has  been  destroyed. 
In  recently  going  through  the  third  volume  of  Gibbon. 
I  was  struck  with  his  accounts  of  the  suppression  of 
Paganism  by  the  Christian  Emperors.  The  abortive, 
though  astonishingly  and  splendidly  energetic,  attempt  ot 
the  Emperor  Julian  to  revive  the  glories  of  the  old 
Athenian  religion  and  philosophy  (  a  jolly  good  fellow 
that  Julian)  had  shown  that  Paganism  was  but  a  shell 
of  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  Theodosius — 390-420 
A.  D.  had  only  to  prohibit  public  sacrifices  and  wor- 
ship to  give  the  poetical  but  outworn  system  its  quietus, 
or  nearly  so  to  do.  In  sequestered  rural  communities 
a  few  vintagers  and  husbandmen  still  devoutly  wor- 
shiped in  their  little  mountain  temples,  and  brought 
thither  their  humble  sacrifices  for  the  gods  in  whom 
they  believed. 

Hut  practically  the  closing  of  the  temples  of  city 
and  town  extinguished  the  Pagan  religion  (a  hint 
here  for  those  who  rightly*  advocate  the  taxing  ot 
church  property:  extinguish  the  public  worship  and  you 
extinguish  the  superstition),  and  the  abolishing  of  the 
still  lingering  schools  and  gardens  of  the  philosophers  at 
Athens  by  Justinian  a  century  later  obliterated  the  last 
remnant  of  Paganism.  In  one  of  his  letters  Shelley 
(profoundly,  if  somewhat  exaggeratedly)  remarks  of 
an    act    of  vandalism    by    certain   convent   monks,    that 


72 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


*'  associated  man  holds  it  as  the  vers  sacrament  of  his 
union  to  forswear  all  delicacy,  all  benevolence,  all 
remorse,  all  that  is  true,  or  tender,  or  sublime."  If,  as 
Carlyle  said,  most  people  are  [intellectually]  fools,  it  of 
■course  follows  that  the  associated  action  of  majorities 
must  end  in  a  certain  amount  of  foolishness.  Break  up 
any  great  popular  organization,  I  care  not  what  it  is, 
and  you  are  prettv  sure  to  disintegrate  a  mountainous 
mass  of  folly. 

It  is  notoriously  difficult  to  bring  into  court  legally 
approved  evidence  of  change  of  religious  beliefs,  since 
there  is  nothing  men  are  so  cautious  in  concealing 
Fishermen  say  that  lobsters  in  getting  out  of  their  old 
shells  in  moulting  time  have  a  hard  time  of  it,  and  often, 
leave  a  leg  behind.  So  those  who  have  passed  through 
the  throes  of  religious  change  often  come  forth  from  the 
trial  maimed  and  sore,  and  by  the  measure  of  their 
sufferings  know  the  distance  that  separates  them  from 
their  former  co-believers,  and  the  danger  there  is  in 
revealing  it.  Yet  we  are  not  without  many  extremely 
significant  indications  of  the  decadence  of  Javeh  wor- 
ship amongst  us.  Not  to  speak  of  the  confessions  of 
orthodox  clergymen  often  made  in  private  to  Unita- 
rians and  secularists;  nor  of  the  universal  abhorrence  of 
the  damnation  doctrines  expressed  in  private  conversa- 
tion by  orthodox  laymen;  nor  of  the  common  lament 
that  no  young  men  of  worth  can  be  obtained  for  the 
Protestant  priesthood  (hundreds  of  Presbyterian  churches 
without  a  head  simply  because  there  are  no  men  to  put 
into  the  pulpits,  and  hundreds  of  New  England  country 
churches  closed  entirely-  see  the  Century  some  time 
back — for  lack  of  interest);  not  to  speak  at  large  of 
these,  nor  of  the  general  running  of  steam  and  horse 
cars  and  milk  wagons  on  Sunday,  and  the  opening  of 
cigar  stands,  fruit  stands,  news  stands,  art  museums  and 
theatres  on  that  day,  let  us  confine  our  attention  to  a  few 
concrete  and  special  instances. 

What,  for  instance,  do  you  say  to  that  piece  of 
riotous  burlesque  in  the  student's  procession  at  Harvard 
during  the  recent  celebration  of  the  two  hundred  and 
fiftieth  anniversary.  A  cut  of  the  scene  lies  before  me. 
Two  men  in  ludicrous  masks  are  carrying  an  illumi- 
nated model  of  the  college  chapel,  palanquin-like,  on 
their  shoulders,  and  the  model  is  covered  with  gaily 
mocking  and  jubilant  inscriptions  celebrating  the  joy  of 
the  boys  at  escape  from  the  prayer  humbug.  What 
would  Cotton  Mather  have  said  to  that?  Or  what 
would  Jonathan  Edwards  have  said  to  the  recent  pro- 
test of  the  Yale  students  against  being  fed  compulsorily 
on  worm-eaten  sermons  and  saw-dust  doctrinal  pud- 
dings? What,  again,  is  the  meaning  of  these  innumera- 
ble trials  for  heresy  ?  the  trial  of  Prof.  Swing  in  Chicago, 
the  puhlic  admonition  by  his  bishop  of  R.  Heber  New- 
ton in  Brooklyn,  the  recent  arraignment  of  the  Andover 
professors,   the  ejection   of   B.  W.  Williams   and    T.  W. 


Bicknell  from  their  positions  as  teachers  in  a  Dorchester, 
Mass.,  Sunday-school  on  account  of  the  alleged  hereti- 
cal tendencies  of  their  views,  and  hundreds  of  similar 
though  less  widely  known  cases.  Don't  von  detect  a 
good  deal  of  trembling  and  shaking  in  the  towers  of 
Zion?  And  that  ludicrous  flight  homeward  of  Dr. 
McCosh  of  Princeton,  blinded  by  the  too  dazzling  light 
of  Harvard's  secularism  and  agnostic  science-  quite  sig- 
nificant that,  eh?  And  the  acceptance  and  preaching  of 
evolution  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  what  does  that 
mean?  He  seems  as  much  idolized  as  ever  by  his  peo- 
ple; in  fact,  never  was  more  popular.  And  everybody 
seems  to  sympathize  with  that  Southern  divine  (With- 
row  is  it,  or  Woodrow?)  who  has  been  deposed  bv* 
college  trustees  for  adhering  to  his  belief  in   evolution. 

That  fine  old  radical,  Ruskin,  remarks  the  complete 
absence  from  the  dramatis  persona  on  the  stage  and  in 
imaginative  literature  of  the  clergv  of  our  day,  and 
lightly  thinks  it  a  mark  of  their  "extreme  degradation 
and  exhaustion,"  as  being  persons  who  have  no  real 
share  in  the  manly  march  and  battle  of  humanity  (see 
his  Roadside  Songs  of  Tuscany,  p.  106).  "In  general," 
he  says,  "any  man's  becoming  a  clergyman  in  these 
days  implies  that,  at  best,  his  sentiment  has  overpowered 
his  intellect."  "  In  defense  of  this  profession  [of  preach- 
ing], with  its  pride,  privilege  and  more  or  less  roseate 
repose  of  domestic  felicity,  extrcmelv  beautiful  and  envi- 
able in  country  parishes,  the  clergv,  as  a  body,  have, 
with  what  energy  and  power  was  in  them,  repelled  the 
advance  both  of  science  and  scholarship,  so  far  as  either 
interfered  with  what  they  had  been  accustomed  to  teach, 
and  connived  at  every  abuse  in  pul  lie  and  private  con- 
duct with  which  they  felt  it  would  be  considered  uncivil 
and  feared  it  might  ultimately  prove  unsafe  to  interfere." 
(Fors  Clavigera,  II.) 

So  much  for  the  destructive  portion  of  our  subject. 
At  some  future  time  we  mav  be  permitted  to  look  at  its 
constructive  side,  and  consider  the  successor  of  the 
nations'  anthropomorphic  gods,  i.  e.,  the  Universe,  and 
ask  if  indeed  we  can  as  vet  discover  in  Its  manifesta- 
tions any  ethical  trend  or  purpose. 


Professor  Huxley  says: 

11  Tolerably  earlv  in  life  I  discovered  that  one  of  the  unpar- 
donable sins,  in  the  eyes  of  most  people,  is  for  a  man  to  presume 
to  go  about  unlabeled.  The  world  regards  such  a  person  as  the 
police  do  an  unmuzzled  dog,  not  under  proper  control.  I  could 
rind  no  label  that  would  suit  me,  so,  in  my  desire  to  range 
myself  and  be  respectable,  I  invented  one,  and  as  the  chief  thing  I 
was  sure  of  was  that  I  did  not  know  a  great  many  things  that 
the  — ists  and  the  — ites  about  rue  professed  to  be  familiar  with,  I 
called  myself  an  Agnostic.  Surely  no  denomination  could  be 
more  modest  or  more  appropriate,  and  I  cannot  imagine  whv  I 
should  De  every  now  and  then  haled  out  of  my  refuge  and 
declared  sometimes  to  be  a  Materialist,  sometimes  an  Atheist, 
sometimes  a  Positivist,  and  sometimes,  alas  and  alack,  a  cowardly 
or  reactionary   Obscurantist." 


THE    OREN    COURT. 


73 


The  Open  Court, 

A.  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published   every  other    Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  I  Nixon 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  K  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


sara  a.  undkkwood, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  Tin-  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and   him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined. 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  hut  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open'  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
for  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  bv  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  onlv  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  1!.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  MARCH    17,   1S87. 

RELIGION   IN   THE   PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 

The  'New  Princeton  Review  for  January  contains 
an  article  from  the  pen  of  the  late  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge 
on  "  Religion  in  the  Public  Schools,"  in  which  the 
writer  asks:  "Shall  the  Christian  majority  consent 
that  their  wealth  shall  be  taxed,  and  the  whole  energy 
of  our  immense  system  of  public  schools  be  turned 
to  the  work  of  disseminating  agnosticism  through  the 
land  and  down  the  ages?"  The  alternative 

is  simple,  "  Christians  have  all  the  power  in  their 
own  hands.  The  danger  arises  simply  from  the  weak 
and  sickly  sentimentalism  respecting  the  transcend- 
ental spirituality  of  religion,  the  non-religious  char- 
acter of  the  State,  and  the  supposed  equitable  rights 
of  a  small  infidel  minority.  All  we  have  to  do  is  for 
Catholics  and  Protestants  disciples  of  a  common 
master-  to  come  to  a  common  understanding  with 
respect  to  a  common  basis  of  what  is  received  as 
-general    Christianity,  a    practical  quantity  of   truth 


belonging  equally  to  both  sides,  to  be  recognized  in 
general  legislation,  and  especially  in  the  literature 
and  teaching  of  our  public  schools."  Dr.  Patrick  F. 
McSweeny,  in  the  Catholic  World,  says  that  this  article 
"  is  remarkable  as  perhaps  the  nearest  approach  that 
has  yet  been  made  by  a  non-Catholic  to  the  Catholic 
position  on  the  school  question."  Hut  Dr.  McSweeny 
further  suggests  that  the  denomination  start  and 
manage  the  school,  "the  State  paying  for  results  in 
the  secular  branches."  If  the  State  must  regulate  the 
secular  studies,  he- suggests  another  compromise, 
which,  "although  not  as  suitable,  might  be  accepted 
by  us."  He  would  have  the  State  "  appoint  Catholic 
teachers  for  Catholic  children  and  Protestant  teachers 
for  Protestant  children,  prescribing  the  present 
neutral  system  of  education  for  certain  hours  of  the 
school  day,  and  giving  also  a  fixed  hour  or  hours  for 
daily  religious  instruction." 

The  rights  of  those  who  do  not  wish  to  have  their 
children  indoctrinated  in  the  Christian  theology,  and 
the  rights  of  all  who  desire  to  reserve  the  religious 
instruction  of  their  children  for  the  home  or  the 
church,  are  equally  disregarded  by  the  Protestant 
and  the  Catholic  divine.  Both  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity and  Catholic  Christianity,  unmodified  anil 
unrestrained  by  the  skeptical  and  rational  thought, 
which  they  both  condemn,  and  having  the  power, 
would  be  just  as  ready  to  disregard  the  rights  of 
each  other  as  they  now  are  the  rights  of  free- 
thinkers. Fortunately  liberalism  is  so  widely 
diffused,  and  the  largest  sects  are  still  so  tenacious 
of  their  distinctive  doctrinal  teachings,  and  so  much 
under  the  influence  of  a  rival  sectarian  spirit,  that 
the  work  of  converting  our  public  schools  into  purely 
ecclesiastical  institutions  is  extremely  difficult.  We 
do  not  believe  it  will  succeed.  The  growth  oi 
liberal  thought,  which  will  make  the  jarring  sects 
subordinate  their  differences  to  a  common  purpose, 
will  equally  broaden  the  scope  of  their  common 
work,  and  make  their  sectarian  schemes  we  believe 
impossible  of  realization. 


THE   REVIVALISTS   WE     HAVE,    AND    THE    REVIV- 
ALISTS WE  NEED. 

When,  as  within  the  past  few  weeks,  there  has 
been  a  so-called  "great  revival"  going  on,  and  much 
stress  is  laid  by  the  preachers  who  give  the  meetings 
their  countenance  (  hoping  by  this  means  to  fill  their 
own  empty  pews),  by  the  daily  press,  by  the  church 
members  who  attend,  as  well  as  by  the  revivalists 
themselves,  to  the  great  good  accomplished  by  their 
methods  in  reclaiming  weak,  bad  and  brutal  men 
from  their  evil  ways,  many  persons  of  education 
and  liberal  tendencies  are  disposed  to' ask  themselves 


"4 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


v\  hether,  it  these  representations  be  true,  the  revival- 
ists should  not  be  encouraged  in  this  good  work  how- 
i  ver  distasteful  to  cultured  minds  such  methods  are. 

That  many  of  these  "conversions"  do  result  in 
individual  reform  is,  no  doubt,  true;  but  equally  true 
is  it  that  the  ultimate  outcome  of  these  revival  meet- 
ings on  the  public  mind  and  on  general  education  is 
a  deflection  in  the  direction  of  ignorance. 

Revivalists  are  wide-awake,  intensely  emotional, 
strongly  earnest  men,  limited  in  their  range  of 
thought,  narrow  in  their  conceptions  of  man's  destiny, 
anthropomorphic  in  their  ideas  of  God.  They  are 
sincere  in  their  beliefs— their  sincerity  makes  them 
enthusiastic,  their  enthusiasm  strikes  a  responsive 
chord  of  sympathy  among  those  they  appeal  to  by 
the  common  bonds  of  humanity,  that  "touch  of 
nature"  which  "makes  the  whole  world  kin"  is  deftly 
given  and  the  fire  of  a  revival  is  started.  With  all 
honest}'  of  purpose  the  revivalists  bewilder  thought 
by  their  constant  appeals  to  the  baser  emotions  and 
t<>  personal  experiences.  "I"  and  "you"  figure 
largely  in  those  appeals  which  are  not  addressed  to 
the  intellect  but  to  the  feelings;  the  chords  of  sorrow, 
suffering,  fear,  hope,  pride,  reverence,  are  swiftly  one 
after  another  touched  more  or  less  strongly,  and 
acquiescence  in  the  speaker's  views  is  gained  and  a 
momentary  victory  is  won. 

But  it  is  always  from  a  low  stand-point  that  these 
revivalists  speak.  They  deal  with  worn-out  ideas 
revamped,  ignorance  is  patted  on  the  head,  encour- 
aged, and  in  a  manner  canonized.  Science  is  mis- 
represented, sneered  at,  and  ridiculed.  Take  up  the 
daily  papers  which  report  these  revival  meetings  and 
scarcely  one  of  the  sermons,  when  fully  reported, 
fails  to  contain  some  sneering  reference  to  distin- 
guished scientists  or  thinkers  whose  work  has  seemed 
at  variance  with  so-called  "revealed  religion."  Take 
up  the  published  "sermons"  of  Sam  Jones  and 
others,  and  vulgar  wit  which  would  disgrace  the 
"end  men"  of  a  ministrel  show  or  a  reputable  circus 
clown,  greets  you  on  every  page  as  the  words  of 
men  who  profess  to  deal  with  the  most  serious  and 
momentous  questions  humanity  can  ask.  Compare 
the  style  of  the  published  sermons  of  Sam  Jones, 
Sam  Small,  D.  L.  Moody,  or  even  those  of  Joseph 
Cook  and  ask  how  many  pages  of  Darwin,  Huxley, 
Haeckel,  Agassiz,  Lyell,  Carpenter  or  Gray,  you 
would  peruse  if  written  in  the  same  vein? 

Such  revivalists  beget  in  the  popular  mind,  doubt 
of  science,  fear  of  progress,  reverence  for  ignorance. 
They  sneer  in  their  flippant  way  at  all  the  real 
workers  for  man's  development.  They  relate  little 
"smart"  anecdotes  in  which  "tadpoles"  and  "monk- 
eys" and  parodies  of  the  "evolution  theory"  are 
prominent,    or    in    which    so-called     "arguments    of 


Sceptics"  are  overwhelmingly  confuted  (many  of 
these  anecdotes  being  on  the  face  of  them  glaringly 
untrue),  and  then  when  a  laugh  is  raised  that  suffices 
to  stamp  the  falsehood  as  true  in  minds  unaccus- 
tomed to  careful  thinking. 

These  are  the  revivalists  we  have.  But  we  do 
need  revivals  of  a  certain  sort  in  our  midst,  and  con- 
sequently, revivalists. 

We  need  revivals  of  commercial  honest)',  of 
public  sense  of  honor,  of  private  and  civic  virtue,  of 
pure  living,  of  truthfulness,  of  high  ideals,  ol  pur- 
poseful lives,  of  self  denial,  of  all  the  more  solid 
and  stalwart  national  virtues,  rather  than  spasmodic 
individual  attempts  at  temporary  halts  in  patent 
vice.  We  need  for  revivalists  men  and  women 
imbued  and  impressed  in  every  thought  ot  their 
brains  and  every  pulsation  of  their  hearts  with  the 
crying  need  for  such  a  revival.  Men  and  women 
who  would  like  Mood\'  and  Murphy  work  on  year 
after  year  unmoved  by  hindrances  or  repulse,  in  the 
straight  line  of  their  duty  as  awakeners.  We  want 
as  a  revivalist  not  one  who  self-conceitedly  hugs  in 
his  inner  consciousness  his  possession  of  superior 
knowledge  as  only  attainable  by  himself,  but  instead, 
one  who,  knowing  its  inestimable  value  to  the  world 
shall  not  be  able  to  rest  until  he  proclaims  that 
worth  and  causes  it  to  be  proclaimed  from  every 
house-top  and  street,  every  hill-side  and  valley 
where  a  brother  man  resides.  We  want  him  to  make, 
in  place  of  flattering  appeals  to  ignorance,  trumpet- 
toned  proclamation  of  the  need  of  enlightenment 
and  eloquent  portrayal  of  the  lovliness  of  knowledge. 
We  want  him  to  draw  vivid  word-pictures  of  the 
work,  scientific  effort  has  already  achieved  in 
relieving  some  of  the  worst  ills  to  which  nature  left 
man  a  prey,  and  in  making  liberty  possible  and  life 
more  endurable.  Such  a  revivalist  as  is  best  described 
by  Mrs.  Browning: 

'"What  ye  want  is   light — indeed  — 
Not  sunlight     *    *    " 

-    but  God's  light,  organized 
In  some  high  soul,  crowned  capable  to  lead 
The  conscious  people  —  conscious  and  advised  — 
Koi*  il  we  lift  a  people  like  mere  clay, 
It  falls  the  same.     We  want  thee.  O  unfound 
And  sovran  teacher! — if  thy  beard  be  grey 
Or  black,  we  bid  thee  rise  up  from  the  ground 
And  speak  the  word  Ood  giveth  thee  to  say, 
Inspiring  into  all  this  people  round 
Instead  of  passion,  thought,  which  pioneers 
All  generous  passion,  purines  from  sin, 
And  strikes  the  hour  for.     Rise  up,  teacher,  here's 
A  crowd  to  make  a  nation  —  best  begin 
By  making  each  a  man,  till  all  be  peers 
OJ"  earths  true  patriots,  and  pure  Martyrs  in 
Knowing  and  daring.''  S.  A.  U. 


As  we  rise  in  grandeur  of  life  our  hope  will  grow 
higher  and  far-reaching;  we  shall  beiieve  more  truly  in 
the  power  of  the  good  as  we  see  it  gaining  in  the  actual 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


75 


world.  Nothing  shall  stand  before  it  but  it  shall  finally 
be  overcome.  They  who  have  this  thought  at  heart, 
that  the  good  has  the  right  to  reign  in  the  world,  and 
that  the  had  has  no  right  to  exist,  feel  the  call  upon 
them  to  work  for  that  end;  they  do  not  ask  when  it  shall 
be;  they  wish  that  it  might  be  now.  But  it  is  not;  and 
so  they  sec  nought  before  them  but  the  ought  demand- 
ing their  effort  to  bring  it  about.  The  thought  of  a 
higher  order  of  things  fills  them;  they  cannot  rest  satis- 
fied  with   the   present;   it    is   inadequate   to    meet    their 

need-. 

*  *  * 

Nothing  shall  stand  but  truth.  Ail  creeds,  all  bibles 
shall  be  judged  according  to  their  true  worth;  not  mir- 
acles shall  make  them  truer,  not  records  of  wonders 
•done  or  necromancy,  but  the  measure  of  their  agree- 
ment with  the  soul's  high  thirst  that  shall  set  their 
value.  That  creed  then,  the  ethics,  which  shall  fulfill 
most  completely  our  highest  thoughts,  which  shall 
demand  of  humanity  all  virtue,  righteousness  every- 
where and  always,  shall  be  our  bible,  our  truth. 

*  *  * 

The  positive  basis  upon  which  religion  now  rests 
opens  the  way  For  a  higher  creed  and  a  nobler  hope 
than  the  world  has  hitherto  known.  Already  the  relig- 
ious conception  of  Herbert  Spencer  is  winning  adher- 
ents in  all  parts  of  the  civilized  woil  ',  and  the  spirit  of 
free-thought  has  so  penetrated  the  churches  in  general 
that  but  a  single  step  is  necessary  to  place  a  large  num- 
ber within  the  pale  of  the  religion  of  Evolution.  While 
this  silent  change  is  thus  going  on  in  the  stronghold  of 
Christianity,  those  who  openly  declare  their  allegiance 
to  the  new  faith  are  finding  in  it  a  strength  and  power 
of  regeneration  which  a  positive  religion  can  alone  pos- 
ess,  and  which  in  fundamentally  affecting  their  own  lives 
cannot  fail  of  demonstrating  its  true  value  to  the  world. 

*  *  * 

The  philosophy  of  Evolution  defines  evil  as  a  mal- 
adjustment in  relation  to  the  conditions  of  physical,  moral 
.and  intellectual  environment — that  is,  to  the  laws  of  uni- 
versal order.  It  is  therefore  seen  that  evil  is  a  necessary 
condition  of  progress  and  that  it  is  but  another  name  for 

imperfection. 

-;:-  *  x 

In  the  future  the  great  mass  of  men  will  obey  the 
rides  of  conduct  laid  down  bv  their  religious  teachers, 
but  those  rules,  unlike  many  jof  the  rules  of  the  past,  will 
find  their  basis  in  a  scientific  conception  of  what  is  best 
for  man.  To  see  the  benefit  that  will  accrue  from  such 
a  moral  teaching  we  have  hut  to  compare  its  effects  with 
those  of  the  teaching  that  claims  to  come  from  a  super- 
natural source.  Having  no  sanction  in  the  human  mind, 
it  asserts  its  right  to  command  without  that  sanction. 
This  once  granted,  it  is  productive  of  the  most  injurious 
results;  the  teaching  may  or  may  not  be  true;  if  it  is  not 


it  will  be  obeyed  till  the  results  are  indisputably  proven 
detrimental,  and  perhaps  even  l"iig  after  that.  If  the 
teaching  is  essentially  true,  yet  is  so  obscure  that  it  can 
not  be  firmly  grasped  by  the  mind  the  different  inter- 
pretations put  upon  it,  the  different  opinions  as  to  what  it 
really  means  will  develop  an  .antagonism  in  practice 
that  can  not  be  other  than  disastrous  to  the  best  interests 
of  man.  With  rules  of  right  conduct  sanctioned  hv 
science  the  future  progress  of  the  world  is  certain  and 
undeniable. 

It  is  a  true  view  of  life  that  the  world  will  at  some- 
time fulfill  our  hope;  sometime,  we  know  not  when. 
But  we  do  know  our  dut\  and  feel  called  upon  to  bring 
about  that  cm\;  our  want,  our  aspiration  to  it  is  the 
proof.  Standing  upon  this  ground  there  is  no  room  for 
doubt.  In  our  high  moments,  when  we  see  things 
clearly,  doubl  is  never  suggested,  but  the  thought  of 
a  world  uplifted  and  made  beautiful  in  truth,  seems  but 
a  picture  of  a  truly  natural  condition. 

*  *  * 

\\  hatever  feeling  of  sympathy  may  lead  us  to  a 
broad  interpretation  ol  the  constitution  of  a  church  we 
mu-t  still  feel  that  neither  conscience  nor  thought  can 
find  free  development  so  long  as  it  is  constantly 
coming  into  collision  with  an  imposed  creed.  '1  he 
position  is  becoming  more  and  more  unreal  within  the 
church,  for  those  who,  having  renounced  the  super- 
natural, wish  to  teach  what  thev  actually  accept,  and  no 
longer  to  teach  that  in  which  thev  have  no  faith.  Thev 
are  incessantly  led  into  making  compromises  which  not 
only  produce  falsifications  of  the  expressions  of  thou,  lit, 
but  also  tend  to  weaken  their  grasp  upon  the  unalloyed 

truth. 

*  *  * 

The  great  fundamental  truths  that  underlie  all  relig- 
ious conceptions  are  indistructable  destined  to  live  as 
long  as  man  lives.  But  those  who  take  Jesus  for  their 
master  are  hut  giving  their  allegiance  to  the  dead,  who 
has  no  word  for  the  world  of  to-day.  Jesus  was  a  man 
of  and  for  the  time  in  which  he  lived;  and  the  new 
world,  so  different  from  the  one  in  which  he  taught, 
whose  hopes  and  purposes  are  so  far  from  the  hopes  and 
purposes  held  by  him,  cannot  be  satisfied  with  an\  in- 
terpretation that  can  be  put  upon  his  teaching.  In  thank- 
fulness for  the  truth  which  he  gave,  it  turns  its  face 
toward  that  larger  truth  of  infinite  developement. 

*  *  * 

The  recent  Andover  controversy  finds  an  echo  among 
the  Congregationalist  missionaries  in  India  who  are  as 
far  from  agreeing  on  the  question  as  to  the  fate  of  the 
unconverted  heathen  as  a  large  and  increasing  number 
of  the  clergy  at  home  are.  In  a  late  communication  ti- 
the Andover  Review  the  author,  who  is  himself  a  mis- 
sionary, throws  some  light   upon  the  different   shades  of 


76 


THB    OPEN    COURT. 


opinion  that  prevail  among  his  brothers  in  the  work. 
While  many  are  still  thoroughly  orthodox,  others  may 
be  found  whose  convictions  are  as  far  removed  from 
orthodoxy  as  the  East  is  from  the  West,  and  who  do 
not  hesitate  to  put  their  convictions  into  their  teachings. 
Still  others  there  are  who,  while  almost  willing  to  admit 
the  falsity  of  the  old  dogmas,  refrain  from  thinking  on 
the  subject  for  fear  of  convincing  themselves  of  the  rea- 
sonableness of  their  doubts.  Lamentable  as  this  last  is, 
it  is  but  another  illustration  of  the  tenacity  with  which 
men  cling  to  old  ideas  when  the  current  of  criticism 
threatens  to  bear  them  away. 

*  *  * 

The  conception  of  a  universal  moving  toward 
moral  order  or  perfection  leads  man  to  desire  to 
realize  the  possibilities  of  his  nature,  and  in  obeying 
the  moral  law  he  is  able  to  do  this  more  and  more. 
The  emotion  that  rises  in  the  mind  at  the  thought  of 
an  ideal  state  of  humanity  is  one  of  the  great  guiding 
springs  of  action.  As  man  advances  morally,  duty 
and  desire  become  one  and  the  same. 

*  *         * 

Prof.  E.  1..  Youmans  left  behind  him  a  number  of 
rare  manuscripts  and  important  letters,  including  his 
correspondence  with  Darwin,  Spencer,  Mill,  Huxley, 
Tyndall,  Bain.  Lubbock,  Agassi/,  and  other  distin- 
guished men  with  whom  he  enjoyed  an  intimate 
friendship.  A  memorial  volume  containing  these 
posthumous  papers  and  letters,  to  be  edited  by  Dr. 
W.  J.  and  Miss  Eliza  A.  Youmans,  brother  and  sister 
of  the  deceased,  will  make  a  fitting  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  the  late  editor  of  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly  and  constitute  an  important  and  valuable 
addition  to  scientific  literature. 


Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  writes  from  England: 
I  am  well,  bin  greatly  depressed  with  the  sad  news  of  my 
husbands  death.  When  1  left  home  he  was  so  well  and  so  deeply 
interested  getting  out  the  third  edition  of  his  '•Reminiscences" 
that  I  felt  sure  he  had  many  years  yet  of  life  before  him.  But 
pneumonia  is  always  fatal  in  old  age,  and  he  was  near  eight}   two. 


One  of  the  editors  of  Unity  says,  "To  some  of 
us  it  seems  clear  that  ethical  culture  cannot  be  much 
promoted  by  admonition  and  instruction  alone.  It 
is  with  the  heart  man  believes  unto  rightsousness, 
and  the  heart  is  cultivated  through  the  religious 
emotions,  through  church  and  family  life,  and  all  its 
associations.  To  leave  religion  and  religious  associ- 
ation out  of  the  account  is  to  cut  off  one  of  the  most 
important  factors  of  all  higher  ethical  culture." 
Much  depends  upon  the  meaning  attached  to  words 
ethics  and  religion.      Those  who  make  ethical  culture 


the  essential  thing  would  include  in  it  all  which  "with 
the  heart  man  believes  unto  righteousness,"  all  the 
good  taught  "  through  church  and  family  life  and  all 
its  associations"  and  of  course  the  fullest  considera- 
tion of  all  the  factors  of  "ethical  higher  culture." 
There  is  much  they  say  taught  in  the  name  of  religion 
that  is  no  part  of  ethics;  but  that  all  there  is  of  truth 
and  permanent  value  taught  by  the  various  religious 
systems  comes  properly  within  the  scope  and  province 
of  ethics.  When  liberal  thinkers  shall  learn  to  use 
the  same  words  with  the  same  meanings,  many  of 
their   differences  will   be  seen  to  have  been   merely 

verbal. 

*  *         # 

A  friend  writing  from  Boston  relates  the  follow- 
ing anecdote,  told  her  by  a  head  master  of  one  of  the 
schools  in  that  city,  as  illustrative  of  the  hold  that  a 
well-known  daily  paper  has  upon  the  popular  mind: 
"The  recitation  was  in  ancient  history.  The  pupil 
was  expatiating  upon  the  topic  of  the  Olympic  games. 
'A  great  many  people  went  to  see  them,'  she  said, 
'because  it  was  put  in  the  paper  when  they  were 
coming  off.'  'The  paper!'  exclaimed  the  teacher. 
'Did  they  have  newspapers  in  those  days?'  'Why, 
yes,'  was  the  reply-,  'it  says  so  in  the  book,  anyway; 
it  says  the  'Herald'  proclaimed  them.'  " 

*  *         * 
Notwithstanding  the  prohibition  of  cremation  in 

Italy  by  the  Holy  See  this  method  of  disposing  of 
the  dead  is  quite  popular  in  that  country,  where  not 
fewer  than  sixty  cremation  societies  exist. 

*  *         * 

The  press  of  the  country  has  teemed  with  gener- 
ous tributes  to  Mr.  Beecher,  fully  recognizing  his 
genius,  his  eloquence,  his  patriotism  and  his  far- 
reaching  influence  as  a  preacher  and  reformer.  He 
was  without  doubt  the  greatest  pulpit  orator  of  his 
age.  The  Christian  Register-  justly  remarks:  "  Mr. 
Beecher's  eloquence  was  not  of  the  grandiloquent 
or  orotund  type.  It  was  conversational,  dramatic; 
it  gleamed  with  wit  and  humor  or  dropped  into 
pathos;  it  soared  on  the  lofty  wings  of  the  imagina- 
ation,  and  swooped  down  again  into  anecdote  and 
illustration.  His  discourses  were  lull  ol  windows 
that  let  in  the  light,  and  some  of  them  set  in  stained 
glass  which  glowed  with  beautiful  imagery." 

He  who  frets  is  never  the  one  who  mends.  And 
when  the  fretter  is  one  who  is  beloved,  whose  nearness 
of  relation  to  us  makes  his  fretting  at  the  weather  seem 
almost  like  a  personal  reproach  to  us,  then  the  misery  of 
it  becomes  indeed  insupportable.  Most  men  call  fretting 
a  minor  fault — a  foible,  and  not  a  vice. — He/en  Hunt 
"fackson. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


77 


DARWINISM  IN  ETHICS. 

A     LECTURE    GIVEN     BEFORE    THE    CHICAGO    SOCIETY     FOR 
ETHICAL    CULTURE,  JANUARY    16,    1SS7. 

BY  \v.  Ml  SALTER. 

It  would  seem  the  high  and  noble  thing  to  do  what 
is  good  and  right  of  our  own  accord.  We  do  not  reach 
the  heights  of  morality  till  goodness  is  the  free  choice 
of  the  soul.  I  believe  that  man  with  his  wonderful 
gift  of  reason  can  discern  a  highest  good,  and  then, 
unconstrained  by  all  that  is  without  him,  can  choose  it. 
This,  to  my  mind,  constitutes  the  incomparable  dignity 
of  man  -  that  he  is  not  as  a  cloud  driven  before  the 
winds,  but,  as  Geo.  Eliot  says,  "can  elect  his  deeds  and 
be  the  liege  not  of  his  birth,  but  of  that  good  alone  he 
has  discerned  and  chosen." 

Nevertheless,  we  have  a  curious  and  profound  inter- 
est in  the  question,  what  is  the  tendency  of  things  apart 
from  our  own  will?  We  all  know  that  we  are  not 
masters  of  our  own  life.  There  are  conditions  outside 
of  us  to  which  we  have  to  conform.  To  take  one  of 
the  simplest  illustrations,  we  know  that  if  on  one  of 
these  very  cold  winter  days  we  were  not  sufficiently 
protected  against  the  weather,  we  should  perish.  We 
must  adjust  ourselves  to  our  environment-  to  use  a 
phrase  that  has  come  into  vogue;  we  are  compelled  to, 
if  we  wish  to  live.  The  tendency  of  thir.gs  is  thus  to 
develop  prudence;  nature  may  be  said  to  be  on  the  side 
of  those  who  are  prudent,  since  those  who  are  not  she 
does  not  permit  to  live. 

The  question  is,  does  nature  sustain  any  such  rela- 
tion to  morality  ?  Does  the  force  of  things  outside  of 
us  incline  the  race  to  be  moral ?  Or  is  it,  perchance, 
favorable  to  immorality,  or  is  it  indifferent,  so  that  good 
and  bad  men  thrive  equally  well?  In  other  words,  is 
morality  a  private  matter  about  which  a  person  need 
have  no  more  serious  concern  than  about  any  other 
question  of  individual  inclination  ami  taste,  or  is  it 
something  having,  whether  we  will  or  not,  issues  of  life 
and  death?  We  naturally  incline  to  take  the  former 
view.  When  we  transgress  any  of  the  laws  of  morality, 
we  like  to  say  to  ourselves  that  it  is  our  own  affair,  and 
nothing  outside  of  us  takes  cogniz  mce  of  it  nor  will  any 
grave  result  follow. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  the  views  of  Darwin  have  a 
wonderful  interest.  Darwin  does  not  wiite  as  an  ethical 
philosopher,  but  as  a  naturalist.  In  his  famous  chapters 
in  the  Descent  of  Man  (3d,  4th  and  5th  of  Part  First), 
his  object  is  not  to  give  us  a  theory  of  ethics,  but  to 
show  the  part  which  morality  has  played  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  race.  Any  one  who  thinks  that  morality 
is  a  private  matter  and  that  physical  strength  and  mental 
capacity  are  the  only  things  that  nature  takes  account 
of,  should  read  those  chapters.      Everywhere,  according 


to  Darwin,  among  men  as  truly  as  among  the  lower 
orders  of  being,  there  is  a  struggle  to  live;  and  those 
who  are  best  fitted  to  the  conditions  of  life  succeed  and 
leave  offspring  behind  them,  and  those  who  are  less 
fitted  tend  to  extinction.  Any  casual  variation,  by  which 
an  individual  has  an  advantage  over  others,  is  seized 
upon,  intensified  by  transmission,  and  perhaps  in  time 
gives  rise  to  a  well-marked  species. 

Physically  a  man  is  no  match  for  a  bear  or  a  buffalo; 
in  an  actual  tussle  he  would  surely  be  worsted.  None 
the  less  is  he  their  superior  by  virtue  of  his  intelligence; 
he  invents  a  spear,  a  bow  and  arrow  or  a  gun  and 
thereby  outdoes  them.  So  as  between  men  and  races 
of  men;  variations  in  the  direction  of  greater  strength 
of  body  are  of  slight  importance  compared  with  varia- 
tions in  the  direction  of  higher  mental  powers;  in  war 
itself  it  is  not  necessarily  the  most  numerous  nation  or 
the  one  with  the  hardiest  soldiers,  but  the  one  with  the 
ablest  generals  and  in  possession  of  the  most  ingenious 
methods  of  warfare  that  gains  the  victory.  But  Darwin 
shows  further  that  the  possession  of  moral  qualities  is  an 
advantage  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  that  a  race  with 
strong  moral  feelings  would,  other  things  being  equal, 
win  in  a  contest  with  another  race  destitute  of  such 
feelings,  in  other  words  that  nature  is  on  the  side  of  ' 
morality  as  truly  as  on  the  side  of  the  strongest  arm  or 
the  largest  brain.  Darwinism  is  often  interpreted  in  a 
different  way.  It  is  often  thought  to  sanction  the  efforts 
of  the  stronger  individual  to  push  the  weaker  to  the 
wall.  Let  every  man  stand  on  his  own  feet,  and  those 
who  can't  stand,  let  them  fall  -  it  is  said.  To  practically 
apply  the  doctrine:  if  a  man  can  get  an  education,  well 
and  good;  if  he  can't,  let  him  go  without  it  — never 
should  he  be  helped.  If  a  woman  has  power  to  get  her 
rights,  very  well;  if  not,  let  her  go  without  them. 
If  a  person  is  smart  enough  to  defraud  another,  let  him 
do  so;  if  he  is  strong  enough  to  do  violence  to  another 
without  impunity  —  very  well,  that  is  his  right  as  the 
stronger.  This  is  the  creed  of  unmeasured  individualism, 
of  anarchism,  and  was  well  expressed  by  Rob  Roy  in 
Wordsworth's  poem,  as  the  old  rule, 

"  Th;it  they  should  tike  \\  ho  have  the  power, 
And  thev  should  keep  who  run." 

But  it  is  very  crude  Darwinism,  nay,  it  is  opposed  to 
the  teachings  of  Darwin,  for  according  to  him  our 
notions  of  what  we  should  and  should  not  do  are  derived 
from  the  social  instincts,  and  the  social  instincts  contra- 
dict such  heartless  indifference  to  the  welfare  of  others 
as  the  creed  of  extreme  individualism  allows.  Doubt- 
less such  social  anarchy  did  exist  in  the  early  ages  of  the 
world,  in  the  "ages  before  conscience,"  but  the  signifi- 
cant fact  is  that  the  primitive  races  without  conscience 
did  not  perpetuate  themselves,  that  they  had  no  strength, 
no  stamina,  no  cohesive  power  in  the  struggle  with 
those   superior  races   in  whom  the  social  instincts   were 


7  8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


developed,  that  so  far  as  they  do  survive  to-day,  they 
survive  as  savages  and  are  on  the  border  line  between 
man  and  the  brute. 

Let  us  observe  now  in  detail,  how  morality  helps   to 
build    man    up.  so   that    by    his   very   love    of    life   he  is 
naturally    deterred   from    those   courses  of  conduct    that 
conscience    condemns.       A    peaceful    disposition    is    one 
element   of   mora'ity       I  do  not  mean  the   disposition   to 
weakly  submit  to  injuries,  hut  the  indisposition  to  inflict 
injuries;  I    mean  the  contrary  of  a  violent   and   quarrel- 
some  temper.      At   lirst  sight,  it  may  seem  as    if  violent 
people   injure   others  rather  than  themselves,  as   if   their 
violence  gives  them  an  advantage  in  the  struggle  to  live. 
But  turn  the  matter  round  and  ask,  as  between  peaceable 
men   and   quarrelsome    men,    other   things  being   equal, 
which  are  the  more  likelv  to  suffer  violence  in  turn  and 
themselves   come    to   an   untimely   end:      1    think   there 
cannot    be  a  doubt  that  peaceful  men  are  more  likely   to 
survive  and  rear  offspring  than  violent  men.  that  violence 
is  like  a  boomerang  striking  at  last  the  perpetrator  of  it, 
that  the  wavs  of  violence,  even  in  uncivilized  societies, 
are   the    wavs  of  death,  and  the  ways   of  peace   are    the 
wavs  of   life.      Temperate  habits  arc  another  element  of 
moralitv.       The    intemperate    man    who    indulges    his 
appetite    for  intoxicating  drinks  thinks  it  his  own    affair 
and   that  he  will  not  greatly  suffer;  but  the  laws  of   life- 
think  differently,  they  cut  short  his  days;  it  is  a  statistical 
fact    that    intemperate    people    at    the    age    of    thirty     in 
England    are   not   likely    to   live   more   than   thirteen    or 
fourteen    years   longer,  while  the   expectation    of   life   of 
the   average   country    laborer  at  that  age  is  forty   years. 
Another   element  of  morality  is  respect  for  woman    and 
the  sense  of  the  sanctity  of  the  marriage  relation.     Does 
it  make    no  difference  if  men  or  women    lead    profligate 
lives?      So  profligate  people  are  apt  to  think.      They  are 
rarely   serious  about  it.      Hut  nature  is   opposed   to  pro- 
fligacy      for    she    will  allow  profligate  women    to    have 
but    few     if    any   children;    she    has   a   distaste   for   their 
breed,  she   wants   it   stopped.      In   the  natural   course   of 
things,  profligate  men,  as  Darwin  remarks,  rarely  marry; 
on  their  side,  too,  the  breed  of   ungoverned  lust  tends  to 
extinction.      And    both    men    and    women,  who    do    not 
regard  nature's  laws,  she  is  apt  to  afflict  with  the  foulest 
disease.      And   if   in   another   way,    men   or   women    sin 
against  nature's  laws  and  in  solitude  and  darkness  prac- 
tice the  crimes  that  the  light  of  day  would  blush  to  look 
upon,  does    the   darkness  hide  them  and  nature  take    no 
cognizance:      Witness  the  weakness  that   comes   on,  the 
weakness   of    bodv     and    weakness    of  mind,  the    loss    of 
memory,  the   childishness,    yes,   the  sterility-   'tis   as   it 
nature    would    cover    them     with    contempt.       And    in 
regard   to   the   persistent  disuse  of   moral  feeling  gener- 
ally, do   we    realize    what   one   of   our   highest   scientific 
authorities,    Maudsley,*  tells   us,  that    bv  it   a  man   may 


Pofiular  Sritnc/  Monthly,  Si-plembi-r.  1S7. 


succeed  in  manufacturing  insanity  in  his  progeny,  and 
that  insane  people,  if  thev  are  allowed  to  propagate, 
become  at  last  a  race  of  sterile  idiots? 

Look  at  the  matter  on  a  wider  scale.  Consider  men 
not  as  individuals,  but  as  societies.  If  we  think  that 
natural  selection  favors  simply  the  strongest  in  body  or 
mind,  consider  the  history  of  the  family,  the  most  rudi- 
mentary of  human  societies.  What  would  a  family  be 
without  some  measure  of  unselfishness?  To  answer, 
we  have  to  go  to  the  lowest  savages.  Among  the 
Andamanese  the  husband  cares  for  his  wife  until  the 
child  that  is  born  to  them  is  weaned.  Then  the  mother 
has  to  look  out  for  herself  and  for  her  child.  The 
father  seeks  another  mate.  Is  nature  indifferent,  and  do 
we  imagine  that  this  is  a  thriving  tribe?  The  fact  is 
that  according  to  a  recent  reporter,  the  Andamanese  are 
gradually  dying  out.  lie  saw  but  cine  woman  who  had 
as  many  as  three  children.  Few  members  of  the  tribe 
live  beyond  the  age  of  forty.*  And  now  suppose  the 
mothers  had  as-  little  unselfishness  as  the  fathers,  that 
they  let  their  offspring  care  for  themselves  as  soon  as 
weaned:  the  tribe  would  probably  in  a  generation  or 
two  become  extinct.  It  is  some  measure  of  unselfish 
feeling  that  allows  our  race  to  be  perpetuated  at  all. 
Yes,  Darwin  shows  that  the  social  instincts  to  some 
extent  exist  in  the  lower  animal,  so  that  there  is  no 
impassible  chasm  in  that  respect  between  them  and  man; 
timid  birds  will  lace  great  danger  to  defend  their  young; 
if  there  were  no  unselfishness,  it  is  doubtful  if  we 
should  have  anything  in  the  world  at  all  but  the  elements 
and  insensate  plants,  or  perhaps,  the  very  lowest  forms 
of  animal  life,  whose  offspring  need  no  care;  all  the 
higher  forms  of  animal  life,  as  well  as  men,  exist 
because  unselfishness  has  watched  over  the  beginnings 
of  their  existence — and  what  mainly  distinguishes  human 
beings  from  animals,  along,  of  course,  with  higher  intel- 
ligence, is  that  the  social  instincts  in  men  are  intense!" 
and  cover  longer  periods  and  have  a  wider  range; 
human  beings  arc,  according  to  Darwin,  simply  that 
portion  of  the  animal  creation  in  whom  vaiiationsin  the 
direction  of  unselfishness  and  intelligence  have  been 
transmitted  •■  nd  perpetuated,  by  which  thev  have  secured 
a  firmer  foothold  ami  a  more  commanding  place  here  on 
the  earth.  Think  of  it.  if  the  fishes  of  the  sea  or  t he- 
wild  animals  of  the  earth  or  even  the  birds  of  the  ait- 
had  the  fellow-feeling  for  one  another  that  men  have 
and  the  intelligence,  would  they  allow  themselves  to  be 
caught  or  captured  or  shot?  Wc  uld  they  not  be  a 
match  for  man,  and  unless  some  new  variations  giving 
greater  power  on  the  one  side  or  the  other  arose,  would 
it  not  be  a  pitched  battle  between  them  and  man?  We 
are  men,  because  along  with  more  of  mind,  we  do  care 
for  one  another;  they  are  animals,  because  they  are  to 
such  an  extent  dissocial,  rather  than  social,  and  in  a-con- 

*  Spencer's  Sociology ,  I,  'V>s. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


79 


test,  each  one  is  left  so  generally  to  fight  his  own  battle. 
And  now  beyond  the  family,  consider  the  community 
or  the  tribe.  What  parental  feeling  is  to  the  family, 
that  community  or  tribal  feeling  is  on  the  larger  scale. 
Do  we  think  it  makes  no  difference  whether  our  unsel- 
fishness goes  beyond  our  families,  that  all  we  haye  to  do 
is  to  care  for  ourselyes  and  our  children,  that  patriotism 
and  zeal  for  the  public  welfare  are  idle  sentiment  and 
that  obedience  to  the  laws  is  only  necessary  so  far  as  it 
is  for  our  own  interest?  Darwin  and  those  who  have 
written  in  his  spirit  do  not  think  so,  and  history  proves 
that  they  are  in  the  right.  In  times  of  peace,  as  one 
■writer*  remarks,  sleek  and  prosperous  selfishness  may 
give  a  certain  element  of  strength  to  a  society.  But 
these  are  not  the  times  that  test  a  society.  It  is 
■when  dangers  arise,  either  from  without  or  from  within, 
it  is  in  times  of  peril,  that  the  real  strength  and  cohesive- 
ness  of  a  community  are  tested.  Can  it  put  down 
internal  dissensions,  that  threaten  its  lile,  can  it  withstand 
a  foreign  foe?  For,  as  Darwin  shows,  not  only  individ- 
uals struggle  to  live,  but  communities  and  nations,  and 
natural  selection  works  to  build  up  and  destroy  peoples 
■with  the  same  necessity  and  rigor  with  which  it  oper- 
ates to  determine  the  fate  of  individual  lives.  Who 
does  not  see  the  truth  of  what  Darwin  points  out  that 
even  in  the  case  of  animals,  who  live  in  a  body  and 
defend  themselves  or  attack  their  enemies  in  concert, 
they  must  be  in  some  degree  faithful  to  one  another, 
and  if  they  have  a  leader  be  obedient  to  him — else  they 
will  likely  be  exterminated?  How  much  more  truly  is 
this  the  case  with  men !  Suppose  the  members  of  a 
tribe  are  given  to  murder,  robbery,  and  treachery  among 
themselves,  how  long  will  they  hold  together  even 
if  they  have  no  external  foe,  and  if  they  have,  how 
easily  will  they  be  subjugated?  The  fact  is  that  a  tribe 
or  community  cannot  live  at  all,  unless  there  is  more  of 
morality  than  of  immorality  in  it;  and  the  great  amount 
of  wrong  and  crime  that  exist  in  some  savage  com- 
munities, seem  so  only  on  account  of  the  higher  stand- 
ards of  morality  that  are  recognized  in  civilized  com- 
munities and  do  not  interfere  with  the  fact  that  their 
practice  is  ahead  of  that  of  savages  who  scarcely  live 
in  communities  at  all  and  have  few  if  any  fixed  cus- 
toms or  laws.  Whether  a  people  has  any  disinterested 
love  of  virtue  or  not,  they  must  learn  it;  for  only  those 
■who  do  learn  it,  i.  e.,  some  measure  of  self-control,  of 
faithfulness,  of  public  spirit,  of  obedience  to  law,  survive, 
and  the  rest,  because  they  do  not  meet  the  conditions 
which  nature  requires,  perish.  Darwin  says  in  so  many 
-words,  "a  tribe  including  many  members  who,  from 
possessing  in  a  high  degree  the  spirit- of  patriotism, 
fidelity,  obedience,  courage  and  sympathy,  were   always 

*  Prof .  C  C.  Evcrelt  on  "The  New  Ethics,"  in  Unitarian  Review,  Octo- 
ber, 1S7S — a  most  suggestive  and  a!  times  eloquent  article.  I  am  also  indebted 
to  Prof.  Georg  von  Gizycki's  valuable  article  on  "  Kthics  and  the  Development 
Theory,"  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly,  July,  i$S:  (translated  from  the 
Deutsche  Rnmlschau). 


ready  to  aid  one  another,  and  to  sacrifice  themselves  for 
the  common  good,  would  be  victorious  over  most  other 
tribes;  and  this  would  be  natural  se'ection.  At  all  times 
throughout  the  world  tribes  have  supplanted  other 
tribes;  and  as  morality  is  one  important  element  in  their 
success,  the  standard  of  morality  ami  the  number  of 
well-endowed  men  will  thus  everywhere  tend  to  rise 
and   increase.1' 

All  this  holds  good  equally  of  civilized  peoples.  The 
same  things  that  lifted  the  social  savage  out  of  the  ranks 
of  unsocial  savages  or  animals  and  gave  them  the  pre- 
eminence, lift  the  civilized  man  out  of  the  ranks  of  sav- 
agry  altogether  anil  give  to  civilized  states  rightful 
pre-eminence  in  the  world.  Crude  interpreters  of  Dar- 
win's theory  would  have  us  eschew  all  philanthropy, 
shut  up  our  asylums  and  hospitals,  abolish  poor  laws,  and 
let  the  weak  and  the  helpless  take  care  of  themselves 
or  die.  Prof.  Sumner,  of  Yale  College,  suggests*  that 
the  advance  of  civilization,  instead  of  raising  the  victims 
from  the  bottom,  may  very  possibly  crush  them  out 
altogether.  But  this  would  not  be  rising'  to  a  higher 
stage  of  civilization,  but  would  be  relapsing  into  barbar- 
ism, copying  after  the  Indians,  who  leave  their  feeble 
comrades  to  perish  on  the  plains,  or  the  Fijians,  who, 
when  their  parents  get  old  or  fall  ill,  bury  them  alive, 
or  those  animals  who  expel  a  wounded  animal  from  the 
herd  or  gore  or  worry  it  to  death.  Nay,  there  are  sav- 
ages and  even  animals  that  are  ahead  in  sentiment  of 
these  heartless  Darwinians;  tor  Darwin  tells  us  of  Indian 
crows  that  fed  two  or  three  of  their  blind  companions, 
and  says  he  himself  saw  a  dog  who  never  passed  a 
cat  who  lay  sick  in  a  basket,  without  giving  her  a  few 
licks  with  his  tongue,  the  surest  sign  of  kind  feeling  in 
a  dog.  Destroy  the  social  instincts,  dry  up  the  founts  of 
sympathy  and  pity  in  man,  and  you  s'.rike  at  the  social 
bond  itself;  society  would  be  dissolved  into  anarchy, 
and  the  long,  slow,  painful  work  of  building  up  the 
race  of  man  would  have  to  be  undertaken  again  from 
the  beginning.  Let  any  community  to-day  try  to 
organize  itself  on  the  extreme  individualistic  plan 
and  show  no  charity,  each  man  looking  after  himself 
alone,  those  getting  justice  who  are  able  to  get  it,  and 
the  rest  putting  up  with  the  denial  of  it  as  best  they 
can;  let  it  enter  into  competition  with  other  com- 
munities, who  take  care  of  their  poor  and  their  sick  and 
give  justice  to  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  their 
midst,  though  there  may  be  some  who  cannot  raise  a 
finger  to  get  justice  for  themselves;  let  the  struggle 
come  to  a  clash  of  arms,  and  will  any  one  doubt  what 
the  result  will  be?  Selfishness,  Prof.  Everett  says,  will 
give  its  money,  it  will  not  give  its  life  for  the  com- 
mon cause.  If  the  social  spirit  has  been  weak  in  peace, 
it  will  not  by  a  miracle  become  suddenly  strong  in 
war.     The    unsocial    community    will    go  down,    as    it 


*  As  reported  in  Ne:"  York  Times,  January  1  or  7,  1883. 


So 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


deserves  to  go  down,  before  the  enthusiasm,  the  courage, 
the  devotion  of  men  that  have  been  bred  in  a  social 
community  to  habits  of  sympathy  and  public  spirit. 
Yes,  if  the  community,  whose  principle  was  "every 
man  for  himself,"  were  by  a  bit  of  good  fortune  isolated 
and  never  had  to  enter  into  a  struggle  with  other  com- 
munities, I  believe  in  time  it  would  perish  from  dis- 
sensions within  itself,  it  would  disintegrate  like  any 
organism  of  matter  whose  particles  are  no  longer 
held  together  by  any  common  attraction  and  from 
which  the  animating  breath  of  life  had  fled. 

The  thing  that  builds  up  a  community,  a  nation,  is 
not  less,  but  more  sympathy  and  public  spirit — more  of 
all  the  virtues  that  spring  from  these  sources.  Think 
for  a  moment  simply  of  obedience,  reverence  for  law, 
whether  the  law  is  made  by  a  chief  or  by  a  people  for 
itself.  What  strength,  what  an  almost  irresistible  power 
Would  a  whole  people  trained  to  such  a  habit  have.  The 
Spartans  were  not  equal  in  intellectual  power  to  other 
Grecian  states;  but  for  a  short  time  they  held  the 
supremacy  over  all  Greece.  And  when  I  think  of  the 
three  hundred  who  defended  the  pass  at  Thermopylae 
against  the  Persians  and  held  it  at  such  fearful  odds 
until  their  last  man  had  fallen,  and  remember  that  ac- 
cording to  their  poet  nothing  but  obedience  to  the  laws 
of  Sparta  kept  them  at  their  post,  I  do  not  wonder  that 
a  country'  that  bred  such  a  soldiery  rose  once  to  the  very 
head  of   Greece. 

"  Stranger,  go  ami  to  the  Spartans  tell, 
That  here,  obeying  their  commands,    we  lell,' 

stands  graven  on   the   rock  as  their  memorial. 

Socrates  anticipated  the  thought  of  Darwin,  and  of 
Bagehot,*  one  of  the  most  fruitful  thinkers  who  has 
followed  in  Darwin's  wake,  when  he  said  that  that  state 
in  which  the  citizens  pay  most  respect  to  the  laws,  is  in 
the  best  condition  in  peace  and  is  invincible  in  war;f 
and  Socrates  himself  had  such  a  sense  of  the  sanctity  of 
the  laws  that  he  refused  to  flatter  and  supplicate  the 
judges  at  his  trial  (which  the  laws  forbade),  and  al- 
though had  he  consented  to  do  anything  of  the  kind,  he 
might  easily  have  been  acquitted,  as  Xenophon  says,| 
he  preferred  to  die  abiding  by  the  laws,  rather  than 
transgressing  them  to  live.  What  could  withstand, 
other  things  being  equal,  a  nation  of  men  like  Socrates? 
I  believe  that  the  things  that  tend  to  make  a  people 
strong,  permanently  strong,  that  tend  to  give  it  a  lasting 
advantage  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  that  make  it  the 
fittest  and  always  the  fittest  to  survive,  are  good  things, 
moral  things,  things  that  conscience  from  its  ideal  stand- 
point would  approve.  This  does  not  apply  to  tempo- 
rary victories,  but  to  those  that  are  held,  that  are  lasting. 
Respicejincm — look  to  the  end  and  issue  of  all  things. 
No  one  can  doubt  that  those  great  eastern   empires  that 

*  Vide  his  Physics  and  Politics. 
+  Xenophon's  Memorabilia  iv,  4,  1^. 
X   Oitto,  iv  4,  4,. 


we  have  glimpses  of  in  connection  with  Hebrew  history 
and  legend,  the  Egyptian,  the  mighty  Assyrian,  the 
Babylonian  and  Persian,  perished  in  turn  because  they 
were  not  fit  to  live.  No  one  can  doubt  that  Greece  fell 
a  prey  to  Rome,  when  she  was  no  longer  worthy  to  rule 
herself.  No  one  can  doubt  that  imperial  Rome  itself 
fell  when  it  was  best  she  should  fall,  and  that  it  was 
owing  to  natural  selection  that  the  barbarians  of  the 
north  became  then  the  leaders  of  the  world's  progress, 
since  out  of  their  splendid  energy  and  purer  stock  the 
foremost  nations  of  a  new  world  have  come.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  speak  of  the  present  and  the  future.  But  the 
same  laws  will  hold  good.  Always,  I  believe,  will  the 
nations  that  have  anything  like  a  permanent  leadership 
in  the  world's  affairs  be  the  best  nations — I  mean  those 
that  have  the  largest  amount  of  virtue  and  intelligence 
within  their  borders.  It  may  be  indeed  that  no  nations 
at  present  existing  will  be  permanent;  this  would  not 
be  contrary  to  natural  selection,  but  a  proof  of  its  power. 
It  may  be  that  none  of  them  have  the  conditions  of  per- 
manency. For  natural  selection  is,  I  believe,  as  high  in 
its  demands,  as  severe,  as  unrelenting  as  any  ideal  of 
the  Deity  that  has  ever  been  conceived.  Nations  that 
are  full  of  selfishness  and  injustice  cannot  stand;  they 
will  be  turned  and  overturned;  the  great  powers  of 
nature  will  not  allow  them  to  last.  Nations  with  ruling 
classes  given  up  to  luxury,  to  effeminate  habits,  to  wan- 
tonness, to  "  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes- 
and  the  pride  of  life,"  and  to  contempt  of  the  poor  and 
the  weak,  will  not  stand;  "behold,  this  was  the  iniquity 
of  Sodom,  pride,  fullness  of  bread,  and  abundance  of 
idleness;  neither  did  she  strengthen  the  hand  of  the  poor 
and  needy.  And  they  were  haughty  and  committed 
abomination  before  me;  therefore  I  took  them  awav  as 
I  saw  good."*  So  speaks  natural  selection  today,  and 
always  will,  for  it  is  a  power  as  dread,  as  summary  and 
as  almighty  as  Jehovah.  Nations  full  of  violence  toward 
weaker  countries,  eager  with  yawning  necks  to  swallow 
them  up  and  digest  them  for  their  own  purposes,  will 
not  stand;  they  who  are  insolent  and  know  no  right 
above  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword;  the  power 
of  natural  selection  is  a  moral  power,  and  nothing,  no 
success  or  triumph  conceived  and  begotten  in  injustice, 
shall  stand.  This  great  judge  of  all  the  earth  holds  up 
the  balances  and  says  to  the  nations,  for  every  act  of  in- 
justice thou  shalt  pay.  England,  France,  Germany, 
America, — each  thinks  it  is  dear  to  the  heart  of  Destiny 
and  cannot  fail;  and  Destiny  whispers  through  all  the 
experience  of  the  past,  I  care  for  none  of  you,  you 
may  go,  have  your  little  day,  and  pass  away  as  Babylon 
and  Greece  and  Rome  have  done  before  you;  I  care  for 
justice,  for  a  state  of  virtuous  citizens  with  pure  homes 
and  clean  hearts  and  honest  lips,  men  and  women  'who 
put  truth  above  life  and  would   rather  their  state  should 

*  E/.ekiel,  xvi,  49-50. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


8 1 


fall  than  that  it  should  rest  on  injustice;  I  call  for  this, 
give  it  to  me,  O  sons  of  men,  and  vou  shall  be  dear  to 
me,  I  shall  cherish  vou,  and  your  work  shall  stand  while 
the  earth  lasts. 

This  is  how,  my  friends,  1  interpret  the  ethics  ->f 
Darwin.  Darwin  does  not  give  us  a  theory  of  ethics, 
or  rather  so  far  as  he  does  I  should  have  something  to 
say  in  criticism  of  it;  but  he  does  us  a  greater  service,  I 
almost  think,  than  if  he  had  given  us  a  perfect  theory, 
he  shows  how  ethics  works  in  tlie  world.  It  is  a  great 
and  consoling  belief  that  the  powers  of  nature  are  on 
the  side  of  man's  struggles  after  justice  and  a  perfect 
good.  The  Might)'  Power,  hid  from  our  gaze  by  the 
thin  screen  of  nature  and  of  nature's  laws,  is  not  in  love 
with  you  or  me,  but  he  is  with  our  struggles  after  a  per- 
fect right,  for  to  them  he  gives  fmition  and  they  are  the 
salt  that  keeps  the  earth  from  spoiling,  and  their  effect 
is  undying,  while  all  else  is  being-  thwarted,  cut  short 
and  passes  away.  Every  brave  act  we  do  and  every 
true  word  we  utter  helps  to  build  up  human  life  here 
on  the  earth  ;  and  every  mean  act  and  false  word  tend  to 
pull  it  down  and  destrov  it.  I  have  spoken  of  peoples 
and  nations;  let  us  not  think  that  these  are  things  too 
large  for  individual  actions  to  count  'upon.  The  fate  of 
a  nation  depends  at  last  not  on  kings  or  parliaments  or 
legislatures,  but  on  the  lives  and  characters  of  the  in- 
dividual men  and  women  who  compose  it.  As  the 
Statement  of  Principles  of  our  Spcietv  puts  it,  the  well- 
being  of  the  state  depends  upon  the  well-doing  of  its 
individual  members.  We  think  we  are  not  responsible 
for  the  evil  and  wrong  there  are  in  society.  We  are  to 
the  extent  that  we  submit  to  them.  A  great  wrong  can- 
not be  done  bv  a  community  unless  there  is  the  spirit  of 
wrong  or  of  tolerance  for  wrong,  widespread  among  its 
members.  Each  one  of  us,  no  matter  how  unimportant 
we  seem,  counts  as  a  factor  in  the  public  sentiment  from 
which  good  things  or  bad  things  are  born.  I  came 
across  a  striking  passage  in  a  writer  the  other  day: 
"  There  are  current  maxims  in  church  and  in  state,  in 
society ,  in  trade,  in  law,  to  which  we  yield  obedience.  For 
this  obedience  everyone  is  responsible.  For  instance,  in 
trade  and  in  the  profession  of  law,  everyone  is  the  ser- 
vant of  practices  the  rectitude  of  which  his  heart  can 
onlv  half  approve — everyone  complains  of  them,  yet  all 
are  involved  in  them.  Now  when  such  sins  reach  their 
climax,  as  in  the  case  of  national  bankruptcy  or  an  un- 
just acquittal,  there  may  be  some  who  are,  in  a  special 
sense,  the  actors  in  the  guilt;  but  evidently  for  the  bank- 
ruptcy each  member  of  the  community  is  responsible  in 
that  degree  and  so  far  as  he  has  himself  acquiesced  in 
the  duplicities  of  public  dealing;  every  careless  juror, 
every  unrighteous  judge,  every  false  witness,  has  done 
his  part  in  the  reduction  of  society  to  that  state  in  which 
the    monster   injustice   has   been    perpetrated."*       That 

*  Robertson's  Sermons,  3d  series,  p.  147. 


came  to  me  as  a  startling  thought.  Ves,  you  do  count. 
And  the  only  difference  is  that  you  may  count  in  those 
influences  that  help  to  build  man  up  here  on  the  earth 
or  in  those  that  tend  to  weaken  and  undo  him.  'ion 
may  build  on  the  sands  and  the  floods  will  come  and 
wash  your  work  away,  or  on  the  rock  and  your  work 
will  stand  forever.  You  may  help  to  make  a  nation  of 
money-getters,  close,  had,  contemptuous  of  the  weak, 
sacrificing  honor  and  shame,  and  the  sense  of  humanity 
and  life  itself  for  the  sake  of  amassing  riches,  only  to 
see  it,  if  you  could  live  on,  crumble  and  disintegrate  and 
its  wealth  in  ruins,  or  you  may  cast  in  your  lot  with 
those  who  would  be  lovers  of  their  kind,  who  would 
rather  see  justice  done  than  amass  riches,  who  would  be 
clean  in  life  and  honor  woman  and  protect  the  defence- 
less, and  if  vou  do  not  win  the  nation  to  your  side,  vou 
or  those  who  follow  after  you  will  form  the  saving  rem- 
nant, bv  whom  and  through  whom  a  new  and  wiser 
nation  may  arise.  Men  trying  to  rear  states  without 
justice  in  their  hearts  are  like  Sisyphus  rolling  his  giant 
stones  up  hill,  that  nevertheless  fall  of  natural  gravity; 
and  when  one  sees  them  anxious,  striving,  thinking  with 
laws  and  constitutions  and  courts  and  armies  to  buttress 
themselves  about,  laboring  so  with  their  destiny,  one 
thinks  of  poor  Sisyphus,  in  Homer's  lines,  heaving  and 
straining,  the  sweat  the  while  pouring  down  his  limbs 
and  the  dust  rising  upward  from  his  head.  "Wash  ye, 
make  you  clean,  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from 
before  mine  eyes;  seek  justice,  relieve  the  oppressed,' 
is  the  voice  of  natural  selection  as  well  as  of  Israel's 
God;  else  your  work  is  vanity  and  all  the  labor  of  it  and 
all  the  pain  of  it — all  are  for  nothing;  the  great  God  ot 
the  world  will  not  permit  it  to  stand. 

Two  applications,  and  1  am  done.  Think  ot  the 
Athenian  race,  whose  average  ability  Francis  Galton, 
another  writer  who  has  followed  in  Darwin's  wake, 
says,*  was  nearly  two  grades  higher  than  om  own, 
(*■  e.,  as  much  as  our  race  is  above  that  of  the 
African  negro.  Why  did  this  marvelously-gifted  race 
decline?  Galton  says  because  of  social  immorality, 
because,  in  plain  language,  marriage  became  unfashion- 
able and  was  avoided,  and  courtesans  held  sway.  Now 
I  say  every  man  to-day,  whether  immoral  or  not,  who 
has  light  thoughts  of  woman,  who  is  not  indignant 
when  she  is  dishonored,  who  lets  light  jests  pass  his  lips 
or  lewd  thoughts  linger  in  his  mind,  helps  to  swell  the 
tide  of  our  social  immorality,  for  he  helps  to  make  the 
atmosphere  in  which  it  grows.  Acts  do  not  come  from 
nothing,  they  come  from  thoughts  and  words  and  what 
we  hear  others  say,  from  a  thousand  and  one  nameless 
things  that  seem  to  count  for  nothing. 

On  the  other  hand  let  us  not  imagine  that  the  quiet, 
homely  virtues,  the  graces  of  the  heart,  that  kindness- 
and  pity  and  tenderness  count  for  nothing  with  the   great 


'  Hereditary  Getthts,  p.  34.3. 


82 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


powers  of  nature  with  which  we  deal.  Never  let  us 
think  that  physical  strength  is  everything;  it  is  not 
everything  even  in  the  animal  world.  As  Prof.  Everett 
has  beautifully  said,  to  the  powers  of  natural  selection, 
■"  the  delicate,  the  graceful,  the  tender,  the  beautiful,  are  as 
•dear  as  the  fierce  and  the  strong.  It  was  the  great  law  of 
natural  selection  itself  that  taught  the  nightingale  to  sing 
and  that  painted  the  humming  bird  with  his  changeful 
hues.  It  is  this  that  whispers  to  the  timid  hare  to  flee,  and 
this  that  binds  the  gentle  sheep  together  in  their  harmless 
federation."  The  gentler  virtues  all  count  in  humanity's 
struggle  for  existence.  As  there  are  no  light  thoughts 
of  human  suffering  that  do  not  help  to  make  men 
cruel,  so  there  is  no  sympathy  and  pity  that  do  not  help 
to  draw  men  nearer  together  and  make  them  stronger  in 
any  time  of  danger  or  distress.  Quiet  fortitude  in  a 
mother  makes  brave  sons  and  daughters.  Love  in  peace 
makes  heroism  in  times  of  danger.  Selfishness  disinte- 
grates and  disorganizes,  love  builds  up  and  welds 
together.  Nations  stand  not  on  dollars,  not  on  armies, 
not  on  police,  but  on  righteousness,  and  if  unrighteous- 
ness becomes  rampant  in  a  community,  not  all  its  dollars 
or  its  police  will  save  it.  You  and  I  count,  my  friends, 
living  quiet  inconspicuous  lives  as  we  do;  oh,  let  us 
count  for  good,  for  purity,  for  unselfishness,  for  all 
that  makes  human  life  strong-  and  stable  on  the  earth. 


FURTHER  COMMENTS   ON   MR.  HEGELER'S   ESSAY. 

Chicago,  March  12th,  1887. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  City: 

Dear  Sir — Kindly  publish  in  No.  3  the  attached 
communication  and  editorial  note,  clipped  from  the 
La  Salle  Republican. 

I  hold  their  wishes  to  be  both  sincere  from  their 
standpoints — the  one  that  of  an  ardent  Catholic. 
Sincerely  Yours, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

SCIENTIFIC    ETHICS. 

The  Open  Court  is  a  new  Chicago  publication, 
issued  fortnightly,  and  "  devoted  to  the  work  of  estab- 
lishing ethics  and  religion  upon  a  scientific  basis." 
The  feature  that  makes  this  periodical  of  interest  to 
La  Salle  any  more  than  the  hundreds  of  others  of  its 
class  is  that  our  fellow-townsman,  Mr.  E.  C.  Hegeler, 
is  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  publishing  com- 
pany, a  financial  backer  of  the  enterprise  and  a  con- 
tributor to  the  first  issue  of  this  organ  of  scientific 
ethics  and  religion.  The  first  article,  by  W.  J.  Potter, 
is  about  the  only  one  seriously  worthy  of  considera- 
tion as  a  scientific  effort  to  explain  the  mystery  of 
man's  relation  to  man,  and  the  something  these 
scientific  (?)  men  call  nature.  Mr.  Hegeler's  effort 
is  that  of  a  man  with  excellent  vision  walking  in  dark 


places  and  seeking  with  outstretched  hands  some- 
thing he  cannot  find.  His  scientific  (  ?)  attempt  to 
explain  the  immortality  of  the  soul  by  the  theory 
that  while  individual  souls  become  extinct  at  the 
time  of  the  physical  dissolution,  the  aggregate  soul 
of  our  humanity  lives  on  and  evolves  into  higher 
and  better  forms  in  each  succeeding  generation,  is 
very  foolish  and  too  much  of  a  theoretical  abstrac- 
tion to  conform  to  the  principles  of  sound  philosophy. 
Not  only  this,  but  such  a  theory  is  opposed  to  the 
convictions,  practices  and  laws  of  the  entire  human 
race  in  every  age  and  clime,  so  far  as  history,  tradi- 
tion or  investigation  have  yet  revealed  them  to  us. 
When  these  scientific  men  endeavor  to  diffuse  the 
individuality  of  every  distinct  human  soul,  with  its 
individual  responsibility  for  its  free  acts  and  words, 
its  distinct,  real  and  conscious  existence  after  the 
physical  dissolution,  and  its  possibility  of  attaining  a 
perfect  and  worthy  end  by  its  individual  effort  in  the 
nebula  of  the  confused,  insane  and  vapory  nonsense 
of  pananimism,  then  they  not  only  take  a  false  posi- 
tion but  they  degrade  humanity,  maintain  an  attitude 
adverse  to  their  own  personal  actions  and  do  a  great 
wrong  to  society.  ' 

The  effect  of  such  a  theory  upon  society  would 
be  not  only  a  great  wrong,  but  a  disaster,  and  reduce 
mankind  to  a  mass  of  immoral  animals  wherein  self- 
ishness and  rapine  would  rule  with  physical  violence, 
and  the  laws  of  justice  and  humanity  be  as  naught. 
It  would  remove  the  adequate  motive  which  prompts 
men  to  be  good,  and  leave  in  its  place  only  a  vapid 
idealism,  negative  and  withering.  These  highfalutin 
theories  may  captivate  and  amuse  the  minds  of 
wealthy  philanthropic  theorists  who  are  too  proud  to 
follow  the  sure  paths  laid  down  by  nobler  though 
humbler  minds,  or  they  may  entertain  the  innate 
capacities  of  the  flatterers  and  sycophants  who  bask 
in  the  smiles  of  wealthy  patrons,  but  the)'  can  never 
supplant  the  burning  truths  of  Christianity  sown  in 
the  depths  of  the  human  heart,  and  reaped  in  the 
harvest  of  justice,  faith,  hope  and  eternal  love.  The 
Open  Court  may  be  a  forum  for  scoffing  at  the  true 
good,  but  it  can  never  in  its  present  form  be  a  hall 
of  light  and  truth  in  which  men  can  learn  the  right 
way  to  the  better  end.  Ronoco. 


The  Republican  has  received  no  request  from  any- 
one to  review  or  even  notice  The  Open  Court,  but 
the  critical  comments  of  our  correspondent,  as  found 
elsewhere,  lead  us  to  remark  in  connection  there- 
with, that  the  only  proofs  thus  far  in  life  presented 
to  us  in  support  of  the  theory  that  man  has  a  soul 
comes  under  the  head  of  heresay  evidence.  First- 
class  courts  generally  rule  out  that  kind  of  testi- 
mony.    It   strikes    some   people  that   the  tenets   of 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


83 


the  whole  list  of  religions  are  founded  on  neither 
axiomatic  nor  demonstrable  truths,  but  something 
established  by  tradition,  which,  by  the  way,  is  not  a 
very  distant  relative  of  what  is  commonly  known  as 
superstition.  —La  Salic  Republican. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 


RESOLUTIONS  BY  THE   F.  R.  A. 

To  the  Editors:  Concord,  Mass.,  March  10,  1SS7. 

The  following  resolutions  have  been  passed  by  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Free  Religious  Association,  with  a  request  that 
thev  be  published  in  The  Open  Court. 

Resolved,  That  in  company  with  all  friends  of  progress  and 
admirers  of  puritv  and  independence  in  journalism,  we  regret 
deeply  the  inevitable  discontinuance  of  'I  In  Index,  and  that  we 
are  satisfied  that  this  is  not  due  to  any  lack  of  fidelity,  energy  or 
ability  either  in  its  noble  and  gifted  founder,  Dr.  F.  E.  Abbott,  or 
in  his  successors. 

Resolved,  That  we  hold  the  names  of  its  recent  editors, 
Messrs.  Wm.  J.  Potter  and  B.  F.  Underwood,  who  have  con- 
ducted it  most  ably  under  the  auspices  of  the  Free  Religious 
Association,  in  gratitude  and  honor,  and  that  we  now  render  our 
warm  thanks,  not  onlv  to  them,  but  to  all  who  have  aided  the 
paper  with  pen  or  purse. 

In  sending  the  above  I  take  the  opportunity  of  expressing  mv 
own  confidence  in  The  Open  Court,  as  was  prophesied  by  Mr. 
Wm.  C.  Gannett  at  the  supper  of  the  F.  R.  A.  in  Boston,  on 
November  18th,  "  the  soul  of  The  Index  is  marching  on." 

Fred.  M.  Holland,  Sec'v  F.  R.  A. 


SCHILLER'S     GODS    OF     GREECE. 

(  Freely  translated  in  part. ) 
BY    B.    W.    BALL. 


Yotir  festive  ritual  never  knew 

Harsh  penance  or  austere  devotion — 
The  happy  were  akin  to  vou — 

All  hearts  throbbed  with  a  glad  emotion; 
For  then  the  Holy  was  the  Fair, 

To  Beauty's  scepter  all  submitting, 
Man's  raptures  gods  blushed  nut  to  share, 

If  Muse  and  Graces  were  permitting. 


No  specter  o'er  the  bed  of  death 
Hung  ghastly  then,  but  sad  affection 

Kissing  received  the  parting  breath, 

And    Love  his  torch  lowered  in  dejection,- 


Whereart  thou,  lovelv  world:     Again 

Return,  O  vanished  bloom  of  yore! 
Save  in  the  Land  of  Song  vour  reign, 

O  happy  Golden  Time,  is  o'er, 
Dishallowed  meadows,  forests  mourn — 

No  glimpse  of  Deity  is  given — 
From  disenchanted  e.irth  forlorn 

Her  haunting  life  of  t^nds  \\  as  driven. 


Out  of  the  cold  North  breathing  dun 

A  blast  that  t'airv  world  invaded, 
And,  while  exalted  was  the  One, 

The  mythic  host  before  him  faded, 
In  yonder  starry  vault  I  find, 

My  lost  Selene,*  thee  no  more, 
While  hollow  echo  on  the  wind 

Answers  mv  call  from  wood  and  shor 


Unconscious  of  the  joy  she  yields  — 

Of  her  own  splendor  unaware  — 
Bl  nd  to  the  plastic  power  that  wie'ds 

And  fashions  her  forever  fair — 
Deaf  to  the  voices  in  her  praise — 

Like  lifeless  pendulum's  vibration. 
Lo,  godless  Nature  mow  obeys. 

Slave-like,  the  law  of  gravitation. 


Still  ruled  ye  with  dominion  bland, 
Ear.h's  happy  generations  swaying, 

Fair  Beings  out  of  Fable-land, 
When  all  the  young  world  went  a- Maying, 

And  still  thy  fanes  with  wreaths  were  bright, 
O  Amathusian  Aphrodite! 


Around  the  Truth  the  drapery  lair 

Of  Poesy  was  woven  then, 
Life's  fullness  streamed  through  earth  and  air, 

As  it  will  never  stream  again — 
To  make  her  loved  and  lovelv  man 

Nature  enriched  with  will  a'nd  feeling. 
So  that  whate'er  his  eyes  might  scan 

Was  trace  of  Deity  revealing. 

i 
Where  only  now,  as  sages  say, 

Soulless  an  orb  of  fire  is  burning, 
Carborne,  a  stately  God  of  Day, 

In  ether  blue  men  were  discerning; 
An  Oread  haunted  every  hill  — 

With  every  tree  a  Dryad  died — 
And  with  its  silvery  foam  each  rill 

Was  deemed  from  Naiad's  urn  to  tflide. 


To  old  Deucalion's  r.ice  d  .scending 

Enamored  Deities  still  came; 
For  mortal  maid  his  Hocks  while  tending 

Apollo  felt  a  lover"s  flame; 
Alike  round  heroes,  g<  ds  and  men 

Love  did  his  rosv  bondage  twine — 
Mortals  and  gods  and  heroes  then 

All  knelt  at  Amathusia's  shrine. 


Day  dies,  but  with  each  tresh  morn  shines 
Resurgent  from  its  grave  diurnal; 

The  moon,  waxing  and  waning,  winds 
Like  spindle  swift  its  round  eternal, 

Useless,  to  Poet's  Land  they  flew, 

Their  home,  the  gods  of  earth's  young  days 

The  world  no  more  their  guidance  knew, 
But  held  itself  self  poised  in  space. 


Yes,  homeward  to  the  Poet's  Land, 
The  bright  gods  flying  bore  away 

All  that  was  beautiful  and  grand  — 
Life's  melodies  and  colors  gay — 

Saved  from  the  whelming  stream  of  time 
O'er  heights  of  Pindus  still  they  hover, 

Immortally  in  song  sublime 

They  only  live,  whose  life  is  over. 

*  Stlene,  Greek  name  of  the  moon. 


BOOK    NOTICES. 


Philosophical  Realism.  By  William  Icrin  Gill,  author  of 
"  Evolution  and  Progress"  and  "Analytical  Processes."  Bos- 
ton :   Index  Association,  18S5;  pp.  292. 

The  leading  ohject  of  this  little  volume  in  paper  covers,  com- 
posed mainly  of  a  series  of  papers  printed  a  few  years  ago  at 
considerable  intervals  in  The  Judex,  is  to  show  that  the  only  reality 
is  Mind;  that  material  things  have  no  existence  per  se;  that  they 
are  but  "  mortal  modes  of  mortal  thought,"  which  pass  away  and 
perish  with  the  power  of  sensibility  which  begot  them,  mind  alone 


THE    ORKN    COURT. 


remaining  and  enduring  forever.  Mr.  Gill's  philosophical  realism  is 
idealism,  and  this  our  author  holds  is  the  goal  toward  which  all 
thought  and.  action  clearly  tend. 

The  work  shows  acquaintance  with  the  various  schools  of 
speculative  philosophy  and  it  is  marked  by  much  acuteness  of 
thought  and  ingenuity  in  anticipating  and  replying  to  objections- 
This  volume,  like  the  other  works  of  Mr.  Gill,  is  independent  in 
spirit,  and  contains  chapters  to  which  no  orthodox  theologian  is 
like  to  give  assent.  Among  its  defects  are  needless  repetitions 
and  obscurities  of  expression  which  detract  from  its  value,  but  in 
spite  of  which  it  is  an  able  contribution  to  speculative  thought 


Practical  Piety.  From  Discourses  delivered  at  Central  Music 
Hall,  Chicago.  By  Jenkins  Lloyd  Jones.  Chicago:  Charles 
II.  Kerr  cV  Co.,  1S87;  pp.  60.  Cloth,  price  30  cent-,. 
As  samples  of  these  sermons  we  quote  the  following:  •'  When 
our  lives  are  most  in  attune  with  high  things,  how  many  clamorous 
wants  recede  into  the  background"  (from  Sermon  on  "  The  Econi- 
mies  of  Religion").  "  Ideas,  the  high  price  of  which  tempt  us  to 
shrink  from  the  purchase,  endure,  priceless  gems  in  the  cabinet  of 
the  universe,  outshining  and  outlasting  the  stars  themselves.1' 
("Bread  versus  Ideas.")  "Your  brain  is  fertile  with  the  deposits 
of  your  ancestors.  Your  blood  is  rich  with  the  triumphs  of  your 
forerunners.  Your  heart  is  made  tender  with  the  tears  of  the 
mother*  that  were  unappreciated  in  life  and  are  forgotten  in 
death."  ("  Present  Sanctities.")  "The  claims  of  a  child  are:  1st,  to 
be  well  horn;  2d,  to  a  welcome  into  the  world;  3d,  to  the  sym- 
pathy of  its  elders;  4th,  to  a  long  childhood;  5th,  to  a  practical 
education;  6th,  to  a  moral  training ;  7th,  to  religious  influences, 
spiritual  aptitude,  an  appetite  for  heavenly  things,  a  thirst  for  per- 
fection."    ("The  Claims  of  the  Children.") 


Treasure  Trove  for  March  is  full  of  bright  reading  for 
bright  girls  and  bovs.  Over  a  score  of  illustrations  give  point  to 
the  stories,  poems,  biographical  sketches  and  instructive  articles 
of  the  number.  Of  these  three  are  portraits  of  Gen.  Hunt, 
Florence  Nightingale  and  James  Fenimore  Cooper.  151  Wabash 
Ave..  Chicago;  $1.00  per  year.     Treasure  Trove   Publishing  Co. 

A  very  timelv  article,  in  view  of  the  recent  earthquakes,  is  the 
opening  one  in  Scribner's  Monthly  lor  March,  entitled  "  The 
StabiliU  of  the  Earth,"  by  N.  S.  Shaler,  which  is  accompanied  by 
a  dozen  pertinent  illustrations  by  first-class  artists.  The  frontispiece 
is  a  striking  portrait  of  M.  Thiers,  French  historian  and  statesman. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  papers  of  this  number  is  contributed  by 
Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne,  ex-minister  to  France,  "Reminiscences 
of  the  Siege  and  Commune"  another  is  that  entitled  "What 
is  an  Instinct,"  by  Prof.  Win.  James,  of  Harvard  College.  The 
serial  stories  are  by  Harold  Frederic,  II.  C.  Runner  and  "  ].  S.  of 
Dale."  There  are  also  short  stories  by  Joel  Chandler  Harris, 
Robert  Gordon  Butler  and  T.  R.  Sullivan,  and  poems  by  R 
Armvtage  and  Andrew  Lang. 


The  Ar  1  A.m.vi  elk  for  March  is  a  very  lively  and  agreeable 
number.  It  is  curious  to  learn  that  the  great  religious  picture, 
"Christ  Before  Pilate,"  has  been  bought  by  the  Philadelphia  "big 
dry-goods  dealer,"  Wanamaker,  as  an  aid  to  his  business,  while  it  is 
reported,  though  the  report  is  not  confirmed,  that  Hurler  has 
bought  the  $100,000  Rembrandt,  to  show  to  everyone  who  buys 
fifty  cents  worth  of  molasses  candy.  It  has  been  found  profitable 
to  put  a  big  Bongereau  in  a  bar-room,  while  sometimes  the  pictures 
have  proved  too  attractive  and  diverted  the  attention  of  the  custom- 
ers from  buying.  Can  it  be  that  the  shop  and  the  saloon  are  to 
be  the  patrons  of  Art  instead  of  the  palace  and  the  Church?  If  so, 
what  will  Art  become.'      Will  it   pander  to   the   lowest  taste  of  its 


patrons,  or  will  it  really  represent  the  religion  of  the  great  mass 
of  humanity — and  tell  of  the  life  which  is  lived,  often  purelv  and 
heroically — amid  the  turmoil  and  strife  of  business?  A  complete 
collection  of  Millet's  etchings,  owned  by  Mr.  Keppel,  of  New- 
York,  must  afford  a  rare  treat  to  all  lovers  of  this  great  master. 
Greta  tells  good  news  of  the  Boston  Art  Museum — first,  that  it 
has  secured  the  services  of  Mr.  S.  K.  Koehler  to  take  charge  of 
its  valuable  collection  of  engravings.  Mr.  Koehler  is  very  much 
interested,  also,  in  forming  a  historical  collection  of  American 
engravings  and  all  contributions  to  it  will  be  welcomed  and 
properly  arranged.  The  hope  that  the  museum  will  be  able  to  add 
a  new  wing  to  the  building  this  year  is  also  a  delightful  prospect. 
It  will  enable  the  museum  to  exhibit  treasures  already  in  posses- 
sion and  make  room  for  more,  which  will  surely  come.  The  illus- 
trations in  this  number  are  very  attractive.  The  colored  plate  of 
Titmice,  by  Miss  Ellen  Welby,  seems  to  ring  with  the  freshness 
and  gladness  of  spring.  The  little  wood-cuts  are  remarkably 
good.  Dupre's  Twilight  and  Schreyer's  Gipsy  Encampment  are 
full  of  feeling.  The  Patient  Donkey  tells  the  story  of  the  weary 
days'  wandering.  The  little  genre  from  Meyer  Von  Bremen,  "Too 
Hot,"  has  all  the  tenderness  and  naivete  of  that  charming  master, 
while  "Betsy  Prig  and  Sairey  Gamp  Taking  Tea  "  do  justice  to 
those  inimitable  sketches  of  Dickens.  The  ornamental  designs 
adapted  from  flowers  are  very  good.  One  gives  the  leaves  and 
blossoms  of  the  pitcher-plant,  and  would  be  very  effective  in  many 
styles  of  embroidery  or  decorative  work.  The  reproduction  of  a 
pen-drawing  by  F.  Hopkinson  Smith,  after  Ziem,  gives  much  of 
the  charm  of  light  and  shadow  of  his  Venetian  pictures. 


WHAT   THE   PRESS   SAYS   OF  THE  OPEN   COURT. 

The  Open  Cocrt,  which  hikes  the  place  of  the  Index,  and  is  now  published 
at  Chicago  us  a  fortnightly,  is  a  great  improvement  on  that  rather  unequal 
journal  and  brings  to  the  front,  with  their  affirmations  of  positive  thought, 
the  principal  radical  thinkers  of  the  country.  There  is  not  an 

article  in  it  which  a  thinking  man  can  afford  to  skip,  and  if  the  periodical  c  in 
lie  maintained  at  ils  present  level,  it  will  speedily  become  one  of  the  influential 
papers  of  the  United  States,  in  all  that  pertains  to  vital  thinking.  It  will  he  an 
honor  to  any  man  to  reach  the  public  through  its  columns. — Boston  Dotty 
Herald. 

T\  pographically  speaking  The  Open  Cocrt  makes  a  handsome  appearance, 
as  it  is  neatly  printed,  and  its  contents  are  rather  interesting,  being  a  decided 
improvement  on  any  other  religious  journal  that  comes  to  this  office,  now  that 
the  Index  has  disappeared. — Boston  Investigator . 

The  first  number  just  out,  is  a  notable  issue  both  in  contents  and  tvpograph 
ical  appearance,  and  is  a  worthy  champion  of  the  cause  to  which  it  is  dedicaied. 
—Boston  Budget. 

It  will  doubtless  find  readers  to  whom  it  will  become  a  necessity  and  an  effi- 
cient helper. —  Chicago  Tribune. 

It  was  to  late  last  week,  when  we  discovered  our  new  contemporary,  Till-. 
Open  COURT,  nestling  among  our  exchanges,  to  extend  to  it  a  fraternal 
welcome.  We  stretch  our  hand  across  the  continent,  however,  this  week,  to 
shake  hands  with  this  new  representative  of  free  thought.  The  Open  Couh  1 
is  what  in  the  West  would  be  called  a  "  broad-gauge  "  paper,  and  it  starts  with 
a  good  head  of  steam  and  well-freighted  columns.  From  the  Register's  stand 
point,  it  does  not  seem  exactly  as  if  The  Open  Cockt  were  00  the  right  track, 
theologically;  and,  if  Orthodoxy  is  right,  the  final  experience  of  our  contempt, 
rarv  must  be  one  of  wreck  and  conflagration.  But  we  are  glad  to  say  that  it 
exhibits  high  ability  as  well  as  freedom  in  thought;  and  we  may  be  sure,  under 
Mr.  Underwood's  editorship,  that  its  moral  tone  will  be  lofty  and  commanding. 
—  Christian  Register. 

The  number  before  us  is  beautifully  printed,  and  judging  from  the  cursory 
perusal  we  have  been  able  to  give  it,  is  able  and  entertainingly  edited. — Dovj. 
agiac  (Mich.)  Times. 

Both  in  appearance  and  matter  it  is  attractive.  —  Unity. 

The  first  issue  gives  promise  of  a  brilliant  career. — Sentinel  Advertiser, 
1  Hope  Valley,  R.  I.I 

It  is  a  fortnightly  journal,  very  handsomely  printed,  neatly  made  up,  and  one 
of  its  good  features  is  that  il  is  of  convenient  size  and  form  for  references  and 
binding.  A  hasty  inspection  leads  us  to  anticipate  much  pleasure  from  its  fort- 
nightly visits.— Aft.  Deseret  (Me.)  Herald. 

It  is  a  successor  of  ttie  Boston  Index,  which  was  the  organ  of  Free  Religious 
Movement,  but  on  a  somewhat  more  "advanced"  plane.  Its  contributors 
represent  all  phases  of  religious  thought. — Ottavja  lOot.)  Free  Press. 


The  Open  Court 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Denoted  to  the   Work  of   Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon   a   Scientific    Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  4. 


CHICAGO,  MARCH  31,  1887. 


\  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
1  Sin^l    Copies,  15  cts. 


A   HINT   FROM   FRANKLIN. 
BY  JOHN"  BURROUGHS, 

In  his  autobiography,  Franklin  speaks  of  a  certain 
sect  of  the  Dunkers  of  his  time,  who  had  wisely  refused 
to  print  their  confession  of  faith,  lest  as  the}'  progressed  in 
spiritual  knowledge,  they  he  too  much  hound  by  it  and 
it  proye  a  bar  and  a  hindrance  to  them.  "When  we 
were  first  drawn  together  as  a  society,"  said  the  Dunker, 
"it  had  pleased  God  to  enlighten  our  minds  so  far  as  to 
see  that  some  doctrines  which  were  esteemed  truths 
were  errors  and  that  others  which  we  had  esteemed 
errors  were  real  truths.  From  time  to  time  he  has  been 
pleased  to  afford  us  further  light,  and  our  principles  have 
been  improying  and  our  errors  diminishing."  Franklin 
adds,  that  "this  modesty  in  a  sect  is  perhaps  a  single 
instance  in  the  history  of  mankind,  every  other  sect  sup- 
posing itself  in  possession  of  all  truth,  and  that  those 
who  differ  are  so  far  in  the  wrong;  like  a  man  traveling 
in  foggy  weather,  those  at  some  distance  before  him  in 
the  road  he  saw  wrapped  up  in  the  fog  as  well  as  those 
behind  him,  and  also  the  people  in  the  fields  on  either 
side,  but  near  him  all  appears  clear,  though,  in  truth,  he 
is  as  much  in  the  fog  as  any  of  them."  These  Dunkers 
were  indeed  wise  in  their  day  and  generation,  and 
Franklin  himself  was,  perhaps,  as  little  in  the  fog 
engendered  by  narrowness  and  dogmatism  as  any  man 
of  his  times.  If  there  is  one  thing  certain  in  the  his- 
tory of  mankind  it  is  that  sects  do  outgrow  their  creeds 
and  are  compelled  to  pull  down  and  build  larger  or  else 
be  terribly  pinched  for  room.  Probably  every  one  of 
the  evangelical  churches  is  to-day  more  or  less  pinched 
by  its  confessions  of  faith.  No  one  can  read  the 
debate  of  the  Congregational  ministers  last  fall  at  Des 
Moines,  on  the  subject  of  Foreign  Missions,  Future 
Probation,  etc.,  without  seeing  how  keenh'  the  finer  and 
more  expansive  spirit  among  them  felt  the  hard  limita- 
tions of  their  creed.  The  Andover  professors  have 
tried  to  enlarge  the  creed  a  little,  or  rather,  they  haye 
tried  to  stretch  it  so  as  to  make  it  less  galling  to  the 
modern  humanitarian  feeling,  and  for  this  they  are  now 
arraigned,  and  by  many  of  their  brethren,  already  con- 
demned. What  pagans  and  heathens  most  of  us  still 
are  in  opinion,  hardly  yet  more  than  half  liberated  from 
the  most  groveling  and  materialistic  superstitions  of  the 
pre-Christian  world.  Heaven  is  still  a  place  with  our 
creed   makers,  hell  is  still  an  infernal  abode,  God  is  still 


a  Moloch  or  a  Baal,  Christ  is  still  the  victim  sacrificed 
upon  the  altar  to  conciliate  an  offended  deity,  religion  is 
still  a  doctrine  and  a  ceremony,  man  is  still  the  spirit  of 
capricious  and  super-human  powers;  justice  is  still 
repriyal  and  reversal;  there  is  wrath  and  a  feeling  of 
destruction  in  heaven,  and  the  day  of  judgment  is  still 
an  assizes  adjourned  to  some  future  time.  Creeds  in 
our  day  harden  the  heart;  they  shock  our  religious  sensi- 
bilities; they  make  atheists  and  scoffers. 

In  a  city  near  me,  there  is  a  large  cemetery,  in  a 
neglected  corner  of  which  is  a  multitude  of  children's 
graves  which  have  the  appearance  of  being  outcasts? 
reprobates;  and  so  they  are.  These  children  were  not 
baptized,  therefore  they  cannot  be  buried  in  consecrated 
ground;  their  blameless  little  souls  are  in  heli,  and  their 
bodies  are  huddled  together  here  in  this  neglected 
corner.  This  is  a  glimpse  of  the  beauty  of  the  Catholic 
creed.  The  [ewish  Papalists  used  to  believe  that  the 
.utterance  of  certain  magical  words  engraved  upon  the 
seal  of  Solomon  would  transform  a  man  into  a  brute,  or 
a  brute  into  a  man.  The  Catholics  ascribe  the  same 
magical  power  to  water  in  the  hands  of  a  priest.  When 
the  service  is  read  and  the  unconscious  infant  is  bap- 
tized, at  that  moment  a  miraculous  change  is  wrought  in 
its  nature,  and  Rome  says,  with  true  Christian  charity, 
"let  lvm  be  accursed"  who  believes  it  not.  The  mere 
knowledge  of  such  things  is  hurtful.  And  it  requires 
rare  Christian  forbearance  to  read  the  Andover  creed, 
and  not  fall  from  the  grace  of  brotherly  love.  Is  it  not 
easy  to  see  what  short  work  Jesus  would  have  made  of 
these  creed  mongers,  the  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners, 
the  rebuker  of  formalists,  the  comtemner  of  life  service, 
who  laid  all  the  emphasis  upon  the  condition  of  the 
heart  and  the  attitude  of  the  spirit,  who  said  to  the  chief 
priest  of  the  popular  religion  of  his  time:  "The  publi- 
cans and  harlots  go  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  before 
you  ? " 

Our  doctors  of  divinity  talk  glibly  of  the  growth  of 
religious  thought,  but  seem  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
growth  of  religious  thought  means  more  or  less  a  decay 
of  old  beliefs.  There  is  no  growth  in  anything  without 
a  casting  off  and  a  leaving  of  something  behind.  Growth 
in  science  is  to  a  great  extent  the  discovery  of  new  facts 
and  principles,  which  render  the  old  theories  and  conclu- 
sions untenable.  See  how  much  we  have  had  to  unlearn 
and  leave  behind  us  by  reason   of   Darwin's;  labors  and 


86 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


further  advances  already  lessen  the  significance  of  some 
of  his  principles.  But  it  may  be  said  that  religion  has 
not  to  do  with  outward  facts  and  laws  like  science,  but 
with  inward  spiritual  conditions.  Then  why  seek  to 
embodv  its  final  truths  in  formal  propositions,  as  if  they 
were  matters  of  exact  demonstration  like  science?  The 
creeds  treat  religion  as  objective  fact,  something  to  be 
proved  to  the  understanding  and  to  be  lodged  in  a  sys- 
tem of  belief,  like  any  of  the  teachings  of  physical 
science.  Regarded  as  such,  it  is  always  exposed  to  the 
inquiry:  Is  it  true?  Is  it  final?  Does  it  agree  with  the 
rest  of  our  knowledge?  Does  it  keep  pace  with  the  pro- 
gress of  science?  If  it  is  a  subjective  condition,  if  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  really  within,  as  Christ  taught, 
then  the  expression  of  it  in  outward  forms  of  belief  and 
creed  must  change  as  much  as  any  other  philosophy  or 
metaphvsics  change.  A  noble  sentiment  mankind  will 
doubtless  always  admire ;  a  heroic  act,  self  sacrifice,  mag- 
nanimity, courage,  enthusiasm,  patriotism  will  always 
awaken  a  quick  response;  so  will  religion  as  devotion, 
or  piety,  or  love,  or  as  an  aspiration  after  the  highest 
good,  but  as  an  intellectual  conception  of  God  and  of 
the  manner  of  his  dealings  with  man,  it  must  be  subject 
to  change  and  revision  like  all  other  intellectual  concep- 
tions. Where  actual  verification  cannot  take  place  as  in 
science  or  mathematics,  belief  must  forever  fluctuate  like 
the  forms  and  colors  of  summer  clouds.  The  subject  of  it 
may  always  be  the  same — God,  the  soul,  the  eternal  life, 
but  the  relation  of  these  and  their  final  meanings  can 
never  be  once  and  forever  settled.  Theology  is  at  best 
only  a  tentative  kind  of  science.  Its  conclusions  cannot 
have  anything  like  the  certitude  of  scientific  truth  be- 
cause they  are  not  capable  of  verification.  Principal 
Tulloch  in  his  Movements  of  Religions  Thought  in 
Britian,  had  the  courage  to  say,  that  "  the  idea  that 
theology  is  a  fixed  science,  with  hard  and  fast  proposi- 
tions, partaking  of  the  nature  of  infallibility,  is  a  super- 
stition which  cannot  face  the  light  of  modern  criticism." 
Tullnch  further  indicates  that  the  true  rational  stand- 
point as  to  creeds  and  formulas,  is  a  profound  distrust  of 
them  as  professing  "to  sum  up  Divine  Truth.  Useful  as 
'  aids  to  faith',  they  are  intolerable  as  limitations  of  faith." 
And  "  limitations  of  faith  "  most  of  the  creeds  undoubt- 
edly are.  But  the  drift  of  religious  feeling,  if  not  of 
religious  opinion,  is  undoubtedly  away  from  them. 
Most  Churches  keep  their  creed  pretty  well  in  the  back 
ground.  When  has  any  one  heard  a  doctrincal  sermon? 
The  creeds  have  been  retired  to  the  rear  because  they 
are  no  longer  available  in  front.  The  world  no  longer 
asks  what  a  man  believes,  but  what  is  he?  What  is  his 
intrinsic  worth  as  a  man?  Is  he  capable  of  honesty,  ot 
sobriety,  of  manliness?  Vital  original  qualities,  and  not 
speculative  opionions,  are  certainly  what  tell  most  in 
this  world,  however  it  may  be  in  the  next.  Religion  as 
a  sentiment  is  strong  in  these  times,  but  religion  as  a 


dogma  is  weak.  The  growing  disbelief  of  which  we 
hear  so  much,  is  a  disbelief  in  the  infallibility  of  dogma, 
not  a  disbelief  in  the  need  of  godliness,  purity,  spirit- 
uality, and  noble  disinterested  lives.  These  things  move 
us  as  much  or  more  than  ever,  but  in  the  creeds  we  hear 
only  the  rattling  of  dry  bones.  How  had  the  Puritan 
theology  been  sloughed  off  by  Emerson,  and  yet  what 
a  pure,  stimulating,  ennobling,  religious  spirit  shone  in 
that  man,  and  still  shines  in  his  works.  The  "saving 
grace"  of  heroic  thought  and  aspiration,  if  they  ever 
existed.  The  same  might  be  said  of  Carlyle,  rejector 
as  he  was  of  the  creed  of  his  fathers.  "  Religion  can- 
not be  incarnated  and  settled  once  for  all  in  forms  of 
creed  and  worship.  It  is  a  continual  growth  in  every 
living  heart — a  new  light  to  every  seeing  eye.  Past 
theologies  did  their  best  to  interpret  the  laws  under 
which  man  was  living,  and  to  help  him  regulate  his  life 
thereby.  But  the  laws  of  God  are  before  us  always, 
whether  promulgated  in  Sinai  thunder  or  otherwise." 
The  progress  of  religious  thought  that  has  been  made 
in  the  last  half  century  is  indicated  in  the  writings  and 
sermons  of  such  men  as  Maurice,  Campbell,  Erskine, 
Kinglsey,  Stanley,  Arnold,  Robertson,  Tulloch,  Mauds- 
ley  and  others  in  Great  Britain,  and  in  those  of  Emer- 
son, Parker,  Hedge  and  Mulford,  in  this  country — a 
progress  from  the  bondage  of  the  letter  of  the  law  into 
the  freedom  of  the  spirit.  When  we  think  of  what 
these  men  have  said  and  done,  we  may  look  forward 
with  some  confidence  as  Goethe  did  to  a  time  when  "all 
of  us  by  degrees  will  learn  to  elevate  ourselves  out  of  a 
Christianity  of  catechisms  and  creeds,  into  a  Christianity 
of  pure  sentiment  and  noble  action." 


JEPTHAH'S  DAUGHTER    AT  HONOLULU. 

BY  MONCURE  D.  CONWAY. 

The  Princess  Like  Like,  of  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
has  just  died  in  her  youth.  She  had  received  an  Amer- 
ican education,  had  married  an  American,  and  had  before 
her  a  flowery  path  to  the  crown  worn  by  her  brother — 
for  she  was  the  youngest  sister  of  Kalakaua — when  she 
was  done  to  death  as  a  sacrifice  to  Pele.  It  is  the  old 
"  theology  in  the  island  "  that  eruptions  of  the  volcano 
Mauna  Loa  signify  the  wrath  of  Pele  against  mortals 
generally,  and  that  the  dread  goddess  can  only  be  ap- 
peased by  the  sacrifice  of  a  member  of  the  royal  family. 
"  They  had  not,"  says  the  correspondent  of  the  New 
York  Herald  (March  8),  alluding  to  the  Kahunas,  "far 
to  search  for  one  who  would  make  the  fearful  sacrifice, 
and  while  the  rumbling  of  the  volcano  made  awful 
thunder  the  Princess  Like  Like  announced  to  the  people 
that  she,  the  sister  of  the  king — the  nearest  to  the  throne 
— would  lay  down  her  life  to  stop  the  fearful  flow.  She 
openly  proclaimed  that  she  gloried  to  make  a  martyr 
of  herself  for  her  country  and  her  people;  and  though 
in  the  prime  of  life,  and  with  the  prospect  of  a  crown 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


87 


before  her,  she  made  her  final  preparations  and  lay  down 
to  await  the  end.  It  is  said  that  in  this  final  proceed- 
ing the  Kahunas  played  no  unimportant  part,  and  that 
while  acting  as  her  guardians  and  advisers  they  were,  in 
fact,  practising  their  dark  arts  upon  her  and  hurrying 
her  onward  to  the  end.  For  days  and  days  she  lay 
among  these  people,  and  during  all  that  time  not  a  par- 
tial of  food  was  allowed  to  pass  her  lips.  She  died  of 
starvation  at  last,  lay  in  state  twenty  days,  and  was  laid 
in  the  royal  mausoleum  February  2S,  1SS7.  The 
strangest  part  to  tell,"  adds  the  correspondent  of  the 
most  widely  circulated  paper  in  Christendom,  "is  this, 
that  upon  the  day  of  her  death  Mauna  Loa,  the  Awful, 
ceased  to  belch  its  lava  forth,  and  for  days  after  was  in 
comparative  quiet,  and  then  the  hoary  old  soothsayers 
went  about  among  the  people  with  many  a  nod  and 
mystic  sign,  as  who  should  say, 'Didn't  we  foretell  all 
this? '  and  to-day  their  power  is  greater  in  the  land  than 
since  the  days  when  Captain  Cook  laid  his  bones  upon 
their  sandy  beach." 

Many  a  tender-hearted  woman,  reading  this  tragical 
narative,  will  ask,  "  Where  were  the  missionaries?  "  I 
can  answer  such  from  personal  knowledge.  American 
protestant  missionaries  have  for  generations  held  com- 
plete possession,  morally,  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 
They  are  chiefly  of  New  England  origin  and  have  been 
able  to  establish  there  the  nearest  thing  to  the  old  Puri- 
tan government  now  surviving  on  earth.  The  sacred 
sawisans  are  not  fossilized  in  the  Sandwich  Islands;  they 
poison  all  that  paradise  of  coral  and  flowers.  A  man 
may  be  imprisoned  at  Honolulu  for  riding  on  the  Sab- 
bath. I  was  one  of  a  company  compelled  to  pass  a 
Sabbath  there;  it  was  a  fearfully  hot  September  day, 
but  no  one  was  allowed  to  sell  our  ship  a  lump  of  ice, 
nor  could  we  buy  a  glass  of  soda-water.  The  whole 
Sabbath  atmosphere  was  that  most  congenial  to  human 
sacrifice.  It  were,  perhaps,  not  wonderful  if  the  young 
princess,  like  Electra  of  old,  desired  to  get  out  of  it  all 
and  find  a  repose  unvexed  by  any  gods.  From  what  I 
learned  of  Christian  theology  in  the  Sandwich  Islands 
while  there,  four  years  ago,  it  has  but  given  new  lease 
of  life  to  the  native  theology.  Both  of  these  theologies 
have  a  common  source.  They  rolled  out  of  the  cruel 
phenomena  of  nature.     They 

"  Came 
Like  the  volcano's  tongue  of  flame;" 

even  like  the  fiery  vomit  of  Mauna  Loa.  The  "  Moun- 
tain Fiend,"  as  the  Herald  calls  Pele,  is  but  a  hag  Je- 
hovah. How  often  had  the  Princess  Like  Like,  sitting 
in  church  with  her  American  husband  (A.  B.  Cleghorn) 
and  her  little  daughter,  heard  her  minister  read  about 
the  biblical  Pele?  "And  Mount  Sinai  was  altogether 
on  a  smoke,  because  the  Lord  descended  upon  it  in  fire; 
and  the  smoke  thereof  ascended  as  the  smoke  of  a  fur- 
nace, and  the  whole  mountain  quaked  greatly."  "  And 
the  sight  of  the  glory  of   the  Lord  was  like  devouring 


fire."  "  And  he  said  unto  them,  thus  saith  the  Lord 
God  of  Israel,  Put  every  man  his  sword  by  his  side, and 
go  in  and  out  from  .gate  to  gate  throughout  the  camp, 
and  slay  every  man  his  brother,  and  every  man  his  com- 
panion, and  every  man  his  neighbor.  And  there  fell  of 
the  people  that  day  about  3,000  men.  For  Moses  had  said 
consecrate  yourselves  to-day  to  the  Lord,  even  every  man 
upon  his  son,  and  upon  his  brother;  that  he  may  bestow 
upon  you  a  blessing  this  day."  How  many  young  Like 
Likes  were  sacrificed  that  day  to  appease  the  "Devour- 
ing Fire,"  and  to  secure  blessings  for  their  survivors! 

How  many  sermons  had  this  sacrificed  Hawaiian 
princess  heard  representing  God  as  a  Consuming  Fire, 
whose  wrath  had  been  soothed,  whose  remorseless  law 
satisfied,  only  by  the  death  of  a  member  of  the  royal 
family  ? 

The  ancient  Hebrews  frankly  preserved,  what  mod- 
ern Hebrews  try  to  explain  away  by  casuistry,  the  story 
of  Jepthah's  sacrifice  of  his  daughter  to  Jehovah  in  ful- 
fillment of  a  pledge  to  do  so  if  Jehovah  gave  him  a  vic- 
tory. Jepthah's  faith  is  praised  by  Paul.  It  is  the 
opinion  of  Froude,  and  other  eminent  scholars,  that  the 
Greeks  got  hold  of  a  version  of  this  same  story,  and  that 
"Iphigenia"  is  really  "Jepthah-genia."  Whether  the 
two  stories  are  variants  of  the  same  or  not  does  not  mat- 
ter, however,  they  are  the  same  in  theological  origin. 
But  there  is  a  striking  difference  between  the  use  made 
of  this  idea  of  human  sacrifice  by  ancient  Greeks  and 
modern  Christians.  The  Christian  plan  of  salvation 
sets  before  us  an  offended  God  (or  Law)  satisfied  by  a 
spotless  and  royal  human  victim  who  takes  the  place  of 
the  human  race  and  suffers  the  vengence  which  would 
have  fallen  upon  them.  The  doctrine  based  on  this  is 
that  we  should  praise  and  worship  both  the  avenger  and 
his  victim  and  regard  the  scheme  as  an  expression  of 
divine  wisdom  and  love.  Now  the  Greeks  set  before 
us  an  offended  goddess,  Artemis,  who  vents  her  fury  on 
the  fleet  of  Agamemnon,  king  of  men,  because  of  some 
offense  to  her  divine  privileges  by  one  of  his  royal  an- 
cestors— offense  small  as  eating  a  forbidden  apple.  It  is 
decided  by  the  priests  (Kahunas  of  the  time)  that  the 
fleet  can  only  move  and  victory  be  won  if  Agamemnon's 
daughter,  Iphigenia  be  sacrificed.  This  is  done.  The 
imputed  sin  is  requited  by  vicarious  suffering  of  the  in- 
nocent. Agamemnon  moves  on,  prevails,  and  returns 
home  amid  the  wild  delight  of  his  people. 

But  just  here  the  Greeks  bring  in  another  figure — 
Clytemnestra.  She — the  mother — cares  little  for  the 
victory.  She  asks  for  her  daughter  who  accompanied 
the  fleet — her  beloved  Iphigenia.  She  is  told  the  story. 
With  her  own  hand  she  slays  Agamemnon.  That  is 
Greek  theology.  The  king  cowering  before  Artemis 
in  heaven  learns  that  there  is  a  Clytemnestra  on  earth. 
Humanity  also  has  its  rights  and  its  vengeances.  Cly- 
temnestra is  the  Greek  criticism  on  the  Jepthah  story. 


88 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  Hebrews  did  not  report  what  Jepthah-genia's 
mother  thought  of  the  proceeding  of  the  Israelitish 
captain.      The  Greeks  supplied  that  omission. 

Christianity  refused  the  Greek  hint.  It  accepted 
the  piimitive  savage  notion.  Abraham's  arm  stayed, 
when  about  to  sacrifice  his  son,  became  the  line  of  Jew- 
ish theological  evolution.  But  Christendom  selected 
for  its  basis  the  unarrested  human  sacrifice — unarrested 
by  any  angel,  unavenged  by  any  Clytemnestra.  With 
Jepthah's  faith  it  subdued  Greece  ami  stopped  the 
mouths  of  poets.  It  established  in  Europe  the  volcanic 
theology  of  Mauna  Lao.  It  added  millions  of  victims 
to  the  3,000  massacred  before  the  Devouring  Fire  of 
Sinai.  The  deified  Devouring  Fire  and  its  deified  vic- 
tim were  establish  d  also  in  America.  For  two  hundred 
years  this  virgin  land  was  victim  of  a  dogma  more  cruel 
than  its  wildest  aborigines  ever  devised.  But  at  length, 
in  the  Athens  of  America,  Clytemnestra  appeared. 
Channing  appeared,  and  Parker,  and  Emerson,  and 
Ballou.  Through  them  spoke  humanity,  and  by  her 
maternal  hand  this  Agamemnon  theology — this  throned 
cowardly  sacrificer  of  men  to  gods — was  laid  low.  Un- 
fortunately, however,  it  was  not  slain.  It  tied  from  the 
centres  of  American  culture  to  take  up  its  abode,  and 
rebuild  its  empire,  among  helpless  and  ignorant  islanders, 
in  whose  horrible  devil-worship  it  finds  natural   habitat. 

Despite  the  death  of  its  latest  victim,  the  Princess 
Like  Like,  Mauna  Loa  is  still  belching  out  its  brim- 
stone. This  same  paper  tells  us  that  its  red  dust  has 
settled  down  in  some  Western  city.  The  theological 
dust  of  Mauna  Loa  may  be  recognized  in  that  Congre- 
gational Assembly  in  Chicago  which  declined  to  sym- 
pathise with  Mrs.  Beecher  because  her  dying  husband 
did  not  believe  in  eternal  hell-fires.  No  question  was 
raised  about  anything  so  unimportant  as  Beecher's  mor- 
ality, or  the  Assembly's  humanity.  The  Devouring 
Fire  was  alone  important.  Everything  must  be  sacri- 
ficed to  that.  These  men  are  a  thousand  years  behind 
ancient  Greece.  Their  Madonna  is  Pele.  Their  the- 
ology was  all  belched  out  of  Mauna  Loa. 


MORAL  UNITY. 

BY    WILLIAM  J.    POTTER. 

One  of  the  basal  facts  of  the  science  of  ethics  is  the 
moral  unity  of  the  human  race.  This,  of  course,  is  not 
to  say  that  among  all  races  and  nations  there  is  the 
same  measure  of  moral  light,  nor  even  that  enlightened 
mankind  are  always  uniformly  agreed  in  respect  to  the 
application  of  moral  principles.  Much  less  is  it  to  say 
that  all  persons  are  alike  zealous  in  seeking  and  doing 
right  actions.  But  what  is  meant  by  moral  unity  among 
mankind  is  that,  under  conditions  of  normal  develop- 
ment, all  classes  and  kinds  of  men  not  only  have  a  sense 
of  moral  obligation,  but  substantially  agree  among 
themselves  in  regard   to  the   fundamental   principles   of 


the  moral  law;  and,  further,  that,  with  increasing  en- 
lightenment and  advancing  civilization,  there  is  a  grow- 
ing agreement  among  all  races  and  classes  of  people 
concerning  the  practical  application  of  these  funda- 
mental ethical  principles. 

The  moral  unity  of  mankind,  historically  considered, 
may  be  regarded  as  a  comparatively  recent  discovery. 
It  was  one  of  the  common-places  of  the  old  theological 
teaching,  and  not  so  very  far  back,  that  the  moral  law- 
was  given  to  man  in  connection  with  religious  revela- 
tion and  came  direct  from  heaven;  that  outside  of  the 
Hebrew  and  Christian  religions  only  a  most  meagre  and 
inadequate  knowledge  of  moral  obligation  and  moral 
principles  has  ever  existed;  that,  even  if  a  few  excep- 
tionally intelligent  men  among  heathen  races  appear  to 
have  comprehended  a  tolerably  lofty  ethical  code,  the 
masses  of  the  people  around  them  were  incapable  of  under- 
standing it  and  were  almost  void  of  moral  sense.  This 
was  one  of  the  stock-arguments  by  which  it  was  sought 
to  prove  the  necessity  of  a  supernatural  revelation  in 
order  to  save  mankind  from  ruin  by  imparting  to  the 
race  the  true  moral  code.  The  same  argument  was 
also  brought  forward  to  prove  the  vast  superiority  of 
the  religion  of  the  Bible  to  all  forms  of  natural  religion. 
The  point  was  apparently  overlooked  that  both  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testaments  furnish  abundant  evidence  of 
the  fact  that  the  masses  of  the  people  gave  little  heed  to 
the  moral  precepts  announced  therein  by  such  excep- 
tional teachers  as  Moses,  Isaiah  and  Jesus. 

But  researches  which  have  been  made,  especially  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  present  century,  in  the  literature 
and  teachings  of  the  heathen  religions  of  Asia,  have 
disclosed  in  them  a  body  of  moral  principles  and  pre- 
cepts in  entire  unity  with  the  best  ethical  teachings  of 
the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures,  and  in  every 
important  particular  as  clear  in  perception  and  as  lofty 
in  tone  and  tenor.  In  view  of  these  discoveries,  so  sur- 
prising to  the  theological  mind  of  Christendom,  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  these  natural  religions  have  become 
re:  ealed  to  the  modern  world;  and,  in  consequence,  it 
is  not  now  a  very  rare  thing  to  find  Orthodox  writers 
admitting  that  all  these  religions  before  Christianity 
had  a  measure  of  divine  revelation  and  guidance.  The 
confirmed  theological  mind  of  the  old  type,  however, 
has  not  yet  been  able  to  adjust  itself  to  this  discovery. 
Therefore  it  was  that  President  Bartlett,  of  Dartmouth 
College,  in  the  recent  debate  in  the  Board  of  Missions 
over  the  chances  of  salvation  for  unconverted  heathen, 
made  the  senile  statement  that,  though  he  had  taken 
pains  to  look  up  the  matter,  he  could  not  "obtain 
account  of  more  than  a  dozen  or  twenty  instances"  of 
heathen  before  Christ  who  were  possibly  in  a  salv- 
able  condition.  But  the  adjustment  of  old  creeds  to  the 
new  Oriental  scholarship  is  taking  place.  This  is  one 
of  the  things  which  the  New  Orthodoxy  means. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


89 


And  the  important  fact  which  has  been  determined 
by  this  better  information  concerning  the  ethics  of  the 
heathen  religions  of  Asia  is  that  the  peculiar  ethical 
features  which  have  been  supposed  to  distinguish  the 
moral  code  of  the  New  Testament  can  no  longer  be 
regarded  as  unique.  Of  course  it  has  been  known  for  a 
good  while  that  Greece  and  Rome  had  good  moral 
codes.  But  it  had  become  the  fashion  in  theological 
Christendom  to  explain  these  codes  as  the  utterances  of 
a  few  specially  bright  intellects,  upon  which  C  hristian- 
ity  may  have  cast  some  of  the  morning  rays  of  its  ap- 
proaching light.  It  was  also  alleged  that  the  classic 
moral  code,  though  of  heroic  quality,  was  not  of  nearly 
so  high  a  type  as  the  morality  of  the  New  Testament; 
that  it  especially  lacked  the  features  of  gentleness, 
humility,  self-sacrifice,  forgiveness,  forbearance,  resig- 
nation, that  mark  so  conspicuously  the  moral  precepts 
of  Jesus.  But  these  discoveries  with  regard  to  the 
Oriental  religions — with  regard  to  Buddhism,  Brahman- 
ism,  and  the  religions  of  Zoroaster  and  Confucius — 
prove  that  these  very  virtues,  ordinarily  regarded  as 
peculiarly  Christian,  are  the  common  property  of  all 
these  Eastern  religions.  In  truth,  these  are  eminently 
Oriental  virtues;  and  ethical  precepts  of  this  tenor  are 
found  embedded  in  the  sacred  books  of  all  the  ethnic 
religions  of  Asia,  mixed,  as  in  the  Hebrew  and  Chris- 
tian Scriptures,  with  a  good  deal  of  inferior  and  extrane- 
ous matter,  yet,  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  consti- 
tuting an  essential  part  of  the  religion  of  which  these 
sacred  books  in  each  case  are  the  accepted  authoritative 
utterance.  "  Return  good  for  evil"  said  a  Brahman 
text  1200  years  before  Jesus  taught  the  ethics  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  "  Overcome  anger  by  love,  evil 
by  good,"  is  a  Buddhist  precept  of  date  before  Christ. 
"  Be  rigid  to  yourself,  and  gentle  to  others,"  and  again, 
"  He  is  the  great  man  who  is  strongest  in  the  exer- 
cise of  patience — who  patiently  endures  injury,"  taught 
Confucius;  and  his  fellow-countryman,  Lao-tze — the 
profounder  religious  teacher  of  the  two — said,  "  Of  all 
noble  qualities,  the  noblest  is  loving  compassion." 

If  we  regard  the  more  robust  moral  principles,  such 
as  honesty,  justice,  veracity,  self-control,  purity,  we  find 
a  similar  unanimity  of  recognition.  "  Let  a  man  keep 
in  subjection  his  speech,  his  arm,  and  his  appetite,"  said 
nanu,  of  the  ancient  Hindus.  "  Fear  not  poverty,  but 
fear  missing  the  truth,"  again  preached  the  wise  Con- 
fucius. "  Whatsoever  people  may  think  of  you,  do  that 
which  you  believe  to  be  right,"  taught  Pythagoras,  the 
Greek.  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart"  stands  among 
the  highest  of  Jesus'  utterances.  But,  centuries  earlier 
Zoroaster  taught  the  Persians  "  to  keep  pure  in  body 
and  mind;"  that  "immodest  looks  are  sins";  that  "to 
think  evil  is  a  sin." 

Examples  like  these,  to  prove  the  parity  of  ethical 
teaching    among   the    different    races    and   religions    of 


mankind,  mi'jjht  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  The  his- 
torical argument  for  the  moral  unity  of  man  is  simply 
overwhelming.  Humanity,  always  and  everywhere, 
and  under  various  conditions  of  experience,  when  it  has 
risen  to  sufficient  intelligence  to  perceive  the  relations  of 
human  acts,  has  had  essentially  the  same  moral  per- 
ceptions, and  recognized  the  authority  and  majesty  of 
the  same  moral  law. 

In  matters  of  practice,  the  world,  of  course,  has 
always  been  very  far  from  moral  unity,  and  is  still  a  long 
distance  from  that  goal.  Different  persons  and  the 
ethical  codes  of  different  nations  may  give  precisely  the 
same  moral  judgment  of  a  certain  action  when  consid- 
ered apart  from  their  own  interests;  but  let  self-interest 
be  involved  or  personal  passion  be  concerned,  and  im- 
mediately the  moral  perception  is  likely  to  be  blurred 
and  the  action  will  accordingly  be  differently  adjudged. 
The  practical  moral  disagreements  between  individuals 
and  between  nations  arise  from  this  disturbance  of  judg- 
ment caused  by  the  excess  of  some  motive  of  self-inter- 
est. When  we  look  at  the  nations  of  Europe  arming 
themselves  to  the  teeth  against  each  other  and  ready  to 
send  millions  of  men  to  battle-fields  to  defend  against 
each  other  their  alleged  rights,  it  does  not  seem  possible 
that  they  should  confess  the  same  moral  code.  And 
yet  they  do.  And  so  do  the  contending  and  struggling 
classes  that  in  any  single  nation  are  to-day  at  strife  with 
one  another.  They  all  say  that  they  want  only  jus- 
tice and  equity.  But  what  is  justice,  what  are  the 
requirements  of  equity,  in  the  special  questions  at  issue, 
the  pressure  of  self-interest  prevents  them  from  seeing 
together. 

Yet  in  spite  of  the  actual  moral  disturbance  and  the 
fierce  physical  contentions  in  consequence,  moral  unity 
is  stdl  the  ideal  aim  of  mankind.  It  is  the  central  attri- 
bute in  humanity's  vision  of  a  perfected  form  of  so- 
ciety. That  the  individual  members  of  society,  differing 
in  respect  to  intellectual  faculties,  services,  and  power, 
should  see,  feel,  and  live  together  in  entire  moral  har- 
mony,— this  has  been  man's  dream  through  the  ages. 
It  has  been  the  Utopia  of  social  philosophers,  the  vision 
of  enthusiastic  philanthropists,  the  faith  of  religions. 
Nor  is  this  hope  of  a  practical  moral  unity  for  mankind 
to  be  scoffed  at  as  only  an  unsubstantial  dream ;  nor  is 
its  realization  to  be  put  where  religion  has  been  too  apt 
to  put  it,  among  the  mysteries  of  a  future  world.  It  is 
the  hope  that  gives  largest  motive,  highest  dignity,  most 
permanent  influence,  for  human  efforts  in  this  present 
world.  It  is  worth  all  the  struggle  and  pain  of  all  the 
past  ages,  that  this  creature  called  man  has  come,  en- 
dowed with  the  power  of  discerning  the  right  and  the 
true  and  of  putting  them  into  deeds  and  institutions. 
He  thereby  becomes  the  incarnation  and  servant  of  the 
Eternal  Power  that  makes  for  righteousness.  By  their 
capacity  to    help   toward  this   end   of   practical    moral 


9° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


unity,  or   righteousness,  all   men,  measures,  and  institu- 
tions must  be  finally  judged. 

The  consummation  is,  indeed,  far  off!  Individual 
selfish  greed  is  delaying  it.  Individual  passions  and 
appetites,  seeking  their  own  to  the  sacrifice  of  the  com- 
mon good,  are  grievously  hindering  forces.  Moral  unity 
needs  first  of  all  to  be  established  in  the  individual  char- 
acter. Thence  the  harmony  will  extend  to  the  family, 
to  the  neighborhood,  to  the  community,  to  the  State. 
Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  the  appalling  obstacles  and 
delays,  social  progress  is  made.  Vices  are  yielding  to 
the  efforts  of  philanthropy  and  to  a  firmer  self-control. 
Injustices  are  slowly,  but  surely,  giving  way  to  righteous 
laws.  Old  oppressions  are  loosening  their  grasp,  and 
their  victims  are  rising  up  men  and  free  citizens.  By 
and  by — some  of  the  younger  readers  of  this  number  of 
The  Open  Court  may  live  to  see  it — the  warring 
nations  may  agree  to  dismantle  their  forts,  disband  their 
armies,  and  unite  in  a  confederation  of  justice  and 
brotherhood.  In  view  of  moral  and  political  reforms 
which  have  been  accomplished,  this  is  no  merely  vision- 
ary prediction.  The  moral  unity  will  come  if  men  and 
women  will  work  for  it  according  to  their  best  belief 
and  knowledge. 


FLOWERS     AND     POETS. 

BY  ANNA  OLCOTT  COMMELIN. 

Saintine,  in  his  charming  story  of  Picciou  nas  shown 
us  how  the  development  and  growth  of  a  little  plant, 
with  its  buds  and  flowers,  saved  from  weary  languishing 
the  poor  prisoner  of  Fenestrelle,  restored  his  reason, 
health  and  life,  and  in  the  end,  brought  to  him  friend- 
ship, liberty  and  love.  Without  claiming  that  all  flow- 
ers, in  all  circumstances,  can  accomplish  so  much  as  this, 
let  us  consider  them  in  their  relation  to  human  life,  and 
the  inspiration  that  they  have  given  to  poets.  "  Poeta 
nascitur,  nonjit"  says  the  proverb,  and  in  the  mind  of 
every  one  possessed  of  the  poetic  fire  is  born  the  love  of 
beauty.     Says  Wordsworth : 

"To  me  the  meanest  flower  that  blows   can  give 
Thoughts  that  do  often  lie  to  deep  for  tears." 

The  "kindly  fruits  of  the  earth"  minister  to  our 
corporeal  needs,  besides  giving  pleasure  to  the  eye,  but 
flowers  are  almost  human  in  their  association  with  the 
dearest  and  holiest  sacraments  of  life.  They  go  with 
the  bride  to  the  altar,  and  we  lay  them  beside  our  sacred 
dead  when  we  dress  them  for  their  last,  long  sleep. 

.Says  Longfellow: 

"  Bear  a  lily  in  thy  hand, 
Gates  of  brass  cannot  withstand 
One  toueir  of  that  magic  wand." 

"  Sweets  to  the  sweet,"  says  Queen  Gertrude,  when 
she  scatters  flowers  over  Ophelia's  lifeless  form.  Says 
Browning,  "do  not  the  dead  wear  flowers,  when  dressed 
for  God?" 

From  the  first  chill  days   of   early  spring,  when  the 


delicate  anemone   rises    from   the  wintry  ground,  until 
the  last  frail  little  waif  of   a   violet,  in  bleak  December, 
how  magnificent  and  varied  is  this  procession  of  beauty. 
Says  Oberoil : 

"  I  know  a  bank  where  the  wild  thyme  blows, 
Where  ox-lip  and  the  nodding  violet  grows, 
Quite  over-canopied  with  luscious  woodbine, 
With  sweet  musk  roses  and  with  eglantine." 

Mrs  Whitney  expresses  our  feeling  in  the  return  of 
the  flowers  we  have  loved  in  her  lines : 

"  God  does  not  send  us  strange  flowers  every  year; 

When  the  spring  winds  blow  o'er  the  pleasant  places, 
The  same  dear  things  lift  up  the  same  fair  faces, — 
The  violet  is  here." 

When  we  read  that  the  violet, — our  violet, — was 
known  in  the  time  of  Homer,  we  think  of  the  favorite 
poem  of  Lincoln,  and  the  lines: 

"  We  see  the  same  things  that  our  fathers  have  seen." 

In  Cowper's  translation  from  Homer  we  read : 

"Everywhere  appeared 
Meadows  of  softest  verdure  purpled  o'er 
With  violets;  't  was  a  scene  to  fill 
A  god  from  heaven  with  wonder  and  delight." 

Lady  Wilkinson,  in  her  book  on  flowers,  gives 
many  interesting  particulars  concerning  the  violet.  It 
must  have  been  greatly  in  favor  with  the  Romans,  she 
tells  us,  as  they  called  their  days  set  apart  for  decking 
graves,  "Dies  VlolarisP  Pliny  thought  that  violets 
were  of  medicinal  value,  and  advised  that  garlands  of 
them  should  be  worn  on  the  head.  DiiFerent  varieties 
of  this  flower  grow  in  many  parts  of  America,  Pales- 
tine, China,  Japan,  Europe,  and  even  on  the  Swiss 
Alps,  and  the  ruins  of  the  Colosseum  at  Rome.  Its 
praises,  we  are  told,  have  been  written  in  many  lan- 
guages. Aboo  Rumi,  an  Eastern  poet,  says,  "  it  is  not 
a  flower;  it  is  an  emerald,  bearing  a  purple  gem."  The 
Arabs,  it  ia  said,  compare  the  eye  of  a  beautiful  woman 
to  a  violet.  Homer  speaks  of  Venus  as  crowned  with 
violets,  and  Theocritus  thought  that  these  flowers  were 
specially  desirable  for.  wreaths.  Aristophanes  spoke  of 
Athens  as  "  violet  crowned,"  and  Dioscorides  makes 
mention  of  the  flower.  In  modern  times  this  favorite, 
with  its  meanings  of  truth,  modesty  and  love,  is  spoken 
of  by  Shelley,  in  these  lines : 

"  Lilies  for  a  bridal  bed, 
Roses  for  a  matron's  head, 
Violets  for  a  maiden  dead." 

Daisies  are   found   so   universally  that  a  British  poet 
calls  them  "  the   constellated    flowers   that   never  set." 
Chaucer  says: 

"  Above  all  flouris  in  the  mede 
Than  I  love  most  those  flouris  white  and  rede, 
Such  that  men  callen  daisies  in  our  town." 

In  his  legend  of  "  Gude  Women,"  he  gives  a  poetical 
version  of  the  origin  of  the  daisy.  It  is  pleasant  to  know 
that  Linnaeus  himself  may  have  inherited  a  love  of 
flowers  from  his  father,  but  when  we  read  a  botanical 
definition  of  a  daisy  as  a  "  scape,  one-flowered,  with 
leaves   spathulate,  single-ribbed,  obovate,  crenate,"  w» 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


9r 


turn  with  satisfaction    to    Burns,  in    his   address  to  the 
«<  wee,  modest,  crimson-tipped  flower.''' 
Wordsworth  says : 

"  Mcthinks  that  there  abides  with  thee 
Some  concord  with  humanity, 
Given  to  no  other  flower  I  see 
The  forest  through." 

Sweet  and  tender  and  sad  are  the  associations  of  the 
daisy  with  the  frail  genius  of  the  poet  Keats,  who  knew 
not  of  the  immortality  that  time  would  bring  him,  when 
he  composed  his  own  epitaph,  and  felt,  only  a  few  days 
before  his  death,  the  "daisies  growing  over  him." 

Lucy  Larcom,  in  our  own  day,  writes  gracefully  of 

"  golden  daisies:" 

"  Disk  of  bronze  and  ray  of  gold 
Glimmering  through  the  meadow  grasses 
Burn  less  proudlv!  for  behold 
Down  the  fie'd  mv  princess  passes. 
Hardly  should  I  hold  you  fair, 
Golden,  gay  midsummer  daisies, 
But  tor  her,  the  maiden  rare, 
Who,  amid  your  starry  mazes. 
Makes  you  splendid  with  her  praises." 

The  "  Flowers  of  the  Fallow  "  is  another  lovely 
poem  by  this  writer: 

"  I  like  those  plants  that  you  call  weeds, 
Sedge,  hardback,  mullin,  yarrow, 
That  knit  their  roots  and  sift  their  seeds 
Where  any  grassy  wheel-track  leads 
Through  country  by-ways  narrow. 
They  fringe  the  rugged  hillside  farm 
Grown  old  with  cultivation, 
With  such  wild  wealth  of  rustic  charms 
As  bloomed  in  Nature's  matron  arms 
The  first  days  of  creation." 

It  is  hard  to  refrain  from  quoting  all  the  verses,  but 
we  have  cullings  from  many  authors,  in  a  field  which 
comprises  all  lands  and  all  ages,  and  where  the  only 
embarrassment  is  one  of  riches.  To  mention  the  name 
•of  Bryant  is  to  bring  up  a  host  of  tender  and  beautiful 
associations  of  poetrv  and  nature's  charms.  One  hardly 
knows  which  to  love  best,  the  golden  rod  which  sug- 
gested the  verse  of  his  poem,  or  the  verse  which  has 
immortalized  the  golden  rod.  The  lines  are  so  familiar 
to  all  that  some  less  known  but  well  worth  knowing 
will  be  more  appropriate  to  introduce  here,  by  Jennie 
Maxwell    Paine. 

"  Open  the  bars  and  make  me  room, — 
Let  me  wade,  waist-deep,  in  the  yellow  bloom, 
Let  me  me  revel  at  will,  let  me  gather  my  fill, 
Let  me  touch  their  plumes  with  reverent  hands, 
Let  me  tread  where  the  wealth  of  blossom  stands. 
With  the  pomp  of  gold,  in  the  glowing  lands. 
Fine  as  feather  and  soft  as  down 
Is  its  petaled  plume, — the  verv  crown 
Of  the  fair  and  the  fine  and  the  rare  design! 
Fair  as  the  ore.  when  wrought  and  rolled. 
Fine  as  the  fretting  of  filagree  gold." 

When  we  read  of  the  thistle  of  Scotland,  the  fleur- 
de-lis  of  France,  with  the  daisy  as  the  badge  of  the 
beautiful  province  of  Languedre,  and  the  rose  of  En- 
gland, we  could  wish  that  the  possession  of  a  national 
floral  emblem  were  ours,  though  the  choice  of  one 
"  bright,  consummate  flower  "  would  be  attended  with 
difficulties.     Here,  in  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  own 


America,  with  its  wealth  of  flowers,  one  can  think  of 
none  so  national  in  character  as  we  find  in  other  coun- 
tries. Is  not  the  harebell  immortal  in  its  association  with 
the  name  of  Ellen  Douglas  and  Scotland? 

The  fragrance  of  flowers  has  the  power  to  recall 
recollections  of  the  past,  since  the  sense  of  smell  is  more 
intimately  connected  with  the  power  of  memory  than 
with  sight  or  hearing.  Perhaps  this  may  be  another 
,  reason  why  flowers  are  so  much  beloved  by  poets.  A 
different  sentiment,  the  expression  of  his  Pantheistic 
thought,  is  shown  in  Omar  Khayyam's  wonderful  poem 
of  the  Rubaivat : 

"  I  sometimes  think  that  never  blows  so  red 
The  rose  as  where  some  buried  Cajsar  bled; 

That  every  Hyacinth  the  garden  wears 
Dropt  in  her  lap  from  some  once  lovely  head. 

And  this  reviving  herb,  whose  tender  green 
Fledges  the  river  lip  on  which  we  lean, 
Ah.  le.inupon  it  lightly!  for  who  knows 
From  what  once  lovely  lip  it  springs  unseen! 

Shakspeare  expresses  a  similar  idea: 

"  Lay  her  i'  the  earth, 
And,  from  her  fair  and  unpolluted  flesh, 
May  violets  spring." 

And  Herrick  says: 

"  From  her  happy  spark  here  let 
Spring  the  purple  violet." 

And  George  Eliot: 

"Is  there  not  a  soul — half  nymph,  half  child— in  these  delecate  petals  which 
glow  and  breathe  about  the  centres  of  deep  color?  " 

The  rose,  supposed  to  be  a  native  of  Syria,  seems  to 
have  been  known  in  earliest  history.  Mention  is  made 
in  the  Iliad  of  ointment  of  oil  perfumed  with  roses,  with 
which  Venus  annointed  the  body  of  Hector,  and  Hector 
is  spoken  of  as  using  the  same  "ambrosial  lymph"  in 
Cowper's  translation.  Roses  were  worn  at  the  feasts  of 
the  ancients,  and  at  the  banquets  of  Cleopatra.  They 
were  much  used  to  decorate  tombs,  and  it  is  said  that 
the  Romans  provided  for  this  observance  in  their  wills. 
Anacreon  thought  that  the  rose  had  power  to  protect 
the  dead.  Didvmus,  the  Alexandrian,  was  persuaded 
that  the  "  rose  was  something  more  than  human."  Sap- 
pho is  said  to  have  written  verses  to  this  flower,  and 
Dryden,  in  his  translation  from  Virgil,  speaking  of 
.Eneas  at  the  tomb  of  his  father,  Anchises,  says: 

"  With  roses  then  the  sepulchre  lie  strewed, 
And  thus  his  father*  ghost  bespoke  aloud." 

Plinv  says  that  this  flower  was  much  cultivated  bv 
the  Romans,  and  used  as  a  perfume  for  annointing  the 
body.  Gerarde  thought  that  the  rose  was  useful  for 
"  strengtheninge  of  the  heart,  and  refreshinge  of  the 
spirits,  and  profitable  for  other  griefes." 

In  our  day,  Aldrich  alludes  to  roses  in  one  exquis- 
itely tender  verse. 

"  We  wove  the  roses  round  her  brow- — 
White  buds,  the  summer's  drifted  snow — 

Wrapt  her  from  head  to  foot  in  (lowers.  .  .  . 
And  thus  went  dainty  Baby  Bell 
Out  of  this  world  of  ours."' 

The    meanings  that   are  attached    lo    flowers    would 


92 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


form  an  interesting  study.  Many  sentiments  can  be 
expressed  and  replied  to  in  their  interchange.  In  Shaks- 
peare's    time    this    was    thought   of,  since    Ophelia  said : 

''There's  rosemary,   that's  for  remembrance:    there's   pansies,   that's  for 
thought." 

The  English  poet,  Horace  Smith,  has  written  a 
"  Hvmn  to  the  Fowers,"  one  stanza  of  which  we  quote: 

"  Floral  Apostles!  that  in  dewy  splendor, 

Weep  without  woe,  and  blush  without  a  crime, 
Oh  may  I  deeply  learn  and  ne'er  surrender  « 

Your  lore  sublime." 

Wordsworth  was  a  genuine  lover  of  flowers,  and 
said,  "  and  'tis  my  faith  that  every  flower  enjoys  the  air 
it  breaths,"  giving  to  them  consciousness  of  being. 
When  he  says: 

"  My  heart  with  rapture  fills 
And  dances  with  the  daffodils," 

one  feels  with  him  a  throb  of  delight.  Shelley  shows 
his  affection  for  all  flowers  in  his  verses  to  the  sensitive 
plant  in  which  occur  these  lines: 

"  Narcissi,  the  tairest  among  them  all 

Who  gaze  on  their  eves  in  the  stream's  recess, 
Till  they  die  of  their  own  dear  loveliness." 

In  our  own  day,  Anna  C.  Brackett  in  her  "  Vaca- 
tion "  poem,  discourses  eloquently  : 

'■  When  did  we  leave  the  Michigan  woods? 

I  only  know 
That  clusters  of  asters,  purple  and  white, 
And  the  golden  rod,  like  a  flash  of  light, 

Had  set  all  the  roads  aglow." 

Holmes,  in  his  beautiful  sonnet,  "  nearing  the  snow 
hue,"  speaks  of  the  "slender  flowerets,  scentless,  pale, 
along  the  margin  of  unmelting  snow."  Emerson  writes 
to  the  rhodora,  speaks  tenderly  of  the  wood-rose  in 
"  Forbearance,"  and  in  his  poetical,  prose  paragraph, 
describes  the  edelweiss,  flower  of  noble  purity.  With 
Lowell,  in  his  sweetest  of  love  songs,  "  Auf  Wieder- 
sehen,"  we  breath  the  very  fragrance  of  the  lilacs. 
Truly, 

"  The  poet,  faithful  and  far-seeing, 
See-  alike  in  stars  and  flowers  a  part 
Of  the  selfsame  universal  being 
Which  is  throbbing  in  his  brain  and  heart." 

Not  alone  the  poet,  but  all  who  possess  the  love  of 
beauty,  and  who  feel  glowing  in  them  the  enthusiasm 
every  flower  that  blows,  gladdening  the  eye,  delighting 
the  sense,  must  feel  that  it  is  well  indeed  to  consider  the 
"flowers  of  the  field,"  for  truly"  Solomon  in  all  his 
glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these." 


THE  BLUE    LAWS. 

BY     FREDERIC     MAY     HOLLAND. 

This  name  seems  to  have  been  first  used  of  the  early 
statutes  of  New  Haven,  some  of  which  are  spoken  of 
under  this  title  in  the  General  History  of  Connecticut, 
by  Rev.  S.  Peters,  a  tory  refugee.  The  little  hook, 
which  was  first  published  in  iSyijand  has  been  recently 
reprinted,  is  very  readable,  but  by  no  means  trustworthy. 
Peters  proposses  to  give  extract  from  enactments  which 
were    never   allowed    to  be   printed,  and   which  "  were 


properly  termed  blue  laws,  i.  e.,  bloody  laws,  for  they 
were  all  sanctified  with  excommunications,  confiscation, 
fines,  banishment,  whippings,  cutting  off  the  ears,  burn- 
ing the  tongue  and  death.  "  "  Similar  laws  still  prevail 
over  New  England  as  the  common  law  of  the  country," 
adds  Peters,  who  undertakes  to  "  give  a  tolerable  idea  of 
the  spirit  which  pervades  the  whole, "  bv  stating  forty- 
five  of  the  enactments  of  New  Haven.  This  colony, 
it  should  be  noticed,  was  not  united  to  Connecticut  until 
1665;  and  its  first  code  was  avowedly  based  on  the  Bible,, 
so  that  the  edition  of  1650  is  as  full  of  references  to 
texts  as  any  catechism. 

From  this  code  and  other  records,  it  is  plain  that 
Peters  was  right  more  than  half  the  time.  Of  his  forty- 
five  blue  laws  twenty-four,  at  least,  were  substantially 
in  force.  Among  those  that  must  have  been  peculiar  to 
New  Haven  are  the  following:  "The  judge  shall  de- 
termine all  controversies  without  a  fury.  "  A  debtor  in 
prison,  swearing  he  has  no  estate,  shall  be  let  out  and 
sold  to  make  satisfaction,  "  and  "  married  persons  must 
live  together  or  be  imprisoned.  "  Then  there  are  others, 
common  to  New  Haven  and  other  colonies  at  first,  but 
gradually  modified;  like  those  which  allowed  only 
church  members  to  vote  or  hold  office;  which  made  con- 
spirators, Quakers,  adulterers,  and  men-stealers  liable  to 
be  hung,  and  liars  to  be  whipped;  and  which  provided 
that  "  No  gospel  minister  shall  join  people  in  marriage,  " 
that  "  The  sabbath  shall  begin  at  sunset  on  Saturday,  " 
and  that  "  No  man  shall  court  a  maid  in  person  or  by 
letter  without  first  obtaining  consent  of  her  parents.  " 
This  statute  was  often  enforced  in  New  Haven.  On 
May-day,  1660,  a  special  court,  whose  record  may  be 
found  in  the  Blue  Laws  of  Connecticut,  bv  Silas  Andrus, 
was  held  by  Governor  Newman  to  try  Jacob  M.  Mur- 
line  and  Sarah  Tuttle.  The  girl  had  made  some  jokes 
too  much  like  those  of  Shakespeare's  heroines,  to 
Jacob's  sisters.  Then  he  came  in,  snatched  up  her 
gloves,  and  refused  to  give  them  back  unless  she  would 
kiss  him.  This  she  denied  having  done;  but  the  sisters 
testified  that  she  had;  and  the  Governor  decided  that  she 
was  guilty.  She  dill  not  deny  that  Jocob  had  kissed 
her,  or  that  they  had  set  side  by  side  for  nearly  half  an 
hour,  with  their  arms  about  each  other,  and  his  sisters 
looking  on.  Her  father  charged  Jacob  with  trying  to 
inveigle  her  into  marriage;  but  she  denied  it  so  firmly 
as  to  save  him  from  punishment  for  this  crime.  Jacob, 
on  being  asked  "  whether  his  arm  was  about  her  waist, 
and  her  arm  upon  his  shoulder  or  about  his  neck,  "  said 
"he  never  thought  of  it  since,"  "for  which  he  was 
blamed,  and  told  he  had  not  laid  to  heart  as  he  ought." 
The  court  further  decided  that  "his  carriage  hath  been 
very  corrupt  and  sinful,  such  as  brings  reproach  upon 
the  family  and  place. "  Sarah  was  scolded  by  the 
Governor,  until  she  "  professed  that  she  was  sorry  she 
had  carried  it  so  sinfully;"  and  the  criminals  were  fined 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


93 


twenty  shillings  each,  at  a  time  when  the  most  skillful 
workmen  was  forbidden  by  law  to  earn  more  than  two 
shillings  a  day.  Peters  does  not  mention  this  last 
statute,  nor  that  under  which  Jacob  and  Sarah  were 
fined,  as  I  suppose,  namely  that  re-enacted  the  same 
month,  to  punish  all  persons  who  "  meet,  or  company 
together  in  any  kind  of  vain  manner  or  unreasonable 
time,  whether  by  day  or  night,  to  mispend  and  waste 
the  precious  talent  of  these  gospel  seasons  of  grace, " 
etc.  This  statute  of  May  30,  1660,  also  forbids  "cor- 
rupt songs  and  foolish  jesting,"  "  mixt  dancings,"'  "im- 
moderate playing  at  any  sort  of  sports  or  games,  or  mere 
idle  living  out  of  an  honest  calling  industriously,  or  ex- 
travagant expenses,  by  drinking,  apparel  etc, "  as  is 
mentioned  in  Iloadlv's  New  Haven  Colonial  Records, 
pp.  336-7.  After  New  Haven  became  a  part  of  Con- 
necticut, a  fine  of  twenty  shillings  was  imposed  on  any 
one  who  should  play  at  cards  or  back-gammon,  or  suffer 
it  to  be  played  in  his  house;  and  enough  of  this  hatred  of 
amusement  remained  in  1S49,  to  cause  all  dramatic  per- 
formances, exhibition  of  trained  animals,  etc.,  where 
there  was  a  charge  for  admission,  to  be  prohibited  under 
a  fine  of  $50.  One  of  fifty  cents  was  incurred  in  180S 
by  absence  from  church,  or  failure  of  the  parent  or 
guardian  to  inflict  punishment,  in  the  presence  of  some 
officer,  on  anj  child  under  fourteen  who  broke  the 
Sabbath. 

Some  of  the  worst  laws  which  Xew  Haven  took 
from  the  Bible  are  not  mentioned  by  Peters,  namely 
those  to  inflict  death  for  worshipping  "  any  other  God 
but  the  Lord  God;"  "  witchcraft,"  "willful  or  obstinate 
denying  the  true  God,  or  his  creation  or  government  of 
the  world,  "  or  uttering  "  any  other  blasphemy  of  the 
like  nature;"  manslaughter  committed  "suddenly  in 
anger  or  cruelty  of  passion;"  attempt  at  murder;  or 
profaning  the  Sabbath  "proudly,  presumptuously  and 
writh  a  high  hand.  "  This  last  statute  was  pecuhar  to 
New  Haven;  and  so  was  that  by  which  maiming  others 
might  be  punished,"  "  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand 
for  hand,  foot  for  foot."  Witches  were  hung  there  as 
well  as  at  Hartford ;  "  a  stubborn  and  rebellious  son " 
of  sixteen,  might  be  put  to  death  in  either  colony;  and 
Voltaire,  Holbach  and  Diderot  might  have  been  hung  in 
Connecticut,  where  blasphemy  was  a  capital  crime  until 
1784,  when  the  penalty  was  reduced  to  forty  stripes  on 
the  bare  body,  and  one  hour  in  the  pillory.  In  1673  it  was 
decreed,  that  adulterers  should  no  longer  be  hung,  but 
have  the  letter  A  branded  on  their  foreheads  with  a  hot 
iron.  New  Haven  burglars  were  to  be  branded  on  the 
right  hand  with  P>.  Each  of  these  infant  colonies  had 
a  fine  of  five  shillings  for  every  absence  from  church; 
and  whoever  interrupted  the  preacher  in  Connecti'ut,  or 
charged  him  falsely  with  error,  had  for  the  second 
offence  to  "  either  pay  five  pounds  to  the  public  treasury, 
or  stand  two  hours  openly   upon   a   block   or  stool    four 


foot  high,  upon  a  lecture  day,  with  a  paper  fixed  in  his 
breast  written  with  capital  letters,  Ax  Open  and  Ob- 
stinate Contemner  of  God's  Holy  Ordinances, 
that  others  may  fear  and  be  ashamed  of  breaking  out 
into  the  like  wickedness."  It  was  ordered  at  Hartford, 
in  1676,  that  all  heads  of  families  who  obstinately  neg- 
lected "  reading  of  the  scripture,  catechising  of  children, 
and  daily  prayer,  with  giving  of  thanks,"  should  be 
"  fined,  or  punished,  or  bound  to  good  behavior,  accord- 
ing to  the  demerits  of  the  case.  "  Both  New  Haven 
and  Connecticut  forbade  any  man  to  live  alone,  or  any 
family  to  take  a  lodger  without  leave  from  the  magis- 
trates. A  license  from  the  legislature,  as  well  as  a  cer- 
tificate from  the  doctor,  had  to  be  procured  before 
tobacco  could  be  used  by  any  one  under  twenty,  or  by 
any  one  else  who  had  not  formed  the  habit.  This  w  as 
voted  at  Hartford  in  1647,  when  it  was  also  ordered: 
"  That  no  man  within  this  colony,  after  the  publication 
hereof,  shall  take  any  tobacco  publicly  in  the  street-,  nor 
shall  any  take  it  in  the  fields  or  woods,  unless  when  they 
be  on  their  travel  or  journey  at  least  ten  miles,  or  at  the 
ordinary  time  of  repast  commonly  called  dinner,  or  if  it 
be  not  then  taken,  yet  not  above  once  in  the  day  at  most, 
and  then  not  in  company  with  any  other.  Nor  shall 
any  inhabiting  in  any  of  the  towns  within  this  jurisdic- 
tion take  any  tobacco  in  any  house  in  the  same  town, 
where  he  liveth,  with  and  in  the  company  with  any 
more  than  one  who  useth  and  drinketh  the  same  weed.  " 
This  ordinance,  like  that  of  1659  against  "disordered 
meetings  of  persons  in  private  houses  to  tipple  loge- 
ther,"  and  that  of  1673,  by  which  young  persons  and 
servants  were  not  to  meet  together  in  the  streets  or 
fields  or  in  any  house  "  after  the  shutting  in  of  the 
evening,"  without  consent  of  their  parents  or  masters, 
shows  the  same  ascetic  principle  as  the  punishment  of 
Sarah  Tuttle.  When  I  consider  farther  that  ships  were 
forbidden  in  1673,  to  set  sail  out  of  any  harbor  in  Con- 
necticut on  Sunday,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  Hinman, 
who  was  Secretary  of  Connecticut  for  seven  years,  mav 
have  had  some  authority  for  inserting  in  his  Blue  Laws 
of  New  Haven  Colony,  in  a  list  which  is  otherwise  un- 
doubtedly correct,  the  following  enactment,  apparently 
taken  by  him  from  the  original  records:  "  If  any  man 
shall  kiss  his  wife,  or  wife  kiss  her  husband,  on  the 
Lord's  day,  the  party  in  fault  shall  be  punished  at  the 
discretion  of  the  court  of  magistrates,"  p.  130. 

Neither  this,  nor  any  other  of  the  laws  mentioned 
in  the  last  paragraph,  is  given  by  Peters.  So  it  must  be 
said,  that  his  picture  is  not  on  the  whole  any  bluer  than 
the  reality,  though  he  does  put  much  of  his  paint  in 
wrong  places.  For  instance,  he  says  that  criminals 
could  be  tortured  at  New  Haven,  which  se  ms  to  have 
been  done  only  at  Xew  Amsterdam  while  under  the 
Dutch.  What  he  says  about  hanging  Catholic  priests  is 
more  nearly  true  of  the  New  York  law  of    1699  than  of 


94 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


that  of  Connecticut.  He  was  undoubtedly  in  error, 
though  I  think  innocently,  when  he  charged  New- 
Haven  with  forcing  every  voter  to  swear,  "that  Jesus 
is  the  only  king,"  and  ordaining  that:  "No  one  shall 
run  on  the  Sabbath-day,  or  walk  in  the  garden,  or  else- 
where, except  reverently  to  and  from  meeting ; "  "  No 
one  shall  travel,  cook  victuals,  make  beds,  sweep  house, 
cut  hair,  or  shave  on  the  Sabbath-day;"  "  No  woman 
shall  kiss  her  child  on  the  Sabbath  or  fasting-day;" 
"  No  one  shall  read  Common-Prayer,  keep  Christmas 
or  Saints'-days,  make  minced  pies,  dance,  play  cards,  or 
play  on  any  instrument  of  music,  except  the  drum, 
trumpet,  and  Jesus-harp;"  "Every  male  shall  have  his 
hair  cut  round  according  to  a  cap." 

This  last  law,  however,  is  still  enforced  by  public 
opinion  in  all  civilized  lands.  Even  the  most  conserva- 
tive and  aristocratic  gentlemen  have  become  Round- 
heads. Snme  of  the  other  precepts  just  quoted  were 
observed  in  Connecticut  families  when  Peters  lived 
there;  and  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  is  now  de- 
liberating whether  it  will  do  to  let  barbers  cut  hair  or 
shave  on  Sunday,  or  make  it  legal  for  milk  to  be  de- 
livered, for  prescriptions  to  be  put  up,  for  horse-cars  to 
run,  for  dispatches  to  be  sent  by  telegraph  or  telephone, 
for  newspapers  to  be  sold  or  printed,  etc.  Among  other 
questions  now  being  agitated  in  Boston  is  the  propriety 
of  abolishing  the  statutes  against  Sunday  travel  and 
Saturday  evening  amusements.  The  general  blueness 
of  our  Sunday  laws  is  seldom  realized;  but  a  full  and 
accurate  account  of  the  various  statutes  in  the  different 
states  and  territories  will  be  found  in  the  Outlook  and 
Sabbath  Quarterly  for  last  January,  which  may  be  pro- 
cured from  Alfred  Center,  N.  Y.,  for  twenty-five  cents 
per  copy.  That  author  has  been  able  to  collect  later 
information  in  some  cases  than  I  gave  last  fall  in  The 
Index.  Indiscriminate  prohibition  of  Sunday  amuse- 
ments seems  to  be  established  in  Connecticut,  Maine, 
Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  New  Hampshire, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  South  Caro- 
lina, Vermont  and  Wisconsin,  besides  restrictions  of 
various  harmless  pastimes  in  every  other  state,  except 
California,  Colorado,  Florida,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  Vir- 
ginia and  Western  Virginia.  Special  laws  against 
theatres  have  recently  been  passed  in  Nevada,  New 
York  and  Maryland,  and  the  permission  to  deliver  ice 
was  repealed  in  this  last  state  in   i SS6. 

The  worst  of  our  .Sunday  laws  is  not  to  be  found  in 
the  statutes  of  any  state  or  territory.  It  is  the  decree, 
every  where  sacred,  of  Mrs.  Grundy,  forbidding  any 
one  to  amuse  himself  in  public  on  Sunday.  Driving, 
for  instance  is  permitted,  because  no  one  can  be  sure 
that  it  is  wholly  for  amusement.  Lawn-tennis,  which  is 
much  less  noisy  and  throws  no  needless  labor  upon 
animals,  is  utterly  out  of  the  question  in  good  society; 
as  are  dancing,  archery,  private   theatricals  and  picnics. 


Cards  can  be  played  secretly,  but  card  parties  are  under 
the  ban,  which  falls  with  peculiar  severity  upon  all 
amusements  which  may  be  enjoyed  by  the  poor.  There 
is  no  need  to  say  much  against  other  Sunday  laws,  until 
this  unwritten  one  is  reformed  thoroughly.  When  the 
duty  of  taking  healthy  amusement  on  every  day  in  the 
week,  and  encouraging  the  poor  and  overworked  to  get 
the  recreation  they  need  peculiarly,  whenever  they  can, 
hecomes  fully  recognized  by  public  opinion,  there  will 
be  little  difficulty  in  getting  rid  of  the  last  of  the  blue 
laws. 

LaSalle,  March   24,  1SS7. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Chicago,  111.: 

Dear  Sir — I  find  that  in  my  note  in  last  number 
introducing  two  articles  from  the  LaSalle  Republican, 
I  have,  through  inattention,  written  "  I  believe  their 
■wishes  to  be  both  sincere  from  their  standpoint," 
instead  of  "  I  believe  these  criticisms  to  be  both  sincere 
from  their  standpoint."      Yours  truly, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 


AMENDMENTS    AND   ANSWER  TO    CRITICISMS    OF 

HIS   ESSAY  ON  THE  BASIS   OF  ETHICS. 

BY  EDWARD  V.  HEGELER. 

Proceeding  to  answer  the  criticisms  to  my  essay  on 
the  Basis  of  Ethics,  I  feel  that  I  should  properly  com- 
mence with  criticising  the  same  myself.  I  find  that  in 
presenting  a  number  of  examples  of  the  use  of  the 
word  good,  for  the  sake  of  ascertaining  its  general 
meaning,  I  have  omitted  the  most  important  use  of  the 
word  under  the  head  "What  do  we  call  good  for  man?" 
viz.:  The  ethical  teachings  we  Stave  received  in  our 
youth,  principally  as  part  of  our  religious  instruction. 
While  these  teachings  as  far  as  they  were  of  a  Super- 
natural character,  gradually  weakened  in  us  on  our 
becoming  acquainted  with  modern  science,  the  truth 
of  nearly  all   the  ethics  remained  unshaken. 

Their  basis  was  unclear  for  a  time  until  now  we  can 
say,  the  rules  of  ethics  are  those  ideas  evolved  in  the 
past,  that  in  the  struggle  for  existence  have  evolved 
from  the  savage  the  civilized  man  of  to-day. 

Supplemented  by  further  evolved  ethical  ideas  thev 
are  the  foundation  for  the  preservation  and  further  evolu- 
tion of  civilized  man. 

I  should  also  have  mentioned  another  class  of  uses 
of  the  word  good,  where  only  a  pleasant  sensation  is 
meant;  we  say,  "the  sugar  tastes  good,"  "the  rose 
smells  good,"  "  this  musical  chord  sounds  good."  While 
we  may  assume  that  the  effect  of  these  excitations  of 
the  nervous  system  in  some  way  favors  its  growth,  we 
do  not  think  of  this  in  so  using  the  word  good. 

Looking  over  the  comments  made,  I  notice  espec- 
ially the  remark  that  I  had  not  done  justice  to  Mr. 
Spencer.  I  should  mention  that  it  was  in  part  a  thought 
of  this,  why   1  asked  Mr.  Bradley,  who    is   known  to  be 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


95 


versed  in  Spencer's  views,  to  state  his  position.  Mr. 
Bradley's  statements  have  since  been  supplemented  in 
the  comments  by  others. 

I  deem  it  my  duty  to  express  here  in  reference  to 
Mr.  Salter's  remark,  "for  myself  I  would  say  that  in 
searching  for  the  truth,  I  would  rather  be  baffled  a  thou- 
sand times  and  have  the  discomfort  and  sense  of  frus- 
tration accompanying  such  experiences,  if  the  thousand 
and  first  time  I  found  the  truth,  than  to  forego  the 
search  at  the  outset,  because  I  knew  there  would  be 
more  pain  than  pleasure  attending  it,"  that  I  hold  that 
Mr.  Spencer  considers  this  searching  for  truth  as  a  high 
pleasure  in  itself;  and  that  in  his  theory  he  considers 
the  amount  of  attainment,  physical,  intellectual  and 
moral,  as  great  happiness  to  the  individual  and  the  race. 

How  strong  Mr.  Spencer  thinks  in  this  way  is  shown 
in  a  statement  in  the  introduction  to  his  Data  of  Ethics, 
which  appears  to  me  as  a  powerful  demonstration  that 
a  grand  and  lofty  idea  is  in  persons  of  ethical  tendencies 
or  high  aspirations,  their  real  self  and  their  better  ego, 
for  the  continuance  of  which  they  often  freely  spend 
their  wealth,  devote  their  labor,  and  even  sacrifice  their 
lives.     Let  me  quote  it  here : 

"  I  have  been  led  thus  to  deviate  from  the  order 
originally  set  down,  (for  the  publication  of  the  Synthetic 
Philosophy,)  by  the  fear  that  persistence  in  conforming 
to  it  might  result  in  leaving  the  final  work  of  the  series 
unexecuted.  Hints  repeated  of  late  years  with  increas- 
ing frequency  and  distinctness,  have  shown  me  that 
health  may  permanently  fail,  even  if  life  does  not  end, 
before  I  reach  the  last  part  of  the  task  I  have  marked 
out  for  myself.  This  last  part  of  the  task  it  is  to  which 
I  regard  all  preceding  parts  as  subsidiary.  *  *  *  from 
that  time  onwards  my  ultimate  purpose  lying  behind  all 
proximate  purposes,  has  been  that  of  finding  for  the 
principles  of  right  and  wrong  in  conduct  at  large,  a 
scientific  basis.  To  leave  this  purpose  unfulfilled  after 
making  so  extensive  preparations  for  fulfilling  it,  would 
be  a  failure  the  probability  of  which  I  do  not  like  to 
contemplate." 

In  my  essay  I  have  presented  the  view  in  opposition 
to  Mr.  Spencer's,  that  not  happiness  /;///  evolution  itself 
(expressing  it  in  a  word)  is  the  Basis  of  Ethics.  By  a 
closer  examination  of  Herbert  Spencer's  studies  on 
the  meaning  of  the  words  good  and  bad  in  his  Data 
oj'  Ethics,  I  find  I  must  contest  the  truth  of  his  conclu- 
sion that  good  and  bad  are  equivalent  to  "well  or  ill 
adapted  or  adjusted  to  ends,"  which  must  mean  tnore  or 
less  adapted  or  adjusted  to  ends.  Mr.  Spencer  says, 
"  the  good  knife  will  cut."  This  can  be  considered  only 
as  an  abbreviated  sentence,  for  any  knife  cuts  or  is 
adapted  to  cutting.  A  good  knife  is  one  with  which 
the  person  using  it  can,  by  the  same  labor,  achieve  more 
cutting  than  with   an  average  knife. 

An  umbrella  is  called  bad  if  it  protects  the  bearer 
from  rain  less  than  the  average  umbrella. 


"  We  call  a  day  bad in  which  storms  prevent  us  from 
satisfying  our  desires."  Also  here,  in  using  the  word 
bad,  we  compare  the  weather  to  ordinary  weather.  It 
is  bad  also  by  being  destructive  to  our  intended  occupa- 
tion. The  energy  or  capacity  for  it  we  had,  and  it  is 
considered  to  be  wasted. 

A  good  jump  is  one  which  achieves  the  immediate 
purpose  of  said  jump,  while  judging  from  the  results 
of  many  similar  jumps  that  it  could  not  be  achieved. 
There  is  more  achieved  than  ordinarily. 

A  stroke  at  billiards  is  called  good  when  the  move- 
ments are  more  skillfully  adjusted  to  the  requirements 
than  they  ordinarily  are,  the  stroke  being  successful  or 
not.  A  person  looking  at  the  play  not  acquainted  with 
the  billiard  game  is  unable  to  express  an  opinion  whether 
the  stroke  was  good  or  bad. 

These  doings  of  man  are  not  considered  as  good  or 
bad,  according  to  their  success  or  failure  ( the  billiard 
stroke  may  fail  and  nevertheless  be  good  >  but  in  com- 
parison of  their  results  to  those  of  the  average  doings  of 
the  same  class. 

"A  mother  is  called  good  who  ministering  to  all  the 
physical  needs  of  her  children,  also  adjusts  her  behavior 
in  ways  conducive  to  their  mental  health."  It  is  assumed 
here  that  the  mother  expends  a  certain  quantity  of  her 
energy  in  ministering  to  all  the  physical  needs  of  her 
children;  the  expenditure  of  this  quantity  of  her  energy 
in  her  conduct  affects  the  mental  health  of  her  children 
at  the  same  time,  and  in  this  respect  stands  in  the  condi- 
tion of  a  natural  adjustment,  as  that  may  happen  to  be. 
By  her  behavior  being  more  adjusted,  the  mother's  same 
energy  results  in  greater  mental  health  to  her  children, 
a  result  being  in  the  direction  of  higher  evolution. 

(TO  UK  CONTINUED.  I 


SUNDAY  WORSHIP. 

BY    CHARLES    K.    WHIPPLE. 

One  of  the  most  vivid  shocks  given  by  the  late  The- 
odore Parker  to  the  theological  sensibilities  of  New 
England  was  his  statement  that,  in  Old  Testament 
Scripture  the  Jehovah  of  the  Hebrews  was  represented 
as  fond  of  «  roast  veal."  The  fact  of  so  great  a  shock 
from  so  slight  a  cause  is  curious,  but  not  inexplicable. 
It  is  curious,  since  the  people  thus  spasmodically  affected 
had  all  their  lives  been  reading  in  their  "sacred  volume" 
that,  on  numerous  specified  occasions,  a  bullock,  a  calf, 
a  ram,  a  lamb,  or  a  kid,  was  to  be  killed  and  roasted  by 
the  priest  "  for  a  sweet  savor  unto  the  Lord,"  and  that 
the  priest  must  also  put  twelve  loaves  of  hot  bread  in 
the  holy  place  before  the  Lord  every  Sabbath.  It  is  no 
more  strange  that  such  preferences  should  have  been 
ascribed  to  the  Supreme  Being  by  the  early  Hebrews 
than  by  the  early  Greeks  and  Romans.  But  our  Chris- 
tianity has  its  roots  so  firmly  fixed  in  that  ancient 
Hebraism  that,  although  we  may  use  the  utmost  freedom 


96 


THE    OREN    COURT. 


in  speaking  of  Greek  and  Roman  superstitions,  any 
present  mention  of  the  cruder  peculiarities  of  the  Old 
Testament  faith  must  he  made  in  that  original  phrase- 
ology which  has  hccome  sanctified  by  tradition  and 
custom,  if  the  speaker  would  avoid  the  imputation  of 
sacrilege  and  blasphemy.  In  fact,  Mr.  Parker's  plain- 
speaking  in  modern  language  frightened  the  majority 
of  his  generation  so  much  that  they  really  thought  him 
an  infidel  and  a  scoffer,  instead  of  the  devout  religious 
reformer  that  he  really  was. 

At  the  present  day,  one  of  the  great  reformatory 
agencies  is  the  Sunday  newspaper.  The  Sunday  press, 
with  some  faults  as  obvious  as  the  opposite  faults  of  the 
self-styled  "religious  paper,"  which  it  is  fast  supplant- 
ing, is  conferring  immense  benefit  on  the  community  in 
two  ways:  first,  by  counteracting  that  theological  blind- 
ness which,  pretending  that  one  day  of  the  week  must 
be  recognized  as  more  holy,  necessarily  allows  that  the 
other  six  days  may  lie  esteemed  less  holy;  and  next,  In- 
supplying  reading  matter  more  instructive  and  bene- 
ficial, that  is  to  say,  containing  more  truth  and  less 
error,  than  the  average  church  sermon. 

These,  as  I  have  said,  are  very  great  benefits  con- 
ferred on  the  community  by  the  Sundav  paper.  Seek- 
ing to  be  re  k1  by  all,  it  provides  something  to  suit  the 
taste  of  every  class  in  city  and  country,  the  serious  and 
the  frivolous,  the  scientist  and  the  sportsman,  the  student, 
the  merchant  and  the  politician.  ( )f  course,  while  con- 
taining something  attractive  to  each  class,  it  contains 
much  which  each  class  will  pass  by  with  indifference. 
Of  course,  also,  its  proportion  of  sermon-like  articles, 
while  sometimes  controverting  the  lessons  of  the  pulpit, 
will  sometimes  echo  them.  In  fact,  the  occasion  of  my 
writing  at  this  time  is  an  echo,  in  the  Boston  Sunday 
Herald  of  February  27,  of  what  seems  to  me  one  of  the 
erroneous  doctrines  of   the  pulpit. 

In  an  editorial  article  there,  entitled  "Sundav  Morn- 
ing Worship,"  it  is  contended  that  our  Protestant 
churches  err  in  laying  too  little  stress  upon  worship 
(meaning  simultaneous  confession,  supplication  and 
adoration)  and  too  much  upon  pulpit  instruction.  The 
w liter  complains  that  these  churches  give  us  a  very 
stinted  worship  of  the  Divine  Being;  that  all  the  pray- 
ing and  most  of  the  praise  are  done  by  proxy;  ami  that 
thus  the  hearty  and  helpful  worship  of  God   is   ignored. 

There  is  sound  worldly  wisdom  in  this  statement  of 
the  Sunday  Herald,  since  a  large  number  of  our  clergy 
and  churches  have  for  a  year  past  been  moving  in  that 
direction,  and  trying,  by  attractive  additions  in  the 
department  of  worship,  to  retain  the  audiences  which 
are  slipping  away  from  them,  ami  to  draw  in  outsiders. 
Sound  worldly  wisdom:  for,  while  thus  adhering  to  the 
general  idea  of  the  Sunday  paper  by  presenting  in  its 
columns  something  attractive  to  every  class,  saints  as 
well   as   sinner-,   the  editor  offers   terms    of  compromise 


to  the  saints,  removes  one  of  their  objections,  and 
attracts  to  his  support  a  proportion  of  those  who  have 
hitherto  been  hostile.  Nevertheless,  as  both  the  Herald 
and  the  churches  seem  to  me  to  be  wrong  in  this  mat- 
ter, I  will  suggest  some  reasons  for  taking  the  opposite 
ground,  namely — that  the  chief  use,  and  a  most  impor- 
tant use,  of  our  excellent  custom  of  holding  public 
assemblies  on  Sunday  is  the  giving  and  receiving  of 
instruction,  particularly  in  the  departments  of  morals 
and  religion;  in  other  words,  that  the  sermon,  if  it  is 
zvhat  it  should  be,  is  the  most  important  part  of  the 
Sunday  service,  and  well  worth  the  trouble  of  regular 
attendance  and  the  expense  of  making  suitable  provision 
for  it. 

The  //"in  the  preceding  sentence  is  a  very  important 
word,  since  its  meaning  would  exclude  the  great  major- 
it}'  of  the  sermons  now  preached,  and  that  on  both 
negative  and  positive  grounds;  the  number  of  their 
erroneous  and  unfounded  assumptions,  and  their  posi- 
tive false  teaching  respecting  both  sin  and  duty.  What, 
then,  should  a  sermon  be? 

It  seems  to  me  that  any  subject  relating  to  human 
welfare  may  properly  be  treated  in  the  pulpit;  yet,  since 
one  day  in  the  week  is  not  too  much  to  be  devoted  to 
the  important  departments  of  morals  ami  religion,  I 
think  the  chief  function  of  the  sermon  should  be  to 
inculcate  righteousness  or  right  fixing  and  to  oppose 
vice  and  error;  especially  to  insist  on  the  duties  custom- 
arily denied  or  neglected,  and  to  give  warning  and 
admonition  respecting  the  evil  practices  which  are 
countenanced  by  fashion  or  custom.  If  these  things 
are  faithfully  done  by  a  competent  person,  the  time 
given  to  his  instructions  and  the  money  paid  for  his 
support  will  be  well  expended. 

But  should  there  be  no  public  worship?  Should 
those  observances  cease  altogether  which  now  form  the 
chief  occupation  of  the  Sunday  mornings  of  Roman 
Catholics  and  Episcopalians,  and  which  Dissenting  con- 
gregations seem  of  late  disposed  to  adopt  in  greater 
number  and  variety  ?  Is  there  not  a  strong  presump- 
tion in  favor  of  a  custom  so  long  established,  and  main- 
tained by  people  so  numerous  and  so  estimable? 

I  reply,  the  presumption  here  supposed  would  be 
strong,  were  there  not  both  authority  and  reason 
against  it. 

First,  authority.  The  clergy  of  all  these  seas, 
Roman,  Episcopal  and  Dissenting,  claim  to  be  disciples 
and  ambassadors  of  fesus,  whom  they  call  Christ. 
What  did  Jesus  say  about  public  worship? 

The  four  biographical  sketches  which  give  us  all 
we  know  about  him  contain  neither  injunction  nor 
recommendation  for  Public  Worship,  nor  for  Sabbath 
meetings,  nor  for  Sunday  meetings,  nor  for  prayer 
meetings,  nor  for  any  sabbatical  observance  whatever. 
1  f  fesus  sometimes  went  up  to  the  Temple  on  the  Jewish 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


97 


Sabbath,  it  was  not  to  join  in  the  observances  there, 
but  to  teach  a  better  method,  righteousness  instead  of 
sacrifices,  rites  and  ceremonies. 

What  our  clergy  inculcate  as  public  worship  con- 
sists of  prayer  and  praise.  Of  the  former,  Jesus  said  to 
his  disciples,  "  When  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet." 
Reason  echoes  this  injunction,  since  the  desire,  the  con- 
fession, the  aspiration  which  a  man  wishes  to  express  to 
the  Heavenly  Father  can  best  be  done  in  person  and  in 
private;  and  this  seems  most  likely  to  be  that  "worship 
in  spirit  and  in  truth"  which  Jesus  enjoined. 

As  to  praise,  the  other  constituent  of  Public  Worship, 
the  multiform  variations  of  applause  offered  to  the  Deity 
weekly  in  our  Sunday  assemblies  —  the  sentiment  of 
Jesus  respecting  it  as  well  as  respecting  Prayer  may  be 
found  in  his  warning  against  the  use  of  '-vain  repeti- 
tions." And  here  again  reason  echoes  his  injunction. 
It  is  the  worse  sort  of  rulers  and  potentates,  the  poorer 
specimens  of  men,  who  are  pleased  with  public  rehearsal 
of  their  dignities  and  merits.  It  is  not  an  elevated 
idea  of  the  Supreme  Being  to  suppose  that  he  resembles 
such  persons;  that  he  really  desires  intelligent  human 
beings  to  occupy  themselves  periodically  in  proclaiming 
him  to  be  holy,  just  and  good,  or  in  kneeling  or  pros- 
trating themselves  before  him  as  before  a  Turkish  or 
an  Abyssinian  ruler!  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that 
God  desires  men  publicly  and  periodically  to  "praise" 
him.  Judging  bv  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  what  God 
wants  of  his  human  children  is  obedience,  the  doing  of 
what  they  understand  to  be  duty  in  their  daily  lives. 
And  the  true  function  of  the  pulpit  is  to  explain  and 
enforce  this  duty;  to  teach  the  people  what  they  do  not 
know  in  morals  and  religion,  and  to  remind  them  of 
those  things  which,  though  known,  are  apt  to  be  for- 
gotten, neglected  or  evaded.  To  do  this  work  effectively 
is  to  perform  one  of  the  most  important  services  to  a 
civilized  community ;  and  if  the  minister  who  does  this 
has  also  skill  to  teach  true  reverence  and  conscientious- 
ness to  children,  to  supply  to  them,  in  the  departments 
of  morals  and  religion,  that  which  is  lacking  in  family 
and  school  education,  he  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  public 
benefactors. 

THE  ART  OF  MAKING   POVERTY. 

BY   M.   M.   TRUMBULL. 
Part  [I. 

The  effort  of  "  organized  labor  "  is  to  lower  the 
wages  of  the  many,  and  raise  the  wages  of  the  few;  to 
make  an  aristocracy  of  trades,  and  hold  a  monopoly  of 
the  knowledge  that  earns  bread;  to  divide  the  working 
men  into  a  high-wages  caste  and  a  low-wages  caste, 
into  skilled  and  unskilled  laborers.  Exclusion  and  pro- 
scription are  employed  to  increase  the  numbers  of  the 
lower  caste,  and  reduce  the  numbers  of  the  higher.  Des- 
potic statutes  guard  the  guilds  from  intrusion,  and  crowd 
the  ranks  of    the    unskilled  who   must  work  for  a  dollar 


a  day.  "  It  seems  hard,"  say  the  '•  knights,"  "  to  for- 
bid an  honest  boy  to  learn  a  trade,  but  we  must  protect 
ourselves,  and  in  order  to  do  that  we  must  crowd  him 
down  to  swell  the  dollar  a  day  majority.  It  would  be 
dangerous  to  let  him  learn  a  trade."  This  proscription 
is  barbarous.  The  Guilds,  and  the  Unions,  and  the 
Knighthoods,  have  no  more  right  to  keep  a  bov  ignorant 
of  handicraft  than  of  arithmetic.  They  have  no  more 
right  to  cripple  his  usefulness  by  excluding  him  from 
the  art  and  practice  of  bricklaying  or  printing,  than 
they  have  to  break  his  arm.  His  power  of  competition 
may  be  destroyed  by  either  process,  and  one  way  is  no 
more  cruel  than  the  other.  To  make  unskilled  labor 
skillful  is  the  true  policy,  so  that  the  product  of  labor 
may  be  greater,  and  its  reward  higher  in  money.  By 
this  plan  we  abolish  poverty,  by  the  other  we  create  it. 
The  strategy  and  tactics  employed  by  the  aristoc- 
racy of  labor  against  its  poorer  brethren,  by  the  high- 
wage  caste  against  the  low-wage  caste,  may  be  seen  in 
the  following  examples  taken  promiscuously  from  the 
papers : 

"Birmingham,  Conn.,  Jan.  4. — There  is  an  exten- 
sive strike  on  the  verge  of  culmination  among  the 
cutlerj'  grinders  of  New  England.  They  are  mostly 
Englishmen,  and  control  that  part  of  the  cutlery  busi- 
ness, admitting  only  their  sons  or  near  relatives  to  learn 
the  business." 

"Pittsburg,  July  6. — The  4th  annual  meeting  of 
the  National  Window  Glass  Workers'  Association  began 
here  to  day.  *  *  *  *  Another  feature  of  the 
agreement  for  next  year  will  be  the  introduction  of  a 
new  clause  relative  to  the  apprentice  system.  Employ- 
ers claim  that  at  least  a  few  apprentices  should  be 
allowed  to  each  factory." 

"At  the  Pittsburg  Convention  July  7,  1S86,  a  west- 
ern delegate  proposed  to  allow  a  limited  number  of 
apprentices  to  be  indentured  in  the  trade,  the  chief 
merit  of  the  plan  being  that  only  relatives  be  allozced  to 
become  apprentices.  The  subject  was  put  over  until  the 
results  of  the  missions  of  Me-srs.  Wallace,  Campbell 
and  Winters  could  be  ascertained." 

Here  we  have  a  scheme  not  only  to  make  an  aris- 
tocracy of  trades,  but  also  to  make  that  aristocracy 
hereditary,  like  the  nobility  of  England.  The  vexa- 
tious leak  in  the  plan  was  the  drain  to  this  country  of 
glass-blowers  from  Europe.  To  stop  that  leak  Messrs. 
Wallace,  Campbell  and  Winters  were  sent  to  England 
and  Germany.  Their  mission  was  to  induce  the  glass- 
workers  there  to  put  glass-blowing  among  the  occult 
sciences,  and  allow  no  apprentices  to  learn  it. 

"Phila.,  July  14.  -The  400  rug  weavers,  who  have 
been  on  strike  at  the  rug  and  carpet  manufactory  of 
John  Bromley  &  Sons,  returned  to  work  yesterday 
under  protest.  The  cause  of  the  strike  was  the  refusal 
of  the  firm  to  lay  off  a  learner.'1'' 

Pitiful  and  mean  as  that  action  of  the  carpet-weavers 
was,  it   found    imitation   in   the  conduct  of  a   still   more 


98 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


inferior  aristocracy,  the  nobility  of  carpet-layers.  Here 
is  an  extract  from  a  Chicago  newspaper: 

"  A  meeting  of  carpet-layers  was  held  yesterday 
to  form  a  Carpet-layers  Union.  There  are  from  75  to 
80  skilled  carpet-layers  in  the  city,  and  the  object  of 
the  proposed  union  is  to  keep  up  the  price  of  skilled 
labor,  and  keep  unskilled  men  out  of  t lie  business^ 

It  seems  difficult  to  form  an  order  of  nobility  out  of 
people  whose  only  claim  to  it  is  that  they  sew  hams  up 
in  bags,  and  yet  it  can  be  done.  Here  is  an  item  from 
a  newspaper  dated  June  28,  1SS6: 

"Last  night  the  Ham-sewers  of  Chicago  entered  the 
Knights  of  Labor.  The  industry  can  only  be  followed 
seven  months  in  the  year,  and  the  average  earnings  are 
$3.00  per  day.  About  one  year's  apprenticeship  is 
required  before  one  becomes  an  expert  in  bagging  hams 
neatly.  As  the  industry  is  a  growing  one,  measures 
are  being  taken  to  keep  novices  out" 

Where  the  statutes  and  decrees  of  this  new  chivalry 
are  not  sufficient  of  themselves  to  crowd  willing  indus- 
trious men  out  of  work,  and  into  poverty,  the  citv  and 
State  governments  are  appealed  to  for  assistance.  An 
antiquated  law,  a  relic  of  English  class  privilege,  pro- 
tects the  lawyer  trade  against  the  competition  of  natural 
genius,  by  requiring  all  aspirants  to  that  profession  to 
spend  so  many  years  in  a  lawyer's  office,  or  to  obtain  a 
diploma  from  some  law  school,  or  at  least  to  pass  an 
examination.  If  the  State  may  arm  the  lawyer  with 
this  absurd  proscription  to  protect  him  from  the  rivalry 
of  brighter  men,  why  should  not  the  same  weapon  be 
given  to  the  carpenter  and  the  blacksmith,  to  the  news- 
boy, the  car  driver  and  the  architect?  Last  winter  the 
car  drivers  of  Xew  York  asked  the  Board  of  Aldermen 
to  proscribe  a  certain  class  of  intruders  into  their  pro- 
fession. As  the  car  drivers  cast  a  <jocxl  many  votes 
their  demand  was  complied  with,  and  "an  ordinance 
was  passed  requiring  every  driver  of  a  car  to  obtain  a 
license,  and  requiring  that  every  one  receiving  a  license 
shall  be  21  years  of  age,  a  resident  of  the  state  one  year, 
and  of  the  city  four  months." 

Some  time  ago  the  newsboys  of  Chicago  demanded 
a  similar  proscription  for  their  benefit,  but  as  they  had 
no  votes  their  claim  was  not  allowed.  They  also 
demanded  that  all  newsboys  pay  a  tax  of  $^  a  year. 
The  effect  of  this  would  be  to  "freeze  out'1  all  the  boys 
who  were  not  able  to  pay  the  $5  and  make  tine  rest  an 
aristocracy  like  the  lawyers.  The  boys  who  considered 
themselves  able  to  pay  the  tax,  marched  in  long  pro- 
cession to  the  offices  of  the  newspapers  which  opposed 
the  scheme,  and  poured  upon  them  derision  and  con- 
tempt in  tire  howling  classics  peculiar  to  newsboys. 
They  actually  demanded  that  they  themselves  be  taxed, 
because  the  effect  of  the  tax  would  be  to  drive  their 
poorer  comrades  away  from  the  opportunity  to  earn  a  few 
coppers  by  selling  newspapers  on  the  street.  Here  was 
instinctive  selfishness  imitating  the  poverty-making 
tactics  of  the  various  "brotherhoods"  of  labor,  and  the 


consolidated  "brotherhoods"  of  capital.  Is  the  ragged 
nobility  of  those  ignorant  boys  any  more  ignominious 
than  the  broadcloth  nobility  of  the  high-caste  brahmins 
of  the  other  professions  and  trades?  At  the  architects 
convention  held  in  St.  Louis  November  17,  1875,  it  was 
recommended  "  that  all  State  legislatures  be  petitioned 
to  pass  laws  providing  that  examining  boards  be 
appointed  by  the  governors,  the  issuing  of  diplomas  to 
architects,  and  the  fixing  of  penalties  for  practising 
without  complying  with  the  requirements  of  the  law." 
The  constant  pressure  of  a  thousand  agencies  like  these 
against  the  weaker  members  of  society  must  crowd 
thousands  out  of  employment  and  out  of  the  world. 

Improvidence,  and  the  many  personal  vices  that 
make  poverty,  belong  to  another  branch  of  economics, 
and  are  not  considered  here.  Only  the  public  vices 
born  of  the  social  war  are  here  exposed,  and  ver\  few 
of  them.  They  will  suggest  others,  and  show  the  pov- 
erty-making character  of  this  bitter  struggle  against 
each  other,  against  plenty,  against  the  skill  that  makes 
abundance,  against  equal  opportunities,  against  freedom 
for  all  our  energies.  All  this  poverty-making  is  within 
the  reach  of  public  remedies,  and  in  the  application  of 
those  remedies  lies  the  solution  of*  the  labor  problem, 
the  restoration  of  peace. 


••  Scientific  and  pseudo-Scientific  Realism  "  is  the  sub- 
ject of  an  article  from  the  pen  of  Professor  Huxlev,  in 
the  current  number  of  The  Xincteenth  Century.  In 
answer  to  the  assumption  of  Cannon  Liddon,  that  sci- 
ence denies  the  possibility  of  miracles,  on  the  ground 
that  they  are  violations  of  natural  law,  he  replies  that 
true  science  makes  no  such  denial,  as  it  does  not  claim 
to  have  apprehended  the  whole  region  of  natural  law. 
A  law  of  nature,  in  the  scientific  sense,  is  the  product  ot 
an  operation  of  the  mind  upon  the  data  of  nature  that 
come  within  the  limit  of  its  observation.  It  would 
therefore  be  irrational  to  say  that  a  catastrophe  of  any 
kind  was  miraculous,  simply  because  we  could  not  per- 
ceive the  cause.  Science  looks  upon  apparently  inex- 
plicable phenomena  as  having  natural  causes,  not  as  \  et 
apprehended,  and  withholds  assent  to  miracles  solely  on 
the  ground  that  there  is  an  insufficiency  of  evidence. 


Up  out  of  the  thick  of  intellectual  gloom  that 
shrouded  it  in  the  beginning,  the  aspiring  soul  of  man 
has  risen.  What  strivings,  antagonisms,  what  heights 
gained  at  the  expense  of  millions  of  lives  have  the 
years  witnessed.  What  a  distance  from  the  beast  to 
man.  Perhaps  some  human  heart,  dwelling  amid  the 
awful  strife,  was  touched  with  the  light  of  future  day, 
and  gained  a  momentary  glimpse  of  the  beyond.  Per- 
haps that  soul  knew  that  one  day  love  should  be  the 
law,  that  when  the  light  of  truth  should  have  broken 
through  error  and  illumined  its  depths,  the  disenthralled 
souls  of   men  would  rise  responsive  to  its  beauty. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


99 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published   every  other    Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  1  Nixon 
Buildingi,  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  K.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Man  \r,  ek. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Edituk. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  Tin-  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
for  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarlanism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  era  n 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  MARCH   31,   1SS7. 

RIGHT  THINKING 
Deeds  are  followed  by  consequences  which  can  he 
ohserved  at  once  and  by  everybody.  The  results  of  be- 
lief are  less  direct  and  cannot  always  be  traced  to  their 
source.  A  man's  acts  appeal  to  the  senses,  while  his  be- 
liefs with  which  his  conduct  may  be  glaringly  inconsist- 
ent, manifest  themselves  in  ways  so  numerous,  subtle  and 
imperceptible,  and  frequently  blossom  forth  and  ripen  in 
the  fruit  of  action  at  periods  and  places  so  remote  from 
those  at  which  they  were  expressed,  that  the  connection 
between  the  beliefs  and  their  legitimate  effects  generally 
escapes  ordinary  observation.  Hence  the  popular  no- 
tion that  theoretical  beliefs  are  of  but  little  if  any  signifi- 
cance as  factors  in  human  progress,  and  that  a  man's  in- 
fluence should  be  judged  chiefly  by  his  character  as  man- 
ifested in  his  conduct.  But  a  belief  adopted  by  one 
whose  conduct  is  scarcely  affected  by  it  because  deter- 
mined by  inherited  tendencies,  early  impressions,  or  social 
environments,  may  through  his  influence,  be  adopted  by 


those  into  whose  lives,  long  alter  he  is  dead,  it  shall 
become  incorporated  as  an  active  force  in  the  formation 
of  character  and  the  determination   of  conduct. 

A  thought,  a  theory,  a  discovery  or  an  invention, 
whatever  l>r  the  moral  character  of  the  individual  who 
hist  announces  it,  may  profoundly  influence  the  conduct 
and  modify  the  conditions  of  millions  t*  rough  uncounted 
generations.  A  political  or  social  tluory  originating  in 
the  mind  of  one  who  is  not  only  regardless  of  the  con- 
ventional standards,  hut  even  the  just  and  reasonable  re- 
quirements of  morality,  may  prove  a  great  benefaction 
to  the  race.  Equally  true  it  is  that  a  false  theory  advo- 
cated by  a  sincere  and  enthusiastic  philanthropist,  and 
recommended  by  his  own  purity  of  life  and  nobility  of 
character,  may  in  time  poison  a  community,  producing 
possibly  a  moral  cancer  which  only  the  surgery  of  revo- 
lution and  war  can  cut  out  of  the  social  system,  still 
leaving  perhaps  the  taint  of  disease  to  be  combated  and 
overcome  in  the  on-going  years.  Error  incorporated 
into  individual  or  social  character  makes  harmonious  de- 
velopment impossible;  and  the  more  deeply  it  is  im- 
planted and  the  more  numerous  and  firmly  established 
are  the  false  adjustments  to  which  the  character  is  forced 
in  accommodation  to  the  disease,  the  greater  the  suffer- 
ing to  be  endured  before  the  permanent  conditions  of 
healthy  growth  can  be  reached. 

Clear  thinking,  then,  is  quite  as  important  as  correct 
living;  and  the  man  wdio  helps  to  make  others  think 
aright  thereby  helps  to  advance  not  only  intellectual  hut 
moral  progress,  and  to  augment  the  sum  of  human  hap- 
piness. He,  on  the  contrary,  however  unexceptionable 
his  conduct  and  pure  his  motives,  who  helps  to  befog, 
mystify  and  confuse  the  minds  of  men  by  sophistry  and 
error,  is  as  much  the  enemy  of  moral  as  of  intellectual 
advancement.  Slovenliness  in  thought  is  certain  in  time 
to  result  in  slovenliness  in  morals.  Thought  cannot  he 
divorced  from  conduct,  even  though  the  thought,  true  or 
erroneous,  of  one  generation  shows  itself  the  most  con- 
spicuously in  the  conduct  of  succeeding  generations.  A 
teacher  of  error  may  be  sincere,  but  his  sincerity  in  no 
way  severs  the  connection  between  cause  and  effect,  and 
therefore  in  no  way  diminishes  the  results  of  the  error. 
Indeed,  intellectual  error  is  harmful  in  proportion  to  the 
sincerity  of  its  adherents,  upon  which  its  growth  de- 
pends. 

The  poison  lurking  in  many  theories  is  the  more 
effectually  hidden,  like  the  serpent  in  a  bed  of  roses,  by 
the  drapery  of  language  and  a  false  sentimentality 
which,  while  they  charm,  often  conceal  the  implica- 
tions and  absurdities  of  a  belief;  hut  time,  the  unimpas- 
sioned  ally  of  truth,  strips  such  theories  of  all  that  de- 
ceived and  deluded  men,  and  shows  their  real  results  in 
the  moral  rottenness  as  well  as  the  intellectual  deformity 
to  which  they  lead. 

It  is  evident  that  he  who,  in  laying  stress  on  conduct 


IOO 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


attaches  but  little  if  any  importance  to  theory  or  belief, 
and  computes  men's  influence  wholly  or  mainly  from 
the  acts  by  which  they  project  themselves  out  upon  the 
field  of  active  labor,  ignoring;  or  assigning  to  a  second- 
ary place  the  influence  of  thinkers  and  teachers,  takes  a 
view  of  life  that  is  narrow  and  narrowing  in  its  ten- 
dency. The  importance  of  right  conduct  and  the  value 
of  direct  moral  teaching,  both  by  precept  and  example, 
and  of  moral  agencies  and  influence  of  every  kind  are 
adm  tted  by  all.  There  is  not  so  general  an  apprecia- 
tion of  the  work  of  those  who  stimulate  thought,  in- 
crease knowledge,  and  in  science  and  philosophy,  as 
well  as  in  poetry  and  song,  help  to  educate  the  race  in 
the  principles  of  truth  anil  virtue. 


In  a  late  number  of  the  Fortnightly  Review  Pro- 
fessor Huxley  has  a  reply  to  W.  S.  Lilly,  who  in  a  few 
pages  attempts  to  show  the  utter  infeasibilitv  of  finding 
any  satisfactory  scientific  basis  for  morals,  and  distinctly 
hints  that  the  only  safety  for  the  race  lies  within 
the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  In  Pick- 
fessor  Huxley's  article  entitled  "  Science  and  Morals:  A 
Reply,"  an  exactly  oppisite  view  is  taken.  Science  is 
attempting  the  work  that  the  Church  has  neglected,  i.  c, 
to  find  an  indestructable  basis  for  the  rules  of  right  con- 
duct. It  neither  denies  nor  asserts  the  existence  of  a 
God,  but  insists  upon  morality  as  independent  of  either 
of  these  considerations,  and  so  far  from  tending  to  bestial- 
ize  man,  is  rather  striving  to  give  him  a  rational  concep- 
tion of  the  law  of  his  existence.  Morality  is  indestruc- 
tible, and  if  the  clothing  of  creeds  which  it  has  so  long 
worn  has  been  found  to  hide  its  true  character,  there  is 
no  reason  to  set  up  the  hue  and  cry  of  danger  when  these 
obstructions  are  laid  aside.  Science  hears  the  grumbling 
of  the  Church;  she  hears  the  accusation  of  "Material- 
ism," but  keeps  faithfully  at  her  work  of  drudgery. 
.She  sees  order  where  there  is  seeming  disorder.  The 
evolutionary  process  is  clear  before  her  eyes,  and  she 
knows  that  the  safety  of  morality  lies  in  abandoning  the 
unfounded  assumptions  of  theology  and  holding  to  a 
belief  in  the  order  of  Nature,  which  follows  immorality 
wit! i  social  chaos  as  surely  as  it  follows  physical  tres- 
pass,-, with  physical  disease. 

*  *  # 

In  "Science  In  Religious  Education,"  published  in 
the  January  and  February  numbers  of  the  Popular 
Science  Monthly,  Daniel  G.  Thompson  pleads  for 
tlie  abandonment  of  religious  teaching  (other  than 
scientific)  in  universities  and  schools  generally.  The 
wide  differences  in  religious  belief  that  are  so  evident 
will  sooner  or  later  make  this  demand  imperative.  The 
present  system  of  education  in  our  universities  is  one 
calculated  to  instill  into  young  minds  religious  prejudices 
that  cannot  fail  to  be  detrimental  to  their  highest  inter- 
ests, scientific  criticism  of  theological  dogmas  being  out- 


lawed. A  religious  organization  has  a  perfect  right  to 
establish  an  institution  where  its  belief  or  creed  may  be 
taught.  Those  who  go  there  will  be  drawn  because  of 
their  sympathy  with  such  creed  or  teaching.  But  public 
schools  and  state  universities  are  no  longer  public  or  for 
the  people  when  a  religion  is  there  insisted  upon  that 
lacks  the  sanction  of  the  general  mind.  In  justice  to  all, 
the  principal  religious  beliefs  should  he  studied  in  our 
universities  in  the  light  of  science,  all  the  evidence  for 
and  against  them  being  presented,  that  conclusions  may 
be  drawn  by  individual  minds  unhampered  by  any  theo- 
logical assumptions.  Truth  alone  should  be  the  basis  of 
teaching,  and  what  is  not  truth  or  unverifiable  state- 
ments, should  not  be  asserted  where  veracity  is  regarded. 

As  of  old  the  West  still  looks  to  the  Past  for  re- 
ligious light,  and  accordingly  "  B.  D.,"  of  Chicago,  thus 
inquires  of  the  Boston  Investiga'or :  "Do  you  consider 
Monism  and  Agnosticism  to  mean  the  same  as  our  Open 
Couitr  says:"  To  this  the  editor  replies:  "No;  one 
presumptuously  affirms  there  is  a  God,  the  other  mod- 
estly asserts  that  it  does  not  know.  If  this  statement  is 
correct  there  is  no  agreement  between  them,  though  it 
may  be  that  we  don't  exactly  understand  what  Monism 
is."  Another  question  asked  is:  "Can  you  tell  me  what 
a  Free  Religionist  is—  whether  Christian  or  Infidel — as  I 
am  having  a  controversy  on  the  subject?"  Our  vener- 
able contemporary  of  the  East  answers  ;is  follows:  "A 
Free  Religionist  is  probably  an  Infidel  under  a  Chris- 
tian name,  because  an  Infidel  is  one  who  rejects  the  Di- 
vine authenticity  of  the  Bible,  and  as  a  Free  Religionist 
docs  I  hat,  he  is  an  Infidel  really,  though  nominally  a 
Christian.  lie  is  not  indorsed  as  a  believer  by  church 
people,  but  he  is  'on  his  winding  way'  towards  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  more  independence, — when  the  popu- 
lar and  fashionable  hour  shall  arrive."  These  defini- 
tions are  given  here  because  The  Open  Court  has  no 
"  funny  column  "  in  which  they  can  be  copied. 

There  is  great  dissatisfaction  among  the  National  Lib- 
erals, and  not  a  little  among  many  of  the  Conservatives 
over  Bismarck's  concessions  to  the  Vatican,  which  are 
looked  upon  as  a  reaction  likely  to  strengthen  the  Papal 
power  not  only  in  Germany  but  elsewhere.  Says  the 
Voss/ic/ic-  Zeitung :  "  Not  only  is  the  Roman  church 
the  undisputed  victor  in  the  contest,  hut  Germany's  lead- 
ing statesman  has  even  appealed  to  the  papacy  for  help 
to  overcome  the  opposition,  which,  after  all,  is  composed 
of  men  who,  though  his  political  enemies,  are  his  own 
countrymen."  The  government  papers  bestow  liberal 
praise  on  Bismarck's  action  as  effective  statesmanship, 
but  the  concessions  seem  generally  to  be  regarded  as  of 
the  purely  opportunist  character,  and  to  afford  small 
grounds  for  belief  that  the  peace  compact  with  the 
church  will  lonsr  be  maintained. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


IOI 


A    number    of  American    and    German   naturalists, 
including  Haeckel,  are  now  striving  to  show  what  good 
service  the  daring  Frenchman,  Lamarck,  did,  in  expound- 
ing  an    important    law    of  nature   which    has   not    been 
.adequately    recognized,  even    by   evolutionists.      One   of 
these    neo-Lamarckians,    Prof.    Hyatt,    recently   read    a 
paper  on   "Effort   in  Evolution,"   before   a    club    where 
Darwin's    views  had  never  been  brought  without   excit- 
ing    eager     opposition.      The     lecturer,     while     plainly 
rejecting  the  fancy  of  special  supernatural  creation,  and 
cordially  acknowledging  the  correctness  of  the  principle 
■of  natural   selection,  said   that  Darwin  had   simply   built 
on  Lamarck's  foundation;  and  that  no  admiration  of   the 
superstructure  should   prevent  our  keeping  in    mind   the 
value  of  the  great   truth  on  which    it   is  based.      Many 
facts   show   that   the  structure  of   animals  is   largely   due 
to  their  attempts  at  conformity  with  changed   conditions 
of    environment.       Among    the    minute    inhabitants   of 
ponds   of  fresh   water  are  some   which   are   found   in   a 
greatly   different   form  in  brackish  pools;   while   a   third 
species  occurs   where  the  water   is   intensely   salt.      The 
breaking   down  of  a  dam  at  salt-works  has   been   found 
to  bring  about  a  transformation  of  species  in  one  direc- 
tion;   as    repairing    the    dam    did    in    the    other.      The 
naturalist   who  observed  this  has  since  tried   the  experi- 
ment   in    his   own    aquarium,    where    the    same   animals 
were    actually    made    members,    first     of    one     species, 
then  of  another  species,  and  then  of  a  third,  and  finally 
carried  back  into  their  original  form,  simply  by  increas- 
ing   or  diminishing   the    amount   of  salt.      Then   again, 
one  of  the  lobster's  claws  has  sharp  teeth  and  the   other 
blunt   ones,  and   there  is  always  a  corresponding  differ- 
ence  in  size;  but   Prof.  Hyatt  found  on  examination    of 
five   hundred   lobsters  that  the  right  claw  was  the    large 
one  with  one-half  of  them,  and  the  left  claw   with   the 
other,  showing  that   not   only  the  size   of   the   claw    but 
the   shape    of  the  teeth   is  due  to  the  peculiar   habits   of 
the  individual  possessor.     One  lobster  uses  his  right  claw 
its  another  does  his  left  claw,  and  both  claws   and   teeth 
take   form   accordingly.      That   the  dog's    wild   relations 
hunt  in  packs,  while  the  cats  hunt  singly,  seems  due   to 
a    greater  amount  of  natural  sociability    in    one    family 
to  in   the  other.     Elephants,  too,  though  not  needing  to 
as-ociate  for  mutual  advantage,  do  so  for  mutual  pleasure. 
M  inkeys   so  far   overleap  the  law  of  '•survival    of  the 
fittest,"  (as  interpreted   by  some  persons)  as  to   pick   out 
thorns   from  disabled  comrades,  and  otherwise    preserve 
the    wounded   and    enfeebled.      Thus,  there   is   constant 
eff>rt,  not  only  to  meet  changes  in  environment,  but  to 
carry  out  peculiarities  ot   habit  and  temper,     rhis  power 
of  individual  effort  has  had  much  more  to  do  in  shaping 
the  original  structure  of   each  species  than  natural  selec- 
tion,   which    seldom    comes    into    play    for    any    species 
until   it   has   had   time   to    make   its    members   numerous 
enough  to  crowd  one  another.      And,  as  men  have  made 


themselves  what  they  are  by  their  effort  to  work  out 
their  ruling  traits  of  character,  so  we  may  hope,  that  as 
these  traits  improve  from  generation  to  generation,  the 
whole  structure  of  society  will  he  reformed  accordingly. 
Such,  at  least,  we  understand  to  be  substantially  the 
views  of  Prof.  Hyatt,  and  many  share  them  with  him. 
Emerson  is  known  to  have  studied  Lamarck  with  great 
interest,  and  to  have  followed  this  theory  of  evolution 
in  the  lines : 

*'  Am!  striving  to  be  in. in  the  worm, 
Mounts  through  :ill  the  spires  of  form." 
#  *  * 

The  bequest  of  the  late  Lord  Gilford  to  the  four  uni- 
versities of  Scotland  fur  the  support  of  free  independent 
lectures  on  National  Theology  by  prominent  thinkers 
11  of,"  to  quote  from  the  will,  "any  denomination  what- 
ever, or  of  no  denomination  at  all,"  "of  any  religion  or 
way  of  thinking,  or,  as  is  sometimes  said,  they  may  be  of 
no  religion,  or  they  may  he  so-called  skeptics  or  agnostics 
or  free-thinkers."  provided  only  that  they  be  "reverent 
men,  true  thinkers,  sincere  lovers  of  and  earnest  in- 
quirers after  the  truth,"  is  of  interest  to  all  lovers  of  the 
Science  of  Comparative  Religions  and  to  all  friends  of 
independent  thought.  The  Scots/nan  says:  "This  will 
be  the  first  step  in  a  great  revolution.  Theological  tests 
will  linger  yet  for  a  time  amongst  us.  Put  Lord  Gif- 
ford  has  driven  the  first  nail  into  their  coffin.  To  all 
men  they  will  soon  appear  as  grinning  anatomies,  and 
before  very  long  there  will  he  a  general  cry  to  have 
them  buried  out  of  sight." 

*         *         *- 

In  an  article  entitled  ■•  Artisan  Atheism,"  in  the  Feb- 
ruary number  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  William  Ros- 
siter  discusses  the  alienation  of  the  English  laboring 
classe-  from  the  Church.  The  teaching  of  an  anti- 
quated theology  that  has  no  answer  for  the  great 
social  questions  of  the  day,  and  that  in  some  particulars 
is  in  direct  opposition  to  the  known  truth,  this,  taken 
along  with  the  fact  of  a  comfortable  and  satisfied  clergy 
that  has  no  sympathy  with  him  and  his  low  condition, 
is  what  is  drawing  the  English  artisan  farther  and 
farther  away  from  the  fold  of   the  dominant  faith. 

The  Congregationlist  has  never  had  the  least  sym- 
pathy with  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  liberal  theological 
views,  but  of  the  man  and  his  work  it  now  generously 
observer : 

Probably  no  one  face  of  this  generation  has  been  more  univers- 
ally recognized  than  hi-  ;  and  no  one  voice  has  ever  thrilled  a 
larger  multitude  with  its  humor,  its  pathos,  and  its  trumpet  calls 
to  action.  A*  preacher,  lecturer,  editor,  author,  he  filled  a  large 
space  in  the  popular  thought.  As  a  theologian,  he  had  an  influ- 
ence larger  than  he  really  earned  ;  and  no  one  man  probably  has 
done  more  than  he  to  bring  the  chinches  to  a  condition  of  depar- 
ture from  the  old  standards,  which,  in  some  respects,  with  multi- 
tudes of  others,  we  have  so  deeply  deplored. 


I<>2 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


A  htte  writer  has  urged  the  union  of  the  Catholic 
and  Protestant  Churches,  on  the  ground  that  they  would 
thus  be  able  to  cope  more  successfully  with  their  com- 
mon enemy,  science.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  a 
feeling'  of  insecurity  should  lead  them  to  take  some 
measures  for  the  preservation  of  that  which  they  hold 
in  common,  but  a  union  of  religious  bodies  whose  tenets 
are,  in  some  respects,  antagonistic,  would  be  a  paradox 
unparalleled  in  history.  It  is  inexplicable  except  upon 
the  hypothesis  of  friendship  springing  up  between  im- 
placable enemies,  when  a  third  power  greater  than 
either  is  gradually  forcing  them  to  the  wall.  In  this 
case,  all  sincerity  is  forgotten  in  the  common  motive  of 
self-preservation.      This  is  what  this  writer  asks  for. 

Rev.  Canon  Fremantle,  an  English  Churchman, 
writes  on  "  Theology  Under  its  Changed  Conditions," 
in  The  Fortnightly  Reviciv  for  March.  The  purifica- 
tion of  theology  has  left  but  very  little  of  the  original 
structure.  The  doctrine  of  "  The  Fall  of  Man"  has 
been  given  up,  as  a  result  of  the  teaching  of  the  phi- 
losophy of  evolution.  The  superiority  of  Christianity 
is  admitted  to  have  come  in  a  great  measure  from  the 
people  who  professed  it.  Finally  the  inscrutableness 
of  Deity  is  admitted,  and  with  it,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
all  teaching  claimed  as  inspired  will  stand  or  fall,  as  it 
agrees  with  or  antagonizes  the  facts  of  life. 

A  conception  of  the  universe  is  formed  by  philoso- 
phy, out  of  the  data  furnished  by  observation 
and  experience.  This  conception  the  religious  senti- 
ment proceeds  to  color  and  idealise,  and  while  seek- 
ing in  it  the  svinbol  of  the  infinite  we  also  project  into 
it  a  human  element,  which  returns  to  us  an  echo  of  our 
questionings  and  yearnings.  An  apparent  conflict  arises 
between  free  thought  and  the  religious  sentiment,  as 
soon  as  any  conception  of  the  cosmos  fails  to  agree  with 
the  demands  of  science.  The  hostility  in  this  case  is 
between  two  scientific  conceptions,  the  elder  of  which, 
having  become  outworn  by  the  advance  of  knowledge, 
is  still  retained  by  religion.  Its  elimination  is  but  a 
question  of  time.  Experience  teaches  that  after  a 
greater  or  less  period  of  searching  for  a  new  basis,  the 
religious  sentiment  always  trees  itself  from  the  old 
forms,  and  formulates  a  conception  of  the  universe 
more  in  keeping  with  the  developments  of  science  and 
the  needs  of  the  existing  social  order. 
*  *  # 

A  correspondent  in  Mexico  City,  writing  of  the 
many  feast  days  observed  by  the  native  Mexicans, 
says:  "There  was  a  national  celebration  on  the  16th 
of  September.  I  think  it  was  to  celebrate  the  date 
when  Mexico  first  became  a  Republic,  Hidalzo  was 
the  hero  of  that  day  and  his  picture  flourished  in  all 
the  windows    of  stores  and  private  houses.      There 


was  a  great  military  procession,  with  cars  represent- 
ing the  different  industries  of  Mexico;  the  military 
school,  also  one  representing  the  Aztec  temples,  and 
accompanied  by  men  in  Indian  costume.  In  the 
morning  the  President  and  government  officials  in 
citizen's  dress  walked  down  from  the  Plaza  to  the 
Alameda  through  the  principal  streets.  The  day- 
after  the  Feast  of  All  Saints  (which  of  course  was  a 
church  celebration)  was  the  day  of  the  dead.  I  don't 
know  whether  it  was  to  remind  people  of  their  mor- 
tality or  not,  but  in  a  way  they  seemed  to  take  a 
cheerful  view  of  it.  There  were  booths  for  the  sale 
of  toys  and  confectionery  all  round  the  Plaza,  and 
the  toys  were  little  hearses,  and  dolls  in  mourning 
dresses,  and  dancing-skeletons;  and  the  confection- 
en'  shops  had  sugar  skulls  and  thigh  bones  conspicu- 
ously displayed  for  sale.  The  effect  was,  on  the 
whole,  not  as  ghastly  as  might  have  been  expected.'" 
*         *         # 

From  an  article  on  "  How  Should  Labor  Organize?" 
in  the  editorial  columns  of  the  Catho/ic  Rez>ieu\  in 
which  often  appears  sound  and  wise  advice  to  working- 
men,  we  quote  with  approval  the  following  extract: 

It  is  one  of  the  absurdities  of  American  human  nature  to- 
fancy  that  every  conceivable  social  benefit  is  conferred  by  a  poli- 
tician, a  legislature,  and  a  law,  when  in  fact  the  very  best  influ- 
ences for  good  and  against  evil  in  the  State  are  those  which 
stand  outside  the  political  garden.  The  religious  organizations 
of  this  country  are  an  example.  Without  having  anything 
special  to  do  with  politics,  yet  a  declaration  from  them  is  a  thing 
to  be  respected  and  feared.  The  pernicious  influence  of  the 
monied  corporations  is  well  known.  The  influence  of  honorable 
men,  whose  names  stand  with  thousands  as  synonyms  of  virtue 
and  truth,  is  very  powerful  in  this  nation.  Do  not  these  facts 
point  the  way  for  the  feet  of  labor  advocates  and  leaders?  In- 
stead of  walking  the  long,  thorny,  uncertain  road  of  politics,, 
would  it  not  be  belter  to  organize  outside  with  a  view  to  influence 
the  present  political  parties,  to  influence  the  public  opinion  of  the 
country  and  create  a  sentiment  in  favor  of  just  treatment? 

Says  John  Morley  in  an  article  on  "  Byron:" 
The  greatest  poets  reflect,  beside  all  else,  the  broad-bosomed 
haven  of  a  perfect  and  positive  faith  in  which  mankind  has  for 
some  space  found  shelter,  unsuspicious  of  the  new  and  distant 
wayfarings  that  are  ever  in  store.  To  this  band  of  sacred  bards 
few  are  called,  while  perhaps  not  more  than  four  high  names- 
would  till  the  list  of  the  chosen;  Dante,  the  poet  of  Catholicisms 
Shakespeare,  of  Feudalism ;  Milton,  of  Protestantism;  Goethe 
of  that  new  faith  which  is  as  yet  without  any  universally  recog- 
nized label,  hut  whose  heaven  is  an  ever  closer  harmony  between- 
the  consciousness  of  man  and  all  the  natural  forces  of  the  uni- 
verse; whose  liturgy  is  culture,  and  whose  deity  is  a  certain  high 
composure  of  the  human  heart. 


The  mind  of  the  scholar,  if  you  would  have  it  large 
and  liberal,  should  come  in  contact  with  other  minds.. 
It  is  better  that  his  armor  should  be  somewhat  bruised  by 
rude  encounters  even,  than  hang  forever  rusting  on  the 
wall. — Loiigfellozv. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


103 


DR.  EDMUND  MONTGOMERY.* 

Dr.  Edmund  Montgomery  \v:is  born  in  Edinburgh, 
in  1835.  His  parents  were  Scotch.  His  father  was  a 
prominent  lawyer.  When  but  four  years  old  he  was 
taken  to  Paris  where  he  remained  till  he  was  nine.  The 
remainder  of  his  youth  was  passed  at  Frankfort,  Ger- 
many. Of  the  circumstances  of  his  early  life  we  know 
but  little  beyond  the  fact  that  his  attention  was  directed 
early  to  natural  science  and  philosophy.  When  he  liyed  in 
Frankfort,  in  1S50,  he  was  deeply  interested  in  Schopen- 
hauer, whom  he  saw  pass  daily  with  his  poodle,  and 
whom  he  regarded  as  a  philosopher  when  most  people 
who  saw  the  great  pessimist  regarded  him  as  a  mad 
man.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  had  been  ostracized 
for  refusing  to  be  confirmed,  after  haying  passed  through 
the  usual  religious  instruction.  The  matter  became  a 
public  scandal.  Clergymen  \  ied  with  one  another  to 
convert  him.  From  being  the  most  popular  boy  he 
found  himself  soon  isolated,  and  the  circumstance 
saddened  him  profoundly  for  many  years.  Some  years 
later  he  became  acquainted  with  Feuerbach  and  attended 
.at  Heidelberg  the  lecture*-  of  Moleschott  and  of  Kuno 
Fischer  and  discussed  matters  with  them.  He  had  fre- 
quent intercourse  with  prominent  philosophers  who  had 
been  pupils  of  Scheliing,  Fichte  and  Hegel,  especially 
with  Hofrath  Kapp.  At  Bonn  he  attended  Helm- 
holtz's  lectures  on  the  Physiology  of  the  .Senses,  and 
began  to  formulate  psychophysical  problems, — problems 
that  now  go  under  the  name  of  ''physiological  psychol- 
ogy.1' He  studied  at  German  universities  from  18^2  to 
1 858— -Heidelberg,  Berlin,  Bonn,  Wurzburg  (where  he 
became  M.  D.  |  Prague  and  Vienna.  He  had  gone 
through  Comte's  suggestive  and  original,  even  though 
tedious  works,  in  French  before  he  went  to  England, 
where  he  studied  Mill  and  Bain  and  other  representa- 
tives of  the  association  philosophy.  He  had  studied 
Darwin  and  arrived  at  his  main  philosophical  conclusions 
before  he  read  anything  of  Herbert   Spencer's. 

All  philosophical  systems  appeared  to  him  merely 
reflex-thoughts  from  the  conception  of  organic  life  prev- 
alent at  the  time  being,  and  he  was  deeply  impressed  with 
the  need  of  a  Philosophy  of  Organization.  But  first  of 
all,  Kant,  the  most  powerful  introspective  philosopher, 
had  to  be  encountered.  In  his  student  davs  he  had  gone 
through  the  Critique  of  Pure  Reason  at  least  five  times, 
and  the  whole  thing  was  alive  before  his  eyes.  The 
result  was  a  book  whose  title  may  be  translated  thus: 
Kanfs  Theory  of  Knowledge  Refuted  from  the  Em- 
pirical Sta>idpoiut.  In  the  original  German  it  is,  Die 
Kantische  Erkenntnisslehre  widerlegt  vom  Stand- 
punkte  tier  Empiric,  Munich,  187 1. 

It  is,  as  the  sub-title  says,  "a  preliminary  contribution 


towards  the  establishment  of  a  physiological  conception 
of  nature."  In  the  preface  the  author  advises  conserva- 
tive and  reactionary  thinkers  to  take  a  lesson  from 
China  and  keep  all  the  avenues  of  learning  open  to 
students.  He  urges  the  study  of  nature  and  of'  things 
themselves,  instead  of  trying  to  reach  truth  by  accept- 
ing as  true  whatever  can  be  tortured  consistently  out  of 
established  ideas,  according  to  the  formal  logic  in  Ger- 
man philosophy  before  Kant.  One  section  of  the  work 
contains  a  summary  of  the  Critique  which  Dr.  Sterling 
one  of  the  best  authorities  in  English,  in  his  reply  to 
Dr.  Montgomery  published  in  the  Fortnightly  Review 
for  October,  1872,  p.  413,  admits  to  be  accurate  and 
praiseworthy.  Dr.  Montgomery's  reply  to  the  assump- 
tion on  which  the  Critique  is  built,  viz.,  that  our  ideas 
of  Time  and  Space  are  given  us  from  within  as  a  priori 
conditions  of  experience,  without  whose  direction 
knowledge  would  be  impossible.  Sterling  calls  the  germ 
of  our  author's  thought. 

Dr.  Montgomery  says:  -'There  needs  only  the 
refutation  of  this  one  fundamental  position,  and  the 
whole  laborious  fabric  sinks  helplessly  together." 
"Time  and  Space,  as  infinities,  are  only  abstractions, 
and  are  never  given  us  a  priori.  Under  every  true 
perception  of  space  and  time  lies  a  portion  of  that 
empirical  raw  material  of  knowledge,  consisting  in 
feelings  called  into  consciousness  by  muscular  action." 
Kant  was  not  enough  of  a  physiologist  to  see  how 
closely  our  mental  activity,  which  enables  us  to  know- 
Time  and  Space,  is  connected  with  our  muscular  activity, 
that  enables  us  to  become  conscious  of  motion  against  and 
among  external  objects;  and  to  verify  those  generaliza- 
tions, from  observation  and  experience,  which  we  become 
entitled  by  such  empirical  verification  to  accept  as  the 
fundamental  axioms  of  mathematics.  Transcendental- 
ism has  made  mathematics  her  stronghold;  and  Kant 
admitted  her  claim;  but  Dr.  Montgomery  maintains 
that  mathematical  knowledge  really  comes,  like  all  other 
knowledge,  from  without.  His  arguments  are  unusually 
clear,  as  are  those  adduced  to  show  that  the  necessity, 
which  compels  us  to  combine  a  variety  of  impressions 
of  color,  resistance,  temperature,  etc.,  into  a  perception 
of  some  external  object  does  not  lie  in  the  structure  of 
our  minds,  as  Kant  thought,  but  in- that  of  the  object 
itself.  Xo  wonder  that  Haeckel  writes  to  Dr.  Mont- 
gomery that  his  excellent  book  is  now  often  quoted  in 
controversy  .f 


*This  account  h:is  been  prepared  partly  from  publications  of  Dr.  Mont- 
gomery, and  partly  from  data  supplied  by  unpublished  letters  written  by  Dr. 
Montgomery  to  B.  F.  I'nderwood  from  iSS^  to  1SS7. 


f  Dr.  Montgomery's  views  of  Kant  mav  also  be  found  in  these 
essays:  "The  Dependence  of  Quality  on  Specific  Energies," 
(Mind,  No.  XVII,  1SS0).  "The  Substantiality  of  Life  "  (Mind,  No 
XXIII,  July,  1SS1).  "Causation  and  its  Organic  Condition-" 
{Mind,  Xo.''s  XXVI,  XVII  and  XXVII,  1SS2).  "The  Object 
of  Knowledge"  (Mind,  No.  XXXV,  18S4).  "  Space  and  Touch" 
{Mind,  No.'s  XXXVIII,  XXXIX  and  XL,  1SS5).  "Tran- 
scendentalism and  Evolution  "  (The  Index,  March  26  and  April 
2,  18S5).  "Scientific  Theism"  (The  hidcx,  March  11  and  iS, 
1SS6).  "  Plato  and  Vital  Organization,"  read  before  the  Concord 
School    of    Philosophy,   July     26,     18S6,     {The    Index,     August 


104 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Before  publishing  this  book  he  had  begun  a  series  of 
scientific  experiments  which  we  cannot  here  describe  at 
length  or  pass  final  judgment  on.  He  has  for  years 
been  striving  to  overthrow  the  cell-theory,  still  gener- 
ally held  by  men  of  science,  one  of  the  most  eminent 
of  whom  has  described  himself  as  "a  cell-aggregate 
brought  into  harmonious  action  by  a  co-ordinative  ma- 
chinery.'' 

"What  can  all  philosophical  speculation  avail,"  says 
Dr.  Montgomery,  "  without  an  understanding  of  vitality 
and  organization?  If  molecules  or  cells  really  build  up 
complex  organisms,  then  there  is  no  escape  from  the 
assumption  of  a  supernatural  spirit,  governing  vital 
formation  and  activity.  I,  for  one,  could  find  no  peace 
"till  this  question  was  positively  settled  one  way  or  the 
other.1'  From  1S60  to  1863  he  had  a  laboratory  at  St. 
Thomas's  Hospital,  where  he  examined  all  the  material 
afforded  by  the  institution,  which  is  one  of  the  largest 
in  London.  Employing  new  methods,  he  soon  found 
out  that  the  secret  of  life  is  not  contained  in  a  set  of 
mysterious  properties  shut  up  in  so-called  cells.  To 
render  this  evident,  not  only  through  observation  of 
natural  cell-forms,  but  also  through  experimental 
demonstration,  he  prepared  a  substance  with  which  he 
succeeded  in  artificially  imitating  almost  every  cell  form. 
He  had  just  been  elected  Lecturer  on  Physiology  by  the 
faculty,  when  the  effects  of  a  dissecting  wound  put  an 
end  to  his  London  career,  and  for  many  years  also,  to 
his  sci  ntific  work.  Lung  trouble  obliged  him  to  pass 
the  winter  in  the  south,  and  eye  trouble  prevented  him 
from  working  with  the  microscope.  Not  before  the  end 
of  [866  was  he  able  to  present  the  results  of  his  pre- 
vious work  to  the  Royal  Society.  Lionel  Beale,  a  pie- 
tist  and    theological    partisan,   happened   then   to   be   the 

12  and  19,  1SS6),  ami  "The  Previous  Question  Under- 
lying 'Scientific  Theism'  versus  Naturalism"  (The  Index, 
October  14,  1S86).  In  the  essay  on  "Space  and  Touch," 
he  remarks  that  his  book  "vaguely  ascribed  to  muscular  sensa- 
tions what  I  now  know  to  be  accomplished  bv  directly  t'elt  posi- 
tions not  dependent  on  sensations  of  movement."  The  essays  on 
"  Causation,"  "  The  Obiect  of  Knowledge"  and  "  Substantiality," 
object  particularly  to  Kant's  failure  to  acknowledge  the  full  influ- 
ence over  thought  of  the  external  world.  The  same  objection  is 
urged  in  Tin  Index,  for  April  j,  1SS5,  March  18,  iSN6and  Aug- 
ust 1 2,  18N6. 

What  Dr.  Montgomery  says  of  Kantism  in  The  hidt  \  is  little 
more,  however,  than  a  prelude  to  his  attacks  on  much  more 
popular  systems  of  transcendental  philosophy,  which  he  compares 
with  his  own  view  thus  :  "  The  question  is,  what  underlies  the 
wide-spread  displav  and  endless  train  of  conscious  occurrences 
that,  for  each  of  us,  make  up  the  world  we  know  ?  And  what  is 
the  real  meaning  of  it  all  ?  Genuine  transcendentalism  answers: 
The  absence  of  our  being  consists  in  a  spiritual  organization  or 
subject,  autonomously  weaving  steady  experience  out  of  the  ever- 
changing  conscious  phenomena  ;  and  it  all  means  the  more  or 
less  adquate  understanding  of  that  which  eternally  and  unalter- 
ably subsists  in  a  universal  consciousness.  Genuine  naturalism 
answers  :  The  true  subject  and  bearer  of  the  conscious  display 
is  that  abiding  something  of  ours  which  we  perceive  as  our  living 
organization,  and  its  conscious  affections  signify  to  us  the  recog- 
nition of  our  own  relations  to  the  entire  economy  of  sense-com- 
pelling influences  which  we  call  the  world." 

"  We  have  ambiguously  to  decide  for  one  or  the  other  of  these 
extreme  views.  Consistent  thinking  can  discover  no  compro- 
mise.  Our  being  is  either  wholly  natural  or  wholly  spiritual."    "In 


Royal  Society's  authority  on  such  subjects.  He  opposed 
Dr.  Montgomery's  chemical  views  and  succeeded  in  pre- 
venting their  publication  in  the  transactions.  Richard 
Owen  wrote  at  the  time  a  spontaneous  and  apprecia- 
tive letter,  saying  that  if  he  had  been  there  this  would 
not  have  happened.  Next  year  he  published  the  paper 
at  his  own  expense.  It  forms  a  handsomely  printed 
volume  of  sixty  pages:  On  the  Formation  of  So- 
Called  Cells  in  Animal  Bodies ;  by  Edmund  Mont- 
gomery, M.D.;  London,  John  Churchill  &  Sons,  New- 
Burlington  street,  1 S67.  Its  accounts  of  the  natural 
and  artificial  production  of  cells  are  so  clear  and  satis- 
factory that  Owen  cites  it  as  an  "important  contribution 
to  the  philosophy  of  physiology"  (Anatomy  of  Verte- 
brates, volume  3,  page  564).  According  to  Dr.  Mont- 
gomery, we  cannot  admit  that  "the  units  of  which 
organisms  are  composed  owe  their  origin  to  some  mys- 
terious act  of  that  mysterious  entity,  life,  by  which  in 
addition  to  their  material  properties,  they  become  en- 
dowed with  those  peculiar  metaphysical  powers  consti- 
tuting vitality."  On  the  other  hand  "the  organic  units, 
like  those  of  inorganic  bodies — the  crystals — form,  by 
dint  <>f  similar  inherent  qualities,"  and  assume  "neces- 
sary modes  of  appearance  as  soon  as  certain  chemical 
compounds  are  placed  under  certain  physical  conditions."' 
"If  the  former  view  be  true,  then  we  must  clearly 
understand  that  there  exists  naturally  a  break  in  the 
sequence  of  evolution,  a  chasm  between  the  organic 
and  inorganic  world  never  to  be  bridged  over.  If,  or» 
the  contrary,  the  latter  view  be  correct  then  it  strongly 
argues  for  a  continuity  of  development,  a  gradual 
chemical  elaboration  which  ultimately  results  in  those- 
high  compounds,  which,  under  surrounding  influences, 
manifest  those  complex  changes  called  vital." 


no  way  can  our  veritable  being  be  both  together  ;  a  spiritual  sub- 
ject, constituting  experience  by  dint  of  its  own  power,  and  also- 
an  organic  subject,  experiencing  its  naturally  constituted  func- 
tions. Experience  is  either  exclusively  organic  or  exclusively 
hyper-organic,"  (Mind,  1S84,  p.  1). 

In  another  published  essay,  he  savs:  "The  two  great  cosmo- 
logical  conceptions  which  are  now  struggling  against  each  other 
for  supremacy,  involve  inevitably  as  ultimate  result  the  decision: 
Whether  life  be  indeed  a  deplorable  aberration  from  the  original 
fullness  of  thought-steeped  being;  or  whether  it  be  rather  a  desir- 
able unfolding  of  more  and  more  intense  and  ample  world  con- 
sciousness." "Either  the  human  body  in  its  progressive  organi- 
zation has  to  be  cherished  ;.s  the  only  true  temple  and  revealing 
oracle  in  the  universe,  or  complete  extrication  from  every  bodily 
impediment  must  become  the  chief  aim  of  human  exertion.'" 
"  Consistent  rationalistic  transcendentalism  is  of  necessity  hostile 
to  the  fulfilments  of  nature,  to  the  aims  of  vital  being.  Its  ethics 
do  not  consistently  yield  rules  of  action,  hut  rules  of  restraint  from 
action,  leading  like  all  supernatural  codes  to  unmitigated  acenti- 
cism."  "The  object  of  its  striving  must  ever  be  diametrically 
opposed  to  that  of  natural  evolution.  Evolution  points  to  a  life- 
affirming,  life-exalting  faith.  Transcendentalism  involves  total 
life-negation."  "  Shall  we  then,  for  any  visionary  hankering 
after  individual  bliss  forsake  the  wide-spread  vital  misssion  in- 
grained in  every  fibre  of  our  mystic  frame?  Shall  we,  as  called 
upon  bv  trancendentalism  for  the  dream  of  an  incommensurable 
self  beatitude  or  spiritual  quiescence,  desert  the  creative  task 
allotted  to  us  by  whatever  is  underlying  nature  and  its  unaccount- 
able growth,  the  task  here  among  our  fellow-beings  under  joy 
and  anguish  to  work  out  the  higher  life  of  that  all-compromising 
organization  of  which  we  are  veritable  personations  ?" 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


io5 


At  the  time  Dr.  Montgomery  published  this  little 
hook  he  hail  a  laboratory  at  the  Zoological  Gardens 
during  the  summer  months,  where  he  met  and  conversed 
often  with  Darwin,  and  deferentially  entered  into  the 
thought  of  the  great  naturalist  who  was  just  then 
working  out  his  hypothesis  of  Pangenesis  on  the  basis 
of  the  cell  theory,  and  who  was  naturally  not  open  to 
Dr.  Montgomery's  special  views.  There  were  plenty 
of  other  problems  to  talk  about  and  on  these,  views 
were  freely  exchanged. 

In  various  quarters,  Dr.  Montgomery's  conclusions 
adopted,  and  extravagant  theories  of  life  were  erected 
on  the  strength  of  them.  They  influenced  Dr.  Bastian's 
Beginwi>igs  of  Life.  Dr.  Montgomery,  however,  never 
believed  either  in  a  molecular  theory  of  vitality  or  in 
spontaneous  generation  of  any  of  the  forms  of  life  now 
known. 

After  leaving  the  hospital  he  practiced  for  six  years 
at  Madeira,  Mentone  and  Rome;  but  in  1S69  he  retired 
with  a  moderate  competence,  to  devote  himself  to 
science  and  philosophy,  which  had  been  his  purpose 
from  the  beginning.  He  had  meanwhile  become  more 
convinced  than  ever  that  the  philosophical  problems 
which  had  so  intensely  perplexed  him  could  be  solved 
onlv  through  an  understanding  of  vitality  and  organiza- 
tion. Life!  what  is  life?  He  could  find  no  peace  till  this 
question  was  positively  settled  one  way  or  the  other. 
Accordingly  he  came  in.  1 87 1 ,  after  publishing  his 
protest  against  Kant's  authority,  to  Tex  is,  where  he 
has  resided  ever  since  on  his  estate,  Liendo  plantation, 
Hempstead.  He  says  that:  "  The  first  seven  years  here 
in  the  South  were  devoted  to  laborious  biological  re- 
searches. No  writing  at  all."  His  principal  objects  of 
observation  have  been  minute  animals  of  the  simplest 
structure,  barely  distinguishable  from  plants,  mere 
shapeless  lumps,  without  visible  head,  li  rib,  eve,  or 
mouth,  and  variously  known  as  monera,  protozoa  and 
amoeba?,  the  last  name  denoting  their  capacity  of  chang- 
ing form  indefinitely,  by  alternate  expansion  and  con- 
traction in  one  or  more  directions. 

This  capacity  of  motion  or  motility,  has  been  made 
a  special  study  by  Dr.  Montgomery  and  with  very 
important  results.  "Spontaneous  motility,"  he  says, 
"constitutes  the  most  salient  and  characteristic  feature  of 
animal  vitality.  Its  scientific  explanation  had  thus 
become  the  clref  desideratum  of  physiology.  When 
amoeboid  forms  of  life  were  first  carefully  noticed,  the 
attention  of  investigators  was  naturally  arrested  by  the 
strange  display  of  their  ama'boid  movements.  But, 
importing  at  once  from  muscular  physiology  the  con- 
ception that  vital  motility  is  due  to  a  specific  property, 
called  contractility,  scientific  curiosity  was  pacified  by 
simply  giving  the  name  of  contractile  substance  to  the 
moving  proplasm.  The  occult  property,  'contractility' 
was  here  also  allowed  to  pass  as  an  explanation  of  vital 


motility,"  (Webster's  Dictionary,  for  instance,  defines 
"motility"  as  "the  faculty  of  moving  contractility.") 
"Thus  matters  stood  when  I  began  my  protoplasmic 
studies."  "Where  masters  have  failed,  surely  I,  their 
obscure  disciple,  would  never  venture  to  come  forward 
with  a  view  of  my  own.  But  it  so  happened  that  by 
some  fortunate  accident  nature  allowed  herself,  as  I 
believe,  to  be  caught  in  my  presence  without  her  usual 
impenetrable  guise.  I  could  not  help  seeing  what  others 
have  so  long  sought  for  in  vain.  By  some  strange  fas- 
cination, I  was  drawn  into  giving  careful  attention  to 
the  peculiar  amoeboid  movements  displayed  by  homoge- 
neous protoplasm.  Day  and  day  (sometimes  for  eigh- 
teen consecutive  hours),  and  month  after  month  for 
five  years  (from  1S72  to  1S77)  I  kept  close  watch  on 
those  slow  and  monotonous  movements.  Prom  near 
and  far  a  vast  array  of  specimens  were  gathered  show- 
ing every  imaginable  variation  of  this  one  central 
activity,  the  pushing  forward  and  retracting  of  projec- 
tions." "I  followed  the  sluggish  current  of  hyaline  " 
(or  transparent)  "material,  issuing  from  globules  of 
most  primitive  living  substance.  Persistently  it  forced 
its  way."  "Gradually,  however,  its  energies  became 
exhausted,  'till,  at  last,  it  stopped  an  immovable  projec- 
tion, stagnated  to  death-like  rigidity.  Thus,  fur  hours 
perhaps,  it  remained  stationary,  one  of  many  such  rays 
of  the  many  kinds  of  protoplasmic  stars.  By  degrees, 
then,  or  sometimes  quite  suddenly,  help  would  come  to 
it  from  foreign  but  congruous  sources.  It  could  be  seen 
to  combine  with  outside  complemented  material  drifted 
to  it  at  random.  Slowly  it  would  thereby  regain  its 
vital  mobility,  shrinking  at  first.  But  gradually,  com- 
pletely restored  and  reincorporated  into  the  onward  tide 
of  life,  it  was  ready  to  take  part  again  in  the  progressive 
Mow  of  a  new  ray.  On  the  other  hand,  I  watched  also 
the  brisk  current  of  more  highly  elaborated  but  still 
homogeneous  protoplasm,"  etc.  "  So  I  continued  watch- 
ing and  pondering  till  it  all  seemed  clear  to  me,  till  these 
primitive  displays  of  vital  activity  had  disclosed—  to  the 
satisfaction  of  my  own  mind — the  constitution  and  inter- 
dependence of  the  elementary  properties  of  life." 

The  results  concerning  motility  are  stated  as  follows: 
"  I  first  showed  that  the  pushing  forth  of  protoplasmic 
projections  and  not  the  subsequent  contraction  of  the 
same,  constitutes  the  fundamental  act  of  vitality;  that 
contraction  is  dependent  on  previous  spontaneous  and 
active  expansion."  Thus  the  existence  of  vital  spon- 
taneity or  self-initiated  movement,  which  had  been 
denied  by  biologists  and  declared  impossible  by  physicists 
in  general,  was  proved  by  actual  observation.  "  A  certain 
organic  substance  expands  under  chemical  composition 
and  afterward  contracts  under  chemical  decomposition. 
Its  disintegration  is  incited  by  the  dynamical  influences 
of  the  medium.  Its  integration  is  brought  about  by  its 
own  inherent  chemical  affinity."     Thus,  "the  display  of 


io6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


living  motion  on  the  part  of  the  protoplasm,  which  has 
hitherto  been  contemplated  under  the  aspect  of  an  occult 
vital  property  called  'contractility,'  has  been  proved  to 
consist  in  an  alternate  expansion  and  contraction  of 
organic  substance,  accompanying  its  functional  integra- 
tion and  disintegration."  "  The  power  exhibited  during 
motility  is  in  reality  the  chemical  power  of  specific 
affinity  interwoven  into  the  living  substance,  and  induc- 
ing during  its  saturation  expansion  of  the  same." 
He  also  demonstrates  how  all  essential  organic  divisions 
of  the  animal  form, — its  oral  and  aboral  pole,  its  bilateral 
shape,  its  sensory  surface,  its  integument,  its  contractile 
layer,  its  food-receptacle,  its  depurative  organ, — how-  all 
these  organic  divisions  necessarily  result  from  the  spe- 
cific and  unitary  cycle  of  chemical  activities  which  consti- 
tute the  life  of  the  living  substance.  These  researches 
are  described  at  length  in  the  St.  Thomas' 's  Hospital 
Report  for  1S79,  and  more  briefly,  in  The  Index  for 
December  25,  1SS4,  as  well  as  in  the  articles  on  "  Monera 
and  the  Problem  of  Life,"  in  The  Popular  Science 
Monthly  for  September  and  October,  1S7S. 

To  the  five  years  thus  spent  he  added  two  more  on 
the  Infusoria:,  and  so  produced  a  paper  which  appeared 
in  the  jenaische  Zeitschrift  fur  Naturzvissenschaft, 
volume  xviii,  and  also  in  a  separate  pamphlet,  under  the 
title  of  Ucbcr  das  Protoplasma  einiger  Elementar  or- 
oanismen.  There  he  shows  how  the  organization  of 
Infusoria  with  all  its  peculiarities  can  be  explained  as  a 
higher  development  of  the  different  phases  of  the  uni- 
tary cycle  of  vital  activities  which  constitutes  protoplasm, 
or  the  living  substance.  The  paper  has  never  been 
translated,  but  its  most  interesting  portion,  the  attack  on 
Darwin's  theory  of  Pangenesis,  may  be  found  briefly 
summarized  in  a  series  of  articles  in  Mind  for  1SS0, 
which  have  been  reprinted  as  pamphlets  on  "  The  Unity 
of  the  Organic  Individual."  Here  may  also  be  found 
his  criticisms  on  the  Polarigenesis  of  Herbert  Spencer 
and  the  Peiigenesis  of  Haeckel.  Dr.  Montgomery 
holds,  however,  that  "  Life  is  not  a  consequence  of 
organization;  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  formless 
protoplasm  that  builds  up  organized   forms." 

Two  more  years  of  hard  work  enabled  him  to  pub- 
lish, not  only  as  an  essay  in  Pfli'iger's  Archiv  fur  die 
gesammite  Physiologic,  volume  xxv,  but  as  a  pamphlet 
(  Bonn,  Emil  Strauss,  1SS1  ).  his  observations  of  muscu- 
lar motion,  entitled  Zur  Lehrc  von  dcr  Muskcl-contrak- 
tion.  Some  of  its  most  striking  passages  may  be 
translated  thus:  "As  soon  as  we  admit,  with  most  of 
the  recent  phvsiologists,  that  I  he  protoplasm  of  the  mus- 
cles is  not  essentially  different  from  that  of  the  lowest 
forms  of  life,  it  can  he  fully  proved  that  it  is  solely  the 
muscular  substance  itself  which  produces  all  the  power 
exerted  in  motion."  "  The  spontaneous  chemical  in- 
tegration of  the  living  substance  is  the  key  to  the  secret 
of  its  nourishment,  growth,  multiplication,  resistance   to 


destructive  influences  and  capacity  of  persistent  reaction 
against  stimulating  impulses.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  power 
of  resistance  displayed  in  all  vital  function,  a  power 
which  not  only  opposes  itself  to  all  encro.ichment  from 
outside,  but  which  moreover  repairs  the  damage  caused 
by  such  encroachments, — is  the  fundamental  peculiarity  of 
life."  "  The  living  substance  is  not  an  aggregate  of  equal 
molecules  held  together  by  cohesion."  "It  is  a  chem- 
ical unit  and  not  a  physical  aggregate."  "All  the  phe- 
nomena of  life  rest  at  bottom  on  specific  chemical  pro- 
cesses." "The  chemical  process  which  underlies  muscular 
activity  is  not  one  of  oxydation,  but  one  of  disintegration 
and  reintegration."  "The  power  of  expansion  is  inher- 
ent in  the  muscular  substance;  and  not  due  to  any  com- 
bustion, or  other  result  of  external  influences."  "  The 
living  substance  treasures  up  within  itself,  as  internal 
wealth,  the  organic  results  of  endless  previous  elabora- 
tion. Raised  thus  above  the  destructive  ravages  of 
time,  an  indivisible,  specific  totality,  it  gathers  the  life 
of  the  past  into  simultaneous  presence,  and  confronts  in 
ever  rejuvenated  wholeness  the  scattering  and  perishing 
things  of  this  world.  It  is  the  living  substance  that  is 
perennially  persistent,  not  the  dead  configurations  of 
unfeeling  matter." 

This  paper  is  also  interesting,  as  demonstrating  that 
the  muscles  are  not  composed  of  cells,  and  thus  enabling 
Dr.  Montgomery  to  reply  more  emphatically  then  ever 
in  the  negative  to  the  question  he  has  recently  taken  to 
head  a  pamphlet:  "  Are  we  Cell-aggregates?"  Here 
he  expressed  (in  November,  1880)  his  hope  that  "we 
shall  be  delivered  from  having  to  consider  ourselves"  a 
congregation  of  ever  so  many  primitive  lives,  and  shall 
feel  scientifically  restored  to  the  full  dignity  of  indivisi- 
ble autonomous  personalities."  The  reader  who  prefers 
to  consider  himself  as  a  person,  and  not  as  a  congrega- 
tion, would  do  well  to  read  carefully  not  only  the 
pamphlet  just  quoted,  but  those  on  the  "  Unity  of  the 
Organic  Individual."  (Mind,  Nos.  xix  and  xx  ). 
And  further  evidence  that  we  are  not  mere  aggre- 
gates of  cells  acted  upon  from  without  by  some 
higher  power  may  be  found  in  the  arguments  in 
he  Popular  Science  Monthly,  September,  1S7S,  that 
"  Nature  does  not  consist  of  so  many  particles  of  inert 
matter  held  together  or  pushed  about  by  a  set  of 
mysterious  agents."  "All  vital  efficacy  resides  in  the 
living  substance  itself,  and  forms  an  integral  part  of  its 
specific  nature."  "  The  power  of  our  life  is  intrinsically 
wrought,  not  extrinsically  derived."  Dr.  Montgomery 
says  in  an  unpublished  letter  that  "  The  recognition  and 
clear  demonstration  of  the  unity  of  the  organic  individ- 
ual constitutes  the  solid  basis  for  all  my  thinking."  He 
is  receiving  he  informs  us  "spontaneous  letters  from 
prominent  scientists  expressing  their  adherence  to  my 
views,  though  with  considerable  caution  as  yet."  Many 
eminent   German   botanists,   have   recently,    as   he   says, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


107 


found  out  that  "the  entire  protoplasm  of  a  complete 
plant  forms  a  continuous  substance.  What  have  formerly 
been  taken  for  separate,  closed  cells  turned  out  to  be  only 
partial  partitions  between  different  portions  of  the  con- 
tinuous protoplasm  which  is  seen  to  flow  in  and  out." 
The  adoption  of  this  view,  and  consequent  recognition 
of  each  plant  as  a  single,  coherent  entity  by  Professors 
Sachs  and  Klebs,  is  fully  stated  in  the  Biologisches 
Cetitralblatt,  for  Nov.  15,  1SS4.  Prof.  Kollman,  too, 
of  Basel,  has  adopted  Dr.  Montgomery's  view  of  vital 
motility  and  gives  him  due  credit  in  a  paper  on 
"  Elementares  Leben, "  which  forms  a  part  of  the  great 
German  collection  of  scientific  essays,  edited  by  Vir- 
chow  and  Holtzendorf.  Most  German  physiologists 
now  ascribe  the  movement  of  muscles  to  their  inherent 
chemical  properties. 

The  theory  of  the  convertibility  of  forces,  however, 
involves  the  assertion  that,  as  Mayer  says:  "  The  muscle 
is  not  itself  the  material  by  means  of  whose  chemical 
metamorphosis  the  mechanical  effect  is  produced,"  but 
"  only  a  machine  through  whose  instrumentality  is 
brought  about  the  transformation  of  force," — namely  of 
heat  into  muscular  power.  Dr.  Montgomery  has  been 
accordingly  forced  to  oppose  a  current  scientific  belief, 
which  Spencer  expresses  thus:  "  The  law  of  metamor- 
phosis, which  holds  among  the  physical  forces,  holds 
equally  between  them  and  the  mental  forces.  These 
modes  of  the  unknowable  which  we  call  motion,  heat, 
light,  chemical  affinity,  etc.,  are  alike  transformable 
into  each  other  and  into  those 
able  which  we  distinguish 
thought,  these  in  their  turn 
directly  retransformable  into 
{First  Principles,  sec.  71).  The  inconsistency  of  the 
theory  of  the  convertibility  of  forces  with  the  fact  of 
the  stability  of  natural  phenomena,  has  been  urged  by 
Dr.  Montgomery,  not  only  in  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  September  and  October,  1S7S,  but  also  in  a 
lecture  published  in  The  Index  for  August  27,  1SS5, 
previously  read  before  the  Concord  School  of  Philos- 
ophy— "  Is  Pantheism  the  Legitimate  Outcome  of 
Modern  Science  ?"  J  and  more  exhaustively  in  five 
articles,  which  appeared  October,  November  and  Decem- 
ber of  the  same  year  in  The  Index,  on  "  The  Dual  Aspect 

%  Dr.  Montgomery's  paper,  read  before  the  Concord  School  of 
Philosophy  last  summer  was  regarded  by  many  as  the  ablest  essay 
of  the  session.  It  was  extravagantly  praised  by  some  and  criti- 
cized by  others.     A  writer  in  the  Congregationalist  wrote : 

"An  elaborate  paper  from  Dr.  Montgomery,  on  The  Platonic 
Idea  and  Vital  Organization,  was  in  some  points  the  most  distinct- 
ive one  of  the  year,  an  altogether  new  and  fresh  line  of  thought 
being  opened  up  by  it.  The  writer,  though  owning  a  name  unfa- 
miliar to  the  popular  ear,  is  one  of  the  ablest  of  living  physiolo- 
gists. He  .believes  that  the  present  aggregative  theory  of  life 
is  incorrect,  and  utterly  at  variance  with  any  true  theory  of  evolu- 
tion, and  has  given  years  to  exhaustive  experiment  in  demonstra- 
tions of  his  theory.  Unluckily,  his  English  is  so  German,  and 
German  of  the  most  complicated  and  bewildering  nature,  that  the 
bristling  undergrowth  must  be  cleared  away  before  one  can  fully 
realize  the  beauty  and  power  of  his  presentation. 


modes    of  the   unknow- 

as    sensation,     emotion, 

being     directly     or     in- 

the     original    shapes." 


of  Our  Nature."  Here  he  protests  against  "such  a  riot  of 
metamorphosis  as  is  implied  in  the  convertibility  of  every 
manifest  mode  of  the  unknown  into  every  other  mode 
of  the  same,  which  means,  in  fact,  the  convertibility  of 
everything  into  everything  else.  Let  no  one  think  this 
is  an  exaggerated  statement.  The  reasoning  is  simple 
enough.  Every  phenomenon  in  nature  is  the  manifes- 
tation of  one  and  the  same  force.  Such  force-manifes- 
tations are  mutually  convertible.  Therefore,  there  is  no 
phenomenon,  material  or  mental,  which  is  not  converti- 
ble into  any  other  phenomenon."  He  maintains  that 
"conceiving  mental  phenomena  as  modes  of  an  all-com- 
prising unknowable,"  implies  transcending  the  limits  of 
organic  individuality  and  falling  into  pantheistic  idealism ; 
that  feeling  and  brain  motion  are  not  mutually  convert- 
ible; that  our  present  existence  is  "not  in  the  least  phe- 
nomenal," but  a  part  of  "the  utmost  reality  of  life;'' 
that  this  reality  is  larger  and  much  more  permanent  than 
consciousness;  that  "our  mental  presence  constitutes  in 
itself  the  symbolical  though  practically  reliable  repre- 
sentation of  the  very  powers  of- nature  by  which  it  is 
produced ;"  that  "  mind  is  an  organic  product,"  and  that 
"our  veritable  nature  is  a  permanent  non-mental  entity, 
of  which  our  mental  phenomena  are  an  ever  renewed 
afflux." 

In  his  address  on  "  The  Scientific  Bases  of  Religious 
Intuition,"  written  by  special  request  for  the  last  con- 
vention of  the  Free  Religious  Association,  and  printed 
in  the  Index  of  May  27,  1SS6,  the  Doctor  says: 
"Our  own  being,  from  the  very  dawn  of  living  exist- 
ence, has  been  fashioned  to  the  core,  in  ceaseless  inter- 
action with  the  powers  that  constitute  the  outer  world. 
We  ourselves  are  individually  something,  some  one, 
only  in  relation  to  the  world  in  which  we  are  living. 
Very  visibly,  there  is  not  a  single  part  of  our  body, 
down  to  its  minutest  textures,  that  is  not  corresponding 
to  some  outside  relation."  "  And  our  mind,  in  its  widest 
sweep  and  its  highest  flight,  has  clearly  no  other  normal 
function  than  the  conscious  realization  of  our  rela- 
tions to  outside  nature.  Only — to  us  human  beings — 
the  relations  to  our  own  kind,  those  most  intricate, 
highly  elaborated  and  refined  relations  making  up  our 
social  life  and  culture,  have  assumed  pre-eminent  im- 
portance in  our  mental  existence.  They  are  in  the  real 
medium,  in  which  we  humanly  and  morally  live." 

The  following  lines  appeared  in  the  Boston  Record: 
OUT-PLATOING  THE  PLATONISTS. 
A  Texan  has  floored  the  Concord  crowd, 

Sing  high!  and  sing  ho!  for  the  great  southwest; 
He  sent  'em  a  paper  to  read  aloud, 

And  'twas  done  up  in  style  by  one  of  their  best. 
The  Texan  he  loaded  his  biggest  gun 

With  all  the  wise  words  he  ever  had  seen, 
And  he  fired  at  long  range  with  death-grim  fun, 

And  slew  all  the  sages  with  his  machine. 
He  muddled  the  muddlers  with  brain-cracking  lore, 

He  went  in  so  deep  tnat  his  followers  were  drowned, 
But  he  swam  out  himself  to  the  telluric  shore, 

And  crowed  in  his  glee  o'er  the  earthlings  around. 
ENVOY. 
Oh  Plato,  dear  Plato,  come  back  from  the  past! 

And  we'll  forgive  all  that  you  e'er  did  to  vex  us 
If  you'll  only  arrange  for  a  colony  vast 

And  whisk  these  philosophers  all  off  to  Texas. 


io8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

FREE-THOUGHT    EDUCATION. 
To  the  Editors: 

The  very  interesting  articles  in  numbers  one  and  two  of  The 
Open  Court,  by  Messrs.  Davidson's  and  Jappe,  have  awakened 
in  me  a  desire  to  say  a  word  on  the  subject,  it"  you  will  be  so  kind 
as  to  grant  me  a  small  space  in  your  splendid  journal. 

The  subject  is  one  which  is  nearest  my  heart  and  embodies 
the  fondest  hopes  of  my  life.  The  ideas  advanced  in  botli  articles 
are,  on  the  whole,  splendid.  Yet  I  feel  that  the  writers'  concep- 
tions are  hardly  broad  enough  and  the  great  central  idea  underly- 
ing the  subject  has  been  overlooked.  In  the  consideration  of  this 
subject  free-thinkers  should  ask  themselves  what  are  the  objects 
of  a  tree-thought  institution  of  learning.  Mr.  Jappe  says  Mr- 
Davidson  "  is  mistaken  if  he  believes  that  a  free-thought  college 
will  do  much  good  ;  it  is  not  in  the  colleges  that  the  mind  is 
framed,  as  far  as  the  feeling  of  fear  and  hope,  of  reverence  and 
esteem,  are  concerned."  Is,  then,  the  highest  object  of  a  free- 
thought  college  to  make  free-thinkers  of  our  boys  and  girls?  If 
this  were  all,  there  would  indeed  be  little  gained.  All  our  col- 
leges are  doing  this  in  spite  of  the  superstitious  influence  sur- 
rounding them. 

What  is  it,  above  all  other  things,  that  is  needed  to  secure  the 
most  rapid  advance  of  the  cause  of  free-thought  ?  Is  our  greatest 
need  an  institution  or  organization, whether  it  be  college  or  lyceum, 
that  will  send  forth  from  its  doors  avowed  and  agressive  free- 
thinkers as  the  above  statement  would  indicate  ?  I  answer  no. 
The  most  imperative  duty  now  resting  upon  us,  is  not  so  much 
to  guard  the  youth  of  our  land  against  the  poisonous  influence  of 
superstition,  as  to  enlist  into  the  active  service  of  free-thought 
the  thousands  of  men  and  women  already  free  from  its  taint. 
Do  this,  and  there  will  be  no  need  to  warn  the  young  and  grow- 
ing minds  against  the  snares  of  orthodoxy.  The  comparative 
weakness  of  the  cause  of  free-thought  is  not  due  to  a  weakness  in 
the  number  of  free-thinkers.  Three-fourths  of  our  people  to-day 
are  either  avowed  free-thinkers  or  silent  rejecters  of  othodox\. 
The  orthodox  element  of  this  country  form  a  very  small  major- 
ity. And  yet  orthodoxy,  the  great  stumbling  block  in  the  path 
ol  progress,  permeates  every  vestige  of  our  progressive  civilization 
and  holds  the  seat  of  highest  honor,  while  free-thought,  the 
embodiment  of  all  that  is  progressive,  crouches  before  the  tvrant, 
a  trembling  slave.  Think  of  the  thousands  of  free-thinkers  who, 
while  looking  upon  the  Christian  system  as  a  mass  of  superstition, 
deem  it  policy  to  remain  silent.  What  is  the  cause  of  this  ? 
Mere  is  the  key-note.  Superstition  wears  the  silken  garb  and 
jeweled  signet  of  honor  and  respect,  free-thought  is  covered  with 
the  slimy  robe  of  approbrium  and  looked  upon  in  contumely  and 
scorn.  Whence  this  state  of  affairs  ?  You  answer,  the  church 
is  thoroughly  organized,  free-thought  is  unorganized.  True,  and 
in  what  lies  the  chief  strength  of  this  great  organization,  without 
which  orthodoxy  would  not  dare  to  face  the  all-searching  criti- 
cism of  the  nineteenth  century  civilization  f  There  can  be  but 
one  answer.  It  is  the  vast  system  of  colleges  and  universities 
that  are  dedicated  to  the  cause  of  superstition.  Give  us  a  few 
good  free-thought  colleges  and  the  cause  of  free-thought  will 
command  the  respect  of  the  world  ;  and,  indeed,  this  should  be 
the  profoundest  of  reasons  for  establishing  them.  This  is  a  prac- 
tical age.  The  world  demands  of  every  system  the  fruits  of  its 
workings.  When  asked  what  free-thought  has  done  for  man- 
kind, we  proudly  turn,  and  truly  too,  and  point  to  our  magnificent 
educational  system,  but  the  church  says,  not  so,  this  is  the  child 
of  Christianity.  And,  by  the  way,  when  we  think  of  the  old 
adage,  possession  is  nine  points  in  law,  we  feel  like  dropping  our 
claim. 


Let  us  then  build  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  our  cause  a  few 
imperishable  monuments  that  will  stand  alike  the  ravages  of 
time  and  the  batteries  of  superstition.  Let  us  establish  a  few  free- 
thought  colleges  and  universities.  Then  will  free-thought 
become  a  title  which  all  will  be  proud  to  wear.  Justice  will  be 
meted  out  for  the  glorious  work  it  has  done,  orthodoxy  will  lose 
its  hold  upon  the  world,  our  public  schools  will  become  purified 
and  there  will  be  no  need  for  free-thought  lyceums  to  make  free- 
thinkers of  our  bovs  and  girls.  Until  the  name  free-thinker  is 
respected  and  honored  by  the  mass  of  humanity  equally  with  the 
name  Christian,  our  lecturers,  our  press,  our  writers,  our  lyceums, 
our  thousands  of  earnest  workers  in  the  armv  of  free-thought, 
can  avail  but  little.  To  accomplish  this  we  must  offer  to  the 
world  something  tangible,  something  to  which  we  can  point  as 
the  glory  of  free-thought,  something  to  which  orthodoxy  can  lay 
no  claim.  Pre-eminently  this  something  is  a  free-thought  insti- 
tution of  learning  and  this  should  be  our  chief  object  in  establish- 
ing one  M.  D.  Leahy. 

BOSTON   CORRESPONDENCE. 
To  ///<■  Editors: 

In  these  days  of  rapid  transit,  when  places  as  distant  from 
each  other  as  Boston  and  Chicago  are  brought  near  together  and 
communications  between  them  are  exchanged  in  a  few  hours, 
and  their  commingling  influences  tend  to  obliterate  their  local 
peculiarities  and  give  to  them  common  resemblances  and  affinities, 
it  becomes  less  difficult  to  be  reconciled  to  the  removal  of 
The  Index  to  the  more  favorable  soil  of  the  West,  than  it 
would  be  if  these  considerations  were  wanting;  though  one  may 
deplore  the  exigency  which  seems  to  render  it  expedient,  or  miss 
in  the  metempsychosis  the  familiar  aspect  and  featuresof  its  pre- 
existence. 

It  is  true  we  who  dwell  at  the  "hub"  are  disposed  to  feel  that 
Boston  is  the  natural  home  of  all  progressive  things,  the  spot 
where  alone  they  can  healthfully  thrive,  and  whence  hopefully 
eminate.  And  there  has  been  much  in  its  history,  as  all  the 
world  knows,  to  nurture  this  pursuasion.  It  is  not  strange,  there- 
fore, despite  the  happy  auguries  that  accompanied  it,  that  we  wit- 
nessed the  departure  of  what  we  had  been  accustomed  to  regard 
as  peculiarly  our  own  and  possessing  a  certain  indigenous  rela- 
tion to  this  locality,  in  some  sense  our  oracle,  (if  it  is  lawful  for 
radicals  to  have  one),  at  least  with  special  endearment  and  pride, 
to  the  care  of  other  hands  and  to  what  we  are  apt  to  consider  a  less 
genial  intellectual  clime  with  feelings  that  were  not  wholly  com- 
placent. But  all  things  change  in  this  changing  world.  The 
Boston  of  to  day,  it  must  be  confessed  with  humiliation,  is  not  the 
Boston  it  was  once.  Nor  is  the  Chicago  of  to-day,  it  is  safe  to 
assert,  I  think,  exactly  the  Chicago  of  twenty  years  ago,  in  re- 
spect to  much  which  then  marked  the  difference  between  the  East- 
ern and  the  Western  city,  and  especially  that  was  incident  to  the 
latter's  immaturity,  rapid  growth  and  the  prevailing  influence  of 
material  pursuits.  A  leveling  process  has  been  going  on  during 
these  years  which  has  largely  reduced  the  inequalities  that  they 
bore  in  relation  to  each  other.  It  may  seem  almost  disloyal  to 
write  it,  but  there  are  some  signs  that  while  Chicago  has  increased 
Boston  has  decreased  in  important  particulars.  Indeed  there  are 
those  who  boldly  intimate,  not  in  Boston  of  course,  that  it  has 
lost  the  literary  prominence  it  so  long  maintained,  that  New  York 
has  already  appropriated  the  distinction.  It  must  also  be  admitted 
that  Chicago  is  no  longer  to  be  counted  an  insignificant  competi- 
tor in  the  pursuit  of  such  honors.  Certain  it  is  that  those  who 
occupy  the  high  places  of  power  in  our  city  at  present  and  exer- 
cise a  prominent,  if  not  a  controlling  authority  and  influence  in 
its  educational  and  public  affairs,  and  give  the  tone  in  no  small 
degree  to  its  social  life,  are  as  a  rule  of  other  than  New  England 
birth,  and  of  quite  a  different  type  from  those  who  presided  in 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


109 


former  days  over  its  interests,  when  Boston  was  famous  for  its 
genuine  social  culture,  its  illustrious  names  in  literature  and  the 
professions,  its  philanthropic  spirit  and  independent  thinking. 

Nevertheless,  there  will  be  for  a  considerable  time  to  come, 
with  all  good  wishes  for  its  successor,  in  this  neighborhood  and 
wherever  it  has  gone,  among  the  friends  and  readers  of  The  Index, 
a  feeling  of  real  regret  at  its  decease  and  a  deep  sense  of  depriva- 
tion at  the  loss  of  its  accustomed  weekly  visits.  Its  record  has 
been  in  all  respects  a  noble  one.  No  journal  has  surpassed  it  in 
vigor  of  thought  or  critical  ability  or  crowded  its  columns  more 
fullv  from  week  to  week  with  matter  worthy  of  the  attention  of 
earnest,  truth-seeking,  free  minded  people.  It  is  a  fortunate 
circumstance  in  connection  with  the  new  journalistic  enterprise 
at  Chicago,  that  its  editors  come  to  their  charge  with  all  the 
advantages  of  several  years'  experience  in  the  same  relation  to  its 
predicessor;  and  hence  have  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
constituency  for  which  they  are  to  fill  the  office  of  purveyors. 
Both  the  editor  in  chief  and  his  capable  assistant  are  of  New  Eng- 
land origin  and  life  long  associations,  but  while  this  is  the  case, 
the  former  does  not  go  to  the  West  as  a  stranger.  It  was  his 
business  for  vears  to  travel  and  lecture  all  over  it.  Probably 
there  is  no  one  who  is  personally  better  known  to  the  liberals  ot 
the  country  whose  voice  has  been  heard  in  so  many  places  or 
before  a  greater  number  of  liberal  gatherings,  like  one  of  old  cry- 
ing in  the  wilderness  —  the  wilderness  in  his  day  of  modern  errors 
and  superstition — preparing  the  way  for  the  coming  of  a  higher 
righteousness  and  reason.  It  is  thus  that  the  editors  of  this  new 
organ  of  liberalism  are  to  assume  the  trust  assigned  them  with 
eminent  qualifications  adequately  to  appreciate  and  sympathize 
with  the  characteristics  and  peculiarities  of  East  and  West  alike. 
It  seems,  therefore,  as  though  nothing  remains,  but  for  earnest 
liberals  of  both  sections,  in  fact  everywhere,  to  give  the  new 
enterprise  their  cordial  and  helpful  support.  All  hail !  then,  we 
say,  to  The  Open  Court,  may  it  live  long  and  prosper.  We 
pass  to  other  matters. 

The  two  Sams,  Small  and  Jones,  have  come  and  gone.  The 
event  may  not  be  one  of  great  interest  to  liberals,  but  it  has  been 
to  the  orthodox  world  in  this  vicinity  and  the  public  in  general. 
I  fear  that  vent,  zn'di,  via,  can  hardly  be  written  of  their  visit. 
There  are  still  unmistakable  signs  that  Boston  is  not  saved,  after 
all  the  nine  days'  sensation  of  their  preaching.  The  course  of 
things  does  not  appear  to  have  changed,  but  to  all  outward  dis- 
cernment proceeds  as  before.  I  do  not  hear  of  less  arrests  at  the 
station  houses.  The  liquor  traffic  seems  as  flourishing  as  ever.  I 
do  not  believe  anyone  can  point  to  a  single  saloon,  after  all 
this  tremendous  charge  upon  satanic  strong  holds,  that  has  been 
closed.  The  number  of  the  poor  wretches  who  stagger  through  the 
streets  has  not  apparently  diminished.  Teamsters  and  herdic 
drivers  are  no  gentler,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  in  their  manners,  nor 
do  they  swear  less  vigorously  at  each  other  upon  slight  provoca- 
tions. What  is  the  good  of  all  this  turmoil  and  pow-wow  if 
simply  those  who  are  tolerably  decent  and  respectable  already, 
from  whom  the  community  has  little  if  anything  to  fear,  are  the 
chief  conversions?  The  sceptical,  in  view  of  these  things,  cannot 
refrain  from  the  question,  whether,  if  the  same  amount  of  zeal  and 
money  had  been  spent  in  labors  to  alleviate  the  actual  misery 
which  always  exists  in  all  great  cities  like  ours,  and  especially  at 
this  season,  it  might  not  have  been  a  work  as  urgent  and  import- 
ant as  efforts  so  largely  influenced  by  media; val  views  of  the 
misery  of  another  and  future  state  of  existence.  And  yet  it 
must  be  confessed  that,  for  those  on  certain  planes  of  life,  there  is 
a  power  in  this  old  theology  and  its  methods  which  more  enlight- 
ened conceptions  and  processes  do  not  possess,  a  power  to  lift 
them  up,  perchance,  a  little  higher  in  the  scale  of  being.  Unfor- 
tunately, this  lifting  process  is  one  that  has  to  be  pretty  often 
repeated  in  some  instances,  and  the  attitude  attained   is  not  even 


then  a  very  commanding  one.  Other  evangelists,  it  is  announced, 
are  to  follow  those  just  mentioned,  indeed  have  already  begun 
their  work.  In  fact,  it  looks  as  if  Boston  was  about  to  undergo  a 
seige  from  these  invaders. 

This  is  one  way  of  trying  to  make  the  world  better,  of  seeking 
to  reclaim  the  wicked  and  degraded  of  our  city,  but  I  confess  1 
am  more  disposed  to  believe  in  the  worth  of  the  results  of  such 
a  plan  as  that  proposed  for  our  North  End  wards  by  Hon.  George 
S.  Hale  at  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Unitarian  club.  It  is  to  pro 
vide  a  simple  and  spacious  building  in  that  part  of  the  city,  which 
is  chiefly  occupied  by  foreigners  and  the  poorer  classes  of  people, 
which  shall  contain  "a  coffee  house  or  restaurant  for  uninjurious 
refreshments;  a  regulated  pawnbroker's  shop  where  the  poor  and 
needy  may  obtain  loans,  without  extortion,  on  their  humble  securi- 
ties; an  attractive  hall  where,  for  a  moderate  price,  simple  and 
innocent  amusements  may  be  offered  freely  during  the  week  to 
tempt  those  it  is  desired  to  reach  from  those  dangerous  and 
vulgar  ;and  where  there  may  be  temperance  meetings  and  others 
for  open  and  friendly  discussions  of  political  and  social  questions, 
popular  lectures  and  classes,  athletic  exercises,  rooms  for  games 
of  billiards,  draughts,  dominoes,  bagatelle,  for  smoking  and  read- 
ing, for  friendly  societies,  and  on  Sunday  for  religious  services 
with  music  and  choir,  not  limited  to  any  sect  or  faith ;  w  here  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  the  members  of  trades  Unions  and  their 
employers  may  meet  for  friendly  discussion  and  conference.  '  I 
would  throw  open  these  rooms  and  halls,"  said  the  essayest,  "to 
every  man  of  orderly  speech  and  life  who,  in  honesty,  felt  he  had 
a  mission  to  the  rich  and  poor — I  would  not  inquire  into  his 
theology  or  his  political  and  social  orthodox v,  but  I  would  'hear 
his  cry.'"  This  is  the  liberal  "plan  of  salvation  "  for  the  sinning 
and  "poor  and  needy."  Its  practical  character  is  too  obvious  to 
need  commendation. 

The  epidemic  of  strikes,  so  prevalent  throughout  the  country 
nowadays,  and  of  which  this  part,  it  would  seem,  had  hitherto  had 
its  share,  has  been  especially  violent  ol  late  in  this  city.  The 
outbreak  began  this  time,  with  the  strike  ot  the  conductors  and 
drivers  of  the  South  Boston  horse  railroad  company.  This  was 
followed  a  few  day  later,  by  a  general  strike  on  all  the  lines  of 
the  Cambridge  roads  connecting  with  the  city,  thus  throwing 
several  hundred  unemployed  men  into  the  streets,  with  all  the 
liability  to  turbulence  and  danger  to  the  public  which  such  a  state 
of  things  engenders.  As  both  roads  run  through  sections  occupied 
by  the  worst  class  of  our  people,  acts  of  violence  and  lawless- 
ness have  attended  the  running  of  the  cars  in  these  localities, 
especially  at  night  and  on  Sundays,  to  a  very  alarming  extent 
and  have  made  policemen's  duties  along  the  route  something 
more  than  a  sinecure  or  idle  pastime.  The  substitutes,  or  "scab" 
conductors  and  drivers  have  been  subjected  to  continual  annoy- 
ances on  their  trips  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  and  have  held 
their  places  in  the  face  of  most  exasperating  and  deadlv  perils. 
They  have  been  hooted  at,  some  of  them  fiercely  assaulted  and 
knocked  from  their  cars,  and  have  met  with  severe  bodilv  injuries, 
while  brickbats  and  paving  stones,  hurled  through  the  windows 
of  the  cars,  have  rendered  the  experiences  of  those  inside  more 
exciting  than  agreeable.  After  a  number  of  weeks  of  this  state 
of  things  in  our  good  city  of  Boston,  the  strikers  on  the 
Cambridge  roads  voted  to  give  up  the  strike,  and  those  on 
the  South  Boston  road  soon  followed  their  example.  What 
is  the  lesson?  The  companies  have  been  very  much  embarrassed 
in  their  business,  and  the  community  in  general  in  its  interest 
and  convenience.  The  men,  too,  have  lost  much.  Perhaps  in 
proportion  to  their  means  more  than  all  others.  They  have 
been  for  weeks  unemployed,  with  loss  of  wages,  living  on  pre- 
vious earnings,  or  incurring  debts,  while  both  they  and  their 
families  have  suffered  much  privation.  The  question  arises  in 
view  of  these  events,  whether  there  is  not  some  more  excellent 


I  IO 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


way  than  the  way  of  the  strike  for  the  workingman  to  adopt  to 
establish  equitable  or  satisfactory  relations  between  him  and  his 
employer  and  obtain  the  rights  which  belong  to  his  labor. 

Here  in  Massachusetts  there  still  linger,  as  is  well  known, 
many  of  the  vestiges  of  the  code  of  the  Puritans  in  our  statutes, 
and  especially  in  regard  to  the  observance  of  Sunday.  There  has 
been  a  good  deal  of  radical  and  legislative  powder  and  dynamite 
of  a  verbal  sort  expended  first  and  last  to  get  rid  of  them,  but  with 
little  more  effect  than  a  like  assault  upon  the  rock  of  Gibralter. 
Within  the  last  year  there  has  been  a  strenuous  effort  to  put  these 
existing  Sunday  laws  in  force.  What  is  the  use,  we  may  presume 
our  astute  or  pious  legislators  reasoned,  to  have  Sunday  laws  and 
make  no  use  of  them?  So  the  edict  went  forth  in  many  places 
that  the  barbers  and  bakers,  druggists  and  news  venders,  and  all 
who  did  business  on  the  "  Lord's  day  "  should  henceforth  cease 
from  these  occupations  on  that  day.  The  surest  way  of  getting 
rid  of  obnoxious  laws,  it  is  often  said,  is  to  try  to  enforce  them. 
The  saying  seems  to  be  verified  in  this  instance.  The  subject  has 
already  occupied  much  of  the  attention  of  the  present  session  of 
our  legislature  and  is  not  yet  disposed  of.  Different  bills  have 
been  presented  and  discussed,  each  prepared  with  the  intent  of 
satisfying,  so  far  as  possible,  the  orthodox  conscience  and  intol- 
erance on  the  one  hand  and  the  necessities  of  our  modern  life 
and  the  growth  of  rational  intelligence  on  the  other.  A  task 
that  is  not  altogether  an  easy  one. 

There  seems  some  prospect  that  Boston  may  soon  follow  the 
lead  of  some  of  the  cities  of  the  country,  Chicago  among  the  rest, 
I  believe,  in  providing  police  stations  with  matrons  to  have 
charge  of  women  under  arrest  at  these  places.  The  matter  is 
eliciting  much  public  interest  and  is  warmly  endorsed  by  the 
governor,  the  mayor  and  many  of  our  leading  citizens  and  phil- 
anthropists. It  is  hardly  creditible  to  Boston,  in  view  of  the 
number  of  cities  in  which  this  custom  exists,  that  it  should  have 
waited  so  long  before  waking  up  to  an  act  of  so  simple  and 
obvious  humanity. 

Boston  abounds  in  clubs.  Their  growth  has  been  very  rapid 
within  the  last  few  years,  and  the  number  continually  increases. 
We  have  women's  clubs  and  men's  clubs,  church  clubs  and  politi- 
cal clubs,  college  clubs,  musical  clubs,  art  clubs,  literary  clubs, 
schoolmasters'  clubs,  business  and  trade  clubs,  and  often  a  number 
of  any  single  one  of  these  varieties.  Indeed,  the  remark  has  been 
made  that  it  is  likely  to  be  a  distinction  in  Boston  by  and  by  for 
a  person  not  to  belong  to  a  club.  Among  these  numerous  and 
various  clubs  it  may  be  of  interest  to  know  that  liberals  also 
possess  a  distinct  representation.  The  Liberal  Union  club  has 
been  some  three  or  four  years  in  existence.  It  has  a  member- 
ship of  a  hundred  or  thereabouts  of  liberals  distinguished  for 
character  and  intelligence.  The  president  is  Mr.  Francis  E. 
Abbott,  the  projector  of  The  Index,  and  for  many  years  its  brave 
and  brilliant  editor.  The  meetings  occur  on  the  last  Saturday  of 
each  month  at  Young's  Hotel,  the  favorite  resort  of  such  gather- 
ings, whose  elegance  of  accommodation,  appointments  and  serv- 
ice, and  artistic  culinary  skill  is  not  surpassed  by  any  simi- 
lar establishment  probably  in  the  country.  The  programme  on 
these  occasions  consists  of  a  supper,  which  is  pretty  sure  of  appre- 
ciation at  least,  whatever  may  be  the  fate  of  its  other  parts,  and 
an  essay,  with  addresses,  with  some  musical  or  other  entertaining 
exercises  interspersed  at  fitting  points  in  the  course  of  the  even- 
ing. The  February  meeting  of  the  club  was  a  red-letter  night  in 
its  history.  It  was  distinguished  as  "  ladies'  night,"  a  new  de- 
parture for  the  club.  In  other  words  the  members  were  expected 
to  bring  ladies  with  them,  one  each  at  least,  as  guests  of  the  even- 
ing. The  proposition  was  received  with  favor.  It  gave  the 
members  an  opportunity  to  show  their  wives  and  daughters,  or 
some  one's  else  wives  and  daughters,  as  the  case  might  be,  how 
their  evenings  were  passed  at  the  club  meetings.     The  attendance 


on  this  occasion  was  between  sixty  and  seventy.  Miss  Mary  F.  „ 
Eastman,  the  essayist  of  the  evening,  spoke  on  "Our  Duty  to 
Speak  our  Utmost  Thought;"  the  paper  was  vivacious  and  pleas-' 
ing  and  not  too  heavy  for  an  after  dinner  exercise.  Miss  Eastman 
was  followed  by  the  venerable  Mrs.  E.  D.  Cheney,  who,  with  a 
few  appropriate  words,  beamed  her  motherly  benediction  on  the 
occasion.  Mr.  W.  L.  Garrison,  in  easy  flowing  verse,  gave  ex- 
pression to  some  of  his  "  utmost  thoughts."  One  was,  ladies 
should  also  be  members  of  the  club,  and  another,  that  wine  and 
cigars  should  be  excluded.  Here  endeth  the  first  letter,  and  too 
long  a  one,  I  fear,  of  your  Boston  correspondent.         Clayton. 


HOW  SUNDAY   LAWS  ARE  MANUFACTURED. 

To  the  Editors:  Boston,  March  17,  1S80. 

The  recent  debate  of  two  hours  in  the  Massachusetts  House 
of  Representatives  showed  me,  not  only  how  such  laws  are  made, 
but  how  they  can  be  amended.  The  speakers  cared  little  for 
abstract  principles;  but  all  agreed  in  their  desire  to  come  up  fully 
to  the  standard  of  public  opinion,  and  to  whatever  the  people 
asked.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  laws  against  Sun- 
day travel  and  Saturday  evening  amusements  will  be  repealed, 
and  also  that  the  business  now  done  illegally  on  "the  Lord's  day" 
by  milkmen,  newsboys,  barbers,  bakers,  telegraph  operators,  gas- 
men, stablemen,  druggists,  horse-car  people,  printers,  and  other 
indispensible  criminals,  will  be  legalized  by  special  exceptions  to 
the  general  prohibition  of  business  and  labor.  It  is  still  a  ques- 
tion how  far  these  kinds  of  Sabbath-breaking  are  to  be  limited  to 
special  hours,  and  whether  people  who  keep  the  real  Bible  Sab- 
bath every  Saturday,  are  to  be  permitted  to  open  their  shops  and 
expose  their  wares  for  sale.  It  should  be  remembered,  that  in  all 
other  respects  they  have  been  allowed  to  labor  and  do  business 
for  the  last  fifty  years,  and  that  the  request  to  be  allowed  to  show 
goods  publicly,  as  well  as  to  sell  them  privately,  does  not  appear 
to  come  from  the  most  enlightened  members  of  the  body.  The 
most  important  difference  is  about  amusement,  some  members 
calling  for  total  abolition  of  what  they  stigmatize  as  the  blue  laws, 
while  others  oppose  letting  of  boats,  etc.,  and  insist  that  nothing 
more  lively  should  be  permitted  than  a  concert  of  sacred  music. 
One  Solon,  professing  to  speak  from  a  purely  humanitarian  point 
of  view,  said:  "The  Sabbath  is  made  for  man,  not  man  for  the 
Sabbath;  and  for  this  reason  there  ought  not  to  be  any  recreation 
on  Sunday."  Others  protested  for  amusements  in  the  name  of 
the  poor.  Still,  whatever  disagreement  there  is  in  the  State 
House  is  due  to  the  different  habits  prevailing  among  the  people. 
Our  legislators  all  wish  to  ratify  what  has  already  been  decided 
by  public  opinion,  but  they  are  not  likely  to  go  any  further  in 
reform. 

Whatever  is  done  in  repealing  the  laws  against  Sunday  travel, 
or  particular  kinds  of  business,  or  Saturday  evening  amusements 
will  be  done  not  to  open  agitation  but  to  the  quiet  agreement  of 
the  whole  community  to  treat  all  this  part  of  our  legislation  as 
null  and  void.  I  remember  when  our  theatres  used  to  announce 
that  they  would  give  performances  Saturday  evening,  in  order  to 
test  the  law.  Here  in  Massachusetts  a  statute  has  to  be  tried  and 
found  wanting,  before  it  can  be  repealed.  Our  legislators  say 
plainly:  "  If  you  will  prove  that  the  law  against  Sunday  amuse- 
ments cannot  be  enforced,  we  are  willing  to  alter  it;  but  so  long 
as  the  community  submits  contentedly,  we  see  no  occasion  to 
interfere."  For  those  of  us  that  think,  as  I  do,  that  more  freedom 
in  Sunday  recreation  is  necessary  for  the  health  and  good 
behavior  of  our  people,  especially  the  poor,  our  duty  is  plain  and 
urgent.     It  is  not  preaching  but  example  that  will  do  the  work. 


'ork. 
H. 


Is  there,  then,  no  death  for  a  word  once  spoken? 

Was  never  a  deed  but  left  its  token? 

Do  the  elements  subtle  reflections  give? 

Do  pictures  of  all  the  ages  live 

On  Nature's  infinite  negative? — Whlttier. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


in 


DEATH  IN  THE  CAGE. 

BY    GEORGE    WENTZ. 

In  China  old,  in  any  city  street. 

You  still  may  see  what  stirs  your  noble  rage. 
Yet  scarce  gives  pause  to  any  passing  feet— 

A  man  within  a  cage ! 

A  narrow,  upright  box,  so  cunning  made 
That  on  his  head  atop  the  sun  doth  pour; 

Hung  by  his  jaws  he  lacketh  much  of  aid 
From  toes  that  touch  its  floor. 

And  there  attached  a  scroll  that  bears  his  name, 

His  age  and  race  and  occupation  late, 
His  sentence— death— and  what  he  did  to  shame 

The  laws  of  sovreign  state. 

And  also  this :  the  penalty  extreme 

To  him  who,  softened  at  the  heart,  should  think, 
However  great  the  culprits'  need  might  seem, 

To  give  him  meat  or  drink. 

And  there  he  hangs,  and  moans  and  shrieketh  shrill. 

In  supplication  as  you  pass  his  way, 
And  then  grows  faint;  hut  no  less  pleadeth  still 

Tomorrow,  as  to-day. 

But  not  for  aye;  quick  nature's  chord  is  broke, 
And  heart-strings  snap  when  too  intense  the  strain. 

The  third  day  comes;  his  need  is  looked,  not  spoke, 
And  he  is  past  his  pain. 

The  air  is  still;  no  living  sound  near  by, 
Save  where  the  crowd  a  little  space  away 

Strives  eagerly,  beneath  his  glazing  eye, 
For  seats  to  see  a  play. 

And  he  is  dead!  one  life  the  less  is  nought 
In  all  the  millions  that  survive  in  pain; 

"When  man  is  valueless,  the  thought 
Of  how  he  dies  is  vain. 

Now  he  is  dead  write  China's  thousand  years 

Beside  this  woful  picture  here  apart: 
A^e  may  adorn;  but  how  unloved  appears 

Gray  head  that  hath  no  heart! 


BOOK   NOTICES. 


"  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  FITTEST." 
The  readers  of  The  Open  Court  will,  I  am  sure,  be  grateful  for 
having  their  attention  called  to  a  book  just  from  the  press  of 
Appleton  &  Co.,  entitled  The  Origin  of  the  Fittest,  by  our 
ablest  American  biologist,  E.  D.  Cope.  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
say  that,  since  Darwin  and  Wallace,  no  investigation  has  been 
more  important  or  more  ably  conducted  than  that  embodied  in 
this  book;  and  that  since  Spencer  and  Lewes  no  generizations 
have  been  so  profound  and  wonderful.  Difficult  as  the  work  of  the 
earlier  evolutionists  was,  that  of  this  later  or  second  school  is  no 
less  so.  Darwin  assumed,  or  allowed  to  rest,  the  conception  of  a 
Creator,  only  dispensing  with  the  idea  of  special  creations.  He 
distinctly  avowed  the  view  of  a  single  primal  creation,  in  which, 
inherent,  was  the  full  potency  of  self-evolving  purposiveness 
manifested  in  evolution.  This  complete  "Natura"  needed  no 
after-meddlings  or  supplements,  or  extra  natural  miracles.  But 
later  evolutionists  are  quite  of  a  different  mind.    They  have  taken 


such  theists  as  Diman  and  Hamilton  at  their  word,  when  they 
say,  it  is  "  evidently  our  duty  to  push  the  first  cause  as  far  back 
as  possible."  They  have  given  one  final  push,  and  lo,  the  final 
cause  is  not  to  be  found;  so  the  contest  stands  to-day  a  simple 
one  between  those  who  assert  with  Newman,  Diman,  Mivart, 
»  We  believe  in  One  who  is  apart  from,  and  above  Nature,  the 
cause,  etc.,"  and  those  who  find  in  the  manifest  substantial  uni- 
verse all  of  causality.  Bishop  Foster's  idea  of  creation  is  pro- 
bably very  nearly  the  common  theistic  view,  when  he  says,  "The 
world  was  fitted  up  for  man's  occupancy,  with  adequate  means 
inherent,  or  supplemented,  to  meet  all  his  needs."  Supplements! 
to  the  work  of  an  all-wise  Creator!  "I  thank  thee  for  that 
word!"  It  reminds  me  of  an  "Appendix"  I  saw  carved  to 
an  epitaph  on  a  tombstone  in  a  Western  cemetery. 

I  need  not  say  that  "The  Origin  of  the  Fittest"  is  fully  com- 
mitted to  the  later  and  broader  evolution.  It  does  not  hesitate  to 
go  back  of  the  "  beginnings  "  of  life  on  our  globe  and  seek  for  the 
origin  of  life,  and  of  that  which  life  involves:  consciousness, 
matter  and  force  are  the  primal  trinity  which  must  be 
accounted  for.  Are  they  derivatives  or  primatives?  In  other 
words,  are  they  the  constitutive  eternal  elements?  or  is  there  a 
God,  a  Being  apart  from  Nature,  who  either  creates  mat- 
ter and  force  or  imparts  to  eternal  matter  and  force  his  own 
sentience  ? 

The  one  emphatic  and  descriptive  quality  of  the  later  evolu- 
tionism is  the  acknowledgement  that  matter  and  force  alone  do 
not  cover  the  universe  as  it  is,  nor  as  it  was  primordially.  The 
rhizopod,  equally  with  man,  manifests  a  sensibility  and  a  pur- 
posive desire  that  is  not  included  in  the  energy  that  is  purely 
material.  Huxley,  in  his  late  passage  of  logic  with  Mr.  Lilly, 
says,  "The  main  tenet  of  materialism  is,  that  there  is  nothing  in 
the  universe  but  matter  and  force,  and  that  all  the  phenomena  of 
nature  are  explicable  by  deduction  from  the  properties  assign- 
able to  these  two  factors;  all  this  I  heartily  disbelieve."  Pro- 
fessor Cope's  argument  is  everywhere  underlaid  with  this  pre- 
sumption, or  rather  demonstration;  for  I  take  it  that  what  a  final 
reduction  of  the  universe  in  the  crucible  of  analysis  insists  on 
giving  us,  that  we  must  take  as  demonstrably  certain. 

So  the  problem  is  carried  inimensly  back  of  Darwinism.     The 
essays   entitled   "  Catagenesis  "  and  "  Archa:sthetism,"   I  believe 
to  be  the  two  most   remarkable   and  able  attempts  in  metaphysi- 
cal evolution  extant,  excepting  possibly  the  accompanying  essay, 
entitled    "Consciousness    in    Evolution."      To  give  a  review  of 
such  articles  would  be  only  to  repeat  or  epitomize  them,  and  the 
latter  attempt  would  be   futile,  as  the  essays  are  exceedingly  con- 
centrated.    I  will  simply   suggest  one  of  the  final  conclusions  of 
Archresthetism.     The  question   arises  whether  there   may  not  be 
in  and  throughout  the  universe  some   generalized  form  of  matter 
which     can    sustain     consciousness;    for   clearly,    so  far   as  our 
investigation   goes,  consciousness    is    associated  only  with  proto- 
plasm ;  that  is,   with  a  certain  specific   chemical  union  of  carbon, 
hydrogen,  nitrogen  and  oxygen.      By  a  course  of  able  reasoning 
we  are°led  to  this  conclusion.      "The   presumption  is  that  such  a 
form  of  matter   may  well  exist.       Evolution    or   organization  has 
only  worked  up  part  of  its  raw  material    in   the  organic  world." 
I  wish  I  could  spread  before   your  readers  pages  of  this  magnifi- 
cent generalization.     I  must  not  undertake  it.     Equally  powerful 
is  his   handling  of  catagenesis,    or  retrogressive   evolution.     The 
problem  is  to  account  for  that  consciousness,  or  sentience,  or  sen- 
sibility,  or    "feeling,"    as    Lewes   terms    it,    which    characterizes 
primordial  life,  when    the  common  life  divergently  becomes   on 
the  one  side    animal,    on    the    other    vegetable.     What  does  the 
vegetable    kingdom   do   with  this   property  of  sentience,  or  is  it 
also   in  reality    now   a   sentient  part   of  the  world?      Prof.    Asa 
Gray  argues  that   it  is   sentient.      The  discussion  by  Prof.   Cope 
clears  the  subject  of  a  host  of  misapprehensions.      The  key  of  it 


I  12 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


is  that  energy,  as  soon  as  it  becomes  automatic  is  no  longer  con- 
scious. The  vegetable  kingdom  is  a  display  of  automatic  energy. 
The  animal  kingdom  is  also  full  of  automatism  in  the  form  of 
reflex  action  or  instinct,  but  is  also  largely  conscious. 

Carrying  back  these  general  conclusions  we  reach  the  final 
conclusion  that  mind  and  matter  are  no  more  to  be  conceived  as 
separable  in  the  universal  than  in  the  individual.  The  individual 
as  such  is  not  dual,  but  una],  a  substantiality.  So,  of  the  uni- 
versal, it  can  be  conceived  onlv  as  a  One,  absolute,  involving 
both  matter  and  mind. 

"The  Origin  of  the  Fittest"  is  equally  valuable  as  a  discus- 
sion of  organic  evolution.  It  is  to  Prof.  Cope  we  owe  the  gener- 
alizations, and  to  a  large  extent  the  investigations,  connected 
with  the  enormous  fossil  finds  in  Colorado  and  throughout  the 
West.  In  1S74  he  foretold  that  the  ancestors  of  a  large  group 
of  Tertiary  Mammals  when  found  would  prove  to  be  pentata- 
dactyle,  plantigrade  bunodont;  that  is  a  five-toed  walker  on  the 
sole  of  the  foot  unlike  our  ruminants,  and  possessed  of  tubercular 
molar  teeth.  In  1881  the  prophecy  was  fulfilled.  The  genus,  so 
far  best  known  of  this  division,  is  called  the  phenocodus,  but  the 
group  is  known  as  condylarthra.  Converging  in  this  con- 
dylarthra  group  are  traceable  backward  by  nearly  complete 
lines,  the  ox,  deer,  camel,  hog,  hippopotamus,  horse;  also 
the  carniverous  lion,  tiger,  wolf,  bear;  but,  above  all,  the 
lemur  tribe.  To  this  lemur  tribe,  as  a  common  ancestor,  the 
apes  and  men  are  now  traceable.  Before  this  work  of  anatomical 
biology  all  other  synthetical  results  stand  unicified.  I  look  on  it 
as  the  most  supurb  triumph  of  science  of  the  last  twenty-five 
years.  The  article  which  most  explicitly  recounts  this  progress 
of  generalization  was  published  in  The  Popular  Science  Monthly 
of  September,  1885.  But  the  general  results  are  contained  in  the 
volume  I  have  named,  "The  Origin  of  the  Fittest."  The  great 
geological  basin  of  the  West  has  revealed  the  story  of  the  last 
five  millions  of  years  with  an  accurracy,  that  twenty  years  ago, 
seemed  an  absolute  impossibility.  The  Tertiarv  Mammals  are  in 
reality  one  family,  moving  out  on  diverging  lines  from  one  an- 
cestral type  to  become  the  carnivorous  and  herbivorous  occu- 
pants of  the  globe.  Of  all  these  man  stands  most  closely  to  the 
original  type.  He  is  plantigrade  and  pentadactyle.  The  horse, 
the  ox  and  all  the  other  genera  of  this  stock  are  in  structure,  not 
only  more  divergent  from  the  ancestral  type,  but  completer  in 
the  organic  sense,  in  bone,  and  muscle  and  sinew.  Fortunately 
our  group  made  a  blunt  stop  in  the  way  of  polishing  bones  and 
toughening  sinews  and  put  all  its  energy  to  brain-building,  and 
on  that  line,  and  for  that  reason,  behold  man  !  But  I  must  leave 
Prof.  Cope  to  speak  for  himself.  E.  D.  Powell. 


Parleyings  With    People   of    Importance  in  Their  Day. 

By  Robert  ISroivning.    Boston:  Houghton,  Mifflin  iV  Co.,  18S7; 

pp.  187.     Price  $1.25. 

Browning  apparently  intended  gently  to  "  point  a  moral  "  by 
the  title  of  this  latest  work  of  his  pen,  that  moral  being  the  evan- 
escent nature  of  certain  sorts  of  fame,  for  none  of  his  "  people  of 
importance  in  their  day"  excepting  Fust,  the  inventor  of  printing, 
will  be  readily  recognized  by  the  general  readers  of  this;  they  are 
Bernard  de  Mandeville,  a  venal  writer  who  had  no  perceptible 
faith  in  the  good  and  true  in  human  nature;  Daniel  Bartoli, 
a  chronicler  of  pious  legends;  Christopher  Smart,  whose  only 
"smartness"  or  perhaps  inspiration  was  shown  by  a  poem 
scratched  by  him  on  the  walls  of  a  mad-house  where  he  was  con- 
fined because  of  insanity;  George  Budd  Doddington,  whose 
superficial  scheming  secured  him  a  title;  Francis  Furini,  an 
artist  whose  specialty  was  as  a  painter  of  the  nude  human  form  ; 
Gerard  de  Lairesse,  an  artist  who,  losing  his  sight,  was  yet  so 
enthusiastic  over  his  calling  that  he  dictated  a  work  in  eulogy  ol 
it,  and  Charles   Avison,  a  composer  of  simple  marches.     These 


"  parleyings"  give  one  the  impression  that  Browning  has  sum- 
moned "from  the  vasty  deep"  or  some  similar  place,  the  restless 
ghosts  of  these  "  people  of  importance  "  to  whom  he  deals  out  in 
his  own  inimitably  vague  and  "  1-know-it-all  "  sort  of  way, 
master-like  philosophical  deductions  from  possible  (though  rather 
improbable)  lessons  from  their  lives  and  works.  To  the  com- 
monplace reader,  the  strongest  and  clearest  poems  of  the  book  are 
those  which  open  and  close  the  volume, — the  prologue  entitled 
"  Apollo  and  the  Fates,"  and  the  epilogue  "  Fust  and  His 
Friends", — but  there  are  clear-cut,  cameo-like,  robust  bits  of 
verse,  appreciable  by  all,  in  most  of  the  poems,  in  proof  whereof 
we  quote  sparingly  from  much  that  invites.  Says  Apollo,  in  the 
prologue     arguing    with    the    remorseless    Fates   for    the  life  of 

Admetus: 

"  'Tis  man's  to  explore 
Up  and  down,  inch  by  inch,  with  the  taper  his  reason: 

No  torch,  it  suffices— held  deftly  and  straight. 
Eyes,  purblind  at  first,  feel  their  way  in  due  season, 

Accept  good  with  bad,  till  unseemly  debate 
Turns  concord, — despair,  acquiescence  in  fate." 

From  "  Francis  Furini"  we  take  this  recognition  of  the  wide 
scope  of  scientific  investigation  : 

"  Science  takes  thereto — 
Encourages  the  meanest  who  has  racked 
Nature  until  he  gains  from  her  some  fact, 
To  state  what  truth  is  from  his  point  of  view, 
Mere  pin-point  though  it  be.     Since  many  such 
Conduce  to  make  a  whole,  she  bids  our  friend 
Come  forward  unabashed  and  haply  lend 
tits  little  life-experience  to  our  much 
Of  modern  knowledge." 

In  the  same  poem  Browning  puts  into  definite  form  a  ques- 
tion which  has  doubtless  arisen  in  the  minds  of  many  thinkers 
who  have  hesitated  over  the  dubious  word : 

•  "  '  Soul ' — accept 

A  word  which  vaguely  names  what  no  adept 

In  word-use,  fits  and  fixes,  so  that  still 

Thing  shall  not  slip  word's  fetter,  and  remain 

Innominate  as  first,  yet,  free  again 

Is  no  less  recognized  the  absolute 

Fact  underlying  that  same  other  fact 

Concerning  which  no  cavil  can  dispute 

Our  nomenclature  when  we  call  it '  Mind  ' — 

Something  not  Matter — 'Sou!  '  who  seeks  shall  find 

Distinct  beneath  that  something." 
In   this   poem   the   theorv   of  evolution   is  criticised  from  the 
poet's  peculiar  point  of  view,  strongly,  of  course,  though  uniquely. 

OPINIONS  OF  THE  OPEN   COURT. 

The  Court  opens  gloriously  and  I  hope  it  will  examine  and  decide  all  ques- 
tions within  its  jurisdiction  in  the  same  masterly  way  The  Index  did. —  Peed 
Beck,  Boston. 

The  Open  Court  more  than  tills  the  gap  left  by  the  suspension  of  The 
Index. — Mrs.  Mary  Gunning,  Florida. 

In  bodv  and  dress  it  exceeds  what  I  had  expected.  There  is  a  beauty  about 
its  face  and  a  free  intelligence  gleaming  through  its  matter  which  becomes  at 
once  an  allurement.  And  I,  of  course,  wish  you  speed  and  lasting  possibilities. 
— H.  L.  TraUBUL. 

The  Open  Court  opens  splendidly.  The  articles  I  have  been  able  tu  read 
are  very  rich  and  suggestive. — Ciias.  D.  B.  Mills. 

The  Open  Court  received.  I  am  more  than  pleased  with  its  appearance  and 
contents.  It  is  a  publication  tha  cannot  he  overpraised  and  one  which  deserves 
more  than  prnise—finanrial  suppo  f.— Harry  Hoover,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

The  Open  Court  looks  well,  reads  well,  promises  well.  Its  success  de- 
pends, I  think,  upon  its  being  a  journal.  It  must  grapple  with  passing  events 
and  give  the  news  of  "  the  movement."  Essays  may  help,  but  cannot  give 
success.  James  Parton. 

I  have  just  read  through  the  third  number  of  The  Open  Court,  and  con- 
gratulate you  on  its  excellence.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  three  numbers  thus  far 
issued  may  be  compared  as  good,  better,  best.  Rowland  Connor. 

"  The  Court,"  Open  Court,  is  a  most  admirable  and  fortunate  title.  Every- 
body smiles  when    shown    it,  and    some  have  pleasant  remarks  concerning  it. 

Judge   likes  this  "  judicial    title."     "  Yes,    yes,"   said    one    gentleman, 

"that's  what  we  need — an  'open  court  I'  I  suppose  you  will  give  a  fellow  a 
chance  to  jaw  back?"  G.  P.  Deleplaine,  Madison,  Wis. 


The  Open  Court. 


A  Fortnightly  Journal, 


Devoted  to  the  Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon  a  Scientific   Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  5. 


CHICAGO,  APRIL  14,  1887. 


1  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


LABOR  CRANKS. 

BY  JAMES    PARTON. 

The  most  interesting  passage  in  Harriet  Martineau's 
Retrospect  of  Western  Travel  is  one  in  which  she  de- 
scribes the  three  eminent  senators,  Clay,  Webster  and 
Calhoun,  as  they  appeared  to  her  in  1S36,  when  they 
were  in  the  prime  of  their  celebrity  and  power.  She 
heard  them  in  the  senate  and  spent  many  evenings  with 
them  in  the  most  intimate  and  familiar  converse.  She 
speaks  of  Henry  Clay  sitting  upright  on  the  sofa,  with 
his  snuff-box  always  in  his  hand,  discoursing  for  many 
an  hour  in  his  soft  and  deliberate  tone,  on  some  leading 
subject  of  American  politics.  What  surprised  her  was 
the  moderation  of  his  judgments  of  men  and  things, 
knowing  well  what  an  impetuous  spirit  he  had  derived 
from  nature  and  circumstances. 

She  describes  Webster,  too,  not  merely  as  the  giant 
debater  of  the  senate,  hut  also  as  the  delightful  com- 
panion, leaning  back  at  his  ease,  telling  stories,  cracking 
jokes,  shaking  the  sofa  with  burst  after  burst  of  laugh- 
ter, occasionally  rising  into  serious  discourse,  to  the  per- 
fect felicity  of  intelligent  hearers.  The  picture  she 
draws  of  these  two  famous  men  gives  us  the  idea  of 
sanity  and  cheerfulness;  of  men  with  great  powers  em- 
ployed in  high,  congenial  tasks;  not  indeed  devoid  of 
ambition,  but  possessing  also  a  genuine  and  over-master- 
ing public  spirit. 

Her  account  of  Calhoun  is  sadly  different.  She 
speaks  of  him  as  the  cast-iron  man,  who  looked  as  if  he 
had  never  been  born  and  could  never  be  extinguished; 
full  of  close,  rapid,  theoietical,  illustrated  talk,  which 
kept  the  understanding  of  the  hearer  on  a  painful  stretch, 
but  left  it  unenlightened  and  unconvinced.  He  had  but 
one  subject  of  discourse,  a  theory  of  government  nar- 
rowed to  the  dimensions  of  South  Carolina,  and  forced 
to  include  as  integral  parts  Slavery  and  Nullification.  It 
was  interesting  to  hear  him,  because  all  that  he  said 
gave  evidence  of  intellectual  power,  but  the  final  im- 
pression left  upon  the  stranger's  mind  was  one  of  abso- 
lute melancholy. 

"His  mind,"  she  remarks,  "has  long  lost  all  power 
of  commu7iicating  with  any  other.  I  know  of  no  man 
who  lives  in  such  utter  intellectual  solitude.  He  meets 
men  and  harangues  by  the  fireside  as  in  the  senate;  he 
is  wrought  like  a  piece  of  machinery,  set  going  vehe- 
mently by   a   weight,  and  stops  while  you  answer;  he 


either  passes  by  what  you  say  or  twists  it  into  a  suita- 
bility with  what  is  in  his  head,  and  begins  to  lecture 
again.  *  *  *  Relaxation  is  no  longer  in  the  power 
of  his  will.  I  never  saw  anyone  who  so  completely 
gave  me  the  idea  of  possession" 

In  these  few  words  of  Miss  Martineau's  we  have 
an  excellent  description  of  that  type  of  man  to  which 
we  now  give  familiarly  the  name  of  crank,  the  man 
who  has  become  unteachable,  or,  as  the  lady  says,  has 
lost  the  power  of  communicating  with  other  minds. 
This,  I  should  say,  is  the  special  characteristic  of  the 
man  who  harps  upon  one  idea.  He  never  views  it  by 
the  light  of  other  minds;  he  never  sees  it  in  its  relation 
to  other  ideas. 

That  was  a  great  touch  of  Miss  Martineau — "  he 
had  lost  the  power  of  communicating  with  other  minds" 
— and  it  describes  many  of  our  too  positive  brethren  of 
to-day.  Many  of  them  are  of  a  far  nobler  type  of  man 
than  Calhoun,  because  they  lost  a  portion  of  their  sanity 
through  an  honest  and  overwhelming  compassion  for 
the  human  lot.  A  very  large  number  of  people  are  in 
danger  of  getting  cranky  from  this  cause;  not  that  men 
are  more  unhappy  now  than  formerly,  but  because  we 
have  become  more  susceptible  to  their  unhappiness. 
We  are  less  able  than  we  once  were  to  sit  down  content 
with  a  fortunate  destiny,  while  there  is  miser}'  close  by. 
France  had  never  been  in  a  condition  less  bad  than  in 
1789,  when  the  revolution  broke  out.  She  had  become 
aware  of  her  unhappiness,  and  the  discovery  drove  her 
mad. 

Probably  no  man  who,  touched  by  human  sorrow, 
honestly  tries  to  relieve  it,  ever  quite  fails  to  be  of  ser- 
vice, because  even  if  he  tries  in  wrong  ways,  his  errors 
are  instructive.  At  least,  he  may  call  attention  to  evils 
which  he  is  himself  powerless  to  remedy,  as  the  mid- 
night shriek  of  a  woman  who  sees  a  rock  ahead  while 
the  helmsman  nods  at  his  post,  may  save  the  ship.  The 
shriek  is  heard;  it  wakes  the  man  at  the  wheel;  it  calls 
the  captain;  it  alarms  the  crew;  and  the  vessel  sheers 
away  from  the  rock-bound  cape  in  time. 

On  the  other  hand,  no  one  is  more  likely  to  get 
cranky  in  his  opinions  than  one  who  broods  too  much 
over  the  sorrows  of  mankind.  A  person  of  tender 
heart,  young,  unused  to  the  sight  of  suffering,  little 
acquainted  with  the  past  history  of  our  race — its  slowr 
and  hard  struggle  from  want  almost  universal   to  plenty 


1 I. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


almost  universal — may  very  easily  get  astray,  and  give 
passionate  credence  to  fallacious  theories.  Perhaps  1 
may  be  pardoned  for  alluding  to  my  own  experience, 
the  recollection  of  which  suggested  this  subject,  and  has 
enable!  me  to  explain  many  wild  theories  and  many 
one-sided  men. 

At  the  age  of  twenty,  during  a  year's  residence  in 
England,  I  was  taken  to  visit  one  of  those  vast  poor- 
houses,  then  called  Unions,  in  which  the  paupers  of  sev- 
eral parishes,  sometimes  thousands  in  number,  were,  for 
the  sake  of  economy,  maintained  together.  It  was  an 
appalling  spectacle  to  one  who  had  never  before  seen 
destitution  except  as  an  obvious  result  of  vice  or  sudden 
calamity.  I  beheld  immense  numbers  of  paupers  in  a 
county  teeming  with  luxuriant  crops,  and  those  paupers 
not  of  alien  race,  but  natives  of  that  soil,  not  vicious,  not 
degraded,  but,  apparently,  well-disposed,  respectable  per- 
sons, some  of  them  having  a  striking  aspect  of  purity 
and  refinement.  What  startled  and  shamed  me  most 
was  the  deference  these  unhappy  people  paid  to  the 
visitors.  When  we  entered  the  wash-house,  for  exam- 
ple, where  a  hundred  clean,  orderly,  and  nice-looking 
women,  all  dressed  in  blue,  were  ranged  along  on  both 
sides  bobbing  up  and  down  over  their  tubs,  they  all 
stopped,  stood  erect,  made  two  quick  but  low  curtsies, 
and  then  resumed  their  work. 

This  was  too  horrible.  I  felt  myself  blushing  scarlet, 
and  hurried  out  of  the  room  in  an  agony  of  shame  and 
pity.  But  into  whatever  other  room  we  entered,  this 
uniform  double  curtsey  was  repeated;  as  if  it  was  not 
we  who  should  bow  low  to  them,  and  humbly  apologize 
to  thc?n  for  our  insolence  in  enjoying  freedom  and 
plenty.  At  last,  I  saw  something.which  broke  me  down 
completely.  It  was  an  interview  between  a  mother  and 
her  son,  a  boy  of  fourteen,  who  had  been  allowed  by 
the  officers  of  the  poor-house  to  join  the  drum-corps  of 
a  regiment  of  infantry  under  orders  for  India.  She  had 
just  been  told  of  it,  and  she  was  trying  to  understand  it; 
trying  to  grasp  the  idea  that  her  boy,  the  only  solace 
left  to  her,  was  about  to  march  from  his  native  parish, 
never  to  return  while  she  lived.  Her  grief,  her  despair, 
her  awful  silence  and  stillness,  her  infinite  and  irremedi- 
able desolation,  were  far  beyond  words  to  describe. 
I  have  never  been  so  near  insanity  as  I  was  during  the 
rest  of  that  day,  ami  I  did  not  quite  recover  my  serenity 
until  I  had  got  out  of  the  country.  I  am  conscious  that 
I  had  a  narrow  escape,  if  I  did  escape,  from  being  a 
labor  crank.  Such  a  scene  gets  the  understanding  under, 
and  may  easily  disqualify  a  person  from  thinking  bene- 
ficially. 

Tlie  very  same  spectacle,  which  could  then  be  seen 
in  every  county  of  England  and  Scotland,  caused  Car- 
lyle  to  write  a  harrowing  book  on  the  subject,  called 
Past  and  Present,  in  which  he  painted  the  evil  with  terri- 
fic force,  but  suggested   remedies  of   the  most  frivolous 


inadequacy.  He  was  a  crank,  made  such  by  ego- 
tism and  imperfect  knowledge.  Two  other  men  of 
healthy  minds  and  generous  hearts,  Richard  Cobden 
and  John  Bright,  took  off  their  coats,  as  Mr.  Parnell 
expresses  it,  and  worked  with  all  their  might  for  six 
years  in  getting  the  Corn  Laws  repealed,  which  gave  to 
the  people  of  Great  Britain  cheap  food,  and  thus  reduced 
pauperism  to  endurable  proportions  for  thirty  years. 

"The  dismal  science,"  was  what  Carlyle  called  po- 
litical economy.  He  was  a  crank  who  had  lost  the 
power  of  being  instructed  by  other  minds  —  not  igno- 
rant merely,  but  a  despiser  of  knowledge.  Cobden 
took  one  leaf  out  of  that  dismal  science,  set  free  those 
paupers  and  gave  his  country  another  chance.  Cobden 
was  a  modest,  teachable,  great  man,  infinitely  removed 
trom  crankiness. 

The  eminent  crank  of  political  economy,  the  perfect 
type  of  the  class,  was  Fourier,  whom  Horace  Greeley 
introduced  to  our  notice  in  the  Tribune  forty  years  ago. 
In  the  year  1799,  during  a  period  of  scarcity  in  France, 
he  was  a  merchant's  clerk  at  Marseilles,  in  the  employ- 
ment of  a  firm  engaged  in  importing  provisions.  They 
had  a  large  quantity  of  rice  on  hand,  a  leading  article 
in  food  in  Southern  France.  In  order  to  maintain  the 
price  of  this  commodity,  his  firm  kept  a  cargo  so  long 
during  the  hot  weeks  of  the  summer  that  it  was  spoiled, 
and  young  Fourier  was  sent  on  board  of  the  vessel  to 
superintend  its  destruction  by  the  crew.  The  rice,  I 
believe,  was  thrown  overboard. 

This  clerk  was  a  young  man;  he  was  benevolent, 
and  at  this  time  he  was  filled  with  compassion  for  the 
sufferings  of  the  poor  in  Marseilles,  whom  this  rice 
would  have  relieved,  and,  particularly,  the  sick  in  the 
hospitals,  for  many  of  whom  in  the  climate  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, rice  is  the  only  food  and  the  best  medicine. 
The  destruction  of  the  rice,  which  seemed  to  him  so 
wantonly  cruel,  rankled  in  his  mind,  and  appears  to  have 
destroyed  his  power  to  communicate  beneficially  with 
other  minds.  Instead,  therefore,  of  making  an  exten- 
sive and  modest  study  of  the  vast  and  complicated  sys- 
tem by  which  the  human  race  is  supplied  with  the 
necessaries  of  life,  he  retired  within  himself,  went  apart 
from  men  and  business,  and  came  rapidly  to  the  conclu- 
sion, so  congenial  to  cranks,  that  whatever  is,  is  wrong. 
He  developed  what  we  call  Fourierism,  or,  as  he  termed 
it  with  the  modesty  of  his  type  of  reformer,  "a  system 
which  will  deliver  the  human  race  from  civilized  chaos." 
Who  has  written  more  eloquently  of  the  evils  of  the 
world  and  the  sufferings  of  mankind?  He  described 
commerce  as  the  art  of  buying  for  three  francs  a  thing 
worth  six,  and  selling  for  six  francs  a  thing  worth  three. 
But  the  world  has  gone  its  way,  and  whatever  improve- 
ment has  been  made  in  the  lot  of  mortals  since  Fourier's 
time  has  been  wrought  by  men  not  perhaps  more  benevo- 
lent than   he,  but   more   modest,  better    informed,   men 


THE    OREN    COURT. 


tx5 


who,  before  attempting  to  serve  our  race,  have  put  them- 
selves humbly  at  school  to  its  long  experience. 

We  have  among  us  at  this  time  an  uncommonly 
gifted  writer,  a  good  citizen,  a  benevolent  man,  who 
dining  the  forming  period  of  his  mind  had  opportuni- 
ties to  study  closely  three  countries  in  which  the  people 
were  wrongly  related  to  the  land.  This  man  is  Henry 
George,  and  those  three  countries  were  India,  California 
and  Ireland.  In  California  fifteen  years  ago,  the  huge 
land  grants  of  the  Spanish  proprietors  made  it  extremely 
difficult  for  men  of  moderate  means  to  procure  land 
enough  for  a  modest  American  farm,  and  this  at  a  time 
when  the  towns  of  California  were  overflowing  with 
adventurers,  who  had  obeyed  Horace  Greeley's  well- 
known  injunction,  until  they  had  reached  the  Pacific 
ocean  and  there  was  no  more  West  for  the  young  man 
to  go  to.  Brooding  over  this  state  of  things  he  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  land,  like  the  air  and  the  sea,  be- 
longs to  all  the  people  alike,  and  that  private  ownership 
of  land  is  wrong.  The  nation,  he  tells  us,  should  own 
the  land  and  draw  from  it,  and  from  it  alone,  all  the 
public  revenue.  As  he  stood  at  his  printer's  case  he  re- 
flected perhaps  too  long  and  too  exclusively  upon  the 
scene  around  him,  and  upon  the  similar  difficulties  in 
Ireland  and  India. 

In  his  eloquent  book  upon  Progress  and  Poverty, 
he  appears  to  me  to  have  escaped  a  great  and  invaluable 
truth,  applicable  to  all  property  and  to  all  countries, 
which  is  that  every  right  of  man  is  a  limited  right,  not 
absolute^  and  that  a  man  must  hold  whatever  he  pos- 
sesses in  subordination  to  the  welfare  of  the  communitv 
of  which  he  is  a  part.  But  this  precious  truth  is  not 
new.  Every  system  of  law  and  morals  recognizes  it. 
With  his  gifted  pen  and  benevolent  mind  he  may  yet 
throw  valuable  light  upon  it,  and  suggest  safe  and  just 
ways  in  which  the  rights  of  individuals  may  be  still  fur- 
ther subordinated  to  the  interests  of  the  public.  Take 
Henry  George,  however,  for  all  in  all,  and  we  ma) 
call  him  one  of  the  most  estimable  and  reasonable  of 
the  reformers  of  our  day.  If  he  is  now  shut  up  in  a 
narrow  theory,  there  was  a  time  when  he  studied  the 
works  of  other  economists.      He  may  do  so  again. 

The  men  who  really  help  us  to  a  better  life  and  a 
happier  lot  are  tolerant,  patient,  modest  and  good- 
natured.  They  may  be  students,  like  Newton,  Ad.un 
Smith  and  Darwin;  legislators,  like  Cobden  and  Glad- 
stone; statesmen,  like  Jefferson  and  Lincoln;  warriors, 
like  Washington,  Sherman  and  Grant;  but  they  are  all 
patient,  open  to  conviction  and  accessible  to  other  minds; 
well  pleased  if  they  can  succeed  in  elucidating  one 
truth,  or  in  mitigating  ever  so  little  the  lot  of  man. 
The  great  are  all  teachable.  The}'  never  lose  the  power 
of  communicating  with  others. 

One  of  the  beneficial  effects  of  the  clubs  and  socie- 
ties,   now    so    common     among     us,  is    in     making    us 


acquainted  with  other  minds,  and  in  subjecting  our 
favorite  opinions  to  free  comment  and  criticism.  Free 
and  friendly  intercourse  with  other  minds,  widely  differ- 
ent from  our  own,  is  the  natural  remedy  for   crankiness. 

"Good-bye,  Butterworth,"  cried  Mr.  Tvvigg,  of  Vir- 
ginia, as  the  late  House  of  Representatives  was  dispers- 
ing on  the  4th  of  March.  Mr.  Twigg  is  a  democrat, 
and  was  a  secessionist;  Mr.  Butterworth  is  a  republican 
from  Ohio.  "Good-bye,  Butterworth:  I  never  thought 
I  could  like  a  republican;  but  two  years'  experience 
has  liberalized  me  greatly,  and  I  now  have  as  many 
republican  friends  as  any   man  in  the  House." 

The  intelligent  reporter  who  overheard  this  remark, 
appended  to  it  a  comment  which  is  worth  repeating: 

"What  Mr.  Twiggs  said  is  true  of  every  new  man. 
He  comes  to  Washington  a  partisan"  [possibly  a  crank] 
"believing  that  all  the  good  is  in  his  own  party  and  all 
the  bad  in  the  other.  Before  he  has  served  one  session 
he  has  learned  to  esteem  his  opponents  quite  as  much 
as  his  party  friends.  He  serves  on  committees  with 
republicans  and  democrats  alike.  Before  his  term  ex- 
pires he  realizes  that  human  nature  is — human  nature, 
no  matter  what  its  political  convictions  may  be." 

All  of  which  confirms  our  principle  that  the  source 
of  human  wisdom  is  the  whole  of  human  experience  in- 
terpreted by  the  whole  of  human  intelligence.  To 
afford  access  to  this  multitudinous  sea  is,  I  suppose,  the 
proper  object  of  education,  and  the  chief  benefit  of  your 
Open   Court. 


REASON    AND    PREDISPOSITION. 


BV    |OIIN   BUKKOUGHS. 


That  most  men  in  the  formation  of  their  opinions 
are  governed  more  by  predisposition,  or  unconscious 
bent  and  tendency,  than  by  reason,  is  obvious  enouo-b. 
Indeed,  reason  is  the  faculty  by  which  we  seek  to  justify 
the  course  of  this  deeper  seated  predetermining  force  or 
bent.  We  gravitate  naturally  to  this  opinion  or  to  that, 
to  conservatism  or  to  radicalism,  to  realism  or  to  ideal- 
ism, and  we  seek  for  reasons  that  favor  our  course. 
Considerations  which  are  of  great  force  with  certain 
types  of  mind  are  of  little  or  no  force  with  certain  other 
types.  Reasons  that  confirm  what  we  already  believe 
or  want  to  believe,  how  forcible  they  are!  But  if  they 
point  the  other  way  how  lightly  we  esteem  them! 

Thus,  Ireiueus,  the  real  founder  of  the  Christian 
canon,  was  led  to  believe  there  could  he  no  more  and  no 
fewer  than  four  Gospels,  because  there  were  four  uni- 
versal winds  and  four  quarters  of  the  earth,  and  because 
living  creatures  were  quadriform.  So  Justin  Martyr 
argues  that  because  Jesus  blessed  the  juice  of  the  grape 
and  said  "this  is  my  blood,"  he  could  have  had  no  hu- 
man parentage,  but  was  the  son  of  that  God  who  made 
the  grape  and  the  vine.  This  is  giving  a  natural  basis 
to  dogma  in  a  quite  unexpected  way. 


n6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


With  most  men  reason  is  an  advocate  and  not  a 
judge.  It  does  not  so  much  try  the  case  as  plead  the 
case.  Unless  we  watch  ourselves  very  closely,  instead 
of  trying  to  see  all  things  in  their  true  light,  we  will 
find  ourselves  trying  to  see  only  those  things  that  favor 
our  view. 

Reason  is  probably  only  a  secondary  faculty  after 
all;  or  more  strictly,  it  is  a faculty and  not  a  determining 
power.  It  is  like  the  compass  which  the  sailor  takes  to 
sea  with  him  and  to  which  he  constantly  refers  in  keep- 
ing his  course,  but  which  has  nothing  to  do  in  determin- 
ing that  course.  Every  man  goes  his  own  way,  and  of 
the  agents  that  determine  him  in  any  given  direction, 
whether  original  bent,  inherited  traits,  the  influence  of 
his  training,  or  of  his  environment,  he  is  but  dimly  con- 
scious; his  reason  is  the  conscious  instrument  by  which 
he  tries  to  steer  on  his  predetermined  way. 

Hence  it  is,  that  Cardinal  Newman  says,  that  in  his 
going  over  to  Rome  it  was  not  logic  that  carried  him 
on;  "as  well  might  one  say  that  the  quicksilver  in  the 
barometer  changes  the  weather.  It  is  the  concrete 
being  that  reasons;  pass  a  number  of  years  and  I  find 
my  mind  in  a  new  place;  how?  the  whole  man  moves; 
paper  logic  is  but  the  record  of  it."  The  great  Car- 
dinal may  have  been  logical  after  he  once  started  for 
Rome,  but  what  made  him  drift  that  way  ?  It  was  be- 
cause he  was  a  born  papist  from  the  first;  one  can  see 
the  stamp  of  Rome  upon  him  in  his  youth. 

Probably  most  of    us    come   into    possession  of  our 
religious  beliefs  in  the  same  way  Newman  did — we  grow 
into  them;   they  are   slowly  and   unconsciously  built   up 
in  our  minds.     We  think  we  reason  ourselves  into  them, 
but  we  find  ourselves  in  possession  of  them,  and  then 
we  seek  to  justify  our  course  by  an  appeal  to  reason.     In 
our   day  religious  opinion,  or  religious   feeling,  sets  less 
and  less  store   by  dogmas  and   creeds,  and  it  is  because, 
as  Newman  suggests,  there  has  been  a  change  in  the 
weather.     Yea,  a  change  of  climate.     Natural   knowl- 
edge is  in  the  ascendant.     The  sun  of  science  has  actu- 
ally risen,  indeed,  rides    high  up  in  the  heavens,  and  the 
things   proper   to   the  twilight  or  half  knowledge   of  a 
few  centuries  ago,  flee  away,  or  are  seen  to  be  shadows 
and  illusions.     The  great  mother  Church  may  draw  her 
curtains,  and  re-trim   her   lamps   and    make   believe  it  is 
still  night  in  the  world,  but  those  outside  know  better, 
and   those  inside    are   bound   to    find    it   out    by  and  by. 
Newman  is   a  careful   reasoner,  but  what  would   satisfy 
his    mind   will    not   satisfy    all,  because   we   are   not   all 
going   his  way.     What  is  a  fair  breeze  to  one  may  not 
be  a  fair  breeze  to  another.      See  how  easily  he  accepts 
the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation:     "  Why  should  it  not 
be?     What's  to  hinder  it?     What  do  I  know  of  sub- 
stance and  matter?     Just  as  much  as  the  greatest  philoso- 
pher, and  that  is  nothing  at  all!"      Might  not  we  reason 
in  the  same  way?     Why  should  not  Santa  Claus  come 


down  the  chimney?  What's  to  hinder?  The  chimney 
is  open  at  top  and  bottom,  and  has  a  definite  capacity  of 
good,  honest  cubic  inches.  At  the  same  time  do  not  we 
children  of  an  older  growth  ask  does  Santa  Claus  come 
down  the  chimney  ?  This  author  of  the  Grammar  of 
Assent,  assents  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception  on  scarcely  more  tangible  grounds,  namely, 
"  because  it  so  intimately  harmonizes  with  that  circle 
of  recognized  dogmatic  truths,  into  which  it  has  been 
recently  received."  The  mind  bent  upon  truth  alone, 
would  be  inclined  to  ask,  "  does  it  harmonize  with  the 
rest  of  our  knowledge  of  the  world  ?  Does  it  agree  with 
what  we  know  to  be  facts  governing  human  propaga- 
tion?" 

The  great  Romanist  reasons  himself  into  the  belief  in 
the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  in  about  the  same  way.  He 
makes  certain  startling  assumptions  to  set  out  with, — 
supposing  this  and  that  to  be  true  the  infallibility  of 
the  Pope  naturally  follows.  "  Supposing  it  to  be  the 
will  of  the  Creator  to  interfere  in  human  affairs,  and 
to  make  provision  for  retaining  in  the  world  a  knowl- 
edge of  Himself,  so  definite  and  distinct  as  to  be  proof 
against  the  energy  of  human  skepticism,  in  such  a  case, — 
I  am  far  from  saying  that  there  was  no  other  way, — but 
there  is  nothing  to  surprise  the  mind,  if  He  should  think 
fit  to  introduce  a  power  into  the  world,  invested  with 
the  prerogative  of  intallibilty  in  religious  matters."  But 
has  he  introduced  such  a  power;  what  is  the  proof  of 
the  fact?  Are  the  Christmas  stockings  filled  by  way 
of  the  chimney?  The  fact  Newman  accepts  and  rea- 
sons from  it,  or  to  it,  as  we  see.  His  reason  follows  his 
belief,  never  leads  it.  Any  number  of  difficulties,  intel- 
lectual difficulties,  he  says  does  not  make  a  doubt.  Cer- 
tainly not  where  experience  attests  the  thing  to  be  true. 
But  suppose  it  is  contrary  to  all  experience,  contrary  to 
all  the  principles  upon  which  human  observation  is 
founded — how  then? 

Of  course  we  are  not  always  to  reject  a  proposition 
simply  because  we  cannot  understand  it  or  penetrate  it 
with  the  light  of  reason.  We  do  not  know  how  or  why 
species  vary,  but  we  know  they  do  vary.  We  do  not  un- 
derstand the  laws  of  heredity,  but  we  know  heredity  to 
be  a  fact,  and  so  with  thousands  of  other  things.  Do  we 
know  transubstantiation  to  be  a  fact?  There  are  difficul- 
ties in  the  way  of  evolution,  but  these  difficulties  are  not 
such  as  violate  nature,  but  such  as  indicate  that  nature 
may  have  taken  another  course  in  the  production  of 
species.  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  believing  in  the 
efficacy  of  holy-water,  or  that  the  image  of  the  Ma- 
donna winked,  or  that  Elisha  made  iron  swim,  are  of 
quite  another  sort;  these  assumptions  contravene  all  the 
rest  of  our  knowledge. 

Our  theological  doctors  talk  about  the  short  range  of 
the  unaided  reason  of  man,  and  seek  to  show  how  reve- 
lation comes  to  the  aid  of  reason;  as  if  the  reason  could 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


117 


be  aided  by  anything  but  reason,  by  anything  reason 
does  not  approve  of  or  comprehend.  They  mean,  of 
course,  that  the  truths  of  revelation  could  not  be  reached 
by  the  unaided  reason.  But  are  they  truths?  the  reason 
asks.  Certainly  reason  could  not  lead  a  man  to  them, 
and  it  requires  something  different  from  reason  to  hold 
the  man  to  them  after  he  is  there.  To  talk  about  aiding 
the  reason  by  a  superior  principle  of  knowledge,  or  a 
superior  method  of  verification,  is  like  talking  about 
seeing  around  a  corner,  or  on  the  other  side  of  a  stone 
wall.  The  very  principle  you  propose  must  itself  be 
approved  by  the  reason.  Microscopes  and  telescopes 
aid  the  eye  by  multiplying  and  extending  its  powers  in 
its  own  direction;  not  by  the  addition  of  any  new  prin- 
ciple of  vision.  In  the  same  way  the  discovery  of  the 
law  of  gravitation  or  the  laws  of  Kepler,  arms  and  ex- 
tends the  human  reason,  of  which  they  are  the  fruit. 
Power  alone  can  use  power,  the  eye  alone  can  use  the 
telescope,  not  the  hand  or  the  ear. 


THE    RADICAL. 

BY  EDNAH  D.  CHENEY. 

Having  occasion  to  look  over  numbers  of  the  Radi- 
cal— published  from  about  1S65  to  1S72 — I  was  struck 
with  the  force  and  ability  disjjlayed  in  its  pages,  and  led 
to  compare  the  movement  which  it  represented  with 
that  of  the  transcendentalists,  about  thirty  years  earlier, 
whose  organ  was  the  now  famous  Dial. 

The  latter  movement  is  now  recognized  as  having 
had  great  life-giving  power,  and  its  inspiration  has 
not  yet  lost  its  hold  on  many  minds.  It  was  full  of 
youth,  freshness  and  beauty.  It  opened  up  broad  ave- 
nues of  thought  and  life,  and  returned  to  the  original 
fountains  of  spiritual  truth,  instead  of  drinking  of  stag- 
nant cisterns,  no  longer  renewed  by  the  pure  rains  of 
heaven. 

And  yet  as  I  read  the  pages  of  the  Radical,  I  recog- 
nized a  real  advance  in  the  movement  which  it  repre- 
sented over  that  of  the  transcendentalists.  No  sharp 
and  definite  line  can  be  drawn  between  them,  for  both 
were  in  the  same  direction  and  in  many  instances  the 
same  minds  took  part  in  both;  but  still  the  comparison 
is  of  interest. 

No  organization  beyond  a  social  club  was  attempted 
by  the  transcendentalists,  and  the  expression  of  individ- 
ual thought  was  perfectly  free  and  spontaneous.  Yet 
there  is  a  general  agreement  in  aim,  and  a  similarity  in 
expression  which  gives  a  distinctive  character  to  the 
Dial.  It  is  like  a  blossoming  out  of  the  Unitarian 
faith  into  beauty  and  fragrance,  foi  it  is  full  of  the  joy 
of  religion  and  of  the  value  of  aesthetic  culture.  It  does 
not,  generally,  deal  with  important  moral  questions 
practically,  but  by  appeals  to  the  higher  intuitions.  It 
is  rather  artistic  than  scientific. 

The  radical  movement  attempted  organization  in  the 
Free  Religious   Association,  but  it   has  hardly  been  an 


nstrument  of  much  work,  or  a  very  binding  tie.  Yet 
it  has  had  great  value  in  giving  this  most  expressive 
name  which  binds  together  freedom  and  religion  in  a 
true  wedlock,  instead  of  separating  them  as  things 
hostile  or  alien. 

Most  of  the  writers  in  the  Radical  base  their  specu- 
lations less  upon  intuitions  and  more  upon  established 
facts  than  the  transcendentalists,  and  they  do  not  shrink 
from  the  keenest  criticism  of  anything,  however  vener- 
able, or  the  plainest  words  into  which  their  thought  can 
be  put. 

To  them,  I  think,  we  are  largly  indebted  for  the  great- 
est step  in  modern  liberalism,  which  reached  a  position 
outside  of  Christianity,  from  which  it  can  be  looked  at  in 
fair  comparison  with  other  religions.  This  is  such  a 
gain  as  astronomy  made  when  Copernicus  dared  to 
teach  that  the  sun  was  not  the  center  of  the  universe;  it 
alone  made  it  possible  to  bring  all  the  religious  experi- 
ence of  humanity  into  harmony  and  order.  Great 
minds  had  certainly  gone  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of 
their  own  faith  and  recognized  truth  in  ancient  and 
modern  religions.  Emerson  had  already  said:  "Jesus 
would  absorb  the  world,  but  Tom  Paine  and  every  coarse 
blasphemer  helps  us  to  resist  Jesus."  Theodore  Parker 
had  planned  his  History  of  Religion,  but  even  he  had 
said :  "  Silence  the  voice  of  Christianity  and  the  world  is 
well-nigh  dumb,"  and  he  contended  stoutly  for  his 
right  to  the  name,  which  he  held  above  every  name. 

But  the  new  movement  did  not  claim  the  name  of 
Christian.  It  took  the  altitude  of  every  religious  star, 
not  from  its  relation  to  Christianity  but  to  eternal  truth, 
and  freely  opened  its  platform  to  representatives  of 
every  form  of  worship. 

So  evidently  was  the  time  ripe  for  this  step,  and  so 
successful  has  it  been,  that  what  required  courage  to 
profess  in  1865  and  '66  is  now  the  fashion,  and  the  rep- 
resentatives of  heathen  religions,  not  converts  to  Chris- 
tianity, (although  generally  shaming  Christians  by  the 
justice  and  liberality  with  which  they  revere  the  char- 
acter of  its  founder),  are  welcomed  to  orthodox  pulpits 
and  are  courted  in  society.  There  is  even  danger  that  a 
tide  of  Orientalism,  with  its  fascinating  speculation,  may 
sweep  over  us  and  carry  away  many  useful  landmarks 
and  guideboards  which  the  human  race  has  set  up  in 
its  onward  march.  It  will  not  destroy  the  foundations 
of  the  earth. 

This  movement  for  broadening  the  sympathies  of 
religious  faith  has  had  the  powerful  aid,  without  which 
it  could  not  have  been  successful,  of  the  great  freedom 
of  intercourse  between  distant  nations,  of  the  advance 
in  Oriental  scholarship,  and  of  the  great  scientific  move- 
ment which  has  put  all  thinking  upon  more  exact  and 
stable  basis. 

The  thinkers  who  expressed  themselves  in  the  Rad- 
ical have  done  but  small  portion  of   this  work,  but  they 


n8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


have  recognized  its  meaning  and  value,  and  applied  it 
in  their  own  domain  of  religious  thought.  T.  W.  Hig- 
ginson's  Sympathy  of  Religions,  William  Henry  Chan- 
ning's  lectures  on  Eastern  religions,  and  Samuel  John- 
son's noble  volumes  on  India,  China  and  Persia,  show 
the  power  thus  gained  of  looking  at  the  past  or  present 
history  and  thought  of  the  human  race;  not  from  any 
personal  standpoint,  but  as  related  to  the  whole  evolu- 
tion of  thought  in  history.  It  does  not  seem  possible 
that  any  enlightened  class  can  ever  again  return  to  the 
bigotry  that  looks  upon  all  who  are  not  born  within  the 
shadow  of  the  cross,  as  miserable  heathen  living 
"where  God  was  never  known." 

It  is  true  we  have  yet  Andover  discussions,  but  they 
only  serve  to  show  what  a  vital  question  this  has  become, 
and  that  some,  even  of  the  missionaries,  have  learned  that 
they  must  understand  and  respect  the  piety  of  the  people 
to  whom  they  are  sent,  and  not  shock  their  filial  rever- 
ence by  offering  them  a  heaven  from  which  their 
venerated  ancestors  are  forever  excluded. 

So  rapidly  has  the  work  which  the  Radical  and  the 
Free  Religious  Association  proposed  to  do,  extended  in 
all  directions,  that  we  cannot  trace  it  to  its  distinct 
sources,  nor  say  how  large  a  part  this  or  that  agency 
has  had  in  bringing  it  about.  Yet  in  looking  over  the 
old  monthly  once  so  welcome  a  guest,  I  could  not  but 
wish  to  acknowledge  an  indebtedness  to  it  for  sowing 
broadcast  the  germs  of  much  of  the  good  which  we  are 
reaping  now. 

The  work  which  lies  before  us  yet  is  less  revolu- 
tionary and  exciting.  It  is  the  use  of  the  freedom  that 
has  been  already  gained,  in  the  close  application  of  great 
truths  to  practical  problems.  We  need  more  of  close 
study,  severe  thinking  and  careful  experiment,  before  we 
can  claim  that  we  have  put  theology  upon  a  true  scien- 
tific basis  and  given  it  its  true  position  as  solving  all 
the  great  questions  of  human  experience. 


A   SORELY  TEMPTED   GENERATION. 

BY    ALFRED    H.    I'KTERS. 

During  the  last  fifteen  years  there  has  been, through- 
out the  northern  United  States,  a  remarkable  number  of 
criminal  downfalls  among  business  men.  Petty  officials, 
public  and  private,  have  been  constantly  reported  short 
in  their  accounts,  and  "Behold  a  city  for  sale,"  has  twice 
been  shown  to  be  as  true  of  the  American  metropolis,  as 
it  was  when  the  African  prince  declared  the  same  of  the 
metropolis  of  ancient  Rome.  When,  beside  these  dis- 
closures, it  has  become  necessary  to  reinforce  the  officers 
of  the  law  with  a  numerous  body  of  private  detectives; 
when  all  kinds  of  mechanical  contrivances  are  being  re- 
sorted to  in  place  of  conscience;  when  the  cities  of  a  bor- 
der nation  are  filled  with  a  permanent  population  of  our 
fugitive  thieves,  is  there  not  reason  for  inquiry  why  it  is 


so  much  harder  for  men  to  be   honest  than  it  was  a  gen- 
eration ago. 

If,  as  certain  later  economists  affirm,  the  degree  of  a 
nation's  civilization  is  determined  by  the  number  of  its 
wants,  greater  progress  has  been  made  toward  that  con- 
dition during  the  last  twenty-five  years  by  our  own  than 
during  its  whole  previous  existence.  Not,  indeed,  intel- 
lectually, or  physically,  so  far  as  concerns  human  necessity, 
does  there  appear  to  have  any  great  change  taken  place. 
People's  stomachs  hold  no  more,  their  backs  are  no 
broader  nor  their  brains  heavier  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century  than  in  the  first.  Of,  however,  cer- 
tain sensual  and  emotional  gratifications,  whatever  min- 
isters to  luxury  and  fastidiousness,  or  to  vanity,  curiosity, 
or  excitement,  there  does  appear  to  have  arisen  during 
this  time  a  greatly  increased  desire. 

While  the  general  average  of  incomes  has  undergone 
a  considerable  increase,  that  increase  has  in  no  wise  kept 
pace  with  the  increase  of  wants,  so  that  the  question  of 
how  to  make  both  ends  meet  is,  to  the  majority  of 
Americans,  a  more  serious  one  than  it  has  ever  been  be- 
fore. Reasons  exist  for  this  changed  social  ideal,  as  well 
as  for  the  discrepancy  between  income  and  expenditure 
which  has  been  its  result. 

With  the  second  half  of  the  present  century  there 
began,  throughout  the  free  States,  a  period  of  material 
prosperity  which,  industrially  and  speculatively,  offered, 
for  twenty  years,  an  opportunity  of  enrichment  to  all 
conditions  of  men  such  as  the  world  has  seldom  seen. 
The  extension  of  steam  transportation;  the  development 
of  manufactures;  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  and 
the  bountiful  product  of  the  West,  all  together  contrib- 
uted to  make  the  ten  years  between  1850  and  1S60  the 
most  remarkable  wealth  producing  decade  known  in 
our  historv.  The  ten  years  following,  notwithstanding 
nearly  half  of  them  were  noted  for  destruction  of  wealth 
stimulated  individual  enterprise  even  more  than  the  ten 
years  before. 

Recognizing  in  the  new  order  of  things  a  great  op- 
portunity, and  inheriting  two  centuries  of  thrift  and 
self-denial,  the  generation  of  men  now  passing  away  be- 
came the  most  inveterate  workers  and  accumulators  that 
any  nation  ever  produced.  Considering  the  capital  upon 
which  they  operated,  their  returns  were  much  greater 
than  business  returns  at  the  present  time.  The  founda- 
tions of  most  of  our  colossal  fortunes  were  laid  by  men 
born  twenty  years  before,  or  twenty  years  after,  the  be- 
ginning of  the  century.  To  the  men  of  that  time  it  was 
no  great  effort  to  withstand  those  allurements  of  sense 
and  of  imagination  which  began  to  attend  upon  the 
presence  of  fortune.  They  had  reached  middle  life  or 
past  it;  their  habits  had  been  long  formed, their  pleasures, 
outside  of  their  business,  were  few  and  primitive,  and 
they  could  not  have  enjoyed  anything  else  if  they  would. 
The   sense   of  possession    could   destroy   in   them   but  a 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


119 


small  measure  only  of  that  spirit  of  abstinence  in  which 
they  had  been  bred. 

Very  different  was  the  school  in  which  were  reared 
their  successors.  The  standard  of  subsistence  had  risen. 
The  luxuries  of  the  fathers  became  the  necessities  of  the 
sons,  who  thus  acquired  manifold  desires  and  a  capacity 
for  entertainment  heretofore  undreamed  of.  Often  receiv- 
ing polite  educations, their  energies  were  distracted  from 
the  main  chance.  Many  were  unfitted  for  industrial  life 
by  the  excitements  of  army  service.  Surrounded  by  an 
atmosphere  of  prosperity,  getting  on  in  the  world  ap- 
peared, to  the  men  entering  action  between  1S60  and 
1SS0,  a  very  much  easier  matter  than  it  had  been  to  their 
fathers.  The  American  of  to-day  surpasses  the  Ameri- 
can of  thirty  years  ago  in  the  ability  to  enjoy  fortune,  as 
much  as  the  other  surpassed  him  in  the  ability  to  obtain 
and  preserve  it. 

To  those  influences  which  had  already  begun  to 
change  our  social  and  economical  ideals,  was  added  the 
inflation  of  values  caused  by  the  unsecured  paper  cur- 
rency issued  by  the  national  government  in  1S61.  Do 
but  consider  the  result.  The  apparent  gradual  increase 
to  double  its  former  price  of  every  commodity,  save  in- 
terest-bearing securities,  and  an  equal  apparent  increase 
in  the  wages  or  fees  of  all  professional  or  personal  service. 
At  once  began  a  period  of  unnatural  business  activity. 
Everybody  was  consumed  with  a  desire  to  buy  and  sell, 
the  result  being  a  rush  from  all  other  occupations  into 
trade.  Young  men  looked  forward  to  but  one  career — 
that  of  a  business  life.  Town  population  grew  apace; 
that  of  the  country  stood  still  or  went  backward  ;and  the 
government,  to  perpetuate  the  good  times,  forced  its  citi- 
zens to  make  use  of  the  high  priced  and  inferior  wares 
produced  at  home  by  imposing  a  prohibitive  tax  upon 
the  better  and  lower  priced  articles  manufactured  abroad. 
With  the  expansion  of  trade  came  the  expansion  of  credit; 
never  before  was  borrowing  so  easy.  A  man  could 
open  a  place  of  business  with  a  stock  of  goods  bought 
on  time,  hypothecate  his  merchandise  to  speculate  at  the 
board  of  brokers,  and  sail  a  yacht  or  drive  a  fast  horse 
by  payment  of  enough  money  to  execute  a  mortgage 
thereon. 

Most  demoralizing  of  all  was  the  growth  of  a  rampant 
gambling  spirit,  and  the  making  possible  a  means  of  so- 
called  speculation,  which  is  not  even  worthy  the  name 
of  a  game  of  chance.  The  lottery  had  been  declared 
unlawful  because  of  its  dissipating  the  earnings  of  the 
people,  but,  in  comparison  with  the  game  by  which  it 
was  succeeded,  the  lottery  was  legitimate  business.  Its 
patrons  risked  only  the  price  of  a  ticket,  and  it  was  win 
or  lose  and  done  with  till  next  time,  but  marginal  specu- 
lation is  a  constant  fluctuation  between  profit  and  loss; 
now  baiting  its  votary  with  success,  now  drawing  upon 
his  resources  to  preserve  his  holdings,  a  perpetual  anxiety 
and  distraction  from  other  occupations,  with,  final!)',  the 


same  end  as  the  lottery — only  the  managers  obtain  any 
profit.  Few,  save  its  agents,  are  aware  of  the  extent  to 
which  people  of  every  condition  seek  to  increase  their 
incomes  by  this  hazardous  resource.  Lawyers,  clergy- 
men, teachers,  legislators,  public  officials  great  and  small, 
managers  and  subordinates  of  financial  and  industrial 
organizations,  artists,  literary  men,  and  even  women  and 
children. 

Thus  began  the  "gilded  age,"  the  era  of  imitation, 
of  extravagant  ornament,  of  valuing  everything  by  its 
money  price,  and  of  the  idea  that  something  was  to  be 
had  for  nothing.  Good  taste  and  the  eternal  fitness  of 
things  underwent  as  much  degeneration  as  did  judgment 
and  principle.  Amid  such  influences  is  it  any  wonder 
that  prudence  and  moderation  should,  to  the  new  gen- 
eration, have  ceased  to  be  virtues  ? 

Finally  the  tide  turned,  and,  by  a  lingerine  process 
of  ebb  and  flood,  prices  shrunk  back  toward  the  point  of 
starting.  When  the  reaction  culminated  in  the  collapse 
of  1S73,  thousands  of  men  in  the  prime  of  life  found 
themselves  with  only  nominal  occupation,  and  as  many 
more,  accustomed  to  dealing  on  their  own  account,  sought 
employment  in  some  fiduciary  capacity  among  the  firms 
and  institutions  surviving  the  wreck,  or  in  those  which 
new  capital  began  presently  to  organize.  These  men 
had  been  educated  in  a  school  illy  fitted  to  graduate  can- 
didates for  positions  of  trust. 

With  the  descendants  of  the  old  stock,  now  began  to 
compete  in  business  the  sons  of  those  millions  of  immi- 
grants who   had   settled   here   between    1S50  and    1S60. 
These  young  men,  early  forced  into  the  world   on  their 
own  account,  had  that  greatest  of  all   advantages  in  the 
obtaining  of  fortune — no  advantage  at  all.     Not  averse 
to  the  mechanical  trades,  or  to  those  coarser  and   more 
independent  occupations  which  had  been  deserted  by  the 
sons  of  the  native,  many  of  them  hoarded  their  earnings, 
became  capitalists  and  often  directors  and  employers  of 
those  by  whom  their  fathers  had   been   looked   upon  as 
an  inferior  class.      It  is  to  be  noticed   that   most  of  the 
polite  crime  of  the  day  is  perpetrated  by  men  bearing 
colonial  names.     The  sons  of  the  foreigner  began  at  the 
foot  of  the  ladder  and  worked  their  way  up.      The  sons 
of  the  native,  beginning  midway,  or  at  the  top,  have  too 
often  fallen  headlong,  or  been  slowly  working  their  way 
downward.     There   is,  as  a  rule,  no   chance   to   which 
men  will  not  resort  in  order  to   maintain  that  position 
they  have  been  accustomed  to  hold  among  their  fellows. 
The   monopolization   of   business  by  corporations  or 
great  industrial   firms  offers   more  opportunity   for  dis- 
honesty than  when  it  is  distributed  among  a  larger  num- 
ber of  active  proprietors.     An  institution  managed   by  a 
board  of  directors,  or  by  a  private  secretary  and  attorney, 
is  not  like  one  conducted  under  the  eye  of  a  single  master 
who  is  familiar  with  its  every  detail  as  well   as  with  the 
personal  habits  of  his  associates.      It  is  among  the  officers 


120 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


and  accountants  of  manufacturing  or  banking  enterprises 
that  half  of  this  malfeasance  happens,  whose  temptation 
to  hazardous  ventures  is  often  the  example  of  their  own 
employers. 

Our  system  of  education  has  been  the  means  of  turn- 
ino-  many  honest  fellows  into  unsatisfactory  members  of 
society.  Patterned  after  the  ideal  of  a  feudal  aristocracy 
it  is,  indeed,  admirably  fitted  to  make  men  polite,  white- 
handed,  and  exclusive,  but,  unless  they  are  to  devote 
themselves  to  teaching  what  they  have  themselves  been 
taught,  it  is,  so  far  as  concerns  material  provision,  an  ob- 
stacle rather  than  an  aid.  What  is  called  higher  educa- 
tion is  a  luxury,  and  too  often,  like  every  other  luxury, 
enervates  men  for  the  business  of  getting  an  honest  liv- 
ing. To  educate,  beyond  his  calibre,  a  boy  who  must 
make  his  own  way  in  the  world  is  worse  than  not  to 
educate  him  at  all.  The  extent  to  which  over-refine- 
ment weakens  principle,  reverses  instinct  and  deadens 
sympathy,  is  standing  proof  of  the  truth  of  Thoreau's 
saying  that  "there  may  be  an  excess  of  cultivation,  as  of 
everything  else,  until  cultivation  becomes  pathetic."  To 
develop  wants  in  a  youth  which  it  is  probable  he  can 
never  gratify,  is  to  add  to  his  temptations,  and  is  to 
society  a  curse  more  often  than  otherwise. 

A  certain  moral  looseness,  the  legacy  of  these  un- 
settled years,  yet  fills  the  atmosphere  of  affairs.  The 
success  of  everyone  is  measured  by  material  standards. 
The  best  business  man  is  he  who  obtains  the  largest 
profit;  the  best  professional  man  he  who  receives  the 
largest  fee;  the  best  politician  he  who  keeps  himself 
most  constantly  in  office.  Society  asks  of  a  man  not  so 
much  concerning  what  he  is,  as  concerning  what  he  does. 
Simple  honesty,  as  a  qualification  for  business  position, 
is  less  regarded  than  the  rapid  dispatch  of  work,  the 
pleasing  of  influential  patrons,  or  the  ability  to  influence 
patronage  by  the  applicant  himself.  Listen  to  a  pair  of 
ancients  asking  after  each  other's  children,  and  the  in- 
quiry is  not  whether  they  are  honest,  or  wise,  or  brave, 
or  patient,  or  generous,  but  are  they  "  making  anything." 
A  well  won  fame,  without  accompanying  fortune,  is  a 
dangerous  possession,  so  great  is  the  temptation  to  make 
business  capital  of  it.  The  social  standard  has  been 
raised  so  high  that  men's  energies  must  be  devoted 
almost  wholly  to  the  obtaining  of  a  subsistence.  The 
burden  of  our  politicians  is  of  how  rich  we  are,  and  of 
how  much  more  rich  we  shall  be  twenty  years  hence. 
If  honor  among  us  has  not  been  reduced  to  the  FalstafF- 
ian  estimate,  those  positions  in  which  it  is  the  main  wage 
often  go  begging  for  fit  occupants. 

The  ideal  citizen  of  our  republic  needs  a  power  of 
adaptation  and  an  integrity  almost  superhuman.  He 
must  be,  at  the  same  time,  a  gentleman  and  a  drudge;  a 
student  and  a  man  of  business;  accumulative  as  well  as 
public  spirited;  honest  as  well  as  enterprising.  No  labor 
of  the  old  demigods  was  equal  to  his.    No  medieval  saint 


had  so  many  temptations  to  resist  as  he.  The  terms  are 
too  hard  for  most  of  us  in  these  alluring  times.  We  set 
out  with  high  resolves,  strive  for  a  while,  then  rush 
wherever  circumstance  impels  us,  and,  as  Emerson  says: 
"do  what  we  must  and  call  it  by  the  best  name." 
Verily,  men  and  brethren,  if  our  offenses  have  been 
great,  our  temptations  have  been  also  great. 

The  lives  of  most  men  are  merely  adaptations  to  the 
spirit  of  their  age.  Our  time  has,  beyond  any  other  of 
which  we  have  record,  developed  a  universal  appetite 
for  whatever  ministers  to  the  pleasures  of  sense  and  the 
pride  of  life.  Men  pray  every  day  to  be  delivered  from 
temptation  and  rise  from  their  knees  to  go  immediately 
in  quest  of  it.  We  are  like  children  spending  their  holi- 
day pittance  in  a  candy  shop,  anxious  to  have  as  many 
of  the  goodies  as  possible  and  obliged,  therefore,  to  be 
content  with  a  taste  of  each.  But  "  this  or  that,  not 
this  and  that,  is  the  rule  to  which  all  of  us  must  submit." 
We  may  possess  nothing  desirable  without  giving  some- 
thing of  value  in  return.  There  is,  however,  this  never 
to  be  forgotten  difference  between  a  valuable  quality  and 
a  valuable  material  possession;  we  may  obtain  a  rare 
commodity,  or  the  means  of  commanding  it,  by  the  effort 
of  others,  but  the  effort  which  obtains  a  valuable  quality 
can  never  be  any  other  than  our  own.  We  must  pay 
dear  for  every  luxury,  and  dearest  of  all  for  the  luxury 
of  being  an  honest  man. 


IS  THE  CHURCH   WORTH   SAVING? 

BY    LEWIS    G.  JANES. 

The  query, "  Is  the  church  worth  saving  ? "  is  so  often 
repeated,  not  only  by  those  who  are  avowedly  hostile  to 
the  claims  of  supernatural  religion  and  organized  Chris- 
tianity, but  by  many  who  still  maintain  a  formal  con- 
nection with  one  or  another  of  the  Christian  sects,  that 
it  merits  the  thoughtful  consideration  of  every  liberal  and 
progressive  thinker.  It  is  urged,  on  the  one  hand,  that 
the  method  of  the  church  is  theological  and  unprogressive; 
that  it  fails  to  grapple  energetically  with  the  living  ques- 
tions of  the  time;  that  it  spends  its  force  and  capital 
drawn  from  the  hard  earnings  of  the  people  in  sustain- 
ing "creeds  outworn;"  in  prating  about  the  affairs  of 
another  world,  instead  of  striving  for  the  betterment  and 
salvation  of  man  in  this  world.  A  thoughtful  and  candid 
writer — Professor  William  Graham,  of  Queen's  College, 
Belfast,  in  his  latest  work,  Tlie  Social  Problem,  repeats 
in  even  more  emphatic  language  the  indictment  of  the 
Christian  church  which  he  presented  some  years  ago  in 
his  Creed  of  Science.  "The  old  function,  discharged 
by  our  old  spiritual  guides,"  he  says,  "  is  palpably,  in  the 
eyes  of  all  thinking  men,  doomed;  it  is  dying,  unless  it 
can  transform  and  readapt  itself  to  the  spiritual  and 
moral  and  social  wants  of  the  new  time — a  thing  nearly 
impossible,  as  history  shows,  and  rather  to  be  hoped  for 
than  expected."    The  complaint  of  Emerson  that  we  are 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


121 


« preached  at"  too  much,  receives  the  practical  indorse- 
ment  of    multitudes   of  our   leaders  in   thought,  of  our 

:  scientists, philosophers  and  educators,  who  join  the  greater 
multitude  of  the  careless   and   indifferent  in   absenting 

■themselves  from  all  regular  attendance  upon  the  services 
of  the  church.  The  fear  of  hell  and  the  coercive  power 
of  secular  authority  being  removed,  many  withdraw  all 

:  support  from  organized  religious  institutions,  and  many 
more  retain  a  connection  with  them  which  is  purely  con- 
ventional and  formal,  conscious  of  a  total  want  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  doctrine,  ritual   and   service  which  they 

countenance  by  their  presence  and  pecuniary  aid.  "I 
have  no  heart  in  it,"  said  an  intelligent  young  lawyer  and 

■  college  graduate  to  me  the  other  day.  "  I  am  not  in- 
structed or  morally  inspired  by  the  sermons.  I  do  not 
believe  the  doctrine.     It  is  all  a  bore.     I  am  kept  in  the 

•  church  simply  by  my  family  connections  and  associations. 
;I  attend  service  to  avoid   giving  offense  to  my  friends." 

The   enormous   untaxed   properties  of    the   churches 
.are  a  standing  menace  to  the  principle  of  religious  liberty 
on  which  our  government  was  founded.      The  plea  that 
the  church  is  a  guardian  of   the  peace  of  society,  a  con- 
servator of  public   morals,  which  is  urged   in  support  of 

•  the  exemption  of  religious  properties  from  taxation,  has 
•very  little  force  in  the  minds  of  thoughtful  people.  An 
i  Institution  which  requires  this  government  "  protection," 

•which  admits  itself  a, pauper,  and  even  joins  in  a  shame- 
;  less  scramble  for  a  share  of  the  public  moneys  for  the 
•support  of  its  sectarian  charities, does  not  stand  in  a  posi- 

•  tion  to  become  -a  forceful  teacher  of  righteousness — a 
rebuker  of  wrong  in  high  places — a  defender  of  the 
poor  and   oppressed   against  the  power  and  wiles  of  the 

■  oppressor.  The  morality  of  the  pulpit  is  convention:'.' 
and   emasculated.      It   declaims    against    Mormonism    in 

'Utah,  organizes  societies  to  convert  the  Jews,  launches 

its  thunderbolts  occasionally  against  Agnosticism  or  the 

j  fatal  errors  of  some  rival  sect,  but  touches  the  sins  of  its 

■own  pews  with  gloved  hands,  and  fears  to  grapple  with 

•  the  pressing  social  evils  of  the  time.  Its  newest  gospel 
:  is  two  thousand  years  old.  It  speaks  the  language  of  a 
;  forgotten  age.      It  leaves  the   heart   out   of  the  teaching 

of  Jesus,  while  it  wrangles  about  the  form  of  his  doctrine 
.  and  the  "  mint,  anise  and  cumin"  of  ritual  and  phrase. 

Such  is  the  indictment,  we  may  almost  say  the  popu- 
'  lar  indictment,  against  the  church  to-day  in  England  i  nd 
America.  Such,  doubtless,  is  the  feeling  of  a  vast  num- 
ber of  liberal  and  progressive  thinkers,  not  all  of  whom 
have  had  the  courage  of  their  opinions,  it  is  true,  but  whoj 
nevertheless,  are  at  heart,  in  general  agreement  as  to  the 

•  character  and  utility  of  the  ordinary  pulpit  teaching. 
Many  do  not  hesitate  to  avow  that  the  clergy  are  "lost 

•  leaders,"  time-servers,  pew-panderers;  that  the  church,  as 
.  an  institution,  has   had   its  day,  and   should   give  way  to 

•  other  agencies  for  ethical  instruction  and  social  regenera- 
i  tion.     In  answer  to  this  indictment,  it  is  urged,  even  by 


some  who  have  no  belief  in  the  popular  creeds,  that  the 
church  is  nevertheless  useful  to  society.  It  has  a  certain 
value  as  a  cement  to  the  social  organism.  It  keeps  people 
conventionally  good.  It  creates  a  circle  of  public  opinion 
within  the  larger  circles  of  society,  which  helps  to  hold 
men  to  a  formal  allegiance  to  social  law  and  order.  It 
is  an  aid  to  the  police.  Its  fear  of  hell,  so  far  as  it  is 
still  a  vital  belief,  helps  to  make  men  do  right.  There 
are  many  who,  like  the  popular  clergyman,  would  "  have 
their  fling"  if  it  were  not  for  the  dread  uncertainty  of 
the  after-life,  and  such  as  these  are  kept  in  order  by  the 
church. 

What  shall  the  thoughtful  student,  anxious  to  con- 
serve all  that  is  good  in  present  institutions,  believing  in 
social  evolution  rather  than  in  revolution,  strenuous  in 
defense  of  public  and  personal  morality,  earnest  in  search 
for  a  solution  <>f  the  pressing  problems  of  our  time, 
answer  to  this  question,  "Is  the  church  worth  saving?" 
If  it  is  to  continue  to  follow  the  old  conventional  stand- 
ards, I  think  he  must  answer  that  it  is  not  worth  saving: 
that  the  sooner  it  gives  place  to  the  Ethical  Society,  or 
to  some  other  active  and  modernized  agency  for  social 
and  individual  improvement,  the  better.  If  the  church 
is  to  fight  on  under  the  old  flags,  organized  religion  will 
become  more  and  more  organized  hypocrisy.  For  the 
Mrs.  Partingtons  of  the  pulpit  cannot  stay  the  tide  of 
modern,  progressive  thought;  cannot  turn  back  the  ad- 
vancing columns  of  scientific  discovery,  or  break  the 
irresistible  logic  of  rational  philosophy  based  upon  the 
facts  of  experience.  They  cannot  meet  the  cry  of  the 
starving  poor,  the  demand  of  the  manual  laborer  for  a 
larger  share  of  the  product  of  his  labor,  the  universal 
aspiration  of  all  thinking  men  and  women  for  a  higher 
education  and  larger  liberty,  by  an  aptly  quoted  text  of 
"sacred  Scripture,"  a  doctrinal  sermon,  or  the  sensuous 
sestheticism  of  sacred  music  and  ritual  The  multitu- 
dinous charities  of  the  church — and  I  gladly  recognize 
their  number  and  their  value  —  cannot  cover  the  greater 
multitude  of  its  sins  against  sincerity,  reason,  and  the 
noble  striving  to  make  pauperism  impossible  by  remov- 
ing its  causes.  It  cannot  atone  for  its  neglect  to  educate 
and  help  men  for  nobler  living  here,  b<  all  its  doubtful 
information  in  regard  to  that  unknown  land  beyond  "the 
bourne  from  whence  no  traveler  returns."  Nor  can  the 
cowaid's  plea  that  it  is  "safer "  to  yield  a  conventional 
assent  to  the  dogmas  of  the  popular  religion,  long  con- 
tinue to  hold  manly  men  and  womanly  women  to  ihe 
service  and  support  of  the  church.  The  judgment  of 
the  intelligent,  independent  thinker  is  sure,  ultimately, 
to  become  the  judgment  of  the  masses  of  the  people. 
This  is  a  utilitarian  age,  but  it  is  also  an  ideal  age,  seek- 
ing ever  for  the  highest  uses  of  things;  and  the  church 
will  be  judged,  and  if  need  be  condemned,  by  the  stand- 
ard of  the  higher  utilities; — not  by  the  question  whether 
or  not  it  serves   as   a  convenient  adjunct  to  our  police 


122 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


system.  The  church  must  be  something  better  than  a 
coward's  castle  if  it  would  escape  the  fate  of  becoming  a 
picturesque  ruin  at  no  very  distant  day. 

Is  there,  then,  no  hope  that  the  church,  regenerating 
itself,  may  again  become  a  regenerator  of  mankind?  I 
believe  that  there  is  some  hope  that  it  will  renew  its  use- 
fulness, put  on  the  garment  of  reason,  learn  to  speak  the 
language  of  to-day,  and  render  to  man  the  service  which 
he  demands  in  return  for  his  allegiance  and  support.  1 
find  it  in  the  pulpit  utterances  of  such  men  as  Phillips 
Brooks,  and  llcber  Newton,  and  Charles  R.  Baker  and 
Bishop  Potter,  in  the  Episcopal  church;  Minot  J.  Savage, 
John  W.  Chadwick,  William  C.  Gannett  and  others,  in 
the  Unitarian  church;  Washington  Gladden  and  Lyman 
Abbott  in  the  Congregational  church,  and  others  in  dif- 
ferent branches  of  the  "Church  Universal."  I  find  it  in 
the  growing  tendency  to  rationalize  the  ancient  creeds 
by  transforming  them  into  the  likeness  of  modern  scien- 
tific and  philosophical  thought,  as  was  attempted  by 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  in  his  latest  discourses,  and  notably 
at  an  earlier  date  by  Minot  J.  Savage.  I  find  it  in  the 
increasing  attention  which  the  pulpit  and  religious  press 
are  paying  to  the  social  problems  of  our  time — to  the 
establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth. 

Pet  us  hope  that  these  tendencies  may  continue — 
that  the  church  will  prove  itself  worth  saving,  and  be 
saved  to  become  the  helper  and  savior  of  man.  Myself 
a  firm  believer  in  personal  continuance,  I  would  have 
its  waning  hope  renewed  by  a  deepening  consciousness 
of  the  worth  and  beauty  of  our  daily  life — as  it  can  never 
be  by  futile  appeals  to  Scripture  texts,  or  the  alleged 
miracle  of  Jesus'  resurrection.  Fulness  of  life,  in  the 
individual  and  in  the  social  organism — this  should  be  the 
object  of  our  striving, — the  high  goal  of  our  ambition. 
That  the  church  may  serve  us  in  promoting  this  noble 
end,  let  us  hope  that  it  also  will  be  endowed  with  a 
larger  and  fuller  life — that  it  will  take  hold  upon  the 
vital  questions  of  the  day,  and  treat  them  in  the  light  of 
the  loftiest  ethical  ideals, — that  it  will  assimilate  the 
teachings  of  modern  science,  and  impart  their  practical 
conclusions  to  the  people,  for  the  sanitary  improvement 
of  society; — that  the  thoughts  of  the  pulpit  may  become 
more  rational  and  hopeful  and  helpful,  its  teaching  more 
honest  and  sincere.  Let  us  hope  that  the  church  edifice 
will  be  honestly  taxed,  and  opened  not  merely  for  two 
or  three  hours  on  a  single  day  of  the  week,  but  that 
every  day  some  helpful  word  of  scientific,  sociological  or 
religious  truth  may  be  spoken  there,  to  which  those  who 
most  need  and  desire  it  may  be  freely  invited.  Let  each 
church  have  its  library  and  reading-room  open  at  certain 
hours  in  every  day  and  evening,  its  lecture-room  for  de- 
bate and  discussion,  its  parlors  for  social  reunion.  Let 
it  teach  the  gospel  of  science,  the  gospel  of  justice,  the 
gospel  of  honest  dealing  and  fair  play.  Let  it  become 
an  arbitrator  between   the  capitalist   and    the  laborer,  a 


uniter  of  society  into  more  fraternal  relationships,  a  com- 
mon ground  on  which  the  different  social  classes  may 
meet,  amicably  discuss  and  justly  settle  disputed  questions- 
Let  it  welcome  honest  thought  and  free  discussion.  So 
doing,  it  will  prove  its  right  to  be,  and  thoughtful  men 
and  women  will  adjudge  it  worth  the  saving.  To  quote 
again,  and  finally,  from  Professor  Graham  : 

"As  to  the  church,  there  is  perhaps  one  chance  left 
for  her,  one  course  open,  by  accepting  which  she  ifiight 
*  *  *  recover  in  large  measure  her  hold  on  the  lapsed 
masses  of  labor,  might  even,  for  a  considerable  time  yetv 
discharge  a  real  function  required  in  our  time  in  return, 
for  her  pay.  *  *  *  Let  her  become  the  church  of  the 
people;  become  a  militant  church,  fighting  the  cause  of 
the  poor,  the  needy  and  the  oppressed;  become  what  she 
originally  was  in  large  part,  and  the  tradition  of  which 
she  has  never  wholly  lost.  *  *  *  Let  her  now  take  to 
works,  instead  of  expatiating  on  faith,  its  mysteries  and 
its  efficacies, — to  the  work  that  Christ  had  at  heart,  and 
all  the  true  prophets  had  at  heart — to  hasten  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,  to  bring  in  the  reign  of  righteousness, 
which  means  and  ever  meant  a  regime  of  social  justice, 
in  which  the  sovereign  of  whatever  kind  'shall  reign  and 
prosper,  and  execute  judgment  and  righteousness  on  the 
earth ! ' '  So  doing,  she  may  at  least  be  worthy  of  salva- 
tion, which  is  better,  even,  than  "being  saved." 


REFORM     PROBLEMS. 
BY  FELIX  L.  OSWALD. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  Bible  of  the  future  will 
find  much  room  for  ghost-stories.  A  salvation-needing 
world  is  losing  its  faith  in  post  mortem  Utopias,  and 
temporal  existence  has  proved  too  evidently  susceptible 
of  improvement  to  leave  the  dogma  of  renunciation  a 
chance  to  repress  the  incipient  struggle  for  the  recovery 
of  paradise  on  this  side  of  the  grave.  Anil  moreover, 
the  suspicion  is  gaining  ground  that  the  success  of  that 
struggle  has  been  retarded  chiefly  by  the  very  doctrine 
that  promised  to  achieve  the  redemption  of  mankind  by 
diverting  their  attention  from  earth  to  ghost-land. 
When  the  siege  guns  of  Mohammed  the  Second  were 
battering  the  walls  of  Constantinople,  the  citizens  are 
said  to  have  crowded  the  hall  of  a  lyceum,  where  a. 
couple  of  shrieking  monks  were  threshing  the  wind  of 
theological  controversies;  and  metaphysics  of  that  sort 
have  unfortunately  not  been  confined  to  the  capital  of 
the  Byzantine  Empire.  While  the  neglected  fields  of 
our  earth  were  fading  from  gardens  into  desert,  we  have 
waged  fierce  wars  for  the  enforcement  of  senseless 
ceremonies  and  the  interpretation  of  vapid  rant  about 
the  mysteries  of  Cloud-cukoo-town;  hut  the  result  of 
that  pursuit  has  finally  opened  the  eyes  of  the  spectre- 
hunters.  They  have  at  last  rediscovered  the  truth  that 
life  can  be  made  worth  living,  and  the  era  of  world- 
renunciation  will  be  followed  by  an  era  of  world  repairs. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


I23 


In  the  evolution  of  ethics  exigencies  become  duties; 
and  though  many  dogmas  of  the  departing  creed  can  be 
traced  only  to  the  wants  of  the  priesthood,  several  tenets 
-of  the  coming  religion  can  be  safely  predicted  from  the 
secular  needs  of  mankind.  The  moralists  of  the  future, 
in  demonstrating  the  insanities  of  "  other-worldliness," 
■could  hardly  choose  a  more  striking  instance  than  the 
thousand  years' blindness  to  the  consequence  of  forest 
destruction.  The  devastation  of  the  woodlands  which 
once  covered  the  Eastern  continent  from  the  Himalayas 
to  the  Atlantic,  has,  in  the  literal  sense,  blighted  our 
■  earthly  paradise  by  reduciug  the  habitable  area  of  our 
globe  from  four-fifths  to  less  than  two-thirds  of  the  total 
land  surface;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  one-half  of  the 
•devastated  territory  once  constituted  the  most  favored 
region  of  this  planet.  Forest  destruction  has  turned 
garden  into  sand-wastes.  It  has  turned  mountain  pas- 
tures into  naked  rocks  and  choked  the  estuaries  of 
once  navigable  rivers  with  accumulations  of  detritus 
and  pestilential  diluvium.  It  has  caused  the  failure  of 
millions  of  springs,  it  has  aggravated  the  severity  of 
summer  droughts,  and  the  destructiveness  of  winter 
floods.  It  has  depopulated  the  uplands  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean shore  regions;  it  has  made  the  lowlands  depen- 
dent on  irrigation,  and  diminished  the  possibility  of  that 
•expedient  from  year  to  year.  In  western  Asia, 
northern  Africa  and  southern  Europe  an  aggregate  of 
five  million  square  miles  has  been  wasted  to  the  degree 
-where  the  produce  of  tillage  ceases  to  repay  the  toil  of 
the  husbandman;  and,  considering  the  climatic  extremes 
of  the  Western  continent,  its  bleak  northlands  and  arid 
central  plateaux,  it  might  seem  doubtful  if  the  discovery 
of  Columbus  has  even  temporarily  offset  the  results  of 
neglecting  the  Eastern  garden-home  of  the  human  race. 
The  arable  territory  of  the  New  World  will  soon  be 
taxed  to  its  utmost  capacity  of  productiveness,  and  before 
the  middle  of  the  twentieth  century  the  protection  of  the 
remaining  woodlands  will  for  millions  become  a  ques- 
tion of  self-protection.  The  forests  of  the  uplands  will 
once  more  become  sacred  groves;  philanthropists  will 
cover  our  worn-out  fields  with  tree  plantations,  the  cul- 
ture of  forest  trees  will  claim  a  portion  of  the  scientific 
efforts  now  directed  towards  the  invention  of  tree- 
destroying  machinery.  Wars,  even  wars  of  rapine,  will 
probably  continue  to  the  end  of  time,  but  their  havoc 
■will  be  partly  offset  by  the  nobler  struggle  of  recon- 
quering land  from  the  desert. 

The  long  neglect  of  physical  education  will  likewise 
be  retrieved  by  the  dissemination  of  clearer  views  on  the 
conditions  of  earthly  happiness.  The  idea  that  the  soul 
must,  or  can,  be  benefitted  by  the  abasement  of  its 
material  medium,  will  rank  next  to  the  witch-craft 
insanity  as  the  most  pernicious  delusion  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  the  pagan  ideal  of  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound 
body  will  once  more  become  the   ideal   of   the   civilized 


world.  The  awakening  of  mankind  from  the  fever- 
dream  of  the  monastic  era,  and  the  con-equent  revival  of 
science  and  freedom,  has,  indeed,  been  defined  as  a  "  war 
of  insurrection  against  the  anti-physical  principle,"  and 
that  revolt  will  not  long  be  confined  to  the  formulation  of 
new  theories  and  political  constitutions.  The  civiliza- 
tion of  the  future  will  build  a  gymnasium  with  every 
school.  Manly  sports  will  no  longer  be  held  below  the 
dignity  of  a  well-bred  citizen,  and  even  the  adherents  of 
hyper-physical  dogmas  will  admit  that  the  possessor  of 
an  immaterial  soul  cannot  afford  to  neglect  his  material 
self  any  more  than  an  artisan  can  afford  to  neglect  his 
tools. 

The  temperance  movement  has  already  passed  the 
repressible  stage.  The  knowledge  that  a  man  can  be 
defiled  by  things  .that  enter  his  mouth,  has  been  bought 
at  a  price  which  the  world  cannot  afford  to  pay  a  second 
time,  and  the  opponents  of  spiritual  and  spirituous 
poisons  will  soon  work  hand  in  hand.  Nor  is  it  likely 
that  the  war  upon  the  poison  vice  will  be  confined  to 
the  proscription  of  the  alcohol  habit.  "  The  historians 
of  a  coming  civilization,"  says  a  French  sanitarian,  will 
probably  hesilate  to  credit  the  moral  cowardice  of  an 
age  that  could  submit  to  the  outrages  of  the  obtrusive 
vice  that  poisons  the  life-air  of  public  promenades  and 
pleasure  resorts,  —  with  the  insolence  of  the  Sclavonian 
topers,  mentioned  by  the  traveler  Busbequius,  who  saw 
two  citizens  of  Bucharest  lay  hold  of  a  stranger,  and  by 
actual  violence,  force  him  to  partake  of  their  nauseous 
beverages.  A  public  lung-poisoning  tobacco  smoker 
will  be  suppressed  more  promptly  than  a  self-poisoning 
rum  drinker,  by  just  as  much  as  an  embezzler  of  public 
funds  is  held  more  guilty  than  a  self-damaging  spend- 
thrift." But  that  even  the  approximate  suppression  of 
the  alcohol-vice  alone,  would  be  an  infinite  blessing  to 
the  cause  of  all  other  reforms  is  so  certain  that  the  objec- 
tion on  the  score  of  an  alleged  infringement  of  personal 
liberty  can,  by  comparison,  claim  no  weight  of  influence 
whatever.  The  dram-drinker,  it  is  true,  acts  of  his  own 
free  will,  and  cannot  often  charge  the  encompasser  of 
his  ruin  either  with  violence  or  the  employment  of 
seductive  false  pretences,  but  the  same  argument  would 
license  brothels  and  gambling-hells,  and  the  manufac- 
ture of  obscene  literature.  The  arguments  of  political 
economy  have  already  begun  to  preponderate  on  the 
side  of  prohibition,  and  moreover,  the  permanent  inter- 
ests of  public  welfare  will  always  be  procured  at  the 
temporary  expense  of  fiscal  emoluments.  When  the 
salvation  of  mankind  appeared  to  require  the  expulsion 
of  the  Moorish  infidels,  the  prospective  loss  of  revei.ie 
by  the  exile  of  the  most  industrious  citizens  did  not  pre- 
vent the  impecunious  Spanish  Government  from  issuing 
the  decree  of  banishment,  and  the  ruinous  foes  of  indus- 
try will  in  vain  plead  the  importance  of  a  tax  represent- 
ing but  a  trifling  percentage  of  the  yearly  drain  upon  the 


I24 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


lesources  of  rum-drinking  nations.  Judge  Pitman  is 
probably  right,  that  the  Maine  Law  is  destined  to  become 
a  main  law  of  every  civilized  commonwealth. 

But  the  victory  of  temperance  need  not  be  purchased 
by  the  sacrifice  of  our  recreation-days.  The  history  of 
asceticism  has  proved  again  and  again  that  the  suppres- 
sion of  harmless  amusements  is  a  direct  cause  of  vicious 
excesses;  and  total  abstinence  from  intoxicating  drinks 
would  be  promoted,  rather  than  prevented,  by  the  free- 
dom of  all  healthful  recreations  on  the  day  when  a  large 
plurality  of  our  workingmen  find  their  only  chance  of 
leisure.  The  tyranny  of  our  Puritan  Sabbath  is,  indeed, 
the  ugliest  survival  of  the  age  that  blighted  the  sunshine 
of  life  by  the  joy-hating  dogmas  of  anti-naturalism,  and 
in  the  United  States  the  disadvantages  of  promiscuous 
immigration  have  been  greatly  compensated  by  the  con- 
tinuous influx  of  the  representatives  of  civilizations  that 
have  succeeded  in  emancipating  themselves  from  the 
curse  of  that  tyranny.  The  law,  making  the  wanton 
disturbance  of  public  worship  a  misdemeanor,  should 
certainly  be  enforced  in  favor  of  Buddhists  and  Hebrews, 
as  well  as  of  the  most  fashionable  Christian  churches, 
but  the  law  of  equity  should  likewise  protect  every  dis- 
senter in  the  right  to  pass  his  Sundays  according  to  his 
own  predilection,  in  any  way  not  violating  either  the 
maxims  of  natural  morals  nor  the  equal  piivilege  of  any 
fellow-citizen.  A  community  of  Health-worshipers 
would  have  an  undoubted  right  to  devote  their  leisure 
day  to  outdoor  exercises,  conducted  under  the  special 
protection  of  the  State;  but  their  peculiar  institution 
would  at  once  become  rank  tyranny  if  they  should  force 
a  Methodist  guest  of  their  commonwealth  to  suspend  his 
devotion  and  join  in  their  foot-races;  and  for  the  same 
reason  a  disciple  of  Nature  has  a  right  to  demand  the 
abolition  of  a  law  raging  with  proscriptive  penalties 
against  the  visitors  of  a  Sunday  festival  in  the  health- 
giving  highlands,  or  imprisoning  ball-playing  children, 
in  order  to  satisfy  the  clamors  of  a  bigot  who  prefers  to 
pass  bis  Sundays  in  an  atmosphere  sickened  with  meet- 
ing-house smells  and  nasal  cant. 

The  revision  of  the  prevalent  theories  on  the  proper 
sphere  of  legislation  will  sooner  or  later  be  sure  to  re- 
move the  obstructions  to  the  freedom  of  international 
•commerce.  The  resisting  power  of  established  abuses 
lias  its  limits,  and  nothing  short  of  illimited  obstinacy  of 
prejudice  could  in  the  long  run  resist  the  logic  of  the 
arguments  against  the  fallacy  of  legislative  interference 
with  the  natural  laws  of  trade  and  industry.  "The 
proper  significance  of  such  problems,"  says  Professor 
Kessner,  "becomes  much  clearer  by  divesting  the  con- 
troversy of  its  veil  of  technical  phrases.  The  logic  of 
political  economy,  applied  to  the  problem  of  interna- 
tional traffic,  is  simply  this:  The  opponents  of  free 
trade  propose  to  increase  the  resources  of  national 
wealth.      In  pursuit  of   that   object  they  prevent  brother 


Hans  from  buying  a  cheap  and  good  coat  from  foreigner- 
Frank,  thus  compelling  Hans  to  buy  an  ill  made  and 
expensive  coat  from  brother  Tom.  But  what  the  nation 
gains  by  Tom's  profit  is  exactly  balanced  by  Hans'  los^., 
and  the  result  of  the  experiment  will  amount  to  nothing 
but  the  removal  of  money  from  our  fob  to  our  breed 
pocket,  if  it  were  not  for  a  third  factor:  The  pay  of  the- 
hired  bullies,  who  have  forced  Hans  to  relinquish  his; 
hope  of  a  private  trade  with  Frank.  By  exactly  the: 
amount  of  that  pay  the  net  result  of  the  transaction 
leaves  us  poorer." 

The  fallacies  of  the  Protectionists  may  in  some  re- 
spects have  encouraged  the  illusions  of  .Socialism  and 
the  clamors  for  the  continual  interference  of  a  paternal) 
government;  but  considerations  of  health,  as  well  as  ofc 
simple  humanity,  should  certainly  advocate  the  enforce- 
ment of  an  Eight  Hour  Law,  and  a  still  more  needed 
law  against  the  employment  of  young  children  in  the' 
soul  and  body  stunting  drudgery  of  factory  work. 
There  is  a  story  of  an  Arab  chieftain  who  had  been 
half  persuaded  to  prepare  his  tribe  for  the  blessings  of 
modern  civilization,  when  his  mentor  happened  to  enter 
the  workshop  of  a  Marseilles  cotton  spinnery.  At  sight, 
of  the  dust-clouded  atmosphere  and  the  crowd  of  pale 
faced  children  tending  the  whirling  spools  the  chief 
stared  and  followed  his  guide  in  pensive  silence.  "  Are- 
those  young  criminals?"  he  inquired,  when  they  left  the: 
building.  "  Oh,  no,"  exclaimed  the  guide, "  they  are  hon- 
est boys,  working  for  wages  to  assist  their  poor  parents." 
"Look  here,"  said  the  Arab,  pointing  to  the  gilded  dome 
of  a  neighboring  church,  "if  that  were  gold  and  you 
offered  us  a  treasure-pile  of  that  size,  the  poorest  man 
of  my  tribe  would  refuse  to  sell  his  children  into  the 
hell  of  such  slavery."  According  to  nearly  concurrent: 
estimates  of  British  and  German  statistics,  fiom  eighteen 
to  twenty-two  million  young  children  of  the  industrial. 
nations  are  at  present  inhaling  the  seeds  of  premature- 
death  in  lead-works  and  textile  factories,  etc.  "Our 
poverty,  but  not  our  will  consents;"  but  in  a  wholesome 
state  of  social  conditions  poverty  should  excuse  almost 
anything  sooner  than  an  habitual  sacrifice  of  health. 

The  most  valid  argument  against  the  projects  of 
communism  is  perhaps  the  objection  that  the  realization: 
of  such  schemes  would  cripple  enterprise  by  removing 
the  stimulus  of  personal  interest,  while  on  the  other 
hand  a  community  of  property  would  certainly  remove 
many  grievous  burdens  of  civilized  life.  Bakunin,  the: 
"  Russian  Miraheau,"  seems  first  to  have  devised  a  com- 
bination of  those  advantages.  Without  any  by-plans;- 
against  the  tenure  of  personal  property,  he  proposed  to- 
found  communities  on  the  plan  of  reserving  sections  of 
public  land  for  the  benefit  of  each  township,  and  thus 
obviate  the  necessity  of  direct  taxation,  by  letting  the: 
rent  cover  the  entire  budget  of  municipal  expenses.  As; 
those  expenses  multiplied,  the  value  of  the   reserve  lots. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


I25 


would  increase  in  proportion,  and  could  be  advanced 
even  with  the  result  of  a  surplus  for  charitable  purposes, 
by  renewing  the  rent  contracts  from  ten  to  ten  years. 
The  plan  seems  an  improvement  on  the  confiscation 
project  by  just  as  much  as  prevention  is  better  than  cure, 
and  will  probably  form  the  practical  outcome  of  a  re- 
cent reform  movement  which  has  already  ceased  to  imply 
the  menace  of  an  agrarian  revolt. 


CONSCIOUSNESS. 

BY    E.  P.  POWELL. 

There  is  no  word  so  played  fast  and  loose  with  as  con- 
sciousness. It  is  most  often  used  to  designate  a  super-sen- 
•  sual  sort  of  knowledge ;  a  direct  and  necessary  knowledge. 
A  man  is  conscious  of  certain  facts,  and  that  ends  all  pos- 
sible discussion.  Again,  consciousness  is  used  in  a  some- 
what vague  way  to  cover  that  immaterial  element  in 
life  which  is  not  covered  by  matter  and  force.  The 
theistic  or  spiritualistic  conception  of  oi-ganic  life  denies 
that  it  is  possible  to  exclude  from  the  proposition  "  a 
living'  thing,"  the  term  consciousness.  Cope  says: 
"  Consciousness  is  an  attribute  of  matter,"  and  again, 
"  Consciousness  is  a  condition  of  matter  in  some  peculiar 
state,  and  wherever  that  peculiar  state  of  matter  exists 
consciousness  will  be  found."  Huxley  asserts  conscious- 
ness to  be  "a  function  of  the  brain;"  again,  "Consci- 
ousness is  a  function  of  matter;"  again  he  says,  "I  un- 
derstand the  main  tenet  of  materialism  to  be  that  there  is 
nothing  in  the  universe  but  matter  and  force,  and  that  all 
the  phenomena  of  nature  are  explicable  by  deduction 
from  the  properties  assignable  to  these  two  primitive  fac- 
tors. But  all  this  I  heartily  disbelieve;  it  seems  to  me 
pretty  plain  that  there  is  a  third  thing  in  the  universe, 
to-wit,  consciousness;  which,  in  the  hardness  of  my  heart, 
or  head,  I  cannot  see  to  be  matter  or  force." 

Sir  William  Hamilton  says:  "Consciousness  is  a 
recognition  by  the  mind  of  its  acts  and  affections;  the 
self-affirmation  that  certain  modifications  are  known  by 
me  and  are  mine."  This  is  a  definition  of  self-conscious- 
ness; a  recognition  of  that  group  of  phenomena  called 
self  or  ego.  And  it  is  no  wonder  that  Hamilton  adds, 
"  Consciousness  cannot  be  defined."  He  does  not — 
neither  does  any  other  philosopher,  apart  from  the  evo- 
lution school — fail  to  confuse  himself  with  this  word. 
It  required,  first  of  all,  that  evolution  should  afford  us 
a  history  of  life  and  its  contents,  before  these  contents 
could  be  comprehended.  Consciousness  is  an  evolution 
and,  therefore,  has  a  history.  This  Cope  recognizes  and 
gets  at  the  very  pith  of  the  matter  when  he  sums  up  the 
doctrines  of  consciousness  thus: 

"  i.   Consciousness  independent  of  matter — Dualism. 

"  2.   Consciousness  an  attribute  of  matter— -Monism. 

"  3.  Consciousness  (a),  primitive  and  the  cause  of 
evolution. 

"  4.  Consciousness  (3),  a  product  of  the  evolution  of 
matter  and  force." 


Nevertheless  he  leaves  a  confusion  in  the  word,  al" 
though  he  defines  the  thing  so  admirably.  In  his  view 
Monism  (a),  or  No.  3,  is  the  correct  view  of  the  uni- 
verse; and  consciousness  does  truly  lie,  as  the  very  cause 
and  momentum  of  evolution.  I  have  no  doubt  this  is 
the  drift  of  true  science  and  scientific  metaphvsics — a 
drift  to  be  sharply  defined  in  due  time.  All  the  more  it 
becomes  necessary  to  place  the  word  consciousness  on 
its  historic  basis;  we  shall  then  neither  confuse  ourselves 
nor  others  with  dualistic  concepts. 

In  the  first  place  we  cannot  escape  going  back  to  the 
primordial  conditions  of  life,  cellular  and  pre-cellular, 
to  inquire  once  more  as  to  the  very  nature  of  this  some- 
thing which  Cope  and  Huxley  and,  I  believe,  our  ablest 
biologists  altogether,  agree  is  surely  there.  What  is 
there  before  evolution  has  altered  or  complicated  it?  We 
may  easily  agree  as  to  matter  and  force,  although  we 
may  be  puzzled  after  all  to  tell  what  force  and  matter 
are. 

But  as  to  the  third  factor,  is  it  really  consciousness,  or 
is  it  something  from  which  consciousness  is  a  derivative? 
If  we  can  agree  to  call  the  general  faculty  based  on  sen- 
sation sentience  we  shall  at  least  be  philological ly  cor- 
rect, and  logically.  Con-sentience  will,  therefore,  be  the 
state  of  comparative  sentience;  and  consentience,  or 
consciousness,  becomes  defined  as  a  comparative  func- 
tioning of  primitive  sentience;  for  it  stands  evident  that 
this  sentience  which  we  never  can  get  below  and  back 
of,  however  low  down  we  go  in  our  research,  and  which 
is  a  quality  of  all  living  protoplasm,  inseparable  from 
life,  and  is  manifested  at  first  in  desire  or  hunger,  soon 
must  become  a  comparative  power.  The  amoeba  eats 
what  it  touches;  but  if  the  amceba  does  not  manifest 
choice  of  foods,  creatures  a  little  higher  do.  This  in- 
volves a  comparison  of  sensations  and  in  its  nature  is  no 
longer  simple  sentience,  but  con-sentience,  or  con-scious- 
ness.  And  it  will  not  hurt  our  grapple  with  the  word 
that  we  can  now  use  it  in  the  philological  sense;  that  is, 
to  know  things  together,  or  in  a  group. 

Consciousness,  then,  is  a  higher  condition  of  sen- 
tience; and  as  such  it  extends  in  higher  degrees  of  man- 
ifestation, through  all  the  evolution  of  organic  being.  In 
man,  and  nowhere  but  in  man,  the  subject  becomes  also 
object,  and  consciousness  becomes  self-consciousness. 
The  animal  knows,  but  does  not  know  himself,  neither 
abstract  being.  In  other  words,  the  dog  knows,  but 
does  not  know  that  it  is  himself  that  knows.  I  think 
the  same  may  be  equally  averred  of  the  primitive 
anthropoid,  and  as  well  also  of  the  lower  savage 
races.  Certainly  self-consciousness  belongs  to  no  crea- 
ture before  man.  By  cosmical  research  man,  enlight- 
ened, reaches  the  ideas  infinite  and  eternal ;  and  his  con- 
sciousness becomes  an  apprehension  of  eternal  and  infi- 
nite being,  or,  to  retain  the  word  with  which  we  began, 
he  is  conscious  of  self-higher-than-himself. 


I2D 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Let  us  go  back  and  follow  the  idea  analytically.  Sen- 
tience is  a  necessary  and  direct  knowledge  or  apprehen- 
sion of  not-self  bv  the  mode  of  sensation.  Conscious- 
ness is  comparative  knowledge  of  things  constituting  en- 
vironment. Self-consciousness  is  comparative  knowl- 
edge that  becomes  so  largely  synthetic  that  it  not 
only  groups  our  sensations  in  comparison,  but  groups 
that  and  those  which  constitute  self  as  distinct  from  non- 
self.  Consciousness  of  self-higher-thau-ourselves  is  the 
rising  power  to  group  all  phenomena  of  not-self  into  a 
unity  in  its  relation  to  our-self.  This  is  the  end  of  evolu- 
tion of  sentience;  for  it  has  grappled  with  eternal  and 
necessary  self. 

But  what  then  is  the  unconscious?  It  is  even  more 
important  that  we  should  have  a  clear  apprehension  of 
this  term;  for  no  one  can  fail  to  see  that  "  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  unconscious "  of  Hartmann  and  the  use  of 
the  word  by  others,  is  largely  confusing.  Unconscious- 
ness is  clearly  that  state  of  consciousness  which  arises 
when  functioning  in  any  direction  becomes  automatic,  or 
instinctive.  Our  hearts  beat  and  our  nutrition  goes  on 
without  our  conscious  attention;  although  nutrition  in 
lower  life  and  the  functioning  of  the  heart  are  highly  con- 
scious operations  under  the  direct  control  of  the  will. 
Nature,  having  perfected  any  function,  pays  no  more 
conscious  attention  to  it,  and  it  becomes  henceforth  an 
unconscious  functioning.  The  bee  and  ant  are  almost 
entirely  automatons,  yet  with  a  trace  of  consciousness. 
As  the  vegetable  kingdom  and  the  animal  originated 
from  a  common  sentient  life,  it  follows  that  the  vege- 
table kingdom  must  be  considered  as  a  wholly  automatic 
or  lapsed  order  of  life-processes.  It  has  wholly  passed 
over  to  the  unconscious. 

Now  this  unconsciousness  is  wholly  different,  as  one 
can  see,  from  the  pre-consciousness  which  is  the  state  of 
tfie  universe  before  or  preceding  organic  life.  Uncon- 
sciousness is  that  state  of  consciousness  which  exists 
when  tentative  action  has  become  fixed  and  established 
action — when  functioning  has  become  automatic.  The 
evident  tendency  of  all  conscious  action  is  thus  to  pass  on 
to  organic  rhythm.  Our  intellectual  and  moral  choices,  in 
like  manner,  tend  toward  habits  that  no  longer  require 
choice  or  will,  and  so  lose  the  quality  moral  or  intellec- 
tual. The  love  that  a  mother  bears  for  her  babe  is  a 
matter  of  instinct  and  not  of  morals;  whereas  the  love 
that  is  exercised  by  a  philanthropist  for  the  oppressed 
and  despised  may  require  a  very  high  degree  of  con- 
scious will.  The  mother  is  conscious  that  she  loves,  but 
is  not  conscious  of  any  process  of  choosing  to  love. 
Herbert  Spencer  points  to  the  time  when  all  moral 
power  will  be  exercised  without  choice  between  good 
and  evil ;  but  the  good  man  will  do  the  good  because  it 
is  his  nature  to  do  it. 

However,  I  have  no  desire  to  discuss  the  unconscious 
farther  than  to  make   my  definition  clear.     Sentience   1 


would  make  the  primordial  elementary  quality; — that 
something  besides  matter  and  force,  which  Huxley 
declares  he  cannot  escape.  This  becomes,  in  complex 
life  functioning,  a  complex  and  yet  ever  present  con- 
stitutive element.  Whatever  its  evolution,  or  the 
evolution  of  matter  and  force,  these  three  are  essential  to 
the  idea  organic  life.  They  are  fundamental  qualities, 
and  therefore  belong  to, and  are  inherent  in,  the  universe. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  organic  universe  is  by 
no  means  a  derivative  of  the  inorganic  any  more  than 
the  animal  kingdom  is  an  evolution  of  the  vegetable. 
The  two  kingdoms,  animal  and  vegetable,  are  diverging 
processes  of  a  precedent  life,  that  was  neither  one  nor. 
the  other.  So  organic  and  inorganic  are  diverging,  and 
yet  mutually  interactive  processes  of  the  universe.  The 
inorganic  does  not  contain  sentience,  the  organic  does. 
You  cannot  get  out*of  the  inorganic  what  it  has  not. 
The  death  of  an  organism  is  a  passage  of  by  no  means 
the  whole  being  into  the  inorganic.  It  is  a  3'ielding  of 
only  those  parts  that  are  constitutive  in  the  inorganic. 
What  becomes  of  sentience,  consciousness  or  self-con- 
sciousness? This  opens  the  question  of  all  questions 
most  fascinating  and  important,  and  must  be  discussed, 
if  at  all,  in  a  succeeding  article.  My  object  for  the 
present  is  attained,  by  aiding  to  establish  some  degree  of 
accuracy  in  the  use  of  terms,  which  are  often  used 
recklessly,  and,  for  valuable  results,  used  in  vain.  The 
historical  view  of  consciousness  may  be  tabulated  for 
convenience  thus: 

Presentience  —  The  attribute  of  the  universe. 

Sentience  —  The  attribute  of  living  substance. 

Consciousness  —  The  result  of  choice  in  sentient 
beings. 

Self-consciousness  —  A  conscious  synthesis  of  that 
which  makes  up  ego. 

Consciousness  of  self-higher-than-ourselves;  —  A 
conscious  synthesis  of  all  that  which  is  not  self,  an 
infinite. 

CHATS    WITH    A    CHIMPANZEE. 

BY    MONCURE    D.    CONWAY. 
Part  II. 

In  the  interview  about  to  be  reported  I  do  not  aspire 
to  overmuch  realism.  To  describe  the  processes,  whether 
phonetic,  facial  or  other,  through  which  my  anthropoid 
friend  and  I  interchanged  ideas  might  divert  attention 
from  the  ideas  themselves.  I  do  not  wish  to  raise  a  host 
of  wrangling  philologers,  skeptics,  commentators,  to 
dispute  whether  I  did  or  did  not  mistake  the  Chimpan- 
zee's meaning,  or  whether  he  meant  this  or  that.  What 
I  gathered  from  the  interview,  not  how  it  was  gathered, 
it  will  be  my  aim  to  state. 

"  A  large  number  of  curious  visitors  have  come  to 
our  temple,"  said  the  Chimpanzee;  "they  have  amused 
themselves  by  watching  us  as  we  ate  their  sweetmeats, 
and  looked   on   us  as  nature's  jokes;  but  I   have  been 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


127 


interested  by  observing  in  you  a  certain  respect,  as  if 
you  were  not  merely  condescending  to  notice  your  in- 
feriors." 

"  To  respect,  add  admiration,"  I  said.  "  I  have  long- 
ago  found  the  truth  of  what  a  wise  German,  Oersted, 
said,  that  monkeys  appear  grotesque  or  ugly  to  mankind 
only  because  generally  seen  out  of  their  place,  tricked 
out  bv  showmen,  away  from  their  right  environment. 
Thev  are  beautiful  in  their  place.  I  have  seen  them  at 
play  in  the  luxuriant  woods,  making  the  forest  animate 
with  their  graceful  swinging  from  limb  to  limb;  nothing 
more  fascinating  have  I  ever  seen.  To-day  I  have  been 
surprised  to  find  that  your  race  can  be  no  less  charming 
amid  walls  reared  bv  the  hand  of  man." 

"  The  walls  being  partly  adopted  and  retouched  by 
nature,  the  blue  sky  bending  over  us;  and,  possibly,  be- 
cause our  contrast  with  these  ash-smeared  devotees  is 
not  so  favorable  to  them  as  if  we  were  displayed  among 
merry  and  well-dressed  human  companies." 

"  Perhaps." 

"  But  I  must  now  add  another  thing.  We  who  in- 
habit this  temple  are  not  ordinary  monkeys.  There 
are  two  kinds  of  monkeys — arrested  monkeys  and  rever- 
sionary monkeys.  Have  you  heard  of  a  man  named 
Haeckel?" 

"  I  am  just  reading  his  account  of  a  sojourn  in 
Ceylon  and  India." 

"Recently  while  he  was  here,  I  heard  the  priest  you 
saw  just  now  and  another  conversing  about  a  murder  he 
committed — so  they  called  his  shooting  a  monkey  for 
his  museum.  From  what  they  said  I  think  it  must 
have  been  (though  they  knew  nothing  of  that)  not  only 
a  reversionary  monkey,  but  a  transitional  one — like  my- 
self— what  he  may  have  supposed  a  "  missing  link,"  but 
really  one  from  which,  had  he  approached  it  with  sweet- 
meat communion  instead  of  a  gun,  he  might  have 
learned  more  about  evolution  than  he  will  get  from  a 
million  dissected  or  stuffed  anthropoids.  But  he  was 
only  a  man,  and  knew  not  what  he  did." 

"  Tell  me,  I  pray  you,  the  difference  between  the  ar- 
rested and  the  reversionary  ape?" 

"  The  fruit  of  knowledge  grows  in  the  vale  of  hu- 
mility. You  are  willing  to  sit  at  my  feet  though  you 
must  know  that  your  form  is  more  erect,  your  flesh 
fairer,  your  powers  more  various  than  mine.  But  look 
over  to  that  farthest  court,  and  tell  me  what  you  see?" 

"  I  see  six  haggard  men,  nake*d,  smeared  with  ashes, 
sitting  motionless  before  six  smoking  logs  of  wood. 
I  see  near  them  on  the  ground  two  ash-covered  human 
heads,  belonging  to  bodies  buried  to  the  neck.  I  see  a 
man  before  the  altar  of  a  horrible  image  holding  a  pretty 
little  kid's  neck  under  a  blade — it  falls!  The  blood  spurts! 
It  is  sickening." 

"Now  look  around  you  in  this  court — what  do  you 
see?" 


"  A  group  of  monkeys  al  play,  others  slumbering  in 
the  sunshine,  others  quietly  seated  together,  or  caressing 
each  other;  and  all  surrounded  by  beautifully  carved 
symbols  of   nature  and  poetic  legends." 

"  If  you  were  compelled  to  choose  which  you  would 
be,  permanently,  nol  with  a  view  to  change  or  reform, 
but  for  life — one  of  those  half-buried,  butchering  or  for- 
ever motionless  fakirs — or  one  of  those  merry  monkeys?" 

"  I  should  unhesitatingly  choose  the  monkey's  lot." 

"  Then  you  would  be  an  example  of  reversion. 
That  is  what  we  are — reversionary  monkeys.  We  are 
descended  from  a  race  of  philosophers,  who,  having 
climbed  to  be  men  found  their  lot  intolerable  and  deliber- 
ately developed  themselves,  not  into  the  original  type, 
but  into  a  similar  one  which  should  avoid  certain  disad- 
vantages of  the  arrested  form — the  monkey  that  never 
was  (and  now  never  can  be)  man." 

"  How  stupid  I  am!  Only  this  morning,  examining 
certain  repulsive  idols  and  meditating  on  the  rites  wit- 
nessed around  them,  I  thought  it  a  happy  discovery,  and 
meant  to  suggest  it  to  Haeckel,  that  all  this  '  religion  ' 
originated  with  monkeys.  And  now  I  find  that  mon- 
keys are  the  dissenters  who  renounced  such  inhuman 
humanity." 

"Do  not  credit  our  race  with  martyrdom.  It  was  all 
the  work  of  evolution,  though  not  by  natural  selection. 
It  was  by  human  selection.  It  is  much  more  comfort- 
able to  be  worshipped  than  to  worship,  to  be  sacrificed 
to  than  to  sacrifice." 

"  Will  you  please  tell  me  more  of  this  great  odyssey, 
this  pilgrimage  of  your  race  to  humanity,  and  to — what 
shall  I  say?   a  plane  beyond  or  below  it?" 

"  That  depends  on  your  standard  of  high  and  low. 
Have  you  ever  changed  your  faith?  " 

"Yes;  I  was  once  a  Methodist;  then  a  Unitarian 
Christian;  then  a " 

"  That  will  do  for  my  purpose.  When  you  were  a 
Methodist  your  god  was  the  stream  of  tendency  that 
makes  for  Methodism ;  whatever  helped  that  was  good 
and  fair;  your  ideal  was  a  world  converted  to  Method- 
ism. That  faith  abandoned,  your  divine  stream  makes 
against  Methodism ;  a  Methodist  world  were  the  reverse 
of  ideal.  So  with  your  discredited  Unitarianism.  So 
long  as  the  human  form  is  your  standard  of  perfection 
you   cannot  have   any  other   ideal. 

"  I  confess  it  appears  to  me  scientifically  demonstrable 
that  the  human  is  the  supreme  form." 

"  So,  it  seems,  you  once  thought  Methodism  among 
forms  of  religion.  I  have  already  admitted  the  superi- 
ority of  the  human  powers.  But  superior  for  what? 
Is  the  purpose  for  which  each  creature's  best  has  been 
selected  and  combined  in  one  form  a  good  or  a  bad  one? 
If  it  be  a  contrivance  for  misery,  then  like  the  next  most 
perfect  combination  in  nature,  the  serpent,  the  evil  is 
commensurate  with  the  perfection.      Take  another  look 


128 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


at  our  fakirs  over  there,  and  see  what  they  are  empow- 
ered to  do  with  their  admirable  joints,  hands  and  senses. 
We  monkeys  of  the  temple  have  powers  adapted  to 
happiness  and  harmlessness  in  our  friendly  community; 
we  have  not  imagination  enough  to  see  the  supernatural 
terrors  which  paralyze  those  poor  men;  our  hands  are 
not  skillful  enough  to  kill  kids.  As  for  beauty,  that  is 
relative;  handsome  is  as  handsome  does.  To  one  starv- 
ing an  oyster  is  lovlier  than  its  pearl.  Our  morphologi- 
cal inferiorities  correspond  with  advantages.  Our  resem- 
blance to  men  suggests  to  them  that  we  are  their 
shrunken  ancestor?,  and  they  serve  us.  Our  silence  pre- 
vents their  discovery  of  our  ignorance.  We  belong'  to 
their  adorable  realm  of  mystery.  Thus  they  become 
our  liveried  ministers,  while  gaining  support  by  that 
service  —  the  humanest,  in  your  sense,  in  Benares. 
Freed  from  the  struggle  for  existence,  we  can  fraternize- 
We  toil  not,  nor  spin,  yet  we  are  fed  and  clothed.  We 
are  not  anxious  for  the  morrow.  We  are  not  ambitious 
to  get  ahead  of  one  another.  There  is  more  than 
enough  sunshine  and  sweetmeats  for  all.  None  have  to 
regret  our  existence." 

"But  you  die  like  men?  You  must  grieve  for  loss 
of  your  children,  your  wives,  your  friends?" 

"  Your  remark  touches  an  important  matter.  Let 
me  explain  what  I  meant  just  now  by  describing  myself 
as  a  transitional  monkey.  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to 
evolve  so  far  as  those  around  me.  Of  all  here  I  alone 
still  bear  some  lingering  burdens  of  humanity.  I  have, 
fur  instance,  this  power  to  converse.  It  is  my  loss  and 
your  gain.  The  dwellers  in  this  court  escape  the  sting 
of  death,  which  is  apprehension.  They  have  no  tortur- 
ing consciousness  of  its  approach,  still  less  any  horror, 
hereditary  or  other,  of  dangers  beyond  it.  In  the  ab- 
sence of  strife,  of  wakeful  ambition,  of  envy,  of  asceti- 
cism,  of  conventional  morals  hostile  to  nature,  we  never 
know  disease;  we  never  die  but  once.  When  one  dies 
of  old  age  the  regret  of  survivors  is  not  agony.  As 
proof  I  may  say  that  though,  individually,  I  am  a  link 
between  these  and  humanity,  my  hope  and  aspiration 
lie  in  their  direction,  not  in  that  of  these  care-ridden,  ter- 
rorized people  of  Benares.  Of  your  own  foreign  race 
I  cannot  speak.  Your  people,  perhaps,  are  free  from 
fear,  from  competition,  from  anxiety  about  the  future  or 
sleepless  speculation  about  the  unknowable.  To  me 
have  been  transmitted  traditions  of  such  torments  which 
led  our  ancestors  to  undertake  their  journey  to  Nir- 
vana." 

"  I  cannot  say  that  my  distant  people  are  free  from 
such  pains,  fears,  speculations.  But  you  speak  of  Nir- 
vana; that  is  the  goal  to  which  Buddha  pointed  the 
■way." 

"  It  is.  It  was  while  listening  to  him  in  the  Deer 
Park  over  there  that  our  ancestors  resolved  to  seek  Nir- 
vana.    That,    they    found,    involved    escape    from    the 


human  consciousness — that  is,  perpetual  morbid  intro- 
spection of  a  selfhood  made  up  of  fictitious  conceptions. 
What  Buddha  revealed  to  those  who  heeded,  was  that 
they  lived,  moved,  had  their  being,  in  a  fictitious  uni- 
verse; they  were  organisms  created  by  phantasms  incar- 
nate in  priestcraft,  made  potent  by  superstition;  their 
consciousness  was  of  virtues  that  were  sins,  and  of  sins 
that  were  virtues.  Non-existent  gods  shed  desolating 
forces;  marriage,  industry,  birth,  endlessly  accumulated 
a  chaos  and  called  it  order.  This  chaos,  reflected  in 
every  mind  and  heart,  made  that  torture-rack  called 
consciousness.  Because  phantasmal  gods  had  made  ex- 
istence a  hell,  the  blessed  Buddha  cried,  '  Escape  from 
existence;  enter  into  Nirvana!'  This  obviously  could 
not  be  done  by  suicide;  for  there  would  necessarily  be  a 
survival  of  the  non-suicidal.  Nature,  indifferent  to  the 
sufferings  of  men,  is  resolved  that  their  race  shall  con- 
tinue. But  our  philosophic  fathers  saw  that  the  great 
evil  was  this  diseased  consciousness.  Of  that  the)' — in 
their  time  and  place — could  only  be  rid  by  laying  aside,, 
bit  by  bit,  the  mechanism  of  consciousness — the  so  ex- 
quisitely contrived  engine  of  torture — and  their  artistic 
evolution  through  2,500  years  marks  the  distance  be- 
tween 3'on  naked  fakirs  killing  kids,  burying  their 
bodies,  or  paralyzing  them  by  disuse,  and  those  merry 
monkeys  dancing  amid  the  flowers." 

Just  here  the  Brahman  appeared,  and  bowed  low  to 
the  ground.  1  understood;  and  exchanging  with  my 
Chimpanzee  an  engagement  for  the  morrow — quite  in- 
audibly  to  the  priest — took  my  departure. 


The  Chicago  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  held  its  an- 
nual meeting  on  Friday  night  last,  and  encouraging  re- 
ports were  made  of  the  Society's  progress.  Had  there 
been  no  deficit  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  the  society 
would  have  been  able  to  meet  its  entire  current  expenses 
and  have  a  balance  of  $170  in  the  treasury.  Compara- 
tive statements  were  made  showing  the  growth  of  the 
society  in  numbers  and  financial  resources  from  the  be- 
ginning, which  was  a  little  over  four  years  ago.  Espec- 
ially gratifying  was  the  report  of  the  publication  com- 
mittee, showing  a  wide  and  large  demand  from  all  parts 
of  the  country  for  the  published  lectures.  Another 
woman  was  added  to  the  Board  of  Trustees,  in  addition 
to  the  two  elected  a  year  ago.  The  meeting  was  held 
in  the  .Society's  cozy  rooms  at  45  Randolph  street,  and 
there  was  a  gratifying  attendance.  The  next  number 
of  The  Open  Court  will  contain  some  account  of  the 
celebration  of  the  fourth  anniversary  of  the  Society, 
which  occurred  on  Sunday  last.  Mr.  Salter  and  his 
supporters  are  doing  a  noble  work  worthy  of  all  encour- 
agement. 

"Herbert  .Spencer  as  a  Thinker"  will  be  the  subject 
of  an  article  by  Prof.  Richard  A.  Proctor  in  the  next 
issue  of  The  Open   Court. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


I-'; 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published  every  other  Thursday  at    i6g   to   175  La  Salle  Street  (Nixon 
Building*,  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  K.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  'to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  anv  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
for  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  APRIL   14,  1887. 

VICIOUS  JOURNALISM. 

In  one  of  his  recent  poems,  "Fust  and  his  Friends," 
Browning  represents  the  discoverer  of  the  art  of  print- 
ing, as  at  first  exultantly  crying  anent  that  discovery: 

"  Go,  run 
Thy  race  now,  Fust's  child!     High,  O  printing,  and  holy 
Thy  mission!  " 

But  anon,  makes  him  doubtfully  question: 

"  Han'  I  brought  Man  advantage,  or  hatched — so  to  speak — a 
Strange  serpent,  no  cygnet  ?     '  Tis  this  I  debate." 

And  again: 

"Through  me  does  print  furnish  truth  wings?    The  same  aids 
Cause  falsehood  to  range  just  as  widely.    What  raids 
On  a  region  undreamed  of,  does  printing  enable 
Truth's  foe  to  effect!     Printed  leases  and  lies 
May  speed  to  the  world's  farthest  corner — gross  fable 
No  less  than  pure  fact — to  impede,  neutralize, 
Abolish  God's  gift  and  man's  gain!" 

No  words  can  too  highly  overrate  the  mission  of 
Fust's  great  discovery.  "  The  art  preservative  of  all 
arts"  remains  still  one  of  man's  most  splendid  acheive- 
jjients,  the  key  to  all  knowledge  and  all  good.     And  of 


the  many  knowledge-spreading  methods  to  which  the. 
art  has  given  birth  none  is  more  effective,  none  is   more-. 
formidable  than  modern   journalism,  which  is  a  genuine: 
"Lucifer"   in  that  word's  double  signification   of  "light 
bearer,"  and  the  spirit  of  evil. 

The  journalistic  press  is  already  —  though  it  should 
be  so  in  much  larger  measure  —  a  powerful  influence  in 
the  education  of  the  people.  It  is  more  powerful  in 
this  direction  than  all  the  schools  and  colleges  in  the. 
land,  since  it  reaches  and  teaches  those  who  know  little 
of  schools  and  colleges,  those  who  have  no  other  means 
of  education,  and  to  whom  the  shibboleth  "the  papers 
say  so"  is  the  infallible  and  incontrovertable  dictum  of 
their  "consensus  of  the  competent."  It  creates  an 
interest  in  science  among  those  who  can  learn  of  it  from 
no  other  source;  it  spreads  abroad  the  differing  opinions 
of  the  world's  thinkers,  and  awakens  new  thought  in 
inquisitive  minds;  it  sows  broad-cast  the  winnowed 
seed-thoughts  of  great  minds  in  such  generous  ways  as 
must  bring  promise  and  fulfillment  of  harvest  in  brain 
fields  that  were  elsewise  barren.  It  disseminates  widely 
the  stories  of  individual  sorrow  and  joy,  grief  and 
gladness,  and  so  preaches  forcibly  the  brotherhood  of. 
man,  and  appeals  to  the  otherwise  untouched  common 
sympathies  of  humanity;  it  gives  to  even  the  most 
highly  educated,  new  impetus  to  further  acquisition  of" 
knowledge  by  heralding  the  endowments,  the  discov- 
eries and  inventions  of  far  away  brother  thinkers;  and 
its  power  as  a  teacher  of  men  is  enhanced  by  its  own 
impersonality,  since  it  can  speak  to  men's  consciences 
without  arousing  that  tit  quoqiic  sense  of  resentment  or 
angry  dissent  which  would  be  felt  towards  an  individual.. 
Such  is  the  true  mission  and  work  of  journalism  outside 
its  other  wide  work  of  a  business  and  commercial 
advertiser  and  agent,  and  investigator  of  crime. 

But  none  whose  business  or  inclination  leads  them 
to  acquaintance  with  the  general  news  departments  of  a 
large  number  of  the  daily  papers  of  to-day  can  fail  to 
be  impressed  with  another  side  of  journalism,  or  can 
help  noting  the  average  low  moral  tone  of  the  daily 
press  —  its  trivial  treatment  of  great  questions;  its  levity 
in  dealing  with  grave  issues;  its  questionablj  political 
methods;  its  panderings  to  popular  ignorance  and 
prejudice;  its  encouragement  of  the  evil  passions  and 
baser  attributes  of  man's  nature;  its  wilful  misrepre- 
sentations of  facts;  its  villification  of  the  characters  of 
those  who  oppose  its  measures;  its  inquisitorial  prying 
into  private  affairs  which  in  no  way  concern  the  public, 
welfare;  its  belittlement  of  modest  viitue  and  its  homage 
to  successful  vice.  All  this  we  can  only  consider  as; 
vicious  journalism. 

That    it    is    often    necessary    in    the  interest   of  law... 
order,  morality  and  the  public  good  to  record  the  details 
of    crime,    its  detection    and   punishment,   we   concede: 
but  when   no  public  interest  is  subserved,  no   necessary. 


i3o 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


moral  pointed,  no  real  knowledge  to  be  gained,  no 
earnest  warning  given  in  what  is  offered  as  sensational 
news  to  its  patrons  by  any  journal,  it  would  be  in  the 
interests  of  morality  if  such  news  were  withheld. 

For  instances  of  such  vicious  journalism  we  have 
not  far  to  look.  Before  us  lies  a  pile  of  recent  clip- 
pings from  some  of  the  most  reputable  journals  of  the 
day.  The  limits  of  this  article  will  not  permit  reference 
to  a  tithe  of  these,  and  these  are  only  a  sample  of 
columns  of  such  matter  which  finds  its  way  into  promi- 
nent place  as  news  of  general  interest  in  leading  papers; 
hut  to  enforce  our  meaning  we  give  the  ''"ist  of  a  few 
of  these.  A  dispatch  from  New  York,  March  20, 
gives  the  name  and  place  of  residence  of  a  wealthy  lady 
of  unsound  mind  who  wrote  a  foolish  love-letter  to  a 
public  functionary,  and,  the  dispatch  states,  "as  the 
story  was  printed  in  the  papers'1  a  rascally  fellow  made 
it  the  basis  of  a  blackmailing  scheme  for  which  he  was 
arrested,  whereupon  "he  confessed  that  upon  reading 
the  story  in  the  papers  he  thought  there  was  a  chance 
"to  make  a  hundred'  and  he  succeeded."  Since  there 
was  nothing  of  interest  to  the  public  in  the  fact  of  the 
poor  demented  creature's  writing  such  a  letter,  it  ought 
not  to  have  been  published  in  the  first  place,  and 
secondly,  the  publication  of  the  sequel,  the  arrest  of  the 
blackmailer,  was  but  a  further  hint  and  suggestion  to  the 
criminally  disposed.  Another  New  York  dispatch  a 
day  later  explains  that  the  reported  suicide  of  the  son 
of  a  prominent  man  was  untrue,  and  was  based  upon  a 
slight  accident  which  occurred  to  a  worthy  youn«-  man 
-while  hunting,  so  affixing  in  the  minds  of  those  who 
did  not  see  the  correction,  a  vile  stain  on  a  reputable 
family  name.  A  few  days  later  appears  with  startling 
head-lines  the  details  of  a  foolish  or  insane  freak  on  the 
part  of  the  son  of  a  New  York  official,  a  freak  which 
would  have  resulted  in  harm  only  to  the  man's  reputa- 
tion for  sanity  among  those  who  witnessed  it,  but  which 
-published,  did  do  incalculable  harm  in  the  shame 
•experienced  by  his  respectable  relatives,  and  hurting 
the  man's  own  future  where  he  would  otherwise  be 
unknown.  At  a  recent  trial  one  of  the  lawyers  in  the 
•case  is  represented  as  feeling  deeply  the  references  made 
in  regard  to  him  by  a  popular  city  paper,  angrily 
remarking:  "  That  dirty,  filthy  sheet  yesterday  reviled 
:and  insulted  me  by  the  publication  of  a  lot  of  vile  cari- 
catures. And  for  what?  Only  because  I  had  been 
<  loing  my  duty  before  God  to  my  client.      A  friend   said 

t:o  me  this  morning:     'Why   don't  you  shoot  that 

—  ?  Why  don't  you  horsewhip  him?'  Gentlemen, 
wait.  The  day  will  come  when  I  will  meet  him  face  to 
Jface,  and  when  I  do  meet  him  let  him  beware."  So  of 
Kuch  vicious  journalism  crime  and  further  wrong-doing 
may  yet  result. 

A  letter  to  the  Boston  Advertiser  complains   bitterly 
of  that   paper  for  having  "its   columns  defiled  with  an 


extract  from  the  Record  commenting  on  the  personal 
appearance  of  some  of  the  unhappy  inmates  of  the  State 
prison,  and  describing  their  occupation  and  their  bearing. 
I  do  not  speak  of  the  shame  and  sorrow  that  such  an 
article  must  inflict  upon  those  by  whom  some  of  the 
prisoners  mentioned  are  known  and  loved,  for  I  suppose 
that  anyone  who  could  write  such  an  article  would  an- 
swer that  'journalism  is  no  respecter  of  persons.'  But 
I  wish  to  protest,  as  a  constant  reader,  against  such 
'  news.'  It  can  do  no  good,  and  can  have  no  attraction 
save  for  those  who  love  to  gloat  over  the  miseries  of 
others." 

One  fails  to  understand  what  possible  good  can  be 
done,  while  seeing  quite  clearly  the  suggestions  of  evil 
which  may  be  conveyed  to  unbalanced  or  to  scheming 
minds  bv  the  large  space  so  often  given  in  our  newspa- 
pers to  the  marital  woes  and  mistakes  of  erratic  and 
morally  undisciplined  people, — such,  for  instance,  as  the 
cases  of  Bishop,  the  mind-reader,  and  that  young  artist 
heiress,  who  married  one  adventurer  after  a  few  days' 
courtship  only  to  leave  him  to  run  off  with  another  a 
short  time  later.  If  these  had  been  kept  from  the  pub- 
lic, far  less  harm  would  have  resulted  to  the  parties 
themselves,  and  the  families  to  which  they  belong  would 
have  suffered  less  annoying  notoriety.  It  is  not  really 
necessary  for  public  well-being  that  all  the  disgusting 
details  of  divorce  suits  should  be  given  at  length  in  pa- 
pers which  are  to  enter  pure  homes  to  be  read  by  inno- 
cent girls  and  youth  whose  parents  wish  to  keep  them 
clean  minded.  No  less  disgusting  to  people  of  refined 
or  humane  tastes  are  the  sickening  and  brutalizing  re- 
ports of  "prize  fights,""  pugilistic  encounters,"  etc., 
which  so  frequently  mar  the  columns  of  journals  which 
enter  thousands  of  refined  family  circles. 

The  other  day  a  young  woman,  a  mother,  and  the 
wife  of  a  respectable  and  worthy  man,  was  arrested  for 
apparent  drunkenness,  but  on  inquiry  it  was  found  that 
she  was  a  victim  of  the  chloral  habit,  contracted  by  first 
taking  the  drug  to  relieve  pain.  She  was  not  vicious; 
she  was  young  and  weak,  and  in  need  of  strong,  loving 
hands  to  uphold  her  and  save  her.  There  was  not  the 
slightest  need  for  her  story  to  get  into  the  papers,  yet 
there  it  was,  with  her  name  and  address  and  those  of  her 
husband  given, — a  barrier  thrown  up  by  vicious  journal- 
ism in  the  way  of  reform,  hope  and  happiness.  When 
any  human  being,  from  any  cause,  is  driven  to  attempt 
suicide,  we  may  be  sure  that  he  is  in  desperate  straits, 
and  that  if  prevented  from  finding  ease  from  his  pain  in 
death,  he  is  in  no  condition  to  bear  the  further  strain  of 
public  pillory  by  having  his  case,  with  his  name  and  ad- 
dress, in  all  the  papers  for  everyone  who  had  known 
him  in  happier  days  to  exclaim  and  wonder  over.  Can 
any  good  result  from  placing  the  child  of  tender  years, 
a  transgressor,  perhaps,  from  hereditary  proclivities,  or 
from   evil  teaching,  under   life-long   ban    by  giving  its 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


131 


name  and  the  particulars  of  its  case  in  the  journals  of 
the  day?  It  is  enough  that  the  police  judge  decides  and 
the  police  records  show  whether  the  arrest  was  neces- 
sary or  not,  but  if  once  printed,  how  easy  it  will  be  in 
after  years  for  some  enemy  to  hunt  up  this  record  and  to 
mar  the  honest  effort  to  earn  a  living  or  to  achieve 
rightly  earned  success. 

It  may  be  urged  that  there  is  an  unmistakable  de- 
mand for  such  news  (?),  a  demand  which  even  reputable 
journals  have  to  regard  or  be  driven  to  the  wall  by  their 
less  conscientious  rivals  in  the  newspaper  world;  and  a 
demand  which,  as  impartial  caterers  to  a  varied  public 
appetite,  they  are  in  justice  bound  measurably  to  supply, 
since  they  do  not  undertake  or  profess  to  create  public 
taste,  but  only  to  prepare  the  intellectual  food  demanded 
in  as  appetizing  a  manner  as  possible. 

So,  too,  there  is  a  decided  demand  for  the  kind  of 
literature  which  poisons  and  pollutes,  which  encourages 
mature  vice  and  corrupts  youth;  a  literature  which  our 
law-makers  recognize  as  so  vicious  in  its  influence  on 
the  lower  nature  of  man  that  its  sale  is  forbidden  by- 
statute,  and  heavy  penalties  incurred  by  those  who  dis- 
tribute it.  Yet  the  demand  for  it  is  so  urgent  that  un- 
principled and  avaricious  men  risk  the  legal  punishment 
its  sale  involves,  as  well  as  the  contempt  of  the  moral 
part  of  the  community  in  order  to  make  money  in  sup- 
plying this  demand.  Do  our  reputable  journals  then 
mean  to  intimate  that  there  is  only  the  difference  be- 
tween these  men  and  themselves  that  a  wholesome  fear 
of  the  law  creates?  s.  A.  u. 


GENUINE    VS.    SPURIOUS    CULTURE. 

There  is  a  growing  distrust  as  to  the  value  of  much 
that  passes  under  the  name  of  "culture."  This  may  be 
explained  in  part  by  the  unpractical  and  dilettanteish 
character  and  undemocratic  spirit  of  a  great  deal  of  the 
so-called  culture  of  the  age  which,  lacking  in  robust  in- 
tellectual qualities,  without  any  noble  moral  purpose, 
and  inspired  by  no  lofty  enthusiasm,  serves  only  to 
widen  the  gulf  between  its  disciples  and  the  masses,  in- 
creasing, on  the  one  side,  contempt  for  the  "great  un- 
washed" pursuing  their  prosaic  avocations,  and  exciting, 
on  the  other  side,  aversion  to  a  mere  intellectualism 
which  ignores  the  hard  facts  of  life,  is  indifferent  to  the 
condition  of  the  millions,  and  concerns  itself  almost 
wholly  with  mere  liteiary  questions  which  have  but  a 
remote  bearing  on  the  practical  questions  of  the  hour. 

But  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  confound  this  pseudo- 
culture  with  genuine  culture,  which  is  catholic  in 
thought,  earnest  in  tone,  and  progressive  in  spirit;  and 
any  standard  that  does  not  involve  a  distinction  between 
them  is  false  and  pernicious.  There  is  no  culture  worthy 
of  the  name  which  does  not  include  with  the  acquisi- 
tion of  knowledge,  development  of  the  moral  nature, 
strengthening    of    the    love    of     right    and    hatred    of 


wrong.  A  man  who  has  simply  a  knowledge  of  books, 
which  he  regards  as  of  more  importance  to  him  than  the 
things  of  which  they  treat;  who  has  never  penetrated 
behind  the  books  and  come  in  contact  with  nature  her- 
self, with  the  world  and  its  events,  with  man  and  his 
relations;  who  possesses  merely  the  instruments  of 
knowledge,  without  the  capacity  to  use  them  wisely;. 
who  can  only  repeat  what  he  has  read,  and  makes  au- 
thority serve  in  the  place  of  evidence;  who  can  tell  all 
about  the  siege  of  Troy,  but  feels  no  interest  in  the 
great  issues  of  to-day;  who  can  construct  elegant  sen- 
tences without  giving  a  valuable  thought  or  suggestion 
to  the  world  ;  whose  interest  in  his  race  is  simply  of  a 
sentimental  kind,  animated  by  no  moral  principle  or 
philanthropic  feeling  —  such  a  man  is  not,  properly 
speaking,  an  educated  man. 

Man's  most  important  education  he  gets  daily  through 
eye  and  ear  and  touch  in  that  great  university,  the  world, 
in  which  we  are  all  students.  Some  are  more  richly 
endowed  or  have  bet'er  opportunities,  and  iearn  more 
readily  than  others.  The  results  of  thousands  of  gener- 
ations of  observation  and  study  are  condensed  in  lan- 
guages, governments,  religions,  moral  codes,  literatures, 
and  the  intuitions  of  the  race.  Now,  the  object  of  what 
is  commonly  called  education  is  to  acquaint  the  child  or 
student  with  these  results  in  order  to  enable  it  to  under- 
stand nature's  methods;  or,  as  Huxley  says,  "to  prepare 
the  child  to  receive  nature's  education,  neither  incapably 
nor  ignorantly  nor  with  wilful  disobedience,  and  to  un- 
derstand the  preliminary  symptoms  of  her  displeasure 
without  waiting  for  the  box  on  the  ear.  In  short,  alE 
artificial  education  ought  to  be  an  anticipation  of  natural: 
education." 

This  natural  education  is  the  instruction  of  the  intel- 
lect in  the  ways  of  nature — which  includes  man  and  his 
relations  to  the  universe — and  to  discipline  the  will  and' 
cultivate  the  affections  so  that  they  shall  be  in  harmony 
with  the  highest  mental  and  moral  conditions.  The 
man  who  is  the  most  truly  educated,  is  he  who  under- 
stands the  most  fully  nature's  methods,  and  whose  char- 
acter is  most  completely  in  accord  with  those  principles., 
conformity  to  which  is  necessary  to  man's  well  being. 
A  mind  may  be  artificially  cultivated  beyond  its  normal 
capacity,  and  at  the  cost  of  intellectual  vigor  and  virility. 
What  is  needed  is  more  scientific  culture,  the  develop- 
ment and  training  of  the  mental  powers  to  observe,  to> 
reflect,  to  inquire,  and  to  apply  practically  the  knowl- 
edge gained.  This  kind  of  culture  strengthens  the 
mind  while  it  gives  it  materials  for  thought,  and  incen- 
tives to  action.  We  do  not  deprecate  the  pursuit  of 
classical  learning,  nor  do  we  undervalue  the  advantages 
of  wide  acquaintance  with  books;  but  we  wish  to  em- 
phasize the  fact  that  one  may  be  well  versed  in  the  liter- 
ature of  ancient  and  modern  times  and  yet  lack  most  im- 
portant elements  of  a  true  education.      This  is  an  age  of 


IT,  2 


THB    OPBN    COURT. 


revision;  and  the  old  conceptions,  definitions,  and 
methods  of  education  quite  as  much  as  the  old  theologi- 
cal  creeds  need  to  be  revised  in  the  interest  of  progress. 

In  his  late  address  before  the  London  Society  for 
the  Extension  of  University  Teaching  on  the  subject 
of  "The  Study  of  Literature,"  John  Morley  wisely  ob- 
served: "There  is  a  very  well  known  passage  in  which 
Pericles,  the  great  Athenian,  describing  the  glory  of  the 
community  of  which  he  was  so  great  a  member,  says, 
'•  We  at  Athens  are  lovers  of  the  beautiful,  yet  simple  in 
our  tastes;  we  cultivate  the  mind  without  loss  of  manli- 
ness.' But  then,  remember,  that  after  all  Athenian  soci- 
ety rested  on  a  basis  of  slavery,  and  Athenian  citizens 
were  able  to  pursue  their  love  of  the  beautiful  and  their 
simplicity  and  to  cultivate  their  minds  without  loss  of 
manliness,  because  the  drudgery  and  hard  work  and 
service  of  the  society  were  performed  by  those  who  had 
no  share  in  all  these  good  things.  With  us,  happily,  it 
is  very  different.  We  are  all  more  or  less  upon  a  level. 
The  object  of  education, — our  object — and  it  is  that 
which  in  my  opinion  raises  us  infinitely  above  the  Athe- 
nian level — is  to  hring  the  Periclean  ideas  of  beauty  and 
simplicity,  and  of  cultivation  of  the  mind,  within  the 
reach  of  those  who  do  the  drudgery  and  the  service  and 
hard  work  of  the  world.  And  it  can  be  done.  Do  not 
let  us  be  afraid.  It  can  be  done  without  in  the  least  de- 
gree impairing  the  skill  of  our  handicraftsmen  or  the 
manliness  of  life,  without  blunting  01  numbing  the  prac- 
tical energies." 

"SCIENCE  AND   IMMORTALITY." 

The  Christian  Register  of  April  7  contains  a 
series  of  brief  articles,  several  of  them  by  eminent  scien- 
tific men,  on  "Science  and  Immortality."  Prof.  James 
D.  Dana  is  of  the  opinion  that  there  is  nothing  in  science 
against  immortality.  Prof.  Asa  Gray  thinks  that  the 
interpretation  of  nature  not  beyond  the  highest  scientific 
consideration,  that  the  theistic  hypothesis  is  the  best  ex- 
planation of  the  facts,  and  that  "immortality  is  a  proba- 
ble, but  not  an  unavoidable  inference  from  theism." 
Prof.  Joseph  Leidy  regards  no  question  as  out  of  the 
pale  of  science,  and  he  thinks  the  facts  of  science  make 
it  difficult  to  believe  in  the  persistence  of  personal  con- 
sciousness after  bodily  dissolution.  Prof.  Simon  New- 
comb  is  "  inclined  to  regard  the  question  as  lying  wholly 
without  the  pale  of  science,  properly  so-called,"  does  not 
think  modern  investigation  has  brought  to  light  any 
new  facts  bearing  upon  it,  and  that  if  consciousness  has 
been  a  gradual  development  as  is  implied  in  the  theory 
of  the  continuity  of  orga  lie  life,  it  "seems  difficult  to 
assign  any  link  in  the  series  at  which  we  can  suppose  so 
great  a  break  to  have  occurred  as  is  implied  in  the 
passage  from  mortality  to  immortality."  Prof.  J.  P. 
Lesley,  says  "  Science  cannot  pessibly  either  teach  or 
deny  immortality."  Prof.  Lester  F.  Ward  says  that 
'•'  so     far   as     science    can    speak     on     the    subject,    the 


consciousness  persists  as  long  as  the  organized  brain,  and 
no  longer."  "  The  immortality  of  science,"  Prof.  Ward 
says,  "  is  the  immortality  of  matter  and  its  motions  in 
the  production  of  phenomena"  and  that  with  them  con- 
sciousness, the  product  of  the  eternal  activities  of  the 
universe,  should  not  be  confounded.  Prof.  E.  S.  Morse 
writes,  "  I  have  never  yet  seen  anything  in  the  discov- 
eries of  science  which  would  in  the  slightest  degree  sup- 
port or  strengthen  a  belief  in  immortality."  Prof.  Cope 
seems  to  regard  immortality  as  possible  in  spite  of  appa- 
rent evidence  against  it,  but  doubts  the  persistence  of 
our  personality.  Dr.  Dawson,  of  McGill  University, 
refers  to  the  instinct  of  immortality  in  savage  races  as 
a  "  God-given  feature  of  the  spiritual  nature  yearning 
after  a  lost  earthly  immortal,  and  clinging  to  the  hope 
of  a  better  being  in  a  future  life."  Dr.  T.  Sterry  Hunt 
thinks  that  the  "facts  of  modern  science  are  rather  con- 
trary than  favorable  to  the  doctrines  of  a  future  life." 
Nevertheless,  he  believes  in  a  conditional  immortality, 
"  the  gift  of  God,"  but  lacks  time  to  explain  what  he 
means.  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould  thinks  there  is  nothing  in  sci- 
ence that  should  lead  to  disbelief  in  immortality.  Dr. 
Alfred  R.  Wallace  says,  "  Outs'de  of  Modern  Spiritual- 
ism I  know  of  nothing  in  recognized  science  to  sup- 
port the  belief  in  immortality,  and  though,  /  consider 
Spiritualism  to  be  as  truly  an  established  experimental 
science  as  any  other,  it  is  not  recognized  as  such."  Dr. 
Asaph  Hall  thinks  science  gives  no  positive  answer  to 
questions  concerning  immortality,  but  that  modern  dis- 
coveries tend  to  strengthen  the  belief.  Dr.  Elliott 
Coues  says  "  There  is  much  in  the  discoveries  of  psychic 
science  not  only  to  support  or  strengthen  the  belief  in 
immortality,  but  to  convert  that  belief  into  knowledge." 
Herbert  Spencer,  according  to  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage's  recol- 
lection of  a  conversation  with  him,  does  not  think  evolu- 
tion touches  the  problem  of  personal  immortality  either 
way,  and  he  sees  no  satisfactory  proof  of  the  truth  of  the 
latter  doctrine.  President  Barnard, of  Columbia  College, 
N.  Y.,  says,  "  After  mature  reflection,  it  seems  to  me  that 
science  has  nothing  whatever  to  say  to  the  question.  The 
only  basis  of  our  faith  in  immortality  must  be  found  in 
Revelation."  A  quotation  from  Huxley's  article  in  the 
Fortnig htly  /?ei>z'ew,  December,  1SS6,  raised  the  question 
whether  the  state  of  consciousness  associated  three  score 
years  and  ten  with  the  movements  of  countless  millions 
of  successively  different  material  molecules,  can  be  con- 
tinued with  some  substance  which  has  not  the  proper- 
ties of  "matter  and  force."  Huxley's  reply  is,  "As 
Kant  said  on  a  like  occasion,  if  anybody  can  answer 
that  question  he  is  just  the  man  I  want  to  see."  In 
commenting  on  this  and  other  notable  expressions  of 
opinion  which  it  publishes,  the  Register  remarks,  "  If 
unanimity  can  be  found  anywhere  in  these  articles,  it  is 
most  nearly  attained  in  the  general  concession  that 
science  cannot  show  that  immortality  is  impossible." 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


*33 


Mr.  Edwin  D.  Mead,  of  Boston,  who  is  well  known 
to  many  of  our  readers  as  a  vigorous  thinker  and  writer, 
will  be  in  Chicago  shortly,  and  will  give  a  course  of  five 
lectures  in  Apollo  Hall,  (Central  Music  Hall  building) 
45  Randolph.  Two  of  them  will  be  on  Dante,  one  on 
Lessing,  one  on  Kant,  and  another  on  Carlyle  and  Emer- 
son. They  will  be  given  Tuesday  and  Friday  after- 
noons, beginning  April  29.  This  will  be  a  rare 
opportunity  for  the  Chicago  public. 
#  #  * 

Enthusiastic  free-thinkers  who  say,  "  Let  us  establish 
a  few  free-thought  colleges  and  universities,"  should 
count  the  cost  and  consider  the  difficulties  to  be  over- 
come. The  president  of  Harvard  University  was  re- 
cently asked  as  to  the  cost  of  starting  a  similar  institu- 
tion. "Oh,  about  five  million  dollars,"  was  the  reply. 
"Two  or  three  down  and  the  rest  within  ten  years." 
When  free-thinkers  are  willing  to  contribute  several 
million  dollars  to  found  and  support  a  broad,  unsectarian 
institution  of  learning,  we  can  have  universities  that  will 
■do  better  work  perhaps  than  any  now  can  do.  But  a 
college,  with  half  a  dozen  poorly  paid  professors  and 
thirty  or  forty  students,  all  holding  about  the  same 
views,  must  of  necessity  be  small  and  narrow,  however 
large  and  broad  the  name.  What  our  young  men  and 
women  need  is  such  contact  with  able  minds,  such 
familiarity  with  all  schools  and  phases  of  thought,  and 
•such  access  to  the  best  results  of  scholarship  as  can  be 
had  only  in  large  universities  with  ample  endowments. 
They  ought,  indeed,  also  to  have  more  familiarity  with 
our  own  literature  than  can  now  be  obtained,  so  far  as 
we  know,  in  any  institution.  For  this  purpose  we  need, 
not  new  colleges  so  much,  as  new  professorships  in  the 
•old  ones,  the  establishment  of  which  seems  feasible,  with 
the  condition  that  the  incumbents  should  be  chosen  by 
a  board  of  trustees  composed  of  the  original  givers  of 
the  money  and  their  successors,  said  board  to  fill  its  own 
•vacancies  and  make  its  own  appointments  forever. 
Where  this  cannot  be  done  free-thinkers  might  do  what 
the  Unitarians  did  at  Ithaca  and  Ann  Arbor  —  settle 
a  missionary  to  give  scholarly  lectures  weekly  to  the 
students,  distribute  their  literature  and  spread  their  views 
by  personal  intercourse.  The  general  flow  of  public 
•education  is' already  so  much  in  our  favor  that  we  need 
•only  to  broaden  and  enrich  it.  Nothing  is  so  bad  for 
us  as  to  attempt  to  support  little  sectarian  institutions. 
We  ought  to  set  our  faces  against  every  school  or  col- 
lege which  dwarfs  and  cramps  itself  at  the  start  by  the 
narrow  aim  of  propagandizing  any  kind  of  sectarianism, 
philosophical  or  other.  Our  public  schools  are  greatly 
in  danger  from  sectarian  rivals,  who  should  have  no 
support  from  us.  If  there  is  any  want  that  we  are 
•especially  bound  to  supply,  it  is  that  of  better  teachers 
.and  text-books.  At  the  same  time  there  is  need  of  a 
broad   unsectarian   institution   for  instruction   in   all    the 


systems  of  philosophy  and  religion.  The  lecturers 
should  be  competent  representatives  of  the  systems 
respectively,  the  freest  and  fullest  criticism  should  be 
encouraged,  and  the  work  of  the  institution  should  be 
limited  to  this  instruction.  The  amount  of  money  neces- 
sary for  the  establishment  and  support  of  such  a  school 
it  would,  we  believe,  be  possible  to  raise. 

Ernest  Renan,  in  his  Studies  in  Religious  History, 
speaks  of  the  relation  of  man  to  the  universe.  The  aim 
of  humanity  will  ever  grow  higher.  Intellectual  cul- 
ture will  gradually  exclude  supernatural  belief,  but 
religion  will  never  be  excluded,  it  will  but  grow  grander 
and  nobler  as  intellectual  culture  dissipates  the  mists  ot 
superstition  that  have  through  so  many  ages  enshrouded 
it.  Man  is  not  subject  to  the  caprice  of  an  unseen  being 
who  looks  upon  his  struggles  and  sufferings  with  indif- 
ference. But  he  is  a  part  of,  and  dependent  upon  the 
whole  universe,  and  his  duty  is  to  conform  himself  to 
the  order  of  progress  and  development  which  the  uni- 
verse is  following.  To  strive  faithfully  for  the  supreme 
good  is  virtue;  to  seek  to  bring  about  the  higher  devel- 
opment of  man  is  the  work  of  the  world. 
^  #  ^ 

The  Problem  of  Evil:  An  Introduction  to  the 
Practical  Sciences,  by  Daniel  Greenleaf  Thompson,  of 
New  York,  will  be  issued  in  May  by  Longmans  &  Co., 
London.  This  work  will  be  looked  for  by  many  with 
deep  interest.  Mr.  Thompson  is  known  among  thinkers 
by  his  Psychology,  the  ablest  and  most  comprehensive 
work  on  the  subject  that  has  appeared  from  the  pen  of 
any  American  author.  It  is  a  work  of  1,193  pages,  in 
two  volumes,  published  by  Longmans  &  Co.  in  1SS4, 
and  inscribed  to  his  distinguished  relative  in  the  follow- 
ing language: 

These  volumes  are  inscribed  by  a  kinsman  of  a  later  genera- 
tion to  the  illustrious  memory  of  Sir  Benjamin  Thompson,  Count 
ltumford,  a  philosopher,  statesman  and  benefactor  of  mankind,  a 
great  prophet,  who,  while  living,  was  not  without  honor  save  in 
his  own  countrv,  and  upon  whom,  dead,  that  praise  justly  due  to 
a  merit  almost  unrivalled  among  men  of  science  has  been  but 
tardily  and  incompletely  bestowed  both  by  his  own  family  and 
his  countrymen  at  large. 


Ethical  culture  draws  the  critical  fire  of  two  March 
Episcopal  reviews.  Rev.  J.  A.  Harris,  D.D.,  considers 
the  general  ideas  of  the  movement  in  The  Church 
Magazine  (Philadelphia,  Hamersly  &  Co. ),  and  Rev. 
Welford  L.  Robbins  criticises  Dr.  Stanton  Coit's  article 
on  "The  Final  Aim  of  Moral  Action,"  which  appeared 
in  the  English  philosophical  quarterly  Mind,  July,  1SS6, 
in  the  Church  Review.  Both  are  a  great  improvement 
on  ordinary  theological  polemics,  though  neither  goes 
very  deep. 


i34  THE    OPEN    COURT. 

THE  RATIONALE  OF  PUNISHMENT. 


BY    CELIA    P.    WOOLLEY. 

The  practical  benefits  arising  from  the  new  science 
of  sociology  are  nowhere  more  manifest  than  in  the 
improved  methods  of  reform  employed  in  our  care  of 
the  poorer  and  disorderly  classes  of  society.  It  is  not, 
however,  methods  of  reform  and  punishment  of  which 
I  wish  to  speak  in  this  paper,  but  rather  of  those  under- 
lying principles  which  determine  and  explain  methods. 
It  is  our  philosophy  of  life,  our  theory  of  man,  his  na- 
ture and  conduct,  which  goes  far  to  determine  the  char- 
acter of  our  relations  with  our  fellow-beings.  The 
parent  must  of  necessity  train  the  child  according  to  his 
views  of  the  child's  nature  and  destiny.  If  he  regards 
it  as  the  child  of  sin  and  wrath,  totally  depraved  in  every 
instinct  and  desire,  he  will  endeavor  at  every  turn  to 
surmount  its  wish  with  his  own  more  enlightened 
authority,  to  hedge  it  about  with  a  system  of  restraints 
and  checks,  and  to  break  rather  than  guide  and  educate 
the  will.  There  are  not  many  present  households  where 
this  gloomy  theory  is  held.  Where  parents  once  erred 
on  the  side  of  severity,  believing  the  child  to  be  a 
creature  of  evil  impulses,  an  interloper  in  God's  king- 
dom, the  parent  of  to-day,  regarding  his  offspring  as 
the  heir  of  all  the  ages,  and  intoxicated  with  the  idea 
of  individual  liberty,  errs,  with  equally  grave  results, 
on   the  side  of  generosity  and   weak  indulgence. 

Taking  a  wider  survey  of  society  in  general,  here  also 
it  is  our  philosophy  which  defines  our  relation  to  the 
unfortunate  and  criminal  classes.  If  we  look  upon  these 
as  so  many  vicious  malcontents,  with  an  natural  tendency 
to  lawlessness  and  crime,  we  shall  have,  no  hesita- 
tion in  applying  only  those  methods  of  punishment 
based  on  the  right  of  self-defense;  while  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  regard  the  criminal  as  an  unfortunate 
victim  of  circumstances  he  has  no  power  to  control,  the 
irresponsible  ward  of  the  community  in  which  he  lives, 
we  shall  seek  relief  in  those  milder  methods  of  reform 
so  popular  among  certain  sentimental  philosophers  of 
the  times.  Taking  middle  ground  between  these  two 
extremes,  and  looking  upon  criminal  practice  of  all  kinds 
as  the  sign  of  the  remaining  brutishness  of  man,  not  yet 
outgrown  from  the  conditions  of  his  animal  origin,  the 
only  means  of  cure  seems  to  lie  in  the  slow,  safe  processes 
of  general  education,  where  the  methods  of  wise  restraint 
are  united  to  those  which  aim  to  reform  and  develop 
the  individual  character.  Thus  we  see  that  while  the 
theory  of  punishment  is  only  indirectly  concerned  with 
the  question  of  methods,  it  bears  a  direct  relation  to  the 
object.      What,  then,  is  the  object  of  punishment? 

[.  R.  Brockway,  a  practical  philanthropist,  who 
firings  eminent  ability  as  well  as  experience  to  bear  on 
the  discussion  of  such  themes,  in  an  address  before  the 
National  Prison  Congress,  a  few  years  ago,  spoke  as 
follows   of  imprisonment,  and    the  same   applies  to  all 


forms  of  punishment:  "Civilized  sentiment  concedes- 
that  the  protection  of  society  is  the  main  purpose  of  im- 
prisonment *  *  *  but  the  effective  protection  requires 
one  of  two  conditions,  the  reformation  of  the  criminal  or 
his  continued  detention."  In  Cox's  Principles  of  Pun- 
ishment, a  work  of  much  merit,  the  objects  of  punish- 
ment are  described  as  three  in  number;  ist,  to  set  an  ex- 
ample to  society,  generally  spoken  of  as  the  deterrent 
principle;  2nd,  to  prevent  a  repetition  of  the  offense,  and 
3d,  to  reform  the  criminal.  Mary  Carpenter  is  careful 
to  insist  that  while  all  punishment  should  include  the  de- 
terrent principle,  it  should  never  be  associated  with  a 
vindictive  motive.  Sir  Walter  Crofton  makes  the  object 
of  punishment  two-fold,  that  of  amendment  and  exam- 
ple. At  the  risk  of  seeming  presumptuous,  after  quoting 
from  so  many  distinguished  sources,  I  must  say,  that  to- 
my  own  mind  the  distinction  between  the  two  principles 
underlying  all  punishment  is  made  clearer  when  we  de- 
scribe the  one  as  vindicatory  and  the  other  as  the 
reformatory.  Let  no  one  hastily  assert  the  identity  of 
this  vindicatory  motive  with  the  vindictive,  for  though 
the  two  words  are  partially  connected  in  the  latin  rootT 
time  and  long  association  of  the  different  ideas  they 
represent,  has  sufficiently  distinguished  them  from  each 
other. 

The  objects  of  punishment  are  plainly  only  two, 
the  protection  of  society  against  a  repetition  of  the  of- 
fense, and  the  amendment  of  the  character  of  the 
offender.  The  deterrent  principle  is  simply  incidental,. 
one  which  serves  an  excellent  purpose,  but  can  never 
justly  be  made  a  direct  object  of  punishment,  since  soci- 
ety has  neither  the  right  nor  duty  to  punish  for  the  sake 
of  setting  an  example. 

All  punishment  being  two-fold  then  in  its  object, 
the  first,  or  the  vindicatory,  is  first  not  only  in  the  order 
of  naming,  but  in  that  of  necessity.  The  principle  of 
self-defense  is  one  of  imperative  first  choice  among  or- 
ganized communities  as  with  the  individual.  Society 
must  protect  itself  against  all  encroachments  upon  its 
hard-won  peace  and  safety  before  it  can  attend  to  the 
needs  of  its  special  members.  It  may  be  admitted  with- 
out detriment  to  the  main  argument,  that  in  the  long 
run  this  protection  is  best  secured  by  the  employment  of 
those  means  which  tend  to  improve  the  general  standard 
of  conduct,  and  that  the  vindicatory  end  of  punishment 
is,  in  the  final  result,  attained  only  through  the  reform- 
atory; but  this  does  not  obviate  the  necessity  of  those 
coercive  measures  which  contribute  to  the  security  of 
to-day. 

Of  these  two  motives  underlying  punishment  the 
vindicatory  had  at  first  exclusive  sway,  and  has  been 
gradually  supplanted  by  the  reformatory  as  man  has 
progressed  in  the  order  of  humane  civilization.  It  is 
this  which  leads  many  zealous  philanthropists  to  declare 
that   the    reformatory    principle    will    in    time,    entirely 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


x35 


supplant  the  vindicatory,  but  here,  it  seems  to  me,  they 
greatly  misapprehend  the  nature  of  the  problem  in  hand. 

The  belief  so  ardently  cherished  by  a  certain  class  of 
reformers  that  the  criminal  is  a  creature  more  unfortu- 
nate than  guilty,  the  victim  of  circumstances,  "  society's 
mistake,"  as  he  has  been  called,  bids  fair  to  become  one 
of  the  popular  social  superstitions  of  the  age. 

In  the  old  theology  we  were  taught  that  it  was 
man's  carnal  nature  which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  all  his 
misconduct;  under  the  guidance  of  the  new  philosophy, 
imperfectly  understood,  we  are  in  danger  of  reaching 
the  other  extreme,  attaching  the  blame  of  all  that  is  false 
and  evil  in  our  surroundings  to  the  universe  in  general. 
We  need  a  revival  of  the  doctrine  of  free  agency  which 
is  not  so  incompatible  with  the  teachings  of  modern 
science  as  we  are  apt  to  imagine.  Above  all,  the 
youth  of  our  day,  and  the  criminal  and  unruly  orders  of 
society  should  be  taught  that  within  themselves  lies  the 
power  of  choice  between  good  and  evil.  Punishment 
of  all  kinds  should  be  made  to  bear  the  relation  of  effect 
to  cause,  otherwise  it  serves  only  to  harden  the  nature 
and  create  disrespect  for  all  authority.  Punishment  is 
salutary  only  as  its  meaning  is  intelligently  understood 
by  the  one  to  whom  it  is  administered.  "  Ah,  parents!" 
exclaimed  Charles  Kingsley,  "  Are  there  not  real  sins 
enough  in  the  world  without  your  defiling  it  over  and 
above  by  inventing  new  ones?"  This  is  indeed  the  re- 
sult of  many  present  modes  of  punishment.  Instead  of 
curing  the  old  sins  we  invent  new  ones  by  setting  up  a 
host  of  arbitrary  standards  and  meaningless  rules  which 
bear  no  relation  whatever  to  real  right  and  duty.  A 
newspaper  anecdote  illustrates  this  point:  Two  bovs 
were  on  their  way  to  the  river  in  search  of  a  half  day's 
amusement,  one  of  them  in  direct  disobedience  to  his 
father's  command.  He  was  reminded  by  the  other  of 
the  probable  consequences  of  this  act,  and  his  reply 
evinced  the  spirit  of  modern  boyhood.  "Pooh,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "what  is  five  minutes'  whipping  to  four  hours 
of  fun."  What,  indeed,  from  the  boy's  standpoint? 
What  connection  was  there  in  his  mind,  except  the  most 
forced  and  arbitrary,  between  a  half  day's  sport  at  wad- 
ing and  fishing  and  the  threatened  punishment?  He 
felt  himself  to  be  in  the  hands  of  a  superior  force,  to 
which  he  must  submit,  but  to  defy  and  circumvent  which 
was  the  free  and  glorious  privilege  of  every  self-respect- 
ing boy.  Turning  to  that  child  of  larger  growth,  whose 
history  we  read  in  the  annals  of  the  police-court,  we 
find  him  weighing  the  risks  and  chances  attendant  on 
his  peculiar  method  of  making  a  living  with  consummate 
coolness  and  skill.  To  him  the  rewards  of  cunning  and 
dishonesty  more  than  balance  those  of  virtuous  industry, 
while  the  pains  and  penalties  attaching  to  discovery  are 
but  the  incidental  inconveniences  in  a  life  given  over  to 
risk  and  excitement.  The  habitual  criminal  has  neither 
the  culture   nor  experience  which   teaches   the  relative 


values  of  things.  In  spite  of  his  boasted  knowledge  of 
the  world  he  is  the  merest  tyro  in  real  experience  of 
men  and  motives.  Knaves  and  fools  are  properly  classed 
in  the  same  category  since  both  are  deficient  in  logical 
understanding,  contenting  themselves  with  the  nearer, 
fleeting  good,  the  success  cheaply  won  or  stolen,  in  place 
of  the  difficult  but  lasting  triumphs  achieved  in  the 
growth  of  character  and  honest  reputation.  One  of  the 
characters  in  an  old  play,  the  rogue  who  is  entrapped 
and  discovered,  betrays  a  profounder  knowledge  of  men 
and  motives  than  he  had  ever  learned  before,  when  he 
contritely  observes  that  "the  man  who  invented  truth 
was  a  much  cunninger  fellow  than  I  took  him  to  be." 

The  contrast  afforded  in  the  teachings  of  the  Jewish 
and  Christian  Scriptures  on  this  subject  contains  an  in- 
structive suggestion  for  us.  The  first  stands  for  that 
bare  and  poor  idea  of  justice  evinced  in  the  words,  "And 
thine  eye  shall  not  pity,  but  life  shall  go  for  life,  eye  for 
eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand,  foot  for  foot." 
The  second,  on  the  other  hand,  teaches  that  unqualified 
mercy  laid  down  in  the  precepts,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself,"  "Sell  all  thou  hast  and  give  to  the 
poor,"  "  If  a  man  smite  thee  on  one  cheek  turn  to  him 
the  other  also."  Taking  the  two  systems  together  we 
have  in  these  representative  statements  of  belief,  law 
and  gospel  as  it  pertains  to  the  particular  department 
of  ethics  we  are  considering.  This  division  of  the  law 
and  gospel,  crudely  as  it  is  set  forth  in  the  popular  the- 
ology of  the  day,  is  not  so  artificial  as  at  first  appears. 
Nature  as  well  as  religion  has  her  law  and  gospel,  her 
instinct  of  justice  and  her  instinct  of  mercy.  In  all  hu- 
man experience  we  may  also  note  this  same  divided  im- 
pulse to  action,  and  the  highest  philanthropy  is  that 
which  wisely  blends  the  two;  the  instinct  of  strict  justice 
with  that  of  a  loving  charity.  Neither  the  Jewish  nor 
Christian  scheme,  taken  alone,  contains  a  complete  code 
of  practical  morality.  In  the  first  the  sense  of  retribu- 
tion is  too  strong,  tyrannizing  over  every  gentler  feel- 
ing; while  in  the  second  we  are  in  danger  of  losing  it 
altogether  in  the  undue  emphasis  placed  upon  the  duties 
of  self-sacrifice,  patience,  etc.  Yet  each  served,  ard  con- 
tinues to  serve,  its  part  in  the  evolution  of  conduct. 

Herbert  Spencer  justly  makes  the  formation  of  char- 
acter the  primary  object  of  all  education.  "  To  curb 
restive  propensities,  to  awtfken  dormant  sentiments,  to 
strengthen  the  perceptions  and  cultivate  the  tastes,  to 
encourage  this  feeling  am!  repress  that,  so  as  finally  to 
develop  the  child  into  a  man  of  well-proportioned  and 
harmonious  nature — this  is  alike  the  aim  of  parent  and 
teacher."  In  the  same  connection  he  adds:  "  Character 
is  the  thing  to  be  changed  rather  than  conduct.  It  is  not 
the  deeds  but  the  feelings  from  which  the  deeds  spring 
that  requires  dealing  with."  Richter  has  a  thought  of 
the  same  import  when  he  says,  "  What  you  desire  is  not 
the  child's  obedience,  but  his  inclination  to  it,  love,  trust, 


i36 


THK    OPEN    COURT. 


self-denial,  the  reverence  for  the  best."  All  this  is  ex- 
cellent, but  it  does  not  diminish  the  importance  of  the 
principle  I  would  insist  on,  that  in  the  spirit  of  obedience, 
carefully  instructed,  lies  the  fundamental  help  and  safe- 
guard of  all  character.  "  Character  is  the  thing  to  be 
changed  rather  than  conduct,"  says  Mr.  Spencer,  but 
would  it  not  be  more  correct  to  say,  "  Character  is 
the  thing  to  be  changed  along  with  conduct."  Char- 
acter is  a  thing  of  slow  growth.  Society  cannot  wait 
until  a  man's  principles  are  correctly  formed  before  re- 
quiring his  submission  to  rightful  authority.  It  is  his 
overt  acts,  his  external  conduct  which  she  is  obliged  to 
take  note  of,  not  his  inward  motive  and  disposition, 
though  these  are,  in  their  place,  the  proper  subjects  of 
her  care.  Though  in  a  certain  sense  it  is  true,  it  is  by  no 
means  enough  to  say  that  society  is  responsible  for  this 
or  that  evil  condition.  Society  is  a  myth,  an  intellectual 
abstraction,  a  glittering  generality.  Its  human  factors, 
the  men  and  women  composing  it,  are  the  only  real  thing 
about  it,  on  whom  devolves  the  responsibility  of  all 
its  failures  and  triumphs. 

We  are  living  in  a  new  era  of  social  life  and 
experiment  where  the  sentimentalist  is  equally  out  of 
place  with  the  old  time  fanatic.  When  a  monstrous 
wrong  like  slavery  is  to  be  done  away  with  we  require 
those  heroic  methods  that  belong  to  social  revolution. 
The  work  of  the  reformer  of  to-day  is  of  a  slow  and 
plodding  order,  because  he  has  a  more  intricate  problem 
to  solve  than  any  of  his  predecessors.  It  is  compara- 
tively easy  to  sign  a  historic  document  like  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  to  set  free  a  million  serfs,  to  strike 
the  shackles  from  the  black  man's  wrists.  These  are  the 
great  leading  events  of  history,  but  about  which  cluster 
a  host  of  complex  problems  on  whose  just  solution  hang 
those  promises  of  benefit  to  the  world  which  the  first 
contain.  The  present  is  the  age  not  of  great,  bewilder- 
ing achievements  or  marked  changes  in  the  moral  prog- 
ress of  man,  but  of  slow  and  steady  growth. 

I  close  then  with  the  old  appeal  for  a  reawakened 
sense  of  personal  moral  accountability.  The  great  need 
of  this  and  every  age  is  that  of  a  righteous,  intelligent 
will  power.  Teach  the  child  and  the  criminal,  who  is 
also  a  child  in  understanding,  that  the  merit  and  blame 
of  their  conduct  rest  chiefly  with  themselves,  and  that 
the  reward  or  punishment  jvhich  follows  is  but  the  un- 
avoidable result  of  their  own  action.  Teach  both,  that 
while  they  are  but  units  in  the  community  to  which  they 
belong,  they  are  none  the  less  active,  responsible  agents 
therein,  and  not  the  passive  tools  of  fate  and  circum- 
stances. Teach  them  also  that  as  they  are  but  depend- 
ent parts  of  a  single  whole,  the  wisest  self-interest  is 
coincident  only  with  the  general  good ;  that  respect  for 
just  authority  and  regard  for  the  rights  of  others  are 
duties  of  paramount  importance.  Thus  shall  we  impart 
to  each  that  rational  conception  of  life,  that  enlightened 


view  of  conduct  and  duty  which  in  itself  is  the  greatest 
aid  to  a  happy  and  useful  existence. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

FREE-THOUGHT   EDUCATION. 
To  the  Editors :  Morris  Plains,  N.  J. 

May  I  venture  a  few  remarks  suggested  by  Prof.  Davidson's 
paper  upon   Free-Thought  Education? 

While  it  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  importance  of  such 
institutions  as  he  proposes,  may  it  not  be  possible  to  be  too  san- 
guine as  to  their  results?  Would,  in  point  of  fact,  an  atmos- 
phere of  unadulterated  "free  thought"  conduce  to  the  healthy 
growth  of  free-thought  principles? 

The  advantages  of  mental  growth  in  free-thought  schools  and 
colleges  as  compared  with  those  of  orthodox  establishments,  would 
be  equal  to  the  advantages  for  muscular  growth  in  country  life 
as  compared  with  city  life,  but  that  is  all.  Healthy  growth  is 
possible  in  both. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  paradoxical  as  it  sounds,  a  free- 
thinker may  develop  into  a  dogmatist,  and  the  free-thinking 
parent  or  teacher  who  imposes  his  thought  upon  the  mind  of 
child  or  pupil  because  he  himself  has  achieved  freedom,  shackles 
the  younger  mind  as  surely  as  the  orthodox  professor  who 
admits  no  question  of  the  infallibility  of  his  belief. 

For  what  is  freedom?  It  is  not  the  acceptance  of  free-thought 
opinions  as  held  by  others;  nor  is  it  even  the  choice  of  such  opin- 
ions; it  is  that  mental  condition  which  makes  such  a  choice  pos- 
sible, and  which  in  itself  presupposes  the  existence  of  at  least  two 
distinct  possibilities.  Freedom  implies  the  existence  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  choice;  choice  includes  doubt,  consideration,  the  possi- 
bility of  conflict;  without  these  freedom  is  impossible. 

Yet  how  few  parents,  and  still  fewer  teachers,  recognize  this — 
how  few  will  frankly  say  to  child  or  pupil :  "  Such  is  my  opinion 
upon  a  given  subject,  but  I  do  not  ask  you  to  adopt  it.  It  is  the 
result  of  my  experience  and  maturity,  but  in  that  respect  only  is 
more  valuable  than  yours.  I  must  tell  you  that  others  of  my 
age,  and  equally  mature,  hold  views  directly  opposed  to  mine;  I 
will  endeavor  to  show  you  the  grounds  for  both  opinions,  and 
with  you,  after  such  explanation,  lies  the  responsibility  of  choice; 
that  is  your  inalienable  right  of  freedom." 

Yet,  if  this  is  not  done,  the  very  fact  that  parent  or  teacher  is 
a  free-thinker  lessens  the  possibility  of  freedom  for  the  younger 
mind.  Probably  the  reason  why  the  children  of  great  thinkers 
rarely  equal  their  parents  in  the  same  direction,  lies  in  this.  They 
accept  the  opinions  which  make  the  atmosphere  of  their  lives, 
and  do  not  realize  the  conditions  which  determined  their  choice, 
and  acceptance  in  such  circumstances  is  not  freedom. 

In  all  ages  the  descendants  of  reformers  have  lacked  the  zeal 
of  their  fathers.  Every  enthusiast  asks  sadly,  "  who  will  carry  on 
my  work?"  realizing  that  the  very  minds  formed  by  his  teach- 
ing may  lack  that  which  inspired  his  own,  viz.,  the  existence  of 
distinctly  opposing  elments. 

Free-thinkers,  if  in  less  danger  than  orthodox  professors  ot 
over-estimating  their  beliefs,  may  yet  in  their  enthusiam  err  in 
somewhat  similar  fashion.  Hegelians,  Aristotelians  and  Rosmi- 
nians  can,  we  all  know,  hold  very  tenaciously  to  the  superiority 
of  their  own  views,  and  wage  as  acrimonious  a  warfare  in  their 
behalf  as  the  staunchest  Tractarian  or  Presbyterian. 

Unless,  indeed,  "  a  man's  reach  exceed  his  grasp,"  where  is 
freedom  for  his  pupils. 

The  ideal  educational  atmosphere  must  always  be  that  of  free 
discussion,  which  shall  recognize  and  include  views  of  every 
kind,  even  those  opposed  to  its  own  principles,  and  permit  to  its 
pupils   the   absolute,   unshackled    exercise   of   individual    choice, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


m 


which  is  freedom — an  institution  in  which  there  shall  be  no 
dominantism  even  of  philosophy — in  which,  if  after  acquiring 
knowledge  of  different  opinions  the  student  (exercising  his 
inalienable  right  of  choice)  prefers  the  shackles  of  orthodoxy 
will  retain  the  respect  of  his  teachers. 

Mr.  Davidson  instances  the  earnestness  of  Roman  Catholics 
in  the  establishment  of  exclusive  schools  as  a  worthy  example  for 
free-thinkers.  But  while  cordially  admitting  this,  does  not  the 
reflection  arise  that  the  very  existence  of  such  special  schools  has 
fostered  the  bigotrv  and  narrowmindedness  of  Romanists,  and  may 
there  not  be  a  possible  danger,  even  if  in  less  degree,  of  philosophic 
bigotry  in  institutions  exclusively  devoted  to  the  children  of  free- 
thinkers, who  already  in  their  own  homes  enjoy  the  atmosphere 
of  freedom  and  perhaps  find  in-  orthodox  schools  and  colleges  the 
very  element  necessary  to  furnish  the  possibilities  essential  for 
freedom  of  choice?  Yours  truly, 

Janet  E.  Runtz-Rees. 


MR.  CONWAY'S  WORK  IN   ENGLAND. 

To  the  Editors:  London,  Eng. 

London  is  less  interesting  since  Mr.  Conway  has  ceased  to  be 
a  central  figure  in  its  pulpits.  Permanency  of  occupation,  as  you 
know,  makes  the  reputation  of  the  pulpits.  We  have  four  or  five 
preachers  of  mark,  and  Mr.  Conway  was  always  named  among 
them.  Mr.  Spurgeon,  Dr.  Parker,  Mr.  Stopford  Brooke,  Mr. 
Haweis,  are  familiar  names  of  notable  preachers  in  London,  but 
strangers  visiting  London  would  also  ask  for  South  Place  Chapel 
while  Mr.  Conway  was  with  us.  He  was  known  as  the  "  Ameri- 
can preacher  "  in  London,  who  attained  and  sustained  a  reputa- 
tion among  us.  Forty  years  ago  I  was  a  seat-holder  in  South 
Place  Chapel,  when  engaged  in  editing  the  Rcasoner — not  taken 
to  be  an  entirely  orthodox  publication.  W.J.  Fox,  known  subse- 
quently as  the  great  orator  of  the  Anti-Corn  League,  was  then 
the  preacher.  Always  having  personal  friends  in  the  congrega- 
tion I  used  what  influence  I  had  to  promote  the  election  of  Mr. 
Conway,  a  preacher  whom  I  believed  would  sustain  the  reputation 
of  the  pulpit  which  Mr.  Fox  had  made  famous.  This  proved  to 
be  true.  The  other  day  an  article  opened  in  one  of  our  chief 
journals  saying,  "  The  chapel  where  Mr.  Conway  preached— cer- 
tain remarkable  meetings  have  been  held."  Just  as  used  to  be 
said  in  former  years  "  The  chapel  where  Mr.  Fox  preached." 
Since  Mr.  Conway  left,  many  persons  of  mark  have  occupied  his 
platform,  but  none  have  proved  to  possess  those  various  "  all 
round  "  qualities  impelling  the  congregation  to  choose  one  as  per- 
manent minister.  South  Place  is  as  free  as  the  Parker  Memo- 
rial Hall  in  Boston.  We  have  no  other  church  like  South  Place 
in  England.  Its  congregation  is  absolutely  without  fear.  Who- 
ever has  distinctive  ideas  to  proclaim,  which  have  the  spirit  of 
reverence  in  them,  Mr.  George  Hickson  straightway  submits 
such  name  for  hearing.  It  is  no  mean  proof  of  Mr.  Conway's 
power  and  versatility  that  he  sustained  the  interest  for  21  years, 
of  the  most  cultivated  and  critical  congregation  in  Great  Britain. 
I  remember  when  first  he  came  to  England,  that  Mr.  Samuel 
Lucas,  the  editor  of  the  Morning  Star,  who  was  a  brother- in-law 
of  Mr.  Bright,  and  therefore  knew  what  eloquence  was — telling 
me  that  "he  had  heard  a  speech  of  Mr.  Conway  that  he  thought 
was  as  eloquent  as  anything  to  which  he  had  ever  listened."  So 
far  from  Mr.  Conway's  powers  abating  or  his  influence  decreasing 
with  years — his  repute  was  greater  when  he  left  us  than  it  had 
been  before.  In  some  of  his  later  published  sermons  there  were 
passages  of  eloquence  and  beauty  worthy  of  our  best  English 
preachers  of  the  days  of  Jeremy  Taylor  and  South.  Mr.  Conway 
left  also  a  name  of  mark  in  literature.  A  paper  of  his  appeared 
in  the  Daily  News  upon  London.  It  was  a  poem — nothing  so 
fresh,  original  and  striking  has  ever  been  written  upon  the  great 
city  by  an  Englishman.  George  Jacob  Holyoake. 


THE    IDEAL. 

BY    W.    F.    BARNARD. 

This  is  the  crowning  glory  of  our  lives; 
That  deep  within  the  soul  there  lives  a  thirst, 
An  aspiration  to  the  highest,  wrought 
Of  perfect  love.     A  longing  half  expressed 
For  something  far  above  the  what-we-know 
Or  can  imagine;  making  sweetest  pain 
Of  all  our  incompleteness. 

All  our  souls 
Are  but  the  shadows  of  the  souls  to  be; 
And  all  our  life  is  but  the  lesser  life 
That  grows  to  greater  as  it  yields  to  love. 
We  yearn  toward  the  invisible,  we  set 
Our  faces  to  the  East  to  find  the  goal, 
The  something  that  we  call  the  perfect  life, 
Whose  echo  moves  within  us  evermore, 
And  moving  molds  us.     Higher  thoughts,  and  deeds 
Of  nobler  purpose,  grander,  truer  lives; 
.These  we  aspire  to,  these  we  strive  to  gain. 
And  ah!  the  strife  is  noble,  for  our  paths 
Do  not  lie  always  where  the  feet  would  go; 
No,  not  forever  do  we  journey  through 
Fair  fields  where  peaceful  rivers  glide  to  sea 
And  nothing  jars,  but  all  things  seek  their  ends. 
Sometimes  our  guiding  star  hangs  dim  and  pale 
Far  in  the  distance,  and  our  feet  are  set 
Upon  the  borders  of  such  arid  wastes 
As  seem  the  very  abodes  of  living  death, 
And  all  the  air  is  sown  with  thick  despairs 
That  rush  to  overwhelm  us. 

In  such  night 
The  voice  of  duty  calls  us  to  obey; 
To  still  pursue  and  not  be  overcome; 
To  gird  ourselves  with  high  exalted  thoughts 
Of  all  our  lives'  fair  possibilities. 
The  dawn  will  come  when  night  has  spent  itself, 
And  so  we  brave  the  darkness  waiting  dawn. 
It  comes  at  last  and  ofttimes  with  it  come 
Thoughts  of  that  nobler  manhood  yet  to  be, 
And  of  that  glorious  future  world  whose  laws 
Shall  sphere  themselves  in  perfect  harmony. 
Then  rises  deep  emotion  in  the  breast, 
And  in  that  highest  moment  when  the  soul 
Is  free  from  all  the  burden  of  the  world, 
Cleared  for  an  instant  of  Earth's  hampering  dust, 
We  feel  a  touch.     Our  nobler,  truer  selves 
Yearn  toward  us  through  the  vast  that  lies  between, 
Till  all  we  are  seems  merged  in  what  might  be, 
And  all  our  love  grows  ecstacy  of  faith. 


Poetry  can  be  to  man  what  love  is  to  the  hero.  It 
can  neither  counsel  him,  nor  fight  for  him,  nor  yet  do 
any  special  work  for  him,  but  it  can  teach  him  to  be  a 
hero,  summon  him  to  great  deeds,  and  equip  him  with 
the  strength  for  everything  that  he  should  be. — Schiller. 


138 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


BOOK    REVIEWS. 


WUNDT'S   ETHICS. 

El/iik,  Eine  Untersuchung  der  Thatsachen  mid  Gesetze  des  Sittlichen 

Lebens.     Wilhelm   Wundt.     Stuttgart,  1886. 

A  careful  study  of  this  book  is  especially  to  be  commended 
to  Englishmen  and  Americans,  among  whom  utilitarianism  is 
spread  so  widely' and  is  so  often  thought  the  only  possible  theory 
of  liberal  ethics. 

Wundt  has  given  much  attention  to  the  English  views  of  his 
subject.  In  the  preface  he  says:  "The  English  philosophy  of 
morals  has  been  to  me  very  valuable,  although  I  must  confess 
more  negatively  than  positively.  I  am,  throughout,  in  opposition 
to  its  individualistic  and  utilitarian  tendencies,  but  my  con- 
viction as  to  the  untenableness  of  this  standpoint,  is  chiefly  due  to 
the  studv  of  the  English  Utilitarians;  and  he  who  knows  the 
part  which  error  has  to  play,  in  the  development  of  science  will 
recognize  that  my  judgment  contains  besides  the  censure  a  praise 
which  is  almost  equal  to  the  renown  of  a  discovered  truth." 

Wundt's  critique  of  Jeremy  Bentham's  theory  of  ethics  based 
on  pleasure  and  pain  (p.  336,  etc.),  and  that  of  John  Stuart  Mill, 
the  most  ingenious  disciple  of  Bentham  (p.  341),  is  very  interest- 
ing and,  I  should  say,  unanswerable.  Of  Herbert  Spencert 
Wundt  says  :  "  Herbert  Spencer's  entire  philosophical  system  is 
built  upon  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  Spencer,  as  he  points  out 
himself,  had  conceived  this  idea  before  the  publication  of  Dar- 
win's works.  But  at  any  rate  Darwin's  views  have  influenced 
Spencer's  system  greatly,  and  his  later  work  on  ethics  shows 
traces  of  Darwin's  influence  more  than  his  earlier  works. 

"Spencer's  ethical  views  are  ruled  by  Darwin's  ideas  of  adapta- 
tion and  hereditv.  According  to  the  principle  of  adaptation  the 
moral  is  identical  with  the  useful;  and  the  useful  again  is  the  adjust- 
ment to  surroundings  and  conditions  of  life.  Conditions  of  life  be- 
ing variable,  our  moral  concepts  must  undergo  constant  changes, 
and  a  constant  absolute  moral  code  cannot  exist,  although  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  some  acts  have  been  injurious  in  all  times,  while 
others  in  all  ages  have  been  recognized  as  useful;  similarly,  physi- 
cal organization  shows  congruities  in  its  different  stages  of 
development." 

"It  is  the  principle  of  adaptation  which  leads  Spencer  to  a  utili- 
tarian relativism  which  is  also  to  be  met  with,  implicitly,  in  his 
predecessors  of  a  utilitarian  character.  But  Spencer  lays  special 
stress  on  the  relativity  of  moral  conceptions,  and  thus  reveals  two 
weak  points  of  utilitarianism.  First,  there  is  no  discrimination  of 
the  moral,  proper,  and  other  forms  of  the  useful  which,  according 
to  our  consciousness,  cannot  receive  an  ethical  valuation."  On 
page  363  Wundt  adds  to  this:  "From  this  point  of  view  we 
should  be  obliged  to  consider  the  invention  of  printing,  of  the  use 
of  the  compasses,  of  the  steam-engine,  of  antiseptic  ligature  as 
eminently  moral  acts.  Concerning  the  invention  of  gunpowder 
and  dvnamite  we  may  be  undecided,  or  should  say  that  they  are 
partly  moral,  partly  immoral.  On  the  other  hand,  as  utilitarians 
are  obliged  to  admit  that  many  things  which  we  are  wont  to  con- 
sider as  merely  useful,  should  be  declared  to  be  moral ;  so  on  the 
other  hand  from  their  standpoint,  many  things  should  be  declared 
immoral,  or  at  least  indifferent,  which  heretofore  were  praised  as 
moral;  for  instance,  if  the  father  of  a  family  or  a  man  whose 
place  in  human  society  is  difficult  to  fill,  makes  an  attempt  at 
saving  a  drowning  child  at  the  risk  of  his  life.  *  *  *  In  this 
case,  to  be  sure,  the  utilitarian  would  say  not  the  single  action 
must  be  useful,  but  the  average  character  of  actions  must  be  such 
as  under  ordinary  circumstances  to  increase  human  happiness." 

"The  second  weak  point  of  the  ethical  adaptation  theory  con- 
sists in  its  appreciation  of  the  ejfect  or  result  of  an  act  and  the 
entire  neglect  of  the  intention  in  which  it  is  done.     But  6uch   is  a 


matter  of  course,  if  the  ethical  appreciation  takes  place,  as  an 
engine  is  valued  according  to  the  effect  of  its  work.  The  inten- 
tion with  which  we  act  is  to  Spencer  not  a  primary  but  a  second- 
ary point  for  our  ethical  judgment,  and  then  only  so  far  as  it 
warrants  the  probability  of  future  usefulness."  Spencer  makes  the 
sequences  of  an  act  the  test  of  its  ethical  value,  while  Wundt 
wants  the  motives  to  be  considered. 

"So  far  Spencer  does  not  deviate  much  from  the  utilitarians 
before  him,"  Wundt  says,  "but  he  has  added  a  new  aspect  to  the 
problem  by  taking  into  consideration  the  doctrine  of  inheritance." 

"A  great  difficulty  of  Bentham's  utilitarianism  consisted  in 
showing  how  egotistic  desires  may  become  motives  for  public 
utility.  Spencer  answers  this  question  by  transferring  the  prob- 
lem from  individual  experience  to  the  evolution  of  the  race.  As 
there  are  innumerable  generations  at  our  command  the  difficulty 
is  greatly  lessened.  In  the  human  race  some  fundamental  moral 
conceptions  have  been  developed  and  are  developing  still.  These 
conceptions  are  the  result  of  experiences  as  to  what  proved  to  be 
useful,  and  are  inherited  through  transference  upon  the  nervous 
system." 

"Against  this  theory  there  is  only  one  objection, — that  the 
difficulty  which  is  eliminated  is  less  than  the  difficulty  which 
is  introduced.  *  *  *  If  even  such  elementary  data  of 
consciousness  as  sensory  perceptions,  or  the  conception  of 
space  cannot  be  proven  to  be  innate,  how  can  we  speak  of  inborn 
moral  ideas  which  presuppose  many  complicated  concepts  relative 
to  the  acting  person  as  well  as  to  his  surroundings.  *  *  *  Prac- 
tical neurology  is  contrasted  with  such  fantastical  views,  as  astron- 
omy and  geography,  are  with  the  discoveries  of  Jules  Verne;  and 
the  old  theory  of  idea  innatee  in  its  naivete,  according  to  which  the 
chief  subject  matters  of  morals,  metaphysics  and  logics  were  con- 
sidered a  cradle  gift  of  God,  is  preferable  at  least  for  its  simplicity. 
We  acknowledge,  therefore,  that  an  important  step  has  been  made 
in  the  history  of  modern  English  utilitarianism  when  the  idea 
of  evolution  was  introduced ;  nevertheless,  Spencer's  attempt  at 
deducing  the  moral  development,  which  may  be  found  in  the 
progress  of  civilization  simply  from  conditions  of  individual 
evolution,  is  best  qualified  to  demonstrate  the  impossibility  of 
such  an  explanation." 

In  opposition  to  the  utilitarian  theory,  altruistic  principles 
have  been  proposed  by  Hutcheson  and  Schopenhauer.  They 
declare  only  charity  and  sympathetic  emotions  with  our  fellow  crea- 
tures to  be  ethical.  All  egotism  is  objectionable.  But  since 
Leibnitz,  Kant,  Goethe  and  others  pointed  out  that  self-perfection 
was  one  of  the  duties  of  man,  we  should  say  that  the  extreme 
altruism  does  not  afford  a  tenable  principle  of  morality.  And 
so  Wundt  explains  how  a  kind  of  moderate  altruistic  utilitarian- 
ism became  the  ruling  opinion  of  modern  ethics,  viz.  those  of 
Germany. 

Wundt  divides  the  sciences  into  descriptive  and  normative 
Descriptive  sciences  are  psychology,  history,  the  natural  sciences, 
etc. ;  the  normative  sciences  are  jurisprudence,  logics,  aesthetics, 
grammar  and  ethics.  The  former  treat  things  as  they  are,  the  latter 
as  they  ought  to  be.  But  the  ought  is  not  quite  missing  in  the 
former  sciences.  From  many  irregular  facts  gathered  by  experi- 
ence the  ought  appears  as  a  natural  law.  So  the  ought  that  is 
becomes  a  must.  The  Norm,  congruent  with  real  existence,  is 
necessity.  In  the  background  of  grammar  and  the  other  norma- 
tive sciences,  logic  stands.  "Logic  is  only  the  ethics  of  thinking; 
ethics,"  Wundt,  says,  "  is  the  ultimate  normative  science,  the 
moral  ought  is  the  last  source  of  the  norm-idea." 

In  establishing  the  basis  of  his  ethics  Wundt  starts  from  the 
individual  will,  which  he  contemplates  in  its  conditions  and  rela- 
tions. From  this  fact  as  the  original  datum,  motives  and  norms 
of  action  rise  which  surpass  the  individual  consciousness  and 
point  back  to  a  universal   will,  the   bearers  of  which  are  the  indi- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


1.39 


viduals,  and  in  the  ends  of  which  the  single  provinces  of  indi- 
vidual aspirations  are  comprised. 

Omitting  Wundt's  explanations  of  his  principles  of  morality, 
we  proceed  to  the  last  and  practical  part  of  his  ethics  in  which 
he  propounds  a  synopsis  of  the  moral  norms.  They  are  of  (i)  indi- 
vidual, (2)  social  and  (3)  human  character;  each  of  them  is  subjec- 
tive as  well  as  objective,  and  contains  as  much  of  a  right  as  of  a 
duty. 

The  subjective  individual  norm  is  self-regret,  which  he  formu- 
lates as:  Think  and  act  in  such  a  way  as  to  never  lose  your  self- 
respect.  The  objective  individual  norm  is  that  of  duty :  do  your 
duty  to  which  you  are  pledged.  The  subjective  social  norm  is 
what  the  Bible  calls  love  of  the  neighbor:  respect  your  fel- 
low being  as  you  do  yourself.  The  objective  social  norm  is  the 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  community  or  society  {Gemeinsinn). 
It  requests  us  to  do  services  to  the  community  to  which  we  belong. 
The  subjective  humane  virtue  is  humility.  We  have  to  consider 
ourselves  as  mere  organs  or  instruments  of  our  moral  ideals. 
The  objective  humane  virtue  is  unselfishness,  which  commands 
us  to  sacrifice  ourselves  for  the  purpose  which  we  recognize  as 
the  ideal  purpose  of  our  life. 

It  would  lead  us  too  far  to  touch  on  the  details  of  Wundt's 
voluminous  work.  With  this  review  we  can  only  invite  to  a 
study  of  the  book  and  heartily  wish  for  a  readable  English  trans- 
lation. 

In  his  results  Wundt  approaches,  as  he  confesses  in  the  pref- 
ace, the  ethics  of  the  post-Kantian  speculative  idealism,  which  is 
the  more  noteworthy,  as  Wundt  is  by  no  means  a  mere  specu- 
lative philosopher,  but  primarily  a  scientist,  and  among  scientists 
he  leads  the  van  on  the  subject  of  neurology.  He  adds  in  his 
preface  that  there  may  be  more  reason  to  wonder  at  this  outcome, 
for  he  must  confess  that  on  other  subjects  of  philosophy  similar 
results  will  be  reached,  which  will  give  credit  to  the  philosophical 
work  done  in  the  beginning  of  this  century. 

"  In  judging  of  philosophical  doctrines,"  he  continues,  "one 
should  distinguish  the  everlasting  tenor  lInhalf)  from  its  tran- 
sient formulation  'Form).  Philosophical  systems,  which  once  im- 
pressed deeply  the  human  mind,  having  arisen  in  a  time  of  transi- 
tion and  belonging  now  to  the  history  of  the  past,  should  neither  be 
condemned  as  chimerical  dreams  nor  revered  as  eternal  truths. 
The  useless  frames  of  such  systems  were  destroyed,  but  their  vital 
ideas  took  root  in  all  single  sciences,  and  by  and  by  philosophy 
will  be  regenerated  through  the  reaction  of  the  sciences.  Thus 
in  the  general  views  of  philosophy  much  must  be  changed,  and 
in  minor  details  most,  perhaps  all,  is  to  be  corrected;  neverthe- 
less philosophy  inaugurated  the  work  which  had  to  be  tempo- 
rarily intrusted  to  the  sciences,  and  philosophy  finally  will  have 
to  consummate  it."  Paul  Carus. 


Heredity.  A  Psychological  Study  of  its  Phenomena,  Laws, 
Causes  and  Consequences.  From  the  French  of  Th.  Ribot, 
author  of  Contemporary  English  Psychology.  New  York : 
Appleton  &  Co.,  1877. 

Th.  Ribot,  the  director  of  the  Revue  Philosophitjue,  at  Paris, 
and  one  of  the  most  prominent  French  savants  is  distinguished 
for  the  breadth  and  earnestness  of  his  thought.  He  has  been  the 
interpreter  of  the  contemporary  German  and  English  philosophy 
to  his  countrymen  by  several  meritorious  treatises.  His  special 
department  is  psychology  as  it  is  based  on  physiological  research. 
The  present  valuable  work  on  heredity  (which  was  first  printed 
by  the  Appleton's  in  1S75,)  bears  on  the  same  subject.  Ribot 
defines  instinct  to  be  a  composite  reflex  action,  and  explains  it  as  an 
unconscious  mode  of  intelligence.  Instincts,  it  is  possible,  are 
only  habits  fixed  by  heredity  (p.  22);  but  he  declares  (p.  33)  that 
this  explanation  is  rather  vague  and  inaccurate.  "  As  instinct  rises 
it  approaches  intelligence  and  as  intellect  descends  it  approaches 


instinct."  With  regard  to  the  causes  of  heredity  Ribot  believes 
that  the  psychological  instances  should  be  explained  from  the 
physiological  cases  of  heredity.  Physiological  heredity,  he  says, 
will  be  admitted  without  hesitation.  Although  this  savors  of 
materialism,  he  thinks  that  his  solution  is  reconcilable  with  philo- 
sophical idealism.  No  doubt  mental  manifestations  often  influ- 
ence the  organism,  but  heredity  belongs  to  the  domain  where  the 
organism  influences  the  mental  manifestations.  "  Heredity  thus 
understood,  appears  to  us,"  he  says  on  p.  275,  "  to  be  merely  one 
of  the  many  physiological  influences  to  which  mental  develop- 
ment is  subject." 

The  causes  of  physiological  heredity  are  to  be  looked  for  in 
the  law  of  the  persistence  of  force.  "The  definite  result  of  these 
researches  is  that  heredity  is  identity  as  far  as  is  possible;  it  is  one 
being  in  many.  'The  cause  of  heredity,'  says  Haeckel,  '  is  the 
partial  identity  of  the  materials  which  constitute  the  organism  of 
the  parent  and  child  and  the  division  of  this  substance  at  the  time 
of  reproduction.'  " 

Most  interesting  are  Mr.  Ribot's  investigations  on  the  conse- 
quences of  heredity,  which  is  in  so  close  connection  with  evolu- 
tion and  even  is  the  cause  or  condition  which  makes  it  possible. 
Heredity  is  a  form  of  determinism  and  vet  it  leads  from  the  auto- 
matic act  of  animal  instincts  to  the  freedom  of  human  intelli- 
gence. Now,  which  of  the  two  is  at  the  bottom  of  phenomena  in 
nature,  mechanism  and  law  or  personality  and  freedom?  At 
times  we  are  inclined  to  say  the  one,  at  times  the  other.  Ribot 
concludes  with  the  sentence:  "Were  we  to  occupy  a  higher 
standpoint,  we  should  see  that  what  is  given  us  from  without  as 
science  under  the  form  of  mechanism,  is  given  us  from  within  as 
a-sthetics  or  morals  under  the  form  of  free-will."  P.  C. 

Comparative  Physiology  and  Psychology.  A  Discussion 
of  the  Evolution  and  Relations  of  the  Mind  and  Body  of 
Man  and  Animals.  By  5.  V.  Clevenger, M. Z?., etc.  Chicago: 
Jansen,  McClurg  &  Co.,  1S85;  pp.  247. 

The  author  of  this  discussion  is  a  scientific  thinker  well 
equipped  with  a  store  of  accurate  knowledge,  and  quite  dexter- 
ous in  making  use  of  it.  Moreover,  lie  is  one  of  those  rare  men 
capable  of  disinterested  enthusiasm  and  thorough  devotion  to 
a  high  cause.  His  desire  is  to  acquire  so  complete  a  knowledge 
of  the  human  organism,  and  especially  of  its  nervous  system,  as 
will  enable  him  scientifically  to  understand  the  precise  nature  of 
mental  derangements,  hoping  thereby  todevise  ways  and  means 
to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  a  numerous  and  most  unfortunate 
class  of  fellow-creatures.  The  work  touches  on  almost  all  bio- 
logical problems,  and  has  an  ingenious  explanation  for  most  of 
them.  We  readily  believe  the  author  when  he  assures  us  that 
he  found  it  impossible  to  crowd  together  in  this  small  compass 
all  the  thoughts  contained  in  his  note-books.  Nature  is  cruel. 
"Of  fifty  seeds  she  often  brings  but  one  to  bear;-'  nay,  some- 
times none  at  all. 

Of  course,  it  is  out  of  the  question  in  a  brief  notice  like  this 
to  take  account,  much  less  to  examine  every  one  of  the  numerous 
flowers  scattered  broadcast  from  this  cornucopia.  Theideasare, 
however,  mostly  interesting,  some  of  them  verv  suggestive,  nnd 
a  few  of  great  and  lasting  importance;  only  they  will  have  to  be 
scientifically  proved  before  they  can  gain  general  acceptance. 
The  following  are  the  titles  of  the  fifteen  chapters  of  his  book: 
Introduction;  Primitive  Life  and  Mind;  Organogeny;  (jenesis; 
Development;  five  chapters  on  nervous  and  mental  physics; 
Morphology,  Histology,  and  Evoluton  of  the  Human  Brain; 
three  chapters  on  mental  activities;  the  Law  of  Expediency  and 
Optimistic  Conclusion. 

Dr.  Clevenger,  in  common  with  most  physiologists  and 
pathologists  of  our  time,  takes  psychological  phenomena  to  be 
functional  outcomes  of  the  organism,  and  in   endeavoring  to  ex- 


140 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


plain  such  phenomena  in  their  connection  with  vital  processes, 
he  looks  upon  the  latter  as  the  cause  of  the  former,  differing  here 
from  psychologists  generally,  who  accept  the  two-sided  as- 
pect as  a  working  hypothesis.  Such  and  such  processes  are 
going  on  in  the  organism,  and  we  find  them  accompanied  by  such 
and  such  mental  phenomena,  or  vice  versa.  When  (page  202) 
Dr.  Clevenger  defines  sensations  as  "conditions  of  the  molecules 
realized  in  consciousness,"  one  might  as  well,  or  even  better, 
turn  the  tables  and  assert  that  molecules,  with  their  positions  and 
motions,  are  conditions  of  the  sensations  realized  in  conscious- 
ness. The  investigator  is  comparing  his  two  corresponding  as- 
pects, the  subjective  and  the  objective.  They  are  not  the  cause 
of  each  other. 

Our  author  announces  chemical  affinity  as  his  leading  prin- 
ciple in  the  explanation  of  vital  processes,  but  in  his  chapters  on 
the  physics  of  the  nervous  system,  adopts,  nevertheless,  the  undu- 
latory  hypothesis.  By  means  of  waves  one  can  explain  every- 
thing in  a  mechanical  way,  for  all  necessary  mechanical  factors 
are  assumed  to  begin  with.  Where  the  exact  value  of  these 
factors  cannot  be  ascertained,  the  hypothesis  is  utterly  worthless. 
In  vital  processes  we  have  to  do  with  qualitative  distinctions,  and 
these  are  of  chemical  origin.  The  disturbance  set  up  in  a  nerve 
by  stimulation  is  strictly  chemical.  It  is  due  to  explosive  disin- 
tegration. Functional  disintegration  is  the  immediate  effect  of 
stimulation  on  any  kind  of  protoplasm — not  undulatory  motion. 

Dr.  Clevenger's  idea,  that  nutritive  assimilation  is  due  to 
saturation  of  chemical  affinities,  is  a  great  advance  towards  light 
in  the  total  darkness  that  prevails  in  biological  quarters  with  re- 
gard to  this  most  important  function.  It  is  usually  assumed 
without  explanation,  as  an  occult  vital  achievement,  somehow 
effected  in  the  unexplored  recesses  of  the  mystery  of  life.  Here 
are  the  vital  molecules  and  here  the  nutritive  pabulum.  Now 
shut  your  eyes.  One,  two,  three,  and  the  dead  material  of  the 
pabulum  has  been  magically  converted  into  ever  so  many  other 
living  molecules.  This  is  virtually  what  many  biologists  teach. 
Nutritive  assimilation  is,  in  all  verify,  chemical  saturation. 
When  Dr.  Clevenger  shall  find  out  how  the  want  for  nutritive 
saturation  arises  in  the  living  substance,  he  will  have  secured  the 
most  potent  help  in  his  attempt  to  construct  biology,  deductively, 
from  primitive  function*  of  life. 

Our  author's  intervertebral  theory  of  brain  formation  stands, 
as  he  himself  candidly  confesses,  on  the  same  footing  as  the  ver- 
tebral theory  of  the  skull  which  has  occupied  so  many  investi- 
gators since  Goethe  and  Oken.  The  cephalic  deficiency  of  the 
amphioxus  has  in  our  days  misled  many  scientists.  The  head 
of  an  animal  is  the  most  essential  and  peculiar  part  of  its  organ- 
ism. An  infusorium  has  already  well  established  head-domina- 
tion. The  relation  of  the  headless  somites  of  worms  to  their 
head,  gives  a  correct  notion  of  the  paramount  value  of  the  latter; 
it  is  certainly  not  formed  by  coalescence  of  somites;  it  is  not  by 
chance  that  the  sensory  organs  have  developed  in  the  cephalic 
portion.  Its  chemical  constitution  is,  at  the  very  beginning  of 
animal  life,  superior  to  all  other  parts  of  the  body. 

By  far  the  most  important  biological  theory  advanced  by  Dr. 
Clevenger  is  that  concerning  the  nature  of  the  neuroglia,  which 
he  holds  to  be  the  central  organ  of  consciousness.  He  says  it  is 
"the  seat  of  the  feelings,  the  meeting  place  of  the  sensations,  the 
part  to  which  waves  converge,  and  from  which  they  diverge  in 
the  institution  of  vital  movements"  (p.  121).  This  theory  is  by  no 
means  scientifically  proved,  but,  in  our  opinion,  it  enunciates, 
nevertheless,  the  greatest  of  all  biological  truths;  it  contains  the 
germ  of  a  complete  revolution  in  the  conception  of  the  complex 
animal  organism.  We  will  try  to  make  this  clear.  Embryology 
leaves  unknown  how  the  nerves  are  formed  which  unite  the  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  body.  Histology  fails  to  discover  direct  com- 
munications  between  the  ultimate    sensory  fibres  and  the  initial 


motor  fibres.  But  there  exists  a  newly  homogeneous  substance 
to  which,  as  Dr.  Clevenger  puts  it,  "  the  sensory  nerves  converge, 
and  from  which  the  motor  nerves  diverge."  This  substance  is 
the  neuroglia,  held  by  most  investigators  to  be  merely  connective 
tissue  and  not  nerve  substance.  This  doubtful  substance  is,  how- 
ever, found  to  differ  chemically  in  an  essential  manner  from  con- 
nective tissue,  and  various  observers  have  already  declared  it  to 
be  of  neural  consistency.  The  strongest  argument  against  its 
nervous  character  was  advanced  by  Meynert.  Huguenin  ex- 
presses it  thus:  "A  tissue  which  increases  as  mental  function 
decreases,  cannot  be  the  medium  of  such  function."  It  is,  namely, 
a  fact,  that  an  ox,  for  instance,  has  more  neuroglia  than  a  man. 
To  this  objection  Dr.  Clevenger  very  aptly  replies:  "As  dif- 
ferentiations occurred  in  a  higher  scale  of  intelligence,  it  is  the 
very  substance  of  all  others  to  be  encroached  upon  by  organiza- 
tion." The  relational  elements,  represented  by  the  network  of 
nerve-fibres  ending  in  the  neuroglia,  increase  in  number  as  or- 
ganization advances,  and  fill  more  and  more  the  space  originally 
occupied  by  the  homogeneous  neuroglia,  which  then  was  receiv- 
ing only  few  relational  elements.  Besides,  the  human  neuroglia 
is  sure  to  be  qualitatively  vastly  superior  to  that  of  the  ox. 

It  has  been  the  ambition  of  mechanical  biologists  to  demon- 
strate an  unbroken  continuity  between  the  sensory  fibres  and  the 
motor  fibres.  Dr.  Clevenger  clearly  recognizes  what  the  conse- 
quence of  this  would  be.  "  Consciousness  would  cease  and  the 
animal  become  an  automaton  indeed."  Neuroglia  is,  in  truth, 
the  synthetical  substance  in  which  complex  mental  states  are 
realized.     It  can  be  almost  proved  by  reasoning  that  it  must  be  so. 

We  should  like  to  say  a  few  words  on  several  other  ideas  of 
Dr.  Clevenger,  but  space  forbids.  So  we  take  leave  of  him,  fully 
confident  that  biological  science  will  be  essentially  furthered  by 
his  researches. 


ANNUAL    MEETING    OF    THE    F.    R.   A. 

The  twentieth  annual  meeting  of  the  Free  Religious  Associa- 
tion will  be  held  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  May  26  and  27, 
commencing  on  Thursday,  May  26,  at  7:45  P.  M.,  in  Vestry  Hall, 
88  Tremont  st.,  with  a  Business  Session  for  hearing  reports,  elect- 
ing officers,  etc.  F.  M.  Holland,  Secretary. 


INDIVIDUAL  EXPRESSIONS. 

Your  paper  is  thus  far  a  great  success. — Daniel  G.  Thompson,  New  York. 

The  Open  Court  is  the  best  periodical  I  ever  read. — Dr.  W.  T.  Carter, 
Louisville. 

I  ca'l  The  Open  Court  the  highest  product  of  our  civilization  in  journal 
ism. — H.  F.  Bernard. 

By  the  evidence  of  various  omens  The  Open  Court  is  destined  to  inaugu- 
rate a  new  era  in  the  literature  of  free  thought. — Felix  L.  Oswald. 

Capital  title,  original  and  regal  appearance,  opulent  and  imposing,  and 
promise  in  every  page. — George  Jacob  Holyoake,  Brighton,  Eng. 

I  want  to  say  how  excellently  promising  I  think  The  Open  Court.  If  you 
can  keep  this  level  its  success,  in  the  sense  in  which  so  radical  a  journal  can  be 
successful,  is  assured. — Anna  Garlin  Spencer. 

Each  number  is  better  than  its  predecessor  thus  far.  Furthermore,  The 
Open  Court  has  a  literary,  philosophic  aspect.  It  looks  very  inviting  to  the 
reader.  Your  writers  will  feel  called  upon  to  do  their  best,  when  they  are 
presented  to  the  public  in  such  fine  style. — B.  W.  Ball. 

In  am  glad  to  see  that  you  keep  the  flag  of  free  and  advanced  thought  flying 
in  the  United  Suites.  It  will  give  me  pleasure  to  send  you  a  few  articles  deal- 
ing with  certain  aspects  of  some  things  here.  *  *  *  I  purpose  sending 
you  first  an  article  on  the  new  ethical  movement  in  London. — \Vm.  Clarke, 
London. 

Better  and  better.  Every  student  a-id  thinker  in  the  United  States  should 
have  it.  For  the  first  time  we  have  the  right  thing.  I  have  several  subscribers 
engaged.  When  you  commenced  the  change  I  only  looked  for  another  Index. 
The  Open  Court  is  something  wholly  different,  and  while  the  Index  had  much 
value,  this  has  the  advantage  of  not  being  anchored  to  an  old  purpose  anil  com- 
paratively local  one.  We  must  have  a  few  volumes  of  Montgomery  collected 
in  systematic  shape.  He  will  leave  his  work  too  fragmentary  if  he  dies  soon. — 
Rev.  E.  P.  Powell. 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the  Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon   a  Scientific   Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  6. 


CHICAGO,  APRIL  28,  1887. 


I  Three  Dolhirsjftr  Year. 
1  Singl  ■  Copies,  15  cts. 


ON    MEMORY    AS    A    GENERAL     FUNCTION     OF 
ORGANIZED   MATTER.* 


AN     ADDRESS     DELIVERED     ON    OCCASION    OF     THE    SOLEMN     MEETING    OF     THE 
IMPERIAL   ACADEMY  OF  SCILNCES,   AT  VIENNA,   MAY  30,   MDCCCLXX. 


BY    EDWALD    HF.RING, 
MEMBER    OF   THE    IMPERIAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 


Translated  by  Dr.   Paul  Carta,  from    the  Second  Edition,  published  by  Carl 
Gerald's  So/in,    WiesSj  I&jb. 

(Translation  Copyrighted.) 

If  a  scientist  leaves  behind  the  province  of  his 
special  inquiry  and  takes  a  journey  into  the  realm  of 
philosophy,  he  may  hope  for  a  solution  of  the  great 
problem  which  underlies  the  minor  problems  to  which 
he  has  devoted  his  life.  But  he  must  be  prepared  for 
secretly  being  discredited  to  those  of  his  colleagues  who 
he  knows  remain  quietly  with  the  subjects  of  their 
speciality,  and  at  the  same  time  he  will  be  mistrusted  by 
the  manor-born  in  the  empire  of  speculation.  He  runs 
the  risk  of  losing  his  reputation  with  the  former  and  of 
gaining  nothing  with  the  latter. 

The  subject  indeed  for  which  I  want  your  attention 
on  this  solemn  occasion  is  most  alluring,  but  bearing  in 
mind  what  I  said  just  now,  I  do  not  intend  to  leave  the 
domain  of  natural  science  to  which  I  devoted  my  studies 
and  shall  attempt  only  to  gain  the  heights  where  we 
may  enjoy  a  general  and  free  survey.  It  will  seem  in 
the  course  of  this  paper  as  though  I  should  not  remain 
faithful  to  this  purpose,  as  I  shall  transcend  into  the 
province  of  psychology.  So  for  my  own  justification, 
let  me  point  out  how  far  psychological  inquiries  are  not 
only  an  allowable  but  indispensable  aid  to  physiological 
investigation. 

The  animal  human  organism  and  its  material 
mechanism  is  the  subject  of  physiology,  but  conscious- 
ness is  a  simultaneous  datum,  and  when  the  atoms  of 
the  brain  move  according  to  certain  laws,  the  inner  life 
of  our  soul  is  woven  of  sensations  and  conceptions  of 
feeling  and  will. 

Everyone  finds  this  in  himself,  and  this,  at  the 
same  time,  beams  forth  from  the  faces  of  his  fellow- 
beings.  It  breathes  in  the  life  of  higher  organized  ani- 
mals and  even  the  most  simple  creatures  bear  some  ves- 
tiges of  it.  Who  can  tell  the  limit  of  empsychosis  in 
the  empire  of  organic  nature? 

What  can  physiology  do  best  in  the  face  of    such 

•Presented  to  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court  as  part  of  his  Monistic 
views,  by  Edward  C  Hegeler. 


dual  aspects  of  organic  life?  Should  science  be  blind- 
folded on  the  one  side  in  order  to  better  comprehend 
the  other? 

As  long  as  a  physiologist  is  a  mere  physicist — and  I 
use  the  word  physicist  now  in  its  most  comprehensive 
meaning — his  method  of  inquiring  into  organic  nature 
is  throughout  one-sided,  but  it  is  justly  so.  As  a  crystal 
to  the  mineralogist,  so  a  man  or  an  animal  is  to  the 
physiologist  of  this  standpoint  a  mere  lump  of  matter. 
Certainly  an  animal  feels  pleasure  and  pain,  and  mental 
emotions  are  connected  with  the  material  phenomena  of 
the  human  body,  but  that  is  no  reason  why  a  physicist 
should  take  a  different  view  of  the  corporeal  existence  of 
man,  who  remains  to  him  a  compound  of  matter  subject 
to  the  same  irrefragable  laws  as  stones  and  plants;  like 
a  machine,  his  motions  are  causally  connected  with  each 
other  and  dependent  upon  their  surroundings. 

Neither  sensation  nor  conception  nor  conscious  will 
can  form  a  link  in  the  chain  of  these  material  processes  of 
which  the  physical  life  of  organisms  consists.  If  I  an- 
swer a  question,  the  material  process  is  conducted  from 
the  organ  of  hearing  by  sensory  nerve  fibres  to  the 
brain,  and  must  pass  through  it  as  a  material  process  in 
order  to  reach  the  motor  nerves  of  the  organ  of  speech. 
It  cannot,  after  having  arrived  at  a  certain  spot  in  the 
brain  enter  into  something  immaterial  in"  order  to  be  re- 
transformed  in  some  other  place  of  the  brain  into  an- 
other material  process.  A  caravan  in  the  desert  might 
just  as  well  enter  into  the  oasis  of  a  mirage  in  order  to 
return  after  a  refreshing  rest  into  the  actual  desert. 

Thus  is  the  physiologist  so  far  as  he  is  a  physicist. 
He  stands  behind  the  stage  and  carefully  observes  the 
gear  of  machinery  and  the  movements  of  the  actors 
from  behind  the  scenes,  but  he  misses  the  meaning  of 
the  whole  action  which  is  readily  understood  by  the 
spectator.  Now,  should  a  physiologist  never  be  allowed 
to  change  his  standpoint? 

Certainly  his  object  is  not  to  understand  a  world  of 
concepts,  but  of  realities.  Nevertheless  if  he  occasionally 
change  his  place  of  observation  and  look  at  things  from 
the  other  side,  or  at  least  be  told  by  trustworthy  observers 
the  result  of  their  experiences,  he  may  derive  some 
benefit  so  as  to  better  comprehend  the  apparatus  and  to 
learn  how  it  works. 

For  this  very  reason  psychology  is  an  indispensable 
auxiliary  science   to  physiology.      If  the  latter  did   not 


142 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


heretofore  use  the  former  sufficiently  it  was  to  the  less 
extent  a  fault  of  physiology.  Psychology  has  heen  late 
to  till  her  ground  with  the  plough  of  induction,  for 
only  in  such  a  soil  can  those  fruits  be  raised  for  which 
the  physiologist  has  most  need. 

The  neurologist  is  thus  placed  between  the  physicist 
and  the  psychologist.  The  physicist  considers  the 
causal  continuity  of  all  material  processes  as  the  basis 
of  his  inquiry ;  the  thoughtful  psychologist  looks  for  the 
laws  of  conscious  life  according  to  the  rules  of  an 
inductive  method  and  assumes  the  validity  of  an  unal- 
terable order.  And  if  the  physiologist  learns  from 
simple  self-observation  that  conscious  life  is  dependent 
upon  his  bodily  functions,  and  vice  versa  that  his  body  to 
some  extent  is  subject  to  his  will;  he  has  only  to  assume 
that  this  interdependence  of  mind  and  body  is  arranged 
according  to  certain  taxes  and  the  connection  is  found 
which  links  the  science  of  matter  to  the  science  of  con- 
sciousness. 

Thus  considered,  phenomena  of  consciousness  appear 
to  be  functions  of  material  changes  of  organized  sub- 
stance and  vice  versa.  As  I  do  not  wish  to  mislead,  let 
me  expressly  mention,  aLthough  it  is  included  in  the 
term  function;  thus  considered,  material  processes  of 
the  cerebral  substance  appear  to  be  functions  of  the 
phenomena  of  consciousness.  For  if  two  variables  are 
dependent  upon  each  other,  according  to  certain  laws  a 
change  of  the  one  demanding  a  change  of  the  other 
and  vice  versa,  the  one  is  called,  as  is  known,  a  function 
of  the  other. 

This  does  not  mean  that  the  two  variables,  matter 
and  consciousness,  are  connected  with  each  other  as 
cause  and  effect;  for  we  do  not  know  anything  about  it. 
Materialism  explains  consciousness  as  a  result  of  matter, 
idealism  takes  the  opposite  view  and  from  a  third  posi- 
tion one  might  propound  the  identity  of  spirit  and 
matter.  The  physiologist,  as  such,  should  not  meddle 
with  such  questions. 

Aided  by  this  hypothesis  of  a  functionary  connec- 
tion between  spiritual  and  material,  modern  physiology 
is  enabled  to  draw  phenomena  of  consciousness  into  the 
domain  of  its  inquiry,  without  leaving  the  solid  ground 
of  its  scientific  method.  The  physiologist  as  a  physicist 
observes  how  the  beam  of  light,  the  undulation  of 
sound,  the  vibration  of  heat  affect  the  organs  of  sensa- 
tion; how  they  enter  into  the  nerves,  are  transformed 
into  an  irritation  of  nerve  fibre  and  conducted  to  brain 
cells.  Here  he  loses  their  vestiges.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  observes  the  spoken  word  coming  forth  from  the 
mouth  of  a  speaking  person,  he  sees  him  move  his 
limbs  and  finds  these  movements  caused  by  contractions 
of  muscles  which  are  produced  through  motor  nerves 
irritated  by  nerve  cells  of  the  central  organs.  Here 
again  he  is  at  his  wit's  end.  The  bridge  which  should 
lead  him  from  the  irritated  sensory  nerve  to  the  irritated 


motor  nerve,  is  indicated  in  the  labyrinthian  connections 
of  nerve  cells,  but  he  lacks  a  clue  to  the  infinitely 
involved  processes  which  are  interposed  in  this  place. 
It  is  here  the  physiologist  successfully  changes  his  stand- 
point. Here  matter  no  longer  reveals  the  secret  to  his 
inquiring  glance,  but  he  finds  it  in  the  mirror  of  con- 
sciousness, not  directly  but  indirectly  and  figuratively, 
still  it  is  in  lawful  connection  with  what  he  inquires 
into.  Now,  when  observing  how  one  idea  replaces 
another,  how  from  sensations  conception  rises,  and  how 
from  conceptions  will  starts,  how  emotions  and  thoughts 
interweave,  he  will  suppose  that  there  is  a  correspond- 
ing series  of  material  processes  connected  among  each 
other  and  accompanying  the  whole  action  of  conscious 
life  according  to  the  law  of  functionary  inter-depend- 
ence of  matter  and  consciousness. 

After  this  introduction  I  may  venture  to  combine 
under  one  aspect  a  long  series  of  phenomena  which  are 
apparently  widely  separated  and  belong  partly  to  con- 
scious, partly  to  unconscious  life  of  organic  nature:  we 
shall  consider  them  comprehensively  as  results  (Atisser- 
ungen)  of  one  and  the  same  faculty  of  organized  matter, 
viz.,  memory,  or  the  faculty  of  reproduction. 

Memory,  as  generally  understood,  is  merely  the  fac- 
ulty of  voluntarily  reproducing  ideas  or  a  series  of 
ideas.  Rut  if  faces  and  events  of  past  days  appear,  al- 
though they  were  not  called  for,  and  take  possession  of 
our  consciousness,  do  we  not  also  call  this,  exactly  as 
much,  remembering?  We  are  justly  entitled  to  include 
in  the  concept  of  memory  all  involuntary  reproductions 
of  sensations,  conceptions,  emotions  and  aspirations.  In 
doing  so,  memory  becomes  an  original  faculty,  being  at 
once  the  source  and  unification  of  all  conscious  life. 

It  is  well  known  that  sensual  perceptions,  if  made 
invariably  or  repeatedly  for  some  time,  are  impressed  into 
what  we  call  the  memory  of  senses,  in  such  a  way  that 
often  after  hours,  and  after  we  have  been  busy  with  a 
hundred  other  things,  they  suddenly  return  into  our  con- 
sciousness in  the  full  sensual  vivacity  of  their  original 
perception.  We  thus  experience  how  whole  groups  of 
sensations,  properly  regulated  in  their  connections  ac- 
cording to  space  and  time,  are  so  vividly  reproduced  as 
to  be  like  reality  itself.  This  shows  strikingly  that  after 
the  extinction  of  conscious  sensations,  some  material 
vestiges  still  remain  in  our  nervous  system,  implying  a 
change  of  its  molecular  and  atomic  structure,  by  which 
the  nervous  substance  is  enabled  to  reproduce  such  physi- 
cal processes  as  are  connected  with  the  corresponding 
psychical  processes  of  sensations  and  perceptions. 

Everyone  may  observe  such  phenomena  of  the 
memory  of  senses  in  his  daily,  even  his  hourly  experi- 
ence, although  in  fainter  forms.  Consciousness  produces 
legions  of  more  or  less  faded  memorial  pictures  {Erin- 
nernngsbi/dcr)  of  former  sensual  perceptions.  Partly 
they  are  called   in  voluntarily  and  partly  they  crowd   in 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


*43 


spontaneously.  Faces  of  absent  persons  come  and  go 
as  pale  and  volatile  shadows,  and  sounds  of  melodies 
which  long  have  died  away  haunt  us,  if  not  audible,  yet 
perceptible. 

Of  many  things  and  events,  especially  if  they  were 
perceived  only  once  or  very  superficially,  merely  single, 
unusually  striking  qualities  are  reproducible;  of  other 
things  only  those  qualities  are  reproducible  which  have 
been  noticed  on  former  occasions,  because  our  brain  was 
prepared  for  their  reception  beforehand.  They  are 
responded  to  stronger  and  enter  into  consciousness  more 
easily  and  energetically.  Thus  their  ability  of  being 
reproduced  increases.  In  this  way  what  is  common  to 
many  things  and  accordingly  has  been  perceived  most 
frequently,  will  be  by  and  by  so  reproducible  as  to  be 
easily  called  forth  by  a  slight  inner  impulse  without 
any  exterior  and  real  stimulus.  Such  a  sensation  which 
is,  as  it  were,  produced  internally,  for  instance  the  idea 
of  white,  is  not  of  the  same  vivacity  as  the  sensation  of 
white  color  externally  produced  by  white  light.  After 
all  it  is  essentially  the  same,  but  it  is  a  weak  repetition 
of  the  same  material  brain  process  and  of  the  same  con- 
scious sensation.  Thus  the  idea  of  white  is  an  almost 
imperceptibly  weak  perception. 

In  this  way  the  qualities  which  are  common  to  many 
things  separate,  as  it  were,  from  them  when  entering 
into  our  memory.  They  attain  an  independent  existence 
in  consciousness  as  concepts  or  ideas,  and  the  whole  rich 
world  of  our  concepts  and  ideas  is  constructed  of  these 
materials  of  memory. 

It  is  easily  recognized  that  memory  is  not  so  much  a 
faculty  of  conscious  as  of  unconscious  life.  What  was 
conscious  to  me  yesterday  and  again  becomes  conscious 
to-day,  where  has  it  been  in  the  meantime  from  yester- 
day until  to-day?  It  did  not  continue  as  a  fact  of  con- 
sciousness and  yet  it  returned.  Our  concepts  appear  on 
the  stage  of  consciousness  very  transiently;  they  quickly 
disappear  behind  the  scenes  in  order  to  make  place  for 
others.  Only  on  the  stage  they  are  conceptions,  as  an 
actor  is  king  only  on  the  stage.  As  what  do  they  con- 
tinue behind  the  scene?  For  that  they  exist  somehow 
we  know;  a  clue  only  is  required  to  make  them  reap- 
pear. They  do  not  continue  as  conceptions,  but  as  a 
certain  disposition  of  nervous  substance  (Stimmung  der 
Nerven  substanz)  by  virtue  of  which  the  same  sound 
may  again  be  evoked  to-day  which  was  produced  yes- 
terday. 

Innumerable  reproductions  of  organic  processes  in 
our  cerebral  substance  constantly  join  each  other  accord- 
ing to  certain  laws,  one  in  its  turn  stimulating  another. 
But  the  phenomenon  of  consciousness  is  not  necessarily 
connected  with  each  link  in  such  a  series  of  processes. 
Accordingly,  chains  of  conceptions  sometimes  seem  to 
lack  a  right  connection  if  they  are  conveyed  to  the 
cerebral  substance  through  a  process  not  accompanied 


by  consciousness.  Therefore,  also,  a  long  series  of  ideas 
may  follow  the  correct  logical  order  and  organic  struc- 
ture, although  the  diverse  premises,  indispensable  in 
such  combination,  did  not  become  conscious  at  all. 
Some  ideas  emerge  from  the  depth  of  unconscious  life 
into  consciousness  without  being  connected  with  any 
conscious  conception,  others  sink  into  unconsciousness 
without  ever  having  been  joined  to  conscious  ideas. 

Between  what  I  am  to-day  and  what  I  was  yester- 
day, a  gap  of  unconsciousness  lies,  the  nocturnal  sleep 
and  it  is  only  memory  which  spans  a  bridge  between  my 
to-day  and  my  yesterday.  Who  can  hope  to  unravel 
the  manifold  and  intricately  intertwined  tissues  of  inner 
life  if  he  attempts  to  follow  only  the  threads  as  they 
run  through  his  consciousness?  You  may  as  well 
gather  your  information  about  the  rich  organic  life  of 
the  oceanic  world  from  those  few  forms  which  now  and 
then  emerge  from  the  surface  of  the  sea  merely  to  dis- 
appear soon  afterwards  into  the  depths  of  the  ocean. 

Thus  the  cause  which  produces  the  unity  of  all  sin- 
gle phenomena  of  consciousness,  must  be  looked  for  in 
our  unconscious  life.  As  we  do  not  know  anything  of 
this  except  what  we  know  from  investigations  of  matter, 
and  as  to  a  purely  empirical  consideration,  matter  and 
the  unconscious  must  be  considered  identical,  the  physi- 
ologist may  justly  define  memory  in  a  wider  sense  to  be 
a  faculty  of  the  brain  the  results  of  which  to  a  great 
extent  belong  to  both  consciousness  and  no  less  to  un- 
consciousness. 

Every  perception  of  an  object  in  space  is  a  highly 
complicated  process.  For  instance,  a  white  ball  sud- 
denly appears  before  my  eyes.  It  is  necessary  not  only 
to  convey  the  perception  of  white  to  consciousness,  but 
also  the  circular  periphery  of  the  visible  ball,  moreover  its 
globular  form  as  may  be  recognized  from  the  distribu- 
tion of  light  and  shade,  then  the  exact  distance  from 
my  eyes  must  be  considered  and  from  this  we  form  an 
estimate  concerning  its  size.  What  an  apparatus  of  sen- 
sations, perceptions  and  conclusions  is  apparently  neces- 
sary for  attending  to  all  this.  And  yet  the  actual  per- 
ception of  the  sphere  is  performed  in  a  few  seconds 
without  my  becoming  conscious  of  the  single  processes 
which  construct  the  whole;  the  result  enters  into  my 
consciousness  complete. 

The  nervous  substance  faithfully  preserves  the 
records  of  processes  often  performed.  All  functions 
necessary  for  correct  perception  which  first  were  done 
slowly  and  with  difficulty  by  a  constant  employment  of 
consciousness,  are  reproduced  afterward  summarily  in  an 
abbreviated  way  and  without  such  intensity  as  to  push 
each  single  link  of  the  chain  beyond  the  threshold  of 
consciousness.  Such  chains  of  unconscious  nerve-pro- 
cesses which  at  last  end  into  a  link  accompanied  with 
consciousness,  have  been  called  unconscious  chains  ot 
perceptions  or  unconscious  conclusions;  a  name  which  is 


1 44 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


justifiable  from  the  standpoint  of  psychology.  For  psy- 
chology might  lose  sight  of  the  soul  quite  frequently  if 
unconscious  states  were  not  taken  into  consideration. 
To  a  physical  consideration,  however,  unconscious  and 
material  mean  the  same,  and  a  physiology  of  the  uncon- 
scious is  no  philosophy  of  the  unconscious.*] 

Almost  all  movements  which  man  performs,  are  a 
result  of  long  and  difficult  practice.  The  harmonious 
co-operation  of  the  different  muscles,  the  exactly  gauged 
amount  of  work  which  each  one  must  contribute  to  the 
common  labor,  must  be  learned  for  most  movements 
with  great  trouble.  How  slowly  a  beginner  at  the 
piano  finds  the  single  notes,  the  eye  directing  his  fingers 
to  the  different  keys,  and  then  how  marvelous  is  the 
play  of  a  virtuoso.  With  the  swiftness  of  thought  each 
note  finds  an  easy  passage  through  the  eye  to  the  finger 
to  be  performed  correspondingly.  One  quick  glance  at 
the  music  suffices  to  make  sound  a  whole  series  of 
chords,  and  a  melody  which  his  been  practiced  suffi- 
ciently may  be  played  while  the  player's  attention  is 
directed  to  other  subjects. 

In  such  a  case  will  no  longer  directs  each  single 
finger  to  produce  the  desired  movements,  and  no  close 
attention  is  needed  to  watch  the  whole  execution  care- 
fully. Will  is  only  commander-in-chief.  Will  issues 
an  order  and  all  muscles  act  accordingly.  They  work 
on  as  long  as  they  move  in  their  customary  tracks,  till 
a  slight  hint  of  will  prescribes  another  direction. 

This  would  be  impossible,  if  those  parts  of  the 
central  nervous  system  which  bring  about  the  move- 
ment, were  not  capable  of  reproducing  entire  series  of 
states  of  irritation.  When  they  have  been  practiced 
before  under  a  constant  accompaniment  of  conscious- 
ness, they  can  be  called  forth,  as  it  were,  independently 
on  a  slight  provocation  of  consciousness  which  is 
executed  the  quicker  and  more  perfect,  the  oftener 
reproductions  have  been  repeated.  All  this  is  possible 
only  if  they  remember  what  they  did  before.  Our 
perceptive  faculty  would  forever  remain  on  the  low- 
est stage,  if  we  should  build  every  single  perception 
consciously  from  all  given  single  materials  of  sensation. 
Our  voluntary  motions  would  never  surpass  the  awkward- 
ness of  a  child,  if  in  each  case  we  should  instigate  the  dif- 
ferent single  impulses  with  conscious  will  and  reproduce 
all  the  single  conceptions  over  again.  To  state  it  briefly, 
if  the  nervous  motor  system  were  not  endowed  with 
memory,  viz.,  an  unconscious  memory.  What  is  called 
the  power  of  custom  Die  Atacht  der  Gewohnheit  is  the 
strength  of  this  memory. 

It  is  memory  to  which  we  owe  all  we  are  and  have. 
Ideas  and  conceptions  are  products  of  it,  each  percep- 
tion, each  thought,  each  motion  is  carried  by  it. 
Memory  unites  all   the  innumerable   single   phenomena 

*  This  is  a  thrust  against  Eduard  von  Hartmann's  Philosophy  oj  the  Uncon- 
cious. 


of  consciousness  into  one  entirety ;  and  as  our  body 
would  be  dispersed  into  myriads  of  atoms,  if  it  were  not 
held  together  by  the  attraction  of  matter;  thus,  but  for  the 
binding  power  of  memory,  consciousness  would  be  dis- 
solved into  as  many  fragments  as  there  are  moments. 

We  have  seen  that  only  a  part  of  the  reproduction 
of  organic  processes,  as  brought  about  through  the 
memory  of  nervous  substance,  enters  into  our  conscious- 
ness; no  less  unimportant  parts  remain  unconscious.  And 
the  same  may  be  proved  from  numerous  facts  with  re- 
gard to  those  parts  of  the  nervous  system  which  are  ex- 
clusively subservient  to  the  unconscious  processes  of  life. 
For  the  memory  or  reproductive  faculty  of  the  so-called 
sympathetic  nervous  system  is  by  no  means  weaker  than 
that  of  the  brain  and  the  spinal  cord.  Medical  art  to  a 
great  extent,  makes  good  use  of  it. 

In  concluding  this  part  of  my  investigation  let  me 
drop  the  subject  of  nervous  substance  for  a  moment  in 
order  to  take  a  cursory  view  of  other  organic  matter, 
where  we  meet  with  the  same  reproductive  faculty,  but 
in  a  simpler  form. 

Daily  experience  teaches  us  that  muscles  grow  the 
stronger  the  oftener  they  are  used.  Muscle  fibre,  which 
in  the  beginning  but  feebly  responded  to  the  irritation 
of  a  motor  nerve,  works  with  more  energy  the  oftener 
it  is  irritated  in  reasonable  intervals  of  rest.  After  each 
single  action  it  becomes  more  capable  of  action,  it  grows 
fitter  for  the  repetition  of  the  same  work  and  better 
adapted  to  the  reproduction  of  the  same  organic  process. 
Pari  passu,  its  size  increases  because  it  assimilates  more 
than  in  a  state  of  constant  rest. 

This  is  the  very  same  faculty  of  reproduction  the 
action  of  which  is  so  complicated  in  nervous  substance; 
here  it  is  observable  in  its  simplest  form,  and  easier 
understood  as  a  physical  process.  And  what  is  more 
accurately  known  of  muscle  substance  is  more  or  less 
clearly  demonstrable  of  the  substances  of  all  other 
organs.  Everywhere  we  find  an  increased  activity  with 
adequate  pauses  of  recreation  accompanied  by  an 
increased  strength  of  action,  and  organs  which  are  used 
oftener  in  the  animal  household  also  grow  in  size  by  an 
increased  assimilation.  But  this  increase  of  mass  does 
not  only  mean  an  aggrandizement  and  growth  of  the 
single  cells  or  fibres  of  which  the  organ  is  composed, 
but  also  an  augmentation  of  their  number.  A  cell 
grown  to  a  certain  size  divides  into  filial  cells  which 
inherit,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  the  qualities  of  the 
parental  cell,  and  accordingly  represent  repetitions  of  it. 
This  growth  and  augmentation  of  cells  is  one  of  the 
different  functions  which  are  characteristic  of  organized 
matter.  These  functions  are  not  only  interior  phenom- 
ena of  the  cell  substance,  not  only  certain  changes  or 
motions  of  its  molecular  structure,  but  also  become 
externally  visible  as  a  modification  of  form,  an  aggran- 
dizement  of  size   or  a  division   of  the   cell.     Thus  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


H5 


reproductive  function  of  a  cell  is  manifested  also  as  a 
reproduction  of  the  cell  itself.  This  is  most  obvious  in 
plants;  the  chief  function  of  their  cells  is  the  work  of 
growth,  while  in  animal  organisms  other  functions  are 
predominant. 

(to  be  continued.) 
HERBERT  SPENCER  AS  A  THINKER. 

BY  RICHARD  A.  PROCTOR. 

In  considering  the  philosophy  of  Herbert  Spencer, 
I  scarcely  know  whether  I  am  more  moved  by  his 
strength  and  power  or  by  his  grace  and  versatility,  until 
I  reflect  that  these  latter  qualities  are  but  tokens  of  the 
former.  He  could  not  pass  with  so  firm  and  free  a 
tread  over  so  a  wide  a  range  of  thought  were  it  not  for 
the  energy  of  mind  which  has  enabled  him  to  take  all 
thought  for  his  domain. 

Yet  herein  has  lain  the  secret  of  the  doubts  which 
many  have  quite  honestly  entertained  respecting  Her- 
bert Spencer's  real  position  among  (or  rather  above)  the 
philosophers  the  world  has  known.  Specialists  have 
been  apt  to  weigh  his  philosophy  in  parcels,  comparing 
his  biology  with  the  biology  of  a  Darwin  or  a  Huxley; 
his  physicial  science  with  that  of  a  Thomson  or  a 
Tyndall;  his  mathematics  with  that  of  a  Pierce  or  a 
Cayley,  and  so  forth — not  noting  that  with  him  each 
department  of  science  has  supplied  but  its  due  quota  of 
material  towards  the  building  up  of  a  philosophy  which 
depends  on  all  the  sciences,  while  including  also  what  is 
as  yet  outside  the  scientific  domain.  If  we  compare 
Herbert  Spencer,  in  any  department  of  science,  with 
some  chief  master  in  that  department,  we  find  him  at 
once  less  and  greater:  less  in  knowledge  of  details  and 
in  mastery  of  facts  and  methods;  greater  in  that  he  sees 
outside  and  beyond  the  mere  details  of  that  special  sub- 
ject, and  recognizes  the  relation  of  its  region  of  inquiry 
to  the  much  wider  domain  over  which  his  own  philosophy 
extends.  Thus,  comparing  Spencer  even  with  Darwin— - 
the  Newton  of  biology — we  see  that  the  biological  field 
over  which  Darwin  and  his  followers  have  extended 
their  survey,  is  in  reality  but  a  small  part  of  the  domain 
over  which  Herbert  Spencer  has  searched  for  the  evi- 
dence of  evolution  and  dissolution.  If  the  Darwinian 
theory  be  summarized  (as,  indeed,  in  all  its  essential 
features  it  was  summarized  by  Spencer  himself,  who 
independently  recognized  its  validity)  we  find  it  pre- 
senting but  a  finite  example,  within  a  special  depart- 
ment, of  that  universal  law,  unlimited  alike  in  time  and 
space,  which  Herbert  Spencer  presents  thus: 

'■'■The  rhythm  of  evolution  and  dissolution,  complet- 
ing- itself  during-  short  periods  in  small  aggregates, 
and  in  the  vast  aggregates  distributed  through  space 
completing  itself  in  periods  -which  are  i?nmeasurable 
by  human  thought  is,  so  far  as  ive  can  sec,  universal 
and  eternal,    each    alternating  phase    of  the   process 


predominating,  now   in   this   region  of  space,  and  now 

in  that,  as  local  conditions  determ  ne." 

Yet  one  cannot  but  pause  when  contemplating  Her- 
bert Spencer's  work  in  departments  of  research,  to  note 
with  wonder  how  he  has  been  enabled,  by  mere  clear- 
ness of  insight,  to  discern  truths  which  escaped  the  notice 
of  the  very  leaders  in  those  special  subjects  of  inquiry. 
To  take  astronomv,  for  example,  a  subject  which,  more 
perhaps  than  anv  other,  requires  long  anil  special  study 
before  the  facts  with  which  it  deals  can  be  rightly  inter- 
preted, Spencer  reasoned  justly  respecting  the  most  dif- 
ficult, as  well  as  the  highest  of  all  subjects  of  astronom- 
ical research,  the  architecture  ol  the  stellar  system,  when 
the  Herschels,  Ar  go,  and  Humboldt  adopted  or  accepted 
erroneous  views.  In  this  particular  matter  1  had  a  note- 
worthy illustration  of  the  justice  of  a  remark  made 
(either  bv  Youmans  or  Fiske,  I  forget  which)  at  the 
Spencer  banquet  in  New  York  a  few  years  ago:  "In 
every  department  of  inquiry  even  the  most  zealous 
specia'ists  must  take  the  ideas  of  Herbert  Spencer  into 
consideration."  After  long  and  careful  study  specially 
directed  to  that  subject,  I  advanced,  in  1869,  opinions 
which  I  supposed  to  be  new  respecting  the  architecture 
of  the  heavens, — opinions  which  Spencer  himself,  in  his 
Study  of  Sociology,  has  described  as  "  going  far  to 
help  us  in  conceiving  the  constitution  of  our  own  gal- 
ax}- ;"  yet  I  found  that  twelve  years  before,  dealing 
with  that  part  of  science  in  his  specially  planned  survey 
of  the  whole  domain,  he  had  seen  clearly  many  of  the 
points  on  which  I  insisted  later,  and  had  found  in  such 
points  sufficient  evidence  to  lead  him  to  correct  views 
respecting  the  complexity  and  variety  of  the  sidereal 
system. 

In  Spencer's  power  of  getting  at  broad  general 
truths  we  find  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  somewhat  cap- 
tious objection  that  in  matters  of  detail  he  often  errs. 
Every  specialist,  I  suspect,  can  find  mistakes  in  Herbert 
Spencer's  detailed  references  to  special  subjects.  But  his 
mistakes  are  never  such  as  to  affect  the  trulh  of  his  gen- 
eral views.  One  might  as  reasonably  consider  them 
defects  in  his  philosophy,  as  one  might  object  to  a  survey 
of  some  continent  or  country  that  it  pictured  cities,  towns, 
and  villages  as  circles,  though  not  one  of  them  is  pre- 
cisely circular  in  shape. 

It  is,  however,  as  a  founder  of  a  school  ot  ethics 
that  Herbert  Spencer  is  chiefly  honored  by  those  who 
understand  and  love  his  philosophy,  in  this  character 
that  he  is  disliked  (nay,  hated)  by  those  who  do  not  and 
cannot  understand  him. 

The  ethical  system  of  Herbert  Spencer  in  its  careful 
discrimination  between  the  duties  men  owe  to  them- 
selves and  those  which  they  owe  to  others,  is  far  in 
advance  of  that  system,  which  many,  calling  it  "  Chris- 
tian teaching,"  fondly  imagine  to  be  a  system  of  pure 
altruism.       To    these   dreamers    the    system    taught    in 


146 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Spencer's  Data   of  Ethics  seems  comparatively  selfish 

tinctured  at  least  by  what  they  call  worldly  wisdom, — 

in  a  tone  implying  that  wisdom  belonging  to  another 
world  than  ours  must  be  much  better  for  us  than  wis- 
dom only  useful  here.  One  would  not  willingly  speak 
with  contempt  of  teachings  which  had  their  origin  in 
the  minds  of  earnest  and  unselfish  men,  anxious  to  teach 
their  fellows  the  secret  of  happiness.  "  Come  unto  me, 
all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,"  was  their  cry 
ages  before   the  time  of  Christ,  "and  I  will  give  you 

rest," and   rest  was  to  be  found  as  it  seemed  to  them 

in  the  love  of  others,  in  disregard  of  self,  in  forgiveness 
of  injuries,  and  in  taking  no  thought  for  the  morrow. 
Poverty  was  no  longer  to  be  held  a  reason  for  disquiet; 
meekness  and  humility  were  to  be  regarded  as  chief 
amono-  the  virtues,  and  men  were  to  deem  themselves 
happy  when  their  fellows  spoke  ill  of  them  and  they 
were  evil  entreated.  Doubtless  herein  lay  one  way 
towards  content  and  therefore  towards  happiness.  The 
golden  rule  of  Hillel  (Confucius  gave  it  in  the  same 
negative  form)  "Do  not  to  others  what  ye  would  not 
men  should  do  to  you,"  is  at  least  a  rule  by  which  much 
unhappiness  may  be  avoided  by  the  individual  man, 
unphilosophical  as  the  rule  may  be  in  itself.  A  kind  of 
peace,  and  with  it  a  kind  of  happiness,  may  be  secured 
by  turning  the  right  cheek  to  him  who  has  smitten  the 
left;  by  yielding  the  cloak  to  him  who  has  taken  the 
coat;  by  going  two  miles  with  him  who  would  have 
forced  you  to  go  with  him  but  one.  And  most  assuredly 
amono-  men  who  follow  this  particular  way  to  secure 
peace  and  quiet,  it  may  be  said  with  truth,  "  Blessed  are 
the  poor  in  spirit,"  for  they  and  they  alone  can  inherit 
and  enjoy  the  kingdom  of  heaven — as  thus  imagined. 

In  one  sense  this  ethical  system  needs  no  attacking. 
It  never  has  been  adopted  or  followed  save  by  a  minor- 
ity so  small  as  not  to  be  worth  considering.  The  very 
last  to  follow  it  have  been  those  who  have  seemed  most 
earnest  in  teaching  it,  and  who,  indeed,  have  doubtless 
been  very  earnest  in  teaching  it  to  others,  seeing  that,  as 
a  doctrine  for  others  to  follow,  it  commends  itself  most 
to  the  least  altruistic  minds.  If  the  ethical  doctrine 
taught  by  Herbert  Spencer  had  no  other  claims  to  our 
regard  it  would  be  worthy  of  our  warmest  esteem  in 
this,  that  it  is  a  system  in  which  precept  and  practice  can 
be  reconciled.  It  is  not  a  system  which  selfishly  teaches 
unselfishness.  It  is  not  a  system  which  teaches  as  a 
duty  the  setting  aside  of  duty.  It  does  not  enjoin  men 
to  seek  their  own  comfort  by  rewarding  iniquity.  It 
does  not  tell  men  that  neglect  of  self  is  a  virtue  merely 
because  it  is  a  way  of  escaping  trouble.  Instead  of  say- 
ing, "  Resist  not  evil,"  it  teaches  that  it  is  each  man's 
duty  to  resist  wrong-doing  to  the  uttermost  in  so  far  as 
lies  within  his  power;  not  as  moved  by  anger  or  by 
hate  (unless  where  anger  and  hate  are  necessary  ele- 
ments of  strenuous  opposition  to  evil),  but  because  evil 


would  thrive  if  unresisted,  and  few  evils  among  men 
can  be  destroyed  unless  zealously  opposed.  So  far  from 
telling  men  to  take  no  thought  for  the  morrow,  this 
worthier  ethical  system  teaches  that  only  the  savage  and  ' 
the  uncultured  can  be  forgiven  (even  as  young  children 
are  forgiven)  for  that  careless  disregaid  of  the  future 
which  trusts  the  welfare  of  the  thoughtless  to  the  care 
of  the  provident. 

The  most  characteristic  feature  of  Spencer's  moral 
teaching  is  found,  however,  not  so  much  in  what  it 
inculcates  as  in  the  account  it  gives  of  the  origin  of  rules 
of  conduct,  and  especially  of  our  ideas  in  regard  to  what 
is  morally  right  and  morally  wrong.  It  is  here  that 
Spencer's  philosophy  has  its  chief  interest  for  thought- 
ful minds,  while  also  herein  lies  its  chief  defect  in  the 
eyes  of  the  shallow-minded.  He  has  set  as  the  great 
object  he  has  had  in  view  throughout  all  his  work,  the 
application  of  the  principles  of  evolution  to  the  discus- 
sion of  the  rules  by  which  the  conduct  of  men  should  be 
guided.  He  has  shown  that  all  the  rules  by  which  the 
conduct  of  men  actually  is  guided  have  had  their  origin 
in  processes  of  evolution, — this  being  true  not  only  of 
rules  which  seem  good  in  themselves,  but  of  others 
which  seem  the  reverse,  precisely  as  the  attractive  and 
preservative  qualities  of  various  forms  of  animal  and 
vegetable  life  had  their  origin  in  evolution  as  certainly 
as  those  which  seem  unpleasant  and  destructive.  The 
ferocity  of  the  lion  is  as  surely  a  product  of  evolution  as 
the  gentleness  of  the  gazelle;  the  cowardly  cruelty  of 
the  wolf  came  into  existence  through  the  struggle  for 
life  as  surely  as  the  courage  and  self-devotion  of  the  dog, 
man's  best  friend  among  the  animals.  The  sense  of  loy- 
alty and  duty,  of  good  faith  and  justice,  grows  stronger 
as  communities  advance  from  savagery  toward  the  bet- 
ter forms  of  civilization.  To  recognize  this  growing 
sense  of  right  and  duty  as  a  product  of  evolution  is  a 
necessary  step  toward  recognizing  the  ways  by  which 
the  development  of  the  better  rules  of  conduct  may  be 
encouraged.  But  to  the  lower  and  less  reasoning  types 
of  mind  these  views  of  conduct  seem  degrading.  They 
would  rather  imagine  virtue  to  be  some  ethereal  essence 
not  depending  on  reasoning  but  on  the  emotions,  not  a 
product  of  development  but  of  some  divine  creative 
force.  As  reasonably  might  the  health  of  body  be  so 
regarded,  and  all  that  the  study  of  the  human  body  has 
taught  of  the  dependence  of  health  on  regimen  be 
regarded  as  degrading  to  the  higher  man. 

What  has  been  the  outcome  of  Herbert  Spencer's 
moral  philosophy?  What  has  been  the  lesson  resulting 
from  his  pursuance  of  what  he  has  described  as  "  his 
ultimate  purpose,  lying  behind  all  proximate  pur- 
poses," the  recognition  of  "  a  scientific  basis  for  the 
principles  of  right  and  wrong  in  conduct  at  large?"  I 
take  it  that  he  has  obtained  the  best  answer  yet  gained 
by  man  to  the  vain  yet  ever-recurring  question,  "  Is  life 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


147 


worth  living  ?"  I  am  not  concerned  to  decide  whether,  on 
the  whole,  life  is  a  gain  or  a  loss.  It  does  not  seem  to  me 
that  Spencer's  ethical  system  really  depends  on  any 
such  decision.  The  results,  as  regards  conduct,  would 
be  the  same  (whatever  the  difference  in  our  estimate  of 
their  value)  whether  life  were,  on  the  whole,  a  blessing 
or,  on  the  whole,  the  reverse.  Hillel  answered  the 
Mullocks  of  his  day,  "It  is  idle  to  ask  whether  life  is 
worth  living-,  seeing  that  we  live."  Even  so  Spencer  may 
answer  those  who  question  whether  an  ethical  system 
depending  on  the  struggle  for  life,  is  worthy  of  adop- 
tion. The  struggle  for  life  goes  on  independently  of 
all  question  whether  life  is  good  or  bad,  of  all  opinion 
whether  with  time  life  may  or  may  not  be  made  better 
and  happier.  The  outcome  of  Spencer's  philosophy 
remains — that  happiness  is  to  be  sought  by  each — the 
happiness  of  self  as  a  duty  to  others  as  well  as  to  self, 
the  happiness  of  others  as  a  duty  to  self  as  well  as  to 
them — happiness  as  a  means,  happiness  as  the  chief  end.* 

It  remains  only  that  I  should  touch  on  the  question 
of  belief  in  a  future  life  and  faith  in  a  Supreme  Power 
outside  ourselves,  as  presented  by  Herbert  Spencer,  or 
rather  as  suggested  in  his  philosophy.  That  Spencer 
nowhere  describes  as  known  what  is  and  must  ever 
remain  unknowable,  need  hardly  be  said.  It  is  the 
essence  of  his  mode  of  thinking  that  he  strives  always 
to  see  and  to  describe  things  as  they  are.  He  nowhere 
denies  the  possibility  of  a  future  life,  though  he  shows 
abundantly  the  nothingness  of  the  evidence  on  which 
the  common  belief  in  a  future  life  has  been  basedy.  And, 
in  like  manner,  he  nowhere  denies  the  possibility  of  a 
personal  deity,  though  he  repeatedly  insists  on  the  inhe- 
rent folly  of  all  those  teachings  which  are  based  on 
imagined  knowledge,  not  only  of  the  personality  of  an 
Almighty  Power,  but  of  the  nature  of  that  power's  per- 
sonal plans  and  purposes.  His  whole  doctrine  is  sum- 
marized in  the  thought  that — 

Under  the  appearances  which  the  universe  presents 
to  our  senses,  there  persists  unchanging  in  quantity, 
but  ei'er-ckanging  in  form  and  ever-transcending 
human  know/edge  and  conception,  an  u>iknoivn  and 
uuknozvable  power,  which  ive  are  obliged  to  recognise 
as  without  limit  in  space  and  zvithout  begiiuiing  or 
end  in  time. 

True,  as  the  positivist,  Frederick  Harrison,  has 
suggested,  there  is  in  this  thought  none  of  that  comfoit 
under  affliction  which  the  childhood  of  religion  found 
in    the  pretended    interventions   of  priesthood   between 

*  I  repc.it  just  here  what  I  wrote,  umier  the  assumed  name  of  Thomas 
Foster,  in  the  pa^cs  of  my  monthly  magazine,  Knowledge,  and  whatmv  friend 
the  late  Prof.  E.  S.  Youmans  reprinted,  not  knowing  I  was  the  author,  in  the 
Popular  Science  Monthly,  where  possibly  some  readers  of  these  page^  may 
have  noticed  the  passage,  A  somewhat  amu>ing  result  of  the  appearance  of  the 
Foster  papers  was  that  I,  as  Richard  A.  Proctor,  was  requested  by  an  admirer 
of  Spencer  (the  Rev.  MinotJ.  Savage)  to  meetmyself  as  Thomas  Foster,  at 
a  Spencerian  gathering. 

■f  Common  opinion,  in  matters  depending  on  individual  judgment,  is  abso- 
lutely certain — where  decision  is  difficult — to  be  cot  mon  error. 


man  and  God, — though,  to  say  truth,  the  religion  of 
humanity  which  positivism  calls  on  us  to  accept  fails  no 
less  completely  (for  the  thought  that  there  have  been 
great  human  minds  affords  no  comfort  under  great 
human  trials).  But  we  are  to  consider  that  when  races 
of  man  are  passing  through  childhood  the  comforts 
found  in  contradictory  theologies  are  real  enough  as 
comforts,  vain  though  they  are  as  philosophy;  while 
races  which  have  reached  the  fullness  of  their  manhood 
may  safely  put  away  childish  things  and  man-like  learn 
"  to  suffer  and  be  strong;." 


FREE-THOUGHT  IN    ENGLAND. 

BY     HYPATIA    BRADLAUGH    BONNER. 

In  1SS3  the  state  of  the  law  relating  to  blasphemy 
in  England  attracted  much  public  attention.  In  the 
March  of  that  year  Messrs.  Foote,  Ramsey  and  Kemp 
were  tried  before  Mr.  Justice  North  and  a  common  jury 
for  having  published  a  blasphemous  libel.  They  were 
convicted  and  sentenced  to  scandalously  heavy  terms  of 
imprisonment.  Later  in  the  same  year  Mr.  Bradlaugh 
was  prosecuted  with  Messrs.  Foote  and  Ramsey  and 
tried  before  Lord  Chief  Justice  Coleridge  and  a  special 
jury.  Mr.  Bradlaugh  was  tried  separately  and  acquitted. 
As  in  his  case  it  was  merely  the  question  of  publication 
and  not  of  the  matter  published  that  was  tried,  no  state- 
ment of  the  law  of  blasphemy  was  then  made,  but  in  the 
case  of  Messrs.  Foote  and  Ramsey  it  was  the  character 
of  the  published  matter  and  not  the  fact  of  publication 
that  the  court  was  called  upon  to  decide.  The  Lord 
Chief  Justice  stated  his  view  of  the  law  in  his  summing 
up  and  this  created  such  an  extraordinary  impression 
among  the  public  and  was  so  much  questioned  by  some 
of  the  judges  that  he  felt  called  upon  to  publish  it  in 
pamphlet  form. 

In  his  summing  up  Lord  Coleridge  said  that  the  law 
grows  and  Christianity  is  no  longer  "  part  of  the  law  of 
the  land;"  all  through  he  laid  down  most  distinctly  that 
the  offense  of  blasphemy  is  in  the  manner  of  attacking 
Christianity  and  not  in  the  attack  itself;  the  offense  lies 
in  the  form  and  not  in  the  substance.  It  is  "  absolutely 
untrue,"  he  said,  that  the  mere  denial  of  Christianity  is 
a  blasphemous  libel;  the  denial  of  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  religion  is  not  alone  enough  to  constitute  the 
offense  of  blasphemy.  "  If  the  decencies  of  controversy 
be  observed  even  the  fundamentals  of  religion  may  be 
attacked  without  a  person  being  guilty  of  a  blasphemous 
libel."  In  concluding  his  summing  up  Lord  Coleridge 
turned  to  the  jury  and  bade  them  take  the  publications 
and  look  at  them,  "  if  you  think  they  are  permissible 
attacks  on  the  religion  of  the  country  you  will  find  the 
defendants  not  guilty,  *  *  *  but  if  you  think 
that  they  do  not  come  within  the  most  liberal  and 
largest  view  that  anyone  can  give  of  the  law  as  it  exists 
now,  then  find  them  guilty." 


148 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Such  an  expression  of  opinion  on  the  law  relating  to 
blasphemy  coming  as  it  did  from  so  high  an  authority 
as  the  Chief  Judge  of  England,  caused  much  discussion 
among  botli  the  learned  and  the  unlearned,  and  in  the 
following  March  an  article  on  the  subject  appeared  in 
the  Fortnightly  Review,  from  the  erudite  pen  of  Mr. 
Justice  Stephen.  Mr.  Justice  Stephen  while  admiring 
the  summing  up,  feared  "  that  its  merits  may  be  trans- 
ferred illogically  to  the  law  which  it  expounds  and  lays 
down,  and  that  thus  a  humane  and  enlightened  judgment 
may  tend  to  perpetuate  a  bail  law  by  diverting  the 
public  attention  from  its  defects.  The  law  I  regard  as 
essentially  and  fundamentally  bad." 

Mr.  Justice  Stephen  accepted  Blackstone's  definition 
of  the  offense  of  blasphemy*  as  accurate,  and  quoted 
from  several  of  the  leading  authorities  in  support  of 
his  opinion.  He  disliked  the  law  profoundly  anil 
also  so  thoroughly  that  in  order  that  other  people 
might  see  how  bad  it  was,  he  determined  to  state  it 
"  in  its  natural  naked  deformity."  He  pointed  out  that 
a  large  part  of  our  most  serious  and  most  impor- 
tant literature  of  the  day  is  illegal;  the  selling  or 
lending  of  Comte's  Positive  Philosophy,  of  Renan's  Vie 
de  Jesus  is  punishable  by  fine  and  imprisonment.  He 
took  a  particular  instance  to  bring  the  revolting  nature 
of  the  law  home  to  his  readers.  "  The  late  Mr.  Greg," 
he  said,  "  was  not  only  a  distinguished  author  but  an 
eminent  and  useful  member  of  the  Civil  Service.  I 
suppose  he  was  educated  as  a  Christian,  and  no  one 
could  have  a  stronger  sympathy  with  the  moral  s.'de  of 
Christianity.  In  every  one  of  his  works  the  historical 
truth  of  the  Christian  history  is  denied,  and  so  is  the 
Divine  authority  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  If 
he  had  been  convicted  of  publishing  these  opinions,  or 
even  of  expressing  them  to  a  friend  in  private  conversa- 
tion, his  appointment  would  have  become  void  and  he 
would  have  been  '  adjudged  incapable  and  disabled  in  law 
to  hold  any  office  or  employment  whatever;'  in  a  word 
he  would  have  lost  his  income  and  his  profession.  Upon 
a  second  conviction,  he  must  have  been  imprisoned  for 
three  years  and  incapacitated,  among  other  things,  to 
sue  or  accept  any  legacy.  About  this  there  neither  is 
nor  can  be  any  question  whatever."  Mr.  Justice  Ste- 
phen concluded  his  able  article  by  urging  the  repeal  of 
the  blasphemy  laws. 

The  learned  judge  was  followed  by  other  less  able 
writers  on  both  sides,  but  it  was  largely  felt  that  while 
Lord  Coleridge  had  given  a  "humane  and  enlightened  " 
presentment  of  the  law,  Mr.  Justice  Stephen  had  given 
an  uncomfortably  accurate  one.  This  view  has  been 
authoritatively  taken  by  the  Queen's  Bench  division  of 


*  The  fourth  species  of  offense,  therefore,  more  immediately  against  God 
and  religion,  is  that  blasphemy  against  the  Almightv  by  denying  his  being  or 
providence,  or  by  contumelious  reproaches  of  our  Savior  Christ.  Whither 
also  may  be  referred  all  profane  scoffing  at  the  Holy  Scripture  or  exposing  it  to 
contempt  or  ridicule." 


the  High  Court  of  Justice  in  the  recent  case  of  Pank- 
hurst  vs.  Thompson,  in  which  it  was  held  by  Mr.  Baron 
Huddleston  and  Mr.  Justice  Manisby  that  a  mere  denial 
of  Christianity  was  an  indictable  offense  without  refer- 
ence to  the  manner  of  the  denial. 

Consequently  Mr.  Courtney  Kenny,  M.  P.,  has- 
introduced  a  bill  into  the  present  Parliament  on  lines 
drafted  by  Mr.  Justice  Stephen,  for  "the  abolition  of 
prosecutions  against  laymen  for  the  expression  of 
opinion  on  matters  of  religion."  The  bill  is  powerfully- 
backed  by  Mr.  Illingworth  and  Mr.  Crossley,  leading- 
Nonconformists,  and  Mr.  Bernard  Coleridge,  son  of  the 
Lord  Chief  Justice,  whose  recent  visit  to  the  United 
States  will  have  made  his  name  familiar  to  the  Ameiican. 
public.  Mr.  Courtney  Kenny  is  himself  a  most  able 
man,  and  was  for  a  long  time  law  lecturer  at  Downing 
College,  Cambridge.  When  the  bill  gets  into  com- 
mittee there  is  one  clause  which  will,  without  doubt,  be 
opposed  by  some  of  those  who  are  otherwise  friendly 
to  the  bill,  probably  by  Mr.  Bradlaugh  at  least.  The 
clause  to  which  I  refer  is  the  third,  which  provides  that 
"any  person  who,  with  the  intention  of  wounding  the 
religious  feelings  of  any  person  or  persons,  shall  in 
any  public  place  utter  any  word,  or  make  any  gesture,, 
or  exhibit  any  object  within  the  hearing  or  sight  of  any 
person  or  persons,  whose  religious  feelings  are  likely 
to  be  thereby  wounded,  shall  be  guilty  of  a  misde- 
meanor; and  on  being  convicted  thereof,  shall  be  lia- 
ble to  fine  or  imprisonment,  or  both,  as  the  court  may 
award,  such  imprisonment  not  to  exceed  the  term  of 
one  year" 

This  provision  is  borrowed  from  the  Indian  code,, 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  has  worked  very  well  in 
India,  where  there  are  Mohammedans,  Hindoos  and  other 
opposing  sects,  and  where  it  has  prevented  the  Chris- 
tian missionary  from  making  himself  too  offensive  to 
the  natives.  But  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  such  a  clause 
would  work  well  here  in  England,  where  the  circum- 
stances are  so  entirely  different;  on  the  contrary  it  opens- 
out  the  way  to  much  possibility  of  evil. 

The  bill  is  down  for  its  second  reading  for  July  I,, 
but  the  coercion  legislature  for  Ireland  introduced  by  the 
government,  and  the  debates  on  the  never-ending  Irish 
difficulties  take  up  so  much  of  the  time  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  that  private  members'  bills  have  very  little 
chance  this  session.  At  present,  therefore,  Free-thinkers, 
and  Unitarians  still  remain  under  a  law  which  threatens 
them  with  fine  and  imprisonment  wheneverthey  unburden 
their  minds  on  the  subject  of  religion.  It  is,  of  course,  a 
well-known  fact  that  Atheistic  and  Unitarian  publica- 
tions are  issued  daily,  and  yet  they  are  not  prosecuted. 
So  much  obloquy  attached  to  the  prosecutions  of  1S83 
that  they  are  not  likely  to  be  indulged  in  very  often;, 
nevertheless  the  law  is  there  to  enforce  whenever  there 
is    the   evil  will   to   enforce   it.      Before    the    Foote  and 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


149 


Ramsey  prosecutions  people  said  the  law  was  obsolete, 
and  pooh-poohed  the  idea  of  it  being  pleaded  in  a  court 
of  law  today;  but  it  was  pleaded,  and  by  its  minister, 
Mr.  Justice  North,  dealt  out  to  Mr.  Foote  the  severe 
penalty,  the  savage  punishment  of  twelve  months' 
imprisonment. 

Another  important  bill  affecting  the  position  of  Free- 
-  thinkers   in   England    is  also  before  the   present   Parlia- 
ment, namely  the  bill  "  to  amend  the  law   as  to  oaths." 
It  consists  merely  of  three  short  paragraphs  which  are 
as  follows: 

1.  Every  person  shall  be  permitted  to  make  his  solemn 
affirmation  instead  of  taking  an  oath  in  all  places  and  for  all  pur- 
poses where  an  oath  is  or  shall  be  required  by  law,  which  affirma- 
tion shall  be  of  the  same  force  and  effect  as  if  he  had  taken  the 
oath;  and  if  any  person  making  such  affirmation  shall  wilfully, 
falsely,  and  corruptly  affirm  any  matter  or  thing  which,  if  dis- 
posed on  oath,  would  have  amounted  to  wilful  and  corrupt 
perjury,  he  shall  be  liable  to  prosecution,  indictment,  sentence 
and  punishment  in  all  respects  as  if  he  had  committed  wilful  and 
corrupt  perjury. 

2.  Every  such  affirmation  shall  be  as  follows: 

"  I,  A.B.,  do  solemnly,  sincerely,  and  truly  declare  and 
affirm,"  and  then  proceed  with  the  words  of  the  oath  prescribed 
by  law,  omitting  any  words  of  imprecation  or  calling  to  witness. 

3.  This  Act  may  be  cited  as  the  Affirmative  Act,  1S87. 

This  bill  was  introduced  on  the  first  day  of  the 
Parliamentary  by  Mr.  Charles  Bradlaugh  and  has  been 
down  for  its  second  reading  a  great  many  times  already. 
It  has,  however,  a  host  of  enemies  to  contend  with,  first 
there  is  the  common  enemy  to  all  home  legislation — the 
Irish  coercion  measure  with  all  its  attendant  troubles; 
then  the  Oaths  Bill  has  its  own  particular  religious 
enemies;  Roman  Catholic  and  ultra- Protestant  join 
hands  in  opposing  the  Atheist.  Mr.  Bradlaugh  puts 
his  bill  down  every  night  in  the  hope  that  it  may  come 
on  but  as  regularly  as  he  puts  it  down  so  regularly  is  it 
"  blocked "  by  Mr.  de  Lisle,  a  Roman  Catholic,  or  by 
Mr.  Johnston,  an  ultra-Protestant  and  violent  opponent 
of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Home  Rule  Bill  for  Ireland,  or  some 
other  blind  intolerant  zealot.  There  is  a  rule  in  the 
House  known  as  "the  half-past  twelve  rule"  which 
provides  that  opposed  measures  shall  not  be  taken  after 
half-past  twelve  at  night,  and  when  a  member  goes 
through  the  form  of  putting  his  name  down  as  opposer 
to  a  bill,  he  is  said  to  have  "  blocked  "  it  because  he  has 
prevented  it  from  being  taken  after  half-past  twelve. 
It  is  exceedingly  unlikely  that  an  ordinary  bill  would 
come  on  before  that  hour  unless  there  should  be  some 
break-down  in  the  appointed  business  for  the  night. 

The  Oaths  Bill  is  backed  by  Sir  John  Simon,  a  Jew; 
Mr.  Courtney  Kenny,  whom  I  have  already  mentioned 
as  the  introducer  of  the  bill  against  blasphemy ;  Mr. 
Burt,  the  trusted  representative  of  the  Northumberland 
miners;  Mr.  Coleridge,  the  son  of  the  Lord  Chief 
Justice;  Mr.  Illingworth,  a  very  prominent  English  Dis- 
senter; Mr.   Richard,   leader   of    the   Welsh     Noncon- 


formists and  Mr.  Jesse  Collings.  Sir  John  Simon  had 
charge  of  the  Oaths  Bill  in  the  former  Parliament, 
before  Mr.  Bradlaugh  was  permitted  to  take  his  seat  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  but  his  bill  was  far  less  com- 
prehensive than  the  present  one.  Mr.  Hopwood,  Q.  C, 
now  Recorder  of  Liverpool,  was  the  first  person  to  have 
charge  of  the  bill  which  arose  out  of  the  objections 
made  for  political  purposes  by  the  Tory  party,  first  to 
Mr.  Bradlaugh's  taking  an  affirmation  of  allegiance 
when  he  entered  the  House  as  duly  elected  member  for 
the  borough  of  Northampton,  and  next,  to  his  "  profan- 
ing" the  oath.  The  judges  decided  that  Mr.  Bradlaugh 
had  no  right  to  affirm  and  the  Tories,  supported  by  a 
number  of  weak  Liberals  and  by  the  whole  of  the  Irish 
party,  determined  he  should  not  take  the  oath.  How- 
ever, bigotry — whether  real  or  assumed  for  political 
purposes  —  was  vanquished  at  last,  and  as  everyone 
knows,  Mr.  Bradlaugh  is  now  sitting  in  the  House 
doin^  his  full  share  of  work. 


MIND-READING,   ETC. 

MINOT  J.    SAVAGE. 

The  editors  of  this  paper  ask  me  for  an  article  con- 
taining "  the  results  of  your,  observation  and  experience 
in  regard  to  mind-reading." 

Now  to  be  suddenly  called  on  for  all  one  knows 
about  any  subject  is  somewhat  embarrassing.  One  has 
the  comfort,  to  be  sure,  of  feeling  that  it  will  not  take 
him  long  to  tell,  and  the  cost  of  paper  will  be  so  much 
less  than  it  would  be  should  he  attempt  to  tell  all  he  does 
not  know.  But  still  there  are  so  many  things  one  half 
knows,  or  thinks  he  knows,  though  as  yet  he  can  give 
no  scientific  proof.  Then  one  wants  to  give  so  many- 
reasons  for  not  knowing  more,  or  for  opinions  that  as 
yet  are  not  quite  certain.  No,  it  is  no  easv  task  to  tell 
even  the  little  that  one  knows. 

Then  there  is  another  thing  that  concerns  these  in- 
vestigations on  the  border-land,  that  the  members  of 
the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  do  not  take  sufficient 
account  of.  Through  circulars,  and  in  other  ways,  the 
committees  call  loudly  for  evidence,  asking  all  who  have 
any  facts  to  submit  them  for  examination  and  judg- 
ment. But  it  has  happened,  through  my  known  interest 
in  and  sympathetic  treatment  of  these  questions,  that 
large  numbers  of  cases  have  come  to  my  knowledge 
that  the  Society  will  never  hear  of.  And  the  reason  for 
this  ought  to  be  noted.  And  public  investigators  ought 
to  take  account  of  th's  reason.  No  one  should  suppose 
that  nothing  is  going  on  because  it  is  not  submitted  to 
the  inspection  of  those  who  call   loudest  for  it. 

The  reason  for  keeping  these  things  back  is  two- 
fold: 

1.  Many  of  the  things  that  occur  are  of  a  private, 
personal  character.  It  is  quite  natural  that  this  should 
be  so.     Such  things  are  held   as  sacred.     People  would 


*5° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


as  soon  publish  their  private  griefs  as  give  these  things 
to  the  world. 

2.  Then  the  attitude  of  the  investigators  is  often  a 
most  unfortunate  one.  It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that 
it  is  absurd  for  a  man  to  investigate  a  thing,  the  very 
■possibility  of  which  he  denies  before  he  begins.  If  a 
man  does  not  believe  of  course  he  gives  no  testimony  in 
favor.  If  he  does  believe  he  is  treated  as  a  "crank  "  and 
his  testimony  is  ruled  out.  So  long  as  one  knows  tbat 
he  is  to  be  met  in  this  spirit — that  he  will  be  looked  on 
as  a  lunatic,  to  be  treated  with  a  superior  kind  of  pity  and 
tenderness,  or  with  the  blunt  brutality  that  says,  "You 
may  mean  all  right,  but  you  are  a  fool " — so  long  circu- 
lars asking  for  information  will  be  likely  to  find  the 
waste-basket. 

I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  heading  this  article 
"Mind  Reading,  Etc"  I  mean  that  the  "Etc"  shall 
be  the  larger  part  of  it.  Or,  to  speak  more  accurately, 
I  wish  to  make  it  an  open  door  through  which  I  may 
go  out  and  wander  through  this  border-land  at  will. 

That  mind-reading,  thought-transference,  or  some- 
thing quite  as  inexplicable  is  true  1  know.  My  purpose 
in  this  article  then  will  be  to  make  it  clear  that  here  is  a 
problem  that  challenges  the.  attention  of  rational  people. 
I  wish,  I  say,  to  make  so  much  clear  if  I  can.  And  yet  I 
am  not  ready  to  publish  more  than  hints  or  fragments 
of  facts  that  lead  me  to  express  the  certainty  to  which  I 
have  given  utterance.  But  the  principal  thing  that  rea- 
sonable people  need  at  present  to  know  is  that  there  are 
facts  that  as  yet  find  no  place  in  our  generally  accepted 
scientific  theories. 

The  present  condition  of  affairs  is  a  scandal  both  to 
science  and  philosophy.  Here  are  thousands  of  sane 
persons  asserting  that  wonderful  psychic  facts  are  of 
daily  occurrence.  Their  statements  are  either  true  or 
false.  If  false,  here  is  at  least  a  huge  delusion  from 
which  it  is  worth  while  that  these  people  be  set  free. 
The  statements  of  these  persons  are  accepted  without 
question  on  all  other  subjects.  And  these  things  are 
not  like  one's  theological  opinions,  that  are  taken  on 
faith,  and  that  those  who  disbelieve  them  are  accustomed 
tacitlv  to  ignore.  They  are  offered  as  facts  that  are 
open  to  investigation.  I  am  aware  that  a  few  persons, 
in  a  half-and-half  sort  of  way,  arc  investigating,  but  it 
seems  to  me  that  something  more  than  this  is  needed. 
If  these  asserted  facts  take  place  then  they  change  our 
scientific  theories  of  human  nature  and  human  destiny. 
If  not  then  there  are  other  and  more  important  things 
to  engage  oir  thought  and  time.  I  believe  then  that 
this  is  a  question  worthy  the  most  serious  attention. 

But  my  experience  with  so-called  "scientific" 
investigators  leads  me  to  think  that,  as  there  are  "odds 
in  deacons,"  so  there  are  odds  In  "scientific"  investiga- 
tors. Some  of  them  arc  scientific;  and  others  are  such 
bundles    of    prejudices    and     preconceptions    that    their 


claims  to  be  scientific  in  these  inquiries  are  simply 
ludicrous.  Their  demands  and  their  proposed  tests 
seem  to  me  as  absurd  as  would  be  the  position  of  a  man 
who  would  net  believe  in  electricity  because  it  would 
not  ignore  its  own  laws  and,  just  to  please  him,  work 
through  a  rail  fence  instead  of  a  wire. 

I   plead  then,  not  only  for  an  investigation   of  these 
things,  but   for  a  little  unbiassed  study   of  conditions, —  . 
the  same  as  would  be  rational  in  other  departments   of 
study. 

Now  for  a  few  hints  as  to  the  kinds  of  facts  that 
need  to  be  explained. 

The  mind-reading  committee  of  the  English  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  thinks  tbat  the  fact  of  thought- 
transference  has  been  established.  Their  experiments, 
however,  are  before  the  public;  and  all  those  interested 
can  review  their  work  and  pass  judgment  on  it  at  will. 
The  thoroughness  of  their  work  has  been  questioned 
on  this  side  the  Atlantic,  and  their  conclusions  impeached. 
I  am  inclined,  however,  to  accept  the  fact  itself  as 
established.  But  my  acceptance  is  based  not  so  much, 
perhaps,  on  the  evidence  they  offer,  as  on  the  fact  that  I 
am  sure  that  things  quite  as  wonderful  have  occurred  in 
my  own  experience.  When  once  a  general  truth  is 
established  in  one's  own  mind,  he  does  not  require  so 
much  evidence  as  he  did  before  to  lead  him  to  accept 
some  special  case  that  may  be  reported. 

I  was  a  good  deal  impressed  at  one  time,  with  the 
so-called  mind-reading  experiments  of  Mr.  W.  Irving 
Bishop.  I  have  had  many  private  experiments  with 
him  that  seemed  very  wonderful.  But  Mr.  Montague 
(one  of  the  editorial  staff  of  the  Globe  of  this  city)  has 
duplicated  nearly  all  of  Mr.  Bishop's  wonders,  and 
claims  that  he  does  it  by  means  of  the  unconscious  guid- 
ance of  the  subject.  I  do  not  feel  quiet  sure  that  all  of 
Mr.  Bishop's  work  can  be  explained  in  this  way.  And 
yet  I  do  not  rely  on  any  of  these  things  as  giving  satis- 
factory proof  of  actual  thought-transference. 

I  will  now  give  a  few  brief  hints  of  some  occur- 
rences that,  to  my  mind,  establish  the  fact  that  there  are 
some  things  for  which  our  present  theories  of  man  and 
nature  furn  sh  no  explanation. 

The  facts  of  hypnotism  are  somewhat  familiar  to  all 
those  who  have  given  any  attention  to  this  class  of 
studies.  But  not  all  these,  I  think,  are  aware  that  some 
hypnotic  subjects  are  clairvoyant  and  can  see  and  report 
things  with  which  even  the  operator  is  not  acquainted. 
During  private  experiments  in  my  own  study,  strange 
powers  have  been  exercised,  for  which  I  know  of  no 
explanation. 

Then,  as  the  result  of  private  experiments,  I  am 
sure  of  the  manifestation  of  some  force  that  is  able  to 
move  physical  objects.  The  circumstances  have  been 
such  that  no  muscular  pressure,  conscious  or  unconscious, 
could  account  for  the  movements. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


iS1 


I  am  acquainted  with  no  end  of  cases  where  people 
have  been  told  things  that  the  persons  who  told  them 
(or  through  whom  they  were  told?)  did  not  know. 

More  than  once  I  have  had  a  person  hold  an 
unopened  letter  in  her  hand  and  tell  me  about  the  one 
who  wrote  it  in  the  most  detailed  and  unmistakable  way. 

In  sitting  with  a  personal  friend,  not  a  recognized  or 
public  "  medium,"  I  have,  over  and  over  again,  been 
told  things  that  it  was  impossible  the  friend  should  ever 
have  known. 

And  —  most  unaccountable  of  all  —  I  have  had  this 
same  friend  tell  me  of  things  that  were  occurring  at  the 
time  in  another  State,  and  concerning  which  neither  of 
us  could,  by  any  possibility,  have  had  any  knowledge. 
These  have  been  so  personal  and  peculiar  as  to  make 
all  theories  of  guess-work  or  coincidence  so  extremely 
improbable  that  impossible  seems  the  proper  word  to 
use. 

To  tell  the  story  of  my  experiments  in  any  fulness 
would  require  a  volume.  Are  these  things  mind-read- 
ing? Are  they  telepathy  ?  What  are  they  ?  That  they 
are  facts  I  know. 


FREDERICK    DOUGLASS    IN    PARIS. 

BY    THEODORE    STANTON. 

During  the  recent  sojourn  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frederick 
Douglass  in  Paris  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  meet  the 
celebrated  orator  and  reformer  on  many  and  different 
occasions,  and  I  propose  in  this  letter  to  report  discreetly 
some  of  his  sayings  and  doings. 

Mr.  Douglass,  even  amidst  the  new  attractions  of 
an  European  capital,  never  seems  to  forget  that  he  is 
the  champion  of  an  oppressed  race.  "  One  of  the  rea- 
sons why  I  so  much  like  France  and  the  French,"  he 
said  to  me  one  day, "  is  because  the  negro  is  not  the  butt 
of  ridicule  here  as  he  is  in  the  United  States.  There 
are  no  minstrel  shows  in  Paris,  and  at  the  Louvre  and 
Luxembourg  Galleries  and  elsewhere  I  find  that  the 
public  treats  the  African  as  an  equal  fellow-being.  '1  he 
occasional  bandana  is  here  considered  one  of  the  pictur- 
esque features  of  the  boulevards  and  classed  with  the 
becoming  headgear  of  the  natty  peasant  girls  from  the 
provinces.  No  Frenchman  ever  snickers  at  the  black 
face  that  sets  off  the  parti-colored  handkerchief."  When 
Mr.  Douglass  stood  in  front  of  Gustave  Dora's  statue  of 
Alexandre  Dumas,  on  the  Place  Malesherbes,  the  artistic 
qualities  of  the  monument  failed  to  move  him.  He  re- 
membered how  this  son  of  a  negress  had  never  spoken 
a  word  or  written  a  line  in  defense  of  his  mother's  race. 
"  Let  us  go  and  see  the  statue  of  Lamartine,"  he  ex- 
claimed one  afternoon;  "he  said  some  fine  things." 
And  when  we  reached  the  Place  Lamartine  Mr.  Doug- 
lass cared  but  little  for  the  masterly  way  in  which  the 
sculptor  has  grouped  the  legs  of  the  chair,  dog  and 
man ;  his    mind    was    dwelling    on    the     fact    that     the 


poet-President  signed  in  1S48  the  decree  that  freed  all 
the  slaves  of  the  French  colonies,  and  his  eyes  were  at- 
tracted by  the  resemblance  of  Lamartine's  face  to  that 
of  Lincoln. 

Probably  his  two  meetings  with  M.  Victor  Schoel- 
cher,  the  William  Lloyd  Garrison  of  France,  left  a 
deeper  impression  on  Mr.  Douglass'  mind  than  any 
other  event  that  happened  to  him  while  in  Paris,  for  it 
was  Senator  Schoolcher's  long  and  indefatigable  efforts 
that  finally  secured  the  abolition  of  negro  servitude  in 
the  French  possessions.  I  was  present  when  this  grand 
old  octogenarian  recounted  the  history  of  his  life  work, 
which  seemed  to  carry  Mr.  Douglass  back  to  the  ante 
helium  struggle  in  the  United  States.  M.  Schcelcher 
then  asked  many  questions  about  the  anti-slavery  con- 
flict in  our  country,  with  which  he  is  remarkably  well 
acquainted,  and  criticised  severely  Mr.  Lincoln's  course. 
Thereupon  Mr.  Douglass  defended  Mr.  Lincoln,  ex- 
plained to  M.  Schcelcher  the  difficult  position  in  which 
the  President  was  placed,  and  closed  his  apology  with 
these  words:  "Mr.  Lincoln  was  better  inside  than  out- 
side." 

Mr.  Douglass  tells  many  interesting  anecdotes  of 
Lincoln.  The  following  one  he  very  naturally  enjoys 
recounting:  During  the  war  Mr.  Douglass  was  paying 
his  respects  to  the  President  at  the  White  House,  when 
Governor  Buckingham,  of  Connecticut,  was  announced. 
Mr.  Lincoln  thereupon  called  out  to  the  servant  in  his 
high-pitched  tone :  "  Tell  Governor  Buckingham  to 
wait;  1  want  to  have  a  good  talk  with  Mr.  Douglass." 
"And  we  did  have  a  good  talk,"  said  Mr.  Douglass  as 
he  told  us  the  anecdote  the  other  day,  "  for  Mr.  Lincoln 
kept  me  half  an  hour  longer.  This  circumstance  made 
an  impression  on  me,  for  not  often  in  my  life  have  I 
kept  a  Governor  waiting,  and  a  '  War  Governor '  at 
that." 

"The  delegates  to  the  famous  Union  Convention 
held  in  August,  1S66,"  continued  Mr.  Douglass,  "  didn't 
treat  me  like  Mr.  Lincoln.  I  was  sent  to  that  Phila- 
delphia gathering  to  represent  the  city  of  Rochester, 
but  before  reaching  my  destination  I  was  met  by  a  com- 
mittee that  boarded  the  train  and  begged  me  not  to  enter 
the  convention.  They  dwelt  upon  an  important  election 
then  pending  in  Indiana,  spoke  of  the  conservative  dele- 
gates to  the  convention,  and  expressed  fear  that  the  pres- 
ence of  a  colored  man  would  give  Indiana  to  the  Demo- 
crats and  send  home  a  certain  number  of  the  members. 
But  I  declined  to  return  to  Rochester,  being  convinced 
that  the  fears  of  the  committee  were  not  well  founded, 
and  results  proved  that  I  was  correct.  When  we  were 
forming  in  procession  to  march  to  the  hall,  I  noticed 
that  everybody  was  afraid  of  me.  Even  Henry  Wilson 
was  reserved.  General  Butler  was  almost  the  only  man 
who  gave  me  a  hearty  welcome.  As  the  delegates 
paired  off  and  fell  into  line,  it  looked   for  a   moment  as 


!52 


THB    OPEN    COURT. 


though  I  should  have  to  walk  by  myself.  But  it  was 
not  the  first  time  that  I  had  stood  alone  and  so  I  was  not 
troubled  on  this  score.  As  the  band  struck  up  and  the 
volume  moved  off  an  arm  was  suddenly  locked  in  mine 
and  I  found  Theodore  Tilton  at  my  side.  And  I  must 
add  that  all  through  the  streets  of  Philadelphia  it  was 
Theodore  Tilton  and  his  humble  companion  who 
awakened  the  most  enthusiasm  and  cheers." 

When  Mr.  Douglass  came  to  Paris  it  was  but  natu- 
ral, therefore,  that  he  should  hunt  up  his  old  friend,  and 
the  tall  forms  and  silvered  hair  of  Frederick  Douglass 
and  Theodore  Tilton  have,  during  the  past  autumn, 
attracted  scarcely  less  attention  on  the  boulevards 
of  the  French  capital  than  their  well-known  faces 
did  just  twenty  years  ago  on  the  streets  of  the 
Quaker  City.  They  have  gone  together  to  St.  Cloud, 
to  the  Palace  of  the  Archives,  to  the  Trocadin  Museum 
and  to  many  of  the  other  interesting  spots  in  and 
around  Paris.  "  You  should  have  seen  our  aston- 
ished Frederick  on  the  top  of  Notre  Dame,"  wrote 
Mr.  Tilton  to  me  last  November.  "  Coming  unexpect- 
edly' into  the  grotesque  presence  of  the  grinning  gar- 
goyles! In  fact  these  fantastic  figures  are  the  merriest 
company  of  imps,  demons,  goblins  and  good  devils  that 
I  have  met  in  this  cheeriest  of  all  cities.  The  true 
Comedie  Francaise  is  on  top  of  Notre  Dame!" 

Although  Mr.  Douglass  holds  liberal  views  on  re- 
ligion, he  did  not  confine  his  church-going  while  in  Paris 
to  visits  paid  to  the  outside  of  the  edifices.  He  was 
present  at  a  grand  mass  in  Saint  Eustache,but  felt  forced 
to  leave  before  the  end  of  the  ceremony.  "The  super- 
stition made  me  sad,"  he  remarked,  in  extenuation  of  his 
conduct.  He  could,  however,  sit  through  Father  Hya- 
cinthe's  service  Sunday  after  Sunday,  probably  because 
he  was  held  by  the  fascinating  oratory  of  this  wonder- 
ful divine.  "  I  think  I  am  Father  Hyacinthe's  most  at- 
tentive listener,"  Mr.  Douglass  said  to  me  after  his  first 
Sabbath  in  the  little  chapel  in  the  Rue  d'Arras;  "and 
he  appears  to  be  of  the  same  mind,  for  I  notice  that  he 
keeps  his  e}es  on  me  throughout  most  of  his  sermon. 
I  apprehend  his  thoughts,  although  I  do  not  understand 
his  language,  which  proves  that  he  is  a  true  orator." 
Father  Hyacinthe  finally  learned  who  was  this  rapt  wor- 
shiper, and  invited  him  to  tea.  The  next  morning  we 
were  seated  in  M.  Schcelcher's  study  waiting  for  the 
senator,  when  Mr.  Douglass  arose,  stood  behind  his 
chair,  and  began  to  develop  his  views  on  revealed  re- 
ligion with  a  clearness  of  thought  and  a  flow  of  lan- 
guage that  was  really  remarkable.  My  only  regret  was 
that  the  audience  was  so  small.  "  I  cannot  understand," 
he  said,  among  other  things,  "how  Father  Hyacinthe 
stopped  half  way  in  his  religious  evolution,  and  when  I 
see  him  still  going  through  the  service  of  the  Roman 
Church,  I  reluctantly  ask  myself,  can  it  be  that  he  be- 
lieves in  this?"     "No,  of  course  he  doesn't,"  interrupted 


M.  Schoelcher,  who  entered  at  this  point;  "it  is  only  a 
sentiment,  just  like  Victor  Hugo's  idea  of  immortality. 
We  were  standing  one  day  at  his  front  window  discus- 
sing this  question  of  a  future  life,"  continued  M.  Schoel- 
cher, who  is  a  confirmed  atheist,  and  was  a  close  friend 
of  the  dead  poet,  "when  I  said  to  him:  'Noyv,  what 
would  be  the  use  of  saving  the  soul  of  that  stupid  cab- 
man passing  there?'  '  None,  whatever,'  answered  Vic- 
tor Hugo;  'it  is  only  such  as  you  that  I  expect  to  see  in 
the  next  world.'  I  venture  to  say  that  Father  Hya- 
cinthe holds  much  the  same  view,  if  he  were  to  express 
what  is  in  the  bottom  of  his  heart."  "Father  Hya- 
cinthe said  to  me  yesterday,"  interrupted  Mr.  Douglass, 
"  when  I  told  him  that  I  was  coming  to  see  you  this 
morning,  'Well,  you  are  going  to  meet  a  man  who 
doesn't  believe  in  heaven  himself,  but  makes  other  peo- 
ple believe  in  it.'  " 

Mr.  Douglass  delights  to  revert  to  the  anti-slavery 
struggle,  and  his  anecdotes  of  Phillips,  Garrison  and  the 
other  leaders  in  the  abolition  movement  are  very  enter- 
taining. We  were  crossing  the  Pont  St.  Michel  one 
afternoon,  when  Mr.  Douglass  stopped  in  the  middle 
and  looking  down  into  the  Seine,  said:  "  When  I  came 
up  North  from  slavery  I  found  the  abolitionists  declar- 
ing the  federal  constitution  to  be  a  covenant  with  the 
Evil  One.  But,  as  soon  as  I  got  my  eyes  open  to  the 
situation,  I  felt  that  we  could  make  out  a  case  standing 
on  the  constitution.  So  I  differed  with  them  and 
immediately  found  that  I  had  got  myself  into  trouble. 
Mr.  Garrison  was  especially  hard  on  me.  If  you  once 
agreed  with  Garrison  and  then  differed  with  him,  your 
position  was  a  difficult  one.  But  later  we  became  good 
friends  again  and  I  also  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
the  abolitionist  come  round  to  my  way   of   thinking." 

We  were  passing  through  the  Passage  de  Choiseul 
one  evening,  feasting  our  eyes  on  the  rare  books  that 
abound  in  the  little  shops  when  Mr.  Douglass  espied  a 
second-hand  violin  ,  exposed  for  sale  in  one  of  the 
windows.  We  entered,  he  asked  the  price  of  the  instru- 
ment, looked  at  it  carefully,  tyvanged  the  strings  and,  as 
we  went  out,  thanked  the  merchant  for  his  politeness. 
"  Why,  do  you  know  anything  about  the  violin  ? "  I 
asked  of  Mr.  Douglass.  "Certainly,"  was  his  reply;  "I 
have  a  good  violin  at  home  and  often  play  on  it.  I 
must  tell  you  the  first  time  I  ever  took  up  this  instru- 
ment. It  was  during  my  sojourn  in  London  directly 
after  my  escape  from  slavery.  I  was  in  very  low  spirits, 
and  as  I  yvas  walking  the  streets  of  the  vast  English 
capital  in  a  most  dejected  mood,  I  noticed  a  violin  in  a 
shop  window  just  as  I  did  that  one  a  moment  ago.  In 
the  former  instance,  hoyvever,  I  purchased  the  instru- 
ment, returned  to  my  hotel,  where  I  remained  four  days, 
shut  up  in  my  room,  striving  to  become  familiar  with 
my  new  friend.  And  when  I  came  forth  again,  I  had 
played  myself   in  tune." 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


lS3 


A  few  nights  after  this  conversation  I  met  Mr.  Doug- 
lass at  a  little  musical  party  where  an  amateur  quartette 
performed.  Having  never  seen  him  with  a  violin  under 
his  chin,  and  remembering  what  had  happened  and  what 
-was  said  in  the  Passage  de  Choiseul,  I  hinted  that  Mr. 
Douglass  be  invited  to  play  something.  He  at  first  de- 
clined, but,  being  pressed  by  the  company,  finally  took 
tip  the  violin  and  rendered  some  plaintive  Scotch  airs 
■with  much  spirit  and  feeling.  Before  we  separated,  one 
of  the  guests  struck  up  the  "  Marseillaise,"  and  then  it 
-was  that  Mr.  Douglass'  passion  for  music  displayed  it- 
self. He  rose  from  the  sofa,  made  his  way  to  the  piano, 
and  joined  in  this  majestic  national  anthem  just  as  he 
must  have  done  in  the  war  days  when  "John  Brown" 
-was  being  sung. 

Mr.  Douglass  left  Paris  with  considerable  regret,  for 
he  bad  found  here  many  appreciative  friends,  both 
among  the  English-speaking  exotics  and  the  indigenous 
French.  And  he  had  begun  to  take  a  strong  liking  to 
its  people,  its  customs,  its  streets  and  its  public  monu- 
ments. In  fact,  so  deep  is  this  attachment  for  the  French 
capital  that  he  intends  to  return  here  in  the  spring,  when 
he  shall  have  completed  his  tour  in  Egypt,  where  he 
now  is,  and  have  visited  Northern,  as  he  has  just  done 
Southern,  Italy.  Mr.  Douglass  has  seen  Paris  in  its 
■somber  autumnal  and  winter  dress,  and  now  he  quite 
naturally  wishes  to  look  upon  it  in  its  proverbial  sum- 
mer brightness. 

Paris,  April, 


DOES  AGNOSTICISM    PRODUCE   BETTER   RESULTS 
THAN     CHRISTIANITY  ? 

BY    W.    L.    GARRISON,   JR. 

I  am  often  led  to  speculate  on  the  results  follow- 
ing different  theological  beliefs.  The  prolonged  battle 
for  religious  freedom  which  gained  its  great  impetus  in 
the  Lutheran  reformation,  has  in  our  generation  and 
■country  nearly  reached  its  culmination.  The  right  of 
rejecting  inherited  religious  dogmas  has  by  the  aid  of 
science  and  free  inquiry  been  established.  Where, 
thirty  years  ago,  to  avow  disbelief  in  a  Supreme  Being 
or  in  immortality  was  to  accept  social  ostracism,  intel- 
lectual skepticism  is  now  no  bar  to  preferment  in  socie'y 
or  public  life. 

The  right  of  unbelief  is  as  sacred  as  that  of  crediting 
traditions,  and  the  victory  is  well  worth  the  fearful  cost. 
The  crimes  perpetrated  in  the  name  of  religion  match 
any  committed  for  selfish  ambition  or  national  aggran- 
dizement. But  now  we  can  be  Baptists,  Methodists, 
Presbyterians,  Unitarians,  Spiritualists,  Catholics  or 
■Come-outers,  having  no  formulated  religious  ideas  at  all, 
or  we  may  deny  vehemently  any  foundation  for  a  super- 
natural belief,  and  still  keep  our  flesh  from  the  pincers 
and  the  flames,  retain  a  respectable  character,  be  ac- 
cepted as  good  citizens  and  trusted  as  honest  men. 


It  is  a  fortunate  period  of  the  world's  history  to  live 
in.  The  inquisition  has  no  terrors  for  the  dissenting 
soul,  and  no  evangelical  church  prays  to-day  that  God 
will  put  a  hook  into  the  jaws  of  a  liberal  preacher,  as 
was  besought  by  Park  Street  Church,  in  the  case  of 
Theodore  Parker.      Let  us  be  thankful. 

Having  achieved  liberty  what  shall  we  do  with  it? 
"  The  virtue  lies  in  the  struggle,  not  the  pr'ze."  It  is 
the  right  to  declare  our  unbelief,  if  we  hold  it,  not  the 
unbelief  itself  that  is  precious.  Everv  sect  was  evolved 
in  trials  and  persecution,  and  to  cling  to  a  heresy  under 
fire  was  a  test  of  manhood  and  moral  courage.  But 
once  successful  the  touchstone  lost  its  power.  Each 
faith  has  its  saints  who  deserve  their  canonization,  but 
traditional  accepters  of  dearly  established  creeds  are  not 
of  necessity  worthy  of  embalming. 

Free  religious  ideas  and  agnosticism  having  won 
toleration,  it  argues  no  saving  grace  or  virtue  to  pro- 
claim them  now.  They  take  their  place  in  the  cate- 
gory of  other  sects  or  creeds,  and  no  cross  is  incurred  by 
professing  them.  Thev  are  as  likely  to  be  the  shibbo- 
leth of  selfishness  and  ambition  as  church  membership 
has  been  heretofore.  The  vital  question  for  one  anxious 
to  embrace  a  code  of  faith  is,  "  Which  produce^  the  best 
lives?"  We  must  judge  the  tree  by  its  fruit,  and,  com- 
paring ourselves  with  followers  of  the  creeds  we  have 
outgrown,  can  we  affirm  that  our  larger  liberty  has  made 
us  more  the  children  of   light: 

A  healthful  mode  of  comparison  is  to  study  the  per- 
sonality of  the  workers  in  the  reforms  of  the  day.  It  is 
our  belief  that  human  progress  has  always  been  cher- 
ished and  advanced  by  the  few  laborers  outside  the 
church  more  than  by  the  many  professors  within  it. 
So,  for  the  practical  exemplars  of  religion,  we  turn  our 
eyes  naturally  to  the  humanitarian  efforts  which  agitate 
society. 

In  benevolent  attempts  to  relieve  personal  suffering, 
religious  societies  have  never  been  wanting.  On  the 
contrary,  they  have  been  active.  But  their  indifference 
or  antagonism  may  safely  be  counted  upon  when  radi- 
cal instead  of  palliative  measures  are  aimed  at.  Radical 
reform  interferes  with  established  customs  and  interests. 
These  the  church  considers  it  her  function  to  preserve, 
or  at  least  to  shield.  She  follows  and  claims  the  fruit  of 
the  unselfish  sowers  of  the  seed.  The  ripened  sheaves 
are  gathered  by  her  without  compunction.  I  laving  per- 
secuted the  heretics  she  has  ended  with  claiming  the 
merit  of  the  accomplishment  and  when  too  late  for  the 
reformer,  appropriating  him  as  a  saint. 

The  never-ending  battle  for  reform  goes  on  as  here- 
tofore. The  great  temperance  movement;  the  cause  of 
woman's  political  equality,  the  most  far-reaching  in  its 
results  of  any  since  the  world  began ;  the  Indian 
problem ;  the  agiation  for  free  trade  and  the  abolition  of  the 
blighting  tariff;  the  problems  of  labor;  the  questions  of 


154 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


social  purity,  capital  punishment,  prison  reform;  the 
sublime  advocacy  of  universal  peace;  in  these  and  kin- 
dred labors,  are  the  men  and  women  theologically  eman- 
cipated in  the  van?  These  are  the  touchstones  of  theo- 
logical belief. 

Alas,  men  and  brethren,  in  the  temperance  move- 
ment it  is  necessary  to  acknowledge  that  we  are  over- 
shadowed by  earnest  members  of  the  church.  The  won- 
derful Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  organ- 
ized and  wielded  so  masterfully  by  its  able  leaders, 
adds  little  glory  to  our  faction.  Indeed  the  agnostics 
who  are  on  the  side  of  the  brewer  and  the  distiller  are 
shamefully  frequent.  In  the  woman's  cause  we  have  no 
reason  to  blush.  The  ranks  would  miss  the  free  reli- 
gious allies.  And  yet  it  has  room  for  more  of  them. 
On  the  subject  of  peace  they  show  no  superior  enlight- 
enment over  the  professed  followers  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  The  noble  Russian,  Tolstoi,  who  gets  his  light 
and  fervor  from  the  New  Testament,  preaches  anew  the 
rejected  gospel  of  non-resistance,  the  one  distinctive  doc- 
trine that  distinguishes  Jesus  from  the  messiahs  of  all 
other  religions.  Where  are  the  anti-Christians  who 
reach  so  high  a  level  as  his? 

In  the  other  social  movements,  'who  can  assume  the 
"workers  to  be  distinctively  evangelical  or  otherwise? 
Henry  George  wears  no  sectarian  stamp  and  may  per- 
haps, be  claimed  by  liberal  thought.  It  is  the  custom  to 
sneer  at  and  belittle  him,  chiefly  by  those  who  never 
read  his  writings.  The  generation  is  making  up  a 
judgment  of  him  which  it  will  have  to  reverse,  unless 
unselfishness,  devotion  to  principle,  deep-thinking,  the 
superb  courage  of  unpopular  convictions,  and  a  spirit  ot 
humanity  that  underlies  all,  have  ceased  to  be  admira- 
hle.  And  this  I  say  without  being  able  to  agree  alto- 
gether with  many  of  his  ideas.  But  men  who  dare  to 
vpeak  as  they  truly  think,  are  far  too  rare  to  be  hastily 
passed  by.  But  to  match  him  comes  that  bold  priest, 
F:  ther  McGlynn.      Theology,  therefore,  inspires  neither. 

If  free  religion  is  to  stand  for  any  more  than  a  tran- 
sient form  of  speculation,  it  must  crystallize  into  practical 
work.  It  must  leave  its  impress  not  in  shadowy  meta- 
physics, but  in  the  work  of  human  elevation  and  broth- 
erly love.  Until  it  does  that  it  is  unbecoming  to  assume 
superior  wisdom  or  pride  itself  on  its  liberal  views. 
Emancipated  from  a  creed,  we  have  yet  some  distance 
to  travel  before  we  shall  enter  fully  into  that  temple 
-which,  transcending  all  creeds  and  professions,  asks 
only  of  its  worshipers  that  they  love  to  eternal  good- 
ness and  show  it  by  helping  their  fellow  men. 


Let  us  not  listen  to  those  who  think  we  ought  to  be 
angry  with  our  enemies,  and  who  belies  e  this  to  be 
great  and  manly.  Nothing  is  more  praiseworthy,  and 
nothing  more  clearly  indicates  a  great  and  noble  soul, 
than  clemency  and  readiness  to  forgive. — Anon. 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published  every  other   Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  (Nixon 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotrv  a  liberal  spirit, 
for  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  onlv  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  vear  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  APRIL  28,  1S87. 

THE  RELATION  OF  SCIENCE  TO  MORALS. 
Knowledge  increases  in  usefulness  as  it  becomes 
classified,  in  which  form  it  is  called  science.  Viewed 
separately,  wit1  out  reference  to  their  relations  to  one 
another  and  to  the  well-being  of  man,  facts  are  of  but 
little  value  to  anybody.  Only  when  they  are  classified 
and  their  relations  are  grouped,  and  the  processes  called 
laws  which  they  indicate  are  understood,  can  we  use 
them  to  the  greatest  advantage.  Without  these  general- 
izations there  can  be  no  comprehensiveness  of  thought, 
no  far-reaching  plans  or  projects,  no  great  intellectual  or 
moral  achievements.  Man's  "  pre-eminence  over  the 
beast  "  consists  not  merely  in  a  special  faculty,  but  in  his 
greater  knowledge,  and  in  his  greater  capacity  to  ac- 
quire knowledge  of  his  manifold  relations  to  his  envi- 
ronment. The  coming  man,  compared  with  the  man  of 
to-day  will  probablv  be  an  intellectual  and  moral  giant; 
larger  knowledge  of  himself  and  the  ways  of  nature 
will    be    a    distinguishing    characteristic.      True,    mere 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


i55 


knowledge  is  no  sure  guarantee  of  moral  character. 
The  results  of  ages  of  moral  savagery  ingrained  in  the 
mental  as  well  as  in  the  physical  constitution,  may  be 
more  powerful  determinants  of  conduct  than  the  intel- 
lectual attainments  of  the  individual,  added  to  the  inher- 
ited tendencies  derived  from  a  few  hundred  years  of 
civilized  life.  Violence  of  passion,  inborn  selfishness,  or 
lack  of  sensibility  even,  may  blind  a  man  of  great  knowl- 
edge to  the  rights,  or  render  him  indifferent  to  the  suf- 
ferings of  his  fellow-men.  A  large  knowledge  of  many 
subjects  is  often  found  in  minds  that  are  lamentably 
ignorant  of  others  which  have  a  more  direct  relation  to 
conduct.  Many,  too,  have  a  theoretical  knowledge  of 
matters  of  which  they  are  so  destitute  of  practical 
knowledge,  that  they  are  unable  to  realize  their  real 
significance.  Man  has  been  learning  through  many 
centuries,  during  which  the  horizon  of  his  thought, 
although  gradually  expanding  has  been,  compared  with 
his  outlook  to-day,  very  circumscribed.  Since  it  is  im- 
possible to  sever  himself  from  the  past,  he  cannot  divest 
his  mind  at  once  of  ancient  beliefs,  much  less  of  their 
results;  nor  can  he  in  a  day  make  new  channels  of 
thought,  or  think  or  act  in  a  manner  wholly  consistent 
with  newly  acquired  knowledge,  when  it  conflicts  with 
beliefs  that  have  profoundly  influenced  the  thought  and 
life  of  his  ancestors  from  whom  the  characteristics  he 
possesses  have  come  down  to  him  as  a  legacy.  We 
should,  therefore,  expect  on  a  priori  grounds  that  dis- 
parity between  intellectual  attainments  and  moral  char- 
acter, conspicuous  illustrations  of  which  can  be  found  in 
any   community. 

It  is,  however,  none  the  less  true  that  the  only  natu- 
ral basis  for  hope  in  man's  moral  progress  is  in  his  unde- 
niable capacity  for  knowledge, — to  which,  in  the  region 
of  the  knowable,  no  limit  can  be  set, —  and  his  ability  to 
methodize  his  knowledge  and  make  it  minister  in  count- 
less ways  to  his  wants  and  welfare. 

The  whole  tendencv  of  modern  civilized  life  is  to 
repress  the  savage  instincts  and  traits  of  man's  nature, 
and  to  develop  and  intensify  those  qualities  of  head  and 
heart  which  appear  in  a  late  period  of  his  development, 
even  now  too  often  reduced  to  the  weakness  of  their 
nascent  condition  temporarily,  by  the  brutality  of  the 
savage,  who  attests  his  presence  and  reasserts  his  control 
in  the  civilized  man  of  the  nineteeth  century.  Fortu- 
nately the  influence  of  constantly  increasing  knowledge 
is  eradicating  the  results  of  ages  of  ignorance  in  human 
character;  and  when  men  shall  become  yet  more  eman- 
cipated from  their  bad  inherited  tendencies,  they  will  be 
able  not  only  to  discover  truth  more  easily,  but  to  con- 
form more  readily  to  the  moral  relations  which  it 
'eveals.  Inconsistencies  between  conviction  and  conduct 
must  become  less  general,  and  creed  and  character  more 
in  harmony  with  each  other. 

If  a  man  believes  that   a  certain  course  of  conduct  is 


for  his  best  interests,  judged  by  his  highest  moral  stand- 
ard, he  will  follow  that  course  in  proportion  as  he  is 
unhampered  by  traits,  beliefs  and  tendencies  which 
dominated  in  those  ages  of  savagery  in  which  men,  not 
understanding  their  relations  to  each  other,  were 
short-sighted,  acted  from  impulse  and  were  strangers  to 
the  higher  sentiments  and  the  nobler  motives  which  de- 
termine the  conduct  of  the  best  men  of  to-day. 

That  men  are  coming  to  understand  more  fully  than 
they  did  in  the  past  that  virtue  is  wisdom  and  vice  is 
folly  can  be  clearly  shown.  That  they  now  understand 
better  than  they  did  formerly  what  constitutes  a  virtuous 
character  and  a  vicious  charactei ,  is  sufficiently  evident 
from  a  comparison  of  the  ethical  views  of  the  best  teach- 
ers of  this  age,  with  the  best  among  the  ancients.  That 
men  live  more  morally  now  than  in  the  past  is  evident 
from  a  comparison  of  this  age  with  that  of  Pericles  or 
Augustus,  of  Elizabeth  or  George  III.  That  knowl- 
edge is  increasing  needs  no  proof.  It  is  reasonable, 
therefore,  to  expect  moral  progress  in  the  future. 

The  belief's  now  very  general,  and  likely  to  remain 
a  long  time  with  a  certain  class,  that  the  only  true  sup- 
port of  morality  is  afforded  by  theology.  This  belief 
has  plausibility  for  the  masses  because  a  portion  of 
man's  toilsomely  acquired  knowledge  has  been  embodied 
in,  or  connected  with  theological  dogmas.  What  man 
has  discovered  in  himself  he  has  contemplated  in  God. 
The  elementary  facts  of  anthropology,  long  before  they 
were  systematized  in  a  real  science,  were  made  the  basis 
of  the  pseudo-science  of  theology,  the  assumptions  of 
which  stand  out  prominently  in  the  history  of  the  race; 
while  the  unrecorded  thoughts,  hopes,  fears  and  aspira- 
tions of  the  people  out  of  which  grew  these  dogmas,  are 
little  considered  or  entirely  disregarded. 

Conduct,  influenced  far  less  by  theological  beliefs 
than  is  commonly  supposed,  is  determined  by  character, 
— the  product  of  factors  furnished  by  the  countless  mil- 
lions who  have  lived  and  died, — and  by  surroundings 
which  are  continually  modifying  character.  Every  ob- 
servation, discovery  and  invention,  and  every  act  in  the 
life  of  man  that  has  helped  him  to  understand  his  rela- 
tions, to  enlarge  his  powers,  to  improve  his  physical 
condition,  have  contributed  to  the  moral  progress  of  the 
race. 

With  multiplied  relations  and  increased  complexity  ot 
social  life,  man  is  placed  in  a  greater  variety  of  positions 
and  subject  to  far  greater  moral  strain.  The  existence, 
therefore,  in  civilized  society  of  a  multitude  of  evils 
unknown  to  barbarians,  is  an  unavoidable  incident  in 
the  evolution  of  institutions  and  the  growth  of  industrial 
pursuits  that  distinguish  civilized  from  savage  life.  Ac- 
cording to  statistics,  Protestant  districts  in  Germany 
exhibit  more  fraud  than  Catholic  districts;  and  the  rea- 
son of  this,  evidently,  is  that  more  business  is  done  in 
the  former  than  in  the  latter.      In  Catholic  districts   the 


*56 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


■*xcess  is  in  acts   of   violence,  because   in   those    districts 
.are  more  ignorance  and  poverty. 

The  more  complex  become  man's  relations,  the 
greater  the  necessitv  and  the  greater  the  power  of  resist- 
ing temptation  and  yielding  to  the  discipline  of  personal 
sacrifice  for  the  general  good.  The  moral  sense,  too,  is 
strengthened,  and  the  power  of  the  will  in  restraining 
the  selfish  propensities  and  in  making  conduct  conform 
to  the  conceptions  of  duty  is  augmented.  The  more 
man  knows  of  science,  the  more  clearly  must  he  see  and 
the  more  fully  must  he  realize  that  morality  is  supreme 
over  everything  else,  because  upon  its  embodiment  in 
■character  and  conduct  depends,  more  than  upon  any- 
thing else,  the  well-being  of  the  race. 


"AN  UNCONVERTED  HEATHEN.' 
It  was  with  heartfelt  regret  that  we  read  a  few  days 
.-ago  of  the  death  on  the  25th  of  February,  at  Poona, 
India,  of  Dr.  Anandabia  Joshee,  her  death  occurring 
less  than  a  year  after  her  successful  graduation  as  an 
IM.  D.  from  the  Women's  Medical  College  of  Philadel- 
phia, where  she  had  taken  a  three  years'  course  of 
study. 

One  afternoon  in  May  last,  we  waited  in  the  receiv- 
ing room  of  the  New  England  Women's  Hospital,  at 
Boston,  Mass.,  with  a  little  flutter  of  admiring  curiosity 
the  coming  of  Dr.  Joshee,  for  we  had  never  met  a 
Hindu  woman  and  the  known  facts  of  this  woman's 
life  were  sufficient  to  awaken  admiration;  fur  only  a 
brave,  self-sacrificing  and  independent  soul  could  have 
left  as  she  had,  husband,  home,  kindred  and  native  land, 
to  dwell  among  those  of  a  different  race,  color,  language, 
nation  and  faith,  in  a  strange  Ian  J  and  an  uncongenial 
clime  for  the  purpose  of  becoming  better  fitted  to 
elevate  intellectually  and  alleviate  physically  the  condi- 
tion of  the  women  of  her  own  race  —  and  she  so  young 
—  and  a  woman  ! 

This  feeling  of  admiration  was  deepened  when  there 
presently  entered  a  graceful,  child-like  creature,  the 
lustrous  eyes  of  whose  dark  grave  face  sought  those  of 
her  visitor  in  quiet  scrutiny.  The  occasion  of  the  call 
-was  to  invite  her  in  behalf  of  the  Free  Religious  Asso- 
ciation to  explain  her  mission  and  the  need  of  it  at  the 
<coming  anniversary  of  the  Association.  The  little 
lady's  tone  and  manner  were  wondrouslv  self-possessed 
;and  dignified  as  she  replied  in  the  purest  English  that 
her  duties  at  the  hospital  were  such  as  to  keep  her  con- 
stantly employed  from  six  in  the  morning  until  nine  in 
ithe  evening;  that  she  was  anxious  to  learn  as  much  as 
possible  in  the  three  months  she  intended  to  remain  in 
the  hospital  before  returning  to  India,  and  as  the  day  on 
-which  the  anniversary  of  the  F.  R.  A.  was  to  be  held, 
was  "operating  day"  it  would  be  impossible  for  her  to 
attend,  even,  any  of  the  meetings,  much  less  prepare  an 
address    in    addition    to    her    other    duties.       Her    quiet 


acceptance  of  what  she  considered  to  be  her  duty  in  the 
matter  was  superb.  When  the  evening  came  on  which 
she  had  been  asked  to  speak,  she  was  not  present  at  the 
meeting,  but  her  husband,  Gopal  Vinayak  Joshee,  who 
had  recently  followed  his  young  wife  to  this  country, 
gave  an  address,  afterward  published  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  convention. 

A  month  or  so  later,  Dr.  Toshee  despite  her  anxiety 
to  finish  her  experimental  three  months'  course  at  the 
New  England  Women's  Hospital,  was  obliged  through 
over-exhaustion  to  give  up  her  work  there.  One  even- 
ing in  June,  at  the  home  of  the  editors  of  this  paper? 
she,  with  her  husband,  met  a  few  congenial  friends. 

That  evening  we  know  is  still  cherished  in  the 
memory  of  the  others  who  were  present,  for  it  brought 
them  into  nearer  relations  with,  and  clearer  understand- 
ing of  Oriental  humanity  than  the  reading  of  many 
books  on  the  subject  could  have  done.  A  uniquely  for- 
eign and  dainty  looking  pair  they  appeared,  both  dressed 
in  very  becoming  native  costume.  She  wore  no  bonnet, 
but  instead  a  fawn-colored  wrap  enveloped  her  finely 
shaped  head  and  gracefully  draped  her  shoulders;  this 
was  removed  on  entering.  Her  robe  of  some  fine  dark 
woolen  material  was  edged  to  the  depth  of  several 
inches  with  gold-colored  embroidery,  and,  in  spite  of  its 
flowing  drapery  at  one  arm,  fitted  nicely  her  plump 
-petite  form ;  gold  bracelets  adorned  her  wrists.  The 
dark  face  was  round,  with  full  lips,  handsomely  shaped 
brow,  broad  and  intellectual  looking;  between  the  eye- 
brows a  small  tattooed  mark,  somewhat  in  shape  like  a 
cross,  appeared.  The  eyes  were  beautiful  and  expressive, 
large,  black,  softly  shining,  as  capable  of  smiles  as  of 
tears,  but  with  a  strangely  pathetic  look  in  them  as  if 
through  them  ages  of  unappreciated  womanhood 
appealed  for  justice  to  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
prevailing  expression  of  Dr.  Joshee's  face  was  grave, 
dignified,  almost  sad,  but  the  rare  smile  which  marked 
her  appreciation  of  the  ludicrous  was  charmingly  bright 
and  girlish.  The  talk  drifted  during  the  evening  into 
channels  which  in  spite  of  her  modestly  diffident  man- 
ner, drew  out  her  opinions.  Reference  was  made  to  the 
impression  received  by  Christian  Sabbath-school  scholars 
from  missionary  reports  as  to  '-heathen  darkness"  and 
the  sacrifice  of  human  life  to  Juggernaut,  and  the  cast- 
ing of  babes  into  the  Ganges  by  their  mothers.  These 
stories  the  Joshee's  claimed  to  be  exaggerations  of  the 
missionaries.  The  car  of  Juggernaut  being  an  immense 
structure,  some  thirty  feet  in  height  and  proportionately 
heavy,  used  to  be  brought  out  once  a  year  for  holy  pro- 
cession. It  was  esteemed  a  sacred  privilege  to  assist  in 
drawing  the  car,  thousands  gathered  from  far  and  near, 
the  country  was  hilly,  sometimes  the  car  would  slip  and 
other  accidents  would  occur  by  which  life  was  lost;  and 
these  accidents  were  exaggerated  by  the  missionaries  into 
wilful    sacrifice.     The   mothers   who  threw   their  babes 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


:57 


into  the  Ganges  were  often  driven  thereto  by  poverty 
which  threatened  starvation  to  both,  while  salvation  for 
the  souls  of  the  little  ones  was  hoped  to  be  secured  bv 
drowning  in  the  sacred  stream.  Dr.  Joshee  said  that 
during  her  medical  experience  as  a  student  in  Philadel- 
phia a  large  number  of  new-born  infants,  found  dead 
with  marks  of  having  been  killed  at  birth,  or  who  had 
<hed  by  reason  of  the  desertion  of  their  presumably 
unmarried  mothers,  were  secured  as  "subjects"  for  the 
■dissecting  room,  and  she  might  as  well  on  her  return  to 
India  relate  this  fact  and  claim  that  it  was  the  custom  of 
mothers  in  America  to  kill  or  desert  their  new-born 
babes,  and  adduce  this  as  a  result  of   Christian  belief. 

In  a  discussion,  introduced  by  Mr.  Joshee,  of  the  right 
of  men  to  kill  and  eat  animals,  one  of  our  party  in 
defense  suggested  that  inherited  appetites  might  necessi- 
tate the  continuance  of  a  practice  revolting  to  our  sense 
■of  justice,  since  our  bodies  had  been  built  up  of  such 
material,  adding  also  that  a  climate  differing  from  India 
might  require  more  stimulating  food;  to  which  Dr. 
Joshee  replied  that  she  had  lived  for  over  three  years  in 
America  without  once  tasting  of  animal  food  and  with- 
out feeling  any  need  of  any  food  different  from  that  she 
had  been  accustomed  to  in  India. 

She  was  asked,  as  one  who  was  herself  familiar  with 
the  Sanscrit  Scriptures,  if  Edwin  Arnold's  Indian 
poems  were  true  to  the  originals  in  spirit  and  meaning, 
or  were  the  beauty  of  diction  and  lofty  morality  found 
in  them  due  to  Arnold's  own  ideality  and  exuberance  of 
poetic  imagination?  She  said  that  though  he  had 
changed  the  form  by  putting  the  translations  into  verse, 
yet  that  his  poems  were  mainly  true  to  the  originals,  and 
he  had  not  idealized  or  exaggerated,  but  on  the  contrary 
had  sometimes  failed  to  catch  the  subtle  spiritual  mean- 
ing of  the  ancient  writings. 

She  spoke  sensibly  of  "Christian  Science"  theories, 
had  taken  several  lessons  therein  and  told  how  she  saw 
on  what  natural  basis  those  theories  could  be  explained. 
Spoke  of  her  investigations  in  phrenology  and  how  she 
iound  in  her  medical  studies,  especially  in  dissecting 
the  brain,  reasons  for  disbelief  of  some  of  the  claims 
made  bv  enthusiastic  believers  in  phrenology  as  a 
science. 

Her  acquaintance  with  American  and  English 
scientists,  writers  and  others  of  note,  was  something 
phenomenal.  This  was  evinced  in  looking  over  a  col- 
lection of  photographs  of  a  large  number  of  these.  As 
each  picture  was  looked  at,  she  showed  by  a  few  appre- 
ciative words,  her  acquaintance  with  the  field  of  work 
of  the  original.  "She  is  simply  wonderful!"  exclaimed 
one  lady  of  the  party,  as  she  listened  to  her,  and  this 
opinion  was  echoed  in  a  note  sent  the  writer  from  another 
ladv  who  accompanied  the  Joshee's  a  short  distance  on 
their  homeward  route  that  evening. 

But  she  is  dead!  —  that   sweet   intellectual    soul,  that 


large-brained,  self-forgetful  womanly  creature!  —  dead* 
at  twenty-three,  she  who  had  sacrificed  so  much  to  gain 
so  little;  dead  at  the  threshold  of  her  work  for  which 
she  was  so  well  equipped.  She  had  just  been  appointed 
Resident  Physician  of  the  great  Albert  Edward  Hos- 
pital of  Kohlapur  in  Bombay.  "  It  was  generally 
recognized"  says  the  Philadelphia  Ledger^  in  noting 
her  death  "that  her  return  to  her  native  land  was  the 
opening  of  a  great  and  new  era  for  women  in  India." 
■  Yet  this  rare  sweet  spirit  was  still  "an  unconverted 
heathen,"  and  as  such  Andover  Theology  bars  her 
sternly  out  of  its  circumscribed  little  heaven,  and  com- 
monplace English  men  and  women  considered  them- 
selves her  superiors,  and  refused  to  associate  on  equal 
terms  with  her  on  her  homeward  voyage !  We  sym- 
pathized sincerely  with  her  loyal  husband's  indignation 
as  expressed  in  a  letter  on  that  subject,  published  in  one 
of  the  last  numbers  of   The  Index.  s.  a.  v. 


M.  Albert  Reville,  who  fills  the  chair  of  the  History 
of  Religions  at  the  College  de  France,  Paris,  in  writing 
us  that  we  may  expect  a  contribution  from  his  pen  on 
the  "Future  of  Protestantism  in  France,"  says:  "I 
have  received  the  copy  of  The  Open  Court  that  you 
were  kind  enough  to  send  me.  To  say  that  all  that  I  have 
read  in  it  pleases  me  entirely  would  be  an  exaggeration. 
Although  an  outspoken  advocate  of  religious  progress 
that  is  positive  and  not  a  salvo  morale  that  vanishes  into 
thin  air,  I  look  upon  agnosticism  only  as  a  starting  point 
analogous  to  Descartes'  philosophic  doubt  and  not  as  a 
goal.  I  consider  those  who  get  ensnared  in  it  to  be  the 
promoters  of  religious  stagnation  because  the  fear  of 
nothingness  will  always  keep  the  majority  of  mankind 
in  the  camp  of  those  who  affirm  something  however 
irrational  these  affirmations  may  be.  In  a  word,  I 
should  like  to  see,  by  the  Protestant  method,  the  evolu- 
tion principle  supplant,  as  a  principle  of  religious  prog- 
ress, that  of  revolution ;  in  other  terms,  I  prefer  to 
continue,  to  enlarge,  to  rectify  and  to  purify  the  liberal 
tendency  that  has  already  set  in,  rather  than  have 
recourse  to  those  violent  changes  which  may  have  been 
necessary  in  the  past  but  which  cannot  be  justified, 
philosophically,  at  the  present  time." 
*  *  * 

In  an  article  entitled  "A  Friend  of  God,"  in  the 
Nitieteenth  Cetitury  for  April,  Matthew  Arnold  shows 
how  the  gradual  decadence  of  mythology  in  religion 
has  been  accomplished  by  the  process  of  intellectual 
development.  Heretofore,  a  mythological  element  was 
absolutely  essential  to  the  existence  of  a  religion.  The 
great  mass  of  men  were  only  satisfied  with  a  faith  which 
excited  the  imagination,  and  through  it  developed  the 
feelings  of  wonder  and  awe  and  a  sense  of  responsibility 
to  an  unseen  Deity.  The  Salvation  Army,  the  Metho- 
dists, and  some  other  primitive  sects,  are  the  still  exist- 


'58 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


ing  representatives  of  that  type  of  faith.  "  The  epoch- 
making  chance  of  our  own  day  "  is  that  we  are  reaching 
a  place  where  religion  can  rest  on  no  mythological  basis 
whatever,  whether  moral  or  immoral.  The  "gross 
mob"  of  men  have  shown  hostility  toward  religion,  and 
evidences  of  that  feeling  are  all  too  common  now,  but 
along  with  an  enmity  against  any  discipline  to  uplift  and 
ennoble,  there  is  developing  a  feeling  of  impatience  and 
wrath  at  what  they  look  upon  as  the  trifling  of  those 
who  offer  them,  in  their  great  need,  the  old  mytholog- 
ical faith, — a  thing  impossible  of  acceptance  and  passing 
away,  if  not  quite  passed;  "incapable  of  either  solving 
the  present  or  founding  the  future." 

Incongruities  and  anomalies  seem  to  be  inevitable  in 
intellectual,  social,  moral  and  religious  evolution.  Old 
conceptions,  creeds  and  forms  partially  outgrown,  per- 
sist through  periods  in  which  the  newer  thought  and  the 
movements  in  the  line  of  progress  are  yet  incomplete, 
unsystematized  and  unco-ordinated  with  the  established 
order  of  things,  causing  temporarily  imperfect  adjust- 
ments and  all  sorts  of  inconsistencies  in  beliefs  and  hab- 
its, in  ceremonies,  customs  and  institutions.  The  more 
rapid  the  changes  the  greater  the  disturbance  and  more 
marked  the  inconsistencies.  One  of  the  characteristics 
of  all  religious  transitions  is  more  or  less  moral  disturb- 
ance. Doubt  concerning  theological  doctrines  long 
believed  to  be  the  only  foundation  of  ethics  must,  in 
many  minds  involve  a  weakening  of  moral  restraints. 
Of  this,  illustrations  are  afforded  by  the  Reformation, 
especially  in  its  earliest  period,  when  the  lives  of  multi- 
tudes of  adherents  of  the  new  movement  furnished  its 
opponents  with  a  most  effective  argument  against  it. 
The  evil  became  less  only  as  a  readjustment  of  ethical 
ideas  to  the  changed  religious  belief  gradually  took  place. 
These  facts  it  is  important  that  liberals  thoroughly  under- 
stand that  they  may  see  the  necessity  of  teaching  ethics 
on  a  firm  basis,  of  familiarizing  the  people  with  the 
moral  side  of  their  philosophy,  and  of  replacing  super- 
stition with  the  truths  of  nature.  Meanwhile,  let  all 
who  would  fairly  judge  a  theory  or  a  system  by  its  moral 
results  give  it  time  to  overcome  the  disturbance 
produced  by  contact  with  old-established  errors  which 
have  been  made  the  basis  of  moral  teaching;  and  let  all 
who  may  be  discouraged  by  the  imperfections  of  indi- 
viduals identified  with  any  reform,  find  consolation  in 
the  study  of  the  great  reforms  now  popularly  known 
only  by  their  beneficent  results. 

#  *  * 

Mr.  J.  B.  Harrison,  whose  volume  on  '■'•Certain  Dan- 
gerous Tendencies  of  American  Life''''  was  one  of  the 
most  serious  studies  of  social  and  industrial  conditions 
yet  produced  in  this  country,  is  doing  valuable  service 
as  a  representative  of  the  Indian  Rights  Association, 
formed    recently,    with    headquarters    at     Philadelphia. 


He  has  visited  during  the  past  year  all  the  principal  In- 
dian reservations,  noted  everything  bearing  on  the 
schools,  farming,  home-life,  and  missionary  work  in 
their  midst,  also  the  actual  administration  of  affairs  by 
government  agents,  and  has  embodied  the  result  in  a 
little  volume  entitled,  The  Latest  Studies  on  Indian 
Reservations.  This  is  no  "moralizing"  or  waste  of 
sentiment,  nor  is  it  a  colorless  statistical  report;  it  is  em- 
phatically a  readable  book,  full  of  incidents  and  photo- 
graphic pictures,  and  is  invaluable  for  anyone  who 
wants  the  actual  facts  of  the  Indian  question.  The  As- 
sociation has  already  published  other  important  litera- 
ture; it  is  all  sent  free  to  members  paying  $2.00  a  year 
(office,  1,316  Filbert  street,  Philadelphia).  Those  who 
would  help  in  remedying  a  great  national  wrong  can- 
not do  better  than  by  aiding  the  association. 

Mr.  Cable,  the  widely-known  novelist,  having  settled 
in  Northampton,  Mass.,  has  begun  a  Sunday  Bible-class 
in  the  opera  house  of  that  town.  Those  who  remember 
what  an  evident  moral  purpose  runs  through  Dr. 
Sevier,  and  yet  recall  how  free  that  brilliant  novel  is 
from  the  heaviness  and  triteness  of  the  ordinary  "  good 
book,"  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  Mr.  Cable's 
class  is  very  popular,  both  with  the  people  and  the  press. 
His  treatment  of  the  Bible  follows  the  way  of  many 
modern  literary  minds,  a  way  best  exemplified  in  Mat- 
thew Arnold's  religious  works,  and  in  J.  R.  Seeley's 
Natural  Religion.  As  instance  of  this  may  be  cited 
Mr.  Cable's  reply  to  a  question  whether  Moses  didn't 
write  the  story  of  Joseph,  and  if  it  wasn't  written  a 
thousand  years  after  the  incidents  took  place.  "  I  don't 
know,  and  I  don't  care,"  said  Mr.  Cable,  promptly  and 
emphatically,  "  these  questions  of  authorship  are  not 
supreme  ones,  and  the  Bible  should  be  studied  on  its 
merits.  For  one,  I  rather  enjoy  its  anonymous  charac- 
ter, think  it  has  a  tendency  to  stimulate  one's  spirituality, 
and  prefer  to  know  what  is  written  than  by  whom." 
*  #  # 

The  policy  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  was  never 
more  plainly  evidenced  than  in  its  relation  to  Dr.  Mc- 
Glynn  and  the  Knights  of  Labor  movement.  The  stern 
command  to  refrain  from  appearing  in  public  as  the 
champion  of  that  movement  and  of  the  theories  of 
Henry  George,  was  not  disregarded  by  him  without  the 
inevitable  consequences.  He  was  suspended  and  ordered 
to  Rome,  but  when  he  refused  to  obey  that  order  and 
continued  to  plead  in  the  interests  of  labor  his  supe- 
riors after  a  momentary  outburst  of  wrath,  quieted  down 
and  took  into  consideration  the  conditions  with  which 
they  had  to  contend.  It  was  seen  that  a  large  number 
of  Catholics  were  included  in  the  Knights  of  Labor 
organization,  and  that  an  attempt  to  force  Dr.  McGlynn 
to  obey  might  make  clear  to  their  eyes  the  true  charac- 
ter  of  the  church   and    its   opposition   to  anything  like 


the:  open  court. 


J59 


individual  freedom.  A  less  aggressive  policy  was 
adopted.  The  Knights  of  Labor  were  indorsed  and 
their  purpose  sanctioned. 

In  an  article  entitled  "A  Glimpse  of  Russia,"  by  the 
Countess  of  Galloway,  published  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century  for  April,  the  attitude  of  the  orthodox  Greek 
church  toward  the  different  phases  of  modern  religious 
thought  is  briefly'  touched  upon.  There  is  little  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  church  to  meet  the  perplexing  ques- 
tions that  are  constantly  rising  and  demanding  examina- 
tion, and  attempts  at  control  of  the  general  mind  are 
slight  and  soon  given  up.  Correct  performance  of  the 
duties  which  the  discipline  requires  constitute  all  that  is 
demanded  in  fulfillment  of  religious  obligations.  There 
is  a  tale  of  a  conscientious  agnostic  who,  when  com- 
pelled to  go  before  the  priest  for  confession,  commenced 
by  saying:  "  Mon  pcre,  je  doute  detent"  (My  father,  I 
question  everything).  His  confessor  treated  this  state- 
ment with  complete  indifference,  and  commanded  him 
to  make  his  confession  without  troubling  his  conscience 
on  that  matter. 

The  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  April  reprints  an 
article  from  the  Saturday  Review  on  "  Rustic  Super- 
stition." In  the  rural  districts  of  England  beliefs  and 
practices  are  still  retained  that  were  prevalent  when  the 
"black  un"  was  believed  to  take  possession  of  and  bewitch 
whatsoever  worthy  and  peaceful  individual  he  would,  and 
when  the  meeting  of  a  black  cat  at  certain  unfavorable 
hours  of  the  day  or  night,  was  thought  to  portend  con- 
sequences of  a  very  unpleasant  character.  Soothsayers 
and  wizards  still  exist  and  the  credulous  public  is  willing 
to  part  with  its  half-crowns  in  return  for  "  the  future 
unveiled,"  or  charms  and  incantations  to  drive  away 
whatsoever  ailments  the  flesh  is  heir  to.  Any  myste- 
rious happening  in  an  out  of  the  way  locality  or  deserted 
house,  is  referred  by  the  knowing  ones  to  '■Summat," 
which  distinguished  individual,  though  never  seen,  is 
universally  respected  and  propitiated.  As  superstition 
is  inevitable  where  ignorance  reigns  supreme,  it  is  not 
hard  to  understand  that  the  most  efficient  remedy  is 
compulsory  education. 

*  *  * 

In  "  Confessions  of  a  Quaker  "  in  The  Forum 
for  April,  the  author,  after  dwelling  upon  the  changes 
which  his  church  has  undergone  since  16^0,  the  date 
of  its  origin,  concludes  with  the  statement  "  There  must 
be  a  full  return  to  the  original  basis  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  and  entire  consecration  to  its  living  Head,  in  the- 
ology, polity,  experience  and  work,  and  the  only  true 
model  for  this  is  found  in  the  New  Testament  Scriptures." 
It  would  seem  incredible  if  it  were  not  known  to  be  true, 
that  there  are  men  who  calmly  make  such  statements  as 
this,  being  apparently  ignorant  of  the  Middle  Age  flavor 


which  the  teachings  that  they  seek  to  resuscitate  have 
acquired.  The  Quakers  of  to-day  are  not  so  blind  to 
the  truth  that  they  can  forget  and  put  aside  the  intel- 
lectual plane  upon  which  the  world  now  moves,  and 
return  to  those  primitive  conditions  and  forms  of  belief 
which  were  characteristic  of  them  in  their  incipiency. 

Mr.  Joseph  Shippen,  in  his  tine  tribute  before  the 
Chicago  Channing  Club  to  the  character  of  the  late  Dr. 
William  G.  Eliot,  said: 

At  the  opening  of  the  great  St.  Louis  bridge,  its  eminent  engi- 
neer predicted  that,  constructed  of  parts  that  could  be  replaced  at 
any  time  without  interruption  of  travel,  it  would  last  as  long  as 
required  by  the  wants  of  man,  and  declared  that,  with  capital 
enough,  he  could  have  made  it  of  one  arch  instead  of  three.  The 
life  and  character  we  have  been  considering  was  a  single  arch  of 
fidelity  and  consecration.  Believing  in  the  imperishability  of 
great  examples,  we  believe  the  influence  of  our  departed  friend 
on  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men,  inspiring  them  to  liberty,  holi- 
ness and  love,  will  be  immortal. 

The  fact  that  the  Free  Religious  Association,  organ- 
ized primarily  for  the  study  and  discussion  of  religious 
subjects,  has  not  gone  into  the  business  of  general  prac- 
tical reform  is  no  good  reason  for  Mr.  Garrison's 
complaint  against  "free  religion."  Individually,  and 
in  connection  with  other  organizations  the  free  religious 
people  probably  do  their  share  of  philanthrophic  work. 
Many  of  them  are  prominent  leaders  of  reform  move- 
ments. "Free  Religion"  is  an  indefinite  phrase,  since 
the  F.  R.  A.  has  no  religious  creed  and  is  composed  of 
Christians  and  non-Christians,  Theists,  Agnostics,  Posi- 
tists,  Hebrews  and  Buddhists.  How  far  they  are  agreed 
as  to  free  trade,  prohibition,  etc.,  we  are  unable  to  say; 
but  the  fact  that  they  differ  on  these  and  other  subjects 
which  are  now  before  the  people  for  discussion  and 
action,  is  no  valid  argument  against  any  religious  belief 
found  in  the  Association. 

Any  subscriber  of  The  Open  Court  who  fails  to 
receive  his  paper  regularly  is  requested  to  communicate 
the  fact  to  this  office. 


PRO    CONFESSO. 

BY    GEORGE    WENTZ. 

Whoso  writes  delightful  story, 
True  and  touching,  (nil  of  lore, 

Shall  in  human  nature's  longing 
Hold  a  place  for  evermore. 

All  the  docks  and  mossy  harbors, 

Where  the  sea-ships  come  and  go, 

Still  rehearse  that  spell  and  pleasing 
Of  the  pages  of  Defoe. 

Eldor..do? — still  we  wonder 

Can  there  any  Island  lie 
In  the  west  of  life's  attaining, 

Where  our  prime  might  never  die? 

Still  in  secret  depths  of  feeling 

We  escape  Time's  onward  span; 

For  the  youth's  remote  transfusion 
Stirs  the  pulses  of  the  man. 


i6o 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


COPE'S  THEOLOGY  OF  EVOLUTION.* 

BY  EDMUND  MONTGOMERY. 
Part  I. 

Knowledge  and  not  agnosticism  is  the  veritable  goal 
of  science — conviction,  ample  and  entire,  the  natural 
craving  of  the  human  heart.  It  is  well  enough  to  have 
no  settled  mind  regarding  the  origin  and  final  doom  of 
all  creation.  But  it  can  be  neither  satisfactory  nor  bene- 
ficial to  maintain  an  agnostic  attitude  towards  the  great 
practical  issues  of  human  existence.  Here  on  this 
planet  we  find  ourselves,  launched  on  a  precarious  voy- 
age, freighted  with  all  the  weath  of  world-responsive 
life.  This  transcendent  heritage,  of  which  we  are  the 
entrusted  bearers,  how  are  we  rightfully  to  dispose  of 
it?  No  other  question  is  so  supremely  urgent.  We 
desire  an  unambiguous  answer. 

Is  the  gathered  treasure  of  life  to  be  used  among  the 
needy  insufficiencies  of  this  nether  sphere,  to  become 
through  fruitful  investment  the  enhanced  patrimony  of 
our  human  issue?  Or  has  it  to  be  jealously  conserved, 
hereafter  to  adorn  our  own  presence,  where  celestial 
affluence  shall  smile  at  earthly  wants? 

Are  we  actually  what  we  seem,  genuine  planetary 
beings,  in  our  right  place  here  below?  Or  have  we 
merely  got  here  by  some  mysterious  blunder  elsewhere 
committed,  and  are,  in  truth,  metamorphosed  denizens 
from  another  region,  only  for  a  time  of  penance 
entangled  in  this  mortal  coil? 

The  immensely  laborious  uplifting  of  life,  conse- 
crated by  the  suffering  and  death  of  countless  genera- 
tions; the  passionate  wrestling  for  the  well-being  of 
our  kind,  for  the  victory  of  our  social  aspiration;  are  its 
tragic  adjuncts  grounded,  of  necessity,  in  the  defective 
but  perfectible  nature  of  things?  Are  we,  indeed 
engaged  in  a  solemn  life  and  death  struggle,  decisive  for 
human  existence?  Or  are  we  only  puppets  in  organic 
form,  handled  from  above,  and  made  to  enact  here  a 
troublous  scene  of  seeming  joys  and  sorrows,  valid  in 
itself  for  nothing,  save  the  delectation  of  a  self-sufficient 
outsider,  who  keeps  it  all  going  for  his  own  good 
pleasure? 

These  arc  the  vital  questions  we  are  yearning  to 
have  definitely  solved.  Theologians,  philosophers, 
scientist1-,  in  their  inmost  heart,  know  quite  well  that 
there  can  be  no  compromise  between  the  two  views. 
Sometimes  with  sincere  directness  and  single-hearted  love 
of  truth,  oftener  with  much  twisting  and  time-serving 
circumspection,  they  are,  from  their  different  standpoints, 
either  seeking  for  more  positive  assurance,  or  already 
inculcating  the  one  or  the  other  opinion.  Our  time  is 
ripe  for  clear  judgment  and  definite  choice.  To  occupy 
one's  self  earnestly  with  the  present  state  of  the  problem, 


*  Theology  oj  Evolution:    A   lecture  by  E.   D.  Cope,  Ph.D.    Philadelphia, 


and  keep,  nevertheless,  one's  mind  and  inclination  sus- 
pended between  the  two  incompatible  views,  betokens 
over-subtle  skepticism  or  faint-hearted  indecision. 

Doubt  paralyzes  action.  Obedience  to  duty  presup- 
poses settled  faith  in  a  guiding  principle.  And  sane 
enthusiasm  for  a  cause  is  only  kindled  through  firmly- 
established  conviction  of  its  absolute  justice  and 
supreme  import.  It  is  not  by  doubt  that  humanity  can 
ever  prosper.  Only  through  dutiful  compliance  with 
sound  guidance,  and  through  sane  enthusiasm  for  a  just 
cause  can  we  ever  hope  to  scale  loftier  heights  of  civil- 
ization. 

What  guiding-principle,  what  cause  shall  it  then  be? 
Not  to  follow  the  senseless  lead  of  fatuous  lights  in  this- 
all-important  quest,  we  have,  first  of  all,  to  know  for 
certain,  whether  this  manifest  universe  is  our  real  home, 
or  whether  we  belong  by  rights  to  an  entirely  different 
order  of  existence?  Are  we  to  fight  this  battle  of  life 
under  the  banner  of  world-deliverance  or  under  that  of 
world-fulfillment?  Is  it  to  be  the  religion  of  life  here- 
after or  the  religion  of  actual  living?  celestial  or  terres- 
tial  ethics?     We  have  to  decide. 

How  manageably  compact  was  the  conception  of 
the  world,  and  our  place  in  it,  a  few  hundred  years  ago. 
To  Luther,  who  freed  us  from  the  tyrannous  imposi- 
tions of  an  insolently  artificial  and  lethargic  creed,  the 
whole  creation  seemed  one  continuous  battle-field,  where 
the  great  antagonistic  powers,  God  and  the  Devil,  were 
contending  for  human  souls,  over  which  the  Evil  One 
had  stolen  a  fatal  advantage.  All  good  things  came 
from  God;  all  bad  things  from  the  Devil.  The  teach- 
ing of  the  Bible,  as  interpreted  by  Dr.  Martin  Luther, 
the  chosen  vessel  of  the  Lord,  was  supreme  and  infalli- 
ble truth.  Its  sincere  believers  were  God's  only  chil- 
dren, whom  he  would  save.  All  others,  the  adherents 
of  the  Pope  and  Mahomet,  the  Jews  and  the  Gentiles,, 
and  savages  of  all  sorts,  were  partisans  of  the  Devil 
and  lost.  Despite  God's  merciful  efforts  to  rescue  man- 
kind by  the  sacrifice  of  his  only  son  and  the  gift  of  his 
holy  word,  Satan  had  evidently  gained  almost  complete 
sway  in  this  wicked  world.  But  soon,  very  soon,  God 
was  going  to  confound  the  Arch  Fiend  by  putting  a  sud- 
den and  violent  end  to  this  huge  mass  of  human  deprav- 
ity and  perversity;  and  then  all  will  turn  out  well  for 
those  who  have  kept  the  true  faith;  but  woe  unto  then"* 
who  have  gone  astray. 

In  such  closely-pressed  and  spirit-haunted  Aceldama,, 
with  child-like  faith,  the  great  Luther  lived  and  died,, 
and  wrought  the  mighty  reformation,  whose  liberating 
power  was  man's  conscientious  self-discernment  of  truth. 

Standing  inflexibly  firm  on  thy  narrow  ground  with 
deeply  sincere  and  fervid  heart,  thou  hast  fought  mar- 
vellously well  thy  life-long  battle  against  hierarchaL 
frauds  and  shams,  thou  sturdy  champion  of  righteous- 
ness.     Monastically    bewildered     at    the    overpowering; 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


i6r 


promptings  of  human  emotions  and  aspirations,  it  was 
not  in  mere  outward  observances  and  penances  that  thy 
honest  soul  could  rind  absolution  for  this  abysmal  feud, 
raging  within  thee  between  thy  nature-moulded  self, 
and  the  world-alienating  will  of  thy  Christian  God. 
Peace  could  come  to  thee  in  so  superhuman  a  strife, 
only  by  leaning  with  the  trustful  unconcern  of  implicit 
faith  on  an  all-reconciling  Savior. 

How  changed  that  categorically  methodized  world 
of  thine  since  thou  left  it!  Thou  wouldst  not  know  it 
again.  A  whole  succession  of  Muenzers,  Zwinglis, 
Agricolas  and  of  ever  so  many  other  new  kinds  of 
cursed  innovators  have  recklessly  burst  in  all  directions 
through  thy  biblically-compassed  scheme  of  life,  sacri- 
legiously overthrowin ;  its  seraphic  and  satanic  super- 
structure,  and  threatening  with  total  dissolution  all  its 
traditional   assumptions. 

So  it  has  come  about  that  in  these  last  two  centuries 
'of  unchecked  reformation  theologians  and  philosophers 
have  been  forced  to  discuss  exhaustively  the  various 
proofs  from  time  to  time  advanced  in  rational  support  of 
the  current  faith  in  the  existence  of  an  omnipotent  Cre- 
ator and  in  the  immortality  of  the  human  soul.  And 
those  who  have  given  the  greatest  attention  to  these 
transcendent  problems  know  best  to  what  extremities 
reason  is  here  driven,  and  on  what  slender  threads  it  has 
at  last  to  fasten  the  theological  faith.  Its  most  efficient 
arguments, — that  from  design,  and  that  from  the  fixed 
order  of  nature  and  its  intelligibility, — even  these  strong- 
holds ot  natural  theology  do  not  hold  out  when  closely 
besieged.  The  nature  of  the  designing  and  ordering 
power,  and  the  process  by  which  the  results  are  attained, 
remain  utterly  inscrutable,  however  much  reason  may 
strive  to  gain  some  insight  into  it.  And  the  most  care- 
ful scientific  scrutiny  has  failed  as  yet  to  detect  any  room 
for  supernatural  interference  with  the  intrinsic  ways  and 
means  of  nature. 

If,  among  Professor  Cope's  audience  at  Philadelphia, 
there  were  such  who  had  realized  the  distance  which 
reason  and  science  have  thus  placed  between  our  natural 
understanding  and  the  objects  of  theological  faith,  they 
must  have  felt  eager,  indeed,  to  learn  from  an  eminent 
scientist  what  "absolute  proposition  with  certain  demon- 
stration "  had  been  discovered  to  attest, — contrary  to 
Job's  assertion, — that  God  has  at  last  been  found  out  by 
searching,  and  that  we  may  hope  for  immortality  on  a 
"sound  and  solid"  scientific  basis. 

Should  it  really  prove  possible  scientifically  to  dem- 
onstrate with  absolutely  certainty  that  a  supreme  and 
eternal  Mind  is  ordering  creation,  and  is  the  "common 
source"  from  which  our  "lesser  minds"  are  derived, 
then  all  theological  doubt  will  at  once  vanish  from  among 
us,  our  proper  course  in  life  will  have  become  positively 
determined,  and  we  shall  soon  get  to  regulate  all  our 
doings  in  accordance  with  such  incontestable  scientific 
certainty. 


When  an  investigator  of  nature  has,  by  means  of  his- 
special  studies,  become  convinced  of  a  great  truth  whose? 
general  acceptance  would   be   all-important,  it  certainly 
devolves  upon  him  as  a  social  duty  to  proclaim  and   ex- 
plain   it   to   the  world  at  large,  that  all  may  profit  by  it. 
We  are,  therefore,  truly  thankful  to  Professor  Cope  that 
he  has  not,  with  pedantic  exclusiveness,  withheld   from 
the    common    herd    the   theological    view    of  evolution 
which  his  biological  studies  have  forced  upon  him.      lie 
rightly   scorns   to  imitate  the  haughty  reserve  of  "  the- 
majority    of  scientific   men "   who  "  avoid   the  subject," 
and   thereby    increase   our   perplexity.       With    laudable- 
fellow-feeling  he  lays  his  theory  frankly  before  us  as  a- 
scientifically  grounded  conclusion,  to  be  carefully  tested, 
as   such   in    keeping   with    scientific   usage,  so  that,  after" 
due  trial,  it  may  finally   stand   verified  as  truth  or  be  re- 
jected as  error.     Professor    Cope   is   well  aware  of  the- 
" inherent   difficulties  of   the  subject,"  but  he   believes- 
that    his    researches   into   the   nature    of  evolution   have 
opened  the  way  to  overcome  them.      Let  us  then  take  ai 
general  survey  of  his  conception   as  a   whole,  and   them 
examine  its  scientific  grounding. 

Professor  Cope's  conclusions  tend  to  show   that   the- 
universe   consisted    primordiallv   of    an   unorganized    or" 
"  unspecialized  "  material  substratum  spread  out  in  space.. 
This  uniform  matter  did  not  undergo  evolutional  chansres- 
solely  by  dint  of  its  physical  properties;  nor  did  it  merely 
serve  as  raw  material  to  be  shaped  by  a  supreme  Artificer  y. 
nor  has  it  played  the  passive  part  of  an  occasional  vehi- 
cle for  the  manifestations   of  an    otherwise   independent: 
mind.       It    was    itself,    from    the     very    beginning,     in; 
possession   of    mentality.       Mind    was   one   of    its   own.' 
properties.     For  mind  "is  tied  to  matter   as   a  property- 
of  matter  "  (p.  16-17).     Now,  it  is  this  peculiar  mental 
property    of  the   universal    substratum  that  has   power 
to  give  specific  direction  to  its    movements.     The   mind 
of  matter   is    its   veritable   formative  power.      Probably 
all  material  aggregation  and   combination,  but   certainly 
all    evolutional    organization    is    due    to    the  "  directive- 
power  of  mind."     "  Mind  was  one  at  the   start,  and    all 
this  evolution  has  been  simply  due  to  the  active  exercise - 
of  mentality"  (p.  23). 

It  follows  that  the  one  universal  mind  of  primordial 
matter,  which  by  its  exertion  has  produced  all  the  evo- 
lutional forms  now  extant,  must  be  vastly  superior  to  the- 
separate  minds  derived  by  the  individuation  of  special 
portions  of  matter.  Therefore,  this  common  source  and 
origin  of  all  world-formation  may  well  be  called  God., 
or  the  "  great  Mind."  And  this  great  Mind  being  as 
indestructible  as  the  material  substratum  of  which  it 
is  a  property,  we,  as  part  of  it,  by  force  of  "the  insep- 
arable bond  which  will  bind  us  forever  to  a  material 
basis"  (p.  17)  are  likewise  indestructible  or  Immortal. 

These,  in  a  few  words,  are  the   leading   doctrines   of" 
the     Theology  of  Evolution.     And    this    theology    oft" 


i6i 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


evolution  was  courageously  propounded  by  Professor 
Cope  to  a  specifically  Christian  denomination.  We 
hope  that,  however  serious  our  eminent  scientist  may 
otherwise  be,  he  possessed  on  that  occasion  sufficient 
humor  inwardly  to  enjoy  the  consternation  which  his 
candid  announcement  of  a  supreme  Being,  who  is  one 
of  the  properties  of  matter,  was  sure  to  create  among 
his  intelligent  theological  hearers.  The  situation  must 
have  been  extremely  piquant. 

Professor  Cope,  being  a  true  scientist,  has  of  course 
arrived  at  his  theological  conclusions  by  way  of  induc- 
tion. The  evidence  by  which  he  sustains  the  belief  in 
a  "great  Mind"  and  in  a  "future  life"  he  alleges  to  be 
"  based  on  the  knowledge  that  we  possess  of  the  control 
of  mind  over  matter"  (p.  39).  Now,  if  Professor  Cope 
really  possesses  such  knowledge, — if  he  can  prove  that 
mind  controls  matter, — he  has  solved  the  central  prob- 
lem of  modern  philosophy. 

We  are  all  perfectly  aware  that  our  muscles  are  not 
moved  by  the  push  or  pull  of  any  force  acting  upon  our 
body  from  outside.  We  know  that  it  is  by  a  process 
occurring  within  our  organism  that  these  aim-directed 
or  designed  muscular  movements  are  effected.  But  what 
the  true  nature  of  this  most  peculiar  moving  process 
reallv  is,  that  is  not  so  easily  made  out.  It  is,  in  fact 
the  very  question  that  has  been  called  "  the  puzzle  of 
puzzles."  And  since  Descartes  it  has  occupied  all  the 
greatest  philosophical  minds,  —  nay,  St.  Augustine 
already  says:  "The  manner  in  which  spirits  are  con- 
nected with  bodies  is  incomprehensible;  nevertheless,  it 
is  thus  that  man  is  constituted." 

Introspectively  we  seem  to  feel  quite  certain  that  it  is 
by  force  of  some  mental  power  of  ours  that  we  are 
moving  our  limbs.  We  seem  to  control,  through  con- 
sciousness, by  means  of  an  outgoing  mental  effort,  the 
action  of  what,  in  consequence,  we  call  our  voluntary 
muscles.  We  resolve  to  move  our  arm,  have  a  feeling 
of  effort,  and,  behold!  the  arm  is  moving.  This  is  how 
the  process  appears  when  viewed  from  the  inner  or  sub- 
jective standpoint. 

But  as  soon  as  we  investigate  the  matter  from  the 
outer  or  objective  standpoint,  which  is  the  standpoint  of 
science,  we  lose  all  confidence  in  the  testimony  of  our 
introspective  consciousness.  The  feeling  of  effort  proves 
then  to  be  centripetally  and  not  centrifugallv  originated. 
And  it  becomes,  moreover,  utterly  incomprehensible  how 
mind  can  in  any  way  impart  motion  to  material  particles. 
Yet  this  incomprehensible  feat  would  have  to  be  accom- 
plished even  if  only  direction  has  to  be  given  to  what- 
ever motion  the  particles  may  otherwise  possess;  for  to 
give  direction  to  a  moving  mass  is  to  impart  diverting 
motion  to  it.  In  this  world  of  ours  only  matter  is  mova- 
ble and  possesses  momentum.  Only  something  which 
is  itself  movable,  and  in  possession  of  momentum,  can 
possibly  impart  motion  to  matter.      Mind,  as  such,  is  not 


movable,  and  does  not  possess  momentum;  therefore,  it 
cannot  move  matter  (q.  e.  d.). 

Let  us  see  how  Professor  Cope  encounters  these 
ancient  difficulties,  and  gets  to  believe  that  he  has  over- 
come them.  He  conceives  the  situation  thus:  "  A  stim- 
ulus or  line  of  disturbance  enters  the  body."  The  per- 
son receives  it  passively.  "  It  is  registered  in  the  poste- 
rior part  of  the  main  hemispheres  of  the  brain,  is 
reflected  to  the  front  of  the  hemispheres,  and  then  from 
that  point  it  is  reflected  back  again  toward  the  executive 
organs  of  the  body,  passing  through  the  striate  body  and 
nerves  to  the  muscles,  which  thereupon  contract  so  as  to 
perform  some  act"  (p.  12).  This  act  is  now  found  to  be 
"saturated  with  intelligence"  (p.  13).  Whence  this 
acquired  exhibition  of  intelligent  design?  How  has  the 
motion  that  entered  the  body  merely  as  a  physical  motion 
been  converted  into  an  outgoing  motion  bearing  the 
stamp  of  intelligence? 

Professor  Cope  accounts  for  it  by  telling  us  that  "  in 
the  anterior  part  of  the  great  hemispheres  of  the  brain  " 
"the  line  of  energy  appears  to  be  submitted  to  a  disturb- 
ance which  is  a  deflection,  a  process  of  turning  and 
directing,  and  that  turning  and  directing  is  an  exhibi- 
tion of  what  is  called  design"  (p.  13). 

It  is  quite  true  that  to  an  intelligent  observer  the 
designed  activities  of  a  person  appear  "  saturated  with 
intelligence."  This  is  an  incontestable  and  marvelous 
fact  of  nature.  The  difficulty  is  to  explain  it  from  a 
scientific  standpoint.  The  relation  of  motion  to  intelli- 
gence is  the  enigma  in  question,  and  we  venture  to  assert 
that  Professor  Cope  cannot  possibly  solve  it  from  his 
position  of  "  tridimensional  realism."  Moving  matter 
obeys  undeviatingly  physical  laws,  and  mind  cannot 
deflect  it  from  its  determined  course.  How  little  the 
outgoing  movements  of  the  living  organism  are  really 
themselves  intellectual, — how  purely  physical,  on  the 
contrary,  even  the  most  significant  of  them  are, — 
becomes  very  obvious  in  contemplating  human  speech. 
What  movements  could  be  more  "saturated  with  intelli- 
gence "  than  those  which  are  capable  of  conveying  our 
inmost  thoughts?  Vet  a  piece  of  tin-foil  in  a  phono- 
graph, by  means  of  nothing  but  mechanical  impressions, 
will  have  the  same  intellectual  effect  on  us  as  the  move- 
ments of  speech  that  have  received  "  in  the  anterior  part 
of  the  great  hemispheres"  the  "turning  and  directing" 
twist  of  design.  Where,  then,  in  all  reality,  i-.  the  intel- 
ligence seated  which  these  purely  physical  movements 
seem  to  possess?  The  sounding, — nay-,  the  merely 
vibrating  shocks  of  the  phonograph,  the  printed  charac- 
ters in  a  book,  where  do  they  acquire  their  mental  sig- 
nificance? They  strike  our  sensory  organs  simply  as 
physical  stimuli,  and  it  is  evidently  we  who,  in  receiving 
them,  invest  with  a  whole  world  of  consistent  meaning 
their  slight  and  evanescent  hints. 

Is  Professor  Cope  right,  then,  in  assuming  that,  when 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


163 


the  stimulating  effect "  goes  in,  the  person  who  receives 
it  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it;"'  that  he  merely 
"  takes  it  "  and  "  is  passive  "  (p.  1 3)  ?  Here,  already,  at  the 
portals  of  individual  life,  the  stimulating  call  of  outward 
nature  rouses  from  the  mystic  depths  of  organic  latency 
the  responsive  mind ;  and  on  the  slender  suggestion  of 
nothing  but  a  rhythm  of  aerial  touches  it  pictures  with 
symbolic  accuracy  and  profound  comprehension  the 
great  spectacle  of  the  real  world.  It  is  quite  evident, 
then,  that  the  organic  individual  does  not  "take"  the 
stimulating  influences  passively,  without  having  anything 
"  whatever  to  do  with  them."  They  do  not  enter  the 
magic  circle  of  life  without  suffering  a  vital  transmuta- 
tion  as  incomprehensibly  strange  as  any  in  nature.  If  a 
directing  turn  or  intelligent  significance  is  at  all  imparted 
to  motions  within  the  living  organism,  surely  here, 
where  etherial  pulses  signify  the  whole  world,  this  men- 
tal stamp  is  impressed  on  them  even  more  strikingly 
than  when,  as  in  outgoing  muscular  movements,  they 
mean  only  our  own  feelings  and  thoughts. 

In  harmony  with  Professor  Cope's  train  of  reason- 
ing, this  consideration  involves  that  all  stimulating  influ- 
ences which  reach  our  sensory  organs  are  "  saturated 
with  intelligence."  And  if  so,  his  theory  of  perception 
would  nearly  agree  with  that  of  Berkeley's:  universal 
intelligence  communicating  perceptively  with  individual 
intelligence.  Only  he  also  would  then  be  logically  led 
to  discover  that  in  this  light  matter  is  only  a  superfluous 
impediment  easily  argued  away.  To  his  own  astonish- 
ment he  would  learn  to  "  understand  the  idealistic  uni- 
verse," which  he  now  believes  himself  unable  to  conceive. 

The  truth  is  mind,  as  such,  is  a  forceless  inner  aware- 
ness of  what  takes  place  independently  of  it.  It  cannot 
alter  a  jot  the  path  of  material  particles.  The  entire 
chain  of  molecular  motions  set  going  by  stimulation, — 
a  process  which  can  be  realized  only  from  the  objective 
standpoint, — is  rigorously  physical.  This  means,  accord- 
ing to  our  present  scientific  conception,  that  it  is  abso- 
lutely predetermined  by  the  previous  physical  disposi- 
tion of  the  molecules  and  their  motion.  Consequently, 
there  can  be  no  room  anywhere  for  mental  interference; 
fundamental   scientific   principles  forbid  us  to  assume  it. 

During  physical  investigation  we  are  observing  an 
enchainment  of  phenomena,  whose  disposition  in  space 
and  behavior  in  time  are  absolutely  determined  by  non- 
mental  occurrences  outside  ourselves,  and  which  we  are 
utterly  incapable  of  changing  by  any  mental  exertion  on 
our  part.  We  defy  any  one,  idealist  or  no  idealist,  to 
change  by  a  purely  mental  effort  the  objective  aspect  of 
any  occurrence;  for  instance,  the  place  or  speed  of  a 
carriage  passing  by.  The  perception  of  it  is  entirely 
the  perceiver's  own  mental  realization;  but  it  is,  never- 
theless, definitely  compelled  by  the  stimulating  influences. 
In  exactly  the  same  manner  are  all  perceived  or  perceiv- 
able motions  compelled  by  extra-mental  processes;  those 


taking  place  in  the  brain  or  in  other  parts  of  our  body 
not  less  than  the  rest. 

To  become  mentally  aware  of  extra-mental  exist- 
ents  ami  their  activities — aware,  for  instance,  of  the 
brain  and  its  functions,  we  have  to  assume  the  objective 
attitude  by  allowing  such  existents  and  their  activities  to 
stimulate  our  senses.  It  is  e\  ident,  then,  that  the  exist- 
ent and  its  activities  thus  casually  realized  in  consciousness 
at  that  particular  moment,  exist  independently  of  such 
realization,  and  cannot  be  influenced  thereby.  This 
holds  good  just  as  well  when  such  existents  and  their 
activities  are  forming  part  of  our  own  organism,  as  when 
they  are  forming  part  of  the  rest  of  the  outside  world. 
How,  indeed,  can  my  mind  possibly  influence  the  exist- 
ence and  activity  of  my  brain,  of  which  it  can  gain 
knowledge  only  by  assuming  the  objective  aspect 
towards  it,  and  of  which  it  is  otherwise  wholly  uncon- 
scious, being,  in  fact,  itself  its  stimulated  outcome.  Who, 
during  perception  or  thought,  is  at  all  aware  of  the  cor- 
responding molecular  motions  simultaneously  going  on 
in  his  head?  And  how  can  consciousness  then  influ- 
ence the  state  of  being  of  something,  of  whose  existence 
it  has  not  the  remotest  inkling? 

The  only  way  out  of  this  central  dilemma  of  science 
and  philosophy  is  to  show  that  the  leading  principles  of 
our  present  mechanical  interpretation  of  nature  are 
untenable;  that  the  molecular  processes  constituting 
vital  activity  are  hyper-mechanical,  imparting  them- 
selves the  "directive  turn"  and  specific  energies  to 
stimulation  received  from  outside.* 

We  will  now  try  to  find  out  by  what  special  scien- 
tific error  Professor  Cope  manages  to  insinuate  mental 
effectuation  into  the  physical  nexus.  In  agreement 
with  the  principle  of  the  conservation  of  energy  he 
himself  says:  "Force,  that  is  action  or  motion,  cannot 
be  caused  except  by  the  appropriation  and  modification 
of  some  pre-existent  activity  or  motion"  (p.  14).  If  so, 
then  we  must  ask  whether  the  direction,  i.  e.  the  changed 
motion,  which  Professor  Cope  attributes  to  the  influ- 
ence of  consciousness  is  caused  by  the  appropriation  of 
some  motion  that  pre-existed  in  consciousness?  Here 
evidently  lies  the  error.  Professor  Cope  has  failed  to 
realize  that  the  imparting  of  direction  to  matter  is  as 
much  a  physical  act  as  the  imparting  of  any  other  mode 
of  motion.  It  can  be  done  only  by  a  push  or  pull,  or 
let  us  add  by  physical  repulsion  or  attraction.  Con- 
sciousness cannot  possibly  be  a  vehicle  of  pre-existino- 
motion,  a  thing  possessing  mechanical  momemtum,  and 
entering  into  the  physical  nexus  as  a  correlated  force, 
receiving  and  imparting  physical  energy.  Yet  Pro- 
fessor Cope  says:  "  It  is  not  only  pretended,  but  proved, 
that  that  external  energy  passes  into  the  consciousness  of 

*  This  has  been  attempted  by  the  present  writer  in  a  paper  on  "The  Dual 
Aspect  of  our  Nature."  Index,  October,  November  and  December,  1SS5, 
where  also  the  relation  of  the  two  aspects,  the  subjective  and  the  objective  is 
explained. 


164 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


man,"  and  "  receives  within  him  a  stamp  or  a  turn  or 
direction,  that  energy  cannot  receive  under  an}'  other  cir- 
cumstances known  to  us"  (p.  14).  This  means  obviously 
and  inevitably  that  consciousness  gives  direction  to  motion, 
which  again  means  that  consciousness,  like  any  physical 
force,  imparts  to  matter  a  motion  different  to  that  which  it 
already  possesses.  That  such  mechanical  intercommu- 
nication between  consciousness  and  matter  cannot  possi- 
bly take  place,  Professor  Cope  fully  realizes,  for  he 
clearly  asserts,  "  that  consciousness  has  essentially  no 
affinity  with  anything  else;"  that  it  "is  not  only  entirely 
distinct  in  its  essential  nature  from  matter,  but  also 
totally  distinct  from  energy  or  motion"  (pp.  16-1  7).  Thus 
by  his  own  admission  it  has  no  community  of  nature 
with  anything  physical,  and  is,  therefore,  totally  inca- 
pable of  influencing  the  physical  nexus. 

Professor  Cope's  leading  conception,  on  which  he 
has  not  only  erected  his  entire  theological  superstructure, 
but  which  he  uses,  moreover,  as  a  fundamental  princi- 
ple to  account  for  organic  evolution  itself,  consists  in 
the  assumption  that  consciousness  can  control  the 
movements  of  matter.  We  will  no  longer  inquire 
whether  he  is  able  to  prove  the  validity  of  this  assump- 
tion; for  we  have  seen  that  this  is  altogether  out  of  the 
question.  We  will  only  ask  whether  he  has  formed 
any  kind  of  idea  as  to  the  manner  in  which  such  a  con- 
trol of  mind  over  matter  might  possibly  take  place.  He 
himself  puts  the  question:  "What  is,  then,  the  imme- 
diate action  of  consciousness  in  directing  energy  into  one 
channel  rather  than  another?"  [Origin  of  the  Fittest, 
p.  427.)  And,  of  course,  as  one  would  expect,  he  is 
utterly  at  a  loss  to  answer.  He  distinctly  perceives  that 
consciousness  "  is  not  itself  a  force  (=  energy)."  Con- 
sequently he  expresses  most  emphatically  its  impotence 
to  produce  motion.  He  says:  "  How,  then,  can  it  exer- 
cise energy?  Certainly  no  more  than  the  bare  good 
will  of  the  train-hands  can  pull  the  train.  Such  an 
explanation  is  to  admit  the  possibility  of  making  some- 
thing out  of  nothing"  (1.  c). 

Yet  the  experience  of  so-called  voluntary  move- 
ments gives  him  a  pretense,  as  it  has  done  to  so  many 
before  him,  to  assume  some  kind  of  effective  connection 
between  consciousness  and  the  movements.  Here,  in 
his  "Address  on  Catagenesis"  delivered  two  and  one-half 
years  ago,  he  is,  however,  very  candid  in  touching  on 
this  most  delicate  and  eminently  important  subject.  He 
is,  by  no  means,  conscious  of  having  positive  "  knowl- 
edge "  of  this  supposed  influence  of  consciousness  over 
material  motion.  On  the  contrary  he  acknowledges 
knowing  nothing  about  it.  All  the  information  he  has 
to  give  us  concerning  this  distinctive  feature  of  his  theo- 
logical and  evolutional  theory,  is  contained  in  the  follow- 
ing sentence:  "  The  explanation  can  only  be  found  in 
a  simple  acceptance  of  the  fact  as  it  is,  in  the  thesis,  that 
energy  can   be  conscious.     If  true,  this  is   an   ultimate 


fact"  (id.,  pp.  427-8)*.  This  means  simply  that  Pro- 
fessor Cope  is  aware,  like  all  of  us,  that  consciousness 
accompanies  some  of  our  movements;  but  that  he  has 
no  more  than  anj'  of  his  philosophical  or  scientific  fore- 
goers,  the  remotest  notion  how  such  consciousness  can 
at  all  influence  the  motion  of  matter. 

To  sum  up:  We  have  avowedly  not  the  slightest 
"  knowledge  of  the  control  of  mind  over  matter." 
Quite  the  reverse.  It  has  been  proved  that  mind  cannot 
possibly  control  matter.  It  if,  however,  solely  on  the 
pretended  k?wivledge  of  such  control  that  the  "  Theol- 
ogy of  Evolution,"  with  its  belief  in  a  "great  Mind" 
and  in  a  "future  life"  is  based.  This  sole  basis  having 
crumbled  to  pieces,  the  entire  superstructure  has  neces- 
sarily also  caved  in.  The  "lesser  mind,"  of  which 
alone  we  have  experience,  not  being  able  to  impart 
direction  to  matter,  the  "great  Mind,"  the  new  scientific 
Deity,  whose  existence  is  only  analogically  surmised 
and  analogically  endowed  with  the  pretended  power  of 
imparting  direction  to  matter,  has  therewith  irrecover- 
ably vanished  into  the  same  thin  air  as  other  theologi- 
cal speculations. 

THE    FOURTH     ANNIVERSARY    OF    THE    SOCIETY 
FOR    ETHICAL    CULTURE    OF    CHICAGO. 

The  fourth  anniversary  of  The  Society  for  Ethical 
Culture,  of  Chicago,  was  celebrated  at  the  Madison 
Street  Theatre,  on  Sunday,  April  jo.  There  were 
seated  on  the  stage  beside  Mr.  W.  M.  Salter,  the  lec- 
turer of  the  society,  several  of  the  leading  members, 
who,  after  the  regular  lecture,  were  called  upon  by  him 
to  speak  and  responded  each  in  a  short  address.  The 
society  has  been  steadily  gaining  ground  both  in  the  way 
of  an  increasing  membership  and  in  respect  to  finances. 
During  the  last  year  rooms  have  been  taken  by  the 
society  in  which  are  held  its  monthly  conferences,  the 
ladies'  charitable  meetings,  a  class  in  ethics,  the  young 
people's  social  reunions,  as  well  as  an  ethical  school  for 
children  (Sunday  mornings),  which  at  this  writing  has 
an  encouraging  attendance.  The  anniversary  meeting 
was  well  attended  and  great  interest  was  manifested  by 
those  who  listened  to  the  remarks  of  the  several  speakers. 
We  give  below  short  extracts  from  some  of  the  ad- 
dresses. 

Mr.  Salter,  dwelt  at  the  outset  upon  the  encouraging 
outlook,  laying  special  stress  upon  the  fact  that  a  strong 
and  abiding  interest  had  been  manifested  in  the  work 
which  the  society  had  taken  upon  itself  to  do.  He 
then  said : 

The  real  sources  of  our  inspiration  are  in  what  we  have  yet 
to  do.  The  thought  that  stirs  me  most  is  that  there  is  work  to  do 
in  this  community  and  we  must  do  it.  There  are  those  out  of 
sympathy  intellectually  with  the  churches    and  we  must  make  a 

*  In  a  recent  note  on  the  last  page  of  his  work  on  The  Origin  of  the  Fittest, 
1SS7,  Professor  Cope  re-enforces  this  position.  He  says  that  the  explanation  of 
the  control  of  mind  over  matter  requires  "  the  assumption  of  the  thesis  that 
1  energy  can  be  conscious.'  " 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


165 


home  for  them.  The  liberal  churches  do  not  take  our  place.  They 
are  resting  places  for  a  day,  but  they  do  not  satisfy.  The  type  of 
religion  represented  in  most  ot  our  independent  and  liberal 
churches,  is  transitional  religion.  Logic  conducts  to  them,  but 
conducts  bevond  them.  It  is  better  to  be  in  them  than  in  any 
of  our  orthodox  churches,  but  those  only  remain  in  them  who 
think  a  little  way  and  then  stop. 

There  is  no  reason  for  my  leaving  orthodoxy  that  does  not 
lead  to  complete  free-thought.  We  have  to  make  not  a  resting 
place,  but  a  home  for  men  and  women  of  liberal  tendency;  a  fel- 
lowship with  a  spirit  so  free  and  an  ideal  so  high  that  there  can 
be  no  necessity  nor  wish  to  leave  it.  We  should  show  that  for 
those  driven  by  conscientious  scruples  out  of  the  churches,  there 
is  as  warm  a  welcome  here  as  they  ever  found  there.  The  hu- 
man heart  longs  for  fellowship,  longs  to  meetwith  kindred  minds. 
We  ought  to  say  to  people  ill  at  ease  in  the  churches  and  out  of 
them,  come  to  us,  you  will  find  rest  with  us,  you  will  find  there  is 
still  an  aim  in  life  and  a  consolation  in  suffering  and  in  the  face 
of  death,  though  you  cannot  believe  in  one  of  the  old  perplexing 
doctrines.  I  bring  before  my  mind  a  great  number  of  such  peo- 
ple, people  who  are  without  a  home  for  the  soul,  and  I  say  to  my- 
self, that  is  my  call,  that  is  your  call,  to  find  them  out,  to  bring 
them  to  us,  to  bring  them  home. 

The  president  of  the  society,  Judge  Henry  Booth, 
said : 

I  can  think  of  no  better  way  of  occupying  the  few  moments 
assigned  me  for  addressing  you  than  by  stating  some  of  the  lead- 
ing ideas  which  our  society  represents,  as  I  understand  its  posi- 
tion, speaking  for  myself  alone.  First  and  foremost  this  society 
stands  for  the  idea  of  law,  universal,  immutable,  inexorable  law — 
law  without  variableness  or  shadow  of  turning.  Whence  its 
source  or  where  its  seat  we  do  not  know — we  do  not  pretend  to 
know.  That  is  the  mystery  of  mysteries.  We  know  it  only  in 
its  operation  and  we  know  and  feel  that  we  too,  in  common  with 
the  universe,  visible  and  invisible,  are  subject  to  its  operations; 
that  we  are  held  in  firm  allegiance  to  this  universal  law,  an  alle- 
giance which  we  could  not  break  if  we  would  and  would  not  if 
we  could.  In  the  presence  of  this  universal  law  ancient  myths, 
whether  of  Greek,  Roman,  Egyptian,  Chaldean,  Phenician, 
Hindoo  or  Hebrew  origin,  as  the  basis  of  ethics,  have  no  place. 

They  form  no  basis  for  our  faith.  They  illustrate  the  fertility 
of  the  imagination  of  men  in  the  dark  before  the  light  of  science 
had  arisen  to  reveal  the  operations  of  this  universal  law.  This 
law  includes  all  the  moral  order  of  the  universe,  and  first  and 
foremost  is  the  principle  of  justice,  which  if  properly  considered 
includes  all  ethical  principles  and  all  their  applications;  without 
which  ethics  is  an  unmeaning  term. 

Mr.  A.  S.  Bradley  said: 

The  question  has  been  asked,  "  What  does  the  Ethical  Culture 
Society  stand  for?  "  I  would  answer  that  it  stands  for  the  pro- 
duction of  a  higher  type  of  human  character,  a  factor  in  the  evo- 
lution of  character  and  conduct — the  only  aim  for  which  life  is 
worth  living.  It  stands  for  it  as  the  quasi  science  of  antiquity 
stood  for  the  development  of  steam,  chemistry  and  electricity;  as 
the  philosophy  of  ancient  India  and  Egypt  stood  for  modern 
philosophy.  But  the  important  question  for  us  as  individuals  to 
consider  is,  not  what  the  society  stands  for,  but  whether  we  are 
worthy,  to  use  the  words  of  Lincoln,  "to  be  dedicated  to  this  un- 
finished work."  It  is  our  own  character  and  conduct  which  first 
needs  our  attention;  and  in  this  regard  the  maintenance  of  these 
lectures  chiefly  concerns  us,  that  we  may  be  faithfully  reminded 
of  duties  unperformed,  of  duties  to  be  performed,  so  that  we  or 
our  children  may 

"rise  on  stepping-stones 
Of  our  dead  selves  to  higher  things." 


As  Mr.  Salter  says:  "Evolution  goes  on  rapidly  or  creeps 
along  painfully  according  as  our  thoughts  are  quick  or  slow  and 
dead."  But  let  it  seem  fast  or  slow,  the  cause  of  free-thought 
must  ever  advance,  and  we  will  still  say  to  the  priesthood  as 
Galileo  said,  "//  mo-rs.'"  And  let  our  work  fail;  we  will  yet  say, 
"They  never  fail  who  work  for  a  great  cause.  Though  years 
elapse  they  but  augment  the  deep  and  sweeping  thoughts  which 
overpower  all  others  and  conduct  the  world  at  last  to  freedom. 

Mr.  H.  de  Roode  was  the  next  speaker: 

Perhaps  as  a  man  of  business  I  may  point  you  to  the  encour- 
agement I  feel  in  the  growth  and  development  of  this  society; 
standing  as  it  does  for  a  new  principle,  and  realizing  the  spirit  of 
the  poet  who  saw  "  sermons  in  stones  and  good  in  everything." 
I  already  look  upon  this  society,  though  so  young,  as  a  great 
factor  in  shaping  the  ethics  of  practical  life  in  our  great  city,  and 
even  teaching  the  pulpits,  yea  out  of  their  own  Scriptures,  the 
new  and  higher  meaning  of  human  life.  My  friends,  hundreds 
of  years  ago  the  spirit  of  a  dull  age  was  lifted  to  higher  ground 
by  the  watchword  of  a  zealous  apostle:  "To  the  greater  glory  of 
God."  As  it  has  ever  been  and  is  now,  our  altars  must  ever  be 
inscribed:  "To  the  unknown  God,"  but  let  our  mission  be  none 
the  less  sublime  if,  clad  in  the  garments  of  righteousness,  we  un- 
furl to  the  breeze  of  progress  a  banner  of  salvation  with  the 
nobler  motto:  "To  the  greater  glory  of  Man." 

The  remarks  of  Mr.  Joseph  W.  Errant,  the  last 
speaker,  were  as  follows: 

My  friends,  the  way  to  make  the  new  ethics  a  part  of  our 
lives,  a  part  of  our  natures,  so  that  it  shall  be  a  permanent  factor 
is  to  work  in  the  fields  of  practical  ethics.  This  is  the  test  of  the 
inspiration  of  ethics,  our  practical  adherence  to  the  obligations 
which  it  imposes.  The  training  school  is  the  work  of  the  world, 
it  is  this  which  makes  ethics  real  and  practical;  it  is  for  the  home 
for  the  school,  for  the  manufacturer,  for  the  professional  man. 

The  future  will  be  then  what  we  make  it.  At  our  door  lie 
great  and  pressing  problems  begging  to  be  taken  in;  they  belong 
to  us;  they  have  a  right  to  ask  for  admission.  Moral  questions 
cannot  be  voted  down  by  numbers.  They  call  for  thought,  for 
justice,  for  action.  Moral  questions  cannot  be  kept  out  of  sight, 
they  have  a  constant  tendency  to  come  to  the  light,  where  thev 
belong. 

Oh,  what  great  opportunities  are  ours!  and  in  this  moral 
work  who  is  there  that  will  not  gladly  join,  who  does  not  feel 
upon  him  the  obligation  to  do  and  dare  for  the  right. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

CRITICISM   OF  THE   PULPIT. 

GEORGE  JACOB    HOLYOAKE    TO   THE    DUKE    OF    ARGYLL. 

To  the  Editors: 

The  following  letter,  which  I  recently  addressed  to  the  Duke 
of  Argyll,  explains  itself  and  its  occasion: 

As  one  who  is  interested  in  the  secular  and  moral  discus- 
sion of  pulpit  teaching,  I  venture  to  write  to  your  Grace  on 
behalf  of  many  of  a  similar  way  of  thinking,  concerning  the 
remarks  with  which  your  article  opens  in  the  March  number  of 
the  Nineteenth  Century.  The  eminence  and  influence  of  your 
Grace,  not  of  rank  merely,  but  what  is  of  more  merit  in  our  eyes 
— in  oratory  and  literature,  must  be  our  apology  for  attaching 
importance  to  your  words. 

In  reph  ing  to  and,  in  effect,  reproving  Pro'essor  Huxley  for 
his  criticism  ol  certain  misleading  teachings  by  Canon  Liddon,your 
Grace  says:  "  The  pulpit  has  hitherto  enjoyed  no',  perhaps,  abso- 
lute, but,  at  least,  a  general  and  customary  immunity  from  con- 
troversy or  reply.  It  is  surely  well  that  this  custom  should  be 
respected." 

Why  so?  Is  not  the  priest  more  dangerous  than  the  politi- 
cian?    It  is  by  the  contradiction  of  the  politician  and  putting  him 


1 66 


THB    OPEN    COURT. 


to  the  proof,  that  the  public  prevent  his  tongue  from  being  per- 
nicious. The  politician  speaks  in  the  name  of  reason  which 
admits  of  appeal.  The  priest  professes  to  speak  with  the  voice  of 
God,  against  which  there  is  no  appeal;  and  if  the  words  of  the 
priest  are  unquestioned  his  errors  come  to  be  regarded  as  divine. 
It  is  singular  that  the  Duke  of  Argyll  should  deprecate  the  criti- 
cism of  the  clergy — he  who  is  of  a  race  and  is  the  head  of  a  clan, 
who  never  shrank  even  from  the  more  serious  criticism  of  the 
claymore.  Are  not  the  clergy  trained  for  feats  of  theological 
arms?  Asa  rule  they  have  claws  like  those  of  an  octopus.  The 
courteous  sort  wear  a  velvet  glove,  but  underneath  is  a  hand  ot 
iron,  which  ihey  call  their  "  mission."  Some,  indeed,  have  a  real 
human  hand  within  the  glove,  but  they  are  all  suspected  by  their 
brethren  as  "  unsound  "  somewhere  "  in  the  faith."  What  exemp- 
tion do  they  need  from  controversy  ?  They  can  get  aid  by  prayer, 
while  their  adversaries  must  depend  upon  themselves.  God 
stands  behind  the  priest,  the  law  is  with  him.  Canon  Liddon  has 
the  influence  and  arrogance  of  the  State  Church  on  his  side. 
Popular  prejudice  protects  him.  The  mob,  ill-dressed  and  well- 
dressed,  applaud  the  priest,  however  insolent  he  may  be — and  he 
often  is  insolent — while  his  secular  critic  is  commonly  unfriended, 
unsupported  and  unencouraged. 

Your  Grace  considers  that  the  pulpiteer  "  is  debarred  by  his 
occupation  from  pursuing  disputation  as  others  can."  Then  why 
does  he  dispute,  himselt?  His  life  is  a  ceaseless  attack  upon 
others.  He  thrusts  himself  into  every  school  and  into  every 
house.  He  does  not  respect  the  sickroom.  He  attacks  the 
dying,  he  defames  the  character  of  the  dead.  To  reply  to  the 
proselytizing  priest  is  well  understood  self-defense.  A  man  may 
intercede  with  heaven  on  his  own  account,  but  he  may  neither 
pray  for  nor  preach  to  others  without  offense,  unless  he  gives 
them  the  means  of  self-protection,  by  declaring  his  purpose  and 
inviting  their  protest  if  they  wish  to  make  it.  It  ought  to  be  an 
offense  at  law  for  any  priest  to  use  his  influence  with  heaven  pri- 
vately, and  get  a  supernatural  battery  discharged  upon  others 
secretly,  without  according  them  means  of  self-protection  by  dis- 
puting the  validity  of  his  clandestine  and  officious  intercession. 

What  would  your  grace  say  to  a  soldier,  who  prodded  all  he 
met  with  his  propagandist  bayonet,  and  when  they  desired  to 
criticise  him  in  the  same  way  declared  that  he  was  debarred  Irom 
being  subjected  to  that  species  of  controversy?  The  clergyman 
or  minister  who  preaches  any  tenet,  and  does  provide  that  all  who 
hear  shall  then  and  there  question  him — in  self-defense  il  so 
minded — is  simply  an  assassin  of  the  understanding,  and  ought  to 
be  treated  as  such.  Discussion  is  self-protection  against  error, 
and  he  who  withholds  or  presents  that  protection  is  a  traitor  to 
the  truth,  whatever  may  be  his  mission  or  his  motives.  How 
much  more  useful  is  the  language  of  Mr.  Gladstone  to  the 
students  of  the  Liverpool  College,  to  whom  he  declared  that 
Christianity  could  no  longer  be  defended  by  ra  ling  or  reticence — 
which  means  that  priests  must  no  longer  defame  opinions  instead 
of  confuting  them,  and  that  abstention  from  controversy,  on  any 
pretext,  is  unseemly  and  perilous.  The  soldier  of  trust  may  be  a 
combatant. 

No  canon  spares  Professor  Huxley  when  he  thinks  he  can 
make  a  point  against  him.  Why  should  Professor  Huxley  spare  a 
canon  who  makes  points  against  the  truth  of  science?  So  many 
unfit  and  pretentious  persons  speak  in  the  name  of  God  until  he 
is  compromised  by  them,  competent  beyond  most  preachers  to 
represent  Deity,  as  Canon  Liddon  is,  yet  even  he  is  not  infallible, 
and  if  his  speech  on  behalf  of  God  is  rendered  exact  by  criticism, 
that  is  a  tribute,  and  no  mean  tribute,  to  heaven.  Since  God  him- 
self is  silent  no  words  spoken  in  his  name  can  be  trusted,  until 
they  are  verified  and  clarified  by  debate.  The  priest  himself 
should  be  the  first  to  invite  it  lest  he  unwittingly  make  an  offer- 
ing of  error  on  the  altar.  If  it  be  a  duty  to  seek  the  truth  and  to 
live  the  truth,  honest  discussion  which  discerns  it,  identifies  it, 
clears  it  and  establishes  it,  is  a  form  of  worship  of  real  honor  of 
God  and  of  true  service  of  man.  We,  therefore,  pray  your  Grace 
not  to  discourage  it. 

I  had  the  pleasure  to  receive  a  reply  from  the  Duke  of 
Argyll,  in  which  he  said  that  "I  had  written  under  a  misconcep- 
tion, as  his  observations  on  pulpit  criticism  had  no  reference  to 
any  thing  but  spoken  sermons — not  formally  published  and  of 
which  there  is  no  authorized  report."  These  the  Duke  would 
"  treat  as  privileged  communications  not  addressed  to  the  general 
public,  but  to  special  congregations.  When  the  clergy  enter  on 
the  field  of  literature  by  published  writings,"  his  Grace  regards 
"their  teachings  as  open  to  comment  and  controversy."  The 
Duke  adds  that   "  he  now-a-days  never  sees  among  the  clergy  the 


spirit  of  personal  bitterness  which  seems  to  animate  my  letter," 
and  he  "feels  sure  that  truth  can  never  be  reached  without  some 
candor,  calmness  and  reasonableness  of  spirit,  both  as  regards  the 
subject  matter  and  as  regards  the  feelings  towards  those  from 
whom  we  differ."  As  respects  these  qualities  of  "candor,  calm- 
ness and  reasonableness  of  spirit,"  as  conditions  necessary  in  the 
search  for  truth,  I  quite  agree  with  the  illustrious  writer.  Con- 
sideration for  the  feelings  or  even  intellectual  rights  of  others 
have  seldom  been  a  Christian  virtue.  It  is  happily  now  becom- 
ing more  common,  but  the  degree  in  which  the  Duke  of  Argyll 
possesses  it  is  far  from  being  general. 

I  made  frank  acknowledgment  to  his  Grace  for  the  courtesy 
of  his  letter,  adding  that  "  I  counted  it  a  great  influence  in  favor 
of  truth  that  his  Grace  regards  the  published  writings  of  the 
clergy  as  open  to  controversy."  For  reasons  I  have  stated,  I  am 
still  of  opinion  that  sermons  are  serious  assaults  upon  the  under- 
standing and  emotions  of  congregations,  who  are  without  the 
protection  of  criticism.     My  letter  concludes  as  follows: 

It  was  certainly  a  lack  of  art  on  my  part  to  give  your  Grace  the 
impression  that  I  wro'e  in  "bitterness,"  which  is  not  in  my 
mind.  It  is  my  good  fortune  to  possess  the  friendship  of  many 
famous  priests,  clergymen  and  ministers  for  whom  I  have  real 
respect  and,  for  some,  affection.  This  does  not  prevent  my 
seeing  their  errors  of  conviction  and  duty;  nor  prevent  them  dis- 
cerning and  dissenting  from  mine.  Many  clergymen  are  gentle- 
men as  well  as  Christians,  but  more  are  Christians  only. 
With  the  nobler  sort  of  priests  controversy  is  considerate 
and  fair,  which  is  the  manliest  form  of  propagand  sm.  Wor- 
ship is  every  man's  right,  undisturbed  and  unquestioned — but 
preaching  is  no  man's  right,  unless  he  concedes  to  the  hearer  the 
seif-detense  of  inquiry  or  reply.  Controversy  should  be  rel- 
evant, unimputative  and  decorous — and  from  whom  can  this 
be  expected  so  well  as  from  priests,  who  have  supernatural 
advantages  over  their  secular  hearers?  They  should  be  able  to 
regard  the  errors  of  men  as  the  physician  does  diseases,  and  after 
like  passionless  inspection  and  inquiry,  the  clergy  should  apply 
the  remedy  of  instruction  in  truth.  Foolish  discussion  may 
destroy  the  moral  of  a  fine  discourse,  but  this  depends  upon  the 
preacher  and  the  public  want  of  discipline  in  debate,  which  only 
habit  can  give.  Some  years  ago  I  published  a  little  his:ory  of  a 
trial  which  befell  me.  I  was  indicted,  tried  and  sentenced  to  six 
months'  imprisonment  by  a  judge  distinguished  for  his  Christian, 
ity — and  this  not  for  words  published,  nor  voluntarily  spoken, 
not  for  words  premeditated,  but  simply  given  in  debate  in  answer 
to  a  question.  Even  if  I  felt  it,  some  "bitterness"  would  be  par- 
donable in  one  who  lives  under  a  state  of  law  maintained  by  the 
Christian  priesthood,  which  gives  them  absolute  immunity,  say 
what  they  may,  and  inflicts  serious  penalties  upon  those  who 
may  in  self-defense  give  utterance  lo  their  equally  rightful  opin- 
ions. Since,  however,  debate  is  the  only  protection  of  truth,  I 
am  in  favor  of  discussion  under  whatever  disadvantages;  nor  do 
I  see  the  validity  of  objection  on  the  part  of  any  who  agree  with 
St.  Paul  that  we  should  "prove  a.l  things;  hold  fast  that  which  is 
good."  George  Jacob  Holyoake. 

FREE-THOUGHT    EDUCATION. 

To  the  Editors:  Orange,  N.J. 

I  must  own  that  I  am  agreeably  surprised  by  the  interest 
which  my  brief  article  on  Free-thought  Education  has  aroused- 
and  am  led  to  hope  that  it  may  at  last  result  in  something  prac- 
tical. My  critic,  Mr.  Jappe,  finds  fault  with  me  for  suggesting  a 
college,  and  not  a  lyceum,  unaware,  apparently  that  college  is  the 
more  usual,  and  if  he  will  permit  me  to  say  so,  the  more  correct 
term.  We  speak  of  Eton  College,  not  of  Eton  Lyceum.  (Com- 
pare Matthew  Arnold's  articles  on  A  French  Eton;  also  Webster's 
Dictionary).  He  seems  to  know  only  the  ordinary  American 
meaning  of  the  term  college.  In  any  case,  we  both  mean  and 
desire  the  same  thing,  and  we  shall  not  quarrel  over  words. 

I  am  entirely  agreed  with  Mr.  Leahy,  and  quite  as  wide- 
awake as  he,  to  the  necessity  of  rousing  the  free-thinkers  of 
America  to  united  action  in  the  matter  of  education.  But  I  am 
too  well  acquainted  with  them  to  have  much  faith  that  they  will 
soon  display  any  such  action  on  a  large  scale.  My  hope  lies  in 
inducing  a  small  number  of  the   more   silent  and  earnest  among 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


167 


them  to  unite  and  form  a  college  in  the  true  sense,*  and  so  to 
rear  a  generation  of  freethinkers  who  shall  be  doers,  and  not 
mere  talkers,  as  the  present  generation  so  largely  is. 

The  Free-thin  iers?  Magazine  has  done  me  the  honor  to  reprint 
my  little  article  as  an  editorial,  and  the  editor  has  requested  me 
to  express  my  views  on  Free-thought  Education,  at  greater 
length  for  that  periodical.  I  have  accordingly  done  so,  and  the 
result  will  appear  in  the  next  number.  I  need  not  repeat  what  I 
have  said  there.  I  would  only  repeat  my  appeal  to  all  liberal 
men  and  women  in  this  land,  to  bestir  themselves,  and  do 
son  jLhing  in  behalf  of  the  cause  which  they  profess  to  sustain, 
Ciid  to  aid  in  redeeming  men  and  women  from  a  stupefying, 
degrading  and  hypocritical  superstition,  and  in  restoring  them  to 
the  liberty  of  reason  and  science.  I  have  no  idea  of  establishing 
anything  to  compete  with  Harvard  or  Yale.  The  evil  done  by 
unfree-thought  education  is  done  long  before  young  men  reach 
institutions  of  that  grade.  What  I  am  advocating  can  be  begun 
on  a  small  scale  and  with  moderate  means;  in  fact,  with  one 
teacher  and  one  pupil.  The  American  passion  for  bigness  could 
only  be  prejudicial  to  it.  I  am  amused  to  see  that  so  many  peo- 
ple think  free-thought  a  form  of  sectarianism.  To  me  free- 
thought  means  a  reverent  acceptance  and  following  of  all  clearly 
demonstrated  truth,  and  I  hardly  think  that  the  unprejudiced  fol- 
lowers of  that  could  fairlv  be  called  a  sect,  or  their  tenets  secta- 
rian.    But  perhaps  I  am  wrong. 

I  have  not  the  smallest  desire  to  make  my  name  prominent  in 
this  matter;  for  all  popularitv,  and  all  quest  for  popularity  are 
unspeakably  hateful  to  me;  but,  until  an  abler  leader  can  be 
found,  I  am  willing  to  do  what  I  can  to  help  this  most  important 
movement  through  its  pioneer  stage.  If  I  can,  in  any  measure, 
succeed  in  doing  this,  I  shall  then  be  most  ready  to  transfer  the 
work  to  worth'  r  and  stronger  hands. 

I  am  now  deavoring  to  work  out  the  plan  of  a  complete 
system  of  Free-th  ight  Education.  When  finished  and  printed, 
it  will  make  a  large  pamphlet,  almost  a  book,  and  I  shall  endeavor 
to  give  it  a  wide  circulation.  If  it  does  nothing  else,  it  will,  at 
least,  call  out  an  expression  of  opinion. 

If  the  friends  of  Free-thought  Education,  instead  of  wasting 
time  in  talking  and  disputing,  will  come  forward,  and  say  what 
they  are  willing  to  do,  what  efficient  aid,  in  the  way  of  means  or 
work,  they  are  willing  to  lend,  then  we  shall  be  able  to  make  a 
beginning  at  least,  and,  as  the  Scotch  say,  a  work  begun  is  half- 
ended. 

What  we  really  want  is  a  kind  of  Co-operative  Pedagogical 
Province,  a  miniature  societv,  in  which  young  persons  may  be 
trained  for  the  great  society  of  humanity.  Might  it  not  be  well  to 
reprint  in  The  Open  Court,  the  delightful  account  given  by 
Goethe  (the  apostle  of  Free-thought  Education)  of  the  "  Pedagogi- 
cal Province  "  visited  by  his  Wilhelm  Meister?  [Wandety'ahre, 
Bjok   II.) 

Let  us  have  at  once  an  association  calling  itself  The  Free- 
thought  Education  Society.  Let  it  be  incorporated;  let  it  collect 
funds,  seek  out  capable  directors  and  instructors,  and  set  to  work 
to  found  a  Free-thought  College,  in  some  healthy  country  place. 
If  persons  willing  to  spend  and  be  spent  in  such  an  enterprise, 
will  send  their  names  to  me,  stating  at  the  same  time  what  they  are 
willing  to  do,  I  will  call  a  meeting  of  them,  in  the  course  of  the 
summer,  at  some  convenient  time  and  place,  and  then  the  whole 
matter  can  be  thoroughly  discussed.  Thomas  Davidson. 


BOOK   REVIEWS. 


The  twentieth  annual  meeting  of  the  Free  Religious  Associa- 
tion will  be  held  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  May  26  and  27, 
commencing  on  Thursday,  May  26,  at  7:45  p.  M.,  in  Vestry  Hall, 
SS  Tremont  st.,  with  a  Business  Session  for  hearing  reports,  elect- 
ing officers,  etc.  F.  M.  Holland,  Secretary. 

*  Webster  defined  College  a.s  "A  society  of  scholars  incorporated  for  the 
purposes  of  study  or  instruction."     This  is  precisely  what  I  want. 


The  Religious  Sentiment:  Its  Source  and  Aim,  a  Contribu- 
tion to  the  Science  and  Philosophy  of  Religion.  By  Daniel 
G.  Brinton,  A.M.,  M.D.  New  York :  Henry  Holt  &  Co., 
1S76. 

The  author  says  in  the  preface:  "The  'science  of  religion,' 
as  we  know  it  in  the  works  of  Burnouf,  Miiller  and  others,  is  a 
comparison  of  systems  of  worship  in  their  historic  development. 
The  deeper  inquiry  as  to  what  in  the  mind  of  man  gave  birth  to 
religion  in  any  of  its  forms,  what  spirit  breathed  and  is  ever 
breathing  life  into  these  dry  bones,  this,  the  final  and  highest 
question  of  all,  has  had  but  passing  or  prejudiced  attention.  To 
its  investigation  this  book  is  devoted." 

Mr.  Brinton  approaches  his  subject  analytically  and  by  the 
inductive  method.  The  main  questions  of  his  inquiry  are: 
"What  led  men  to  imagine  gods  at  all?  What  still  prompts 
enlightened  nations  to  worship?  Is  prayer  of  any  avail,  or  of 
none?  Is  faith  the  last  ground  of  adoration,  or  is  reason?  Is 
religion  a  transient  phase  of  development,  or  is  it  the  chief  end  of 
man?  What  is  its  warrant  of  continuance?  If  it  overlive  this 
day  of  crumbling  theologies,  whence  will  come  its  reprieve?" 

Mr.  Brinton's  ways  of  thinking  are  decidedly  monistic.  He 
introduces  Oken's  dictum :  Mind  is  co-extensive  with  organism, 
and  he  quotes  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt's  words:  "The  old  dual- 
ism of  mind  and  body  which  for  centuries  struggled  in  vain  for 
reconciliation,  finds  it  now,  not  indeed  in  the  unity  of  substance 
but  in  the  unity  of  laws."  And  Mr.  Brinton  says  (on  page  S), 
"  Wherever  we  see  form  preserved  amid  the  change  of  substance, 
there  is  mind."  In  both  quotations  and  in  many  other  passages 
of  his  book,  Mr.  Brinton  accepts,  and  nothing  short  of  it,  the 
fundamental  principles  of  monism,  although  he  never  uses  the 
word. 

Treating  in  Chapter  I,  of  the  laws  of  mind  and  thought, 
Mr.  Brinton  proposes  that  the  logical  law  of  the  excluded  middle 
is  the  keystone  of  religious  philosophy.  He  objects  to  Mr. 
Spencer's  view  of  the  unknowable.  "  Those  philosophers,"  he 
savs  on  page  39,  "  such  as  Herbert  Spencer,  who  teach  that  there 
is  some  incogitable  '  nature'  of  something  which  is  the  immanent 
'cause'  of  phenomena,  delude  themselves  with  words.  The 
history  and  the  laws  of  a  phenomenon  are  its  nature,  and  there 
is  no  chimerical  something  beyond  them.  They  are  exhaustive. 
They  fully  answer  the  question  why  as  well  as  the  question  how." 
The  second  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  emotional  ingredients 
of  religious  sentiment.  Fear,  hope  and  love  are  its  chief  elements 
and  the  part  sexual  love  plays  in  religions,  receives  full  apprecia- 
tion. But  religion  is  not  merely  an  affair  of  feelings.  It  must 
assume  some  rational  postulates  which  involve,  as  explained  in 
Chapter  III,  that  there  is  an  intelligent  order  in  the  world. 
"Thus  we  reach  the  foundation  for  the  faith  in  a  moral  govern- 
ment of  the  world,  which  it  has  been  the  uniform  characteristic 
of  religions  to  assert."  Bunson  expresses  it,  as  quoted  on  page 
109,  "The  faith  of  all  historical  religions  starts  from  the  assump- 
tion of  a  universal  moral  order,  in  which  the  good  is  alone  the 
true,  and  the  true  is  the  only  good." 

Prayer,  in  Chapter  IV,  is  claimed  to  have  a  positive  effect  on 
the  mind,  joyful  emotions  are  its  fruits,  spiritual  enlightenment,  as 
religious  people  call  it,  its  reward.  The  answer  to  prayer,  it  is 
claimed  by  religious  minds,  comes  by  inspiration  which  Mr. 
Brinton  calls  cntheasm. 

In  Chapter  V,  religious  myths,  in  Chapter  VI,  the  cult,  its 
symbols  and  its  rites  are  treated.  As  the  momenta  of  religious 
thought  are  named  in  Chapter  VII:  (1)  the  idea  of  the  perfected 
individual;  (2)  the  idea  of  the  perfected  commonwealth,  and  (3) 
the  idea  of  personal  survival.  The  last  of  these  three  ideas  is  de- 
creasing as  a  religious  moment  owing  to  a  better   understanding 


1 68 


THK    OPEN    COURT. 


of  ethics,  to  more  accurate  cosmical  conceptions,  to  clearer  defi- 
nitions of  life  and  to  the  increasing  immateriality  of  religions. 
Mr.  Brinton  declares  the  doctrine  of  personal  survival  to  be  ego- 
tistic and  "  the  spirit  of  true  religion,"  he  adds,  "  wages  constant 
war  with  the  predominance  or  even  presence  of  selfish  aims." 

We  sometimes  miss,  for  instance  in  Chapter  I,  a  definite  and 
clear  statement  of  the  author's  own  views,  we  also  differ  from  his 
views  in  many  details,  and,  concerning  the  high  aim  he  has  pro- 
posed to  himself,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  he  has  satisfac- 
torily answered  all  the  questions  of  his  problem.  But  the  spirit 
and  general  character  of  the  book  must  impress  the  reader  with 
the  earnestness  and  scholarship  of  its  author  and  with  the  fact 
that  his  work  contains  most  valuable  contributions  to  a  right  un- 
derstanding of  religion  and  religious  sentiment.         Paul  Carus. 

Absolute  Relativism;  or,  The  Absolute  in  Relation. 
By  William  Bell  McTaggart.  London  :  W.  Stewart  &_Co.,  41 
Farringdon  street,  S.  E.     Vol.  I,  pp.  133. 

The  object  of  this  work  is  to  examine  the  leading  systems  of 
philosophy  and  to  show  that,  while  none  of  them  have  repre- 
sented the  entire  truth,  they  have  all  been  stepping-stones  to  truer 
and  better  thought.  The  various  religions  and  philosophies  are 
regarded  as  facets  reflecting  some  portions  of  the  truth.  The  val- 
uable elements  of  each,  with  its  errors  omitted,  our  author 
attempts  to  combine  in  a  synthetic  philosophy,  which  he  calls 
"Absolute  Relativism." 

We  can  only  indicate  the  leading  train  of  thought.  The  mate- 
rialist says  that  the  ego  and  the  non-ego  are  manifestations  or 
functions  or  potentialities  of  matter.  The  idealist  says  that  ego 
is  mind,  and  non-ego  is  mind;  that  all  the  qualities  of  what  is 
termed  matter  are  shown  in  the  last  analysis  to  be  properties  of 
mind,  and  that  the  stimulus,  or  "otherness,"  necessary  to  mind 
before  it  can  have  cognition  of  even  itself,  must  be  mind. 

Mr.  McTaggart  holds  that  a  proposition  can  be  formulated 
which  will  be  acceptable  alike  to  careful  thinkers,  whether  they 
call  themselves  materialists  or  idealists.  The  philosophical  neces- 
sity of  postulating  some  stimulus  to  which  the  mind  responds 
prior  to  effect,  some  "otherness"  from  which  the  mind  may  dis- 
tinguish itself,  some  impulse  to  which  the  mind  may  respond, 
must  be  admitted.  The  materialist  says  this  stimulus  is  only 
matter;  the  idealist  affirms  that  it  is  only  mind.  Mr.  McTaggait 
tells  the  materialist  that  matter  is  regarded  by  all  schools  o 
thought  as  unknowable  per  se,  "  for  the  reason  that  it  cannot  be 
known  out  of  mentation.  A  green  leaf,  for  example,  does  not 
exist  in  the  universe  apart  from  the  power  of  mind  "  (for  the 
reason  that  color,  form  and  substance  are  words  which  stand  for 
conscious  states,  modes  in  which  our  consciousness  is  affected). 

To  the  idealist  the  externality  or  stimulus  is  just  as  inscrutable. 
"  May  not  this  stimulus  or  irritation  be  internal,  a  feature  or  poten- 
tiality of  the  mind?  May  not,  in  other  words,  the  mind  be  its 
own  stimulus  and  response  to  stimulus?  An  adequate  considera- 
tion will  show  us  that  it  may  not.  Given  the  mind  in  unity  as 
alone  the  generator  of  all  things,  then  it  must  forever  remain 
blank  and  dark,  silent,  infertile.  Why?  Because  if  we  consider 
what  we  mean  by  production  in  its  simplest  form,  it  is  equivalent 
to  change.  But  what  is  change?  It  is  something  that  was  not 
there  before;  some  force,  some  movement  has  arisen  which  makes 
the  ego  different  from  what  it  was  before.  *  *  *  The  force  may 
be  postidated  as  being  in  the  ego  since  the  beginning;  hut  what 
started  it  out  of  potentiality  into  activity?  What  set  the  ferment 
going?  Clearly  something  not  there  before;  but,  if  the  ego  was 
all  in  all,  the  absolute,  then  there  was,  and  is,  nothing  else  to 
6et  this  ferment  in  motion.  No  appulse,  no  impulse  can  arise; 
for  there  is  nothing, — no  when,  no  where, — to  so  arise  to  disturb 
the  balance  or  alter  the  eternal  equation.  *  *  *  Much,  nay, 
most,  may  be  the  ego;  but  that  there  is  an  actuality,  a  something, 


outside  and  beyond  as  the  non-ego,  is  a  demonstrated   certainty." 

The  mistake  of  the  idealist  consists  in  the  fancy  that  mind 
must  stimulate  itself,  and  be  the  be-all  and  end  of  creation.  The 
doctrine  that  there  is  no  difference  between  the  ego  and  the  non- 
ego  by  making  the  two  identical,  destroys  all  possibilities  or  poten- 
tialities of  them  both.  To  this  impasse  comes  also  the  materialist 
at  the  same  crucial  point  of  the  investigation.  If  matter, — that 
is,  ultimate  homogeneous  atoms,  each  endowed  with  necessarily 
equivalent  force, — is  all  in  all,  then  can  there  be  nothing  to  set 
the  ferment  going.  Mass  and  motion,  passivity  and  activity, 
action  and  reaction,  this  dual  principle  is  the  great  underlying 
verity. 

There  is  an  externality,  a  stimulus,  as  in  the  case  of  a  tree, 
which  has  the  power  of  £gain  and  again  stimulating  the  mind,  so 
that  fresh  ideas  are  evolved  whenever  the  occasions  occur. 
Turned  in  upon  itself  mind  or  matter  remains  unfertilized,  unfer- 
tilizable. 

The  common  truth  of  materialism  and  idealism  is  that  "other- 
ness "  exists ;  that  other  minds  and  other  existences  also,  modified, 
idealized,  created,  in  a  sense,  by  ourselves,  but  existing  outside 
and  beyond  our  mentation,  each  after  its  own  fashion  notwith- 
standing. As  a  corollary  thereto,  without  stimulus  no  mind,  and 
without  response  to  stimulus  no  body,  or  without  stimulus,  con- 
tained within  the  unknown  x,  no  mind.  Without  response  to 
stimulus, contained  within  the  unknown  x,  nobody.  "Stimulus 
or  the  underlying  principle  of  otherness,  is  of  the  unknown  sub- 
stratum, or  philosophers'  matter.  Response  to  stimulus,  or  the 
underlying  principle  of  self  or  identity,  is  of  the  unknown  sub- 
stratum, or  philosophers'  matter.  Mind  is  a  compound  of  unity; 
it  is  stimulus  plus  response  to  stimulus,  which,  as  a  phase  of  the 
unknown  v,  or  matter,  the  basis  of  mind  is  demonstrated  to  be 
something  or  other  apart  from  mind.  Mind  can  know  mental 
manifestations,  ideas  onlv  ;  but  in  these  ideas  there  is  discover- 
able an  actuality  of  otherness  which  gives  rise  to  what  we  term 
the  physical  and  extended. 

"  '  No  mind  no  body,'  has  been  proved  as  the  truth ;  but  no  mind 
no  matter,  can  by  no  means  be  allowed  to  pass.  Matter,  the 
unknown  x  in  the  phase  or  activity  of  stimulus,  must,  as  we  have 
seen,  be  admitted  as  a  thing  apart;  for  mind  alone,  unfertilizedi 
unenergized,  remains  forever  unconscious  of  itself,  a  potentiality, 
but  nothing  more." 

We  give  but  the  merest  outline  of  the  thought  presented  in 
this  volume,  which  is  to  be  followed  by  others  to  be  devoted  to  an 
exposition  of"  the  author's  "Absolute  Relativism,"  "  the  selected 
name  for  a  system  which,  it  is  hoped,  may  offer  a  new  departure 
for  philosophic  thought,  and  to  an  analytical  examination  of  the 
sociological  outcome  of  the  various  creeds  of  the  past,  with  an 
effort  to  point  out  the  logical  nexus  between." 

The  author  is  constructive  in  his  method,  reconciliative  in 
spirit,  keen  in  analysis,  respectful  to  all  schools  of  thought,  yet 
independent  in  criticism  and  approval  of  the  views  of  other  think- 
ers, and  vigorous  and  lucid  in  style.  Without  going  into  detail, 
we  are  free  to  say  that  we  regard  the  work  as  an  able  and  valua- 
ble contribution  to  the  philosophic  discussion  of  the  day. 

The   Pioneer    Quakers.     By   Richard  P.  /lallowcll.     Boston: 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1887. 

This  little  book  of  98  pages  embodies  the  gist,  in  the  form  of  a 
lecture,  prepared  by  request  for  a  Boston  Literary  Club,  of  the 
history  of  the  Quakers  as  given  in  the  author's  larger  work  pub- 
lished in  1883,  The  .Quaker  Invasion  of  Massachusetts,  with  addi- 
tional notes  bringing  that  history  down  to  a  later  period.  Eight 
pages  of  index  show  the  variety  of  topics  treated  in  this  lecture 
and  more  than  a  dozen  authorities  are  quoted,  which  appear 
not  to  have  been  consulted  in  the  larger  work.  The  work  marks 
an  epoch  in  the  history  of  American  free-thought. 


The  Open  Court 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and  Religion   Upon  a  Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No. 

^-  


CHICAGO,  MAY  12,  1887. 


(  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
i  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


ON     MEMORY    AS    A     GENERAL     FUNCTION    OF 
ORGANIZED   MATTER.* 


AN     ADDRESS     DELIVERED     ON   OCCASION    OF     THE    SOLEMN     MEETING     OF     THE 
IMPERIAL    ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES,    AT    VIENNA,    MAY   30,    MDCCCLXX. 


BY    EWALfj    HERING, 
MEMBER    OF   THE    IMPERIAL    ACADEMY    OF   SCIENCES. 


Translated  by  Dr.   Pan!  Cams,  from    t/ie  Second  Edition,  published  by  Cart 
Gerald's  Solm,    Wien,  187b. 

(Translation  Copyrighted.) 

Part  II.— (Concluded.) 

Now  let  me  finally  consider  those  facts  in  which  the 
strength  of  memory  in  organized  matter  strikes  us  most 
powerfully. 

On  the  basis  of  numerous  facts,  we  may  justly 
assume  that  even  such  qualities  of  an  organism  can  be 
transferred  to  its  posterity  as  have  not  been  inherited 
but  were  acquired  under  peculiar  circumstances  of  life. 
Thus  every  organic  being  endows  its  germs  with  some 
small  inheritance  which  was  acquired  during  the  indi- 
vidual life  of  the  parental  organism  and  is  added  to  the 
greater  heirloom  of  the  whole  race. 

Considering  that  properties  were  inherited  which 
had  been  developed  on  diverse  organs  of  the  parental 
being,  it  appeared  highly  enigmatic  how  these  same 
organs  could  have  influenced  the  germ  which  developed 
in  some  distant  place.  So  it  happened  that  as  a  solution 
of  this  problem  mystic  views  were  often  propounded. 

The  subject  may  be  best  comprehended  from  a 
physiological  standpoint  in  this  way: 

The  nervous  system  in  spite  of  its  being  a  composi- 
tion of  many  thousands  of  cells  and  fibers,  nevertheless 
forms  one  coherent  entirety.  It  is  in  communication 
with  all  organs;  according  to  later  histological  researches, 
it  is  assumed  that  it  is  connected  even  with  every  cell 
of  the  more  important  organs,  be  it  directly  or  at  least 
indirectly  through  a  living,  irritable  and  therefore  con- 
ductible  cell  substance.  By  means  of  this  connection, 
all  organs,  it  is  possible,  are  more  or  less  interdependent 
so  as  to  make  the  destinies  of  one  re-echo  in  the  others; 
and  if  in  any  way  some  irritation  takes  place  in  one,  it  is 
transfused  if  ever  so  feebly,  to  the  remotest  parts  of 
the  body.  In  addition  to  this  delicate  communication  of 
all  parts  through  the  nervous  tissue,  another,  a  slower 
and  more  sluggish  communication  takes  place,  that  of 
the  circulating  fluids. 

•Presented  to  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court  as  part  of  his   Monistic 
views,  by  Edward  C.  Hegeler. 


We  notice  further  on  that  the  process  of  development 
of  the  germs  which  are  destined  to  attain  an  inde- 
pendent existence,  exercises  a  powerful  reaction  upon 
both  the  conscious  and  unconscious  life  of  the  whole 
organism.  And  this  is  a  hint  that  the  organ  of  germin- 
ation is  in  a  closer  and  more  momentous  relation  to  the 
other  parts,  especially  to  the  nervous  system,  than  any 
other  organs.  In  an  inverse  ratio,  the  conscious  and 
unconscious  destinies  of  the  whole  organism,  it  is  most 
probable,  find  a  stronger  echo  in  the  germinal  vessels 
than  elsewhere. 

This  is  the  path  it  must  be  recognized,  on  which  we 
have  to  look  for  the  material  link  between  the  acquired 
properties  of  an  organism  and  such  quiddities  of  a  germ 
as  may  redevelop  the  parental  qualities. 

You  may  object  that  an  immaterial  something  can- 
not be  the  determinative  for  the  future  development  of 
germs  so  like  each  other,  it  must  rather  be  the  peculiar 
character  of  its  material  composition.  But  I  answer: 
The  curves  and  planes  which  a  mathematician  imagines, 
or  accepts  as  imaginable,  are  more  numerous  and  mani- 
fold than  the  shapes  of  the  organic  world.  Let  us 
imagine  almost  infinitely  small  fragments  of  all  possible 
curves ;  they  will  bear  a  closer  resemblance  to  each  other 
than  one  germ  does  to  another.  Nevertheless  the  whole 
curve  is  latent  in  each  fragment  and  suppose  a  mathe- 
matician extends  it  in  its  directions,  it  will  grow  into 
the  peculiar  curve  which  has  been  determined  by  the 
form  of  its  small  fragmentary  part. 

Therefore  it  is  erroneous  to  declare  that  we  cannot 
imagine  such  minute  differences  in  germs  as  in  this 
case  must  be  assumed  by  physiology. 

An  infinitely  minute  dislodgment  of  a  point  or  a 
complex  of  points  in  the  fragment  of  a  curve  will  alter 
the  law  of  its  entire  course.  Exactly  so  an  evanescent 
influence  of  the  parental  organism  upon  the  molecular 
structure  of  its  germ  suffices  to  regulate  its  whole 
future  development. 

Now,  then,  the  reappearance  of  properties  of  the 
parental  organism  in  the  full  grown  filial  organism  can 
be  nothing  else  but  the  reproduction  of  such  processes 
of  organized  matter,  as  the  germ  when  still  in  the  ger- 
minal vessels  had  taken  part  in;  the  filial  organism 
remembers,  so  to  say,  those  processes,  and  as  soon  as  an 
occasion  of  the  same  or  similar  irritations  is  offered,  a 
reaction  takes  place  as  formerly  in  the  parental  organism, 


170 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


of  which  then  it  was  a  part,  and  whose  destinies 
influenced  it. 

If  in  a  parental  organism  by  long  habit  or  constant 
practice  something  grows  to  be  its  second  nature,  so  as 
to  permeate,  if  it  were  ever  so  feebly,  also  its  germinal 
cells,  and  if  the  germinal  cells  commence  an  indepen- 
dent life,  they  aggrandize  and  grow  till  they  form  a 
new  being,  but  their  single  parts  still  remain  the  sub- 
stance of  the  parental  being,  they  are  bones  of  its  bones, 
and  flesh  of  its  flesh.  If,  then,  the  filial  organisms  repro- 
duce what  they  experienced  as  a  smaller  part  of  a 
greater  whole,  this  fact  is  marvelous  indeed,  but  no 
more  than  when  an  old  man  is  surprised  by  reminis- 
cences of  his  earliest  childhood.  Whether  it  be  the 
very  same  organized  substance  still  which  reproduces 
old  experiences,  or  whether  it  be  its  descendant  and 
offspring,  a  part  of  itself,  which  in  the  meantime 
deployed  and  grew,  is  a  difference  which,  apparently, 
is  one  of  degree,  not  of  kind.  Now,  is  it  not  strange 
that  we  are  engaged  at  all  in  considerations,  how  trifl- 
ing inheritances  of  the  parental  organism  can  be  repro- 
duced in  the  filial  being,  as  if  we  had  forgotten  that  the 
filial  organism  is  nothing  but  one  great  reproduction  of 
the  parental  organism,  even  in  its  minutest  details? 
This  is  because  we  are  so  accustomed  to  accept  their 
similarity  as  granted,  that  we  are  astonished  at  find- 
ing a  child  who  is  to  some  degree  not  quite  like 
its  mother,  and  yet  the  fact  of  its  being  in  so 
many  thousand  ways  like  its  parent  is  much  more  won- 
derful! 

If  the  substance  of  a  germ  is  able  to  reproduce 
what  the  parental  organism  acquired  during  its  indi- 
vidual life,  how  much  more  will  it  be  able  to  reproduce 
what  is  innate  in  the  parental  organism  and  has  been 
repeated  through  innumerable  generations  in  the  same 
organized  matter  of  which  the  germ  of  to-day,  after  all, 
is,  and  remains  but  a  part.  Is  it  then  to  be  wondered 
at,  that  those  things  which  organized  matter  has  experi- 
enced on  numberless  occasions  are  impressed  stronger 
into  the  memory  of  a  germ,  than  the  incidents  of  one 
single  life?  Every  organic  being  which  lives  to-day, 
is  the  latest  link  of  an  immeasurable  series  of  organic 
beings,  of  which  one  rose  into  existence  from  the  other, 
and  one  inherited  part  of  the  acquired  properties  of  the 
other.  The  beginning  of  this  series,  it  must  be  assumed, 
are  organisms  of  extremest  simplicity  like  those  which 
are  known  to  us  as  organic  germ  cells.  In  considera- 
tion of  this,  the  whole  series  of  such  beings  appears  as 
the  work  of  the  reproductive  faculty  which  was 
inherent  in  the  substance  of  the  first  organic  form  with 
which  the  whole  development  started.  When  this  first 
germ  divided,  it  bequeathed  to  its  descendants  its  prop- 
erties; the  immediate  descendants  added  new  properties 
and  every  new  germ  reproduced  to  a  great  extent  the 
modi   operandi  of   its    ancestors;   part  of  which    grew 


feebler,  because  under  altered  circumstances  their  repro- 
duction was  no  longer  elicited. 

Thus  every  organized  being  of  our  present  time  is 
the  product  of  the  unconscious  memory  of  organized 
matter.  Constantly  increasing  and  dividing,  constantly 
assimilating  new  and  excreting  waste  matter,  constantly 
recording  new  experiences  in  their  memory  in  order  to 
reproduce  it  over  and  over  again,  it  was  shaped  richer 
and  more  perfect  the  longer  it  lived. 

The  whole  history  of  an  individual  development  as 
observed  in  a  higher  organized  animal  is,  from  this  point 
of  view,  a  continuous  chain  of  reminiscences  of  the  evo- 
lution of  all  those  beings  which  form  the  ancestral  series 
of  this  particular  animal.  A  complicated  perception 
takes  place  through  a  volatile,  and,  as  it  were,  a  super- 
ficial reproduction  of  cerebral  processes  which  have  been 
practiced  long  and  carefully;  exactly  so  a  growing  germ 
passes  quickly  and  summarily  through  a  series  of  phases 
which  were  developed  and  fixed,  step  by  step,  in  the 
memory  of  organized  matter  in  the  series  of  its  ances- 
tral beings  during  a  life  of  incalculable  duration.  This 
view  was  preconceived  repeatedly;  it  took  shape  in 
various  theories,  but  was  rightly  understood  by  one  sci- 
entist of  later  days.  For  truth  hides  in  different  shapes 
before  the  eyes  of  its  aspirers  until  it  is  revealed  to  the 
elect. 

A  body,  an  organ,  or  a  cell  reproduces  simultaneously 
with  its  shape  as  well  as  with  its  interioi  and  exterior 
formation,  also  its  functions.  A  chick  which  creeps 
out  of  its  shell  at  once  runs  about,  as  did  its  mother 
when  she,  as  a  chick,  had  broken  her  shell.  Imagine 
how  extraordinarily  complicated  are  the  motions  and 
sensations  of  such  acts!  Only  consider  the  difficulty  of 
equipoising  its  body  in  running,  and  the  supposition  of 
an  innate  reproductive  faculty  alone,  it  must  be  conceded, 
can  serve  as  an  explanation  of  these  intricate  perform- 
ances. The  execution  of  some  motion  which  was  exer- 
cised during  the  greatest  part  of  an  individual  life 
becomes  second  nature,  and  the  actions  of  a  whole  race 
which  are  repeated  over  and  over  again  by  each  mem- 
ber of  the  race  must  also  become  second  nature. 

The  chick  is  not  only  endowed  with  an  inborn  skill 
concerning  its  motions,  but  possesses,  also,  a  strongly 
developed  perceptive  faculty.  Without  hesitation  it 
picks  the  grains  which  are  thrown  to  it.  This  implies 
that  it  sees  them,  that  it  correctly  conceives  the  direction 
of  their  situation  and  their  distance;  moreover,  it  has  to 
move  its  head  and  other  limbs  with  great  precision.  All 
these  things  could  not  be  learned  in  the  egg-shell;  they 
have  been  learned  by  those  many  thousands  of  beings 
which  lived  before  this  chick,  and  of  which  it  is  the 
direct  offspring. 

The  memory  of  organized  matter  is  strikingly  recog- 
nizable in  this  instance.  Such  a  feeble  irritation  as  the 
rays  produce  which  proceed   from  a  grain  and  fall  upon 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


171 


the  retina  of  the  chicken,  becomes  an  occasion  for  the 
reproduction  of  a  complicated  series  of  sensations,  per- 
ceptions and  motions,  which  in  this  individual  never  as 
yet  had  been  combined,  and  which,  nevertheless,  from 
the  beginning  were  arranged  with  accuracy  and  precis- 
ion, as  if  the  very  same  animal  had  practiced  them  thou- 
sands of  times.  Such  surprising  performances  of  ani- 
mals are  generally  called  instincts;  and  some  physicists 
indulged  in  mystic  explanations  of  instincts.  If  instinct 
is  considered  as  the  result  of  memory,  or  reproductive 
faculty  of  organized  matter,  if  we  assume  that  also  the 
race  is  endowed  with  memory,  instinct  is  comprehended 
at  once,  and  the  physiologist  is  enabled  to  insert  instinct 
into  and  connect  it  with  the  one  great  series  of  such 
facts  as  were  found  to  be  the  phenomena  of  a  repro- 
ductive faculty.  In  this  way  we  have  not  yet  gained, 
but  certainly  we  approach,  a  physical  explanation  of  the 
problem. 

If,  for  instance,  a  caterpillar  changes  into  a  chrysa- 
lis, or  if  a  bird  builds  a  nest,  or  a  bee  constructs  a  cell, 
such  animals  obeying  their  instincts  act  with  conscious- 
ness and  are  no  unconscious  machines.  They  know  to 
some  extent  how  to  alter  their  actions  under  changed 
circumstances  and  are  liable  to  err;  they  feel  pleasure  if 
their  work  proceeds  and  displeasure  if  they  meet  obsta- 
cles. They  learn  by  working,  it  must  be  assumed,  and 
birds,  no  doubt,  build  their  nests  better  a  second  time 
than  first.  But  if  animals  so  easily  find  the  most  prac. 
tical  means  of  attaining  their  ends  the  very  first  time,  if 
their  motions  are  so  excellently  and  perfectly  adapted  to 
their  purposes,  it  is  due  to  the  inherited  tenor  of  the 
memory  of  their  nervous  substance  which  only  awaits 
an  occasion  to  work  in  full  conformity  with  the  situation, 
and  remembers  just  what  is  necessary  for  that  occasion. 

It  is  striking  how  easilv  dexterities  are  acquired  if 
sufficient  limitation  is  exercised.  Onesidedness  produces 
virtuosity.  He  who  admirers  a  spider  for  spinning  his 
cobwebs,  should  bear  in  mind  how  limited  are  his  other 
faculties.  Nor  should  we  forget  that  he  did  not  learn 
his  art  himself,  it  was  acquired  in  slow  degrees  by 
innumerable  generations  of  spiders,  and  this  art  is  almost 
all  they  learned.  Man  takes  bow  and  arrows  if  his  nets 
fail  to  catch  food,  the  spider  must  starve. 

Thus  the  body,  it  is  seen,  and  what  is  of  greater 
import,  the  whole  nervous  system  of  a  newborn  animal 
is  prefigurated  and  predisposed  for  its  intercourse  with 
the  surrounding  world  into  which  it  enters; it  is  prepared 
to  respond  to  irritations  and  influences  in  the  same  way 
as  was  done  by  its  ancestors. 

We  cannot  expect  that  the  brain  and  nervous  system 
of  man  is  an  exception  from  this  rule. 

Certainly  man  must  learn  with  difficulty,  while  the 
animal  from  its  birth  is  finished  in  its  instincts;  however, 
the  human  brain  immediately  after  birth  is  at  a  much 
greater  distance  from  the  pitch  of  its  development  than 


the  brain  of  an  animal.  Its  growth  not  only  takes 
longer  time,  but  is  much  stronger.  The  human  brain, 
we  may  say,  is  much  younger  when  it  enters  into  the 
world  than  the  animal  brain.  The  animal  is  born  pre- 
cocious and  at  once  behaves  precociously.  It  is  like  a 
phenomenal  child  whose  brain  is  overmatured  and  too 
old  as  it  were,  so  as  to  be  unable  to  develop  as  richly  as 
does  another  brain  which  is  less  finished  and  inured  to 
work  but  fresher  and  more  youthful.  The  scope  for 
the  individual  development  of  the  human  brain  and 
generally  of  the  human  body  is  much  larger  because  a 
relatively  great  part  of  its  development  lies  in  the  time 
after  birth.  It  grows  under  the  influences  of  its  sur- 
roundings which  affect  its  senses,  and  acquires  under 
such  circumstances  in  a  more  individual  way,  what  an 
animal  has  received  in  the  fixed  formation  of  its  race. 

A  far-reaching  memory,  or  reproductive  faculty,  we 
must  take  it  as  granted,  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  whole 
body,  as  well  as  particularly  to  the  brain  of  a  newborn 
man.  By  dint  of  this  memory  he  is  enabled  to  learn 
those  attainments  which  were  developed  in  his  ances- 
tors some  thousand  times  and  are  necessary  for  his  life, 
much  quicker  and  easier.  What  appears  to  be  instinct 
in  animals,  in  man  appears,  in  a  freer  form,  as  a  predispo- 
sition. Certainly  ideas  are  not  inborn  in  an  infant,  but 
the  ability  of  the  ready  and  precise  crystallization  of 
ideas  from  a  complicate  mixture  of  sensations,  is  due 
not  to  the  labor  of  the  child,  but  to  the  labor  of  innu- 
merable ancestors. 

Theories  of  individual  consciousness,  according  to 
which  it  is  assumed  that  each  human  soul  starts  life  for 
itself  and  commences  a  development  of  its  own,  as  if 
the  thousands  of  generations  before  had  been  in  exist- 
ence in  vain,  are  in  a  striking  discord  with  facts  of  daily 
experience. 

The  realm  of  those  cerebral  processes  which  elevate 
and  distinguish  man,  it  must  be  conceded,  is  not  of  such 
antiquity  as  is  the  province  of  the  more  physical  neces- 
sities. Hunger  and  procreative  impulse  have  been  stir- 
ring even  the  oldest  and  simplest  forms  of  organic  beings. 
Accordingly  organic  substance  has  the  most  powerful 
memory  for  these  stimuli,  as  well  as  for  their  satisfac- 
tion. The  impulses  and  instincts  rising  from  them  take 
a  firm  hold  even  of  the  man  of  to-day  with  elemental 
power.  Spiritual  life  grows  slowly,  and  its  most  beau- 
tiful blossoms  belong  to  the  latest  epochs  of  the  evolu- 
tionary history  of  organized  matter.  It  is  not  yet  long 
that  the  nervous  system  is  adorned  with  the  ornament 
of  a  grand  and  rich  brain. 

Oral  and  written  traditions  have  been  called  the 
memory  of  mankind,  and  this  conception  is  true.  But 
beside  it  there  is  another  memory,  which  is  the  repro- 
ductive faculty  of  the  cerebral  substance.  Without  it, 
all  written  and  oral  language  would  be  empty  and  mean- 
ingless to  later  generations;  for,  if  the  loftiest  ideas  were 


I72 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


recorded  a  thousand  times  in  writings  or  in  oral  tradi- 
tions, they  would  he  nothing  to  such  brains  as  are  not  pre- 
disposed for  them.  They  must  not  only  be  received,  they 
must  be  reproduced.  If  an  increasing  cerebral  potency 
were  not  inherited  simultaneously  with  inner  and  outer 
development  of  brain,  with  the  wealth  of  ideas  which 
are  inherited  from  generation  to  generation,  if  an 
increased  faculty  of  the  reproduction  of  thoughts  did 
not  devolve  upon  coming  generations  simultaneously 
with  their  oral  and  written  traditions,  scripts  and  lan- 
guages would  be  useless. 

The  conscious  memory  of  man  dies  with  his  death; 
but  the  unconscious  memory  of  nature  is  faithful  and 
indestructible.  Whoever  succeeded  to  impress  the  ves- 
tiges of  his  work  upon  it,  will  be  remembered  forever. 


PERSONAL    IMMORTALITY. 

BY  DANIEL  GREENLEAF  THOMPSON. 

Is  there  any  sufficient  reason  for  the  belief  in  the 
continuance  of  personal  mental  life  after  the  change  we 
call  death?  Unless  this  question  is  answered  in  the  af- 
firmative, we  have  no  possibility  of  verifying  any  hypo- 
theses of  a  supernatural  world  nor,  indeed,  any  interest 
in  ascertaining  their  truth  or  degree  of  probability.  But 
assuming  that  there  is  such  a  continuance,  we  have  the 
possibility,  at  least,  of  forming  a  scientific  hypothesis 
(that  is,  one  capable  of  verification)  in  regard  to  a  world 
beyond. 

I  make  no  account  of  alleged  resurrections  from 
the  dead  nor  of  oral  or  written  communications  claim- 
ing to  come  from  a  supernatural  sphere.  Let  those  be- 
lieve who  can;  I  do  not.  And  there  are  plenty  of  dis- 
believers as  to  all  these  claims.  What  the  world  wants 
to  know  is,  have  we  scientific  evidence  upon  which  to 
found  a  rational  belief  or  disbelief  upon  this  question? 
If  the  preachers  would  only  turn  scientists  and  come 
and  help  us,  leaving  authority  behind  them,  how  admir- 
able it  would  be!  Some  of  them  are  trying  to  do  this, 
God  bless  them,  but  the  majority  are  obstructionists. 

Now,  there  are  two  directions  in  which  the  methods 
of  science  can  be  employed  with  reference  to  this  sub- 
ject. Both  are  methods  of  observation  and  experiment, 
principally  the  former.  One  is  introspective  observation 
of  the  facts  and  laws  of  the  human  mind,  the  other  is 
extrinsic  observation  of  what  we  are  accustomed  to  call 
the  external  world.  From  the  latter  we  get  all  the 
knowledge  we  have  of  death.  What  conscious  life  is  we 
only  know  by  subjective  experience.  Regarding  con- 
sciousness introspectively,  we  find  ourselves  unable  to 
think  even  an  interruption  of  consciousness,  much  less 
its  total  and  final  destruction.  It  will  at  once  be  allowed 
that  the  individual  cannot  remember  the  time  when  I 
was  not  I.  Closer  examination  reveals  that  I  cannot 
even  suppose  a  time  when  I  was  not,  nor  am  I  able  to 
conceive     that   I     can    cease    to  be.      To    declare  either 


involves  a  contradiction  in  my  thought.  If  we  had  none 
of  the  evidence  of  disappearance  and  disintegration 
which  is  involved  in  the  death  of  others,  we  should 
never  have  the  thought  that  our  conscious  mental  life 
could  cease,  nor  even  if  one  were  at  the  point  of  death 
would  such  an  idea  be  possible  for  him  to  entertain. 

When,  however,  we  look  upon  the  world  about  us, 
we  see  beings  seemingly  endowed  with  consciousness 
like  our  own.  Thus  we  are  compelled  to  infer  and  we 
reason  accordingly.  In  the  first  place,  we  notice  with 
all  these  beings  that  the  signs  of  conscious  life  are  peri- 
odically absent  as  in  sleep,  or  irregularly  suspended  as  in 
swoons.  Consciousness  is  interrupted.  We  even  infer 
this  with  respect  to  ourselves  by  the  observation  of 
changes  for  which  we  cannot  account  upon  any  other 
supposition.  Secondly,  we  frequently  behold  an  en- 
feeblement  of  mental  powers,  proceeding  concomitantly 
with  bodily  decay  and  tending  toward  a  total  extinguish- 
ment. Memory  is  often  lost,  the  power  of  ratiocination 
likewise  and  also  self-control.  Then  come  the  extremes 
of  mania  and  idiocy.  All  these  diseased  conditions  indi- 
cate diseased  conditions  of  the  nervous  system.  As  just 
pointed  out  we  learn  that  consciousness  can  be  inter- 
rupted. Now  we  are  forced  to  ask,  if  mind  is  progess- 
ively  impaired  as  the  nervous  structure  is  disintegrated, 
does  not  the  total  disintegration  of  the  latter  irresistibly 
argue  the  total  destruction  of  the  former?  And  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  when  death  arrives,  the  evidences  of  con- 
scious personality  all  disappear,  the  flame  goes  out  and 
is  not  relighted.  Then  follows  a  complete  disintegra- 
tion of  the  organized  body,  in  connection  with  which 
we  knew  this  personality.  We  are  not  able  to  trace 
any  dissolution  of  mind,  further  than  just  stated,  that  is, 
its  evidences  disappear.  Life  ceases  and  with  it  mind 
ceases  to  be  manifest  to  us;  the  body  is  disintegrated 
and  the  processes  of  this  disintegration  we  can  follow 
to  a  considerable  extent. 

The  phenomena  of  the  so-called  external  world  are 
interpreted  by  the  best  scientific  intelligence  under  those 
laws  which  have  for  a  nucleus  the  persistence  of  force 
of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer.  Technical  physical  science 
having  attached  a  more  specific  and  limited  meaning  to 
the  lermjbrce,  many  would  prefer  the  expression  conser- 
vation of  energy  to  the  one  above  employed.  This  lat- 
ter doctrine  is  that  when  one  kind  of  energy  disappears, 
energy  of  some  other  kind  is  produced,  and  that  in  the 
transformation,  nothing  is  lost  quantitatively;  or  in 
words  of  the  other  formula,  forces  are  mutually  converti- 
ble at  given  rates  and  in  the  conversion  no  force  is  lost. 
Involved  with  this  truth  arc  the  truths  that  force  is  per- 
sistent, matter  is  indestructible  and  motion  is  consecu- 
tive or  persistent.  When  for  instance,  the  ball  strikes 
the  rock  the  mechanical  motion,  or  some  of  it,  is  changed 
into  thermal  motion.  Mechanical  force  ceases  and  heat 
is  evolved.   Now,  in  the  progress  of  scientific  knowledge, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


!73 


we  give  a  name  to  each  definite  unanalyzable  form 
of  force  or  energy  and  assign  to  it  an  indestructible 
reality  which  we  express  in  such  ways  as  just  remarked. 
We  arc  compelled  to  do  this  by  the  conditions  of  all 
knowledge.  If,  then,  mechanical  force,  A,  disappears 
and  energy  as  heat,  B,  appears,  in  the  disappearance  of 
A  we  cannot  put  it  out  of  existence.  We  say  A  and  B 
are  correlated ;  this  means  that  they  co-exist  and  under 
proper  conditions  A  can  be  made  to  reappear.  If  this 
were  not  so,  something  could  become  nothing,  matter 
could  be  destroyed,  motion  could  be  annihilated  and 
force  would  not  be  persistent.  Suppose,  then,  that  the 
form  of  organizing  energy,  which  we  call  life,  be  indi- 
cated by  C,  while  A  and  B  symbolize  the  mechanical 
and  chemical  forces  of  the  inorganic  world ;  if  A  and  B 
are  correlated  with  C,  the  conversion  of  A  and  B  or 
either  of  them  into  C,  or  of  C  into  A  or  B,  means  in 
the  one  case  the  disappearance  of  A  or  B  and  the  ap- 
pearance of  C;  in  the  other  the  converse.  When  C 
disappears  we  cannot  by  any  possibility  of  thought  an- 
nihilate it.  If  it  be  a  distinct  reality,  it  co-exists  with 
A  and  B,  is  persistent,  abides  somehow  and  somewhere. 
Then  by  parity  of  reasoning,  if  consciousness  is  a  form 
of  physical  energy,  D,  and  is  correlated  with  C,  B,  A, 
any  or  all  of  them,  we  have  no  more  power  of  thinking 
of  its  destruction  than  we  have  of  the  destruction  of 
any  other  form  of  energy.  D  disappears,  but  if  in  any- 
wise dependent  upon  C  or  B,  or  A,  under  the  laws  of 
persistence  or  transformation  of  energy,  it  still  exists. 
It  has  disappeared,  but  under  proper  conditions  it  will 
come  back  and  be  manifested  as  before.  So  far  forth 
then  as  consciousness  is  to  be  interpreted  by  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  world  external  to  the  ego,  it  must  be  in. 
terpreted  by  the  laws  of  the  conservation  of  energy 
and  so  far  forth  as  explained  by  those  laws  it  must  be 
held  as  indestructible.  Certainly  if  consciousness  be 
material,  it  is  forever  persistent.  The  necessity  of  cor. 
related  forces  being  co-existent  has  been  overlooked  bv 
philosophers  and  scientists.*  If  force  A  is  transformed 
into  force  B,  either  A  still  exists,  though  it  has  disap- 
peared, and  can  under  appropriate  conditions  be  made 
to  reappear,  or  an  act  of  annihilation  and  special  creation 
has  been  performed  as  inexplicable  as  any  that  theolo- 
gian ever  asserted. 

However  much  information  we  ma}-  derive  from  a 
study  of  the  world  outside  consciousness,  it  is  clear  we 
cannot  get  along  without  introspection  even  in  attaining 
a  scientific  knowledge  of  external  objects.  Indeed,  if 
we  reflect  carefully,  we  shall  soon  find  the  idea  suggest. 
ing  itself  that  there  are  in  strictness  no  "  external "  ob- 
jects, but  I  do  not  think  the  use  of  the  term  is  upon  the 
whole  objectionable.     At  all  events,  when  we   come   to 

*Lest  the  reader  may  think  my  ideas  upon  this  point  aiv  not  the  result  of 
sufficient  thought,  I  shall  be  obliged  to  ask  pardon  for  referring  to  my  System 
of  Psychology  (London,  1SS4),  Vol.  I,  Chap.  XVII,  where  this  whole  topic  is 
more  fully  discussed. 


inquire  what  constitutes  an  ultimate  form  of  energy  we 
discover  that  it  is  determined  entirely  by  the  answer 
that  is  given  to  the  question,  what  are  the  ultimate 
modes  of  sensibility?  Heat,  we  say,  is  a  mode  of  mo- 
tion. Motion,  however,  is  understood  only  with  refer- 
ence to  the  muscular  sense.  Certain  vibrations  there 
are,  to  be  sure,  antecedent  to  the  sensation  of  warmth; 
but  all  the  vibrations  in  the  world  will  not  give  heat 
unless  there  is  contact  with  certain  nerves  so  formed  as 
to  develop  that  sensation.  And  though  we  may  try  to 
explain  heat  in  terms  of  motion  according  to  the  law  of 
correlation,  we  can  in  fact  only  explain  it  by  itself.  It 
may  be  produced  by  material  motions,  but  in  last  resort, 
heat  is  heat  and  not  the  sensation  of  the  muscular  sense. 
Similarly  with  light  and  with  sound.  We  are  in  each 
case  driven  back  to  certain  ultimate  varieties  of  sensa- 
tion.    And  this  is  our  court  of  last  resort. 

Our  course  of  investigation  thus  must  needs  pass 
from  the  material  to  the  mental  sphere.  Here  we  at 
once  discover  that  a  state  of  consciousness  is  only  to  be  ex- 
plained by  itself  in  any  of  its  aspects.  A  feeling  is  a 
feeling,  a  cognition  is  a  cognition.  But  though  each  of 
these  is  an  ultimate  and  unanalyzable  aspect  of  conscious- 
ness, which  itself  can  be  resolved  into  nothing  but  con- 
sciousness, we  can  observe  how  states  of  consciousness 
are  related  and  propose  to  ourselves  the  problem, — How 
is  knowledge  possible?  One  thing  is  speedily  disclosed; 
that  is,  there  can  be  no  consciousness  without  represen- 
tation. It  is  necessary  for  perception,  even.  Equally  is 
it  indispensable  for  all  purposes  of  comparison.  A  sen- 
sation occurs  and  is  followed  by  another;  we  are 
wholly  unable  to  make  any  comparison  between  the 
two  without  reproducing  the  first;  we  can  say  that  B, 
which  is  present,  is  unlike  A,  which  has  departed,  only 
representing  A  in  fainter  form,  a  for  comparison.  Mem- 
ory is  everywhere  necessary  to  conscious  mental  life. 

How  we  know  an  experience  as  representative  is  the 
mystery  of  mysteries.  Stuart  Mill  thought  it  inexpli- 
cable and  no  one  has  succeeded  in  resolving  the  experi- 
ence into  anything  more  ultimate.  How  do  I  know 
that  the  cognition  a  is  representative  of  a  sensation  A, 
which  once  occurred  to  me?  How  do  I  know  I  saw  a 
horse  running  away  while  I  was  walking  yesterday? 
There  is  no  answer  save  that  I  remember  it.  In  other 
words,  representative  experience  is  primordial  and  ulti- 
mate, in  the  same  meaning  that  sensational  experience 
is  ultimate. 

But  see  what  this  involves.  It  implies  not  merely  a 
continuity  but  a  unity  of  personal  existence.  In  recog- 
nizing a  feeling  as  the  same  feeling  I  had  yesterday  I 
have  the  idea  of  self  present;  of  self  having  a  feeling 
yesterday ;  consciousness  of  agreement  between  the  two 
selves  and  the  two  feelings.  I  cannot  distinguish  the 
presentations  to  my  mind  as  having  been  made  before, 
or  in  other  words,  I  cannot  distinguish  a  past  experience 


*74 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


actual,  from  a  simple  thought  of  that  experience  as  pos- 
sible, except  by  postulating;  that  the  experience  actually 
occurred  to  me — an  ego  enduring  through  all  change, 
and  itself  conditional  for  all  successions.*  Thus  con- 
sciousness universally  implies  a  synthetical  unity  without 
whose  permanence  no  coming  and  going  of  phenomena 
in  experience  can  be  thought  as  possible. 

The  correspondence  between  the  train  of  presenta- 
tions and  that  of  representations,  or,  as  the  old  psycholo- 
gists used  to  say,  of  sensations  and  ideas,  is  perfectly 
well  marked.  The  succession  of  representative  objects 
is  governed  by  a  series  of  laws  similar  to  those  which 
govern  the  determination  of  presentative  objects.  And 
these  same  dicta  that  force  is  persistent,  matter  is  inde- 
structible, motion  is  consecutive,  and  energy  is  con- 
served, find  their  exact  parallel  in  the  science  of  mind, 
though  there  is  no  power  of  thought  to  identify  matter 
with  mind,  the  presentative  with  the  representative. 
Memory  brings  these  trains  of  representative  objects,  each 
involving  a  knovver,  a  knowing,  and  a  known.  They  dis- 
appear, but  so  far  forth  as  they  have  a  distinct  unity  so 
as  to  be  objects  to  consciousness  at  all,  they  cannot  be 
thought  out  of  existence.  They  co-exist  with  the  pre- 
sentative experiences  and  when  thev  are  thought  of, 
they  are,  of  course,  thought  of  as  existent,  this  thought 
as  just  seen  postulating  personal  identity  of  a  present 
self  with  a  self  as  existing  in  the  past;  and  as  for  a 
beginning  or  an  end  of  the  series,  as  before  remarked, 
it  is  quite  impossible  to  think  it. 

Thus  a  reference  to  mental  phenomena,  in  order  to 
understand  material,  forces  us  to  a  doctrine  of  the  per- 
sistence of  the  individual  consciousness.  And  such  a 
reference  appears  inevitable.  We  can  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  matter,  force,  motion  or  energy  without  repre- 
sentation; and  this  last  is  conceded  to  be  purely  mental; 
but  it  involves  persistence  of  the  ego. 

It  may  be  well  to  consider,  for  a  moment,  what  we 
mean  by  destruction.  A  bird  appears  in  the  air  before 
our  eyes,  and  then  disappears.  We  do  not  say  that  he 
is  destroyed.  On  the  other  hand,  when  a  black  beetle  is 
crushed  by  the  foot  of  the  passer-by,  and  life  is  extin- 
guished, followed  by  complete  disintegration  of  struct- 
ure, we  speak  of  the  destruction  of  the  insect.  But, 
even  in  this  case,  as  we  are  accustomed  to  reason,  we  do 
not  allow  that  the  matter  composing  the  insect's  organ- 
ism is  destroyed.  Dust  it  was,  and  to  dust  it  simply 
returns.  What,  then,  is  destroyed?  The  form,  if  you 
please;  the  something  that  made  the  beetle  what  it 
was,  the  life  is  gone.  Gone  to  be  sure;  but  how  arc  we 
going  to  annihilate  life  any  more  than  the  particles  of 
dust?  And  in  view  of  what  we  have  just  been  noticing 
in  regard  to  representation,  how  is  it  possible  that  the 
form,  the  mental  element,  shall  be  destroyed  either?  So 
far  forth  as  this  insect  is  composed  of  particles  of  matter, 

*System  of  Psychology,  Chap.  IX. 


so  far  forth  as  its  life  is  force  or  energy,  its  destruc- 
tion is  unthinkable.  So  far  forth  as  its  form  is  con- 
cerned, this  being  merely  the  mental  apprehension  of  a 
subjective  combining  power,  which  is  itself  indestructi- 
ble, we  are  unable  to  find  destruction  there;  for  we  can- 
not think  anything  into  nothing.  It  would  thus  seem 
that  the  disintegration,  which  we  are  wont  to  call 
destruction,  is,  after  all,  nothing  but  disappearance.  We 
may  not  in  experience  meet  with  a  reappearance,  but 
we  are  bound  to  consider  it,  not  only  as  possible,  but  as 
inevitable  under  appropriate  conditions.  In  other  words, 
what  once  was,  is,  somehow  or  somewhere  and  does  not 
pass  into  nothingness. 

Then  it  must  be  asked,  how  does  it  happen  that  if 
we  cannot  think  of  anything  becoming  annihilated  peo- 
ple are  all  the  while  seemingly  doing  so,  and  there 
exists  a  necessity  of  argument  to  show  their  error? 
How  come  we  to  have  the  idea  of  something  becoming 
nothing?  A  vacuum  may  be  an  impossibility,  but  how 
then  have  we  the  notion  of  a  vacuum?  The  answer  is 
found  in  the  Universal  Paradox  of  Knowledge — a 
paradox  which  is  nevertheless  the  foundation  of  all  cog- 
nition. Every  positive  implies  a  negative,  which  can 
only  be  thought  in  positive  terms,  which  excludes  the 
positive  and  is  excluded  from  it  but  whose  existence  is 
equally  necessary  with  that  of  the  positive.  The  exist- 
ence of  the  negative  is  conditional  for  the  reality  of  the 
positive.  For  every  A  there  is  a  not- A;  for  every 
finite  an  infinite;  for  every  known  an  unknown.  This 
truth  is  constantly  lost  sight  of.  Mistaken  notions  as  to 
space  are  largely  responsible  for  this;  space  is  given  in 
sensation  as  much  as  force,  space  and  force  beinj;  correl- 
ative sensations;  space  is  a  reality  as  much  as  is  force. 
Similar  errors  are  made  with  regard  to  time;  duration 
is  not  considered,  the  attention  of  thinkers  being  con- 
centrated upon  succession.  The  reality  and  the  cer- 
tainty of  unconscious  mind  are  conditional  for  conscious 
mind.  If  this  were  not  so,  we  should  never  be  able  to 
say  that  we  have  forgotten  anything.  By  reason  of 
this  paradox,  we  are  compelled  to  aver  that  a  vacuum  is 
a  thing  as  much  as  a  plenum;  the  former  exists  as  much 
as  the  latter.  But  in  the  process  of  generalization,  we 
make  a  universal  "  all  things,"  which  excludes  "vacuum," 
but  in  this  very  exclusion  we  imply  reality  and  positive- 
ness  in  the  latter.  "Nothing"  is  the  negative  which  is 
left  in  the  mind  when  generalization  and  integration  are 
carried  to  their  farthest  point.  When,  therefore,  we 
say  that  something  is  nothing,  we  indeed  contradict 
ourselves,  since  in  forming  the  notion  "something  "  we 
already  exclude  it  from  "nothing;"  and  when  we 
declare  that  a  "vacuum"  exists,  we  seek  to  include  it 
within  a  class  of  objects  which  have  in  their  idea 
excluded  it.  But,  nevertheless,  we  cannot  get  rid  of  the 
conclusion  that  when  we  have  found  our  universal  con- 
cept inclusive  of  everything  there    is  still  a   something 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


175 


real  and  positive  beyond.  Thus  when  we  declare  that 
something  has  become  annihilated,  all  we  can  mean  is 
that  it  has  passed  from  the  perceptible  into  the  impercep- 
tible. When  we  propose  to  annihilate  anything  we 
can  chase  it  away,  and  away,  and  away,  till  our  mind 
gets  tired ;  but  the  moment  we  stop,  as  stop  we  must,  it 
is  there  at  the  end  mocking  us.  To  think  a  "vacuum" 
is  thus  an  impossibility  as  a  process  of  endless  centrifu- 
gal mental  motion.  But  if  we  mean  by  annihilation  a 
disappearance,  which  is  all  that  can  be  meant,  it  is  possi- 
ble to  conceive  of  it.  This  is  not,  however,  the  mean- 
ing of  terms  as  usually  employed.  They  refer  to  this 
endless  motion,  and  the  conditions  of  logical  thought 
necessitate  this  universal  paradox. 

The  truth  is  we  are  forced  by  the  laws  of  cognition 
to  postulate  an  unknown  reality  behind  the  known  reality, 
both  of  matter  and  mind,  a  dark  side  of  the  material 
world  and  of  intelligence,  an  imperceptible  substantive 
being,  out  of  which  somehow  comes  the  perceptible,  and 
into  which  it  disappears,  a  source  of  both  material  and 
mental  phenomena,  a  cause  of  their  effects,  a  permanent 
in  which  alone  change  is  possible,  a  possibility  for  all 
actualities  and  a  power  which  transcends  knowledge  but 
which  is  presupposed  in  all  knowledge.  This  is  the 
meaning  of  the  paradox. 

The  lines  of  argument  as  to  the  question  of  personal 
immortality  thus  converge.  Whether  we  look  without 
or  within  the  mind,  we  come  to  substantially  the  same 
result.  If  conscious  mind  be  a  higher  force  superin- 
duced upon  the  vital  energies,  then  we  must  believe  in 
conscious  existence  after  death.  If  force  be  persistent,  if 
energy  be  conserved,  if  motion  is  continuous,  if  matter 
is  indestructible,  then  the  conscious  ego  is  indestructi- 
ble, the  mental  processes  are  continuous,  the  power  of 
apperception  is  conserved  and  persistent.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  we  look  introspectively,  we  find  it  impossible  to 
think  even  of  an  interruption  of  consc'ousness,  while 
all  the  considerations  derived  from  an  observation  of 
external  nature  have  increased  strength  when  we  con- 
sider the  trains  of  states  of  consciousness  as  mental 
objects.  The  conscious  ego  persists — that  is  the  self- 
conscious  ego — the  knowing,  feeling,  willing  ego,  for 
we  know  no  other.      That  is  what  mind  means. 

It  is  no  harder  to  understand  the  continued  existence 
of  personal  existence  after  death  than  to  comprehend  its 
occultation  in  sleep  and  restoration  afterward.  As 
before  said,  the  sleeper  knows,  subjectively,  no  interrup- 
tion; he  infers  it  from  changes  in  his  environment. 
Its  occurrence,  however,  is  quite  inexplicable;  yet  no 
one  speaks  of  any  impairment  of  personal  identity 
because  of  it. 

The  greatest  perplexity  arises,  perhaps,  over  the  fact 
of  the  failure  of  memory.  Without  memory  there  is  no 
personal  consciousness,  and  we  often  observe  a  progres- 
sive impairment  of  the  representative  power.     Memory 


waxes  and  wanes  according  to  bodily  conditions.  If,  then, 
alterations  of  the  nerve-structure  in  disease  will  abrogate 
memory,  the  total  disintegration  of  that  structure,  it 
may  be  said,  will  remove  the  possibility  of  representa- 
tion— at  any  rate  until  some  re-integration  takes  place. 
If,  while  life  continues  mind  may  fail,  how  much  more 
when  life  is  extinguished  must  we  be  compelled  to  the 
belief  that  the  individual  consciousness  has  irrecover- 
ably passed  away.  But,  after  all,  this  deterioration  of 
memory  is  only  concomitant  with  degeneration  of 
vitality.  Vital  force  wanes  and,  perhaps,  there  may  be 
by-and-by  just  this  reintegration  of  which  we  spoke. 
Vital  force,  though  it  has  disappeared,  exists  somewhere. 
There  may  be  a  lacuna  in  conscious  existence  as  in 
sleep;  but  do  not  the  considerations  before  adduced 
impel  us  to  the  belief  that  there  may  be  an  awakening 
even  after  death  to  the  conscious  identity  which  says  1 
am  I,  I  was  and  I  am  ? 

On  every  side,  from  beginning  to  end,  this  subject  is 
beset  with  difficulties;  but  altogether  I  am  inclined  to 
the  opinion  that  the  ground  for  the  assertion  of  post- 
mortem personal  self-consciousness  in  identity  with 
ante-mortem  self-consciousness  is  firmer  than  for  the 
contrary  belief. 

But  one  thing  more  ought  to  be  said  before  we 
close.  The  same  arguments  that  support  the  belief  in 
continued  personal  existence  after  death  tend  also  to 
prove  an  existence  before  birth.  Is  it  possible  that  we 
must  return  to  the  pre-existence  doctrines  of  the  ancient 
philosophers?  Is  it  possible  that  we  must  each  say,  I 
am;  therefore  I  always  was  and  always  shall  be? 
Dios  sabe  ! 

Is  it  wonderful,  in  view  of  all  these  things,  that 
mankind  clings  to  the  belief  that  the  inquiry  raised 
by  intelligence  must  be  answerable  to  intelligence, 
that  some  conscious  being  somewhere,  at  some  time  or 
somehow  must  understand  these  mysteries;  or  that  they 
voice  the  song  of  Omar  Khayyam — 

"  We  are  no  other  than  a  moving  row 
Of  magic  shadow  shapes  that  come  and  go 

Round  with  the  sun-illuminated  lantern  held 
In  midnight  by  the  master  of  the  show. 

But  helpless  pieces  of  the  game  he  plays 
Upon  this  chequer  board  of  nights  and  days; 

H.ther  and  thither  moves,  and  checks,  and  slays, 
Anil  one  by  one  back  in  the  closet  lays. 

The  ball  no  question  makes  of  ayes  and  noes, 
But  here  or  there  as  strikes  the  player  goes; 

And  he  that  toss'd  you  down  into  the  field 

lie  knows  about  it  all — he  knows — HE  knows'" 


JAILS  AND  JUBILEES. 

BY    ELIZABETH    CADV    STANTON. 

The  two  questions  just  now  agitating  Great  Britain 
are  "Coercion"  for  Ireland,  and  the  Queen's  Tubilee — 
a  tragedy  and  a  comedy  in  the  same  hour. 

The  former  is  being  hotly  discussed  in  Parliament 
and    by   thoughtful    people   at    every  fireside.     As    the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


English  are  by  no  means  of  one  opinion  on  this  ques- 
tion, the  excitement  and  bitterness  among  contending 
factions,  in  public  and  private,  remind  one  of  the  old 
davs  of  slavery  in  the  United  States,  when  families,  as 
well  as  churches  and  political  parties,  were  rent  in 
twain  by  the  agitation.  There  has  been  so  much  said  and 
written  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  Ireland,  that  your 
readers  need  no  recapitulation  of  the  successive  steps  of 
tyrannical  legislation,  by  which,  through  four  centuries, 
England  has  at  last  completely  subjugated  a  nation  that 
was  at  one  time  the  light  of   European  civilization. 

Down  to  the  sixteenth  century,  Ireland,  in  her  sys- 
tem of  education  and  jurisprudence,  was  pre-eminently 
the  great  center  of  progress  and  learning.  To  her  free 
schools  and  universities  students  flocked  from  every  part 
of  Christendom,  and  Irish  teachers  and  professors  spread 
throughout  the  known  world.  "  The  body  of  her  laws," 
says  one  of  her  historians,  "  revised  and  codified,  is  now, 
by  order  of  the  British  government,  being  translated 
and  published  as  a  rare  and  valuable  treasury  of  ancient 
jurisprudence,  Parliament  making  an  annual  grant  for 
that  purpose  since  1S52." 

But  alas!  her  glory  has  departed.  All  the  solemn 
treaties  made  by  England,  when  Ireland  consented  to  a 
union,  have  one  after  another  been  violated;  her  manu- 
factories, bv  direct  legislation,  have  been  ruthlessly 
destroyed;  the  education  of  her  children  made  a  penal 
offense;  her  lands  confiscated;  her  troops  disbanded,  and 
hated  rulers  set  over  her — Governors,  Chief  Secreta- 
ries, Constabulary,  Police— all  appointed  by  the  English 
government,  with  a  standing  army  of  25,000  soldiers  to 
enforce  obedience  to  these  officers,  all  of  which  the  Irish 
people  are  taxed  to  support.  Thus, by  degrees,  has  Eng- 
land made  Ireland  what  she  is  to-day,  a  helpless, 
beggared,  dependency.  Though  too  crippled  in  her 
resources  to  make  open  war,  her  national  cry  is  still  the 
same  as  it  ever  has  been,  and  ever  will  be:  "Give  us 
liberty  or  death."  Death  she  has  had  in  many  forms 
but  for  centuries  not  one  taste  of  liberty'. 

The  discontent  of  this  oppressed  people  has  been 
voiced  from  time  to  time,  by  Grattan,  Curran,  Emmet, 
Burke,  O'Connell — all  far-seeing  statesmen  and  gifted 
orators — but  what  avail  unanswerable  arguments 
based  on  the  eternal  principles  of  justice,  wit,  wisdom, 
eloquence,  when  weighed  in  the  balance  with  the  greed, 
selfishness  and  tyranny  of  the  English  government. 

And  now  a  Tory  ministry  proposes  to  give  the  last 
turn  of  the  screw  in  a  Coercion  Act,  that,  if  passed  dur- 
ing this  session  of  Parliament,  will  reduce  the  Irish 
nation  to  hopeless  slavery.  This  bill,  depriving  the 
people  of  trial  by  jury ;  of  the  freedom  of  the  press  and 
of  speech;  of  the  right  to  hold  public  meetings — in 
fact,  making  football  of  all  their  civil  and  political  liber- 
ties, is  a  disgrace  to  the  age  in  which  we  live,  and 
should   be    publicly   and    officially   denounced   by  every 


civilized  nation.  Americans  on  this  side  the  water 
are  proud  to  learn  that  public  meetings,  with  Governors 
of  the  several  States  in  the  chair,  are  being  held  in  our 
country  to  protest  against  anv  further  outrages  on  this 
long  suffering  people.  While  England  boasts  of  being 
a  Christian  and  civilized  nation,  in  all  her  dealings  with 
foreign  countries  she  has  proved  herself  the  most  brutal 
government  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  She  has  ever  been 
quick  to  point  the  slow,  unwavering  finger  of  scorn  at 
oppressions  in  other  lands, — let  all  nations  now  make  a 
united  effort  to  open  her  eyes  to  her  own  slavery  in  Ire- 
land. She  is  to-day  subsidizing  the  wealth  of  the 
world,  as  far  as  she  can  to  support  her  army,  navy  and 
established  church;  her  royal  family,  nobility  and 
petty  county  grades  of  aristocracy;  her  system  of  land 
tenure,  tithes,  taxes  and  corrupt  social  customs ;  her 
increasing  pauperism  and  crime,  grinding  the  last  farth- 
ing from  her  subjects  everywhere  to  maintain  a  show 
of  state  at  home. 

In  this  supreme  moment  of  the  nation's  political 
crisis  the  Queen  and  her  suite  are  junketing  round  in 
their  royal  yachts  on  the  coast  of  France,  while 
proposing  to  celebrate  her  year  of  Jubilee  by  levying  new 
taxes  on  her  people,  in  the  form  of  penny  and  pound 
contributions  to  build  a  monument  to  Prine  Albert, 
who  never  uttered  one  lofty  sentiment  or  performed  one 
deed  of  heroism,  if  fairly  represented  on  the  page  of- 
history.  The  year  of  Jubilee !  while  under  the  eyes  of  the 
Queen  her  Irish  subjects  are  being  evicted  from  their 
holdings  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet;  their  cottages 
burned  to  the  ground ;  aged  and  helpless  men  and  women 
and  newborn  children,  alike  left  crouching  on  the  high- 
ways, under  bridges,  hayricks  and  hedges,  crowded  into 
poor-houses,  jails  and  prisons,  to  expiate  the  crimes 
growing  out  of  poverty  on  the  one  hand,  and  patriotism 
on  the  other. 

While  the  Queen  has  laid  up  for  herself  and  her 
innumerable  progeny  ten  millions  of  pounds  during  the 
last  fifty  years,  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes  in 
Great  Britain  has  been  growing  steadily  worse;  for 
what  then  should  the  gratitude  of  the  people  take  an 
enduring  form  of  expression  in  a  Parian  marble  monu- 
ment to  her  consort? 

A  far  more  fitting  way  to  celebrate  the  year  of 
Jubilee  would  be  for  the  Queen  to  scatter  the  millions 
hoarded  in  her  private  vaults  among  her  needy  subjects, 
to  mitigate,  in  some  measure,  the  miseries  they  have 
endured  from  generation  to  generation;  to  inaugurate 
some  grand  improvement  in  her  system  of  education; 
to  extend  still  further  the  civil  and  political  rights  of  her 
people;  to  suggest,  perchance,  an  Inviolable  Homestead 
Bill  for  Ireland,  and  to  open  the  prison  doors  to  her 
noble  priests  and  patriots. 

But  instead  of  such  worthy  ambitions,  in  the  fiftieth 
year    of    her    reign,    what    does    the    Queen    propone? 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


17 


/  / 


With  her  knowledge  and  consent,  committees  of  ladies 
are  formed  in  every  county,  town  and  village  in  all  the 
colonies  under  her  flag,  to  solicit  these  penny  and 
pound  contributions,  to  be  placed  at  her  disposal. 
Ladies  go  from  house  to  house,  not  only  to  the  resi- 
dences of  the  rich,  but  the  cottages  of  the  poor,  through 
all  the  marts  of  trade,  the  fields,  the  factories,  begging 
pennies  for  the  Queen  from  servants  and  day-laborers. 
One  called  at  the  door  of  an  American  lad}-  a  few  days 
since,  and  asked  of  the  maid  who  opened  the  door,  to 
see  the  servants.  After  wheedling  them  out  of  a  few 
pence,  she  asked  for  the  mistress,  hoping  to  obtain  from 
her  a  pound  at  least,  but  she  being  an  American  and  a 
republican  declined  giving  a  donation,  on  the  ground 
that  the  Queen  having  amassed  a  vast  fortune  of 
ten  millions  of  pounds,  was  abundantly  able  to  erect  a 
monument  to  Prince  Albert  herself.  She  thought  it 
would  be  more  suitable  if  the  Queen  gave  a  Jubilee  offer- 
ing to  her  people  rather  than  they  to  her. 

"  But,"  urged  the  lady  beggar,  "it  will  rouse  good 
feeling  among  the  people  to  take  some  part  in  this  com- 
memoration." "Why  should  there  be  good  feeling?" 
said  the  American.  "  For  fifty  years  the  poor  of  Eng- 
land have  been  taxed  heavily  to  support  Her  Majesty 
and  to  make  marriage  settlements  on  all  her  children, 
and  while  she  has  been  growing  richer  and  richer  they 
have  been  steadily  growing  poorer  and  poorer."  The 
ladies  who  started  this  woman's  fund  intended  it  should 
all  come  back  to  the  people  in  the  form  of  charity. 
Great  regret  was  felt  by  them  when  they  learned  that 
Her  Majesty  intended  to  erect  a  monument.  The  com- 
plaints became  so  loud  that  at  the  Queen's  commands 
the  ladies  were  informed  by  Mr.  Ponsonby  that  only 
JE  1,500  would  be  expended  in  that  way  and  the  remain- 
der would  be  devoted  to  charity.  It  is  evident  royalty 
is  looking  for  a  most  generous  outpouring  by  the  peo- 
ple. 

To  show  how  little  idea  the  people  have  as  to  the  sen- 
timent and  aesthetic  taste  involved  in  this  proposed  work 
of  art,  one  poor  woman  when  asked  to  give  a  penny  to  the 
fund,  said  "here,  Miss,  take  two,  sure  I've  known  what 
it  is  to  want  myself  sometimes."  Another  needy 
widow  said,  "  Oh,  yes,  I  can  spare  a  penny  for  the 
Queen.  A  widdy  with  a  large  family  must  have  a  great 
struggle  to  make  the  ends  meet."  Many  such  stories 
are  repeated  with  peals  of  laughter.  But  who  that  has 
a  soul  to  feel  could  receive  money  from  the  hard  hand 
of  poverty,  and  under  such  false  pretenses.  Instead  of 
making  merry  over  such  misplaced  generosity,  public 
indignation  should  be  roused  against  those  who  receive  it. 

To  be  sure  the  queen  has  had  a  long  reign,  but  what 
great  national  work  or  what  new  liberty  for  her  people 
has  ever  emanated  from  her  brain?  Her  influence,  as 
far  as  she  has  had  any,  has  been  against  all  change  and 
improvement.     If  the  crowned   heads  of  Europe  were 


to  make  a  present  to  the  Queen  and  build  two  monu- 
ments, both  to  her  and  her  consort,  it  would  he  highly 
suitable.  For  one  of  their  number  to  stick  to  a  throne 
for  fifty  years  in  this  revolutionary  period  is  indeed 
remarkable. 

But  as  her  name  has  never  been  connected  with  any 
progressive  movement,  why  ask  gifts  from  the  people? 
Through  the  troubled  times  of  the  great  unemployed, 
and  the  prolonged  Irish  struggle,  the  country  has  only 
heard  of  her  in  connection  with  one  democratic  demon- 
stration. She  attended  a  private  representation  of  that 
popular  Parisian  circus,  in  London,  and  it  was  recorded 
in  all  the  papers  that  Her  Majesty  was  delighted  with 
the  exhibition  and  honored  the  baby  elephant  by  caress- 
ing his  left  ear. 

The  idea  of  a  penny  from  the  masses  is  a  nice  point 
in  English  calculations.  When  they  established  their 
system  of  free  schools  they  passed  a  cunning  little  by- 
law, requiring  each  child  to  come  with  a  penny  in  its 
hand,  ofttimes  with  its  little  stomach  so  empty  that  the 
brain  could  not  work.  Think  of  the  self-control  the 
child  must  have  exercised  in  passing  a  bake-shop  with  a 
penny  in  its  hand!  A  humane  teacher  told  me  she  was 
obliged  to  take  the  penny,  but  she  usually  gave  the  child- 
ren that  needed  it  a  roll  of  bread,  which  she  pur- 
chased for  that  purpose  on  her  way  to  school.  To 
rescind  this  by-law  and  establish  a  bread  fund  for  hungry 
children  in  the  schools  would  be  a  good  use  to  make  of 
the  Jubilee  pennies  filched  from  the  poor,  but  to  build  a 
monument  on  such  a  basis  is  enough  to  make  Prince 
Albert  turn  in  his  grave. 

London,  April. 


CHATS    WITH    A    CHIMPANZEE. 

BY    MOXCURE    D.  CONWAY. 
Part  III. 

"  I  am  eager  to  know  the  ways  and  means  of  youi 
evolutional  pilgrimage  to  humanity  and  thence  to  rever- 
sionary monkey  hoed." 

So  I  said  when  next  presenting  myself,  girt  with 
sacred  flowers,  before  my  sage  of  the  monkey  temple 
at  Benares.  No  sooner  was  my  query  put  than  from 
the  blood-stained  pavement  outside  came  a  vulgar  Eng- 
lish voice,  crying:  "In  the  beginning  was  the  word, 
and  the  word  was  with  God,  and  the  word  was  God." 
Here  there  were  confused  voices,  and  the  next  sound 
was  the  canting  reader  again — "  Without  Him  was  not 
anything  made  that  was  made.  In  Him  was  life;  and 
the  life  was  the  light  of  men;  and  the  light  shineth  in 
darkness,  and  the  darkness  comprehended  it  not." 
(Noise.)  "  My  dear  hearers,  and  you,  ye  poor  deluded 
idolators,  this  is  the  blessed  Trinity,  three  persons  in 
one  God—"     (Tinkle,  tinkle!) 

I  knew  well  the  meaning  of  the  musical  tinkle. 
Some  procession  was  bearing   a  god   or  goddess  on  its 


178 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


ceremonial  round,  had  paused  before  an  altar  and  begun 
the  instrumentation  for  a  sacred  dance.  I  moved  away 
to  an  aperture  in  the  wall  and  saw  the  nautch  girls 
just  beginning  to  dance  before  a  grim  but  gaudy  god 
throned  in  his  sedan  beneath  a  cobra  canopy.  Near  by 
stood  a  white-robed  and  turbaned  cockney  with  his  little 
cohort  of  Salvationists. 

"  In  the  name  of  Almighty  God  stop  that  idolatry 
and   blasphemy,  or  the  plagues  of  " 

A  sharp  official  voice  reprimanding,  cut  short  the 
sentence  of  the  Salvationist,  who  was  pale  and  trembling. 

"Sing,  sisters!"  he  cried. 

In  a  moment  the  tinklings  of  the  sacred  triangles 
were  drowned  by  a  dozen  shrill  voices  wailing  of  the 
"Sweet  By-and-By."  In  an  instant  two  powerful 
Hindus  darted  forward,  seized  the  foolhardy  Salvationist 
and  rolled  him  in  the  wet  blood  of  sacrified  kids.  The 
English  women  shrieked,  the  Hindus  yelled,  and  a  fight 
began  which  might  have  ended  seriously  had  not  the 
police  appeared  and  marched  the  Salvationists  off,  fol- 
lowed bv  the  two  Brahmans  who  had  assailed  him. 
When  I  turned  back  into  the  court  of  the  temple  I  saw 
a  hundred  monkeys  seated  quietly  along  the  parapet 
overlooking  the  street  and  gazing  with  silent  interest 
on  the  crowd  beneath.  When  the  human  companies 
which  came  into  collision  had  departed  the  moakeys 
slowly  distributed  themselves,  and  my  friendly  chim- 
panzee descended. 

"Those  poor  Christians  and  Brahmans  did  not  un- 
derstand each  other,"  he  remarked.  "If  they  had  un- 
derstood each  other  they  would  have  embraced  instead 
of  fighting.  There  was  no  real  difference  between  the 
god  in  the  sedan  and  the  god  in  whose  name  the  Chi  is- 
tian  forbade  the  other's  rites.  But  I  am  puzzled  that  a 
man  should  in  one  breath  utter  wisdom  and  in  another 
show  himself  a  fool.  When  he  said  of  his  god,  'with- 
out him  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made,'  why 
should  he  be  furious  against  these  divine  manufactures 
in  India?" 

"Ah,  he  didn't  say  that  himself;  he  said  it  as  a  par- 
rot says  what  it  is  told,  without  understanding  it." 

"He  is  then  an  illustration  of  the  words,  'the  light 
shineth  in  the  darkness,  the  darkness  comprehends  it 
not,'  for  surely  he  uttered  wise  sentences." 

"  Well,  let  us  leave  the  poor  fellow  now,  for  I  am 
anxious  to  hear  about  your  evolutionary  method." 

'"  In  the  beginning  was  the  word.'  That  is  the  key 
of  creation.  There  is  no  beginning  beyond  the  begin- 
ning of  language.  In  the  first  silent  intercourse  between 
living  forms,  grassblade's  signal  to  grassblade,  flower 
blushing  to  flower,  and  back  of  these  to  the  faint  infini- 
tesimal communications  which,  through  the  kalpas  (or 
ceons,  you  might  say)  led  up  to  them." 

"  Some  tell  us  that  the  dumb  inorganic  universe— the 
mineral,  the  worlds  and  stars — must  have  had  a  begin- 
ning." 


"  In  a  sense,  no  doubt.  I  hurl  this  round  cake 
against  that  wall — thus!  You  observe  those  doves  pick- 
ing up  the  crumbs.  Each  crumb  has  just  had  a  begin- 
ning. The  sun  once  hurled  into  space  a  cosmical  cake 
which  has  broken  up  into  worlds.  Perhaps  the  sun  it- 
self was  a  crumb  of  a  previous  cake,  perhaps  not. 
There  is  no  absolute  beginning  in  these  changes." 

"Then  you  would  find  the  beginning  in  the  appear- 
ance of  life  on  our  planet." 

"'In  the  beginning  was  the  word,'  as  the  pious  par- 
rot said.  Without  language  was  not  anything  made 
that  was  made.      The  living  germ  was  not  made." 

"  Some  of  our  scientists  say  life  was  evolve;.'  out  of 
matter;  that  the  inorganic  evolved  the  organic." 

"I  recognize  the  idea  as  a  phase  of  thought  through 
which  our  anthropoid  race  passed.  In  recoil  from  a 
primitive  and  fictitious  system  which  assumed  millions 
of  causes  for  phenomena  only  superficially  different,  we 
went  to  the  other  extreme  and  confused  antagonistic  phe- 
nomena in  a  unity  so  unnatural  that  it  had  to  be  made 
supernatural.  Why  should  not  life  be  an  original  mode 
of  one  thing  as  well  as  lifelessness  that  of  another? 
Why — except  by  some  theological  or  metaphysical  ;>s- 
sumption — should  we  say  that  organic  and  inorganic  are- 
not  equally  eternal,  in  their  several  essence,  and  equally 
without  beginning?" 

"It  has  been  said  the  phenomenal  universe  implies  a 
cause,  because  every  effect  implies  a  cause." 

"  But  it  is  an  assumption  that  the  universe  is  an  effect.. 
It  exists.  No  man  has  ever  shown  that  it  had  any  be- 
ginning —  neither  its  inorganic  atoms  or  its  organic 
germs.  There  is  live  stuff"  and  lifeless  stuff.  The  life- 
less stuff  runs  through  certain  changes,  chemic,  molecu- 
lar and  other;  the  living  stuff  through  certain  other- 
changes,  growth,  decay;  the  two  are  found  combined  and 
mutually  modified  in  many  forms.  Thus  it  always  was,, 
so  far  as  anybody  has  shown." 

"And  always  will  be?" 

"That  does  not  follow.  It  were  mere  speculation  to- 
inquire.  The  thing  in  which  I  suppose  you  to  be  inter- 
ested is  the  beginning  and  process  of  creation — that  is. 
the  various  development  of  life-stuff  in  this  world." 

"It  is  just  that  I  wish  to  know." 

"  Well,  I  can  only  tell  you  about  the  particular  road' 
I  have  traveled.  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  all 
forms  have  traveled  by  one  route.  As  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  suppose  that  granite  was  evolved  from  flint,  Hint 
from  water,  water  from  salt,  neither  is  it  necessary  to- 
suppose  that  whales,  crabs,  butterflies,  tigers,  have  been 
evolved  from  each  other." 

"  Such  variety  is  not  admitted   by  Western   science.'" 

"  Perhaps  because  an  ancient  deism  survives  in  it  as 
a  suffocating  unity.  What  reason  is  there  to  believe  that 
our  cherries  were  once  plums,  or  the  reverse?  Amid 
the  innumerable   myriads  of  atoms  and   germs  floating 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


179 


through  infinite  space  through  infinite  time,  cohering, 
crumbling,  combining  under  various  chemic  influences, 
the  molecules  assume  varied  shapes,  the  life-germs  varied 
potencies;  and  while  the  inorganic  world  subsists  in 
endless  shapes,  the  seeds  grow  into  many  forms  and 
flavors.  A  mouse  is  not  evolved  from  the  same  ancestor 
as  the  adder  that  preys  on  it,  any  more  than  a  diamond 
from  an  opal, — at  least  such  is  my  opinion.  Were  it 
proved  that  mouse  is  evolved  from  adder  it  would  be 
interesting,  as  it  is  to  a  philologist  that  your  word  '  adder  ' 
is  evolved  from  our  Hindu  demon  '  Ahi,1  but  it  would 
not  affect  the  principle  of  evolution." 

"It  is,  as  vou  suggest,  a  detail." 

"Very  well.  Now  we  may  consider  the  line  of 
human  evolution  without  being  entangled  in  other  ques- 
tions. But,  lest  I  take  up  your  time  by  repeating  what 
you  already  know,  let  me  ask  you  whether  your 
thought  has  been  directed  to  the  consideration  of  lan- 
guage as  a  factor  of  physical  evolution?  " 

"  Yes,  by  a  great  master  to  whom  I  have  listened — 
Huxley.  In  one  lecture,  long  ago,  he  spoke  on  this 
subject  in  a  way  which  I  often  hoped  he  would  follow 
up.  He  illustrated  the  vast  change  of  function  which 
may  follow  a  minutest  change  of  form,  by  showing  how 
slight  a  pressure  of  pincers  on  the  hand-rivet  of  a  watch 
m.iy  stop  it.  The  register  of  the  solar  system  becomes 
and  idle  box  of  metal.  The  minute  modification  of 
form  would  make  a  functional  change  quite  infinite. 
This  he  applied  to  the  minute  difference  in  the  vocal 
chords  between  a  speaking  and  speechless  animal.  And 
it  is  language,  he  said,  that  makes  man  what  he  is;  lan- 
guage, giving  him  the  means  of  recording  his  experi- 
ence, miking  every  generation  wiser  than  its  predecessor, 
more  in  accordance  with  the  established  order  of  the  uni- 
verse. It  is  speech  which  enables-  men  to  be  men — 
looking  before  and  after,  and,  in  some  dim  sense,  under- 
standing the  workings  of  the  universe, — distinguishing 
man  from  the  brute  world.  This  functional  difference, 
so  infinite  in  its  consequences,  may  depend  on  structural 
differences  absolutely  inappreciable  by  our  present 
means  of  investigation.  Were  you  to  alter  in  the  min- 
utest degree  the  proportion  of  the  nervous  forces  now 
active  in  the  two  nerves  which  supply  the  muscles  of 
my  glottis,  I  who  now  speak,  should  become  suddenly 
dumb.  The  voice  is  produced  onlv  so  long  as  the  vocal 
chords  are  parallel;  and  these  are  parallel  only  so  long 
as  certain  muscles  contract  with  exact  equality;  and  that 
again  depends  on  the  equality  of  action  of  the  two 
nerves  referred  to.  So  that  a  change  of  the  minutest 
kind  in  the  structure  of  one  of  these  nerves,  or  of  the 
part  in  which  it  originates,  or  of  the  supply  of  food  to 
that  part,  or  of  one  of  the  muscles  to  which  it  is  distrib- 
uted, might  render  us  all  dumb.  But  a  race  of  dumb 
men,  deprived  of  all  communication  with  those  who 
could  speak,  would  be  little  indeed   removed   from   the 


brutes.  The  moral  and  intellectual  difference  between 
them  and  ourselves  would  be  practically  infinite,  though 
the  naturalist  should  not  be  able  to  find  even  a  single 
shadow  of  specific  structural  difference.  So  spake  the 
professor." 

"  So  much  then  you  know.  These  are  pregnant  testi- 
monies from  the  human  point  of  view.  When  we  meet 
again  I  shall  have  something  to  add  from  the  anthro- 
poid standpoint.  The  hour  has  arrived  when  I  must  go 
and  receive  some  sacrificial  offerings.  See,  my  wor- 
shipers already  begin  to  kneel!" 

I  asked  him  whether  there  would  be  found  any  ap- 
preciable difference  between  the  vocal  apparatus  of  a  fine 
opera  singer  and  that  of  one  who  could  not  sing.  He 
replied  that  a  naturalist  might,  perhaps,  detect  such  dif- 
ference, as  a  violinist  might  detect  between  a  Cremona 
and  ordinary  violin  of  the  same  size.  I  once  put  a  simi- 
lar question  to  Dr.  Carpenter,  who  said  that  the  billionth 
of  an  inch  may  measure  the  difference  between  the  chat- 
ter of  a  monkey  and  the  song  of  a  Patti.  Darwin  in- 
deed, wondered  that  some  apes  do  not  talk.  Schleicher 
holds  that  monkeys  and  men  are  both  descended  from 
the  same  anthropoid  race,  now  extinct;  those  that  ac- 
quired language  developed  into  humanity,  those  that 
failed  to  sain  speech  deteriorated  into  our  present 
monkeys. 


THE     FREE     RELIGIOUS     ASSOCIATION    AND      ITS 
APPROACHING  ANNUAL   MEETING. 

BY     W.M.   J.     POTTER. 

The  Free  Religious  Association  has  been  in  existence 
twenty  years.  It  will  hold  its  twentieth  anniversary  in 
Boston  on  the  26th  and  27th  of  the  present  month. 
This  meeting  promises  to  be  one  of  exceptional  interest 
and  importance.  It  will  have  a  special  interest,  not  only 
as  bringing  together  a  large  number  of  able  and  attract- 
ive speakers,  but  as  involving,  in  the  discussions  pro- 
posed, both  the  retrospective  and  prospective  points  of 
view.  It  will  have  a  special  importance  as  determining, 
perhaps,  the  future  of  the  Association. 

The  Free  Religious  Association  has  a  unique  history. 
There  had  never  been  anything  like  it  before  in  this 
country,  there  has  never  been  anything  like  it  in  any 
other  country.  It  is,  perhaps,  owing  to  this  uniqueness 
of  character,  if  the  Association  has  not  fulfilled  all  the 
expectations  which  any  persons  may  have  had  with  re- 
gard to  it  at  the  time  of  its  organization.  The  organi- 
zation was  designedly  made  of  the  loosest  type  possible, 
— the  farthest  removed  from  anything  of  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal nature,  though  intended  to  affect  all  ecclesiastical 
structures.  It  had  no  set  of  doctrines  to  promulgate,  it 
established  no  fixed  machinery  for  carrying  out  a  cer- 
tain definite  scheme  of  work.  It  simply  had  certain 
ideas  and  principles  by  which  its  organizers  hoped  to 
impress  and  gradually  shape  public  opinion;  and  for  this 
end,  they  trusted  chiefly  to  the  public  meeting,  the  lecture 


i8o 


THK    OPKN    COURT. 


and  the  printing-press.  They  left  the  organization 
itself  free  to  be  shaped  by  the  growth  and  progress  of 
the  ideas  and  principles  which  it  embodied. 

There  are,  probably,  not  a  few  readers  of  The  Open 
Court  who  remember  well  that  first  public  meeting  in 
Horticultural  Hall,  Boston,  at  which  the  Association 
was  formed.  Those  who  prepared  for  that  meeting  and 
felt  the  profoundest  interest  in  it  could  not  themselves 
foresee  what  would  be  the  result.  At  the  several  pre- 
liminary private  conferences  which  had  been  held,  of 
persons  interested  in  the  application  of  the  freest  thought 
to  religious  questions,  there  had  been  a  difference  of 
opinion  in  respect  to  organizing.  One  of  these  meetings, 
held  at  the  house  of  Dr.  Bartol,  was  a  most  notable 
gathering.  It -was  attended  by  some  sixty  persons  or 
more,  who  had  been  specially  invited  to  consider  the 
question.  The  discussion  was  able,  earnest,  frank,  and 
continued  the  greater  part  of  the  day.  Some  of  the  spe- 
cial utterances  of  that  occasion  still  linger  in  my  ears 
word  for  word.  With  very  few  exceptions  the  meeting 
consisted  of  those  who  were  of  Unitarian  affiliations  or 
antecedents.  This  came  to  pass,  because  the  occasion 
which  had  started  the  question  of  a  new  organization 
had  been  given  by  the  action  of  the  National  Unitarian 
Conference,  in  putting  into  the  preamble  of  its  consti- 
tution certain  theological  phrases  against  which  a  mi- 
nority had  earnestly  protested.  Yet  it  cannot  be  said 
that  the  voice  of  this  meeting  was  in  favor  of  organiza- 
tion. It  was  a  divided  voice.  Some  of  the  ablest  and 
most  influential  of  those  who  spoke  on  the  question  were 
opposed  to  organized  action.  Some  of  the  most  radical 
members  of  the  meeting,  though  deprecating  the  Unita- 
rian proceedings  and  feeling  themselves  excluded  from 
the  National  Conference,  were  averse  to  any  other  kind 
of  organization  than  that  of  the  individual  society. 
Though  the  result  of  the  meeting  was  the  appointment 
of  a  committee  to  present  the  same  question  at  a  public 
meeting,  to  be  called  and  arranged  for  by  them,  it  can 
only  be  said  that  this  conclusion  was  rather  conceded 
tacitly  as  a  right  to  those  who  favored  organization  than 
advocated  or  voted  for  by  a  very  considerable  number 
of  those  present.  Even  that  committee  became  partially 
dissolved  before  the  time  of  the  public  meeting  came. 
It  was,  therefore,  not  at  all  clear  what  would  be  the  issue 
of  the  public  step  nor  whether  many  people  would  re- 
spond to  the  call. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  the  committee  ventured  to 
secure  a  hall  of  only  moderate  size.  The  Boston  Hor- 
ticultural Hall  is  estimated  to  seat  an  audience  of  a  thou- 
sand. Considerably  before  the  hour  advertised  for  the 
meeting  the  seats  were  all  taken,  and  people  were  be- 
ginning to  stand  in  the  aisles;  and  when  the  committee, 
a  little  before  the  time,  reached  the  hall,  they  were  told 
that  they  could  not  get  through  the  crowded  mass  of 
human  beings  from  the  front,  but  must  get  to  the  platform 


from  the  rear.  This  packed  assembly,  occupying 
every  seat  and  all  the  standing  room  and  extending  out 
into  the  vestibule,  remained  through  the  greater  part  of 
the  long  morning  session.  The  public  notice  to  which 
this  gathering  was  the  response  was  very  simple.  It  ran 
as  follows:  "  A  public  meeting,  to  consider  the  condi- 
tions, wants  and  prospects  of  Free  Religion  in  America, 
will  be  held  on  Thursday,  May  30,  at  10  a.  m.,  at  Hor- 
ticultural Hall,  Boston."  Appended  to  this  was  the 
announcement  that  R.  W.  Emerson,  John  Weiss,  Rob- 
ert Dale  Owen,  Win.  H.  Furness,  Lucretia  Mott,  Henry 
Blanchard,  T.  W.  Higginson,  D.  A.  Wasson,  Isaac  M. 
Wise,  Oliver  Johnson,  F.  E.  Abbot  and  Max  Lilienthal 
had  been  asked  to  address  the  meeting,  and  that  ad- 
dresses might  "  be  expected  from  most  of  them."  The 
notice  was  signed  by  "  O.  B.  Frothingham,  Win.  T. 
Potter,  Rowland  Connor,  Committee." 

It  must  be   remembered  that  the  term  "  Free  Reli- 
gion "  used  in  this  call  had   not  then  become  the  specific 
appellation  which  it  is  now.     It   simply  had  the  general 
meaning  of    religion  emancipated    from    every  kind   of 
thrall.     It  will  be  noticed,  too,  that  the   movement   had 
already  passed  beyond  the  boundaries  of  denominational 
Unitarianism.      Mr.  Connor,  of  the  Committee,  was  then 
the  colleague  of  Dr.  Miner,  as  junior  pastor  of  the  First 
Universalist  Church  in  Boston.      It   may  here  be  added 
that  his  affiliation   with  the  Free   Religious   movement 
cost  him  his  position  in  that  church  and  denomination. 
Of  the  invited  speakers,  Mr.  Blanchard  also  represented 
progressive  Universalism ;  Messrs.  Wise  and  Lilienthal 
were  Jewish  Rabbis;  Lucretia  Mott  was  the  well-known 
and  venerated  preacher  of  the  liberal  division  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Friends;  Mr.  Owen  was  a  leading  light  among 
the  Spiritualists;  Oliver   Johnson    represented   the   Pro- 
gressive Friends.     The  others,  though  they  were  or  had 
been  connected  with  the  Unitarians,  were  either  already 
doing  their  work  independently  of  any  denominational 
standing  or  held   their  denominational  positions  of  less 
account  than  their  regard  for  liberty  of  religious  thought. 
The  actual  speakers  and  the  order  in  which  they  spoke, 
were,  O.  B.  Frothingham,  who  presided,  Mr.  Blanchard, 
Mrs.  Mott,  Mr.  Owen,  Mr.   Weiss,  Mr.  Johnson,  Mr. 
Abbot,  Mr.  Wasson,  Mr.  Higginson  and  Mr.  Emerson. 
Mr.  Emerson  had  sat  in  the  body  of  the  hall  throughout 
the  meeting,  unobserved   from  the    platform,  and  began 
his   remarks    by  saying   that  he    hardly  felt  that  he   had 
come  to  the  right  hall  when   he  found  the  house  so  full 
of  people;    that  he  had  expected  a  committee  meeting 
rather  than  such  an   audience.     He  showed  that  he  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  occasion,  and  at   the  afternoon 
session,  when   a  constitution  was  adopted   and  organiza- 
tion was  effected,  he  gave  a  proof  of  this  interest  in   a 
way  unusual  with  him.     Though   not  commonly  work- 
ing with  organizations  nor  joining  their  membership,  he 
was  among  the  first   to  come  forward  to  have  his  name 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


181 


enrolled  on  the  list  okmembers.  In  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee appointed,  following  the  adoption  of  the  consti- 
tution, Unitarianism,  Quakerism,  Spiritualism,  Univer- 
salism,  Judaism,  were  all  represented,  as  well  as  that 
large  realm  of  rational  thought  and  humanitarian  activity 
outside  of  all  denominational  lines. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  here  to  trace  the  history  of  the 
Free  Religious  Association  during  the  twenty  vears  of 
its  existence.  But  I  wish  to  say  this:  no  one  can  rightly 
comprehend  that  history  without  taking  into  account 
these  circumstances  of  the  origin  of  the  Association  to 
which  I  have  referred  and  without  noting  especially  the 
variety  and  diversity  of  elements  that  made  its  constitu- 
ency. If  any  persons  were  expecting  that  this  new  re- 
ligious movement  would  set  up  the  machinery  of  an  ac- 
tive propagandism  corresponding  to  the  activity  of  an 
ecclesiastical  sect — would  become,  perhaps,  itself  a  new 
and  advanced  religious  sect — organizing  local  societies, 
sending  out  preachers  and  lecturers,  etc.,  they  were 
doomed  to  disappointment,  though  in  the  latter  particu- 
lar one  or  two  attempts  have  been  made.  It  was  not  to 
be  supposed  that  the  venerable  Lucretia  Mott  would 
leave  the  Quaker  meeting-house,  where  after  many 
struggles  she  had  won  for  herself  rational  liberty,  to  join  a 
local  "  Free  Religous  "  society,  should  one  have  been 
established  in  her  neighborhood ;  nor  that  Rabbi  Wise, 
who  was  one  of  the  first  Directors  of  the  Association, 
would  abandon  his  synagogue  to  become  a  lecturer  for 
"  Free  Religion"  as  something  distinct  from  the  rational 
ideas  and  advancing  thought  which  he  believed  to  be 
embodied  in  progressive  Judaism.  Indeed,  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Free  Religious  Association  expressly  de- 
clared from  the  outset  that  membership  there  should 
"affect  in  no  degree  [a  member's]  relation  to  other  as- 
sociations." By  this  clause  it  was  evidently  intended  to 
declare  that  the  new  movement  was  not  to  be  necessarily 
a  secession  from  existing  religious  bodies,  or  a  new  body 
competing  with  the  old  in  the  same  general  field.  It 
was  to  do  its  work  in  a  different  way  for  different  ends. 
And,  again,  if  the  Association  has  not  done  all  that  some 
of  its  members  hoped  it  would  do,  and  even  now  believe 
it  might  have  done,  in  the  field  marked  out  by  its  own 
constitution,  and  especially  in  promoting  certain  definite 
ethical  and  philanthropic  activities,  the  reason  may  again 
be  found  in  the  fact  of  its  various  and  scattered  constitu- 
ency, its  members  being  already  engaged  more  or  less  in 
activities  of  this  sort  wherever  they  might  be  located. 
In  fine,  the  nature  of  the  organization  was  of  too  broad 
a  type  to  permit,  to  much  extent,  other  methods  of  prac- 
tical work  than  those  adapted  to  create  and  shape  public 
opinion,  and  to  inspire  the  members  individually  to  do 
the  utmost  in  their  power  for  promoting  the  objects  of 
the  Association  in  their  respective  localities  and  spheres 
of  labor.  The  work  of  the  Association  has  been  done, 
therefore,  through  the  public  convention,  the  lecture- 
platform  and  the  printing-press. 


On  account  of  the  variety  of  religious  and  philosoph- 
ical beliefs  appearing  on  its  platform  and  to  be  found  in 
its  membership,  it  has  sometimes  been  said  that  the  Free 
Religious  Association  is  merely  a  free  parliament  for 
the  expression  of  all  opinions  on  the  subjects  presented 
for  discussion.  But  this  is  a  most  superficial  view  of  the 
significance  of  the  Association.  It  is  true  that  all  honest 
opinions  on  religious  and  ethical  questions,  all  varieties 
of  view,  have  been  welcomed  on  its  platform.  It  is  also 
true  that  there  is  great  diversity  of  religious  belief  among 
its  members,  and  that  the  constitution  expressly  declares 
that  no  "test  of  speculative  opinion  or  belief"  shall  debar 
from  membership.  Yet,  through  the  same  constitution, 
the  members  do  affirm  certain  very  important  things 
together,  which  gives  them  a  very  distinct  significance  as 
a  religious  organization.  For  one  thing  they  affirm  unre- 
stricted mental  liberty  as  the  essential  condition  of  their 
fellowship,  as  of  all  true  and  progressive  religious  think- 
ing; and  then,  in  the  statement  of  the  objects  or  purposes 
of  the  Association,  they  affirm  that  all  questions  of 
religion  and  ethics  are  to  be  studied  by  the  free  reason » 
according  to  the  methods  of  modern  science,  and  not 
under  the  supervision  of  ecclesiastical  authority ;  that 
fellowship  is  to  be  determined  not  by  ties  of  sect  or  creed, 
nor  even  by  the  Christian  boundary,  but  by  humanita- 
rian and  spiritual  affiliations;  and  that,  of  all  the  so-called 
interests  of  religion,  morality,  the  pure  character,  the 
upright  life,  are  of  vastly  more  importance  than  any 
sectarian  prosperity  or  the  creed  of  any  church.  I  have 
here  somewhat  paraphrased  the  succinct  statement  of 
objects  as  they  have  stood  from  the  beginning  in  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Association.  Certain  amendments  of 
phraseology  have  been  made  from  time  to  time,  not,  in 
my  opinion,  changing  the  original  essential  meaning,  but 
only  trying  to  express  it  more  clearly.  Whatever  else 
the  members  of  the  Association  may  have  had  to  say  con- 
cerning religion,  and  in  connection  with  whatever  other 
organizations  they  may  have  found  freedom  and  oppor- 
tunity for  work,  in  this  constitution  they  have  affirmed 
together  these  four  positive  propositions. 

Now,  these  four  affirmations  are  very  momentous. 
Were  they  ever  affirmed  together  before  by  any  kind  of 
religious  organization  on  the  globe?  If  they  were  to 
be  generally  acted  upon  they  would  revolutionize  the 
religious  world.  But  they  are  not  to  take  effect  by  any 
violent  action.  They  are  sure  to  grow  in  favor,  they  are 
growing  in  favor;  but  the  change  is  to  be  a  gradual 
process, — an  evolution.  The  evolution  is  already  in 
progress  in  many  churches  and  denominations,  and  even 
in  the  religions  of  the  world.  Every  one  of  these  great 
affirmations  has  made  an  important  advance  in  the  last 
twenty  years.  Various  agencies  have  been  helping 
toward  this  end ;  but  it  may  be  rightly  claimed  that  the 
Free  Religious  Association,  as  a  pioneer  society  in  pre- 
senting and   holding  these  ideas  before  the  public,  has 


lS2 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


had  a  good  share  in  effecting  this  result.  Mental  liberty  ; 
character  before  creed ;  fellowship  in  spirit  rather  than 
by  the  letter  of  a  creed  or  by  any  religious  name;  rea- 
son, acting  freely,  the  arbiter  in  religious  questions  rather 
than  ecclesiastical  authority, — these  several  ideas  are  all 
receiving  greater  recognition,  certainly,  than  twenty 
years  ago,  and  are  beginning  to  permeate  churches  and 
sects  with  their  growing  power. 

Of  course,  the  great  work  is  bv  no  means  yet  accom- 
plished. But,  in  the  changed  condition  of  things,  the 
question  may  be  raised  whether  the  time  has  not  come 
for  a  reconstruction  of  the  Free  Religious  organization 
with  a  view  to  adopting  more  definite  and  concentrated 
methods  of  working  for  its  objects.  The  new  times 
may  have  brought  new  demands;  opened  fields  for  labor, 
perhaps,  of  a  somewhat  different  kind ;  matured,  possibly, 
the  conditions  of  a  larger  opportunity.  It  is  well,  there- 
fore, that  the  approaching  twentieth  anniversary  meeting 
should  take  up  this  question,  and  this  it  is  proposed  to  do. 
That  meeting  in  1S67  was  called  "to  consider  the  con- 
ditions, wants  and  prospects  of  Free  Religion  in  Amer- 
ica." So  let  the  meeting  that  is  to  be  held  in  Tremont 
Temple,  Boston,  on  the  27th  of  May,  consider  the  con- 
ditions, wants  and  prospects  of  emancipated  religion  in 
America  at  this  present  time.  What  is  the  duty  of  the 
present  hour?  What  are  the  wants  in  this  year  of  1S87  ? 
And  how  can  the  Free  Religious  Association  meet  them  ? 
Possibly  an  entirely  new  organization  is  demanded.  If 
so,  and  this  fact  were  made  clear,  the  Free  Religious 
Association,  if  true  to  its  own  soul,  would  not  cumber 
the  ground  to  the  detriment  of  another  organization  that 
could  now  better  do  its  work.  It  is  not  to  this  or  that 
form  of  organization  that  the  genuine  devotee  of  free 
religion  adheres.  It  is  principles  and  ideas  that  hold  his 
allegiance;  it  is  the  advance  of  principles  and  ideas  that 
he  craves. 

ETHICS   IN   PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

BY   M.   M.   TRUMBULL. 

If  the  problem  of  poverty  is  to  be  solved  in  any 
rational  and  effective  way,  we  must  bring  American 
politics  under  the  dominion  of  ethics.  Ethics  must 
become  an  active  governing  power  as  well  as  a  passive 
code.  It  must  superintend  the  work  of  all  our  magis- 
trates and  require  that  every  act  of  statesmanship  shall 
rest  upon  a  moral  foundation.  It  must  compel  the  law 
to  apportion  our  civil  burdens  fairly,  so  that  no  part  of 
the  public  taxes  shall  be  a  dead  weight  upon  industry, 
pressing  the  laborer  down  to  a  lower  plane  of  life.  It 
is  not  enough  that  ethics  control  our  private  conduct,  it 
must  also  direct  our  public  acts  and  deeds.  So  long 
as  our  politicians  can  exclude  ethics  from  public  affairs 
and  limit  its  authority  to  matters  of  personal  character 
only,  so  long  the  statutes  of  the  land  will  be  made  for 
private  gain,  and  so  long  we  shall  compete  with  one 
another  for  a  share  in  the  profits  of  wrong. 


The  reckless  making  of  public  debts  and  their  pre- 
servation for  private  advantage,  add  greatly  to  the 
oppression  of  industry.  It  is  not  well  for  labor  when 
important  private  interests  depend  for  their  prosperity 
on  the  increase  and  preservation  of  public  debt.  It  is 
bad  for  honest  business  when  those  debts  are  converted 
into  capital  for  the  rich,  into  usury  and  taxation  for  the 
poor.  The  pressure  of  public  debt  squeezes  a  portion 
of  the  useful  classes  from  every  layer  of  society  to  the 
tier  immediately  below,  and  when  it  reaches  those  who 
are  just  able  to  balance  income  and  expenses,  it  crowds 
a  portion  of  them  into  the  pit  of  destitution.  Our  pub- 
lic debts  amount  to  about  $2,200,000,000  and  they  bear 
interest  at  the  average  rate  of  about  5  per  cent,  per 
annum.  This  is  not  a  very  oppressive  debt,  we  say,  for 
a  nation  that  earns  ten  thousand  millions  a  year.  True 
enough,  but  if  the  burden  of  it  be  inequitably  adjusted 
it  may  cause  much  poverty  in  the  ranks  of  those  who 
have  to  bear  it.  Many  of  the  local  debts  have  been 
incurred  by  jobbery  of  little  or  no  value  to  the  muni- 
cipalities involved.  The)-  were  sown  in  corruption, 
they  must  be  raised  in  incorruption,  that  is  to  say,  they 
must  be  honestly  paid,  and  that  payment  must  come  out 
of  the  proceeds  of  useful  industry.  Mr.  Blaine,  speak- 
ing of  these  debts  at  Oshkosh  a  few  years  ago,  said : 
"  I  venture  the  assertion  based  on  some  scrutiny  into 
facts  that  there  has  not  been  realized  on  the  average 
fifty  cents  of  palpable,  permanent  value  for  each  dollar 
raised  and  expended." 

The  interest  on  those  debts,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
running  cost  of  government,  is  a  drain  upon  industry 
that  never  stops.  It  is  perpetually  calling  for  taxation, 
and  crafty  men  have  shaped  the  law  and  practice  of  im- 
post and  assessment  in  such  an  ingenious  way  that  the 
"  incidence"  of  them  strikes  most  heavily  upon  the  labor- 
ing man,  the  clerk,  the  cottage  owner,  the  small  manu- 
facturer, and  the  merchant  of  limited  means.  Such 
facilities  have  rich  men  for  undervaluing  their  property 
and  concealing  it,  that  the  rate  of  taxation  in  proportion 
to  personal  wealth  grows  lighter  and  lighter  as  we 
ascend,  until  by  the  time  we  reach  the  man  of  ten  mil- 
lions it  amounts  to  comparatively  nothing.  The  man 
whose  worldly  wealth  consists  of  a  little  cottage  worth 
a  thousand  dollars  cannot  conceal  it;  he  is  assessed  in 
full,  while  the  man  who  owns  a  million  dollars  is  gener- 
ally assessed  at  about  $50,000,  or  one-twentieth  of  the 
real  value  of  his  property.  This  is  not  a  guess;  it  is  an 
actual  estimate  made  from  a  comparison  of  the  assessor's 
books,  with  the  records  of  the  Probate  Court.  In  the 
spring  the  rich  man  lists  his  property  to  the  assessor  at 
seventy  thousand  dollars;  he  dies  in  the  summer,  and  1  is 
executors  then  swear  in  the  Probate  Court  that  its  value 
amounts  to  two  million,  five  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
This  is  not  an  imaginary  case.  It  is  an  actual  example 
taken  from  the  records,  a  vivid   illustration  of  loyalty  to 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


183 


the  law  of  "self-preservation  "  in  this  world,  while  a 
prudent  insurance  against  accidents  in  the  next  world  is 
■disclosed  by  the  reading  of  the  will,  which  contains  a 
liberal  bequest  to  the  church  of  which  our  departed 
brother  was  an  honored  and  consistent  member. 

Consistent,  indeed,  he  was.  For  twenty  years  he 
had  "  worshiped  "  in  a  costly  temple  exempt  from  tax- 
ation, a  church,  which  not  only  cast  the  public  burdens 
from  its  own  shoulders  on  to  those  of  honest  industry, 
but  had  also  entered  into  a  partnership  with  all  other 
■churches  to  enable  them  to  go  and  do  likewise.  In  this 
■bad  "  combine,"  the  partners  rise  above  sectarianism. 
On  this  low  plane  all  are  orthodox.  Methodist,  Bap- 
tist, Presbyterian,  Catholic,  Jew,  all  assist  each  other  to 
■evade  their  duty  to  the  State.  Though  each  believes 
the  other's  teaching  false,  and  much  of  it  pernicious,  yet 
•each  claims  tax  exemption  for  the  rest  on  the  ground 
that  their  false  teachings  have  a  virtuous  public  influ- 
ence. Our  departed  brother  had  only  followed  the  ex- 
ample set  him  by  his  church.  He  had  learned  from  its 
practice  that  ethics  is  not  necessarily  connected  with  re- 
ligion, and  that  there  are  no  public  duties.  Public  de- 
mands may  sometimes  fasten  upon  a  man,  and  hold  him 
as  a  policeman  does,  but  from  them,  as  from  him,  it  is 
lawful  to  escape  if  we  can.  He  had  learned  that  public 
•duties  belong  to  ethics  with  which  religion  has  nothing 
to  do,  for  the  church  is  above  the  State.  By  repudi- 
ating their  share  of  the  taxes,  and  still  more,  by  teach- 
ing their  congregations  to  do  so,  the  churches  make 
a  hundred  cases  of  poverty,  for  every  one  that  their 
charities   relieve. 

While  the  mere  interest  on  those  public  debts  presses 
heavily  upon  labor,  their  oblique  operation  also  cripples 
industry.  Those  debts,  in  the  convenient  form  of  inter- 
est bearing  bonds,  offer  a  safe  retreat  where  capital  may 
revel  in  idleness  drawing  good  wages  for  nothing.  If 
those  bonds  did  not  provide  sinecures  for  capital,  it 
would  be  compelled  to  earn  a  living  by  going  into  part- 
nership with  labor  in  trade,  manufactures,  farming,  and 
all  the  various  activities  which  produce  and  distribute 
wealth.  Those  bonds  unfairly  compete  with  labor, 
merchandise  and  manufactures,  in  raising  the  interest  on 
money.  The}-  make  poverty  both  ways.  It  was  the 
grinding  power  of  public  debts  upon  the  poor,  that 
caused  Jefferson  to  declare  that  one  generation  could  not 
of  right  make  debts  for  another  generation  to  pay;  an 
abstract  sentiment  of  some  value  as  a  warning,  but 
worthless  as  a  rule  of  political  action,  because  in  times  of 
public  peril  the  verv  salvation  of  society  may  depend 
upon  money  borrowed  on  the  implied  promise  of  a  fu- 
ture generation  to  pay  it.  The  principal  and  interest  of 
these  debts  must  be  paid,  but  in  the  plan  of  payment 
there  ought  not  to  be  any  discrimination  against  the  poor. 

The  revenues  of  the  National  Government  are  ob- 
tained  in  part  by  indirect   taxation,  and    the   machinery 


employed  in  levying  and  collecting  is  an  industrious 
maker  of  poverty.  As  indirect  taxes  are  levied  chiefly 
upon  consumption,  and  especially  on  the  consumption  of 
what  are  called  the  necessities  of  life,  they  fall  with  pe- 
culiar hardship  upon  the  poor.  About  a  hundred  and 
eighty  million  dollars  a  year  is  obtained  by  means  of  a 
tariff  on  imports,  constructed  in  such  a  way  as  to  afford 
protection  to  American  industry  against  foreign  compe- 
tition. It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  article  to  encroach 
upon  the  domain  of  "  the  two  great  parties,"  by  discuss- 
ing the  wisdom  or  the  folly  of  the  protective  tariff,  but 
merely  to  suggest  that  if  ethics  had  been  allowed  "  the 
privilege  of  the  floor,"  when  the  tariff  bill  was  before 
Congress,  that  measure  would  not  be,  as  it  is  now,  an 
unjust  burden  upon  the  workingman. 

The  actual  revenue  received  by  the  government  from 
the  tariff  on  imports,  and  the  incidental  revenue  received 
by  the  protected  interests  from  it,  are  both  in  their  levy 
and  collection  unfair  to  the  workingman.  The  ''  inci- 
dence "  of  all  of  it  strikes  hardest  upon  him.  Suppose  a 
man  with  fifty  dollars  a  month  pays  five  dollars  for 
sugar;  the  tax  on  this  is  three  dollars  and  fifty  cents, 
or  seven  per  cent,  of  his  income.  It  is  evident  that  the 
rich  man's  proportion  of  the  sugar  tax  is  greatly  less 
than  that.  Suppose  that  a  man  with  five  hundred  dol- 
lars a  month  pays  twenty  dollars  for  sugar;  the  tax  on 
this  is  fourteen  dollars,  or  less  than  three  per  cent,  of 
his  income.  Apply  this  principle  to  clothing,  fuel, 
blankets,  crockery,  soap,  starch,  and  every  other  article 
necessary  in  the  humblest  home,  and  we.  see  at  once  how 
unjust  and  unequal  is  the  apportionment  of  taxation. 
The  duty  on  coal  is  seventy-five  cents  a  ton.  If  this 
duty  raises  the  price  of  coal  to  the  full  amount  of  it,  or 
to  any  amount,  then  the  share  of  it  paid  by  the  poor 
man  is  out  of  all  just  proportion  greater  than  the  share 
of  it  paid  by  the  rich  man.  Nor  does  the  rich  man  make 
up  the  difference  in  the  purchase  of  luxuries  which  the 
poor  man  cannot  buy.  Where  the  workingmen  pay 
twenty  per  cent,  of  their  incomes  in  the  shape  of  duties 
on  the  necessities  of  life  which  they  must  buy,  the  rich 
men  do  not  pay  five  per  cent,  of  their  incomes  in  the 
shape  of  duties  upon  luxuries  which  they  may  buy  or 
not  as  they  please. 

In  actual  practice  the  inequality  shown  above  is  made 
still  greater  against  the  poor.  When  we  come  to  cloth, 
and  a  hundred  other  things,  we  find  a  sliding  scale  con- 
trivance which  gives  to  the  rich  man  a  very  great  ad- 
vantage. The  Commissioner  of  Labor  gives  a  vivid 
illustration  of  this.  He  shows  in  his  recent  report  that 
on  clothing  goods  the  rate  of  duty  on  the  price  at  the 
factory  gradually  increases  as  the  value  of  the  goods  de- 
clines. Beginning  with  West  of  England  broadcloth 
worth  $3.50  a  yard  at  the  factory,  and  traveling  gradu- 
ally down  through  thirty-six  different  kinds  of  goods  to 
"cotton  warp  reversible"  worth  45  cents  a  yard  at  the 


1 84 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


factory,  the  tariff  tax  amounts  to  only  50.3  per  cent,  on 
the  broadcloth  for  the  rich  man,  -while  it  amounts  to 
1S0.7  per  cent,  on  the  cotton  warp  for  the  poor  man. 
Spread  this  inequality  over  hundreds  of  other  things,  and 
we  behold  a  bit  of  machinery  most  ingeniously  contrived 
for  the  manufacture  of  poverty.  This  is  a  question  of 
ethics.  It  is  not  claimed  here  that  a  protective  tariff  is 
not  necessary  and  just;  it  is  only  claimed  that  our  tariff, 
from  an  ethical  point  of  view,  is  open  to  criticism  be- 
cause it  makes  a  great  deal  of  unnecessary  poverty  by 
discriminating  in  favor  of  the  rich  and  against  the  poor. 
It  may  be  wise  in  principle,  but  it  is  unjust  in  practice. 

Beside,  rich  men  may  evade  the  clothing  tax  en- 
tirely by  purchasing  their  clothes  in  Europe,  as  thousands 
of  them  do.  The  Astor  case  is  proof  that  ethics  would 
give  a  healthier  tone  to  our  political  system.  Mr.  Astor, 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  being  about  to  return  to 
his  native  land  from  Europe,  provided  himself  with 
twenty-one  trunks,  which  he  filled  with  valuable  new 
clothing  suitable  for  a  millionaire.  When  he  reached 
New  York  the  Custom  House  authorities  decided  that 
as  the  clothing  was  new,  and  had  never  been  worn,  it 
■was  liable  to  tariff  duties  amounting  to  $2,006.  Mr. 
Astor  paid  the  demand  under  protest,  and  then  sued 
the  Collector  to  recover  his  money.  The  District 
Court  decided  that  the  Custom  House  ruling  was  cor- 
rect, but  on  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  the  judgment  was  reversed,  and  it  was  decided 
that  a  man  might  bring  a  shipload  of  clothing  from  Lon- 
don to  New  York,  without  paying  duty  on  it,  provided 
that  it  was  for  his  own  personal  use,  and  not  for  sale. 
The  argument  of  the  above  anecdote  is  this:  Any  law 
of  taxation  which  can  be  evaded  by  the  rich,  and  cannot 
be  evaded  by  the  poor,  is  ethically  unsound;  it  is  unequal 
in  its  exactions,  and  to  the  full  extent  of  the  inequality  it 
helps  to  create  poverty. 

The  argument  is  not  weakened  by  the  answer  that 
the  workingmen  themselves  advocate  the  laws  and  poli- 
cies that  subject  them  to  extortion  and  consequent  piiva- 
tion.  Their  folly  does  not  change  the  character  of 
tho^e  laws  nor  affect  their  operation.  It  is  hardly  credi- 
ble that  workingmen  themselves  demand  that  criminals 
in  jail  shall  be  supported  in  idleness  at  the  expense  of 
honest  labor,  and  yet  we  know  that  this  demand  is  made, 
and  that  it  has  been  established  as  the  supreme  law  of 
New  York  and  Illinois.  It  is  very  plain  that  criminals 
in  jail  must  be  supported  by  themselves  or  others,  and 
if  workingmen  suppose  that  the  support  of  convicts  is  a 
tax  upon  capital  and  not  upon  labor,  they  are  seriously 
deceived.  Every  idler,  in  jail  or  out  of  it,  is  a  tax  upon 
the  industry  of  others,  and  although  the  expense  of  him 
may  seem  at  first  to  fall  upon  the  "  tax  payer,"  it  must 
ultimately  fall  upon  labor,  which  in  the  end  pays  nearly 
all  the  taxes.  The  common  welfare  demands  that  every 
man    shall   be    a    producer    of   something   useful   to  the 


community,  and  the  more  he  produces  the  more  valuable 
he  is.  The  contrary  doctrine  that  there  are  too  many  pro- 
ducers and  too  much  production,  is  a  mischievous  delu- 
sion, more  mischievous  to  the  workingmen  who  advo- 
cate it,  than  to  any  other  class  of  our  people. 

It  may  be  that  ethics  must  first  enlighten  the  con- 
stituencies before  it  can  dominate  our  statesmen  or  purify 
our  laws,  but  through  the  discipline  of  much  poverty 
and  tribulation  we  shall  at  last  learn  this  lesson,  that  the 
true  test  of  any  public  measure  is  not  whelher  it  is  of 
advantage  to  me  or  my  trade,  to  my  order,  sect,  or  class, 
but,  is  it   right? 


SEPARATION. 

BY  JOEL    BENTON. 

We  walked  on  Alpine  summits — you  and  I, — 
High  peaks  of  thought  magnificent  and  free, 
But  you  have  found  a  group  apart  from  me, 

Whose  cramped  horizon  dwarfs  the  boundless  sky; 

Your  purity  of  aim  is  nobly  high, — 
There  is  no  acolyte,  nor  can  ever  be, 
More  full  of  zeal,  love  and  sincerity, 

And  for  your  cause  you  let  all  else  go  by. 

Friends  still  we  are,  but  different  ways  we  go, 
Each  in  his  style  to  solve  high  spiritual  laws; 

I  wish  you  happy,  and,  while  I  am  so 

And  the  old  order  makes  its  tender  pause, 

I  think  how  severed  on  alien  shores  we  stand. 
Farther  than  any  sea  from  land  to  land. 
ATeiv    York. 


A  SILENT  INTRUDER. 

(A  SONNET.) 
BY    LEE    FAIRCHILD. 

With  weary  heart  I  leave  the  busy  ways 
Of  men  and  wander  in  the  leaf)'  wood — 
The  dusky,  timbered  fields  of  solitude — 
Whose  paths  are  mantled  with  the  mingled  haze 
Of  sun  and  shade;  where  blend  and  float  the  lays 
Of  many  birds  each  singing  as  it  should 
Its  fragmentary  song,  half-understood 
By  him  who  fain  would  join  their  artless  praise — 
For  God  loves  wordless  songs.     But  I  refrain 
From  mingling  with  their  songs  the  notes  of  creeds 
(Coinage  of  brains  estranged  from  heart  and  love) 
Lest  Nature,  frowning,  bid  me  not  again 
Intrude  upon  her  fields  where  Worship  pleads 
Her  cause  in  call  of  thrush  and  coo  of  dove! 
Letviston,  Idaho. 


Says  the  Christian  Register: 

Mr.  Moncure  D.  Conway,  in  The  Open  Court,  has  published 
two  "  Chats  with  a   Chimpanzee."     Mr.  Conway's  method  differs 

from  that  of  the  average  reporter.  Mr.  Conway  interviews  a 
chimpanzee,  and  makes  him  talk  like  a  philosopher.  The  average 
reporter  interviews  a  philosopher,  and  makes  him  talk  like  a  chim- 
panzee. 


THE    OREN    COURT. 


1 85 


The  Open  Court. 

A.  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published  every  other  Thursday  at   169  to   175  La  Salic  Street  (Nixon 
Building*,  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

B.  F.  UNDERWOOD,  SARA  A.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager.  Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulitv  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
for  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

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All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  pavable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  MAY   12,  1887. 

THE    PRIMITIVE    STRUGGLE    AND    MODERN   COM- 
PETITION. 

Natural  selection  must  have  played  an  important 
part  in  the  development  of  man  in  the  early  periods 
of  his  existence,  but  happily  with  his  departure  from 
the  point  of  his  animal  origin  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence acquired  a  milder  form.  Civilized  man  has 
emancipated  himself  from  the  conditions  under  which 
his  ancestors  struggled,  and  he  has  been  able  to  sub- 
stitute for  the  forces  of  the  outer  world,  his  own  pur- 
posive action.  He  now  contemplates  his  relations 
and  surroundings,  and  by  means  of  political  and  so- 
cial institutions  seeks  to  improve  them.  He  has  con- 
ceptions of  equal  rights  and  reciprocal  duties  and  obli- 
gations, with  extended  sympathies;  and  these  awaken 
and  sustain  his  interest  in  the  welfare  of  his  race.  In 
these  social  conditions  in  which  the  conduct  of  men 
is  more  and  more  governed  by  fixed  moral  princi- 
ples and  in  which  the  tendency  is  to  work  together 


for  the  general  improvement,  the  influence  of  natu- 
ral selection  is  small  and  continually  becoming  less 
"With  civilized  nations,"  says  Darwin,  "as  far  as  an 
advanced  standard  of  morality  and  an  increased  num- 
ber of  fairly  endowed  men  are  concerned,  natural 
selection  apparently  affects  but  little,  though  the 
fundamental  social  instincts  were  originally  thus- 
gained." 

The  influence  of  natural  selection  on  man  has  be- 
come less  in  proportion  as  he  has  consciously 
exercised  his  powers  for  definite  ends.  In  uniting; 
for  a  common  object  men  have  been  able  to  accom- 
plish in  a  day  what  might  not  in  a  century  and  prob- 
ably would  never  have  been  brought  about  by  natu- 
ral selection  alone,  preventing,  too,  incalculable  suf- 
fering and  loss  unavoidable  in  a  merciless  "struggle- 
for  existence." 

And  yet  the  competitive  principle,  which  has- 
ever  been  the  essential  fact  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence, prevails  and  must  ever  prevail  in  the  highest 
intellectual  and  social  conditions.  Men  now  com- 
pete in  useful  arts  and  industries.  Educational 
institutions  compete  in  methods  and  efficiency  of 
instruction.  Institutions  of  charity  compete  with 
one  another  in  relieving  want  and  distress.  The- 
doctors,  divided  into  various  schools,  compete  in  the- 
art  of  overcoming  disease,  each  school  trying  to- 
prove  the  superiority  of  its  own  method.  The 
churches  compete  in  the  attractions  and  inducements, 
offered  to  increase  membership,  attendance,  and. 
influence,  to  Christianize  the  heathen,  and  to  save 
souls  from  hell.  Very  different  these  and  other- 
similar  forms  of  competition,  where  the  manifest 
object  is  to  contribute  to  individual  and  social  well- 
being,  from  that  heartless  and  cruel  struggle  in  which 
those  only  could  survive  that  seized  every  advantage 
of  strength  and  position  to  crush  and  destroy  their 
less  fortunate  competitors. 

At  the  same  time  there  are  deplorable  evils, — the 
natural  outcome  of  competition  as  it  exists  among- 
us  to-day, — as  seen  in  the  contrasts  presented  by  the 
extremes  of  wealth  and  poverty,  and  the  strained 
relations  between  capital  and  labor.  Great  wealth 
gives  great  power;  and  they  who  possess  it  are  very 
liable  to  employ  it  to  their  own  advantage  and  in  the 
interests  of  the  class  to  which  they  belong,  with  but 
little  consideration  for  the  rights  or  the  welfare  of 
the  poor.  Intemperance,  extravagance,  waste,  and 
idleness,  no  doubt  account  for  much  of  the  extreme 
poverty  that  exists,  but  in  spite  of  this,  it  is  evident 
as  considerate  and  conscientious  capitalists  are  ready 
to  admit,  there  is  a  lack  of  fair  and  equitable  distribu- 
tion of  the  products  of  labor.  Steam  and  machinery 
have  enormously  augmented  the  power  of  produc- 
tion; but  there  is  a  strong  feeling  that  capital  profits. 


a  36 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


too  much,  and  that  labor  docs  not  receive  the  advan- 
tages and  benefits  to  which  it  is  fairly  entitled  from 
the  inventions  and  improvements  of  the  age.  The 
tendency  of  modern  industrialism  is  to  a  division  of 
labor  and  its  employment  by  large  firms  and  corpor- 
ations, which,  by  owning  the  machinery  and  paying 
the  smallest  possible  wages,  get  most  of  the  immed- 
iate advantage  of  the  vast  productive  power  that 
invention  has  put  into  their  hands. 

tor  the  evils  here  alluded  to  numerous  panaceas 
are  offered.  One  wants  a  high  protective  tariff,  when 
the  only  consistent,  however  unreasonable,  protective 
tariff  would  be  a  tariff  on  every  foreigner  who  comes 
to  America.  Co-operation  is  another  hobby  with 
some;  and  it  contains,  without  doubt,  a  principle  that 
must  be  brought  more  and  more  into  prominence,  but 
only  in  co-existence  with  the  opposite  principle  of 
competition  as,  for  instance,  in  the  profit-sharing 
enterprises  established  in  Europe  and  in  this  country. 
A  condition  in  which  excellence  should  not  be  stim- 
ulated by  incentives  and  rewarded  by  advantages 
would,  were  it  possible,  destroy  all  originality  and 
enterprise.  And  the  incentives  and  the  advantages 
must  be  such  as  appeal  to  human  nature  as  it  is. 
Whether  the  condition  of  the  workingmen  would  be 
improved  if  the  government  should  enlarge  its  func- 
tions and  assume  new  responsibilities,  as  the  socialists 
propose,  may  fairly  be  questioned.  The  government, 
through  the  influence  of  wealth  and  the  love  of 
power  and  rank,  is  liable  to  become  despotic,  as  it  is 
in  European  countries  where  labor  organizations  are 
suppressed,  and  the  meetings  of  socialists  are  broken 
up  by  the  police,  and  where  military  power,  although 
•derived  from  the  people,  awes  the  people  into  silence, 
-  countries  from  which  come  the  class  of  foreigners 
who  advocate  a  resort  to  violence  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem of  capital  and  labor, — the  problem  of  the  ages, 
which  American  workingmen  are  intelligent 
-enough  to  see  must  be  solved  by  thought,  not  by 
explosions  of  dynamite.  And  this  should  be  done 
while  the  country  is  young  and  the  social  conditions 
are  flexible  and  modifiable.  With  age  come  the 
hedges  of  caste  and  the  hard  "cake  of  custom," 
■which  make  progress  impossible,  and  which  can  be 
Ibroken  up  only  by  revolution. 

In  a  country  whose  government  derives  its  power 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  and  where  every 
citizen  is  a  voter,  the  remedy  for  all  evils  that  can  be 
eached  by  legislation  is  in  the  hands  of  the  people, 
if,  indeed,  they  have  the  intelligence  to  see  what  is 
needed,  to  subordinate  minor  issues  to  a  common 
purpose,  to  disregard  the  petty  schemes  of  narrow- 
minded  zealots  and  the  professions  and  promises  of 
political  demagogues,  and  to  unite  on  sensible  and 
practical  measures.     Here,  where  the  right  to  acquire 


wealth,  and  to  its  undisturbed  possession  when  ac- 
quired, is  recognized  by  all;  where  the  property  is 
held  largely  by  men  who  started  in  life  poor, — intelli- 
gent men,  even  of  the  poorest  classes,  are  not  likely 
to  confound  the  rights  and  interests  of  wage-earners 
with  chimerical  schemes  for  putting  indolence  on  a 
par  with  industry,  and  rewarding  wastefulness  and 
improvidence  equally  with  economy  and  forethought. 


PULPIT   INFLUENCE  ON   VITAL  QUESTIONS. 

That  the  average  man  who  has  but  little  time  to  spare 
from  his  daily  avocations  should  be  shown,  in  the  occa- 
sional hour  he  can  devote  to  such  study,  the  right  course 
to  be  pursued  in  relation  to  the  vital  questions  of  the 
community  in  which  he  lives,  and  he  brought  by  the 
influence  of  clear  thinking  and  eloquent  tongued  teach- 
ers to  know  I  he  duty  he  owes,  not  only  to  himself  but 
to  his  fellow-men,  as  to  these  questions,  will  be  admitted, 
we  think,  by  any  thoughtful  religious  teacher.  The  better 
and  wiser  a  citizen,  neighbor,  husband  or  father  a  man  is, 
the  more  fitted  he  must  surely  become  for  any  advanced 
state  of  existence  that  may  after  this  life  await  him. 

Now,  the  clergy, — ministers,  as  they  are  claimed  to 
be,  to  man's  highest  spiritual  welfare;  devoted,  according 
to  popular  notions,  to  the  moral  as  well  as  to  the  intel- 
lectual uplifting  of  their  fellow  men, — should  certainly 
be  the  leaders  in  teaching  men  their  duty  on  the  ques- 
tions which  to-day  have  a  direct  bearing  on  the  welfare 
of  the  community  and  of  the  world  at  large.  Many  of 
these  questions  are  enlisting  the  close  study  and  thought- 
ful investigation  of  philanthropic  thinkers  outside  the 
pulpit,  who  co-operate  with  the  press  in  earnest  presen- 
tation of  the  truest  solution  of  these  problems.  But  the 
preachers,  who  often  get  as  listeners  men  and  women 
too  busy  or  too  frivolous  to  read  on  these  subjects,  do 
the)'  generally  fulfill  their  manifest  duty  by  dwelling  in 
clear,  convincing  manner  on  these  matters? 

Pondering  this  query,  we  have  looked  over  the  list 
of  subjects  for  last  Sunday's  sermons  in  Chicago 
churches,  trying  to  put  ourselves  in  the  frame  of  mind 
natural  to  a  man  of  business  anxious  to  know  what  atti- 
tude is  the  wisest  to  take  on  such  questions  as  the  struggle 
between  capital  and  labor,  protection  and  free  trade, 
temperance,  organization  of  charities,  reform  in  political 
methods,  woman  suffrage,  acceptance  of  recent  scientific 
dicta,  etc.,  and  desirous  of  attending  that  church,  what- 
ever its  denomination,  which  promises  the  best  help  to 
him  in  the  solution  of  these  questions,  on  all  of  which, 
as  a  voter  and  business  man,  he  is  needs  called  upon  to 
act  in  some  way.  We  give  our  idea  of  what  his  mental 
comments  might  be  as  he  consults  the  list,  which  we 
present  in  the  order  in  which  we  read  it: 

"'The  Child  Moses' — When  I  became  a  man  I  put 
away  all  childish  things.  'How  to  Work' — I  under- 
stand   that   quite   well    now.       'What    to    Do' — That 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


>»7 


might  help  if  the    kind  of   work  was   indicated.     '  The 
Apostolic      Churches' — Too      retrospective.     'Hainan, 
or  Hanged    on  His  Own  Gallows  ' — That  probably   has 
something  to  do   with   temperance,  since   I  see  Francis 
Murphy   is  to  speak   also,  but  it   sounds  too  sensational 
and  vindictive;   I  want  to  be  shown  reasonable  methods. 
'  He   Began  at  the  Same  Scripture,  and  Preached  Unto 
Him  Jesus '—I've  been   taught  that.     'Go  Forward '- 
Don't  see  my  way  clear.     '  Moses'  Preparation  for  His 
Work' — Moses  cannot   help  me;  he  was  not  a  man   of 
this  century.    'Individual  Responsibility'  —That  sounds 
b  tter,  but  vague.     '  The  Gradual    Practical  Growth  of 
the    Christian    Life ' — I     understand     that    now.     '  The 
Word  of    Truth — The   Spirit  of  Truth' — Too  vague. 
'  Remedy  for   the  Weariness  of   Toil' — It's  knowledge 
I'm    in   search  of,  not   rest.     'Seed   Sowing' — My  wild 
oats    are  sown.     -General  Judgment '--  What  I  need  is 
particular     and     careful    judgment.     'Crop   Bearing'— 
Smacks  of  the  farm.     '  Our   Duty  to   Our   Mayor  and 
Reform'— Ah,     that      touches     somewhat    my     needs! 
'Liberty    Enlightening     the    World '—Would    prefer 
that    about  the   Fourth  of  July.     'The  Two  Rocks'— 
Makes  me   think  of   Scylla  and  Charybdis.     'The  Sac- 
raments'—  That  will   not  enlighten  me,  nor   will   'The 
Communion    of  the    Early    Church.'     'Shakespeare  as 
an   Interpreter    of   Religious   Truths'-   I   wish   he   was 
living  to-day    and   would    interpret    for    me    my    duty. 
'The    Family    of   Christ' — Just   now    I   want  to   know 
what  can   be  done  to  increase  the  welfare  of  the  great 
human  family.     And  the  sermons  on  '  The    Magnetism 
of  the   Cross,' '  The  Expediency  of  Christ's  Departure,' 
'Christian      Warfare,'     'False      Piety,'     'Alive     Unto 
God,'    etc.,    promise    no    better  than    the  others.     'Ye 
Say    it  is    Four   Months  to   the   Harvest,  but  I  tell  you 
that  the  Fields  are  Already  White,'  might  include  some 
helpful  suggestions,  but  more   promising  is  the  subject 
of  'Great    Principles  and    Commonplace   Lives,'   for  it 
is  great  principles  that  1  am  in  search  of;  but,  alas!  the 
preacher  in  this  case,  I  notice,  is  not  in   the   least  ortho- 
dox, but  a  teacher  of  ethical  culture." 

And  so  our  anxious  se:ircher  for  light  from  the  pul- 
pit goes  through  the  whole  published  list,  embracing 
various  subjects  as  ill  suited  to  his  needs,  such  as  "  Old 
Wills  Dug  Out,"  "A  Smitten  Shepherd"  and  "House- 
Cleaning,"  and  it  is  fair  to  infer  rises  from  the  perusal 
with  a  feeling  of  discouragement  that  may  induce  him 
to  trust  to  circumstances  to  guide  his  action  on  vital  ques- 
•ions  when  presented  to  him ;  while  on  this  particular  Sun- 
day he  takes  down  his  fishing  rod  and  hies  him  to  the  lake, 
since  the  bait  thrown  out  in  the  newspapeis  for  him  by 
tiiese  "  fishers  of  men  "  is  so  unattractive.  s.  a.  u. 


In  an  article  entitled  "  Trial  by  Newspaper,"  in  the 
North  American  Review  for  Ma)-,  the  writer  argues 
that  the  course  followed   by  the  press  during  the  recent 


trial  of  the  New  York  aldermen,  has  helped  to  encour- 
age a  reaction  of  public  opinion  in  their  favor,  and  that 
the  resentment  of  many  thoughtful  minds  at  the  conduct 
of  the  press  during  these  trials,  is  a  sufficient  indication 
that  the  newspaper  may  take  too  great  liberties.  The 
fact  that  there  was  little  or  no  doubt  as  to  the  guilt  of 
the  accused  aldermen  did  not  justify  the  press  in  trying 
the  case  and  pronouncing  the  prisoners  guilty;  that  was 
the  work  of  the  courts,  and  as  in  them  only,  all  the  e\  i- 
dence  was  brought  forward  and  submitted,  and  all  the 
arguments  for  and  against  listened  to  by  a  disinterested 
jury,  so  to  them  only  belonged  the  right  of  trial  and 
decision.  Innocent  lives  have  before  this  been  sacrificed 
to  public  opinion,  and  the  newspaper  with  its  disposition 
to  try  cases  in  its  columns,  may  administer  to  the  unrea- 
soning and  prejudiced  feeling  that  so  often  exists  in  the 
minds  of  the  people.  The  right  of  individual  opinion 
cannot  be  questioned,  and  the  action  of  judge  or  jury 
may  with  reasonableness  be  criticised,  but  the  right  to 
try  and  decide  a  case  belongs  to  the  courts  of  law  alone. 

#  *  # 

The  20th  anniversary  of  the  Free  Religious  Associ- 
ation, to  be  held  in  Boston  on  the  26th  and  27th  of  this 
month,  promises  to  be  an  exceptionally  interesting  occa- 
sion. LTnder  the  lead  of  President  Potter  the  question 
is  to  be  raised  whether  a  reorganization  of  the  Associa- 
tion may  not  be  demanded  by  the  changed  conditions  of 
the  time,  to  adapt  it  10  new  methods  of  work;  and 
Messrs.  M.  D.  Conway,  Wm.  M.  Salter,  A.  W.  Stevens,.. 
M.J.  Savage  and  Thomas  Davidson  are  to  make  ad- 
dresses bearing  on  this  theme.  Another  subject  of  dis- 
cussion is  the  very  practical  one  of  "  Sunday  Observance 
and  Sunday  Laws."  Capt.  Robert  C.  Adams,  of  Mon- 
treal, is  to  open  this  topic,  and  is  to  be  followed  by  Col. 
T.  W.  Higginson,  Judge  Putnam,  Mrs.  E.  D.  Cheney, 
Rabbi  Lasker  and  others.  Captain  Adams  is  also  to 
preside  at  the  festival  in  the  evening.  All  the  meetings 
of  the  Association  this  year  are  to  be  held  in  the  Tre- 
mont  Temple  building,  and  it   behooves  all   lovers  of  a 

religion  of  reason  and  humanity  to  be  there. 

*  *  # 

Dean  Burgon,  a  churchman,  writing  in  'J'he  Fort- 
nightly for  April,  after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  refute 
Canon  Fremantle,  whose  article  entitled  "  Theology 
Under  its  Changed  Conditions,"  appeared  in  the  March 
number,  addresses  himself  to  the  leader  in  the  old  theo- 
logical manner.  The  question  of  evidence  is  ignored,, 
and  anyone  "who  has  heen  so  unhappy  as  to  have  his 
faith  shaken  in  the  Scriptures"  "in  toiling  through  the 
present  controversy,"  "and  if  not  least  of  all,  he  has 
been  so  ill-advised  as  to  put  up  with  that  weakest  of" 
unphilosophrcal  imaginations,  the  hypothesis  of  evolu- 
tion," he  is  told  that  unless  he  turns  his  face  away,  unless, 
he  stops  short  "in  his  present  downward  course,"  he 
will  reap  the  terrible  consequences  that  are  reserved   to- 


^8S 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5>e  visited  upon  those  who  reject  the  truth.      This  is  one 

way    to   affect    the    mind.      It    may    be   paralyzed   by   a 

•degrading  fear;  it  may,  through  a  superstitious  horror 

■of  the  consequences,   refrain   from  freely  searching  for 

the   truth,   but  there    are    many    minds    whose   sense   of 

right  is   not  so  perverted   as  to  lead   them  to  accept,  in 

the  place  of  free  investigation,  teaching  that  stands  so 

evidently  in  need  of  confirmatory  evidence. 


Writing  on  the  subject  of  "  The  Mormon  Propa- 
ganda," in  the  Andover  Review  for  April,  D.  L.  Leon- 
ard, who  is  a  resident  of  Salt  Lake  City,  finds  the  strik- 
ing success  of  the  Latter-Day  Saints  in  making  proselytes, 
■one  of  the  most  startling  of  religious  phenomena  of  the 
age.  Over  half  a  million  of  people  in  the  New  World 
and  the  Old  have  since  1S30  accepted  the  teaching  of 
Toseph  Smith.  The  missionaries  have  had  easy  work 
in  converting  vast  numbers  of  the  more  ignorant  classes 
and  in  persuading  them  to  abandon  home  and  friends 
and  flee  to  "Zion."  The  missionaries  who  were  sent 
ab-oad  were  instructed  to  withold  certain  "truths"  (those 
regarding  plural  marriage  for  example),  and  to  answer 
all  questions  touching  that  subject  with  the  promise  that 
;all  would  he  explained  when  "Zion"  was  reached.  At 
present  converts  are  not  so  easily  gained,  as  is  proved  by 
the  comparatively  small  numbers  brought  in.  Apostacy 
is  frequent  in  the  church,  and  the  danger  attending  the 
practice  of  polygamy  no  doubt  deters  many  from  enter- 
ing who  would  otherwise  become  "children  of  the 
house  of  Israel."  The  height  of  Mormonism  has  been 
reached  and  its  decline  has  begun. 


Some  of  the  leading  religious  periodicals  have  of 
late  contained  articles  suggesting  remedies  for  the  grow- 
ing skepticism  of  the  age.  In  the  most  of  them  the 
•ground  is  taken  that  the  unfaithfulness  of  professed 
Christians  is  one  of  the  most  fruitful  causes  of  growing 
unbelief,  and  that  nothing  will  make  good  the  losses  of 
the  church  but  more  earnestness  infused  into  the  lives  of 
those  who  still  remain  within  the  fold.  This  is  indeed 
the  key  of  the  situation,  but  whether  more  earnestness 
can  be  infused  may  reasonably  be  doubted.  To  those 
who  see  deeper  than  the  surface  it  is  evident  that 
the  "burning  zeal"  and  "intense  faith"  which  were 
once  so  strong  have  vanished  forever.  The  belief 
of  which  they  were  the  expression  has  fallen  before  the 
advance  of  science,  and  in  their  places  are  the  lesser 
virtues  of  unreasoning  conformity  and  regular  church- 
going.  It  does  not  look  as  though  earnestness  could  be- 
come an  element  in  the  lives  of  the  great  mass  of  Chris- 
tians to-day. 

#  *  # 

An  International  Congress  of  Free-thinkers  will  be  held 
in  London  at  the  Hall  of  Science,  142  Old  street,  E.  C, 


on  September  10,  1  1   and    12.      The  questions  to  be  dis- 
cussed are  the  following: 

1.  L'enseignement  lai'que. — Cet  enseignement  doit-il  etre 
neutre  dans  le  sens  d'indifterent  aux  dogmes  religieux,  011  doit-il 
etre  nettement  hostile  aux  croyances  religieuses? 

1.  Secular  Education. — Ought  this  education  to  be  neutral  in 
the  sense  of  indifference  to  religious  dogmas,  or  ought  it  to  be 
distinctly  hostile  to  religious  beliefs? 

2.  Qu'est-ce  que  la  Libre  Pensee? — Examen  des  doctrines 
philosophiques:   Spiritualisme,  Materialisme,  Positivisme. 

2.  What  is  Free-thought? — Examination  of  the  philosophic 
doctrines:   -Spiritualism,  Materialism,   Positivism. 

3.  Pcut-on  separer  la  question  de  Libre  Pense'e  de  la  question 
sociale? 

3.  Is  it  possible  to  separate  Free-thought  from  social  ques- 
tions? 

4.  Du  role  social  de  la  Libre  Pensee  dans  le  passe,  dans  le 
present  et  dans  l'avenir. 

4.  The  social  rule  of  Free-thought;  past,  present  and  future. 

5.  De  l'influence  de  l'hypnotisme  sur  la  responsibilile  morale. 

5.  The  influence  of  hypnotism  on  moral  responsibility. 

6.  Laicisation  de  la  sepulture. — Cremation. 
6.  Secularization  of  funerals. — Cremation. 


The  editor  of  the  Secular  Review  (W.  Stewart 
Ross)  gives  to  one  of  his  lady  correspondents  the  follow- 
ing sensible  reply  to  a  question  asked  : 

We  have  no  space  here  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  mor- 
als of  Mary  Wolstonecraft.  How  is  it  that  you  seem  to  be  as  hard 
upon  her  as  if  she  were  an  ordinary  parlor- maid  or  dressmaker? 
We  will  be  bound  to  sav  that  neither  Shakspeare  nor  Burns  nor 
Byron  deported  himself  with  half  the  humdrum  decorum  of  the 
little  man  from  whom  you  buy  your  cheese  and  bacon;  but  these 
men  had  colossal  merits  to  set  off  against  their  foibles;  and,  if 
your  little  cheesemonger  and  chapel  deacon  had  such  foibles,  he 
would  have  nothing  whatever  to  set  off  against  them,  and  his  ex- 
istence, instead  of  being  a  glory  to  his  country,  would  be  a  paltry 
nuisance  to  society.  Why  are  you  not  content  with  the  soaring 
genius  of  a  character  like  Byron,  without  going  out  of  your  way 
to  gloat  over  his  human  frailties  and  follies? 

*  *  * 

Dr.  Edmund  Montgomery  writes: 

Hypnotism  is  at  present  uppermost  in  French  and  English 
scientific  philosophy.  The  actual  phenomena,  which  are  very 
wonderful  and  interesting,  will  throw  much  light  on  mentalitv. 
The  burning  question  now  is,  of  course,  thought  transference, — 
the  action  of  mental  states  in  one  individual  on  mental  states  of 
another  individual  without  sensorial  mediation.  I  do  not  for  a 
moment  believe  in  it.  Professor  Delbocuf,  who  is  at  present 
directing  his  whole  attention  to  hypnotism,  and  who  is  a  very  fair 
judge,  by  no  means  materialistically  inclined,  says  in  his  recent 
account  of  a  visit  to  the  Salpitriere:  "It  is  impossible  to  be  too 
circumspect  in  judgment  on  hypnotic  phenomena,  some  of  the 
more  mysterious  of  which, — such  as  the  supposed  action  of  the 
will  across  space  without  physical  conductor, — may  be  explained 
by  coincidences,  auto-suggestions,  complaisance  in  observations, 
or  unconscious  divination  of  what  is  expected."  Such,  in  my 
opinion,  will  be  the  final  verdict.  That  theory  of  Knowles  and 
Gurney,  of  vibrations  of  cerebral  molecules  being  transferred 
direct  from  one  brain  to  another,  is  physically  absurd. 

*  *  * 

The  historical  lectures  recently  delivered  in  this  city 
by  Mr.  Edwin  D.  Mead,  of  Boston,  and  the  course  he 
is  now  giving  on  "  Dante — His  Religious  Significance," 
"  Dante—  His  Place  in  History  and  Politics,"  "  Lessing's 
Nathan  the  Wise,"  "  Immanuel  Kant,"  and  "  Carlyle  and 
Emerson,"  are  spoken  of  in  high  terms  of  praise  by  those 
who  have  heard  them.  The  audiences,  not  large  but 
composed  of  men   and  women   of    taste  and   education, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


189 


have  highly  appreciated  the  intellectual  treat  with  which 
Mr.  Mead  has  favored  them.  We  wish  these  lectures 
could  be  repeated  in  every  community  in  the  United 
States.  Mr.  Mead  represents  the  broad  culture  and 
progressive  spirit  of  the  age. 

The  work  entitled  Creation  or  Evolution,  by 
George  Ticknor  Curtis,  by,  which,  if  we  rightly  inter- 
pret the  meaning  of  the  author,  the  theory  of  evolution 
was  to  have  been  shown  to  be  untenable  and  false,  has 
not  succeeded  in  converting  many,  if  the  general  tenor 
of  criticism  may  be  taken  as  evidence.  It  is  pronounced 
a  weak  and  unavailing  effort,  and  W.  D.  Le  Sueur,  who 
reviews  it  in  the  Ma}-  number  of  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly^  declares  with  justice  that  its  author  attacks  the 
arguments  of  Spencer  and  Darwin  without  an  adequate 
understanding  of  the  theories  of  either. 

Abbie  M.  Gannett  writes  in    Unity: 

George  Eliot  had  a  religion,  though,  so  far  as  we  know,  it 
was  confined  by  its  practical  working  to  this  life.  With  her 
religion  was  duty,  "stern  and  unyielding  duty,"  and  her  creed 
"  Love  ye  one  another  ;  "  she  recognized  the  Law  that  abideth  in 
all  things,  and  paid  reverent  homage  to  it.  No  religion,  when 
her  life  was  consecration  to  truth  ?  More  and  more  we  are  learn- 
ing that  religion  consists  not  so  much  in  belief,  as  in  life.  If 
religion  be  the  "tie  that  binds  man  to  God,"  what  constitutes  that 
"  tie  ?"     Surely   a  loving   devotion   to   the   welfare  of  his  fellow 

man. 

*  *  * 

The  Woman  s  Journal  of  Boston  relates  the  fol- 
lowing: 

A  little  grand-daughter  of  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore  dis- 
likes to  be  made  to  mind.  One  Sunday,  after  some  outbreak,  her 
father  got  down  the  Bible  and  showed  her  the  text,  "  Children, 
obey  vour  parents."  She  looked  discontented,  but  went  on  read- 
ing the  chapter,  while  her  father  went  up-stairs.  Presently  she 
pursued  him,  Bible  in  hand,  calling  eagerly,  "  Papa  !  papa  !  It 
savs  some  more.  It  says,  '  Parents,  provoke  not  your  children 
to  wrath,'  and  that  is  what  you  do  to  me  every  day  !  " 

Mine.  Concepcion  Arenal,  the  distinguished  Spanish 
reformer  and  authoress,  writes  from  Madrid:  "Please 
add  my  name  to  the  list  of  subscribers  to  the  Parker 
Fund,  where  are  found  far  more  illustrious  names  than 
mine,  but  not  one  in  which  this  act  of  reverence  is  more 
sincere  nor  which  respects  more  highly  his  memory. 
Parker  died  far,  very  far  from  the  spot  where  he  was 
born,  but  he  does  not  lie  in  a  foreign  land.  The  country 
of  such  a  man  is  the  whole  earth." 

*  *  * 

The  commissioners  of  the  Folsom  State  Prison  of 
California,  recognizing  the  adverse  conditions  with 
which  discharged  prisoners  have  to  contend,  are  consid- 
ering whether  some  supplemental  machinery  cannot  be 
devised  bv  which  they  shall  be  taken  care  of  until  steady 
work  of  some  kind   is  obtained    for  them.     They  are 


about  to  prepare  a  bill  to  be  presented  in  the  Legislature 
in  which  this  important  matter,  that  so  concerns  the  vital 
interests  of  the  people,  shall  be  adequately  explained. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  commissioners  of  other  similar 
institutions  will  follow  this  most  commendable  example. 

*  *  * 

"  I  thank  you  most  heartily  for  the  opportunitv  <riven 
me,"  writes  Edvard  Wavrinsky,  of  Stockholm,  Sweden, 
in  sending  his  subscription  to  the  Parker  Tomb  Fund, 
"  to  express  my  humble  admiration  and  to  honor  the 
memory  of  the  noble  Theodore  Parker.  I  am  at  the 
head  of  a  society  where  all  are  friends  and  admirers  of 
his  work." 

#  *  #' 

The  Sultan  of  Morocco  is  a  practical  prohibitionist. 
He  recently  closed  the  Moorish  tobacco  and  snuff  shops, 
ordered  large  quantities  of  tobacco  to  be  burned,  and 
had  a  number  of  Moors  stripped  and  flogged  through 
the  streets  for  smoking  contrary  to  his  orders. 


THE  DIAL. 

"JVon  Pfumero  Floras  Nisi  Serenas," 

BY    WALTER    CRANE. 

The  lichen  gathers  where  the  dial  stands, 
And  ivy  round  the  stone  has  clinging  crept, 

And  age   has  stained   the  carven  work   of  hands 
That  served  some  busy  brain  that  long  has  slept; 

The  storms  and  changes  of  a  hundred  years 

Have  marred  and  blurred  the  pillar's  graceful  lines; 

But  spite  of  sins  and  sorrows,  time  and  tears, 
Still  beautiful  its  ancient  legend  shines, 

Where  lovers  lolled  and  lounged  in  tender  talk, 
Above  the  buried   flowers  rank  grasses  grovtf, 

And  trailing  weeds  efface  the  gravel  walk 
Where  stiff  brocades  have  rustled  long  ago; 

Yet  clear  mid   all   this   ruin   and  decay, 
The  letters  gleaming  in  the  golden   light, 

Defiant  and   triumphant  ever    say: 

"  I  take  no  heed  of  hours  that  are  not  bright." 

And  bitter  rains  may  beat  and  tempests  rave, 

Dark  clouds  withhold  the  sunshine  from  our  sight, 

Night  plunge  the  starless  world  as  in  a  grave, 
The  dial   notes  no   hours  that  are  not  bright. 

Oh  happy  dial,  waiting  for  the  sun 

Through  storm  and  gloom  in  one  long,  tenderdream ; 
If  dreary  days  might  pass  for  every  one 

Like  yours,  how  beautiful  our  lives  would  seem. 

For  who  the  fretful  frowns  of  fate  would  fear, 
Or  scorn   that  stings  or  anguish  that  devours, 

If  hearts,  like  Time's  serene  recorder  here, 
Took   heed  of  none  but  golden   hours. 


i9o  THE    OPEN    COURT 

ESCHATOLOGY   AND   ETHICS. 


BY     M.    C.    O'BYRNE. 

It  was,  I  think,  Wagner  the  physiologist  who  asserted 
that,  while  physiology  contained  or  revealed  nothing  sug- 
gestive of  a  distinct  soul,  the  soul-tenet  or  doctrine  was 
nevertheless  demanded  by  man's  ethical  relations. 
Expressed  in  plain  English,  this  is  nearly  tantamount  to 
the  proposition  ascribed  to  Voltaire,  namely,  that  if  there 
were  no  God,  it  would,  for  man's  sake,  be  necessary  to 
invent  one.  Reservation  and  timidity  are  of  no  nation- 
ality, and  I  do  not  forget  that  mankind, — the  higher 
developed  of  the  human  race, — has  become  what  it  now 
is  in  point  of  the  recognized  ethical  standard,  upon  and 
in  accordance  with  old  ideas  of  morality, — a  fact  which 
necessarily  renders  many  persons  apprehensive  of  the 
grave  consequences  which  the  general  acceptance  of 
materialistic  theories  would  necessarily  involve.  Of 
course,  it  would  be  vain  to  deny  the  gravity  of  those 
consequences.  If  the  civilized  world  really  recognized 
that  the  acceptance  of  materialism  was  obligatory  on  the 
conscience  of  civilized  man,  then  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  not  only  the  basis  of  ethics,  but  the  whole  structure 
raised  thereon  would  be  in  a  great  measure  modified  if 
not  absolutely  changed.  The  world  would  then  have 
to  acknowledge  that  no  existing  law  or  custom,  no 
restraint  on  conduct,  no  institution,  whether  social  or 
domestic,  have  the  right  to  impose  themselves  or  to  be 
imposed  on  us  as  being  originally  given  by  transcen- 
dental or  divine  authority.  It  would  have  to  discard,  or 
at  least  to  radically  modify  the  signification  of,  such  terms 
as  "moral  authority"  and  "the  moral  sense,"  so  that  the 
former  should  mean  nothing  more  than  habit-potency 
and  the  corroboration  of  social  utility,  the  latter  the 
change  effected  by  heredity  and  circumstances  upon  mere 
animal  .instincts,  so  that  "  the  moral  sense"  should  be 
taken  as  signifying  only  empirical  liking.  In  the  pur- 
suit of  truth, —  if  we  are  to  adhere  to  the  scientific 
method  of  investigating, — it  is  surely  a  sign  of  weakness 
should  we  suffer  ourselves  to  be  influenced  by  consider- 
ations of  the  consequences  which  may  follow  in  the 
wake  of  our  discoveries.  No  one  felt  this  more  keenly 
than  the  late  Professor  W.  K.  Clifford,  and  I  may  add 
that  no  one  has  more  forcibly  expressed  his  detestation 
of  the  policy  of  reservation,  whether  prompted  by  tim- 
idity or  by  the  fear  of  loosening  the  bands  which  have 
for  ages  bound  society  together.  In  his  essay  on  "  Right 
and  Wrong,"  he  said: 

"  Secondly,  veracity  to  the  community  depends  upon 
faith  in  man.  *  *  *  And  yet  it  is  constantly 
whispered  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  divulge  certain 
truths  to  the  masses.  '  I  know  that  the  whole  thing  is 
untrue,  but  then  it  is  so  useful  for  the  people;  you  don't 
know  what  harm  \  ou  might  do  by  shaking  their  faith  in 
it.'  Crooked  ways  are  none  the  less  crooked  because 
they  are  meant  to  deceive  great  masses  of  people  instead 


of  individuals.  If  a  thing  is  true,  let  us  all  believe  it, — 
rich  and  poor,  men,  women  and  children.  If  a  thin? 
is  untrue,  let  us  all  disbelieve  it, — rich  and  poor,  men, 
women  and  children.  Truth  is  a  thing  to  be  shouted 
from  the  housetops,  not  to  be  whispered  over  rose-water 
after  dinner  when  the  ladies  are  gone  away." 

Let  us,  however,  gladly  confess  our  gratitude  to  the 
specialists  for  the  services  they  have  rendered  us  by  help- 
ing us  on  toward  the  "partirlg  of  the  ways."  This  is, 
undoubtedly,  a  vital  service,  even  although  many  of 
those  who  have  brought  us  thither  have  refused  to  accom- 
pany us  beyond  that  point,  preferring  to  rest  in  some 
half-way  house,  actuated  not  perhaps  so  much  by  fear  of 
incurring  social  odium  as  by  dread  of  the  possible  conse- 
quences of  disseminating  opinions  whose  general  accept- 
ance might  not  only  involve  the  subversion  of  every 
existing  religion,  but  also  the  extirpation  of  time-sanc- 
tioned institutions  and  the  destruction  of  vested  interests- 

I  have  read  with  interest  the  paper  entitled,  "  The- 
Basis  of  Ethics,"*  by  Mr.  E.  C.  Ilegeler.  My  first 
impression  on  reading  the  essay  was  that  its  author,  like 
Wagner,  considers  some  form  of  soul-tenet  must  be 
maintained  in  order  to  attain  a  basis  of  ethics.  Impressed 
with  this  conviction,  Mr.  Hegeler  has  evolved  a  unique 
philosophy  which  he  would  use, — and  indeed  does  use, — 
as  the  foundation  of  a  religion  which,  beside  its  own 
special  characteristics,  embra.es  all  that  is  true  and  good 
in  Christianity.  I  think  1  have  here  correctly  stated 
the  facts  as  regards  Mr.  Hegeler's  conviction  that  his. 
religion  is  capable  of  promoting  what  we  may  for  the 
present  define  as  the  moral  development  of  man.  At 
first  sight  it  may  appear  that  the  terminology  of  fanimism 
is  somewhat  too  freely  used  in  the  essay.  The  frequent 
repetition  of  such  words  as  "the  human  soul,"  the 
"souls  of  posterity,"  and  "immortality"  is  a  rather 
unusual, —  not  to  say  surprising, —  method  to  be  observed 
in  connection  with  a  monistic  exposition.  It  should  be 
remembered,  however,  that  the  point  aimed  at  is  the 
basis  of  ethics,  and  since  Mr.  Ilegeler  believes  that  the 
stream  of  tendency  has  throughout  the  ages  been  good., 
he  is  perhaps  desirous,  by  a  judicious  adherence  to  the 
terminology  of  older  religions,  to  mitigate  the  harshness- 
of  the  religious  evolution  or  transition.  Cicero,  when 
instructing  his  son  Marcus,  and  while  expounding  what 
is  really  the  highest, —  because  the  most  reason-corrobo- 
rated,—  ethical  code  known,  acts  somewhat  similarly  with, 
regard  to  the  form  of  religion  current  among  the  Roman 
people;  and  Matthew  Arnold  rightly  says:  "  Dissolvents, 
of  the  old  European  system  of  dominant  ideas  anil  facts. 


*  The  Open  Court,  No.  r,  page  iS. 

f  "Animism,  a  term  formerly  employed  in  biology  to  denote  the  theory  of 
which  St:ihl  is  the  chief  expositor;  the  theory  of  the  soul  {anima)  as  the  vital 
principle,  cause  of  the  normal  phenomena  of  life,  or  of  the  ahnornal  phenomena 
of  disease.  It  is  now  current  in  the  wider  anthropological  sense  given  to  it 
by  Dr.  E.  B.  I'ylor  (Primitive  Culture,  Chapt.  II-XV1I),  as  including  the  gen- 
eral doctrine  of  souls  and  other  spiritual  beings."     (  Vide  Kncy.  Brit.,  9th  ed-> 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


191 


we  must  all  be,  all  of  us  who  have  any  power  of  work- 
ing; what  we  have  to  study  is,  that  we  may  not  be  acrid 
dissolvents  of  it."  Nevertheless,  while  conceding  this, 
we  must  be  very  careful  not  to  use  words  equivocally, 
but  always,  as  G.  J.  Holyoake  used  to  say,  do  our 
utmost  to  keep  different  things  distinct. 

Having  been  invited  to  participate  in  discussing  the 
monistic  philosophy, — a  discussion  fittingly  inaugurated 
by  Mr.  Hegeler's  paper,  which  at  the  very  least  touches 
the  most  vital  parts  of  the  great  question  at  issue  in  the 
open  court  of  human  reason, —  I  have  considered  it 
necessary  to  make  the  above  preliminary  remarks, 
mainly  with  the  view  of  showing  that  in  the  pursuit  of 
truth  our  individual  likes  and  dislikes  are  not  of  para- 
mount importance. 

Mr.  Hegeler's  thesis  may  be  said  to  lie  under  three 
heads  or  divisions:  First,  that  dealing  with  the  "human 
soul ;"  secondly,  the  question  of  immortality,  and  thirdly, 
the  decision  of  what  is  good  and  bad  for  man,  as  afford- 
ing a  sound  and  safe  basis  of  individual  and  social  con- 
duct. Incidentally  also,  the  "God  question"  may  have 
to  be  referred  to,  since  we  find  it  stated  in  the  essay  that 
"God  and  the  universe  are  one."  At  the  outset,  then, 
of  the  discussion  we  have  to  put  this  simple  query:  Is 
life  a  dual  or  monistic  process?  So  far  as  I  can  deter- 
mine, the  rational  or  commonsense, —  and  therefore 
scientific, —  answer  is  that  matter  does  its  own  work  and 
that  for  us,  spirit  has  no  existence.  Consequently,  that 
which  Mr.  Hegeler  terms  the  "  human  soul "  is  an  office, 
duty,  function,  quality  {eigenschaft,  in  the  more  express- 
ive German)  of  organization.  We  may  otherwise  define 
it  as  a  form  of  force,  of  course  understanding  also  that 
we  can  nowhere  discover  force  as  a  principle  per  se, 
but  always  as  a  somatic  or  material  outcome,  existing 
nowhere  in  nature  except  as  an  eigenschaft  of  masses 
of  atoms  of  matter.  In  considering  this  subject  we  are 
by  its  very  nature  .  compelled  to  suppress  sentiment ; 
feeling  and  reason  may  combine  in  the  results,  but  rea- 
son alone  claims  absolute  and  undivided  sway  in  their 
exposition.  The  true  philosopher  speaks  and  writes  in 
accordance  with  Newton's  dictum, —  non  jingo  hypo- 
theses. Indeed,  as  I  understand  it,  monism  is  not  an 
hypothesis  (a  si/ppositio?i),  but  a  thesis  (a  position),  and 
in  this  respect  it  only  differs  from  dogma  in  so  far  as 
that  it  claims  no  higher  authority  than  reason  and  that 
all  reasonable  human  beings  possess  the  power  to  verify 
or  refute  it  on  data  common  to  all. 

With  regard  to  the  modus  agcndi  of  the  macrocosm 
(the  universe)  and  the  microcosm  (man)  there  can  be  only 
two  theories  possible  to  us, — the  theory  of  vital  princi- 
ple and  the  theory  of  vital  force.  On  the  former,  the 
existence  of  two  agents  in  the  causation  of  phenomena 
is  postulated, — that  is,  a  caput  mortuum,  body  or  matter, 
animated  by  soul  or  spirit.  This  is  animism,  the  basis 
upon  which  the  Christian  religion,  its  ethics  and  its  prom- 


ised immortality  undeniably  rest.  The  latter  theory 
uncompromisingly  rejects  this  alleged  duality,  and  claims 
that  matter  has  within  itself  its  own  inseparable  vitality, 
so  that  what  by  transcendentalists  is  held  to  be  spirit- 
principle  is  in  reality  merely  force,  organic  or  inorganic, 
— an  innate,  immanent  property  of  matter,  or  body  itself. 
This  latter  theory,  applied  both  to  macrocosm  and  micro- 
cosm, is  what  I  understand  as  monism,— at  any  rate,  it  is 
that  which  my  reason  verifies  and  confirms,  and  in  accord 
with  which  I  endeavor  to  mold  and  regulate  my  life. 
So  far  as  1  can  determine,  Mr.  Hegeler  is  also  in  this 
sense  a  monist,  and  one  within  whose  mental  vision  the 
sublime  picture  of  the  poet  is  ever  visible : 

"  See,  through  this  air,  this  ocean  and  this  earth 
All  mutter  quick,  and  bursting  into  birth. 
Above,  how  high,  progressive  life  may  go! 
Around,  how  wide!  how  deep  extend  below." 

It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  in  his  anxiety  to  dem- 
onstrate the  "human  soul,"  the  essayist  indulges  in  much 
hyper-subtile,  though  ingenious,  reasoning.  It  is  cer- 
tainly the  fact  that  in  the  region  of  discovery  we  owe  a 
great  deal  to  the  imagination.  Even  Newton  himself 
was  not,  properly  speaking,  an  astronomer,  but  an  ideal 
physicist, — that  is  to  say,  he  formulated  the  laws  of  the 
universe  as  he  found  them  within  himself.  All  mathe- 
matics are  but  ideal  conceptions.  For  example,  length 
without  breadth  exists  only  in  idea, — that  is,  nowhere  but 
in  the  mind.  In  reality  we  are  all  idealists,  the  dullest 
peasant  no  less  than  the  poet,  inasmuch  as  all  we  see  is 
an  image  or  idea  of  the  thing  created  within  ourselves 
by  the  creative  organ.  Mr.  Hegeler,  however,  is  not 
content  with  boundaries,  and  he,  by  the  free  use  of  the 
scientific  imagination,  builds  up  a  theory  by  which  the 
formation  of  concepts  in  the  hemispherical  ganglia,  or 
gray  matter  of  the  brain,  may  be  explained.  I  am  free 
to  acknowledge  that  the  theory  seems  to  fit  the  facts,  and 
it  requires  no  great  stretch  of  the  imagination  to  contem- 
plate the  cerebrum  as  an  ekklcsia,  or  deliberative  assem- 
bly composed,  as  the  essayist  says,  "  of  living,  feeling 
organisms."  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  that  no  spirit, 
no  immaterial  essence  or  principle,  but  the  hemispherical 
irancdia  of  the  brain  constitute  the  real  ego,  without 
which  we  can  have  no  idea,  properly  so-called,  either  of 
God,  or  the  universe,  or  a  pimple  on  the  nose.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  we  are  not  called  upon  to  explain  function. 
Pathology  has  demonstrated  that  the  cerebral  nerves, the 
sensory  ganglia  and  the  hemispherical  ganglia,  are  the 
respective  sources  of  perception  and  ideation.  It  is,  as 
I  have  said,  enough  for  us  to  know  this,  and  the  ethical 
basis  is  by  no  means  dependent  on  our  being  able  to 
explain  function.  Indeed,  were  it  otherwise,  it  seems 
that  the  "culture  of  ethics"  would  sorely  languish  unless 
some  Semite,  possessing  anterior  cerebral  lobes  which 
specially  favored  the  preponderance  of  imagination  over 
reason,  should  come  to  revive  the  cultivation.  We  may 
take   it   as  a   maxim   that  there   is  a  natural  solution  for 


192 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


everything,  but  true  wisdom  assures  us  that  there  are 
limits  which  we  cannot  transcend.  The  rose  and  the 
violet  have  different  perfumes,  various  of  our  bodily 
glands  form  different  secretions;  the  ^ery  external  world 
is,  with  regard  to  man,  an  uncertainty,  since,  according 
to  the  laws  of  optics,  everything  should  be  perceived 
upside  down.  Eschatology,  whether  in  the  field  of 
"  natural  theology  "  or  of  "  natural  philosophy,"  is  a  mere 
waste  of  time  and  energv.  Excessive  thought  is  a  dvs- 
crasia,  an  abnormality  which  can  and  ought  to  be  only 
exercised  in  youth,  while  we  are  in  formation.  God- 
speculation  and  physical  research  are  processes  for  bring- 
ing the  mind  into  subjective  and  objective  equipoise,  the 
proper  state  of  the  hommc  accompli  being  one  of  equi- 
librium of  the  brain  as  of  all  other  organs.  "  Over- 
thought"  endangers  that  equilibrium,  and  but  too  often 
prepares  the  way  for  the  thinker  to  become  the  victim 
of  the  creations  of  his  own  imagination,  a  condition  truly 
pitiable  even  when  compared  with  that  of  the  illiterate, 
well-fed,  unquestioning  clodpole. 

From  the  religious  or  theological  standpoint,  the 
Augustinian  monk  (a  Kempis)  was  right  in  affirming 
that  "  it  is  the  greatest  folly  to  neglect  useful  and  neces- 
sary things  while  seeking  things  curious  and  condemned." 
I  do  not  question  that  thejides  carbonaria,  the  assured 
faith  of  a  Job  or  an  a  Kempis,  favors  mental  quietude, 
and  perhaps  permits  its  possessors  to  attain  a  greater 
degree  of  happiness  than  is  possible  to  those  who  are 
perpetually  and  futilely  endeavoring  to  solve  the  "  riddle 
of  the  painful  earth,"  and  who  are,  with  respect  to  what 
extends  beyond  man's  ectoderm,  the  solar  system, 

"  Shut  up  as  in  a  crumbling  tomb,  girl  round 
With  blackness  as  a  solid  wall." 

Now,  however,  that  the  floodgates  are  lifted,  where 
is  the  Canute  who  shall  essay  to  arrest  the  flood?  Zeal- 
ous missioners  of  the  Incarnate  One  continue  to  point 
toward  the  "Rock  of  Ages,"  but  that  rock  avails  noth- 
ing save  to  those  who  wholly  shun  the  impetuous  tor- 
rent of  research.  In  Mr.  Hegeler's  essay,  however,  a 
serious  attempt  is  made  to  provide  a  succedaneum  for 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  immortality.  Perhaps  in  skill- 
ful hands  the  doctrine  of  race-perpetuation  and  form- 
evolution  could  be  made  acceptable  even  to  those  persons 
in  whom  the  emotions  preponderate.  In  all  candor, 
however,  it  is  evident  that  it  will  have  a  long  and  tedious 
struggle  to  wage  ere  it  can  supplant  the  immortality  of 
supernaturalism.  That  which  Mr.  Hegeler  terms  the 
"human  soul"  is  and  can  be  nothing  more  than  the 
mind  in  its  totality  of  perception  and  ideation.  If  we 
were,  for  argument's  sake,  to  concede  that  this  mind  is  a 
congeries  of  living  organisms, —  in  itself  this  concession 
is  a  greater  eschatological  feat  than  would  be  that  of  the 
confession   of  the  truth    of  the   Athanasian   Creed* — it 


would  still  be  true  that  these  only  acquired  vitality 
when  consciousness,  the  manifestation  of  their  life, 
began.  Prior  to  the  embryonic  existence  man  did  not 
exist  as  a  sentient  being,  and  in  what  we  term  death  there 
is  simply  a  revertal  to  the  "nothingness"  of  unconscious- 
ness. Reason  frees  us  from  the  chimera  of  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead,  but  reason  also  furnishes  us  with  a 
perfect  substitute  in  the  idea  of  immortality  in  our 
present  bodies.  Life  is  a  slow  combustion,  and  that 
which  goes  on  after  death  is  nothing  else.  According 
to  Plato,  the  soul  possesses  knowledge  derived  from  a 
prenatal  state  of  existence,  the  inference  being  that  it 
will  continue  to  exist  in  some  future  state.  The  doctrine 
of  anamnesis  is  the  foundation  of  the  theories  which 
ascribe  so-called  innate  ideas  to  the  previous  life  of  the 
race,  those  ancestors  to  whom,  as  Mr.  Hegeler  justly 
says,  we  are  ourselves  so  much  indebted.  By  these 
same  theories,  however,  we  are  precluded  from  all  other 
immortality  than  that  of  the  race,  but  surely  this  is  suf- 
ficient to  form  a  basis  of  right  conduct  on  the  part  of 
every  rational,  that  is  healthy,  individual  of  the  race. 
It  is  positively  quite  refreshing  after  reading  Plato's 
representation  of  the  doctrine  of  Socrates,  to  find  Aris- 
totle cutting  the  Gordian  knot  by  a  simple  question. 
Solon  had  said,  "Call  no  man  happy  while  he  lives,  but 
wait  to  see  the  end."  Does  this,  asks  Aristotle,  mean 
that  a  man  can  be  happy  after  he  is  dead  ?  "  Pa?itclos 
atopon:  altogether  absurd!" 

We  have  to  face  the  fact  that  the  old  ethical  codes, 
for  which  a  divine  origin  and  sanction  have  been  claimed, 
no  longer  exercise  supreme  authority  over  the  enlight- 
ened mind  as  divinely  appointed  standards  of  human  con- 
duct. I  think  it  is  Goethe  who  says  that  "  the  funda- 
mental characteristic  of  heathenism  is  the  living  for  the 
present."  If  this  be  true,  why  should  we,  who  are  heath- 
ens in  the  sense  not  of  having  been  born  outside,  but  of 
having  voluntarily  abandoned  the  Christian  pale,  be 
solicitous  with  respect  to  the  future  ?  Some  years  ago  an 
English  ecclesiastic,  the  Archbishop  of  York,  publicly 
affirmed  that  the  advanced  thought  of  the  age  in  which 
we  live  tended  to  establish  a  doctrine  so  essentially  cruel 
and  selfish  that,  if  logically  carried  out  in  the  daily  lives 
of  men  and  women,  it  would  dry  up  the  very  fountains  of 
benevolence  and  mutual  charity.  A  "logical  result,"  he 
said,  of  this  teaching  would  be  that  every  man  would 
"choose   to   modify  his  notions  of  duty   after   his   own 


*  Since  this  was  written,  I  have  re.ul  a  passage  in  Dr.  Carpenter's  Princi- 
ples of  Mental  Physiology  (^th  ed.,  page  iS)  which  seems  to  indicate  that  ils 
author  would,  to  some  extent,  accept  Mr.   Hegeler's  thesis  with  respect  to  the 


individual  vitality  of  organic  impressions.     It  is  certainly  a  bold   thought,  even 
though  incapable  of  demonstration.     The  passige  is  as  follows: 

"  It  scarcely,  indeed,  admits  of  doubt  that  every  state  of  ideational  conscious 
ness,  which  is  either  very  strong  or  is  habitually  repeated,  leaves  an  organic 
impression  on  the  cerebrum,  in  virtue  of  which  that  same  slate  may  be  repro- 
duced at  any  future  time,  in  respondence  to  a  suggestion  fitted  to  excite  it." 
Bearing  in  mind  the  mental  reservation  so  characteristic  of  English  savant,  the 
opinion  expressed  by  Carpenter  approximates  quite  as  nearly  as  we  could 
expect  to  Ribot's  doctrine  of  the  habit-acquiring  energy  of  living  matter,— 
"  the  involuntary  activity,  fixed  and  unalterable,  which  serves  as  the  ground- 
work and  the  instrument  of  the  individu-l  activity."  (Diseases  of  the  Will, 
Chap.  I). 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


J93 


fashion."  The  theological  idea  of  duty  is  an  extraordi- 
nary one,  its  foundation  being  mainly  one  of  fear. 
Warped  from  infancy,  the  mind  of  the  religionist  is  un- 
able to  form  a  notion  of  man's  responsibility  to  man,  that 
is,  apart  from  the  idea  of  deference  to  God.  We  know 
how  the  decalogue  was  given : 

"When  God  of  old  came  down  from  heaven, 
In  power  and  wrath  He  came; 
Before  His  feet  the  clouds  were  riven, 
Half  darkness  and  half  flame." 

Agreeing,  as  I  do,  with  Mr.  Hegeler  in  his  opinion 
that  the  physical  and  moral  evolution  of  our  race  have 
been  co-etaneous  and  concurrent,  I  consider  that  the  pres- 
ent standard  of  ethics  would  have  come  down  to  us  had 
the  figment  of  the  two  tables  of  stone  never  been  foisted 
upon  a  visionary,  imaginative  and  impulsive  people. 
Accepting,  as  I  must,  the  maxim  that  "the  normal  exer- 
cise of  every  organic  function  is  pleasurable,"  I  am  able 
confidently  to  believe  that  the  "sovereign  good"  will  be 
found  to  lie  in  the  plane  of  man's  necessities,  and  that  it 
will  be  found  to  be  the  direct  product  of  the  require- 
ments of  mankind.  In  quest  of  this  summum  bonum 
we  need  not  waste  our  energies  in  endless  analysis  or  in 
eschatological  excursions  beyond  that  noumenon  which 
is  the  prop/asm  of  all  things  visible  and  invisible. 

I  fear  this  paper  already  exceeds  legitimate  bounds, 
so  the  observations  I  intended  to  have  made  on  the  ques- 
tion of  the  existence  of  God  must  be  deferred.  I  may, 
however,  be  permitted  to  say  that  if  we  were  to  concede 
such  an  existence,  it  is  to  me  absolutely  certain  that  Pan- 
theism would  be  the  only  logical  theology. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

LETTER   FROM   NEW  YORK. 
To  the  Editors:  New  York,  April,  18S7. 

On  the  anniversary  of  the  death  of  President  Lincoln,  Walt 
Whitman  gave  a  lecture  upon  that  event,  together  with  his  remi- 
niscences of  Lincoln,  before  a  theater  full  of  the  literary  people 
of  this  city.  That  was  a  noteworthy  scene,  when  the  "good, 
gray  poet"  slowly  made  his  way,  with  the  help  of  an  usher,  to  a 
seat  upon  the  stage  and  became  the  focus  of  attention. 

The  picturesque,  virile  old  man  has  a  noble,  dome-shaped 
head  surmounting  a  ruddy,  large-featured  face  fringed  with  white 
hair  and  a  flowing  beard.  The  blue  eyes  are  still  clear  and  bright, 
the  expression  of  the  face  frank  and  noble,  the  voice  sweet  and 
sympathetic.     It  is  Homer  without  his  blindness. 

Whitman's  recollections  are  told  in  a  style  both  graphic  and 
tender.  Only  a  nature  so  comprehensive  as  this  could  interpret 
that  undeveloped  greatness  untimely  sent  away  before  it  could 
understand  itself  or  be  understood  by  others. 

Among  the  listeners  that  day  could  be  seen  the  chief  editors, 
actors  and  authors  of  the  city,  beside  such  men  as  Lowell,  Charles 
Eliot  Norton,  President  Oilman  of  Johns  Hopkins,  John  Bur- 
roughs, and  many  others. 

That  New  York  is  becoming  an  important  ethical,  as  well  as 
literary,  center  can  safely  be  asserted.  Is  it  possible  that  the  Hub 
is  moving  westward  and  threatens  to  take  New  York  on  its  way 
toward  Chicago?  However  that  may  be,  more  than  evgr  before 
is  literature  the  ally  of  ethics.     The  vital,  upward-tending  move- 


ments of  the  age  are  manifesting  themselves  in  every  form.  They 
will  not  down  at  the  bidding  of  the  dilettanti.  The  writer  who 
spends  his  life  in  reporting  "psychologic  semitones  "  while  great 
passions  are  seething  and  great  blunders  and  stupidities  wait  to  be 
corrected,  will  soon  be  restricted  to  a  small  and  effeminate  circle. 

Such  thoughts  forced  themselves  upon  me  while  perusing 
Helen  Campbell's  Prisoners  of  Poverty,  fresh  from  the  press 
of  Roberts  Bros.  It  is  the  condensed  cry  of  anguish  of  200,000 
working  women  of  this  city,  whose  inarticulate  moans  are  lost 
in  the  roar  of  our  Christian  civilization, — a  civilization  which  is 
the  real  Juggernaut,  and  this  the  real  India  which  stands  in  need 
of  missionaries.  Mrs.  Campbell's  book,  while  packed  with  facts 
enough  to  gorge  a  Gradgrind,  is  vet  as  vital  as  any  true  work  can 
possibly  be.  If  it  only  serves  to  enlighten  women  in  regard  to 
the  social  injustice  in  which  they  have  been  unwitting  partakers 
and  sets  them  to  making  departures  from  old  methods  of  dealing 
with  women's  work  and  wages,  each  in  her  little  circle,  then  there 
will  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  social  order.  They  have  it  in 
their  hands  if  only  they  profoundly  feel  their  power  and  see  how 
to  use  it, — a  power  invisible,  pervasive  and  powerful.  But 
where  is  the  Joan  of  Arc  who  shall  inspire,  direct  and  lead  on  to 
the  assaidt  against  the  citadel  of  wrong?  Individual  work  is  the 
initial  step;  associated  work  will  naturally  follow.  Either  we 
must  come  to  that  or  be  driven  "by  whips  of  scorpions"  in  the 
right  way. 

The  book,  as  it  appeared  in  separate  chapters  in  the  Sunday 
Tribune,  was  discussed  in  every  social  circle,  and  Mrs.  Campbell 
has  been  invited  to  present  her  experiences  and  views  before 
various  working  societies.  It  remains  to  be  seen  how  the  ortho- 
dox will  treat  the  subject  of  work  and  workers. 

Dr.  George  F.  Pentecost,  in  the  Homilctk  Review,  severely 
arraigns  the  Christian  church,  and  shows  a  generous  scorn  for 
that  misnamed  religion  which  huddles  together  a  score  of  Protest- 
ant cathedrals,  representing  millions  of  dollars,  where  the  rich 
worship  God  in  a  fashionable  manner,  while  so  near  to  them  their 
fellows  are  perishing  in  squalor,  filth  and  ignorance.  He  declares 
that  seven-tenths  of  the  resources  of  the  church  are  lavished 
upon  less  than  three-tenths  of  the  people,  and  they  the  favored 
classes. 

On  the  other  hand  I  lately  heard  a  sermon  from  the  pastor  of 
a  Fifth  avenue  church  which,  with  parsonage  and  accessories, 
cost  a  round  million  of  dollars.  Nearly  2,000  persons,  including 
among  them  some  of  the  most  prominent  editors,  railroad  kings 
and  millionaires,  were  present.  The  sermon,  or  rather  exhorta- 
tion, a  series  of  truisms  unvitalized  with  real  belief  or  feeling,  but 
enunciated  in  sonorous  English,  fell  like  icicles  upon  the  somnolent 
congregation.  The  reverend  doctor  spoke  with  proper  haughti- 
ness of  the  desire  of  the  laborer  for  better  conditions.  "  Those 
creatures,"  said  he,  with  ineffable  scorn,  "  these  creatures  are  unsat- 
isfied with  a  Christian  civilization  I"  He  declared  that  the  w  orld  at 
large  now  felt  the  same  hatred  of  Christ  that  the  Jews  once  cher- 
ished toward  Him.  "They  would  crucify  us  to-day  if  they  could. 
Do  not  make  the  mistake  of  thinking  otherwise,"  he  asserted; 
and  no  one  said  him  naj'.  What  shall  be  thought  of  such  spirit- 
ual food,  and  of  its  acceptance  by  one  of  the  foremost  churches 
of  this  continent? 

Another  kind  of  teaching  is  going  on  further  down  town. 
Chickering  Hall  is  packed  with  people  every  Sunday  morning 
and  hundreds  go  away  for  want  of  room.  But  there  is  work  as 
well  as  faith  under  Mr.  Adler's  fostering  care.  The  Working- 
man's  School,  conducted  under  the  auspices  of  the  United  Relief 
Works  of  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture,  is  doing  noble  practical 
work.  The  teachers  try  to  make  the  labor  of  the  hands  help  the 
development  of  the  brain  rather  than  to  simply  create  artisans. 

To  this  end  there  is  modeling  in  clay  and  drawing  elementary 
geometrical   forms,   first  of  all.     Pupils  then  use  pasteboard  and 


194 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


simple  tools,  flat  wood,  blocks  of  wood,  and  various  systematic 
mechanical  devices.  The  managers  rely  strongly  upon  the  moral 
effect  of  systematic  work  upon  the  mind  of  the  child, — a  reliance 
which  all  close  students  of  human  nature  will  think  well  founded. 
In  a  late  report  by  them  one  sentence  strikes  the  key-note  of  the 
subject,  "  The  sense  of  tightness,  translated  into  terms  of  human 
conduct,  becomes  the  sense  of  righteousness."  Could  the  same 
number  of  words  be  made  to  express  a  truth  of  higher  value  to 
the  educator? 

Pupils  construct  their  own  apparatus  in  the  shop,  and  are  thus 
"  placed  in  the  attitude  of  original  investigators  into  the  phenomena 
of  nature,"  the  teacher  serving  to  prevent  waste  of  effort.  Free- 
hand drawing  is  taught  to  all,  and  the  child  has  a  varied  succes- 
sion of  lessons,  so  the  brain  and  body  are  spared  the  exhaustion 
of  long-continued  application  to  one  subject. 

Girls  find  occupation  in  the  cutting  and  fitting  of  garments, 
and  in  original  ornamental  designing  for  the  more  advanced.  It 
occurs  to  me  that  here,  if  anywhere,  the  managers  have  failed  to 
extend  the  scope  of  mechanical  industry  into  other  pursuits,  as 
they  might  have  done,  but  there  is  little  room  for  anything  but 
praise.  An  English  lady  who  has  been  a  teacher  during  the  last 
ten  years  in  the  foremost  English  training  school,  and  who  is 
now  taking  a  vacation  for  the  purpose  of  examining  the  school 
systems  in  this  country,  told  me,  very  lately,  that  this  exceeded 
any  she  had  yet  seen,  and  her  travels  had  extended  from  Quebec 
to  St.  Louis.  Let  us  be  thankful  for  so  good  a  beginning  and 
trust  that  many  others  may  emulate  this  noble  example. 

Hester  M.  Poole. 


THE   OPEN    COURT. 

To  the  Editors:  Selby,  Ont. 

The  Index  left  but  very  little  to  be  desired;  and  that  little 
seems  to  have  added  itself  without  delay  to  The  Open  Court. 

"  What's  in  a  name  ?  A  rose  would  smell  as  sweet  by  any 
other  name."  Well,  there  is,  after  all,  a  good  deal  in  a  name, 
and  I  cannot  imagine  how  a  better  name  than  The  Open  Court 
could  possibly  have  been  selected  for  such  a  paper  as  The  Court 
proves  to  be.  The  name  seems  quite  original,  and  its  selection 
characteristic  of  its  author;  and  from  what  I  know  of  him 
through  years  gone  by  I  am  well  satisfied  that  this  Court,  unlike 
a  good  many  of  the  civil  courts,  will  be  a  court  of  justice,  impar- 
tiality, honor  and  dignity,  and  that  it  will  be  Open  for  evi- 
dence as  long  as  there  is  any  to  come  in. 

"  Devoted  to  the  work  of  establishing  ethics  and  religion  upon 
a  scientific  basis."  This  is  what  The  Open  Court  has  set 
itselt  to  do.  Hie  labor,  hoc  opus  est.  And  at  this  critical  juncture 
no  more  important  field  for  urgent  work  could  have  been  chosen. 
For  the  present  is  certainly  a  most  critical  period  in  the  moral 
and  religious  history  of  the  world.  The  old  religions  are  crum- 
bling to  pieces,  including  the  arbitrary,  theological,  moral  sanc- 
tions; and  the  dissolution  is  so  rapid  that  the  masses  have  dif- 
ficulty in  readily  recovering  their  moral  footing.  The  work  of 
reconstruction  must  of  necessity  be  slower  than  that  of  demoli- 
tion. Of  necessity  slower,  because,  although  the  philosopher  can 
grasp  the  new  and  better  principle  and  rapidly  readjust  himself 
to  his  moral  environment,  the  peasant  cannot  do  so  with  equal 
facility.  And  right  here  in  the  midst  of  this  momentous  revolu- 
tion in  man's  moral  and  religious  beliefs  is  one  most  deplorable 
and  discouraging  aspect  of  the  upheaval.  This  is  the  abject 
theological  pessimism  of  the  times.  On  every  hand  from  the 
theologians  in  the  church  and  out  of  it,  and  even  from  some 
quasi  philosophers  who  ought  to  know  better,  we  hear  the  weak 
and  pusillanimous  cry  that  morality  must  go  down  along  with 
the  Christian  sanctions  thereof,  that  morality  cannot  stand  with- 
out the  Christian  religion.  This  is  a  most  pernicious  teaching. 
It  is  in  effect  saying  to  the  masses:  "  When  the  popular  Christian 


sanction  of  moral  conduct  is  withdrawn  there  is  nothing  lett  to 
bind  you  to  the  right,  you  may  follow  j'our  lower  nature  without 
fear  of  moral  consequences."  Now,  even  were  it  true  that  there 
is  no  moral  sanction  outside  theology,  the  man  who  is  a  well- 
wisher  of  his  fellows  would  try  and  invent  a  good  and  sufficient 
reason  for  doing  right  instead  of  closing  his  eyes  to  a  perfectly 
valid  one.  But  that  there  is  a  thoroughly  legitimate  and  valid 
basis  in  science  for  the  purest  morality  and  the  highest  religion  is 
becoming  perfectly  apparent  to  all  honest,  intelligent  and  in- 
structed minds.  Were  this  not  so,  the  moral  and  social  outlook 
for  humanity  would  surely  be  at  present  dark  enough,  seeing  that 
the  theological  basis  of  morality  and  religion  is  inevitably 
doomed.  This,  then,  being  certain,  the  plain  duty  of  every  man 
who  has"the  new  light  is  to  do  what  in  him  lies  to  set  his  lost  or 
fallen  neighbor  on  his  feet  again  on  safe  and  solid  ground.  If 
our  Christian  friends  really  have  the  good  of  their  fellows  at 
heart  they  will  cease  prophesying  and  proclaming  moral  ruin  to 
the  world  because  their  creed  is  gone,  and  join- us  in  an  effort  to 
rally  and  reassure  our  fellow-travelers.  Knowing  what  we  do, 
however,  of  human  nature  in  its  present  stage  we  can  hardly 
hope  for  this,  and  must  be  content  to  go  on  faithfully  and  do 
what  we  can,  inspired  by  the  hope  that  the  light  now  breaking 
will  in  due  time  be  as  the  noon-day  sun.  To  hasten  this  rising 
sun  toward  the  meridian  is  obviously  the  high  motive  and  object 
of  establishing  such  a  magazine  as  The  Open  Court.  And, 
as  previously  remarked,  at  this  critical  period  in  the  development 
of  man's  moral  and  religious  nature,  no  higher  motive  or  more 
laudable  object  could  possibly  move  the  proprietor  and  editors. 
All  hail,  then,  to  The  Open  Court,  and  all  honor  to  such  phil- 
anthropists, actuated  by  that  genuine  altruism  which  will,  we 
hope,  in  the  near  future  more  freely  characterize  the  average  man. 

Allen  Pringle. 


THE   PARKER   TOMB  FUND. 
Correspondence  between  W.J.  Potter  and  Theo.  Stanton. 
To  the  Editors: 

The  following  letter  explains  itself: 

New  Bedford,  Mass.,  Feb.  9,  1SS7. 
Mr.  Theodore  Stanton, 

My  Dear  Sir:  As  the  movement  for  securing  money  to 
renovate  Theodore  Parker's  grave  at  Florence  appears  to  have 
been  started  by  you,  I  write  to  you  to  learn  your  views  with 
regard  to  carrying  out  the  project,  and  also  to  represent  to  you 
a  feeling  which  has  shown  itself  pretty  strongly  among  Mr. 
Parker's  nearest  friends  here  against  any  interference  with  the 
original  design  of  the  structure.  You,  perhaps,  noticed  Miss 
Hannah  Stevenson's  letter  in  The  Index  last  summer  on  this  point. 
She  lived  in  Mr.  Parker's  family  for  many  years;  was  with  him 
and  Mrs.  Parker  when  he  died,  and  says  that  the  arrangements  of 
the  grave  were  all  designed  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the 
family,  and  following  what  they  knew  to  be  Mr.  Parker's  own 
wishes.  Others  of  Mr.  Parker's  friends  in  Boston  knew  these 
facts,  and,  therefore,  the  subscription  to  the  fund  has  been  slight 
among  them.  Others,  most  probably,  would  not  have  subscribed 
if  they  had  known  these  facts  at  the  outset,  and  had  felt  that  the 
money  was  to  be  positively  used  for  a  new  kind  of  structure.  I, 
for  one,  should  not  have  done  so.  And  when  I  subscribed  1 
assumed,  as  perhaps  others  did,  that  what  was  to  be  done  was  not 
definitely  settled — including  the  proposed  bust — but  would 
depend  on  the  opinions  the  proposition  would  call  forth,  as  well 
as  on  the  amount  of  money  subscribed.  My  own  present  judg- 
ment is,  now  that  I  know  the  feeling  of  these  friends  nearest  to 
Mr.  Parker  and  his  family,  and  know  Mr.  Parker's  own 
feeling,  that  the  design  of  the  grave  should  be  preserved. 
Perhaps  a  more  durable  stone  may  be  needed  and  reno- 
vation required  from  time  to  time;  and  the  shrubs  and  flowers 
may  need  annual  care  to  keep  them  abundant.  Yet  I  would  not 
have  the  grave  look  too  artificial;  let  nature  do  something.  Parker 
was  a  child  of  nature  and  Puritanism.  It  is  evident  that  some  of 
the  visitors  who  think  it  looks  "  neglected  "  do  not  find  it  suffi- 
ciently trimmed.     Perhaps  if  there  should  come  money  enough, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


i95 


a  bust  of  Parker  might  be  placed  somewhere  else  in  Florence, 
with  an  inscription  stating  where  he  is  buried,  and  his  own 
request  for  a  simple  grave.  Yours  truly, 

Wh.  J.  Potter. 

As  other  friends  of  Theodore  Parker  and  other  subscribers  to 
the  Fund  may  have  questions  to  ask  similar  to  those  put  in  Mr. 
Potter's  letter,  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  it  might  be  well  to  give 
publicity  to  this  letter  and  to  my  comments  thereon,  which  follow : 

Mr.  Potter  asks  two  closely  connected  questions:  1.  My  own 
views  in  regard  to  carrying  out  the  project.  2.  Whether  this 
project  will  modify  the  original  design  of  the  grave. 

In  answer  to  the  first  point  I  may  say  that  my  own  wishes 
would  be  satisfied  if  a  good  bronze  bust  or  medallion  of  Parker 
were  placed  on  his  tomb.  This  is  a  common  practice  in  Euro- 
pean cemeteries,  and  would  be  a  source  of  pleasure  to  those  who 
visit  the  grave.  But  who  should  make  this  bust  or  medallion,  if 
it  should  be  made  at  all;  how  the  order  should  be  given;  who 
should  decide  on  its  merits — all  these  details  I  have  never  con_ 
sidered,  and,  perhaps,  it  would  be  premature  to  do  so  at  present 
My  friends  who  have  subscribed  to  the  Fund  have  understood 
that  the  money  wa6  to  be  used  "to  improve  the  condition  of  Theo. 
dore  Parker's  grave."  When  it  shall  have  been  thought  proper 
to  cease  collecting  further  subscriptions,  plans  might  be  sug- 
gested as  to  how  the  Fund  should  be  employed  so  as  to  meet 
with  the  approbation  of  the  majority  of  the  subscribers.  This 
however,  is  simply  a  suggestion  of  mine. 

Now  a  word  about  interfering  with  the  original  design  of  the 
grave.  Although  I  fail  to  discover  in  this  original  design  any 
artistic  or  architectural  claims  for  its  preservation,  still  if  the  near 
friends  of  Mr.  Parker  cling  to  it  on  sentimental  grounds,  I  see  no 
reason  for  unnecessarily  wounding  their  feelings  by  changing  it 
But  if  we  should  finally  decide  to  place  a  bust  or  medallion  over 
he  grave,  and  if  we  should  then  find  that  the  present  design 
must  be  modified  in  order  to  conform  to  the  artistic  requirements 
of  the  new  situation,  1  suppose  that  the  friends  of  Mr.  Parker 
will  then  yield  gracefully,  provided  nothing  is  done  to  destroy 
the  simplicity  that  Theodore  Parker  himself  desired  should 
characterize  his  last  resting  place. 

To  sum  up,  it  seems  to  me  that  not  until  the  subscription  is 
closed  and  we  know  how  much  money  we  have,  and,  conse- 
quently what  can  be  done,  will  it  be  possible  to  say  what  form 
the  memorial  should  take;  and  when  this  is  decided  it  will  then, 
and  not  until  then,  be  possible  to  know  whether  or  no  the  origi- 
.  nal  design  of  the  tomb  must  be  interfered  with. 

Paris.  Theodore  Stanton. 


Reserved  seats,  $1  00,  for  sale  by  Messrs.  O.  Ditson  &  Co.,  451 
Washington  street,  by  Crandon  &  Co.,  1 1  Hanover  street,  at  the 
office  of  the  Woman's  Journal,  and  at  the  convention.  Admission 
to  gallery,  50  cents. 

F.  M.  Holland,  Secretary. 


FREE    RELIGIOUS    ASSOCIATION. 

The  twentieth  annual  meeting  of  the  F.  R.  A.  will  be  held  in 
Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  May  26  and  27,  commencing  with  a 
business  session  in  Vestry  Hall,  SS  Tremont  street,  on  Thursdav, 
May  26,  at  7.45  p.m. 

The  public  convention,  on  Friday,  will  consider,  at  its  first 
session,  beginning  at  10.30  a.m.,  the  Prospects  of  Free  Religion. 
An  essay  is  expected  from  the  President,  Potter,  with  speeches 
from  Messrs.  Conway,  Davidson,  Stevens,  Savage  and  Salter. 

The  convention  will  reopen  at  3  p.m.  with  a  speech  by 
Captain  R.  C.  Adams,  on  Sunday  Amusements;  Judge  Putnam 
will  next  state  what  the  Sunday  Law  of  Massachusetts  is  as 
recently  amended,  and  the  discussion  will  be  continued  by  Colonel 
T.  W.  Higginson  and  other  speakers.  Both  sessions  will  be  held 
in  the  large  hall,  and  all  interested  are  invited  cordiallv. 

The  festival  will  be  held  as  usual  in  the  Meionaon,  8S  Tre- 
mont street.  Doors  open  at  6  p.m.;  supper  readv  at  6.30;  speak- 
ing to  begin  at  8;  orchestral  music.  Captain  R.  C.  Adams  will 
preside    and    be    assisted    by   others   of   our    favorite    speakers. 


MIND-READING. 
To  the  Editors:  La  Salle,  III.,  May  4,  18S7. 

In  the  latest  number  of  The  Open  Court,  Mr.  Minot  ]. 
Savage  touches  a  very  interesting  subject  in  his  article  on  mind- 
reading.  He  speaks  of  his  experiments,  "  the  story  of  which  in 
any  fulness  would  require  a  volume."  He  mentions  their  unac- 
countableness,  but  I  wish  that  he  had  given  us  the  most  striking 
example  of  his  experience;  one  will  serve  for  many.  I  have 
some  experience  myself  on  this  field.  I  experimented  with  the 
psychograph  and  otherwise;  but  must  confess  that  there  is  much 
scope  for  self-deception.  Faust  is  right  when  saving:  Dos  Wander 
ist  des  Glaubens  liebsles  Kind.  Whosoever  believes  beforehand, 
will  be  easily  convinced  by  what  he  calls  facts. 

The  very  best  essay  I  have  read  on  this  subject  of  mind-read- 
ing is  written  by  Professor  Preyer  in  an  essav  Das  Gedanhen- 
lesen.  Hypnotism  should  not  be  confounded  with  mind-reading, 
but  on  hypnotizing,  magnetizing  and  other  psychological  prob- 
lems, the  very  same  scientist  has  written  diverse  valuable  articles, 
most  of  which  are  published  in  the  Deutsche  Rundschau. 

I  do  not  have  at  hand  Preyer's  essay  on  mind-reading,  but  I 
remember  that  he  treated  the  subject  with  great  thoroughness, 
and  at  the  same  time  is  far  from  attaching  to  it  any  mysticism,  as 
may  be  expected  of  a  sober  observer  like  him. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Pail  Carus. 


BOOK    REVIEWS. 


Der  Philosophische  Kriticismus,  und  seine  Bedeutung  fiir 
die  positive  Wissenschaft.  Von  Prof.  A.  Riehl.  Erster  Band  : 
Geschichte  und  Methode  des  philosophischen  Kriticismus. 
Zweiten  Bandes  erster  Theil:  Die  sinnlichen  und  logischen 
Grundlagen  der  Erkenntniss.  Zweiter  Theil:  Zur  Wissen- 
schaftstheorie  und  Metaphysik.  Leipzig:  Wilhelm  Engel- 
mann,   1870-18S7. 

Among  the  works  of  contemporary  German  philosophic  writ 
ers  who  attach  themselves  to  Kant,  Professor  Riehl's  Der  Philosoph- 
ische Kriticismus,  is  perhaps,  the  most  important.  A.  Riehl  (Pro- 
fessor of  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Freiburg,  in  Baden) 
cannot  be  called  a  Kantian,  since  he  differs  from  Kant  in  manv 
essential  points;  but  in  certain  fundamental  thoughts  he  is  at  one 
with  him.  He  is  a  representative  of  what  The  Open  Court  re- 
gards as  the  "only  rational,  scientific  philosophy, "  of  "  Monism 
and  Agnosticism;"  and  for  that  reason  the  present  writer  believes 
that  the  work,  particularly  the  last  part  of  it,  will  be  of  special  in- 
terest to  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court.  The  first  volume 
treats  in  admirable  manner  the  history  of  the  methods  of  philo- 
sophical criticism — considering  not  only  Kant,  but  also  Locke 
and  Hume.  The  second  volume  considers  in  its  first  part  the 
bearing  of  sensation  upon  the  theory  of  knowledge,  the  origin  and 
significance  of  the  conceptions  of  time  and  space,  perception,  the 
principle  of  identity  and  that  of  sufficient  reason,  the  relation  of 
causality,  the  conceptions  of  substance  and  force  and  the  principle 
of  quantity.  The  second  part,  which  will  doubtless  find  a  larger 
circle  of  readers  than  the  earlier  parts,  analyzes  the  notion  of  phi- 
losophy and  treats  of  the  metaphysical  as  contrasted  with  the 
scientific  method  of  constructing  systems;  and  the  "caricature  of 
science  and  common  sense,  that  in  Hegel  is  called  philosophy,"  is 
subjected  to  sharp  criticism.  The  author  cites  (pp.  120-127)  pas- 
sages  from    Hegel's  works   which   thoroughly  justify  his   verdict 


196 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


upon  this  sort  of  philosophy.  As  now  Hegelei  has  rather  passed 
away  in  Germany,  and  is  finding  many  followers  in  America,  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  Riehl's  criticism  of  it  may  be  deemed  worthy  of 
mature  consideration  on  the  other  side  of  the  big  ocean.  The 
result  of  Riehl's  criticism  of  metaphysics  (regarded  as  a  doctrine 
of  the  nature  of  things-in-themselves)  is  the  demonstration  of  its 
impossibility,  which  result  our  author  maintains  in  a  more  un- 
equivocal way  than  Kant,  who  sought  to  establish  metaphysics  on 
a  practical  instead  of  a  theoretical  basis.  Philosophy  as  a  special 
science  is  not,  according  to  Riehl,  a  view  of  the  world  (Weltan- 
schauung); this  is  given  to  us  as  a  result  of  all  the  positive  sciences, 
which  were  themselves  what  the  ancients  understood  under  the 
name  philosophy.  But  philosophy  is  in  its  theoretic  part  the 
science  and  criticism  of  knowledge,  and  in  its  practical  part  the 
doctrine  of  moral  ideals.  The  author  next,  in  a  chapter  on  the 
limits  and  presuppositions  of  knowledge,  combats  the  "  complaints 
of  the  inability  of  man's  understanding  to  penetrate  into  the  es- 
sence of  things,"  and  shows  that  what  has  often  been  regarded  as 
a  limit  of  human  knowledge,  belongs  to  the  nature  of  all  knowl- 
edge,—knowledge  never  consisting  in  a  doubling  of  things,  but 
only  in  the  expression  of  them  in  consciousness.  To  compare  the 
worth  of  a  thing  with  its  representative  in  consciousness,  its  "phe- 
nomenon," is  not  permissible,  because  the  unknown  cannot  be 
compared  with  the  known. 

In  another  chapter  on  the  "origin  and  notion  of  experience," 
the  author  discusses  empiricism  and  nativism  and  criticises  the 
very  problematical  theory  of  "  unconscious  syllogisms,"  and  ex- 
plains the  significance  (which  according  to  him  is  subordinate)  ot 
Darwin's  theory  of  evolution  for  transcendental  philosophy.  A 
further  chapter  handles  in  excellent  fashion  the  question  of  the 
reality  of  things  and  discusses  the  various  idealistic  theories,  the 
untenability  of  which  is  demonstrated.  The  ensuing  investiga- 
tions into  the  relation  of  the  psychical  phenomena  to  material 
processes  follow  the  lines  of  Kant  and  are  among  the  profoundest 
parts  of  the  whole  work.  Then  comes  a  varied  discussion  of  the 
vexed  problem  of  determinism,  in  which  the  author  opposes  the 
views  of  Professor  William  James.  Riehl  regards  determinism 
as  an  indispensable  foundation  for  morals.  The  next  chapter  treats 
of  the  question  of  the  Infinite,  and  the  last  chapter  of  necessity 
and  design  in  nature.  G.  v.  Gizycki. 

Berlin. 

In  the  Wrong  Paradise  and  other  Stories.  By  Andrew 
Lang.  New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers,  1SS7. 
This  little  volume  derives  its  title  from  a  humorous  compari. 
son  of  the  Greek  elysium,  the  Moslem  paradise,  and  the  happy 
hunting  ground  of  the  Indians.  The  aim  is  to  expose  "the 
vanity  of  men  and  the  unsubstantial  character  of  the  future  homes 
that  their  fancy  has  fashioned,"  including  "  the  ideal  heavens  of 
modern  poets  and  novelists."  "  To  the  wrong  man  each  of  our 
pictured  heavens  would  be  a  hell,  and  even  to  the  appropriate  de- 
votee each  would  become  a  tedious  purgatory."  Still  bolder  in 
treatment  is  "The  Romance  of  the  First  Radical."  Why-Why, 
though  a  child  of  the  stone  age,  said  in  his  heart  that  theology 
was  "bosh-bosh."  The  medicine-men,  "who  combined  the  func- 
tions of  the  modern  clergy  and  of  the  medical  profession,"  had 
no  influence  over  him,  after  they  had  frightened  his  sick  mother 
to  death,  bv  pretending  to  drive  the  devil  out  of  her.  He  was 
shockingly  irreverent  even  "  on  tabu-days,  once  a  week,  when  the 
rest  of  the  people  were  all  silent,  sedentary  and  miserable  (from  a 
superstitious  feeling  which  we  can  no  longer  understand);"  though 
some  of  us  still  keep  up  the  old  savage  custom.  Worst  of  all,  he 
refused  to  marry  in  the  orthodox  way,  by  knocking  down  some 
stray  stranger  in  the  dark  and  dragging  her  off  a  captive.  He 
actually  dared  to  make  love  to  a  slave-girl  and  elope  with  her 
after  she  had  saved  him  from  falling  a  victim  to  a  time-honored 
observance.     Thus  the  first  radical  was  the  first  lover.     Ere  long 


he  became  the  first  martyr  also,  and  died,  predicting  that  the  day 
would  come  when  there  will  be  no  more  slavery  to  medicine-men. 
We  are  drawing  near  to  the  fulfillment  of  Why-Why's  prophecy. 


The  Art  Amateur  for  May  has  some  novelties  in  striking 
designs  for  carved  oaken  chests  for  halls.  The  little  sketch  of 
"  Comrades,"  by  Ellen  Welby,  is  very  pretty,  although  the  dog 
seems  rather  to  eclipse  the  child,  whose  pleased  face  must  be 
imagined  from  the  earnest  look  in  the  dog's  eyes,  who  seems 
thoroughly  satisfied  with  her  attentions.  The  reports  from  sales 
and  exhibitions  show  an  encouraging  interest  in  art.  Miss 
Wolfe's  munificent  gift  of  $200,000,  beside  her  collection  of 
paintings,  to  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  will  give  a  pow- 
erful impulse  to  this  important  institution.  Good  museums  are 
the  people's  schools,  where  they  may  study  and  enjoy  great  mas- 
terpieces as  well  as  if  they  were  their  own  property.  They  are 
great  conservators  of  art,  preserving  many  a  precious  object  which 
would  go  to  destruction  without  them.  The  true  collector  takes 
a  genuine  satisfaction  in  placing  the  results  of  his  lifetime  where 
they  will  not,  under  any  ordinary  circumstances,  be  separated  and 
lost.  Friends  of  art  too  often  forget,  however,  that  the  adminis- 
tration of  a  museum  is  as  important  as  it6  collection,  and  most  of 
our  institutions  suffer  from  the  want  of  means  to  support  an  ade- 
quate corps  of  well  instructed  persons  to  take  care  of  their  pictures 
and  statues  and  to  reveal  their  worth  to  the  public.  We  are  glad 
to  read  that  the  Boston  Art  Museum  has  in  part  supplied  this  want 
and  has  appointed  Mr.  Robinson  its  curator  of  classical  antiqui- 
ties, and  Mr.  Koehler  of  engravings.  Mr.  Koehler  has  just 
opened  an  exhibition  of  etchings  by  Rembrandt.  Mr.  Robinson 
has  published  a  catalogue  with  the  history  and  description  of  the 
sculpture  in  the  museum.  There  are  many  other  good  things  in 
this  number,  both  in  the  letterpress  and  in  the  illustrations.  Mr. 
Virgil  Williams  shows  that  artists  are  not  wholly  impractical  in 
his  significant  hint  that  "a  purchaser  always  likes  his  picture  bet- 
ter after  it  is  paid  for."  Miss  Wheeler  gives  some  hints  for  deco- 
rating seashore  houses  which  are  suggestive  and  seasonable.  The 
instructions  to  young  students  in  design  painting  and  photog- 
raphy are  very  helpful. 


We  have  received  the  first  number  of  Co-operative  News  of 
America,  a  somewhat  long  name  for  so  small  a  paper,  but,  perhaps, 
its  originators  named  it  with  hope  that  the  Co-operative  Nc-vs  of 
America  would  soon  so  largely  increase  that  the  paper  could  be 
enlarged  to  accord  with  the  dignity  of  its  title.  It  is  to  be  pub- 
lished quarterly  by  the  Co-operative  Board  of  the  Sociologic 
Society  of  America,  information  in  regard  to  which,  with  explan- 
atory pamphlets,  tracts,  etc.,  may  be  obtained  by  application  to 
Mrs.  Lita  B.  Sayles,  Secretary,  Killingly,  Conn. 


THE   PARKER  TOMB   FUND. 

A  fund  is  now  being  raised  by  the  friends  and  admirers  of  Theodore  Par- 
ker to  improve  the  condition  of  his  tomb,  in  the  Old  Protestant  Cemetery,  Flor 
ence,  Ilaly.     The  list  of  subscribers  to  date  is  as  follows  : 

Miss  Frances  Power  Cobbe,  England,  £1. 

Rev.  James  Martineau,  D.D.,         "  I  guinea. 

Professor  F.  W.  Newman,              "  £1. 

Miss  Anna  Swanwick,  £1. 

Rev.  Peter  Dean,                                "  5  shillings. 

Mrs.  Catharine  M.  Lyell,                "  1  guinea. 

Miss  Florence  Davenport-Hill,     "  £1. 

William  Shaen,  Esq.,  £1. 

Mine.  Jules  Favre,  Directress  of  the  State  Superior  Normal  School, 

Sevres,  France,  10  francs. 

M.Joseph  Fabre,  ex-Deputy,  Paris,  France,  10  francs. 

M.  Paul  Bert,  of  the  Institute,     "             "  10  francs. 

Professor  Albert  Reville,              "            "  10  francs. 

M.  Ernest  Renan,  of  the  French  Academy,  Paris,  France,  10  francs. 

R.  Rheinwald,  publisher,  Paris,  France,  10  francs. 

Mme.  Griess-Traut,               "            "  3  francs. 

Rev.  Louis  Leblois,  Strasburg,  Germany,  5  marcs. 

Miss  Matilda  Goddard,  Boston,  Mass.,  $^5.00 

Mrs.  R.  A.  Nichols,              "            "  5.00 

Caroline  C.  Thayer,               "            "  10.00 


The  Open  Court 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the  Work  of  Establishing  Ethics  and  Religion  Upon  a  Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  8. 


CHICAGO,  MAY  26,  1887. 


(  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
J  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE   COMBUSTION    OF  COAL 
UPON   OUR  ATMOSPHERE. 

A   PAPER   READ   BEFORE    THE  SECOND   GERMAN    MINING    ENGINEERS'   CONVEN- 
TION    AT    DRESDEN,   SEPTEMBER   5,    1SS5. 


BY    DR.    CLEMENS    WINKLER, 
PROFESSOR   OF   CHEMISTRY    AT   THE   MINING    ACADEMY    AT    FREIBERG,    SAXONY". 


Translated  from  the  German  by  Dr.  Paul  Cams. 

A  hundred  vears  ago  people  were  still  in  doubt 
whether  atmospheric  air  is  a  mechanical  mixture  or  a 
chemical  combination  of  its  chief  elements,  oxygen  and 
nitrogen.  The  fact  that  the  two  gases  could  be  so 
easily  separated,  was  in  favor  of  its  being  a  compound, 
while  the  extraordinary  constancy  of  its  proportional 
composition  seemed  to  indicate  a  chemical  combination. 
The  interest  taken  in  this  problem  ceased  rapidly  as 
soon  as  it  was  proven  with  certainty  that  the  oxygen 
and  nitrogen  of  the  atmosphere  exist  beside  each  other 
in  a  free  state,  and  that  the  extraordinary  and  never  sub- 
siding motion  of  the  aerie  ocean  which  is  produced  by 
the  influence  of  the  sunbeams,  causes  a  constant  and 
intimate  mixture  of  its  elements. 

Later  investigations  proved  that  solar  radiance,  beside 
this  merely  mechanical  influence,  exercises  also  a  chemi- 
cal, or  rather  a  chemico-physiological  influence  to  pre- 
serve the  constancy  of  its  mixture.  It  was  further  rec- 
ognized at  an  early  date  that  atmospheric  air  always 
and  everywhere  contains  some  carbonic  acid.  But  its 
amount  seemed  to  be  too  insignificant  a  share  to  be  worth 
any  attention,  yet  how  enormous  is  the  absolute  magni- 
tude which  this  small  proportion  of  carbonic  acid  in  the 
air  constitutes,  considering  the  great  expanse  of  the 
atmosphere.  This  was  not  fully  understood  until  man's 
horizon  extended,  until  his  perceptive  faculty  grew  and 
his  intellectual  eye  learned  to  comprise  worlds,  until  he 
had  succeeded  in  determining  the  weight  of  this  our  earth 
and  its  atmosphere.  Then  the  imposing  transmigration  of 
carbon  taking  place  in  the  atmosphere  was  recognized. 
It  was  stated  that  all  carbonic  acid  which  enters  into 
the  air  by  combustion,  respiration,  decay  and  otherwise, 
is  converted  under  the  influence  of  sunlight  through 
the  vegetable  kingdom  into  organized  carbon-combi- 
nations, viz.  into  plants,  and  the  liberated  oxygen 
returns  into  the  atmosphere.  As  this  change  takes 
place  on  a  large  scale,  it  is  the  chief  condition  of  a 
constant  composition  of  the  atmospheric  air.     Thus  the 


carbonic  acid  is  prepared  as  food  for  the  vegetable  kino-- 
dom,  and  the  aerie  ocean  serves  as  a  store-house,  the 
stock  of  which  by  this  unceasing  exchange  is  kept  at  a 
constant  level.  Since  our  observations  were  recorded, 
which  certainly  is  no  longer  than  a  few  hundred  years, 
the  amount  of  carbonic  acid  in  atmospheric  air  remained 
almost  unchanged  at  an  average  proportion  of  o.oj.  vol. 
perc.  =  4:10000  vols.  It  appears  to  be  little,  but  in 
reality  it  is  enormous.  The  weight  of  the  whole  terres- 
trial atmosphere  being  5,000  billion  tons,  this  minute  pro- 
portion represents  a  quantum  of  3  billion  tons  of  carbonic 
acid,  or  Soo,ooo  million  tons  of  carbon.  This  enormous 
quantity  of  carbon  is  suspended  invisible,  and  scarcely 
perceptible  in  our  atmospheric  air,  it  is  constantly  con- 
sumed and  constantly  redintegrated.  In  consequence 
of  this  change  of  matter  there  is  a  state  of  perpetual 
migration. 

Such  is  the  state  of  things  to-day.  But  geology 
tells  us  that  there  has  been  a  period  in  which  the 
atmosphere  which  is  our  store-house  of  carbonic  acid, 
was  more  saturated.  In  their  early  era  the  temperature 
of  our  planet,  being  like  that  of  a  hothouse,  produced  a 
gigantic  flora  which  later  on  in  its  decline  formed  the 
large  coal  deposits  on  earth.  The  same  carbonic  acid 
which  in  immemorial  times  roared  and  stormed  through 
the  high  calamites  of  the  paleozoic  era,  sunk  as  a 
petrified  vegetable  organism  into  a  long  and  deathlike 
sleep  awaiting  a  new  resurrection  in  our  days.  It  is  the 
miner  who  awakens  it  to  a  new  life  which  means  a  new 
chemical  activity,  and  civilized  mankind  are  busily 
engaged  to  restore  it  to  the  great  circulation  of  nature. 
Thus  the  man  of  our  century  heats  with  the  glow 
which  was  blazing  down  upon  earth  long  before  men 
were  living  on  its  surface,  and  it  is  this  heat  to  which 
the  present  time  owes  the  gigantic  development  by 
which  it  is  characterized. 

Compare  conditions  of  to-day  with  those  fifty  years 
ago  in  countries  where  large  industries  exist,  and  you 
will  be  astonished  at  the  change  in  such  a  short  space  of 
time.  It  is  almost  a  superabundance  of  force  in  which 
humankind  indulges,  since  we  have  succeeded  to 
unlock  the  coal  treasures  underground,  and  make  them 
subservient  to  our  wants.  Man  indeed  fully  understood 
how  to  put  the  talent  in  his  trust  on  usury.  On  the 
one  hand  he  is  not  free  from  the  reproach  of  profusion, 
yet  on  the  other  he  must  be  credited  for  having  lifted 


198 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


himself  with  the  help  of  the  black  bounty,  to  an  intel- 
lectual height  which  never  before  was  attained,  not  even 
in  classical  antiquity. 

Our  era  is  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word  an  era  of 
combustion.  Every  where  in  places  of  industrial  activity 
we  see  glowing  hearths  fed  with  fossil  carbon;  we  meet 
with  stationary,  with  movable,  and  with  swimming 
chimneys  which  unceasingly  send  forth  into  the  aerie 
ocean,  the  gaseous  products  of  combustion,  viz.,  carbonic 
acid. 

The  quantum  of  carbonic  acid  which  human  kind  at 
present  produces  by  combustion,  for  either  the  procrea- 
tion of  heat  or  energy,  or  light  or  electricity,  is  extra- 
ordinary and  greatly  enhanced  in  comparison  to  former 
times.  This  is  done  to  such  an  extent  that  we  may  ask 
whether  a  re-introduction  of  carbon  which  has  been 
latent  for  many  geological  periods  into  the  circulation 
of  the  terrestrial  interchange  of  matter,  by  the  combus- 
tion of  coal  on  so  large  a  scale,  may  not  possibly  cause 
a  change  of  our  atmosphere  so  as  to  disturb  its  chemical 
equilibrium. 

We  may  decidedly  answer  this  question  in  the  nega- 
tive, but  it  will  afford  sufficient  interest  to  look  at  the 
problem  somewhat  closer. 

The  entire  production  of  pit  coal  on  earth  has  been 
calculated  to  be  per  annum  360  million  tons,  or,  on  an 
average,  one  million  tons  per  day.  If  we  reconvert  this 
quantum  of  fossil  carbon  into  the  living  vegetable  indi- 
viduals in  the  shape  of,  for  instance,  our  native  pines,  we 
will  have  a  more  vivid  idea  of  its  amount.  360  million 
tons  of  coal  would  be  942  million  tons  or  35S8.5 
million  cubic  feet  logs.  Now  imagine  all  these  pines 
at  the  fittest  age  for  being  cut,  say  of  80  years,  their 
number  would  be,  according  to  a  calculation  kindly 
made  for  this  purpose  by  my  learned  friend  Mr.  Judeich, 
professor  of  forestry  in  Tharandt,  2,625  million  trees, 
and  would  cover  almost  double  the  area  of  the  kingdom 
of  Saxony.  Pine  forests  grown  by  a  rational  cultiva- 
tion should  cover  the  area  of  about  four  times  the  Ger- 
man empire  in  order  to  produce  regularly  this  quantum 
of  octogenary  wood. 

For  a  further  comparison,  and  with  regard  to  the 
mere  carbon  of  coal,  we  may  calculate  how  much  hu- 
man force  is  represented  by  the  quantum  of  heat  an- 
nually produced  by  combustion.  Of  course  our  calcula- 
tion is  only  approximative  and  in  some  respects  may  not 
be  indisputable. 

One  man  gives  off  by  respiration  22  liters*  of  car- 
bonic acid  per  hour;  accordingly  his  lungs  oxidize  12 
grams  carbon.  Now  if  it  were  possible  to  use  carbon 
directly  as  food,  viz.,  exclusively  to  feed  the  respiratory 
organs  for  the  required  production  of  animal  heat,  one 
man  power  would  consume  150  kilo,  carbon  per  year. 
If  it  were  possible  thus   to  consume  coal   by  respiration 


*One  gallon=three  and  four-fifths  liters. 


of  human  organisms,  that  is  to  say,  by  feeding  the  en- 
gine man,  the  annual  production  of  coal  would  suffice 
for  2,400  million  man  power. 

The  entire  population  of  the  earth  is  fully  one-half  of 
this  number.  So  we  produce  by  machines  annually, 
twice  the  amount  of  force  which  is  represented  by  the 
muscle  power  of  all  humankind.  In  other  words,  the 
labor  of  man  has  been  trippled  by  the  use  of  coal.  The 
generation  of  to-day  works  three  times  as  much  as  gene- 
rations of  former  ages,  which  is  done  by  a  three  times 
greater  consumption  of  carbon.  One-third  is  used  as 
food  for  respiration  and  is  produced  by  the  sun's  labor 
of  to-day;  two-thirds  are  taken  from  the  prehistoric 
store-room  of  the  coal  formation.  One- third  of  the  car- 
bonic acid  produced  by  combustion  is  exhaled  through 
the  lungs,  two-thirds  are  emitted  through  chimneys  ot 
all  sorts  into  the  aerie  ocean,  and  this  same  carbonic  acid 
is  used  upon  earth,  according  to  the  circulation  of  mat- 
ter, for  the  growth  of  new  vegetable  organisms.  Thus 
we  experience  another  resurrection  of  the  very  same 
black  bounty  which  the  miner  brought  up  to  daylight, 
after  it  has  afforded  us  heat  and  energy.  Or  should 
it  be  otherwise?  Is  it  possible  that  the  carbonic  acid 
which  is  produced  in  so  great  quantities  by  modern 
industry,  may  not  be  consumed  by  plants,  but  amassed 
gradually  in  our  terrestrial  atmosphere?  There  is  no 
reason  to  fear  such  outcome,  but  we  must  confess  that 
we  do  not  know.  However,  in  pondering  upon  such 
problems,  we  are  impressed  with  the  truth,  that  nature 
cannot  be  measured  by  human  work.  Even  on  our  lit- 
tle planet,  which  is  diminutively  small  in  comparison  to 
the  universe,  proportions  are  too  gigantic  to  show  any 
traceable  human  influence. 

The  amount  of  carbon  which  is  wrested  from  the 
interior  of  the  earth  by  thousands  of  diligent  hands  and 
by  other  thousands  is  used  for  combustion,  this  whole 
amount  of  carbon  is  so  exceedingly  small  as  to  dwindle 
away  if  compared  to  the  gigantic  stock  contained  in  our 
terrestrial  atmosphere.  In  spite  of  the  small  proportion 
of  0.04  vol.  perc,  it  amounts  to  800,000  million  tons 
of  carbon,  and  we  add  to  this  by  annual  combustion  only 
252  million  tons  of  carbon,  which  is  an  increase  of 
0.0315  per  cent.  In  addition  to  the  0.04  vol.  perc.  of 
the  average  proportion  of  carbonic  acid  in  atmospheric 
air,  the  whole  amount  would  be  raised  to  0.0400126  vol. 
perc. 

The  difference  is  so  insignificant  that  it  could  not  be 
determined  by  the  most  minute  methods  of  investigation, 
especially  as  the  homogeneity  of  air  is  great  but  by  no 
means  absolute. 

From  these  and  similar  considerations  we  learn 
modesty  when  we  compare  human  work  to  that  of 
nature.  Man's  hand  is  too  weak  to  interfere  noticeably 
with  the  imposing  mechanism  of  the  cosmic  gear.  We 
work   on   a  small   scale,   and   too  slowly  to  disturb  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


199 


equilibrium  of  the  proportions  ruling  on  earth.  Even 
suppose  we  used  all  pyrites  which  can  be  produced 
at  all  by  mining,  irrespective  of  pecuniary  gains,  and 
submitted  them  to  the  process  of  roasting  and  the  manu- 
facture of  sulphuric  acid  in  order  to  submerge  all  dolo- 
mites and  limestones,  the  enormous  quantity  of  car- 
bonic acid  which  would  develop,  would  be  swept  away 
by  the  wind,  and  soon  be  lost  in  the  aerie  ocean. 

This  our  smallness  must  not  affect  or  oppress  us! 
In  spite  of  it  our  time  is  great,  perhaps  the  greatest 
which  humankind  lived.  We  may  indulge  in  com- 
parisons like  those  we  made,  but  an  estimation  of  our 
works  must  be  done  according  to  a  human  measure,  for 
after  all — we  are  men. 


THE   IMMORTALITY  THAT  SCIENCE  TEACHES. 

BY  LESTER  F.  WARD,  A.  M. 

The  concluding  paragraph  of  the  short  contribution 
that  I  made  to  the  symposium,  in  the  Christian  Regis- 
ter of  April  7  last,  has  called  forth  so  many  interroga- 
tories, and  appears  to  have  been  so  little  understood, 
while  at  the  same  time  attracting  so  much  attention, 
that  it  has  seemed  to  me  almost  a  duty  to  expand  and 
explain  it.      The  paragraph  is  as  follows : 

"  I  would  not  have  it  inferred  from  the  above  that 
science  is  skeptical  as  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
Science  postulates  the  immortality,  not  of  the  human 
soul  alone,  but  of  the  soul  of  the  least  atom  of  mat- 
ter. Consciousness  results  from  the  eternal  activi- 
ties of  the  universe,  is  their  highest  and  grandest 
product,  and  not  one  atom  nor  one  atomic  movement  is 
ever  lost.  The  immortality  of  science  is  the  eternity  of 
matter  and  its  motions  in  the  production  of  phenomena, 
and  science  will  always  object  to  all  unphilosophical 
attempts  to  confound  phenomena  with  these." 

Probably  the  most  satisfactory  way  to  answer  these 
questions  and  elucidate  the  whole  subject  would  be  to ' 
refer  all  who  are  interested  to  my  Dvna?nic  Sociology, 
in  which  this  and  many  other  important  psychological 
problems  are  treated  as  parts  of  a  general  system  of 
philosophy,  which,  in  its  scope  at  least,  claims  to  be  com- 
plete. But  the  argument  as  presented  in  the  fifth 
chapter  of  that  work  could  only  be  partially  appre- 
ciated without  a  previous  acquaintance  with  the  series 
of  considerations  which  lead  up  to  it,  as  they  are  set  forth 
in  the  two  chapters  that  precede  it;  so  that  a  suitable 
preparation  for  intelligently  comprehending,  not  to  say 
accepting,  my  point  of  view,  would  require  the  careful 
reading  of  at  least  three  chapters,  or  nearly  200  pages 
of  that  work,  while  to  be  in  condition  to  see  the  matter 
in  precisely  the  same  light  as  I  see  it  would  require  the 
reading  of  the  entire  work,  or  some  1,400  pages. 
While  I  should,  of  course,  be  glad  to  have  any  who  are 
interested  in  my  views  perform  the  first,  or  even  the 
second  of  these  tasks,  I  certainly  cannot  ask  it,  and  do 
not  expect  it,  and  hence  I  will  attempt  in  such  a  manner 


as  I  shall  be  able  within  the  limits  of  this  article,  to 
make  clear  the  one  point  in  question.  In  doing  this, 
however,  I  may  perhaps  be  permitted  to  quote  one  para- 
graph from  the  work  referred  to,  which  will  state  the 
question  and  indicate  the  answer  in  a  clearer  and  more 
forcible  manner  than  I  could  now  do  by  the  use  of 
other  words: 

"  The  property  of  consciousness  must  therefore  be 
assumed  to  inhere  in  every  molecule  of  protoplasm  to  a 
certain  limited  degree,  which  in  certain  definitely  shaped 
masses  becomes  so  far  increased  in  intensity  as  to  be 
inferable  from  the  actions  of  such  individualized  por- 
tions of  the  substance.  From  this  simple  state  incre- 
ment is  added  to  increment  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  organic  development,  until  the  highest  mani- 
festations are  reached.  Conversely,  we  are  compelled 
to  predicate  of  each  component  of  a  protoplasmic  mole- 
cule some  trace  of  the  same  property,  which  is  the 
proper  basis  for  the  theory  of  a  universal  soul  in  inani- 
mate nature.  It  exists,  but  for  want  of  organization  it 
is  too  feeble  to  be  perceptible  to  the  human  faculties,  or 
to  work  any  appreciable  effects.  It  is  thus  that  science 
at  length  agrees  with  vulgar  opinion  as  to  the  existence 
of  mind  in  nature;  but  there  remains  this  fatal  differ- 
ence, that  instead  of  magnifying  it  into  omniscience,  it 
reduces  it  to  practical  nescience,  and  declares  thai 
increase  in  mind-force  can  only  take  place  in  proportion 
to  increase  in  organization.  And  while  molecular  or 
chemical  organization  may  so  far  intensify  it  as  to  ren- 
der it  perceptible  to  the  human  faculties,  molar  ox  mor- 
phological organization  may  carry  it  up  to  the  exalted 
height  to  which  it  attains  in  the  elite  of  mankind.  The 
only  intelligence  in  the  universe  worthy  of  the  name  is 
the  intelligence  of  the  organized  beings  which  have 
been  evolved,  and  the  highest  manifestation  of  the 
psychic  power  known  to  the  occupants  of  this  planet  is 
that  which  emanates  from  the  human  brain.  Thus  does 
science  invert  the  pantheistic  pyramid." 

Now,  if  there  is  one  truth  that  science  has  taught 
more  forcibly  than  any  other  it  is  that  we  can  know 
only  phenomena,  and  next  to  this  it  has  taught  that  we 
are  ourselves  phenomena.  It  was  Kant  who  said,  '•'■Dor 
Mensch  ist  selbst  Erscheiming"  and  this  truth  science 
has  a  thousand  times  confirmed.  It  applies  to  everv- 
thing  that  constitutes  man,  his  body  and  mind,  his  intel- 
lect, senses,  and  will. 

A  phenomenon,  etymologically  considered,  is  that 
which  appears.  To  appear  implies  a  time  when  the 
phenomenon  did  not  exist  as  such.  But,  as  stated  in  the 
article  referred  to,  a  beginning  implies  an  end,  appear- 
ance implies  ultimate  disappearance,  and  a  phenomenon 
is  necessarily  finite  in  duration.  Man  as  a  phenomenon 
must  therefore  share  these  attributes,  and  as  certainly  as 
he  has  had  a  beginning  so  certainly  must  his  existence  as 
man  cease  and  discontinue  altogether. 


2  00 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Where,  then,  it  may  well  be  asked,  is  the  room  for 
immortality?  If  the  whole  man  is  but  a  transient  phe- 
nomenon, what  is  it  that  shall  endure  forever? 

Science  answers  this  question  of  the  future  by  point- 
ing to  the  past.  Taking  recourse  again  to  etymology 
we  find  that  the  word  phenomenon,  while  denoting 
change  and  evanescence,  connotes  permanence  and  per- 
petuity. That  which  appears  must  have  previously 
existed,  else  it  could  never  appear.  The  phenomenon 
implies  the  noumenon.  It  is  science  and  not  theology 
which  negatives  as  absurd  the  doctrine  of  the  creation  of 
anything  out  of  nothing.  Every  phenomenon  is  a  prod- 
uct. It  is  not  a  magic  apparition.  The  elements  that 
compose  it  existed  before  they  assumed  that  form. 
They  had  always  existed,  and  after  the  phenomenon 
shall  have  again  disappeared  the}-  will  continue  to 
exist  forever. 

These  elements  are  not  altogether  material.  With- 
out discussing  the  ultimate  constitution  of  matter,  and 
accepting  it  as  a  reality  and  the  substratum  of  all 
things,  we  are  still  compelled  to  recognize  an  immate- 
rial part  as  belonging  to  that  substratum  and  insepara- 
ble from  it,  but  equally  independent  of  all  considerations 
of  time.  For  it  is  a  postulate  of  science,  and  one  in 
complete  harmony  with  every  observed  fact,  that  the 
material  elements  of  the  universe  possess  activities  by 
which  alone  they  are  capable  of  being  wrought  into 
perceptible  forms.  These  activities  are  as  perpetual  and 
persistent  as  the  material  elements  themselves,  and  as 
inseparable  from  them  as  the  human  soul  is  from  the 
body.  They  are  the  atom-souls  of  Haeckel,  and  the 
true  soul  of  the  universe.  Just  as  the  material  elements 
■when  raised  to  the  plane  of  perceptibility  become  sub- 
stance, so  the  immaterial  elements  when  raised  to  the 
same  plane  become  property,  and  in  the  two  we  have 
respectively  the  basis  of  all  quantity  and  quality. 

These  transcendental  elements  of  nature  are  the 
stuff  of  which  all  phenomena  are  made.  They  are  the 
true  noumena,  or  things  in  themselves,  and  they  alone 
endure  amid  all  the  changes  of  time.  They  possess, 
moreover,  the  "promise  and  potency"  of  the  highest 
life,  the  grandest  thought.  But  they  are  not  themselves 
life  and  thought;  these  are  phenomena,  their  visible 
products.  They  have  been  evolved  from  this  raw  mate- 
rial during  eons  of  change.  They  have  embodied 
themselves  in  long  series  of  increasingly  higher  forms 
that  have  one  after  another  appeared  and  disappeared 
in  the  paleontologic  history  of  our  planet.  After  so 
long  a  struggle  for  higher  and  higher  expression  there 
has  come  forth  at  last,  as  the  loftiest  flight  of  nature, 
the  phenomenon  man,  possessing  a  physical  organ  of 
thought,  and  capable  in  his  best  estate  of  contemplating 
objectively  the  other  products  of  evolution  and  of  under- 
standing in  a  small  degree  the  laws  of  the  universe. 

But   now,   in   the   exercise  of  these  truly  wonderful 


powers,  we  find  this  being  forgetting  that  he  is  himself 
a  phenomenon  and  claiming  the  attributes  of  things  in 
themselves.  Yet,  so  far  is  he  from  possessing  this 
right,  that  he  is  really,  of  all  nature's  earthly  products, 
the  most  remote  from  the  primordial  cause  of  things. 
The  lowest  animal  or  plant  is  nearer  its  origin  than 
man  is;  the  "physical  basis  of  life,"  protoplasm,  is 
nearer  than  the  lowest  organized  creature,  and  further 
progress  toward  the  absolute  source  of  being  leads  back 
through  the  organic  and  inorganic  substances  to  the 
simplest  element  of  chemistry,  and  still  back  to  the  ten- 
uous ether  of  interstellar  space. 

So  far,  again,  from  any  part  of  man  being  immortal, 
he  shows  the  vast  distance  that  separates  him  from 
that  ultimate  source  by  the  brevity  of  his  existence  as 
compared  with  the  enduring,  but  by  no  means  eternal, 
rocks  on  which  by  myriad  inscriptions  he  has  sought  to 
perpetuate  his  memory. 

But  let  it  not  be  supposed  that  this  extremely  deriva- 
tive and  comparatively  evanescent  character  of  man  in 
any  way  implies  a  corresponding  lack  of  importance. 
On  the  contrary  he  stands  at  the  head  of  a  long  series  of 
progressive  steos  in  the  mechanical  organization  of  the 
primal  force  of  nature,  in  each  of  which  steps  this  force 
has  been  made  more  effective.  Organization  consists  in 
the  concentration  and  focalization  of  the  elements  of 
nature  to  render  them  effective  in  the  production  of  results. 
It  is  the  machinery,  or  economic  gearing  up  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  the  results  are  as  much  greater  than  those  of 
unorganized  nature,  as  the  achievements  of  the  age  of 
machinery  are  greater  than  those  of  the  ages  before 
machinery  had  been  introduced.  Consciousness,  rea- 
son, intelligence,  and  inventive  genius  represent  the 
maximum  of  mechanical  organization  in  the  world. 
.Civilization  is  their  result,  and  in  place  of  primeval 
forests  we  have  enlightened  populations;  in  place  of 
wild  beasts  we  have  statesmen  and  philosophers  working 
out  the  problems  of  life,  mind,  and  society.  Yet  all  the 
powers  of  this  exalted  being,  man,  are  but  the  original 
forces  of  nature  intensified  many  thousand  fold  through 
organization.  The  unorganized  activities  of  the  universe 
are  feeble  and  ineffective  for  any  conscious  purpose. 
Their  energy  is  scattered  and  diffused,  and  wastes  itself 
in  aimless  and  profitless  work.  Just  as  in  war,  in  gov- 
ernment, and  in  industrial  economy,  it  is  organization 
that  achieves  success,  so  has  it  been  with  the  elements 
and  forces  of  primordial  nature,  and  what  science  denotes 
by  the  terms  organic  progress  and  biologic  evolution  is 
simply  the  progressively  higher  organization  of  these 
elements  and  forces,  from  the  bathybian  ooze  of  the 
sea-bottom  to  the  developed  brain  of  a  Napoleon  or  a 
Newton. 

But  all  this  implies  no  increase  in  the  amount  of 
either  the  matter  or  the  motion  of  the  universe.  Just  as 
the  rays  of  the   winter  sun   may,  by  the   sun-glass,   be 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


20I 


intensified  to  the  point  of  burning,  just  as  the  unnoticed 
electricity  of  the  atmosphere  may,  by  the  Ruhmkorf 
coil  or  the  Leyden  jar,  be  converted  into  a  thunderbolt, 
so  the  diffused  and  imperceptible  "mind  in  nature"  may 
by  similar  concentrated  direction  be  made  to  display 
the  attributes  of  consciousness,  reason,  and  intelligent 
thought. 

ft  is  something  to  have  learned  that  there  exist,  have 
always  existed,  and  will  ever  continue  to  exist,  the  inde- 
structible and  unchangeable  elements  and  powers  out  of 
which,  through  similar  processes,  equal,  and  perhaps  far 
superior,  results  may  be  accomplished.  This  is  the 
immortality  that  science  teaches,  the  faith  that  inspires 
the  genuine  student  of  nature,  and  this  pure  and  enno- 
bling sense  of  truth  he  would  scorn  to  barter  for  the 
selfish  and  illusory  hope  of  an  eternity  of  personal 
existence. 


MYTHOLOGIC  RELIGIONS. 

BY  CHARLES  D.  B.  MILLS. 

Kearv,  in  his  Dawn  of  History,  speaks  of  the 
two  tendencies  always  to  be  marked  in  religious  thought, 
since  the  beginning  of  history,  viz.,  "the  metaphysical 
and  the  mythological  tendency,"  as  he  calls  them. 
fn  one  the  mind  endeavors,  in  its  conception  of  the 
highest,  and  of  the  world  we  call  spiritual,  to  rise 
beyond  the  realm  of  the  determinate,  or  of  form 
and  personal,  and  contemplate  superpersonal  and 
ideal.  In  the  other  it  is  always  casting  the  Supreme 
One  in  the  mold  of  form,  framing  its  thought  of 
him  or  it  as  individual,  palpable  deity,  a  veritable 
and  visible,  though  may  be  distant,  person.  He  is  a 
royal  monarch,  seated  on  a  gorgeous  throne,  reign- 
ing in  regal  pomp  and  splendor,  surrounded  by  his 
throngs  of  courtiers  and  constant  prostrate  worshipers, 
attended  by  ministrant  armies,  passive  instruments  of 
his  sovereign  will,  and  swift  to  execute  it  on  the  instant 
anywhere  throughout  his  vast  domain.  His  world,  the 
unseen  kingdom  of  his  rule,  is  a  world  of  personalities, 
rank  on  rank  of  spirits  flown  from  earth  or  dis'ant  star, 
and  of  angels,  archangels,  etc.,  in  innumerable  hosts 
filling  the  immeasurable  realm  of  this  potentate. 
Indeed  there  is  no  end  to  the  mythology  built  up  from 
this  germ,  the  heaven  and  the  hell,  and  the  myriad  deni- 
zens of  these  shadowy  worlds.  "  Long,"  says  Mr. 
Conway,  "  before  charts  of  land  or  sea  were  made,  the 
invisible  heavens  and  hells  were  mapped  and  reported 
in  detail."  And  these  invisible  realms  were  peopled 
with  personalities,  more  densely,  if  possible,  than  any 
most  thickly  populated  portion  of  the  earth  we  know, 
as  also  more  formidable  and  dreaded  beings  than  earth 
possesses. 

Men  have  always  supposed  themselves  to  have  much 
more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  world  they  have  not 
seen,  than  of  that  they  do  see,  a  more  definite   and  sure 


communication  made  to  them  of  the  life  beyond,  than 
of  the  life  here  and  now.  And  in  regard  to  the  latter 
it  must  be  owned  that  the  ignorance  has  always  been 
dense  and  profound — this  largely  for  the  reason  that 
the  world  of  the  present  has  been  disparaged,  postponed 
and  ignored  from  the  side  of  religion. 

The  sway  of  mythology  has  been  complete.  We 
all  see  it  plainly  in  the  religions  of  the  rude  races.  The 
disposition  to  personify  or  impersonate  and  to  worship 
the  impersonation,  is  universal  and  invincible.  Stones, 
trees,  bits  of  bone,  winds,  clouds,  waters,  etc.,  etc.,  have 
been  made  objects  of  adoration,  prayer  and  sacrifice. 
The  natives  of  middle  Africa  regarded  Lander's  watch 
as  alive.  The  Egyptians,  as  Herodotus  testifies,  described 
fire  as  a  living  being.  A  respectable  Bushman  once 
told  his  white  friend  that  he  had  seen  the  personal 
wind  at  Haar-fontein.  He  tried  to  hit  it  with  a  stone, 
but  it  escaped  from  him  into  a  hill.  "  In  the  time  of 
Tacitus  it  was  said  that  in  the  far  north  of  Scandinavia 
men  might  see  the  very  forms  of  the  gods,  and  the  ravs 
streaming  from  their  heads."*  With  the  disposition  to 
anthropomorphism  so  universal,  and  the  passion  for  per- 
sonification withal  so  prevailing,  the  casting  of  the  high- 
est in  the  mold  of  person,  and  peopling  all  the  worlds 
with  deities,  human  not  only  but  animal,  vegetable, 
mineral  also,  has  been  easy  not  only,  but  inevitable. 

In  the  growth  of  civilization  the  mind  has  passed  in 
a  degree  from  the  stage  of  mythology  to  that  of  sci- 
ence. Where  the  savage  saw  person  and  act  of  volitive 
personal  power  in  rock,  star  or  wave,  the  instructed 
mind  sees  force;  where  he  saw  miracle,  it  sees  law; 
where  he  bowed  and  trembled  with  terror,  it  beholds 
and  rejoices  with  knowledge  and  reposes  in  trust.  The 
whole  course  and  effect  of  culture  has  been  to  exorcise 
the  spirits  that  have  been  held  to  fill  the  worlds  visible 
and  invisible,  and  especially  and  most  persistently 
the  latter,  and  lead  the  intelligence  to  recognize  the 
one  central  unit)',  transcendent,  impersonal,  supremely 
sovereign  yet  benign,  sometimes  named  the  Infinite  . 
One,  but  a  reality  so  ethereal  and  removed  from  human 
comprehension,  that  for  it  thought  hath  no  conception 
and  language  no  name. 

The  exorcism  among  ourselves  has  gone  forward  to 
a  very  considerable  extent,  earth  and  the  heavens  have 
been  freed  from  the  sway  of  the  mythic  conceits  of 
recent  centuries  even,  and  province  after  province 
once  held  under  that  sway,  has  been  rescued  and  annexed 
to  the  realm  of  science,  seen,  recognized  to  be  the 
abode  of  what  we  call  natural  law.  Still  although  we 
have  cast  out  in  good  degree  the  mythologic  persons  that 
once  to  the  imagination  haunted  and  filled  the  worlds, 
the  belief  yet  adheres,  even  among  the  most  enlightened, 
to  the  idea  of  one  supreme  and  central  person,  an  indi- 
vidualized  deity,  dwelling  somewhere  in   the  realms  of 


*Tvlor,  Primitive  Culture. 


202 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


being  in  especial  manifestions  at  his  presence  and 
regal  power.  More  than  the  shadow  do  we  have  here 
of  the  old  mythological  concept;  we  have  largely  the 
perpetuation  and  survival.  It  is  reduced,  indeed,  to  its 
narrowest,  most  ultimate  form,  but  is  veritably  present 
all  the  same.  To  no  doctrine  in  its  faith,  probably,  does 
the  mind  of  Christendom  cling  with  such  tenacity  at 
this  hour  as  that  of  its  personal  deity. 

And  around  that  idea  a  wider  mythology  will  inev- 
itably spring  up,  such  as  has  been  mentioned,  as  spon- 
taneously as  the  numerous  shoots  and  suckers  from  the 
seeds  and  roots  of  a  forest  tree.  The  mind  of  to-day 
seems  largely  unable  to  escape  from  its  anthropomor- 
phism, and  so  is  held  perpetually  in  the  mythologic  tether. 
One  sees  it  constantly  in  the  sermons  and  the  prayers, 
hears  it  without  end  in  the  representations  that  are 
made  wherewith  to  operate  on  souls  in  "revivals."  I  was 
struck  lately,  waiting  for  a  train  at  a  station  out  in  the 
country,  in  noting  the  interpretations  hung  up  on  the 
wall  of  the  room  by  the  Adventists,  of  certain  enigmatic 
symbols  in  Daniel  and  the  apocalypse,  and  the  exposi- 
tion they  give  of  God's  dealings  with  man,  and  the 
sure  destiny  that  waits  the  soul.  The  intense  and  all- 
subordinating  realism,  and  swift  running  to  mythology  in 
treating  such  themes  of  religious  life,  which  appears  in 
all  the  faiths  of  Christendom,  is  seen  there  written  in 
characters  only  slightly  enlarged.  And  much  of  it  draws 
good  warrant  from  the  sacred  books  in  which  those 
faiths  plant.  The  liturgical  service  of  the  Episcopal 
church  is  charged  with  survivals  even  from  a  long  past 
and  mainly  outgrown  age.  There  we  see  the  demons, 
ubiquitous  and  semi-omnipotent  all  around  us  perpetually, 
from  which  we  are  to  pray  "  the  good  Lord  to 
deliver  us." 

But  it  is  t(3  be  apprehended  that  the  process  which 
has  already  disintegrated  and  pulverized  so  much  of  the 
crude  beliefs  and  dark  terrifying  superstitions  of  the  past, 
will  still  go  on  and  will  abolish  the  last  relic  of  mythology 
that  remains  among  us.  There  are  those  who  have  laid 
aside  from  their  thought  the  concept  of  person,  as 
applied  to  the  invisible  and  eternal.  To  them  the 
supreme  transcends  all  that  is  determinate,  limitary  or 
personal;  they  cannot  admit  to  their  thought  aught 
that  is  contradictory  to  the  nature  of  the  Infinite  One. 
•  They  see  his  presence  in  law,  hear  his  voice  in  reason, 
behold  his  face  and  the  very  soul  of  his  being  and  the 
splendors  of  his  majesty,  in  excellence  and  the  beaming 
light  of  truth.  Here  is  shrine  at  which  the  spirit  may 
bow  and  adore  and  offer  its  sacrifice  without  taint  or 
trace  of  aught  unworthy  in  its  worship;  here  temple 
that  idolator's  footstep  cannot  enter.  It  is  a  religion 
that  enlarges,  exalts  and  feeds  continually  with  the 
divine  ambrosia.  And  the  more  knowledge,  more  per- 
ception, the  more  faith. 

Such   ones  are   never  curious  or   impatient  to  probe 


and  to  penetrate  the  form  and  circumstance,  the  modus 
of  the  life  beyond.  Sufficient  unto  the  future  the  prob- 
lems, the  work  of  the  future;  time  will  solve  all.  They 
recognize  the  metes  and  bounds  set  in  the  very  nature 
of  tilings  to  the  extension  of  personality,  the  veil  of 
mystery  that  inevitably  falls  down  upon  all  determinate 
that  we  know.  The  living  world,  the  over-arching 
universe,  with  their  infinitude  of  phenomena  and  shin- 
ing laws;  the  incarnations  of  the  divine  in  the  human — 
a  beauty  and  a  mystery  perpetually — making  all  the 
life  hallowed,  divine;  the  study,  the  improvement  and 
deliverance  of  man,  are  themes  and  tasks  enough  for 
them.  In  their  worship  they  advance  from  the  child 
stage  to  the  manhood  stage.  The  mind  ripening  leans 
ever  less  upon  person,  more  upon  principle.  The 
language  of  picture,  of  impersonation,  speech  will 
doubtless  continue  to  use,  but  all  will  be  transparent, 
and,  so  far  from  hampering,  will  be  rather  refreshing 
and  enlarging  to  the  freed  and  perceiving  mind.  It 
will  carry  as  little  any  hint  of  the  personal  concept  as 
now  does  the  prcsopoficsia  of  the  poet,  or  the  beautiful 
impersonation  by  Tyndall,  where  he  celebrates  the  all- 
procreative  power  and  the  fatherhood  of  the  sun.  We 
are  already  emancipated  from  any  possibility  of  such 
trammel  or  enmeshing  in  our  use  of  such  words  as 
nature,  the  "  universal  mother,"  and  the  like,  but  to  this 
hour  the  terms  God,  the  spiritual  world,  etc.,  awaken 
invariably  either  directly  or  by  implication  the  concept 
of  person.  Why  will  these  words  not  become  also 
transparent  and  exalted  as  the  others?  The  growth 
of  man's  intelligence  in  the  early  days  carried  to  the 
recognition  of  the  neuter  gender,  the  use  of  neuter  nouns, 
all  having  been  originally  and  for  long  ages  either  mas- 
culine or  feminine,  no  thought  arising  within  that  any  of 
the  natural  objects  could  be  without  the  attribute  both 
of  person  and  sex.  It  seems  a  very  simple  perception 
to  us,  but  this  also  was  an  event  in  the  history  of 
humanity. 

The  mind  will  use  the  language  of  impersonation 
for  picturesqueness,  for  clothing  its  thought  in  beauty, 
and,  perhaps,  for  help  to  definition  of  the  unbounded  to 
its  idea,  but  it  will  be  entangled  in  no  mesh  of  anthro- 
pomorphism or  mythology.  It  will  have  clear  undimmed 
perception  of  the  transcendent  reality  behind,  within 
and  beyond  all,  that  sublime  substance,  the  One,  before 
whom  thought  is  important  and  language  dumb.  "  The 
religion  of  the  present,"  says  Huxley,  "  has  renounced 
not  only  idols  of  wood  and  idols  of  stone,  but  begins  to 
see  the  necessity  of  breaking  in  pieces  the  idols  built  up 
of  book  and  traditions  and  fine  spun  ecclesiastical  cob- 
webs; and  of  cherishing  the  noblest  and  most  human 
of  man's  emotions,  by  worship  '  for  the  most  part  of  the 
silent  sort '  at  the  altar  of  the  Unknown  aud  Unknow- 
able." 

But  there  will  be,  I  think,  celebration.      The  tongue 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


must  stammer  if  it  cannot  speak.  The  spirit  will  never 
cease  to  be  thrilled  with  sense  of  the  mystery,  will 
exult  with  delight  in  presence  of  the  benificent,  all-en- 
folding laws.  It  will  burst  into  song  and  praise,  will 
invoke  and  celebrate  the  Infinite  Beauty  and  Wisdom 
and  Excellence.  The  soul  will  pillow  itself  in  all 
passages  of  life  as  also  of  death  upon  the  bosom  of  the 
boundless  power  and  goodness.  It  will  repose  on  the 
moral,  know  itself  safe  and  invincible  therein,  now, 
forever.  The  spendors  of  the  eternal  Justice  and 
Excellence  can  allure  and  satisfy  it  without  end. 

"  Heaven  kindly  gave  our  Mood  a  moral  now." 

"  For  other  things,"  says  Emerson,  "  I  make  poetry 
of  them,  but  the  moral  sentiment  makes  poetry  of  me." 
The  whole  universe  speaks  to  the  thought  as  being 
charged  to  the  brim  with  moral  energies,  and  for  this 
it  is  that  nature  wears  the  bloom   of  sempiternal  youth. 

Mr.  Tylor  speaks  of  that  "tendency  to  clothe  every 
thought  in  concrete  shape,  which  has  in  all  ages  been 
the  main-spring  of  mythology."  Max  Midler  says: 
"  I  do  not  hesitate  to  call  the  whole  history  of  philoso- 
phy, from  Thales  down  to  Hegel,  an  uninterrupted 
battle  against  mythology,  a  constant  protest  of  thought 
against  language."  It  holds  the  same  in  religion.  This 
conflict  is  the  irrepressible  one  reaching  through  the 
immemorial  ages  of  history.  It  was  never  more  stern 
and  internecine  than  in  the  present,  never  so  profound, 
all-inclusive  and  vital  as  now.  The  issue,  though  still 
distant,  was  never  so  clear  and  unmistakable  as  at  this 
hour. 

Once  the  faith,  the  religion  of  humanity  is  inaugu- 
rated, it  will  work  a  revolution  in  the  world's  condition; 
mark  a  step  in  man's  growth  and  deliverance  far  beyond 
aught  seen  in  any  age,  we  might  almost  without 
exaggeration  say,  in  all  the  ages  of  the  past.  Religion  will 
be  changed  both  in  its  concept  and  its  expression,  the  forms 
of  its  worship,  in  all  its  administration,  more  profoundly 
and  completely  than  by  any  influence  that  has  reached 
it  since  the  beginning  of  history.  All  the  other  amelio- 
rations and  reforms  have  been  preparatory,  dispensations 
of  the  Baptist  in  the  wilderness,  making  open  and  ready 
the  way  to  this  the  final  enfranchisement.  Religion, 
become  one  with  the  simple  plain  worship  of  truth 
and  beaut}-,  all  its  observances  and  forms  must  be  cor- 
respondingly natural,  spontaneous,  beautiful.  The  office 
of  the  priest,  as  we  know  the  priesthood,  will  have 
become  obsolete,  superseded  by  the  growth  that  brings 
the  new  age. 

It  will  be  both  more  ideal  and  more  practical, 
reaching  farthest  in  its  thought,  and  coming  home  near- 
est in  its  action.  Language,  exalted,  transparent,  free 
as  it  must  all  be,  will  be  felt  lame,  inadequate  to  hint 
even  the  transcendent  conception,  the  communion,  the 
thrill  and  the  ecstatic  joy  the  soul  shall  know.  Yet  the 
expression   shall   be  in   words   that   glow,  pictures   that 


speak,  images  that  soar,  that  lift,  purge  and  inspire. 
The  age  of  dream,  illusion,  mythic  mirage  will  have 
passed,  age  of  vision,  of  inner  beholding,  and  great 
strength  in  truth,  in  God,  will  have  come. 

CHRISTIANITY  AND   THE   MORAL  LAW. 

I!Y  CLARA  LANZA. 

No  attentive  and  thoughtful  observer  can  have  failed 
of  late  years  to  note  how  swift  ami  remarkable  a  change 
has  occurred  in  the  heretofore  most  cherished  opinions 
of  many  of  us, —  a  divergence  from  the  worn  and  down- 
trodden paths  of  religious  belief,  which  following  the 
law  of  evolution  is  destined  to  spread  outward  into  yet 
larger  and  more  important  channels.  I  refer  to  the 
growth  of  a  religion,  based  not  upon  dogma  or  supersti- 
tion, but  upon  ethics  that  comprise  the  highest  ideals  of 
human  conduct  independently  of  aught  save  individual 
responsibility. 

That  a  religion  of  this  kind  contains  advantages 
more  special  and  lofty  than  those  set  forth  by  the 
Christian  doctrine,  calls  for  little  argument  when  we  per- 
ceive that  it  is  by  degrees  replacing  so-called  "  revealed  " 
religion  in  the  minds  of  the  thinking  people  of  to-day. 

It  has  been  stated  somewhere  by  an  eminent  theo- 
logian that  the  world  in  every  era  of  its  civilization  has 
contained  about  an  equal  amount  of  intelligence.  The 
quantity  of  this  intelligence  we  will  not  stop  to  discuss, 
but  serious  doubts  may  justly  rise  as  to  its  quality.  In  the 
same  connection  we  cannot  deny  that  the  fundamental 
principles  of  morality  have  their  roots  firmly  planted  in 
ages  as  remote  as  the  existence  of  man  himself.  But  it 
is  certain  that  the  comprehension  and  application  of 
these  principles  have  greatly  varied  at  different  periods, 
and  that  they  have  little  by  little  put  forth  new  branches 
and  flowers  like  the  leaves  and  blossoms  of  a  plant. 
Each  successive  generation,  indeed,  has  seen  the  mind  of 
man  forever  bent  upon  inquiry  and  struggling  to 
emerge  from  darkness  into  light,  lean  in  a  given  direc- 
tion toward  some  particular  point  where  elucidation  is 
to  be  expected.-  The  desired  benefit  was  not  always 
forthcoming,  but  each  step  has  been  a  step  forward  in 
the  sense  that  every  honest  failure  is  an  indication  of 
progress.  It  is  not  possible  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of 
these  differentiations  here,  and  even  were  it  to  be  done, 
the  result  would  not  be  of  superlative  value  per  se.  Let 
it  suffice  to  confine  ourselves  to  the  past  five  and  twenty 
years  during  which,  in  the  United  States  especially, 
the  tendency  toward  freedom  in  religious  belief,  the 
casting  away  of  threadbare  tenets,  the  deft  uprising 
from  the  trammels  of  theology  into  the  broad  light  of  self- 
culture  and  self-dependence,  have  been  too  marked  to 
escape  universal  attention.  Action  has  finally  and 
properly  come  to  be  regarded  from  a  more  elevated 
standpoint  than  mere  belief  or  mere  sectarianism.  We 
iio  longer  found  our  estimates  of  human  character  upon 


204 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  faith  of  the  individual,  but  upon  his'__behavior.  It  is 
now  a  matter  of  indifference  as  to  what  peculiar  sect  a 
man  may  belong  to  or  whether  he  be  attached  to  any 
whatever;  we  concern  ourselves  solely  with  his  motives 
and  sentiments  as  expressed  through  his  conduct.  And 
if  it  be  asserted  by  the  few  remaining  adherents  to  old- 
timed  orthodoxy,  that  the  moral  law  be  insufficient  to  sus- 
tain the  weakness  of  human  nature,  and  that  something 
more,  partaking  of  a  divine  element,  be  needed  to  form 
a  substantial  background  for  the  development  of  right 
feeling  and  conduct,  we  must  reply  that  the  proof  of 
this  is  nowhere  visible,  while  on  the  other  hand  the 
partisans  of  Christianity  find  their  faith  in  numerous 
instances  powerless  to  give  assistance  in  the  serious 
affairs  of  life.     The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek. 

Let  us  fiance  for  a  moment  at  the  facts  as  they  exist 
and  as  they  can  be  observed  by  anyone  who  takes  the 
trouble  to  look  at  them.  Given  conscience  as  a  guide 
and  the  inexorable  law  of  duty  ever  before  us,  we  are 
as  it  were,  in  the  continual  presence  of  a  master  whose 
commands  are  inevitably  followed  by  reward  or  punish- 
ment,  not    necessarily    material    in   either    case, —  but 

always  in  accordance  with  the  action  performed  or  left 
undone.  The  theory  of  an  existing  hereafter  where 
rewards  and  punishments  will  be  meted  out  in  propor- 
tion to  our  deserts,  is  superfluous  so  far  as  the  rigid 
votaries  of  right  living  are  concerned.  This  is  self- 
evident.  The  ethics  of  Christianity  are  in  themselves 
lofty  in  conception  and  in  their  altruistic  significance, 
but  the  figure  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  inseparably  con- 
nected with  them,  takes  away  much  of  their  force  by  its 
remoteness  and  spirituality.  In  the  desperate  struggle 
with  existence,  in  moments  of  sorrow,  and  in  the  harsh 
and  oft  repeated  conflict  of  opposed  duties,  this  pale 
ethereal  essence  standing  afar  and  crowned  with  a 
supernatural  glory,  can  neither  appeal  to  nor  satisfy  the 
human  heart.  If  support  or  sympathy  have  ever  been 
derived  from  this  source,  they  spring  from  Christ  the 
man  and  not  from  Christ  the  God,  who  must  forever 
remain  incapable  of  human  assimilation.  Yet,  if  this 
divine  element  be  taken  away,  the  most  trustworthy 
support  of  the  Christian  faith  vanishes  at  once. 

The  moral  law,  innate,  unalterable,  sustaining  in 
its  consolations,  swift  in  censure  or  approbation,  unfail- 
ing in  its  dictates,  rests  upon  a  higher  plane, —  that  of 
human  reason  and  self-dependence.  It  looks  within  for 
all  that  is  best  and  finds  its  divinity  in  the  soul  of  man 
himself.  Here  we  have  food  for  all  our  requirements 
summed  up  in  two  words, —  duty  and  responsibility.  It 
is  absurd  to  say  that  any  man  can  escape  from  these  with 
impunity,  since  once  beyond  their  reach,  and  all  is  chaos 
and  desolation  until  a  reconciliation  be  effected.  We 
know  that  in  spite  of  every  misery  we  may  be  called 
upon  to  endure,  our  duties  are  still  with  us  and  offer  us 
relief,   and    that   there   is    no    burden   whose   weight  is 


not  decreased  by  a  judicious  exercise  of  self-sacrifice. 
Too  much  stress  cannot  be  placed  upon  the  freedom 
of  the  ethical  religion  from  every  emotional  characteris- 
tic, and  it  is  this  absence  of  all  passion,  sentimentality 
and  sensuou-iness  that  constitutes  its  chief  claim  to  . 
superiority. 

The  self-existing  force  which  Mr.  Spencer,  in  his 
Synthetic  Philosophy,  defines  as  the  unknowable  reality 
and  which  is  undoubtedly  in  the  estimation  of  many 
thinkers  a  perfectly  satisfactory  explanation  and  under- 
standing of  the  fountain-head  of  the  universe,  tends 
eternally  toward  a  harmonious  development  and  adjust- 
ment in  human  life  and  conduct.  True  progress  in  its 
every  branch  is  dependent  upon  law;  the  moment  this 
truth  is  ignored  comes  stagnation,  which  means  ultimate 
retrogression.  The  leaning  of  ethics  is  toward  ever- 
lasting advancement.  The  morality  of  to-day  is  better 
than  that  of  yesterday.  As  individuals  and  as  masses 
we  occupy  a  more  exalted  position  morally  than  we  did 
a  hundred  or  even  fifty  years  ago.  We  have  seen  dur- 
ing our  lifetime  the  curse  of  slavery  abolished;  the 
status  of  women  has  been  raised;  the  rights  of  children 
play  an  important  part  in  our  Constitution;  our  minds  are 
more  tolerant  and  our  vision  is  not  obscured  by  narrow- 
ness of  judgment. 

We  must  be  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  the  increase 
of  religious  libertv  in  the  United  States  has  been  pro- 
ductive of  untold  advantages.  From  one  end  of  the  coun- 
try to  the  other  we  have  seen  the  aesthetic  forms  of  wor- 
ship, which  are  as  pernicious  in  their  falsely  directed 
influence  as  is  the  limited  conservatism  they  often  repre- 
sent, give  way  to  a  grander  and  nobler  cult, — the  striv- 
ing for  individual  perfection,  which  is  the  more  estimable 
since  it  looks  for  nothing  beyond  such  results  as  are 
entirely  personal,  and  is  well  content  to  reap  its  dearest 
compensation  from  the  knowledge  that  right  is  practiced 
and  adhered  to  for  right's  sake,  and  wrong  shunned 
because  it  is  evil. 

We  may  call  attention,  in  conclusion,  to  the  gradual 
influx  of  Eastern  creeds  and  philosophies  into  modern 
American  thought,  and  which,  barring  their  mystic 
phases,  are  in  many  ways  worthy  of  study  and  adapta- 
tion. Nearly  all  of  these  ancient  faiths  are  pervaded  by 
a  profound  spirituality  whose  workings  are  certainly 
mysterious;  but  we,  in  our  matter-of-fact  enterprising 
nature,  are  hardly  the  people  to  be  drawn  into  anything 
of  this  kind.  The  wheat  is  here  to  be  separated  from 
the  chaff,  and  occultism,  being  everywhere  confined 
rather  to  temperament  than  belief,  has  little  chance  for 
development  in  America,  where  the  tendency  is  in  a  pre- 
cisely opposite  direction.  Our  inclination  is  plainly  to 
be  observed  in  the  strenuous  attempts  we  are  making  to 
establish  a  religion  that  shall  stand  firmly  upon  the  eter- 
nal basis  of  the  moral  law,  and  be  tempered  with  the 
widest     and     most     liberal     culture.     Of    course    much 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


205 


remains  to  be  done  and  more  yet  to  be  learned,  and  we 
frequently  toil  painfull}'  to  reach  a  certain  point,  only  in 
the  end  to  slip  back,  perhaps  imperceptibly,  into  the  old 
grooves.  Still  the  ethical  religion  desires  nothing  greater 
than  the  individual  from  which  to  gain  its  highest  inspira- 
tions. It  cannot  refer  to  a  vague  divinity  that  rises  spec- 
.tral-like  in  the  distance,  and  say,  "  Therein  rests  my  hope 
of  everlasting  life."  Nor  does  it  regard  this  restriction 
in  any  way  as  a  misfortune;  for,  secure  in  the  belief 
of  absolute  responsibility,  utter  self-dependence  and 
unswerving  obligation,  it  places  its  ideals  upon  the  mount- 
ain peaks  of  thought,  and  is  satisfied  only  when  these  are 
finally  attained  after  fierce  and  laborious  struggles. 

Few  minds  at  any  age  of  the  world  have  been  able 
to  divest  themselves  all  at  once  of  educational  control, 
or  prove  themselves  superior  to  circumstances  or  sur- 
roundings. Unfortunately,  we  are  so  constituted  that, 
even  where  the  greatest  intellectual  liberty  is  obtained, 
ideas  and  beliefs  previously  acquired  still  cheat  our  inde- 
pendence. Therefore  superstition,  though  we  would 
shake  it  off  forever,  lingers  in  the  hearts  of  many  of  us, 
and,  loth  to  depart,  gazes  sadly  into  the  dim  vista  of  the 
past,  even  while  the  new  religion  points  upward  and 
onward  into  the  grandest   regions   of  human   endeavor. 

Upon  the  sublime  utterances  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  no 
disparagement  is  ever  to  be  cast.  They  are  worthy  of 
all  reverence,  but  always  the  divine  shadow  hovers  about 
them;  we  see  the  precepts  obscured  by  the  God  who,  in 
His  turn,  shrinks  at  last  from  perception  and  comprehen- 
sion. Yet  the  moral  law  remains,  and  urgently  incites 
us  to  action.  We  keenly  feel  its  presence,  and  know 
that  here,  at  least,  there  is  no  danger  of  searching  for 
truth  and  finding  a  fata  morgana.  To  this  also  shall 
be  added  the  lesson  of  human  experience  and  the  fruits 
of  human  genius. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  we  argue  from  the 
standpoint  of  scientific  materialism,  or  that  we  would 
seek  to  eliminate  the  sublime  element  from  human  nature. 
It  is  the  latter,  in  fact,  that  enables  us  to  gaze  unflinch- 
ingly before  us,  conscious  of  an  ever-present,  all-endur- 
ing power  which  we  ourselves  are  permitted  to  reflect. 
This  is  the  true  meaning  of  divinity,  and  in  this  sense 
only  was  the  Nazarene  divine. 

If  we  live  this  life  truly  and  honestly,  we  have  no 
reason  to  regard  the  future  unwillingly.  We  do  not 
hope  with  the  uncertainty  of  the  Agnostic,  nor  like  the 
Christian  do  we  see  the  marble  and  iron  of  past  and 
present  fade  into  rosy  and  golden-tinged  visions.  But 
with  the  knowledge  of  having  acted  well  our  part,  we 
may  calmly  see  night  close  around  us,  and,  folding  our 
wear)'  hands,  trust  blindly. 

NATURAL    RELIGION. 

BY    REV.   JOHN    W.    CHADWICK. 

Among  Darwin's  earlier  converts  there  was  a  dis- 
tinguished   author  and   divine  who   announced   that  he 


had  gradually  learned  to  see  that  it  is  just  as  noble  a 
conception  of  the  Deity  that  he  created  a  few  original 
forms  capable  of  self-development  into  other  forms  as 
that  a  fresh  act  of  creation  has  been  required  for  every 
new  species.  But  the  popular  heart  has  still  preferred  the 
fresh  acts  of  creation  to  original  germs  capable  of  self- 
development ;  and  wisely  so,  for  intellectually  there  is  no 
choice  between  the  two  conceptions.  They  are  equally 
childish  and  absurd.  An  original  act  of  creation  is  as 
inconceivable  as  the  creation  of  any  new  species.  And 
if  it  satisfied  the  logical  understanding  that  there  is  a 
God  or  was  one  "at  last  accounts,"  such  distant  hear- 
say cannot  satisfy  the  cravings  of  the  religious  soul  for 
a  present,  active,  living  God.  The  understanding  may 
be  satisfied  by  the  conception  of  an  outside  Divinity  who 
gave  the  world  a  start  billions  of  years  ago,  since  which 
it  has  gone  alone,  but  all  religious  souls,  if  they  must 
choose  between  this  conception  and  the  conception  of 
continual  interference  will  be  sure  to  choose  the  latter. 

It  has  been  a  favorite  device  with  scientific  men  to 
throw  a  cake  to  Cerberus,  to  popular  superstition, 
stamped  with  this  notion  of  an  original  act  of  creation. 
Sometimes,  no  doubt,  the  notion  has  been  vital  to  them- 
selves, but  the  device,  however  actuated,  has  always 
been  unfortunate.  It  has  postponed  a  little  an  inevita- 
ble day  whose  brightness  will  declare  that  we  are  not 
compelled  to  choose  between  the  doctrines  of  continual 
interference  and  an  original  act  of  creation  since  which 
the  world  has  gone  alone ;  that  a  third  way  is  open  for 
all  lionet  and  courageous  souls,  a  way  which  blossoms 
all  along  with  the  old  sense  of  present  Deity  and  ao-ain 
makes  natural  religion  possible  for  those  who  walk 
therein. 

That  which  I  mean  by  natural  religion — the  continual 
and  spontaneous  association  of  all  natural  order  and  beauty 
•  with  a  superhuman  power — had  certainly  been  steadily 
decaying  throughout  Christendom  for  many  centuries 
down  to  the  threshold  of  our  own.  A  pastoral  people 
conceiving  God  in  the  terms  of  their  own  daily  occupa- 
tion said  of  him:  "The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd:  I  shall 
not  want."  Again  and  again  this  gracious  metaphor 
occurred  to  them :  "  We  are  the  people  of  his  pasture, 
and  the  sheep  of  his  hand."  "He  shall  feed  his  flock 
like  a  shepherd ;  he  shall  gather  the  lambs  in  his  arm 
and  carry  them  in  his  bosom,  and  shall  gently  lead  the 
nursing  ewes."  But  in  course  of  time  these  pleasant 
forms  of  speech  had  to  make  way  for  others  born  of  the 
city  and  its  various  activities,  born  of  the  market  and  the 
court,  the  stadium  and  the  arena.  The  speech  which 
Jesus  used  was  such  as  only  a  countrv  boy  could  use;  it 
was  full  of  charming  pictures  of  the  farm-life  and 
home-life  of  the  hill  country  of  Judea.  But  when 
Christianity  made  its  first  conquests  the  cities  every- 
where accepted  the  new  faith  before  the  villages,  and 
straightway   this   faith    began     to  express   itself   in    the 


206 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


terms  of  city-life,  Paul  himself  setting  the  bad  example 
which  Christian  theologians  have  followed  almost  uni- 
versally, until  now  only  the  poets  and  poetic  men  re- 
verting here  and  there  to  the  simpler  and  more  ancient 
forms  of  speech. 

Here  is  one  reason  for  the  decline  of  natural  religion. 
The  theologians  have  been  men  who  have  lived  apart 
from  nature,  immersed  in  cities  or  in  books,  or  miserably 
self-involved,  like  Calvin,  who  for  years  lived  in  the 
awful  presence  of  Mont  Blanc  and  never  took  one 
gleam  of  its  immortal  beauty  into  his  mind  or  heart. 
But  many  other  causes  have  contributed  to  the  same  re- 
sult. The  conception  of  law  was  almost  entirely  foreign 
to  the  Hebrew  mind  save  in  the  sense  of  arbitrary  regu- 
lation. Science  was  not  a  Semitic,  but  an  Aryan  birth, 
and  when  Christianity  became  Aryan  the  Greek  and 
Roman  sense  of  law  began  to  trench  upon,  the  Hebrew 
thought  of  the  divine  activity.  The  more  law  the  less 
God,  men  thought;  and  still  the  march  of  law  went  on, 
subduing  province  after  province  to  its  wide  domain.  The 
Christian  doctrine  of  miracle  fostered  the  evil  tendency ;  it 
induced  men  to  look  for  God,  not  in  the  uniformity  of 
law,  but  in  its  apparent  contraventions.  Was  ever  a 
more  terrible  mistake.  No  wonder  the  Romanist  pre- 
fers to  think  that  miracles  are  still  performed.  And 
morally  their  faith  is  infinitely  better  than  the  belief  that 
God  is  the  great — Absentee.  But  even  miracles  are  no 
longer  able  to  disprove  an  alibi.  The  theologians  argue 
laboriously  to  prove  that  they  are  in  accordance  with 
some  higher  law  with  which  we  are  not  yet  acquainted. 
So  for  those  who  can  still  cherish  this  belief  the  divine 
activity  is  now  limited  to  successive  creations  of  new 
species,  and  for  those  who  cannot,  to  an  original  act  of 
creation,  since  which  the  world  has  been  devoid  of  all 
immediate  concern  with  the  Almighty. 

And  so  it  is  that  natural  religion  is  not  now  as  for- 
merly, the  order  of  the  day.  There  is  great  enjoyment 
of  nature  at  the  present  time,  and  the  knowledge  of 
it  is  increasing  every  year;  not  only  the  knowledge 
which  results  from  scientific  observation  and  experiment, 
but  that  which  comes  from  loving  conversation  of  the 
painter  and  the  poet  with  the  ineffable  beauty  of  the 
world.  There  was  nothing  in  the  ancient  world  that  was 
a  thousandth  part  so  rich  and  full  as  our  inheritance  of 
natural  facts  and  principles  and  laws.  The  book  of  Job 
marks  the  supreme  attainment  of  the  Hebrew  mind  up- 
on the  side  of  knowledge  of  the  natural  world  and  ap- 
preciation of  its  order,  beauty,  grace  and  charm.  The 
New  Testament  is  very  barren  in  comparison.  Sermons 
and  volumes  have  been  written  about  Jesus  as  "the  in- 
terpreter of  nature."  They  are  a  part  of  the  idolatrous 
exaggeration  of  his' personality.  "Consider  the  lilies" 
is  a  royal  passage,  but  it  has  no  brother  near  the  throne. 
It  is  solitary  and  unique.  It  is  from  country  life,  its 
homely  aspects  of  the  house  and  field,  that  Jesus  draws 


his  lessons.  In  the  meantime  Homer's  interest  in  nature 
is  ever  in  her  broadest  aspects,  and  Virgil's  mainly  that 
of  a  gentleman  fai  mer  in  his  crops  and  trees.  The  mod- 
ern world  has  multiplied  a  million  fold  the  interest  of 
both  the  Scriptures  and  the  Classics  in  the  natural  world 
and  the  expression  of  this  interest  in  literature  and  art. 
It  has  put  behind  it  the  morbid  subjectivity  of  the  mid- 
dle ages,  to  which  introspection  was  the  only  good,  and 
their  contempt  for  matter  as  the  opposite  of  spirit  and  of 
nature  as  the  enemy  of  God.  The  signs  of  this  advance 
are  everywhere  apparent.  You  can  see  it  in  the  poems 
that  are  written;  in  the  books  that  are  read;  in  the  en- 
thusiasm for  landscape  art;  in  the  ardor  with  which  the 
natural  sciences  are  pursued  and  the  multitude  and 
splendor  of  their  acquired  results.  And  here  and  there, 
no  doubt,  the  earnestness,  the  seriousness  and  passion  with 
which  these  studies,  avocations  and  vocations  are  pur- 
sued carries  them  over  from  the  sphere  of  art  and  science 
into  a  province  which,  if  not  nominally  religious,  is 
surely  near  "those  shining  table-lands  whereto  our  God 
himself  is  moon  and  sun."  But  that  the  natural  religion 
of  to-day  has  any  adequate  proportion  to  men's  knowl- 
edge of  the  natural  order  and  their  delight  in  natural 
beauty — this  is  a  proposition  that  cannot  be  successfully 
maintained. 

How  can  this  knowledge  and  this  delight  be  made 
religious?  We  cannot  go  back  to  fetichism  or  polythe- 
ism, or  to  the  external  Creator,  the  man- like  mechanician. 
As  little  can  we  be  satisfied  with  an  absentee  Almighty, 
who  wound  up  the  world  "in  the  beginning"  and  since 
then  has  left  it  very  much  alone.  The  cravings  of  the 
heart  are  for  an  ever-present,  ever-acting  Deity. 

"The  intelligible  forms  of  ancient  poets, 
The  fair  humanities  of  old  religion, 
The  power,  the  beauty,  and  the  majesty, 
That  had  their  haunts  in  dale  or  piney  mountain 
Or  forest;  by  slow  stream  or  pebbly  spring, 
Or  chasms  and  watery  depths; 
All  these  have  vanished; 
They  live  no  longer  in  the  faith  of  reason, 
But  still  the  heart  doth  need  a  language." 

Is  such  a  language  possible  in  conformity  with  the 
conception  of  invariable  and  universal  law  and  an  un- 
broken sequence  of  phenomena?  If  not,  well  may  we 
cry  as  Wordsworth  did  in  bitterness  of  spirit: 

"  Great  God!  I'd  rather  he 
A  Pagan  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn 
So  might  I  standing  on  this  pleasant  lea 
Have   glimpses  that  would  make  me  less  forlorn, 
Have  sight  of  Proteus  coming  from  the  sea 
And  hear  old  Triton  blow  his  wreathed  horn." 

But  there  is  such  a  language  possible,  satisfying  at 
once  to  head  and  heart,  as  Wordsworth  proved  when 
he  proclaimed  a  presence  that  disturbed  him  with  the 
joy  of  elevated  thoughts,  a  presence  far  more  deeply 
interfused  than  ever  were  the  many  gods  of  Greek 
religion,  the  one  God  of  the  Jews : 

"  A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impells 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought 
And  rolls  through  all  things." 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


207 


And  Goethe  proved  it  when  he  cried: 

"  What  were  a  God  who  sat  outside  to  scan 
The  spheres  that  'neath  his  finger  circling  ran? 
God  dwells  in  all  and  moves  the  world  and  molds; 
Himself  and  nature  in  one  form  enfolds; 
Thus  all  that  lives  in  him  and  breathes  and  is. 
Shall  ne'er  his  power,  shall  ne'er  his  presence  miss. 

That  there  is  such  a  language  possible  our  own 
Weiss  made  full  proof  in  that  rarest  bit  of  lyric  rapture 
that  ever  issued  from  his  brain: 

"  He  is  the  green  in  every  blade, 
The  health  in  every  boy  and  maid. 
In  vonder  sunrise  flag  he  blooms 
Above  a  Nation's  well  earned  tombs. 
That   empty  sleeve  his  arm  contains, 
That  blushing  scar  his  life-blood  drains, 
That  haggard  face  against  the  pane 
Goes  whitening  all  the  murkv  street 
With  God's  own  dread  lest  hunger  gain 
Upon  his  love's  woe  burdened  feet." 

Nor  less  our  Emerson  when  thus  he  sang: 

"  He  is  the  axis  of  the  star. 

He  is  the  sparkle  of  the  spar; 

He  is  the  heart  of  every  creature; 

He  is  the  meaning  of  each  feature; 
And  his  mind  is  the  skv, 
Than  all  it  holds  more  deep  and  high." 

And  Tennyson  as  well : 

"The  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  seas,  the  hills  and  the  plains 
Are  not  these,  O,  Soul,  the  vision  of  him  who  reigns? 
And  the  ear  of  man  cannot  hear;  and  the  eve  of  man  cannot  sec, 
But  if  we  could  see  and  hear,  this  vision, — were  it  not  Her" 

And  Browning  too: 

"He  glows  above 
With  scarce  an  intervention  presses  close 
And  palpitatingly  his  soul  o'er  ours! 
The  everlasting  minute  of  creation 
Is  felt  here;  Now  it  is,  as  it  was  then; 
His  soul  is  still  engaged  upon  his  world." 

And  so  I  might  go  on;  but  these  quotations  are 
enough  to  show  that  there  was  never  yet  a  thought 
of  science  which  lent  itself  to  poetry,  and  heart,  and 
worship,  more  willingly  and  joyfully  than  does  that 
which  is  the  widest  and  the  deepest  truth  which  the 
study  of  nature  has  yet  disclosed — that  all  phenomena 
material  and  spiritual  alike  are  the  organic  products  of 
an  infinite  and  eternal  energy  from  which  all  things 
proceed. 

But  it  takes  a  long,  long  time  for  the  great  thoughts 
of  philosophers  and  philosophic  poets  to  sink  into  the 
general  heart,  and  germinating  there,  to  bring  forth  in 
due  season  the  fair,  ripe  fruit  of  average  conviction 
among  men.  Opinion  is  not  faith.  It  does  not  become 
faith  till  it  is  wrought  into  the  texture  of  the  mind  by 
innumerable  motions  of  that  noiseless  shuttle  which 
plays  back  and  forth  among  the  threads  of  thought 
and  feeling  and  association  on  the  great  loom  of  time. 
But  there  will  come  a  time  when  it  will  be  as  unavoid- 
able fo.r  the  great  majority  of  men  to  think  of  God  as 
the  ever-present  and  indwelling  life  of  all  phenomena, 
as  it  was  once  for  them  to  think  of  him  as  a  mechanical 
creator,  or  as  differentiated  into  as  many  gods  and  god- 
like beings  as  there  are  various  phenomena  in  the 
natural  world.  Then  once  again  will  all  phenomena 
possess  a  transcendental  significance,  and  have  a  religious 


import  for  mankind.  In  that  day  theology  shall  be 
again  the  science  that  dominates,  because  it  will  be 
the  science  that  includes  all  others,  and  every  law  and 
harmony  and  adaptation  that  different  seekers  may  dis- 
cover in  their  separate  fields. 

But  this  natural  religion  of  the  future  shall  not  like 
the  natural  theology  of  the  past,  imagine  that  it  can 
construct  its  thought  and  feeling  of  the  Deitv  entirelv 
from  so  much  of  nature  as  is  external  to  humanity. 
Is  not  the  power  which  wells  up  in  us  as  conscious- 
ness, the  same  as  that  which  makes  the  planets  circle 
and  the  roses  bloom?  The  God  were  less  than  man 
whom  we  could  find  in  nature  external  to  humanity. 
But  in  the  nature  that  is  inclusive  of  humanity,  we 
can  find  a  God  that  is  mind  of  our  mind,  heart  of  our 
heart,  love  of  our  love. 


PSYCHIATRY,   OR   PSYCHOLOGICAL  MEDICINE. 

BY    S.    V.    CLEVENGER,    M.D. 
Pari  I. 

Knowledge  increase,  that  has  benefited  the  world  in 
general,  has  particularly  befriended  the  lunatic;  nor  is 
the  cause  of  this  difficult  to  understand.  When  men 
contended  with  other  animals  for  supremacy  and  the 
result  was  uncertain,  even  temporary  enfeeblement  of 
mind  or  body  often  insured  extinction  alike  for  man  or 
beast;  and  both  were,  through  fear,  ignorance  and  heart- 
lessness,  equally  indisposed  or  helpless  to  aid  their  kind. 

Ages  elapse  and  gradually  developed  cunning  and 
skill, — the  acquisition,  retention  and  transmission  of 
knowledge,  decided  between  the  savage  and  his  ene- 
mies; but  the  old  instincts  have  been  faithfully  inherited 
by,  and  are  but  comparatively  little  modified  in  his  "  civ- 
ilized "  descendants,  who,  to  within  recent  times,  favored 
slavery,  until  the  spread  of  knowledge  taught  how  bar- 
barous slavery  was,  and  that  same  knowledge  gave  the 
strength  and  skill  to  overthrow. 

Side  by  side  with  ignorance,  upon  which  the  politi- 
cian fattens,  is  superstition,  that  in  all  times  has  enabled 
the  spiritual  ruler  to  dispute  and  share  dominion.  Tem- 
poral and  spiritual  rule  coquet  with  and  often  combat 
each  other,  seldom  indeed,  for  the  public  good,  and  the 
"  herd  "  suffers   most  when   these   two  powers  combine. 

All  this  preludes  an  endeavor  to  show  why  the  treat- 
ment of  insanity  is  upon  such  a  low  plane  among  us, 
and  that  it  is  science  and  not  the  church  or  state  that 
has  advanced  the  study  of  psychiatry  and  improved  the 
condition  of  the  sick  in  mind. 

Scientific  men  have  sought  in  vain  to  penetrate  the 
stupidity  and  greed  of  "  statesmen  "  for  concessions  to- 
ward a  more  humane  and  enlightened  care  of  the  insane; 
and  the  absolute  indifference  of  the  clergy,  who  arrogate 
the  credit  for  all  advances  to  themselves,  keeps  the  people 
equally  ignorant  and  indifferent  except  in  the  matter  of 
occasional  selfish  and  emotional  solicitude  about  their 
own  "souls." 


20S 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Among  the  American  Indians  the  "medicine  man" 
officiates  as  priest  and  physician.  To  him  sickness  and 
insanity  are  diabolisms  requiring  noisy  exorcisms.  His 
diagnoses  and  methods  of  treatment  are  survivals  from 
primitive  times  before  medicine  dared  to  protest  against 
supernaturalism. 

The  chief  of  the  tribe  sometimes  cuts  short  the  cere- 
monies by  ordering  the  troublesome  patient  to  be  aban- 
doned to  the  wolves,  a  procedure  equivalent  to  the  olden 
European  worse  than  neglect  of  such  unfortunates. 

The  earliest  provision  made  for  the  custody  of  luna- 
tics in  England  was  under  the  Vagrant  Act  of  1744,  and 
we  find  the  constable  of  Great  Staughton,  Huntingdon- 
shire, recording  a  charge  of  Ss.  6d.  for  watching  and 
whipping  a  distracted  woman,  while  Shakespeare  causes 
Rosalind  to  mention  "  the  dark  house  and  the  whip  " 
with  which  madmen  were  punished. 

In  the  early  ages  madness  was  regarded  as  the  sub- 
stitution of  an  evil  for  the  leal  personality,  necessitating 
beatings,  starvation  and  other  harsh  "curative"  meas- 
ures. Whether  this  was  due  to  the  teachings  of  eccle- 
siasts,  to  the  indifference  of  governments,  or  to  the  igno- 
rance of  the  masses,  or  to  all  these  causes  combined  it  is 
difficult  to  determine,  but  it  is  beyond  dispute  that  where 
church  and  state  have  not  been  aggressively  inhuman 
in  their  treatment  of  the  insane  the  conservatism  of  both 
has  retarded  proper  medical  care,  and  it  is  the  advance 
of  science  that  has  suppressed  political  and  sacerdotal 
barbarities  generally  and  in  this  particular. 

In  consequence  of  the  general  philanthropic  move- 
ments that  preceded  the  French  Revolution,  Chiarrugi 
in  Italy  was  foremost  in  condemning  the  brutal  measures 
in  use  in  asylums  under  governmental  and  priestly  con- 
trol. Next,  Pinel  sought  permission  from  suspicious 
and  reluctant  officials  to  unchain  his  lunatics,  and  de- 
nounced the  cruel  usages  common  even  among  medical 
men  of   his  day. 

As  a  rule  the  ordinary  practitioner  of  medicine  is  hut 
little  in  advance  of  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  con- 
freres of  his  age;  most  are  actuated  by  the  same  motives, 
are  quite  as 'mercenary  and  are  but  little  less  supersti- 
tious than  their  associates. 

Dr.  Conolly  who  made  such  great  reforms,  and  Dr. 
Gardener  Jlill  were  denounced  by  the  English  clergy  and 
their  ignorant  following, lay  and  medical,  for  unchaining 
pauper  lunatics  and  thus  imperiling  the  community. 
Quite  recently  in  New  York,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gibson 
fought  against  non-restraint  for  the  lunatics  in  the  Utica 
asylum.  A  clergyman  politician  at  the  head  of  a  cer- 
tain Stale  Board  of  Charity,  expressed  regret  that  this 
board  had  been  compelled  to  make  an  investigation  into 
a  horribly  mismanaged  asylum,  as  the  stigma  outweigh- 
ed the  advantages  of  the  investigation. 

D.  Hack  Tuke,  the  editor  of  the  London  'fournxl of 
Mental  Science,  a  few  years  ago  looked  into  the  Longue 


Pointe  and  Beauport  asylums  in  Canada,  both  of  which 
were  under  the  control  of  a  church  sisterhood.  The  re- 
port of  that  investigation  is  accessible  to  all,  and  the 
cruelties  therein  narrated  are  almost  incredible.  About 
weekly  you  will  read  in  the  daily  newspapers  an  account 
of  broken  ribs  or  other  evidences  of  harsh  treatment  in 
political  insane  asylums,  may  be  a  hint  at  a  murder,  but 
those  responsible  for  such  things  "  investigate "  them- 
selves, and  the  public  is  calmed  or  regard  the  matter  as 
another  piece  of  newspaper  unreliability. 

Scientific  medicine  has  had  to  contend  with  the  stu- 
pidity, arrogance,  greed  and  inhumanity  of  the  average 
physician  as  well  as  against  similar  traits  in  others;  hence 
I  repeat  that  to  the  scientist  and  to  none  other  is  due  the 
credit  of  humane  psychiatry. 

Esquirol  adhered  to  the  policy  of  his  master  and  in- 
stituted more  careful  observations  and  records  of  symp- 
toms, enabling  him  to  make  important  advances  in  treat- 
ment. Bayle,  Calmed,  and  since  them,  numerous  others, 
not  only  in  strictly  medical  fields,  but  such  as  Herbert 
Spencer,  Darwin,  Huxley,  Maudsley,  Calderwood,  Bain, 
Wundt,  Carpenter,  Meynert,  Exner,  Spitzka,  through 
their  biological  researches  have  elevated  psychological 
study  to  an  exactitude  little  suspected  by  the  mere  pre- 
scription writer. 

As  Clouston  says:  "  In  a  strict  sense  '  medical  psy- 
chology '  is  a  misnomer.  If  psychology  is  a  real  science 
it  is  one  and  indivisible,  and  you  might  as  well  talk  of 
medical  mathematics  or  medical  physics.  But  as  medical 
men  seldom  have  the  time,  and  only  a  few  of  them  the 
special  aptitude,  for  the  study  of  the  whole  field  of  psy- 
chology, that  portion  of  it  which  has  a  relation  to  their 
physiological  studies  and  the  practical  work  of  their  pro- 
fession, has  been  divided  off — not,  it  is  true,  by  very  de- 
fined lines — and  called  medical  psychology,  just  as  certain 
departments  of  electricity  and  acoustics  may  be  called 
medical,  par  excelloicc.  An  unambitious  definition  of 
medical  psychology  might  be  '  mind — as  it  concerns  doc- 
tors.' "  "  When  we  consider  that  one  in  every  three  hun- 
dred of  the  population  is  a  registered  lunatic,  the  marvel 
is  how  our  profession  has  hitherto  got  along  with  so  little 
systematic  teaching  or  clinical  experience  of  mental  dis- 
ease." It  is  owing  to  the  ignorance  among  physicians  of 
there  being  such  a  science  as  psychiatry  (or  psychologi- 
cal medicine),  that  they  do  not  promptly  seek  the  aid  of 
the  specialist  in  this  department;  but  again,  it  is  not  so 
remarkable  when  we  hear  of  the  "busy  general  practi- 
tioner "  with  his  crude  apparatus  and  knowledge,  under- 
taking eye  and  ear  treatment,  when  only  the  very  igno- 
rant are  unaware  of  the  development  of  this  branch  of 
surgery  as  a  separate  science. 

"  It  might  well  be  argued,"  says  Clouston,  "  that  psy- 
chiatry is  the  highest  branch  of  medicine,  inasmuch  as  it 
is  confessedly  the  most  difficult,  and  relates  to  the  most 
important  part  of  man." 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


209 


"Everything  that  lives,  looked  at  from  the  evolution- 
ary standpoint,  tends  toward  mentalization,  and  all  the 
tissues  of  all  the  nervous  organs  of  all  the  types  of  ani- 
mal life  find  their  acme  in  the  human  brain  convolu- 
tions. From  the  purely  psychological  point  of  view, 
too,  a  study  of  mental  disorders  is  essential  before  the 
laws  of  mind  will  ever  be  understood.  Pathological 
change  always  throws  light  upon  physiological  function." 

Clouston's  view  that  "  mind — as  it  concerns  doctors," 
is  but  a  province  of  psychology,  is  true  enough  for  the 
purposes  of  the  alienist  (the  specialist  in  mental  diseases), 
but  as  a  specialist  has  been  fairly  described  as  "  one  who 
knows  something  of  everything  and  everything  of  some- 
thing," thi  alienist  should  be  a  psychologist  in  the 
broadest  sense  of  the  term.  In  his  endeavor  to  make 
practical  applications  of  physiological  psychology  he  is 
or  should  be,  the  psychologist. 

In  addition  to  a  medical  education  of  a  superior  kind, 
which  presupposes  a  respectable  scientific  and  literary 
training,  the  practical  psychologist  should  be  able  to 
read  the  three  great  living  languages,  for  there  is  im- 
mensely more  information  of  this  kind  printed  in  Ger- 
man than  in  French,  and  in  French  than  in  English. 
Including  in  his  previous  schooling  such  things  as  botany> 
zoology,  geology,  chemistry,  he  will  find  need  for  the 
superimposed  biology,  paleontology,  physiological  chem- 
istry, practical  microscopical  study  of  the  nervous  system, 
which  includes  the  brain,  and  not  only  the  histology  01 
man  but  of  animals,  and  to  some  extent  plants.  Com- 
parative anatomy,  physiology  and  embryology  as  afford- 
ed by  Huxley,  Owen,  Gegenbaur  and  Balfour,  he  will 
find  fascinating  reading,  and  his  leisure  can  be  profitably 
devoted  to  Herbert  Spencer,  from  First  Principles  to 
Sociology  and  Ethics.  He  will  thus  be  equipped  to 
value  the  researches  of  Meynert,  Exner,  Munk,  Gud- 
den,  Spitzka  and  other  students  of  the  minute  anatomy  of 
the  brain.  He  then  can  estimate  the  importance  and 
relationship  of  diseased  brain  and  bodily  conditions,  found 
post  mortem,  with  the  carefully  recorded  observations 
made  upon  the  living  patient,  in  the  way  of  a  logical  asso- 
ciation of  cause  and  effect. 

In  the  better  class  of  asylums  in  Europe  the  superin- 
tendent and  his  assistants  are  selected  from  among  medi- 
cal men  for  their  special  knowledge,  of  the  kind  men- 
tioned, and  their  enthusiasm.  Their  abilities  and  single- 
ness of  purpose  'make  them  jealous  of  the  care  of  their 
charges.  They  love  their  work;  are  proud  of  every 
success;  they  watch  the  progress  of  their  cases  and  every 
physician,  nurse  and  watchman  is  compelled  to  record 
full  observations;  the  ignorant  attendant  is  made  less 
ignorant  by  training  and  is  obliged  to  render  proper 
service. 

Such  alienists  are  full  of  their  subject  and  in  love 
with  it.  Happily  relieved  by  the  government  from  any 
anxiety    about   getting    a   living,    they    are    enabled    to 


develop  astonishing  skill  in  the  care  of  the  mentally  un- 
sound; their  writings  abound  in  special  journals  and 
good  work  is  promptly  recognized  and  applauded  by 
other  alienists  and  the  discoverer  is  stimulated  to  further 
successes. 

The  truly  scientific  individual  detests  an  untruth,  he 
has  no  use  for  shams,  hypocrisy  or  pretense.  Studying, 
as  he  does,  facts  from  which  to  make  deductions,  false- 
hood is  his  abomination ;  and  whosoever  ventures  into 
the  circle  of  scientists  and  at  any  time  in  his  career  is 
discovered  to  have  wilfully  misstated,  his  place  knows 
him  no  more,  for  upon  the  reliability  of  an  observer  de- 
pends the  extent  to  which  he  will  be  quoted, — granting 
that  his  writings  have  any  value.  Bad  logic  might  be 
overlooked,  but  a  deliberate  lie,  never.  Science  thus 
begets  truth  and  truth  generates  charity  toward  the  un- 
fortunate in  proportion  as  truthful  revelations  disclose 
the  frailties  as  well  as  the  order  of  our  human  mechan- 
ism. Indeed  one  cannot  be  scientific  unless  he  is  sincere, 
believes  in  his  work  and  is  enthusiastic. 

In  such  asylums  development  proceeds  to  such  an 
extent,  with  the  differentiation  of  labor,  that  admirable 
system  and  order  arise  beyond  the  comprehension  of 
those  unfamiliar  with  the  work.  Amid  the  exactitude 
demanded  of  each  department  to  the  common  end  that 
the  insane  shall  be  given  their  best  chance  toward  a  res- 
toration to  reason,  cruelty  can  find  no  place  and  swift 
justice  overtakes  the  attendant  there  in  this  day,  if  he 
uses  undue  force,  to  say  nothing  of  blows,  in  managing 
his  patients.  There  the  doctrine  of  Celsus  is  not  favor- 
ably regarded :  "When  the  madman  has  done  or  said 
anything  outrageous  he  is  to  be  coerced  with  hunger, 
chains  and  stripes." 


MONISM,   DUALISM   AND  AGNOSTICISM. 
BY    PAUL   CARUS,    PH.    D. 

I  define  Monism  as  that  conception  of  the  world 
which  traces  being-  and  thinking,  the  object  and  the  sub- 
iect,  matter  and  force  back  to  one  source,  thus  explaining 
all  problems  from  one  principle.  The  word  is  derived 
from  the  Greek  monos,  alone,  single,  which  is  pre- 
served in  many  other  English  words,  as  monk,  a  hermit 
who  lives  alone  by  himself;  monarch,  a  ruler  who  rules 
alone  by  himself;  monotheism,  the  doctrine  that  there  is 
one  God,  etc. 

Monism  is  thus  opposed  to  dualistic  views  of  life, 
according  to  which  being  and  thinking  are  not  only  in 
opposition  to  each  other  but  independent  existences.  To 
assert  that  the  body  is  a  material  composition  into  which 
a  soul  has  been  placed,  is  dualism.  Likewise  it  is  dual- 
ism if  you  imagine  that  the  soul,  after  death,  leaves  the 
body  and  lives  somewhere  by  itself  as  a  pure  spirit. 
This  rests  on  the  dualistic  assumption  that  an  omnipotent 
spirit  exists  and  was  in  existence  before  anything  else 
existed;  he  created  the  material  world, endowed  it  partly 


2IO 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


with  his  spirit,  and  expects  this  spirit,  after  divers  trials 
and  tribulations,  to  return  as  pure  spirit  to  himself. 

If  you  take  the  very  opposite  view  to  this  theological 
conception,  it  is  generally  styled  materialism, — that  the 
world  was  at  some  time  only  dead,  inert  matter,  and  that 
this  dead  matter,  either  by  chance  or  by  some  process 
not  yet  fully  understood,  produced  the  wonderful  cosmos 
with  its  feeling  and  thinking  beings, —  this  is  also  dual- 
ism. Should  you  in  either  case  object  to  the  title  of  dual- 
ism, as  vou  declare  that  in  the  former  instance  spirit  is 
the  one  and  only  source  of  existence,  and  in  the  latter 
you  propose  matter  to  be  the  one  and  only  principle  from 
which  all  must  be  explained,  monism  nevertheless  would 
be  a  wrong  name.  For  in  either  case  you  have  no  unity 
of  thinking  and  being  but  a  oneness,  which  is  gained  by 
excluding  the  one  or  the  other  and  reducing  the  world 
cither  to  the  former  or  the  latter.  Such  conception  of 
one-sided  oneness  I  should  rather  call  henism,  from 
heis,  henos,  one.  The  root  of  the  word  henism  is  to 
be  met  with  in  a  word  like  hendiadys,  which,  in  rhetoric, 
is  used  if  the  same  notion  is  presented  in  two  expres- 
sions. 

So  monism  does  not  only  stand  in  opposition  to 
dualism,  but  also  to  henism,  viz.:  that  of  materialism  or 
of  spiritualism.  The  unity  of  monism  is  not  attained 
by  denying  the  legitimate  existence  of  either  spirit  or 
matter,  force  or  matter,  the  subjective  or  the  objective, 
but  by  treating  both  as  a  unity  and  having  one  common 
basis. 

It  is  on  this  ground  that  all  modern  science  rests; 
and  especially  physiological  psychology  is  based  upon 
it.  German  scientists  were  foremost  to  recognize  the 
importance  of  this  truth  and  accordingly  they  have 
coined  the  word  monism. 

The  unity  of  spiritual  and  material  processes  in  our 
brain  was  pointed  out  by  many  diligent  workers  in  the 
fields  of  physiology,  neurology  and  modern  psychology. 
In  a  concise  form,  we  have  presented  the  monistic  view 
to  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court  in  Professor  Ber- 
ing's excellent  essay  "  On  Memory."  Let  me  quote  from 
it  a  passage  explaining  the  fundamental  doctrine  on 
which  his  inquiries  rest: 

"The  physicist  considers  the  causal  continuity  of  all 
material  processes  as  the  basis  of  his  inquiry;  the 
thoughtful  psychologist  looks  for  the  laws  of  conscious 
life  according  to  the  rules  of  an  inductive  method  and 
assumes  the  validity  of  an  unalterable  order.  And  if 
the  physiologist  learns  from  simple  self-observation  that 
conscious  life  is  dependent  upon  his  bodily  functions, 
and  vice  versa  that  his  body  to  some  extent  is  subject  to 
his  will,  lie  has  only  to  assume  that  this  interdepend- 
ence of  »iin  J  and  body  is  arranged  according  to  certain 
laws  and  the  connection  is  found  which  links  the  science 
of  matter  to  the  science  of  consciousness. 

Thus  considered,  phenomena  of  consciousness  appear 


to  be  functions  of  material  changes  of  organized  sub- 
stance and  vice  versa.  As  I  do  not  wish  to  mislead,  let 
me  expressly  mention,  although  it  is  included  in  the 
term  function,  thus  considered,  material  processes  of  the 
cerebral  substance  appear  to  be  functions  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  consciousness.  For  if  two  variables  are 
dependent  upon  each  other,  according  to  certain  laws  a 
change  of  the  one  demanding  a  change  of  the  other  and 
vice  versa,  the  one  is  called,  as  is  known,  a  function  of 
the  other." 

From  the  standpoint  of  monism  the  soul  is  no  longer 
a  metaphysical  or  transcendental  entity.  The  soul  con- 
sists of  our  feeling  and  thinking;  as  Wundt*  says  in 
his  Ethics,  p.  393:  "  The  single  activities  of  the  soul 
as  perceiving,  feeling,  willing,  can  be  separated  from  the 
soul  only  by  abstraction  (or  as  English  logicians  would 
express  it,  by  generalization).  By  themselves  tlicy  are 
the  ultimate  indivisible  elements  of  spiritual  life.  Thus 
if  we  want  to  take  the  soul  as  a  separated  entity,  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  contents  of  its  consciousness, 
this  soul  is  only  an  empty  concept;  we  suppose  it  to  be  a 
real  existence,  while  in  reality,  it  is  the  mere  unification 
and  the  constant  cohesion  of  spiritual  activities.  As 
such,  the  soul  is  by  no  means  an  independent  thing,  which 
might  be  either  a  fact  or  postulate  of  experience;  nor  are 
perception,  will  or  feeling,  independent   things." 

Life  is  energy,  and  is  produced  according  to  the  law 
of  preservation  and  transformation  of  force.  Heat  may 
be  changed  into  electricity,  and  any  motion  into  either 
heat  or  electricity ;  so  also  life  is  a  product  of  heat 
and  it  is  no  mere  simile  to  say  with  Zoroaster  and  the 
fire-worshiping  Sabians  that  the  sun  is  the  source  of  life 
and  we  derive  our  life  from  him.  The  molecular 
motion  of  the  cosmic  heat  which,  as  we  know,  perme- 
ated the  planetary  system  when  it  still  was  in  the  state 
of  a  gaseous  nebula  is  the  same  heat  which  is  now 
vibrating  in  the  sunbeams,  it  can  be  and  indeed  is  con- 
stantly transformed  into  that  form  of  energy  which  we 
call  life.  The  constituency  of  individual  life  is  what 
we  call  soul,  and  this  depends  upon  the  form  in  which 
energy  is  manifested. 

If  Wundt  calls  the  soul  the  mere  unification  and 
constant  cohesion  of  spiritual  activities,  it  is  not  to  be 
thought  of  lightly  as  if  it  were  a  nonentity.  It  is  the 
formal,  as  well  as  the  formative  principle,  of  its  mate- 
rial existence,  viz.,  the    body.      Mind   is   form ;  and   the 


*As  the  construction  of  the  long  German  periods  cannot  he  imitated  in 
English  without  impairing  the  translation,  I  cite  for  German  scholars  the 
original  version  of  the  quoted  passage: 

"  Wie  die  einzelnen,  seelischen,  Th£tigkeiten,  Vorstellen,  Fiihlen,  Wollcn, 
nur  durch  unsere  Ahstraction  getrennt  werden  kimnen,  an  sich  selhst  aber 
unthcilhare  Elemente  des  geistigen  Lebens  sind,  so  ist  auch  die  Unterschcidung 
eirjer  von  dem  Bewusstseinsinhalt  verschiedenen  Sccle  nur  die  Umwandlung 
des  leeren  Begriffes  del  Vereinigung  und  des  stctig-en  Zusammenhanges  der 
geistigen  Thatigkeiten  in  ein  reales  Subslrat.  Dieses  Klztere  ist  inderThat 
genau  eben  so  wenig  ein  selbstandig  in  irgend  einer  Erfahrung  gegebenes  Oder 
durch  diesclhe  gefordertes  Ding  .vie  Vorslellung,  Wide,  Gefiihl  selbstandige 
Dingc  sind." 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


211 


importance  of  form  as  the  spirituality  of  the  world, 
\vc  learn  from  the  beautiful  as  it  is  represented  in 
art.  A  poet  of  philosophical  depth,  as  is  Schiller,  appre- 
ciated this  truth  when  he  identified  form  and  ideal  in 
his  poem,  "Das  Ideal und das  Lcbcn"  where  he  says: 

"  In  den  hdheren  Reg;ionen, 

Wo  die  reinen  Formen  wobnen  .  .  .  .  " 

According  to  the  principles  of  monism  there  can  be  no 
gap  between  the  organic  and  the  anorganic  empire,  and 
there  is  no  doubt  that  all  results  of  modern  chemistry 
and  physics  favor  a  monistic  solution.  Professor 
W.  Preyer,  in  discussing  the  hypotheses  on  the  origin  of 
life*  rejects  generation  itquivoca  and  hetcrogencsis,  and 
propounds  that  the  interminable  and  beginningless 
motion  of  the  world  is  life.  Protoplasma  is  not  a  com- 
position of  dead  anorganic  substances,  but  organic  life 
is  an  intrinsic,  eternal,  and  indelible,  quality  of  matter. 

Monism  is  antagonistic  to  individualism,  which  treats 
the  individual  soul  as  an  ultimate  unit.  Individualism 
is  the  tacit  supposition  of  all  utilitarianism  in  ethics, 
and,  indeed,  if  the  personal  individual  be  an  ultimate 
unit  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  consider  itself 
the  center  of  the  universe.  Individualism  may  be 
atheistic  and  deny  the  existence  of  a  universal  spirit) 
nevertheless  it  introduces  another  kind  of  God,  the 
little  God  of  man's  own  individuality,  which,  though 
insignificant,  is  no  less  dear  to  the  single  individual.  Indi- 
vidualism considers  all  men  as  so  many  little  Gods  for 
whose  gratification  the  world  exists  and  moves.  Monism 
teaches  that  single  individuals  are  transient  things  which 
consist  of  the  ideas  they  think  and  the  ideals  they  aspire 
for.  This  affords  a  larger  basis  of  ethics,  which  is  neither 
exclusively  altruistic  nor  exclusively  individualistic  and 
egotistic.  It  is  not  the  individual  who  is  an  independent 
existence,  but  humanity  which  lives  in  the  individual; 
and  the  great  ALL  lives  in  humanity.  The  individual 
is  only  one  insignificant  and  transient  state  of  the  great 
development  of  human  kind,  it  is  one  little  link  in  the 
immeasurable  chain  of  life  and  its  ultimate  units,  its 
feeling  and  thinking  point  beyond  the  narrow  sphere  of 
its  existence.  They  point  back  to  a  distant  past,  for 
they  are  the  outcome  of  the  long  development  of  former 
millenniums,  and  represent  the  labor  of  their  ancestral 
generations.  At  the  same  time  they  point  onward  to 
the  future  as  they  are  progressing,  advancing  and 
growing  in  every  respect; 

Monism  is  in  opposition  to  the  old  theology,  for 
there  is  no  room  in  monism  for  the  supernatural.  Mar- 
vels and  special  revelations  are  impossible,  if  monism  is 
a  truth,  and  more  than  that,  not  only  the  intercession  of 
a  capricious  Deity  becomes  a  legend,  but  the  supernat- 
ural itself  is  eliminated  forever.  In  the  monistic  view,  the 
supernatural  exists  neither  in  nor  above  nature.  All  is 
natural,  and  if  you   speak   of  God  it  is  the  great   All  in 


*  Rundschau,  1S75,  III,  58. 


which  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being,  of  whom 
the  Apostle  says  that  in  the  end  he  will  be  all  in  all. 

Monism  has  a  definite  and  clear  meaning,  and  should 
not  be  used  for  all  kinds  of  doctrines  which  pretend  to 
be  unitary  in  some  way  or  another.  Nor  should  monism 
be  identified  with  agnosticism.  It  is  true  that  Haeckel 
says:  "  I  believe  that  my  monistic  convictions  agree  in  all 
essential  points  with  that  natural  philosophy,  which  in 
England  is  represented  as  agnosticism."  But  mark,  he 
does  not  say  that  he  agrees  with  agnosticism.  He  agrees 
with  the  natural  philosophy  of  men  like  Huxley,  Tyn- 
dall  and  others  on  all  essential  points.  But  I  doubt 
whether  he  would  accept  the  philosophy  of  agnosticism. 
Now,  agnosticism  is  a  philosophic  view  which  pro- 
fesses'to  know  nothing  of  the  supernatural,  and  does  not 
want  to.  The  term  was  invented  by  Huxley,  and  1 
must  confess  it  was  no  happy  invention.  To  me  it  seems 
essentially  the  same  as  skepticism.  Accordingly,  I  do 
not  take  it  to  be  identical  with  monism,  which  is  a  doc- 
trine of  positive  teachings,  and  asserts  to  know  some- 
thing. Their  only  point  of  convergency  is  that  both 
reject  a  supernatural  explanation  of  the  world;  both 
oppose  dogmatical  theology.  But  that  is,  as  far  as  I  can 
see,  almost  all.  There  is  no  positive  statement  made  by 
agnosticism;  both  views  have  nothing  in  common  but  a 
common  enemy, — supernaturalism.  Agnosticism  is  a 
kind  of  transitory  view  which,  if  developed  in  the  right 
direction,  will  lead  to  monism. 

Spencer  is  generally  styled  an  agnostic,  and  certainly 
he  is  no  monist,  although  there  are  passages  in  his  works 
which  are  decidedly  monistic.  In  his  ethics  he  is  indi- 
vidualistic and  utilitarian,  and  so  on  this  most  important 
around  he  i<=,  at  least,  not  in  consonance  with  monism. 
His  doctrine  of  the  Unknowable,  it  seems  to  me,  is  essen- 
tially agnostic,  and  even  leaves  room  for  the  possibility 
of  there  being  some  supernatural  existence. 

How  far  Mr.  Spencer  is  from  monism,  and  how 
deeply  he  is  entangled  by  his  agnosticism,  may  be  learned 
from  some  chapters  of  his  Psychology,  where  he  speaks 
of  "  the  substance  of  mind."  Although  in  other  chapters 
he  endeavors  to  formulate,  and  thus  explain,  all  phenom- 
ena of  mental  life  in  terms  of  matter  and  motion,  he  de- 
clares, concei  ning  "  the  substance  of  mind :  "  "  We  know 
nothing  about  it,  and  never  can  know  anything  about 
it."  And  the  reason  for  its  being  unknowable  is:  "  In 
brief,  a  thing  cannot  at  the  same  instant  be  both  subject 
and  object  of  thought;  and  yet  the  substance  of  mind 
must  be  this  before  it  can  be  known." 

It  is  not  my  intention,  now,  to  refute  this  assertion  of 
Spencer's,  nor  will  I  enter  into  a  discussion  of  his  agnos- 
ticism; it  would  lead  us  too  far.  From  the  standpoint 
of  monism  a  substance  of  mind  is  just  as  much  a  nonen- 
tity as  a  substance  of  electricity.  Such  ideas  must  be 
dropped  as  has  been  the  doctrine  of  the  phlogisticon, 
i.  e.,  the   substance  of  fire,   in   which  older  physicists 


212 


THE    OPEN    COURT, 


believed.  In  fine,  it  may  suffice  to  state  that  monism  is 
by  no  means  identical  with  agnosticism.  Just  as  well 
something  may  be  like  nothing',  and  the  assertion  that 
I  know  something  of  what  is  and  is  not,  may  be  like  the 
assertion  that  I  know  nothing  beyond  a  certain  sphere. 
In  many  respects  the  monistic  view  is  even  antagonistic 
to  agnostic  doctrines. 


A  CRITICISM     OF    MRS.    ELIZABETH    CADY    STAN- 
TON'S  ARTICLE   "JAILS  AND  JUBILEES." 
PRESENTED    BY    EDWARD   C.  HEGELER. 

I  believe  that  the  worst  enemy  of  woman  is  wo- 
man; it  is  not  only  a  matter  of  fact  that  we  find  the 
strongest  adversaries  of  woman's  rights  among  the 
fairer  sex,  but  ladies  are  always  severest  in  judging 
and  condemning  the  real  or  supposed  faults  of  their 
sisters.  This  truth  was  re-impressed  upon  my  mind 
when  I  read  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton's  article 
"Jails  and  Jubilees,"  and  it  is  the  more  noteworthy 
as  she  is  one  of  the  most  prominent  defenders  of 
woman's  rights.  I  never  read  a  harsher  criticism  on 
Queen  Victoria  than  hers. 

It  is  not  now  the  object  to  enter  into  a  discussion 
of  the  merits  or  demerits  of  the  Queen  of  England's 
government,  but  whatever  we  as  Republicans  may 
think  of  royalty,  it  is  not  just  to  make  her  person- 
ally answerable  for  social  ami  political  evils  which 
are  not  in  her  power  to  mend. 

It  is  a  common  saying  among  Englishmen  that  a 
queen  is  the  best  king,  and  this  is  said  chiefly  in  remem- 
brance of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  the  present  ruler  of 
England.  It  certainly  does  honor  to  Queen  Victoria. 
And  if,  after  a  long  reign  the  English  people  intend 
to  celebrate  her  jubilee,  this  shows  that  to  a  large 
extent  they  are  satisfied  with  her  doings. 

Some  ancestors  of  the  Queen's  were  dissolute 
spendthrifts;  she,  as  a  good  wife  and  mother  is 
thought  by  many  to  have  been  too  economical.  If 
Queen  Victoria  saws  money  for  her  children  she 
thereby  sets  a  good  example  to  her  people  and  to  us 
Americans  also.  Let  us  here  not  forget  that  saved 
money  must  be  invested  somewhere  and  that  invested 
money  is  paid  out  for  labor  in  some  manner  useful  to 
the  public  and  so  helps  to  prevent  poverty. 

A  stranger  is  not  warranted  in  denouncing  jubilees 
in  foreign  countries,  just  as  a  guest  in  our  land  ought 
not  to  scold  us,  if  we  prepare  to  celebrate  a  me- 
morial  day  in    honor  of  a  national  event. 

It  is  the  just  pride  of  a  mother  to  have  many  chil- 
dren and  do  her  best  for  them.  To  say  the  least, 
it  is  very  indelicate  of  Mrs.  Stanton  to  speak  of 
the  queen's  family  as  her  "innumerable  progeny." 
11  is  also  unfair  to  disparage  the  Prince  Consort 
>vhos(  noble-minded  spirit  is  well  known  in  history. 
His  faithful  efforts  as  private  counselor  of  the  ( Jueen 


and  his  promotion  of  industry,  art  and  science  should 
be  especially  appreciated,  on  account  of  his  difficult 
position  in  his  home  and  in  an  adopted  country.  Is 
it  just  to  say  of  such  a  man  that  he  "  never  uttered 
one  loft}'  sentiment  or  performed  one  deed  of 
heroism?" 

And  have  not  Queen  Victoria  and  her  husband 
shown  to  the  world  a  model  family  life? 

Mis.  Stanton,  no  doubt,  has  the  best  intentions 
in  objecting  to  what  she  supposes  to  be  extortion 
and  tyranny,  and  I  am  sure  she  deserves  the  high 
reputation  she  enjoys  for  her  active  work"  in  the 
elevation  of  woman;  but  all  the  more  a  faux  pas  of 
hers  will  be  injurious  to  that  cause.  Certainly  Mrs. 
Stanton  will  not  promote  it  by  rousing  an  unjust  and 
useless  indignation  ar/ainst  a  woman  on  a  throne. 


DE  PROFUNDIS. 

I1Y    ELIZABETH    OAKES    SMITH. 
"  The  eternal  silence  of  these  infinite  spaces  terrifies  me." — Past  ah 

Space  beyond  space, — unthinkable, — eterne, — 

Vainly  we  number  add  to  number  vast, 
The  limitless  infinitude  to  learn; — 

Where  are  the  stars  that  should  an  index  turn? 
Where  red  resounding  comet,  flirting  past? 

Poor  human  heart!  vainly  thy  pulses  yearn; 
Silence,  eternal  silence  coldly  reigns, 

In  heavy  fall  of  darkness  and  dim  night, 
Thy  cry  of  terror,  thy  appealing  call 

Go  echoless  along  receding  plains, 
Where  silence  sits  in  her  unconquered  might. 

Oh,  silence!  terrible  is  thy  mute  fall. 


SONNET. 


BY    ILDA    rOESCIIE. 


E'en  like  a  .sculptor,  youth  doth  mold  our  faces; 

At  first  as  soft  as  artist's  pliant  clay, 

Then  like  his  marble  fairer  day  by  day 

We  grow,  enriched  by  thousand  changing  graces. 

Then  youth  withdraws  and  thoughtful,  paces 
In  artist-mode,  to  gaze  from  far  away; 
But  Time,  the  master,  murmurs:     " 'Tis  but  play," 
And  sternly  chisels  o'er  these,  deeper  traces. 

In  vain  youth's  genius  tries  again  to  waken 
The  smiles  that  flitted  o'er  the  dimpling  cheek, 
And  since  all  beauty  from  his  work  is  taken, 

Another  fresher  model  doth  he  seek; 

And  we  are  by  our  loving  star  forsaken, 

\\  hile  Time  completes  his  sculpture  week  by  week. 

A  great  idea,  a  sublime  purpose,  slowly  taking  form,  through 
years,  possibly  centuries,  suddenly  possesses  an  individual  and 
stands  forth  incarnate.  This  individual  is  then  the  concrete  ex- 
pression of  the  best  intuitions  and  highest  aspirations  of  his  time. 
Through  him  the  ideal  become  real,  and  fresh  impetus  quickens 
humanity's  pace  toward  the  good.  The  influence  of  such  an  in- 
dividual is  incalculable.  The  memory  of  his  character  is  potent 
with  uplifting  force;  the  more  potent  in  that  he  has  but  exempli- 
fied some  of  the  grand  possibilities  of  human  effort.— G.  M.  B.  in 
Religio-  Philosophical  Jour  mil. 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


213 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published  every  other   Thursday  at    169.   to    175  La  Salle  Street  (.Nixon 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
for  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  MAY  26,  1SS7. 

LIBERALISM. 

The  word  "liberal"  in  this  country  is  commonly 
applied  to  unorthodox  religious  views,  and  to  the 
person  who  holds  to  them.  In  the  large  class  desig- 
nated by  the  word  are  those  of  every  degree  of  cul- 
ture and  social  standing,  of  widely  different  tastes 
and  of  opposite  views  on  almost  every  subject  out- 
side the  province  of  demonstrable  knowledge. 
Their  agreement  in  rejecting  theological  dogmas  by 
no  means  helps  them  to  unity  of  thought  in  party 
politics,  on  questions  of  finance,  on  social  problems, 
or  respecting  the  multitude  of  other  questions,  prac- 
tical and  speculative,  which  constantly  present  them- 
selves for  the  consideration  of  the  thinker  and  the 
reformer. 

In  their  religious  views  and  attitudes  even,  liber- 
als differ  widely.  Many  have  outgrown  much  of 
their  old  belief,  yet  feel  an  indefinable  reverence  for 
the  Christian  name,  and  derive  satisfaction  from  the 
thought    that   the   book  in  which  their   fathers  and 


mothers  believed  through  all  the  tribulations  of  life, 
and  found  comfort  in  the  solemn  hour  of  death,  is 
inspired,  at  least,  in  a  general  sense  and  to  a  greater 
extent  than  any  other  work.  Others  who  utterly  reject 
Christianity,  considered  as  an  extra-human  element 
introduced  into  the  life  of  the  race,  yet  recognize  it 
as  a  great  system  that  has  been  suited  to  man's  con- 
dition in  the  past,  and  that  should  now  be  inter- 
preted with  the  most  liberal  construction,  the  name 
being  retained  and  made  to  stand  for  the  highest 
thought  anil  noblest  work  of  the  age,  the  grandeur 
and  glory  of  which  the)'  maintain  is  due,  in  no  small 
degree,  to  the  powerful  impulse  received  from  the 
character  and  teachings  of  Jesus.  Others  who 
decline  to  be  called  Christians,  yet  concede  to 
Christianity,  in  common  with  Buddhism  and  other 
religious  systems,  an  important  part  in  the  growth 
of  civilization,  and  view  it  not  with  disdain,  but  as  a 
religion  which,  with  all  its  imperfections,  has  per- 
sisted because  it  has  represented  man's  best  thought 
and  aspiration,  from  which  it  grew  as  naturally  as 
the  flower  grows  from  the  seed,  the  soil  and  the  air. 
To  many  liberals,  however,  ^Christianity  appears  an 
unmitigated  evil,  a  superstition,  which,  although  it 
had  its  origin  in  innocent  ignorance,  and  credulity, 
has  been  the  greatest  obstacle  to  human  progress  that 
man  has  had  to  encounter.  Others  still,  although 
they  belong  to  the  class  that  the  science  of  the  age 
is  leaving  far  behind,  regard  Christianity  as  an  impos- 
ture, devised  and  designed  by  crafty  men  to  enslave 
the  human  mind,  and  to  enable  them  to  control  it 
in  their  own  interests. 

While  some  liberals  have  a  firm  belief  in,  and  a 
reverent  regard  for  the  name  of  God,  and  a  strong 
belief  in  a  future  life,  others  are  unbelieving  or 
doubtful  as  to  these  doctrines.  Many  who  have 
rejected  the  authority  of  ancient  revelations  still 
believe  in  modern  revelations  from  the  spiritual 
world,  and  commune,  as  they  think,  with  spirits 
directly  or  through  "mediums."  Other  liberals 
regard  spiritualism  as  a  superstition  worse  than  the 
one  its  adherents  claim  to  have  outgrown.  Some 
liberals  declare  that  the  only  real  and  perma- 
nent reality  is  mind,  of  which  matter  is  but  a  con- 
ception or  form  of  thought;  others  say  that  matter 
is  the  only  reality  while  mind  is  but  one  of  its  prop- 
erties or  modes.  Others  hold  that  both  mind  and 
matter  are  phenomenal  existences  and  manifesta- 
tions of  an  ultimate  reality,  of  which  matter  and 
force  are  but  symbolical  representations.  In  con- 
trast to  these  several  monistic  conceptions  are  held 
dualistic  theories,  in  which  mind  and  matter  are  two 
principles,  co-eternal,  but  distinct. 

While  to  most  liberals  the  word  religion  is  pleas- 
ant to  the  ear  and  dear  to  the  heart,  since  to  them  it 


214 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


stands  for  the  highest  in  thought  and  endeavor,  to 
others  who  associate  it  with  theological  dogmas  it  is 
offensive;  and  such  say,  with  Hobbes,  that  the  only 
difference  between  religion  and  superstition  is  that 
religion  is  superstition  in  fashion,  while  superstition 
is  religion  out  of  fashion. 

Liberals  have  arrived  at  the  views  they  hold  by 
different  methods  and  under  widely  different  condi- 
tions. One  class  has  abandoned  theological  beliefs 
in  an  atmosphere  of  religious  bigotry  and  under 
influences  that  have  stimulated  the  critical  and  com- 
bative tendencies.  Their  zeal  and  their  methods 
are  very  liable  to  be  much  like  those  of  the  theology 
which  the_\-  imagine  they  have  outgrown.  Another 
class  is  composed  of  persons  who  have  parted  with 
their  early  religious  beliefs  amid  influences  in  har- 
mony with  their  feelings,  who  have  but  little,  il  any. 
knowledge  of  Holbach,  Voltaire  Or  Paine,  who  feel 
no  hostility  to  Christianity,  which,  indeed,  they 
would  be  glad  to  see  reconciled  with  reason  anil 
common  sense.  In  this  class  are  included  many 
Unitarians,  whose  position  results  from  lingering 
feelings  of  attachment  to  a  system  which  they  have 
intellectually  outgrown.  Another  class  of  liberals 
has  never  been  much  interested  in  religious  subjects; 
has  never  had  any  personal  experience  of  the  suffer- 
ing involved  in  the  conscientious  rejection  of  religious 
doctrines,  once  intensely  believed,  but  is  unbelieving 
from  a  predisposition  to  skepticism,  from  intellectual 
inability  to  accept  unproved  propositions  and  indif- 
ference to  questions  of  a  speculative  and  unverifiable 
character.  Persons  of  this  class  are  the  least  enthu- 
siastic, the  least  aggressive  and  the  least  interested 
in  special  liberal  organizations. 

Then  among  liberals  are  those  of  constructive 
and  destructive  disposition — those  who,  even  though 
they  agree  on  many  points,  have  but  little  commu- 
nity of  thought  or  feeling  in  their  work.  Considered 
simply  as  a  protest  against  prevailing  theological 
beliefs,  liberalism  is  necessarily  iconoclastic,  and 
when  men  first  perceive  the  error  and  folly  of 
dogmas  in  which  they  have  been  educated,  without 
comprehending  the  positive  thought  that  must 
replace  the  discarded  doctrines,  they  are  liable  to 
put  undue  emphasis  on  the  destructive  side  of 
thought,  and  to  be  unsympathetic  in  criticism,  undis- 
criminating  in  denial  and  intemperate  in  denuncia- 
tion. Such  may  feel  more  interest  in  a  work- 
pointing  out  the  defects  of  the  Bible  than  in  that  of 
the  advanced  liberal  thinkers  who  are  impressed 
with  the  importance  of  positive  constructive  work  in 
the  domain  of  science,  history,  art,  and  of  politi- 
cal and  social  as  well  as  religious  reform,  and  are 
devoting  their  energies  to  their  respective  provinces 
with  splendid  results. 


Thus  we  see  that  the  word  liberal  as  commonly 
used  is  applicable  to  a  very  large  number  of  persons, 
among  whom  there  is  the  greatest  difference  as  to 
ability,  attainments,  aim  and  spirit  and  the  greatest 
diversity  of  belief.  When  representatives  of 
matured  and  scholarly  thought  find  themselves 
classed  with  all  sorts  of  cranks  and  self-styled 
"reformers"  under  the  general  name  "liberals,"  and 
find  their  names  used  in  connection  with  the  crudest 
thought  and  often  the  wildest  vagaries  with  which 
they  have  not  the  slightest  sympathy,  it  is  but  natural 
that  they  should  prefer  to  be  known  by  some  more 
definite  name,  and  encourage  the  use  of  words  which 
will  make  such  distinctions  as  are  necessary  to  a  fair 
understanding  of  the  positions  of  all  thinkers  and 
workers,  thereby  helping  to  remove  that  confusion 
in  the  public  mind  which  associates  the  best  thought 
of  the  age  with  all  the  fantasies,  follies  and  fanaticism 
that  pass  current  under  the  name  of  liberalism. 

With  so  much  diversity  among  liberals  it  is  not 
strange  that  they  have  never  united  in  a  general 
organization.  Organizations  on  the  broad  plan  of 
the  Free  Religious  Association,  and  of  the  Ethical 
Culture  Societies  have  done  and  are  doing  good 
work,  and  they  will  continue  to  have  earnest  sup- 
porters in  the  future;  but  let  no  one  imagine  that  the 
strength  and  value  of  liberalism  are  to  be  determined 
by  its  capacity  for  organization.  Progress  is  now,  as 
it  has  been  in  the  past,  along  the  line  of  existing  bc- 
liefsand  institutions;  and  its  results  are  seen  in  the  con- 
tinual modifications  of  the  old  rather  than  in  special 
creations  of  something  new.  They  are  observable  in 
the  tone  of  the  press,  in  the  teachings  of  the  pulpit,  in 
improved  legislation,  in  the  character  of  our  general 
literature,  in  the  growing  charity  and  tolerance,  and, 
above  all,  in  the  increasing  intellectual  freedom- 
a  condition  which  insures  progress  in  every  direction. 
Without  any  great  general  organization,  liberalism — all 
that  is  worthy  of  perpetuation  comprehended  under 
this  name — is  exerting  everywhere,  in  the  churches  and 
outside  of  them,  a  profound,  multiplex  and  far-reach- 
ing influence.  Meanwhile  all  who  are  making  direct 
contributions  to  the  world's  thought,  or  are  stimulat- 
ing others  to  think',  are  furnishing  material  for  a 
great  comprehensive  system  of  philosophy,  which, 
as  Professor  Denslow  says  in  one  of  his  essays, 
"will  be  too  composite  and  heterogeneous  to  bear 
the  stamp  of  any  one  thinker  in  any  special  degree 
of  predominance  over  all  others." 

BLASPHEMY. 

In  the  daily  papers  have  been  printed  reports  of 
the  trial  for  blasphemy  of  Charles  B.  Reynolds,  an 
ex-preacher  of  the  Seventh-day  Adventists,  at  Mor- 
ristown,   N.|J.     The  ground  of  [complaint   was  that 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


215 


Reynolds  had  circulated  a  pamphlet  ridiculing  Chris- 
tian doctrines  and  containing  a  cartoon  representing 
himself  as  "Casting  Pearls  before  Swine.''  He  was 
defended  with  ability  and  eloquence  by  Col.  Inger- 
soll,  but  was  convicted  and  fined  S25,  with  costs. 
The  law  on  which  the  indictment  was  based,  is  over 
a  hundred  years  old,  and  has,  as  Ingersoll  says,  "slept 
like  a  venomous  snake  beneath  the  altar  of  liberty," 
this  being  the  first  blasphemy  case  ever  tried  in  the 
State.  From  descriptions  of  it  given  in  the  papers, 
we  infer  that  the  pamphlet  is  coarse  and  of  a  char- 
acter to  reflect  no  credit  upon  its  author,  whose  style 
and  methods  seem  to  be  much  the  same  that  they 
were  when  he  was  a  preacher;  but  on  no  just 
grounds  can  either  the  conviction,  or  the  law  under 
which  the  trial  occurred,  be  defended. 

Blasphemy  is  a  fictitious  offense,  an  imaginary 
crime  for  which  the  honest  and  best  men  have  been 
subjected  to  imprisonment,  torture  and  death. 
It  is  still  punishable  in  the  most  enlightened  coun- 
tries at  both  common  law  and  statute  law.  In  Eng- 
land and  in  the  United  States  are  laws  unrepealed 
under  which  are  men,  every  now  and  then,  tried,  con- 
victed and  sentenced  for  expressing  disbelief  in  God, 
in  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  and  in  the  superhuman  origin 
and  character  of  the  Bible.  Of  late  years  there  has 
been  a  disinclination  in  the  secular  courts  to  pro- 
nounce such  disbelief  blasphemy,  and  a  disposition 
to  make  it  consist  rather  in  speaking,  writing  and 
publishing  profane  words,  vilifying  or  ridiculing  God, 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Holy  Ghost„the  scriptures  or  the 
Christian  religion,  in  a  way  to  bring  it  into  con- 
tempt. According  to  the  latest  English  judicial 
opinion,  that  of  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  in  the  case  of 
Reg.  vs.  Foote,  no  opinion,  however  anti-Christian  or 
even  atheistic,  can  any  longer  be  regarded  from  a 
legal  point  of  view  as  blasphemous.  The  blasphemy 
must  consist  in  the  manner  in  which  the  opinion  is 
expressed,  not  in  the  character  of  the  opinion. 
While  this  decision  indicates  progress,  the  law,  as 
thus  interpreted,  is  still  open  to  grave  objections. 
There  are  many  whose  opposition  to  popular  religious 
belief,  although  far  less  effective  than  that  of  John 
Stuart  Mill,  George  Eliot  or  Matthew  Arnold,  is  just 
as  sincere,  and  whose  language  must  necessarily  be 
more  offensive  to  the  rigidly  orthodox.  Why  char- 
acterize their  expressions  as  blasphemous?  So  long 
as  theology  teaches  such  absurdities  as  are  in  the 
creeds  of  the  churches,  it  need  not  expect  to  escape 
being  ridiculed  more  or  less  as  people  outgrow  it. 
Its  defenders  should  consider  as  Conway  says:  "That 
there  are  more  muscles  to  draw  the  mouth  up  than 
to  draw  it  down,  and  that  man's  control  of  his  risibles 
has  its  limits."  Did  not  the  early  Christians  ridicule 
the  faith    of  the   Pagans  and  kick   over  their  idols? 


Were  not  cartoons  and  caricatures  freely  used  by  the 
Protestants  against  the  Pope  during  the  Reforma- 
tion? True,  we  live  in  a  better  age,  and  coarseness 
in  the  advocacy  of  opinions  is  not  in  harmony  with  the 
best  methods  of  the  day,  but  let  not  the  law  impose 
uponjthe  discussion  of  Christianity  any  restraints  which 
are  not  imposed  upon  the  discussion  of  other  sub- 
jects. Science  asks  no  protection  from  ridicule; 
none  should  be  extended  to  Christianity.  The  law 
in  regard  to  blasphemy  should  be  abolished  alto- 
gether. An  expression  of  belief  or  unbelief  should 
not  be  punished  because  it  is  offensive  to  those  whose 
views  are  assailed.  If  men  treat  religious  subjects 
in  a  manner  contrary  to  good  taste  and  good  judg- 
ment, this  offense  can  wisely  be  left  to  the  condemna- 
tion of  public  opinion.      Let  the  State  not  interfere. 


The  cause  of  free  religious  inquiry  in  Scotland  has 
been  greatly  strengthened,  as  has  already  been  noted  in 
this  journal,  by  the  bequest  of  the  late  Lord  Gifford, 
who  has  left  ,£So,ooo  to  establish  four  Lectureships  or 
chairs  of  Natural  Theology,  one  at  each  of  the  Scottish 
universities.  It  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  growing 
liberality  of  thought  in  the  church  of  Scotland,  that 
several  of  her  most  distinguished  professors  have  of 
late  spoken  in  condemnation  of  the  strict  exclusion  of 
all  theological  teaching,  other  than  orthodox,  in  the 
universities.  This  splendid  gift  will  secure  the  estab- 
lishment and  permanence  of  liberal  religious  teaching, 
which  without  this  impetus  would  probably  have  been 
long  deferred,  since  there  is  not  as  yet  sufficient  public 
or  State  approval  to  insure  its  adequate  support.  The 
conditions  of  the  will  require  assent  to  no  dogma  or 
theological  test  whatever.  The  lecturers  are  to  be  en- 
tirely free  to  teach  their  own  beliefs,  whether  they  are 
Christians  or  Agnostics,  in  short  "  of  any  religion  or  way 
of  thinking,"  the  only  requirement  being  that  thev  shall 
be  "  reverent  men,  true  thinkers,  sincere  lovers  of  and 
earnest  inquirers  after  truth."  The  subject  will  be 
treated  as  a  "  natural  science  "  and  the  lectures  will  be 
open  to  all  who  may  wish  to  attend,  whether  students 
or    not. 

George  J.  Romanes  writes  on  "  The  Mental  Differ- 
ences between  Men  and  Women,"  in  The  Nineteenth 
Century  for  May.  He  regards  the  difference  of  brain- 
weight  (which  "  is  about  five  ounces")  between  the 
average  men  and  women,  as  evidence  of  greater  in- 
tellectuality in  the  former  and  finds  it  the  result  of 
the  evolutionary  process  in  which  man  has  gained  the 
advantage  because  of  his  constant  leadership  in  the 
affairs  of  life.  In  some  other  respects  he  looks  upon 
woman  as  the  equal  if  not  the  superior  of  man,  and 
grants  her  the  superiority  in  not  a  few.  While  he 
insists  that  there  are  fundamental  differences  which 


2l6 


THK   OPEN    COURT. 


do  ami  always  will  make  man  distinctly  man  and 
woman  woman,  he  holds  that  the  question  of  infe- 
riority will  be  forgotten,  as  it  deserves  to  be,  and 
quotes  Mrs.  Fawcett,  who  says:  "All  we  ask  is,  that 
the  social  and  legal  status  of  woman  should  be  such 
as  to  foster,  not  to  suppress,  any  gift  for  art,  litera- 
ture, learning,  or  goodness  with  which  women  may 
be  endowed."  The  result  of  this  will  be  the  develop- 
ment of  a  constantly  increasing  measure  of  mentality 
in  woman,  uplifting  her  till  she  is  the  perfect  com- 
plement of  man. 

*  *         * 

Rev.  W.  Benham  writes  in  The  Fortnightly  Review 
for  May  administering  a  well-deserved  rebuke  to 
Dean  Burgon,  whose  article  in  a  recent  number  criti- 
cising Canon  Fremantle,  was  bigoted  and  intolerant 
in  the  extreme.  Mr.  Benham  asserts  that  there  are 
large  numbers  of  the  clergy  who  no  longer  accept 
the  views  of  Dean  Burgon,  and  to  whom  his  "  furious 
onslaughts"  in  a  style  "  which  may  be  called  noisy  and 
violent,"  are  anything  but  convincing.  The  theory 
of  evolution  which  Dean  Burgon  calls  "  the  weakest 
of  unphilosophical  imaginations,"  is  one  which  is  rec- 
ognized by  the  clergy  as  being  strong  reinforced  by- 
evidence  and  is  being  accepted  by  many  of  them 
whole  or  in  part.  Thus  Mr.  Benham  says,  "  The 
Dean  may  be  assured  that  the  case  has  hopelessly 
gone  against   him   here,"   and  "that  he  will  soon  be 

left  alone." 

*  *         * 

Of  great  interest  to  the  antiquary  is  the  discovery 
of  the  mummy  of  Rameses  II,  the  Pharaoh  of  the 
Bible,  during  whose  reign  the  Israelites  are  said  to 
have  "sighed  by  reason  of  their  bondage."  The 
tomb  containing  the  mummy  of  the  great  king,  as 
well  as  of  those  of  about  forty  other  kings,  queens 
and  princes,  has  long  been  known  to  a  few  of  the  na- 
tives, but  was  kept  a  secret  by  them  for  pecuniary 
reasons,  until  Ilerr  Emil  Brugsch  Bey,  curator  of  the 
Bulaq  Museum  at  Cairo,  was  guided  to  its  entrance 
by  an  Arab  who  had  been  led  to  betray  his  trust  by  a 
liberal  offer  of  "bakhshish."  The  royal  mummies 
were  taken  out  and  unrolled,  whereupon  abundant 
evidence  was  found  to  show  that  they  were  indeed 
those  of  the  Egyptian  "oppressor"  and  his  ancestors. 
They  were  soon  taken  to  Cairo,  where,  incased  in 
tTiss,  they  may  be  seen  at  the  Bulaq  Museum. 

*  *         # 

The  "Hydrophobia  Bugbear  "is  the  subject  of  an  arti- 
cle by  Dr.  Edward  C.  Spitzka  in  Hie  Forum  for  April. 
The  results  of  careful  investigation  have  led  him  to  be- 
lieve that  a  large  majority  of  cases  of  so-called  rabies 
are  spurious,  the  real  trouble  being  that  the  persons  bit- 
ten become  so  wrought  upon  by  fear  that  nervous  disor- 
ders of  peculiar  characters  are  the  results.     He  adduces 


cases  of  apparent  hydrophobia  produced  by  the  bite  of 
dogs  that  were  not  mad,  as  their  ultimate  recovery 
proved.  He  looks  upon  the  institutes  for  the  cure  of 
rabies  as  means  of  increasing  the  popular  apprehension, 
and  consequently  of  developing  a  larger  number  of  sup- 
posed cases.  Lastly,  he  declares  that  the  symptoms  that 
are  commonly  assigned  to  rabies  are  fictitious;  that  it  is 
impossible  for  a  dog  to  innoculate  a  man  with  a  disposi- 
tion to  bark  and  run  about  on  all  fours,  just  as  it  is  im- 
possible for  a  man  to  innoculate  a  dog  with  the  power 
of  speech  and  an  upright  gait,  and  demands  that  this 
truth  be  at  once  inculcated  in  the  public  mind. 

Apropos  of  the  much  debated  term  "Agnostic," 
Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  in  a  recent  lecture  given  at 
Parker  Memorial  Hall,  Boston,  Mass.,  on  "The  Igno- 
rant Classes,"  said: 

This  is  a  subject  we  hear  much  about  nowadays.  I  would 
first  ask,  in  relation  to  it,  "  Ignorant  of  what  ?"  All  people  are 
ignorant  in  some  respects.  There  is  individual  ignorance  and 
class  ignorance.  People  of  philosophical  habits  in  these  times  call 
themselves  "agnostics,"  which,  were  it  not  for  a  former  political 
significance  of  the  name,  might  be  translated,  "know  nothings.' 
Such  people  have  in  all  ages  kept  in  view  the  limitations  of  knowl- 
edge, and  the  boundless  extent  and  number  of  the  things  worthy 
to  be  known ;  they  described  themselves  ignorant  in  view  of  the 
immense  disproportion    between  what    they   wish  to  know    and 

what  they  can  know. 

*  *  * 

Matthew  Arnold  reviews  the  course  of  recent 
British  politics  "Up  to  Easter,"  in  The  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury for  May.  He  finds  anything  but  a  satisfactory 
past;  Liberal  politics  having  long  been  affected  with 
"  half-heartedness,"  and  not  being  "sanguine"  about 
their  future,  he  favors  the  continuance  in  power  of 
the  Conservative  party,  and  asks,  "  Why,  then,  should 
we  be  so  very-  eager  to  take  up  again  with  the  'taber- 
nacle of  Moloch,'  Mr.  Gladstone's  old  umbrella,  or 
the  '  star  of  our  god  Rumphan,'  the  genial  counte- 
nance of  Sir  William  Harcourt,  merely  in  order  to 
pass  forty-  years  in  the  wilderness  of  the  Deceased 
Wife's  Sister?"  If  the  government  will  quell  anarchy 
in  Ireland,  give  her  a  sound  plan  of  local  govern- 
ment and  make  the  land  laws  just,  he  will  support  it, 
and  he  believes  that  the  British  people  will  do  the 
same.  *         *         * 

The  .Westminster  Review,  entering  upon  its  sixty- 
fourth  year  becomes  a  monthly,  and  issues  an  an- 
nouncement of  its  purposes  past  and  present.  It  has 
been  called  "The  Cradle  of  English  Liberalism"  and 
was  one  of  the  first  voices  raised  in  favor  of  free 
trade.  It  becomes  a  monthly  publication  in  answer 
to  the  demand  for  periodical  literature  which  the 
constantly  increasing  liberalism  of  the  age  is  making. 
♦         *         * 

I  Iriginal  contributions  from  the  pen  of  Prof.  F. 
Max  Midler,  will  soon  be  printed  in  The  Open  Court- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


217 


COPE'S  THEOLOGY  OF  EVOLUTION. 


BY    DR.    EDMUND    MONTGOMERY. 
Part   11. 


says  himself,  that  "the  knowledge  of  what  is  right  and 
the  disposition  to  do  right"  are  faculties  that  "have 
been  developed  by  use  into  the  habit  of  so  acting;  and 
If  refutation  and  not  elucidation  were  the  object  of  the  acts  which  men  perform  naturally  follow  the  organ- 
this  criticism,  we  might  leave  Professor  Cope's  theo-  ized  character  they  possess."  The  moral  nature  of  man 
logical  craft  hopelessly  wrecked  among  the  psycho-  as  evinced  in  his  social  relations  is  an  effect  of  "the  mu- 
physical  breakers.  Before  having  come  within  fair  sight  tual  pressure  each  man  causes  toward  his  fellow  men 
of  biology  and  evolution,  the  venturous  sailor  struck  the  with  regard  to  his  conduct  toward  him."  (p..«0  It 
most  perilous  reef  in  the  wide  sea  of  knowledge,  where  strictly  follows,  that  the  Deity,  who  has  no  "  organized 
so  many  goodly  ships  have  stranded.  The  strait  between  character,"  and  who  docs  not  enter  into  social  relations 
Scilla  and  Charybdiswas  not  more  fatal  to  ancient  voya-      must  be  totally  devoid  of  morality. 

gers,  than  the  puzzle  of  mind  and  body  proves  to  be  to  It  is  evident   then,  that  the   great    Mind  of    the   the- 

modern  philosophers.  °Iogv  of  evolution,  if  it  existed  at  all,  would  be  mentally 

The    conclusions    of     the    Theology    of  Evolution      deficient,  and  a  moral  nonentity, 
having  been  reached  through  biological  studies  from  the  Furthermore,   if    mind    is  a  property    of   matter,  as 

evolutional  standpoint,  we  will  first  show  what  strange  Professor  Cope  maintains,  and  if,  as  he  willingly  con- 
logical  outcomes  this  mode  of  procedure  involves,  and  cedes,  just  in  proportion  as  matter  becomes  more  highly 
then  we  will  endeavor  to  estimate  the  merits  of  Profes-      organized,  the   mind    connected    with    it    becomes   also 


sor  Cope's  peculiar  views  of  vitality  and  evolution,  that 
have  seemed  to  him  to  warrant  his  theological  specula- 
tions. This  biological  examination  will  compel  us  to 
give  careful  attention  to  the  great  problem  of  the  rela- 
tion of  mind  to  organization. 

Professor  Cope's  Deity  or  "  great   Mind,"  to  whose 
"  active  exercise   of  mentality  "  we  are  told  "  all   evolu- 


more  highly  developed, — what  under  these  conditions 
are  our  chances  of  immortality?  An  "inseparable 
bond  "  binds  us  "  forever  to  a  material  basis."  The  ma- 
terial basis  undergoes  after  death  a  rapid  retrograde  meta- 
morphosis; it  follows  that  the  qualities  or  faculties  of 
our  mind,  which  had  entirely  depended  on  high-wrought 
vital  organization,  decay  and  dissolve  at  least  as  rapidly 


tion  is    due,"    must — when     rightly   contemplated, — be      as  their  material    substratum.     Our  immortality  would 


deemed  vastly  inferior  in  all  essential  respects  to  the 
"lesser  minds"  that  are  "  a  part  or  fragment  of  it."  On 
first  consideration  it  may  appear  rather  strange  that 
fragments  should  be  so  much  superior  to  the  whole  from 
which  they  are  derived.  But,  then,  we  would  naturally 
suppose,  or  at  least  we  would  sincerely  hope  on   moral 


then  consist  of  whatever  mind  is  left  in  the  scattered 
elements  of  decomposition;  the  mind  of  water,  carbonic 
acid,  ammonia,  etc. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  plain  and  rudiment- 
ary remarks  we  have  just  been  making  were  advanced 
merely   to  divert   ourselves   at   the  expense   of  a    Deity 


grounds,  that   this   active   exercise   of   mentality   on   the  who   is   the  property  of  matter.     We    understand   per- 

part  of  the  great  Mind,  to  which  evolution  is  due,  is  being  fectly  well  how  a  philosophical   naturalist  and  especially 

exerted  to  some  good  or  useful  purpose.     It  would  be-  a  biologist,  finds  himself  utterly  incapable  of  conceiving 

token  sheer   insanity  in    the  great  Mind  to  amuse  itself,  mind,  individual    or  general,  floating  about  in    vacancy 

by  most  laboriously  splitting  its  being  into  a  number  of  attached  to   nothing.     In   exposing  here  the   absurdities 

lesser   minds   that   were   not   an    improvement  upon   its  to  which  the  conception  of  mind,  independent  of  organi- 


own  undivided  self.  The  great  Mind  is  conceived  as 
connected  with  the  wholly  unorganized  state  of  matter; 
indeed  as  being  the  property  of  the  primordial  "  unspe- 
cialized  "  substratum,  with  which  evolution  starts.  Now, 
we  all  know,  that  in  proportion  as  matter  gains  in  sig- 


zation,  necessarily  leads,  we  had  in  view  not  only  the 
special  conception  of  the  "  great  Mind "  of  the  llie- 
ology  of  Evolution,  but  the  conception  of  any  kind  of 
mind  not  connected  with  organized  individuality. 

No  one  can  be    more  realistically  aware  of   the  de- 


nificance  and    efficiency  by  the  progressive  evolution  of  pendence  of  mental  evolution  on  organic  evolution   than 

organic  forms,  the  mind  of  these  forms  gains  likewise  in  Professor    Cope,  who    has   studied  so    minutely  and  un- 

significance  and  efficiency.      This  at  least  is  what  expe-  derstandingly  the  correspondence  obtaining  between  the 

rience  clearly  proves.     The  scale  of  progressive  evolu-  progressive  scale  of  life  and  that  of  mind,  as  traceable  in 

tion,  in  which  organic  forms  are  ranged,  is  also  the  scale  the  records  of    our  planet.     How,  then,   has  so  highly 

of  progressive  mental  evolution.      The  less  advanced  the  distinguished   a    scientific     observer    and    thinker    ever 

organization,  the  more  inferior  the  mind.     And  as  the  come  to  indulge  in  such  fantastic  notions  about  the  ob- 

great  Mind  is  the  property  of  wholly  unorganized  mat-  jects  of  theological  faith .-      The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek, 

ter,  it  must  necessarily  be  the  most  inferior  of  all  minds.  Just  because  Professor  Cope  is   not  a  mere  narrow  spe- 

And  when  it  comes  to  the  higher  exhibitions  of  men-  cialist,  but  is  sympathetically  alive  to  the  great  questions 

tality,  the  Godhead    lodging   in  primordial  matter  is  left  of  our  time;  for  this  reason  have  his  scientific  researches 

still  more  incommensurably   behind.     Professor    Cope      — however    accurate    and    important    in    themselves 


218 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


conduced  to  yield  to  him  answers  also  to  those  great  open 
questions,  on  which  our  ultimate  hopes  and  fears  are 
pending.  He  himself  says:  "  An  occasional  flight  into 
this  region  of  thought  at  least  brings  the  thinker  into 
sj  mputhv  with  the  thoughts  of  his  fellowmen."  (O.  of 
K,  p.  420).  We  heartily  approve  of  this  sentiment  and 
willingly  follow  him  in  his  larger  quest,  knowing  well 
that  careful  researches  into  the  constitution  of  reality 
furnish  the  right  medium  for  such  "occasional  flights." 
It  is  no  longer  from  verbal  traditions  or  conceptions 
about  the  concerns  of  the  world,  it  is  from  a  scientific 
insight  into  the  world  itself,  that  the  rational  mind  is 
expecting  a  solution  of  these  supreme  questions, — ques- 
tions whose  accepted  answers  have  ever  been  molding 
and  will  continue  to  mold,  social  conduct.  To  under- 
stand our  present  philosophical  and  scientific  position 
toward  them,  we  have  to  go  back  to  the  starting  point 
of  modern  science. 

Descartes  was  the  first  to  draw  a  sharp  line  between 
a  material  world  governed  by  mechanical  necessity,  and 
a  mental  world  deriving  its  ideal  inspirations  from  God, 
the  ens  rcalissiinum.  Mechanical  principles  were  soon 
mathematically  systematized  and  brought  to  bear  on  the 
outer  world  with  a  success  that  initiated  a  new  era  in 
human  thought.  The  chaos  of  capricious  occurrences 
that  had  made  up  the  previous  conception  of  nature  be- 
came in  this  steady  light  an  ordered  universe,  following 
with  never-failing  constancy  and  precision  the  laws  of 
mechanical  necessity.  But  now,  more  than  ever,  the 
two  disparate  spheres,  that  of  mind  and  that  of  matter, 
seemed  utterly  incommensurable,  the  former  originating 
intuitively  and  at  will  its  wide  range  of  pliant  figura- 
tions, the  latter  proceeding  undeviatingly  through  time 
and  space,  rigorously  compelled  from  moment  to  moment 
by  equivalent  causation. 

There  remained,  however,  one  domain  of  material 
existence  which  refused  to  comply  so  readily  with  the 
demands  of  mechanical  science.  To  unsophisticated  ob- 
servers the  body  of  living  beings  seemed  to  be  formed 
and  actuated  by  forces  not  reducible  to  the  mechanical 
standard.  Descartes  himself — blinded  by  the  recent  dis- 
covery of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  which  he  believed 
to  be  an  entirely  mechanical  phenomenon — would  not 
admit  such  a  distinction  between  organic  and  inorganic 
nature.  He  simply  and  consistently  declared  all  organisms 
to  be  nothing  but  mechanical  automata  to  which,  in  the 
special  case  of  the  human  organism,  a  thinking  soul  was 
superadded.  To  subsequent  observers,  living  organisms, 
in  which  mind  and  body  are  so  strangely  blended,  became 
the  hotly  contested  ground,  for  the  possession  of  which 
were  struggling,  on  the  one  side  the  mechanical  inter 
pretation,  on  the  other  side  the  supernatural  interpreta- 
tion. And  one  must  confess  that  it  is  in  all  reality,  a  try- 
ing task  to  make  out  how  far  mechanical  laws  have  here 
sway,  ainl  how  far  other   explanatory  principles  have  to 


be  called  in.  One  is  forced  to  recognize  that  the  organ- 
ism is  interposing  a  specific  medium  between  the  mutual 
intercourse  of  the  physical  and  the  psychical  order. 

The  modern  world-conception  had,  then,  three  dis- 
tinct spheres  of  manifest  existence  to  harmonize,  the 
outer  universe,  the  organism,  and  the  mind.  And  it  is 
in  this  perplexing  endeavor  that  we  find  ourselves  still 
busily  engaged. 

Kant,  inspired  by  Newton,  framed  the  nebular  hy- 
pothesis, accounting  on  mechanical  principles  for  the 
present  disposition  and  motion  of  cosmical  masses.  Un- 
der this  point  of  view  it  became  obvious  that  organic 
beings  must  have  been  somehow  evolved  during  the 
development  of  our  planet.  Kant  himself  tried  hard  to 
extend  the  mechanical  interpretation  to  organic  forms, 
for  he  firmly  believed  that  teleological  considerations  had 
to  be  excluded  from  the  science  of  the  material  world. 
But  he  was  too  profound  and  conscientious  a  thinker  not 
to  become  convinced  that  the  manifest  teleological  con- 
stitution of  organic  forms  and  functions  cannot  possibly 
be  mechanically  explained.  He  formulated  a  theory  of 
descent  and  gradual  development  much  earlier  than  La- 
marck and  others,  but  found  himself,  even  then,  driven 
to  assume  that  our  mother  earth  must  have  given  birth 
to  primitive  organisms  which  contained  potentially  the 
generative  drift  of  all  succeeding  evolutions  of  living 
beings.  This  hypothetical  endowment  of  our  planet  with 
an  all-efficient  maternal  fecundity  was,  however,  little 
in  keeping  with  its  avowed  mechanical  constitution. 
Evidently,  the  origin  and  development  of  living  beings 
in  the  course  of  meclianical  world-formation  was  as  per- 
plexing a  question  then  as  it  is  at  the  present  day,  des- 
pite the  specious  discussions  of  the  Synthetic  Philoso- 
phy. Mechanical  evolution  and  organic  evolution  can- 
not be  made  to  blend  harmoniously. 

And,  from  another  point  of  view,  the  fundamental 
divisions  of  our  modern  world-conception  refuse  no  less  to 
blend.  For  how  is  mechanical  necessity  to  be  reconciled 
with  volitional  activity  of  a  hyper-mechanical  kind? 
Kant,  who  examined  our  mental  constitution  more  ex- 
haustively than  had  ever  been  done  before,  discovered 
nothing  but  necessity  in  its  immediate  interaction  with 
the  outside  world.  Perception,  as  well  as  conception, 
seemed  to  him  strictly  determined  by  arrangements  not 
allowing  any  free  play  on  the  part  of  our  volition.  Our 
mental  faculties  he  held  to  be  competent  to  deal  only 
with  the  sensible  world.  And  everything  appertaining 
to  the  sensible  world  was  in  his  opinion  governed  by  fixed 
and  unalterable  conditions. 

There  was,  however,  still  one  outlet  left  for  liberty 
to  assert  itself.  For,  however  complete  the  sway  of 
necessity  may  be  in  our  world,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
in  our  moral  actions  at  least,  we  do  not  yield  to  it. 
With  a  transcendent  power  of  spontaneous  or  free  causa- 
tion, emanating  from  the  depth  of  our  being,  we  overcome 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


219 


mechanical  compulsion  and  bend  it  to  our  higher 
purpose.  We  impose  on  the  insentient  mechanism  of 
nature  the  moral  injunctions  recognized  by  reason. 
Kant  accounted  for  this  enigmatical  power  of  ours  to 
transfigure  the  physical  nexus  of  perceptible  things  in 
conformity  with  ideal  conceptions;  a  power  which  he 
erroneously  restricted  to  purely  moral  doings,  he 
accounted  for  it,  by  making  it  flow  into  nature  from  a 
supernatural  sphere,  where  he  believed  our  moral  being 
to  have  its  veritable  home. 

This  breaking  through  natural  law  from  above  and 
within  by  strength  of  free  volitional  causation,  sanc- 
tioned thus  by  the  leading  thinker  of  the  age,  was  soon 
followed  by  a  general  revolt  against  physical  necessity. 
Spreading  from  Germany  to  France  and  eventually  to 
England  and  America,  this  philosophical  re-assertion  of 
human  spontaneity  received  additional  impetus  from 
individual  and  social  aspirations,  roused  by  Rousseau, 
the  French  revolution,  and  Shakespeare,  and  soon  it 
fused  its  own  spirit  of  freedom  together  with  that  of 
the  renaissance  and  the  reformation,  into  one  impetuous 
protest  against  the  deadening  fatalism  of  inflexible 
causation  and  external  compulsion. 

To  understand  the  enthusiasm  which  this  move- 
ment kindled  and  is  still  sustaining,  a  movement  repre- 
sented by  Emerson  in  this  country,  by  Coleridge  and 
Carlyle  in  England,  by  Cousin  and  Jeoffroy  in  France, 
by  Fichte,  Schelling  and  Hegel  in  Germany.  Fully  to 
understand  this  excessive  outburst  of  mental  exultation 
we  have  to  remember  that  Newton's  method  of  inter- 
preting physical  phenomena  had  gained  ascendency 
also  in  the  interpretation  of  mental  phenomena.  The 
sensation-philosophy,  which  became  victorious  in 
England  and  France,  originated  avowedly  in  the 
attempt  to  explain  mental  occurrences  according  to 
Newton's  method.  And  even  Kant  declared  his 
researches  into  the  constitution  of  the  mind  to  be  guided 
by  Newtonian  principles.  The  prevailing  philosophical 
impression  was,  that  mental  phenomena  are  subject  to  a 
causal  enchainment  as  rigorously  determined  as  that  of 
physical  phenomena.  In  its  extreme  nihilistic  form  the 
sensation-philosophy  had  reduced  us  and  the  world  to  a 
congeries  of  elementary  sensations,  constituting  through 
gradually  established  habits  of  association  a  matterless, 
soulless,  Godless  realm  of  phantasmal  appearances. 

This  self-annihilating  view  of  things  was  by  no 
means  flattering  to  human  pride,  nor  could  it  be  any 
more  reconciled  with  the  actual  experience  of  volitional 
spontaneity  than  the  theological  dogma  of  predestina- 
tion. We  cannot  wonder,  then,  that  those,  who  under 
the  influence  of  free-thought  had  liberated  themselves 
from  the  authority  of  biblical  traditions,  without  becom- 
ing converts  to  the  scientific  cretd,  gave  now  eager 
welcome  to  this  rationalistic  reassurance  of  individual 
self-determination. 


Meanwhile,  natural  science,  within  its  own  domain, 
followed  triumphantly  its  clearly  defined  course,  explain- 
ing physical  occurrences  by  means  of  the  agitation,  ag- 
gregation, or  dispersion  of  masses  through  mechanically 
imparted  motion,  and  feeling  baffled  only  when  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  problems  of  vitality  and  organiza- 
tion. Here,  mechanical  effectuation  was  more  or  less 
clearly  discerned  to  be  incompetent  to  build  up  organic 
forms  and  to  infuse  life  into  them.  Thus,  while  physi- 
cists in  their  special  field  of  research  had  long  ceased  to 
have  recourse  to  supernatural  aid,  biologists  felt  still 
compelled  to  invoke  some  kind  of  deus  ex  mackind,  if 
not  always  to  explain  vital  phenomena,  then  at  least  to 
account  for  the  origin  of  living  beings. 

Linnaeus  by  a  gigantic  effort,  had  succeeded  in  bring- 
ing order  into  the  chaos  of  organic  forms.  This  order, 
by  which  naturalists  now  for  the  first  time  were  enabled 
to  subdue  to  human  comprehension  a  vast  confusion  of 
morphological  similarities  and  differences — was  based  on 
the  special  creation  and  subsequent  stability  of  every  dis- 
tinct species.  And  though  in  the  course  of  time  evolu- 
tional ideas  of  various  description  came  to  haunt  biologi- 
cal science,  serious  investigators  were  naturally  loath  to 
relinquish  the  principles  underlying  their  well-systema- 
tized knowledge,  only  to  adopt  some  other  insufficiently 
supported  theory.  This  feeling  among  biologists  was 
still  paramount  when  Darwin's  work  on  the  Origin 
of  Species  made  its  first  appearance  and  turned  for- 
ever the  tide  in  favor  of  gradual  and  progressive  evolu- 
tion. 

The  scientific  persuasiveness  of  Darwin's  view  lay  in 
the  demonstration  of  natural  selection  as  a  directing  in- 
fluence actually  at  woik  during  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence; an  influence  eliminating  less  useful  and  preserving 
more  useful  variations,  so  that  the  latter  are  enabled  to 
cumulate  in  the  race.  The  occurrence  of  a  profusion  of 
most  manifold  variations  is  presupposed  in  this  evolu- 
tional conception.  But  this  was  no  serious  hindrance  in 
the  way  of  its  acceptance,  for  the  existence  of  frequent 
variations  from  the  scientifically  fixed  types  had  proved 
too  perplexing  to  professional  systematizers  to  have  been 
overlooked.  So  soon,  then,  as  natural  selection  was  ad- 
mitted to  be  a  veritable  cause  furthering  the  cumulation 
of  varieties  in  specific  directions,  the  entire  domain  of 
organic  forms  became  fluent  to  the  mind's  eye,  and  was 
perceived  to  have  been  always  plastic  to  this  same  mold- 
ing influence.  Geology,  paleontology,  comparative 
anatomy,  embryology,  all  chimed  in  to  confirm  this 
newly  acknowledged  truth  of  gradual  transformation 
and  to  emphasize  its  progressive  tendency. 

It  is  a  historical  fact  which  can  never  be  overturned, 
that  the  adoption  of  the  evolution-hypothesis  on  the  part 
of  science,  and  the  general  spread  of  the  evolutional 
world-conception,  have  to  be  dated  from  Darwin  and 
from  no  one  else. 


220 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Mechanical  biologists  were  not  slow  to  make  most 
of  this  mode  of  organic  development  and  adaptation, 
effected  seemingly  by  purely  physical  causes  without 
the  help  of  any  teleological  principle.  Some  of  us,  how- 
ever, knew  at  once  that  natural  selection  itself  cannot 
rightly  be  taken  as  the  productive  cause  of  organic  evo- 
lution. For,  it  is  obvious  that  -  an  occurrence  which 
enables  something  to  be  preserved  does  nowise  account 
either  for  its  production  or  for  its  actual  mode  of  preser- 
vation. Natural  selection  can  only  favor  the  preserva- 
tion of  what  was  brought  into  existence  and  is  being  pre- 
served by  other  means.  Yet,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
natural  selection  possesses  a  kind  of  shaping  efficiency, 
an  efficiency  remotely  akin  to  that  of  the  sculptor  who 
forms  his  statue  by  chiseling  off  chip  after  chip  of  use- 
less material.  Darwin  had  before  him  the  results  of 
artificial  selection,  where  the  breeder  by  cumulating 
varieties  in  intended  directions,  succeeds  in  transforming 
organic  shapes  and  functions  to  suit  his  purpose.  In 
natural  selection  the  specific  surroundings,  by  means  of 
which  and  against  which  organic  life  is  carried  on,  con- 
stitute a  positive  influence  favoring  those  individuals  that 
happen  through  advantageous  variations  to  be  best 
adapted  to  the  given  situation. 

But  how  do  advantageous  variations  come  into  exist- 
ence? This,  after  all,  is  the  cardinal  problem  of  evolu- 
tion. And  it  is  the  one  to  whose  solution  Professor 
Cope  is  principally  devoting  his  energies.  Not  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  but  "  The  Origin  of  the  Fittest." 
What  is  the  power  that  from  within  creates  those 
progressive  modifications  of  structure  and  function 
through  which  organisms  become  not  only  better  adapt- 
ed to  the  relations  already  subsisting  between  them  and 
their  medium,  but  through  which,  moreover,  entirely 
new  relations  are  originated,  extending  in  additional 
specific  ways  their  sphere  of  interaction. 

Here,  in  a  more  definite  form  than  ever  before,  the 
great  strife  between  external  mechanics  and  internal 
spontaneity,  the  old,  old  strife  between  cosmical  neces- 
sity and  individual  liberty,  is  again  forcing  itself  upon 
our  attention.  A  few  years  ago  mechanism  in  the  do- 
main of  organic  life  seemed  to  have  it  all  its  own  way. 
Now,  in  various  guises  spontaneity  is  beginning  to  re- 
assert itself.  The  belief  is  gaining  ground  that  a  defi- 
nite formative  and  evolutional  power  has  inhered  in 
primitive  forms  of  life,  compelling — as  in  reproductive 
germs— all  succeeding  developments.  And  the  notion 
that  mental  propensities  in  the  form  of  wants  and  de- 
sires are  operative  in  shaping  organic  structure  is  like- 
w  ise  coming  to  the  front  again.  Both  these  ideas  were 
expressed  by  Lamarck,  who  said :  "The  vital  power 
would  produce  a  continuously  graduated  scale  of  devel- 
opment if  the  modifying  influences  of  the  medium  were 
not  interfering."  And:  "  Needs  produce  organs,  habits 
develop    and   strengthen    them."     The  former  idea  we 


find  already  by  Kant,  the  latter  by  Diderot,  who  main- 
tained that  "organs  produce  needs,  and  that  reciprocally, 
needs  produce  organs." 

It  now  devolves  upon  us  to  consider  carefully  the 
special  theories,  by  means  of  which  Professor  Cope  and 
other  biologists  endeavor  to  account  for  this  supreme 
fact  of  evolution, — the  production  of  advantageous 
variations. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

DR.  SAMUEL  KNEELAND  ON  CREMATION. 

To  the  Editors:  Boston,  May,  1887. 

Dr.  Samuel  Kneeland  recently  read  a  paper  before  the  Parker 
Memorial  Science  Class  on  "  Cremation,  and  other  Methods  of 
Disposing  of  the  Dead,"  an  abstract  of  which,  it  is  believed,  will 
interest  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court. 

All  nations  the  lecturer  said  appear  to  have  believed  in 
a  life  after  death,  and  have,  according  to  their  ideas  of  this 
after-life,  taken  what  they  considered  the  very  best  measures 
to  secure  to  their  deceased  relatives  the  enjoyment  of  a  heaven, 
as  far  as  funeral  rites  were  concerned.  Of  the  four  principal 
modes  of  mummification,  aerial  exposure,  burning  and  interment, 
he  spoke  at  length  only  of  the  last  two.  He  described  the  process 
of  mummification,  as  practiced  by  the  Egyptians,  and  exhibited 
photographs  of  the  recently  opened  mummy  of  Rameses  II,  to 
show  that  the  natural  forces  of  decay,  though  long  arrested,  will 
at  last  prevail — perhaps  to  the  great  danger  of  the  living.  Thev 
believed  that,  after  3,000  years,  the  dead  awoke  to  immortal  life 
on  earth;  hence  their  devices  to  preserve  their  bodies.  He  alluded 
to  the  drying  processes  used  by  the  Guanches,  and  the  exposure 
by  the  Parsees  of  their  dead  to  the  beaks  of  vultures.  Before 
the  Christian  era  both  burial  and  burning  were  in  use,  though  the 
latter  was  the  more  ancient,  it  is  mentioned  by  Homer,  and  was 
occasionally  employed  by  the  early  Romans,  and  also  under  the 
Empire,  and  until  Christianity  in  the  fourth  century  had  made 
burial  the  rule.  Among  the  Jews  burial  was  the  custom,  but  we 
find  that  the  bodies  of  Saul  and  his  sons  were  recovered  after  the 
battle  against  the  Philistines,  that  they  might  be  burned,  as  a 
mark  of  special  honor.  In  the  fourth  century,  burning  fell  into 
disuse,  and  since  this  inhumation  has  been  the  general  custom. 
Some  have  pretended  that  this,  so-called  Christian  rite  was  due 
largely  to  the  idea  that  burning  would  interfere  with  the  final 
resurrection  of  the  body,  and  some  religious  enthusiasts  still  make 
this  objection.  When  we  reflect  that,  after  all,  it  is  only  a  more 
or  less  rapid  oxidation,  whether  we  burn  or  whether  we  bury,  and 
that  the  result  is  the  same,  this  objection  seems  frivolous;  it  cer- 
tainly cannot  be  a  matter  of  any  theological  importance  whether 
this  is  accomplished  by  slow  and  dangerous  underground  decom- 
position or  by  the  speedy  safe  agency  of  heat;  the  miracle  of 
re-creation  of  the  body  at  any  future  day  of  judgment  would  in 
either  case  be  the  same.  Said  the  Bishop  of  Manchester,  England, 
in  18S0,  at  the  dedication  of  a  cemetery  :  "  I  hold  that  the  earth  was 
made  for  the  living,  not  for  the  dead.  No  intelligent  faith  can 
suppose  that  any  Christian  doctrine  can  be  affected  by  the  manner 
in  which,  or  the  time  in  which,  this  mortal  body  crumbles  into 
dust." 

It  has  come  now  to  be  a  recognized  opinion  among  sanitrians 
and  philanthropists  that  earth  burial  is  attended  with  an  ever- 
increasing  danger  in  large  populous  communities.  The  abomina- 
tion of  burial  in  churches,  once  so  common,  has  long  been  abol- 
ished, except  in  very  exceptional  cases,  as  Nelson  and  Wellington 
He  adduced  many  instances  to  show  how  the  soil  of  church-yards 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


221 


has  been  raised  several  feet  by  the  accumulated  remains  of  the 
dead,  and  so  saturated  therewith  that  the  water  and  the  air  in 
their  neighborhood  were  actually  poisoned,  and  the  cause  of  many 
fatal  epidemics.  The  amount  of  ground  used  for  cemeteries, 
which  might  be  occupied  for  the  support  of  the  living,  is  very 
great — not  less  than  4,000  acres  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  New 
York  citv;  according  to  reliable  statistics,  with  the  probable 
increase  of  population  in  the  next  fifty  years,  there  will  be  500,- 
000  acres  devoted  in  the  United  States  to  earth  burial.  From  this 
point  of  view,  grave-yards  are  desecrated  rather  than  conse- 
crated grounds.  We  cannot  hope  to  have  pure  air,  pure  water, 
or  pure  soil  in  the  vicinity  of  grave-yards;  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia is  most  unfortunately  situated  in  this  respect,  receiving  into 
the  Schuylkill,  above  the  dam,  the  drainage  of  not  less  than  So,- 
000  graves.  Hundreds  of  cases,  from  Hannibal  to  the  London 
plague  of  iS^4  could  be  mentioned  to  prove  the  fatal  effects  of 
disturbing  old  cemeteries;  the  so-called  "  Roman  fever  "  is  due 
less  to  the  miasmataof  the  marshes  than  to  the  emanations  from  a 
soil  saturated  for  centuries  by  the  remains  of  millions  of  the 
dead.  Decomposition  in  the  earth  resolves  the  body  less  into 
dust  than  into  gases;  the  former  is  only  four  to  five  pounds  of 
lime  salts,  the  latter  escape  into  the  air,  or  are  absorbed  by  the 
roots  of  plants  to  produce  a  useless  fertility.  Man,  by  his  mode 
of  interment,  contrives  to  prolong  to  the  utmost  the  possibility 
of  poisoning  earth,  air  and  water.  In  the  grave  of  six  feet  in 
depth  there  is  no  access  to  the  minute  creatures  which  rapidly 
destroy  flesh  on  or  near  the  surface;  the  devouring  worm  is  a 
myth,  and  chemical  decomposition  is  what  occurs;  the  microbes 
do  their  share  of  the  work  of  putrefaction  near  the  surface  and 
in  the  earlv  processes.  There  is,  however,  a  way  in  which  the 
health  of  thickly  settled  communities  can  be  protected  against  the 
dangerous  emanations  from  the  bodies  of  those  who  die  in  our 
midst,  and  at  the  same  time  fulfill  all  religious,  sacred,  loving  and 
tender  duties  to  them,  and  that  is  by  burning  or  "cremation." 
Attention  was  prominently  drawn  to  this  process  in  1S73,  at  the 
Vienna  Exposition,  bv  the  results  of  scientific  cremation  exhibited 
by  Professor  Brunetti;  since  then  the  progress  of  this  reform  has 
been  shown  by  the  establishment  of  many  crematories,  especially 
in  Italy  and  Germany,  and  some  half  a  dozen  in  this  country, 
bv  treatises  on  the  subject  in  all  civilized  languages,  and  the 
springing  up  of  hundreds  of  societies,  one  even  in  Boston;  so 
that  this  process,  at  first  called  barbarous  and  heathenish,  is  now 
recognized  bv  most  scientific  physicians  and  thinking  men  and 
women,  as  destined  to  supersede  earth  burial  in  populous  com- 
munities. It  is  a  process  of  great  scientific  skill  to  reduce  the 
body  bv  the  application  of  intense  heat  into  its  elements  at  once, 
and  without  the  flame  coming  into  contact  with  it.  The  history 
of  cremation  in  this  country  is  very  brief.  The  first  practical 
movement  was  in  New  York  in  1S74,  in  1SS4  there  were  two 
crematories  in  the  United  States,  both  in  Pennsylvania;  there  are 
now  three  others  which  have  cremated  to  the  present  time  about 
250  bodies;  in  England  there  are  three,  in  Italy  twenty,  and 
several  in  Germany;  in  Italy  at  least  500  have  been  burned,  and 
in  Germany,  principally  in  Gotha,  more  than  250;  there  are  also 
hundreds  of  societies  and  a  dormant  one  in  Boston.  He  described 
the  process  as  performed  in  Gotha,  Milan,  Washington,  Pa.,  and 
Fresh  Pond,  L.  I.;  the  oven  is  a  fire-clay  retort,  of  a  special  shape 
such  as  is  used  in  making  gas  and  is  heated  to  1,500  to  i,75odegrees 
Fahrenheit.  The  time  required  is  about  one  and  one-half  hours,  and 
the  result  is  between  four  and  five  pounds  of  calcined  bones  which 
readily  fall  into  small  fragments  and  ashes;  there  is  neither  odor 
nor  smoke,  no  fuel  or  flame  comes  into  contact  with  the  body,  nor 
is  there  any  sight  or  sound  to  offend  the  most  fastidious.  The 
objection  that  criminal  practices  might  thus  be  masked  is  fully 
met  by  the  stringent  laws  by  which  such  corporations  are  bound, 
and  which  would  rather  prevent  or  detect  murderous  deeds. 


This  would  save  expense  and  vain  show  at  funerals,  without 
interfering  with  any  religious  ceremonies  and  also  much  danger- 
ous exposure  at  the  grave  in  inclement  weather.  The  expense, 
both  in  Europe  and  this  country,  is  from  twenty-five  to  thirty 
dollars,  not  half  the  cost  of  an  ordinary  casket;  the  aggregate 
saving  in  the  United  States  annually  by  cremation  would  amount 
to  many  million  dollars,  which  sum  is  not  only  thrown  away,  but 
serves  to  perpetuate  and  extend  a  custom  dangerous  to  the  living. 
Undertakers,  at  first,  would  object,  but  they  would  soon  find  some 
way  gracefully  to  yield,  and  get  comfort  and  cash  out  of  crema- 
tion. Rich  and  poor  would  then  be  served  alike,  and  the  equality 
of  the  dead  —  a  few  handsful  of  ashes  —  would  be  a  verity.  The 
work  of  years  is  thus  done  in  an  hour  —  the  horrors  of  the  grave 
are  done  away  with  —  no  robbery  and  mutilation  of  the  dead  can 
occur.  We  may  have  in  an  urn  all  that  is  earthy  of  our  relatives, 
while  the  ethereal  particles,  set  free  by  heat,  dwell  in  the  bright 
sunlight  and  not  in  the  dark,  damp  ground.  Our  prejudices, 
sympathies  and  sentiments  at  first  rebel  against  cremation,- but 
as  rational  beings  we  should  not  allow  our  emotions  to  run  away 
with  our  reason,  in  a  matter  so  important  as  this.  The  living 
have  the  best  right  to  live,  irrespective  of  the  dead,  and  to  enjoy 
that  immunity  from  many  diseases  arising  from  foul  air,  impure 
water  and  poisoned  earth,  which  they  are  entitled  to  receive  from 
the  progress  of  sanitary  science.  "God's  acre"  shall  then  cease 
to  be  a  plague  spot,  and  the  earth  shall  be  the  home  and  the  sup- 
port of  life  and  not  the  bed  of  death. 

GOOD    AND    BAD. 

To  the  Editors  : 

Fully  appreciating  the  well-defined  merits  of  what  has  been 
said  in  The  Open  Court  relating  to  good  and  evil,  I  am  still 
impressed  that  these  terms  have  each  a  positive  and  a  relative 
character. 

As  to  good,  in  a  moral  sense,  it  must  necessarily  have  a  fixed, 
and  invariable  standard,  in  which  a  vicious  will  can  have  no  com- 
panionship. This  attitude  alone  would  represent  the  positive ; 
and  the  expression  good,  in  its  common  usage,  as  applied  to 
material  things,  may  embrace  a  countless  number  of  varying 
states  and  conditions;  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  would  represent 
the  relative. 

Now,  as  to  the  origin  and  basis  of  the  positive,  speculate  as 
we  mav  can  we  find  its  home  anywhere  outside  of  the  order  of 
nature?  It  belongs  to  the  fitness  of  things,  to  the  harmonies 
of  the  infinite  parts  of  the  inconceivably  grand  whole  as  they 
go  their  perpetual  round,  and  where  else  could  this  fitting 
in  of  a  sentient  factor  have  been  derived?  It  came  as  intelli- 
gence came;  but  unlike  the  slow  growth  of  intelligence  through 
the  processes  of  evolution,  it  came  out  of  the  ages  known  only  to 
matter  and  form,  to  guide  intelligence  to  happiest  results,  com- 
plete and  ever  unchangeable.  We  say  "  it  came,"  etc.,  in  the 
absence  of  a  conception  tending  to  any  other  deduction  rationally 
considered;  not  from  the  average  will  of  man,  surely. 

That  man  is,  in  a  varying  and  limited  sense,  endowed  with  an 
independent  will,  no  one  will  deny ;  and,  if  we  take  proper 
thought,  it  will  readily  appear  that  man  unpossessed  of  this 
faculty  would  be  far  less  than  what  he  is,  and  that  the  evolution 
of  sense  would  have  been  arrested  by  the  default  of  nature,  on  the 
verge  of  Completion.     Not  a  supposable  case! 

It  is  religiously  expressed  or  implied,  that  the  Decalogue — 
the  story  of  its  origin  not  taken  into  consideration — embraces  the 
sum  and  substance  of  all  moral  law.  This  is  wide  of  the  truth! 
For  example:  Are  the  endless  evils  which  are  every  where  arising 
out  of  social  and  political  states,  in  a  general  way  fostered  and 
condoned,  less  inimical  to  morality,  less  chargable  to  individual 
responsibility,  than  are  the  offenses  named  in  the  Decalogue?  If 
one  is  constrained  to  say  no;  why,  then,  should  the  religious 
world  pass  them  by? 


222 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


We  hold  to  personal  responsibility  for  departures  from  moral 
law  by  the  same  rule  which  effects  to  govern  the  decisions  of 
ciyic  courts,  viz:  the  degree  of  volition,  hereditary  bias,  etc.,  as  we 
are  compelled  to  regard  man,  in  large  part,  as  a  being  subjective 
in  the  matter  of  character  to  his  surrounding  conditions,  and  to 
ancestral  impress. 

It  needs  but  a  few  words  to  illustrate  relative  good.  It  is 
enough  to  say,  that  morality  is  not  specially  embraced  in  its 
application.  It  can  only  comprehend  that  which  may  give  rational 
satisfaction  to  the  individual  and  the  public,  in  matters  public  and 
private.  C.  K.  D. 

~THE*  MONTANA     INDUSTRIAL    SCHOOL    FOR 

INDIANS. 
To  the  Editors :  Boston,  Mass.,  May,  18S7. 

This  school,  recently  established  under  the  auspices  of  the 
American  Unitarian  Association,  in  charge  of  Rev.  Henry  F. 
Bond,  is  now  in  operation.  More  than  half  its  present  quota  of 
thirty  pupils  are  enrolled,  and  the  rest  will  doubtless  enter  as  soon 
as  roads  in  the  Crow  reservation  are  passable. 

This  is  what  Rev.  J.  B.  Harrison,  who  has  recently  visited  it, 
terms  "the  one  lone  lorn  Indian  Mission  School  of  the  Unitarian 
denomination."  Now  that  the  Dawes  Law  in  Severalty,  and  Indian 
Citizenship  Bill  is  the  law  of  the  land,  it  is  incumbent  on  every 
friend  of  the  Indian  and  every  good  citizen  to  aid  in  fitting  him  for 
the  proper  exercise  of  the  rights  with  which  he  has  been  clothed. 
It  is  a  work  that  appeals  alike  to  all  of  the  liberal  faith,  to  what- 
ever wing  they  may  belong,  and  on  which  we  can  stand  shoulder 
to  shoulder  with  good  men  of  every  denomination  and  every 
shade  of  religious  belief.  Our  appeal  in  behalf  ot  the  Montana 
school  is  made  only  to  those  of  what  are  called  the  liberals,  simply 
because  the  "evangelical"  or  "orthodox"  churches  have  for 
years  been  at  large  outlay  in  maintaining  Indian  schools  on  the 
reservations;  while  we,  for  reasons  which  have  been  already  set 
forth,  have  been  idle.  The  work  has  at  last  been  begun,  and  we 
ask  for  it  the  sympathy  and  support  of  all  good  men  or  women, 
who  have  not  already  identified  themselves  with  some  other  In- 
dian educational  work.  Our  earnest  and  faithful  missionaries, 
Rev.  and  Mrs.  Henry  F.  Bond,  and  Miss  May  Crosby,  who  have 
heroically  undertaken  this  pioneer  work,  should  be  cheered  and 
encouraged  by  our  sympathy  and  support.  Funds  are  needed  for 
the  more  complete  equipment  of  the  school,  and  for  the  support 
of  the  superintendent  and  his  employes.  The  debt  on  the  build- 
ing and  outfit  is  about  half  paid.  Fifteen  hundred  dollars  are  yet 
due,  for  which  we  ask  contributions.  Boys'  clothing  is  greatly 
needed,  and  gifts  of  new  or  worn  garments  for  boys  from  eight  to 
eighteen  year-,  or  of  material  from  which  to  make  them, are  asked 
lor.  The  Crow  Indians  have  never  had  any  missionary  or  educa- 
tional work  done  among  them,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  gov- 
ernment school  at  the  agency.  The  tribe  numbers  about  3,500,  of 
whom  Soo  are  children  of  school  age.  They  are  naturally  wild 
and  debased,  but  are  docile,  and  not  inclined  to  intemperance. 
They  are  honestly  endeavoring  to  obey  the  injunctions  of  their 
Gnat  Father  at  Washington,  and  are  selecting  their  allotments 
and  building  houses  upon  them.  The  government  has  sent  out 
farmers  to  live  among  them,  to  show  them  how  to  cultivate  the 
ground,  how  to  build  houses,  and  how  to  live  in  them  in  a  civil- 
ized way.  They  have  always  been  the  friends  and  allies  of  the 
whites,  and  ready  to  take  up  arms  against  any  tribe  at  war  with 
the  United  States,  even  though  they  were  their  life-long  friends. 
For  this  reason  they  have  been  hitherto  neglected  by  the  mission- 
ary bodies,  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  conversion  of  the  tribes 
from  whom  the  whites  had  most  to  fear.  This  unjust  neglect  ol 
our  steadfast  friends  should  now  be  put  an  end  to,  and  every  effort 
should  be  made  to  educate  and  civilize  them.  It  is  a  work  requir- 
ing heroic  self-sacrifice,  zeal,  and  patience  for  its  successful 
plishment,  and  the  liberal  and  cordial  aid'of  all   its  friends. 


Shall  not  our  faithful  workers  have  the  cheering  assurance  of  our 
cordial  sympathy  and  support  in  their  great  undertaking? 

Contributions  may  be  sent  to  me  at  No.  25  Beacon  St.,  Boston. 

J.  F.  B.  Marshall. 


THE  TOBACCO   NUISANCE. 

To  the  Editors: 

Just  now  as  I  took  up  The  Open  Court  of  March  17,  my 
eye  rested  upon  an  article  entitled  "  The  Rights  of  those  who 
Dislike  Tobacco."  This  is  a  class  to  which  I  belong,  and  I  at  once 
read  the  article  to  which  I  give  my  hearty  indorsement,  having 
recently  been  a  victim  to  the  monstrous  selfishness  of  smokers. 
The  fatigue  and  annoyances  of  travel  are  much  lessened  by  the 
delightful  cars  offered  to  the  public  for  a  certain  price;  but  the 
comfort  of  both  men  and  women  is  outraged  to  a  degree  not  to  be 
tolerated,  by  the  indifference  of  railroad  officials  to  the  unpardon- 
able conduct  of  men  who  indulge  in  smoking  without  regard  to 
the  effect  upon  others.  This  annoyance  which  is  distressing 
enough  in  the  Pullman  cars  is  increased  in  the  Mann  Boudoir 
which  by  their  compartment  system  offer  the  much  needed  seclu- 
sion and  rest  to  the  weary  traveler;  the  omnipresent  smoker 
because  he  is  hidden  from  view,  either  imagines  the  odor  will  not 
penetrate  farther  than  his  apartment,  or  is  quite  indifferent  as  to 
whether  it  does  or  not,  so  that  he  is  unmolested  in  his  enjoyment. 
The  air  passes  freely  through  the  wicker-fashioned  ventilators 
and  is  unobstructed  in  permeating  every  portion  of  the  car.  It 
dries  and  parches  the  throat  and  nostrils  of  those  who  have  not 
rendered  insensible  the  lining  membrane  of  these  organs  by  use 
of  the  vile  weed,  nausea  is  produced,  and  the  otherwise  pleasant 
journey  is  rendered  miserable.  As  the  writer  of  the  article 
referred  to,  very  truly  says,  we  pay  as  much  for  our  seats  as  the  ■ 
smokers  pay  for  theirs,  and  we  are  entitled  to  the  comfort  the  car 
affords.  There  ought  not  to  be  a  smoking-room  in  any  way  con- 
nected with  the  parlor  cars  or  sleepers.  The  smoking  car  should 
be  an  entirely  separate  coach,  and  strict  laws  ought  to  be  enforced 
in  regard  to  smoking  on  the  train  in  any  other  car  than  the  one 
provided  for  that  purpose.  This  is  all  that  any  man  could  ask, 
for  even  under  this  arrangement  he  pays  for  one  seat  and  gets 
two,  and  the  cost  of  running  the  smoker  must  be  partly  paid  by 
those  who  have  no  need  of  it.  Men  who  smoke  ought  to  suffer 
whatever  discomfort  there  may  be  connected  with  it  instead  of 
those  who  are  not  addicted  to  the  habit.  Last  summer  during  a 
trip  down  Lake  Champlain  something  occurred  which  is  in  point 
while  on  the  subject  of  tobacco.  The  day  was  a  perfect  one  in 
July,  a  soft  breeze  stirred  the  beautiful  blue  water  into  ripples; 
the  verdure  as  we  passed  along  the  Vermont  shores  was  illustra- 
tive of  the  name;  the  mountains  in  the  distance  on  either  side 
made  the  scene  very  picturesque.  We  seated  ourselves  on  the 
forward  part  of  the  beautiful  steamer  Vermont,  which  plies  these 
waters,  and  a  quiet  happiness  diffused  itself  over  us  as  we  gazed 
upon  the  charming  landscapes  presented  to  our  view,  when  we 
were  unexpectedly  brought  to  realize  that  even  this  ambrosial 
atmosphere  was  not  without  the  fumes  of  tobacco,  and  the  inevit- 
able vile  man  was  also  here  "where  every  prospect  pleases,"  for 
well  up  toward  the  bow  of  the  steamer,  sat  an  immense  animal, 
gross  and  repulsive,  smoking  a  cigar,  the  wreaths  of  abominably 
scented  vapor  floating  back  over  all  seated  in  that  part  of  the 
boat,  and  worse  than  this  on  the  floor  at  his  side  was  a  large  soup- 
plate  into  which  he  injected  his  surplus  saliva  until  it  was  half 
full,  a  loathsome  and  nauseating  sight.  Conduct  such  as  this 
was  to  be  looked  for  only  in  the  lowest  kind  of  saloon  and  yet 
among  respectable  refined  people  he  went  on  with  his  disgusting 
programme  unchecked  by  proper  authority  until  he  had  finished 
his  third  cigar,  and  then  stopped  not  because  he  was  compelled, 
but  because  he  had  satisfied  his  vitiated  desires,  in  his  supreme 
selfishness  not  thinking  or  caring  whether  others  were  annoyed 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


223 


or  not.  Railroad  and  navigation  companies  ought  to  demand  at 
least  decent  conduct,  that  those  of  their  passengers  who  are  well 
disposed  and  orderly,  may  not  be  annoyed  by  boors. 

In  a  recent  trip  South,  riding  from  Chattanooga  to  Birming- 
ham, Alabama,  in  a  Mann  Boudoir  car,  a  lady  was  subjected  to 
annovance  bv  the  boisterous  conduct  of  a  party  of  politicians  from 
the  capital  of  a  prominent  State,  who  were  going  on  an  excursion 
to  New  Orleans.  They  smoked  and  drank  until  they  were  merry 
and  noisv,  and  sang  in  a  roaring  tone  songs  of  no  very  choice 
selection.  Then  some  of  them  strolled  through  the  car  looking 
inquisitively  into  every  compartment,  after  which  followed  more 
smoking  and  drinking  and  noisy  demonstrations,  vulgar  remarks 
and  generally  objectionable  conduct,  with  nobody  to  interfere, 
though  even  the  porters  were  disgusted.  True,  their  smoking  and 
singing  were  done  in  the  smoking-room,  but  the  fumes  and  the 
noise  were  scarcely  less  disturbing  than  if  indulged  in  in  any- 
other  part  of  the  car. 

The  parlor  car  and  the  sleepers  will  speedily  become  no  more 
desirable  than  the  day  coach  if  beastly  men  are  permitted  therein 
to  give  free  rein  to  their  depraved  inclinations.  In  using  the  word 
beastly,  I  do  not  refer  thereby  to  the  conduct  of  our  domestic 
animals,  for  they  are  far  less  objectionable  in  their  behavior  than 
these  men,  but  I  mean  an  ogre,  a  frightfully  misshapen  and 
hideously  featured  creature,  such  as  live  in  the  goblin  stories  of 
old,  for  no  matter  how  well  dressed  these  men  may  be,  their 
selfishness  has  rendered  them  moral  monsters. 

I  trust  those  who  are  annoyed  in  traveling  by  men  of  base 
instincts,  utterly  regardless  of  good  manners,  may  send  in  their 
complaints,  until  the  companies  who  provide  means  of  convey- 
ance for  the  public  will  do  something  to  abate  the  nuisance,  to 
cause  those  who  are  disposed  to  make  others  uncomfortable,  to 
refrain  through  fear  of  the  stringency  of  the  law. 

Caroline  M.  Everhard. 


BOOK    REVIEWS. 


Histoire  Religieuse  du  Feu.    Cotnte Goblet  d'Alviella.     Biblio- 
theque  Gilon:     Verviers,  1SS7.     pp.  109. 

Introduction    a    l'Histoire    Generale     des     Religions. 
Comte  Goblet  d'Alviella.     Leroux:     Paris,  1SS7.    pp.185. 

The  author  of  these  volumes,  and  also  of  an  extremely  inter- 
esting account  of  the  movements  to  liberalize  religion  now  flour- 
ishing in  the  United  States,  England  and  India,  is  at  present  pro- 
fessor at  the  University  of  Brussels.  His  pamphlet,  telling  what 
use  has  been  made  of  fire  in  various  ages  and  lands  to  express  and 
excite  devotional  feeling,  is  very  valuable  as  showing  not  only 
how  much  all  the  religions  have  in  common,  but  how  closely  their 
peculiar  differences  depend  upon  the  state  of  human  knowledge 
of  natural  phenomena.  One  curious  circumstance  is  the  simi- 
larity of  the  name  of  Prometheus  to  that  of  an  instrument  for 
producing  fire  by  friction,  still  in  use  in  India  where  it  is  called 
•'  pramantha."  The  various  legends  that  fire  was  not  known  upon 
earth  until  it  was  stolen  from  heaven,  certainly  justify  belief  that 
the  first  men  had  to  live  without  it.  We  are  glad  to  see  that  these 
essays  have  had  two  editions  since  their  original  publication  in 
the  Revue  tie  Belgique. 

The  neatly  bound  volume  containing  the  lectures  on  the 
origin  and  primitive  forms  of  religion  delivered  by  the  Professor 
two  years  ago,  was  published  just  before  the  discontinuance  of 
The  Index,  in  which  it  could  therefore  be  noticed  only  briefly  and 
inadequately.  The  introductory  lecture  states  the  theological  and 
other  prejudices  which  make  it  impossible,  as  a  general  thing,  for 
a  man  to  study  any  religion  but  his  own,  and  often  put  it  out  of 
the  question    to   study  even  that.     This    important   part  of   the 


course  is  printed  as  delivered,  and  is  supported  by  an  appendix 
making  a  very  strong  plea  for  introducing  the  comparative  analy- 
sis of  religions  into  collegiate  education.  Perhaps  monev  might 
as  well  be  spent  in  endowing  lectures  thereon  in  our  American 
universities,  as  in  founding  a  new  one,  more  strictly  in  the  interest 
of  Free-Thought.  Most  of  the  volume  is  taken  up  with  very 
suggestive  summaries,  showing  hpw  the  primitive  men  at  first 
worshiped  mountains,  trees,  animals,  lightning,  fire,  the  sun, 
etc.,  gradually  came  to  adore  the  souls  of  the  dead,  expressed  their 
feelings  in  various  prayers,  conjurations  and  ceremonies,  and 
became  subject  to  priests  and  sorcerers.  Despite  the  mischief 
done  by  these  latter,  great  service  was  rendered  to  morality, 
according  to  Professor  d'Alviella,  by  these  primitive  religions. 
They  may  have  been  badly  needed  in  order  to  repress  savage 
passions  and  maintain  social  order,  and  at  all  events  they  were 
much  less  intolerant  than  their  famous  successors  have  been, 
with  the  single  exception  of  Buddhism.  The  whole  subject  of  the 
relations  of  morality  and  religion  is  so  important  that  Count 
d'Alviella  will,  it  is  earnestly  hoped,  make  it  a  special  study,  as  he 
takes  up  one  group  of  religions  after  another,  so  that  he  may  com- 
bine all  his  results  on  this  point.  It  is  pleasant  to  hear  that  he 
disposed  during  the  winter  of  1S85-6  of  the  Chinese,  Mexican  and 
Peruvian  religions,  that  he  took  up  the  Egyptians  last  fall,  that 
next  winter  wili  be  devoted  to  Judaism, and  that  he  will  pass  from 
the  Semitic  to  the  Aryan  forms  of  faith  and  worship.  Everyone 
who  reads  the  results  of  his  studies  already  published  will  wel- 
come eagerly  whatever  else  he  may  consent  to  print.  Such  books 
deserve  peculiar  praise  from  all  who  advocate  "the  scientific 
study  of  religion."  F.  M.  H. 

Last  Evening  with  Allston,  and  other  Papers.  By  Eliza- 
beth P.  Peabody.  Boston :  D.  Lothrop  &  Co. 
This  collection  of  interesting  essays  may  be  regarded  as 
gathered  sheaves  from  a  harvest  of  many  years  of  helpful  pur- 
suits, constant  intellectual  activity  and  generous  aspirations.  It 
has  been  the  special  distinction  of  its  author  to  live  a  life  of  high 
ideals,  and  to  enjoy  a  large  number  of  friendships  and  intimaces 
with  men  and  women  of  rare  intelligence  and  character.  The 
volume  comprises  sixteen  distinct  papers,  without  counting  a 
poem  at  the  -end  of  the  series  and  an  appendix,  upon  diverse 
themes;  most  of  them  gleaned  from  various  periodicals  in  which 
they  originally  appeared.  The  earliest  date  of  these  productions  is 
1S30.  The  others  follow  at  irregular  intervals  during  a  period 
which  falls  but  little  short  of  half  a  century.  All  of  them  evince 
that  they  have  proceeded  from  a  mind  of  exceptional  scholarship 
and  culture,  philanthropic  spirit  and  deep  moral  and  religious 
sensibility.  While  there  are  numerous  topics  touched  upon  in 
the  course  of  these  essays  the  leading  sentiments  which  come  into 
play  all  through  them  are  the  artistic,  the  philanthropic  and  the 
religious.  The  latter  especially  pervades  and  influences  all  the 
discussions,  even  those  which  else  would  be  purely  literary.  If 
one  looks  for  the  sharp  and  clear  definitions,  and  logical  methods 
of  modern  science  and  inductive  reasoning  in  the  volume  before 
us  he  will  be  likely  to  find  them  wanting,  but  may  be  reconciled 
to  the  deficiency  by  the  special  excellence  and  interest  which  it 
still  possesses.  It  must  be  conceded  that  it  is  notable  at  least  for 
the  indications  that  appear  of  a  very  thorough  and  varied  erudi- 
tion, a  power  of  copious  and  delicate  expression,  extraordinary 
imagination,  tinged  somewhat  with  mysticism,  and  pure  and 
elevated  feeling. 

Although  the  author  has  long  been  accustomed  to  count  her- 
self among  the  liberal  and  progressive,  it  is  not  strange  that  much 
of  the  contents  of  her  book  should  seem  to  voice  a  stage  of  the 
advance  which  is  now  considerably,  if  not  altogether,  superseded. 
This  is  but  what  might  be  expected  in  view  of  the  length  of  time 
that  has   intervened  since  much  of  it  was  written.     It    however, 


224 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


serves  thus  as  a  sort  of  chronicle  of  passing  events  and  phases  of 
development,  particularly  of  those  of  the  transcendental  transi- 
tion, which  tend,  through  the  influence  of  later  questions  and 
tendencies  of  thought,  to  be  forgotten. 

The  first  paper,  "  Last  Evening  with  Allston,"  from  which 
the  volume  takes  its  title  in  part,  is  a  report  ol  an  evening  passed 
in  the  company  of  the  great  artist,  near  the  close  of  his  life,  in 
conversation  upon  religious  themes.  This  is  followed  by  a  paper 
upon  the  "  Life  and  Genius  of  Allston,"  and  also  by  one  upon 
an  exhibition  of  his  paintings.  These  articles  afford  a  glimpse  of 
Allston's  mental  character  and  his  work.  The  next  in  order  to 
these  papers  is  entitled  "  A  Vision,"  and  is  a  remarkable  piece  of 
imagination  writing.  "  The  Dorian  Measure "  is  one  of  the 
longest  and  most  scholarly  discussions  in  the  book.  It  is  based 
upon  K.  O.  Miiller's  History  of  the  Dorians,  a  work  whose  con- 
clusions are  not  as  readily  accepted  as  they  were  when  it  made  its 
appearance.  Among  the  other  subjects  considered  are  Language, 
Primeval  Man,  Fourierism,  Brook  Farm  or  Christ's  Idea  of  Society, 
A  Plea  for  Froebel's  Kindergarten,  a  branch  of  elementary  intel- 
lectual training  to  which  Miss  Peabody  has  long  been  zealously 
devoted.  These  are  all  treated  in  a  manner  that  is  at  once  inge- 
nious and  suggestive,  and  with  the  remaining  articles  render  it  a 
book  of  exceptional  interest  among  the  recent  issues  of  the  press. 
D.  II.  C. 

Lai  re,  and  other  Poems.  By  J(".  Stewart  Ross.  London: 
W.  Stewart  &  Co.,  41  Farringdon  street,  E.  C. ;  pp.  96. 
Price,  2  shillings. 

This  new  volume  by  the  editor  of  the  London  Secular  Review 
consists  of  a  score  of  minor  poems  in  addition  to  the  longer  one 
with  which  the  volume  opens,  and  from  which  it  takes  its  title. 
Mr.  Ross,  as  we  have  before  had  occasion  to  say  in  a  notice  of  his 
earlier  book  of  poems,  I, ays  of  Romance  and  Chivalry,  has 
decided  poetic  ability,  and  his  muse  seems  to  inspire  him  with  a 
certain  fantastic  and  weird  imagery  which  may  remind  his  Ameri- 
can readers  of  Edgar  A.  Poe, — not  in  its  rhythm  or  subjects,  but 
in  its  passionate  utterances  and  romantic  exaggeration.  Love, 
war  and  death  are  the  prevailing  topics  of  which  he  treats,  but 
we  think  he  shows  to  greater  advantage  when  he  leaves  these 
well-worn  grooves,  as  in  the  philosophic  poem,  "  Reveresco,"  and 
that  on  Robert  Burns,  which  gained  the  prize  offered  by  the 
Dumfries  Burns'  Statue  Committee  for  the  best  poem  to  be  read 
at  the  unveiling  of  this  poet's  statue  in  his  own  home.  From  the 
latter  we  quote  a  few  specimen  lines: 

" The  brave  man  whose  fight  is  fought, 

Whose  weapon's  sheathed,  whose  banner's  furled, 

Though  still  his  fire  and  force  of  soul 

Throb  in  the  veins  of  half  the  world. 

Australia  loves  him;  India,  too, 

As  though  he  had  but  died  yestreen; 

Columbia  knows  the  Hanks  U'  Doon, 

And  Afric  sings  of  Bonnie  Jean!" 


The  latest  number  (May,  1887)  of  the  Revue  Philosophique, 
the  editorial  management  of  which  is  so  ably  directed  by  Th.  Ribot, 
contains  articles  of  great  value  on  psychological  and  other 
subjects.  Its  summary  is:  1.  L'anesthesie  Systematise^  et  la 
Dissociation  des  Phenomenes  Psychologiques,  by  Pierre  Janet. 
2.  L'intensite  des  images  mentales,  by  A.  Binet.  3.  The  con- 
clusion of  an  essay:  Le  Phenomenisme  et  le  Probabilisme  dans 
L'ecole  Platonicienne,  by  F.  Picavet.  Beside  other  interesting 
reading  matter  contained  in  this  number,  Mr.  Beaussire  discusses 
the  instruction  of  Natural  Law  given  at  the  College  de  France. 

The  most  interesting  essay  to  us  is  Mr.  Binet's  on  the  in- 
tensity of  mental  images.  Binet  says:  "The  world  0/  images 
which  everyone  of  us  carries  in  his  brain,  has  its  laws  as  has  the 
material  world  which  surrounds  us.  These  laws  are  analogous 
to  the  laws  of  organic  matter,  for  the  images  are  living  elements, 
which  are  born,  are  transformed  and  die." 


Mr.  Binet  limits  his  essay  to  the  intensity  of  such  images. 
Analogous  to  physiological  processes  intensity  is  accompanied  by 
"  a  disintegration  of  a  greater  quantity  of  nerve  matter  and  a  more 
considerable  production,  of  heat.  *  *  *  We  must  become 
familiar  with  the  idea  that  an  image  can  pass  through  the  same 
degrees  of  intensity  as  a  muscular  contraction." 

"The  quality  of  intensify  is  generally  and  practicallv  neg- 
lected, for  what  we  search  for  in  images  is  a  quality  quite  different 
from  and  independent  of  this  first  quality,  viz.,  truth.  But  truth 
is  nothing  without  intensity.  If  two  arguments  are  different  in 
strength,  the  stronger  one  will  conquer  whether  it  be  true  or 
false.  One  does  not  speak  of  truth  in  mechanics.  There  are 
only  forces  which  work.  It  is  the  same  in  psychology;  all  dis- 
cussion, all  deliberation  is  at  the  bottom  a  problem  of  cinematics. 
When  studying  the  intensity  of  images,  we  study  in  realitv  the 
method  on  which  are  based  our  true  and  false  convictions." 

In  proving  this,  Mr.  Binet  makes  an  excellent  use  of  the  facts 
of  hvpnotism,  the  study  of  which  he  has  made  a  speciality.     P  C. 


Mrs.  Lamb's  Magazine  of  American  History  is  always  brightly 
tempting  in  its  useful  line,  but  the  article  in  the  May  number  on 
'The  White  House  and  Its  Memories,"  written  by  the  editor  and 
embellished  with  fine  portraits  of  the  ladies  that  have  presided  at 
the  Presidential  residence, — a  strikingly  lovely  one  of  Mrs.  Grover 
Cleveland  leading  the  van  in  the  frontispiece,  and  one  of  Miss 
Rose  Elizabeth  Cleveland  finishing  the  line, — makes  that  number 
especially  attractive.  Among  other  topics  of  interest  treated  we 
note  "Republicanism  in  Spanish  America,"  by  Hon.  W.  L. 
Scraggs;  "The  Wabash  Country  Prior  to  1S00,"  by  Isaac  R. 
Strouse,  and  "Canada  During  the  Victorian  Era,"  by  J.  G. 
Bouriuot. 


ADDITIONAL  PRESS   NOTICES. 

It  is  full  of  meat,  full  of  good  thought  and  well  worth  a  man's  attention, 
time  to  read  it,  and  the  price  of  the  journal. — Indiana  Saturday  Herald. 

The  deepest  and  broadest  thinkers  are  contributors  to  The  Open  Court, 
published  at  Chicago.  It  is  undoubtedly  the  best  publication  of  the  kind 
printed. — Narraganset  Times,  Wakefield,  R.  I. 

We  have  received  a  copy  of  The  Open  Court,  a  semi-monthly  paper  pub- 
lished in  Chicago,  by  B.  F.  Underwood  and  Sara  A.  Underwood,  on  ethics 
and  religion  upon  a  scientific  basis. — Knoxville  (Pa.)  Item. 

It  claims  to  be  devoted  to  the  work  of  establishing  "ethics  and  religion 
upon  a  scientific  basis."  It  is  ably  edited  and  nicely  printed,  and  the  articles 
are  written,  in  the  main,  by  acknowledged  scholars. — Kansas  Blade. 

The  Open  Court,  a  fortnightly  journal,  just  started  in  Chicago,  is  the 
best  thing  of  the  kind  we  have  seen.  Its  articles  are  well  prepared  and 
the  mechanical  execution  is  perfect. — Tri-  Weekly  Pioneer,  Michigan. 

The  Open  Court  is  on  our  table.  It  is  a  fortnightly  journal  devoted  to 
the  work  of  establishing  ethics  and  religion  upon  a  scientific  basis.  The  jour- 
nal is  exceedingly  attractive  in  form  and  typography,  and  the  articles  able  and 
brilliant.  —  The  Smelter,  Pittsburgh,  Kan.  • 

The  Open  Court. — It  has  a  corps  of  able  contributors  who  present  a  great 
variety  of  liberal  thought,  some  of  it  bordering  upon  transcendentalism,  but 
very  much  of  it  that  is  both  instructive  and  entertaining  to  minds  of  average 
capacity.' — : Lockport  (N.  Y.)  Daily  Union. 

We  call  attention  to  the  advertisement  of  The  Open  Court,  a  high  class 
literary  and  philosophic  journal  published  at  Chicago.  It  is  a  remarkably 
brilliant  and  original  paper,  and  its  editors  and  contributors  rank  high  in  the 
intellectual  world. —  The  Universe,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

The  Open  Court  is  the  title  of  a  fortnightly  journal  published  in  Chicago 
and  "Devoted  to  the  Work  of  Establishing  Ethics  and  Religion  upon  a  Scientific 
Basis,"  rather  hard  sounding  as  an  undertaking,  but  really  made  easy  by  a 
simple  exemplification  of  the  subjects  chosen  for  discussion. — Daily  Expositor, 
Branttbrd,   Ont. 

The  publication  of  a  most  excellent  paper  called  The  Open  Court,  was 
recently  commenced  in  Chicago.  It  is  a  fortnightly  journal,  devoted  to  the 
work  of  establishing  ethics  and  religion  upon  a  scientific  basis,  and  is  edited 
by  B.  F.  Underwood,  an  assurance  of  itself  that  the  paper  is  worthy  the  pat- 
ronage of  educated,  thinking  people.  Among  its  contributors  are  Moncure 
D.  Conway,  F"elix  L.  Oswald,  Rev.  M.  .J.  Savage,  John  Burroughs,  Lewis 
G.Janes  and  a  host  of  other  authors  of  well-established  reputations. — Sunday 
Courier,  Greenville,  O. 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and  Religion  Upon  a  Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  9. 


CHICAGO,  JUNE  9,  18S7. 


I  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
1  Single  Copies,  15  rts. 


[The  readers  of  The  Open  Court  will  he  pleased 
to  know  that  among  the  contributions  it  has  obtained 
from  eminent  scholars  and  thinkers,  is  the  series  of  lec- 
tures by  Prof.  F.  Max  Midler,  given  last  March  at  the 
Royal  Institution,  London.  The  publication  of  these 
remarkable  lectures  in  this  journal,  beginning  with  the 
present  issue,  will  be  completed  in  six  numbers.  The 
first  has  now  appeared  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  but 
not  many  of  our  readers  can  yet  have  read  it.  The  sec- 
ond, on  "  The  Identity  of  Language  and  Thought  "  and 
the  third,  on  the  "  Simplicity  of  Thought,"  not  published 
nor  to  be  published  in  England,  have  been  secured 
exclusively  for  The  Open  Court,  in  which  they  will 
be  printed  from  the  author's  manuscript.  This  distin- 
guished philologist  believes  that  language  is  the  history 
of  human  thought,  and  no  other  man  living  probably  is 
as  competent  as  he  to  read  this  history  understandingly, 
especially  those  pages  which  indicate  how  men  reasoned 
and  what  they  thought  during  the  world's  intellectual 
childhood.] 

THE   SIMPLICITY  OF   LANGUAGE. 

One  of  thkee   Lectures   on  the  Science    of  Thought   delivered   at 
the  Royal  Institution,  London,  March,  1S7S.* 

BY    PROF.    F.    MAX    MliLlER. 

Part    I. 

It  is  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  I  ven- 
tured for  the  first  time  (June,  1S61),  to  address  the 
members  of  the  Royal  Institution,  and  I  well  remember 
the  feeling  of  fear  and  trembling  that  came  over  me 
when  in  this  very  place  I  began  to  deliver  my  first  lec- 
ture on  the  Science  of  Language,  as  one  of  the  physi- 
cal sciences.  I  was  young  then,  and  to  find  myself  face 
to  face  with  such  an  audience  as  this  Institutii  n  always 
attracts,  was  indeed  a  severe  trial.  As  I  looked  round 
to  see  who  was  present,  I  met  in  one  place  the  keen 
dark  eyes  of  Faraday,  in  another  the  massive  face  of  the 
Bishop  of  St.  David's,  in  another  the  kind  and  thought- 
ful features  of  Frederick  Maurice,  while  I  was  cheered 
with  a  look  of  recognition  and  encouragement  from  dear 
Stanley.  I  could  mention  several  more  names,  "  men, 
take  them  all  in  all,  we  shall  not  look  upon  their  like 
again."     To  address  such  an  audience   on  a  subject  that 


Copyright  18S7  by  the  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 


could  never  be  popular,  and  without  any  of  those  charm- 
ing experiments  which  enliven  the  discourses  of  most  lec- 
turers in  this  room,  was  an  ordeal  indeed.  But  painful 
as  the  ordeal  was,  I  do  not  regret  having  passed  through 
it.  Many  of  my  most  valued  friendships  date  from  that 
time,  and  though  in  advocating  a  new  cause  and  run- 
ning full  tilt  against  many  time-honored  prejudices,  one 
cannot  always  avoid  making  enemies  also,  yet  I  feel  that 
I  owe  a  large  debt  of  gratitude  to  this  Institution,  and 
not  to  my  kind  friends  only,  but  likewise  to  my  honest 
opponents. 

It  is  hardly  remembered  now  that  before  the  time 
when  I  boldly  claimed  a  place  among  the  physical  sci- 
ences for  what  I  called  the  Science  of  Language,  Com- 
parative Philology  was  treated  only  as  a  kind  of  ap- 
pendix to  classical  scholarship,  and  that  even  that  place 
was  grudged  to  it  by  some  of  the  most  eminent  students 
of  Greek  and  Latin.  No  doubt,  the  works  of  Bopp, 
Grimm,  Pott,  Benfey,  Curtius,  Schleicher,  had  at  that 
time  attracted  attention  in  England,  and  the  labors  of 
such  scholars  as  Donaldson,  Latham,  Garret  and  others, 
could  well  claim  a  place  by  their  side  for  originality, 
honesty  of  purpose  and  clearness  of  sight.  But  there  is 
a  difference  between  Comparative  Philology  and  what 
I  meant  by  the  Science  of  Language.  Comparative 
Philology  is  the  means,  the  Science  of  Language  is  the 
end. 

We  must  begin  with  a  careful  analytical  and  compara- 
tive study  of  languages;  we  must  serve  our  apprentice- 
ship as  phoneticians,  etymologists  and  grammarians, 
before  we  can  venture  to  go  beyond.  In  this  respect  I 
am  as  great  a  pedant  as  ever,  and  shall  rather  continue 
to  be  taunted  as  such  than  abate  one  iota  from  my  im- 
plicit faith  in  phonetic  laws.  What  I  said  years  ago  in 
my  lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,  that  phonetics 
must  form  the  foundation  of  Comparative  Philology, 
and  that  the  laws  which  determine  the  changes  of  vow- 
els and  consonants  are  as  unchangeable  as  the  laws  which 
regulate  the  circulation  of  our  blood,  may  have  been  a 
little  exaggerated,  but  in  this  respect  exaggeration  is  de- 
cidedly better  than  the  smallest  concession.  I  also  hold 
still  to  another  heresy  of  mine,  for  which  I  ha  e  been 
much  abused,  namely  that  a  knowledge  of  Sanskrit  is  a 
sine  qud  non  for  every  comparative  philologist,  whether 
his  special  subject  be  Aryan,  Semitic,  or  Turanian  phi- 
lology.    I   know  it   has   been   the  fashion  of  late  to  cry 


2l6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


down  the  importance  or  Sanskrit,  because  it  does  not 
supply  the  key  to  all  secrets,  and  because  in  some,  nay, 
in  many  cases,  Sanskrit  is  less  primitive  than  Greek,  or 
Irish,  or  Gothic.  This  is  a  capital  lesson  to  learn,  and 
may,  I  hope,  put  an  end  at  last  to  the  false  position 
which  Sanskrit  still  occupies  in  the  eyes  of  certain 
scholars,  as  the  fountain  head  of  all  Aryan  speech.  But 
with  all  this,  Sanskrit  will  always  maintain  its  preemi- 
nence, as  affording  the  best  discipline  to  the  student  of 
language;  and  we  have  only  to  compare  the  works  ot 
those  who  have  mastered  Sanskrit,  and  of  those  who 
have  not,  whether  the}'  treat  of  Greek,  or  J  atin,  or  Ar- 
menian, or  Albanian,  in  order  to  perceive  tl  2  immense 
difference  between  the  scholar  who  sails  with  a  safe  com- 
pass and  the  bold  adventurer  who  trusts  to  the  stars. 

Comparative  Philology  is  a  delightful  subject,  and 
the  more  it  is  cultivated  the  more  fascinating  it  becomes, 
by  the  very  minuteness  of  the  laws  and  rules  which  gov- 
ern its  proceedings.  There  is  enough  in  it  to  absorb  a 
man's  whole  mind,  enough  to  occupy  a  whole  life.  But 
for  all  that,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  study  of  lan- 
guages has  an  object  beyond  itself,  a  wider  purpose,  a 
higher  aim. 

And  what  is  that  higher  purpose  which  the  Science 
of  Language  is  meant  to  serve?  It  is  to  discover  the 
secrets  of  thought  in  the  labyrinth  of  language,  after  the 
dark  chambers  of  that  labyrinth  have  first  been  lighted 
up  by  the  torch  of  Comparative  Philology.  If  there 
are  any  here  present  who  attended  my  former  courses 
on  the  Science  of  Language,  delivered  in  this  Institu- 
tion, they  will  remember  how  often  I  appealed  to  the 
philosophers,  whether  logicians,  physiologists,  or  meta- 
physicians, inviting  them  to  a  study  of  language  which, 
like  the  thread  of  Ariadne,  would  lead  them  safely 
through  the  intricate  passages  of  the  human  mind, 
through  wlvch  they  had  been  groping  their  way  for  so 
many  centuries,  without  ever  meeting  the  monster  which 
they  meant  to  slay.  In  my  lectures  on  Comparative  My- 
thology, in  particular,  I  tried  to  show  the  irresistible  in- 
fluence which  language,  in  its  growth  and  decay,  has  exer- 
cised on  thought,  not  only  in  what  is  commonly  called  my- 
thology, the  stories  of  gods  and  heroes,  but  in  every 
sphere  of  knowledge,  call  it  religion,  philosophy,  science, 
or  anything  else.  We  may  do  what  we  like,  our 
thoughts  are  always  hide-bound  in  language,  and  it  is 
this  inevitable  phase  of  thought  and  language,  inevitable 
in  every  branch  of  knowledge,  which  I  meant  by  My- 
thology, using  that  word  in  a  far  wider  sense  than  had 
ever  before  been  assigned  to  it.  In  order  to  make  my 
meaning  quite  clear,  and  to  provoke,  if  possible,  contra- 
diction, that  is  independent  thought,  I  called  mythology 
a  disease  of  language,  though  adding  at  the  same  time 
that  it  was  to  be  considered  as  an  infantine  disease,  as  a 
natural  crisis  through  which  our  intellectual  constitution 
must   pass    in   order  to  maintain    its  health    and   vio-or. 


Now  it  is  curious  that  those  who  expressed  their  agree- 
ment with  me  that  mythology,  including  metaphysics, 
might  indeed  be  considered  as  a  disease  of  language,  did 
not  ask  themselves  what  in  that  case  the  health  of  lan- 
guage would  mean.  Right  language  is  right  thought, 
and  right  thought  is  right  language;  and  if  we  want  to 
understand,  not  only  the  disease,  but  the  health  also  of 
our  thought,  that  is  to  say,  the  whole  life  of  our  thought, 
we  can  study  it  nowhere  more  efficiently  than  in  the 
pathology  of  language. 

V-  The  Science  of  Language,  therefore,  was  to  me  at 
all  time  but  a  means  to  an  end — a  telescope  to  watch  the 
heavenly  movements  of  our  thoughts,  a  microscope  to 
discover  the  primary  cells  of  our  concepts.  I  have 
waited  for  many  years,  hoping  that  some  one  better 
qualified  than  myself  might  lay  hold  of  the  materials 
collected  by  the  comparative  philologists,  and  build  with 
them  a  new  system  of  philosophy.  Everything  was 
ready — the  ore  was  there,  it  had  only  to  be  coined.  But 
whether  philosophers  mistrusted  the  ore,  or  whether 
they  preferred  to  speculate  with  their  time- honored 
tokens  rather  than  with  the  genuine  metal,  certain  it  is 
that,  with  few  exceptions,  no  philosopher  by  profession 
has  as  yet  utilized  the  new  facts  which  the  Science  of 
Language  has  placed  at  his  free  disposal. 

I  know  the  answer  that  will  be  made.  The  results 
of  the  Science  of  Language,  it  has  often  been  said,  are 
as  yet  so  unsettled.  They  vary  from  year  to  year,  and 
the  best  authorities  in  Germany,  France  and  England,  to 
say  nothing  of  America,  differ  toto  ccelo  from  each  other 
on  some  of  the  most  fundamental  principles.  Some 
hold  that,  like  the  law  of  gravitation,  the  laws  which 
govern  the  growth  and  dec.  y  of  language  admit  of  no 
exceptions;  others  hold,  on  the  ccntrarv,  that  disturb- 
ances in  the  regular  courses  of  words  may  here,  lead  to 
the  discovery  of  an  unsuspected  Neptune.  Dialects,  ac- 
cording to  some,  are  the  descendants  of  one  uniform  lan- 
guage; according  to  others  they  are  the  feeders  of  the 
classical  languages,  and  exist  not  only  before  a  common 
literary  language  can  be  framed,  but  continue  to  influ- 
ence its  later  development  by  constant  intercommunion. 
Dialect,  in  fact,  has  become  the  general  name  for  the 
centrifugal  tendencies  of  language,  whether  originating 
in  individuals,  families,  villages,  towns,  or  provinces,  as 
opposed  to  the  centripetal  power  of  analogy,  repre- 
sented by  the  sway  which,  whether  for  good  or  for  evil, 
majorities  always  exercise  over  minorities.  But  even  on 
minor  points  there  have  been  most  sanguinary  battles 
between  hostile  camps  of  comparative  philologists. 
Whether  the  original  Aryan  language  possessed  one 
short  a  only,  like  Sanskrit,  or  whether  the  a  was 
already,  before  the  separation  of  the  Aryan  family,  differ- 
entiated into  «,  c,  o,  has  been  treated  as  a  matter  of  life 
and  death;  and  I  do  not  deny  that  in  the  eyes  of  the 
true  scholar  it  is  a  matter  of  life  and  death.     But  it  does 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


227 


not  follow  that  because  Curtius  hesitated  on  this  point 
he  therefore  deserves  all  the  ignominious  epithets  that 
have  been  showered  upon  his  head.  Among  scholars 
by  profession  all  this  is  understood.  Curtius  holds,  and 
will  hold,  his  place  of  honor  in  the  history  of  Compara- 
tive Philology  in  spite  of  all  that  has  of  late,  been  writ- 
ten against  him,  and  no  one  will  be  more  ready  to  admit 
this,  I  believe,  than  Brugmann,  OsthofFand  others,  who 
have  attacked  him  so  fiercely.  I  am  sorry  for  rude  and 
ungracious  language  at  all  times,  but  I  do  not  mind  an 
honest  fight.  What  I  object  to  is,  if  critics,  who  are  too 
lazy  to  form  an  opinion  for  themselves,  amuse  them- 
selves, and  think  they  can  amuse  others,  by  collecting  a 
number  of  passages  from  the  writings  of  these  philolog- 
ical champions,  in  which  they  not  only  contradict  each 
other  flatly,  but  bandy  epithets  with  which  they  seem 
but  too  familiar,  whether  from  the  study  of  slang  dic- 
tionaries or  from  their  partiality  for  the  customs  of  primi- 
tive savages.  Let  every  man  judge  for  himself,  and  give 
his  opinion  and  his  reasons  for  it;  but  simply  to  point 
out  that  Bopp  has  been  called  an  ignoramus  by  some- 
body— it  may  be  even  by  someone  who  is  somebody — 
that  Sir  William  Jones  has  been  dubbed  a  mere  pre- 
tender, or  Darwin  a  fool,  may  no  doubt  serve  to  raise  a 
smile,  and  to  bring  a  whole  subject  into  discredit,  but  it 
can  do  no  possible  good.  What  province  is  there  in  the 
whole  realm  of  human  knowledge  in  which  there  is  no 
difference  of  opinion?  None,  I  should  say,  except  where 
there  is  for  a  time  neither  life,  nor  progress,  nor  discov- 
ery. It  is  because  there  is  at  present  intense  vitality  in 
the  comparative  study  of  ancient  languages,  traditions, 
customs,  mythologies,  and  religions  that  there  is  in  it 
that  constant  friction,  that  frequent  scintillation,  but  also 
that  constant  increase  of  new  light.  Do  you  think  we 
shall  ever  have  infallibility  and  immutability  in  the 
republic  of  learning?  I  hope  not,  for  to  my  mind  that 
would  mean  nothing  but  sluggishness,  languor  and  death. 
Scholars  welcome  everybody  who  in  the  open  tourna- 
ment of  science  will  take  his  chance,  dealing  blows  and 
receiving  or  parrying  blows;  but  the  man  who  does  not 
fight  himself,  but  simply  stands  by  to  jeer  and  sneer 
when  two  good  knights  have  been  unseated  in  break- 
ing a  lance  in  the  cause  of  truth,  does  nothing  but  mis- 
chief, and  might,  indeed,  find  better  and  worthier  em- 
ployment. 

To  say,  therefore,  that  the  results  of  Comparative 
Philology,  Ethnology  and  Mythology  are  still  too  un- 
certain to  make  it  safe  for  a  philosopher  to  take  them 
into  consideration,  is  mere  laziness.  The  river  of  knowl- 
edge, like  all  other  rivers,  will  never  stop  flowing  for 
timid  men  to  pass  through  with  dry  feet;  it  will  flow  on 
in  omne  volubilis  aevum,  and  we  must  take  our  header 
into  it,  and  swim  or  drown. 

There  is  one  advantage  at  least  in  getting  old.  To 
a  young  man,  or  I  should  rather  say  to  a  man  of  middle 


age,  to  see  the  pendulum  swinging  from  one  extreme  to 
the  other,  to  see  the  views  which  he  learnt  with  implicit 
faith  from  his  teacher  demolished  by  men  it  may  be  far 
inferior  in  knowledge,  judgment  and  character,  is  often 
disheartening.  But  if  one  is  allowed  to  watch  the  clock 
of  knowledge  for  a  longer  time  than  is  commonly 
allotted  to  hardworking  students,  one  feels  comforted  on 
seeing  the  pendulum  returning  once  more  to  the  oppo- 
site side,  and  one  finds  out  that  after  all  there  was  more 
to  be  said  for  the  exploded  errors  than  we  imagined 
thirty  years  ago. 

I  say  one  feels  comforted,  though  others  would 
probably  say,  "  Is,  then,  our  knowledge  nothing  but  a 
perpetual  swing-swang?  Must  we  be  content  with 
always  oscillating  between  truth  and  untruth,  and  does 
the  flux  and  reflux  of  scientific  opinion  always  leave  us 
exactly  where  we  were  before?"  No;  I  certainly  do 
not  take  so  desponding  a  view  of  our  human  destiny. 
On  the  contrary,  I  feel  convinced  that  while  the  pendu- 
lum vibrates  regularly  backwards  and  forwards,  the 
finger  on  the  dial— to  keep  to  our  metaphor — moves  on- 
ward, slowly  but  steadily — unless  there  is  something 
wrong  in  the  wheels  within  wheels  which  represent  the 
incessant  toil  cf  honest  and  unselfish  workers. 

You  may  of  late  years  have  heard  a  good  deal  about 
new  views  in  Comparative  Philology.  I  highly  appre- 
ciate every  one  of  these  new  views,  but  I  do  not  there- 
fore entirely  surrender  the  old  views.  There  has  not 
been  a  cataclysm,  a  complete  break  between  the  old  and 
the  new,  as  some  giddy  people  want  to  make  out. 
There  has  been,  as  there  ought  to  be,  a  constant  reform, 
but  there  has  never  been  a  coup  a"  etat.  Some  of  the 
very  foundations  of  our  science  have  had  to  be  re-exam- 
ined, and  have  been  strengthened  by  new  supports. 
Some  important  additions  have  been  made  with  regard 
to  phonetic  laws,  and  on  the  whole  it  has  been  found 
that  many  things  which  were  accepted  as  beyond  doubt, 
were  after  all  not  quite  so  certain  as  they  seemed  at  first. 
Let  us  only  take  one  instance.  You  have  probably 
all  heard  of  what  I  called  GrimnCs  Z.azv,  and  what,  as 
I  fully  admit,  would  more  correctly  have  been  called 
Grimm' 's  Rule.  However,  it  may  be  called  at  least  an 
Empirical  Law,  for  it  contains  the  observation  of  a  uni- 
formity in  the  changes  of  consonants  in  Low  German 
and  High  German,  as  compared  with  all  the  other  lan- 
guages of  the  Aryan  family.  We  find  the  observation 
of  that  uniformity  in  its  crudest  form  in  Rask.  It  was 
afterward  generalized  and  more  firmly  established  by 
Grimm.  Still,  a  number  of  exceptions  remained,  and 
these  were  gradually  diminished  by  the  discovery  of 
new  rules  by  Lottner,  Grassmann  and  Verner.  But  even 
now,  much  remains  to  be  done.  There  are  still  excep- 
tions to  be  accounted  for,  such  as  Gothic  fadi,  which  as 
Sanskrit  has  the  accent  on  the  first,  ought  to  he  fat  hi ; 
or  Gothic   hvathar,  whether,  which   as  Sanskrit  katard 


228 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


has  the  accent  on  the  last,  should  be  hvadar.  Nay,  I 
believe  that  a  higher  law  has  yet  to  be  discovered  to 
account  for  the  influence  which,  according  to  Verner, 
the  accent  immediately  before  Sanskrit  tenues  is  sup- 
plied to  exercise.  If  the  accent  is  on  the  vowel  imme- 
diately preceding  the  tenuis  in  Sanskrit,  the  tenuis  be- 
comes aspirate  in  Low  German;  if  not,  the  Sanskrit 
tenuis  appears  in  Low  German  as  the  corresponding 
media.  Thus  Sanskrit  bhrdtar  becomes  in  Gothic  bro- 
thar,  t  being  replaced  by  th;  but  Sanskrit  pitar  becomes 
fadar;  Sanskrit  mdtar,  Anglo  Saxon  modor.  Why? 
Simply  because  the  accent  in  Sanskrit  was  immediately 
before  the  t  in  bhrdtar,  but  not  so  in  pitdr  and  mdtar. 
This  shows  how  closely  languages  are  held  together,  a 
change  of  accent  in  Sanskrit  being  sufficient  to  e  (plain 
the  change  of  ///  and  d  in  Gothic,  Anglo  Saxon  and 
other  Low  German  dialects.  But  we  have,  as  yet,  the 
facts  only.  Why  the  accent  should  exercise  this  influ- 
ence we  do  not  know,  unless  we  suppose  that  the  accent 
before  the  tenuis  draws  the  tenuis  toward  the  preceding 
vowel,  makes  it,  as  it  were,  the  final  of  a  syllable,  and 
secures  to  it  that  aspiration  which  a  tenuis  would  claim, 
if  the  final  of  a  word.* 

I  wish  I  could  give  you  to-day  a  fuller  account  of 
the  excellent  work  that  has  been  done  during  the  last 
twenty  years  by  such  men  as  Lottner,  Grassmann,  Ver- 
ner, Ascoli,  Fick,  Ludwig,  Schmidt,  Collitz,  Brugmann, 
OsthofF,  de  Saussure,  Schrader,  and  many  others.  You 
would  be  surprised  at  the  perfection  which  has  been  at- 
tained in  the  elaboration  of  phonetic  rules,  in  the  obser- 
vations on  the  working  of  analogy,  in  the  more  exact 
definition  of  technical  terms,  and  in  the  historical  con- 
clusions to  be  drawn  from  the  facts  supplied  by  a  com- 
parison of  cognate  languages. 

But  my  object  to-day  is  a  different  one.  I  wish  to 
call  your  attention  to  the  progress  that  has  been  made  in 
our  comprehension  of  language  itself.  Now,  whatever 
views  were  formerly  held  about  language,  everybody 
was  agreed  that  language  was  a  most  wonderful  thing, 
so  wonderful,  in  fact,  that  perhaps  the  wisest  thing  that 
could  be  said  about  it  was  that  it  must  have  been  of 
superhuman  or  divine  origin.  It  was  quite  clear  that, 
though  men  might  frame  new  out  of  old  words,  no  man 
could  ever  frame  at  his  own  pleasure  a  word  entirely 
new.  Nor  did  nature  seem  to  have  supplied  primitive 
humanity  with  a  vocabulary,  for  all  vocabularies  differed, 
and  every  person  capable  of  speaking  had  to  learn  his 
language  from  his  parents.  Whence,  therefore,  could 
language,  with  its  millions  of  words,  come  to  us  except 
from  a  superhuman  and  supernatural  source?  We 
wonder  at  the  infinite  number  of  stars,  and  we  well  may. 
One  look  at  that  silent  eternal  procession  is  worth  all 
the  miracles  of  all    religions  put  together.     But  if  the 

•Sec  Heyne,  Laut  und FlexionsUhrr,  p.  9S;  also  Sweet,  History  of  Enelisk 
Sounds,  p.  9. 


stars  on  high  and  the  still  small  voice  within  seemed  to 
the  greatest  philosopher  the  two  greatest  miracles,  might 
he  not  have  added  the  galaxy  of  words  as  the  third  great 
miracle  that  passes  all  understanding,  though  it  passes 
every  day  before  our  very  eyes  ?  If  you  consider  that  the 
great  English  dictionary,  now  being  published  by  the 
University  press  at  Oxford,  is  to  contain  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  words,  that  is,  a  quarter  of  a  million, 
and  that  on  a  low  average  every  word  admits  of  at  least 
ten  changes  by  means  of  declension,  conjugation,  or  de- 
grees of  comparison,*  you  have  before  you,  in  English 
alone,  two  millions  and  a  half  of  words,  every  one  a  bright 
star  of  human  thought.  I  wonder  what  the  number  of 
the  stars  in  Heaven  may  be.  Struve,  I  am  told,  formed 
a  guess  that  their  number  might  amount  to  two  millions! 
But  the  visible  stars,  up  to  stars  of  the  fifth  magnitude, 
amount  to  one  thousand  three  hundred  and  eighty-two 
only,  and  I  doubt  whether  anybody  here  present  has 
ever  seen  more  than  twice  that  number,  as  I  doubt 
whether  many  people  have  ever  used  more  than  twice 
that  number  of  words.  At  Oxford,  as  Professor  Pritch- 
ard  informs  me,  the  stars  which  we  see  with  the  naked 
eye  are  about  two  thousand  eight  hundred — about  the 
same  as  the  number  of  the  members  of  the  University  in 
their  various  degrees  of  light  and  magnitude. 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  POPULA- 
TION TO  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

PROF.    HENRY    C    ADAMS. 

One  is  almost  ashamed  to  speak  of  the  doctrine  of 
population,  so  many  have  been  the  errors  and  miscon- 
ceptions respecting  it;  yet  it  is  fundamental  to  all  right 
thinking  upon  the  ultimate  destiny  of  the  human  race, 
and,  in  consequence,  to  the  consideration  of  any  proposal 
of  social  reform.  Indeed,  it  is  believed  by  many  to  be 
a  system  of  thought  which  stands  opposed  to  all  re- 
forms, and  on  that  account,  also,  it  should  receive  the 
attention  of  students  of  social   relations. 

We  shall  put  ourselves  on  the  right  track  for  inter- 
preting correctly  the  Essay  on  the  Principles  of  Popu- 
lation, by  Robert  Malthus,  which  appeared  in  1798, 
if  we  notice  the  story  of  its  writing.  It  appears  that 
the  elder  Mr.  Malthus  was  a  student  of  Condorcet,  a 
disciple  of  Rousseau,  and  a  friend  of  Godwin.  These 
writers  believed  the  evils  of  society  to  arise  from  the 
vices  of  human  institutions.  Man  was  not  depraved 
by  nature;  it  was  as  easy  for  him  to  do  right  as  to  do 
wrong;  his  acts  were  determined  by  his  surroundings. 
Could  the  artificial  structure  of  society  be  changed, 
there  was  no  reason  in  the  nature  of' things  why  men 
could  not  attain  a  state  of  perfectability  and  live  forever 
in  comfort  and  happiness.  These  writers,  it  will  be  ob- 
served, were  optimistic  anarchists.     They  appealed  from 


*A  Greek  verb,  according  to  Curtius,  admits   of  ?07   modifications;   a   San- 
skrit verb  of  891. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


229 


the  artificial  regulations  of  the  eighteenth  century  to  a 
law  of  nature,  urging  that  harmony  and  happiness 
must  necessarily  follow  the  dethronement  of  king-made 
law  and  the  enthronement  of  natural  law.  It  was  this 
set  of  teachings  which  the  elder  Malthus  sought  to  force 
upon  his  son,  but  the  intelligence  of  the  son  refused  to 
submit  to  the  vagaries  of  uncontrolled  imagination.  Let 
us  assume,  said  the  young  man,  that  society  has  at- 
tained a  perfect  state  of  equality  in  which  each  has 
enough  to  satisfy  rational  wants,  and  that  what  you 
term  the  "law  of  natural  liberty"  is  the  only  authority; 
such  a  happy  state  cannot  last,  for  it  lies  written  also 
in  this  law  of  nature  that  the  human  species  will  in- 
crease up  to  the  limit  of  subsistence.  "  In  a  state  of  uni- 
versal physical  well-being,  this  tendency,  which  in  real 
life  is  held  in  check  by  the  difficulty  of  procuring  a 
subsistence,  would  operate  without  restraint.  Scarcity 
would  follow  the  increase  of  numbers;  the  leisure  would 
soon  cease  to  exist;  the  old  struggle  for  life  would  re- 
commence, and  inequality  would  reign  once  more." 

In  judging  of  the  doctrine  of  population  as  a  system 
of  thought,  we  should  never  lose  sight  of  the  contro- 
versy in  which  it  was  formulated.  As  an  answer  to  the 
conclusion  of  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed  the  argu- 
ment was  final,  for,  assuming  "  natural  liberty"  to  be 
the  only  premise  of  action,  a  perfected  society  is  an  im- 
possibility. The  poverty  and  crime  which  spring  neces- 
sarily from  the  unregulated  struggle  for  individual  exist- 
ence will  surely  make  its  appearance;  but  it  is  only  when 
the  conclusions  of  the  essay  are  regarded  as  true  inde- 
pendently of  the  assumptions  from  which  they  proceeded, 
that  they  throw  a  false  light  upon  the  problem  of  the 
ultimate  destiny  of  the  race.  This  was  well  recognized 
by  Malthus,  and  when  he  perceived  what  use  people 
were  likely  to  make  of  his  doctrine,  he  modified  its 
premises  so  as  to  be  more  nearly  in  harmony  with  the 
facts  of  life;  that  is  to  say,  he  admitted  the  existence  of 
moral  restraints  upon  the  increase  of  numbers,  thus  tak- 
ing the  entire  question  out  from  the  domain  of  natural 
law  and  subjecting  it  to  the  control  of  a  conscious  pur- 
pose in  society. 

This,  to  my  mind,  is  the  most  important  lesson  to  be 
drawn  from  the  doctrine  of  population  when  studied 
in  his  historical  setting.  The  development  of  human 
society  is  not  wholly  directed  by  blind  force  acting 
through  individuals,  but  the  intelligence  of  society  may 
be  brought  to  bear  so  as  to  direct  development  toward 
rational  ends. 

Let  us  now  return  to  the  thought  from  which  we 
started.  If  we  brush  aside  the  long  and  tedious  discus- 
sion to  which  the  law  of  population  has  given  rise,  we 
shall  see  that  the  true  interpretation  of  Malthuseanism  is 
not  that  poverty  and  crime  are  necessary  phenomena  in 
an  advancing  society,  for  the  theory  itself  admits  that 
these  evils   may  be   set   aside   by  subjecting   the   natural 


laws  of  production  and  procreation  to  the  direction  of 
an  intelligent  will.  It  does  not  therefore  stand  opposed 
to  reform,  but  declares  one  of  the  conditions  to  which 
reform,  if  successful,  must  adjust  itself.  Whence,  then, 
it  may  be  asked,  arises  that  contemptuous  hatred  with 
which  many  regard  the  doctrine?  This,  I  think,  comes 
from  the  restricted  and  unwarranted  interpretation  of 
the  phrase  "  moral  restraints."  It  has  been  commonly 
held  that  the  only  restraint  to  be  brought  into  play  was 
the  self-restraint  of  the  poor  with  regard  to  marriage, 
and  the  only  motive  which  could  induce  to  the  exercise 
of  this  restraint  was  the  fear  of  over-stocking  the  labor 
market.  If  the  poor  will  propagate  without  reason  they 
must  take  the  consequences.  Such  is  the  comforting 
theory  of  the  rich. 

But  such,  I  apprehend,  is  not  the  necessary  conclu- 
sion from  the  premises.  Were  the  poor  sufficiently  in- 
telligent, or  had  they  the  time  to  become  intelligent,  so 
as  to  clearly  see  the  bearings  of  great  social  forces,  they 
might  perhaps  be  held  in  a  degree  responsible  for  the 
barriers  which  they  erect  against  the  advancement  of 
their  own  class,  although  even  that  would  not  excuse 
the  well-to-do  for  perverting  the  industrial  forces  from 
their  highest  social  employment  to  the  ministry  of  per- 
sonal luxury.  But  since  the  poor  lack  the  intelligence 
necessary  for  appreciating  the  law  of  social  progress, 
the  superior  intelligence  of  society  should  be  brought  to 
bear  in  directing  their  thoughts  for  them.  In  a  certain 
degree  this  has  been  already  done,  as,  for  example,  in 
the  quite  universal  establishment  of  popular  education. 
For  it  is  well  recognized  that  the  spread  of  intelligence 
renders  men  sensitive  to  those  influences  which  threaten 
race  deterioration.  Such  efforts  are  commendable,  but 
they  are  not  adequate.  The  phrase  "  moral  restraints" 
must  be  granted  an  interpretation  which  shall  lead  to 
broader  schemes  of  reform  than  any  yet  undertaken 
before  its  full  meaning  may  be  said  to  have  been  appre- 
hended. 

It  seems,  then,  that  in  applying  the  law  of  popula- 
tion we  must  look  away  from  the  individual  and  con- 
sider the  question  as  a  question  of  social  development, 
and  from  this  point  of  view  two  thoughts  make  them- 
selves clear.  First,  it  is  not  the  actual  numbers  of 
people,  but  the  rapidity  of  their  increase  that  determines 
the  grade  of  physical  comfort  in  which  men  may 
live.  If  the  proportion  of  producers  to  dependents  is  at 
any  time  too  large,  the  tendency  will  be  to  lower  the 
standard  of  living.  But  at  the  present  time,  while  the 
world  is  passing  through  the  period  of  industrial 
advancement  which  marks  the  nineteenth  century,  this 
thought  is  of  comparatively  slight  importance.  Under 
present  conditions,  over  population  is  no  explanation  of 
poverty.  But  in  the  second  place,  i.t  is  the  source  from 
which  population  comes,  rather  than  the  rapidity  of  its 
increase,  which    determines    the   influence    of    numbers 


23° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


upon  the  character  of  society.  If  the  men  born  into 
the  world  are  of  the  right  sort  there  is  no  immediate 
danger  of  there  being  too  many  of  them.  How  then 
may  the  source  of  increasing  numbers  be  brought 
under  the  control  of  the  social  judgment?  Legislation 
upon  this  point  has  for  the  most  part  failed.  The 
restriction  of  marriages  has  commonly  resulted  in  an 
increase  of  illegitimate  births.  There  seems  to  be  no 
adequate  answer  to  this  question,  except  the  one  which 
recognizes  that  all  men  are  open  to  the  influence  of  the 
same  motives,  and  which  seeks  to  adjust  society  in  such 
a  manner  that  these  motives  may  produce  their  normal 
results.  Upon  whom  do  the  moral  restraints  respecting 
population  now  work?  Manifestly  upon  those  who 
are  born  sufficiently  high  in  the  social  scale  to  appreci- 
ate the  allurements  of  hope.  Who,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  wholly  careless  as  to  the  consequences  of  marriage? 
The  answer  is  equally  plain.  It  is  they  who  have 
nothing  to  hope  for  in  the  world  as  they  find  it,  and 
who  are  too  weak  to  hew  for  themselves  a  path  to  suc- 
cess. This  matter  of  hopefulness  is  in  part  a  matter  of 
temperament,  but  its  development  is  largely  a  matter  of 
circumstances.  Of  one  fact  we  may  rest  assured,  and 
that  is  that  hope  will  never  spring  up  where  the  door 
of  opportunity  is  closed.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  law 
grants  men  a  legal  right  to  better  their  circumstances  if 
they  are  able;  the  conditions  of  success  must  be  adjusted 
to  the  ability  of  all  men,  the  weak  as  well  as  the  strong, 
or  the  restraining  influence  of  hope  can  never  save  us 
from  an  increase  in  numbers  of  the  worst  sort. 

The  conclusion  of  this  somewhat  rambling  discus- 
sion is  this.  The  doctrine  of  population,  properly 
understood,  does  not  stand  in  the  way  of  rational  reform, 
for  the  question  of  population  will  cease  to  be  a  matter 
of  embarrassment  in  any  society  where  men  can  easily 
attain  and  maintain  a  reasonably  high  grade  of  social 
enjoyment. 

"  MIND  READING,  ETC.:"  A  REPLY  TO  M.  J.  SAVAGE. 

BY   J.    S.    ELLIS. 

In  your  issue  of  April  2S,  appears  an  article  by 
Minor.  J.  Savage,  on  the  above  subject,  the  "etc."  being 
brought  out  very  conspicuously.  The  article  is  a  very 
characteristic  one,  and  I  think  it  only  fair  to  your  read- 
ers that  some  criticism  of  it  be  allowed.  The  letter  is 
characteristic  in  these  points: 

i.  The  claim  that  there  are  proven  facts  which 
are  denied  admittance  into  scientific  theories.  The  claim 
seems  to  he,  that  because  there  are  some  things  which 
cannot  at  present  be  explained,  therefore  we  ought  to 
believe  the  specialties  put  forward. 

2.  The  demand  that  investigators  should  be 
believers. 

3.  The  statement  that,  when  once  a  general  truth 
lias  been  established  in  a  man's  mind,  he  does  not  require 
so  much  evidence  to  support  a  special  case. 


4.  The  total  absence  of  any  facts  bearing  on  the 
subject;  accompanied  by  the  acknowledgement  that 
Mr.  Savage  is  "  not  ready  to  publish  more  than  hints  or 
fragments  of  facts  "  which  have  led  him  to  the  certainty 
he  expresses. 

"Psychic  Research"  has  certainly  labored  for  many 
years  under  special  disadvantages.  Although  favored 
by  the  support  of  a  few  scientific  men,  it  has  been 
tabooed  by  the  great  majority.  But  its  most  conspicu- 
ous disadvantage  has  been  the  support  of  its  "  friends," 
the  professional  mediums.  There  cm  be  no  doubt  that 
these  persons  have  brought  more  discredit  upon  all 
forms  of  spiritualism,  by  the  exposures  which  their 
exhibitions  have  entailed,  than  would  have  been  inflicted 
by  any  amount  of  respectable  opposition.  But  surely, 
after  so  many  years  of  experiments  and  investigation, 
some  facts  rather  than  mere  "hints  and  fragments" 
should  be  forthcoming.  Men  of  sense  demand,  not 
"experiments,"  that  to-day  may  be  successful,  but  may 
fail  to-morrow,  even  when  all  preliminaries  are  arranged 
apparently  satisfactorily;  but  facts,  the  exhibition  of 
which  can  be  arranged  and  carried  out  with  scientific 
certainty,  openly,  and  with  every  precaution  against 
fraud.  For  it  is  not  enough  that  certain  results  should 
be  exhibited  and  the  spectators  be  forced  to  admit  the 
statements  of  the  exhibitors  as  to  preliminaries.  What 
is  required  is,  that  the  whole  of  the  preliminaries  and 
accompanying  circumstances  should  be  perfectly  exposed 
as  in  all  really  scientific  investigations,  and  that  the 
results  should  be  capable  of  being  repeated  in  similar 
circumstances.  Until  this  is  done,  we  are  bound  to 
treat  the  pretensions  of  all  "mediums "  as  at  least  not 
sufficiently  sustained  to  justify  us  in  classing  these  pre- 
tenders among  scientific  investigators.  It  is  this  slight 
spice  of  talk  about  science  which  induces  me  to  write 
this  letter;  for  I  find  that,  not  only  does  it  mislead  a  large 
number  of  persons  who  make  no  claim  to  scientific 
knowledge  or  methods  of  thought;  but  it  actually 
induces  some  otherwise  clear-headed  thinkers  to  admit 
as  possibilities,  facts  or  supposed  facts  which  their 
mature  judgment  wouM  cause  them  to  utterly  repudiate 
did  they  approach  the  matter  in  the  logical  and  scientific 
frame  of  mind  with  which  they  attack  other  problems. 
The  first  claim  is  that  there  are  "facts"  which  find 
no  place  in  scientific  theories.  This  is  followed  by  a 
statement  that  thousands  of  sane  persons  assert  that  won- 
derful psychic  facts  are  of  "daily  occurrence;"  and  is 
preceded  by  an  acknowledgment  that  the  writer  is  "  not 
ready  to  publish  more  than  hints  or  fragments  of  facts." 
After  such  an  admission,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the 
only  "facts"  mentioned  are  that  certain  mediums  have 
"told  things"  which  they  "could  not  have  known." 
The  reason  this  sort  of  rubbish  is  not  admitted  into 
scientific  theories  is  plain  to  those  of  us  who  are  unbe- 
lievers.    If  a  chemist  desires  to  exhibit  the  composition 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


231 


of  salt,  he  takes  a  sample  from  any  cupboard  or  shop 
where  he  can  find  it.  Allowing  for  impurity,  the  result 
of  hn  experiment  is  the  same.  If  the  Psychic  Force  man 
wants  to  prove  his  "facts,"  he  can  only  do  so  by  getting 
certain  "mediums"  who  are  experienced  in  the  business 
to  perform  the  "experiments."  Let  Mr.  Savage  tell 
me  some  of  the  "strange  powers"  which  have  been 
exercised  in  his  study,  so  that  I  can  call  them  forth  in 
my  study,  and  I  will  do  my  best  to  assist  in  their  estab- 
lishment on  a  scientific  basis.  I  certainly  have  often 
longed  for  the  assistance  of  some  force  which  would 
enable  me  to  "move  physical  objects  without  muscular 
pressure."     Vain  wish,  alas! 

But  why  should  investigators  be  believers?  Scien- 
tific men  do  not  care  whether  investigators  are  believers 
or  not.  They  know  perfectly  well  that  investigation 
will  turn  unbelievers  into  believers,  and  give  them 
knowledge  in  place  of  prejudice.  It  is  true,  that  a  man 
who  believes  in  the  truth  he  is  seeking  and  knows  the 
direction  in  which  to  investigate,  is  more  likely  So  be 
successful  in  finding  it  than  another  with  less  belief  and 
less  knowledge.  But  if  an  ignorant  unbeliever  asks  a 
scientific  man  for  information, the  scientist  will  give  him 
the  means  of  gaining  the  knowledge  he  requires,  and 
not  throw  his  letter  into  the  waste  basket,  as  Mr.  Savage 
suggests. 

The  third  claim  might  be  paraphrased  thus:  "When 
once  a  man  has  persuaded  himself  that  his  particular 
nostrum  is  the  truth,  he  will  receive  and  promulgate  any 
number  of  'cases' supporting  it  that  maybe  reported 
without  any  particular  inquiry  into  their  reality."  That 
this  is  no  exaggeration  is  shown  by  the  acknowledgment 
that,  in  regard  to  the  alleged  proof  of  the  existence  of 
thought-transference,  Mr.  Savage's  "acceptance  is  based 
not  so  much  on  the  evidence  offered,  as  on  the  fact  that 
I  am  sure  things  quite  as  wonderful  have  occurred  in 
my  own  experience."  Is  there  any  scientific  theory  into 
which  this  sort  of  thing  can  be  made  to  fit?  Mr.  Savage 
says  the  present  condition  of  affairs  (that  is,  the  non- 
acceptance  of  these  alleged  "facts"  by  scientists)  is  "a 
scandal  both  to  science  and  philosophy."  If  there  is  any 
scandal,  it  would  appear  to  me  to  rest  on  the  shoulders 
of  men  who  are  putting  forward  notions  so  opposed  to 
all  true  science,  that  the  utmost  that  can  be  said  in  their 
favor  is  that  they  "need  explanation;"  the  very  facts  on 
which  they  are  based  requiring  substantiation.  Until 
some  substantial  facts  are  put  forward — facts  which  can 
be  demonstrated  by  all  inquirers,  and  not  by  a  few 
specialists  who  make  it  their  hobby — I  think*  we  are 
fairly  entitled  to  relegate  all  this  business  to  the  domain 
of  the  mountebank  and  the  charlatan. 

The  real  value  of  evidence  seems  to  be  a  point  on 
which,  too,  spiritualists  have  very  indefinite  notions. 
They  seem  to  think  that  all  that  is  necessary  is,  that  a 
few  people  at  a  seance  should  be  forced  to  acknowledge 


that  they  have  seen  something  which  they  cannot  ex- 
plain, to  give  them  fair  ground  for  asking  us  to  believe 
their  explanation  to  be  true.  Even  if  we  could  not 
explain  some  of  these  things,  if  we  knew  all  the  circum- 
stances, the  evidence  of  even  ten  thousand  eye-witnesses 
would  be  of  no  value,  if  it  could  be  shown  that  they 
were  wanting  in  sufficient  accurate  knowledge  to  make 
them  competent  judges.  What  would  be  the  value  of 
the  evidence  of  a  few  millions  of  Africans  as  to  the 
cause  of  an  eclipse  or  a  rainbow?  The  only  things 
which  are  hinted  at  in  the  article  are  those  which,  if 
true,  certainly  would  seem  to  partake  of  the  miraculous, 
or  something  equally  reasonable.  If  a  friend  of  mine 
were  to  tell  me  something  which  I  knew  he  could  not 
possibly  have  known,  I  think  my  answer  would  be  short 
if  not  flattering.  And  I  can  easily  understand  why  so 
much  has  been  written  on  this  matter  without  even  the 
first  step  having  been  taken  toward  placing  it  on  a 
scientific  basis. 


CHATS    WWH  A  CHIMPANZEE. 

BY    MOSCl'RE    D.  CONWAY. 
Part    IV. 

When  I  next  visited  my  chimpanzee  he  said  that 
we  would  have  to  postpone  our  further  discussion  be- 
cause a  rite  of  especial  importance  was  about  to  be  per- 
formed there  by  the  Brahmans,  and  no  stranger  could 
be  present.  I  expressed  my  sorrow  at  this,  and  my 
regret  that  I  could  not  witness  more  of  these  secret 
solemnities. 

"  If  you  are  sufficiently  arboreal  to  climb  with  me 
yon  tree,"  said  the  chimpanzee,  "  and  to  hide  behind  its 
larger  branch  and  risk  a  small  fine  and  large  noise  on 
possible  discovery,  you  can  witness  what  is  done;  it  is 
mainly  singing   and  dancing." 

I  was  soon  up  the  tree  and  seated  on  a  limb  jutting 
from  the  large  branch.  My  monkey  friend  perched 
just  in  front  of  me  on  the  more  exposed  side.  Thus  he 
not  only  helped  to  conceal  me  but  was  close  enough  to 
answer  in  a  whisper  any  question  I  might  to  put. 
Presently  a  sedan-shrine  was  borne  into  the  court;  I 
caught  only  a  glimpse  of  its  deity,  who  seemed  to  have 
a  monkey's  face,but  of  this  I  was  not  certain,  its  back  being 
toward  me.  After  priests  had  prostrated  themselves 
flat  before  it,  and  some  cakes  been  laid  on  small  stands, 
a  number  of  men  entered  and  knelt  each  to  a  priest,  who 
covered  the  bowed  head  with  his  skirt.  It  appeared  to 
be  a  process  of  confession  and  avsolution.  Then  seven 
men  entered,  each  bearing  a  musical  instrument,  and 
squatted  on  the  stone  floor.  An  equal  number  of  tem- 
ple dancers  followed,  and,  having  removed  an  upper 
garment  bowed  before  the  deity  till  their  foreheads 
touched  the  ground.  The  movement  and  expression 
were  those  of  absolute  submission  and  helplessness. 
Then  the  musicians  began  their  singing,  with  instru- 
mental accompaniment,  the  dancers  remaining  motionless. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  "  music "  was  a  monotonous  thrum-thrum  and 
twanc-twang;  the  singing  was  a  prolonged  whine  in 
unison. 

"  How  does  that  music  impress  you  ?"  asked  my  sage 
when  the  first  performance  was  over. 

"  I  should  hardly  call  it  music,"  I  answered  softly. 
"  It  sounds  like  mere  whining  and  whimpering,  and  is 
not  beautiful." 

"  Perhaps  you  do  not  understand  it.  Now  that  they 
are  about  to  sing  again,  I  will  get  closer  to  you  and 
translate  every  word." 

This  time  the  strain  profoundly  impressed  me.  It 
told  of  the  hardness  and  weariness  of  life;  the  sentence 
of  death  under  which  each  is  born;  the  partings,  the 
heartbreaks;  the  wonder  whether  the  world  were  sport 
of  demons  or  a  hell  for  punishing  sins  of  previous  exist- 
ence; the  consuming  famine  was  described,  the  drying 
up  of  streams,  the  ghouls  of  disease,  the  misery  of  exist- 
ence. The  tones  in  which  these  burdens  were  conveyed 
were  as  perfectly  adapted  to  the  sense  as  the  moaning 
of  a  wounded  animal,  the  sigh  of  bereaved  hearts,  the 
bleating  of  sheep  whose  lambs  are  slain,  the  cooing  of 
lonely  doves.     As  I  listened  my  eyes  filled  with  tears. 

"  You  weep,  my  friend,"  said  the  chimpanzee.  "  For 
that  this  music  exists.  It  was  not  meant  to  please  the 
ear  but  to  move  the  heart.  It  is  developed  out  of  the 
piteous  supplications  of  mendicants.  It  is  meant  to  move 
the  hearts  of  gods  and  goddesses  as  it  has  moved  yours." 

Tinkle,  tinkle !  The  dancers  arose  and  went  through 
their  strange  evolutions.  These  too,  were  not  aiming  at 
beauty,  as  1  presently  understood.  They  pleaded  before 
their  god  with  movements.  One  girl  described  the  pas- 
sion of  that  god ;  how  he  had  seen  his  ideal  become  ac- 
tual in  a  female  form,  pursued  her,  and  become  the 
father  of  heroes.  When  she  had  acted  the  divine  leg- 
end, another  told  in  her  dance  how  mortals  too  kindle 
with  love,  which,  unsatisfied,  must  consume  them.  Now 
clasping  her  hands,  now  pressing  them  to  her  throbbing 
temples,  she  portrayed  every  phase  of  passion  till  at  last 
she  sank,  a  picture  of  death,  with  hands  folded  on  her 
breast.  Then  forth  sprang  a  third,  and,  while  the  in- 
strumentalist beat  a  happier  measure,  she  danced  the  joy 
of  happy  love,  of  embraces,  of  paradise;  without,  how- 
ever, any   effort  to   be  graceful    or   fascinating. 

"  But  even  this  joy  is  sung  in  sad  minors,"  I  said, 
"  and  the  dancer's  face  does  not  smile." 

"  No,"  said  my  friend,  "  for  her  every  step  is  amid 
fearful  perils." 

The  tired  players  and  dancers  now  departed.  In  a 
few  moments  the  courtyard  was  entirely  vacant,  save  for 
the  slumberous  monkeys.  In  a  few  moments  we  were 
comfortably  seated  there. 

"  What  you  have  just  witnessed,"  said  the  chimpan- 
zee, "  is  a  fit  overture  to  what  I  have  to  say  about  the 
evolution  of  our  race  through  speech.     You  have  heard 


music  and  songs,  and  seen  dances,  exactly  as  they  were 
heard  and  seen  in  the  beginnings  of  time.  Music  and 
dancing,  their  original  purpose  being  lost,  have  been 
elsewhere  developed  into  arts  of  human  pleasure;  but,  as 
in  their  origin  they  involved  the  favor  or  disfavor  of 
deities,  were  matters  of  life  and  death,  even  so  is  it  with 
our  temple  singers  and  dancers.  Each  is  trained  in  the 
belief  that  a  slightest  mistake  in  accent  or  motion  will 
bring  him  or  her  an  eternity  of  torment.  They  are  a 
select  caste,  and  feel  themselves  in  the  employment  of 
gods  and  goddesses  who  will  not  forgive  the  least  ad- 
mixture of  error  in  their  ceremonies,  nor  the  slightest 
attempt  to  please  mere  mortals. 

"  A  curious  state  of  mind,"  I  said. 

"  Yes,  but  like  other  natural  curiosities,  developed 
by  simple  forces.  Have  you  not  known  people  in  your 
country  who  believe  absurdities?" 

"  Many." 

"They  were  created  by  the  absurdities  they  believe; 
that  is,  such  beliefs  must  have  been  for  a  long  time  con- 
ditions of  comfortable  existence  and  family  development. 
For  these  choirs  of  the  temple  the  dependence  of  actual 
life  and  death  on  their  exact  performances  has  gradually 
projected  itself  into  a  superstition  of  the  divine  and  eternal 
interests  dependent  on  their  every  motion,  accent,  tone, 
word.  From  this  it  is  an  easy  step  to  personification  of 
the  spoken  word:  as  Fate,  Fairy  (fatu?n,  the  thing 
spoken  ;_fari,  to  speak). 

"  All  that  line  of  mental  development,"  I  said,  "  has 
in  the  West  culminated  in  a  dogma  that  the  word  of 
God  is  a  distinct  Person,  embodying  creative  power, 
and  that  it  once  appeared  on  earth  in  human  form  and 
dwelt  among  men." 

"Through  such  fables"  said  my  sage,  "runs  a  thread 
of  truth  connecting  us  with  a  period  when  the  spoken  word 
was  really  vital.  The  word  was  coinage  of  a  need ;  it  came 
hard  and  was  never  spoken  or  written  in  vain.  To  tamper 
with  a  word  might  mislead  a  tribe  to  its  destruction.  A 
warning  of  pickets  inscribed  on  a  rock,  in  signs  agreed 
on,  if  altered  might  lead  their  fellows  to  disaster.  This, 
however,  is  but  a  smallest  illustration  of  the  importance 
of  the  word  as  a  factor  of  evolution.  Your  physiolo- 
gists find  the  natural  bridge  between  mere  vocal  sound 
and  articulate  speech  too  infinitesimal  for  measurement. 
Among  us  there  was  always  a  dispute  as  to  how  nature 
passed  that  minute  point  where  vocal  chords  were  able 
to  articulate.  Some  said  it  was  by  a  bit  of  luck;  others 
maintained  that  it  was  the  evolutional  culmination  of  the 
animal  sounds  repeated  in  the  hissing,  braying,  cooing 
of  the  human  infant;  but  all  agreed  on  what  was  really 
effected  by  the  acquisition  of  speech.  The  anthropoid 
race  from  which  you  and  I  are  descended  was  a  race  of 
howlers.  They  howled  when  they  were  happy,  and 
when  they  were  unhappy ;  their  community  was  organ- 
ization of  a  howl.     But  one  of  them  managed  to  cut  up 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


233 


his  howl  into  bits,  making  it  a  chatter;  this  he  used 
when  he  was  satisfied,  reserving  his  howl  for  distress. 
The  result  was  that  whenever  that  anthropoid's  indiv- 
idual howl  was  heard  all  the  rest  knew  it  must  be 
trouble,  and  hastened  to  his  aid.  The  possession  of  this 
superior  vocal  power  by  reflex  action  took  its  place  in 
that  anthropoid's  consciousness;  he  became  alive  to  sounds 
inaudible  to  others.  Once,  hearing  a  howl  more  piercing 
than  usual,  he  hurried  to  its  utterer,  and  rescued  from  a 
serpent  a  female  of  the  community.  From  the  marriage 
of  this  chatterer  with  a  wife  able  to  make  her  howl 
expressive,  sprang  a  family  of  anthropoid  genius.  Instead 
of  the  old  monotonous  howl  these  had  various  expressions 

a  whine  when  ill,  a  sharp  cry  for  a  serpent's  approach, 

a  growl  when  it  was  a  wolf,  a  bark  for  something 
else.  These  sounds  multiplied  their  sources  of  security. 
The  anthropoids  which  could  not  acquire  such  vocal 
variability  got  the  worst  of  things,  the  others  the 
best.  These  formed  an  anthropoid  aristocracy;  all  who 
were  able  cultivated  some  vocal  variation  which  enabled 
them  to  marry  into  this  aristocracy,  in  which  all  advan- 
tages were  steadily  accumulated.  And  while  these  were 
becoming  the  sum  of  every  creatures  best,  pari  passu  the 
mere  howlers  were  pauperized,  denuded  of  their  best  indi- 
viduals and  deteriorated.  There  was  interbreeding  of 
ignorance  and  incapacity  on  one  side  by  which  anthropoids 
were  turned  into  apes,  while  interbreeding  of  superiori- 
ties on  the  other  was  evolving  anthropoids  into  men. 
You  have  only  to  suppose  the  selecting  process  to  go  on 
long  enough, — millions  of  years  going  to  acquire  one 
further  note  of  expression, — to  realize  that  these  minute 
variations  must  at  last  end  for  the  progressives  the  cycle  of 
the  howl,  and  initiate  the  cycle  of  the  spoken  word.  If 
a  grain  of  sand  be  deposited  annually  on  one  spot,  the 
process  need  only  be  continued  long  enough  for  a 
mountain  to  stand  there.  I  have  said  '  word,'  but  at 
first  it  might  be  merest  root  of  a  word ;  yet  roots  grow, 
and  spread  in  branches,  for  each  variety  of  expression 
corresponded  to  a  variety  of  experience.  An  anthropoid 
parent,  dying  by  a  serpent's  bite,  might  inform  his  fel- 
lows that  the  serpent  is  deadly;  they  can  turn  his  expe- 
rience to  wisdom  without  undergoing  it.  Oral  tradi- 
tions, representing  an  accumulation  of  facts  and  experi- 
ences, became  to  those  who  could  remember  them  as  a 
catalogue  of  the  chief  dangers  and  opportunities  inci- 
dental to  anthropoid  life.  This  was  a  principle  of  selec- 
tion. The  community  of  chatterers  advanced  to  be  a 
social  organism  of  the  spoken  word. 

"  Successive  changes  in  one  organ  drew  after  them 
modifications  of  our  whole  animal  constitution.  In- 
creased communication  led  to  co-operation,  followed  by 
increased  comfort,  means,  and  so  much  liberation  of 
intelligence  from  concentration  on  the  momentary  needs. 
These  led  on  to  the  great  transformation.  This  came 
when  these  stored  up  experiences,  preserving  most  those 


most  impressed  bv  them,  so  developing  memory,  finally 
relieved  the  race  from  bondage  to  want  enough  to  admit 
intervals  of  leisure.  Then  was  developed,  out  of  mem- 
ory and  freedom,  the  power  to  compare  traditions,  select 
those  that  confirmed  each  other,  and  so  gain  some  notion 
of  classified  events — or  laws.  For  this  began  the  work 
of  purposed  selection, — like  that  which  in  the  hands  of 
man  has  changed  the  rude  stocks  of  nature  into  fruits 
and  cattle.  Mankind  changed  pine  cones  to  pine- 
apples by  mere  instruction  of  interest,  long  before 
any  evolutionary  method  in  nature  was  recognized. 
That  method  which  surrounds  man  with  a  civilized 
world  of  his  own  creation  is  not  now  applied  by  man  to 
his  own  breeding.  Conventionalism  sanctioned  bv 
dogma  forbids  that.  But  there  was  no  such  arresting 
power  over  the  forms  preceding  man.  Between  the 
animals  which  express  themselves  by  gesture  and  cries, 
and  the  first  talker,  came  no  emaciating  skepticism,  no 
supernatural  extortioner  demanding  half  their  food  for 
sacrifice.  They  were  able  to  make  the  most  and  best  of 
themselves;  consequently  it  were  no  more  miraculous 
that  the}'  should  develop  themselves  into  man,  if  they 
saw  fit,  than  that  man,  unrestricted  by  dogma,  working 
freely,  should  change  a  wild  briar  into  a  rose." 

At  this  moment  the  daughter  of  the  chimpanzee  ap- 
proached. He  placed  his  finger  on  his  mouth,  winked, 
gave  me  to  understand  that  he  did  not  wish  to  be  sus- 
pected of  speech,  and  waved  me  a  silent  farewell. 


PROTESTANTISM   AND  THE   NEW   ETHICS. 

BY  WILLIAM  CLARKE. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  last  Sunday  in  February,  I 
stood  amid  a  vast  crowd  composed  mainly  of  working 
people  near  the  portico  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  in  Lon- 
don. It  was  the  day  of  the  so-called  "Church  Parade" 
of  the  unemployed  people  of  London,  who  intended  by 
this  means  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  wealthy  classes 
to  their  condition.  I  think  I  never  felt  so  deeply  what 
an  utter  farce  the  church  had  become  in  England.  And 
by  this  word  church  I  do  not  refer  to  the  Catholic 
church,  which  is  popular  and  sympathetic  to  the  poor 
(however  absurd  its  alleged  miracles  and  pretended 
infallibility  may  be),  but  to  the  Protestant  section  of  the 
Christian  church,  especially  as  established  and  endowed 
in  England.  Here  were  masses  of  poor  people  from 
every  part  of  London  to  the  number  of  twenty  or 
thirty  thousand,  rough  and  ill-clothed,  but  for  the  most 
part  quiet  and  orderly,  who  were  come  to  show  them- 
selves in  what  is  supposed  to  be  their  own  church. 
This  great  church  was  specially  guarded  by  over  3,000 
policemen  (called  to  protect  the  Lord  Mayor  and  his 
wealthy  friends  against  their  humbler  "brethren") 
although  it  is  actually  dedicated  to  a  man  who  worked 
with  his  own  hands  for  a  living  and  taught  his  fellow- 
believers  to  do  the  same.     If  Paul  could  have  forseen 


234 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  time  when  a  cathedral  bearing  his  name  should  be 
erected  in  the  greatest  mammon-worshiping  center  in 
the  world,  and  should  be  usually  attended  by  mammon's 
chief  votaries  and  that  the  poor  to  whom  in  his  day 
"  the  gospel  was  preached,"  should  only  have  been 
admitted  to  his  temple  on  condition  of  3,000  guardians 
of  "law  and  order"  looking  after  them,  what,  I  wonder, 
would  he  have  said?  What  a  theme  the  presence  of 
these  unemployed  might  have  furnished  for  a  really 
inspired  preacher  with  a  genuine  human  gospel! — a 
gospel  of  salvation  from  the  real  evils  of  life,  and  not 
from  any  sham  hell  beyond  the  grave.  What  an 
opportunity  for  a  WyclifFe  or  a  Savonarola!  But  alas, 
no  inspired  man  filled  St.  Paul's  pulpit;  only  a  well- 
meaning  man,  with  no  gospel  worth  having  or  worth 
listening  to.  "The  rich  and  the  poor  meet  together;  the 
Lord  is  the  maker  of  them  all" — that  was  his  text. 
And  then  we  had  the  usual  time-honored  platitudes  as 
to  God  intending  that  there  should  be  divisions  and 
classes  in  society ;  how  rich  as  well  as  poor  had  their 
troubles,  and  how  the  rich  were  to  remember  the  poor 
and  give  them  presents,  and  how  celestial  pearl  and 
gold  was  going  to  compensate  for  the  absence  of  ter- 
restrial cash.  The  preacher  was  evidently  a  kindly 
person  who  did  really  piUy  the  condition  of  many  of 
his  hearers,  but  I  could  not  help  thinking  of  Emerson's 
words,  "  good  nature  is  plentiful  enough,  but  we  want 
justice  with  heart  of  steel  to  fight  down  the  proud." 

When  the  service  was  over  the  revolutionary 
leaders  stacked  their  red  flags  round  the  poor  old  dilapi- 
dated statue  of  Queen  Anne  in  front  of  the  cathedral, 
a  procession  was  formed  and  with  flags  flying  and 
bands  playing,  the  unemployed  marched  to  the  embank- 
ment where  a  second  discourse  was  preached  of  a  very 
different  nature  from  that  inside  St.  Paul's.  I  followed 
after,  and  having  learned  from  one  or  two  of  the  social- 
ist leaders  what  they  thought  of  their  experiment,  I 
p  oceeded  to  meditate  on  the  complete  failure  of  the 
church  to  touch  the  vital  issues  of  to-day,  and  I  thought 
very  much  as  follows: 

The  Protestant  churches  of  Christendom  are  all 
vitiated  by  three  radical  defects.  In  the  first  place  they 
are  the  outcome  of  the  individualist  movement  <  f  the 
reformation  which,  having  spent  itself,  is  now  well-nigh 
exhausted.  The  individualism  which  in  the  reformation, 
the  Puritan  revolution  and  the  French  revolution,  was 
necessary  as  a  destructive  agency  to  lie  applied  to  the 
old  dungeon-house  of  feudalism,  where  men  were 
stifled  for  want  of  thought  and  capacity  for  expansion, 
which  was  essential  foi  purposes  of  discovery  and  inven- 
tion, and,  consequently,  for  the  immense  impetus  given 
to  material  production — this  individualism  which  we  asso- 
ciate with  such  names  as  Luther,  Cromwell,  Voltaire 
and  Franklin,  has  discharged,  in  the  main,  its  task,  has 
nearly    exhausted   its   possibilities    of  good   and    is   now 


showing  its  evil  side  and  developing  its  latent  contra- 
dictions. Necessary  as  a  protest  against  tyranny,  mere 
individualism  is  powerless  to  build  up  any  great  human 
society  into  which  the  men  of  the  future  shall  be  as 
truly  incorporated  as  men  in  Western  Europe  a  thousand 
years  ago  were  incorporated  into  the  mediaeval  empire 
and  the  mediaeval  church.  And  individualists  are  satis- 
fied that  this  should  be  so.  It  realizes  their  idea  of 
"freedom."  Herbert  Spencer  and  Auberon  Herbert, 
the  English  apostles  of  individualism,  actually  liken 
men  to  a  pile  of  cannon-balls.  Each  unit  quite  distinct 
and  separate  from  the  other.  Each  unit  is  to  be  "free" 
to  do  exactly  as  he  like,  provided  he  leaves  his  fellow- 
units  alone.  This  is  supposed  to  be  the  final  consum- 
mation of  human  progress;  it  is  really  the  entering 
wedge  of  social  anarchy,  leaving  the  cash-nexus  as  the 
only  bond  of  human  relationship.  The  true  social  doc- 
trine is  the  organic  unity  of  society,  in  the  absence  of 
which  no  individual  can  possibly  develop  his  life.  To 
be  relieved  of  social  pressure  and  the  social  claims  of  every 
human  being  is  not  to  achieve  "freedom,"  it  is  simply  to 
negate  individuality  in  the  truest,  highest  sense  of  that 
word ;  it  is  a  retrogade  movement,  and  it  really  provides  at 
this  hour  whatever  intellectual  basis  there  may  be  for 
conservatism  in  England.  As  an  outcome  of  this  great 
individualist  movement  (contained  in  germ  in  Christian- 
ity, but  fully  developed  by  the  reformation  and  sub- 
sequent events)  we  find  the  Protestant  churches,  partic- 
ularly those  of  English-speaking  countries,  for  in  con- 
tinental Europe  ordinary  Protestantism  does  not  count  ;s 
a  living  force. 

Now  this  Protestantism  becomes  evidently  more  and 
more  opposed  every  day  to  the  new  social  ideal  which 
is  felt,  not  only  by  revolutionists,  but  by  nearly  all  of 
the  progressive  spirits  of  our  time.  That  ideal  is,  I 
think,  a  harmonious  social  order  in  which  there  shall  be 
equality  of  opportunity.  The  cry  of  Browning  in 
"Paracelsus"  will  be  the  cry  of  the  social  reformer: 
"  Make  no  more  giants,  God,  but  elevate  the  race  at 
once!"  It  is  the  general  elevation  of  all,  not  the 
dazzling  eminence  of  a  few  powerful  or  gifted  persons, 
that  the  great  social  forces  will  now  aim  at  producing. 
How  can  ordinary  Protestantism  help  in  this  work?  Its 
churches  are  devoted  to  setting  forth  aims  wholly  differ- 
ent. The  general  mass  of  mankind  are  regarded  by  it  as 
"  children  of  wrath"  from  whom  a  remnant  aregracious'y 
to  be  selected  by  some  mysterious  process.  Thus  the  ordi- 
nary Protestant  doctrine  is  fundamentally  aristocractic, 
denying  practically  the  unity  of  mankind  (the  very  cor- 
ner-stone of  the  new  ethics)  and  declaring  a  doctrine  of 
divine  favoritism.  The  man  of  the  world  who  has 
imbibed  Protestantism  on  its  material  side,  declares  with 
Fitzjames  Stephen,  its  most  brutal  exponent,  that  this 
world  is  made  for  hard  practical  people,  who  know 
what  they  want  and  mean  to  get  it.      In  other  words  he 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


'■35 


applies  the  entirely  non-ethical  principles  of  Darwinism 
— the  struggle  for  existence  and  survival  of  the  fittest — 
to  society.  On  the  other  hand  the  ordinary  religious 
Protestant  maintains  a  celestial  favoritism,  the  palm- 
branches  and  golden  streets  for  the  "elect"  and  the 
chains  and  red-hot  furnaces  for  the  masses  of  mankind. 
On  neither  basis  can  any  ethical  social  doctrine  be 
founded. 

In  the  next  place  Protestantism  is  allied  to  wealth 
and  to  social  power.  In  most  of  the  churches  in  Eng- 
land to-day  neither  Jesus  nor  any  of  his  disciples 
(whose  unreal  images  are  painted  on  the  windows) 
would  be  shown  into  a  pew,  and  the  chances  are  that 
they  would  be  warned  off  the  premises.  These  churches, 
in  not  a  few  cases,  exist  for  the  purpose  of  providing 
liberal  doses  of  soothing  syrup  to  the  well-to-do  classes, 
whose  nice  susceptibilities  are  outraged  by  the  ragged 
garments  of  the  poor.  Now  as  Jesus  denounced  the 
respectable  classes  of  his  day  (on  the  whole  as  decent  a 
set  of  people  as  our  millionaires,  legislators,  lawyers, 
etc.)  as  "serpents"  and  as  "a  generation  of  vipers," 
and  as  fit  subjects  for  "damnation,"  there  is  little 
doubt  that  if  he  were  with  us  to-day  his  condemnation 
of  our  organized  religion  would  be  little,  if  at  all, 
less  severe.  For  his  spirit  is  not  the  spirit  of  mod- 
ern Protestantism.  To  the  poor  the  gospel  is  not 
preached.  The)'  are,  on  the  contrary,  lectured  by 
wealthy  archbishops  on  their  want  of  "  thrift,"  and  by 
gluttonous  aldermen,  who  drink  champagne  out  of  big 
tumblers,  on  their  "  intemperance." 

Thirdly.  The  church  still  believes  in  "other-world- 
liness,"  and  regards  the  bad  social  state  which  obtains 
as  having  been  ordained  by  God  for  the  spiritual  dis- 
cipline of  his  "  children."  If  any  human  father  were 
to  treat  his  own  child  in  the  way  that  God  is  asserted 
by  the  church  to  treat  the  majority  of  the  human  race 
in  this  world  (to  say  nothing  of  the  lake  of  fire  provided 
in  the  next),  I  think  we  should  all  contend  for  the  honor 
of  lynching  him.  This  view  of  the  world  taken  by  the 
church  may  be  right  or  wrong,  but  it  is  obvious  that 
nobody  holding  any  such  view  can  solve  our  social 
problems.  For  if  the  church  view  is  right  then  the 
social  problem  is  insoluble,  and  we  must  wait  with  as 
much  patience  as  we  can  command  for  the  burning  up 
of  such  a  disreputable  planet.  And  if  the  church  view 
is  wrong,  then  the  church  stands  condemned  as  incapa- 
ble of  dealing  with  the  tremendous  facts  of  modern  life. 
The  new  ethical  movement,  of  course,  regards  the 
church  view  as  utterly  false.  It  declares  on  the  con- 
trary that  we  can  make  of  human  society  pretty  much 
what  we  like,  that  for  every  wrong  there  is  a  remedy, 
and  that  poverty  and  crime  are  no  more  "  inevitable  " 
than  was  chattel  slavery  or  mediasval  serfdom.  Leaving, 
therefore,  the  clergy  of  the  church  to  seek  in  the  sepul- 
cher  for  the  redeemer  in  whom  they  only  half  believe, 


the  new  movement  would,  as  Emerson  says,  " descend 
as  a  redeemer  into  nature  "  and  make  here  a  new  earth 
for  a  renovated  humanity. 


TWENTIETH    ANNUAL    CONVENTION    OF    THE 
FREE  RELIGIOUS  ASSOCIATION. 

BY    F.    M.  HOLLAND. 

The  president  of  this  body  has  told  in  The  Open 
Court  how  it  was  organized  twenty  years  ago,  "on 
the  basis  of  free  thought,"  and  in  order  "to  make  a 
fellowship,  not  a  party,  to  promote  the  scientific  study 
of  religious  truth,"  and  "to  keep  open  the  lines  of 
spiritual  freedom."  This  good  work,  though  still  nec- 
essary, has  been  so  far  accomplished  during  the  last  few 
years,  as  to  stand  much  less  in  need  of  organized  effort 
now  than  it  did  in  1S67.  Thus  the  F.  R.  A.  has  been 
obliged  to  take  up,  at  its  annual  meeting,  in  Tremont 
Temple,  Boston,  May  26  and  27,  the  questions  what  it 
is  to  do  hereafter,  and  why  it  is  to  keep  itself  before  the 
world. 

At  the  opening  business  session,  on  Thursday  even- 
ing, May  26,  with  the  original  president,  O.  B.  Froth- 
ingham,  now  vice-president,  in  the  chair,  a  resolution 
was  presented  by  the  president  for  the  current  year, 
Wm.J.  Potter,  and  adopted,  to  the  effect  that  the  execu- 
tive committee  shall  make  it  their  special  work  to  cor- 
respond with  their  fellow-members  on  the  question 
whether  a  reconstruction  is  necessary,  and  shall  report 
thereon  at  the  annual  meeting  in  18S8.  This  resolution 
was  read  the  next  morning  at  the  opening  of  the  con- 
vention by  Mr.  Potter,  who  also  presented  a  plan  for 
enlarging  the  association  into  four  allied  groups,  of 
which  one  should  make  religion  and  philosophy  its 
special  subjects,  another  study  problems  of  natural 
science,  the  third  take  sociology,  especially  the  diminu- 
tion of  vice,  poverty,  disease  and  crime,  for  its  field,  and 
the  fourth  devote  itself  to  amelioration  of  Sunday  laws, 
taxation  of  churches,  and  other  branches  of  State  secu- 
larization. Each  section  should  have  its  own  officers, 
and  all  be  represented  in  the  general  government  as  well 
as  in  the  annual  meetings.  Mr.  Potter  acknowledged 
that  this  plan  is  impracticable  with  the  present  limited 
membership.  For  such  work,  many  broad  scholars, 
eminent  scientists  and  intelligent  philanthropists  must  be 
brought  together;  and  if  such  gains  cannot  be  made 
under  the  present  constitution,  then  perish  the  organiza- 
tion.    Long   live   the  idea,  the    real    king! 

The  next  speaker  on  Friday  morning,  Mr.  A.  W. 
Stevens,  invited  by  request  of  the  executive  committee, 
advised  the  association  not  to  call  itself  Religious; 
because  religion,  as  expounded  and  defined  on  its  plat- 
form, is  only  a  calm  and  cold  philosophy.  The  F.  R.  A. 
ought  to  suit  its  religion  to  people's  wants,  or  drop  its 
name.  He  had  no  interest  in  any  being  but  man,  and 
no  desire  to  solve  any  problems  but  those  of  this  life.     It 


236 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


is  these  practical  problems  which  the  F.  R.  A.  ought  to 
make  prominent,  and  to  do  so  with  success  it  should  lay 
less  stress  on  freedom  and  more  on  respect  for  scientific 
thought,  and  for  the  rights  of  society.  This  essay  was 
so  interesting  that  I  should  be  glad  to  see  it  all  in  print, 
especially  as  Mr.  Stevens  showed  such  unusual  regard 
for  the  rights  of  his  neighbors  on  the  platform  as  to 
stop  at  the  exact  end  of  his  allotted  half-hour,  and,  of 
his  own  accord,  leave  a  number  of  his  carefully  prepared 
pages  unread.  This  sort  of  honesty  is  so  rare,  even  in 
liberal  gatherings,  that  I  was  glad  to  see  it  repeated 
that  afternoon  by  Captain  Adams.  Among  the  last 
passages  read  by  Mr.  Stevens  was  one  proving  that  the 
anarchists  condemned  at  Chicago  were  in  reality  usur- 
pers. Rev.  M.  J.  Savage  then  spoke  of  progress 
among  Unitarians,  as  well  as  of  the  importance  of 
religion.  Mr.  W.  M.  Salter,  speaking  on  the  supremacy 
of  ethics,  said  he  believed  that  when  all  else  that  the 
religious  world  holds  dear  falls  or  becomes  uncertain, 
confidence  in  duty  may  remain  unshaken.  Religion  so 
far  as  it  has  not  been  the  outgrowth  of  the  moral  senti- 
ment has  been  an  expensive  luxury  to  the  race,  and  has 
come  nigh  to  being  a  curse.  Yet  the  moral  sentiment 
as  naturally  blossoms  into  a  religious  faith  as  the  buds 
of  spring  into  leaf  or  flower.  We  cannot  worship 
nature  or  the  sum  of  nature's  powers.  Without  moral- 
ity and  the  infinite  suggestions  it  makes,  worship  cannot 
find  an  object,  and  the  word  adorable  would  have  to 
pass  out  of  literature.  The  moral  sentiment  gives 
power.  What  ought  to  be,  can  be.  The  heart  of  the 
world  is  sound  and  would  we  but  give  way  to  it,  the 
face  of  society  would  be  as  fair  as  is  now  the  face  of 
nature.  The  moral  sentiment  breeds  a  great  hope.  Our 
current  doctrine  of  immortality  has  no  moral  fibre  in  it. 
The  only  reason  for  supposing  there  is  another  life  is  in 
case  there  are  those  who  are  worthy  of  it.  Now  no 
drivelling  saint  nor  damnable  sinner  but  imagines  he 
or  she  is  going  to  live  again  and  live  forever.  There 
never  was  such  effrontery. 

It  is  in  this  society,  or  in  such  an  association 
as  is  proposed  by  Mr.  Potter,  that  the  star  of  Bethlehem 
is  to  re- appear,  according  to  Mr.  M.  D.  Conway.  Chris- 
tian morality  is  based  on  the  dogma  of  a  speedy  millen- 
ium,  and  therefore  utterly  impracticable.  So  is  social- 
ism. What  is  wanted  is  an  association  to  advance  ethical 
truth  by  scientific  methods.  Professor  Davidson,  who 
was  not  called  upon  until  the  session  had  proved  too 
long  for  most  of  the  reporters,  while  approving  of  the 
new  plan,  thought  that  what  had  been  lacking  was  not 
a  statement  of  aims  but  one  of  definite  methods.  The 
F.  R.  A.  is  too  much  like  a  Free  Communication  Asso- 
ciation, which  should  hold  conventions  year  after  year, 
to  talk  up  the  general  advantage  of  having  more  rail- 
roads, steamboats  and  telegraph  lines,  but  should  never 
suggest    any  practical    method    of    getting    them.     No 


wonder  it  drags  and  seems  but  half  alive.  It  is  high 
time  to  re-organize  with  different  and  practical  methods, 
with  a  more  definite  aim,  and  in  harmony  with  science, 
not  faith. 

This  subject  also  came  up  with  other  topics,  not  only 
at  the  afternoon  convention,  but  at  the  evening  festival. 
Both  Captain  Adams  and  Mrs.  Cheney  agreed  essen- 
tially with  Mr.  Potter.  Mr.  Frothingham  appeared 
satisfied  with  what  was  done  by  the  F.  R.  A.  in  supply- 
ins:  a  free  platform  for  speakers  of  all  religions  and  no 
religion;  so  did  Col.  Higginson,  who  spoke  of  the  con- 
vention and  festival  as  the  best  ever  given  by  the  F.  R.  A., 
though  he  thought  too  much  time  had  been  spent  on 
definitions  of  religion,  an  old  habit  not  likely,  I  fear, 
to  cease  until  some  such  name  is  taken  as  that  of  Pro- 
gressive Association,  proposed  by  Captain  Adams. 

The  last  gentleman,  in  speaking  at  3  p.  M.,  on  Sunday 
amusements,  said  that  those  who  say  God  wants  to  have 
us  keep  Sunday,  ought  to  prove  that  he  makes  the  cows 
give  twice  as  much  milk  as  usual  Saturdays,  and  lets  it 
keep  until  Monday,  as  well  as  that  he  takes  more 
pleasure  in  a  jangle  of  church  bells  than  in  a  good  con- 
cert. Then  Judge  Putnam  showed,  in  a  speech  which 
called  out  much  laughter  and  applause,  that  the  Sunday 
law  is  not  enforced,  for  it  does  not  really  make  our  be- 
havior different  from  what  it  would  be  without  it,  except 
in  so  far  as  it  permits  rascals  to  refuse  to  pay  notes  signed 
on  that  day,  or  bills  for  goods  then  purchased.  Mr. 
Wm.  L.  Garrison  thought  God  had  rather  look  at  parks 
full  of  games  than  at  gaudy  churches,  and  that  our 
Sunday  was  kept  much  more  for  the  benefit  of  the  rich 
than  of  the  poor;  and  Rev.  Charles  Voysey,  of  London, 
sent  a  letter  pleading  for  more  "  opportunities  of  inno- 
cent pleasure  and  games"  on  Sunday  as  a  preservation 
from  vice. 

The  festival  was  a  great  success,  with  its  bright,  cor- 
dial speeches,  its  tables  lined  with  happy  faces,  its  pro- 
fusion of  wild  flowers,  and  its  highly  artistic  music,  due 
especially  to  a  family  where  The  Open  Court  is 
always  welcome.  A  large  number  of  copies  of  this 
journal  was  sent  to  the  convention  by  its  editors,  and 
gratefully  received  by  the  audience,  some  of  whom  will 
extend  the  distribution  as  far  as  Texas.  The  executive 
committee,  in  their  report  soon  to  be  published  in  a 
pamphlet,  with  the  official  account  of  the  oroceedings, 
tells  how  this  journal  was  founded  by  "a  gentleman  in 
the  West  as  generous  in  hand  as  he  is  liberal  of  thought," 
and  also  say:  "We  cordially  congratulate  our  fellow- 
members  of  this  association  on  the  fact  that  so  gener- 
ously founded  and  promising  a  publication  has  arisen, 
outside  of  the  association,  to  work  for  similar  objects  to 
those  of  llic  Index;  and  we  think  it  will  be  generally 
agreed  that  The  Open  Court  has  thus  far  manifested 
a  purpose,  character  and  ability,  which  make  it  an  honor 
alike   to  its   founder  and  to  its  editors."     I,  too,  rejoice 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


237 


to  see  the  same  free jjlatform  which  the  F.  R.  A.  sets 
up  for  a  day  or  two,  once  or  twice  a  year,  kept  standing, 
with  all  its  height  and  breadth  ami  purity,  all  the  year 
round  in  The  Open  Court. 


COMMON   CONSENT  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

BY    RICHARD    A.    PROCTOR. 

In  my  article  on  "  Herbert  Spencer  as  a  Thinker," 
I  touched  on  the  question  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
or  rather  on  the  question  of  a  future  life,  as  viewed  by 
him,  and  also — in  a  note — on  the  argument  from  general 
consent,  which  has  ever  been  regarded  by  the  unthink- 
ing many  as  of  itself  sufficing  to  prove  that  the  soul  of 
man  is  immortal.  I  propose  now  to  remark  more  fully 
on  the  futility  of  the  argument  from  common  consent, 
associating  it  with  the  subject  of  the  immortality  of  indi- 
vidual life. 

It  is  a  familiar  problem  in  probabilities  to  determine 
how  far  a  report  may  be  trusted  when  it  is  received  from 
such  and  such  persons,  whose  veracity  is  regarded  as  re- 
spectively so  and  so.  It  is  vouched  for,  let  us  say,  by  A, 
who  tells  truth  five  times  in  six,  and  by  B  who  tells  truth 
seven  times  in  eleven ;  while  it  is  contradicted  by  Y  and 
Z,who  tell  the  truth  respectively  only  once  in  three  times 
and  once  in  five  times;  what  is  the  likelihood  of  its 
truth,  assuming  its  antecedent  probability  to  be  one  in 
ten?  I  do  not  say  that  problems  of  this  type  are  very 
useful;  for  the  measures  of  veracity  are  not  such  as  we 
recognize  in  the  actual  world.  Such  problems  may  be 
compared  to  those  mechanical  ones  which  are  given  in 
college  examination  papers,  where  we  read  of  perfectly 
rigid  rods,  perfectly  uniform  substances,  frictionless  sur- 
faces, and  the  like:  in  one  case  which  I  can  remember 
(since  I  was  one  of  the  victims  of  the  problem),  we 
were  invited  to  deal  with  a  man  whose  perfectly  smooth 
spherical  head  was  surmounted  by  a  conical  hat  of  infi- 
nite height!  But  such  problems  ma)'  indicate  true  prin- 
ciples; and  in  cases  where  we  can  form  a  fair  general 
idea  of  the  likelihood  of  a  certain  conclusion  being  right 
so  far  as  each  of  several  points  of  evidence  is  concerned, 
we  may  infer  also,  in  a  general  way,  the  likelihood  of 
its  being  right  when  all  those  several  points  are  consid- 
ered together. 

Now,  imagine  a  community  of  a  thousand  persons, 
each  one  of  whom  is  invited  to  decide  on  some  one  ques- 
tion of  considerable  difficulty;  and  let  us  suppose  that 
the  chance  of  each  one  giving  the  right  decision  may  be 
averaged  at  one  in  ten.  When  all  the  results  are  col- 
lected together,  it  appears,  let  us  say,  that  an  immense 
majority  agree  in  giving  one  answer,  the  rest  giving 
either  a  different  answer  or  declining  to  answer  at  all, 
on  the  ground  that  the  question  is  too  difficult  for 
them  to  decide.  Unquestionably  in  such  a  case  as  this, 
the  opinion  of  most  persons  (common  consent  again) 
would  be  that  the  decision  of  the  bulk  of  the  community 


of  a  thousand  folk  was  probably  right.  It  is  on  an 
assumption  of  this  sort  that  government  by  majorities 
depends;  and  at  a  first  view  it  seems  right  enough.  But 
what  are  the  actual  facts?  The  chance  of  a  right  decision 
in  each  case  is  (on  the  average)  the  same  as  that  of  draw- 
ing one  white  ball  from  a  vase  containing  ten  balls,  one 
only  of  which  is  white.  If  one  were  told  that  among 
the  thousand  balls  severally  drawn  from  a  thousand  such 
vases,  nine  hundred  were  of  one  color — unnamed — would 
one  infer  that  they  must  probably  be  white?  Would 
one  not  on  the  contrary  feel  absolutely  certain  that  what- 
ever color  they  may  be,  white  they  assuredly  are  not? 
A  mathematician,  at  any  rate,  would  so  conclude,  for  he 
knows  how  overwhelming  (practically  infinite)  are  the 
odds  against  more  than  about  one-tenth  of  the  drawn 
balls  being  of  the  color  which  appears  but  once  among 
ten  balls  in  each  vase.  If  all  the  thousand  were  an- 
nounced as  of  one  color — and  this,  according  to  believers 
in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  would  correspond  best 
with  the  all  but  uniform  opinion  of  mankind  on  that 
question — the  chance  that  that  color  would  be  further 
announced  to  be  white,  would  be  one  in  a  number  rep- 
resented by  one  followed  by  a  thousand  noughts.  If  the 
whole  space  within  our  sidereal  universe  were  enlarged  a 
million  fold,  and  so  enlarged,  were  filled  with  minute 
balls  closely  packed  and  so  small  that  a  million  of 
them  would,  together,  not  be  discernible  with  the  most 
powerful  microscope;  and  if  among  all  these  but  one 
were  white,  the  chance  of  a  white  ball  being  drawn 
from  each  one  of  all  the  thousand  vases  would  be  many 
millions  of  times  less  than  that  of  drawing  that  single 
white  ball  at  random  from  that  practical  infinity  of  balls 
of  other  colors. 

Not  less  unlikely  than  this, — and  therefore  infinite^' 
unlikely, — would  it  be  that  a  thousand  persons  would 
independently  agree  in  giving  a  right  decision  on  a  ques- 
tion where  the  probability  of  each  concluding  right 
would  be  as  one  in  ten.  And  be  it  remembered  that 
this  chance  of  being  right,  though  small  in  itself,  is 
great  compared  with  the  chance  of  being  right  on  any 
question  of  real  difficulty,  such,  for  example,  as  that  of 
a  future  life.  And  on  this  supremely  difficult  question 
not  a  thousand,  but,  we  are  told,  all  the  thousands  of 
millions  who  have  ever  thought  earnestly  about  it  have 
been  in  agreement.  It  is  infinitely  more  unlikely,  then, 
that  their  common  opinion  can  be  right  than  even  that 
from  the  thousand  vases  of  our  illustration  the  white 
ball  should  in  every  case  have  been  drawn. 

In  passing,  I  may  mention  that  Friar  Bacon  was  the 
first,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  point  out  the  fallacy  underly- 
ing the  argument  from  common  consent.  "  With  all 
our  strength,"  he  says  (in  his  Opus  Majus,  A.  D.  1267), 
"  we  must  prefer  reason  to  custom,  and  the  opinions  of 
the  wise  and  good  to  the  perceptions  of  the  vulgar;  and 
we  must  not  use  the  triple  argument, — that  is  to  say,  this 


238 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


has  been  laid  down,  this  is  usual,  this  has  been  common, 
therefore  it  is  to  be  held  by.  For  the  very  opposite  con- 
clusion does  much  better  follow  from  the  premises.  And 
though  the  whole  world  be  possessed  by  these  causes  of 
error,  let  us  freely  hear  opinions  contrary  to  established 
usage." 

It  is  essential  to  this  argument  as  to  the  drawing  of 
correct  inferences  from  common  consent,  that  the  matter 
in  question  should  involve  some  difficulty,  though  not 
necessarily  any  great  difficulty.  All  men  agree  that  the 
sun  shines,  and  all  men  are  right,  for  the  shining  of  the 
sun  is  obvious;  but  in  Shakespeare's  time  all  men  agreed 
that  the  sun  is  fire,  insomuch  that  he  says  "  doubt  that 
the  sun  is  fire,"  as  he  would  say,  doubt  that  you  live  and 
move;  but  because  that  is  a  matter  of  less  simplicity 
common  consent  should  have  been  looked  on  with  sus- 
picion, and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  know  now  that  the 
sun,  whatsoever  he  may  be,  is  assuredly  not  fire.  In 
like  manner  with  hundreds  of  matters  which  everyone 
who  possesses  the  ordinary  senses  seems  able  to  deal 
with,  so  simple  do  they  appear;  yet  the  common  opinion 
about  them,  where  there  has  been  any  real  difficulty," has 
invariably  been  common  error. 

For  it  is  by  no  means  necessary,  as  I  have  said,  that 
great  difficulty  should  be  involved  in  a  question  to  render 
universal  consent  respecting  it  decisive  evidence  of  error; 
but  in  such  cases  we  must  recognize  the  existence  of 
some  circumstance  or  circumstances  by  which  opinion 
has  been  biased.  It  is  practically  impossible  that  all  the 
members  of  a  community  of  a  thousand  should  arrive  at 
a  correct  conclusion  on  some  question  where  the  chance 
for  each  deciding  right  was  so  great  as  nine  in  ten.  If 
they  all  agreed  we  should  have  to  recognize  some  bias 
one  way  or  another,  and  to  decide  independently  whether 
that  bias  was  such  as  to  be  toward  truth  or  toward  error. 

It  will  hardly  be  denied  that  the  question  of  the  pos- 
sible immortality  of  man  is  one  of  considerable  difficulty. 
The  often  vaunted  fact  that  even  the  most  cautious  men 
of  science  will  not  pronounce  immortality  to  be  abso- 
lutely impossible,  proves  that  the  matter  is  not  one  to  be 
decided  in  an  instant  by  average  minds.  If,  then,  it  is 
true  that  average  minds  have,  with  scarcely  an  exception- 
pronounced  in  favor  of  the  doctrine  of  the  soul's  immor, 
tality,  we  must  infer  at  least  a  very  high  degree  of  prob- 
ability against  the  doctrine,  if  not  absolute  certainty  that 
the  doctrine  is  erroneous.  Unless,  indeed,  we  can  rec- 
ognize direct  evidence  in  favor  of  the  doctrine,  or  some 
reason  to  believe  that  opinions  would  be  biased,  and  in 
the  direction  of  the  truth. 

But  we  know  that  the  only  evidence  on  which  the 
doctrine  has  ever  been  based  is  that  derived  from  dreams 
about  the  dead,  which  were  regarded,  very  naturally,  as 
indicating  the  continued  existence  of  the  departed  in 
some  shadowy  or  spiritual  form.  We  know  now  that 
this  evidence  has  no  such  meaning  as  was  attributed  to 


it   during  the  childhood  of  races,  and    is   still  attributed 
to  it  by  children  and  persons  of  weak  mind. 

The  evidence  of  revelation  can,  of  course,  not  be 
cited  here,  because  the  doctrines  that  there  must  be  a 
God  of  such  a  nature  as  to  take  personal  interest  in  man, 
and  that  he  must  have  revealed  his  will  to  man,  belong 
to  those  respecting  which  common  opinion  has  given  its 
most  decisive,  and  therefore  its  almost  certainly  erro- 
neous verdict. 

As  regards  bias,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  at  the 
time  when  men  think  most  of  the  question  of  a  future 
life,  viz.,  when  some  beloved  one  has  passed  awa}',  most 
men  desire  to  entertain  the  thought  that  the  dead  still 
live  in  another  form,  though  when  they  reason  about 
their  hope  (the  few  who  are  able  to)  they  can  picture  no 
form  of  future  life  in  which  they  could  wish  their  loved 
ones  to  be  renewed.  There  is  certainly  no  reason  for 
supposing  that  bias  in  this  case  would  be  toward  truth 
rather  than  toward  error. 

When  the  most  earnest  believers  in  a  future  life  give 
their  reasons  for  the  faith  that  is  in  them,  we  feel  still 
more  strongly  that  such  fanciful  reasoning  cannot  be 
expected  to  guide  men  to  the  truth.  I  have  before  me 
a  sermon  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Brooks,  Doctor  of  Divinity, 
in  Boston,  in  which  he  speaks  of  a  man  immediately 
after  death.  "  That  man  is  dead,"  he  says;  "  what  is  it 
that  has  come?  A  minute  ago  I  was  talking  with  him, 
he  was  speaking  to  me  of  the  loves  and  dreams  and 
imaginings  with  which  I  have  been  familiar,  as  I  have 
known  him  these  forty  years.  Now  that  is  stopped. 
Shall  I  believe  that  an  end  has  come  to  that  vitality? 
The  spiritual  life  is  in  the  powers  of  the  soul,  not  in  the 
accident  which  linked  them  in  association  with  this  body 
in  which  the  physical  change  has  taken  place.  Shall  I 
believe  that  they  have  ceased  because  it  has  ceased  to  be 
their  minister?"  To  which  he  answers:  "No,  because 
what  has  passed  away  is  merely  the  bodily  life,  not  the 
inner  life  with  its  thoughts  and  emotions."  He  does  not 
deem  it  necessary  to  show  that  the  power  of  conceiving 
thoughts  or  feeling  emotions  is  not  as  essentially  a  quality 
of  that  which  has  been  destroyed  by  death,  as  the  power 
of  making  fine  cloth  is  a  quality  of  a  weaving-machine, 
and  presumably  brought  to  an  end  by  death  as  the  weav- 
ing powers  of  the  machine  by  its  destruction.  What  he 
says  of  the  man  might  equally  be  said,  and  with  about 
as  much  reason,  of  the  machine.  "  A  minute  ago  that 
machine  was  weaving  beautiful  cloth,  now  it  has 
done  its  last  work,  and  all  its  parts  will  presently  be 
applied  to  other  uses.  Shall  I  believe  that  the  powers 
of  working  charming  patterns  it  possessed  so  short  a 
time  since  are  gone  because  its  mere  material  structure 
is  to  be  destroyed  ?  Never;  for  only  the  merest  acci- 
dent linked  those  powers  with  the  machinery!"  No 
answer  is  needed  to  one  argument  any  more  than  to  the 
other.      The  destroyed   machine   lives    no   longer    as    a 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


239 


piece  of  mechanism;  it  can  never  more  produce  the  deli- 
cate textures  or  the  charming  patterns  which  it  pro'duced 
when  it  existed  as  a  machine.  It  will  live  only  in  its  prod- 
ucts, direct  and  indirect.  And  in  like  manner,  it  seems 
reasonable  to  believe  (though  none  can  say  it  has  been 
proved)  the  dead  exist  no  longer  as  beings  capable  of 
feeling  or  expressing  emotions.  They  live  only  in  their 
work, — in  the  influences,  direct  and  indirect,  which  they 
have  produced  on  those  around  them  during  life,  or  on 
those  who  are  to  come  hereafter.  This,  at  any  rate, — 
setting  aside  the  rejected  evidence  of  dreams  and  visions, 
and  the  more  than  doubtful  evidence  of  revelation, 
so-called,  which  is  full  of  errors  in  less  difficult  matters, 
— is  the  conclusion  to  which  reasoning  points  as  the 
most  probable.  Seeing  that  common  consent  points  to 
the  contrary  doctrine,  we  may  sav  that  the  true  argu- 
ment from  common  consent  proves,  almost  to  demon- 
stration, that  the  doctrine  of  the  soul's  immortality  is  one 
of  the  common  errors  into  which  common  consent  is 
bound  to  fall. 

THE  MODERN  SKEPTIC. 

BY  JOHN  BURROUGHS. 
Part  I. 

A  recent  writer  upon  skepticism  describes  the  skep- 
tic as  generally  a  "  malcontent,"  not  only  in  religion, 
but  in  politics  and  in  society.  "He  is  the  personification 
of  the  ancient  belief  regarding  the  souls  of  the  unburied 
dead,"  that  is,  he  goes  wandering  about  homeless  and 
disconsolate.  But  few  honest  skeptics,  I  imagine,  will 
see  themselves  in  this  portrait.  The  religious  skeptics 
of  to-day  are  a  very  large  class,  larger  than  ever  before, 
and  they  are  by  no  means  the  restless  and  unhappy  set 
they  are  here  described.  On  the  contrary  they  are 
among  the  most  hopeful,  intelligent,  patriotic,  upright 
and  wisely  conservative  of  our  citizens.  Let  us  see; 
probably  four-fifths  of  the  literary  men  in  this  country 
and  in  Great  Britain,  and  a  still  larger  per  cent,  on 
the  continent,  are  what  would  be  called  skeptics;  a 
large  proportion  of  journalists  and  editors  are  skeptics; 
half  the  lawyers,  more  than  half  the  doctors,  a  large 
per  cent,  of  the  teachers,  a  large  per  cent,  of  the  busi- 
ness men,  almost  all  the  scientific  men,  and  a  great 
many  orthodox  clergymen,  if  they  were  to  avow  their 
real  convictions,  would  confess  to  some  shade  of  skepti- 
cism or  religious  unbelief.  They  find  the  creeds  in 
which  they  were  nurtured  no  longer  credible.  Indeed, 
there  are  but  few  great  names  in  literature,  in  science  or 
philosophy  for  a  hundred  years,  that  could  not  be  con- 
victed of  some  shade  of  religious  skepticism — skepticism 
about  the  miracles,  the  sacraments,  vicarious  atonement, 
original  sin,  or  some  other  dogma. 

The  lawyers  are  probably  less  inclined  to  skepticism 
than  the  doctors,  because  the  legal  mind  Ls  closer  akin 
to  the  theological  mind ;  it  has  chiefly  to  do  with  arbi- 
trary and  artificial  questions  and  distinctions,  and  is 
brought  less  under  the  influence  of  natural  causes  than 


that  of  the  medical  practitioner.  The  lawyer  falls  into 
personal  and  exclusive  views;  he  makes  the  cause  of  his 
client  his  own;  and  his  who'.e  training  is  to  beget  a 
habit  of  mind  quite  the  opposite  of  the  scientific.  The 
physicians  were  the  first  to  discredit  witchcraft  and  to 
write  against  it,  but  the  lawyers  cherished  and  defended 
the  belief  nearly  as  long  as  did  the  clergy.  The  legal- 
ism, too,  which  has  invaded  Christianity,  and  which  is 
such  a  repulsive  feature  in  certain  of  the  creeds,  especially 
that  of  Calvinism,  is  the  work  of  the  attorney  habit  of 
mind. 

The  writer  referred  to  is  correct,  however,  in  saying 
that  "  faith  is  a  living  force  mostly  in  active  tempera- 
ment-."' There  is  less  skepticism  among  the  farmers 
and  among  the  laboring  classes  generally,  except  may 
be  here  and  there  in  large  cities,  and  very  little  among 
the  women.  Women  are  slow  to  reason,  but  quick  to 
feel  and  to  believe,  and  they  cannot  face  the  chill  of  the 
great  cosmic  out  of  doors  without  being  clad  in  some 
tangible  faith.  The  mass  of  the  people  are  indifferent 
rather  than  skeptical.  They  are  undoubtedly  drifting 
away  from  the  creeds  of  their  fathers,  but  they  have  not 
yet  entirely  lost  sight  of  them.  "  The  various  modes  of 
worship  which  prevailed  in  the  Roman  world,"  says 
Gibbon,  "  were  all  considered  by  the  people  as  equally 
true;  by  the  philosopher  as  equally  false,  and  by  the 
magistrate  as  equally  useful."  This  is  probably  very 
much  the  case  amid  all  nations,  at  all  times. 

Men  of  large  action,  too,  generals,  statesmen,  sea 
captains,  explorers,  usually  share  the  religion  of  their 
contemporaries.  Frederick  the  Great  is  perhaps  the 
most  notable  exception  to  this  rule.  A  popular  religion 
is  always  definite  and  practical,  clothes  itself  in  concrete 
forms,  and  appeals  to  the  active  temperament.  The 
man  of  action  hss  little  time  for  reflection,  to  return 
upon  himself  and  entertain  intellectual  propositions. 
Faith  is  an  earlier  and,  in  many  ways,  a  healthier  act  of 
the  mind  than  reason,  because  faith  leads  to  action, 
while  reason  makes  us  hesitate  and  put  oft"  a  decision. 
The  church  has  always  had  trouble  with  philosophers 
and  physicians,  with  men  who  wanted  to  know  the 
reason  of  things  and  trace  the  connection  of  cause  and 
effect.  There  was  little  skepticism  in  Greece  until  after 
the  sophists  appeared,  the  critics,  men  of  ideas,  who 
directed  a  free  play  of  thought  upon  all  objects  and  sub- 
jects, a  type  of  mind  which  begat  the  philosophers  of 
Athens,  but  not  the  great  poets  and  artists.  They  came 
earlier,  when  there  was  more  faith  and  less  reason  in 
Greece. 

In  fact,  the  great  days  of  Greece  "Were  not  when  its 
head  was  the  clearest,  but  when  its  patriotism  and  re- 
ligion were  the  most  fervent.  As  the  heart  cools  the 
head  clears.  Those  great  emotional  uprisings,  those 
religious  enthusiasms,  which  come  in  time  to  all  nations, 
are  not  days  of  right  reason,  nor  of  correct  science,  still 


240 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


they  are  the  periods  of  history  we  like  best  to  dwell 
upon. 

It  is  always  easier  to  believe  than  to  deny.  Our  minds 
are  naturally  affirmative;  it  is  not  till  the  second  or  third 
thought  that  doubt  begins.  Belief  is  so  vital  and  neces- 
sary that  one  would  say  the  tendency  was  made  strong 
at  the  perpetual  risk  of  extra  belief  and  superstition ;  it 
were  better  to  bel'eve  too  much  than  not  enough. 
Hence  mankind  have  always  believed  too  much,  as  if  to 
make  sure  that  the  anchor  hold.  To  believe  just  enough, 
to  free  his  mind  from  all  cant  and  from  all  illusion,  and 
see  things  just  as  in  themselves  they  are,  is  the  aim  of 
the  philosopher  or  of  the  true  skeptic. 

Men's  minds  are  nearly  always  under  a  spell  of  some 
kind.  What  a  spell  the  mind  of  Europe  was  under  during 
the  Crusades!  What  a  foolish  and  misdirected  enthusi- 
asm this  uprising  seems  to  us,  whose  minds  are  under 
some  other  spell,  say  the  scientific  spell.  What  a  spell  the 
same  mind  was  under  for  centuries  with  reference  to 
witchcraft,  even  such  a  man  as  Sir  Matthew  Hale  be- 
lieving in  it  and  defending;  it.  Here  was  an  astute  legal 
mind,  and  an  incorruptible  judge,  a  man  who  could  sift 
evidence  and  detect  fraud,  and  yet  the  spell  of  his  times 
in  regard  to  witchcraft  was  upon  him,  and  he  could  not 
escape  it.  The  mind  reasons  in  such  cases,  but  it 
reasons  inside  of  a  magical  circle,  the  bounds  of  which 
it  cannot  pass,  cannot  see.  Most  of  us  reason  inside  of 
a  circle,  when  we  reason  at  all,  with  reference  to  our 
religion;  we  are  under  its  spell,  its  illusion.  What  a 
spell  the  mind  of  Christendom  has  been  under  with 
reference  to  miracles — could  not  get  or  see  beyond  the 
magic  circle.  The  Catholic  mind  is  still  under  this 
spell.  What  a  spell  the  mind  of  the  world  was  under 
in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  with  reference  to  magic, 
and  in  later  times  with  reference  to  astrology,  and 
alchemy  and  demoniac  possessions!  The  skeptic  sees 
how  faith  or  belief  tends  perpetually  to  fulfill  itself. 
If  I  believed  in  ghosts  I  should  doubtless  see  ghosts. 
People  always  have.  Those  who  believe  in  spiritism 
have  wonderful  things  to  relate;  but  to  a  cool,  unbiased 
person  not  one  scrap  of  evidence  is  forthcoming.  In  a 
credulous  age  miracles  happen,  but  never  in  a  scientific 
one.  The  evidences  of  the  popular  religion  are  evi- 
dences only  to  those  who  are  already  convinced.  The 
man  who  believes  in  prayer — his  prayers  are  answered; 
the  more  sincere  the  belief  the  more  sure  the  answer. 
Sincerity  of  belief  is  of  itself  a  blessing  and  makes  us 
stronger.  Faith-cures,  of  which  we  are  just  now  hear- 
ing, have  their  root  in  this  principle,  as  do  also  the  power 
of  charms,  amulets,  symbols,  etc.  Curses,  anathemas, 
tend  to  fulfill  themselves  when  the  imagination  is  im- 
pressed by  them.  Think  what  power  for  mischief  must 
have  resided  in  the  curses  of  the  church  when  men's 
minds  were  under  the  theological  spell;  excommunica- 
tion made  man  an  outcast  in  the   universe.      The  things 


we  fear,  no  matter  how  imaginary,  stamp  our  lives. 
Of  the  things  we  love  the  same  is  true.  Plutarch  tells 
of  a  certain  bird  which  the  ancients  used  to  look  upon 
to  cure  jaundice — this  was  an  early  form  of  faith-cure. 
The  opposite  effect,  or  faitli-kill,  is  related  with  regard  to 
a  bird  in  Ceylon,  called  the  devil-bird.  This  bird  makes 
a  doleful  wailing  by  night,  and  as  it  is  seldom  seen,  a 
dread  superstition  has  gathered  about  it.  The  natives 
have  a  fixed  belief  that  whoever  sees  the  bird  will  surely 
die  shortly  after,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this  usually 
proves  true.  The  native  is  so  frightened  and  so  over- 
powered by  his  faith  in  the  evil  omen  that  he  refuses 
food,  goes  into  a  decline  and  soon  dies.  Thus  faith  kills 
and  faith  cures.  Faith  in  your  physician  is  often  worth 
more  to  you  than  his  medicines;  a  soldier's  faith  in  his 
general  doubles  or  trebbles  his  force. 

The  skeptic  sees  the  benefits  of  a  strong,  active  faith, 
irrespective  of  the  object  toward  which  it  is  directed. 
Faith  in  one's  self  and  in  the  justice  of  one's  cause  is 
always  half  the  battle.  Can  there  be  any  doubt  in  the 
mind  of  the  disinterested  observer  that  the  influence  of 
such  a  man,  say,  as  Mr.  Moody,  is  more  beneficial  than 
the  influence  of  such  an  orator  as  Mr.  Ingersoll  ?  Mr. 
Ingersoll  appeals  to  reason  and  to  common  sense,  and 
the  victory  seems  easily  on  his  side.  He  espouses  the 
cause  of  the  world  against  the  church  and  the  priests;  and 
while  the  church  and  the  priests  suffer,  no  man  is  bene- 
fitted. It  is  all  down-hill  work  with  the  witty  orator; 
it  is  what  we  like  to  hear  and  we  go  with  him  1  aturally 
and  easily.  It  is  all  up-hill  work  with  Mr.  Moody; 
he  rebukes  pride  and  sensuality;  he  calls  the  worldling 
to  a  higher  life;  he  seeks  to  awaken  aspirations  toward 
a  higher  and  nobler  good,  and  in  the  growth  of  char- 
acter, the  man  who  leads  us  the  difficult  way,  who  per- 
suades us  to  do  what  we  don't  want  to  do,  what  our 
pride  and  ease  and  self-indulgence  stand  in  the  way  of 
our  doing,  is  a  better  man  than  he  who  takes  us  with 
the  current  of  our  natural  desires  and  tendencies.  Greater 
things  are  possible,  nobler  and  more  disinterested  lives, 
from  Mr.  Moody's  point  of  view  than  from  Mr. 
Ingersoll's.  It  is  not  for  nothing  that  we  have  had 
so  long  thundered  into  our  ears  the  benefits  of  be- 
lief and  the  dangers  of  skepticism  and  doubt.  And 
it  is  not  because  the  things  we  have  been  asked  to 
believe  are  in  themselves  true,  but  because  the  very  act 
of  belief  is  in  itself  wholesome  and  sets  the  current 
going,  while  doubt  paralyzes  and  leads  to  stagnation. 
But  how  shall  we  believe  a  thing  unless  we  know  it  to 
be  true?  Ah,  there  is  the  rub!  But  man  in  all  ages 
has  been  the  victim  of  delusions,  and  the  gain  to  him 
has  been  that  they  have  kept  him  going;  that  they  have 
kept  him  working  and  striving.  The  great  periods 
in  history  have  been  periods  of  strong  faith,  of  serious 
affirmation,  not  of  denial,  nor  yet  of  reason.  Yet  I 
would  not  say  that  faith  alone  has  ever  made  a   people 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


241 


or  an  individual  great.  Spain,  as  a  nation,  probably 
has  as  much  faith  as  ever,  and  yet  how  is  she  fallen 
from  the  three  hundred  years  ago.  But  faith  is  more 
frequently  the  parent  of  great  deeds  than  reason  or  de- 
nial. From  the  point  of  view  of  the  nation,  faith  is  best. 
There  can  be  no  strong  feeling  of  nationality  without 
a  certain  narrowness  and  unreasonableness.  The  philoso- 
phy of  Athens  no  doubt  weakened  the  feeling  of  nation- 
ality. They  weakened  the  faith  in  the  nation's  gods;  they 
had  reference  to  universal  ends.  A  proud,  intense,  ex- 
clusive nation  like  the  Hellenes,  had  a  kind  of  faith  in 
itself  and  in  its  privileges  and  destiny,  which,  however 
conducive  to  the  growth  and  strength  of  the  nation,  could 
not  stand  the   light  of  reason  and   universal   knowledge. 


PSYCHIATRY,  OR   PSYCHOLOGICAL  MEDICINE. 

BY    S.    V.    CLEVEN'GER,    M.D. 
Part  II. 

In  institutions  where  the  care  of  patients  is  not  the 
principal  object  or  where  the  management  has  not 
profited  by  the  experience  of  those  who  have  scientifi- 
cally studied  how  to  obtain  the  best  results,  resort  is  still 
had  to  restraint  apparatus  and  mistaken  means  of  reduc- 
ing refractory  cases  to  obedience.  Among  these  may 
be  named  the  "  crib,"  bedstrap,  fingerless  gloves,  hand- 
less  sleeve=,  muffs,  belts,  manacles,  chains,  sacks,  cami- 
soles, buckled  straps,  leathern  masks,  pear-shaped  frames 
and  gags,  wicker  baskets,  suspended  boxes,  the  restraint 
chair,  the  dark  chamber,  padded  room,  the  rotary  ma- 
chine, the  suspended  seat,  the  hanging  mat,  the  hollow 
wheel,  the  swing,  the  douche  and  the  surprise  bath. 

Scientific  inquiry  has  led  to  the  abandonment  of  the 
majority  of  these,  and  the  substitution  for  them  of  more 
intelligent  attendance.  Some  asylums  adopt  the  extreme 
of  absolute  non-restraint  by  appliances  of  any  kind,  and 
while  this  ultra-abandonment  may  not  be  judicious  in 
all  cases,  it  is  better  by  far  than  to  allow  resort  to 
be  had  to  the  mildest  restraint  instruments,  except  under 
the  personal  supervision  of  the  good  asylum  physician. 

It  has,  also,  been  proven  that  faithful  medical  atten- 
tion to  patients  during  the  day  time  not  only  prevents 
the  hideous  disorder  and  noises  associated  with  the 
name  of  Bedlam,  but  insures  sleep  to  the  turbulent,  and 
otherwise  sleepless,  far  better  than  routine  drugging  at 
night  to  quiet,  for  the  nonce,  the  shrieking  maniac. 

It  would  require  more  time  than  we  can  spare  to 
review  the  development  of  the  modern  scientific  asylum 
in  its  working  details,  but  we  may  sum  up  the  results 
in  the  statement  that  the  patient  has  therein  the  best 
chance  for  his  restoration  to  reason,  and  under  all  cir- 
cumstances is  ensured  kind  treatment. 

Avoiding  the  dry  details  of  the  evolution  of  scien- 
tific methods  of  research  into  nervous  and  mental  diseases, 
a  survey  of  what  is  being  attempted  in  such  fields 
might  be  interesting: 


The  study  is  divided  into  clinical  and  pathological, 
and  requires  the  co-operation  of  trained  minds.  One 
set  of  observers  records  (roughly  speaking)  all  that 
the  insane  person  does,  and  the  course  of  his  malady. 
Another  carefully  examines  the  healthy  and  diseased 
structures  of  those  who  die  insane;  still  others  scrutinize 
the  bodily  condition  of  the  living  patient  as  to  his  eye 
sight,  hearing  and  other  senses;  search  is  made  for  any 
impairment  of  motility,  and  through  what  can  be 
gained  from  friends,  and  sometimes  the  patient  himself, 
less  obvious  diseases.  The  ancestry  of  each  case  is  care- 
fully investigated,  for  heredity  plays  an  active  part  in 
mental  decrepitude. 

Acting  under  the  advice  of  these  observers  the 
attending  physician  prescribes,  and  adds  his  portion  to 
the  written  statements.  The  completed  histories  are 
grouped  and  studied  by  all  these  physicians  with 
especial  reference  to  whatever  revelations  each  student 
may  obtain.  The  fact  that  by  this  inductive  process 
numerous  otherwise  unattainable  truths  have  been  dis- 
covered in  the  domain  of  mental  pathology,  should 
arrest  the  attention  of  every  psychological  student 
whatever  his  bias  might  be.  During  the  last  fifty 
years  it  has  been  ascertained  by  simple  inspection  of 
recorded  observations  that  certain  delusions,  illusions 
and  hallucinations  accompany  certain  well-defined 
diseases,  but  before  describing  a  few  of  these  it  is  best  to 
define  what  these  mental  or  sense  aberrations  are. 
Spitzka's  terse  phraseology  is  worth  quoting: 

An  insane  delusion  is  "  a  faulty  idea  growing  out  of 
a  weakening  or  perversion  of  the  logical  apparatus." 
Delusions  are  divisible  into  systematized  or  specific  and 
unsystematized  or  general. 

"An  hallucination  is  the  perception  of  an  object  as  a 
real  presence  without  a  real  presence  to  justify  the  per- 
ception." In  other  words,  the  hallucinated  person  sees, 
feels,  hears,  tastes  or  smells  unrealities. 

"An  illusion  is  the  perception  of  an  object  actually 
present,  but  in  characters  which  that  object  does  not 
really  possess."  The  difference  between  the  hallucina- 
tion and  the  illusion  is  that  the  former  is  wholly  with- 
out apparent  basis,  and  the  illusion  is  perverted  percep- 
tion. 

A  side  comment  may  account  for  much  in  scientific 
papers  that  dissatisfies  the  average  reader.  The  real 
physiological  psychologist  has  waded  through  so  much 
and  has  acquired  justifiably  positive  convictions  upon 
many  subjects  through  his  untiring  zeal,  that  he  becomes 
incomprehensible  in  his  ways  of  thinking  to  even  those 
whom  he  would  willingly  instruct.  Step  by  step  he 
has  reached  what  to  him  are  aphorisms,  and  when  he 
presents  the  bare  results  without  the  qualifications  that 
would  be  taken  for  granted  by  a  co-delver  the  sciolist 
dissents  from  his  conclusions  as  mere  dicta,  or  worse 
than  that,   readily   assents  with  "any  fool   knows  that." 


242 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


Comically  enough  many  of  the  most  laborious  scientific 
explorations  have  resulted  in  justifying  some  popular 
estimate  of  facts,  though  the  thinker  has  painstakingly 
determined  the  truth,  where  the  average  individual  has 
accepted  it  through  tradition,  or  because  consonant  with 
his  own  limited  experience. 

It  has  been  ascertained,  by  the  means  mentioned, 
that  when  an  almost  complete  inversion  of  character 
takes  place;  for  example,  when  the  temperate,  econom- 
ical, moral,  cautious  business  man  becomes  boisterous, 
convivial,  immoral  and  a  spendthrift,  and  claims  to  be 
practically  worth  millions,  or  when  the  theologically 
biased  individual  asserts  himself  as  the  Almighty,  or  the 
student  arrogates  to  himself  outrageous  mental  superi- 
ority—  all  of  which  the  French  alienists  generically 
class  as  dclire  des  grandeurs^  the  probability  is  in  favor 
of  a  diagnosis  of  -paretic  dementia,  which  may  be  or 
may  not  be  associated  with  a  blunted  touch  sense  and 
defective  motility  such  as  a  staggering  gait.  It  has 
startled  physicians  to  be  convinced  that  the  physical 
conditions,  the  changes  that  occur  in  the  brain  in  this 
disease  are  fully  as  well,  if  not  better  understood,  by 
alienists  than  those  that  take  place  in  pneumonia. 

Even  the  politician  doctor,  at  the  head  of  the  aver- 
age American  asylum,  will  glibly  tell  you  that  unequally 
dilated  pupils,  a  peculiar  drawling  speech  and  delusions 
of  grandeur  evidence  paretic  dementia,  and  that  the 
duration  is  usually  three  \  ears  before  death,  which 
usually  occurs  during  one  of  the  maniacal  outbreaks  or 
convulsions  that  interlude  the  disease. 

But  that  same  political  doctor  is  ignorant  of  the  fact 
that  certain  invariable  mechanical  causes  precede  such 
phenomena.  He  does  not  know,  nor  does  he  care 
to  know,  that  the  convulsions  had  been  preceded  by  a 
plugging  of  the  minute  vessels  of  the  brain,  and  that 
the  maniacal  outbreaks  were  accompanied  with,  if  they 
did  not  depend   upon,  an  arrest  of  the  blood  circulation. 

Thus  it  has  been  determined  that  certain  peculiar 
mental  conditions  point  to  gout,  rheumatism  or  syphilis, 
as  causes;  and  these  are  the  most  curable  of  all  the 
psychoses. 

When  a  patient  has  undertaken  a  peculiar  self-muti- 
lation, imagines  that  his  friends  desire  to  poison  him, 
and  has  delusions  of  marital  infidelity  it  is  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  alcoholic  insanity. 

Religious  ecstasy  is  usually  associated  with  erotism, 
and  when  such  a  patient  kneels  pleadingly  to  the 
official,  if  he  be  well-informed,  he  will  know  that  such 
lunatic  is  one  of  the  most  treacherous  and  murderous 
he  may  meet. 

Insanity  apparently  depending  upon  lung  consump- 
tion (known  as  phthisical  insanity)  is  often  diagnosed 
as  such  through  the  peculiar  suspiciousness  of  the 
patient,  who  usually  declares  that  his  relatives  are  try- 
ing to  steal  from  or  to  murder  him.  Similar  delusions 
may  follow  neck  wounds  and  sunstroke. 


Melancholic  conditions  are  most  frequently  asso- 
ciated with  quantitative  or  qualitative  blood  deficiencies; 
maniacal  states,  per  contra,  with  the  other  extreme  <  f 
superabundancy  of  blood  in  the  head,  and  yet  marked 
exceptions  to  these  rules  occur  which  the  alienist  looks 
to  the  chemical  physiologist  to  explain.  A  peculiar 
mental  deterioiation  is  caused  by  a  fatty  degeneration  of 
the  brain  arteries. 

A  sudden  occurrence  of  idea  confusion,  or  a  similar 
invasion  of  excessive  stupidity,  known  as  confusional 
and  as  stuporous  insanities  can  be  predicted  as  recover- 
able in  most  cases. 

When  any  patient  recovers  weight  without  mental 
improvement,  the  prognosis  is  unfavorable,  but  where 
the  return  of  mentality  is  accompanied  by  increase  in 
flesh  it  is  favorable. 

Senile  dementia  is  characterized  by  penuriousness 
which  may  reach  a  degree  that  will  cause  millionaires 
to  starve  themselves.  They  are  especially  susceptible 
to  undue  influence  in  the  matter  of  property  disposition, 
though  very  suspicious  of  those  who  were  the  subjects 
of  their  affection  in  their  healthy  periods. 

Memories  (as  Ch.  Ribot  prefers  to  designate  what 
is  usually  called  memory)  fade  away  inversely  as 
acquired;  for  example,  in  old  age,  and  its  insanity, 
olden  events  are  recalled  with  readiness,  while  recent 
events  are  frequently  obliterated  from  the  mind. 

In  some  head  injuries  and  nervous  derangements, 
particularly  where  there  is  an  imperfect  circulation  in 
the  brain,  special  memories  may  be  lost,  and  most  com- 
monly for  proper  nouns,  then  common  nouns,  verbs, 
adjectives  are  next  in  order  liable  to  be  forgotten,  while 
expletives  are  usually  recalled  and  pronounced  as  readily 
and  more  frequently  than  before. 

Certain  definite  parts  of  the  brain  are  known  to  cen- 
tralize certain  functions,  not  in  the  phrenological  sense, 
but  in  a  way  that  enables  the  modern  surgeon,  under 
the  direction  of  the  physician  versed  in  this  localization, 
to  cut  down  upon  certain  regions  of  the  brain  to  remove 
organic  troubles  even  where  there  were  ho  external  evi- 
dences of  the  difficulty. 

Thus  the  speech  faculty,  visual  memory,  and  auditory 
memory  occupy  defined  portions  of  the  brain,  and  when 
these  places  are  diseased,  the  ability  to  speak,  or  to  read, 
or  to  understand  language  may  be  separately  or  con- 
jointly lost, "while  sight  and  hearing,  as  senses,  are  unim- 
paired. 

These  are  but  a  very  small  portion  of  the  results  of 
the  alienist's  studies.  Huxley  illustrates  the  proper 
method  of  studying  man  objectively,  as  a  vertebrate,  by 
asking  you  to  imagine  the  student  as  a  superior  sort  of 
creature  who  has  visited  the  earth  from  the  moon,  and 
who  finds  homo  among  other  genera,  dissects  and  experi- 
ments with  him,  as  he  does  the  other  animals,  and  being 
free   from    bias   arrives  at  certain  conclusions  regarding 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


2  43 


his  mechanism.  The  psychological  physiologist  with 
the  aid  of  microscopy  may  be  compared  with  the  elec- 
trical engineer  from  some  other  planet  who  studies  out 
the  subterranean  and  aerial  telegraph,  telephone  and 
lighting  lines  he  finds  in  a  mundane  city,  to  determine 
their  connections,  centers  and  uses.  The  higher  animals, 
including  man,  haye  an  innumerable  lot  of  nerve  con- 
nections running  just  as  definitely  and  symmetrically 
between  bodily  points,  and  subserving  as  diverse  func- 
tions as  the  fingers  or  the  facial  features  are  definite  and 
have  uses. 

Morel's  dictum  that  "the  brain  is  the  seat  of  insanity, 
but  not  always  the  seat  of  its  cause,"  is  based  upon  the 
fact  that  while  the  brain  is  the  organ  of  the  mind,  the 
end  and  aim  of  both  brain  and  mind  is  to  correlate 
bodily  functions  and  serve  the  purposes  of  the  body. 
The  central  telegraph  office  as  the  collecting  and  dis- 
tributing point  for  messages  need  not  be  the  location  of 
a  difficulty  that  may  shut  off  its  work.  The  branching 
lines  may  be  destroyed  by  storms,  or  the  chief  industries 
of  a  metropolis  having  ceased,  the  main  office  for  tele- 
grams cannot  receive  or  transmit  what  is  not  sent  there. 

The  physiological  psychologist  latterly  recognizes 
the  co-dependence  of  bodily  organs  and  that  superiority 
of  function  is  purely  relative,  just  as  in  sociological 
matters  the  harmonious  working  of  the  whole  depends 
upon  each  part  doing  its  duty. 

In  the  preceding,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  con- 
vey some  idea  of  the  enormous  work  that  is  being  done 
toward  the  mitigation  of  insanity  and  to  obtain  knowl- 
edge of  the  mental  processes  in  health  and  disease.  Of 
course,  in  this  paper  hut  a  feeble  idea  has  been  imparted 
of  the  actual  operations  of  the  well-equipped,  thoroughly 
scientific  insane  asylum.  Nothing  short  of  a  residence 
in  both  could  acquaint  one  with  the  astounding  differ- 
ences that  exist  between  the  ordinary  political  asylum 
and  the  many  well-managed  European  hospitals  for  the 
insane,  such  as  the  West  Riding,  England;  Morning- 
side,  Scotland;  Dublin,  Ireland;  Charenton,  France; 
Christiania,  Norway ;  Roeskild,  Denmark;  Stockholm, 
Sweden;  Gratz,  Munich,  and  Wurzburg,  Germany. 

Illinoisians  will  learn  with  pride  that  the  Eastern 
Illinois  Hospital  for  the  Insane  at  Kankakee,  by  alien- 
ists the  world  over,  is  deservedly  classed  with  the  insti- 
tutions mentioned. 


PRESENT  AIMS. 


BY  ARTHUR  R.  KIMBALL. 


Humanity  has  ever  been  burdened  with  cares  and 
perplexed  with  doubts;  but  as  constantly  in- mankind 
has  resided  a  vague  intuition,  that,  near  at  hand,  lies  the 
satisfaction  of  all  its  wants,  could  only  the  open  sesame 
be  pronounced.  When  man  first  discovers  in  himself 
the  thirst  of  the  soul  and  hunger  of  the  intellect,  nature 


teaches  him  that  spiritual  and  intellectual  pabulum  exists 
somewhere  for  the  support  of  these  higher  cravings. 
He  feels  sure  that  the  doors  will  be  opened  if  he  may 
only  knock  at  the  portals.  But  liozv  heart  and  under- 
standing are  destined  to  be  upbuilt — the  long  process  of 
experience  and  gradual  development — he  does  not  com- 
prehend. Nature  teaches  him  that  there  is  a  proper 
and  legitimate  satisfaction  for  all  his  longings,  and  so 
he  imagines  if  he  could  but  dine  at  the  table  of  the 
gods,  perfection  would  burst  upon  him.  Experience, 
alone,  schools  him  in  the  long  spiritual  evolution  of  as- 
similation and  application  in  uses. 

When  the  nations  knew  but  a  small  portion  of  the 
earth,  they  expected  some  undiscovered  clime  to  solve 
this  problem  for  them,  therefore  they  wandered  from 
place  to  place.  Until  after  the  discovery  of  the  New 
World  there  was  a  broadspread  expectation  of  finding 
in  nature's  material  conditions  the  new  paradise,  en- 
dowed with  fountains  of  perpetual  youth.  But  through 
many  different  channels  experience  impressed  the  truth 
upon  man  that  his  entire  nature  cannot  be  put  off  with 
childish  playthings.  Indeed,  experience  has  always 
been  teaching  this  truth,  in  a  greater  or  smaller  way; 
but  now  it  has  been  tested  on  a  most  gigantic  scale, 
with  all  the  resources  of  the  world  at  hand,  and  failure 
has  resulted — failure  as  swift  and  speedy  as  ever  before. 
Therefore,  because  earth  does  not,  of  itself  and  alone, 
fulfil  the  higher  needs  of  humanity,  a  conception  has 
more  or  less  prevailed  that  these  wants  cannot  be  satis- 
fied on  earth.  Thus  arise  the  two  points  between  which 
man  commonly  chooses.  He  may  deny  the  good  in  the 
sensible,  and  look  to  a  transmundane  existence  alone 
to  fulfill  life,  or  he  may  turn  to  the  actual,  in  a  newer 
and  higher  sense,  to  find  his  heaven  there.  These  are 
the  debating  grounds  of  to-day,  and  although  compre- 
hensive thought  will  unqualifiedly  deny  neither,  yet  it 
can  but  see  that  one  is  the  land  where  pygmies  struggle, 
the  other  the  wrestling-place  of  the  giants.  Mature 
thought  may  not  doubt  post-mortem  existence,  but  it 
cannot  accept  this  for  the  great  immortality — the  goal  of 
Christianity;  it  does  not  feel  itself  asked  to  believe  that 
by  any  sudden  magic,  is  ignorance  to  be  turned  into 
wisdom  and  folly  into  happiness;  moreover,  it  holds 
that  Christianity  bids  us  live  and  work  in  the  moment. 
Faith,  to  it,  means  no  visionary  forelooking,  but  an 
actual  trust  and  belief  in  the  all  good  of  the  present. 
Nevertheless,  it  looks  to  a  broad  future  of  progress  and 
the  onward  march  of  humanity,  and  the  individual,  it 
conceives,  must  proceed  by  various  states  and  conditions. 
And  this  is  what  characterizes  our  present  age;  this  is 
the  immortality  as  derived  from  practice,  and  separate 
from  the  current  theoretic  immortality ;  and  to  embody 
such  immortal  life,  it  is  evident  that  every  element  of 
the  broad  universe  must  be  preserved — both  the  stnsible 
and   spiritual,  and  that  which  shall   bind   them  together. 


244 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


On  these  principles  does  modern  activity  proceed. 
It  has  in  view  the  temple  of  progress,  approached  not 
by  one  way  alone,  but  by  paths  centering  to  it  from 
every  direction. 

Science  and  poetry  have  found,  at  length,  the  beauty 
of  the  commonplace.  Men  have  more  than  intellectually 
conceived  this — they  have  begun  to  live  it. 

The  universal  is  the  aim  of  science,  but  science  now 
believes  that  this  can  be  found  in  the  particulars  alone. 
Bitter  experience  becomes  robed  in  the  garb  of  poetry 
when  we  recognize  this  truth ;  for  things  must  first  be 
learned  in  their  special  relation  of  contrast  and  relativity, 
in  order  to  be  known  as  general  and  absolute.  So  duty 
and  pain  must  exist  as  the  actuating  causes  of  relative 
experience;    love,   of   the   absolute.     And    in   our    lives 


both  kinds  of  experience  are  parallel,  and  so  duty  and 
love  run  along  together  in  heart  and  mind,  and  lend 
each  other  strength. 

Thus  in  our  own  age  is  human  force  at  work — work- 
ing and  waiting  for  the  final  movement  of  organization 
which  shall  conclude  the  struggle  in  the  blind  experience 
of  attaining,  and  open  to  clear  vision  a  life  of  experience 
in  uses  and  resultant  new  developments.  Then  will 
dawn  upon  us  a  new  life,  as  distinct  and  different  from 
the  old  as  starlight  from  the  world  of  sunbeams.  This 
for  our  future;  but  in  our  present,  we  still  work  on, 
and  find  a  not  unmixed  happiness  in  discovering  and 
striking  each  separate  note  and  chord  of  experience,  un- 
til the  Grand  Master  comes  to  make  harmony  for  us 
out  of  the  works  of  our  weary  fingers. 


EGOITY. 

BY    EMMA    Tl'TTLE. 
"The  absolute  loneliness  of  each  human  soul  in  its  interior  experiences  is 
the  most  awful  fact  of  this  human  life.     Alone  we  enter  the  earth,  and  alone 
we  depart  from  it.     So  much  of  our  living  as  is  known  to  eye  and  ear,  our  kin, 
our  lovers,  our  fellow-men  possess;  but  it  is  not  much." 

And  it  is  well ;  our  unsuspected  sorrows, 

Our  wearing  struggles  and  our  sad  defeats 
Were  none  the  lighter  for  us  could  we  shadow 

With  dark  admixture  lives  all  blooms  and  sweets, 
Frail  finite  love  is  varying  and  short-sighted, 

And  finite  pity  cannot  comprehend 
The  depth  and  dimness  of  a  soul's  endeavors, 

What  matter  if  it  censure  or  defend! 

Friends  we  know  best,  alas,  they  fail  to  read  us 

Almost  as  those  who  know  us  not  at  all ; 
And  yet  we  blame  not  knowing  all  too  truly 

Souls  dwell  in  unapproachable  enthrall. 
Intangibly  do  human  passions  fret  us; 

Sometimes  maliciously,  but  oftener  far 
In  heedless  vacant  ignorance,  not  knowing 

Where  thorns  are  mangling,  nor  if  thorns  there  are. 

O,  soldier  soul!     In  life's  unceasing  battle 

No  rest  from  action,  no  discharge,  no  truce! 
Winning  or  fainting,  failing  or  exulting 

Thy  powers  are  thine  alone  for  fullest  use. 
Love  may  essay  to  aid,  Hate  to  destroy  thee, 

Still  thou  must  fight  in  solitary  strength 
Each  hour,  each  moment,  even  to  that  ending 

Where  days  and  hours  grow  infinite  in  length. 

But  in  the  lulls  we  dream  of  golden  ages, 

Holy  transparencies  of  peace  and  rest, 
When  Time,  which  must  eventually  be  tender 

Shall  take  the  ice-n.asks  off  from  face  and  breast. 
Unlanguaged,  unexplained  but  comprehended 

Who,  then,  will  care  to  utter  plaint  or  moan, 
Feelinsr  the  long  deep  loneliness  is  broken? 

All  this  lies  past  the  tabulated  stone. 


DOWN   AND   UP. 

BY    ANNA    OLCOTT     COMMELIN. 

Low  in  the  vale  the  mists  hang  cold  and  gray, 
The  sparkling,  winding  river  lost  to  view, 
The  trees,  the  oaks  and  maples  that  I  knew 
Shrouded  in  film  of  darkness  all  the  day : 
Vapors  and  clouds  alone  before  my  eyes, 
Where,  at  the  mountain's  base,  the  hamlet  lies. 

But  up,  far  up,  where  rises  peak  on  peak, 
In  solemn  grandeur  stretching  to  the  sky, 
Where  tower  Franconia's  stately  summits  high, 
A  glow  from  Heaven  shows  to  those  who  seek ; 
Transfiguring  the  rugged  mountain's  height, 
Crowning  its  purpled  shades  with  sunset  light. 

Down  in  the  dusty  street  I  hear  the  sound 
Of  discord,  and  the  tread  of  tired  feet, 
Weary  and  fevered  with  the  pavement's  heat, 
And  all  the  restless  toil  that  make's  life's  round : 
Like  monochrome  the  outlook,  stone  on  stone, 
Vista  unvaried,  greets  the  eye  alone. 

But  up  from  window  high,  a  world  I  know 
Of  budding  elms  and  swaying  branches  green, 
And  myriad  interlacing  boughs  between 
Fair  openings  that  the  blue  of  Heaven  show: 
No  sound  save  chirp  and  song  of  happy  bird, 
And  winged  fluttering  aloft  is  heard. 

Once,  in  a  darkened  room,  in  dusk  of  day, 
From  mullioneu  window  came  a  beam  of  light 
Falling  alone  on  marble  statue  white, 
Bathing  its  noble  face  in  sunset  ray. 
In  golden  glory  on  the  shaded  room 
Serene  it  shone  above  the  twilight  gloom, 
Like  soul  that  knows  the  troubled  scenes  below, 
But  dwells  aloft  in  Heaven's  celestial  glow! 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


!45 


The  Open  Court. 

A    FORTNIOHTLY  JOURNAL. 


Published  every  other   Thursday  at    i6g   to    175  La  Salle  Street  |  Nixon 
Building',  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 


THE 

OPEN 

COURT 

PUBLISHING 

COMPANY 

B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 

SARA 

A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 

The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  lo  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  denned, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freelv  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  JUNE  9,   1SS7. 

QUID    PRO    QUO. 

The  Inter-State  Commerce  Law  is  doubtless  defect- 
ive in  some  of  its  provisions,  otherwise  there  would  not 
be  so  man)'  protests  against  it,  but  the  second  section  of 
that  law,  which  forbids  the  granting  of  free  passes  to 
favored  individuals  by  railroad  presidents  or  directors, 
strikes  us  as  a  just  one,  and  one  which  is  in  a  greater  de- 
gree than  dreamed  of  by  its  framers  a  progressive  move 
in  the  direction  of  ethical  reform. 

One  of  the  strongest  objections  made  by  those  who 
have  given  the  subject  careful  study,  against  the  indis- 
criminate giving  of  charity,  is  that  such  gifts  tend  to  en- 
courage pauperism  by  discouraging  self-respecting  inde- 
pendence in  individuals. 

But  if  acceptance  of  needed  aid  for  which  no  return 
can  be  reasonably  expected  by  those  who  give  it,  insidi- 
ously lowers  morally  the  struggling  poverty  stricken 
classes,  how  can  the  acceptance  of  gifts  by  those  in  no 
pecuniary  need,  where  there  are  no  special  ties  of  love 
or  friendship  between   the  giver  and   receiver,  be  less 


demoralizing  in  effect,  even  though  the  classes  whose 
members  are  thus  benefited  may  be  the  so-called 
"higher?" 

Until  the  days  when  ethics  and  religion  shall  be  es- 
tablished on  a  scientific  basis,  doubtless  there  will  con- 
tinue to  be  more  or  less  of  this  degrading  bribe  taking 
and  "tip"  receiving,  for  such  in  truth  is  all  acceptance 
of  favors  for  which  no  honorable  reason  can  be  given. 

Let  us  briefly  consider  some  phases  of  this  demoral- 
izing habit  that  we  may  the  more  easily  observe  its 
morally  hurtful  tendency. 

Taking  the  free  pass  system  to  begin  with:  To 
whom  have  free  passes  mainly  been  given?  To  the 
hard-working,  low-waged  employes  of  the  roads?  To 
the  very  poor  whom  necessity  requires  to  make  journeys 
in  the  interest  of  duty, affection  or  bread-winning?  No, 
not  to  these,  for  often  by  the  grim  laws  of  railroad  cor- 
porations have  sick,  sad,  disheartened  and  penniless 
men  and  women  been  ruthlessly  put  off  the  train  far  from 
their  destination  at  no  matter  what  outcome  of  heart- 
break, of  personal  loss  or  dispair,  because  they  have 
not  possessed  the  means  to  pay  the  full  amount  of  fare. 
But  the  recipients  of  the  railroad  companies'  bounty 
have  usually  been  people  abundantly  able  to  pay,  promi- 
nent politicians,  persons  of  high  social  standing  posses- 
sing in  some  way  great  public  influence,  or  wealthy  cap- 
italists; none  of  them  in  need  of  charity,  but  amply  able 
to  supply  every  want  and  to  pay  their  own  traveling  ex- 
penses— persons  to  whom  the  free  pass  is  only  a  "  cour- 
tesy." A  "  courtesy,"  however,  which  both  parties 
vaguely  understand  is  to  be  repaid  by  some  favorable 
expression  of  opinion  or  complimentary  vote  in  case  a 
time  comes  when  the  company  or  one  of  its  directors, 
whether  in  the  right  or  wrong,  needs  the  influence  of 
such  expressed  opinion  or  helpful  vote.  The  "  courtesy  " 
then,  divested  of  sophistry,  is  really  a  bribe,  a  mortgage 
on  the  freedom  of  the  acceptor's  judgment  in  any  case 
in  which  this  road  or  its  officers  may  in  future  be  con- 
cerned. 

Since  railroad  corporations,  in  order  to  reap  profit  in 
return  for  the  benefit  they  confer  upon  the  public,  find 
it  necessary  to  ask  a  certain  rate  of  fare,  that  rate  should 
be  made  the  same  for  all,  unless  for  some  special  good 
reason,  as  in  the  case  of  children,  excursion'parties,  etc., 
where  justice  or  interest  renders  it  proper  to  make  de- 
ductions from  full  rates.  We  have  never  overheard  a 
clergyman  ask  for  half-rates  at  the  ticket  office  on  ac- 
count of  his  profession,  without  feeling  a  sympathetic 
shame-facedness  for  him,  as  though  (especially  if  he 
chanced  to  be  physically  a  fine-looking  specimen  of 
manhood)  he  had  been  somehow  inadvertently  insulted 
by  being  placed  on  a  level  with  "children  under  twelve 
years  of  age,"  and  half-expecting  him  to  rebel  as  we 
once  saw  a  well-grown  Miss,  really  under  the  regulation 
age,  who  when  the  conductor  demurred  at  her  half-fare 


i^6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


ticket  and  her  petite  mother  explained,  grew  red  in  the 
face  with  hurt  pride  and  as  the  conductor  passed  on, 
exclaimed  vehemently,  "  Mamma  I  never  will  ride  on 
the  cars  ao-ain  unless  you  buy  me  a  whole  ticket,  for  I'm 
as  big  as  you  are  and  I  ought  to  pay  full  fare! " 

Every  day  nearly  the  newspapers  bear  record  of  the 
mean  avarice  of  men  in  high  places,  men  chosen  by  their 
fellows  as  the  representatives  of  the  wisdom,  dignity  and 
conscientiousness  of  the  people  who  thus  honor  them, 
but  who  for  a  contemptible  addition  to  their  already  suf- 
ficient means,  allow  themselves  to  become  engaged  in 
questionable  transactions  and  sell  to  the  highest  bidder 
their  influence,  integrity  and  self-respect.  And  so  used 
have  we  become  to  this  sort  of  thing  that  the  public 
sense  of  right  has  become  in  a  manner  blunted,  and 
even  when  outraged  justice  gets  hold  of  some  more  dar- 
ing offender,  he  is  not  looked  upon  with  the  horror  he 
would  be  could  the  far-reaching  extent  and  result  of  his 
wrong  doing  in  its  poisonous  workings  upon  social  mor- 
ality be  fully  appreciated. 

In  our  municipalities  things  are  no  better — often 
worse.  Here  is  a  specimen  of  editorial  comment,  which 
is  by  no  means  rare  in  the  newspapers  of  Eastern  as  well 
as  Western  cities: 

We  presume  that  the  festive  alderman  or  the  bibulous  com- 
mon councilman  who  orders  a  dinner  for  himself  and  friends,  or 
takes  a  carriage  for  his  own  private  business  or  pleasure,  and  has 
the  expense  charged  to  the  city,  would  not  agree  that  he  thereby 
becomes  guiltv  of  petty  larceny,  but  that  is  just  the  size  of  it. 
There  is  no  law  authorizing  such  expenditures.  The  custom  has 
grown  up  from  small  beginnings,  but  the  aldermen  and  common 
councilmen  have  no  more  right  to  regale  themselves  and  their 
friends  at  the  public  expense  than  they  have  to  steal  the  money  of 
the  taxpayers  before  or  after  it  has  been  paid  into  the  city  treasury. 

It  is  sometimes  said  in  defense  of  the  "junket- 
ings," private  money-making  out  of  public  needs 
and  the  public  purse,  doubtful  personal  transactions 
on  city  authority  and  expensive  underhandedness  of 
city  officials,  that  they  are  ill-paid  and  must  re- 
imburse themselves  in  some  way  for  the  loss  of  time 
and  money  in  their  private  business.  But  a  sense  of 
honor  equal  to  that  we  expect  from  the  clay  laborer 
who  undertakes  to  plant  our  garden  or  paint  our 
house,  would  forbid  these  men  to  accept  a  position 
which  they  cannot  afford  to  fill  save  by  a  sacrifice 
of  their  honor  and  by  sinking  to  the  level  of  bribe 
takers  and  petty  plunderers. 

The  ideal  state  of  society  can  never  arrive  until 
men  and  women  learn  to  be  high-minded  and  self- 
respectful  enough  to  refuse  to  accept  favors  not  due 
them,  until  legislators  understand  that  they  are  the 
ministers  of  justice  and  not  of  favoritism  and  refuse 
to  waste  the  people's  money  in  bestowing  annuities 
on  the  well-to-do  relatives  and  "relicts"  of  deceased 
prominent  men,  unless  they  are  prepared  to  do  the 
sameby  the  thousands  of  indigent  wives  and  children 


of  men  now  dead  who  living  performed  well  their  duty 
to  State  and  society;  until  rich  men  who  have  per- 
formed worthy  and  beneficent  acts  refuse  to  brush  the 
bloom  of  generosity  from  those  acts  by  accepting  com- 
memorative money  gifts  gathered  alike  from  rich 
and  poor,  willing  and  unwilling  sources;  until  men  in 
high"  or  low  positions  refuse  to  accept  from  under- 
lings or  employes  "testimonials "  which  leave  the 
public  in  doubt  as  to  whether  won  by  appreciated 
worth  or  by  politic  manceuvering;  until  lovers  about 
to  wed  refuse  to  levy  a  tax  upon  the  love,  pride  or 
generosity  of  friends  and  relatives  by  their  virtual  bid 
for  wedding  presents;  until  men  who  hire  service 
from  other  men  for  their  customers,  pay  for  such  ser- 
vice a  fair  wage  in  honest  fashion  and  forbid  the  free- 
booting  of  "tipping;"  until  in  short,  labor  is  paid 
wages  and  not  put  to  dishonest  make-shifts  to  secure 
its  equivalent,  and  labor's  wage  is  not  given  to  those 
who  do  not  need  and  have  not  earned  it.        s.  a.  u. 

SECOND    ANNUAL    MEETING    OF    THE    AMERICAN 
ECONOMIC  ASSOCIATION. 

Although  the  American  Economic  Association 
has  been  organized  but  little  over  a  year,  it  has  gained 
considerable  prominence  in  the  public  mind.  Its 
president,  General  Francis  A.  Walker,  is  widely- 
known  as  an  educator  and  statistician,  as  well  as  an 
economist,  and  his  name  has  given  the  association  a 
certain  prestige  which  it  could  not  otherwise  so  early 
have  attained.  The  second  annual  meeting  held  in 
Boston,  May  21-25,  at  tne  same  time  as  the  meeting 
of  the  American  Historical  Association,  was  marked 
by  a  keen  interest  in  questions  of  practical  economics 
and  showed  careful  preparation  on  the  part  of 
speakers.  The  session  opened  with  an  address  from 
the  president,  the  most  marked  feature  of  which 
was  that  the  speaker  dwelt  upon  the  importance  of 
some  form  of  control  over  the  number  and  character 
of  foreign  immigrants.  The  forenoon  of  Monday 
was  devoted  to  a  study  of  the  railroad  problem.  The 
association  has  adopted  the  policy  of  appointing 
standing  committees  to  which  are  referred  various 
topics  for  detailed  study  and  report.  The  chairman 
of  the  Committee  of  Transportation  is  Professor  E. 
1.  James,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  under 
whose  direction  the  papers  on  this  topic  were  pre- 
sented. After  an  historical  sketch  by  the  chairman 
of  the  agitation  leading  to  the  enactment  of  Inter- 
State  Commerce  Bill,  Dr.  \i.  R.  A.  Seligman,  of  Col- 
umbia College,  read  a  paper  on  the  "  Long  and  Short 
Haul  Clause."  The  comparison  drawn  between  the 
principle  of  public  taxation  and  the  principle  upon 
which  railroad  tariffs  should  be  drawn  was  exceed- 
ing!)' suggestive.  Mr.  Simon  Stern,  of  New  York 
City,  then  reviewed  the  Italian  Railway  Commission, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


247 


as  the  result  of  which  private  companies  gained  con- 
trol over  the  railroads  in  that  country.  He  criticised 
the  presentation  of  this  subject  as  presented  in  Mr. 
Hadley's  book  on  Railroad  Transportation  and,  as 
Professor  Hadley  was  present,  this,  of  cousre,  gave 
rise  to  a  lively  and  interesting  discussion. 
•  The  session  of  Tuesday  morning  was  devoted  to 
a  consideration  of  the  condition  of  gas  works,  water 
works,  and  street  railways  in  the  United  States.  It 
was  the  purpose  of  the  Committee  of  Municipal 
Finance,  of  which  Professor  H.  C.  Adams  was  chair- 
man, to  discover  what  means  had  been  adopted  by 
municipal  authorities  to  guard  the  interests  of  the 
public  in  case  of  these  industries,  which,  from  their 
very  nature,  are  superior  to  the  control  of  competi- 
tion. Although  the  report  was  full  of  detail  it  was 
received  with  interest,  and  will  form  the  subject  of  a 
monograph  published  by  the  association.  Quite  a 
number  of  other  papers  were  read,  the  most  import- 
ant, perhaps,  being  an  address  before  a  joint  session 
of  the  two  associations,  by  Carroll  D.  Wright,  on 
"The  Study  of  Statistics  in  Colleges." 

It  will  be  seen  from  these  brief  mentions  that  the 
association  deals  with  the  practical  questions  of  the 
day.  Its  influence  is  exerted  fully  as  much  by  its 
publications  as  by  its  meetings.  It  has  quite  a  strong 
membership  in  the  P.ast  and  hopes  to  extend  its 
membership  in  the  West  during  the  coming  year, 
and  to  this  end  has  chosen  Columbus,  Ohio,  as  the 
place  for  its  meeting  in  1888. 


GEORGE'S  THEORY   PROVED  AND    DISPROVED  BY 
THEOLOGY. 

The  Nation  rebukes  Henry  George  for  saying  that 
"the  Creator  meant  His  bounties  of  nature  equally 
for  all  men,"  and  that  "  instead  of  this  we  have 
allowed  them  to  become  the  property  of  a  few  indi- 
viduals." The  Nation  wants  to  know  how  Mr.  George 
came  to  find  out  the  Creator's  intentions  in  regard  to 
the  division  of  property,  and,  if  what  he  says  be 
true,  how  it  happens  "  that  the  Creator  has  allowed 
His  intentions  to  be  frustrated  by  people  like  Jay 
Gould  and  Russell  Sage?" 

The  Nation's  criticism  of  Henry  George's  language 
is  just  and  to  the  point;  but  this  language  is  the 
language  of  the  current  theology,  and  is  heard  from 
almost  every  pulpit.  And  not  only  the  clergy,  but 
speakers  and  writers  generally  are  accustomed  to 
speak  with  confidence  of  the  "intentions"  of  the 
Creator,  with  which  their  theories  and  objects  are  of 
course  in  harmony,  and  with  which  those  of  their 
opponents  are  always  in  conflict.  Mr.  George 
employs  the  same  method,  perhaps  because  he 
knows  that  the  mass  of  people  are,  even  in  this  age, 
more  readily  reached  and  more  easily  influenced  by 


bold  declarations  about  the  intentions  of  the  Creator 
than  by  careful  reasonings  which  involve  no  theo- 
logical assumptions  and  no  appeals  to  traditional 
religious  beliefs  and  prejudices. 

This  method  can  be  used  and  is  used  just  as 
effectively  against  Mr.  George's  land  theory  as 
in  its  defense.  Some  months  ago  Archbishop  Cor- 
rigan,  replying  to  this  theory,  made  "  the  prime- 
val curse"  the  basis  of  land  ownership.  He  said: 
"We  take  the  air  and  the  light  as  God  gives  them, 
and  owe  Him  thanks  for  His  bounty.  It  was  only 
the  earth  which  fell  under  the  primeval  curse;  and 
only  the  earth,  not  the  air  or  light,  which  man's  indus- 
trious toil  can  coax  back  to  something  like  its  orig- 
inal fruitfulness.  When  he  has  done  so,  his  great 
reward  is  to  enjoy  the  results  without  hinderancc  from 
others." 

Here  we  have  a  number  of  assumptions  all  con- 
tradicted by  science:  that  the  original  condition 
of  the  earth  was  one  of  abounding  fruitfulness;  that 
the  earth  has  been  cursed,  and  that  its  condition  is 
worse  than  when  man  first  appeared;  that  the  relation 
of  earth  and  air, —  to  the  ever-changing  conditions 
of  which  the  adjustments  of  organic  life,  of  limb  and 
lung,  have  been  going  on  together  through  countless 
ages, — are  such  that  one  could  be  cursed  and  the- 
other  not.  The  one  truth  implied  in  the  argument, 
but  obscured  by  the  Archbishop's  mythological  state- 
ments, is  that  the  constitution  and  condition  of  the 
earth,  and  the  nature  and  needs  of  man  are  such  that 
labor  is  necessary  to  man's  subsistence  and  comfort, 
and  the  only  materials  to  which  this  labor  can  be 
applied  are  those  of  the  earth.  The  question  how 
land  should  be  held  cannot  be  decided  by  appeals 
to  theology;  it  must  be,  in  the  opinion  of  most 
thinkers  has  already  been,  practically  decided  on 
grounds  of  public  utility.  But  theological  methods 
and  mythological  fancies  employed  in  the  discus- 
sion of  economic  problems  and  current  practical 
issues  will  fare  hardly  between  the  disputants;  and 
although  they  may  for  the  moment  impress  unmod- 
ernized  minds,  their  weakness  is  sure  to  be  shown, 
and  the  superior  value  of  the  scientific  method  of 
treating  such  subjects  must  by  contrast,  be  strikingly 
manifest. 

The  exodus  of  the  Catholic  children  from  the  public 
schools  promises  to  become  complete.  The  late  Council 
at  Baltimore  legislated  to  bring  about  this  result,  and  the 
Catholic  Review,  commenting  upon  its  action,  says: 
"A  thousand  new  Catholic  schools  will  dot  the  Ameri- 
can landscape  before  the  close  of  1SS7,  and  two  hundred 
thousand  children  will  make  their  abode  in  them." 
Catholics  have  for  years  protested  against  Protestant 
religious  teaching  in  our  public  schools,  and  although  the 
Catholics  have  all  along  really  desired  Catholic  schools, 


248 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


yet,  if  Protestants  had  not  so  generally  disregarded  the 
protests  and  petitions  of  their  Catholic  fellow  citizens — 
protests  and  petitions  based  upon  the  rights  of  con- 
science  this   general  withdrawal  of  Catholic  children 

from  the  public  school  would  probably  never  have  been 
uro-ed  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  The  demands  of 
the  Catholics  have  in  the  main  been  just,  and  they  are 
evidently  set  in  their  main  purpose,  conscious  of  the 
wrongs  which  they  have  had  to  endure,  because  they 
have  been  in  the  minority.  Of  course  they  will  soon 
ask  that  legislatures  and  senates  consider  their  ideas  of 
State  education,  and  they  will  never  be  satisfied  until 
they  receive  their  proportionate  amount  from  the  public 
school  fund  for  the  support  of  their  schools.  Protestant 
Christians  may  yet  feel  constrained  to  join  the  move- 
ment for  the  complete  secularization  of  public  schools 
of  this  country  and  all  other  State  institutions. 
#  #  * 

The     Freethinkers'    Magazine    for    June    reprints 
"Labor  Cranks,"  an  article  by  James  Parton,  which  ap- 
peared in  a  recent  number  of  The  Open  Court.     The 
associate  editor,  T.  B.  Wakeman,  commenting   upon   it 
in  the  same  number,  thinks  that  it  leads  to  some  conclu- 
sions different  from  those  intended  by  its  author,  namely  : 
that  questions   that   demand   earnest   attention   from   all 
men  so  affect  certain  minds  that  there  is  a  consequent  de- 
votion, an  intensity  of  application  to  them,  that  precludes 
the   possibility  of  giving  notice  and  due  consideration  to 
other  things  of  equal  importance.     He  suggests  that  the 
best  way  to  head  off  cranks  like  Carlyle,  John  Brown, 
Fourier  and  Henry  George,  is  to  "  gradually,  justly  and 
therefor  safely  "   realize  "  their  ideas  as  a  part  of  the 
progress  of  the   world."     The  world  in  general  either 
pooh-poohs  its  "  cranks  "  or  silences  them  by  law  when 
they  become  too    troublesome,  but  the  ideas   for  which 
they  stand  cannot  be  crushed  ;   it  is  but  tying  "  the  safety 
valve."     Truth   must    ultimately    prevail,  and    "  Ideas 
which  become  so    dominant   as  to  make  noble   natures 
cranks,  should  be  used  as  wheels  of  progress  and   thus 
made  a  part  of  the  rolling-stock  of  the  world."     Of  this 
it  may  be  said  that  a  noble  nature  is  not  enough  in  itself 
to  command    us  to  accept   theories  and  beliefs, — indeed 
there  have  been    noble   men  whose  thoughts  on  impor- 
tant subjects  were   untrue  and  would    have   led  to  disas- 
trous results  had  they  been  accepted  by  the  world.     The 
question    for   us    to   ask   upon    the    presentation    of  any 
scheme  or   system  is,  Is  it    right   and  just?      If  so  found 
we  are  commanded  to  further  it  as  much  as  possible. 

Announcement  reaches  us  of  the  proposed  publi- 
cation of  a  journal  to  be  entitled  the  American  Journal 
of  Psychology,  G.  Stanley  Hall,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  of 
Psychology  and  Pedagogics  in  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  will  be  its  editor.  While  "the  main  ob- 
ject of  the  journal  will  be  to  record  the  progress  of 


scientific  psychology,"  giving  special  prominence 
"to  methods  of  research,"  articles  "of  unusual  im- 
portance in  the  fields  of  logic,  the  history  of  philoso- 
phy, practical  ethics  and  education  will  be  welcomed." 
There  will  be  in  addition  to  this,  digests  and  reviews 
and  important  papers  from  other  journals,  including 
translations  from  foreign  languages,  of  articles  of 
special  interest.  The  journal  will  be  issued  quarterly 
at  S3. 00  a  year. 

In  one  of  Lilian  Whitings  recent  Boston  letters  to 
the  Inter  Ocean  of  this  city,  speaking  of  the  fact  that 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  had  received  from  the  Boston 
Browning  Club  a  vote  of  thanks  for  the  gift  to  the 
club  of  their  new  and  exquisite  edition  of  Browning 
which  is  printed  with  the  greatest  care  from  the  poets 
own  revisions  of  his  text,  says:  "  The  errors  in  former 
publications  have  been  numerous,  and  Professor  Rolfe 
amused  the  society  greatly  yesterday  by  stating  that  he 
doubted  not  that  many  misprints  were  cherished  by 
Browningites  who  mistook  them  for  profundities  or 
obscurities  as  might  be." 

#  *  * 

The  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  of  Chicago,  listened 
to  the  last  of  the  course  of  weekly  lectures  for  this  sea- 
son, by  Mr.  Salter,  on  Sunday,  May  29.  This  last  year 
has  been  an  encouraging  one  for  the  Society,  its  labors 
having  been  fruitful  in  results.  The  task  it  has  taken 
upon  itself  to  perform  is  a  noble  one,  and  we  wish  it  a 
hearty  good-speed. 

The  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  will  meet  in  New  York  City  on  August  10, 
and  continue  in  session  one  week.  This  being  the  first 
meeting  held  in  New  York,  a  large  attendance  is  ex 
pected.  The  meeting  will  be  held  in  the  buildings  of 
Columbia  College,  and  will  be  presided  over  by  Pro- 
fessor S.  P.  Langley,  the  incoming  president  of  the  asso- 
ciation. 

#  *         * 

We  are  glad  to  note  that  among  the  topics  to  be 
discussed  at  the  eleventh  annual  meeting  of  the  Church 
Congress  next  October,  is  "  the  higher  education  of 
women,"  a  good  sign  of  progress  in  the  church,  this. 

#  *         # 

The  Open  Court  of  June  gth  will  contain  the 
concluding  part  of  Dr.  Montgomery's  criticism  of 
Prof.  E.  D.  Cope's  Theology  of  Evolution.  In  the 
number  following  Prof.  Cope  will  reply  to  his  critic. 

%  %  Jfc 

The  Literary  World  presents  a  new  method  of 
reviewing  poetry: 

The  book  has  a  cubic  content  of  117  inches;  it  contains  60S 
pages,  comprises  (we  take  the  author's  word  lor  it)  300  poems,  and 
it  weighs  2  pounds  3  ounces — all  for  $2,  with  the  portrait  of  the 
author  thrown  in. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


249 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

A   LETTER  FROM    LONDON. 

To  the  Editors  : 

Since  I  sent  off  my  letter  of  April,  Mr.  Bradlaugh  has  tried 
several  times  to  get  his  Oaths  Bill  read  a  second  time,  but  new 
Conservative  members  have  come  forward  to  block  the  bill  and 
join  hands"  with  the  Roman  Catholic,  Mr.  De  Lisle,  and  the  ex- 
treme Protestant,  Mr.  Johnston,  against  the  Atheist. 

Meanwhile,  the  question  of  oath  or  affirmation  is  constantly 
arising  in  one  way  or  another,  especially  in  connection  with 
juries,  where  there  is  so  much  confusion  of  mind  as  to  what  is 
the  law  and  what  is  not,  that  each  magistrate  decides  the  matter 
according  to  his  own  particular  fancy.  Some  free-thinking 
jurors  are  allowed  to  affirm,  a  few  take  the  oath,  and  others  are 
not  permitted  to  do  either,  but  are  compelled  to  lounge  idly  about 
the  court.  It  is  seldom  that  magistrates  will  release  Freethink- 
ers who  have  been  summoned  to  serve  on  a  jury  from  their  ser- 
vice, because  it  is  urged  that  then  every  juror  would  say  he  was 
a  Freethinker  in  order  to  shirk  a  troublesome  duty.  Only  a  few 
days  ago  (on  Saturday,  April  23),  at  the  Liverpool  Sessions,  pre- 
sided over  bv  Mr.  C.  H.  Hopwood,  Q.  C,  the  Recorder,  when  the 
jurors  were  about  to  be  sworn,  one  of  them,  Mr.  W.  A.  New- 
comb,  asked  to  affirm  instead  of  taking  the  oath,  as  he  had  been 
allowed  to  do  in  another  court,  by  another  magistrate,  on  the 
previous  day.  Questioned  by  the  Recorder,  Mr.  Newcomb  stated 
that  he  was  a  person  of  no  religious  belief,  whereupon  Mr.  Hop- 
wood  told  him  that  he  could  not  accept  him  as  a  juryman ;  some- 
one else  must  be  sworn  in  his  stead.  He  (Mr.  Hopwood)  was 
sorry,  but  he  could  not  help  it;  he  had  done  his  best  to  get  the 
law  altered.  Mr.  Newcomb,  having  said  that  he  had  no  wish  to 
shirk  his  responsibility  as  a  citizen,  then  asked,  "Am  I  dis- 
charged? can  I  leave  the  court?"  The  Recorder:  "No."  Mr. 
Newcomb:  "I  publicly  protest  against  this  injustice.  I  am  here 
to  do  my  duty,  and  cannot  do  it."  The  Recorder:  "It  is  the 
law." 

Some  surprise  has  been  expressed  by  Freethinkers  here,  that 
Mr.  Hopwood,  who  worked  so  hard  to  get  the  Oaths  Bill  passed 
when  he  had  charge  of  it  in  a  previous  Parliament,  should  not 
have  done  as  many  judges  do,  and  allowed  the  free-thinking  juror 
to  affirm,  or  at  least  to  have  released  him  from  attendance.  To 
those,  however,  who  know  something  of  Mr.  Hopwood,  his  ac- 
tion is  perfectly  explicable.  The  Recorder  of  Liverpool  is  a 
rigidly  conscientious  man;  in  his  present  position  he  is  called 
upon  to  administer  the  law  as  he  finds  it.  and  whatever  he  con- 
ceives the  law  to  be,  that  will  he  administer,  whether  he  thinks 
the  law  be  good  or  evil. 

On  Wednesdays,  as  the  House  of  Commons  rises  at  6  p.  m., 
blocking*  amendments  do  not  operate;  so  on  the  Wednesday 
following  the  incident  just  related,  Mr.  Bradlaugh  tried  to  get  his 
Oaths  Bill  through  another  stage.  At  a  quarter  to  six  the  Clerk 
of  the  House  called  over  the  orders  of  the  day,  as  usual.  No  ob- 
jection was  made  to  the  Oaths  Bill.  The  Speaker  then  actually 
put  the  question,  "  that  this  bill  be  read  a  second  time,"  when 
some  voice  cried  from  a  back  bench  on  the  government  side  of 
the  House,  "I  object,"  and  these  two  little  words  stopped  any 
further  progress  with  the  bill  that  day. 

The  next  day  Mr.  Bradlaugh  asked  the  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasurv,  "  whether,  at  Liverpool  City  Sessions  on  Saturday  last, 
the  Recorder  refused  the  oath  and  affirmation  of  W.  A.  New- 
comb as  a  juror,  Mr.  Newcomb  having  applied  to  affirm  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  a  person  without  religious  belief;  whether, 
on  Monday,  at  an  inquest  at  Wood  Green,  Mr.  Wynne  Baxter, 
the  coroner,   accepted   the   affirmation   of    Mr.  Oates  as  a  juror, 

*  Last  month  I  explained  the  nature  of  the  Parliamentary  "  block." 


although  Mr.  Oates  had  stated  that  he  was  without  religious  be- 
lief; whether  he  is  aware  that  similar  instances  of  conflict,  as  to 
acceptance  and  rejection  of  affirmation  by  jurors  without  relig- 
ious belief,  are  constantly  occurring  in  the  Queen's  Bench  Divi- 
sion of  the  High  Court  of  Justice,  and  before  coroners;  and, 
whether,  under  these  circumstances,  the  government  can  afford 
any  facilities  for  taking  the  opinion  of  the  House  on  the  second 
reading  of  the  Oaths  Bill,  which,  during  the  whole  of  the  present 
session,  has  been  persistentlv  blocked." 

The  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith,  replied 
that  he  knew  nothing  of  the  particular  cases  referred  to,  and  was 
not  aware  that  instances  of  the  same  kind  were  constantly  occur- 
ring. It  was  impossible,  he  said,  for  him  to  give  consideration  to 
any  measure  which  was  not  a  government  measure.  Mr.  Brad- 
laugh then  asked  if  the  Right  Honorable  gentleman  would  influ- 
ence the  members  of  his  party  to  withdraw  their  block  from  his 
bill,  but  Mr.  Smith  protested  that  he  could  not  do  this. 

All,  then,  that  is  left  lor  Mr.  Bradlaugh,  is  to  put  the  bill 
down  for  its  second  reading  every  time  the  "  Orders  of  the  Day  " 
are  a  little  lighter  than  usual,  and  to  hope  that  it  will  be  reached 
before  half-past  twelve,  the  hour  that  the  block  takes  effect.  This, 
of  course,  he  will  do  persistently,  and,  if  tenacity  of  purpose  and 
patient  perseverance  count  for  anything,  then  before  long  we 
ought  to  see  the  bill  through  another  stage. 

Unlike  members  of  Parliament,  jurors  and  numbers  of  others, 
witnesses  may  affirm ;  the  law  expressly  provides  for  this,  but 
attaches  a  most  obnoxious  condition  to  the  privilege.  Before  a 
witness  is  permitted  to  affirm,  the  magistrate  is  required  to  satisfy 
himself  that  the  oath  will  have  no  binding  effect  on  the  witness's 
conscience.  This  is  a  very  obnoxious — one  might  even  say,  in- 
sulting—condition, because  an  honest  man  will  speak  the  truth 
whether  "bound"  by  oath  or  by  affirmation,  and  when  the  oath 
was  the  form  the  law  required  the  free-thinking  witness  to  take 
in  order  to  render  him  legally  liable  for  what  he  said,  he  was  as 
much  bound  by  it,  morally,  as  he  now  is  by  his  solemn  declara- 
tion, and  certainly  we  have  no  records  of  perjured  free-thought 
witnesses.  Christians,  however,  are  very  fond  of  saying  that  the 
formal  acknowledgment  which  the  law  requires  from  every  non- 
Christian  witness,  that  the  oath  has  no  binding  effect  upon  him,  is 
an  admission  that  when  he  has  no  choice  but  to  take  the  oath,  then 
he  won't  feel  himself  bound  by  it.  The  Christian  majority  first 
puts  disabilities  on  the  free-thinking  minority,  and  then  taunts 
it  with  them.     And  yet  they  preach,  "Love  one  another!" 

But  although  for  a  number  of  years,  now,  Freethinkers  have 
been  allowed  by  law  to  affirm  in  giving  evidence,  nevertheless 
there  are  so  many  cases  in  which  their  affirmation  cannot  be 
received  that  the  judges  seem  in  a  state  of  great  confusion  on  the 
subject.  A  little  while  ago,  in  the  Divorce  Court,  a  witness  ob- 
jected to  being  sworn  because  he  was  "an  Agnostic."  The 
judge,  Sir  James  Harmen,  expressed  himself  as  very  doubtful  as 
to  any  form  under  which  he  could  take  the  evidence,  but  the 
clerk  of  the  court  came  to  the  rescue,  saying,  "It  is  under  Brad- 
laugh's  Act,  my  lord."  Whereupon  Sir  James  Harmen  said, 
loftily,  "  If  anyone  knows  how  to  swear  this  witness,  let  it  be 
done."  At  the  Middleton  (Lancashire)  Police  Court,  last  week, 
the  magistrate  apparently  knew  nothing  of  the  Evidence  Amend- 
ment Acts  or  "  Bradlaugh's  Act,"  and  no  wiser  clerk  of  the  court 
coming  to  the  rescue,  illegally  insisted  on  the  administration  of 
the  oath. 

A  week  ago  died  Sir  John  Mellor,  the  last  of  that  patient 
triumvirate  of  judges  who  tried  the  Tichborne  "claimant,"  Orton, 
in  a  case  which  lasted  over  100  days.  Sir  John  Mellor  was  a 
profoundly  religious  man,  and  in  1884,  five  years  after  his  retire- 
ment from  the  bench,  he  published  a  pamphlet  on  the  oath  ques- 
tion, entitled,  "  Is  the  Oath  of  Allegiance  a  Profane  Oath?"  He 
began  by  contending  that  the  frequent  and  profane  use  of  oaths 


25° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


is  the  main  cause  of  the  "existing  want  of  reverence  and  awe 
rightfully  attaching  to  the  name  of  God,"  and  regretted  that  - 
considering  the  excitement  that  prevailed,  and  the  prejudice  that 
had  been  created  bv  the  introduction  of  the  Affirmation  Bill  into 
the  House  of  Commons— none  of  the  great  religious  bodies  had 
troubled  to  discuss  the  oath  question,  and  ascertain  how  far  the 
fearful  multiplicity  of  oaths  was  calculated  to  induce  irreverence 
for  the  "  Supreme  unseen  Cause."  Sir  John  Mellor  wrote:  "Pro- 
foundly convinced,  bv  a  long  judicial  experience,  of  the  general 
worthlessness  of  oaths,  especially  in  cases  where  their  falsity  can- 
not be  tested  bv  cross-examination  or  be  criminally  punished,  I 
have  become  an  advocate  for  the  abolition  of  oaths  as  the  test  of 
truth;  but  I  would  retain  the  punishment  for  false  declarations 
wherever  at  present  the  law  prescribes  a  penalty  for  a  false  oath. 
*  *  *  An  honest  man's  testimony  will  not  be  made  more  true 
under  the  sanction  of  an  oath,  and  a  dishonest  man  will  only  be 
affected  bv  the  dread  of  temporal  punishment."  The  learned 
judge  then  dealt  with  the  oath  of  allegiance  required  of  every 
duly  elected  representative  before  he  can  sit  and  vote  in  Parlia- 
ment. This,  he  said,  is  "an  unnecessary,  vain,  and  therefore  pro- 
fane oath,"  for  since  it  cannot  extend  the  duty  or  increase  the 
obligation  of  allegiance  it  necessarily  follows  that  it  is  a  "  taking 
of  the  name  of  God  in  vain."  Mr.  Justice  Meilor  wound  up  by 
saying  that  since  in  his  opinion  the  oath  of  allegiance  was  unnec- 
essary and  profane,  he  would  suggest  that,  instead  of  the  oath,  a 
Roll  of  Parliament  should  be  made  up  and  signed  by  every  mem- 
ber upon  taking  his  seat. 

Last  month  lack  of  space  prevented  me  from  mentioning  the 
wonderful  will  of  the  late  Scotch  judge,  Lord  Gifford,  which  had 
just  then  been  published.  I  see  that  the  will  was  noticed  in  The 
Open  Court  of  March  31,  but  I  must  say  a  few  words  more 
about  it  here,  it  is  of  so  much  importance.  Many  and  varied  are 
the  feelings  and  opinions  to  which  it  has  given  rise,  but  Free- 
thinkers can  have  but  one  feeling — that  of  respect  for  and  grati- 
tude to  Lord  Gifford;  and  one  opinion — that  it  ought  to  prove  a 
most  important  aid  to  Freethought.  Lord  Gifford  announced  in 
his  will  that  he  was  so  convinced  that  "the  true  knowledge  of 
Q0d — that  is,  of  the  being,  nature  and  attributes  of  the  Infinito 
of  the  All,  of  the  First  and  the  Only  Cause" — is  the  means  of 
"man's  highest  well-being,"  that  he  resolved  upon  founding  lec- 
tureships or  classes  to  aid  in  the  teaching  and  diffusion  of  such 
true  and  sound  knowledge.  He  therefore  bequeathed  £80,000  for 
the  purpose  of  establishing  a  lectureship  at  each  of  the  universi- 
ties of  Edinburg,  Glasgow,  Aberdeen  and  St.  Andrews,  for  " '  Pro- 
moting, Advancing,  Teaching  and  Diffusing  the  Study  of  Natural 
Theology,'  in  the  widest  sense  of -that  term;  in  other  words,  'The 
Knowledge  of  God,  the  Infinite,  the  All,  the  First  and  Only 
Cause,  the  one  and  the  Sole  Substance,  the  Sole  Being,  the  Sole 
Reality,  and  the  Sole  Existence,  the  Knowledge  of  his  Nature 
and  Attributes,  the  Knowledge  of  the  Relations  which  men  and 
the  whole  universe  bear  to  Him,  the  Knowledge  of  the  Nature 
and  Foundation  of  Ethics  or  Morals,  and  of  all  Obligations  and 
Duties  thence  arising.'  " 

The  lectures  are  not  to  be  perpetual,  as  they  are  so  often  in 
our  universities,  but  are  to  be  appointed  for  short  terms,  because 
the  testator  expressly  desires  that  the  thoughts  of  different  minds 
should  explain  and  illustrate  the  subject;  the  lecturers  may  be  of 
any  religion,  or  of  no  religion  at  all,  provided  only  they  be  men, 
able  and  true,  earnestly  seeking  to  elucidate  the  truth. 

Lord  Gifford   wished  the  lecturers   to  treat  the  subject  as  a 

strictly  natural  science,  considered  just  as  "  astronomy  or  chein- 

n-vertheless   the   lecturers  are   to  be  under  no   restraint 

.  er   in   their   method  of  dealing   with   the  theme,  as  he  is 

'  persuaded  that  nothing  but  good  can  result  from  free  discussion." 

The  testator  desired  the  lectures  to  be  public  and  popular,  so  that 


not  only  the  university  students,  but  also  the  whole  community, 
might  profit  by  them. 

Thoughtful  men  and  women,  sincere  lovers  of  truth,  can 
hardly  do  sufficient  honor  to  the  dead  judge,  who  did  not  selfishly 
encumber  posterity  for  all  time  with  an  endowment  for  the  prop- 
agation of  his  own  special  views,  as  some  men  do,  but  who,  after 
satisfying  all  private  claims,  leaves  the  remainder  of  his  fortune 
to   promote   a  free  discussion   on  the   subject   nearest  "his   heart. 

The  Freethinkers  of  the  English  colonies  of  South  Africa  are 
very  desirous  of  forming  themselves  into  associations  andol  hav- 
ing an  experienced  Freethought  lecturer  out  ihere  from  England. 
They  have  applied  to  Mr.  Bradlaugh  to  aid  them  to  get  a  lecturer 
to  go.  There  seems  to  be  numbers  of  Freethinkers  there,  and 
they  feel  quite  assured  that  there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  getting 
large  audiences  in  such  places  as  Port  Elizabeth,  Kimberley  Dia- 
mond Fields,  Graham's  Town,  Graaf-Reinet,  King  William's 
Town,  Queenstown,  etc.  If  any  American  lecturer  would  care 
to  communicate  with  the  secretary,  the  address  is  T.  Broughton, 
S  Upper  Hill  street,  Port  Elizabeth,  South  Africa. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  at  Monte  Pincio,  in  Rome,  a  col- 
umn to  Galileo  has  been  erected  near  the  palace  of  the  Medicis. 
It  has  upon  it  the  following  inscription:  "The  neighboring  pal- 
ace, once  the  property  of  the  Medicis,  was  the  prison  of  Galileo 
Galilei,  guilty  of  having  seen  the  earth  revolve  round  the  sun. — 
S.  P.  Q.  R.,  LDCCCLXXXVII." 

May,  18S7.  Hvpatia  Bradlaugh  Bonner. 


MIRACLES. 

To  the  Editors  : 

I  apply  to  you,  or  to  any  of  your  readers,  for  help.  It  is  an 
old  experience  of  investigators  to  find  that  somebody  thought  up 
their  think  long  before  they  did.  Such  has  more  than  once  been 
my  own  case,  and  my  request  may  probably  lead  me  to  it  again. 
The  thought  this  time  Is  an  argument  on  miracles  which  seems  to 
me  to  be  broader,  deeper  and  more  complete  than  Hume's,  and  to 
be  conclusive,  which  I  do  not  think  Hume's  is.  And  my  request 
is  that  I  may  have  pointed  out  to  me  any  discussion  of  this  argu- 
ment; for  I  have  not  succeeded  in  finding  one.  This  is  my  state- 
ment : 

Hume's  argument  on  miracles  is  in  brief  this:  "Since  it  is 
always  more  probable  that  the  witnesses  to  an  alleged  miracle  are 
mistaken  than  that  the  miracle  happened,  the  evidence  for  the 
miracle  must  always  be  weaker  than  that  against  it."  This  admits 
that  there  may  be  evidence  for  a  miracle.  My  argument  goes 
further,  viz.:  Evidence  for  a  miracle  not  merely  must  be  weaker 
than  that  against  it,  but  cannot  exist  at  all.  This  appears  as  fol- 
lows: Evidence  is  matter  offered  by  one  person  for  the  purpose  of 
causing  another  person  to  believe.  In  order  that  this  can  happen 
the  two  parties  to  the  transaction  must  have  had  a  previous  com- 
mon experience,  for  otherwise  the  listener  has  no  principle  or 
knowledge  within  himself  for  the  offerer  to  appeal  to, — nothing 
which  can  be  convinced.  In  the  case  of  anything  capable  of 
proof,  the  thing  will  be  found  to  be  a  case  falling  within  some  pre- 
viously known  general  rule,  illustrated  by  some  part  of  the  past 
experience  of  life.  But  alleged  evidence  to  prove  a  miracle  not 
only  does  not  fall  within  any  such  rule  and  experience  of  life,  but 
it  does  not  even  contradict  them.  It  is  outside  of  them;  has 
nothing  to  do  with  them  at  all;  has  no  relation  to  them;  in  short, 
it  is  not  evidence  at  all,  because  it  does  not  appeal  or  apply  to  any 
common  ground  of  experience  or  consciousness  in  the  two  parties 
to  the  offer,  such  as  furnishes  the  only  foundation  or  substratum 
of  possibility  for  convincing  and  being  convinced  which  can  exist 
for  two  human  mind6.  The  offerer  of  such  alleged  evidence  may 
believe  in  the  genuineness  of  what  he  considers  to  have  been  an 
experience  of  his  own.  He  may  be  believed  by  a  listener  who 
believes  himself  to  have  had  a  similar  experience, — that  is,  who  is 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


25' 


already  convinced.  A  hearer  under  the  influence  of  mere  appe- 
tite for  the  marvelous  may  believe  such  a  statement.  But  such 
belief  is  not  being  convinced  by  evidence. 

Where  is  this  point  discussed?  Is  the  argument  less  signifi- 
cant than  I  think  it?  I  will  add  that  my  argument  is  not  the 
same  as  Mill's  about  contradicting  a  complete  induction.  It  does 
not  require  the  pretty  large  assumption  that  an  induction  can  be 
known  to  be  complete;  and  it  does  not  admit,  as  Mill's  does,  that 
the  distinctive  quality  of  evidence  may  exist  in  matter  offered  as 
proof  of  miracles.  Both  Hume  and  Mill  admit,  I  believe,  in 
terms,  that  miracles  are  not  impossible,  and  that  they  may  possi- 
bly be  proved.  I  do  not  now  deny  that  they  are  conceivable,  but 
I  do  deny  that,  as  the  human  mind  is  at  present  constituted,  evi- 
dence to  prove  them  can  exist.  Smith  John,  D.  D. 

BOOK   REVIEWS. 

The  Foundations  of  Ethics.  By  Edioarde  Maude,  M.  A. 
Edited  by  William  James,  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Har- 
vard College.    New  York:  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  1SS7.  pp.  220. 

This  little  treatise,  the  work  of  a  young  man  who  died  under 
thirty  years  of  ag',  is  introduced  to  the  public,  the  editor  says,  not 
onlv  in  justice  to  the  author's  memory,  "  but  in  justice  to  philoso- 
phy." The  aim  of  the  work  is  to  harmonize  the  various  schools 
of  ethics,  which  it  regards  as  mainly  right  in  their  affirmations 
but  wrong  in  most  of  their  negations,  and  "  fighting  only  because 
they  see  the  shield  from  different  sides."  "Impartial  minds  find 
great  difficulty  in  rating  themselves  with  one  or  the  other  of  the 
various  schools,  exclusively,  and  this  because  they  cannot  find  it 
in  their  hearts  to  shut  themselves  out  from  the  other  schools  for 
the  slight  causes  that  can  be  alleged."  The  difference  between 
right  and  expediency  is  regarded  as  superficial.  Duty  and  interest 
are  identical.  Our  author  does  not  treat  ethics  as  the  science  of 
good  and  evil,  or  of  the  effects  of  actions,  but  as  the  science  ot 
that  which  merits  praise  or  blame  in  character,  or  "  the  science 
which  studies  the  responsibility  of  free  beings  for  their  actions 
with  a  view  to  determining  for  what,  and  how  far  these  beings  are 
worthy  of  praise  or  blame,  reward  or  punishment  for  what  they 
do  or  for  what  they  fail  to  do."  An  act  for  which  the  actor  de- 
serves praise  may  produce  evil  effects,  or  one  for  which  he  de- 
serves blame  may  result  in  good.  The  effects  of  an  action  in  no 
way  affect  its  ethical  quality.  Ethics  cannot  say  "this  act  is  good 
because  it  is  useful,  for  that  judgment  must  be  made  by  some 
other  science  which  has  for  its  business  the  study  of  the  effects  of 
actions."  Ethics  can  deal  only  with  the  subjective  side  of  con- 
duct. The  ethical  quality  of  an  act  is  determined  by  the  effort 
made  by  the  actor  to  do  that,  rather  than  any  other  act.  The  so- 
called  virtuous  impulses,  from  the  ethical  point  of  view,  "should 
be  regarded  exactly  as  the  unreasoning  impulses  to  immediate 
sensual  pleasure  are:  both  are  unmoral;  neither  is  in  sc  vicious; 
neither  is  virtuous,  so  far  as  the  actor  is  concerned,  since  he  is  en- 
tirely irresponsible  for  their  existence.  An  act  even  done  with 
good  intent,  but  without  effort  of  will,  is  not  an  ethical  act. 
Neither  intent  nor  good  consequences  of  conduct  make  it  virtuous. 
The  only  sin  is  failure  to  oppose  obstacles  by  the  virtuous  exer- 
cise of  our  will.  Virtue  is  possible  only  for  imperfect  beings. 
Professor  C.  C.  Everett  is  quoted:  "The  moral  law  even  in  itself 
is  only  transitional.  No  action  is  complete  so  long  as  it  is  per- 
formed merely  from  a  sense  of  duty."  "  So  virtue  is  a  mark  of  im- 
perfection. The  science  of  ethics  must  determine  how  far  a  man 
is  praiseworthy  or  blameworthy  for  his  acts,  but  this  is  what  never 
can  be  determined  and  therefore  a  science  of  pure  ethics  is  impos- 
sible. The  world  is  or  ought  to  be  interested  only  in  the  objec- 
tive effects  of  actions — the  science  of  good  and  evil.     While  '  the 


Tightness  of  an  act  may  be  known  innately  '  its  goodness  can  be 
known  only  by  experience."  Such  briefly  is  the  view  presented. 
The  novelty  of  the  work  consists  chiefly  in  i  s  definitions  and 
distinctions,  and  here  the  author  shows  much  acuteness.  In  mak- 
ing virtue  to  consist  simply  in  effort  of  will,  and  an  act  virtuous 
only  in  proportion  to  the  effort  made  to  perform  it,  regardless  of 
its  effects,  and  excluding  from  virtue  all  good  acts  resulting  from 
good  impulses,  from  inherited  tendencies, from  a  natural  disposition 
to  do  right, — all  acts  which  are  performed  with  pleasure,  however 
useful,  the  author  divests  virtue  of  about  all  the  word  connotes; and 
of  course  if  ethics  deals  only  with  the  energy  of  free  volition,  there 
can  be  no  science  of  ethics.  We  think  that  most  of  the  fallacies 
of  this  little  work  can  be  traced  to  the  assumption  of  a  metaphys- 
ical will,  and  volition  that  is  exempt  from  law  and  causation.  It 
seems  not  to  have  occurred  to  the  author  that  volitional  energy 
must  depend  upon  inherited  qualities,  and  can  afford  no  sole 
ground  for  praise  and  blame. 


Entwickelung  und  Gl'uckseligkeit.    Ethische    Essays    von 

B.    Carneri.     Stuttgart,    1S86.     Schweizerbartsche    Verlags- 

handlung. 

This  work  of  470  pages  is  a  collection  of  twenty-seven  essays 
which  were  published  before  in  the  h'osmos,  one  of  the  most 
prominent  German  periodicals.  All  of  the  essays  touch  upon 
the  ethical  problem  and  such  topics  as  are  in  close  reference  to 
ethics.  Carneri's  aim  is  to  base  ethics  upon  the  evolution  theory 
and  Darwinism.  He  distinguishes  ethics  from  morals.  Morals 
are  the  historically  developed  ethological  state  of  certain  periods 
They  are  different  in  different  times,  and  as  a  rule  c  m  be  formu- 
lated in  a  code  of  dictatory  or  imperative  prescriptions.  Ethics 
(Sittlichkcit)  is  to  him  morals  in  a  wider  sense.  It  is  the  abstract 
ideal  of  morals,  which  enables  us  to  estimate  and  measure  the 
different  moral  stages  and  views. 

"Ethics,"  he  savs,  "is  the  highest  efflorescence  of  evolution 
to  which  humanity  as  it  appears  in  the  restriction  of  a  community 
necessarily  evolves.  To  ethics  the  pursuit  of  happiness  naturally 
leads  bv  a  purification  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation." 

Happiness  is  defined  as  "conscious,  unchecked  evolution," 
and  "ethics  is  the  reconciliation  of  individual  evolution  with 
universal  evolution  (Versohnung  der  individuellen  Entwickelung 
mit  der  Eutwickelung  der  Gesammtheit).  In  this  way  the  social 
restraint  serves  to  enhance  and  purify  happiness."  Carneri 
objects  to  explain  self-sacrifice  from  a  happiness  motive. 

"Utilitarians,"  he  says,  "do  violence  to  logic  and  the  common 
usage  of  language;  and  here  their  whole  system  breaks  down. 
Who  for  a  noble  purpose  sacrifices  his  property  and  life,  by  no 
means  pursues  his  own  happiness  or  utility,  which,  indeed,  he 
foregoes  forever.  Yet  the  pain  which  is  caused  in  this  way  does 
not  prevent  that  his  sacrifice  affords  him  a  last  happiness,  the 
onlv  one  which  remains  possible  " 

"The  happiness  idea,"  Carneri  says  in  another  passage,  "has 
its  weak  points,  but  it  approaches  most  nearly  the  distinction  of 
pleasure  and  displeasure,  as  it  declares  that  emotion  gives  the 
first  impulse.  It  is  primarily  emotion  and  only  secondarily  utility 
which  prompts  the  ego  to  search  for  its  complementary  /«,  and 
causes  egotism  to  find  full  gratification  in  altruism."  *  * 
"Emotion  is  the  first  impulse,  but  it  is  intelligence  which  gradu- 
ally ennobles  emotion."  We  may  fairly  regard  Carneri's  view  as 
a  reconciliation  of  utilitarianism  with  altruism.  The  work  con- 
tains many  interesting  essays  on  different  topics,  lie  treats  on 
Kant,  Condillac,  Leslie  Stephen,  Darwin,  etc.  He  speaks  of  the 
"Position  of  Woman,"  "The  Explanation  of  Consciousness," 
"  Knowledge  and  Faith,"  "The  Power  of  Mind,"  etc. 

Let  me  conclude  with  the  last  passage  of  Carneri's  book, 
where  he  contemplates  the  progress  of  humankind  and  human 
aspirations  for  the  highest  ideals,  "  The  Good,  the  Beautiful  and 


252 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  True."  "There  is  much  lacking  in  our  civilization  still,"  he 
says,  "but  when  we  review  the  whole  past  of  human  history 
without  prejudice,  we  must  confess  that  man  has  taken  good  care 
of  the  talent  in  his  trust,  and  we  may  say  with  confidence,  '  Man 
will  never  lose  himself.'  "  p.  c. 


the  portraits  given  this  month  are  of  Charles  Sumner,  Preston  S. 
Brooks,  Henry  Wilson,  Anson  Burlingame,  Died  Scott  and  wife, 
Chief  Justice  Taney,  and  Professors  Moleschott,  Voit  and  Pet- 
tenkofer. 


Zury:  The  Meanest  Man  in  Spring  County.  A  Novel  of 
Western  Life.  By  Joseph  Kirkland.  Boston :  Houghton 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  1S87.  pp.  53S.  Price  $1.50. 
This  is  an  interesting,  though  not  an  agreeable  story.  It  is  an 
apparently  realistic  discription  of  pioneer  life  in  the  West  with 
none  of  its  more  sordid  phases  glossed  over,  or  its  bitter  experi- 
ences left  out.  The  characteristics,  and  the  successful  career  of 
Zury  Prouder,  the  hero,  are  carefully  drawn  from  the  time  when  he 
first  arrived  in  Spring  County,  a  healthy,  wide-awake,  self-assertive 
lad,  whose  family  and  possessions  journeyed  thither  in  a  "prairie 
schooner"  and  "  settled  "  on  a  bit  of  mortgaged  land,  through  his 
long  life  of  contemptible  and  barely  honest,  niggardly  meanness 
and  bargain-making  until  he  attains  great  wealth,  legislative 
honors,  and  a  third  wife.  To  read  this  work  is  a  much  easier  way 
to  understand  how  some  Western  farmers  have  succeeded  in 
amassing  fortunes  than  to  make  personal  experiments  thereof. 
Fortunately  the  majority  of  our  Western  pioneers  have  never 
been  reduced  to  such  low  moral  levels  as  are  here  portrayed,  but 
"Zury"  is  undeniably  a  strongly  drawn  type  of  a  certain  class, 
whose  natural  bents  are  warped  and  distorted  by  dire  need,  and 
degrading  environments.  There  is  a  love  story  in  this  decidedly 
unique  novel,  which  begins,  proceeds  and  ends  in  a  manner  alto- 
gether original  if  not  quite  commendable.  The  dialogues  and  talk 
so  freely  scattered  through  the  book  are  carried  on  in  a  strange  so- 
called  Western  dialect  which  on  the  whole  detracts  from  the  in- 
terest of  the  story  from  the  necessity  on  the  part  of  the  reader  of 
partial  translation.  But  whoever  wishes  a  graphic  picture  of  the 
superficial  thoughts,  aims  and  daily  life  as  it  i6  in  small  Western 
communities  will  find  it  in  the  story  of  "Zury,"  who  gloried  in  his 
well-won  distinction  of  being  "the  meanest  man  in  Spring  County." 


An  Illustrated  Grammar  qf  Skat,  the  German  Game 
of  Cards.  By  Ejus/  Eduard  Lcmcke.  2d  edition,  revised 
and  greatly  enlarged.  New  York,  18S7:  Westermann  &  Co. 
Skat  is  considered  the  national  German  gime  of  cards.  It 
has  been  introduced  into  America,  and  it  is  spreading  rapidly 
through  the  efforts  of  many  enthusiastic  players.  No  doubt  the 
game  possesses  much  fascination,  and  the  author  of  this  Gram- 
mar of  Skat  treats  the  subject  so  ingeniously  that  even  non-play- 
ers, as  the  writer  knows  from  his  own  experience,  must  grow 
interested.  To  Mr.  Lemcke,  Skat  is  more  than  simply  whiling 
away  the  idle  hours  of  leisure.  He  looks  upon  it  as  an  essential 
feature  of  German  culture  which  he  wants  to  see  introduced  into 
American  social  life  as  a  cure  of  the  Puritan  ideas  of  Sabbath 
observance,  etc.  The  origin  of  Skat,  although  it  is  not  older 
than  fifty  or  sixty  years,  is  shrouded  in  myths.  Its  principles  are 
quite  democratic,  as  the  knave  (der  Bauer)  beats  even  the  king. 
A  remarkable  feature  of  the  game  is  that  the  trumping  power  of 
the  cards  is  different  from  their  counting  value.  p.  c. 


The  Century  for  June  presents  as  its  frontispiece  a  strong  por 
trait  of  Count  Leo  Tolstoi,  and  George  Kennan  gives  an  inter 
esting  sketch  of  a  visit  to  that  original  thinker,  of  whom  hi 
remarks:  "  His  theories  of  life  and  conduct  seemed  to  me  nobly 
generously  and  heroically  wrong,  but  for  the  man  himself  I  had, 
and  could  have,  only  the  warmest  respect  and  esteem."  In  the 
same  number  Julan  Hawthorne  writes  of  "College  Boat  Racing 
and  the  New  London  Regatta,"  which  article  is  accompanied  by 
spirited  illustrations  by  W.  A.  Rogers.  Mrs.  Schuyler  Van 
Rensselaer's  description  of  "  Peterborough  Cathedral,"  in 
England,  is  also  finely  illustrated  by  Joseph  Pennell.     Some  ot 


The  Unitarian  Review  for  June  opens  with  a  paper  on  "The 
Revelations  of  God,"  as  understood  in  the  light  of  nineteenth 
century  thought,  by  John  W.  Chadwick;  the  second  article  con- 
siders "A  Flaw  in  our  Town  Democracies;"  "St.  Paul's  Doctrine 
of  the  Risen  Christ,"  by  Conrad  Mascol,  was  prepared,  the  editor 
states,  by  special  request  as  a  sequel  to  an  article  in  the  May 
number  on  "St.  Paul's  Doctrine  of  the  Resurrection;"  "Our 
Present  Need,"  by  E.  F.  Hayward,  treats  of  the  needs  of  Uni- 
tarian churches;  "The  Eastern  Question"  is  interestingly 
explained  by  Prof.  Boros,  of  the  college  at  Koloysviir,  Transyl- 
vania; "The  Editor's  Note-Book"  in  "One  Phase  of  the  Social 
Question"  and  "The  Mission  of  Sovereigns"  notices  at  consid- 
erable length  two  new  books;  "  The  Pauline  Writings  "  are  the 
subject  considered  in  "  Critical  Theology,"  and  George  Meredith's 
novels  in  "Literary  Criticism." 


Wide-A-vake  for  June  is  a  particularly  brilliant  number,  both 
in  reading  matter  and  illustration.  Three  chapters  are  given  of 
what  promises  to  be  one  of  Charles  Egbert  Craddock's  best 
stories,  "The  Story  of  Keedon  Bluffs;"  Mrs.  Whitney  translates 
some  "bird  talk  "  into  verse;  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford,  in  a  poem, 
tells  the  sad  story  of  "A  Splendid  Fire  "  made  from  the  manu- 
scripts of  a  disappointed  poet;  Louise  Guiney  writes  of  water 
sprites;  Lizzie  W.  Champney  begins  a  finely  illustrated  story  of 
the  Far  West;  Mrs.  Sarah  K.  Bolton  tells  the  experience  of  a 
successful  woman  florist,  and  Grace  Denio  Litchfield  relates  her 
thrilling  experience  during  the  earthquake  at  Mentone. 


James  H.  West,  of  Geneva,  111.,  is  about  to  publish  Uplifts 
of  Heart  and  Will,  a  book  consisting  of  thirty-seven  religious 
meditations  or  aspirations,  the  peculiarity  of  which,  is  that  they 
are  not  addressed  "to  any  ulterior  deity,"  but  are  the  expression 
of  the  emotion  of  the  soul  yearning  for  moral  perfection. 


INDIVIDUAL  EXPRESSIONS. 

The  issues  therein  treated  of  are  highly  important  and  ably  discussed. — 
Prof.  Richard  Owen,  New  Harmony,  Ind. 

I  think  The  Open  Court  the  best  publication  of  the  kind  that  I  have  met 
with  lately,  North  or  South. — Lerov  M.  Lewis,  Monroe,  La. 

I  am  wonderfully  pleased  with  The  Open  Court.  It  is  so  original  and 
fresh  that  it  rests  one. — John  C.  Mitchell,  Danversport,  Mass. 

I  congratulate  you  upon  producing  a  pnper  ?o  excellent  in  every  way.  It 
will  be  as  The  Index  was,  the  very  Bread  of  Life  to  me. — P.  B,  Sibley, 
Spearfish,  Dak. 

If  you  can  determine  to  issue  The  Cuukt  weekly,  I  will  be  glad  to  double 
my  subscription.  I  congratulate  you  on  its  excellence. — G.  P.  Delaplaine, 
Madison,  Wis. 

When  I  first  learned  that  The  Ind  x  was  about  to  be  discontinued,  I  felt  that 
I  was  to  lose  the  companionship  of  an  old  friend,  and  was  disposed  to  question 
the  action  of  the  trustees  in  their  determination  to  close  up  the  affairs  of  such  a 
valuable  paper.  But  I  now  feel  reconciled  to  such  action  since  The  Open 
Court  has  come  into  existance,  for  it  is  a  most  noble  inheritance  that  has  come 
to  continue  the  good  work  of  The  Index.  I  am  glad  to  see  the  familiar  writers 
once  more  contribuling  their  highest  and  purest  thought;  Montgomery,  Potter, 
Conway,  Holland,  Ball,  Gunning.  Surd}'  these  ;  re  welcome  names,  and  beside 
this,  you  have  already  added  other  contributors  who  give  promise  of  doing 
most  excellent  work.  The  Open  Court  is  in  everv  way  attractive  as  it  comes 
from  the  press,  and  presents  a  most  inviting  appearance  even  before  the  con- 
tents have  been  examined;  its  reconstructive  work  is  admirable  and  cannot  fail 
to  command  respect  even  from  opponents,  while  those  in  sympathy  with  its 
aims  and  purposes  look  forward  with  increased  interest  to  each  successive 
issue  freighted  as  it  is  with  such  valuable  material.— C.  C.  Stearns,  Worces- 
ter, Mass. 


The  Open  Court 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the  Work  of  Establishing  Ethics  and  Religion  Upon  a  Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  10. 


CHICAGO,  JUNE  23,  1887. 


j  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


f  The  first  of  Prof.  F.  Max  Midler's  three  lectures 
on  the  "  Science  of  Thought,"  concluded  in  this  issue, 
recently  appeared  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  but  not 
many  of  our  readers  can  yet  have  read  it  in  that  period- 
ical. The  second,  on  "  The  Identity  of  Language  and 
Thought "  and  the  third,  on  the  "  Simplicity  of 
Thought,"  not  published  nor  to  be  published  in  England, 
have  been  secured  exclusively  for  The  Open  Court, 
in  which  they  will  be  printed  from  the  author's  manu- 
script. This  distinguished  philologist  believes  that  lan- 
guage is  the  history  of  human  thought,  and  no  other 
man  living  probably  is  as  competent  as  he  to  read  this 
history  understandingly,  especially  those  pages  which 
indicate  how  men  reasoned  and  what  they  thought  dur- 
ing the  world's  intellectual  childhood.] 


THE  SIMPLICITY  OF   LANGUAGE. 

One   of  three  Lectures  on  the  Science    of  Thought   delivered  at 
the  Royal  Institution,  London,  March,  187S.* 

BY    PROF.    F.    MAX    MllLLER. 

Part    II. 

No  doubt  English  is  one  of  the  richest  languages, 
and  much  of  its  wealth  is  kept  only  in  reserve.  A  poet 
is  very  eloquent  who  uses  more  than  ten  thousand 
words.  It  is  all  the  more  amazing,  therefore,  to  see  the 
intellectual  wealth  of  languages  spoken  by  the  lowest 
savages.  Owing  chiefly  to  Darwin's  reports,  it  has  been 
the  fashion  to  represent  the  inhabitants  of  Tierra  del 
Fuego  as  standing  on  the  very  lowest  rung  of  the  lad- 
der which  represents  the  ascent  or  descent  of  man. 
You  remember  what  Darwin  said  of  them.  They 
seemed  to  him  like  the  devils  which  come  on  the  stage  in 
in  such  plays  as  the  Freischiitz.  "  Viewing  such 
men,"  he  says,  "  one  can  hardly  believe  that  they  are 
fellow  creatures,  and  inhabitants  of  the  same  world. 
Their  language,  according  to  our  notions,"  he  adds, 
"scarcely  deserves  to  be  called  articulate.  Captain 
Cook  has  compared  it  to  a  man  clearing  his  throat;  but 
certainly  no  European  ever  cleared  his  throat  with  so 
many  hoarse,  guttural  and  clicking  sounds!"  These 
Fuegians,  as  they  appeared  to  Darwin,  may  be  respon- 
sible for  much  that  is  now  called  Darwinism.  But 
even   with    regard    to    the    physical    features    of    these 

*  Copyright,  1SS7,  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 


Fuegians,  Darwin  must  either  have  been  very  unlucky 
in  the  specimens  he  met,  or  he  cannot  have  kept  him- 
self quite  free  from  prejudice.  Captain  Parker  Snow, 
in  his  Two  Tears'  Cruise  c/f  Tierra  del  Fuego,  speaks 
of  the  same  race  as  without  the  least  exaggeration  really 
beautiful  representatives  of  the  human  race.  Professor 
Yirchow,  who  exhibited  a  number  of  Fuegians  at 
Berlin,  strongly  protested  against  the  supposition  that 
they  were  by  nature  an  inferior  race,  or  that  they  might 
be  considered  as  a  connecting  link  between  ape  and  man. 
Captain  Parker  Snow  sent  me,  in  1SS5,  the  following 
interesting  letter:  "I  am  now  over  sixty-seven  years 
old" — that  makes  him  now  seventy — "  but  I  would 
gladly  voyage  again  among  those  so-called  savages, 
and  my  wife — same  age — coincides.  Indeed,  we  have 
both  lived  among  wild  tribes  in  various  parts  of  the 
globe,  and  never  once  received  aught  but  kindness  and 
love  from  them,  whether  in  the  Pacific,  or  Australia,  or 
Tierra  del  Fuego.  Nor  from  the  days  when,  as  a  boy 
in  1S34-5,  I  was  much  among  them,  and  often  since, 
have  I  once  lifted  a  weapon  to  harm  them.  No  occa- 
sion. I  and  mine  found  them  honest,  and  above  the 
ordinary  'civilized'  lower  strata  of  life,  '  Cannibals* 
(when  from  necessity,  or  revenge,  or  policy — 'to  imbibe 
the  white  man's  powers')  though  they  were." 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  their  language?  The 
same  language  which  to  Darwin's  ears  seemed  hardly 
articulate  is  described  by  Giacomo  Bovi,  who  learnt 
their  language,  as  consisting  of  parole  dolci,  piacevoli, 
ficne  di  vocali.  The  Yahgan  dialect,  which  has  lately 
been  more  carefully  studied  by  missionaries,  has  a  diction- 
ary of  32,430  words.  Now  let  us  remember  that  Shake- 
speare, in  the  enormous  variety  of  his  plays,  achieved  all 
he  wished  to  achieve,  expressed  all  he  wished  to 
'express,  with  15,000  words,  not  quite  half  the  wealth  of 
the  language  spoken  by  those  devils  of  the  Freischiitz, 
whom  Darwin  could  hardly  believe  to  be  fellow  crea- 
tures. Every  one  of  these  words  represents  an  intel- 
lectual effort,  and  every  one  of  them  can  be  either 
declined,  conjugated  and  compounded,  according  to  the 
strict  laws  of  a  most  complicated  grammar. 

I  have  always  had  the  fullest  belief  in  Darwin's 
devotion  to  truth,  and  I  had  expressed  my  conviction 
that,  if  the  real  facts  about  the  language  and  the  gen- 
eral character  of  the  Fuegians  were  placed  before  him, 
he  would  withdraw  the  strong  language  which  he  had 


254 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


used,  after  but  a  short  stay  among  them.  And  so  it 
was.  In  a  letter,  dated  Down,  Kent,  November  22, 
1SS1,  Darwin  wrote  to  Captain  Parker  Snow: 

"Dear  Sir — I  hope  that  you  may  succeed  in  pub- 
lishing a  new  edition  of  your  Cruise  to  Ticrra  del 
Fuego.  You  saw  so  much  more  of  the  natives  than  I 
did,  that,  wherever  we  differ,  you  probably  are  in  the 
right.  Indeed,  the  success  of  the  missionary  establish- 
ment there  proves  that  I  took  a  very  erroneous  view  of 
the  nature  and  capabilities  of  the  Fuegians." 

That  is  what  I  call  real  Darwinism — love  of  truth, 
not  of  self  or  system.  It  is  the  heart  that  makes  the 
true  man  of  science,  not  the  brain  only. 

What  then  has  the  science  of  language  done  for  us 
in  explaining  that  stupendous  wealth  of  words  and 
forms,  whether  in  English,  or  in  Sanskrit,  or  in  Hebrew, 
or  in  Turkish,  or  even  in  the  language  of  the  so-called 
devils  of  Tierra  del  Fuego?  It  has  completely  changed 
the  aspect  of  the  miracle,  and  instead  of  exhibiting 
language  as  something  incomprehensible,  bewildering 
and  supernatural,  it  has  shown  us,  that  the  process 
by  which  this  supposed  miracle  of  language  has  been 
wrought  is  perfectly  simple,  natural  and  intelligible. 
We  no  longer  stare  at  language  in  utter  bewilderment, 
but  we  understand  it.  Give  us  the  materials,  and  we 
can  build  up  a  language,  perhaps  more  perfect,  though, 
it  may  be,  less  beautiful,  than  English,  Sanskrit  or 
Fuegian. 

But  what  are  these  materials? 

Whatever  language  we  take,  we  find  that  it  can  be 
analyzed,  and  as  the  result  of  our  analysis,  we  find 
everywhere  material  and  formal  elements.  In  giver 
and  gift,  for  instance,  the  material  element  is  give,  the 
formal  elements  are  er  and  /.  In  to  wit,  in  witness, 
and  in  wittingly,  we  easily  see  the  permanent  material 
element,  wit,  used  in  the  sense  of  knowing,  and  fol- 
lowed by  such  formal  elements  as  ness  and  ing.  These 
material  elements  are  generally  called  roots,  and  it 
stands  to  reason  that  in  modern  languages  it  is  often 
very  difficult  to  discover  the  true  roots.  There  have 
been  so  many  phonetic  changes  that  in  order  to  dis- 
cover the  most  primitive  form  of  a  root,  we  must 
always  go  back  to  the  more  primitive  languages.  The 
same  root,  wit,  for  instance,  exists  in  English  in  such 
words  also  as  history,  but  no  one  who  did  not  know 
that  this  word  came  to  us  from  Rome  and  Greece, 
would  be  able  to  discover  the  presence  of  the  root  wit 
in  history.  In  Greek  we  know  it,  because  we  know 
that,  according  to  fixed  phonetic  rules  initial  v  is  dropt, 
d  before  t  is  changed  to  s,  thus  giving  us  istor  instead 
of  vid-tar,  the  Sanskrit  vet-tar. 

Now  this  is  one  thing  which  the  Science  of  Lan- 
guage has  achieved.  It  has  discovered  the  material 
elements  or  roots  in  all  the  Indo-European  languages. 
But  wtrile  this  achievement  belongs  to  the  nineteenth 
century  with  us,  it  belonged  to  the  fifth   century  b.  c. 


in  India.  In  India  the  earliest  grammarians  asked  the 
question,  which  we  have  asked  but  lately,  namely, 
What  is  language  made  of?  and  they  found,  as  we  have 
found,  that  it  consisted  of  those  material  elements  or 
roots,  and  of  a  certain  number  of  formal  elements,  . 
called  suffixes,  prefixes  and  infixes.  This  was  a  won- 
derful achievement,  particularly  for  men  whom  certain 
people  even  now  would  call  savages  or  niggers.  The 
result  of  this  analysis  or  taking  to  pieces  of  the  Sanskrit 
language  is  now  before  us,  in  a  list  of  about  two 
thousand  roots,  which  is  ascribed  to  the  great  gramma- 
rian Pacini,  who  lived  about  the  same  time  as 
yEschylus.  Given  that  number  of  roots  and  there  is 
no  word  in  Sanskrit  which  Hindu  grammarians  do  not 
undertake  to  build  up.  That  is  to  say,  the  whole  flora 
of  the  Sanskrit  dictionary  has  been  traced  back  by 
them  to  about  two  thousand  seeds»  Wonderful  as  this 
achievement  is,  we  must  not  exaggerate.  Many  of  the 
etymologies  of  the  native  Indian  scholars  are  fanciful. 
The  idea  that  it  should  be  impossible  to  trace  any  word 
back  to  a  root,  never  entered  their  heads.  If  there  is  no 
root,  a  root  is  invented  for  any  special  word,  for  accord- 
ing to  their  views,  the  only  object  of  a  root  is  to 
account  for  the  existence  of  a  word.  Hence  many  of 
these  roots  which  we  find  collected  by  Pacini  may  be 
safely  set  aside.  From  our  point  of  view  we  are  quite 
prepared  to  admit  that  Sanskrit,  like  other  languages, 
may  possess  words  of  which  the  roots  can  no  longer  be 
discovered.  We  could  not  discover,  for  instance,  the 
root  of  such  a  word  as  history,  if  Latin  and  Greek  had 
had  been  swept  away  out  of  existence;  nor  should  we 
know  that  the  root  of  age  was  I,  to  go,  unless  we 
could  follow  up  historically  the  traces  of  that  word  from 
age  to  cage,  edage,  cetaticum,  cetas,  cevitas,  cevum,  and 
Sanskrit  eva,  which  comes  from  the  root  I,  to  go. 

If  we  sift  the  list  of  roots  in  Sanskrit,  retaining 
such  roots  only  as  can  be  traced  in  the  actual  literature, 
the  number  of  2,000  dwindles  down  to  about  800.  That 
is  to  say,  with  about  Soo  material  elements  we  can 
account  for  the  whole  verbal  harvest  of  India.  Now 
that  harvest  is  as  rich  as  that  of  any  other  of  the  Aryan 
languages,  and  what  applies  therefore  to  Sanskrit, 
applies,  mutatis  mutandis,  to  Greek,  Latin  and  all  the 
other  Aryan  languages.  Their  stock  in  trade  is  no 
more  than  about  800  roots.  I  should  even  say,  it  is  con- 
siderably less,  because  as  languages  grow  they  drop  a 
number  of  scarce  and  isolated  words,  and  supply  their 
wants  by  new  derivatives,  or  by  new  metaphorical 
expressions.  I  see  that  Professor  Skeat,  in  his  list  of 
the  principal  Aryan  roots  occurring  in  English,  brings 
their  number  to  no  more  than  461. 

Imagine,  then,  what  a  difference  this  makes  in"  our 
view  of  language.  We  may  feel  bewildered  by  a 
quarter  of  a  million  of  descendants,  but  we  can  man- 
age eight  hundred  ancestors;  and  if  we  can  once  manage 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


255 


these  eight  hundred  ancestors,  their  descendants,  what- 
ever their  number,  need  no  longer  perplex  and 
frighten  us. 

In  this  respect  the  Science  of  Language  has  brought 
daylight  where  all  before  seemed  dark  and  confused. 
Whatever  in  language  is  not  material  is  formal.  These 
formal  elements  are  in  many  case£  material  elements  in 
a  metamorphic  state.  Thus  hood  in  child-hood,  which 
is  now  a  formal  element,  used  to  form  collective  and 
abstract  nouns,  was  still  not  many  centuries  back,  a 
living  word,  the  Anglo-Saxon  hdd,  meaning  state  or 
rank.  This  hdd  again  is  related  to  the  Gothic  haidits, 
meaning  manner,  way;  and  this  haidus  exists  in  San- 
skrit as  ketii,  a  sign.  When  we  have  come  so  far,  we 
ask  what  is  this  ketii,  and  we  find  that  its  root  is  kit,  to 
observe,  to  see,  while  u  is  a  purely  formal  element,  used 
to  form  nominal  and  verbal  bases  in  Sanskrit. 

Besides  these  metamorphic  words — the  soil,  as  it 
were,  left  by  a  former  vegetation — the  Aryan  languages 
make  use  of  a  number  of  demonstrative  elements,  with 
which  to  form  nouns,  adjectives  and  verbs  from  roots. 
These  were  at  first  intended  to  point  to  whatever  was 
meant  to  be  the  subject  of  a  predicative  root.  If  there 
was  a  root  meaning  to  strike,  then  "strike-here"  might 
be  a  striker,  a  fighter;"  strike-there"  might  be  "wound;" 
"  strike  it"  might  be  "  sword."  After  a  time  these  dem- 
onstrative elements  became  differentiated  and  specialized, 
and  they  stand  now  before  us  as  suffixes,  and  termina- 
tions of  nouns  and  verbs. 

What  has  so  far  been  established  by  the  Science  of 
Language  is  this,  that,  if  we  have,  say,  800  material  or 
predicative  roots,  and  a  small  number  of  demonstrative 
elements  given  us,  then,  roughly  speaking,  the  riddle  of 
language  is  solved.  We  know  what  language  is,  what 
it  is  made  of,  and  we  are  thus  enabled  to  admire,  not  so 
much  its  complexity  as  its  translucent  simplicity. 

There  remains,  however,  the  old  question,  "Whence 
these  roots?"  We  have  found  them  by  careful  digging, 
we  have  pulled  them  out  of  the  ground,  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  about  their  reality.  There  they  are,  but 
people  want  to  know  how  they  came  to  be  there;  nay, 
they  seem  more  eager  on  that  point  than  on  the  whole 
subsequent  growth  of  language. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  existence  of  roots  was 
denied  altogether,  and  words  were  derived  straight, 
either  from  imitations  of  the  sounds  of  nature,  particu- 
larly the  cries  of  birds  and  the  shouts  of  animals,  or 
from  interjections,  such  as  we  utter  ourselves,  whether 
we  like  it  or  not,  when  under  the  sway  of  pleasure  or  pain, 
or  any  other  powerful  passion.  Nothing  could  sound 
more  plausible.  Could  the  name  of  the  cuckoo  be  any- 
thing but  the  imitation  of  the  bird's  note?  Could 
tolderollol  be  anything  but  a  shout  of  joy  ?  Do  we  not 
hear  in  to  chuckle  the  sound  of  suppressed  laughter, 
and  in  to  chuck  the   clucking    of  the   hen?     Now    to 


chuckle  means  also  to  fondle,  so  that  we  can  clearly  see 
how  so  abstract  an  idea  as  to  caress  or  to  love  may  be 
expressed  by  a  sound  imitated  straight  from  the  cackling 
of  a  hen. 

And  why  should  not  a  complete  language  have  been 
formed  by  the  same  process?  If  bow-bow  was  used 
for  barking,  why  should  it  not  be  used  also  in  the 
sense  of  persecuting?  If  pooh-pooh  was  an  expression 
of  disgust,  why  should  it  not  be  accepted  as  the  name  of 
a  critical  review?  And  if  those  who  generally  bow-bow 
and  pooh-pooh  moderate  occasionally  the  breath  of 
their  indignation,  or  change  it  into  a  more  or  less  loud 
breeze  of  mutual  love  and  admiration,  why  should  that 
not  be  called  a.  puff,  from  which  puffer,  puffery,  pujfiness, 
and  all  the  rest. 

All  this  goes  on  swimmingly  for  a  short  time,  but 
then  comes  a  sudden  precipice.  There  are  onomatopoeic 
elements  in  every  language,  but  they  end  where  real 
language  begins.  They  are  like  volcanic  rocks  break- 
ing here  and  there  through  the  superincumbent  strati- 
fied layers  of  speech.  We  know  perfectly  well  what  they 
are;  they  require  no  explanation  whatever;  but  they 
are  certainly  not  what  we  mean  by  speech,  by  dis- 
course, or  Logos.  I  had  to  fight  these  two  theories 
when  I  delivered  my  lectures  on  language  five-and- 
twenty  years  ago.  In  order  to  describe  them  by  short 
and  clear  names  I  called  them  the  Bow-bow  and  Pooh- 
pooh  theories.  Description  was  taken  for  irony;  but 
whether  these  names  contained  truth  or  irony,  certain  it 
is  that  both  these  theories  are  now  dead,  never  to  rise 
again,  I  hope. 

But  though  so  much  is  gained,  and  we  are  not 
likely  to  be  troubled  again  with  derivations  of  words 
direct  from  the  crude  sounds  of  nature,  there  remains 
the  question  to  be  answered,  namely:  "  What  is  the 
origin  of  those  roots  which  stand  like  a  rampart 
between  the  chaos  of  sounds  expressive  of  mere  feel- 
ings and  the  kosmos  of  words  expressive  of  concepts?" 

It  is  perfectly  right  to  ask  that  question,  but  it  is 
also  right  to  see  that  such  a  question  can  admit  of  an 
hypothetical  answer  only.  Think  of  what  times  we  are 
speaking! — times  when  no  Aryan  language  did  exist, 
when  no  verb  or  noun  had  yet  been  formed,  when  man, 
in  fact,  was  hardly  yet  man  in  the  full  sense  of  that 
word,  but  only  the  embryo  of  a  man,  without  speech, 
and  therefore  without  reason.  We  can  enter  into  all 
the  secret  workings  of  the  human  mind,  building  up 
for  itself  the  shell  of  language,  after  the  materials  were 
once  given.  But  a  state  of  mind  without  language  and 
without  reason  is  more  than  we  can  fully  realize.  All 
we  can  do  is  to  guess,  and  to  guess  cautiously. 

There  are  three  things  that  have  to  be  explained  in 
roots,  such  as  we  find  them: 

(1)  Their  being  intelligible  not  only  to  the  speaker 
but  to  all  who  listen  to  him; 


256 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


(2)  Their  having  a  definite  body  of  consonants  and 
vowels ; 

(3)  Their  expressing  general  concepts. 

In  my  former  lectures  I  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  everything  in  nature  that  is  struck  vibrates  and 
rings.  This  is  the  widest  generalisation  under  which 
the  vocal  utterances  of  man  can  be  classed.  Under  the 
influence  of  certain  emotions  the  human  body  finds  relief 
in  more  or  less  musical  sounds,  produced  by  the  breath 
passing  either  slowly  or  violently  from  the  lungs  to  the 
larynx  and  from  the  larynx  to  the  mouth. 

This  is  perfectly  true;  but  these  sounds  which  nat- 
urally accompany  our  emotions,  though  they  may 
supply  the  material,  are  very  far  as  yet  from  being 
roots.  It  was  Professor  Noire'  who  first  pointed  out 
that  roots,  in  order  to  be  intelligible  to  others,  must 
have  been  from  the  very  first  social  sounds — sounds 
uttered  by  several  people  together.  They  must  have 
been  what  he  calls  the  clamor  concomitans,  uttered 
almost  involuntarily  by  a  whole  gang  engaged  in  a  com- 
mon work.  Such  sounds  are  uttered  even  at  present  by 
sailors  rowing  together,  by  peasants  digging  together, 
by  women  spinning  or  sewing  together.  They  are  uttered 
and  they  are  understood.  And  not  only  would  this  clamor 
concomitans  be  understood  by  all  the  members  of  a 
community,  but  on  account  of  its  frequent  repetition, 
it  would  soon  assume  a  more  definite  form  than  belongs 
to  the  shouts  of  individuals,  which  constantly  vary, 
according  to  circumstances  and  individual  tendencies. 

But  the  most  difficult  problem  still  remains.  How 
did  these  sounds  become  the  signs,  not  simply  of  emo- 
tions but  of  concepts?  for  we  must  not  forget  all  roots 
are  expressive  of  concepts.  To  us  nothing  seems  more 
natural  than  a  concept.  We  live  in  concepts.  Every- 
thing we  name,  everything  we  reason  about  is  concep- 
tual. But  how  was  the  first  concept  formed?  that  is 
the  question  which  the  Science  of  Thought  has  to  solve. 
At  present  we  simply  take  a  number  of  sensuous  intui- 
tions, and  after  descrying  something  which  they  share 
in  common,  we  assign  a  name  to  it,  and  thus  get  a  con- 
cept. For  instance,  seeing  the  same  colour  in  coal,  ink 
and  in  a  negro,  we  form  the  concept  of  black;  or  seeing 
white  in  milk,  snow  and  chalk,  we  form  the  concept  of 
white.  In  some  cases  a  concept  is  a  mere  shadow  of  a 
number  of  percepts,  as  when  we  speak  of  oaks,  beeches, 
and  firs,  as  trees.  But  suppose  we  had  no  such  names 
as  black  and  white,  and  tree,  where  would  our  concept 
be? 

We  are  speaking,  however,  of  a  period  in  the 
growth  of  the  human  mind  when  there  existed  as  yet 
neither  names  nor  concepts,  and  the  question  which  we 
have  to  answer  is,  how  the  roots  which  we  have  discov- 
ered as  the  elements  of  language  came  to  have  a  concep- 
tual meaning.  Now  the  fact  is  the  majority  of  rQots 
express  acts,  and  mostly  acts  which  men  in  a   primitive 


state  of  society  are  called  upon  to  perform ;  I  mean  acts 
such  as  digging,  plaiting,  weaving,  striking,  throwing, 
binding,  etc.  All  of  these  are  acts  of  which  those  who 
perform  them  are  ipso  facto  conscious ;  and  as  most  of 
these  acts  were  continuous  or  constantly  repeated,  we 
see  in  the  consciousness  of  these  repeated  acts  the  first 
glimmer  of  conceptual  thought,  the  first  attempt  to 
comprehend  many  thi?igs  as  one.  Without  any  effort 
of  their  own  the  earliest  framers  of  language  found  the 
consciousness  of  their  own  repeated  acts  raised  into  con- 
ceptual consciousness,  while  the  sounds  by  which 
these  acts  were  accompanied  became  spontaneously 
what  we  now  call  conceptual  roots  in  every  language. 

In  this  manner  all  the  requirements  which  roots 
have  to  fulfill  are  satisfied.  They  are  necessarily  intelli- 
gible to  a  whole  community,  because  they  refer  to  acts 
performed  in  common.  They  have  a  definite  or  articu- 
late sound,  because  they  have  been  repeated  so  often 
that  all  individual  or  dialectic  variety  has  been  elimi- 
nated ;  and  they  have  become  conceptual,  because  they 
express  not  a  single  accidental  act,  but  repeated  acts 
from  which  all  that  is  purely  accidental,  temporal  or 
local,  has  been  slowly  removed  or  abstracted. 

Professor  Noird,  who  has  most  carefully  analyzed 
this  primitive  process  in  the  formation  of  conceptual 
thought,  thinks  that  true  conceptual  consciousness 
begins  only  from  the  time  when  men  became  conscious 
of  results,  of  facts  and  not  only  of  acts.  The  mere  con- 
sciousness of  the  acts  of  digging,  striking,  binding,  does 
not  satisfy  him.  Only  when  men  perceive  the  results  of 
their  acts — for  instance,  in  the  hole  dug,  in  the  tree 
struck  down,  in  the  reeds  tied  together  as  a  mat — did 
they,  according  to  him,  arrive  at  conceptual  thought  in 
language.  I  do  not  dispute  this,  but  even  if  we 
admitted  that  the  concepts  embodied  in  our  roots  did 
not  arrive  at  their  full  maturity  till  the  acts  which  they 
expressed  had  become  realized  objectively  by  their 
results,  we  must  not  forget  that  every  language  retains 
the  power  of  predicating  these  roots,  and  that  only  by 
that  power  is  it  able  to  produce  its  wealth  of  nouns  and 
verbs. 

In  Sanskrit  the  number  of  these  roots  has  been  esti- 
mated at  about  eight  hundred,  and  the  great  bulk  of  the 
Sanskrit  dictionary  has  been  traced  back  to  these  eight 
hundred  living  germs.  But  this  is  not  all.  If  we 
examine  these  eight  hundred  roots  more  carefully,  we 
find  that  they  do  not  represent  an  equal  number  of  con- 
cepts. There  are,  for  instance,  about  seventeen  roots,  all 
meaning  to  plait,  to  weave,  to  sow,  to  bind,  to  unite;  about 
thirty  roots,  all  meaning  to  crush,  to  pound,  to  destroy, 
to  waste,  to  rub,  to  smooth;  about  seventeen  meaning 
to  cut,  to  divide,  and  so  on.  I  believe  the  original 
meaning  of  roots  was  always  special,  but  became  gen- 
eralized by  usage,  though,  on  the  other  side,  certain 
roots    of  a  general    meaning   became    specialized   also. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


257 


But  the  important  fact  which  has  been  established  and 
can  no  longer  be  doubted  is,  that  the  eight  hundred 
roots  which  supply  our  dictionary  can  be  reduced  to 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  concepts.  These  one 
hundred  and  twenty  concepts  are  really  the  rivers  that 
feed  the  whole  ocean  of  thought  and  speech.  There  is 
no  thought  that  passes  through  our  mind,  or  that  has 
passed  through  the  minds  of  the  greatest  poets  and 
prophets  of  old,  that  cannot  directly  or  indirectly  be 
derived  from  one  of  these  fundamental  concepts.  This 
may  seem  to  lower  us  very  much.  We  thought  our- 
selves so  rich,  and  now  we  find  that  our  intellectual  capi- 
tal is  so  small;  not  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty 
concepts.  But  does  that  prove  that  we  are  poor?  I 
believe  not.  Nature  has  not  become  poor  because  we 
know  that  the  infinite  wealth  which  it  displays  before 
our  eyes  consists  of  no  more  than  about  seventy-two 
elements,  nor  is  our  mind  poor  because  the  elements  of 
thought  have  been  reduced  to  one  hundred  and  twenty, 
and  might,  with  some  effort,  be  reduced  to  a  smaller 
number  still.  What  remains  to  us  is  the  power  of 
combination,  of  composition  and  decomposition;  and  if 
that  power  has  enabled  us  to  decipher  Eg)  ptian  hiero- 
glyphics, to  determine  the  metals  in  the  sun,  to  discover 
the  seventy-two  elements  of  nature,  and  to  elicit  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty  elements  of  thought,  we  need  not 
be  ashamed.  Nature  produces  the  greatest  effects  by 
the  smallest  means,  and  man  ought  to  be  Droud  to 
follow  her  example. 


RELIGIOUS  PROGRESS  IN   SCOTLAND. 

BY    REV.    ROBERT     B.    DRUMMOND. 

A  friend  sent  me  the  other  day,  a  copy  of  a  sermon 
by  Rev.  Charles  Voysey — the  fifth  of  a  series  on  Lord 
Gifford's  Will — in  which  there  occurs  the  following 
passage:  "  Edinburgh,  queen  of  cities,  is  ten  times  more 
truculent  [sic\  to  social  opinion  than  London ;  with  even 
more  of  secret  unbelief  and  revolt  from  revelation,  there 
is  far  more  outward  and  insincere  conformity  than  any- 
where else  that  I  know  of.  Moral  courage  is  conspicu- 
ous by  its  absence.  Mutual  fear  is  the  reigning  spirit 
and  the  ruling  motive.  They  do  not  deserve  to  have 
such  a  treasure,  such  a  God-send  as  their  Scotsman." 

It  may  be  necessary  here  to  explain  that  Mr.  Voysey 
has  been  rebuking  The  Times  and  commending  The 
Scotsman  for  their  respective  articles  on  Lord  Gifford's 
remarkable  bequest  of  £So,ooo  to  the  Scottish  universi- 
ties for  the  establishment  of  free  theological  lectureships. 
The  Times  sneered  at  it.  The  Scotsman  gave  it  warm 
welcome.  Mr.  Voysey  continues:  "  It  is  the  one  gleam 
of  intellectual  and  moral  light  in  the  midst  of  suppressed 
convictions  and  the  deepest  insincerity.  The  Scotsman 
speaks  for  the  poor  victims  of  social  oppression  and 
gives  tongue  to  the  thoughts  of  those  who  are  afraid  to 
speak  out  for  themselves.     Indeed,  on  any  deep  question 


of  religion  or  public  morality,  The  Scotsman   is  at  the 
head   of   all    the   British   press,  always   faithful,   always 
true,  always  brave;  and  with  such  a  spokesman,  such  a 
leader,  I  am  amazed  at  the  moral  cowardice  which  well- 
nigh  smothers  the  Scottish  people  and  stultifies  all  their 
just  boast  of  superior  intelligence."     This  is  high  praise 
of  The  Scotsman,  and  it  is  not  undeserved.     But    Mr. 
Voysey  does  not  seem  to  have  enough  considered  that 
even   the  most  outspoken  and  independent  of  journals 
must  largely  reflect  the  public  opinion  which  it  aspires 
to  guide,  and  if  The  Scotsman  is  one  of  the  most  pow- 
erful of  newspapers  it  can  only  be  because  it  is  supported 
by  a  public  which  shares  in  its  sentiments  and  is  imbued 
with  its  spirit.     But  as  to  what  Mr.  Voysey  says  of  Edin- 
burgh society,  it    is   very  much  what  Mr.  Buckle  said, 
only  he  said  it  much  better  nearly  thirty  years  ago.    Air. 
Buckle  was  thought  at  the  time  to  have  drawn  an  exag- 
gerated picture,  and    indeed  was   taken   to   task  by  The 
Scots?nan  itself  for  the  severity  of  his  strictures.     Un- 
doubtedly, however,  there  was  much  justice  in   his  re- 
marks, and  it  may  be  that  Scotland   has  profited  by  the 
lesson.     They  would  be  much  less  applicable  now.     Of 
course,  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  truth  in  Mr.  Voy'- 
sey's  censure,  even  still.     There  is,  no  doubt,  a  good  deal 
of  hypocritical  conformity;  a  good  deal  of  church-going 
for  mere  fashion's  sake,  or  for  the  sake  of  relatives,  sisters, 
wives,  or   maiden   aunts,  but  there  is    much  less  of  this 
than  there  was  when  Buckle  wrote;  and  there  is  beside 
a  geniality,  a  cheerfulness,  a  humanity  in  the  tone  of  so- 
ciety which  contrasts   very  pleasantly  with  the  gloom 
which  used  to  be  thought  essential  to  goodliness.     The 
old-fashioned  Sabbath   is    now  quite  out  of  date.     Per- 
haps the  churches  are  still  "as  crowded  as  they  were  in 
the  middle  ages;"  but  if  so,  there  are  usually  plentv  of 
people  in  the  parks  and  gardens  enjoying  themselves  on 
a  fine  Sunday,  nor  is  it  thought  any  sin  to  scale  Arthur's 
Seat  or    the  glorious   Blackford    Hill.     The    very  word 
"  Sawbath,"  which  used  to  be  universal  is  now  heard  only 
from  the  lips  of  very  old-fashioned   people,  and  is  gen 
erally  replaced   by  "  Sunday."     Of  course,  there   is  still 
room  for  improvement,  especially  in  the  way  of  provid- 
ing facilities    for    the   multitude   to  exchange   the  dusty 
streets  for  the  pure  air  of  the  hills   or  the   sea-coast;  but 
it  will  come.     The  truth  is  the  Scotch,  as  a  people,  cling 
fast  to  their  national  Presbyterianism,  in  theory  at  leas', 
the  most  democratic  of  all  forms  of  ecclesiasticism ;  and 
they  are   by   long   custom   and   discipline   good  church- 
goers,—surely  not  a  bad  habit,  if  they  find  help  from  it, 
and   if  the   help   afforded    is   of  a   kind   worth    having. 
That  a  remarkable  change,  however,  has  taken  place,  of 
late  years,  in  the  whole  tone  of  thought, — in  the  attitude 
of  the  public  mind — toward  the  orthodox  theology,  and  is 
still  going  on,  is  clear  at  any  rate  to  every  one  living  in 
Scotland,  if  not   to   those  who   only   look   at   it   from   a 
distance. 


258 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Mr.  Voysey  has  furnished  me  with  a  text.  But  I  now 
pass  from  him  to  notice  a  few  of  the  more  recent  evi- 
dences of  the  change  to  which  I  have  referred.  It  is 
now  a  good  many  years  since  the  Rev.  George  Gilfillan, 
of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  recommended  that 
the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  should  be  laid  on 
the  historical  shelf.  Mr.  Gilfillan  was  an  eccentric  man 
and  a  bold  man,  and  no  doubt  he  had  no  authority  to 
speak  for  anyone  but  himself.  But  what  would  have 
been  thought  at  that  time  if  the  Moderator  of  the  Kirk 
of  Scotland  had  been  found  claiming  it  as  a  merit,  and 
as  a  proof  of  his  conduct  and  forbearance,  that  he  had 
never  attacked  the  doctrine  of  the  Confession.  Yet 
these  are  the  very  words  of  Dr.  Cunningham,  in  his  ad- 
dress as  Moderator  a  year  ago,  as  reported  by  The 
Scotsman  at  the  time.  He  says:  "  For  myself  I  may- 
say  I  have  always  asserted  great  liberty  in  my  preaching, 
but  I  have  never  thought  it  right,  I  would  have  es- 
teemed it  wrong  to  assail  or  malign  the  doctrines  of  the 
Confession."  Assail  or  malign  it!  Why,  this  is  the  Con- 
fession which  every  minister  of  the  Scottish  churches 
subscribes  at  his  ordination,  and  which  he  is  bound  by 
the  most  solemn  pledges  to  uphold  and  defend!  Yet, 
here  is  the  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly,  in  the 
face  of  the  whole  church,  boasting  that  he  has  never 
attacked  it.  A  few  further  sentences  from  Dr.  Cun- 
ningham's remarkable  address  may  be  quoted.  "  I  have 
found,"  he  says,  "there  is  a  vast  field  both  outside  and 
inside  the  Westminster  Confession,  some  of  it  almost 
untrodden  where  the  most  saving  truths  may  be  gath- 
ered for  the  healing  of  a  nation  now  so  different  from 
what  it  was  two  or  three  centuries  ago.  How  different 
are  the  ideas  of  God  and  God's  universe;  of  man,  his 
origin,  his  history,  and  his  destiny  which  have  recently 
been  revealed  to  us!  These  have  not  only  modified  our 
old  theological  conceptions;  they  may  almost  be  said  to 
have  created  a  new  theology."  What  effect  these  bold 
words  may  have  produced  in  the  country  manses,  it  is 
of  course  impossible  to  say.  Nothing  could  very  de- 
cently be  said  against  the  Moderator,  and  it  seems  clear 
that  he  at  any  rate  has  laid  the  Confession  of  Faith  on 
the  historical  shelf. 

Take  another  point.  This  GifFord  bequest,  to  which 
reference  has  already  been  made,  is  surely  itself  a  nota- 
ble sign  of  the  times.  It  remains  to  be  seen,  indeed, 
whether  the  universities  will  accept  the  responsibilities 
proposed  to  be  laid  upon  them;  but  there  is,  I  think, 
every  probability  that  they  will.  The  notion  of  free 
theological  teaching  in  the  universities  is  not  a  new  one. 
It  was  taken  up  and  favorably  considered,  both  by  Pro- 
fessor Flint,  of  Edinburgh,  and  Professor  Story,  ot 
Glasgow,  at  the  opening  of  last  winter  session.  Pro- 
fessor Flint  had  no  objection  to  it  on  principle,  but  op- 
posed it  on  the  ground  of  expediency,  remarking  that 
as  long  as  the  churches  required  ministers  educated  in  the 


confessional  theology,  the  free  chairs  would  be  starved. 
No  one  can  deny  that  this  objection  has  weight.  It 
would  be  practically  of  little  use  to  liberate  the  chairs 
of  theology  in  the  universities  unless  the  churches  were 
at  the  same  time  to  liberate  themselves.  Meanwhile, 
even  this  does  not  look  so  impossible  as  it  did  only  a 
short  time  back;  and  when  we  find  Professor  Candlish, 
a  son  of  the  late  well-known  Dr.  Candlish,  of  the  Free 
Church,  submitting  to  the  Glasgow  Free  Presbytery 
an  overture  having  for  its  object  the  revision  of  the 
Confession,  and  carrying  with  him  no  less  than  thirty- 
seven  members,  against  forty  who  voted  on  the  other 
side;  when  we  find  another  well-known  Free  Church- 
man, Dr.  Marcus  Dods,  expressing  doubts  "  whether 
creeds,  used  as  terms  of  office,  have  not  done  more  harm 
than  good,"  and  advocating  freedom  of  thought  as 
"  more  likely  than  the  imposition  of  a  creed  to  bring  all 
Christendom  to  a  common  recognition  of  the  truth,"  we 
begin  to  think  that  even  in  Scotland  the  days  of  the  old 
theology  may  be  numbered. 

That  perfervid  Celt,  as  Emeritus  Professor  Blackie 
profanely  called  him,  the  Rev.  Dr.  MacGregor,  of  St. 
Cuthbert's  church,  Edinburgh,  has  lately  been  crowing 
over  the  growth  of  the  Establishment.  He  says  there  is 
no  doubt  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  is  increasing  year 
by  year  in  numbers,  and  in  its  influence  for  good  upon 
the  country.  This  may  be,  but  as  it  cannot  be  supposed 
that  all  the  members  and  adherents  of  the  Establish- 
ment are  politically  in  favor  of  State-aided  religion,  it 
is  only  another  evidence  of  the  growth  of  moderate 
opinion.  For  of  all  the  Presbyterian  churches,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Established  is  by  far  the  freest, 
the  broadest,  the  most  rational  and  the  most  progressive. 
The  sermons  preached  in  her  pulpits  may  not  be  charac- 
terized by  what  can  strictly  be  called  advanced  thought, 
though  that  is  not  altogether  wanting,  but  it  is  believed 
there  is  a  geniality,  a  breadth,  a  humanity  about  them 
which  are  not  to  be  found,  or  found  only  in  a  much  less 
degree,  in  those  of  the  other  Presbyterian  communions. 
All  the  more,  of  course,  is  it  to  be  regretted  that  she 
should  still  profess  a  creed  which  is  so  far  from  repre- 
senting her  real  opinion  and  belief.  Dr.  MacGregor 
would,  no  doubt,  be  glad  to  see  a  great  Presbyterian 
union,  in  which  all  the  churches  at  present  competing 
against  one  another  should  be  banded  together,  to  make 
one  compact  body  strong  enough  to  resist  all  the  forces 
of  unbelief,  agnosticism,  and  whatever  else  is  most  hate- 
ful to  the  ecclesiastical  bosom.  He  is  not  likely  to  see 
it.  In  the  first  place,  whatever  he  may  say,  disestab- 
lishment will  come,  and,  if  the  Irish  question  were  dis- 
posed of,  it  would  be  even  "  within  measurable  dis- 
tance." Then,  if  it  were  to  come,  union  would  be  no 
nearer  than  before.  There  would  simply  be  a  new 
arrangement  of  elements.  Affinities  would  be  freer  to 
act,  and  fresh  combinations  would  take  place.    Possibly, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


2  59 


indeed  almost  certainly,  the  more  evangelical  section  of 
the  present  Established  Church  would  unite  with  the 
Free  Church,  and  perhaps  the  United  Presbyterians,  to 
form  a  strong  church  on  the  old  theological  foundation. 
There  might  be  a  second  church  with  <i  reformed  con- 
fession— say  the  Confession  of  Westminster  with  the 
Calvinism  left  out.  But  almost  certainly  there  would 
be  a  church  reallv  free — creedless,  confessionless — stand- 
ing on  the  broad  ground  of  humanity,  and  wide  enough 
to  take  into  its  motherly  arms  not  only  the  Unitarian, 
but  freethinkers  of  every  shade,  so  far  as  they  desired 
any  union  implying  religion  and  worship.  This,  at 
least,  seems  to  be,  in  the  meantime,  the  best  hope  for 
Scotland  and  for  the  progress  of  free  religion  there. 


OUR    VIKING    ANCESTORS,   AND    WHAT    WE    OWE 
TO   THEM. 

BY    SAMUEL    KNEELAND,    M.D. 

The  popular  opinion,  founded  on  the  chronicles  and 
annals  of  English  and  French  ecclesiastics,  their  ene- 
mies in  race  and  religion,  is  that  the  Vikings  were  a  set  of 
blood-thirsty  pirates  and  robbers,  whose  hands  were 
against  everybody  worth  plundering,  and  even  against 
the  successful  of  their  own  numbers — who  spared  neither 
age,  sex,  nor  condition — who  had  no  sense  of  justice, 
honor,  or  mercy — who  were,  in  fact,  to  use  tne  language 
of  the  French  chroniclers,  "  men  of  hell,  the  spawn  of 
the  devil " — whose  ravages  were  so  constant  and  so  ter- 
rible that  this  special  clause  was  inserted  in  the  prayer 
books  of  the  ninth  to  the  eleventh  centuries,  "  from  the 
rage  of  the  Northmen,  good  Lord,  deliver  us."  Is  this 
a'just  representation  of  them?  I  think  not.  Barbarous 
they  were,  fierce  and  lawless,  but  no  more  so  than  their 
opponents  in  that  age,  when  might  made  right.  One 
need  only  look  over  the  venerable  Bede,  the  old  Saxon 
chronicles,  and  the  English  annals  to  see  that  the  spirit 
of  the  times  was  inhuman,  and  that  Saxon  and  Frank, 
Dane  and  Angle,  were  no  better  than  the  Vikings. 
Their  work  was  not  simply  to  kill  and  rob,  but  to  ex- 
plore, colonize,  and  trade;  their  influence  is  now  felt  in 
all  English-speaking  peoples,  and  the  principles  most 
dear  to  constitutional  governments  can  be  traced  to  these 
old  Viking  warriors. 

Omitting  the  Finnish  and  Slavonic  races  (Vends), 
who  preceded  them  in  Scandinavia,  let.  us  begin  with 
the  historic  Odin  and  his  hordes  from  Scythia,  who  set- 
tled in  Denmark  and  its  islands,  finally  occupying  the 
western  shores  of  the  Baltic — fierce  pirates  and  robbers. 
The  Saxons,  a  name  given  to  all  those  roving  tribes,  had 
possession  of  Britain  in  374,  in  Kent  at  the  south,  and 
the  Orkneys  and  Shetlands  at  the  north.  Even  in  the 
fifth  century,  the  Vends  terrified  Denmark  by  their  ex- 
treme ferocity;  but  in  the  sixth,  the  Scandinavians  be- 
came the  stronger,  and   formed  a  kind  of  offensive  and 


defensive  league  against  them;  but  they  were  by  no 
means  a  happy  ami  united  family.  According  as  fortune 
favored  one  party,  his  neighbors  fell  upon  him  for  their 
share  or  the  whole  of  his  plunder;  so  that,  while  all 
united  in  ravaging  Britain  and  the  Vends,  the  Frisians 
and  Jutes  plundered  the  Saxons,  the  Danes  the  Swedes, 
and  the  Norwegians  the  Scanians — and  all  were  enemies 
of  the  Finns,  who  were  regarded  as  scorcerers  and 
wizards. 

On  the  sandy  shores  of  Friesland  and  the  lands  bor- 
dering on  the  Baltic,  their  hordes  became  pirates  from 
necessity,  as  the  Arabs  of  the  desert  must  be  robbers; 
while  the  soil  was  unproductive,  the  sea  was  their  harvest 
field  and  their  camping  ground;  the  many  creeks  (viks) 
served  them  for  hiding  places  and  harbors,  and  all  their 
surroundings  were  favorable  for  plundering  excursions, 
and  even  expeditions  to  distant  fertile  and  richer  shores. 
They  were  naturally  seamen,  from  their  great  extent  of 
coast  line,  which  is  the  secret  of  their  power  as  warriors, 
their  wealth  and  intelligence  as  traders,  and  their  suc- 
cess as  bold  discoverers.  The  Northern  ocean  on  the 
west,  the  Baltic  and  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  on  the  east, 
could  not  satisfy  their  energy  and  their  longings;  in 
their  small  but  strong  boats  or  galleys  they  braved  the 
fury  of  the  Atlantic,  discovered  and  settled  Iceland  and 
Greenland,  and  planted  a  colony  in  Vinland,  Mass.,  four 
centuries  before  Columbus  saw  the  American  shore — 
alwajs,  it  will  be  noticed,  maritime.  As  Northmen  or 
Vikings,  they  controlled  the  northern  seas  from  the 
eighth  to  the  eleventh  century,  and  these  were  princi- 
pally Danes;  first  making  voyages  along  the  English 
coasts,  they  wintered  on  its  southern  border  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  ninth  century,  and  soon  after  established 
themselves  in  possession,  ruling  it  under  Sweyn,  Canute 
and  his  sons,  for  nearly  fifty  years;  at  the  same  time 
they  had  their  kings  in  Ireland,  and  early  occupied  the 
Orkneys,  Shetlands,  and  Hebrides.  The  Danes  went 
chiefly  to  England  and  France,  the  Norwegians  to 
Scotland,  Ireland,  and  the  northern  islands.  The  Va- 
rangians were  Northmen,  who  with  their  fleets  entered 
the  Mediterranean,  and  ravaged  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Constantinople  in  the  latter  part  of  the  ninth  century, 
afterward  forming  the  body  guard  of  the  Byzantine 
emperors.  From  the  sixth  to  the  ninth  centuries  they 
plundered  on  the  coasts  of  France  and  Holland,  boldly 
penetrating  into  the  heart  of  the  country,  ascending  the 
shallow  rivers  in  their  flat-bottomed  boats,  by  day  their 
means  of  conveyance,  by  night,  drawn  on  shore  and 
covered  with  a  tent,  serving  as  shelters.  In  like  manner 
they  entered  Germany,  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy,  and 
Sicily,  carrying  destruction  in  their  train.  From  the 
Norwegian  Hrolf,  or  Rollo,  the  first  earl  of  Normandy 
was  descended,  in  the  sixth  generation,  William  the 
Conquerer,  who  with  his  Normans,  French  in  lan- 
guage but  Northmen  in  energy  and  bravery,  found  the 


i6o 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


stoutest  resistance  on  English  soil  from  those  of  his  own 
race. 

These  Vikings  appeared  on  the  coasts  of  Europe  only 
for  plunder,  were  greatly  feared  for  their  irresistible 
fleets,  and  consequently  had  the  reputation  of  being  the 
embodiment  of  every  thing  that  was  wicked,  in  the 
minds  of  their  victims  and  enemies.  Fortunately,  from 
their  Sagas  this  may  be  in  a  measure  corrected,  and  we 
are  forced,  by  the  corroborating  testimony  of  the  finds, 
to  admit  that  they  were  not  without  noble  qualities,  cul- 
ture and  refinement.  They  were  brave,  generous  to  a 
defeated  enemy,  eloquent  speakers,  wise  politicians  and 
able  rulers.  No  doubt  they  committed  many  acts  of 
wanton  cruelty,  but  their  robberies  can  be  matched  by 
the  spoilers  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  if  opposed,  their 
raids  frequently  ended  in  foreign  conquests,  in  which 
neither  homes  nor  sacred  buildings  were  spared.  At 
home  they  passed  the  summer  in  fishing,  hunting  and 
stealing  from  their  neighbors ;  the  long  winters  they  spent 
in  carousing,  listening  to  the  songs  of  their  bards,  relating 
their  exploits,  praising  real  or  legendary  heroes,  en- 
couraging the  young  men  to  similar  deeds  of  daring,  and 
in  planning. expeditions  for  the  coming  spring. 

Accustomed  to  the  strife  of  the  elements,  and  con- 
stantly warring  with  each  other,  of  necessity  depending 
on  personal  prowess,  they  became  fearless,  independent^ 
self-reliant;  their  cardinal  maxim  was,  "might  makes 
right;"  while  rapacious,  they  were  magnanimous;  care- 
less of  the  rights  of  others,  yet  fighting  to  the  death  for 
their  own;  eager  to  die  in  battle,  which  they  regarded 
as  a  sure  passport  to  the  Valhalla,  the  hall  of  Odin's 
chosen  warriors.  Impelled  by  their  strong  will  and 
fierce  passions,  energy  and  heroic  endurance  were  their 
dominant  characteristics.  The  young  Viking  was  edu- 
cated, like  the  Spartan  youth,  to  the  use  of  arms  and  a 
life  of  fighting;  so  great  was  their  strength,  skill  and 
courage  that  at  the  age  of  twelve  to  fifteen  years  they 
were  formidable  foes.  No  family  line  was  allowed,  as 
in  these  days,  to  depend  for  its  continuance  on  a  sickly 
heir,  unable  to  bear  arms;  only  healthy  children  were, 
as  a  rule,  allowed  to  live.  The  boy  was  of  age  when 
he  could  do  man's  work,  and  wield  his  father's  sword, 
spear  and  shield.  Revenge  they  considered  a  sacred 
duty ;  "  blood  for  blood  "  was  their  law,  but  as  they  de- 
generated at  the  approach  of  the  historic  period,  and 
became  softened  by  Christian  association,  money  was 
often  accepted  as  the  price  of  vengeance.  They  placed 
dependence  on  merit  only;  the  knew  no  "blue  blood," 
except  that  accident  of  high  birth  only  made  their 
responsibility  the  greater;  they  fully  believed  in  n-  blesse 
ob/itrc.  They  asked  of  their  candidates  for  leadership, 
"  what  can  you  do?"  or,  "  what  have  you  done?" — not 
what  did  your  father  or  grandfather  do.  They  acknowl- 
edged nature's  nobility,  and  not  that  purchasable  by 
money,   with   a   tainted    name.      Their  aim   was   to   do 


something,  and  to  do  it  well;  it  was  their  custom,  as  we 
know  from  their  Sagas,  at  their  feasts,  funereal  or  joy- 
ful, for  the  warriors  to  make  a  solemn  vow  to  perform 
some  bold  and  hazardous  deed,  not  always  creditable,  or 
die  in  the  attempt;  some  of  the  most  exciting  and  beauti- 
ful of  these  tales  are  the  relations  of  these  exploits — im- 
agine a  chief  of  Tammany,  or  any  city  hall,  doing  such 
a  thing!  With  this  barbarian  character,  they  were  fond 
of  poetry,  heroic,  sentimental  and  historic,  and  it  was 
the  delight  of  all  classes  to  listen  to  the  recitals  of  their 
bards. 

To  sum  up  their  characteristics — these  were  courage 
and  faith  to  bear  the  hard  decrees  of  fate,  in  which  they 
firmly  believed,  and  to  fight  against  their  enemies;  in- 
dependence in  thought  and  action ;  regard  for  oaths  and 
promises;  faithfulness  in  friendship  and  love,  but  craft 
against  craft;  vengeance  on  their  foes;  respect  for  old 
age;  hospitality,  liberality  and  charity;  temperance 
and  cheerful  content;  modesty  and  politeness;  desire 
for  the  good  opinion  of  others,  and  careful  treatment 
of  the  dead.  All  these  are  given  in  the  Havamal  and 
other  Eddas,  forming  a  code  of  morality  which,  consid- 
ering the  lawlessness  of  the  times,  must  excite  surprise 
and  challenge  admiration.  Such  were  the  characteris- 
tics of  the  Vikings,  to  whom  English-speaking  peoples 
owe  many  of  their  best  traits  and  privileges;  and  yet 
they  have  been  called  savage  barbarians,  without  regard 
to  God  or  man,  because  their  bravery  sometimes  degen- 
erated into  fierceness  and  cruelty,  and  their  independence 
into  obstinate  self-will. 

To  these  Vikings  we  owe  public  meetings  for  the 
general  welfare,  called  "  Things,"  invested  with  legisla- 
tive, judicial,  and  executive  powers,  the  first  "Open 
Court,"  to  which  all  freemen  went  as  a  great  and  sacred 
privilege;  their  sound  political  wisdom  is  shown  in  their 
laws  and  penalties.  Public  opinion  was  just,  severe  and 
more  powerful  than  law  in  preserving  the  honor,  integ- 
rity, and  good  name  of  these  freemen.  In  short,  we 
owe  to  these  so-called  northern  barbarians  most  of  what 
has  been  and  is  of  value  to  man  as  a  member  of  society,, 
in  Europe  and  America,  viz. :  representative  govern- 
ment, public  meetings,  trial  by  jury  (the  twelve  men 
often  appealed  to  in  the  Sagas),  security  of  property, 
freedom  of  speech  and  person,  public  opinion  as  a  guide 
in  politics,  respect  for  woman,  liberty  of  religious  belief, 
etc.  The  republic  of  Iceland  evolved  the  English 
Magna  Charta,  and  from  that  the  declaration  of  Amer- 
ican independence,  and  will  eventually  produce  univer- 
sal constitutional  freedom,  or,  to  use  President  Lincoln's 
famous  expression,  "  that  government  of  the  people,  by 
the  people,  and  for  the  people,  which  shall  not  perish  from 
the  earth." 

The  Norsemen  raised  woman  to  her  true  and  equal 
position;  she  was  not  a  slave  without  soul,  as  in  the 
East;  nor  a  toy,  as  in  Greece;  nor  a  mere  housekeeper 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


261 


with  the  keys,  as  in  Rome;  they  believed  that  her 
sharper  perceptive  powers  gave  her  a  keener  insight 
into  divine  things  than  the  slower  reasoning  of  man, 
that  she  was  nearer  to  the  gods  and  knew  the  future- 
Their  ideas  of  her  future  state  we  know  not;  they  had 
no  paradise  for  females,  pointing,  as  in  Mohammedan- 
ism, to  an  Eastern  origin;  she  would  find  no  heaven  in 
the  Odinic  Valhalla,  and  had  to  go  to  the  lower  world 
of  Hela,  with  those  who  died  of  disease  and  in  their 
beds — and  that  is  about  all  we  know. 

Beside  the  memorials  of  the  Vikings  in  the  names 
of  the  first  six  days  of  the  week,  their  fairy  tales  have 
come  down  to  us,  filled  with  elves,  dwarfs,  mermaids, 
nicks  and  nisses;  many  of  our  nursery  rhymes,  much 
of  "Mother  Goose,"  are  well  known  to  the  Norse  peo- 
ple, their  originators. 

They  were  consummate  naval  architects,  as  the 
finds  prove;  their  descendants  in  America,  mixed  Danes, 
Anglo-Saxons  and  Norwegians,  English-speaking  all, 
have  inherited  their  skill  and  improved  upon  their 
models.  The  "  Puritan  "  and  "  Mayflower  "  are  evolu- 
tions  from  the  Norse  galley,  the  former  built  for  peace- 
ful contests,  the  latter  for  war.  King  Olaf,  Niels  Juel 
and  Tordenskjold  find  their  modern  counterparts  in  Nel- 
son and  Farragut;  Erik  the  Red  and  Leif  his  son  lived 
in  spirit  in  Franklin,  Kane,  Livingstone  and  Stanley. 
The  bold,  free,  adventurous  spirit  which  animated  the 
Vikings  makes  the  English-speaking  peoples  the  mas- 
ters of  the  seas,  whether  for  conquest  or  discovery, 
from  the  frozen  ocean  to  the  tropics,  from  Geeenland 
to  India  and  Africa. 


LIVE  AND  NOT   LET  LIVE. 

BY    WHEELBARROW. 

This  is  the  motto  of  monopoly,  the  creed  of  selfish- 
ness, the  religion  of  greed,  and  it  makes  no  difference 
whether  it  is  practiced  by  the  man  of  millions,  or  by  him 
who  has  no  capital  but  his  trade. 

I  sign  my  name  "  Wheelbarrow,"  because  that  is  the 
implement  of  my  handicraft,  or  was,  when  I  was  a  strong 
man.  I  was  by  profession  a  "railroad  man;"  my  part 
of  the  railroad  business  was  making  the  roadbed,  by  the 
aid  of  a  pick,  a  shovel  and  a  wheelbarrow.  I  was  a 
skilled  workman,  and  had  obtained  the  highest  diploma 
that  could  be  got  in  the  profession.  Jemmy  Hill  and 
myself  worked  on  the  same  plank,  and  so  buoyant  and 
easy  did  we  make  the  trip  up  and  down,  and  dump  the 
dirt  into  the  exact  spot,  that  we  were  worth  twenty  per 
cent,  more  than  any  other  men  on  the  job.  There  was 
a  superanuated  old  Irishman  in  our  "gang"  who  had 
helped  in  building  every  railroad  from  Montreal  to  Min- 
neapolis ;.he  had  become  too  stiff  for  the  wheelbarrow 
and  the  pick,  and  was  reduced  to  the  shovel  alone,  which 
he  could  still  handle  tolerably  well;  his  duty  was  to  stay 
on  top  of  the  pile  and  "level  off"  with  the  shovel.     His 


work  was  made  hard  or  easy  according  to  the  skill  of 
the  rest.  Awkward  fellows  would  dump  their  loads  in 
a  dead  heap,  maybe  a  couple  of  feet  from  the  place, 
leaving  him  to  shovel  it  the  rest  of  the  way,  while 
Jemmy  and  I  would  give  the  loads  a  flirt  with  the  right 
wrist,  or  the  left,  as  the  case  might  be,  and  scatter  the 
dirt  on  the  precise  location,  leaving  Tim  nothing  to  do 
but  give  it  a  couple  of  taps  for  form's  sake.  One  day 
he  burst  into  admiration  at  our  skill,  and  said,  "  Yez 
could  wheel  on  a  horse's  rib."  I  show  this  diploma,  not 
from  vanity,  but  as  proof  that  I  graduated  with  high 
honors  in  the  railroad  college. 

You  may  sneer  at  classing  dirt  shoveling  with 
"  skilled  labor."  A  hundred  dollars  to  one  that  you  can't 
wheel  a  'barrow  full  of  dirt  up  a  plank,  say  at  the  easy 
incline  of  30  degrees,  without  looking  at  your  feet,  and 
the  same  wager  that  you  can't  come  down  the  plank, 
dragging  the  empty  'barrow  behind  you,  without  run- 
ning the  wheel  off  the  track.  You  won't  take  the  bet? 
Very  well;  then  don't  make  fun  of  my  diploma  until 
you  are  able  to  "  wheel  on  a  horse's  rib." 

One  day  a  greenhorn  came  along  and   got  a  job  in 
our  gang;  he  was  awkward  as  a  landlubber  trying  to 
climb  the  top-gallantmast.     He  would  look  at  his  feet  as 
he  went   up  the   plank,  and  the  wheel  of  the  'barrow 
would  run  off;  he  would  look  at  the  wheel,  and  his  feet 
would  step  off;  he  asked  advice,  but  we  who  had  learned 
the  trade  had  now  become  monopolists,  and  refused  to 
give  any  instruction;  all   of  us  except  Jemmy  Hill;  he 
took  the  fellow  in  hand,  and  showed   him   how  to  walk 
the  plank,  which  he  obviously  had  no  right  whatever  to 
do.     That  night,  up  at  the  shanty  where  we  lived,  my 
tongue   swaggered   a   good   deal,  to  the   admiration  of 
everybody  except  Jemmy   Hill.      I    gushed   eloquently 
about    the    wrong    done    us    in     employing    greenhorn 
wheelers   and  "  plug "  shovelers,  and    we    proposed    to 
form  ourselves  into  a  "  brotherhood"  to  protect  ourselves 
against   monopoly,  and    especially   making   it   a  capital 
offense  for  one  of  the  "brotherhood"  to  teach  a  fellow- 
creature  how  to  wheel  a  'barrow  full  of  dirt  up  a  plank. 
The  next  day  was  Sunday,  and  Jemmy  and  I  took  a 
walk   to  a  favorite  spot  where  we  used   to  smoke  our 
pipes  and  gossip.     The  glorious  St.  Lawrence  rolled  at 
our  feet,  and  the  sun  shone  bright  overhead.      Jemmy 
was  a  young   fellow  from   the   North  of  Ireland,  about 
five  feet  nine  or  ten,  slim,  all  sinew  and  bone,  blue  eyes, 
light  hair,  and   a  fair,  smooth   face,  beautiful  as  a  girl's. 
He   had    a   soft,  musical    voice,  and    there   was   nothing 
manly  about  him,  except  that  he  liked  to  smoke;  but  he 
was   brave   as   Phil.  Sheridan;  he  was   a   holy  terror  in 
a  fight;  I  saw  him  scatter  a  dozen  fellows  once  in  a  riot, 
like  Samson  used  to  clear  out  those   Philistines.     He  is 
president  of  a  railroad  now,  and  rides  in  his  own  special 
car,  in  which  there  is  always  a  welcome  berth  for  me. 
We  talked  about    the   necessity   of    protecting  our 


262 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


craft  from  "plug"  workmen,  or,  rather,  I  did;  Jemmy 
merely  smoked  his  pipe  and  listened.  At  last  he  pulled 
out  of  his  pocket  a  watch-charm,  and  handed  it  to  me 
to  examine.  The  crest  on  it  was  a  couple  of  torches, 
one  lighting  the  other,  with  this  motto  underneath: 
"  My  light  is  none  the  less  for  lighting  my  neighbor." 
He  explained  that  this  was  the  motto  of  some  secret 
society  that  he  belonged  to  in  Belfast;  I  forget  the  name 
of  it  now,  but  no  matter,  that  was  the  motto  of  it,  "  My 
light  is  none  the  less  for  lighting  my  neighbor."  I 
accepted  the  rebuke,  and  acknowledged  that  the  motto 
was  a  good  one.  That  was  many  years  ago,  but  the 
longer  I  live  the  more  I  am  convinced  that  it  is  sound 
in  political  science  and  social  economy.  It  is  the  very 
antithesis  of  the  narrow  principle,  "  Live  and  not  let 
live." 

I  commend  it  to  workingmen  the  world  over;  the 
practice  of  it  will  make  them  better,  happier  and  richer 
than  the  other  principle,  which  cannot  become  general 
without  reducing  the  world  to  barbarism.  Had  this 
been  the  motto  of  the  telegraph  brotherhood  it  might 
have  saved  them  the  humilation  of  "signing  the  docu- 
ment," it  might  have  spared  them  the  necessity  of  the 
strike,  and  even  in  their  failure  it  would  have  secured  to 
them  the  sympathy  of  all  men  whose  good  opinion 
was  worth  having.  How  can  we  sympathize  with  men 
in  a  struggle  with  monopoly  who  themselves  seek  to 
become  monopolists  of  the  knowledge  that  earns  bread, 
who  in  the  very  charter  of  their  order  pledge  themselves 
to  one  another  never  to  teach  their  trade,  and  who  seek 
to  control  the  free  action  of  their  brother  craftsmen? 
Men  who  would  enslave  others  easily  become  slaves, 
and  the  telegraphers  who  left  their  keys  free  men  and 
proud  returned  to  them  in  a  month  with  their  liberty 
signed  away.  George  Stephenson,  the  greatest  engineer 
of  modern  times,  or  perhaps  of  any  time,  was  refused  ad- 
mission into  the  "order"  of  engineers  because  he  was  a 
"  plug,"  who  had  never  served  an  apprenticeship.  The 
men  who  did  that  would  have  deprived  him  of  his  genius 
if  they  could,  although  that  genius  has  multiplied  the 
comforts  of  man  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  fold. 

Men  are  interested  not  in  the  downfall,  but  in  the 
upraising  of  one  another;  not  in  the  poverty  of  any,  but 
in  the  riches  of  all;  not  in  the  ignorance  of  a  part, but  in 
the  intelligence  and  wisdom  of  the  whole.  The  contrary 
principle  impairs  the  symmetry  of  the  moral  universe, 
whose  laws  are  perfect  and  harmonious  as  the  laws 
which  govern  matter.  Every  man  is  interested  in  the 
welfare  and  prosperity  of  every  other  man;  none  can 
suffer  loss  without  all  sharing  in  it.  I  cannot  show  you 
where  I  lost  a  penny  by  the  great  Chicago  fire,  and  yet 
I  know  that  two  or  three  hundred  million  dollars  worth 
of  property  could  not  be  blotted  out  of  existence  with- 
out my  losing  something  somewhere.  I  cannot  show 
you  that  I  lost  a  dollar  by  the  Franco-German  war,  and 


yet  I  know  that  two  great  nations  cannot  destroy  tens 
of  thousands  of  each  other's  men,  and  tens  of  millions  of 
each  other's  property  without  my  losing  something. 
This  world  of  ours  is  a  small  world,  and  no  part  of  it  is 
so  remote  from  me  that  people  can  suffer  loss  without 
my  sharing  in  that  loss;  and  conversely,  mankind  can 
not  grow  richer  and  leave  me  poorer,  nor  wiser  and 
leave  me  ignorant,  nor  better  and  leave  me  worse. 
That  is  my  religion,  and,  in  the  language  of  Ingersoll, 
"  Upon  that  rock  I  stand." 


THE  CROSS  OF  THE  NEW  CRUSADE. 

BY  PROF.  VAN  BUREN  DENSLOW. 

The  old  crusades  were  a  brutal  outgrowth  of  super- 
stitious ignorance  and  religiously  insane  stupidity.  There 
was  nothing  respectable  about  them  save  the  persistency 
with  which  the  nature  of  things  wrecked  them.  They 
were  the  greatest  waste  of  motive,  blood  and  effort  ever 
made  in  history  and  the  most  effectual  lesson  going  to 
prove  that  it  is  when  men  mean  to  be  the  establishers  of 
righteousness  and  the  special  patrons  and  protectors  of 
God  that  they  most  nearly  lose  their  reason  and  commit 
their  most  hardened  and  atrocious  crimes. 

Men,  therefore,  are  not  to  be  either  trusted  or  respected 
merely  because  they  move  in  considerable  masses  toward 
the  attainment  of  any  result.  On  the  contrary  sanity 
and  soberness,  as  often  as  the  crowd  are  seized  by  some 
epidemic  of  unreason  retire  their  possessors  from  influ- 
ence, while  a  falling  in  with  the  craze  of  the  hour,  or 
becoming  the  craziest  man  in  the  craze,  leads  to  fame 
and  even  to  fortune. 

The  craze  of  the  present  hour  is  the  attempted  cross 
between  political  economy  and  religion,  known  as  anti- 
povertyism,  which  like  the  cross  between  the  white  and 
black  races,  brings  out  into  conspicuous  relief  the  worst 
qualities  of  both  parents  and  the  good  qualities  of  neither. 
Political  economy  has  always  consisted  of  sensations 
produced  by  assaults  upon  common  sense,  and  religion 
has  maintained  its  good  name  by  making  its  promises 
redeemable  in  a  future  state  from  whence,  if  they  are 
not  redeemed,  no  notice  of  protest  ever  gets  back  to  the 
endorser.  The  anti-poverty  creed  is  economic  in  that 
it  attacks  common  sense  savagely.  It  is  religious  in  that 
it  makes  no  promises  which  can  come  back  to  torment 
those  who  issue  them  until,  like  the  Yankee  clock-seller 
in  Georgia,  they  have  had  time  to  provide  a  new  clock 
in  place  of  the  one  that  "wont  go."  Like  religion  it 
promises  a  heaven  to  its  disciples,  but  differs  from  most 
religions  in  making  heaven  consist  of  real  estate  in  this 
world  instead  of  harps  and  timbrels  in  the  next.  Instead 
of  telling  its  devotees  they  shall  in  another  world  "in- 
herit the  earth,"  it  assures  them  the  real  estate  is  now 
theirs,  but  must  be  recovered  by  ejectment  of  its  present 
possessors.  Instead  of  taking  out  a  writ  of  ejectment  from 
the  courts,  however,  they  are  to  apply  to  the  legislature 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


263 


to  take  them  out  somewhat  as  woodchucks  who  can't  be 
hounded  out  of  their  holes  are  smoked  out.  Anti-poverty- 
ism  is  a  long  name  for  what  the  early  saints  called  the  wor- 
ship of  Mammon,  or  the  new  golden  calf  on  wheels.  It  re- 
sembles its  father,  political  economy,  in  two  things.  It 
resists  assault  by  creating  a  smudge  of  obscure  smoke 
which  makes  the  eyes  sore  to  peer  through,  and  which 
none  but  the  very  dull  can  see  through  at  all.  And  it 
teaches  that  we  are  saved  by  wealth  and  not  by  faith. 
It  resembles  its  mother,  religion,  in  holding  that  wealth 
is  given  by  the  grace  of  God  and  that  it  ought  to  be  so 
possessed  by  all,  that  it  would  cease  to  buy  the  services 
of  any.  The  highest  utility  of  wealth  it  thinks  will  be 
attained  only  when  none  will  seek  to  possess  it.  True, 
it  will  then  have  lost  all  purchasing  power,  but  it  will 
be  every  man's  comfort  to  know,  as  in  the  case  of  Con- 
federate notes,  it  is  easy  to  get  hold  of  a  large  supply. 
No  name  could  fit  so  well  this  hybrid  between  religion 
and  the  philosophy  of  pelf  as  that  of  "  The  Cross  of  the 
New  Crusade." 

The  crusaders  of  the  middle  ages  could  see  nothing 
obscure  or  doubtful  in  the  platform  that  if  the  world 
was  ever  to  be  made  happy  it  must  be  by  rescuing  the 
possession  of  a  rock  in  Judea  in  which  a  Jewish  prophet 
had  been  buried,  out  of  the  possession  of  certain  gentle- 
men of  the  Unitarian  persuasion  and  Saracen  extraction 
who  had  failed  to  discover  that  this  Jewish  prophet  was 
the  creator  of  the  universe.  To  them  the  proposition 
that  taxing  the  Saracens  out  of  existence  would  diffuse 
sweet  peace  in  every  pious  breast  was  too  plain  to  need 
argument.  What  good  thing  could  men  possibly  lack 
when  the  sepulcher  of  Jesus  was  again  possessed  by 
Christians?  So  to  George  and  McGlynn  it  is  clearer 
than  day  that  to  prevent  any  man  from  acquiring  a 
home,  by  precluding  all  private  title  to  a  home,  will  give 
homes  to  all  the  homeless,  and  make  all  persons  the  per- 
manent and  happy  possessors  of  that  which  each  person 
is  precluded  from  permantly  and  happily  possessing. 

"Ah,  but,"  say  these  real  estate  Christs,  "you  must 
state  our  gospel  in  our  own  language.  We  will  not  be 
responsible  for  any  definition  of  our  principles  which 
we  do  not  coin  ourselves.  We  tell  you  that  under  the 
new  socialistic  state  to  be  arrived  at  by  taxing  all  ground 
rents  until  no  man  shall  remain  entitled  to  a  ground 
rent,  there  will  be  the  greatest  possible  disposition  on 
the  part  of  all  owners  of  land  to  improve  the  land. 
Only  by  improving  the  land  can  they  get  a  rent  at  all. 
Rent  will  accrue  only  on  the  improvements  and  not  on 
the  land." 

The  rental  of  improved  lands  is  thus  made  to  be 
brought  into  court,  like  the  baby  before  Solomon,  to  be 
cut  in  two  to  determine  how  much  of  its  life  shall  be 
bled  away  in  behalf  of  the  improver  and  how  much 
of  it  shall  be  drank  up  by  the  sand  to  appease  the  de- 
mands   of    the   State.      It   is   forgotten   that   any   such 


metaphysical  division  of  rents  destroys  rents.  It  is  like 
cutting  away  in  a  man  the  portion  derived  from  vege- 
table from  the  part  derived  from  animal  food.  When 
the  knife  enters  to  make  the  dissection  the  soul  goes  out 
and  there  is  no  man.  Land  can  not  be  improved,  and 
rents  can  not  exist,  where  the  moment  a  value  is  created 
in  land  it  is  confiscated.  For  in  principle  the  theory 
might  as  well  be  applied  to  all  forms  of  personal  prop- 
erty. We  might  as  well  divide  the  total  value  of  the 
table  or  chair  between  the  portion  of  value  that  inheres 
in  the  wood  of  which  it  is  made  and  the  part  that  is  de- 
rived from  labor.  The  wood  before  its  severance  from 
its  trunk  was  part  of  the  land;  hence,  according  to 
George,  it  was  created  by  God.  Hence,  it  belongs  to  the 
State.  Hence,  it  is  only  by  an  act  of  robbery  and  spoli- 
ation "exploited"  into  private  ownership.  Only  the 
portion  of  value  which  is  derived  from  labor  may 
justly  belong  to  its  possessor.  So  we  might  divide  the 
house,  the  watch  or  the  piano,  between  God  as  the 
source  of  the  raw  materials  or  constituent  properties, 
and  man  as  the  source  of  certain  labor  rendered  thereon. 
Giving  the  former  to  the  State,  all  private  title  to  per- 
sonal property  of  every  kind,  as  well  as  real,  would  be 
resolved  into  spoliation  and  plunder.  Thus  may  a  fine 
theological  subtletv  be  lugged  into  the  real  estate  busi- 
ness, and  the  question  whether  land  which  I  have  paid 
for  belongs  to  you  or  me  can  be  determined  by  a  series 
of  casuistries  concerning  God,  whom  neither  of  us 
knows  anything  about  or  has  any  facilities  whereby  we 
can  learn  anything  about  him.  Meanwhile  property  be- 
comes blasphemy  according  to  this  fine  phrenzy,  and 
the  man  who  saves  is  thrust  behind  bars  as  being  the 
man  who  steals.  The  complainant  in  the  case  is  God, 
and  the  fact  that  God  enters  the  complaint  is  certified  to 
by  the  strong  assurance  afforded  by  human  cheek,  gall, 
brass,  presumption  and  impudence.  It  may  be  in  vain 
to  hope  to  dispel  this  idiocy,  as  all  idiocy  is  without  cure, 
but  chiefly  the  idiocy  that  has  the  power  to  rant  and 
breed  ranters.  Still  the  unstricken  will  see  that  ground 
rent  means  a  payment  for  the  use  of  desirable  space. 
It  is  not  a  thing  which  can  be  either  taxed  out  of  exist- 
ence or  owned  by  the  .State,  even  in  the  most  paralyzed 
and  savage  conditions  of  society. 

When  George  and  McGlynn  themselves  hold  a 
meeting,  they  bring  into  existence  the  very  element 
which  they  say  they  meet  to  tax  out  of  existence,  viz., 
ground  rent.  In  the  very  Academy  of  Music,  wherein 
they  meet,  at  fifteen  minutes  before  their  time  of  meet- 
ing but  in  consequence  of  their  anticipated  meeting, 
every  seat  in  the  Academy  becomes  the  subject  of  a 
ground  rent.  This  gate  fee  is  a  money-value  which 
purchasers  will  pay  for  a  certain  space  in  consequence 
of  its  contiguity  to  a  part  of  the  societary  movement. 
The  societary  movement  in  this  case  is  the  attraction 
presented    by    the   combined    presence    of    a   pretended 


264 


THE    OPEN-    COURT. 


economist  peddling  a  new  kind  of  heaven,  and  a  popular 
priest  vouching  for  a  new  fiction  in  economic  imposture. 
Both  are  promising  certain  social  sugar-plums  which 
they  will  never  deliver.  Notwithstanding  the  promise 
is  a  swindle  it  confers  a  money  value  on  the  seats.  It 
creates  an  active  competition  for  their  possession.  This 
economic  value  is  rent.  Let  the  government  now  exact 
that  Henry  George  and  Dr.  McGlynn  shall  show  how 
much  of  this  ground  rent  is  due  to  the  labor  which  con- 
structed the  seats  and  how  much  is  due  to  the  societary 
movement  that  attracted  the  crowd.  It  would  be  like 
showing  how  much  of  the  rose  is  due  to  the  sun  and 
how  much  to  the  soil.  In  default  of  their  being  able  to 
make  this  impossible  metaphysical  division  in  relation  to 
this  physical  fact  let  the  government  of  course  take  the 
whole  rent  as  a  penalty  for  the  imposture.  On  these 
terms  George  and  McGlynn  would  not  hold  the  meet- 
ing. Their  ground  rents,  gate  fees,  contributions,  or 
what  you  will,  would  be  taxed  out  of  existence,  but  pur- 
suant to  their  own  theory.  They  would  be  hoisted  by 
their  own  petard. 

Where  two  concurrent  conditions  must  both  co- 
operate before  any  fact  can  exist  there  can  be  no  division 
between  these  conditions  to  ascertain  the  degree  in  which 
each  contributes  to  the  result.  To  do  so  would  be  to 
measure  the  immeasurable  and  to  set  prescribed  bounds 
to  the  absolute.  Each  contributes  in  whole,  not  in  part, 
to  the  result,  and  to  borrow  the  form  of  a  certain  legal 
phrase,  the  effect  is  seized  of  each  as  its  entire  cause  and 
not  of  either  as  a  separate  and  distinct  part  of  its  cause. 

The  attempt  to  divide  that  portion  of  the  values  of 
land  which  accrue  from  the  labor  of  its  possessors  from 
that  portion  which  accrue  from  the  societary  movement 
is  like  an  attempt  to  divide  the  body  of  a  child  between 
his  two  parents;  the  division  destroys  its  subject.  Tax 
George's  meeting  to  the  full  value  of  the  seats,  whether 
in  gate  fees  or  contributions,  and  there  will  be  no  meet- 
ings of  George's  disciples.  Apply  his  doctrine  to  him- 
self and  he  would  be  instantly  deprived  of  the  power  to 
advocate  it. 

I  would  suggest,  therefore,  to  our  legislatures  and 
city  councils  to  be  passed  and  enforced  either  as  a  statute 
or  a  city  ordinance  the  following  concise  law: 

Be  it  Enacted,  That 

1.  Whereas,  a  party  favors  the  abolition  of  ground  rents,  and 

2.  Whereas,  this  party  holds  meetings,  which  are  sustained  by  the  ground 
rents  of  seats  therein,  collected  either  in  the  form  of  an  admission  fee  at  the 
door  or  of  voluntary  contributions;  and 

3.  Whereas,  this  party  believes  the  world  will  be  made  happy  by  confis- 
cating all  ground  rents  in  whatever  form  to  the  State,  and 

4.  Whereas,  the  State  concurs  in  this  opinion  so  far  as  resp<  cts  the 
ground  rents  of  all  meetings  held  explicitly  to  abolish  ground  rents,  and 

5.  Whereas,  there  can  be  no  direction  in  which  to  begin  to  apply  a  new 
and  benevolent  principle  which  will  be  so  just  or  appropriate  as  to  apply  it  first 
to  those  who  are  the  first  to  desire  its  application,  therefore 

It  is  Enacted,  That  the  admission  fees  and  contributions  taken  in  all  meet- 
ings held  bv  any  party  having  in  view  the  advocacy  of  the  abolition  of  ground 
rents  shall  be  collected  by  the  police  only,  and  shall  be  paid  into  the  city  and  State 
treasuries  exclusively  for  the  maintenance  of  such  of  the  insane  as  shall  be  de- 
prived of  their  usefulness  to  society  through  their  mental  incapacity  to  with- 
stand the  seductive  flattery  with  which  Henry  George  seeks  to  persuade  every 


man  who  fails  to  acquire  property  that  the  reason  he  has  not  acquired  it  is  be- 
cause he  has  been  robbed  of  it  by  the  man  who  has. 

This  would  prove  the  George-McGlynn  medicine 
by  observing  its  symptoms  when  applied  to  the  doctors 
who  prescribe  it.  It  is  well  known  that  many  physicians 
prove  their  medicines  by  first  taking  them  themselves. 
It  is  not  uncommon  to  meet  doctors  who  have  been  so 
unfortunate  in  their  sincerity  as  to  follow  this  practice. 
But  it  is  extremely  uncommon  to  continue  to  meet  them 
long.  They  follow  so  soon  in  the  long  procession  of 
their  patients. 

If  our  legislatures  and  city  councils  will  only  com- 
mend Henry  George's  chalice  to  his  own  lips,  and  if  he 
thrives  on  it  I  do  not  doubt  that  all  other  receivers  of 
ground  rents,  whether  for  long  or  short  terms,  will  stand 
ready  to  drink  from  the  same  cup. 

Meanwhile,  might  it  not  be  well  for  the  new  crusad- 
ers to  inquire  whether  it  was  the  sepulcher  of  buried 
superstitions  at  Jerusalem  that  emancipated  the  laborer 
from  his  lord,  or  whether  it  was  not  the  iron  and  steel 
furnaces  at  Damascus.  Was  it  the  ignorant  Christians 
who  left  their  huts  and  caves  in  Europe  to  carry  the 
sword  into  Judea  that  were  truly  noble  in  their  work  or 
was  it  the  Turks  who  responded  to  slaughter  with  the 
gifts  of  tea,  cotton,  the  loom,  mathematics  and  science. 

Doubtless  under  the  iniquities  of  the  crusades  some 
stray  flower  of  utility  or  beauty  may  have  bloomed. 
But  the  crusades  in  bulk  were  a  dead  cataract  of  human 
hate — a  prolonged  Niagara  of  social  insanity — equally 
fatal  to  the  life  that  stood  under  and  the  life  that  came 
over.  Ignorance  only  can  inspire  the  furious  zealots 
who  suppose  a  revival  of  their  spirit  can  do  good. 

TH.   RIBOT  ON   MEMORY.* 

BY    DR.    PAUL   CARL'S. 

Memory,  as  generally  understood,  is  the  outcome  of 
a  long  evolution;  as  such  it  is  first  a  biological  fact,  and 
only  secondarily  a  psychological  fact.  In  other  words, 
consciousness  is  not  an  entity,  but  an  incidental  phenom- 
enon. Certain  nervous  processes  are  accompanied  by 
consciousness. 

Memory,  in  the  usual  sense,  comprises  three  things : 
1.  The  conservation  of  certain  states — we  would  prefer 
to  call  it  forms,  which  perhaps  is  a  more  precise  expres- 
sion than  the  French  word  ctat ; — 3.  Their  reproduction ; 
3.  Their  localization  in  the  past.  The  last  point  makes 
memory  perfect;  at  this  stage  it  is  commonly  called 
recollection.  The  first  two  are  indispensable  and,  as  a 
rule,  stable.  The  third  element,  which  is  purely  psycho- 
logical, is  unstable;  it  appears  and  disappears;  it  repre- 
sents the  range  of  consciousness  in  the  realm  of  memory, 
and  nothing  more. 


*I  present  in  the  following  sketches  Th.  Ribnt's  views  of  the  most  im- 
portant psychological  problems,  and  begin  with  Memory,  where  the  famous 
French  scientist  follows  the  trail  of  his  German  contemporary,  Professor  Ewald 
Hering.  Ribot's  method,  which  is  employed  in  manv  cases  very  successfully, 
is  to  get  at  a  right  undemanding  of  evolution  bv  studying  the  inverse  process, 
viz.,  dissolution  as  it  is  exhibited  in  different  morbid  states.  As  I  am  anxious  to 
present  Ribot's  views,  and  not  my  opinion  on  his  views,  I  shall  be  careful  to 
retain,  wherever  possible,  Ribot's  own  expressions.  P.  C. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Reflex  actions,  if  often  repeated,  grow  automatic 
with  all  their  associations.  Without  seeking  for  extra- 
ordinary illustrations,  we  find  in  every-day  life  long 
chains  of  organic,  complex,  and  carefully  determined 
acts,  whose  links,  all  differing  from  one  another,  follow 
in  a  constant  order;  for  example,  the  ascent  and  descent 
of  a  staircase  which  we  haye  often  used.  Our  psycho- 
logical or  conscious  memory  is  ignorant  of  the  number 
of  steps;  but  the  organic,  or  unconscious,  memory  is 
familiar  with  them  as  well  as  the  number  of  flights,  the 
arrangement  of  the  landings,  and  other  details;  it  is  not 
easily  deceived. 

The  conservation  and  reproduction  of  such  nervous 
actions  are  independent  of  consciousness.  Trousseau,  in 
his  Lecons  Cliniques  (II,  41-2),  reports  the  following 
case:  "A  musician  who  played  the  violin  in  an  orches- 
tra, was  frequently  seized  with  momentary  loss  of  con- 
sciousness during  a  musical  performance.  But  he  con- 
tinued to  play,  and  kept  time,  although  remaining  in 
absolute  ignorance  of  his  surroundings.  He  neither 
saw  nor  heard  those  whom  he  accompanied."  From 
such  cases  we  learn  that  consciousness  has  its  own 
peculiar  sphere.  We  have  to  reduce  the  part  it  plays 
to  proper  proportions.  The  sudden  absence  of  con- 
sciousness proves  it  to  be  nothing  short  of  an  additional 
element  in  the  mechanism  of  memory. 

The  question  as  to  the  seat  of  memory  can  give  no 
room  for  serious  controversy.  The  law,  as  formulated 
by  Bain,  is  that  the  renewed  impression  occupies  exactly 
the  same  parts  as  the  original  impression.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  say  in  what  the  modification  of  the  nervous  sub- 
stance consists.  Neither  the  microscope,  nor  re-agents, 
nor  histology,  nor  histo-chemistry  can  reveal  it;  but  facts 
and  reason  indicate  that  a  modification  takes  place,  when 
sensations  or  movements  are  recorded  in  nervous  tissue. 
A  rich  and  well  equipped  memory  is  not  a  collection 
of  imprints  but  an  arrangement  (un  ense?nble)  of  dy- 
namical associations  very  stable  and  very  ready  for 
resuscitation. 

Memory,  accompanied  by  consciousness,  is  a  more 
complex  form  than  automatic  memory,  for  every  phys- 
ical action  presupposes  a  nervous  action,  but  the  reverse 
is  by  no  means  true.  If  we  consider  consciousness  as 
an  essence,  or  a  fundamental  property  of  the  mind,  all 
is  obscure ;  if  we  consider  it  as  a  phenomenon  having 
its  ozcn  conditions  of  existence,  all  becomes  clear.  This 
understood,  unconscious  activity  loses  its  mysterious 
character  and  is  explained  with  the  greatest  ease. 

One  example  may  serve  for  many  to  show  how 
noiselessly  unconscious  cerebration  does  its  work.  Car- 
penter in  his  Mental  Physiology  relates  among  other 
similar  cases:  "A  mathematician  was  occupied  with  a 
geometrical  problem  the  solution  of  which  he  foiled  to 
obtain  after  a  number  of  trials.  Several  years  later  the 
correct  solution  flashed  upon   his   mind  so  suddenly  that 


he  trembled  as  if  another  person   had   communicated  to 
him  his  own  secret." 

The  nervous  system  is  traversed  by  continuous  dis- 
charges. Among  these  nervous  actions  some  respond 
to  the  unceasing  harmonious  activity  of  the  vital  func- 
tions; others,  fewer  in  number  to  the  succession  of  states 
of  consciousne-s;  still  others,  by  far  the  most  numerous 
to  unconscious  cerebration.  Six  hundred  million  cells 
and  four  or  five  thousand  million  fibers,  even  deducting 
those  in  repose  or  which  remain  inactive  during  a  life- 
time, offer  a  sufficient  contingent  of  active  elements. 
The  brain  is  like  a  laboratory  full  of  movement,  where 
thousands  of  occupations  are  going  on  at  once.  Uncon- 
scious cerebration  may  act  in  several  directions  at  the 
same  moment.  Consciousness  is  the  narrow  gate 
through  which  a  very  small  part  of  all  this  work  makes 
its  appearance. 

The  psycho-physiological  residue  of  memory  which 
is  produced  in  our  nerves  by  recording  perceptions  and 
sensations  may  be  styled  with  Wundt  a.  disposition.  He 
says  in  his  Grundziige  der  Philosopliischcu  Psychologic  : 
"  The  eye,  each  day  comparing  and  measuring  distances 
and  relations  in  space,  gains  more  and  more  in  precision. 
The  consecutive  image  is  an  imprint;  the  accommoda- 
tion of  the  eye,  its  faculty  of  measurement,  is  a  functional 
disposition.  It  may  be  that,  in  the  case  of  the  unexer- 
cised eye,  the  retina  and  the  muscles  are  constituted  the 
same  as  in  the  exercised  organ,  but  there  is  in  the  second 
a  disposition  much  more  marked  than  in  the  first." 

Each  of  us  has  in  his  consciousness  a  certain  number 
of  recollections:  images  of  men,  animals,  cities,  countries, 
facts  of  history,  or  science  or  language.  These  recol- 
lections come  back  to  us  in  the  form  of  a  more  or  less 
extended  series  of  associations.  Take  as  one  of  these 
terms  the  memory  of  an  apple.  According  to  the  ver- 
dict of  consciousness,  this  is  a  simple  fact.  Physiology 
shows  that  this  verdict  is  an  illusion.  The  memory  of 
an  apple  is  necessarily  a  weakened  form  of  the  percep- 
tion of  an  apple.  What  does  this  perception  suppose? 
A  modification  of  the  complex  structure  of  the  retina, 
transmission  by  the  optic  nerve  through  the  corpora 
geniculata  and  the  tubercula  quadrigemina,  then  through 
the  white  substance  to  the  cortex.  This  presupposes  the 
activity  of  many  widely  separated  elements.  But  this  is 
by  no  means  all.  It  is  not  a  question  of  a  simple  sensa- 
tion of  color.  We  see,  or  imagine,  the  apple  as  a  solid 
object  having  a  spherical  form.  These  conceptions  re- 
sult from  the  exquisite  muscular  sensibility  of  our  visual 
apparatus  and  from  its  movements.  Now,  the  move- 
ments of  the  eye  are  regulated  by  several  nerves,  viz., 
the  sympathetic,  the  oculo-motor  and  its  branches. 
Each  of  these  nerves  has  its  own  termination,  and  is  con- 
nected by  a  devious  course  with  the  outer  cerebral  layer, 
where  the  motor  intuitions,  according  to  Maudsley,  are 
formed.     We  simply  indicate    outlines  and  give  an  idea 


266 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


of  the  prodigious  number  of  nervous  filaments  and  dis- 
tinct communities  of  cells  scattered  through  the  different 
parts  of  the  cerebro-spinal  axis,  which  serve  as  a  basis 
for  the  psychical  state  known  as  the  memory  of  an  apple, 
and  which  the  double  illusion  of  consciousness  and  lan- 
guage leads  us  to  consider  as  a  simple  fact.  Visual  per- 
ception is  more  complex  still,  and  if  we  take  a  spoken 
word  the  complexity  is  equally  great.  Articulate  lan- 
guage supposes  the  intervention  of  the  larynx,  the 
pharynx,  the  lips,  the  nasal  fossa,  and,  consequently,  of 
many  nerves  having  centers  in  different  parts  of  the 
brain,  viz.,  the  spinal,  the  facial,  and  the  hypoglossal 
nerves.  If  we  include  auditory  impressions  in  the 
memory  of  words,  the  complication  is  greater  still.  This 
shows  the  importance  of  the  associations  which  Mr. 
Ribot  calls  the  dynamic  bases  of  memory,  the  modifica- 
tions impressed  upon  the  elements  being  static  bases. 

The  static  bases  produce  those  untraceable  changes 
of  the  nervous  substance  which  are  marked  by  the  dif- 
ferent dispositions.  They  modify  the  forms  of  the  nerv- 
ous cells  in  some  way  or  other.  The  dynamic  bases  are 
the  anatomical  conditions  of  what  is  called  in  psychology 
association  of  ideas;  they  form  combinations  which  con- 
nect certain  parts-of  the  brain;  if  one  nervous  cell  is  irri- 
tated, many  others,  being  in  communication  with  it  are 
also  called  into  action. 

When  we  begin  to  talk,  we  use  first  simple  words; 
later,  isolated  phrases.  For  a  long  time  we  do  not 
realize  that  these  'words  are  made  up  of  simple  elements; 
many  are  always  ignorant  of  the  fact.  Forbes  Winslow 
(On  the  Obscure  Diseases  of  the  Brain  and  Disorders 
of  the  Mind.  Fourth  edition,  p.  2^,7.)  cites  the  case  of  a 
soldier  who  was  trepanned,  losing  in  the  operation  some 
poition  of  the  brain.  He  forgot  the  numbers  five  and 
seven,  and  was  not  able  to  recollect  them  for  a  consid- 
erable time.  There  is  anothei  more  curious  fact:  "A 
man  of  scholastic  attainments  lost,  after  an  attack  of 
acute  fever,  all  knowledge  of  the  letter  F." 

The  psychical  memory  constitutes  the  most  complex, 
the  highest  and  most  unstable  form  of  memory.  This 
is  generally  called  recollection.  Ribot  calls  it  localisa- 
tion in  time.  The  explanation  of  localization  in  time 
starts  with  the  law,  that  imaginary  acts  are  always 
accompanied  by  the  belief  (at  least  for  the  moment)  in 
the  existence  of  the  corresponding  reality.  This  illu- 
sion, which  exists  in  the  highest  degree  in  hallucination 
and  dreams,  also  exists,  although  in  a  less  degree,  in  all 
states  of  consciousness,  which  in  reality  are  purely 
mental  perceptions. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  determine,  says  Ribot, 
whether  memory  is  a  postulate  of  the  idea  of  time,  or 
whether  the  idea  of  time  is  a  postulate  of  memory ;  cer- 
tainly time  implies  memory,  and  memory    implies  time. 

We  determine  position  in  time  as  we  determine 
position  in  space  by  reference  to   a   fixed   point,  which, 


in  the  case  of  time,  is  the  present.  It  must  be  observed 
that  the  present  is  a  real  existence,  which  has  a  given 
duration.  However  brief  it  may  be,  it  is  not,  as  the 
language  of  metaphor  would  lead  us  to  believe,  a  flash, 
a  nothing,  an  abstraction  analogous  to  a  mathematical 
point.  It  has  a  beginning  and  an  end.  But  its  begin- 
ning does  not  appear  to  us  as  an  absolute  beginning. 
It  touches  upon  something  with  which  it  forms  a  con- 
tinuity. When  we  read  or  hear  a  sentence,  for  example, 
at  the  commencement  of  the  fifth  word  something  of 
the  fourth  still  remains.  Each  state  of  consciousness 
is  only  progressively  effaced;  it  leaves  an  evanascent 
trace,  similar  to  that  which,  in  the  physiology  of  sight, 
is  called  after-sensation;  hence  the  end  of  the  fourth 
word  impinges  upon  the  beginning  of  the  fifth.  It  is 
evident  that  the  retrogressive  transition  exists  as  well 
between  the  fourth  word  and  the  third,  and  the  sum  of 
the  duration  of  many  will  give  the  position  of  any 
state  whatever  with  reference  to  the  present  or  its 
distance  in   time. 

Our  way  of  localization  is  facilitated  by  the  use  of 
reference  points.  I  understand  by  a  reference  point  an 
event,  a  state  of  consciousness,  whose  position  in  time 
we  know — that  is  to  say,  its  distance  from  the  present 
moment,  and  by  which  we  can  measure  other  distances. 
These  reference  points  are  states  of  consciousness  which, 
through  their  intensity,  are  able  to  survive  oblivion, 
or,  through  their  complexity,  are  of  a  nature  to  sustain 
many  relations  and  to  augment  the  chances  of  resuscita- 
tion. They  are  not  arbitrarily  chosen;  they  obtrude 
upon  us.  Their  value  is  entirely  relative.  They  are 
for  an  hour,  a  day,  a  week,  a  month;  then,  no  longer 
used,  they  are  forgotten.  They  have,  as  a  rule,  a 
distinct  individuality;  some  of  them  are  common  to  a 
family,  a  society  or  a  nation.  These  reference  points 
are  like  mile-stones  or  guide-posts  placed  along  the 
route.  The  intermediate  terms  disappear  from  our 
recollection  because  they  are  useless. 

The  process  of  remembering  is  abbreviated  by  elimi- 
nation. If  to  reach  a  distant  recollection  it  were  neces- 
sary to  traverse  the  entire  series  of  intervening  terms, 
memory  would  be  impossible  because  of  the  length  of 
time  required  for  the  operation.  Abercrombie  furnishes 
a  proof:  "The  late  Dr.  Leyden  was  remarkable  for 
his  memory.  I  am  informed,  through  a  gentk  men 
who  was  intimately  acquainted  with  him,  that  he  could 
repeat  correctly  a  long  act  of  parliament,  or  any  similar 
document,  after  having  once  read  it.  When  he  was,  on 
some  occasion,  congratulated  by  a  friend  for  his  remark- 
able power  in  this  respect,  he  replied  that,  instead  of 
an  advantage,  it  was  often  a  source  of  great  inconven- 
ience. This  he  explained  by  saying  that,  when  he 
wished  to  recollect  a  particular  point  in  anything  which 
he  had  read,  he  could  do  it  only  by  repeating  to  himself 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


267 


the  whole  from  the  commence!  lent  till  he  reached  the 
point  which  he  wished  to  recall." 

We  learn  from  this  that  one  condition  of  memory  is 
forgetfulness,  and  we  discover  here  a  striking  analogy 
between  two  essential  vital  processes.  To  live  is  to 
acquire  and  lose;  life  consists  of  dissolution  as  well  as 
assimilation  and  forgetfulness  is  dissolution  of   raeraoiy. 

Recollection  is  not  possible  if  its  localization  is  miss- 
ing. Toward  the  close  of  his  life  Linna-us  t  )ok  great 
pleasure  in  perusing  his  own  books,  and  when  reading 
would  cry  out,  forgetting  that  he  was  the  author,  "I low 
beautiful!  What  would  I  not  give  to  have  written 
that!"  Walter  Scott,  as  he  grew  old,  was  subject  to 
similar  forgetfulness.  One  day  some  one  recited  in  his 
presence  a  poem  which  pleased  him  much;  he  asked 
the  author's  name;  it  was  a  canto  from  his  Pirate. 
A  much  more  instructive  instance  is  recorded  by  Mac- 
aulay  in  his  essay  on  Wvcherley,  whose  memory  in  his 
declining  years,  he  tells  us,  was  "  at  once  preternaturally 
strong  and  preternaturally  weak."  If  anything  was 
read  to  him  at  night,  he  awoke  the  next  morning  with  a 
mind  overflowing  with  the  thoughts  and  expressions 
heard  the  night  before,  and  he  wrote  them  down  with 
the  best  faith  in  the  world,  not  doubting  that  they  were 
his  own.  That  in  this  instance  the  mechanism  of  mem- 
ory was  dissevered,  pathology  proves  plainly  by  analysis. 
Interpreting  the  case  according  to  principles  already  laid 
down,  we  should  say :  The  modification  impressed  upon 
the  cerebral  cells  was  persistent;  the  dynamical  associa- 
tions of  the  nervous  elements  were  stable;  the  state  of 
consciousness  connected  with  each  was  evolved ;  these 
states  of  consciousness  were  re-associated  and  constituted 
a  series  of  ideas  and  phrases.  Then  the  mental  opera- 
tion was  suddenly  arrested.  The  series  aroused  no  sec- 
ondary state;  they  remained  isolated  and  were  not  con- 
nected with  the  present,  so  that  they  could  not  be  located 
in  time.  They  remained  in  the  condition  of  illusions; 
they  seemed  to  be  new  because  no  concomitant  state 
impressed  upon  them  the  imprint  of  the  past. 

Cells  have  the  power  of  self-nourishment  and  are 
endowed,  at  least  during  a  portion  of  life,  with  the 
faculty  of  reproduction.  Physiologists  are  agreed  that 
this  reproduction  is  only  one  form  of  nutrition;  the  basis 
of  memory  is,  therefore,  nutrition;  that  is  to  say,  the 
vital  process  par  excellence. 


ALL    LAWS    IN    HARMONY. 

BY    MRS.    R.    F.    BAXTER. 

Are  there  any  laws  governing  this  universe  or  its  in- 
habitants that  conflict  with  each  other? 

There  are  those  which  keep  the  stars  and  the  comets 
in  their  orbits,  and  produce  the  inflowing  and  outflowing 
of  the  tides;  others  that  cause  the  water  from  ocean, 
lake  and  river  to  rise,  and  fall  again  in  rain  and  vapor. 
Each  organism  and  each  function  has  its  laws  by  which 


its  actions  are  determined.  Whether  disobeyed  know- 
ingly or  ignorantly  the  penalty  is  the  same.  Nature  is 
inexorable  and  always  declares,  I  will  have  my  pay. 
And  there  are  the  laws  of  heredity ;  of  the  adaptation  of 
certain  kinds  of  food  to  the  wants  of  the  physical  sys- 
tem to  sustain  its  vitality ;  another  that  certain  kinds  of 
vegetable  and  animal  productions  are  poisonous.  To 
these  we  may  add  mental,  moral  and  spiritual  laws, 
which  obeyed  will  insure  development  in  every  direc- 
tion;  if  neglected  or  violated,  will  produce  the  opposite 
effect. 

We  must  necessarily  believe  that  all  these  laws  and 
countless  others,  have  the  same  basis  and  conduce  to  the 
highest  good.  But  there  is  a  rapidly  increasing  class 
who  maintain  that  all  laws  governing  the  health  and  the 
disease  of  the  body  can  be  ignored  entirely,  and  that 
these  disorders  of  the  physical  system,  caused  by  the 
violation  of  laws  relating  to  them,  do  not  exist ;  that  if  one 
only  think  they  do  not,  he  will  be  free  from  pain  and 
the  consequences  of  breaking  the  edicts  of  his  physical 
nature. 

Carry  this  belief  to  its  extent,  and  it  follows  of 
course,  if  true,  that  if  you  put  your  hand  into  the  file  it 
will  not  be  burned,  if  you  eat  poison  you  will  not  suffer 
therefrom.  Imagination,  it  is  true,  has  a  great  effect. 
Every  scientific  person  will  admit  this;  but  not  that  it 
will  work  miracles,  will  not  set  a  broken  bone  or  create 
a  new  heart  or  lungs.  By  its  power  in  accordance  with 
its  own  laws  it  will  assist  nature  in  the  work  of  eradi- 
cating disease,  particularly  that  of  the  nervous  system. 
There  is  a  magnetic  power  in  the  presence  of  a  strong 
■will  or  cheerful  physician  which  will  divert  the  mind  of 
a  sick  person  from  dwelling  constantly  on  his  condition. 
Many  doctors  and  nurses  understanding  this  law,  always 
have  a  mirthful  story  to  tell  their  patients,  and  fre- 
quently keep  a  stock  on  hand  for  this  purpose.  I  have 
often  heard  women  say  of  such  professors  of  the  art  of 
healing,  "  The  sight  of  him,  with  his  firm,  strong  step, 
and  smiling  face,  makes  me  feel  better  immediately." 

These  men  or  women  do  not  say  to  an  invalid, 
"  Nothing  ails  you,  you  are  not  sick,  you  only  think  you 
are."  The  salutary  effect  of  their  presence  is  in  accor- 
dance with  a  well  known  law.  There  is  a  restoring  in- 
fluence emanating  from  the  aura  of  a  good,  strong, 
healthy  person — a  magnetic  current  which  one  weaker 
physically  and  mentally  receives. 

But  suppose  a  person  attacked  with  some  zymotic  or 
filth  disease,  like  typhoid  fever,  or  diptheria,  should  call 
in  medical  aid  and  it  should  be  said  to  him,  "Nothing  is 
the  matter  with  you,  you  only  imagine  you  are  sick," 
what  would  be  the  result?  The  intelligent  physician, 
while  relying  often  upon  other  aids  beside  medicine  in 
many  cases,  in  such  an  instance  while  administering 
remedies  which  his  experience  has  found  efficacious,  and 
insisting  on  proper  diet,  pure  air  and   entire  separation 


iGS 


THE    OR  EN    COURT. 


from  others,  immediately  proceeds  to  investigate  the 
premises  and  to  search  for  the  origin  of  the  malady, 
which  is  often  found  in  defective  drainage,  plumbing  or 
other  conditions  favorable  to  the  production  of  this  form 
of  disease. 

That  there  are  sometimes  cures  apparently  affected 
by  "  Christian  Scientists,"  as  they  term  themselves,  I  do 
not  deny.  We  hear  of  them,  but  not  of  the  many  fail- 
ures. If  there  are  real  cures  they  must  be  in  accordance 
with  laws  these  professors  do  not  understand.  All  the 
capabilities  of  humanity  are  not  yet  discovered.  When 
that  time  comes  we  may  be  assured  that  there  will  be 
no  conflict  between  any  laws  created  by  unerring  wis- 
dom. In  the  future  when  the  progress  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  sanitary  measures  and  other  right  conditions  of 
living  shall  have  become  universal,  a  time  may  arrive 
when  such  observance  of  these  laws  will  have  entirely 
obliterated  epidemics,  and  all  contagious  diseases  from 
the  earth,  as  is  confidently  pit  dieted  bj  our  most  eminent 
scientists. 

In  the  meantime  we  ought  to  have  our  feet  firmly 
planted  on  the  truths  of  science  already  discovered,  and 
wait  patiently  for  those  yet  to  be  made  known,  for  every 
step  forward  is  one  upward,  and  we  may  look  to  the 
future  assured  that  all  laws  are  divine  and  that,  as  ex- 
pressed by  that  true  poet  of  nature,  Walt  Whitman: 
"  The  indirect  is  as  much  as  the  direct.  The  spirit  re- 
ceives from  the  body  as  much  as  it  gives  to  the  body,  if 
not  more."  "There  is  but  one  form,  one  spirit  in  the 
universe,  but  its  different  manifestations  or  channels  of 
operating  are  countless." 

In  this  age  when  immense  fortunes  are  acquired  by 
the  manufacture  of  patent  medicines  that  pretend  to 
cure  every  ill  which  "flesh  is  heir  to;"  when  quackery 
with  unblushing  effrontery  advertises  its  nostrums  in  every 
daily  paper;  when  medical  colleges,  so-styled,  are  send- 
ing out  their  hundreds  of  graduates  armed  with  their 
diplomas,  to  deceive  the  ignorant  and  credulous  and  to 
encourage  impurity  and  vice,  it  is  incumbent  on  all  in- 
terested in  the  elevation  of  humanity  to  investigate 
every  theory  and  method  which  claims  to  cure  disease 
by  simply  ignoring  its  existence,  and  the  conditions 
which  have  caused  and  serve  to  perpetuate  it. 

The  chain  of  cause  and  effect  runs  through  all  the 
phenomena  of  nature,  visible  or  invisible,  from  the  stars 
too  far  distant  to  be  detected  by  any  telescope  yet  in- 
vented, down  to  organisms  too  minute  to  be  seen  by  the 
most  powerful  microscope.  To  investigate  the  operations 
of  this  universal  law  and  place  ourselves  in  harmonious 
relations  with  it,  is  the  one  and  only  way  to  insure  the 
highest  health  and  success  of  which  humanity  is  capa- 
ble. Upon  it  depends  the  destiny  of  nations  as  well  as 
of  individuals.  Until  this  truth  is  recognized  and  all 
reforms  for  the  renovation  of  the  world  based  upon  it, 
entirely  fruitless    will    be   the   attempts,   although   they 


may  be  honestly  and  sincerely  made,  to  produce  the  de- 
sired result.  Too  late  it  will  be  discovered  that  their 
fancied  panaceas  are  founded,  not  on  the  immovable  rock 
of  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  harmony  to  whose  music 
every  movement  in  the  universe  keeps  time,  but  on  the 
sifting  sands  of  visionary  sentimentalism  or  vague  spec- 
ulation. 


The  majority  of  people  when  they  name  I  he  so- 
called  properties  of  matter  never  doubt  that  they  are 
describing  an  externa!  substance  as  it  ex;sts  per  se,  in- 
stead of  the  different  ways  in  which  they  are  affected  by 
a  reality  of  whose  ultimate  nature  they  know  nothing. 
Tell  them  that  weight,  resistance,  extension,  etc.,  describe 
the  ejects  on  us  of  an  external  reality  rather  than  the 
reality  itself,  and  they  are  utterly  unable  to  comprehend 
what  you  mean.  It  is  none  the  less  true  that  mind  and 
matter  form  a  synthesis.  The  hardness  and  softness(  re- 
sistance ),  for  example,  which  we  ascribed  to  matter  are 
sensations.  Every  perception,  every  sensation,  implies  a 
sensitive  organism  and  an  external  reality  acting  upon  it. 
This  is  evidently  what  Aristotle  meant  when  he  de- 
scribed sensation  as  the  "common  act  of  the  feeling  and 
the  felt."  Without  the  living  organism  what  are  sound, 
color,  fragrance,  hardness,  softness,  light,  and  darkness, 
or  any  of  the  so-called  secondary,  not  to  speak  here  of 
the  so-called  primary  qualities  of  matter.  Can  there  be 
sound  without  an  ear  to  collect  and  transmit  the  aerial 
vibrations  to  the  acoustic  nerve,  where  (to  use  a  ma- 
terialistic terminology)  they  can  be  transformed  by  some 
mysterious  process  into  sensation  ?  Without  an  eye 
there  can  be  no  luminous  effect.  There  must  be  both 
vibrations  of  the  air  and  an  acoustic  nerve  to  have 
sound,  undulations  of  ether  and  retinal  sensibility  to 
have  light,  emanations  of  particles  and  an  olfactory 
nerve  to  have  fragrance,  and  external  objects  and  ner- 
vous sensibility  to  have  hardness  or  softness.  Vibra- 
tions of  the  air,  undulations  of  ether,  emanation  of  par- 
ticles and  external  objects  may  all  exist  in  the  absence  of 
an  organism;  but  what  are  sound  and  luminousness,  fra- 
grance and  hardness,  but  sensations?  And  of  the  exter- 
nal factors  mentioned  what  do  we  know,  except  in  con- 
nection with  the  subjective  factors?  By  psychological 
analysis  our  conceptions  of  matter  are  reducible  to  sen- 
sation, "  the  common  act  of  the  feeling  and  the  felt," 
and  this  is  what  Fenelon  meant  when  he  said  of  matter, 
"It  is  aye  ne  sais  quoi  which  melts  within  my  hand  as 
soon  as  I  press  it." 

Says  the  Indianapolis  Iron  Clad  Age: 
Science  is  a  fabric  evolved  from  a  series  of  ascertained  facts, 
which  facts  may  be  logically  used  as  mirrors  to  reflect  the  images  of 
inferential  facts  whose  reality  is  beyond  the  ken  of  our  senses.  But 
theology  can  have  no  scientific  basis,  for  its  retrospect  is  a  rayless 
wilderness  where  all  is  hushed  save  the  faint  echoes  of  dreams  and 
fables  and  its  perspective  an  imaginary  region  where  faith  is  the 
only  occupant,  and  where  logical  fact  labors  in  vain  for  a  foothold. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


269 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published   every  other   Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  ( Nixon 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.  UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  ct  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  denned, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  \  iout  implying  either  the  \  alidity  of  theological 
assumption  -  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  com     .o      oi  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  biind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  JUNE   23,   1SS7. 

THE  MENTAL  HEALING  CRAZE. 

Boston  papers  state  that  the  "mental  healing"  craze 
which  has  prevailed  in  that  city  the  past  two  or  three 
years  under  the  name  of  "mind  cure,"  "faith  cure," 
"Christian  science,"  "metaphysical  healing,"  etc.,  has  run 
its  course  there.  It  seems  to  have  reached  Chicago 
later,  and  judging  from  what  we  have  seen  and  heard, 
the  craze  is  about  at  its  height  in  this  city. 

The  fact  of  the  influence  of  the  mind  over  bodily 
conditions  is  unquestionable,  and  the  adherents  of  these 
new  (or  old)  methods  of  treating  desease  have  consider- 
able latitude  in  which  to  indulge  in  general  statements 
on  this  subject.  Every  intelligent  person  knows  that 
there  is  an  intimate  relationship  between  mental  and 
physical  conditions,  that  a  mental  shock  may  produce 
physical  paralysis  and  that  contusion  of  the  brain  may 
cause  unconsciousness  or  insanity. 

This  undeniable  fact  of  the  influence  of  mental  con- 
ditions of  the  organism  over  those  conditions  distin- 
guished as  physical,  serves  as  the  basis  of  the  dozen  or 


more  metaphysical  and  theological  theories  of  the  men- 
tal healers,  some  of  which  are  wild  and  crude  and  belong 
to  primitive  rather  than  to  modern  thought,  and  none 
of  which  admit  of  scientific  verification.  In  connection 
with  each  of  them,  are  put  forth  claims  as  to  extraordi- 
nary cures  which  have  been  or  may  be  affected  by  the 
method  of  that  particular  "  school"  or  system.  So  contra- 
dictory, and  so  superficial  and  undigested  are  the  specula- 
tions advanced  by  the  teachers  of  mental  healing, that  they 
at  once  give  rise  to  the  presumption  that  between  them 
and  the  essential  principle  observed  in  producing  the 
practical  results,  there  is  only  an  assumed  and  imaginary 
connection. 

But  what  are  the  results.  If  the  practitioners  of 
these  different  schools  of  mental  healing  are  to  be  be- 
lieved, there  are  few  if  any  diseases  which  they  are  not 
by  their  methods  able  to  overcome;  and  they  can  all  cite 
the  testimony  of  persons  who  have  been  treated  by  them 
in  support  of  all  the  claims  they  make.  But  anybodv 
who  has  ever  taken  the  pains  to  investigate  these  claims  as 
the  writer  has,  knows  that  when  the  exact  truth  is 
learned,  the  wonderful  cures  are  at  once  divested  of  all 
that  made  them  appear  miraculous. 

One  of  these  practitioners  in  Boston,  one  whose 
rooms  were  thronged  with  patients,  represented  that  he 
had  by  his  method  been  able  to  effect  cures  in  several 
cases  of  cancer,  cataract,  etc.  A  committee  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  society  before  which  his  statements  were 
made,  to  investigate  a  few  of  his  cases.  The  com- 
mittee took  from  this  "healer"  the  names  and  addresses 
of  half  a  dozen  persons  whom  he  claimed  to  have 
treated  successfully  for  these  diseases,  and  by  careful  ex- 
amination of  the  facts,  found  that  among  them  all  there 
was  not  one  case  of  cancer,  and  that  his  representations 
generally  were  false.  Some  women  and  even  men  had 
been  wholly  or  partly  relieved  of  nervous  affections; 
and  this  fact,  in  no  way  remarkable,  was  sufficient  to 
satisfy  hundreds  of  people  of  the  truth  of  his  preten- 
sions and  of  the  truth,  too,  of  the  ridiculous  notions 
which  he  presented  as  science,  in  explanation  of  his 
method  of  practice,  and  in  all  seriousness,  as  a  final  solu- 
tion of  those  problems  with  which  other  thinkers,  because 
lacking  "the  understanding  of  God,"  had  grappled  in 
vain. 

Yet  after  making  allowance  for  exaggeration  and 
misrepresentation,  willful  or  unintentional,  there  remains 
a  residuum  of  truth  sufficient  to  indicate  that,  underlying 
all  the  methods  which  give  prominence  to  the  power  of 
the  mind  in  the  alleviation  and  cure  of  disease,  is  an 
important  principle,  a  better  understanding  of  which 
may  yet  lead  to  most  beneficent  results.   ' 

The  various  systems  cf  mental  healing  have  a  mod- 
icum of  truth  for  a  basis,  and  in  spite  of  the  credulity, 
superstition  and  charlatanry  which  have  marked  the 
craze,  it  may  do  something  to  make  the  people  see  what 


270 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


all  physicians  know,  that  much  which  passes  under  the 
name  of  disease  can  be  removed  by  giving  an  impres- 
sion or  an  impulse  to  the  mind,  and  that  all  disease  is  a 
disordered  condition  of  the  organism,  and  not  a  thing  to 
be  expelled  from  the  body  by  a  drug  as  vermin  are 
driven  from  a  house  by  a  ferret. 

Whether  a  patient  kneels  at  the  tomb  of  a  saint  or 
sits  with  a  "Christian  scientist"  or  takes  "bread  pills" 
from  a  regular  physician,  the  mind  is  impressed  with  an 
idea,  has  more  or  less  faith  in  the  means  employed,  and 
the  mental  condition  is  an  important  factor  in  the  results 
produced.  There  is  no  doubt  that  to  poisonous  drugs 
has  been  attributed  a  curative  value  which  they  do  not 
possess,  and  that  there  is  need  of  bringing  to  bear 
upon  a  certain  class  of  diseases,  real  or  imaginary,  mental 
influences  and  relying  less  in  such  cases  on  the  efficacy 
of  pills  and  powders. 


VACATION    TIME. 


Summer  vacations  for  the  man  of  business,  the  brain- 
worker,  the  professional  man — and  woman — and  even  for 
those  mechanics  and  other  workers  who  can  possibly 
afford  it,  have  become  fashionable  only  within  the  last 
decade.  Previously  only  people  of  wealth  and  leisure 
and  invalids  whose  leisure  was  enforced,  thought  it  in- 
cumbent upon  them  to  change  location  and  scene  during 
the  debilitating  hot  months.  But  the  advance  in  hygie- 
nic study  has  shown,  or  has  seemed  to  show,  that  the 
recuperation  of  energy  by  a  few  weeks  of  entire  rest 
from  the  pursuits  which  engross  the  greater  part  of  one's 
time,  is  really  a  paying  investment  to  those  even  whose 
necessities  seem  to  demand  the  whole  time  for  their  busi- 
ness. So  it  has  become  the  fashion  for  workers  every- 
where, as  well  as  for  those  who  have  no  other  business 
than  to  lead  or  follow  the  fashicns,  to  take  a  vacation 
some  time  during  the  summer.  In  these  days  of  statis- 
tics it  would  be  interesting  if  true  statistics  of  the  real 
saving  made  by  these  rests  could  be  got  at,  as  well  as 
those  of  the  loss  entailed  by  physicians'  bills  and  increase 
of  domestic  unhappiness  through  over  taxed  nerves  by 
the  stay-at-homes.  Then  we  could  reckon  more  accu- 
rately in  our  social  statics  as  to  who  are  most  in  need  of 
these  relaxations,  and  encourage  such  to  take  vacations 
in  the  interest  of  society's  general  well-being. 

As  men  and  women  grow  elderly,  habit  is  apt  to 
make  the  life  grooves  in  which  they  run,  hard  to  get  out 
of  even  temporarily,  and  especially  if  their  time  has  a 
business  or  money  value;  and  they  grow  indisposed  to 
make  even  necessary  temporary  changes,  but  it  would 
be  better  for  themselves  and  others  could  they  be  per- 
suaded to  do  so. 

During  the  first  few  days  of  such  enforced  vacation 
the  neglected  business  may  haunt  their  waking  hours, 
but  presently  they  will  begin  almost  insensibly  to  take 
in    the  soothing  loveliness  of  nature,  to  which  busy  peo- 


ple are  apt  to  grow  blind.  Like  the  man  in  Bunyan's' 
Pilgrinfs  Progress,  who  once  finding  a  jewel  in  a 
dung-heap,  kept  busy  ever  after  looking  for  others 
which  he  never  found,  and  for  years  never  raised  his 
eyes  from  his  eager  search  until  it  became  impossible 
for  him  to  do  so,  so  we  in  our  intentness  on  pursuits 
outside  of  the  mere  loveliness  of  nature  grow  deaf  to  all 
the  seductive  voices  with  which  she  woos  us,  and 
blind  to  the  beauty  with  which  she  is  so  richly  adorned. 
We  have  not  time  to  listen  to  the  rhythmic  music  of 
the  wind-swept  trees,  or  to  note  the  fairy  shadow- 
dance  of  the  sun-touched  foliage.  We  see  no  longer 
the  enchanted  forest  with  its  ogres,  or  the  beautiful  air 
castles  which  the  cloud-shapes  pictured  to  us  in  child- 
hood; with  whatsoever  deep  message  the  sea  may  be 
charged,  its  "wild  waves  are  saying"  not'  ing  to  us  in 
our  sordid  absorption.  If  we  sometimes  glance  at  the 
clouds  it  is  but  hastily  to  see  whether  they  are  charged 
with  rain  which  may  interfere  with  or  further  our  plans, 
and  in  the  cities  the  signal  service  flag  serves  our  pur- 
poses as  well.  The  song  of  the  birds  no  longer  thrills 
our  hearts  with  sympathetic  hope  or  gladness,  and  if 
we  hear  them  at  all,  it  is  to  anathemize  their  noisiness. 
We  grow  hard,  rigid  or  torpid  in  our  devotion  to  our 
chosen  work,  and  it  is  from  this  atrophied  state  that  vaca- 
tion time  should  rescue  us. 

Then  to  those  who  take  these  vacation  times  for 
use  and  recuperation,  and  do  not  make  of  them  a  weari- 
ness of  the  flesh  as  do  those 

"Fashion  pining  sons  and  daughters 
That  seek  the  crowd  they  seem  to  fly," 

the  days  or  weeks  devoted  to  renewal  of  acquaintance 
with  nature  and  consequent  renewal  of  youth  will  be 
the  most  profitable  of  the  year  whether  they  seek  the 
needed  change  in  forest  solitudes,  on  the  mountain 
heights,  by  the  rock-bound  breezy  coast,  near  placid 
lake  or  trouting  stream,  in  "  the  tent  on  the  beach," 
yachting  on  "the  deep  blue  sea"  itself,  or  in  safer 
boating  on  inshore  bays  where  "  voices  keep  tune"  to 
the  rhythmic  dip  and  paddle  of  the  oars. 

The  poets  and  writers  who  best  describe  and  picture 
these  outings  will  be  good  company  to  take  along.  One 
can  read  with  more  appreciation  Browning's  La  Saisiaz 
when  he  has  himself 

"Dared  and  done!  the  climbing  both  of  us  were  bound  to  do.  ■ 
Petty  feat,  and  vet  prodigious:    Every  side  my  glance  was  bent 
O'er  the  grandeur  and  the   beauty   lavished  through  the  whole 

ascent 
Ledge  by  ledge  broke  out  new  marvels,  now  minute  and  now  im- 
mense: 
Earth's    most    exquisite    disclosure,   heaven's    own   God    in   evi- 
dence!" 

Auerbach's  On  the  Heights,  too,  can  be  read  with 
new  pleasure.  By  the  sea-side  one  can  exclaim  with 
Campbell, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


271 


"Hail  to  thv  face  and  odors  glorious  sea! 
'Twere  thanklessness  in  me  to  bless  thee  not 
Great  beauteous  Being!  in  whose  breath  and  smile 
Mv  heart  beats  calmer  and  my  very  mind 
Inhales  salubrious  thoughts." 

Sidney  Lanier  in  his  Hymns  of  the  Marshes  pays 
sweet  tribute  to  the  "  green  colonnades,  of  the  dim  sweet 
woods,  of  the  dear  dark  woods,"  which  he  calls 

"  Beautiful  glooms,  soft  dusk  in  the  noonday  fire — 
Wildwood  privacies,  closets  of  lone  desire, 
Chamber  from  chamber  parted  with  wavering  arras  of  leaves, — 
Cells  for  the  passionate  pleasure  of  prayer  to  the  soul  that  grieves." 

In  the  hot  summer  days  now  upon  us  who  does  not 
with  Alexander  Smith,  "pant  for  woodlands  dim,"  and 
long 

"To   lose  the  sense   of  whirling   streets   'mong  breezy  crests  of 

hills, 
Skies  of  larks  and   hazy   landscapes  with   fine   threads  of  silver 

rills;" 

or  wish  with  Whittier, 

"  To  feel,  from  burdening  cares  and  ills 
The  strong  uplifting  of  the  hills." 

and  at  last  decide  with  Bryant  to 

"  Away!    I  will  not  be  to-day, 

The  only  slave  of  toil  and  care. 
Away  from  desk  and  dust!     Away! 
I'll  be  as  idle  as  the  air. 

"  Beneath  the  open  sky  abroad 

Among  the  plants  and  breathing  things 
The  sinless,  peaceful  works  of  God, 
I'll  share  the  calm  the  season  brings." 

But  there  are  toiling  over-worked  thousands  yet  to 
whom  vacation  time  is  only  a  meaningless  phrase  or 
exasperating  suggestion,  and  others  to  whom  it  means 
only  added  labor.  Every  year  thoughtful  philanthropy 
is  widening  the  area  of  its  blessed  privileges,  and  may 
not  the  release  from  their  regular  routine  of  thought 
which  it  brings  to  earnest  men  and  women,  give  them 
the  needed  time  in  which  to  plan  for  others  more  needful 
even  than  themselves  of  rest — the  poor,  the  sick  and  the 
miserable — some  methods  of  securing  it  for  such! 

s.  A.  u. 


COMPETITION   A  CONDITION   OF  PROGRESS. 

With  advancing  civilization  competition  changes  its 
forms,  its  methods,  but  never  disappears.  Reformers 
who  would  eliminate  it  from  the  active  life  of  man,  dis- 
regard the  fact  that  under  its  influence  man  has  always 
acted,  and  that  it  has  been  and  is  now  as  essential  to 
progress  as  are  association  and  co-operation.  Competi- 
tion between  nations  even  now  is,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  competition  in  military  strength,  in  ability  to  arm 
and  equip  large  armies  for  the  destruction  of  life  and 
property.  As  the  sympathies  of  men  broaden  and  the 
interests  of  nations  become  more  inter-dependent,  war 
must  cease,  when  the  vast  energies  which  war  now 
absorbs,  will  be  given  to  the  pursuits  of  peace.     In  all 


the  peaceable  arts  and  industries,  upon  which  a  non- 
military  community  must  depend  for  rank  and  influence, 
competition,  under  a  different  form  of  course,  is  just  as 
necessary  to  success  as  it  is  in  a  community  which  relies 
upon  its  preparation  and  genius  for  war.  And  compe- 
tition in  the  industrial  world,  as  in  the  lower  forms  of 
the  struggle  of  life  means  the  success  of  some  and  the 
failure  of  others,  prosperity  here,  hardship  and  suffering 
there,  injury  to  one  class  or  community  by  reason  of  cir- 
cumstances which  prove  advantageous  to  others.  Thus 
Mr. John  Fretwell  writes  to  Unity,  "that  since  the  heavi- 
est blow  inflicted  upon  Hungarian  prosperity  in  the  last 
few  years  has  come  from  the  competition  of  your  western 
prairies  with  the  plains  of  Hungary,  formerly  the  granary 
of  western  Europe,  I  venture  to  ask  you  to  draw  the  at- 
tention of  American  Unitarians  also  to  this  terrible  mis- 
fortune that  has  befallen  our  poor  brethren  in  Hungary." 
The  fertility  of  our  western  prairies,  and  the  enter 
prise  of  our  western  farmers  and  of  our  grain  mt  rchants 
have  contributed  to  the  prosperity  of  this  country ;  but 
it  seems  that  they  have  brought  "terrible  misfortunes" 
upon  Hungarians — a  fact  not  pleasant  to  contemplate. 
Perhaps  the  Hungarian  farmers  who  are  suffering  from 
inability  to  compete  successfully  with  our  western  farm- 
ers, will  be  forced  into  raising  other  products  or  be 
compelled  to  turn  their  attention  to  other  industries,  in 
which  they  may  in  time  become  so  prosperous  as  to  be 
the  cause  of  a  misfortune  elsewhere  as  great  as  that 
which  has  befallen  them.  It  is  this  very  necessity  of 
putting  forth  new  energies,  of  forming  new  plans,  and 
trying  new  experiments  that  spurs  men  onward,  forces 
them  out  of  old  ruts,  and  urges  them  to  make  the 
changes  and  the  adjustments  without  which  progress  is 
impossi  le.  The  most  that  philanthropy  can  do  is  to 
secure  as  far  as  possible  equality  of  opportunity  for  all, 
and  to  afford  to  the  incapable  and  the  weak  such  encour- 
agement and  direction  and  help  as  will  make  them  fit 
to  survive. 

Professor  Egbert  C.  Smyth,  of  the  Andover  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  charged  with  denial  of  the  plenary 
inspiration  of  the  Bible  and  with  teaching  the  doctrine 
of  "probation  after  death,"  contrary  to  the  creed  and 
purpose  of  the  institution,  has  been  pronounced  guilty 
by  the  Board  of  Visitors.  But  the  Board  of  Trustees 
are  in  sympathy  with  Prof.  Smyth,  and  he  cannot  be  de- 
posed except  by  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State,  to   which   appeal   will  probably  be,  if  it   has   not 

already  been  made. 

#  *  * 

In  an  article  entitled  "  the  American  State  and  the 
American  Man  "  in  the  current  issue  of  the  Contempo- 
rary Review,  Dr.  Albert  Shaw  dwells  upon  State  inter- 
ference in  personal  affairs  which  he  declares  prevails 
to  a  far  greater  extent  than  the  majority  of  intelligent 
Americans     imagine.       He     admits     that     laissez-faire 


2  7  2 


THE    OPEN    COU  RT, 


doctrines  are  taught  in  the  schools  and  colleges,  but 
places  over  against  that  the  statement  that  the  American 
does  not  act  in  accordance  with  them,  that  in  fact  he 
keeps  "  his  economics  and  his  practical  politics  as  sepa- 
rate as  some  men  do  their  religion  and  their  business, 
and  he  is  just  as  naively  unconscious  of  it."  He  offers 
the  legislation  of  the  Minnesota  legislature  during  the 
sixty-day  session  of  1SS5  as  evidence  in  support  of  his 
statement,  and  cites  numerous  laws  that  may  be 
classed  as  instances  of  State  interference.  He  empha- 
sizes the  fact  that  these  laws  were  passed  by  men  who 
profess  laissez-faire  principles,  no  connection  existing 
between  their  political  philosophy  and  their  votes. 
He  advocates  unlimited  State  interference  as  a  cure 
for  this  anomaly,  and  says :  "  Let  it  be  understood  that 
it  is  within  the  legitimate  province  of  the  State  to  do 
anything  and  everything,"  and  he  believes  that  the  result 
would  be  scientific,  and  consequently  better  legislation. 
*  *  * 

In  the  lately  published  Life  of  Longfellow,  by 
his  brother  Rev.  Samuel  Longfellow,  extracts  are  given 
from  his  journal  which  afford  the  uninitiated  an  idea  of 
some  of  the  amusing  as  well  as  annoying  penalties  of 
fame,  of  which  the  following  is  cited  as  a  sample: 

Two  women  in  black  called  to-day.  One  of  them  said  she 
was  a  descendant  of  the  English  philosopher,  John  Locke,  and 
that  she  was  going  to  establish  a  society  for  the  suppression  of 
crueltv  to  letter-carriers.  A  lady  in  Ohio  sends  me  one  hundred 
blank  cards,  with  the  request  that  I  will  write  my  name  on  each, 
as  she  wishes  to  distribute  them  among  her  guests  at  a  party  she 
is  to  give  on  my  birthday. 

A  gentleman  writes  me  for  "your  autograph  in  your  own 
handwriting." 

Am  receiving  from  ten  to  twenty  letters  daily,  with  all  kinds 
of  questions  and  requests. 

Letters,  letters,  letters.  Some  I  answer,  but  many  and  most 
I  cannot. 

Think  of  the  sublime  impertinence  of  requesting  a 
busy  man  to  write  his  signature  one  hundred  times  for  a 
stranger's  pleasure.  One  naturally  wonders  if  she  would 
not  have  charged  to  his  account  any  that  might  be 
spoiled  in  writing! 

The  Seybert  Spiritual  Commission  of  Philadelphia, 
have  in  a  volume  of  150  pages,  about  to  be  issued  by  the 
Lippincott  Company,  made  a  report  of  their  three 
years'  investigation  of  mediumship.  Slade,  Mrs.  Mar- 
garetta  Fox  Kane,  Mrs.  Best,  Mrs.  Maud  Lord,  Mans- 
field and  several  other  mediums  were  tested,  all  of  whom 
the  report  says  used  fraud,  while  none  of  them  per- 
formed any  extraordinary  feats.  The  commission  says 
that  "  without  imputing  untrustworthiness  to  the  testi- 
mony   of  others,  we  can  only  vouch  for  facts  we   have 

ourselves  observed." 

*  #  * 

Hon.  Geo.  S.  Hale  in  a  recent  address  to  a  Unitarian 
Association  mentioned  that  when  Victoria  was  born  no 
person   could  hold   any  office  of  trust  or  honor   in   the 


Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  without  participating  in  the 
sacrament  according  to  the  usages  of  the  English 
Church,  and  that  when  James  Martineau  was  born  it 
was  a  "crime  to  express  the  sentiments  which  we  com- 
memorate and  proclaim."  These  facts  suggested  to 
Mr.  Hale,  "  the  space  over  which  society  has  passed  and 
how  it  pitches  its  moving  tents  each  night,  each  day, 
each  year,  each  century,  nearer  to  the  Mecca  of  a  happy 
union  of  all  religions." 

The  Transylvanian  Saxons  have  many  peculiar  cus- 
toms, some  of  which  are  revealed  in  an  article  reprinted 
from  Blackwoods  l\Lagazine  in  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly  for  June.  We  note  one  of  these  customs  in 
the  following,  of  which  the  Saxon  mother  finds  conso- 
lation for  whatever  natural  deformity  her  children  may 
be  afflicted  with:  Whenever  a  child  grows  up  clumsy, 
with  a  crooked  nose,  a  large  head,  or  with  any  disability 
of  mind  or  body  it  is  claimed  that  an  evil  spirit  has  stolen 
the  original  child  from  the  cradle  and  substituted  an 
elf;  once  satisfied  of  this,  very  cruel  remedies  are  some- 
times used  in  order  to  force  the  evil  spirit  to  restore  the 
child,  for  instance  the  unfortunate  creature  suspected  of 
being  an  elf  is  placed  astride  of  a  hedge  and  beaten  with 
a  thorn  branch  until  it  is  quite  bloody,  when  it  is  sup- 
posed  that   the   evil    spirit    has   brought   back  the  child 

again. 

*  *  * 

The  Victorian  era  has  been  one  of  great  progress  in 
science,  in  the  arts  of  industrialism  and  in  political,  so- 
cial and  religions  reform.  In  these  movements  the 
queen  has  had  but  little  active  participation,  but  her 
character  as  a  wife  and  a  mother,  her  good  influence  on 
the  side  of  marriage  and  home,  and  her  puie  tastes  and 
sympathies  which  have  raised  her  life  far  above  the 
standard  of  her  ancestors,  have  secured  her  the  respect 
of  millions  who  know  that  as  a  sovereign  she  is  but  lit- 
tle more  than  a  political  figure-head.  The  jubilee  ob- 
servances in  England  as  well  as  in  this  and  other  coun- 
tries, are  in  the  nature  of  a  personal  tribute  to  a  woman 
who  is  honored  for  her  simple  virtues,  and  for  the  good 
influence  which  she,  in  her  high  position,  thereby  exerts 
on  all  classes,  rather  than  for  any  remarkable  gifts  she 
possesses,  or  great  achievements  on  her  part. 

Says  the  Chicago  Times  in  vein  of  irony: 
There  should  be  a  specific  tax  on  each  and  every  minister 
imported  from  a  foreign  country,  and  another  one  on  their  ap- 
praised value.  If  the  people  living  on  Back  Bay,  Broadway,  or 
Prairie  avenue  want  to  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  an  imported  min- 
ister, they  should  be  made  to  pay  roundly  for  it.  The  money 
raised  in  this  way  could  be  used  in  helping  to  support  poor 
churches  in  the  country  that  are  not  above  hearing  the  gospel 
preached  by  ministers  produced  on  our  soil.  Of  course  we  cannot 
compete  in  the  production  of  ministers  with  a  country  possess- 
ing as  many  advantages  as  England  has.  Manufacturing  min- 
isters in  this  country  is  an  infant  industry  that  deserves  to  be 
protected  and  fostered  by  the  general  government. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


273 


We  find  the  following  in  the  Boston  Transcript: 

Two  small  children,  one  of  them  four  and  the  other  three 
years  old,  were  taken  to  see  the  stuffed  animals  that  Barnum 
has  given  to  Tufts  College — Stuffed  College  these  children  now 
call  it,  quite  naturally — and  saw  the  elephants  and  giraffes  and 
other  beautiful  animals,  and  had  an  idea  given  them  of  the  differ- 
ence between  these  figures  and  the  real  creatures.  On  the  Sun- 
day after  this  visit  the  children  were  favored  with  a  little  lecture 
on  the  future  life  and  the  spiritual  body,  and  a  very  intelligent 
attempt  was  made  to  convey  to  them  an  understanding  of  the 
idea. 

"  Yes,  I  know  how  it  is,"  said  the  elder  of  the  two,  eagerly  ; 
"  they  iust  take  us  after  we're  dead,  and  take  our  skins  off,  and 
stuff'em  with  sawdust  'n'  things,  'n'  then  we're  spirits!  " 

This  is  a  conception  of  the  future  existence  which  is  recom- 
mended to  the  Psychical  Society  as  possibly  containing  the  germ 
of  a  great  discovery. 

Rukmabia,  the  Hindu  lady  from  whose  pen  there 
have  proceeded  a  series  of  striking  letters  signed 
"  By  a  Hindu  Lady,"  in  which  the  evils  of  the  Hindu 
marriage  system  have  been  most  clearly  shown,  has 
recently  been  condemned  by  the  Bombay  High  Court 
to  take  up  her  residence  with  a  husband  to  whom  she 
was  betrothed  at  the  age  of  eleven.  Her  long  con- 
tinued resistance  has  raised  the  question  whether 
British  law  shall  not  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
Hindu  marriage  custom  with  the  purpose  of  reform- 
ing it. 

*  *         * 

The  length  of  Dr.  Montgomery's  essay,  Part  III, 
compels  us  to  divide  it;  but  there  will  be  no  delay  in 
publishing  Professor  Cope's  reply,  which  is  to  begin  in 
the  next  issue  of  The  Open  Court,  in  which  Dr. 
Montgomery's  paper  will  be  concluded. 

#  *  * 

In  the  death  of  Mark  Hopkins  the  country  has  lost 
one  of  its  most  eminent  educators  and  one  of  its  most 
useful  and  honored  men.  He  was  f  >r  nearly  half  a 
century  president  of  William's  College. 


SOCRATES. 

BY    W.    F.    BARNARD. 

Great  sage,  philosopher,  high-minded  man, 
Lover  of  truth,  scorning  to  lie  and  live; 
No  praise  too  great  for  thee  can  man  ere  give, 
No  nobler  life  hath  been  since  life  began. 

We  yield  the  highest  honor  to  thy  name 
For  thy  great  duty  done.      What  glory  now 
Is  'round  about  thee.     Ne'er  upon  thy  brow 
There  lay  a  laurel  wreath  to  crown  thy  fame. 

Nay,  thou  had'st  never  need  of  this,  there  pleads 
Thy  high  unselfishness,  thy  hate  of  fears, 
Thy  teaching  of  the  higher  human  needs, 

Thy  faithfulness  through  all  thy  stormy  years, 
And  thy  triumphant  death;  these  noblest  deeds 
Are  everlasting  voices  in  our  ears. 


"I    DO    NOT    KNOW." 

BY  SARA  A.  UNDERWOOD. 

You  sorrow,  friend,  that  your  faith  is  not  mine; 
You  vainly  grieve  because  when  Death  shall  call 
I  own  I  know  not  where  I  go,  or  if  at  all 

I  go,  or  stay,  cease  being,  or  enter  some  new  life  divine. 

/grieve  but  for  your  grieving!     Once  in  youth 

Your  faith  was  mine;  and  when  Death  came  too  near 
I  faced  him  terror-stricken  :   believing  fear, 

Possessed  my  soul  when  I  thought  creed  was  truth. 

Some  truth  since  then  I've  learned,  and  by  its  test 
Have  found  the  creeds  to  totter,  crumble,  fail, 
Their  seeming  strength  built  on  foundations  frail, 

On  crude  imaginings,  man's  hope  and  fear  at  best. 

Once,  in  my  ignorance,  I  glibly  prated 

Of  devils,  pains,  and  penalties;  of  God  and  bliss, 
Reward  and  punishment.    But  now  I  know  but  this: — 

/  do  not  know  to  what  humanity  is  fated 

Save  that  which  men  name  death — the  sure  estate 
Which  comes  to  all  alike — the  sphinx-like  unrevealer 
Of   Life's  enigma, — the  dumb  tantalizing  sealer 

Of  the  unanswered  questions  put  by  man  to  Fate. 

But  we  know  not — though  much  we  long  to  know — 
What  Death  may  be:   beginning,  mean,  or  end, 
Or  whether  it  comes  as  teacher,  foe,  or  friend — 

Our  eager  questioning  wins  not  "Aye"  or  "No." 

To  all  alike  it  comes;  the  great,  the  wise,  the  good, 
The  sinful,  sad,  the  strong,  the  weak,  the  gay, 
The  saint,  the  hypocrite,  the  prophet,  each  one  day 

Receives  the  summons — no  matter  in  what  mood. 

Yet  death  I  fear  not — souls  as  weak  and  blind 
As  mine  its  dark  ordeal  have  passed  serene, — 
Why  should  I  falter  at  some  change  of  scene, 

Which  I  but  share  with  all  my  human  kind? 

But  should  immortal  life,  my  friend,  be  ours, 
I  shall  be  glad  as  you — and  try  to  scale 
With   you  its  further  heights,  if  strivings  then  avail — 

With  joy  accepting  all  my  new-born  powers. 

Mayhap  then,  by  some  alchemy  here  unknown, 
Our  baser  natures  may  toward  their  likings  stray 
And  hateful  qualities  drop  from  us  quite  away, 

While  what  is  best  within  us  seeks  its  own. 

And  if — as  may  be — for  I  do  not,  cannot,  know, 
To  unsuffking  life,  death  brings  sure  end 
I  need  not  murmur — nor  need  you,  my  friend, 

Whose  creed,  believed,  means  far  less  joy  than  woe. 

I  say  "  I  do  not  know  " — most  surely  do  not, 

Yet  have  I  caught  faint  gleams  of  what  seemed  light — 
In  hours,  in  ways,  too  sacred  here  to  cite, 

Like  gleaming  from  a  distant  star  we  view  not. 


274 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


COPE'S  THEOLOGY  OF  EVOLUTION. 

BY    DR.    EDMl'ND    MONTGOMERY. 
Part  III. 

Our  understanding  revolts  against  the  supposition 
that  organization  with  all  its  marvellous  adaptations  can 
be  due  to  a  mere  fortunate  confluence  of  chance  occur- 
rences. It  is,  indeed,  quite  inconceivable  that  the  fortui- 
tous arising  of  variations  wholly  irrelated  to  the  pro- 
pensities and  needs  of  life,  should  by  the  negative  pro- 
cess of  successive  weeding,  ever  be  competent  to  con- 
struct out  of  shapeless  material  those  most  specific  or- 
gans with  which  we  find  ourselves  endowed;  and  still 
more  inconceivable  that  organs  thus  formed  should  dis- 
play those  wondrously  purposive  activities  which  we 
call  their  functions.  Surely,  we  are  not  shaped  from 
without  merely  to  fit  conditions  of  the  medium.  It 
seems  far  more  credible  that  we  are  shaped  from  within* 
that  conditions  of  the  medium  may  fit  us.  Evidently 
there  is  here  some  definitely  formative,  nay,  some  posi- 
tively creative  power  at  work  in  the  living  substance. 
Where  can  it  come  from?  Of  what  nature  can  it  be? 
These  are  the  decisive  questions. 

Now,  if  you  are  a  mechanical  biologist,  believing 
fully  with  Professor  DuBois-Reymond  and  our  present 
physical  science  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Conservation  of 
Energy,  you  have  here  no  particular  problem  at  all  be- 
fore you.  For,  from  this  point  of  view,  the  first  cast  of 
the  dice,  the  first  launching  of  the  world-forming  atoms, 
had  already  decided,  unchangeably — with  absolute  fatal- 
ity— all  that  has  followed  since,  or  will  ever  follow  here- 
after. The  arising  and  preserving  of  such  and  such 
variations  is,  then,  an  occurrence  as  rigorously  predeter- 
mined as  anything  else  in  nature — everything  that  ever 
happens  happening  of  necessity,  through  undeviating 
predisposition,  exactly  as  it  does.  There  is,  indeed,  no 
escape  whatever  from  this  conclusion,  unless  the  me- 
chanical conception  itself  is  fallacious.  Every  biolo- 
gist who  introduces  into  this  unbending  mechanical 
nexus  any  kind  of  deviating  or  directing  influence  ought 
clearly  to  know  that  he  is  opposing  the  doctrine  of  the 
Conservation  of  Energy;  wittingly  or  unwittingly  he 
is  professing  himself  an  unbeliever  in  this  supreme  gen- 
eralization of  modern  science.  To  consistent  physicists 
as  to  consistent  theists,  the  first  kinetic  cast  of  the  world- 
material  must  be  the  all-important,  all-involving  event 
in  creation.  It  is  strange  that  theistic  predestinarians 
have  not  seized  more  eagerly  upon  this  argument.  They 
should  welcome  the  mechanical  materialists  as  their 
most  potent  auxiliaries.  There  is,  in  truth,  no  better 
theistic  stronghold  of  the  natural  sort  anywhere  to  be 
found.  Only,  then,  we  mechanically  constructed  pup- 
pets would  be  automata  sure  enough;  and  in  spite  of 
theology  and  logic,  human  self-humiliation — so  ready  to 
indulge  its  mood  up  to  a  certain  point — refuses  to  de- 
grade itself  that  far. 


The  perplexity  regarding  the  evolutionary  drift  of 
the  physical  nexus  is  nothing  new.  Since  Democritus 
it  has  been  the  standing  difficulty  of  the  mechanical 
conception  to  derive  complexity  of  form  and  aim- 
directed  activity  from  material  particles  and  their  mo- 
tion. Democritus,  in  order  to  account  for  the  deviation 
of  atoms  from  the  straight  path  during  their  primordial 
fall  through  space,  fancied  that  larger  a'oms  had  over- 
taken smaller  ones,  which — thereby  diverted  from  their 
course — came  to  form  more  and  more  intricately  en- 
tangled arrangements.  Epicurus,  however,  was  aware 
that  in  empty  space  material  particles,  whether  large  or 
small,  must  fall  with  equal  velocity.  He  assumed  with- 
out explanation,  that  a  spontaneous  deviation  from  the 
straight  path  had  gradually  given  rise  to  complexity  of 
form  and  motion.  His  disciple  Lucretius,  very  much 
in  the  manner  of  Professor  Cope,  sought  to  furnish  an 
explanation  for  this  deviation  by  violently  breaking 
through  the  physical  order  on  the  strength  of  our  ex- 
perience of  voluntary  movements.  Modern  cosmogony 
with  the  aid  of  the  law  of  gravitation — a  law  itself 
mechanically  unexplained — got  over  one  great  difficulty 
involved  in  the  ancient  view,  namely  the  inevitable  fall- 
ing of  all  atoms  to  the  bottom  of  the  world.  And  it 
acquired,  moreover,  a  principle  by  which  material  parti- 
cles are  made  to  form  aggregates  on  their  way  to  com- 
mon centers,  deviating  at  the  same  time  from  the 
straight  path  through  collisions. 

To  account  for  the  second  great  fact,  that  of  teleo- 
logical  disposition  in  nature,  the  mechanical  views  of 
antiquity  took  their  cue  from  Empedocles;  conceiving 
that  in  endless  time  all  possible  material  configurations 
must  necessarily  occur,  and  that  those  most  advanta- 
geously constituted  would  naturally  tend  to  maintain 
themselves.  This  may  be  called  the  Darwinism  of  the 
ancient  philosophy. 

Historical  connection  with  these  ancient  views  has 
been  made  here  because  our  mechanical  world-concep- 
tion was  formed  in  direct  continuity  with  them.  Soon 
after  Gassendi  had  revived  the  Atomism  of  Epicurus,  it 
was  adopted  in  its  main  features  by  Descartes,  Boyle 
and  Newton,  and  has  been  used  ever  since  with  signal 
success — leaving  unsolved,  however,  the  problems  of 
material  integration  and  teleological  direction. 

It  is  the  scientific  installation  of  matter  and  motion, 
not  only  as  the  building  material,  but  also  as  the  build- 
ing efficiency  of  our  world,  that  has  thrown  into  promi- 
nence the  psycho-physical  dilemma,  which  we  have 
called  the  central  problem  of  modern  philosophy,  or 
K  the  puzzle  of  puzzles."  Now,  if  we  ever  desire  to  ex- 
tricate our  understanding  from  the  philosophical  and 
scientific  deadlock,  produced  by  the  artificial  opposition 
of  a  material  substance  to  a  mental  substance,  each  of 
which  has  to  follow  its  own  course  without  possible 
interaction ;    if  we  desire  to  attain  a  unitary  view    of 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


275 


nature  we  have,  first  of  all,  to  be  strictly  consistent,  not 
allowing  any  makeshift  compromise  to  establish  spurious 
openings  for  an  apparent  blending  of  the  two  postu- 
lated spheres  of  reality. 

The   principle   of  the   Conservation   of  Energy — as 
already  stated — presupposes,  without  escape,  that  from 
the  very  beginning  the  original   material  particles  were 
started    with    definite    velocities    in    definite    directions. 
And  this  primordial  disposition  involved,  then  and  there, 
with  absolute  necessity  the  entire   ensuing  world-evolu- 
tion in  all  its  minutest  details.     No  philosophical   scien- 
tist who  uses  this   leading  principle  of  modern   physics, 
not  merely  as  a  working  hypothesis  in  the  investigation 
of  special  problems,  but  as   a   torch   to   illuminate   our 
world-conception,  can  deny  the  validity  of  this  its   final 
implication.     And  who  can  fail   to  see  that  this  view  is 
really  the  special  creation-hypothesis  brought  to  a  focus, 
concentrating  into  one  sole  omnipotent  act  of  premedi- 
tated design  the  rigorously  fore-ordained   production  of 
all  that  was  ever  to  take  place  in  the  physical  universe? 
In  a  mechanical   scheme  of  this   kind  mental  states 
can  come  in  only  as  passive  accompaniments,  and  con- 
scious realization  can  only  witness  as  an   unrelated   out- 
sider the   physical   spectacle,  being  utterly  impotent  to 
affect  its  course  in  the  least  degree.      We  are  forced  by 
such  a  doctrine  to  conceive  our  mental  nature  as  having 
an  origin,  a  historv  and  a  destiny  totally  independent  of 
the  physical  world.     This,  however,  is  altogether  con- 
trary to  experience;  and  it  is,  moreover,  an  evident  fact 
that  we  actually  realize  whatever  is  perceptible  of  the 
physical    world    in    our   own   individual   consciousness. 
Our  perception  of  it  is  undeniably  a  mental  occurrence 
within  our  own  being.     Now,  the  impossibility  of  con- 
ceiving mind  as  consciously  reproducing,  indeed  as  iden- 
tically duplicating — within  its  own  sphere  of  existence 
by  means  of  its  own  affections — the  physical   universe, 
to  which,  according  to  the  mechanical  view,  it  is  wholly 
unrelated    and   incommensurable; — this  impossibility   of 
imagining  the  universe  realized   in  consciousness  as  in 
any  way  connected  with  the  universe  assumed  in  physi- 
cal science,  has  led   many  philosophers   to   trust  exclu- 
sively their  immediate  consciousness  and  deny  altogether 
the  existence   of  the   physical   universe.     The   untena- 
bility  of  this  very  prevalent  idealistic  escape  from  the 
psycho-physical  dilemma    the    present   writer     has   en- 
deavored to  expose  on  various  occasions,  and  has  pointed 
out  what  seemed   to  him  the  only  possible   solution  of 
the  puzzle. 

But  the  principle  of  the  Conservation  of  Energy  is 
still  governing  physical  science,  and  biologists  are  as  per- 
plexed as  ever  how  to  derive  organic  teleology  in  accor- 
dance with  it. 

The  ways  and  means  by  which  organic  forms  are 
naturally  built  up  have  remained  all  the  more  obscure 
on  account  of  our  being  able  to  study  exhaustively  by 


direct  observation  only  re-productive  organization,  while 
productive  organization,  which  has  taken  ages  to  get 
accomplished,  is  left  a  matter  of  inference  chiefly.  On- 
togenetic or  individual  evolution  may  rapidly  epitomize 
phylogenetic  or  race  evolution;  yet,  most  assuredly  the 
reproductive  germ,  which  contains  potentially  in  its  own 
intrinsic  constitution,  all  phvlogenetic  results,  cannot  pos- 
sibly undergo  a  process  of  development  which  can  be 
at  all  causatively  compared  with  that  of  a  primitive  pro- 
toplasmic form,  competent  at  first  to  reproduce  merely 
its  own  duplicate,  and  which  only  increment  upon  incre 
ment,  through  ceaseless  interaction  with  the  medium, 
during  countless  generations,  has  at  last  come  to  be  the 
complex  being  we  now  find.  Productive  evolution,  dif- 
fering thus  radically  from  re-productive  evolution,  de- 
mands a  radically  different  explanation^  This  is  not  suf- 
ficiently born  in  mind.  Evolutional  science  has  to  put 
two  totally  distinct  questions :  How  are  developmental 
traits  individually  acquired?  And  how  are  they  then 
generically  transmitted? 

Since  the  discovery  of  reproductive  germs  in  all  or- 
ganic propagation,  it  has  become  plain  to  everybody 
that  through  these  minute  material  vehicles,  organiza- 
tion, with  all  its  peculiarities,  is  somehow  transmitted 
from  parents  to  their  offspring.  A  reproductive  germ 
is  a  very  tiny  and  inconspicuous  sort  of  a  thing,  but  the 
downright  fact  is,  that  without  it,  we  and  the  rest  of 
the  organic  world  would  be  non-existent;  with  it  we 
become  everything  we  are.  Metaphysically  unbiased 
scientists  could  not  fail  to  perceive  that  mental  endow- 
ments form  likewise  part  of  this  organic  heritage. 
Now,  if  it  is  difficult  to  make  out  exactly  how  parental 
organization  can  be  reproduced  in  all  its  complexity 
from  a  uniform  and  microscopic  germ,  it  is  still  more 
difficult  to  understand  how  specific  mental  faculties  are 
reproduced  along  with  the  specific  material  structures. 

In  this  connection  the  phenomena  of  instinct,  which 
constitute  a  kind  of  link  between  reproduction  of  men- 
tal and  reproduction  of  purely  organic  traits,  became  a 
subject  of  particular  interest.  Instincts,  at  all  events, 
appear  to  be  closely  connected  with  organization.  In- 
deed, Lamarck  already  regarded  them  as  acquired  men- 
tal habitudes,  which  had  become  organically  fixed.  He 
says:  "This  inclination  on  the  part  of  animals  to  per- 
sist in  their  habits,  and  to  renew  the  actions  subservient 
thereto  when  once  acquired,  is  propagated  thenceforth 
in  all  individuals  through  reproduction  or  generation, 
by  which  the  organization  and  disposition  of  the  parts 
are  conserved  in  the  acquired  state,  so  that  the  same  in- 
clination exists  already  in  the  new  individuals,  even  be- 
fore they  have  exercised  it."  (Phil.  Zoillogique,  1S09, 
p.  325.)  Blainville  (1832)  calls  instincts  "fixed  reason," 
and  reason  "mobile  instinct."  Comte  (1S38)  makes  use 
of  the  same  considerations  as  Lamarck  to  account  for 
the  transmission  of  any  kind  of  acquired  aptitude  ("«»e 


276 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


pratique  quelconque")  in  man  or  beast.  (Cours  de  Phil. 
Pos.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  787.)  And  seventeen  years  later  we 
find  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  Principles  of  Psy- 
chology, expressing  the  same  opinion:  "Instinct  may 
be  regarded  as  a  kind  of  organized  memory."  (p.  555-) 
"  Conscious  memory  passes  into  unconscious  or  organic 
memory."     (p.  563.) 

The  materialistic  philosophy  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury had  made  this  kind  of  interpretation  current  among 
physiologists.  Vital  activities  of  every  description, 
mental  or  non-mental,  were  held  to  be  functions  of  the 
organism.  Acquired  habits  were  said  to  have  become 
organized  by  means  of  definite  modifications  in  the 
structure  of  the  functioning  organ,  conscious  memory 
being  no  less  regarded  as  the  outcome  of  such  organic 
modification.  It  was  to  the  persistence  of  the  molecular 
modification  evinced  in  the  revivability  of  the  experi- 
entially  modified  function,  that  the  term  "unconscious 
memory  "  was  applied,  and  not  to  any  latent  efficiency 
possessing  the  nature  of  mind.  Professor  Hering's 
very  lucid  rendering  of  the  genuine  doctrine,  the  doc- 
trine that  memory  is  a  "  function  of  organized  matter" 
has,  strange  to  say,  become  the  nucleus  of  various  fan- 
tastic speculations  even  among  biologists.  The  equivo- 
cal term  "  unconscious  memory "  was  seized  upon  and 
pressed  into  service  as  a  mental  agency  that  coerces  the 
material  of  which  the  organism  consists. 

The  essential  and  revolutionary  import  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  interpretation  lies  in  the  implied  assertion 
that  there  exist  in  the  living  individual  mental  acquire- 
ments which  are  functions  of  his  organic  structure.  And 
it  is  evident  that,  if  some  mental  states  are  allowed  to  be 
thus  functions  of  organic  structure,  then  all  mental  states 
must  be  allowed  to  be  functions  of  organic  structure; 
for  consciousness,  meaning  the  manifestation  of  mental 
states  of  every  kind,  is  a  unitary  phenomenon,  all  con- 
stituents of  which  are  essentially  of  one  and  the  same 
nature.  Our  mental  presence,  or  moment  of  actual  con- 
scious realization,  contains  all  sorts  of  mental  states  in- 
extricably blended,  pointing  to  one  common  source  of 
emanation. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  be  perfectly  straight- 
forward, discarding  every  kind  of  vagueness  and  ambig- 
uity, in  declaring  organization  to  be  the  veritable  matrix 
of  mind.  For  the  proof  of  this  assertion,  if  it  can  be 
given,  decides  for  good,  among  the  sundry  claims  for 
philosophical  insight,  in  favor  of  objective  or  realistic 
monism.  It  would  follow  therefrom,  inevitably,  that — 
consciousness  being  a  function  of  organic  structure — 
organic  structure  cannot  possibly  be  in  its  turn  a  product 
of  any  kind  of  mental  operation.  Nor  could  consciousness 
be  anything  in  itself  independent  of  organic  structure;  no 
affection  of  a  mental  substance;  no  efflux  from  a  universal 
consciousness;  no  mode  of  an  unknowable  first  cause. 
The   essential,  all-important  question,  then,    is:     Does 


organic    structure    determine    mind,  or  does    mind   de- 
termine organic  structured 

Many  reasoners  and  investigators,  before  our  present 
animists,  such  as  Haeckel,  Murphy,  Butler,  etc.,  have 
maintained  that  a  mental  activity  of  an  unconscious  kind 
is  shaping  the  organism.  And  if  we  ask  why  they  have 
come  to  evoke  mental  aid  to  effect  this  peculiar  kind 
of  material  grouping,  we  find  that  it  is  simply  because 
they  were  aware  that  our  conception  of  physical  effi- 
ciency is  incompetent  to  account  for  the  reproduction  of 
the  complex  organism  from  a  uniform  germ.  Thought- 
ful biologists — however  mechanically  inclined  otherwise 
— have  very  generally  felt  obliged,  no  less  than  Plato 
and  Aristotle,  to  assume  some  hyper-physical  principle 
coercing  vital  building-material  into  organic  shape. 
Claude  Bernard  believed  that  "  in  all  living  germs  there 
resides  a  creative  idea,"  and  Professor  Virchow  admits 
that  the  unity  of  the  future  organism  must  be  somehow 
potentially  contained  in  the  germ-cell.  Considering 
only  morphological  results,  regardless  of  vital  activities, 
it  remains,  indeed,  even  then,  utterly  unintelligible  on 
mechanical  principles  how,  through  agitation  by  heat- 
vibrations,  the  germ- molecules  should  be  rendered  com- 
petent to  transform  adjacent  pabulum  into  vital  build- 
ing-material, causing  it  to  aggregate  in  the  minutely 
predetermined  and  wondrously  intricate  form  of  a  living 
chick  or  other  complex  organism.  What,  in  all  reality, 
can  it  be  that  induces  the  material  of  the  germ-cell  to 
accomplish  such  marvelous  reproductive  evolution?  It 
is  this  crux  of  biological  science  that  has  proved  suffi- 
ciently distracting  to  drive  even  cool  investigators  to  des- 
perate means  of  explanation.  Our  so-called  memory 
being  a  faculty  of  mental  reproduction,  it  has  seemed 
plausible  to  some  perplexed  mechanical  biologists  that 
something  of  the  same  nature  as  this  ideal  remembrance 
of  former  existence  must  be  likewise  at  the  bottom  of 
organic  reproduction. 

Now,  as  hinted  before,  it  is  quite  obvious  that,  if 
memory  or  mental  reproduction  depends  on  specifically 
organized  structure — a  state  of  things  generally  accepted 
as  a  fact  by  evolutionists, — then  specifically  organized 
structure  cannot  reciprocally  depend  on  memory  or 
mental  reproduction.  This  would  be  out  of  the  ques- 
tion even  if  mental  states  were  capable  of  influencing 
the  physical  nexus.  A  certain  something  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  at  one  time  the  produced  effect  of  something 
else  and  at  another  time  its  producing  cause.  The  rela- 
tion cannot  be  reversed.  If  B  is  an  outcome  of  A,  then 
A  can  by  no  manner  of  means  become  an  outcome  of 
B,  for  B  merges  into  existence  only  through  A.  But 
waiving  these  impossibilities,  and  allowing,  beside,  that 
mental  reproduction  may  be  itself  a  formative  or  or 
ganizing  power;  admitting,  furthermore,  that  no  con- 
tradiction is  involved  in  assuming  that  something  men- 
tal can  exist  in  an  unconscious  state;  granting  all  these 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


277 


absurdities,  it  remains  still  wholly  incomprehensible 
how  the  unconscious  memory  of  a  number  of  germ- 
molecules  can  transform  an  immensely  larger  mass  of 
pabulum  into  living  substance,  and  finally  succeed  in 
constructing  the  complex  organism, —  an  achievement 
which  from  the  beginning  must  have  been  the  aim  of 
the  unconscious  memory  residing  in  the  germ- mole- 
cules.* 

Professor  Cope,  who  also  believes  in  the  organizing 
power  of  mentality,  is  at  least  aware  of  the  fraudulent 
pretensions  of  so  self-contradictory  a  thing  as  "  uncon- 
scious memory."  He  does  not  operate  with  this  self- 
stultifying  and  nullifying  agent.  He  says:  "  No  sensi- 
bility "  (or  other  mental  condition)  "is  meant,  which 
implies  that  the  person  who  is  supposed  to  be  sensible  is 
unconscious, — this  is  a  contradiction  in  terms,  or  self- 
contradictory  language."  (T,  of  E.,  pp.  9-10.)  We  en- 
tirely agree.  Let  us  not  delude  ourselves  with  words. 
It  is  quite  certain  that  memory  as  a  mental  fact  is  con- 
scious, and  that  organic  predisposition  to  action  or  func- 
tion is  not  a  mental  fact. 

How  does  Professor  Cope  then  account  for  the 
organic  predisposition  inherent  in  the  germ-cell,  which 
causes  it  to  construct  the  complex  organism  ?  He  assumes, 
to  begin  with,  a  peculiar  force,  to  which  he  gives  the 
name  of  "  bathmism  "  or  "  growth-force."  This  force, 
he  maintains,  increases  organic  bulk  by  "repetitive  addi- 
tions," i.  e.  cell-division.  It  "  simply  adds  tissue  either 
in  enlarging  size  or  in  repairing  waste."  (£?.  of  F.,  p. 
203.)  This  explanatory  assumption  amounts,  evidently, 
to  no  more  than  giving  a  new  name  to  the  biologically 
unexplained  fact  of  cell-division  and  consequent  increase 
of  bulk.  Let  us  see  whether  we  become  in  any  way 
enlightened  by  its  application  to  the  old  fact.  He  says: 
"  The  spermatozoid  is  highly  endowed  with  static  bathm- 
ism, and  communicates  it  to  the  female  ovum.  The 
mingling  of  the  two  elements  in  the  presence  of  nutritious 
material  presents  an  excess,  and  form-building  results. 
Its  activity  will  regulate  subsequent  new  growth  by  giv- 
ing the  motion  of  nutritive  material  its  proper  direction." 
(O.  of  F.,  p.  191,  note,  1SS6.)  Here  growth-force  ac- 
complishes really  vastly  more  than  "simply  adding 
tissue  in  enlarging  size."  It  uses  the  added  tissue  as 
"form-building"  material;  this  being,  indeed,  the  most 
enigmatical  part  of  the  whole  performance.  But  let 
that  pass  for  the  present.  The  plain  and  observable 
fact  here  is,  and  has  long  been,  that  "form-building 
results"  from  "the  mingling  of  the  two  elements,"  and 
that  "the  motion  of  nutritive  material"  receives  "its 
proper  direction."  The  great  puzzle  is  to  find  a  scien- 
tific explanation  for  this  marvelous  occurrence.  Has 
Professor  Cope  made  any  advance  in   this  direction  by 


♦The  fallacy  of  Professor  Haetkel's  special  view  of  this  kind  of  mentally 
originated  organization,  called  by  him  the  "Perigenesis  der  Plastidule,"  the 
present  writer  has  exposed  in  Mind,  No.  XIX,  1SS0. 


calling  in  an  entirely  unknown  and  unverifiable  agent, 
and  assuring  us,  that  it  is  this  most  efficient  fac  Mum, 
named  bathmism,  who  is  the  veritable  performer  of  the 
stupendous  organizing  task  in  question?  We  all  know 
well  enough  that  organisms  grow;  but  are  we  any  the 
wiser  for  being  told  that  they  grow  by  means  of  growth- 
force  ? 

But,  even  thus  largely  endowed,  the  constructive 
ability  of  the  new  fac  Mum  fails,  when  called  upon  to 
build  up  heterogeneous  textures;  for  instance,  to  build 
up,  not  merely  a  mass  of  epithelial  tissue,  but  also  mus- 
cular and  nerve-tissue.  Here  new  help  has  to  be  evoked. 
The  task  is  to  evolve  a  succession  of  graded  tissues. 
To  accomplish  this,  Professor  Cope  infuses  a  "grade- 
influence  "  into  the  growth-force,  and  is  then  in  a  position 
to  operate  with  "grade  growth-force," simply  by  assum- 
ing that  "grade-influence  directs  growth-force."  (O.  of 
F.,  p.  203.)  But  whence  does  "grade-influence  "  derive 
its  directing  power?  Professor  Cope  tells  us:  "grade- 
force  is  not  regarded  here  or  elsewhere  as  a  simple  form 
of  energy,  but  as  a  class  of  energies,  which  are  the  re- 
sultants of  the  interference  of  mind  (/.  e.  consciousness) 
with  simple  growth-force."  (O.  qfF.,p.  20S,  note,iSS6.) 
So  we  have  come  round  again  to  the  Anaxagorean  device 
of  shifting  on  the  nous  the  hyper-mechanical  work  mani- 
fest in  the  material  process,  trusting  that  this  deus  ex 
machina  may  somehow  acquit  himself  of  the  imposed 
duty. 

(to  be  concluded  in  the  next  issue.) 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

A  LETTER  FROM   PHILADELPHIA. 

To  the  Editors:  Philadelphia,  June  6,  1SS7. 

It  is  an  old  story,  but  a  good  one,  that  of  Emerson  in  Egypt. 
It  is  a  kind  of  intellectual  tickle,  touching  humorously  on  the 
great  characteristics  of  the  Concord  seer,  and  a  spontaneous 
ripple  of  amusement  broke  over  his  audience,  yesterday,  as  Mr. 
Sidney  H.  Morse,  after  reading  with  enthusiasm  that  noble  poem, 
The  Sfhynx,  continued :  "  You  know  the  story  is  told,  that  when 
Emerson  went  to  Egypt  and  stood  there  in  the  desert  by  the  old 
Sphynx,  she  opened  her  lips  and  said  to  him,  'You're  another!'" 

This  was  at  a  meeting  of  the  Sections  of  the  Philadelphia 
Society  for  Ethical  Culture,  held  at  the  school  building.  The 
regular  course  of  lectures  of  the  society,  in  the  regular  place  of 
meeting,  has  closed  for  the  summer:  but  it  has  been  thought 
advisable  to  keep  up  some  continuity  of  the  corporate  life  of  the 
society  in  spite  of  the  torrid  season,  and  so  it  has  been  deter- 
mined to  hold  meetings  of  the  sections  on  the  first  Sunday  of 
each  month  until  the  regular  lectures  begin  again.  Mr.  Morse, 
of  Boston,  the  sculptor,  and  former  editor  of  The  Radical,  well- 
known  to  the  Liberals  of  New  England,  being  in  town  at  work 
on  a  bust  of  our  Camden  poet,  Walt  Whitman,  was  persuaded  to 
talk  to  the  sections  on  "Emerson."  Mr.  Morse  said,  aptly 
enough,  that  the  ethical  movement  seemed  to  be  the  heir  of  Em- 
erson's teachings. 

The  leader  of  the  Philadelphia  society,  Mr.  Weston,  at  the 
end  of  Mr.  Morse's  talk,  took  occasion  to  acknowledge  that  no 
other  writer  had  been  to  him  so  helpful  and  suggestive  as  Emer- 
son.    Other   members  of  the   society   must   have   felt  a  like  due 


278 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


impulse  of  spiritual  gratitude  as  they  sat  there  hearing  one  who 
had  known  the  man  read  and  speak  of  his  great  message,  while 
from  the  chimney-piece  shone  down  upon  them  the  white  light 
of  the  benign  wise  face  of  the  Emerson  bust,  delicately  modeled 
in  the  clay  by  Mr.  Morse,  and  full  of  the  gracious  characteristics 
of  a  loving  likeness. 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  sections,  on  July  3,  an  unpub- 
lished lecture  of  Professor  Adler's  on  "The  Influence  of  Mind 
on  Morality"  will  be  read. 

Walt  Whitman  lives,  as  is  well  known,  in  great  seclusion. 
He  is  visited,  but  rarely  visits,  and  his  early  hours  and  simple 
habits  keep  him  as  aloof  from  the  world  as  his  heart  will  let  him. 
The  lecture  in  New  York  this  spring,  which  everyone  has  heard 
about  lately,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  Lincoln  Assassination, 
was  a  repetition  of  a  similar  friendly  ovation  in  Whitman's  honor 
a  year  ago,  in  the  Chestnut  Street  Opera  House  here.  From 
then  until  last  winter,  the  2id  of  February,  when  he  consented 
to  meet  with  his  fellow-members  of  a  new  club  recently  organ- 
ized in  Philadelphia,  and  read  them  some  of  his  poems,  I  suppose 
he  has  not  once  met,  in  town,  with  anything  like  so  large  asocial 
assemblage.  The  rooms  were  crowded,  the  low  platform  was 
invaded;  faces  and  figures,  brighter  and  more  conventional,  were 
close  on  every  side,  but  none  were  so  marked  as  his.  In  the 
midst  of  the  group  about  and  on  the  platform  he  was  still  aloof. 
He  sat  there  in  loose  gray  clothes,  in  a  big  rocking-chair,  his 
neck  free  in  a  wide,  white  turned-over  collar,  the  long  gray  hair 
and  beard  falling  full  upon  it,  his  blue  eyes  looking  a  little  dazed, 
though  masterly  and  unabashed,  when  he  lifted  them  from  his 
glasses  and  his  book  or  MS.  to  gaze  out  over  the  listening  faces 
in  front  of  him.  Poor  poet!  he  looked  more  perplexed  and 
troubled  afterward,  when  he  had  done  reading  and  two  or  three- 
people  undertook  to  talk  over  theories  of  poetic  art  in  general, 
and  his  own  peculiar  methods  in  particular.  He  had  invited  and 
allowed  it,  of  course,  and,  of  course,  it  was  not  the  personal  ele- 
ment in  it  that  bothered  him.  Perhaps  it  was  a  natural  perplex- 
ity (I  will  hazard  the  guess)  in  seeing  that  these  men  evidently- 
had  some  established  code  of  poetic  methods  in  mind  which  they 
called  "art,"  of  which  he,  n.  poet,  never  thought  of  as  a  settled 
thing  cut  out  in  a  finished  block  with  rigid  edges  and  angles 
square,  but^ather  as  sometl  ing  everlastingly  mouldable,  as  his 
baggy  clothes  were  by  the  more  important  body  that  wore  them, 
and  asserted  "Z-c  style  e'est  Vhomme!" 

The  formation  of  this  club,  of  which  he  is  a  member,  was 
quite  an  event  in  Philadelphia  life  last  winter,  and  it  promises  to 
be  of  progressive  interest  for  many  seasons  to  come.  It  was 
formed  upon  the  model  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  Club,  of  New 
York,  and  with  much  the  same  liberal  aim  in  view;  that  is,  to 
gather  together  from  the  various  prominent  elements  of  literary, 
artistic,  scientific,  journalistic,  political  and  social  life  of  the  city, 
a  representative  association  which  would  be  interested  in  the  dis- 
cussion and  consideration  of  all  manner  of  current  subjects, 
competent  to  follow  and  further  the  latest  development  of  thought 
or  experiment  and  to  debate  thereupon,  yet  under  such  pleasant 
social  conditions  as  would  not  only  enlarge  thought  but  stimu- 
late its  best  social  influences.  The  first  general  meeting  was 
called  early  in  January,  and  regulations  and  a  name  were  then 
discussed,  but  not  until  a  later  meeting,. on  the  31st  of  January, 
was  the  Contemporary  Club  duly  christened  and  fully  launched. 
But  at  the  first  earlier  meeting,  one  of  its  members,  who  has 
since  removed  to  New  York,  and  whose  hand  and  mind  may 
now  be  perceived  in  the  editorial  management  of  that  capable  new 
paper,  The  Efocli,  Mr.  Nathan  Haskell  Dole,  the  translator  of 
Anna  Karenina  and  other  Russian  novels,  addressed  the  club  on 
"The  Russian  Language  and  Literature,"  and  some  discussion 
then  followed   upon   Realism  in   Fiction.     It   was  at  the  second 


regular  meeting  of  this  new  club  that  Walt  Whitman  appeared. 
Since  then,  ■■  Vagabond  Life  in  Eastern  Europe"  has  been  des- 
cribed by  Mr.  George  F.  Kennan;  "Some  Recent  Phases  of 
Psycho-Physics"  have  been  reviewed  by  Professor  Stanley  Hall, 
and  the  question,  "  Who  Pays  Wages;  Capital  or  Labor?"  has 
has  been  considered  by  Mr.  Joseph  D.  Weeks. 

Mr.  Kennan's  current  magazine  articles  on  Russian  matters, 
and  his  recent  papers  on  Tolstoi,  in  The  Century,  are  familiar. 
And  his  vivid  narrative  of  travel  and  personal  adventure  was  the 
main  feature  of  the  evening  when  he  spoke  before  the  club,  it 
may  be  understood;  but  not  the  least  interesting  were  the  details 
concerning  the  political  and  intellectual  slavery  of  the  Russians, 
and  the  family,  property,  and  theories  of  Count  Tolstoi,  details 
which  were  elicited  from  Mr.  Kennan's  special  experience  by 
questions  put  by  Mr.  Talcott  Williams,  of  The  Press;  Mr.  Tatui 
Baba,  the  distinguished  Japanese  Radical,  and  by  others.  In 
fact,  the  interchange  of  question  and  answer,  and  the  action  and 
reaction  of  different  views  and  opinions,  which  is  arranged  to 
take  place  upon  the  given  subject  of  the  evening  after  the  stated 
address  is  finished,  is  a  most  valuable  feature  of  the  plan  of  the 
Contemporary  Club.  The  fact  that  these  after-clap  discussions — 
to  say  nothing  of  the  smaller  discussions  thereupon  agitated  in 
social  groups — seemed  to  increase  in  interest  at  each  successive 
meeting,  points  encouragingly  to  the  future  success  and  influence 
of  the  Philadelphia  Club.  Other  signs  of  its  success  are  not 
wanting,  for  its  membership  is  limited  to  a  hundred,  and  its  lim- 
its are  virtually  full,  while  the  list  of  applicants  for  admission  is 
patiently  lengthening  and  awaiting  possible  vacancies.  Why 
should  not  such  liberal  clubs  be  organized  from  the  representative 
elements  of  every  large  city?  And  why  would  it  not  be  desira- 
ble for  such  clubs  to  form  with  each  other  some  social  affiliation? 

Mr.  Weeks,  the  Pittsburgh  iron-king,  who  addressed  the 
club  at  its  final  meeting  for  the  season,  seems  to  have  that  union 
of  practical  and  speculative  ability  peculiar,  I  often  think,  to  the 
New  Englander.  I  was  not  surprised,  on  asking  him,  to  find  that 
he  hailed  from  Connecticut.  It  is  the  Emersonian  temper  to 
hitch  your  wagon  to  a  star;  and  to  make  reforms  practicable  in 
the  business  world  there  is  needed  all  the  shrewd  energy  of  the 
Yankee-ized  American,  for  there  are  difficulties  enough  in  the 
way  of  the  co-operation  of  capital  and  labor,  and  these  were 
brought  out  obstinately  enough  in  the  discussion  that  followed 
Mr.  Weeks'  statement  of  the  theory  that  the  capitalist  advances 
the  money  which  pays  the  wages  labor  earns,  in  the  expectation 
that  the  business  undertaken  will  pay. 

Professor  Hall's  review  of  "  Recent  Phases  of  Psycho-Phys- 
ics" was  cautious,  but  earnest  and  far-seeing,  as  becomes  a  Pro- 
fessor of  Psychology  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University.  The 
speakers  afterward — Mr.  Hodgson,  a  member  of  the  English  So- 
ciety for  Psychical  Research,  and  Professors  Fullerton  and  Jas- 
trow,  of  the  Universily  of  Pennsylvania — were  evidently,  on 
various  grounds,  not  fully  in  accord  with  his  temper  of  approach. 
Mr.  Hodgson,  of  course,  considered  that  Professor  Hall  did  not 
allow  due  weight  to  the  evidence  of  the  English  society's  experi- 
ments. And  some  of  this  evidence  is  curious  enough,  no  doubt, 
as  set  forth  in  the  society's  reports;  but  after  all,  it  can  not  be  a 
a  mistake,  on  the  other  hand,  to  allow  amply  for  the  subtle,  un- 
conscious love  of  deception  and  deceiving  which  must  at  present 
underlie  such  recondite  research;  and  the  most  thoughtful  per- 
sons present  that  night  must  have  felt  that  Professor  Hall  said 
much  when  he  said,  according  to  my  understanding  of  his  words, 
that,  making  all  allowance  for  misconception  and  deception,  there 
was  still  evidence  remaining  of  a  trend  of  things  which  might 
lead  us  to  perceive  that  we  were  on  the  eve  of  the  discovery  of 
some  law  in  psychology  as  powerful  to  alter  our  knowledge 
and  progress  in  its  domain,  as  the  discovery  of  the  law  of  evolu- 
tion was  powerful  in  biology;  that  the  conditions  were  similar  in 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


■19 


psychology  now,  as  in   biology   then,  just  before   that   universal 
principle  was  apprehended. 

The  readers  of  The  Open  Court  will  be  interested  to  hear 
of  the  earnest,  almost  spiritually  scientific,  work  that  Professor 
Hall's  psychology  class  is  now  doing  in  Baltimore.  They  are 
visiting  hospitals  and  asylums  for  the  insane,  collecting  evidence 
from  close  experience  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and 
gathering  knowledge  of  their  brothers,  which,  subjected  to  scien- 
tific scrutiny,  sifting  and  arrangement,  may  do  much  to  prepare 
a  wider  moral  knowledge.  If  they  were  to  do  nothing  directly 
available  to  knowledge,  yet,  to  put  us  on  the  way  to  find  methods 
of  approach  in  this  great  field  of  apprehension,  would  be  to  give 
progress  a  leading  question.  We  may  take  the  hint  that  the 
moral  outlook  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  is  deep,  earnest  and  stirring. 
C.  P. 

LETTER  FROM   NEW  YORK. 

To  the  Editors  :  J  u  N  E ,  i  SS  7 . 

Summer  is  upon  us,  full-fledged,  and  those  who  can  do  so  are 
leaving  the  city.  Fashionable  churches  will  soon  be  closed,  and 
they  who  most  need  access  to  these  cool  and  beautifully  seques- 
tered places  which  are  open  only  three  or  four  hours  in  the  week, 
at  most,  are  deprived  of  shade  and  comfort  during  the  heat  of 
summer.  I  say  nothing  of  spiritual  refreshment,  which  is  sup- 
posed to  be  their  raison  d'etre,  though  that  ought  to  be  a  higher 
motive  than  the  other  for  keeping  them  open.  How  many  mil- 
lions of  dollars  are  thus  locked  up  in  the  heart  of  this  city  at  a 
period  when  every  nerve  of  the  worker  cries  out  for  space  and 
shade,  only  the  expert  statistician  can  approximate. 

Bishop  Potter  has  set  on  foot  a  scheme  to  build  a  grand  cathe- 
dral, to  cost,  with  the  land  upon  which  it  is  to  be  built,  not  less 
than  $6,000,000.  Miss  Wolfe's  bequest  to  the  Bishop  affords  a 
nucleus,  and  subscriptions  are  rapidly  coming  in.  The  Episcopal 
church  in  New  York  is  very  rich  and  generous — as  far,  at  least, 
as  the  good  of  the  church  is  concerned. 

One  of  the  ostensible  objects  in  building  the  cathedral  is  to 
impress  the  public  with  the  grandeur  and  dignity  of  the  Episcopal 
form  of  worship ;  another  and  better  is  to  furnish  to  that  public  a 
place  of  rest  which  shall  always  be  open  to  the  weary  and  heavy- 
laden.  Daily  service  will  afford  a  sinecure  to  a  large  number  of 
resident  priests.  With  so  many  churches  already  closed  thirty- 
nine  fortieths  of  the  time,  it  seems  pitiful  that  these  should  not 
be  made  oases  along  our  hot  thoroughfares,  and  the  six  millions 
be  saved  for  industrial  schools  or  other  practical  enterprises.  If 
is  probably  too  much  to  expect  that,  however. 

Meantime,  the  crusade  against  land  monopoly  and  priestly 
oppression,  headed  by  Father  McGlynn,  assumes  gigantic  propor- 
tions. No  one  who  has  not  carefully  followed  its  course  can  right- 
fully conceive  what  may  be  its  scope  and  extent.  The  daily  papers 
report  Father  McGlynn's  meetings  as  they  would  report  Bar- 
num's  circus;  to  them  they  afford  sensational  news  of  the  day.  In 
reality,  there  is  a  widespread  and  spontaneous  movement  for  which 
society  has  long  been  in  process  of  evolution,  which  has  its  center 
in  this  city.  The  scouts  upon  its  flank,  composed  of  foreign 
emissaries,  may  be  anarchists;  but  there  is  nothing  more  grand 
and  pathetic  than  the  patient  self-possession  and  repression  of 
those  who  compose  the  rank  and  file  of  the  main  body  of 
agitators. 

Of  this  semi-religious  movement,  undertaken  in  a  great 
measure  by  Catholics,  Father  McGlynn  is  the  real  exponent  and 
leader.  Forced  into  the  van  by  temperament  and  religious  convic- 
tion, he  is  not  the  man  to  yield  craven  submission  to  the  Pope  or 
to  take  any  retrograde  step. 

When  he  is  about  to  speak  four  or  five  thousands  vainly  seek 
admission  after  the  largest  hall  in  the  city  is  filled.  The  audience 
is  made  up  of  workingmen  with  their  wives  and  daughters,  at  the 


weekly  meetings  of  the   Anti-Poverty  Society,  and   not  a  police- 
man is  to  be  seen. 

When  Father  McGlynn  comes  to  the  front  he  is  greeted  with 
an  enthusiasm  that  finds  vent  alike  in  cheers  and  tears,  and  it  is 
long  before  the  tumult  ceases.  Those  who  give  this  ovation  are 
mostly  Catholics  who  have  been  helplessly  bound  to  the  Jugger- 
naut of  a  foreign  Pope,  and  here  is  one  of  themselves  who  is 
gradually  loosening  their  chains  while  breaking  his  own  thrall- 
dom.  As  he  stands  before  them,  big-bodied,  big-brained  and  big- 
souled,  with  a  noble,  overhanging  brow,  massive  chin  and  determ- 
ined mouth,  one  moment  stern  as  fate,  again  quivering  with  Irish 
wit  or  drooping  with  sympathy,  meanwhile  pouring  out  his  fervid 
soul  in  natural  oratory,  the  spectator  realizes  something  of  his 
peculiar  influence. 

The  workingman  to  whom  he  speaks  is  fairly  intelligent  and 
altogether  self-respecting;  he  is  in  earnest,  and  he  is  multiplying 
in  power  and  numbers.  And  Father  McGlynn  is  his  prophet. 
No  man  was  ever  more  loved  than  he,  and  no  man,  since  Luther, 
has  had  the  opportunity  and  provocation  to  become  the  leader  in  a 
church  reform  which,  very  likely,  may  j-et  be  felt  from  Rome  to 
'ts  farthest  circumference. 

Concerning  the  peculiar  land  theories  held  by  Father  Mc- 
Glynn and  his  friend  Henry  George,  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak. 
We  are  only  considering  his  influence  upon  religious  thought. 

The  Protestant  clergy,  as  a  whole,  are  afraid  of  Father  Mc- 
Glynn, yet  there  is  a  distinct  growth  in  liberal  thought  among 
them  from  year  to  year.  From  Beecher's  popularity  and  power 
they  have  learned  to  let  creeds  alone  or  handle  them  with  gloved 
fingers.  They  choose  more  practical  topics  and  give  illustrations 
from  real  life  more  freely  than  they  did  five  years  ago,  and  they  are 
eager  for  accessions  to  their  ranks.  For  instance,  a  ladj'  belong- 
ing to  the  liberal  school  of  thought,  living  in  a  small  suburb  of 
New  York,  lately  joined  the  Dutch  Reformed  church  in  order  to 
secure  social  advantages  otherwise  wanting.  "  Do  you  love 
Christ?"  was  the  only  question  asked  by  the  pastor  and  brethren 
in  examining  the  candidate.  "What  do  you  mean  by  that  phrase?" 
she  returned.  "Well,  do  \ou  love  the  principles  of  fraternal  love 
and  righteousness  which  he  taught?"  "  Most  certainly  I  do," 
she  replied,  and  that  was  all  they  required.  There  was  no  sug- 
gestion of  the  atonement  or  other  mysterious  articles  of  ortho- 
dox faith  to  which  she  could  not  have  subscribed.  And  this  case 
is  a  type  of  many  more.  Comment  upon  the  honesty  of  all  con- 
cerned is  unnecessary. 

Is  it  not  a  part  of  the  great  liberal  religious  movement  that  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Letters  has  just  been  conferred  on  Colum- 
bia College's  first  woman  graduate?  Miss  Hankey,  of  Staten 
Island,  passed  the  Harvard  examination,  four  years  ago,  on  twenty 
branches  of  study.  She  has  taken  the  full  course  at  Columbia 
and  passed  all  its  examinations  with  a  remarkably  high  standing. 
Four  prizes  were  awarded  her  for  excellence  in  chemistry.  Miss 
Hankey  was  not  permitted  to  attend  lectures  or  recite,  and  all 
her  study  was  done  without  the  stimulus  of  teachers  or  follow- 
students.  Her  graduating  thesis  on  "  The  Literature  of  Greece  " 
won  high  encomiums,  and  President  Barnard  has  watched  her 
course  with  surprise  and  delight. 

Hester  M.  Poole. 


D.  A.   WASSON'S   POEMS. 

To  the  Editors:  Jamaica   Plains,  Mass. 

According  to  the  wish  of  the  late  Mr.  D.  A.  Wasson,  I  pro- 
pose to  arrange  and  publish  a  collection  of  his  poems.  Many  of 
these  have  become  very  dear  and  precious  to  those  who  have 
known  them  in  MSS.,  or  in  various  collections,  or  in  magazines.  It 
is  desirable  to  make  the  collection  of  his  best  productions  as  com- 
plete  as  possible,   and  I   have  already  received  copies  of  poems 


280 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


from  private  sources,  which  were  unpublished  and  unknown  to 
me.  I  shall  be  very  grateful  to  any  one  possessing  such  poems 
who  will  send  them  to  me  or  give  me  information  in  regard  to 
them.  Ednah  D.  Cheney. 

BOOK   REVIEWS. 

Gedenkhuch.      Erinnerung    an     Karl    Heinzen.      Milwaukee: 

Freidenker  Publishing  Co.,  18S7. 

This  pamphlet  of  107  pages  shows  how  well  Heinzen  deserved 
the  monument  dedicated  to  him  at  Forest  Hill,  near  Boston,  a 
year  ago,  with  the  inscription  "  His  life  work  the  elevation  of  man- 
kind." He  was  driven,  on  account  of  his  share  in  the  revolution 
of  184S,  from  Germany,  and  became  in  1S53  the  editor  of  an  anti- 
slavery  journal  at  Louisville,  Kentucky,  where  his  press  was  de- 
stroyed by  a  mob.  Among  seventy-seven  other  publications  are 
several  in  English,  for  instance,  those  entitled  Mankind  the  Crim- 
inal, Six  Letters  to  a  Pious  Man,  The  True  Character  of  Humboldt, 
and  What  is  Humanity?  The  last  was  published  in  1S77.  The 
speeches  at  his  funeral,  in  1SS0,  and  at  the  dedication  of  the  monu- 
ment, by  Messrs.  S.  R.  Kohler,  R.  Lieber  and  C.  H.  Boppe, 
editor  of  the  freidenker,  are  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  brief 
biographical  sketches,  and  with  the  extracts  from  his  writings. 
The  spirit  of  these  last  may  be  judged  from  the  words:  "  I  could 
be  perfectly  contented  at  seeing  the  world  go  to  ruin  if  a  lie  was 
needed  to  save  it."  "  It  is  a  law  of  history,  as  it  is  a  law  of  botany, 
that  no  fruit  can  come  forth  and  ripen  unless  the  ideal  blossoms 
first  drop  off  and  are  forgotten."  "  Never  have  I  covered  up  truth 
as  contraband.  I  have  always  lighted  the  torch  of  thought  com- 
pletely, and  announced  my  entire  purpose."  F.  m.  ii. 


Try-Square,  or  The  Church  of  Practical  Religion.  By 
Reforter.  New  York  Truth  Seeker  Co.;  pp.  312. 
This  purports  to  give  the  history  of  an  independent  society 
started  by  a  plain,  blunt,  yet  thoughtful  and  practical  man  named 
Job  Sawyer,  in  a  place  called  Pinville.  The  author  professes  only 
to  give  notes  of  the  movement  as  a  reporter.  The  organization 
was  called  "The  Church  of  Practical  Religion,"  and  "Try-Square" 
was  the  rule  by  which  the  organizer  tested  his  own  and  the 
society's  work.  This  rule  was  "every  act  or  word  that  will  result 
in  injury  to  anybody  is  wrong  and  is  prohibited.  No  other  act  or 
word  is  prohibited."  Uncle  Job  Sawyer  explains  that  "  after  using 
this  rule  constantly  for  some  time  I  began  to  call  it  my  Try-Square 
from  the  similarity  in  the  manner  of  its  use  to  the  little  implement 
called  by  that  name  used  by  carpenters  and  some  other  mechanics 
to  determine  whether  their  work  is  square  and  correct."  Many 
questions  of  importance  are  discussed  in  the  plain  talks  reported 
as  given  by  "  Uncle  Job  "  in  a  sensible,  earnest  way.  Law,  property, 
temperance,  infidelity,  conscience,  death,  etc.,  are  among  these  ques- 
tions. The  book  is  radical  in  tone,  but  temperate  in  spirit  and 
utterance. 

The  Art  Amateur  for  June,  which  is  numbered  1  of  Vol. 
XVII,  appears  in  its  new  cover.  This  is  neat  and  unobjectionable. 
But  our  designers  must  either  be  very  fully  employed,  or  very  un- 
skillful, if  a  hundred-dollar  prize  could  bring  out  nothing  more 
original  or  beautiful  than  a  medallion  with  a  head  of  Minerva 
and  a  ribbon  string.  However,  the  contents  are  good,  if  the  out- 
side be  plain,  as  is  often  the  case  with  many  things  in  this 
world.  The  most  valuable  paper  of  this  number  is  a  sketch  of 
the  "Life  and  Works  of  Sir  Frederick  Leighton,"  the  President 
of  the  Royal  Academy,  illustrated  by  fac  similes  of  some  of  his 
drawings.  The  most  interesting  of  these  is  a  study  for  his  paint- 
ing of  Cymon  Iphigenia,  a  very  beautiful  female  head,  reclining, 
with  the  arms  raised  over  it.  There  is  also  a  study  of  drapery 
and   heads   from   the   studies  for  the  ceiling  of   Mr.  Maynard's 


home  in  New  York.  The  portrait  of  the  artist  himself  gives  the 
impression  of  a  handsome  Englishman,  strong,  intelligent,  brave 
and  frank,  and  there  are  woodcuts  of  other  pleasant  subjects. 
Beside  the  usual  notices  of  saloons  and  art  gossip,  we  were 
specially  interested  in  an  instructive  note  on  "  Composite  Pho- 
tography," pointing  out  the  fallacy  to  which  this  method  is  liable, 
especially  from  what  is  called  atomic  inertia.  A  good  illustra- 
tion of  this  art  is  given  in  a  composite  photograph  of  a  literary 
club  of  nine  young  ladies.  The  result  is  very  pleasing,  and  tends 
to  show  that  literature  is  favorable  both  to  health  and  beauty. 
We  might  quote  many  bright  things  from  this  excellent  number, 
but  as  we  could  not  copy  the  many  fine  designs  our  readers  had 
better  get  it  for  themselves. 


A  very  lovely  frontispiece  illustrates  Professor  H.  H.  Boye- 
sen's  Norwegien  story  "  Fiddle  John's  Family,"  begun  in  the 
July  number  of  St.  Nicholas.  Other  delightful  illustrations  of 
English  scenery  accompany  Frank  Stockton's  "In  English  Coun- 
try." Palmer  Cox,  Isabel  Frances  Bellows,  Charles  G.  Leland, 
Mary  E.  Wilkins  and  Anna  M.  Pratt  are  among  this  month's  con- 
tributors. The  National  Holiday  is  paid  due  respect  to,  in  prose 
and  verse. 

Treasure  Trove  is  one  of  the  best  as  well  as  cheapest  of  the 
young  people's  magazines.  In  the  June  number,  the  Queen's 
Jubilee  is  commemorated  by  a  pictorial  and  prose  sketch  of  Vic- 
toria and  a  chapter  descriptive  of"  Parliament  and  the  Tower,"  and 
Fourth  of  July  by  an  article  on  "  Bunker  Hill."  Instruction 
as  well  as  amusement  is  the  aim  of  this  publication.  151  Wabash 
avenue,  Chicago.     $1.00  per  year. 


The  West  American  Scientist  says: 

Germanium  is  an  addition  to  the  list  of  known  elementary 
substances,  discovered  by  Dr.  Clemens  Winkler,  a  German 
chemist.  It  exists  in  combination  with  silver  and  sulphur  in 
agyrodite,  a  new  mineral. 


PRESS  NOTICES. 


Its  m;itter  is  wholly  original,  and  it  is  ably  edited. — Fciirhaven  (Mass.)  Star. 

Some  of  the  most  able  and  influential  thinkers  of  the  age  contribute  to  its 
pages. — Syracuse  (Neb.)  journal. 

It  is  a  very  interesting  and  instructive  publication,  and  its  articles  are  con- 
tributed by  a  bevy  of  writers  of  well-deserved  celebrity.  Published  at  Chicago, 
$3  a  year,  15  cents  a  number. — Maiden  (Mass.)  Mirror. 

The  Open  Court,  a  fortnightly  journal,  now  established  in  Chicago, 
reaches  its  eighth  number  this  week.  Its  elegantly  printed  pages  are  crowded 
with  the  choicest  epigrammatic  literature  of  the  best  thinkers  and  philosophical 
writers  of  the  age. —  The  Graphic  Nezus. 

The  Open  Court  is  the  title  of  a  new  publication  that  reaches  us  from 
Chicago — a  fortnightly  review,  which  numbers  among  its  contributors  such 
writers  as  James  Parton,  M,  D.  Conway,  John  Burroughs,  Felix  Oswald,  etc. 
The  price  is  three  dollars  a  year,  and  it  is  richly  worth  it. — Ne-.u  E)igland 
Observer,  Keene,  N.  H. 

The  current  number  of  The  Open  Court,  published  at  Chicago,  contains 
a  large  array  of  special  contributions  on  various  subjects,  able  editorials  on 
timely  topics,  correspondence,  poetry,  and  book  reviews.  The  Open  Court 
is  destined  to  take  rank  as  one  of  the  foremost  of  American  periodicals. — 
Lebandon  (Ind.)    Pioneer. 

The  Open  Court,  a  fortnightly  journal,  issued  from  Chicago,  is  before  \is. 
This  new  publication  isdevot-d  to  the  work  of  establishing  ethics  and  religion 
upon  a  scientific  basis.  Those  who  enjoy  solid  reading  matter,  furnishing  food 
for  earnest  thought,  will  be  greatly  interested  in  The  Open  Court. — National 
City  Record,  San  Diego,  Cal. 

The  current  number  of  The  Open  Court,  a  fortnightly  journal  published 
in  Chicago  and  devoted  to  the  work  of  establishing  ethics  and  religion  upon 
a  scientific  basis,  is  full  of  interesting  and  instructive  matter.  Prof.  Max 
Muller  contributes  an  article  on  the  "Simplicity  of  Language  "  "The  Relation 
of  the  Doctrine  of  Population  to  Social  Reform"  is  an  article  filled  with  brain 
food  for  the  reformer,  while  the  ultra-scientist  would  find  much  in  Richard  A. 
Proctor's  "Common  Consent  and  the  Future  Life."  "Present  Aims,"  by 
Arthur  R.  Kimball,  is  another  splendid  essay.— Peoria(l]\.)A'atiouai Democrat. 


The  Open  Court 


A  Fortnightly  Journal, 


Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and  Religion  Upon  a  Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  n. 


CHICAGO,  JULY  7,  1887. 


(  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
)  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


[The  second  of  Prof.  F.  Max  Miiller's  three  lectures 
on  the  "Science  of  Thought"  is  commenced  in  this 
issue.  This  lecture  on  "  The  Identity  of  Language 
and  Thought,"  and  the  third,  on  the  "  Simplicity 
of  Thought,"  not  published  nor  to  be  published  in 
England,  have  been  secured  exclusively  for  The 
Open  Court,  in  which  both  will  be  printed  from  the 
author's  manuscript.  This  distinguised  philologist 
believes  that  language  is  the  history  of  human  thought, 
and  no  other  man  living  probably  is  as  competent  as  he 
to  read  this  history  understandingly,  especially  those 
pages  which  indicate  how  men  reasoned  and  what  they 
thought  during  the  world's  intellectual  childhood.] 


THE  IDENTITY  OF    LANGUAGE  AND  THOUGHT.* 

BY     PROF.    F.    MAX    MULLER. 

One   of  three   Lectures   on  the  Science    of  Thought   delivered   at 

the  Royal  Institution,  London,  March,  1S7S. 

Part    1. 

Language,  under  the  microscope  of  the  compara- 
tive philologist,  has  turned  out  to  be  a  very  simple  thing. 
With  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  radical  concepts 
and  twenty  demonstrative  elements  we  could  build  up  a 
dictionary  and  a  grammar  rich  enough  to  supplv  all  the 
demands  of  Shakespeare;  and  surely  more  than  that,  no 
language  can  fairly  be  called  upon  to  supply.  I  stated 
in  my  last  lecture  that  I  had  succeeded  in  reducing  all 
actual  roots  of  Sanskrit,  about  eight  hundred  in  number, 
to  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  concepts,  but  I  added 
that  the  number  of  concepts  might  easily  have  been  re- 
duced still  further.  The  fecundity  of  these  roots  and 
the  pliancy  of  our  fundamental  concepts  are  perfectly 
astounding.  If  you  take  the  concept  of  uniting,  or  put- 
ting two  and  two  together,  you  find  it  expressed  by  seven- 
teen different  roots.  No  doubt,  every  one  of  these  roots 
had  originally  a  more  special  meaning.  Some  meant  to 
plait,  others  to  sow,  to  weave,  to  bunch,  to  roll,  to  tie. 
But  every  one  of  them  might  have  been  generalized  and 
afterward  again  specialized  to  such  an  extent  that  it 
could  have  supplied  every  verb,  noun,  adjective  or  ad- 
verb expressive  of  some  kind  of  union ;  that  is  to  say,  one 
root  might,  if  necessary,  have  done  the  work  of  seven- 
teen. 


'  Copyright,  1SS7,  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 


Now,  if  I  took  only  one  of  these  seventeen  roots,  all 
meaning  to  unite,  I  am  afraid  I  should  spend  the  whole 
of  my  lecture,  if  I  attempted  to  give  you  all  its  deriva- 
tions in  Sanskrit,  Greek,  Latin  and  English.  What  I 
wish  to  make  quite  clear  to  you  is,  how  words  and  con- 
cepts, which  seem  to  us  quite  modern,  belong  neverthe- 
less to  what  we  should  call  the  very  granite  of  our 
thoughts.  The  growth  of  our  thoughts  has  been  his- 
torical and  continuous.  Many  of  the  intermediate  links 
may  have  been  forgotten  or  lost,  but  they  were  there, 
and  it  is  the  object  of  the  Science  of  Language  to  restore 
them,  and  thus  to  furnish  a  safe  foundation  for  the 
Science  of  Thought. 

We  shall  probably  consider  fashionable  a  very  mod- 
ern word,  and  so  it  is;  still  it  is  closely  connected  with 
Latin  factio;  c  meant  originally  the  make  or  cut  of  a  gar- 
ment, whether  of  a  raw  skin,  as  worn  by  a  primitive 
hunter,  or  of  the  most  stylish  sealskin  dolmanette  of  the 
present  season.  We  do  not  imagine  that  anything  will 
have  seemed  what  we  call  queer  to  the  primitive  and 
sober  ancestors  of  our  race.  Still,  queer  is  only  the 
German  que/;  what  runs  across  and  out  of  this  a  name  for 
every  kind  of  oddity  or  extravagance  has  been  formed. 
What  we  call  righteous  was  originally*  conceived  as 
right  and.  straight,  straightforward; and  the  root  of  right 
is  ARG,  which  means  to  lead,  to  steer,  from  which 
also  rux,  a  ruler,  a  king,  royal  and  all  the  rest.  Gay  is 
the  German  gahe,  literally  going,  or,  as  we  now  say, 
going  it.  I  'apil  is."  like  smoke  " ;  rapturous,  from  rapio, 
what  carries  us  away.  Noble,  Latin  nobilis,  from  the 
root  GNA,  to  know,  meant  originally  "  worth  know- 
ing," which  gives  us  a  high  idea  of  the  Roman  nobility, 
at  least  in  its  first  beginnings.  In  Kingley's  expression, 
"  one  of  nature's  own  noblemen,"  the  original  meaning 
is  still  faintly  perceptible. 

What  I  wish  you  to  see  is,  that  there  never  was  any 
break  in  language,  that  all  that  is  new  in  it  is  old,  and 
all  that  is  old  is  new,  and  that  if  we  take  a»y  of  the  eight 
hundred  primitive  roots,  or  any  of  the  one  hundred  and 
twenty  simple  concepts,  we  can  derive  from  it  any 
quantity  of  words  to  satisfy  every  fancy  of  our  mind. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  root  Y  AS,  which  in  a  primitive 
state  of  society  expressed  the  act  of  tethering  or  snaring. 

In  Sanskrit  this  root  helps  us  to  express  cattle;  pasu, 
which  is  the  Latin  pecus,  Gothic  faihu,  German  vieh, 
cattle;    also  pecunia   and  pecus,  our  lawyer's  fee.     It 


282 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


supplies,  besides,  pasa,  fetter,  and  similar  words.  Now, 
when  we  have  a  word  for  animal,  such  as  pecus, we  have 
also  the  material  for  expressing  such  concepts  as  peculiar, 
the  transition  of  meaning  being  clear  enough  from  pecu- 
lium,  one's  private  property,  to  peculiaris,  anything  that 
is  one's  own, — anything  that  is  proper,  singular,  indi- 
vidual, and,  it  may  be,  odd.  It  is  difficult  to  resist  the 
siren  songs  of  language,  and  not  to  follow  her  into  all 
her  flights  of  imagination.  Every  word,  as  soon  as  we 
hear  it,  carries  us  off  to  near  and  distant  memories.  They 
float  about  us  like  thin  gossamer  filaments  in  autumn. 
But  we  must  for  the  present  resist  the  temptation  of 
catching  at  them,  and  confine  our  attention  to  a  few  only 
of  the  principal  concepts,  expressed  by  means  of  our 
root  PAkS".  In  Greek,  then,  this  rootdoes  not  only  supply 
the  concept  of  fastening,  but  also  that  of  standing  fast. 
nbrrrya  means  "I  stand  fast,"  and  this  is  a  great  step 
beyond  "  I  make  fast."  We  have  here  the  constantly- 
recurring  process  of  a  root  expressive  of  an  act  becom- 
ing a  root  expressive  of  a  state.  Again,  what  is  "  made 
fast "  means  not  only  what  is  compact  and  solid,  but  also 
what  is  curdled  and  frozen.  Rime,  frost,  hoar-frost,  all 
are  expressed  by  this  root;  besides  this,  the  ice,  or  the 
scum  on  the  surface  of  milk, — any  raised  surface,  in  fact, 
— comes  to  be  called  wayoc,  a  mound,  a  hill,  as,  for 
instance,  Areopagus,  the  hill  of  Ares  at  Athens,  and  the 
great  council  held  there.  What  is  thick  is  called  from 
the  same  root,  TrayiV,  from  which  pachy-dermatous,  or 
thick-skinned.  Lastly,  as  we  say  twofold,  from  folding, 
the  Greeks  said  u-n-ai,  once,  literally  "  one  stick;" 
German  Ein-fach. 

If  we  look  to  Latin  we  find  an  equally  large  harvest. 
Here  such  coiTcepts  as  settling,  agreeing,  making  peace, 
are  expressed  by  the  root  FAS,  in  paciscor,  pact  its  sum, 
in  pax,  peace,  pacare  to  pacify,  and  this  pacare  helps  us 
to  express  the  idea  of  payment,  for  to  pay  was  originally 
conceived  as  to  pacify,  just  as  a  quittance  was  a  quieting. 
It  is  so  difficult,  as  I  said  just  now,  to  resist  the  tempta- 
tion of  following  language  through  all  her  vagaries. 
But  when  one  speaks  of  quietus  and  giving  the  quietus, 
and  all  that,  one  cannot  help  thinking  of  the  different 
shades  of  meaning  which  so  simple  and  harmless  a  word 
as  quietus  is  able  to  reflect.  Quietus  in  English  is  not 
only  quiet,  but  also  quite,  entirely,  as  in  quyte  and  dene, 
i.  e.,  quietly  and  cleanly,  that  is,  altogether;  while  the 
same  word,  after  passing  through  French,  appears  once 
more  as  coy  and  coyish,  a  word  of  a  very  peculiar  flavor, 
which  can  only  be  approximately  rendered  by  quiet, 
modest,  bashful  or  retired. 

But  to  return  to  pdx  and  peace.  We  find  in  Latin 
still  a  large  number  of  words  and  derivatives  all  spring- 
ing from  the  same  root.  There  is  pignits,  a  pledge, 
there  is  pdgina,  a  page,  there  is  propdgo,  a  layer,  then 
offspring  in  general;  there  is  also  pdgus,  a  settlement,  a 
village,  and  from  it  paganus,  a  pagan,  a  heathen. 


In  German  this  root  is  bifurcated,  being  either  fah 
or  fang.  Thus  fallen  in  modern  German  is  to  catch, 
but  also  fangen,  from  which  gefangen,  captured, 
Gefingniss,  prison.  Fdhig  means  able  to  clutch,  but 
afterward  capable,  clever;  and  Fdhigkeit  is  the  name  for 
talent.  Fair  has  also  been  traced  to  Anglo  Saxon  facger, 
Gothic  fagr-s,  literally  fit,  then  beautiful,  then  kind.  On 
the  other  hand,  finger  seems  originally  to  have  meant 
taker,  just  as  fang  in  English  is  a  tusk  or  a  claw.  All 
these  words  are  only  like  peaks  standing  out  by  themselves, 
but  if  we  had  time  we  should  find  every  one  of  them 
surrounded  by  greater  or  smaller  heights  all  leading  up 
to  the  same  summit.  The  one  verb  fangen  enables  us 
to  express  an  infinity  of  thoughts  in  German.  An- 
fangen  means  to  begin,  Um-fangen  means  to  embrace, 
verfangen  means  to  catch,  from  which  vcrfinglich,  lit- 
erally perplexing,  as  einc  verfdngliche  Frage,  an  awk- 
ward question.  Fmpfangen  means  to  receive,  empfdng- 
lich  may  express  receptive,  but  also  sympathetic,  senti- 
mental, and  all  that.  Unterfangen  is  to  undertake,  but 
it  has  the  by-sense  of  a  bold  undertaking. 

All  this  is  only  meant  to  give  you  an  idea  of  the 
enormous  variety  of  thought  that  can  be  traced  back, 
and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  took  its  rise  from  one  single 
root  such  as  PA6",  to  tether.  Whether  we  speak  of 
peculiar  people  or  of  peace  of  mind,  of  pagans  or  of 
the  propagation  of  the  gospel,  of  a  page  of  writing  or 
of  the  Areopagus,  of  Gefingniss,  prison,  or  of  ein 
cmpfdngliches  Hcrz,  a  susceptible  heart,  we  do  it  all  by 
means  of  one  and  the  same  primary  concept, — PA.S, 
to  tether. 

Multiply  that  power  eight  hundred  times, — that  is  to 
say,  take  any  one  of  the  eight  hundred  roots  and  draw 
from  them  as  Sanskrit,  Greek,  Latin  and  German  have 
drawn  from  that  one  root  PA-S1, — and  you  will  see  that  a 
language  with  such  a  capital  might  be  as  rich  as  Croesus. 

We  have  now  learned  what  language  is,  what  it  is 
made  of,  and  we  are,  I  think,  justified  in  saying  that  it 
represents  the  simplest  miracle  in  the  world. 

Let  us  now  turn  our  eyes  on  thought.  Is  thought  a 
very  perplexing  thing?  -Is  it  very  complicated,  way- 
ward like  the  wind,  tortuous  like  the  convolutions  of  the 
brain,  inscrutable  like  the  sidereal  nebulae?  It  seems  so. 
If  anything  is  mysterious,  it  has  often  been  said  it  is 
our  mind;  if  anything  is  wonderful  it  is  our  understand- 
ing; if  anything  lifts  us  above  the  whole  of  creation  it 
is  our  reason.  Even  those  who  use  sober  and  subdued 
language  about  everything  else,  break  out  into  rapturous 
strains  when  they  speak  about  the  intellect  and  all  that 
has  been  achieved  by  that  old  wizard. 

I  shall  try  to  show  you  that  nothing  is  so  easy  to  be 
understood  as  our  understanding,  nothing  so  perfectly 
reasonable  as  our  reason,  and  that  the  whole  of  our 
intellect,  all  the  tricks  of  the  wizard  in  our  brain,  con- 
sist in  nothing  but  —  addition  and  subtraction. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


283 


This  is  no  new  discovery,  but  it  is  a  discovery  that  is 
very  apt  to  be  forgotten !  One  of  the  cleverest  and 
most  consecutive  thinkers  whom  this  country  or  the 
world  has  produced  —  I  quote  the  words  of  Stuart  Mill 
—  declared,  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  that 
thinking  consisted  simply  in  addition  and  subtraction. 

This  sounds  very  discouraging;  but  you  have  only 
to  try  and  you  will  find  that  Hobbes  was  perfectly 
right.  And  not  only  Hobbes,  but  much  more  ancient 
philosophers  too.  Whoever  it  was  that  invented  the 
word  cogito,  knew  that  to  think  was  to  combine,  for 
cogito  stands  for  co-agito  and  means  to  co-agitate,  to 
bring  together,  to  combine;  and  it  is  clear  that  we  can- 
not combine  two  or  many  things  without  at  the  same 
time  separating  them  from  all  the  rest. 

Whoever  found  out  the  word  intellect,  had  learnt 
the  same  lesson.  Intellect  stand  for  inter-lcct,  and 
inter-lego,  meant  originally  to  interlace,  to  bind  together, 
to  combine,  and  that  is  all  that  the  intellect  is  meant  and 
is  able  to  achieve. 

Any  book  on  logic  will  teach  you  the  same  lesson, 
namely  that  all  our  propositions  are  either  affirmative  or 
negative,  that  we  can  do  no  more  than  to  say  A  is  B,  or 
that  A  is  not  B.  Now  in  saying  A  is  B,  we  simply  add 
A  to  the  sum  already  comprehended  under  B,  while  in 
saying  A  is  not  B,  we  subtract  A  from  the  sum  that  can 
be  comprehended  under  B. 

But  why  should  it  be  considered  as  lowering  our 
high  status,  if  what  we  call  thinking  turns  out  to  be  no 
more  than  adding  and  subtracting?  Mathematics  in  the 
end  consists  of  nothing  but  addition  and  subtraction,  and 
think  of  the  wonderful  achievements  of  a  Newton  or  a 
Gauss,  achievements  before  which  ordinary  mortals  like 
myself  stand  simply  aghast.  To  my  mind  nothing  is 
greater  than  to  see  the  greatest  results  achieved  by  the 
smallest  means,  and  if  our  race  has  completed  the  work 
which  we  most  admire,  the  temple  of  our  intellect,  by 
such  natural  processes  as  combining  and  separating) 
surely  we  may  be  as  proud  to  belong  to  it  as  if  we 
belonged  to  a  race  of  giants  or  angels. 

There  is  nothing  new  in  all  this,  it  is  one  of  those 
open  secrets  which  are  not  often  mentioned,  but  which 
everybody  knows,  as  soon  as  they  are  mentioned,  though 
it  may  be  that  some  people  do  not  like  to  be  reminded 
of  them. 

But  though  the  process  of  thinking,  that  is  of  add- 
ing and  subtracting,  is  so  simple,  much  depends  of 
course  on  what  we  combine  or  separate.  Now  what  is 
it  that  we  combine  and  separate?  Most  people  would 
answer,  we  combine  and  separate  what  is  given  us  by 
our  senses,  and  they  might  say  again,  that  nothing  can 
be  simpler  than  what  we  see  or  hear,  or  smell  or  touch. 
Whole  systems  of  philosophy  have  been  built  upon 
what  is  called  experience,  and  this  so-called  experience 
is  supposed  to  be  so  obvious,  so  natural,  so  intelligible, 


that  nothing  need  be  said  about  it.  True  philosophy, 
on  the  contrary,  knows  of  nothing  more  difficult,  more 
perplexing,  more  beyond  the  reach  of  all  our  reasoning 
powers  than  what  is  called  experience.  Kant's  whole 
philosophy  may  be  said  to  be  founded  on  the  question : 
"How  is  experience  possible?"  Here,  too,  the  stone 
which  other  builders  refused,  is  become  the  head-stone 
of  the  corner. 

It  is  curious  to  see  how  the  senses  and  what  they 
give  us  are  treated  with  undisguised  contempt  by  many 
so-called  philosophers.  Do  we  not  share  our  senses  with 
the  animals — they  seem  to  say,  and  is  it  not,  therefore, 
the  lowest  kind  of  knowledge  which  man  possesses? 
Why  trouble  about  what  we  can  handle  and  see  and 
hear?  Any  one  can  understand  that,  and  there  is  much 
higher  game  for  real  philosophers.  To  me  it  seems,  on 
the  contrary,  that  there  is  nothing  more  mysterious  than 
what  the  senses  give  us.  We  can  understand  our  un- 
derstanding, we  can  reason  out  our  reason,  but  we  can 
as  little  understand  what  we  see  and  hear,  as  we  can  see 
and  hear  what  we  understand.  Our  sensuous  knowl- 
edge, so  far  as  its  material  is  concerned,  will  always  re- 
main the  standing  miracle  of  our  life  on  earth.  So  far 
from  despising  it  as  obvious,  palpable  and  plain,  we 
should  rather  fall  down  on  our  knees  before  it  as  the 
unknown,  the  unknowable,  the  beyond. 

But  though  this  beyond — what  Kant  calls  das  Ding 
an  sick,  must  forever  remain  unknown,  we  know  at 
least  what  we  have  made  of  it — that  is,  we  know  what 
it  has  become  when  we  know  it.  I  need  not  dwell  in 
this  place  on  the  well-worn  argument  that  we  never  can 
know  a  thing  as  it  is  by  itself.  To  know  a  thing  by 
itself  would  mean  to  know  it,  not  as  we  know  it,  but 'as 
we  do  not  know  it,  and  that  is  clearly  self-contradictory. 
Then  what  do  we  know?  We  never  know  things,  but 
we  are  conscious  of  our  sensations  only.  We  first  of  all 
feel  pain  and  pleasure,  hot  and  cold,  sweet  and  bitter, 
but  that  is  feeling  and  not  yet  knowing.  In  order  to 
change  feeling  into  knowledge,  we  must  first  of  all  look 
upon  our  feelings  as  caused  by  something.  There  is  no 
reason  why  we  should  do  so,  except  what  we  choose  to 
call  reason,  or  what  Schopenhauer  calls  the  category  of 
causality.  A  tab/ila  rasa,  a  wax  tablet,  simply  receives 
an  impression,  it  does  not  change  it  into  something  that 
caused  the  impression.  The  best  proof  that  we  are  not  a 
tabula  rasa,  as  Locke  and  all  sensualistic  philosophers 
imagine,  is  that  we,  as  soon  as  we  receive  an  impression, 
are  driven  to  say,  "  Something  has  impressed  us."  That 
something,  however,  is  our  postulate,  it  is  our  doing;  it 
is  simply  what  we  create  out  of  the  sensations  of  which 
alone  we  are  conscious. 

But  not  only  do  we  create  this  objective  world  of  ours, 
the  things,  but  we  place  them,  not  within  us,  where 
the  sensations  are,  but  without  us,  that  is,  in  space.  And 
secondly,  we  place  them  without  us,  not  in  a  lump,  but 


284 


The  open  court. 


one  after  another,  in  succession,  or,  as  we  call  it,  in  time. 
Space  and  time  are  necessities  of  that  objective  world 
which  we  have  created,  and  Kant  calls  them,  therefore, 
rightly  the  necessary  forms  of  sensuous  intuition. 

This  may  sound  very  learned,  but  it  is  really  as  sim- 
ple as  child's  play.  What  can  we  be  conscious  of?  Not 
anything  outside  us — for  how  should  we  get  outside 
ourselves?  but  something  within  us,  something  that  we 
feel,  our  sensations.  And  if  we  transform  what  is  within 
us,  into  something  without  us,  of  course  it  must  be 
some-where — and  that  is  what  we  call  space,  and  it  must 
be  somewhen,  if  we  may  say  so,  that  is  it  must  be  in 
time.  What  is  nowhere  and  nowhen,  is,  as  far  as  we 
are  concerned,  as  if  it  were  not.  But  when  we  have  got 
so  far,  when  we  have  changed  our  sensations  into  things 
that  are  supposed  to  cause  our  sensations,  and  when  we 
have  placed  them  one  by  the  side  of  another,  and  one 
after  another,  that  is  in  space  and  time,  can  we  say  then 
that  we  know  them  ?     Let  us  try  the  experiment. 

I  say  once  more,  how  sensations  arise,  how  ethereal 
vibrations  produce  in  us  consciousness  of  something, 
how  neurosis  becomes  aesthesis,  we  do  not  know  and 
never  shall  know.  But  having  the  sensations  of  light 
or  darkness  within  us,  what  do  we  know  of  any  cause 
of  darkness  or  any  cause  of  light?  Nothing.  We 
simply  suffer  darkness,  or  enjoy  light,  but  what  makes 
us  suffer  and  what  makes  us  rejoice,  we  do  not  know  — 
till  we  can  express  it. 

And  how  do  we  express  it?  We  may  try  what  we 
like,  we  can  express  it  in  language  only.  We  may  feel 
dark,  but  till  we  have  a  name  for  dark  and  are  able  to 
distinguish  darkness  as  what  is  not  light,  or  light  as 
what  is  not  darkness,  we  are  not  in  a  state  of  knowledge, 
we  are  only  in  a  state  of  passive  stupor. 

We  often  imagine  that  we  can  possess  and  retain, 
even  without  language,  certain  pictures  or  phantarmata ; 
that,  for  instance,  when  lightning  has  passed  before  our 
ejes,  the  impression  remains  for  some  time  actually  visi- 
ble, then  vanishes  more  and  more  when  we  shut  our 
eyes,  but  can  be  called  back  by  the  memory  whenever 
we  please.  Yes,  we  can  call  it  back,  but  not  till  we  can 
call,  that  is,  till  we  can  name  it.  In  all  our  mental  acts, 
even  in  that  of  mere  memory,  we  must  be  able  to  give 
an  account  to  ourselves  of  what  we  do,  and  how  can  we 
do  that  except  in  language?  Even  in  a  dream  we  do 
not  know  what  we  see,  except  we  name  it,  that  is,  make 
it  knowable  to  ourselves.  Everything  else  passes  by  and 
vanishes  unheeded.  We  either  are  simply  suffering,  and 
in  that  case  we  require  no  language,  or  we  act  and 
react,  and  in  that  case  we  can  react  on  what  is  given  us, 
by  language  only.  This  is  really  a  matter  of  fact  and 
not  of  argument.  Let  any  one  try  the  experiment  and 
he  will  see  that  we  can  as  little  think  without  words  as 
we  can  breathe  without  lungs. 

We   may  say,  for  instance,  that  we  know   the  blue 


sky,  or  we  know  that  the  sky  is  blue.  But  how  do  we 
know  it?  Nothing  can  be  blue  without  us.  Outside 
there  may  be  millions  of  vibrations  of  luminous  ether, 
but  what  we  call  blue  is  ours,  just  as  what  we  call  sweet 
is  ours.  Sugar  is  not  sweet,  tve  are  sweet;  the  sky  is 
not  blue,  we  are  blue.  And  who  tells  us  anything  about 
the  sky?  How  do  we  know  that  there  is  a  sky  and  that 
it  is  blue.  Should  we  know  of  a  sky,  if  we  had  no 
name  for  it?  We  have  only  to  try  to  think  of  sky  with- 
out naming  it,  and  we  shall  find  that  sky  and  all  that  it 
conveys  to  us  is  gone.  And  so  with  everything  else. 
If  a  language  has  no  name  for  father-in- law,  the  peo- 
ple who  speak  it  do  not  know  what  father-in-law  is. 
They  know  a  person  who  is  the  father  of  their  wife, 
supposing  thev  have  names  for  wife  and  father,  but  they 
do  not  know  any  father-in-law.  Try  to  teach  a  savage 
what  a  circle  is; — you  can  only  do  it  by  giving  him  a 
name.  You  may  point  to  a  wheel; — that  will  give  him 
the  percept  or  presentation  of  a  wheel.  You  may  give 
him  a  rope,  fastened  to  a  pole,  and  making  him  go 
round,  that  will  give  him  the  percept  of  running  round. 
But  the  concept  of  a  circle,  and  more  particularly  of  a 
perfect  circle,  cannot  be  produced  or  fixed  in  the  mind, 
except  through  a  name  and  its  definition.  It  may  be 
said  that  a  geometrician  can  define  a  circle  without  a 
name,  but  how  does  he  define  it?  Again,  by  means  of 
names.  If  he  calls  a  circle  a  figure,  he  uses  a  name;  if 
he  calls  it  plane  figure,  comprehended  by  a  single  curve 
line,  he  is  dealing  in  names;  and  even  if  he  called  it  a 
mere  something,  he  would  still  be  within  the  spell  of 
names.  We  may  try  what  we  like,  if  we  want  to 
think,  if  we  want  to  add  and  to  subtract,  we  can  do  it 
in  one  way  only,  namely  by  names. 

How  is  it,  I  have  been  asked,  that  people  go  through 
the  most  complicated  combinations  while  playing  chess 
and  all  this  without  uttering  a  single  word?  Does  not 
that  show  that  thought  is  possible  without  words,  and, 
as  it  were,  by  mere  intuition?  It  may  seem  so,  if  we 
imagine  that  speech  must  always  be  audible,  but  we 
have  only  to  watch  ourselves  while  writing  a  letter, 
that  is,  while  speaking  to  a  friend,  in  order  to  see  that 
a  loud  voice  is  not  essential  to  speech.  Besides,  by  long 
usage  speech  has  become  so  abbreviated  that,  as  with 
mathematical  formulas,  one  sign  or  letter  may  compre- 
hend long  trains  of  reasoning.  And  how  can  we  imag- 
ine that  we  could  play  chess  without  language,  however 
silent,  however  abbreviated,  however  algebraic?  What 
are  king,  queen,  bishops,  knights,  castles  and  pawns, 
if  not  names?  What  are  the  squares  on  the  chessboard 
to  us,  unless  they  had  been  conceived  and  named  as 
being  square  and  neither  round  nor  oblong? 

I  do  not  say,  however,  that  king  and  queen  and 
bishops  are  mere  names. 

Is  there  such  a  thing  as  a  mere  name?  A  name  is 
nothing  if  it  is  not  a  nomen,  that  is,  what  is  known,  or 


THE    OREN    COURT. 


2S5 


that  by  which  we  know.  Nomen  was  originally 
gnomen,  from  gnosco  to  know,  and  was  almost  the  same 
word  as  notio,  a  notion.  A  mere  name  is  therefore  self- 
contradictory.  It  means  a  name  which  i6  not  a  name; 
but  something  quite  different,  namely  a  sound,  a  flatus 
vocis.  We  do  not  call  an  empty  egg-shell  a  mere  egg, 
nor  a  corpse  a  mere  man;  then  why  should  we  call  a 
name  without  its  true  meaning,  a  mere  name? 

But  if  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  mere  name,  neither 
is  there  such  a  thing  as  a  mere  thought  or  a  mere  con- 
cept. The  two  are  one  and  inseparable.  We  may  dis- 
tinguish them  as  we  distinguish  the  obverse  from  the 
reverse  of  a  coin ;  but  to  try  to  separate  them  would  be 
like  trying  to  separate  a  convex  from  the  concave  sur- 
face of  a  lens.     We  think  in  names  and  in  names  only. 


MONTGOMERY    ON    THE    THEOLOGY    OF    EVOLU- 
TION.* 

BY    PROFESSOR    E.  D.  COPE. 
Part  I. 

A  disputant  can  have  no  greater  good  fortune  than 
to  have  an  antagonist  who  correctly  understands  his  posi- 
tion, and  who  represents  it  fairly  in  discussion.  I  expe- 
rienced this  pleasure  in  reading  Dr.  Montgomery's 
review  of  my  opinions.  But  this  is  not  my  only  satis- 
faction. If  I  am  wrong  I  wish  to  know  it,  and  I  know 
of  no  one  whom  I  think  better  able  to  show  me  my 
error,  if  any  there  be,  than  a  man  who  is  at  the  same 
time  scientist  and  metaphysician.  I  have  been  desirous 
of  understanding  the  metaphysical  objections  to  my 
views,  and  now  I  have  them  so  clearly  expressed  that  he 
who  runs  may  read.  And  I  propose  to  examine  these 
objections,  and,  in  the  language  of  Professor  Tait,f  to 
use  my  "reason  as  best  I  can  for  the  separation  of  the 
truth  from  the  metaphysics"  which  they  contain. 

In  beginning,  I  must  make  an  appeal  on  behalf  of  the 
a  posteriori  method  and  against  the  a  priori  method  of 
investigation ;  for  the  scientific  as  against  the  philosophical 
and  theological  methods.  I  do  this  not  as  against  Dr. 
Montgomery's  method,  which  is  generally,  though  not 
always,  a  posteriori,  but  for  the  purpose  of  explaining 
distinctly  my  own.  The  a  posteriori  method  only  can  lead 
to  a  knowledge  of  the  universe  as  it  is ;  the  a  priori  meth- 
od leads  either  to  credulity  or  skepticism;  in  either  case 
to  uncertainty.  It  is  true  that  a  system  which  rests  on 
observation  and  inference  must  be,  in  the  present  state 
of  human  knowledge,  incomplete.  It  will  display  unfin- 
ished designs,  foundations  without  superstructures,  and 
many  defects  incident  to  insufficient  materials;  but  it  will 
be  permanent  and  trustworthy  as  far  as  it  goes.  This  is 
all  that  I  claim  for  the  hypotheses  of  the  The- 
ology of  Evolution,  most  of  which  have  been  more 
fully   elaborated  in    other  publications    both  prior  and 


*  A  Lecture  by  E.  D.  Cope.     Arnold  &  Co. 
t  Properties  oj  Matter,  p.  47. 


Philadelphia.     1SS7. 


subsequent.  In  these  I  have  endeavored  to  confine 
myself  to  observed  phenomena  as  foundation  materials. 
I  have  not  troubled  myself  to  investigate  extensively 
the  problem  of  cognition,  since  most  of  the  prevalent 
metaphysical  idealism  (in  the  modern  sense)  is  mere 
verbal  quibbling.  Moreover,  in  our  modern  ob- 
servations of  natural  phenomena  we  have  not  only 
the  mutual  aid  rendered  by  one  sense  to  another,  but  the 
corroborative  evidence  of  numerous  capable  and  intelli- 
gent co-workers  in  the  field.  If  the  observations  thus 
accumulated  are  untrustworthy,  as  the  idealistic  school 
would  have  us  believe,  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  is 
a  remarkable  method  in  all  these  errors.  And  one  of 
the  most  important  results  of  these  so-called  errors  is  the 
doctrine  of  mental  evolution  as  a  corollary  of  biologic 
evolution,  which  I  think  gives  to  idealism  in  the 
Berkeleyan  sense  its  final  quietus. 

The  facts  on  which  the  theistic  hypothesis  rests  are 
briefly  as  follows:  Mind  is  a  primitive  and  controlling 
property  of  matter,  because, 

1.  Consciousness  in  the  form  of  will  directs,  in 
the  beginning,  the  designed  movements  of  living  beings, 
thus  giving  rise  to  habits  and  automatic  and  reflex  move- 
ments of  all  kinds. 

2.  The  evolution  ol  the  organs,  and  therefore 
of  the  entirety  of  the  species  of  living  things,  has  been 
primarily  due  to  movements  inaugurated  in  consciousness 
in  the  form  of  will  within  themselves,  or  to  movements 
which  are  the  reflex  products  of  consciousness,  all  under 
the  restrictions  presented  by  the  environment. 

Both  of  the  above  propositions  are  amply  sustained 
by  the  facts  of  physiology,  embryology  and  paleontol- 
ogy. Two  other  propositions  are  included  in  my 
thesis.  The  first  of  these  is  a  more  remote  inference 
from  the  facts  than  either  of  the  preceding,  and  is  an 
interpretation  of  them,  which  is  indicated  by  the  con- 
clusions of  the  latter.     They  are: 

3.  The  integrity  of  the  physical  basis  of  con- 
sciousness is,  in  this  planet,  within  certain  ranges  of 
temperature,  maintained  by  a  form  of  energy  which  is 
not  chemical,  but  which  resists  the  action  of  true 
chemism.  It  follows  that  the  origin  of  protoplasm  can- 
not be  traced  to  chemical  energy  alone,  but  to  some 
energy  of  the  vital  type  which  must  have  been  a  prop- 
erty of  a  physical  basis,  not  protoplasm.  Hence  con- 
sciousness may  be  a  property  of  non-protoplasmic 
physical  bases. 

4.  The  hypothesis  that  there  is  no  physical  basis 
of  consciousness  outside  of  the  earth,  is,  from  the 
above  point  of  view,  and  from  a  consideration  of  the 
rules  of  probability,  so  improbable  as  to  border  on  the 
absurd. 

Dr.  Montgomery  does  not  consider  propositions 
3  and  4,  but  he  emphatically  denies  the  truth  of 
propositions    i     and    2.      According   to    him    mind    in 


286 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


its  various  aspects  is  dynamically  quite  distinct  from  the 
material  world,  the  two  being  parallel,  but  with- 
out mutual  interaction.  He  finds  a  logical  absurd- 
ity in  the  supposition  that  mind  (will)  controls  the 
direction  of  energy,  and  hence  of  matter.  For  this  and 
for  other  reasons  he  sees  my  system  "vanish  into  thin 
air,"  or  to  lie  wrecked  on  the  rocks  where  so  many 
other  craft  have  perished.  I  observe  just  here  that 
Dr.  Montgomery  runs  no  such  risk,  for  he  seems  to 
have  no  boat  of  his  own.  Indeed,  I  should  say, 
he  was  safely  ashore,  stranded  among  the  sands  of  self- 
contradictory  opinions,  in  which  the  feet  sink  at  every 
step,  leaving  the  traveler  toward  the  truth  in  about 
the  position  from  which  he  attempts  to  start.  Thus,  as 
a  substitute  for  the  proposition  that  will  controls  the 
direction  of  energy,  he  "fully  admits  as  a  leading  propo- 
sition to  be  scientifically  proved  against  mechanical  biol- 
ogy, that  spontaneous  activities  have  played  the  greatest 
part  in  evolution,  and  that  those  special  spontaneous 
activities  called  volitional  and  emanating  from  nerve- 
certers  have  conduced  moie  than  any  other  influence  to 
realize  the  organic  development  of  higher  animals,"  etc. 
(Criticism,  Part  III.)  In  this  passage  we  find  Dr. 
Montgomery  to  be  distinctly  affirming  our  propositions 
i  and  3,  which  he  has  previously  (Part  I)  as  dis- 
tinctly denied.  The  two  propositions  are  again  clearly 
adopted  (Part  III,  end)  in  the  following  language; 
"  The  aid  which  sense-perception  affords  to  organic 
development  cannot  be  overestimated ;  but  the  pro- 
gressive organization  to  which  it  ministers,  takes  place 
just  as  unconsciously  as  all  other  organizations.  *  *  * 
Only  our  vital  spontaneity  enables  us  to  place  ourselves 
in  such  relations  to  our  medium  as  will  best  conduce  to 
our  welfare.  And  we  know  by  means  of  pleasurable 
or  painful  feelings  which  of  the  manifold  influences 
of  the  medium  are  affecting  us  beneficially  a  fid  which 
harmfully.''''  (The  italics  are  mine.)  In  the  last  sent- 
ence consciousness  takes  the  lead,  but  in  the  first,  pro- 
gressive organization  takes  place  unconsciously.  Both 
statements  are  correct,  but  appear  to  be  self-contradic- 
tory, and  Dr.  Montgomery  does  not  furnish  the  expla- 
nation of  the  contradiction.  It  is  furnished  by  the 
well-known  fact  of  cryptopnoy,  in  the  organization  of 
unconscious  habits  out  of  conscious  beginnings.  These 
and  other  expressions  show  that  the  facts  are  well-known 
to  Dr.  Montgomery,  but  that  in  this  instance  he  failed 
to  connect  them.  And  I  interject  here  the  observation 
that  I  find  a  similar  failure  "to  connect"  in  several 
places  in  his  Part  III.  I  refer  to  assertions  of  the 
unconscious  nature  of  various  acts  which  he  believes, 
with  myself,  to  affect  organism.  This  correct  statement 
of  oft  observed  facts  does  not,  in  the  least,  invalidate  my 
position  that  the  movements  in  question  were  inaugu- 
rated in  consciousness.  They  have  passed  through  the 
usual  "catagenesis"  by  cryptopnoy. 


I  find  Dr.  Montgomery's  position  in  the  monistico- 
dualistic  controversy  to  be  somewhat  difficult  to  define. 
He  is  neither  a  realistic  or  an  idealistic  monist.  His 
philosophy  appears  to  be  of  the  most  pronounced  dual- 
istic  character,  but  I  cannot  find  that  he  distinctly  admits 
holding  that  form  of  doctrine.  On  the  contrary  he  is 
at  one  time  (Part  I,  p.  163)  an  idealistic  monist  opposing 
my  "tridimensional  realism,"  saying  that  the  idealist 
can  "find  matter  only  a  superfluous  impediment  easily 
argued  away."  In  the  Part  III,  the  physical  basis  is 
treated  as  existent  and  independent.  In  most  of  his 
views  the  present  writer  fullv  agrees  with  Dr.  Mont- 
gomery, but  one  difference  is  so  radical  as  to  throw 
our  philosophies  into  fundamentally  different  schools. 
I  refer  to  the  question  of  the  control  of  will  over  energy 
(and  therefore  matter),  which  the  doctor  denies,  and 
which  I  affirm.  I  can  also  only  look  upon  his  hypothe- 
sis of  the  "substratum"  of  personality  as  a  pure  specu- 
lation in  the  present  state  of  knowledge. 

Having  shown  that  my  critic  generously  gives  me 
a  good  deal  of  aid  and  comfort,  I  will  consider  his  objec- 
tions in  greater  detail.  From  many  interesting  excur- 
sions and  discussions  I  select  the  following  leading 
points  of  difference.  Dr.  Montgomery  denies  (1)  that 
mind  (consciousness)  can  direct  the  movements  of  mat- 
ter. He  denies  (2),  therefore,  that  consciousness  is  at  the 
foundation  of  the  direction  of  evolution  of  living  beings. 
(3.)  The  "doctrine  of  the  unspecialized"  is  erroneous 
because  development  of  mind  is  dependent  on  organiza- 
tion, and  because  (a)  the  lowest  animals  are  not  con- 
scious, and  (/')  protoplasm  itself  is  not  a  generalized  sub- 
stance. That  (4)  a  deity  cannot  be  inferred  from  my 
premises,  but  mind  so  conceived  must  be  inferior  in 
attributes  to  that  of  the  lowest  animal. 

1.      Objection  to  Control  of  Mind  over  Matter. 

Does  mind  control  matter  at  any  time  and  place,  or 
does  it  not?  Dr.  Montgomery  says  that  it  does  not 
because  it  cannot;  and  he  undertakes  to  demonstrate  that 
he  is  correct  by  reference  to  the  law  of  physics,  as 
follows:  "In  this  world  of  ours,  only  matter  is  mova- 
ble and  possesses  momentum.  Only  something  which 
is  itself  movable  and  in  possession  of  momentum  can 
possibly  impart  motion  to  matter.  Mind  as  such  is  not 
movable,  and  does  not  possess  momentum;  therefore  it 
cannot  move  matter  (g.  e.  </.)."  This  is  a  logical  state- 
ment, and  as  such  is  unobjectionable.  But  it  does  not 
meet,  much  less  controvert,  my  proposition,  which  I 
must  now  repeat,  quoting  from  the  Origin  of  the  Fittest, 
p.  427-8.  "  The  explanation"  [of  the  control  of  mind 
over  matter]  "can  only  be  found  in  a  simple  acceptance 
of  the  fact  as  it  is,  in  the  thesis  that  energy  can  be  con- 
scious. If  true,  this  is  an  ultimate  fact,  neither  more 
nor  less  difficult  to  comprehend  than  the  nature  of 
energy  or  matter  in  their  ultimate  analysis."  In  this 
thesis  is   involved   the   realistic   doctrine    that   mind  is   a 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


2S7 


property  of  some  kind  of  matter,  as  odor  and  color  are 
properties  of  the  rose.  It  asserts  also  that  mind  is  a 
property  of  matter  in  energetic  action,  or  in  other  words 
that  mind  is  a  property  of  some  kind  of  energy.  I 
await  with  interest  a  disproval  of  these  positions.  If 
admitted,  mind  is  a  property  of  something  which  pos- 
sesses momentum,  and  is  also  a  property  of  some  kind 
of  motion.  As  these  are  the  conditions  essential  to  the 
communication  of  motion  to  other  matter,  mind  can 
control  matter  (g.  e.  d.). 

Of  course  the  question  that  lies  below  my  thesis 
may  now  be  raised  by  Dr.  Montgomery,  so  I  will  raise 
it  for  him.  Is  it  "the  fact  as  it  is,"  that  "energy  can 
be  conscious?"  Since  consciousness  is  a  property,  and 
not  a  substance,  there  is  no  logical  impossibility  in  the 
statement.  But  is  it  the  fact?  for  to  fact  wc  must 
appeal,  and  on  fact  we  stand.  That  energy  is  necessary 
to  consciousness  no  physiologist  can  deny.  Stop  the 
material  basis  of  energy  and  consciousness  is  lost.  But 
my  critic  and  myself  are  agreed  that  consciousness 
is  not  per  se  a  form  of  energy.  There  is  then  no  alter- 
native, since  consciousness  exists,  but  to  regard  it  as  a 
property  of  some  kind  of  energy.  To  the  kind  of 
realist  who  does  not  regard  consciousness  as  a  form 
of  energy  identical  in  qualities  with  other  forms 
of  energy,  the  language  I  have  used  is  the  only 
available  expression  of  what  he  believes  to  be  the  fact. 
It  is  not  a  mere  question  of  words.  It  is  self-evident 
that  mind  is  not  matter — (or  "  substance")  since  it  has 
no  extension.  It  is  also  self-evident  that  beside  matter 
and  its  properties  nothing  exists.  Therefore  mind  is  a 
property  of  matter,  as  color  and  sound  (forms  of  energy) 
are  properties  of  matter,  although  it  forms  (using  it  as 
synonomous  with  consciousness  in  the  physiological 
sense)  a  distinct  class  or  type  of  property.  It  is  more 
exact  to  speak  of  it  as  a  property  of  energy,  that  is,  a 
property  of  a  property  of  some  matter.  It  seems  to  me 
that  a  person  who  cannot  admit  that  mind,  like  energy, 
is  a  property  of  matter  does  not  exercise  what  Newton 
called  "a  competent  faculty  of  thinking." 

In  accordance  with  Dr.  Montgomery's  argument  it 
is  easy  to  prove  that  energy  does  not  move  matter. 
From  a  metaphysical  standpoint  energy  is  a  concept 
as  distinct  from  matter  as  is  consciousness.  Assume 
that  energy  is  not  a  property  of  matter,  and  apply 
the  formula  above  quoted,  substituting  the  word 
energy  for  mind.  "  In  this  world  of  ours  only  matter 
is  movable  and  possesses  momentum.  Only  something 
which  is  itself  movable  and  in  possession  of  momentum 
can  possibly  impart  motion  to  matter.  Energy,  as  such, 
*  *  *  does  not  possess  momentum;  therefore  it  can- 
not move  matter." 

The  supposed  logical  difficulty  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
control  of  matter  by  mind  is  further  expressed  as  follows 
(Criticism,  Part  III):  "Every  biologist  who  introduces 


into  this  unbending  mechanical  nexus  any  kind  of 
deviating  or  directing  influence  ought  clearly  to  know 
that  he  is  opposing  the  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of 
energy.  Wittingly  or  unwittingly  he  is  professing  him- 
self an  unbeliever  in  this  supreme  generalization  of  mod- 
ern science."  We  reach  here  the  point  of  simple  asser- 
tion or  denial  of  matter  of  fact.  Logical  as  the  above 
proposition  appears  to  be,  it  is  equally  applicable  as  a 
negation  of  the  most  undeniable  facts.  Why  is  not  any 
and  every  effect  of  matter  on  mind  an  equally  impossi 
ble  violation  of  the  principle  of  the  conservation  of 
energy?  If  energy  derived  from  material  bases  perturbs 
the  current  of  mental  phenomena,  that  energy  must  be, 
according  to  Dr.  Montgomery's  view,  irrecoverably  lost; 
it  passes  out  of  the  domain  of  physical  basis,  to  which  it 
cannot  ever  return.  Therefore  matter  and  its  energy 
can  no  more  control  mind  than  mind  can  control  matter. 
Does  my  critic  insist  on  the  former  proposition  as  he 
does  on  the  latter?  Consistency  requires  him  to  believe 
that  matter  (energy)  cannot  control  mind,  and  therefore 
this  is  what  I  infer  his  belief  to  be.  The  only  way  out 
of  the  dilemma  is  to  recognize  that  mind  is  a  prop- 
erty of  some  matter;  that  it  gives  character  to  that 
matter,  and  that  the  energy  of  matter  reciprocally 
gives  character  to  it.  This  granted,  energy  need  not 
be  supposed  to  be  either  created  or  lost.  Five  pounds  is 
five  founds,  -whether  raised  by  the  right  hand  or  by  the 
left,  and  the  will  expends  no  more  energy  in  doing  the 
one  than  in  doing  the  other. 

One  more  logical  difficulty  is  raised  by  my  critic,  and 
it  is  a  very  natural  one.  We  read,  "  Now,  as  hinted 
before,  it  is  quite  obvious  that  if  memory  or  mental 
reproduction  depends  on  specifically  organized  structure, 
— a  state  of  things  generally  accepted  as  a  fact  by  evolu- 
tionists,—  then  specifically  organized  structure  cannot 
reciprocally  depend  on  memory  or  mental  reproduction. 
This  would  be  out  of  the  question,  even  if  mental  states 
were  capable  of  influencing  the  physical  nexus.  A  cer- 
tain something  cannot  possibly  be  at  one  time  the  pro- 
duced effect  of  something  else  and  at  another  time  its  pro- 
ducing cause.  The  relation  cannot  be  reversed."  Inas- 
much as  the  process  of  education  of  men  and  animals  is, 
by  implication,  denied  in  this  paragraph,  let  us  see 
whether  there  is  not  something  wrong  about  it.  The 
difficulty  with  it  is  that  the  fact  of  mental  digestion,  or 
organization  of  the  sense-perceptions,  is  omitted.  Expe- 
rience accumulates  sense-perceptions  which  are  arranged 
in  revived  consciousness  in  various  orders  of  likeness  and 
unlikeness.  It  is  a  fundamental  quality  of  memory 
to  be  "aware"  of  like  things  at  the  same  time,  and  of 
unlike  things  at  different  times.  Out  of  these  classifica- 
tions come  the  appreciation  of  cause  and  effect,  and  out 
of  this  appreciation  come  designed  or  appropriate  acts. 
Out  of  acts  (motions)  come  structure ;  and  structure  comes 
out  of  every  stage  of    the   activity  from   its   beginning, 


28S 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


as  well  as  from  its  ending.  Up  to  the  moment  that 
the  motion  enters  the  control  of  will,  matter  and 
non-living  energy  are  in  command ;  so  soon  as  it  reaches, 
and  after  it  leaves  the  dwelling-place  of  will,  mind  is  in 
command.  And  the  ultimate  result  is  new  motions, 
which  bring  us  new  sensations,  new  classifications,  new 
will-directions,  and  new  motions  again.  So  mind  and 
matter  pursue  their  eternal  interaction.  Simple  matter 
produces  simple  consciousness.  Consciousness  compli- 
cates itself  by  means  of  memory,  and  in  the  act  turns  on 
its  physical  basis  and  complicates  it.  I  take  it  that  these 
are  the  facts,  and  logic  must  use  them,  since  they  are 
incontestible. 

I  add,  in  conclusion  of  this  part  of  the  discussion, 
that  I  do  not  adopt  the  opinion  that  mind  can  control 
matter  a  priori,  hut  a  posteriori,  as  an  inference  from 
the  observation  of  innumerable  facts.  In  our  daily 
experience  we  observe  that  it  is  mind  that  adapts  matter 
to  itself  and  itself  to  matter,  and  not  matter  that  adapts 
itself  to  mind.  Mind  is  the  more  variable  element  of 
the  two,  and  the  modifications  it  produces  are  intelligent, 
which  is  not  the  property  of  non-living  matter. 

2.      Objection  to  Direction  of  Evolution  by  Mind. 
The  position  that   consciousness  and  will  are  proper- 
ties   of    matter  is  reenforced    from  all    departments  of 
psycho-physiology.     What  can  be  more  convincing  in 
this  direction  than  the   phenomena  of   memory?     But 
equally  satisfactory  evidence  is   seen  in  the  formation  of 
habits,    or  modes  of  animal  motion.      These  betray    a 
mechanical   structure  of  the  physical  basis,  which  could 
only    originate    under    conscious    conditions.     Such    an 
arranging  of  matter  is  an  exhibition  of  energy;  and  that 
energy  that  wrought  such  special  structure   from  pre- 
existent  structure,  or  no  structure,  did  so  for  reasons.     It 
exhibited    that   admirable    property   which  Dr.    Mont- 
gomery  well   defines   as  an   "inner-awareness  of  what 
takes  place  independently  of   it."     But  his  views  do  not 
permit   him   "to  insinuate   mental  effectuation    into   the 
physical    nexus   (p.    163).     He  tells  us    that   "mind  as 
such"     *     *     *     "cannot  alter  a  jot  the  path  of  material 
particles     *     *     *     This  means  according  to  our  present 
scientific  conception,  that  it  (the  path  of  particles)  is  abso- 
lutely predetermined  by  the  previous  physical  disposition 
of  the  molecules  and  their  motion."     This  is  a  denial  of 
the  fundamental  law  of  evolution,  that  structure  is  mod- 
ified  or  produced    by  use.     That   evolution    builds  on 
foundations  already  laid  is,  of  course,  true,  but  that  "the 
motion    of    particles     is    absolutely    predetermined     by 
the  previous   physical  disposition   of  the   molecules  and 
their   motion"    is  in    contradiction    of  the  logic  of    pro- 
gressive   evolution.     There    can    be    now   no    kind   of 
doubt  that   use   has   produced    structure   in   animals  by 
additions  to  and    changes  in  "  the  previous  physical  dis- 
position of  the  molecules   and  their  motion,"  during  the 
ages  of  geological  time.     Use  is  a  form  of  motion,  and 


motion  is  directed  by  consciousness  in  the  form  called 
will.  Therefore,  "  mind  as  such"  has  "  altered  the  path 
of  material  particles,"  and  has  produced  new  organic 
structures  out  of  them,  however  incredible  it  may 
appear  to  my  amiable  reviewer.  This  is  a  statement  of 
an  apparent  fact  of  the  history  of  life  and  mind  on  the 
earth,  and  it  will  require  some  further  evidence  to  con- 
vince me  that  the  appearance  is  deceptive  than  the 
statement  that  it  is  impossible.  The  advancing  devel- 
opment of  brain  throughout  the  ages,  is  not  the  least 
important  part  of  the  evidence  that  the  mind,  conscious 
and  unconscious,  has  been  concerned  in  this  evolution. 
I  believe  that  in  past  ages  as  now,  use  developed  the 
mechanism  and  size  of  the  brain,  and  that  it  followed 
inevitably,  then  as  now,  that  the  most  intelligent  ani- 
mals provided  better  against  the  vicissitudes  of  life  than 
the  less  intelligent,  and  that  they  thus  survived.  That 
this  is  true  is  indicated  by  the  history  of  the  ancestors  of 
man.  Without  the  weapons  of  offense  or  defense,  or 
the  mechanism  for  speed  or  concealment  possessed  by 
the  animals  of  other  lines,  they  survived,  and  lo!  they 
now  inherit  the  earth! 

(to  be  concluded.) 


A   NOTABLE  PICTURE. 

BY  RAYMOND  S.  PERRIN. 

Any  one  who  has  been  in  the  National  Gallery  in 
London,  will  doubtless  recollect  the  painting  of  "The 
Trinity,"  by  Pesello,  1422.  If  the  person  who  sees  this 
painting  for  the  first  time  has  thought  much  about  God, 
it  will  make  a  very  deep  impression  on  him — an 
impression  which  will  be  pleasant  or  unpleasant,  accord- 
ing to  the  conception  of  deity  the  beholder  has  formed. 
God,  in  this  picture,  is  presented  in  a  sitting  posture 
holding  in  his  extended  hands  the  bar  of  the  cross  upon 
which  Jesus  is  nailed.  Four  centuries  have  not  dimmed 
the  crimson  of  the  blood  that  trickles  from  the  wounds, 
nor  the  deathly  pallor  of  the  skin,  nor  the  wonderful  life 
in  death  of  the  sufferer's  face.  The  Holy  Ghost,  in  the 
form  of  a  dove,  rests  upon  the  bosom  of  the  father  and 
watches  the  son  without  any  sign  of  consciousness  of  the 
terrible  tragedy.  A  crimson  devil  and  many  angels,  in  the 
form  of  birds  with  human  faces,  hover  about  the  cross. 
God  wears  a  hat  resembling  somewhat  that  of  the  Pope 
of  Rome.  His  face  bespeaks  a  man  simply  intent  on 
his  purpose.  It  betrays  no  pity  or  other  emotion.  The 
artist  seems  to  have  been  content  with  the  single  trait  of 
firmness  in  repose.  Not  even  thoughtfulness  or  intelli- 
gence is  attempted.  The  garb  and  attitude  are  those  of 
a  ruler.  All  the  attributes  of  despotism  are  suggested. 
Jesus  wears  his  customary  expression  of  resignation  to 
torture.  He  looks  neither  suppliant  nor  reproachful,  nor 
even  tender.  The  artist  attempts  nothing  but  patience 
and  pain.  The  Holy  Ghost,  as  above  intimated,  is  dis- 
appointing, that  is  to  one  reared  in  the  reverence  of 
Christian  spirituality.     We    generally  think  of  ghost  as 


the:  open  court. 


289 


meaning  spirit,  and  of  spirit  as  meaning  mind;  whereas, 
this  dove  does  not  suggest  any  inspiration  whatever. 
It  is  a  strain  upon  the  imagination  to  look  upon  it. 
It  is  entirely  out  of  place,  for  there  is  nothing  in 
dove-like  feelings  known  to  us  which  can  be  woven  into 
the  relationship  here   depicted  between    father   and  son. 

The  devil  and  the  angels  are  zoological  inceptions  of 
great  originality.  But  has  not  the  independence  of 
morphological  sequence  displayed  in  these  singularly 
constructed  beings  a  manifest  connection  with  the  disre- 
gard of  moral  sequence  displayed  in  the  whole  picture? 
Surely  the  scheme  of  human  salvation  as  here  por- 
trayed is  not  a  moral  one.  There  are  many  things 
which  can  be  said  in  favor  of  the  love  of  God  for 
humanity — a  love  equal  to  the  sacrifice  of  his  son — but 
it  seems  evident  that  the  son  is  not  duly  considered.  In 
all  moral  relations,  as  far  as  we  know,  human  beings 
constitute  the  terms.  It  may  be  perfectly  moral  for 
Gods  to  sacrifice  one  another,  but  humans  are  only  able, 
in  justice,  to  sacrifice  themselves.  Our  sacrifices  must 
be  personal  to  have  any  merit.  We  may  advise  one 
another  to  be  self-sacrificing,  but  the  moment  we 
employ  force  in  the  matter  the  relation  becomes  one  of 
injury  and  must  be  judged  accordingly.  If  God  only 
advised  Jesus  to  sacrifice  himself,  the  artist  has  been 
singularly  unfortunate  in  presenting  the  relations  of  his 
subjects;  for  force,  unrelenting  force,  is  the  one  motive 
which  the  attitude  of  God  in  this  picture  expresses.  Of 
course  Christianity  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the 
artist's  conception. 

In  this  figure  of  theological  belief  there  are,  no 
doubt,  possibilities  which  it  would  be  rash  even  to  con- 
sider. The  persons  presented  are  Gods,  not  men,  and 
how  are  we  to  judge  the  conduct  of  Gods?  All  we 
can  do  is  to  determine  whether  it  would  be  right  for  a 
human  father  to  force  his  son  to  sacrifice  himself  for 
others?  We  think  the  proposition  is  a  contradition  in 
terms.  It  is  impossible  to  force  any  one,  perhaps  even 
a  God,  to  sacrifice  himself.  We  must  change  the 
wording  in  order  to  make  the  question  rational.  Is  it 
right  for  one  of  us  to  injure  another  in  behalf  of  some 
one  else?  Here  is  a  very  simple  problem  in  conduct. 
The  laws  of  every  civilized  people  are  entirely  made 
up  of  provisions  against  such  a  contingency — such  an 
infringement  of  personal  liberty.  None  of  us  have  a 
right  to  determine  to  what  extent  we  may  injure 
another,  no  matter  what  our  ultimate  aim  may  be.  We 
have  no  right,  as  individuals,  to  injure  any  one  under 
any  circumstances.  Speaking  for  men,  this  is  the  old 
basis  of  law  and  morality.  As  to  Gods,  that  is  another 
thing.  Injuries  among  Gods  is  a  question  fraught 
with  insuperable  difficulties,  for  the  relations  of  divine 
beings,  as  far  as  they  have  been  disclosed  to  us,  seem  to 
involve  more  or  less  injury  to  one  another.  All  that 
we  can  safely   say   concerning  the   conduct  of   God   is, 


that  divine  sacrifice  is  always  self-sacrifice.  When  it  is 
transferred  from  one  divine  being  to  another,  it  becomes 
of  necessity  injury,  pure  and  simple. 

If  we  could  only  discover  to  what  extent  Gods  may 
injure  one  another,  without  infringing  upon  justice,  we 
would  indeed  be  wise.  Such  wisdom  might  remove  a 
great  deal  of  unhappiness,  not  to  say  misery,  from  the 
world. 

But  we  must  not  be  too  sanguine.  The  relations  of 
Gods  among  themselves  will  ever  be  a  mystery  to  us,  for 
we  have  no  knowledge  of  the  terms  of  the  relationship, 
and  there  is  no  hope  of  obtaining  such  a  knowledge.  All 
we  can  hope  for  is  to  distinguish  between  divine  self- 
sacrifice  and  divine  beings  sacrificing  one  another,  or 
more  correctly  speaking  injuring  one  another.  This 
distinction,  I  think,  we  can  clearly  make  out  even  with 
human  eyes.  Of  course,  from  our  standpoint,  there  is 
much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  that  delicacy  which  discour- 
ages investigation  into  the  subject.  To  measure  the 
injuries  which  divine  beings  may  inflict  upon  one 
another  for  our  exclusive  benefit  does  seem  somewhat 
obtrusive  on  our  part.  The  injury,  in  the  opinion  of 
many,  is  not  only  useless  but  would  be  ungracious  and 
profane. 

What  a  power  is  art  to  produce  so  many  impres- 
sions and  reflections  as  this  picture  of  the  Trinity  must, 
in  those  who  pass  before  it.  Coming  down  from  a 
distant  age  it  portrays  the  beliefs  of  the  past.  How 
thankful  we  may  be  that  we  have  at  last  risen  above 
the  level  of  thought  and  feeling  which  the  artist  and 
his  contemporaries  occupied.  Who,  in  our  age,  would 
think  of  preaching  the  religion,  or  of  teaching  the 
morality  set  forth  in  this  picture?  Who  would  think 
it  possible,  now  that  our  emotions  are  classified  and 
measured  and  their  sources  understood,  to  hesitate 
before  such  a  simple  moral  question  as  whether  it  is 
right  to  injure  another  in  order  to  carry  out  our  ideas  of 
good  ? 

In  thus  felicitating  ourselves,  however,  it  would  be 
well  to  remember  that  though  the  barbarous  notions  of 
conduct  which  this  picture  presents  are  safely  buried  in 
the  past,  we  are  not,  as  yet,  entirely  exempt,  as  a  nation, 
from  the  tendency  to  materialize  or  limit  our  notions  of 
deity.  God  to  us,  it  is  true,  is  no  longer  a  person,  for 
the  sciences  have  taught  us  that  personality  means  limi- 
tation, and  that,  therefore,  God  must  be  the  universal 
principle  or  fact,  not  an  individual.  But  we  are  con- 
tinually neglecting  this  generalization,  placing  in  its 
stead  images  of  conduct.  Is  it  not  humiliating  to  us, 
that  these  images  are  not  as  we  supposed  symbols  of 
virtue,  but  types  of  error,  immoral  examples? 

God  is  the  motive  of  the  universe,  and  knowledge 
of  God  consists  in  our  appreciation  of  divine  or  general 
motives  in  their  true  proportions.  This  is  simply  to 
raise  the   mind   above  the   limits  of  human  character,  of 


a 


2CP 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


which  theology  is  merely  a  reproduction  in  grotesque 
form,  to  the  empire  of  universal  cause  and  effect.  To 
do  this  we  must  become  truly  spiritual.  We  must 
exchange  for  a  true  knowledge  of  life  our  dreams  of 
immortality.  We  must  make  conduct  the  measure  of 
life  as  well  as  of  happiness,  for  in  our  actions  alone 
we  live.  This  will  prevent  us  from  putting  our  faith 
in  beings,  or  the  representatives  of  beings,  who  are 
known  to  us  only  through  the  contradictions  and 
absurdities  of  their  conduct. 


A   MODERN   MYSTERY-PLAY. 

BY   M.   C.  O'BVRNE. 

In  Wright's  Essays  on  Archeology  the  curious 
reader  will  discover  some  amusing  examples  of  the 
gross  anthropomorphism  of  the  Christians  of  the  mid- 
dle ages.  Nowhere  were  religious  conceptions  coarser 
or  more  grotesque  than  in  England  and  the  Lowdands 
of  Scotland,  among  those  whom  Dr.  Robert  Knox 
terms  the  "spatula-fingered"  Anglo-Saxons, — perhaps 
the  most  unabstract  of  European  peoples.  Of  course 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  while  "binding  the  universe  up 
into  bundles," — as  poor  Carlyle  said  of  Comte, — has 
not  omitted  to  notice  these  gross  medireval  conceptions. 
By  education,  no  less  than  by  temperament,  Mr. 
Spencer  is  unable  to  recognize  that  the  apparent  incon- 
gruities "between  religious  beliefs  and  social  states," — 
in  the  middle  ages  at  least, — would  appear  perfectly 
congruous  to  a  Roman  Catholic,  even  to  its  latest  and 
perhaps  most  scholarly  champion,  Mr.  W.  S.Lilly.  The 
mystery-plays  of  the  dark  ages,  though  certainly  very 
much  grosser,  were  not  a  whit  more  anthropomorphic 
than  is  the  Passion-play  of  the  Bavarian  hamlet  Ober- 
ammergau,  which  crowds  of  refined  ladies  and  gentle- 
men, both  of  England  and  America,  throng  to  witness 
and  to  which  columns  of  descriptive  articles  have  been 
devoted  by  the  most  respectable  and  influential  London 
newspapers.  That  the  old  plays  were  exceedingly 
broad  pictures,  as  Wright  terms  them,  is  most  unques- 
tionable. Nevertheless  they  were  pictures,  and  at  their 
inception  they  were  intended, — as  Pope  Gregory  the 
Great  said  of  religious  paintings, — to  serve  as  idiotarum 
libri,  or  books  for  the  illiterate,  and,  doubtless,  from  the 
Catholic  standpoint,  they  admirably  fulfilled  the  func- 
tion for  which  they  were  designed. 

The  methods  pursued  bv  the  Salvation  Army  are 
lii  ise  by  which  Christianity  was  quickened  immediately 
after  the  crucifixion  and  disappearance  of  its  protagonist, 
the  enthusiastic  Galilean.  I  have  studied  those  methods 
at  the  old  headquarters  of  the  Array  in  Whitechapel, 
London,  where  I  have  been  enabled  to  realize  the 
immense  effect  produced  on  the  popular  mind  of  Eng- 
land by  that  Antinomianism  which  was  the  moving 
doctrine    of  the    reformation.     Side    by    side    with  this 


outbreak  of  fanaticism,  however,  another, — and  I  think  a 
much  more  praiseworthy, —  movement  was  being  con- 
ducted in  a  contiguous  district  of  the  teeming  East  End 
of  the  great  city.  Old  Gravel  Lane  runs  across  the 
London  dock,  and  connects  Ratcliff  Highway, —  now 
more  genteelly  called  St.  George's  East, —  with  High 
street,  Wapping.  I  need  hardly  add  that  all  these  are 
historic  j}laces,  grim  and  forbidding  though  they  now 
are.  Though  shorn  of  its  ancient  pre-eminence  by  the 
removal  of  the  larger  portion  of  the  shipping  to  the 
newer  and  more  eastern  docks,  this  region  is  still  sacred 
to  sailors,  crimps,  dance-houses,  liquor  saloons  and 
brothels, —  a  terra  incognita  to  the  respectable  citizens 
of  the  great  metropolis.  The  wretched  courts,  alleys 
and  by-ways  that  spread  from  it  on  either  side  are 
inhabited  by  laborers  and  their  families,  nearly  all  of 
whom  are  of  Milesian  extraction  and  who  constitute  the 
most  numerous  portion  of  the  Irish  colony  in  London. 
I,  myself,  have  often  heard  the  original  language  of 
Connemara  spoken  in  this  district,  and  I  still  remember  an 
evening  spent  in  Ratcliff,  when  I  listened  with  as  much 
delight  as  Borrow,  the  "Romany  Rye,"  to  wild  legends 
of  Fingal,  Grace  O'Malley  and  Brian  Boroimhe,  sound- 
ing strangely  out  of  place  in  this  Gehenna  of  squalor, 
misery  and  vice.  The  men  earn  a  precarious  and  wretched 
subsistence  by  their  chance  employments  in  the  docks. 
Every  morning  the  gates  are  opened,  while  an  official 
"takes  on"  the  number  of  laborers  deemed  necessary 
for  the  day,  either  in  the  wine  vaults,  on  the  warehouse 
floors,  or  on  the  quays.  Each  man  receives  a  metal 
ticket,  with  the  hour  of  his  entry  stamped  on  it,  and  his 
name  is  entered  in  the  "  taking-on  book"  opposite  the 
number  of  his  ticket.  The  feverish  impatience  and 
anxiety  of  the  crowds  who  linger  near  the  gates  are 
generally  very  painful  to  witness,  and  very  few  of  these 
administrators  to  the  wealth  of  this  overgrown  metrop- 
olis average  more  than  three  days  a  week  of  regular 
employment  throughout  the  year.  The  young  women 
and  girls  are  employed  in  sack  making  at  their  own 
"  homes,"  and  at  any  time  scores  of  girls,  having  forms 
that  a  duchess  might  envy,  may  be  met  on  the  streets 
with  heavy  piles  of  rough  sacks  on  their  heads.  Being 
only  "  London  Irish,"  of  course  no  artist  has  gone  out  of 
his  way  to  paint  them.  They  are  by  far  too  vulgar  for 
the  gallery  of  the  aristocrat  or  the  merchant  prince, 
whose  costly  canvases  have  more  than  enough  of  Italian 
and  oriental  women  with  water-pots  and  vases  on  their 
heads  and  shoulders. 

Vulgar  and  vicious  as  this  district  is,  it  was,  never- 
theless, the  region  selected  to  labor  in  by  the  most  self- 
devoted  priest  that  has  ever  adorned  and  honored  the 
Church  of  England  since  the  death  of  George  Herbert. 
"  Man  is  born  to  be  a  doer  of  good,"  wrote  the  Emperor 
Marcus  Antoninus, — a  maxim  which  did  not  govern  his 
own  conduct  with  respect  to  the  rising  sect  of  Christians. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


291 


Let  us,  whatever  we  may  think  of  its  doctrines,  honor- 
ahlv  and  gladly  acknowledge  that  Christianity  has  from 
its  inception  inspired  and  stimulated  a  refined  and  ele- 
vated altruism.  The  self-sacrifice  of  such  men  as  Her- 
bert, Mompesson  and  Lowder  reflects  honor  on  human- 
ity none  the  less  because  their  noble  exertions  were  in  a 
great  degree  prompted  by  their  religious  convictions. 
"St.  Peter's,  London  Docks,"  is  situated  in  Old  Gravel 
Lane.  It  was  for  many  years  the  church  of  the  Rev. 
Charles  Lowder, — "  Father  Lowder,"  as  he  was  called 
by  his  affectionate  parishioners.  Defying  alike  the 
prejudices  of  his  co-religionists  and  the  hostility  of  the 
people  among  whom  he  volunteered  to  labor, — these 
being  nearly  all,  at  least  in  name,  Roman  Catholics, — 
Father  Lowder  openly  put  in  practice  the  highest  ritual 
allowed  him  by  the  law,  caring,  indeed,  little  or  nothing 
for  judicial  committees  or  for  any  secular  court  or  ordi- 
nance appointed  by  the  State  to  restrain  High  Church- 
men from  excess  of  zeal.  My  pen  almost  shrinks  from 
the  attempt  to  describe  the  nauseous  impurity  and  bestial- 
ity of  the  denizens  of  these  riverside  purlieus.  Morn- 
ing, noon  and  night  the  mind  of  this  educated  and  refined 
gentleman  must  have  been  shocked  by  his  surroundings, 
the  very  children  playing  in  the  gutters  using  all  uncon- 
sciously the  vilest  language  of  the  brothel.  Throwing 
aside  fastidiousness,  this  grand  humanitarian  devoted 
himself  to  the  reclamation  of  the  district.  Corpus 
Christi  and  other  processions  wended  their  way,  under 
his  guidance,  down  the  Lane,  into  Wapping,  and  along 
the  courtesan-haunted  Highway,  while  the  services  inside 
the  church  were  of  the  very  "highest"  order  possible. 
For  a  long  time  the  people  did  little  but  scoff  at  the 
zealous  priest,  now  and  then,  however,  manifesting,  in  a 
way  that  called  for  the  interference  of  the  police,  that 
they  were  Roman,  not  Anglican,  Catholics.  Gradually, 
however,  as  it  was  found  that  Lowder's  religion  was  a 
practical  one,  embracing  works  of  mercy,  kindness  and 
charity;  when  it  was  seen  that  willing  hands  were 
extended  to  rescue  the  fallen,  and  that  agencies  were 
established  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  poor,  to 
encourage  temperance  and  thrift,  and  that  St.  Peter's 
was  truly  a  "  light  shining  in  a  dark  place,"  the  demeanor 
of  the  "natives"  was  changed.  Then  it  was,  too,  that 
the  Roman  Church,  which  claimed  the  allegiance  of 
these  outcasts,  awoke  to  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
Ratcliff  and  Wapping  were  not  in  Tasmania  or  at  the 
north  pole,  but  at  its  own  door.  Henceforth  a  little  of 
the  attention  that  had  been  confined  to  netting  big  fishes 
among  the  aristocracy  was  bestowed  on  East  London, 
and  Henry  Edward,  of  Westminster,  appears  to  have 
found  the  locality  on  a  map,  and,  having  found,  made  a 
note  of  it. 

St.  Peter's  and  its  various  agencies, — including  even 
a  dining  and  coffee-house  for  laborers, — has  thriven 
wondrously.     Except  in  the  Hall  of  Science,  Old  Street, 


the  headquarters  of  the  Secularists,  there  is  no  other 
example  of  the  rapid  growth  of  a  congregation  com- 
posed mainly  of  the  laboring  classes.  "Father" 
Lowder  died, —  I  think  about  four  years  ago, — but  the 
work  still  continues  vigorously  as  when  he  was  alive  to 
conduct  it,  his  example  having  encouraged  others  to 
follow  in  his  footsteps.  Unlike  the  Salvationists,  whose 
frenzied  appeals  to  avoid  "the  wrath  to  come,"  and 
lurid  pictures  of  hell-fire  temporarily  excite  the  igno- 
rant mind  only  to  provoke  a  terrible  reaction  in  the 
direction  of  sensual  indulgence  and  profound  debauch- 
ery, the  Ritualists  of  East  London  have  worked 
entirely  on  what  I  may  term  pre-Reformation  lines. 
Among  other  things  they  have  had  recourse  to  as  means 
of  instruction,  is  a  modification  of  the  passion-plays. 
Unlike  the  peasants  of  Oberammergau,  the  authorities 
at  St.  Peter's  are  mindful  of  the  Horatian  advice  not  to 
"introduce  on  the  stage  things  that  ought  to  be  enacted 
[i.e.  supposed  to  be  enacted]  behind  the  scenes."  Of 
course  this  circumspection  is  a  concession  to  modern 
progress,  and  it  indicates,  as  Mr.  Spencer  would  say,  the 
ever-increasing  incongruity  between  religious  beliefs  and 
an  improved  social  state  that  the  conception  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  or  the  crucifixion  of  her  son  would  not  now.  be 
made  the  subject  of  a  tableau  either  on  a  public  or 
private  platform  in  England. 

From  notes  made  at  the  time,  I  am  able  to  describe 
one  of  these  revivals  of  the  mystery-play.  The  author, 
or  more  properly  the  composer,  was  the  Rev.  Charles 
Lowder  himself,  and,  of  course,  his  main  object  was  to 
enable  his  congregation  more  vividly  to  realize  the 
salient  events  connected  with  the  incarnation  and  early 
life  upon  earth  of  "  the  Son  of  God."  The  play  opened 
by  the  Choragus  ("the  master  of  plays")  and  chorus, 
consisting  of  twelve  ladies  attired  in  loose  white  dresses, 
six  of  which  were  ornamented  with  blue  and  six  with 
pink  trimmings.  These  recited  the  prologue,  after 
which  the  curtain  was  drawn  and  a  tableau  representing 
"the  Annunciation"  appeared.  This  was  followed  by 
the  "  Nativity,"  the  "Adoration  of  the  Shepherds,"  the 
"Presentation  in  the  Temple,"  the  "  Flight  into  Egypt," 
etc.  By  far  the  most  effective  tableau  was  that  of  the 
simple  house  and  work-shop  of  the  carpenter  Joseph, 
showing  Mary  carding  flax,  the  child  Jesus  with  a 
broom  in  hand,  and  Joseph  himself  at  a  rude  work- 
bench. Quite  as  reverently  as  though  engaged  in  reg- 
ular worship  the  chorus  sang  a  hymn,  from  which  I 
cull  the  following  verses: 

"Sons  of  Adam,  sons  of  sorrow, 
Would  ye  wis  who  is  this 
Laboring  at  Nazareth? 

"Very  God,  the  angels  call  him, 
And  adore,  evermore, 
Bending  low  before  him. 


292 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


"Very  man,  yet  now  behold  him, 
Mary's  child,  meek  and  mild, 
Called  the  Son  of  Joseph. 

"Know'st  thou  what  it  is  to  hunger, 
Barely  fed  with  daily  bread? — 
Jesus,  too,  did  hunger! 

"Know'st  thou  what  it  is  to  labor, 
Toiling  on  till  youth  is  gone? — 
All  his  life  he  labored! 

"Is  thy  labor  very  lowly? 

Brother,  see,  at  Nazareth  he 

Swept  the  floor  for  Mary. 
*  *  *  * 

"Man!  whate'er  thy  lot  and  station, 

Rich  and  glad,  or  poor  and  sad, 

God  was  Man  at  Nazareth!" 

The  reader  will,  I  think,  agree  with  me  that  there 
was  nothing  ridiculous  or  what  the  most  rigid  Evangel- 
ical Christian  would  regard  as  profane  in  this  gospel- 
play.  Doubtless  it  was  conceived,  as  it  was  most  cer- 
tainly represented,  in  a  spirit  of  religious  reverence.  In 
this  respect  it  presented  a  marked  contrast  no  less  to  the 
ribaldry  of  the  Salvation  Army  than  to  the  coarse  buf- 
foonery of  the  mediaeval  passion-plays.  The  object 
aimed  at  was  to  bring  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation 
before  the  people  in  a  manner  best  calculated  to  perma- 
nently impress  them  with  its  significance.  The  old 
Romanist  method,  on  the  contrary,  tended  to  bring 
religion  into  contempt,  and  thus,  in  some  measure,  it 
prepared  the  way  for  the  great  Protestant  revolt.  What, 
for  instance,  could  be  more  absurdly  ridiculous  than  the 
Festival  of  the  Ass,  formerly  celebrated  at  Beauvais? 
In  commemoration  of  the  patient  animal  upon  which 
Joseph  and  Mary  were  presumed  to  have  fled  into 
Egypt,  the  people  of  Beauvais  used  once  a  year  to  capar- 
ison a  donkey  in  cloth  of  gold,  and  place  upon  its  back 
a  richly-dressed  maiden,  to  represent  the  Virgin  Mary. 
A  long  procession  of  priests  and  people  conducted  these 
from  the  cathedral  to  the  parish  church  of  St.  Stephen. 
Girl  and  donkey  were  placed  near  the  altar,  and  during 
the  celebration  of  high  mass  the  well-trained  animal  was 
compelled  to  kneel  at  the  most  solemn  parts  of  the 
"sacrifice."  Du  Cange  (Book  III,  pp.  426,  427)  has  pre- 
served the  hymn,  with  its  French  chorus,  which  some 
not-too-faithful  an  interpreter  has  rendered  into  English, 
some  specimen  stanzas  being  as  follows: 

"The  ass  comes  hither  from  Eastern  climes; 

Heigh-ho,  Sir  Donkey  ! 
He  is  handsome  and  lit  for  his  load  at  all  times. 
Sing,  Father  An-,  and  you  shall  have  grass, 

And  straw,  too,  and  hay  in  plenty. 

"The  ass  is  slow  and  lazy  too; 

Heigh-ho,  Sir  Donkey! 
But  the  whip  and  the  spur  will  make  him  go. 
Sing,  Father  Ass,  and  you  shall  have  grass, 

And  straw,  too,  and  hay  in  plenty. 


"The  ass  was  born  with  stiff  long  ears; 

Heigh-ho,  Sir  Donkey! 
And  yet  he  the  lord  of  asses  appears. 
Sing,  Father  Ass,  and  you  shall  have  grass, 

And  straw,  too,  and  hay  in  plenty. 

"At  a  leap  the  ass  excels  the  hind; 

Heigh-ho,  Sir  Donkey! 
And  he  leaves  the  goat  and  the  camel  behind. 
Bray,  Father  Ass,  and  you  shall  have  grass, 

And  straw,  too,  and  hay  in  plenty." 

"The  worship,"  writes  the  Rev.  H.  Christmas* 
"  concluded  with  a  mutual  braying  between  the  clergy 
and  laity  in  honor  of  the  ass.  The  officiating  priest 
turned  to  the  people,  and  in  a  fine  treble  voice,  and  with 
great  devotion,  brayed  three  times  like  an  ass,  whose 
fair  representative  he  was;  while  the  people,  imitating 
his  example  in  thanking  God,  brayed  three  times  in 
concert." 

This  was  truly  an  edifying  act  of  worship,  and  one 
which  Pope  Leo  XIII  might  do  well  to  re-establish  as 
a  sort  of  complement  to  the  dogma  of  papal  infallibility, 
by  voting  for  which  on  the  iSth  of  July,  1S70,  five 
hundred  and  thirty-three  Catholic  bishops  brayed  in 
accordance  with  the  papal  mandate. 

In  England  the  so-called  Catholic  revival, —  not  the 
Roman  Catholic  be  it  noted, —  is  extending  itself  down- 
ward as  well  as  upward.  How  far  miracle-plays  will 
help  to  recover  the  masses  I  cannot  state,  but  it  is  note- 
worthy that  the  national  church  is  sparing  no  effort  both 
to  ameliorate  the  physical  condition  of  the  people,  to 
improve  their  morals,  and  to  counteract  the  rapid  growth 
of  skepticism.  It  has  one  association, —  the  Guild  of 
St.  Matthew, —  specially  designed  to  confront  the  Secu- 
larists, and  which  endeavors  to  meet  them  rationally  and 
admits  them  to  its  platforms  in  fair  and  open  argument. 
In  so  doing  it  has,  I  believe,  challenged  and  obtained 
the  respect  of  Mr.  Bradlaugh,  who  desires  nothing  bet- 
ter than  that  the  conflict  between  Secularism  and 
Christianity  shall  be  conducted  more  generously  and 
courteously  then  in  the  old  time  of  vituperation  and 
abuse. 

FAILURE  OF  THE   RADICAL  METHOD. 

BY    REV.JCLIUS    H.  WARD. 

The  recent  convention  of  the  Free  Religionists,  in 
Boston,  representing,  as  it  does,  the  dregs  of  the  great 
reform  era  in  New  England,  furnishes  a  curious  illustra- 
tion of  the  change  which  has  been  slowly  creeping  over 
American  life  since  the  close  of  the  civil  war.  This 
association  of  radical  people  was  organized  twenty  years 
ago  in  order  to  bring  the  protesters  against  conservative 
religious  life  together.  It  succeeded  in  this,  and  num- 
bered its  members  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  but  found 
them  chiefly  in  New  England.  Since  then  it  has  fur- 
nished   yearly,  if  not   oftener,   a   free   platform    for  the 

*  Shores  and  Islands  of  the  Mediterranean,  Vol.  I. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


-<>.$ 


expression  of  opinion  on  current  religious  and  social 
questions,  and  has  proved  to  be  a  clearing-house  for  ideas 
which  found  little  favor  in  the  press  or  in  the  churches. 
It  has  been  its  special  aim  to  be  a  voice  in  the  wilder- 
ness, not  to  be  an  element  of  organized  life  in  the  com- 
munity. It  has  held  the  seat  of  critical  judgment,  but 
has  done  little  to  forward  either  needed  reforms  or  the 
helpful  operations  of  civilized  life.  Meanwhile,  there 
has  been  a  gradual  change  in  the  way  of  looking  at 
society  and  in  the  method  by  which  social  results  are 
reached.  The  old  method  of  agitation  has  been  replaced 
by  a  broader  view  of  life  and  of  the  relations  which  men 
bear  to  one  another  in  the  advancement  of  the  world. 
The  agitator  has  been  found  to  lie  simply  an  individual. 
He  is  nothing  more  than  a  unit.  He  carries  no  more 
influence  than  the  strength  of  his  utterance  or  of  his 
will.  He  is  powerless  in  present  society  unless  he  can 
organize  others  to  work  with  him.  The  demand  to-day, 
if  any  great  end  is  to  be  reached,  is  that  a  few  persons 
shall  associate  to  further  an  object,  and  that  its  method 
shall  be  one  that  is  in  accord  with  the  institutional  order. 
It  is  not  simply  a  question  of  individual  rights,  but  the 
moving  of  the  community  as  a  whole  to  think  as  you 
do.  Once  it  was  an  emphatic  protest,  and  the  voice  in 
one  wilderness  resounded  to  the  voice  in  another;  now 
it  is  the  union  of  men  and  women  together  for  the  fur- 
therance of  a  common  object. 

The  Free  Religious  Association  is  a  notable  illustra- 
tion of  the  working  of  this  principle  in  American  society. 
It  began  as  a  protest;  it  was  an  association  of  the  Puri- 
tans of  the  Puritans;  it  struck  the  ax  unsparingly  at  the 
root  of  the  tree ;  it  believed  that  the  denunciation  of  what  it 
did  not  approve  was  all  that  was  required.  The  time 
has  come  when  this  negative  position  is  no  longer  profit- 
able. Mr.  O.  B.  Frothingham  attempted  to  maintain 
this  position  in  a  congregation  in  New  York  and  found 
it  an  impossible  task;  Professor  Felix  Adler  has  only 
succeeded  in  doing  this  by  connecting  it  with  an  organ- 
ized system  of  philanthrophy.  The  organ  of  this  move- 
ment has  now  been  merged  in  a  broader  journal  which 
has  its  own  way  of  expressing  the  affirmative  positions 
of  the  Association.  The  center  of  the  Free  Religious 
movement  in  Boston,  which  was  to  have  been  in  the 
support  of  Theodore  Parker's  society,  has  long  since 
disappeared,  and  nothing  but  the  unsightly  building, 
which  is  now  his  empty  memorial,  remains  to  suggest 
to  the  passer-by  that  Free  Religion  in  Boston  once  had 
a  local  habitation  as  well  as  a  name.  This  has  been 
partly  due  to  the  negative  positions  which  this  company 
of  people  assumed.  It  is  due  still  more  to  the  change 
in  the  life  of  society,  so  far  as  men  have  purposes  in 
hand  by  which  it  may  be  redeemed.  This  was  openly 
confessed  by  Rev.  W.  J.  Potter,  the  president  of  the 
association,  at  its  recent  convention  in  Boston,  when  he 
openly   laid  before  its  members  a  scheme  of  associated 


secular,  scientific  and  religious  work,  by  which  its  life 
might  be  revived  and  its  usefulness  made  evident  to  the 
world.  This  plan  is  similar  in  its  method,  if  not  in  its 
scope,  to  that  of  the  Social  Science  Association,  ami  it 
is  the  expression  of  that  rational  interest  in  humanity  at 
large  which  the  Free  Religionists  have  assumed  to 
have  at  heart.  What  will  come  of  the  scheme  remains 
to  be  seen;  it  has  not  apparently  been  received  by  the 
rank  and  file  with  that  cordiality  which  should  ensure 
its  practical  success,  but  it  seem  to  be  the  only  channel 
by  which  the  Free  Religionists  as  a  body  can  put  them- 
selves en  rapport  with  the  moral  and  religious  forces 
which  now  control  the  better  elements  in  American 
society.  It  would  appear  that  even  the  come-outers 
from  organized  religion  are  compelled  to  fall  into  lines 
of  sympathy  and  union  with  the  institutional  order  from 
which  they  have  heretofore  most  vigorously  dissented. 


COMPETITION     IN    TRADES. 

BY    WHEELBARROW. 

A  short  time  ago  the  president  of  the  Federa- 
tion of  Trades  Unions  testified  before  the  Senate 
Committee  on  Labor.  I  see  by  the  papers  that  he 
proposed  as  a  remedy  for  the  alleged  wrongs  of  jour- 
neymen mechanics,  that  the  convicts  in  penitentiaries, 
instead  of  working  at  trades  within  the  walls,  be  taken 
out  and  worked  upon  the  public  roads.  On  behalf  of 
the  "knights"  of  the  shovel  and  wheelbarrow  I  protest 
against  this  plan.  What  right  has  the  Federation  of 
Trades  Unions  to  dump — I  use  a  term  suggested  by  my 
profession — what  right  has  that  federation  to  dump  the 
whole  convict  "  brotherhood  "  upon  us  ?  What  right  has 
the  president  of  it  to  make  his  class  an  order  of  nobility 
to  flaunt  their  airs  of  eminence  in  the  faces  of  us  who 
labor  in  a  lower  calling,  who  have  not  reached  the  rank 
of  mechanics,  but  who  must  content  ourselves  with  the 
honorable  but  yet  inferior  designation,  "laborers"? 

The  president  of  the  Federation  and  his  order  get 
higher  wages  than  we  laborers  get;  they  can  better 
afford  to  stand  the  competition  of  the  convicts  than  we 
can.  We  who  "work  upon  the  roads"  have  just  as 
much  right  to  protection  against  convict  picks  and  shov- 
els as  the  president  of  the  Federation  has  to  protection 
against  convict  chisels,  awls  or  jack-planes.  Will  he 
give  us  some  good  reason  why  convicts  should  be  per- 
mitted to  compete  with  some  kinds  of  labor  and  not 
with  others?     Are  we  to  have  an  aristocracy  of  trades? 

I  never  had  time  to  studv  the  principles  of  political 
economy,  and  I  know  nothing  about  the  laws  of  social 
science,  but  the  facts  of  both  have  fallen  upon  me  heavy 
as  a  hammer,  and  upon  the  stern  logic  of  those  facts  I 
built  my  own  ethics  of  labor  in  those  delightful  moments 
when,  having  dumped  the  load,  I  leisurely  trolled  my 
wheelbarrow  behind  me  down  the  plank  to  the  hole  in 
the   ground    where   it    had    to   be  filled  again.     Sixteen 


2  94 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


hours  a  day  of  hard  work  is  bad  schooling  for  a  boy  of 
thirteen.  In  the  bright  days  of  childhood,  when  the 
mind  and  body  should  grow  into  strength  and  beauty, 
mine  were  being  stunted  and  warped  by  toil  savage  and 
unnatural.  I  ought  to  be  five  feet  ten;  that's  my  correct 
stature  by  rights;  I  am  less  than  five  feet  six.  Toil 
stunted  me  when  I  was  in  the  gristle.  I  had  no  time  to 
study  books,  and  the  principles  of  life  that  I  learned, 
such  as  thev  were,  I  had  to  gather  in  the  college  of  hard 
knocks. 

After  all,  a  man  can  think  with  considerable  clear- 
ness walking  down  a  plank  with  an  empty  barrow 
behind  him,  and  I  have  worked  out  hundreds  of  labor 
problems  while  "  walking  the  plank"  in  that  way.  Some 
of  my  solutions  I  afterward  threw  away  as  incorrect, 
and  others  I  cling  to  still.  The  open  air  is  a  good  place 
for  mental  work ;  a  clear  atmosphere  makes  clear 
thought,  while  the  inspiration  of  a  few  big  draughts  of 
t  into  a  good  pair  of  lungs  quickens  the  mind.  You 
don't  get  your  full  ration  of  oxygen  in  the  house;  out  of 
doors  you  do,  and  that  is  a  wholesome  stimulant  better 
than  wine.  You  can  unlearn  a  great  many  things,  too, 
in  the  open  air,  and  one  of  the  useful  arts  is  that  of 
unlearning.  I  have  unlearned  manv  of  my  theories 
about  labor,  and  some  of  my  doctrines  I  have  been  com- 
pelled not  only  to  change  but  to  reverse.  The  effect  of 
labor  competition  upon  the  welfare  of  workingmen 
appears  to  me  now  in  a  different  light  than  it  formerly 
did,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  we  must  reverse  our 
ancient  opinion  that  it  is  desirable  to  produce  a  scarcity 
of  men,  a  scarcity  of  skill,  and  a  scarcity  of  production. 
So  long  as  we  cling  to  those  old  superstitions  we  can 
never  successfully  assert  the  dignity  of  labor. 

Already  they  have  reduced  labor  to  a  mendicant  con- 
dition. It  begs  for  favors  where  it  ought  to  compel 
rights.  The  beggarly  petition  "  a  fair  day's  wages  for 
a  fair  day's  work,"  is  unworthy  of  straight-built,  square- 
cut  men.  Let  us  shape  the  laws  of  this  land — social  and 
political — so  that  we  may  obtain  a  reward  for  our  labor 
equal  to  its  full  value.  We  are  leveling  wages  to  the 
grade  of  alms,  and  our  masters  pay  it  to  us  like  the  dole 
of  charity.  If  we  take  a  narrow  view  of  human  life 
our  share  of  life's  comforts  will  be  narrow  and  mean. 
We  must  expand  the  horizon  of  man,  and  not  contract 
it.  What  can  be  more  degrading  to  labor  than  the 
assumption  of  the  Federation  that  the  hosts  of  working- 
men  in  Illinois  cannot  stand  the  competition  of  a  couple 
of  thousand  prisoners  bungling  at  the  tasks  imposed  on 
them  for  punishment?  The  welfare  of  the  working- 
men  can  never  consist  in  the  scarcity  either  of  talent  or 
goods,  but  always  in  the  abundance  of  both. 

Men  like  the  president  of  the  Federation  fight  the 
beneficent  law  of  mutual  assistance  under  the  impression 
that  they  are  fighting  competition  by  limiting  human 
skill.      So  they  foolishly  resolve  that  all  handicraft  shall 


be  a  monopoly ;  they  put  "  mechanics  "  back  again  among 
the  black  arts,  and  forbid  the  teaching  of  trades.  Not 
only  would  they  set  convicts  to  "working  on  the  roads," 
but  all  the  children  of  the  poor.  I  have  four  sons,  all 
free-born  Americans,  so-called,  and  all  .now  grown  to 
manhood.  I  tried  to  give  them  trades,  as  they  respect- 
ively reached  the  proper  age,  but  in  every  instance  I  was 
forbidden  to  do  so  by  the  laws  of  the  trades.  All  four 
of  them  are  now  men,  but  not  one  of  them  was  per- 
mitted to  learn  a  trade  in  the  land  where  they  were  born 
and  which  they  have  been  taught  to  call  a  land  of  free- 
dom. The  oldest  got  a  job  as  fireman  on  the  railroad, 
and  after  a  few  years  managed  to  steal  the  trade  of  an 
engineer;  the  next  drifted  off  to  that  undefinable  country 
known  as  "  the  mountains,"  and  there  he  is  wasting 
away  his  life  digging  holes  in  the  ground  searching  for 
silver  and  gold.  The  next  picked  up  a  book  and  taught 
himself  the  shorthand  trade;  he  gets  twice  as  much 
wages  as  I  ever  got  with  my  wheelbarrow  and  shovel; 
the  youngest  gets  a  dollar  a  day  in  a  store  in  the  hum- 
blest capacity,  but  hopes  to  work  up  in  time  to  the 
grade  of  a  clerk.  That  all  four  of  them  didn't  become 
hoodlums  and  tramps  is  not  the  fault  of  the  unions.  A 
man  with  a  heart  in  him,  even  if  he  has  no  brains  at  all, 
must  see  in  a  moment  that  the  policy  which  robbed 
those  boys  of  their  right  to  learn  a  trade  cannot  be  right, 
and  not  being  right  it  cannot  be  either  economical  or 
wise. 

One  evening  I  was  talking  to  that  shorthand  writer 
about  the  strike  of  the  telegraph  operators,  supposing 
that  he  would  probably  take  a  deep  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject, but  he  cared  little  about  it.  "  I  hope  the  operators 
will  win,"  he  said,  "  but  I  am  not  anxious  either  way. 
It's  a  choice  of  monopolies,  and  I  side  with  the  weaker. 
The  companies  monopolize  the  profits  of  telegraphing, 
the  operators  monopolize  the  art.  They  forbid  one 
another  to  teach  the  trade,  and  if  their  monopoly  is 
beaten  by  the  other  it  will  be  no  more  than  the  big  pike 
swallowing  the  little  one." 

I  look  at  it  that  way  myself,  and  it  appears  to  me 
that  if  the  policy  of  shutting  up  one  trade  in  order  to 
prevent  competition  is  good  for  that,  it  must  be  good  for 
every  other  calling  or  profession,  and  all  the  trades  and 
occupations  being  closed,  the  people  outside  must  be 
either  rich,  or  tramps,  or  thieves.  The  trades  having 
shut  everybody  out,  have  shut  themselves  in,  and  having 
deprived  a  large  pait  of  the  community  of  the  means  of 
buying  anything,  trade  diminishes,  there  is  less  demand 
for  labor,  and  less  money  to  pay  for  it,  another  exclu- 
sion then  becomes  necessary,  until  we  get  back  to  the 
wigwams,  where  we  don't  need  any  mechanics  at  all. 
We  might  follow  the  principle  to  greater  extremities 
yet,  until  at  last  we  grub  roots  or  climb  trees  for  a  din- 
ner, like  that  primeval  ape  from  whom  we  all  have 
sprung.     I  think  it  is  in  the  story  of  Rasselas  that  I  read 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


295 


an  account  of  an  ambitious  man  who  was  promised  by 
the  genii  the  fulfillment  of  one  wish,  whatever  it  might 
be.  He  wished  that  he  could  be  the  only  wise  man 
in  the  world,  and  that  all  other  men  might  be  fools. 
The  wish  was  granted  him,  and  immediately  afterward 
the  people  took  him  and  said,  "  this  man's  a  fool,"  and 
they  put  him  in  the  lunatic  asylum,  where  he  remains  to 
this  day.  He  was  a  fool,  and  so  is  every  man  a  fool 
who  thinks  to  grow  wise  on  his  neighbor's  ignorance,  or 
rich  on  his  neighbor's  poverty. 

I  object  to  the  principle  for  another  reason.  It  fos- 
ters the  spirit  of  caste  among  workingmen,  and  creates  a 
ragged  aristocracy,  the  shabbiest  aristocracy  of  all.  In 
a  gang  that  I  worked  in   once  was   an  Irishman    named 


THE    CREEDMAN. 

BY    MRS.    ELIZABETH    OAKES    SMITH. 

I  do  not  much  affect  a  human  creed, 

And  yet  there  sometimes  comes  to  all  a  need 

Of  voice,  authoritative — stern 

The  straight  from  devious  way  to  learn. 

Ah!  it  were  well,  indeed,  could  we 

But  half  those  ancient  Creedmen  saw,  but  see — 

Had  we  but  half  the  reverential  awe 

By  which  they  sought  to  find  a  binding  law. 

They  hid  themselves  in  caves  and  deserts  wild, 

Where  God  was  felt  a  presence — man  a  child — 

And  everywhere  a  voice  within  was  heard 

Rung  from  the  Heavens  down — "Thus  saith  the  Lord." 

Ah!  ye  by  sense  and  passion  blindly  led 

Behold  the  Creedman  on  his  rocky  bed, 

Weak  from  the  sackcloth,  and  the  stripes  that  bleed 

Down  from  the  brain  and  heart,  as  grows  the  Creed; 

A  needful  balance  to  the  wayward  mind — 

A  needful  check — or  bondage  for  mankind. 

And  we  reject  it  all — and  feel  no  shame, 

We,  who  are  what  we  are,  because  the  Creedman  came, 

And  crystalized  to  form  the  mighty  word, 

That  all  the  Heavens  proclaim — "Thus  saith  the  Lord." 

'Fore  God  I  bless  his  name,  that  such  have  been — 

Forgive  the  blindness,  and  the  deadly  sin 

Of  persecuting  priest,  and  burning  stake 

That  taught  men  how  to  die  for  Truth's  dear  sake; 

That  through  the  darkness  to  Servetus  spake, 

And  like  a  burning  flame  on  Bruno  broke; 

And  we  reject — but  unto  such  we  owe 

The  thought  that  taught  us  how  to  dare — and  know. 

Through  the  dim  forest  and  the  pine  tree  shade 

The  lightning  leaps — the  storm  a  path  has  made — 

All  Nature  echoes  to  the  mighty  word, 

Through  all  her  secret  caves — "Thus  saith  the  Lord:" 

But  most  within  the  heart  of  man  is  heard 

This  grand  monition  of  the  sacred  word, 

"Thus  saith  the  Lord"  inscribed  within, 

Stern  as  is  Duty,  at  approach  of  Sin. 


Jack  Patterson;  an  honest  man  was  Tack,  and  as  true  a 
gentleman  as  ever  swung  a  pick.  He  had  a  son  named 
Dick,  and  how  he  managed  it  I  don't  know,  but  Dick 
broke  through  the  crust  that  excluded  him  from  the 
trades,  and  learned  the  art  of  a  plasterer.  Being  now  a 
mechanic,  he  occupied  a  round  on  the  social  ladder  one 
step  higher  than  we  did  who  worked  with  a  shovel  and 
a  pick.  Having  attained  this  giddy  elevation  Dick  re- 
fused to  associate  any  longer  with  his  father.  A  friend 
condoling  with  his  mother  on  Dick's  unfilial  conduct,  the 
old  lady  replied:  "  Well,  Dick  always  was  a  high-sper- 
ited  boy;  sure,  you  couldn't  expect  him  to  associate  wid 
an  Irish  laborer."  The  Federation  of  Trades  Unions 
would  make  Dick  Pattersons  of  us  all. 


THE  OPEN   COURT. 

BY    NELLY    BOOTH    SIMMONS. 

Ah,  many  a  Court,  I  know,  have  we, 

Where  men  may  gather  and  witness  bear 
To  their  faith,  and  tell  of  the  wrongs  that  be, 

And  how  to  render  the  world  more  fair; 
May  seek  to  unravel  this  endless  strife, 

And  speak,  with  eager  yet  bated  breath, 
Of  the  meanings  and  uses  of  human  life, 

And  the  strange,  sad  mystery  of  death. 

But  none  so  grand,  so  free  as  this, 

Where  creeds  can  never  the  light  eclipse,  — 
No  Bible  held  for  a  reverent  kiss 

E'er  truth  may  be  uttered  by  earnest  lips! 
Where  all  may  come  who  would  intervene 

To  crush  the  evil,  to  aid  the  weak, 
And   Reason  sits,  like  a  judge  serene, 

Giving  her  verdict  on  all  who  speak. 

Ah,  strength  comes  soonest  to  those  who  know 

That  doubt  is  the  sunrise  of  the  soul, 
Who  let  the  priest  and  his  dogmas  go, 

And  read  from  the  leaves  of  Nature's  scroll ; 
Who  are  brave  to  differ,  and  bold  to  mine 

'Neath  the  crumbling  walls  of  the  ancient  church, 
Till  the  rays  of  the  gems  of  truth  divine 

Gleam  out  to  guerdon  the  patient  search. 

Then  never  falter,  or  stand  aloof 

From  the  hearts  that  meet  and  mingle  here 
Where  belief  is  based  on  a  rock  of  proof, 

And  Love  is  the  God  held  ever  dear; 
Where  to  all  is  given  the  right  to  speak, 

To  question,  aye!  and  to  disagree 
As  fellow-searchers  for  light  on  a  brink 

That  is  washed  by  the  waves  of  an  Unknown  Sea. 


Articles  of  great  interest  by  several  distinguished 
thinkers,  both  European  and  American,  who  have  not 
yet  contributed  to  The  Open  Court,  will  soon  be 
presented   to   our  readers   in  these  columns. 


>o6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  Open  Court. 

A.  Fortnightly  Journal. 

Published   every  other   Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  (Nixor 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor, 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validitv  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
for  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  onl3'  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  JULY  7,   1SS7. 

THE  CASE  OF  PROFESSOR  EGBERT  C.  SMYTH. 
The  Boston  Post  says  that  in  Andover  the  feeling  of 
indignation  is  intense  on  account  of  the  verdict  of  the 
Visitors  in  the  case  of  Professor  Egbert  C.  Smyth, Brown 
Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the  Theological 
Institution  in  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  and  that 
strong  expressions  are  used  even  by  ladies,  such  as  "  das- 
tardly," "  persecution,"  "  heresy  hunters,"  "  cowardice," 
etc.  This  feeling  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  creed 
of  Andover,  as  stated  by  the  founders  of  that  institu- 
tion, is  pretty  thoroughly  outgrown,  and  that  a  mild 
form  of  heresy  is  rather  necessary  to  the  popularity  of 
a  preacher  or  professor,  even  in  an  orthodox  community 
in  New  England;  yet  in  this  popular  judgment  there  is, 
as  usual,  a  lack  of  discrimination  and  exact  justice. 
Complaints  were  made  to  the  Visitors  that  Professor 
Smyth  was  teaching  doctrines  contrary  to  the  creed  of 
the  institution  and  to  the  intent  of  its  founders.  Accord- 
ing to  the  evidence  presented  it  was  clear,  as  the  Visitors 
reported,  that   Professor   Smyth   had   taught  "  That  the 


Bible  is  not  'the  only  perfect  rule  of  faith  and  practice,' 
but  is  fallible  and  untrustworthy  even  in  seme  of  its 
religious  teachings,"  and  "  That  there  is  and  will  he 
probation  after  death  for  all  men  who  do  not  decisively 
reject  Christ  during  the  earthly  life." 

The  creed  of  Andover  is  written  in  language  so 
clear  as  to  be  unmistakable,  as  is  the  will  of  the  men 
who  founded  the  institution,  and  it  is  difficult  to  see 
how  a  fair  interpretation  of  its  letter  and  spirit  in 
connection  with  the  admitted  views  and  teachings  of 
Professor  Smyth  could  admit  of  any  other  decision  than 
that  rendered  by  the  Visitors.  The  absurdity  of  the 
creed  and  the  folly  of  the  founders  in  prescribing  it  as 
a  test  of  doctrinal  soundness  of  all  who  should  occupy 
chairs  of  instruction  in  the  seminary  are  evident  enough, 
and  it  is  gratifying  to  know  that  now  people  generally 
have  the  intelligence  and  liberality  to  see  this;  but  the 
fact  remains  that  the  verdict  from  an  ethical  point  of 
view  is  correct,  and  that  Professor  Smyth,  in  subscrib- 
ing to  the  creed  and  coming  under  obligations  as  a  pro- 
fessor to  teach  nothing  contrary  to  it,  and  then  identify- 
ing himself  with  the  more  advanced  theology  by  pre- 
senting the  views  of  those  who  hold  that  the  Bible  is 
imperfect  in  some  of  its  teachings  and  that  probation 
extends  beyond  death,  occupies  a  position  that  is  incon- 
sistent and  morally  indefensible.  We  cannot,  therefore, 
join  in  the  indiscriminate  praise  of  Professor  Smyth, 
and  in  condemnation  of  the  verdict  against  him,  how- 
ever much  he,  in  his  theological  views,  is  in  advance  of 
those  who  incorporated  theirs  as  a  test  and  qualification 
in  the  Andover  creed.  The  case  seems  to  us  clearly  one 
in  which  was  involved  fidelity  to  a  trust,  and  whatever 
be  the  decision  of  the  civil  court  to  which  an  appeal  is 
to  be  made,  we  do  not  see  that  the  facts  and  the  evi- 
dence left  the  Visitors  any  alternative. 


PUBLIC  OPINION. 

Public  opinion  is  "  collective  mediocrity."  It  finds 
expression  in  manners,  habits,  usages,  laws  and  litera- 
tures, which  react  upon  it  and  tend  to  give  it  compara- 
tive fixedness  in  its  elementary  characteristics,  in  spite  of 
its  proverbial  fickleness.  This  complex  body  of  thought, 
like  an  organism  in  which  many  parts  coalesce  and  be- 
come co-ordinated  in  one  structure,  although  subject  to 
modification  in  the  later  accretions,  becomes  like  "the 
cake  of  custom  "  hardened  with  age.  It  is  not  strange, 
therefore,  that  in  some  of  the  older  countries, like  China, 
it  is  hardly  possible  for  the  reformer  to  make  so  much  as 
a  dent  in  public  opinion,  in  favor  of  the  removal  of  bar- 
riers to  progress  and  the  introduction  of  the  ideas  and 
methods  of  a  more  advanced  and  progressive  civilization. 

Even  in  the  most  enlightened  communities  to-day, 
public  opinion  is  the  most  powerful  influence  constantly 
exerted  against  intellectual  development  and  moral  and 
social  progress.   It  prevents  free  and  impartial  discussion 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


297 


of  unpopular  views,  and  intimidates  into  silence  and 
conformity  with  prevailing  beliefs  and  observances  the 
great  majority  of  those  who  hold  these  views;  thus  di- 
rectly discouraging  independence,  sincerity  and  consist- 
ency of  thought  and  speech,  if  not  indeed  making  these 
qualities  the  exception  among  those  who  hold  decidedlv 
unpopular  views,  and  silence  or  acquiescence  and  a  tem- 
porizing course  the  general  rule. 

All  original  thought  must  come  from  individuals. 
All  great  moral  and  social  reforms  must  receive  their 
first  impulse  from  the  few  and  not  from  the  many.  Noth- 
ing, therefore,  is  more  imperatively  demanded  in  the 
interests  of  progress,  than  the  freest  and  fullest  expres- 
sion of  those  opinions  which  clash  with  the  orthodoxv 
and  conservatism  of  the  day,  as  a  counterpoise  to  the 
tendency  of  an  arbitrary  and  despotic  public  opinion  to 
make  all  think  alike,  and  thus  to  produce  "  intellectual 
peace  at  the  price  of  intellectual  death."  It  is  not  sim- 
ply the  right,  it  is  the  duty  of  those  in  advance  of  their 
fellow-men  to  speak  their  honest  thought,  and  in  a  way 
to  be  understood.  Loyalty  to  conviction  and  courageous 
devotion  to  the  highest  conceptions  of  truth,  regardless 
of  public  opinion  or  personal  interests,  is  a  demand  of  the 
times,  both  in  public  and  private  life.  There  is  a  vast 
amount  of  truth  not  likelv  to  be  popularly  received  for  a 
long  time  and  they  who  defend  it  in  spite  of  the  pressure 
of  public  opinion,  perform  a  service  the  value  <>f  which 
cannot  be  overestimated. 

A  state  of  things,  as  John  Stuart  Mill  observes,  in 
which  a  large  portion  of"  the  most  active  and  inquiring 
intellects  find  it  advisable  to  keep  the  general  principles 
and  grounds  of  their  convictions  within  their  own 
breasts,  and  attempt,  in  what  they  address  to  the  public, 
to  fit  as  much  as  they  can  of  their  own  conclusions  to 
premises  which  they  have  internally  renounced,  cannot 
send  forth  the  open,  fearless  characters  and  logical,  con- 
sistent intellects  who  once  adorned  the  thinking  world. 
The  sort  of  men  who  can  be  looked  for  under  it  are 
either  mere  conformers  to  commonplace  or  time-servers 
for  truth,  whose  arguments  on  all  great  subjects  are 
meant  for  their  hearers,  and  are  not  those  which  have 
convinced  themselves.  Those  who  avoid  this  alternative 
do  so  by  narrowing  their  thoughts  and  interests  to 
things  which  can  be  spoken  of  without  venturing  within 
the  region  of  principles;  that  is,  to  small  practical 
matters  which  would  come  right  of  themselves,  if  but 
the  minds  of  mankind  were  strengthened  and  enlarged, 
and  which  will  never  be  effectually  made  right  until 
then.  While  that  which  would  strengthen  and  enlarge 
men's  minds,  free  and  daring  speculation  on  the  highest 
subjects,  is  abandoned." 


HYPNOTISM. 

The  study  of  hypnotism  in  Paris,  by  Prof.  Char- 
cot and  his  chef '  de  dinique,  M.  Babinski,  is  throwing 


much  light  upon  mesmeric  phenomena.  A  rigid 
scientific  investigation  is  being  made  and  facts  are 
being  brought  to  light  that  show  how  vast  the  field 
for  research  is  and  how  man}'  medical  and  social 
problems  the  study  raises.  The  possibility  of  one 
individual  acquiring  unlimited  control  over  another 
so  as  to  be  able  to  impose  his  will  upon  him  and 
make  him  do  whatever  he  wishes  has  long  been 
claimed;  if  this  can  be  proved  modifications  of 
individual  responsibility  will  necessarily  follow. 
That  it  can  be  proved  experiments  now  being  per- 
formed at  the  Salpetriere  hospital  before  a  committee 
appionted  by  the  government  would  seem  to  indicate. 
One  of  the  modes  of  experimentation  is  as  fol- 
lows: A  female  patient,  Mile.  A.,  is  forced  into  the 
lethargic  sleep  by  pressure  on  a  suggested  hypnotic 
point,  when  by  a  slight  friction  on  the  forehead  she 
passes  into  the  somnambulistic  state.  Dr.  Babinski 
then  approaches  and  tells  her  that  she  must  make 
her  will  in  his  favor,  and  at  once.  She  demurs  at 
first,  saying  that  she  is  too  young  to  die,  etc.  This 
lasts  a  short  time  during  which  she  goes  on  to  say 
that  she  desires  to  leave  her  property  to  her  mother 
and  other  relations,  but  after  continuous  persuasion 
and  keeping  up  the  suggestion  that  it  is  best  to  give 
everything  to  Dr.  Babinski,  she  at  last  begins  to 
weaken  and  finally  agrees  to  the  proposition,  enumer- 
ating her  possessions,  which  consist  of  about  thirty 
francs  and  some  few  articles  of  jewelry.  The  next 
Thursday  is  appointed  for  the  signing  of  the  will. 
Dr.  Babinski  then  cautions  her  to  say  nothing  about 
it  in  the  meantime,  and  if  asked,  to  say  that  she  acted 
of  her  own  free  will.  She  is  then  awakened.  When 
the  appointed  day  arrives  it  is  noticed  that  she  is 
rather  nervous,  and  says  that  she  has  something  to 
do  but  cannot  recollect  what  it  is.  On  being  hypno- 
tised, however,  she  remembers  her  promise,  and 
when  one  of  the  bystanders  is  introduced  as  a  lawyer 
she  immediately  draws  up  her  will  in  favor  of  the 
doctor,  asserting  at  the  same  time  that  she  is  acting 
with  complete  freedom,  that  she  knows  she  has  a 
poor  family  but  prefers  to  give  everything  to  Dr. 
Babinski.  When  awakened  she  repeats  the  same 
story.  In  commenting  upon  the  study  of  hypnotism, 
L  U/iircrs,  a  Parisian  religious  journal  denounces  the 
new  science  as  "dangerous  to  morality."  Professor 
Charcot  has  by  the  aid  of  instantaneous  photography 
been  enabled  in  experimenting  with  the  patients  to 
reproduce  those  peculiar  facial  expressions  which 
are  found  in  certain  ancient  works  of  art  portraying 
the  lives  of  saints  and  others  who  were  supposed  to 
be  "possessed,"  showing  that  these  pictures  were 
copies  from  nature  of  hysterical  men  and  women. 
Miraculous  illumination  is  thus  explained, — hence  the 
wrath  of  L'Univers  against  Professor  Charcot. 


298 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


CO-OPERATIVE  CONGRESS   IN   ENGLAND. 

The  Co-operative  News  (Manchester,  Eng. )  of 
June  1 1  th,  gives  an  interesting  report  of  the  Co-opera- 
tive Congress  held  at  Carlisle,  Eng.,  the  preceding 
week.  Sir  Wilfred  Lawson  presided  and  Geo.  Jacob 
Ho  yoake  made  the  leading  address.  At  the  opening  of 
his  speech  Mr.  Holyoake  said: 

"  It  was  in  the  year  when  Her  Majesty's  reign  began 
that  I  first  became  a  speaker  on  co-operative  subjects;  so 
that  this  year,  in  which  you  accord  me  the  distinction  of 
being  your  president,  is  also  the  half -century  terminus  of 
whatever  service  I  have  been  able  to  render  the  cause  of 
industrial   association." 

We  are  sorry  that  our  limited  space,  which  in  the 
press  of  original  matter  precludes  lengthy  quotations, 
prevents  our  culling  tempting  passages  from  Mr.  Hol- 
yoake's  able  speech,  which  met  with  "  unbounded  ap- 
plause "  from  those  who  heard  it,  and  can  only  make 
place  for  his  definition  of  what  co-operation  really  is. 
"  Future  historians  of  this  century,"  declares  Mr.  Hol- 
yoake, "  will  find  it  difficult  to  name  any  social  feature  of 
the  great  Victorian  reign   more  original,  more   English, 

©  ©  O  >  ©  7 

or  more  beneficent,  than  this  of  co-operation,  whose  in- 
spiration is  self-dependence — whose  method  is  economy 
— whose  principle  is  equity,"  which  "  is  not  an  emotional 
contrivance  for  enabling  others  to  escape  the  responsi- 
bility of  making  exertions  on  their  own  behalf,  but  a 
manly  device  for  giving  honest  men  an  equitable  oppor- 
tunity of  helping  themselves.  *  *  *  In  these  days 
of  State  socialism  it  is  not  the  interest  of  statesmen,  or 
of  any  who  influence  public  affairs,  to  discourage  the 
increase  of  co-operators,  who  preach  no  doctrine  of 
industrial  despair — who  do  not  hang  on  the  skirts  of  the 
State — who  envy  no  class — who  counsel  no  war  on 
property — who  do  not  believe  in  murder  as  a  mode  of 
progress — as  many  do  in  well-to-do  and  educated  circles, 
as  well  as  among  the  ignorant  and  miserable.  Co-ope- 
rators are  of  a  different  order  of  thinkers.  They  believe 
that  in  a  free  country  justice  can  be  won  by  reason,  if 
the  agitators  will  make  but  half  the  sacrifice  of  time, 
comfort,  money,  liberty  and  life,  which  have  to  be  made 
by  those  who  seek  social  change  by  civil  war.  Aid  to 
those  striving  to  help  themselves,  but  unable  to  make 
way,  may  be  gracefully  given  and  honorably  received ; 
but  the  ambition  of  co-operators  is  to  reach  that  condi- 
tion in  which  they  shall  be  under  no  obligation  to  charity, 
to  philanthropy,  to  patronage,  to  the  capitalist  or  the 
State,  nor  need  the  dubious  aid  of  revolution.  Their 
ambition  is  not  to  be  taken  care  of  by  the  rich,  but  to 
command  the  means  of  taking  care  of  themselves.  The 
co-operator  may  not  recast  social  life,  but  he  may  amend 
it.  He  does  not  profess  to  destroy  competition,  but  to 
limit  its  mercilessness;  and  where  co-operation  is  better, 
to  substitute  it  for  competition." 

Among   the  delegates  to  the  Congress  from  abroad 


was  Mrs.  Imogene  C.  Fales,  of  New  York  City,  who 
was  "heard  by  the  Congress  with  great  admiration  and 
well-deserved  enthusiasm." 


Dr.  McGlynn  declares  that  he  believes  in  every  doc- 
trine of  his  Church  and  in  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  in 
all  spiritual  matters.  But  he  refused  to  recognize  the 
authority  of  Rome  on  political  or  other  temporal  ques- 
tions; and  when  the  Pope  tells  him  that  he  must  stop 
advocating  the  theory  that  there  can  be  no  just  owner- 
ship in  land,  and  orders  him  to  Rome,  he  refuses  to  obey. 
"  I  feel,"  he  savs,  "  that  I  can  do  my  humble  share  to- 
ward bringing  about  so  desirable  a  consummation  rather 
by  opposing  and  defying  the  unjust  encroachments  of 
the  insatiate  lust  of  the  Roman  machine  for  power  than 
by  submitting  to  such  encroachments."  Certainly,  Dr. 
McGlynn  has  the  courage  of  his  convictions,  and  while 
we  fail  to  see  the  practicability  or  the  wisdom  of  the 
land  theory  which  he  defends,  we  admire  the  independ- 
ent, manly  spirit  he  has  shown  in  adhering  to  his  honest 
convictions.  He  will  probably  be  excommunicated. 
Had  he  lived  a  few  hundred  years  ago  he  would  have 
been  burned  at  the  stake.  It  is  not  likely  that  Dr. 
McGlynn  will  continue  long  to  retain  confidence  in  the 
rightful  authority  of  the  Pope,  even  in  spriritual  mat- 
ters. Such  experiences  as  his  are  more  powerful  than 
any  amount  of  reasoning  to  change  the  convictions 
of  men  in  regard  to  religious  doctrines  and  authorities. 
A  little  persecution  or  proscription  sometimes  serves  as 
a  stimulus  to  thought  and  enables  men  to  realize  the  ab- 
surdity of  claims  never  before  questioned. 
*  *  * 

In  the  batch  of  Thackeray  letters  given  in  the  July 
Scridner,  he  mentions  in  one  a  visit  to  an  old  school  or 
college  mate,  a  church  of  England  clergyman.  "I 
went  to  see  that  friend  of  my  youth  whom  I  used  to 
think  twenty  years  ago  the  most  fascinating,  accom- 
plished, witty,  and  delightful  of  men.  I  found  an  old 
man  in  a  room  smelling  of  brandy  and  water,  *  *  * 
quite  the  same  man  that  I  remember,  only  grown 
coarser  and  stale,  somehow  like  apiece  of  goods  that  has 
been  hanging  up  in  a  shop  window.  He  has  had  fifteen 
years  of  a  vulgar  wife,  much  solitude,  very  much 
brandy  and  water,  I  should  think,  and  a  depressing 
profession,  for  what  can  be  more  depressing  than  a  long 
course  of  hypocracy  to  a  man  of  no  small  sense  of 
humor? 

"It  was  a  painful  meeting.  We  tried  to  talk  unre- 
servedly, and  as  I  looked  at  his  face  I  remembered  the 
fellow  I  was  so  fond  of.  He  asked  me  if  I  still  con- 
sorted with  my  Cambridge  men ;  and  so  I  mentioned 
Kinglake  and  one  Brookfield  of  whom  I  saw  a  good 
deal.  He  was  surprised  at  this,  as  he  heard  Brookfield 
was  so  violent  a  Puseyite  as  to  be  just  on  the  point  of 
going  to  Rome.     He  can't  walk,  having  paralysis  in  his 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


2  99 


legs,  but  he  preaches  every  Sunday,  he  says,  being 
hoisted  into  his  pulpit  before  service  and  waiting  there 
while  his  curate  reads  down  below. 

"  I  think  he  has  very  likely  repented :  he  spoke  of 
his  preaching  seriously  and  without  affectation:  perhaps 
he    has  got  to  be  sincere  at  last  after  a  long  dark    lonely 

life." 

*  *  * 

The  re-issuing  of  the  famous  Vestiges  of  the 
Natural  History  of  Creation  in  Mr.  Morley's  universal 
library,  makes  one  realize  the  enormous  step  that  modern 
biology  has  taken.  This  work,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to 
say,  was  published  anonymously,  but  the  authorship 
was  afterward  acknowledged  by  Robert  Chambers. 
It  is  a  popular  statement  of  evolution  fifteen  years 
before  the  Origin  of  Species,  and  is  sometimes  spoken 
of  as  a  very  remarkable  anticipation  of  Darwinism. 
But  it  failed  to  show  any  proof  of  a  motive  power,  and 
does  little  to  lessen  the  originality  of  Darwin's  work. 
Chambers  is  very  deeply  concerned  in  showing  that  his 
views  are  not  opposed  to  religion,  and  devotes  much 
space  in  this  cause.  Yet  this  book  was  received  with  a 
storm  of  denunciation  which  it  is  difficult  now  to  appre- 
ciate. This  the  author  bore  very  philosophically ;  for, 
as  he  explained,  his  design  in  not  putting  his  name  to 
the  book  was  "not  only  to  be  personally  removed  from 
all  praise  or  censure  which  it  might  evoke,  but  to  write 
no  more  on  the  subject." — Science. 

*  #  # 

A  writer  in  the  Boston  Herald  having  claimed  that 
every  person  should  enjoy  "  individual  freedom  of 
action"  as  long  as  he  does  not  "directly  or  personally 
affect  the  happiness  of  others,"  and  that  persons  playing 
cricket  on  Sunday  do  not  so  affect  the  happiness  of  oth- 
ers, another  writer  in  the  Beacon  of  that  city  takes 
exception  to  this  theory  of  personal  liberty  in  an  article 
which  concludes  with  this  sentence: 

And  when  any  person  would  go  so  far  as  to  plav  cricket  or 
any  other  game  on  Sunday,  a  day  that  is  held  sacred  by  the  peo- 
ple of  the  highest  morals,  then  it  is  that  he  does  disregard  the 
best  feeling  in  a  community,  and  therefore  should  be  made  to 
sacrifice  his  personal  liberty,  even  though  it  does  not  "directly  or 
personally  affect  the  happiness  of  others." 

*  #  * 

It  is  unavoidable  in  times  like  these  that  men  who 
substantially  agree  should  dispute  about  terms,  and  that 
others  who  differ  widely  in  their  theoretical  views  should 
be  in  practical  sympathy  with  one  another;  for  many 
who  have  outgrown  ancestral  beliefs  retain  a  reverent 
regard  for  the  names  and  symbols  of  the  past,  while 
others  who  have  been  unable  to  cast  aside  speculative 
beliefs,  the  conditions  of  which  came  to  them  as  a  birth- 
right and  the  germs  of  which  were  planted  in  their 
minds  in  early  youth,  have,  nevertheless,  imbibed  much 
of  the  liberal  spirit  of  the  age.  We  find  men  with  no 
belief   whatever   in    supernaturalism    of  any   kind,  who 


yet  insist  on  being  classed  with  Christians  in  belief,  and 
others  who  admit  the  truth  of  large  portions  of  the 
Christian  system,  or  who  are  largely  influenced  by  its 
ecclesiastical  methods  and  dominated  by  its  doctrinal 
spirit,  yet  scornfully  repudiate  its  name. 

*  *  # 

In  George  Macdonald's  David  Elginbrod  is  repro- 
duced a  Scotch  epitaph  which  runs  as  follows: 

Here  lie  I,  Martin  Elginbrod; 
Hae  mercy  on  my  saul  Lord  God, 
As  I  wad  hae  if  1  were  God 
And  ye  were  Martin  Elginbrod. 

Sidewalk  Stroller  in  the  Chicago  Evening  Journal 
writes : 

A  long  line  of  carriages  was  standing  in  front  of  a  store  on 
Madison  street,  and,  as  I  was  passing,  a  small  black-and-tan  pet 
dog  ran  out  of  the  store.  He  held  up  one  foot  and  looked 
bewildered  for  a  moment,  and  then  ran  to  the  carriage  at  one 
end  of  the  procession,  and  smelled  the  hoof  of  the  right  fore  foot 
of  one  of  the  horses.  He  then  went  to  the  second  carriage  and 
smelled  the  hoof  of  the  right  fore  foot  of  one  of  its  horses.  Then 
he  took  the  next  carriage,  and  then  the  next,  until  he  had  taken  in 
the  fifth  carriage,  when  he  nimbly  jumped  into  it,  curled  himself 
up  on  the  seat,  and  went  to  sleep.  That  was  his  way  of  finding 
out  which  was  the  carriage  of  his  mistress,  who  soon  afterward 
came  out  of  the  store,  and  get  into  the  same  carriage.  The  fact 
that  the  horse's  hoof  was  made  of  horn,  and  that  it  had  been 
plunged  into  all  sorts  of  mire,  all  over  the  streets  was  nothing 
to  him;  that  particular  hoof  smelled  differently  to  him  from  any 
other  horse's  hoof  in  the  world,  and  no  other  smell  could  be 
applied  to  it  which  would  efface  that  peculiar  smell. 

*  *  # 

Says  the  Chicago  Journal  of  Education  : 
Why  are  the  words  of  one  writer  read  from  generation  to 
generation  while  another  writer  is  forgotten  soon  after  he  is  dead? 
The  words  they  used  are  the  same.  Carlyle's  sentences  are  often 
involved  and  inverted.  His  style  is  abrupt  and  sometimes  execra- 
ble. The  same  may  be  said  of  some  of  Emerson's  essays. 
Thousands  of  unremembered  authors  wrote  .in  far  purer  lan- 
guage. Why  will  Carlvle  and  Emerson  live?  Thought  is 
immortal.  Nothing  else  is.  Our  bodies  die.  Nature  decays. 
The  world  will  in  time  become  silent  and  dead,  like  the  moon. 
We  live  by  thinking,  not  by  eating.  Mind  is  the  only  evidence 
of  life.  We  call  it  instinct  that  causes  the  mother  to  bend  lov- 
ingly over  the  cradle  of  her  child,  or  the  bee  to  poison  its  victim 
behind  the  second  cephalic  ring,  but  it  constitutes  a  complex 
intellectual  operation,  the  psychological  character  of  which  is 
undeniably.  Intelligence,  instinct,  reflex-action,  these  are  the 
three  terms  of  psychology,  and  between  these  forms  of  activity 
there  is  no  barrier,  no  hiatus,  no  abyss. 

To  seek  to  change  opinions  by  laws  is  worse  than  futile.  It 
not  only  fails,  but  it  causes  a  reaction  which  leaves  the  opinion 
stronger  than  ever.  First  alter  the  opinion,  and  then  you  may 
alter  the  law.  *  *  *  However  pernicious  any  interest  or 
any  great  body  may  be,  beware  of  using  force  against  it,  unless 
the  progress  of  knowledge  has  previously  sapped  it  at  its  base  and 
loosened  its  hold  over  the  national  mind.  This  has  always  been 
the  error  of  the  most  ardent  reformers,  who  in  their  eagerness  to 
affect  their  purpose,  let  the  political  movement  outstrip  the  intel- 
lectual one,  and  thus  inverting  the  natural  order,  secure  misery 
either  to  themselves  or  their  descendants. — Buckle. 


3°° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


COPE'S  THEOLOGY  OF  EVOLUTION. 

BY    DR.    EDMUND     MONTGOMERY. 
Part  IV. 

Mind,  coercing  matter  in  this  special  case  of  vital 
organization,  must  evidently  have  a  conscious  idea  of  the 
organizing  task  to  be  performed,  and  must,  moreover,  be 
endowed  with  the  power  of  actually  performing  it  against 
physical  necessity.  The  molecules,  left  to  themselves, 
would  fall  into  purely  physical  combinations;  but  con- 
sciousness is  believed  to  interfere  and  to  force  them  into 
different  and  designed  arrangements.  This  favorite  ex- 
pedient is  altogether  illusive; — nothing  but  a  glib  and 
evasive  answer  to  a  pre-eminently  positive  question. 
Try  for  a  moment  to  imagine  preorganic  consciousness — 
whatever  that  may  be — directing  the  course  of  molecules, 
though  wholly  devoid  of  any  organs  or  instruments  to 
get  hold  of  them ;  nay,  having  no  possible  means  of  even 
perceiving  or  consciously  realizing  their  bare  existence. 
It  is  impossible. 

Our  biology  stands  helpless  in  the  presence  of  repro- 
ductive organization.  It  stands,  however,  more  helpless 
still  in  the  presence  of  productive  organization.  Let  us 
see  what  anti-physical  and  anti-organic  assumptions 
Professor  Cope  has  to  make,  in  order  to  secure  the  as- 
sistance of  consciousness  in  productive  evolution.  Who 
,  can  deny  that  we  have  experience  of  consciousness  solely 
in  connection  with  the  living  substance  of  organic  indi- 
viduals? To  maintain  that  consciousness  can  exist  in 
any  way  independently  of  such  a  matrix,  is  as  bold  an 
assertion  as  can  well  be  made,  requiring  a  strictly  scien- 
tific justification. 

Professor  Cope  ventures  the  assertion  on  the  strength 
of  the  biological  doctrine,  that  vital  performances  which 
are  at  first  accompanied  by  consciousness,  tend  through 
frequent  repetition  to  become  .more  and  more  automatic, 
until  at  last  the  vital  textures,  whose  functions  they  are, 
have  undergone  such  definite  organization  as  to  be  capa- 
ble of  performing  them  without  conscious  assistance. 
On  the  strength  of  this  tenet,  he  concludes  that  the  less 
organized  or  coherent  the  manifesting  substance  hap- 
pens to  be,  the  more  consciousness  will  it  have.  He 
calls  this  strikingly  original  conception  "  the  doctrine  of 
the  unspecialized."  According  to  it  he  fancies  that  the 
constituent  elements  of  the  living  substance  or  proto- 
plasm are  not  firmly  connected  together  by  physical  or 
chemical  bonds,  but  remain  in  a  state  of  loose  independ- 
ence. This  "  unspecialized  "  or  "undecided"  state  he 
conceives  to  be  a  higher  condition  of  matter  than  when 
it  has  fallen  into  physical  and  chemical  combinations. 
"  As  soon  as  mechanical  or  chemical  force  appears  in  the 
molecules  of  the  sustaining  substance  consciousness  dis- 
appears." (O.  of  F.,  p.  419.)  The  generalized  outcome 
of  this  view  leads,  of  course,  to  the  conception  that  uni- 
versal consciousness  resides  in  "  the  lucid  interspace   of 


world  and  world,"  as  property  of  the  wholly  unspecial- 
ised  interstellar  ether,  "  the  form  of  matter  pervading 
all  spaces  whatever." 

Professor  Cope  invites  approbation  to  the  following 
climax  of  his  teaching :  "  Is  it  not  probable  that  the 
grand  sources  of  matter  not  yet  specialized  into  the  sixty 
odd  substances  known  to  us,  may  still  sustain  the  primi- 
tive force  not  yet  modified  into  its  species,  and  that  this 
combination  of  states  may  be  the  condition  of  persistent 
consciousness  from  which  all  lesser  lights  derive  their  brill- 
iancy?" (O.  of  J7.,  p.  420.)  We  confess  that  the  en- 
deavor to  derive  all  specialization  from  primordial  and 
general  uniformity  and  potentiality  is  highly  tempting. 
But  can  we  really  believe  that  specialization  into  living 
forms  represents  a  degradation  in  worth,  when  in  fact, 
all  the  progress  and  excellence  we  recognize  in  this 
world  is  manifestly  due  to  high-wrought  organization? 
Surely,  organic  specialization  does  not  mean  seggrega- 
tional  differentiation  from  a  pre-existent  and  all-contain- 
ing totality.  Its  forms  are  not  fragmented  emanations, 
become  particularized  through  specific  deterioration. 
Organic  specialization  means,  most  certainly,  gradual 
development  of  genuinely  primitive  life,  by  dint  of  a  crea- 
tive elaboration  of  the  sundry  vital  functions  and  their 
underlying  structures. 

Professor  Cope's  astounding  "  doctrine  of  the  unspe- 
cialized "  rests  entirely  on  the  supposition  that  the  con- 
consciousness  of  the  organic  individual  resides  in  pro- 
toplasm, where  "  mechanical  or  chemical  force  "  has  not 
yet  "  appeared  in  the  mo'ecules."  He  obviously  believes 
morphologically  unorganized  protoplasm  to  be  also  r/10- 
lecularly  unorganized.  And  here  lies  his  fundamental 
mistake.  For,  not  only  the  gradual  elaboration  of  pro- 
toplasm, from  lowest  to  highest  forms,  out  of  material 
not  derived  from  the  unspecialized  "  matter  pervading 
all  spaces,"  but  directly  from  matter  subject  to  "  me- 
chanical or  chemical  force;" — not  only  this  gradual 
chemical  building  up  of  higher  protoplasm  in  the  course 
of  productive  evolution;  but,  more  strikingly  still,  the 
building  up  of  definitely  predetermined  structures  from 
the  uniform  protoplasm  of  reproductive  germs,  proves 
conclusively  that  the  molecular  constitution  of  proto- 
plasm is  rigorously  determined  or  "  decided."  How 
could  of  two  reproductive  germs  consisting  both  of  uni- 
form protoplasm,  the  one  develop  into  a  mouse,  the  other 
into  an  elephant,  if  this  marvelously  specialized  differ- 
ence were  not  strictly  predetermined  in  the  molecular 
constitution  of  the  germs?  The  protoplasm  of  many 
infusoria  is  still  in  a  very  primitive  state,  quite  fluent 
with  the  exception  of  the  surface  layer.  You  cut  such 
an  infusoriam  into  several  pieces  and  each  piece  will 
reconstruct  the  entire,  definitely  specialized  individual. 
How  could  this  possibly  occur  if  the  molecular  constitu- 
tion of  the  protoplasm  forming  the  entire  individual  were 
not  almost  absolutely  fixed?     From  a  microscopic  germ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


301 


of  seemingly  uniform  proptoplasm  the  wondrously  spe- 
cialized human  organism  is  gradually  developed.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  reproductive  germ  itself  must  be  here 
molecularly  specialized  in  a  supremely  decided  degree; 
for,  are  not  the  visible  morphological  specializations 
arising  from  its  evolution,  clearly  the  unfolded  conse- 
quence of  such  molecular  specializations?  And,  as  re- 
gards the  peculiar  substance  with  which  we  know  con- 
sciousness to  be  actually  connected  in  higher  organisms, 
chemical  and  biological  facts  render  it  all  but  certain  that 
the  higher  that  consciousness  the  more  highly  elaborated 
also  the  molecular  structure  manifesting  it.  This  grad- 
ual elaboration  of  higher  and  higher  organic  substance, 
as  a  sustaining  matrix  of  higher  and  higher  life,  is,  in- 
deed, the  cardinal  fact  and  essential  import  of  evolution. 
And  it  is  for  this  reason  that  we  have  been  here  so  em- 
phatically dwelling  on  it.* 

We  have  really  no  evidence  whatever  that  proto- 
plasmic individuals  of  a  primitive  kind  are  at  all  con- 
scious. On  the  contrary,  it  can  be  positively  demon- 
strated that  nutritive  assimilation,  and  the  protrusion  and 
retraction  of  processes  takes  place  solely  by  dint  of  the 
chemical  and  physical  relations  subsisting  between  the 
organism  and  its  medium,  and  between  different  parts  of 
its  own  protoplasm.  Nor  have  we  evidence  of  any  de- 
scription, allowing  us'to  conclude  that  the  reproductive 
germ  of  any  sort  of  organism  is  in  the  slightest  degree 
conscious.  Still  less,  then,  have  we  a  right  to  conclude 
that  consciousness  is  the  influence  which  determines 
organization. 

Professor  Cope's  fundamental  assertion  that  "science 
proves  that  mind  is  the  creator  of  organisms,"  has 
through  sundry  modes  of  consideration  been  shown  to 
be  untenable,  and  with  it  has  given  way  his  first  and 
only  "step  in  the  evidence  of  the  existence  of  a  great 
mind."  (T.  of  £.,  25.)  The  greatest  practical  difficul- 
ties, however,  in  the  path  of  the  mental  origination  of 
organic  results  have  not  yet  been  touched  upon.  These 
are:  The  initial  entrance  into  existence  of  new  organs; 
the  organization  of  the  "  circulatory  and  digestive  sys- 
tems;" the  purposive  movements  of  the  tendrils  of 
plants,  and  those  of  carnivorous  leaves  that  crush  and 
digest  insects;  indeed,  all  protective  and  adaptive  organ- 
ization of  complex  vegetation.-}-  Professor  Cope  thinks 
that  "the  answer  to   the  question  whether  such  organic 


♦Organic  substances  are  actually  built  up  in  the  laboratory  and  out  of  it, 
by  means  of  the  synthetical  process  known  as  chemical  substitution. 

fWe  agree  with  Professor  Cope  that  plants  have  most  likely  descended 
from  free  moving  protoplasmic  individuals.  Indeed,  the  old  Aristotelean  view, 
that  a  plant  is  a  reversed  animal,  is  highly  probable.  It  has  become  a  parasite 
of  the  soil,  much  in  the  same  way  as  a  tapeworm  is  a  parasite  of  the  intestinal 
membrane,  developing  in  many  instances  a  vast  number  of  somites  or  joints. 
Only  plants  have  come  to  spread  their  recipient  verdure  wide  and  wider  into 
the  luminous  air,  lifting  into  life  the  crowning  glory  of  their  incense— shedding 
bloom,  to  solemnize  in  nuptial  splendor  the  great  mystic  rites  of  procreation. 
Whoever  has  witnessed  the  protoplasm  of  plants  slip  out  of  its  cellular 
envelope,  move  about  for  a  while  in  amaboid  fashion,  become  then  sessile,  and 
enclose  itself  again  in  a  new  envelope  of  its  own  making,  can  hardly  avoid 
adopting  the  Aristotelean  inference. 


results  originated  in  consciousness  or  unconsciousness, 
constitutes  the  key  to  the  mysteries  of  evolution,  and 
around  it  the  battle  of  the  evolutionists  of  the  coming 
years  will  be  fought."     (O.  of  F.,  p.  394.) 

Of  course  we,  who  do  not  believe  in  the  organizing 
power  of  consciousness  as  such,  cannot  look  upon  this 
question  "  of  consciousness  or  unconsciousness  "  as  the 
central  point  of  contention  in  the  evolutional  campaign. 
Nevertheless,  we  fully  admit  as  a  leading  proposition — 
to  be  scientifically  proved  against  mechanical  biology — 
that  spontaneous  activities  have  played  the  greatest  part 
in  evolution,  and  that  those  special  spontaneous  activi- 
ties, called  volitional  and  emenating  from  nerve-centers, 
have  conduced  more  than  any  other  influence  to  realize 
the  organic  development  of  higher  animals,  especially 
the  development  of  man;  that,  furthermore,  the  future 
evolution  of  the  human  race  will  be  almost  entirely  de- 
pendent on  the  direction  taken  by  such  activities. 
Spontaneous  activity  subjugates  and  utilizes  the  mechan- 
ical nexus.  The  philosophical  revolt  against  mechanical 
necessity  will  certainly  receive  its  scientific  justification. 

No  doubt  the  organic  development,  manifestly  accom- 
panying functional  activity  wherever  it  takes  place,  has 
to  be  regarded  as  the  essential  fact  in  productive  evolu- 
tion. And,  though  the  scientific  evidence  for  the  trans- 
mission of  acquired  modifications  and  aptitudes  is  not 
yet  abundant,  still  it  is  sufficient  clearly  to  indicate  that 
in  that  direction  is  to  be  sought  the  veritable  spring  of 
progressive  development.  Paleontological  research 
demonstrates  that  productive  evolution  has  actually 
taken  place  on  our  planet.  And  if  we  are  not  positively 
certain  to  what  influences  it  was  mainly  due,  we  have  at 
all  events  experience  of  various  occurrences  decidedly 
pointing  toward  functional  activity  as  its  proximate 
cause.  It  is,  above  all,  the  astonishing  process  of  retro- 
grade metamorphosis,  distinctly  traceable  in  parasitic 
organisms,  which  affords  strong  proof  that  organic 
structure  can  maintain  itself  only  by  dint  of  vital  activity, 
and  that  the  deteriorating  results  of  functional  inaction 
become  hereditary  in  the  race.  This  unmistakable  and 
most  striking  experience  renders  it  at  least  highly  proba- 
ble that,  vice  versa,  the  developmental  results  of  func- 
tional activity  have  likewise  become  hereditary  in  the 
race.  And,  if  the  very  existence  of  organic  structure  is 
thus  dependent  on  functional  activity,  then  all  organic 
structure  must  have  been  developed  by  means  of  such 
activity.  Indeed,  it  is  not  difficult  to  demonstrate  that 
the  living  substance,  even  when  constituting  lowest  forms 
of  life,  exists  solely  by  means  of  a  definite  cycle  of 
molecular  activities,  kept  up  through  functional  inter- 
action with  the  medium. 

Organic  structure  is  the  sensible  manifestation  or 
bodily  expression  of  vital  activity ;  a  particular  structure, 
the  bodily  expression  of  a  particular  vital  activity;  both, 
the  structure  and  the  activity  by  which  it  is  formed  and 


3°2 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


sustained,  are  the  visible  exhibition  of  one  and  the  same 
indiscerptible  fact  of  nature.  You  may  stimulate  a 
vital  structure  to  heightened  activity,  but  you  cannot 
altogether  arrest  the  peculiar  molecular  process  by 
which  it  is  constituted  without  simultaneously  suppress- 
ing its  vitality. 

When  pathologists  discover  a  hypertrophic  heart 
they  at  once  know  that  some  impediment  in  the  circula- 
tion has  thrown  an  abnormal  amount  of  work  on  the 
pumping  muscle,  through  which  increased  function  the 
excessive  structural  development  was  brought  about. 
When  they  meet  with  a  greatly  enlarged,  healthy  kid- 
ney they  are  certain  that  the  other  kidney  has  in  some 
way  become  useless.  Surely,  it  would  be  an  extrava- 
gant, unwarranted  hypothesis  to  assume  here  that  some 
kind  of  consciousness  has  been  the  influence  which  has 
directed  the  building  up  of  those  most  specifically  con- 
stituted organic  structures.  But  the  question  of  con- 
scious direction  starts  into  prominence  as  soon  as  it  is  some 
so-called  voluntary  exercise,  that  seems  to  give  rise  to 
structural  development.  When  I  deliberately  set  about 
to  develop  the  muscles  of  my  arm  through  voluntary 
activity,  and  the  result  aimed  at  actually  follows,  it  has 
all  the  appearance  as  if  it  had  been  produced  under  the 
guidance  of  consciousness.  Here  we  find  ourselves 
face  to  face  again  with  the  supposition  that  mind  is  mov- 
ing matter,  a  notion  whose  fallacy  we  have  exposed  in 
the  first  part  of  this  examination. 

Let  us  see  whether  we  can  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
means  which  in  reality  conduce  to  determine  this  mar- 
velous occurrence — the  development,  the  creation  of 
organic  structure.  A  person  setting  out  on  a  walking 
tour  finds  at  the  end  of  it  that  the  muscles  of  his  leg 
have  been  greatly  developed — a  result  neither  consciously 
aimed  at  nor  anticipated.  What  can  consciousness  have 
contributed  toward  the  result  in  this  instance?  It  will, 
of  course,  be  said  that  the  walking  at  all  events  was 
done  under  the  influence  of  consciousness.  But  mere 
artificial  stimulation  will  answer  the  same  purpose. 
Muscular  structure  can  be  kept  up  and  developed  by 
nothing  but  electric  stimulation.  Here,  then,  we  be- 
come distinctly  aware  that  the  faculty  of  developing  un- 
der activity  is  wholly  inherent  in  the  functioning  struct- 
ure. It  is  true  the  activity  has  to  be  stimulated,  but 
any  kind  of  stimulus  will  answer.  Can  consciousness 
be  regarded  as  one  of  these  ?  Does  the  mental  state, 
called  consciousness,  itself  originate  somewhere  in  the 
brain,  the  special  molecular  motion  which,  propagated 
along  the  motor  nerves,  acts  as  a  natural  stimulus  to  the 
muscles?  Such  a  mental  origination  of  motion  is  wholly 
inconceivable. 

When  manual  skill  of  a  peculiar  kind  is  acquired 
and  becomes  at  last  automatic,  the  principal  change  that 
has  taken  place  consists  evidently  in  a  modification  of 
nerve-structure,  whose  molecular  constitution  has  become 


thus  specifically  organized,  enabling  it  in  future  to  act 
or  function  at  once  in  so  definite  a  manner  that  its  prop- 
agated commotion  results  in  the  peculiarly  co-ordinated 
set  of  movements  which  make  up  the  skillful  perform- 
ance. How  has  this  been  brought  about?  The  un- 
usual combination  of  movements  has  been  effected  by 
means  of  manual  aptitudes  already  organized,  with  the 
further  assistance  of  sight  and  touch.  We  are  nowise 
directly  aware  of  the  structural  modification  which  is 
occurring  in  the  nerve-centers.  It  is  unconsciously 
wrought  by  the  constant  reiteration  of  those  particular 
muscular  movements.  They  are  its  true  inciting  cause. 
For  it  is  a  fact,  that  muscular  fibers  and  their  central 
connections  form  one  continuous  organic  texture.  Noth- 
ing can  happen  in  the  peripheral  parts  without  affect- 
ing the  central  parts. 

We  know,  then,  that  consciousness  organizes  nerve- 
structure  just  as  little  as  it  organizes  muscular  structure. 
The  faculty  of  becoming  specifically  organized  under 
special  modes  of  activity  resides  in  nerve-structure  in 
the  same  manner  as  it  resides  in  muscular  structure;  and 
this  amounts,  in  all  verity,  to  a  creative  accession  of 
specific  energy.  For  it  must  obviously  be  regarded  as 
a  specific  energy  that  a  particular  functional  activity  of 
nerve-structure  can  become  thus  automatically  capable 
of  definitely  stimulating  a  certain  simultaneous  and  suc- 
cessive set  of  muscular  movements.  We  have,  then, 
here  an  altogether  hyper-mechanical  faculty,  belonging 
to  what  we  ferccive  as  the  molecular  constitution  of  the 
functioning  structure.  And  the  constituent  elements  of 
this  structure  are  not  placed  into  organic  arrangement 
by  any  outside  influence,  whether  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious. They  are  held  together  in  their  peculiar  order 
by  intrinsic  forces;  the  entire  vital  arrangement  and 
commotion  possessing,  moreover,  the  inscrutable  and 
creative  power  of  progressively  developing  under  func- 
tional activity.  This  organic  development  may  rightly 
be  called  creative,  because  it  is  not  that  something 
already  existing  has  merely  changed  place  and  form, 
but  that  something  has  newly  merged  into  being  which 
did  not  exist  before.  This  actual  state  of  things  con- 
stitutes a  fundamental,  anti-mechanical  fact  of  nature, 
forming  part  of  that  vital  spontaneity  of  which  our 
world-mastering,  world-transforming  volition  is  an  out- 
come. 

The  aid  which  sense-perception  affords  to  organic 
development  cannot  be  over-estimated;  but  the  pro- 
gressive organization  to  which  it  ministers  takes  place 
just  as  unconsciously  as  all  other  organization.  Our  so- 
called  memory,  which  we  build  up  through  sensorial 
experience,  is  organically  wrought  by  dint  of  processes 
occurring  wholly  beyond  consciousness.  Only  our  vital 
spontaniety  enables  us  to  place  ourselves  in  such  rela- 
tions to  our  medium  as  will  best  conduce  to  our  welfare. 
And    we    know,    by    means    of  pleasurable    or   painful 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


303 


feelings,  which  of  the  manifold  influences  of  the  medium 
are  affecting  us  beneficially  and  which  harmfully. 

Beside,  our  race,  through  ages  upon  ages  of  vital 
toil  with  its  cumulative  organic  results,  and  through 
traditional  experience  artificially  secured,  has  acquired 
the  power  not  merely  of  benefiting  by  the  best  condi- 
tions naturally  offered  in  the  medium,  but  of  actually 
transforming  the  medium  itself,  so  that  it  may  better 
subserve  its  human  purpose. 

In  this  sense  we  assent  to  Professor  Cope's  dictum, 
that  "  Intelligent  choice  may  be  regarded  as  the  orig- 
inator of  the  fittest,  while  natural  selection  is  the  tri- 
bunal to  which  all  the  results  of  accelerated  growth  are 
submitted." 

THE    GOSPEL  VILLAGE. 

BY    ONE    WHO    SOJOURNED    THERE. 

"  Of  course  they  won't  convert  you,"  said  the  old  stage-driver, 
as  he  drove  me  up  among  the  mountains,  which  I  had  private  rea- 
sons for  exploring  thoroughly.  "  Your  head's  level.  But  they'll 
do  their  best  to  make  you  comfortable;  and  you  can't  help  liking 
'em.  I've  known  'em,  and  known  all  about  'em,  for  more'n  two 
years,  and  I  know  they  never  speak  an  unkind  word  to  anybody, 
nor  about  anybody,  nor  find  fault  with  anything,  not  even  the 
weather.  I  used  to  growl  a  little,  when  I  first  drove  over  there, 
about  the  dust,  and  so  on,  but  they  never  joined  in;  and  when  I 
got  familiar  enough  to  ask  why  they  didn't,  they  said  it  is  God 
that  makes  the  weather.  I  s'pose  He  does  here  in  Southern  Cali- 
forny,  if  He  does  anywheres.  Well,  it  beats  all  how  they  feed 
and  clothe  the  tramps  and  cranks.  If  they  weren't  so  hard  up 
themselves,  the  village  would  keep  chock  full  of  free  boarders. 
But  they  can't  stand  such  poor  living  a  great  while;  and  then,  you 
see,  I'm  a  Justice,  and  I  clear  out  the  worst  of  'em  as  fastas  I  can. 
There's  an  Elder  that's  been  hanging  'rourd  these  six  weeks,  try- 
ing to  make  'em  pay  him  for  preaching  to  'em,  when  he  knows  its 
against  their  principles  to.  I've  been  kind  of  hankering  after  his 
company  back  with  me,  and  I  guess  I'll  get  it  this  trip.  You  see, 
as  I  watered  the  horses  in  what  we  call  Brandyville,  I  heard  that 
their  Elder  had  gone  off  mighty  sudden,  and  it  would  be  just  the 
place  for  the  man  I'm  after.  Guess  he'll  call  it  a  providence;  and 
may  be  it  is;  though  it's  rough  on   Brandyville." 

His  talk  ran  on  until  we  rattled  down,  through  pastures  full  of 
sheep,  vineyards  in  bearing,  and  rich  fields  of  grain,  to  the  great 
grove  of  apple,  orange  and  walnut  trees,  amid  which  stood  an  old 
monastery,  with  several  cottages  that  evidently  had  been  but 
lately  built.  In  the  broad  veranda  sat  the  Elder,  a  fat,  jolly  look- 
ing fellow,  even  younger  than  I.  He  was  delighted  to  hear  of  the 
opening  in  Brandyville,  and  at  once  began  to  tell  us  a  string  of 
what  he  called  good  stories,  which  he  said  the  villagers  were  too 
old-fashioned  to  appreciate.  The  old  stage-driver  listened  with  a 
broad  grin,  but  suddenly  stopped  the  flow  of  jokes  about  the  Bible, 
in  order  to  give  more  particulars  about  the  vacant  pulpit.  As  he 
did  so,  he  nudged  me,  and  I  saw  in  the  room  within  a  tall,  slender 
girl,  moving  to  and  fro  with  a  look  of  disgust  and  pain  on  her 
sweet,  pale  face.  There  beamed  only  peace  and  charity  from  her 
large,  dark  eyes,  however,  when  she  came  out  to  welcome  me  to  her 
home.  There  Martha  dwelt  with  her  meek,  yet  steadfast  father, 
whom  I  soon  learned  to  call  Uncle  Joshua,  her  blithesome  little 
sister,  Mary,  her  old  aunt,  and  her  cousin  Ben,  a  young  man  who 
was  like  her  in  that  he  said  almost  nothing.  His  eyes  seemed, 
however,  to  see  all  that  went  on  around  him ;  while  there  was  such 
a  dreamy  look  in  hers,  as  made  me  at  first  wonder  at  the  neatness 
of  the   house,  and  the  excellence   of  the  dinner,  though  this  con- 


sisted mainly  of  food  which  I  had  brought,  at  the  stage-driver's 
suggestion.  As  he  and  Ben  were  harnessing  the  horses,  and  the 
young  preacher  was  waiting  for  the  stage,  Uucle  Joshua  said: 
"  My  brother,  you  have  done  what  you  could  for  us,  and  we  have 
tried  to  do  for  you,  according  to  our  means  and  our  principles.  I 
thank  you,  and  bless  you  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  And 
now,  I  beseech  you,  as  I  have  done  already,  tell  us,  for  His  sake, 
if  there  is  anything  in  our  principles  and  purposes,  that  is  contrary 
to  His  words.  We  are  weak  and  ignorant,  but  we  try  to  follow 
Christ.     If  there  is  any  better  way  than  this  tell  us  plainly." 

"  Oh,  well,"  said  the  minister,  with  a  smile,  "  the  main  trouble, 
in  my  opinion,  is  that  you  are  making  unnecessarily  hard  work 
of  it." 

"  But  when  Jesus  was  asked,  '  Lord,  are  there  few  that  be 
saved?'  He  said  unto  them,  '  Strive  to  enter  in  at  the  straight 
gate;  for  many,  I  say  unto  you,  will  seek  to  enter  in,  and  shall 
not  be  able.'  And  you  know  we  have  two  parables  to  teach  us 
the  same  truth :   '  Many  be  called,  but  few  chosen.'  " 

"Dear  me,  1  have  been  trying  to  make  you  see  that  all  this 
was  only  a  prophesy  that  the  Jewish  nation  would  be  punished 
for  crucifying  Him,  by  losing  the  honor  of  being  the  chosen 
people." 

"  I  know,  brother,  you  have  taken  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
with  us,  and  I  have  been  studying  the  Gospels  very  carefully 
while  you  have  sojourned  here,  trying  to  see  which  of  us  is  right. 
It  looks  to  me  as  if  He  did  not  speak  for  that  day  only,  but  for 
all  the  ages.  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke  all  tell  us  that  He  said, 
'  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  My  words  shall  not  pass 
away.'  And  His  last  words  to  the  Apostles,  according  to  Mat- 
thew, were  these:  'Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  bap- 
tizing them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever 
I  have  commanded  you;  and  lo!  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world.     Amen.'" 

"Amen,"  murmured  the  sweet  voice  of  Martha. 

"But  you  don't  surely  think,"  said  the  minister,  "that  we 
are  commanded  to  raise  the  dead,  and  take  up  rattlesnakes, 
and  heal  the  sick  by  laying  hands  on  them,  as  the  Apostles  were, 
do  you?  " 

"  I  think  that  if  we  had  more  of  their  faith  we  should  have 
more  of  their  power;  and  I  know  that  Jesus  was  speaking  to 
great  multitudes  when  He  said, 'If  any  man  come  to  me,  and 
hate  not  his  father,  and  mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  and 
brethren,  and  sisters, — yea,  and  his  own  life,  also, — he  cannot  be 
My  disciple.  And  whosoever  he  be  of  you  that  forsaketh  not 
all  that  he  hath,  he  cannot  be  My  disciple.'  " 

"  But  even  you  do  not  keep  these  precepts  literally.  You  don't 
want  Miss  Martha,  here,  to  hate  you,  and  you  have  not  yet  given 
up  all  you  have,  though  you  seem  likely  to.  Don't  you  see 
you've  got  to  use  common  sense  in  interpreting  Scripture;  you've 
no  right  to  say  that  Jesus  taught  what  isn't  rational." 

"  But,  brother,  even  His  friends  thought  Him  mad.  The 
Bible  6ays  nothing  about  'common  sense;'  but  it  does  say  '  It  is 
not  in  man  that  walketh  to  direct  His  steps.'  'Trust  in  the  Lord 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  lean  not  unto  thine  own  understanding.' 
Who  am  I  that  I  should  set  my  own  mind  above  that  of  Christ, 
and  seek  to  explain  His  words  away?  You  know  yourself  that 
we  are  trying  to  use  our  property  even  as  the  first  disciples  did 
theirs.  And  it  would  be  better  for  Martha  to  hate  me,  and  all 
men  else,  even  him  whom  she  might  love  most  tenderly,  rather 
than  let  anyone  come  between  her  and  Christ." 

"But  I  am  6ure  you  would  do  him  better  service  if  you  would 
live  more  like  other  Christians.  You're  not  going  to  convert 
many  people  if  you  begin  by  making  yourselves  unpopular." 

"  You  agree  with  me  that  California  is  not  so  religious  a 
nation  as  Judea;  but  Jesus   said:   'Woe   unto  you  when  all  men 


3°4 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


shall  speak  well  of  you;  for  so  did  their  fathers  to  the  false 
prophets.'  'That  which  is  highly  esteemed  with  men  is  abomi- 
nation in  the  sight  of  God.'  He  told  His  disciples  that  the  world 
would  hate  them  as  it  hated  Him.  He  looked  forward  even  to 
this  day,  as  he  said  in  sorrow:  'When  the  Son  of  Man  cometh, 
shall  He  find  faith  on  the  earth?'  The  time  has  come,  brother, 
for  you  to  leave  us.  We  shall  see  your  face  no  more.  Let  me 
beseech  you  to  remember  how  Paul  and  James  and  the  beloved 
disciple  bid  us  not  to  be  conformed  to  the  world,  but  to  keep  our- 
selves unspotted  from  it,  for  '  The  whole  world  lieth  in  wicked- 
ness,' and  '  Whosoever,  therefore,  will  be  a  friend  of  the  world  is 
the  enemy  of  God.'  " 

The  minister  retreated  so  badly  routed  that  I  took  care  not  to 
argue  with  Uncle  Joshua,  though  I  found  that  the  children  were 
taught  nothing  but  writing  and  a  little  oral  arithmetic,  besides 
reading  the  Bible,  and  that  no  book  but  this  was  ever  read,  nor 
any  newspaper,  except  those  sent  with  notices  of  funerals.  What 
else  could  be  expected  of  men  who  delighted  lo  talk  of  Jesus 
"having  never  learned,"  of  God  having  "  made  foolish  the  wis- 
dom of  this  world,"  of  knowledge  vanishing  away,  and  of  "avoid- 
ing oppositions  of  science,  falsely  so-called."  They  imitated 
Wesley  in  interpreting  such  texts  as,  "Woe  unto  you  that  laugh;" 
"  Bodily  exercise  profiteth  little;"  "Is  any  merry?  let  him  sing 
psalms;"  etc.,  so  strictly  that  there  was  no  play,  even  for  little 
children. 

They  owned  all  their  property  in  common.  The  women 
kept  themselves  in  complete  subjection  to  their  fathers  and 
husbands,  and  took  little  "thought  for  iaiment"  or  "outward 
adorning;"  but  no  neglect  could  destroy  Martha's  loveliness.  I 
remember  much  more  of  her  aspiring  face  in  meeting,  which  ot 
course  was  held  on  Saturday,  than  of  Joshua's  sermons.  I  re- 
member, though,  that  he  justified  their  practice  of  trusting  not  to 
physicians,  but  to  "the  prayer  of  faith,"  by  the  unusually  good 
health  in  the  village,  and  also  that,  while  showing  sincere  grati- 
tude to  God  for  having  brought  them  to  a  place  where  they  did 
not  need  to  take  thought  for  the  morrow,  or  lay  up  any  riches,  he 
predicted  that  the  whole  earth  would  come  into  the  same  condi- 
tion as  fast  as  men  really  began  to  live  according  to  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount. 

No  one  could  have  followed  it  more  faithfully.  Even  when 
a  naughty  boy  who  had  strolled  into  the  village  was  wantonly 
picking,  and  throwing  away  after  a  single  bite,  the  peaches  not  yet 
ripe  enough  for  market,  Joshua  would  do  no  more  than  remon- 
strate gently,  and  quote  text  after  text.  I  took  up  my  gun  in 
order  to  frighten  him,  but  Martha  stepped  between,  saying,  "  Re- 
sist not  evil!  "  Fortunately  my  spy -glass  answered  just  as  well, 
for  he  had  no  sooner  seen  me  level  it,  than  he  jumped  down  and 
ran  off,  telling  a  companion  who  was  waiting  for  him:  "It's  no 
use  foolin'  with  them  things." 

I  had  spent  a  month  apparently  in  hunting  and  fishing,  at 
first  near  the  village  and  then  in  long  excursions  through  the 
mountains,  before  I  picked  out  the  place  for  sinking  the  mine 
that  has  made  me  rich.  As  a  guide,  I  had  Ben,  whom  I  got  very 
fond  of,  especially  after  he  killed  a  big  rattler  I  was  about  to  jump 
on. 

He  had  a  curious  way  of  asking  questions  when  we  were 
alone  together,  sometimes  about  politics,  then  about  the  laws  gov- 
erning the  sale  of  real  estate,  then  about  the  genuineness  of  the 
Gospels,  and  then  in  turn  about  the  success  of  communistic  set- 
tlements. 

I  kept  as  far  as  I  could  from  saying  what  I  knew  Joshua 
and  Martha  would  not  wish  him  to  hear;  but  at  last  he  told 
me  just  as  I  was  about  to  leave  for  San  Francisco,  that  all 
his  inquiries  had  the  same  object.  His  uncle  and  mother  and  the 
other  settlers  had  put  all  their  property  into  starting  the  village, 
but  had  only  paid  one  quarter  of  the  price  of  the  real  estate.    The 


next  payment  would  be  due  in  a  few  weeks,  and  there  was  no 
chance  of  meeting  it.  The  owners,  among  whom  was  the  stage- 
driver,  might  allow  them  more  time,  but  would  certainly  not  give 
up  their  claim  entirely.  His  uncle  and  cousin  were  willing  to 
submit  to  what  they  called  the  will  of  God.  But  he  did  not 
feel  sure  that  Jesus  had  commanded  such  a  way  of  living,  and 
even  if  he  did,  the  fact  that  he  and  the  apostles  were  entirely 
wrong  about  politics  showed  that  they  were  not  likely  to  have 
known  much  about  business  either.  The  Gospel  plan  of  having 
all  things  in  common,  and  taking  no  thought  for  the  morrow,  had 
always  proved  a  failure.  In  their  village  those  who  were  not  too 
old  or  feeble  to  work  hard  lacked  motive  to  do  so.  He  did  not 
work  himself  as  he  could  anywhere  else,  for  he  could  see  no 
gain  to  those  he  loved  best  from  his  labor.  His  mother  thought 
as  he  did,  and  his  uncle  had  finally  consented  to  his  going  away 
if  I  would  take  him  with  me.  This,  of  course,  I  was  glad  to  do. 
He  is  now  superintendent  at  the  mine,  and  has  married  his  cousin 
Mary. 

With  his  help  I  kept  watch  over  the  community  until  the 
time  drew  near  on  which  it  was  broken  up.  One  day  I  found 
Martha  weeping  bitterly  and  even  more  distressed  about  her 
father's  and  sister's  prospects  than  her  own.  I  told  her  of  the 
new  home,  ready  for  us  all  to  live  in  together,  and  she  at  once  con- 
sented, saying  that  she  would  rather  serve  me  than  anyone  else. 
But  when  I  begged  her  to  be  my  wife,  she  shrank  back  and  said 
she  could  not  let  even  me  come  between  her  and  Christ.  I  prom- 
ised again  and  again  that  I  would  never  turn  her  away  from  the 
path  she  had  chosen,  but  would  do  my  best  to  make  it  easy  to  her 
feet.  I  assured  her  that  I  loved  her  all  the  more  because  she 
walked  so  high  above  the  world,  and  lived  such  a  perfectly  Christ- 
like life. 

"  Alas,"  she  moaned,  "you  call  it  Christ-like;  but  you  will  not 
follow  it.  Even  while  you  sojourned  here,  you  were  serving 
Mammon.  You  will  keep  on  doing  so;  and  I  could  not  marry 
you  without  becoming  a  helpmeet  for  you.  The  wife  must  be 
subject  to  the  husband." 

"No,  no!  I  don't  wish  that.  I  believe  that  every  woman 
should  be  free  to  choose  her  own  path  to  heaven,  and  you  more 
than  all  the  rest." 

"  Woe  unto  us  both!  I  see  it  all  plainly.  You  do  not  believe 
in  Christ!  If  you  did,  you  would  try  to  give  up  the  world;  and 
you  would  not  offer  me  any  more  freedom  than  is  appointed  in  the 
Word  of  God.  And  oh!  Oh!  You  remember  what  Jesus  said 
is  to  become  of  all  who  believe  not  on  him  !  Are  we  to  love  each 
other,  only  to  be  separated  forever?" 

"  You  may  make  me  a  Christian,  Martha.  I  wish  I  were 
more  like  you." 

"  But  I  am  very  weak  and  ignorant.  If  I  marry  you,  your 
thoughts  will  be  my  thoughts,  and  your  ways  my  ways.  It  is  bet- 
ter that  you  marry  some  one  wise  and  strong  enough  to  show  you 
your  path  to  heaven.  We  shall  meet  there  where  they  neither 
marry,  nor  are  given  in  marriage.  Till  then  we  must  part.  It  is 
for  such  as  me  that  Paul  wrote :  "  Be  ye  not  unequally  yoked  to- 
gether with  unbelievers."  At  last  my  cross  is  laid  upon  me! 
Leave  me  alone  with  Christ,  I  beseech  you,  until  his  yoke  grows 
easier  for  me  to  bear!" 

She  burst  into  tears,  and  broke  away  from  me.  Before  I 
could  see  her  again  I  was  telegraphed  for  from  New  York.  I  left 
money  with  her  aunt,  to  get  the  whole  family  to  where  Ben 
was  waiting  for  them.  I  wrote  letter  after  letter  to  her  and 
her  father;  but  had  no  answer.  I  was  detained  longer  than 
I  expected  to  be,  and  had  almost  made  up  my  mind  to  leave  the 
business  unfinished,  when  I  happened  to  see  this  heading  in  a 
Sunday  paper:  "Too  Christian  by  Half!  Prayer  Cure 
versus  Smallpox!"  Joshua  had  taken  in  a  sick  tramp  and 
called  no  physician.     Among  the  dead  was  Martha. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


305 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

MIND-READING,   ETC.,  AGAIN— A  CORRECTION. 

To  the  Editors: 

Your  issue  of  June  9th  contains  an  article  by  J.  S.  Ellis.  It 
purports  to  be  a  criticism  of  mine  which  appeared  in  your  paper 
of  the  2Sth  of  April.  Had  Mr.  Ellis  only  made  an  attack  on  me 
I  should  not  have  broken  into  my  vacation  time  by  taking  the 
trouble  to  reply.  But  so  extraordinary  are  its  misrepresentations 
that  I  cannot  let  them  pass.  Some  casual  reader,  or  some  one 
who  did  not  read  mv  article  at  all,  may  get  the  impression  from 
Mr.  Ellis  that  I  really  hold  the  astonishing  positions  which  he 
attributes  to  me. 

He  says  that  my  article  is  a  "  characteristic  one."  I  am  not 
familiar  with  his  writing;  but  if  this  is  "characteristic"  of  him, 
then  he  alone,  is  abundant  justification  for  1113'  first  article.  Instead 
of  sitting  in  scientific  judgment  on  me,  he  needs  to  learn  the  very 
first  principles  of  the  "scientific  method" — the  chief  of  which  is 
the  calm  observation  and  record  of  a  lew  facts  to  start  with.  For 
most  of  the  statements  he  makes  about  the  positions  I  took  in  my 
article  are  simply  untrue.     I  proceed  to  give  a  few  specimens: 

1.  He  says  I  "demand  that  investigators  should  be  believers." 
This  is  even  ludicrously  false.  Why  does  he  suppose  I  care  to 
have  people  investigate  who  are  already  believers?  I  merely 
pointed  out  the  absurdity  of  a  person's  investigating  a  thing  when 
he  is  thoroughly  convinced  beforehand  that  it  is  all  humbug.  I  only 
said  that  this — a  somewhat  common — state  of  mind  was  hardly 
the  proper  one  for  a  scientific  investigator. 

2.  He  makes  me  say  that  "  the  non  acceptance  of  these  alleged 
facts  by  scientists  is  a  scandal  both  to  science  and  philosophy."  I 
said  nothing  of  the  kind.  I  said  that,  since  there  is  such  a  body  of 
alleged  fact,  and  since  it  has  been  in  existence  so  many  years, 
and  since  so  many  otherwise  intelligent  people  are  believers,  it  is 
a  scandal  that  there  should  be  no  scientific  investigations  worthy 
the  name.  The  man  who  can  think  those  two  statements  iden- 
tical I  cannot  regard  as  a  good  illustration  of  the  scientific  state 
of  mind. 

3.  He  puts  me  in  the  position  of  saying,  that  "when  once  a 
man  has  persuaded  himself  that  his  particular  nostrum  is  the 
truth,  he  will  receive  and  promulgate  any  number  of 'cases'  sup- 
porting it  that  may  be  reported  without  any  particular  inquiry  into 
their  reality."  This  is  just  about  as  near  to  what  I  said  as  a  cari- 
cature in  Punch  is  like  a  photograph  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  What  I 
did  say  is  simple  common  sense.  A  man  who  is  familiar  with  the 
fact  of  gravity  does  not  need  to  go  into  an  elaborate  examination 
of  the  statement  of  his  small  boy  that,  having  flung  a  stone  into 
the  air  on  a  particular  day,.it  fell  back  to  the  earth  again. 

I  have  no  means  of  verifying  the  statements  as  to  thought- 
transference  that  have  been  published  by  the  English  Societv.  But 
I  quite  fail  to  see  the  manifest  absurdity  of  my  inclining  to  the 
opinion  that  they  may  be  true,  on  the  ground  of  my  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  similar  things. 

And  if — as  is  true — it  was  not  my  purpose  to  publish  these 
facts  at  present,  I  hardly  see  what  right  Mr.  Ellis  has  to  demand 
that  I  either  give  up  my  personal  property — these  facts — or  else 
hold  my  peace. 

Why,  then,  did  I  write  the  article  at  all?  I  wrote  it  at  the 
request  of  the  editor  of  this  paper.  And  my  purpose — as  anv 
"scientific"  observer  ought  to  have  seen — was  not  at  all  to  prove 
the  truth  of  mind-reading,  or  anything  else.  It  was  only  to  com- 
mend the  subject  as  worthy  of  scientific  attention,  and  to  suggest 
some  criticisms  as  to  the  temfer  in  which  the  investigation  ought 
to  be  carried  on.  And  Mr.  Ellis  promises  to  render  me  valuable 
aid  in  my  work ;  for  the  temper  he  shows  is  a  first-class  specimen 
of  "  how  not  to  do  it." 

4.  Mr.  Ellis,  again,  charges  me  with  wanting  some  "sort  ot 


rubbish  "  admitted  into  scientific  theories.  This,  also,  is  simplv 
false.  I  asked  nobody  to  admit  anything  into  any  scientific 
theory. 

This  is  enough  to  illustrate  the  competence  of  my  critic  (?) 
to  see  and  state  facts,  even  concerning  plain  statements  made  by 
the  writer  of  a  newspaper  article. 

As  my  chief  purpose,  at  this  time,  is  to  correct  these  gross 
misrepresentations,  I  will  make  short  work  of  what  I  wish  further 
to  say.  Mr.  Ellis  thinks  it  "  characteristic  "  of  me  to  hold  the 
opinion  "  that  there  are  proven  facts  which  are  denied  admittance 
into  scientific  theories."  I  am  glad  if  it  is  characteristic  of  me  to 
be  sensible  enough  to  hold  such  an  opinion.  How  does  the 
world's  knowledge  grow  except  by  the  discovery  of  new  facts? 
And  of  course  there  is  always  a  time,  after  these  new  facts  are 
discovered,  before  they  are  admitted  "into  scientific  theories." 
How  about  evolution  itself  only  a  few  years  ago.  So  this  wonder 
that  is  characteristic  of  me,  turns  out  to  be  only  a  very  common- 
place piece  of  common  sense  after  all. 

Only  one  point  more  will  I  make.  Mr.  Ellis  seems  to  think 
that  nothing  can  be  demonstrated  to  be  a  fact  unless  it  can  be 
dealt  with  as  a  chemist  deals  with  a  salt  in  his  laboratory.  I  be- 
lieve that  nothing  can  be  demonstrated  except  by  the  scientific 
method.  But  this  one  method,  in  the  hands  of  a  sensible  man, 
will  take  account  of  the  kind  of  supposed  fact  and  the  conditions. 
Suppose,  for  example,  that  a  scientist  stoops  low  enough  to  con- 
sent to  investigate  the  preposterous  and  barbaric  superstition  that 
a  man  is  something  besides  dirt,  and  that  there  is  something  in 
him  that  continues  to  live  after  the  death  of  the  body.  There  are, 
even  in  this  nineteenth  century,  certain  curious  people  who  at 
least  hofe  that  this  may  be  true.  There  are  even  some  who  claim 
that  they  have  received  communications  from  their  "dead" 
friends.  Now  suppose,  I  say,  that  a  scientist  should  turn  aside 
from  the  more  important  question  of  bugs  and  skeletons  to  inves- 
tigate these  absurd  claims.  Now,  of  course,  if  a  man  consents  to 
investigate  a  thing  he,  by  that  fact,  admits  that  there  is  something 
to  investigate.  And,  if  he  is  a  rational  man,  he  considers  the  na- 
ture of  the  supposed  fact  to  be  investigated.  Does  he  expect 
to  catch  a  "  spirit "  and  cage  him  in  his  laboratory  till  he  gets 
through  with  him?  Every  sensible  man  knows  that  the  mental 
or  nervous  condition  of  even  a  hypnotic  subject  may  make  or  mar 
all  experiments.  And  these  the  "  operator  "  may  be  entirely  una- 
ble to  control,  as  he  can  easily  control  his  "salt."  And  all  this  is 
a  thousand  times  more  true  in  dealing  with  what  is  called  a 
"  medium." 

It  is  just  this  sort  of  nonsense,  of  testing  these  things  in  the 
same  way  as  one  would  conduct  a  purely  physical  experiment,  that 
I  had  in  mind  in  my  first  article.  But  the  "  scientific  method  " 
must  always  be  adhered  to — the  method  of  getting  facts  first, 
being  sure  of  them — and  then  trying  to  see  what  they  mean  after- 
ward. But  if  it  should  ever  happen  that  one  were  dealing  with 
an  invisible  intelligence  of  any  kind,  it  is  palpably  absurd  to  talk 
of  treating  such  a  fact  as  if  it  were  a  "  salt,"  or  of  being  able  always 
to  repeat  the  same  experiment  and  get  the  same  results  at  will. 
This  supposed  invisible  intelligence  may  have  a  will  of  his  own, 
and  so  object  to  being  "ordered  around  "  at  the  caprice  of  the  ex- 
perimenter. 

I  express  no  belief  in  these  things.  I  only  say  that,  if  such 
claims  as  these  are  ever  to  be  investigated,  these  suggestions  and 
such  as  these  have  got  to  be  taken  into  account.  To  defy  all  the 
common  sense  of  the  supposed  conditions  and  facts  and  then  to 
speak  of  it  as  investigation  at  all,  is  manifestly  a  farce. 

Now,  any  one  who  jumps  to  the  conclusion  that  I  am  a  spritu- 
alist  because  I  say  these  things,  will  manifest  the  same  unscien- 
tific temper  that  Mr.  Ellis  has  already  done.  I  only  claim  that  if 
spiritualism  is  to  be  investigated  at  all,  it  should  be  investigated 
in  the  light  of  its  own  claims  and  not  according  to  methods  which, 


3°6 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


while  appropriate   enough  to  "  salts,"  are  absurd  as  applied  to  its 
asserted  facts.  M.  J.  Savage. 


THE   ENGLISH   GOVERNMENT   OF  IRELAND. 

To  the  Editors:  Ottawa,  Can.,  May  19,  18S8. 

It  is  somewhat  surprising  to  see  the  unanimity  with  which 
American  newspaper  and  other  writers  condemn  the  English 
government  of  Ireland.  We  do  not  wonder  at  this  on  the  part 
of  the  political  press,  because  the  necessity  of  catching  the  Irish 
vote  is  sufficient  to  account  for  it.  But  we  should  expect  to  see 
a  disposition  calmly  to  investigate  the  facts  displayed  by  those 
who  do  not  write  for  the  purpose  of  conciliating  the  Irish.  It  is 
sometimes  difficult  to  balance  the  conflicting  statements  on  either 
side.  Still,  there  are  rational  probabilities  which  should  make 
people  pause  before  they  condemn  the  English  government  on  all 
Irish  charges.  The  fact  that  Parliament  is  evidently  so  anxious 
to  do  justice  to  Ireland  that  it  has,  during  the  last  twenty  years, 
passed  so  many  acts  for  that  purpose,  putting  the  Irish  tenant  in 
a  much  better  position  than  his  fellow  subjects  in  England  and 
Scotland,  that  an  altogether  disproportionate  amount  of  its  time 
and  attention  has  been  given  for  many  years  to  Irish  affairs ;  these 
considerations  form  a  strong  presumption  that  there  is  something 
wrong  in  the  wholesale  condemnation  of  the  American  press. 

The  most  absurd  tirade  on  English  government  in  Ireland 
that  I  have  yet  seen,  appears  in  the  last  number  of  The  Open 
Court,  written  by  an  otherwise  very  sensible  woman — Mrs. 
Stanton.  She  seems  to  have  been  reading  some  of  the  sham  his- 
tories of  Ireland,  written  by  Irishmen,  which  bear  about  the  same 
relation  to  facts  as  the  mythical  histories  of  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome.  It  seems  that  "  Down  to  the  sixteenth  century  Ireland, 
in  her  system  of  education  and  jurisprudence,  was  pre-eminently 
the  great  center  of  progress  and  learning.  To  her  free  schools 
and  universities  came  students  from  every  part  of  Christendom, 
and  Irish  teachers  and  professors  spread  throughout  the  known 
world."  We  are  told  the  still  more  astounding  fact  that  "  The 
body  of  her  laws,  revised  and  codified,  is  now,  by  order  of  the 
British  government,  being  translated  [out  of  the  original  Gaelic, 
I  suppose]  and  published  as  a  rare  and  valuable  treasury  of  an- 
cient jurisprudence,  Parliament  making  an  annual  grant  for  that 
purpose  since  1852."  This  must  be  news  to  British  statesmen. 
An  annual  grant  for  thirty-five  years  to  translate  and  publish  the 
jurisprudence  of  the  times  of  Brian  Boru!  "But  alas!"  Mrs.Stan- 
ton  adds,  "all  this  glory  has  departed.  All  the  solemn  treaties 
made  by  England  when  Ireland  consented  to  a  union  [the  union 
took  place  in  1800]  have  one  after  another  been  violated;  her 
manufactures,  by  direct  legislation,  have  been  ruthlessly  destroyed, 
the  education  of  her  children  made  a  penal  offense  [what  would 
Archbishop  Whately,  the  author  of  Irish  National  Education, 
have  thought  of  this?],  her  lands  confiscated,  her  troops  dis- 
banded." And  so  on,  through  a  column  of  senseless  abuse  of 
England,  of  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  take  any  notice. 

Every  candid  person  in  the  United  States  must  be  struck  by 
the  contrast  between  the  North  and  the  other  three  divisions  of 
Ireland;  the  one  distinguished  by  content  and  prosperity  as 
much  as  the  others  by  discontent  and  poverty.  So  far  from  Irish 
manufactures  being  ruthlessly  destroyed  by  English  legislation, 
we  see  Belfast  a  flourishing  manufacturing  center,  having  grown 
from  a  town  of  a  few  thousands  of  inhabitants,  at  the  time  of  the 
union,  to  a  large  city  of  220,000.  All  the  industries  which  dis- 
tinguish the  neighboring  city  of  Glasgow,  even  to  the  building 
of  iron  steamships,  are  here  carried  on.  With  the  exception  of 
Catholic  disabilities,  which  lasted  twenty-nine  years  after  the 
union,  but  which  were  abolished  sixty  years  ago,  the  Irish  people 
are  on  a  perfect  footing  of  equality  with  each  other,  North  and 
South,  as  well  as  with  their  fellow-subjects  in  England  and  Scot- 
land.    There  is  perfect  freedom  of  trade  between   them.     Every 


measure  of  improvement  in  legislation  has  been  extended  to  Ire- 
land. Every  extension  of  the  suffrage — down  to  the  latest  one, 
under  Mr.  Gladstone's  government,  which  doubled  the  numbers 
of  the  Parnellite  party  in  the  House  of  Commons — has  been  in 
common  to  the  three  kingdoms. 

If  it  be  said  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  North  of  Ireland  are 
of  a  different  race  from  the  rest  of  the  island,  that  they  are  the 
descendants  of  colonists  from  the  dominant  race  in  England  and 
Scotland,  we  may  compare  the  aboriginal  Irish  with  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Wales,  who  are  of  the  same  Celtic  stock.  The  Welsh, 
while  protesting  loudly  against  the  Established  Church,  in  which 
few  of  them  believe,  are  nevertheless  prosperous  and  contented. 
They  also  were  conquered  by  the  Saxon.  But  they  do  not  shoot 
their  landlords;  they  do  not  refuse  to  pay  their  rents,  and  boycott 
and  murder  those  who  do. 

This  leads  us  to  the  true  cause  of  all  the  miseries  of  Ireland. 
When  the  Reformation  took  place  in  England,  the  Welsh  joined 
with  it  at  once.  Like  the  Scotch  people,  they  became  and  have 
remained  more  Protestant  than  the  English.  The  majority  of 
them  are  strongly  Methodist.  The  Irish,  unhappily,  clung  ten- 
aciously to  the  old  religion.  The  Church  of  Rome,  since  the 
days  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  has  been  the  persistent  enemy  of 
England,  as  she  is  to  this  day  the  enemy  of  every  free  people. 
She  has  made  the  most  of  the  adhesion  of  the  Irish  people.  To 
multiply  the  numbers  of  the  faithful,  she  long  encouraged  early 
and  improvident  marriages,  till  the  population  outran  the  resources 
of  the  land.  Forty  years  ago,  a  population  of  eight  millions  of 
potato-fed  people  broke  down  under  stress  of  famine  and  perished 
in  thousands,  while  no  such  calamity  overtook  any  .other  part  of 
the  British  islands.  The  Church  has  opposed  the  education  of 
the  masses  in  Ireland,  and  has  done  everything  in  its  power  to 
thwart  the  excellent  system  of  national  education  established 
chiefly  by  the  influence  of  Archbishop  Whately. 

The  first  effect  of  home  rule  would  be  that  the  clergy  would 
get  complete  control  of  education,  and  everybody  who  knows 
anything  about  education  in  the  Province  of  Quebec  knows  what 
that  means.  Nevertheless,  many  thoughtful  persons  in  America 
say  that  the  Irish  ought  to  have  home  rule;  that  they  ought  to 
have  a  Parliament  of  their  own  to  manage  local  affairs,  and 
advice  flows  in  from  all  quarters  in  the  United  States  and  Can- 
ada to  the  British  people  to  abandon  their  system  of  legislative 
union  and  adopt  a  federal  system  in  its  stead.  But  a  legislative 
union  has  many  points  in  its  favor,  and  the  nation  will  be  slow  to 
change  it  till  they  have  better  proof  than  they  have  yet  had  of 
the  success  of  the  federal  system  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  J.  G.  W. 

IS   MEMORY  NECESSARY  TO   CONSCIOUS    MENTAL 

LIFE? 
To  the  Editors:  Morris  Plains,  N.J. 

Mr.  Daniel  G.  Thompson,  in  his  interesting  article  on  "Per- 
sonal Immortality,"  in  The  Open  Court,  says  that  memory  is 
everywhere  necessary  to  conscious  mental  life,  because  we  can 
only  recognize  an  experience  by  reference  to  former  experience 
(in  other  words,  by  comparison),  and  upon  this,  if  I  understand 
him  rightly,  he  bases  his  hope  of  immortality,  and  at  once  recog- 
nizes the  weakness  of  the  position  in  the  fact  that  memory  is 
apparently  dependent  upon  bodily  conditions. 

Of  course,  if  the  continuance  of  conscious  life  is  dependent 
on  memory,  the  logical  result  must  be  that  immortality  can  only 
exist  when  meroory  is  retained,  but — is  not  memory,  as  he  under- 
stands it,  rather  a  quality  of  the  mind  than  of  the  soul,  and  as 
such,  necessarily  dependent  upon  the  existence  of  the  body  and 
a  clog — rather  than  an  agent — of  immortality  ? 

Surely,  we  are  conscious  of  mental  life,  quite  independently  of 
any  comparison  or  memory.  The  fact  that  we  know,  that  we 
think,  implies  the  existence  of  something  of  which  we  think,  and 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3°7 


if  comparison  were  necessary  to  that  experience,  we  should  have 
to  conceive  it  possible  to  not  think,  which  is  unthinkable.  We 
think — therefore  there  is  an  object  of  thought;  therefore  that 
object  existed  before  our  thought  conceived  it,  and  must  always 
have  existed,  or  we  could  not  conceive  it  as  having  done  so. 
Would  it  not  6eem  that  we  must  seek  the  best  argument  for  im- 
mortality in  the  existence  of  that  of  which  we  think,  rather  than 
in  the  fact  that  we  think  of  it,  and  in  60  doing  compare  it  with 
former  experience?  The  mind  conceives — yes — but  it  is  the 
existence  of  that  of  which  the  mind  conceives,  not  the  fact  ot 
the  conception,  which  suggests  the  immortal.  Of  course,  im- 
mortality is  past  as  well  as  future.  It  cannot  be  otherwise.  Mr. 
Thompson  says:  What  once  was,  is;  but  it  is  necessarily  equally 
true  that  what  is,  was.  May  not  memory  or  comparison  be  the 
echo,  as  it  were,  of  immortality  rather  than,  in  any  sense,  its 
proof  ? 

Again,  Mr.  Thompson  says:  Disintegration  or  dissolution 
of  the  body  is  merely  disappearance,  and  we  are  bound  to  con- 
sider reappearance  possible  under  appropriate  conditions;  but  can 
it  be  said  of  the  soul,  or  immortal  part,  that  it  ever  has  appeared, 
or  ever  disappeared?  The  body,  we  know,  returns  to  the  native 
elements;  but  of  that  which  animated  it  what  do  we  know?  We 
cannot  certainly  affirm  of  it  that  it  is  disintegrated ;  it  may  have 
been  a  simple  principle! 

If  immortality  can  be  scientifically  demonstrated,  it  must  be, 
it  would  seem,  by  seeking  for  the  proof  in  an  experience  which 
is  as  universal  as  death  itself.  Do  we  not  find  this  universal  ex- 
perience in  the  fact  that  an  object  of  thought  must  exist  before 
thought  itself  ?  must  always  have  existed?  must  continue  to 
exist,  independently  of  that  which  thinks  it? 

And  as  man's  thought  embraces  the  eternal,  does  it  not,  in 
embracing  it,  become  eternal  also?  For  that  which  existed  be- 
fore his  thought  was,  is,  and  must  always  be.  Memory,  as  we 
conceive  it,  is  but  one  of  the  myriad  manifestations  of  the  possi- 
bility of  thought,  as  thought,  and  may  be  the  perishable  or  mortal 
part  of  that  which  is  imperishable  and  immortal.  If  this  be  so, 
the  death  of  the  body  will  be  but  one  experience  in  the  existence 
of  the  eternal  soul  or  thought;  one  link  in  an  endless  chain  ot 
being.  This  solution  of  the  problem,  if  permissible,  would  at 
once  make  immortality  individual  (if  not  personal)  as  the  neces- 
sary result  of  individual  experience.  It  would  almost  seem  as  if, 
in  such  a  connection,  individual  thought  experience,  through  the 
medium  of  the  body,  would  alone  make  what  we  mean  by  per- 
sonal immortality  possible,  and  then  only  as  contingent  to,  and 
not  as  an  absolute  necessity  of,  individual  eternal  life.  That  which 
is  personal  may  die,  if  not  with  the  body,  later;  but  that  which  is 
individual,  as  the  experience  of  thought,  embracing  an  object 
necessarily  eternal,  cannot  die,  but  must  be  as  eternal  as  the 
object  it  can  conceive,  otherwise  it  could  not  conceive  it. 

I  am  so  fully  aware  of  my  ignorance  of  philosophy  that  I 
can  only  beg  Mr.  Thompson's  indulgence  for  these  remarks,  in 
consideration  of  my  very  deep  interest  in  the  subject  of  his  paper. 
Unfortunately,  it  is  this  ignorance  which  makes  it  so  difficult  for 
most  of  us  women  to  follow  the  hopeful  views  of  scientific  phi- 
losophy and,  when  "faith"  is  no  longer  possible,  leaves  us  in  that 
quagmire  of  doubt  which  is  our  dismal  nineteenth  century  inher- 
itance. Yours  truly, 

Janet  E.  Ruutz-Rees. 

BOOK   REVIEWS. 

Elements  of  Botany.     By  Edson  S.  Bastin,  A.  M.,  F.  R.M.S. 
Professor     of    Botany,     Materia    Medica     and    Microscopy 
in  the   Chicago  College  of  Pharmacy.     G.  T.   Engelhard  & 
Co.,  Publishers:  Chicago,  1887. 
There  is  not  much  room  for  originality  in   the  make   up  of  a 


botanical  work,  but  Professor  Bastin  has  written  a  valuable 
treatise  that  no  cyclopaedia  or  library  could  equal  in  the  special 
information  afforded.  Ashe  says  in  his  preface:  "A  botany  is 
needed  for  high  schools,  academies  and  colleges  of  pharmacy  and 
medicine;  there  are  works  which  are  admirably  adapted  to 
students  of  mature  and  scientifically  trained  minds,  and  there  are 
others  which  are  quite  well  suited  to  the  needs  of  young  begin- 
ners. Too  many  text  books  on  scientific  studies  are  written  for 
the  few  whose  exceptional  taste  for  science  makes  them  willing 
to  encounter  unusual  difficulties,  but  such  text  books  are  ill  suited 
for  general  use,  and  often  create  a  distaste  for  what  they  are 
intended  to  encourage."  Professor  Bastin  lays  stress  upon  the 
order  of  presenting  a  subject,  as  what  is  best  for  the  average 
student  is  not  equally  suited  to  the  well-disciplined  mind,  "  nor  is 
the  logical  arrangement  of  a  mass  of  scientific  facts  necessarily  the 
logical  order  of  inculcating  them,  a  position  strongly  taken  by 
Herbert  Spencer,  and  one  that  is  affecting  all  branches  of  educa- 
tion. "The  mind  of  the  pupil  should  be  led  from  that  which  is 
familiar  to  that  which  is  less  so— from  the  known  to  the 
unknown."  Professor  Bastin,  therefore,  leads  his  classes  to 
observe,  accurately,  roots,  stems,  leaves  and  other  structures,  with 
which  they  are  already  more  or  less  acquainted,  before  the  intri- 
cacies of  all  organization  are  taken  up,  requiring  the  use  of  the 
compound  microscope  and  trained  observing  faculties.  The  ele- 
mentary facts  and  principles  of  botany  are  presented  simply, 
clearly  and  with  regard  to  the  natural  growth  of  the  student's 
mental  faculties.  The  too  liberal  use  of  technical  terms  has  been 
avoided.  Familiar  plants  have  been  selected  from  which  to 
illustrate  structures,  and  a  copious  glossary  is  appended. 

The  abundance  of  illustrations  throughout  the  work  lighten 
the  student's  labor  greatly.  Most  of  these  are  drawn  by  the 
author. 

Plants,  and  not  books  about  plants,  or  mere  botanical  names, 
are  insisted  upon  as  the  subject  matter.  First,  the  organs  or 
instruments  with  which  plants  do  their  work,  as  roots,  stems, 
leaves,  parts  of  flowers,  their  forms  and  modifications  are  treated; 
then  the  microscopic  details,  and  under  the  head  of  physiology 
the  way  plants  and  their  parts  do  their  work  are  discussed.  The 
classification  comes  last,  which  in  older  works  was  made  the 
main  and  first  consideration. 

The  facts  of  evolution  are  strongly  brought  out  in  a  matter- 
of-fact  way,  without  the  apologies,  polemics  or  aggressiveness, 
thought  necessary  a  decade  ago  in  such  a  presentation.  Professor 
Bastin  became  very  adroit  at  this  method  of  teaching,  when, 
years  ago,  he  taught  botany  (as  well  as  all  the  other  sciences)  in 
the  Chicago  University.  His  students  imbibed  Darwinism  with- 
out knowing  that  they  had  done  so,  and  his  associates,  the  theo- 
logical professors,  bewailed  the  degeneracy  of  the  modern  student's 
intellect  in  that  it  sought  reasons  for  things  in  preference  to  rely- 
ing upon  tradition.  Professor  Bastin's  pupils  lost  all  relish  for 
dogmatism,  inspired  or  expired. 

In  Professor  Bastin's  book  a  defense  of  some  nomenclatural 
changes  would  have  been  in  order,  for,  however  much  they  may 
really  be  justified  in  the  teacher's  mind,  they  shock  those  who 
learned  the  olden  names  of  divisions,  classes  and  orders  into  rub- 
bing their  eyes  and  pricking  up  their  ears.  Some  of  these 
changes  the  professor  is  not  responsible  for  and  these  especially 
grate  upon  the  sensibilities  of  an  old-timer.  For  instance,  though 
we  mav  agree  upon  the  abolition  of  hard  and  fast  demarcations 
intogenera,  varieties,  etc.,  some  sort  of  classification,  however 
arbitrary,  is  necessary.  One  of  the  most  convenient  mnemo- 
technical  aids  was  the  termination  of  the  noun  and  adjective 
denoting  the  order,  "aa?"  Broad-minded  old  Asa  Gray,  who 
readily  conceded  the  truths  of  evolutionism,  but  who  left  the 
work  of  revision  to  a  later  generation,  affords  us  Compositacecz, 
instead  of  Compositor.    The  euphonious  sacrifices  in  the  case  of 


3o8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Labiativ  and  Leguiminosce  even  Gray  had  adopted,  but  if  there  is 
anything  in  the  retention  of  a  terminal  to  designate  a  division  it 
should  be  general.  In  chemistry  the  endeavor  to  make  all  the 
metals  end  in  "turn"  or  "  urn"  as  Ferruni,  Potassium  would  be 
as  unreasonably  balked,  if  Hydrogen  took  rank  as  metallic, 
because  Hydrogenium  would  sound  oddly.  Most  of  Professor 
Bastin's  changes  fall  among  the  cryptogamous  series. 

He  is  celebrated  for  a  vast  amount  of  work  upon  plant  hairs, 
which  he  modestly  does  not  include  in  this  work.  The  histolog- 
ical and  physiological  parts  are  very  interesting,  and  form  an 
important  addition  to  general  knowledge. 

Professor  Bastin  is  well  known  to  scientists  as  a  thorough- 
going conscientious  student  and  teacher.  He  is  fortunate  in  the 
companionship  of  an  intellectual  wife,  to  whom  he  dedicates  his 
book.  Her  sympathy  and  interest  in  his  work  he  affectionately 
acknowledges.  s.  v.  c. 

Columbus;  or,  A  Hero  of  the  New  World.  An  historical 
play,  by  D.  S.  Preston.  New  York  and  London  :  G.  P.  Put- 
nam's Sons,  1SS7 ;  pp.  99. 

This  patriotic  poem  is  highly  praised  by  Edwin  Booth,  as 
well  as  by  James  Russell  Lowell,  and  is  dedicated  to  the  latter  in 
verses  felicitously  recalling  those  delightful  hours  in  which  he 
taught  the  Harvard  students  to  appreciate  Dante.  The  first  act 
shows  us  Columbus  in  the  Alhambra  obtaining,  through  the  gen- 
erous sympathy  of  Queen  Isabella,  means  to  set  out  for  America, 
despite  the  opposition  of  haughty  nobles  and  superstitious  priests. 
His  whole  tone  of  thought  is  so  enthusiastic  and  imaginative  that 
those  who  can  share  it  will  find  nothing  incongruous  in  the 
appearance  of  the  guardian  genius  of  the  United  States,  which 
quells  the  mutiny  upon  the  ocean.  A  similar  vision  ends  the 
drama,  which  leaves  the  discoverer  restored  to  the  favor  of  his 
sovereigns,  who  had  been  temporarily  offended  by  his  disorderly 
administration,  as  well  as  by  his  sending  Indians  to  Spain  to  be 
sold  as  slaves.  There  is  action  and  pathos  enough  in  the  play 
to  make  it  a  success  on  the  stage  provided  that  these  visions 
could  be  made  to  seem  impressive  to  the  audience.  Perhaps  we 
are  too  practical  for  this  to  be  possible;  but  we  can  all  read  with 
sympathy  the  melodious  lines  in  which  the  high-souled  queen 
encourages  and  consoles  the  great  discoverer,  who  is  nowhere 
portrayed  more  noblv. 


The  Sailing  of  King  Olaf  and  other  Poems.  Bv  Alice 
Williams  Brotherton.  Chicago:  Charles  II .  Kerr  &  Co.,  1SS7. 
Price  $1.00;  pp.  145. 

The  writer  of  these  poems  whom  we  have  known  hitherto 
mainly  as  a  poet  serious,  devotional,  and  tenderly  spiritual  in  her 
expression,  comes  to  us  in  this  radiant  and  beautiful  little  volume 
in  a  role  new  to  us  in  her,  but  in  the  oldest  and  most  delightful 
poet  fashion— as  a  balladist  of  romance,  and  her  "Sailing  of  King 
Olaf,"  "The  Cardinals  Saraband,"  "  Dorothy  Vernon's  Flight," 
"Malison,"  "Saga  of  the  Quern-Stones,"  "The  Poison  Flask" 
and  others,  will  stir  the  blood  of  youth  and  age  equally,  the  one 
from  sympathy  and  the  other  for  remembrance.  The  poems  are 
divided  into  four  departments,  the  first  unnamed,  the  others  under 
the  headings  "Carmina  Votiva;"  — "  Rose  Songs,  etc.,"  — and 
"  The  Inner  Life."  The  artistic  cover  depicts  the  vessel  of  King 
Olaf  on  its  weird  trip,  and  the  book  is  a  credit  to  its  publishers 
as  well  as  to  its  author,  whose  charming  portrait  adorns  the  first 
page  and  gives  an  added  value  to  her  sweet  singing. 


John  C.  Ropes,  who  gives  us  in  addition  to  some  half  dozen  new 
pictures  (caricature  and  other)  of  Napoleon,  those  of  Sir  John 
Moore,  Murat,  Ney,  Grouchy,  Wellington,  Bliicher,  and  Sir 
Thomas  Picton,  from  the  author's  own  collection.  "A  Girl's 
Life  Eighty  Years  Ago — selections  from  the  letters  of  Eliza 
Southgate  Bowne  "  will  be  found  interesting  reading  as  well  to 
students  of  history  as  to  the  ladies.  The  story  department  is  full 
and  inviting. 


The  Journal  du  Ciel,  semi-monthly,  is  published  by  Joseph 
Vinot,  Cour  de  Rohan,  Paris,  to  popularize  the  study  of  astron- 
omy and  is  the  organ  of  the  Society  of  Astronomy.  All  sub- 
scribers to  the  Journal  are  members  of  the  Society.  Other  mem- 
bers pay  one  franc  yearly.  Those  who  choose  to  act  as  corres- 
ponding members  will  be  furnished  with  instructions  for  observa- 
tion and,  so  far  as  the  society  can  afford  it,  with  instruments. 
One  hundred  and  sixty-two  such  observers  were  at  work  Sep- 
tember, 1S84.  The  society  loans  pamphlets,  etc.,  to  members  who 
pay  six  francs  a  year,  beside  postage.  The  Journal  itself  for  May  18 
gives  the  Ephemeris,  or  time  of  rising  and  setting  of  sun,  moon, 
Mercury,  Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter  and  Saturn,  with  the  positions  of 
these  and  other  planets,  from  June  27  to  July  10.  There  are  also 
records  of  observation  of  shooting  stars,  comets,  etc.  The  Journal 
has  had  a  prize  from  the  Academy  des  Sciences. 


The  series  of  Thackeray's  letters  now  being  published  in 
Scribner's  Monthly  is  sufficient  to  make  that  magazine  a  popular 
one,  but  apart  from  this  it  proves  its  raisou  d'etre  in  the  bright- 
ness and  variety  of  its  other  articles.  The  July  number  continues 
the   interesting   "  Illustrations  of  Napoleon  and   his  Times,"   by 


INDIVIDUAL  EXPRESSIONS. 

Your  paper  improves  in  each  issue. — Wm.  C.  Mills,  Rockford,  Ills. 

I  take  much  pleasure  in  reading  The  Open  Court,  and  wish  it  a  long  and 
prosperous  life. — Rosa  L.  Segur,  Toledo,  Ohio. 

What  a  strong  number  the  last  one  of  The  Open  Court  [No.  9] — almost 
too  solid  for  this  ho',  weather!  I  was  glad  to  see  Adam's  name  too. — W.  M. 
Salter. 

Three  cheers  ior  your  new  journal,  The  Open  Court.  Also  please  find 
inclosed  three  dollars  to  renew  subscription. — Isabel  Underhill,  Locust  Val- 
ley, N.  Y. 

I  deeply  regretted  the  abandonment  of  The  Index,  but  am  so  well  pleased 
with  The  Open  Court  that  I  feel  I  have  lost  nothing. — Emory  P.  Robinson, 
Sidney,  Ohio.  ' 

The  first  numbers  of  The  Open  Court  have  been  a  pleasure  and  profit  to 
me.  I  believe  you  have  laid  a  foundation  on  which  to  build  to  literary  and 
financial  success. — H.  C  Fulton,  Davenport,  la. 

I  think  you  ought  to  be  overwhelmed  with  congratulations  on  the  success 
of  The  Open  Court.  Certainly  it  is  a  wonderfully  progressive  paper,  and 
grows  more  inviting  every  issue.— Janet  E.  Rees,  Morris  Plains,  X.J. 

I  do  not  feel  so  lonesome  as  I  thought  I  would  without  The  Index.  The 
high  character  and  sustained*excellence  of  The  Open  Court  leave  nothing  to 
lie  desired.  In  fact  I  would  not  well  know  how  to  get  along  without  it.  You 
may  rest  assured  I  shall  miss  no  opportunity  to  procure  subscribers  to  The 
Open  Court. — R.J.  Moffat,  North  Sydney,  N.  B. 

Max  Muller  is  one  of  the  most  prominent  names  in  science  and  literature. 
It  will  give  a  great  lift  to  The  Open  Court  to  have  original  articles  from  his 
pen,  especially  those  you  have  secured,  they  being  lectures  that  have  been  de- 
livered at  the  Royal  Institution.  I  wish  you  could  enlist  a  few  more  of  the  Eu- 
ropean celebrities.  Haeckel  might  be  willing  to  contribute.  He  has  been  and 
may  still  be  at  Rhodes  studying  Medusa'. — E.  Montgomery. 

I  was  glad  to  read  in  The  Index  last  year  an  article  on  "  Protection" — tucus 
a  non  lucendo — analyzing  its  social  and  political  development,  and  also  one 
recently  in  The  Open  Court  on  "  Ethics  in  Public  Affairs,"  and  I  trust  other 
writings  of  like  import  and  spirit  will  occasionally  appear  in  your  columns. 
Class  agitation  and  class  administration  constitute  the  bete  noir  of  civilization 
and  tend  to  deprave  human  conduct  in  all  its  dealings.  But  in  the  light  of  an 
"  open  court  "  I  trust  the  uncleanness  of  this  beast  may  be  exposed  and  perhaps 
some  day  it  will  be  disowned  by  the  world.— John  Henry  Elliott, 
Keenc,  N.  II. 

Some  years  ago  I  read  several  lectures  delivered  by  you,  and,  while  not 
believing  that  the  evidence  you  based  yourself  upon  at  all  justified  your  conclu- 
sions, vet  I  was  pleased  with  your  general  treatment  of  religion,  and  believe 
that  you  are  honest  and  try  to  be  fair.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  neither  Chris- 
tians nor  "infidels"  always  deserve  the  above  praise,  and  it  is  a  sad  fact  that 
Christians  are  frequently  very  unfair,  and,  along  with  many  "  infidels,"  are  far 
from  liberal  under  any  reasonable  construction  of  the  term.  My  object,  how- 
ever, at  this  writing  is  simply  to  obtain  a  copy  of  The  Open  Court. — A.  M. 
Carlisle,  Tallahassee,  Fla. 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and  Religion  Upon  a  Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  12. 


CHICAGO,  JULY  21,  1S87. 


I  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
(  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


[The  second  of  Prof.  F.  Max  Miiller's  three  lectures 
on  the  "  Science  of  Thought"  is  continued  in  this 
issue.  This  lecture  on  "  The  Identity  of  Language 
and  Thought,"  and  the  third,  on  the  "  Simplicity 
of  Thought,"  not  published  nor  to  be  published  in 
England,  have  been  secured  exclusively  for  The 
Open  Court,  in  which  both  will  be  printed  from  the 
author's  manuscript.  This  distinguished  philologist 
believes  that  language  is  the  history  of  human  thought, 
and  no  other  man  living  probably  is  as  competent  as  he 
to  read  this  history  understandingly,  especially  those 
pages  which  indicate  how  men  reasoned  and  what  they 
thought  during  the  world's  intellectual  childhood.] 


THE   IDENTITY  OF   LANGUAGE  AND  THOUGHT.* 

BY     PROF.    F.    MAX    MllLLER. 

One  of  three   Lectures  on  the  Science    of  Thought   delivered   at 

the  Royal  Institution,  London,  March,  187S. 

Part    II. 

It  is  very  strange  to  see  how  some  philosophers  are 
perfectly  unable  to  see  the  identity  of  thought  and  lan- 
guage, while  others  never  doubt  it;  and  still  more 
strange  to  observe  how  even  those  who  clearly  see  that 
thought  is  realized  and  can  be  realized  in  language  only, 
yet  shrink  from  drawing  the  inevitable  conclusion,  that 
all  philosophy  has  to  deal  in  the  first  instance,  and  in 
the  last  instance  too,  with  words,  with  thought-words, 
or  word-thoughts.  It  may  be  both  useful  and  interest- 
ing, therefore,  to  examine  some  of  the  leading  philoso- 
phers as  to  the  opinion  which  they  held  and  expressed 
on  this  subject.  Their  answers  in  many  cases  will  turn 
out  to  be  very  different  from  what  one  is  led  to  expect 
from  the  general  tenor  of  their  philosophy. 

There  is  a  curious  break  between  the  so-called  scho- 
lastic philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  that  stream 
of  philosophic  thought  which,  beginning  with  Descartes 
(1596-1650),  has  rolled  on  without  interruption  till  it  has 
reached  the  very  threshold  of  this  institution.  That 
break  has  had  its  advantages,  but  there  have  been  losses 
also,  particularly  in  the  want  of  precise  language  and 
terse  argument  on  the  part  of  our  modern  philosophers. 
Hence  while  scholastic  philosophers  seldom  leave  us  in 
doubt  as  to  their  views  of  language  and   its   relation  to 


*  Copyright,  iSS7,  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 


thought,  modern  philosophers  seem  to  imagine  that  they 
can  either  neglect  altogether  that  fundamental  question 
of  all  philosophy,  or  express  themselves  in  ambiguous 
terms  about  it.  If  we  ask,  for  instance,  what  Abelard 
(1079-1142),  the  disciple  of  Rosedinus,  taught  on  the 
relation  between  language  and  intellect,  he  leaves  us  in 
no  doubt,  but  states  plainly  in  his  own  quaint  words 
that  "  Language  is  generated  by  the  intellect  and  gen- 
erates intellect,"  thus  showing  that  he  had  clearly  appre- 
hended the  interdependence  and  essential  identity  of  the 
two. 

Hobbes  (15SS-1679),  who  among  modern  philoso- 
phers is  still  most  in  svmpathy  with  the  traditions  of 
Mediaeval  scholasticism,  declares  without  any  hesitation 
that  man  has  reason  because  he  has  language;  and  he 
adds,  "  It  is  evident  that  truth  and  falsity  have  no  place 
but  among  such  living  creatures  as  use  speech." 

Locke  (1632-1704),  though  fully  aware  of  the  im- 
portance of  language  in  all  philosophical  discussions, 
could  not  bring  himself  to  sav  that  thought  is  either  im- 
possible or  possible  without  language.  "  Most  men," 
he  says,  "if  not  all,  in  their  thinking  and  reasoning 
within  themselves,  make  use  of  words  instead  of  ideas, 
at  least  when  the  subject  of  their  meditation  contains  in 
it  complex  ideas."  This  half- hearted  opinion  we  find 
again  and  again  in  philosophers  who  shrink  from  the 
effort  of  resolute  thought.  They  are  ready  to  admit 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  think  without  words,  but 
where  this  almost  begins  or  where  it  ends,  they  never 
tell  us. 

Even  Leibniz  (1646-1716),  who  may  truly  be  called 
the  founder  of  the  Science  of  Language,  seems  rather 
an  unwilling  witness  to  the  inseparableness  of  language 
and  thought.  In  his  "  Dialogue  on  the  connexion  be- 
tween things  and  words,"  he  says  "  It  troubles  me  great- 
ly to  find  that  I  can  never  acknowledge,  discover  or 
prove  any  truth  except  by  using  in  my  mind  words  or 
other  signs."  To  which  his  friend  answers :  "  Nay,  if 
these  characters  were  absent,  we  should  never  think  or 
reason  distinctly." 

While  Locke  and  Leibniz  were  thus  constrained, 
almost  against  their  will,  to  admit  the  impossibility  of 
thought  without  language,  Berkeley,  their  worthy  con- 
temporary and  rival,  was  convinced  that  words  were  the 
greatest  impediment  to  thought.  He  became  so  angry 
with  language,  that  in  one  passage  he  declared  he  would 


3io 


THE    OREN    COURT. 


in  his  future  inquiries  make  as  little  use  of  language  as 
possible —an  Irish  bull  which  was  omitted,  however, 
in  later  editions  of  his  work. 

Hume  (1711-1776)  agrees  with  Berkeley  that  we 
possess  no  general  ideas,  but  particular  ones  only,  to 
which  a  certain  term  has  been  annexed  which  gives 
them  a  more  extensive  signification.  But  whether  these 
terms  had  any  existence  before  they  were  thus  annexed, 
and,  what  is  still  more  important,  whether  it  is  possi- 
ble to  think  without  these  terms,  Hume,  so  far  as  I  can 
see,  never  declares  in  any  decisive  passage  of  his  works. 

It  is  curious  that  even  Kant  (1 724-1 S04)  should 
have  said  so  little  on  this  vital  question  of  all  philosophy. 
He  calls  language  the  greatest,  but  not  the  only  instru- 
ment of  thought;  he  admits  that  without  expressions 
accurately  corresponding  to  their  concepts,  we  cannot 
become  quite  intelligible  either  to  ourselves  or  to  others. 
He  declares  in  one  passage  that  to  think  is  to  speak  with 
one's  self.  But  from  the  very  cursory  nature  of  these 
remarks,  we  may  safely  conclude  that  the  problem  which 
occupies  us  at  present,  did  not  excite  his  special  interest, 
but  took  its  place  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  more  general 
problems  of  his  philosopy. 

But  while  Kant  thus  disappoints  us,  his  townsman, 
Hamann  (1 730-1 7SS),  a  man  of  wonderful  genius, 
though  little  known  outside  Germany,  utters  no  uncer- 
tain sound.  "  Language  "  he  says,  "  is  not  only  the 
foundation  for  the  whole  faculty  of  thinking,  but  the 
central  point  also  from  which  proceeds  the  misunder- 
standing of  reason  by  herself."  And  again,  "  With  me 
the  question  is  not,  What  is  reason?  but,  What  is  lan- 
guage?   What  we  want  is  a  Grammar  of  Reason." 

The  greatest  minds  of  Germany  were  all  at  that 
time  approaching  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  truth,  I  mean 
to  a  perception  of  the  absolute  identity  of  language  and 
reason.  Herder  (1744-1S03)  declares  his  conviction  that 
"  without  language  man  could  never  have  come  to  his 
reason,"  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  add,  that,  without 
language  man  could  never  have  come  even  to  his  senses. 

William  von  Humboldt  (1767-1S35),  the  greater  of  a 
par  nobilefratrum,  wrote:  "If  we  separate  intellect  and 
language,  such  a  separation  does  not  exist  in  reality." 

Schleiermacher  (176S-1S34),  the  translator  of  Plato, 
and  at  that  time  the  most  powerful  among  liberal- 
minded  German  theologians,  chimes  in  with  a  still 
clearer  note:  "  Thinking  and  speaking,"  he  says,  "  are  so 
entirely  one  that  we  can  only  distinguish  them  as 
internal  and  external,  nay  even  as  internal  every  thought 
is  already  a  word." 

The  two  most  prominent  leaders  of  philosophical 
thought  in  the  beginning  of  our  century,  Schelling  and 
Hegel,  divided  as  they  were  on  many  other  points,  are 
quite  at  one  on  the  identity  of  reason  and  language. 
Schelling  O775-1S54)  says:  "Without  language  it  is 
impossible    to    conceive    philosophical,    nay,    even    any 


human  consciousness."  Hegel  ( 1770-1831)  proclaims 
his  conviction  still  more  boldly  and  tersely:  "  We  think 
in  names,"  he  says,  as  if  no  one  could  ever  have  doubted  it. 

It  may  seem  a  rather  violent  transition  from  Hegel 
to  Alphonse  Daudet,  but  in  some  cases  the  man  of  the 
world,  and,  we  must  add,  the  minute  observer  of  the 
world,  may  catch  glimpses  of  truth  which  either  escape 
the  metaphysician  altogether,  or  are  at  all  events  not 
apprehended  by  him  at  their  realistic  fulness.  When 
Daudet  wrote  his  Roianestar,  it  is  well  known  that 
Gambetta  imagined  it  was  aimed  at  him.  He  recog- 
nized some  traits  of  character  in  Roumestar  which 
he  had  discovered  in  himself,  though  he  imagined  that 
nobody  else  suspected  them.  One  of  them  was  that 
Roumestar  was  unable  to  think  unless  he  could  speak. 
After  a  time  Gambetta  and  Daudet  met  at  a  dinner, 
given  by  Hebrard.  They  sat  silent  for  a  time,  till  at  last 
Gambetta  burst  out:  "Where  did  you  get  the  words 
which  you  make  Roumestar  say,  'if  I  do  not  speak  I  can- 
not think.'"  Daudet  replied,  "  I  invented  them."  "That 
is  strange,"  Gambetta  replied.  The  same  evening 
Gambetta  and  Daudet  became  reconciled.  They  seemed 
to  know  each  other  better,  and,  perhaps,  to  know  them- 
selves better — than  many  philosophers  do. 

Of  course  we  must  make  a  distinction.  Gambetta 
felt  that  he  really  could  not  think  without  speaking, 
that  is  to  sav,  without  speaking  in  a  loud  voice. 
That  was  his  peculiarity,  and  it  may  be  a  peculiarity 
common  among  the  people  of  the  South.  What 
Schelling  and  Hegel  meant  was  not  that  we  cannot 
think  without  uttering  words,  but  that  we  cannot  think, 
even  silently,  without  words.  Savages  call  that  kind 
of  thinking,  speaking  in  the  stomach,  and  it  would  be 
difficult  to  find  a  better  name  for  it. 

To  return,  then,  to  Schelling  and  Hegel  and  their  illus- 
trious predecessor.  I  confess  that  to  myself  also  it  has 
always  seemed  incredible  that  language  should  ever  have 
been  conceived  as  something  that  will  exist  by  itself,  apart 
from  our  whole  intellectual  nature,  or  that  thought,  on  the 
other  hand,  should  have  been  considered  as  possible  with- 
out language.  We  have  only  to  try  the  simplest  experi- 
ment and  we  shall  find  that  thought,  divorced  from  lan- 
guage, is  an  utter  impossibility.  We  may  see  a  dog, 
but  if  we  ask  ourselves  what  it  is,  if  we  want  to  know 
what  we  see,  we  can  answer  by  the  name  "  dog"  only. 
Even  if  we  had  never  seen  a  dog  before,  we  should  still 
answer  by  a  name  only.  We  should  sav,  it  is  a  quad- 
ruped, an  animal,  or  a  living  thing,  a  something,  but  we 
could  do  all  this  by  names  only,  by  what  the  ancients 
called  Nomina,  i.  e.,  gnomina,  means  of  knowledge. 

We  know,  however,  what  philosophers  can  achieve, 
nay,  I  believe  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  show  that  the 
sway  of  philosophical  mvthology  is  more  powerful  even 
than  that  of  religious  mvthology.  Because  we  have  a 
name  for  thought  and    another   for  language,  therefore, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


311 


it  is  argued,  there  must  be  thought  without  language 
and  language  without  thought.  We  might  argue  in  the 
same  way  that,  because  we  have  a  name  for  the  outside 
and  another  for  the  inside  of  a  thing,  therefore  there 
must  be  an  outside  without  an  inside,  and  an  inside  with- 
out an  outside.  We  were  told  at  school  that  the  Greeks 
must  have  been  very  strange  people,  because  they  had 
but  one  word  for  language  and  thought,  namely,  Logos, 
but  that  they  afterward  perceived  the  folly  of  their  ways 
and  distinguished  between  the  Logos  hvdta&eiog,  thought, 
and  the  Logos  £Kyoca<6r,  language;  as  if  the  ancient 
Greek  conception  of  language  and  thought  as  one,  did 
not  show  a  far  greater  insight,  a  far  more  powerful 
grasp  than  the  later  distinction,  useful  as  it  is,  between 
the  outside  and  inside  of  thought. 

However,  I  can  with  some  effort  enter  into  the  mind 
of  those  who,  like  Berkeley,  look  upon  thought  as  one 
thing  and  on  the  sounds  which  we  call  words  as  quite 
another.  It  is  a  kind  of  philosophical  hallucination, 
but  there  is  at  all  events  some  method  in  it.  What  I 
cannot  understand  is,  how  philosophers  can  halt  between 
these  two  opinions,  how  they  can  admit  that  most  of 
our  thoughts  are  carried  on  in  language,  but  not  quite 
all;  that  most  people  think  in  words,  but  not  all;  that 
complex  arguments  may  require  words,  but  not  simple 
propositions.  What  should  we  say  of  a  mathematician 
who  maintained  that  for  simple  addition  and  subtraction 
he  did  not  require  numbers,  but  that  thev  were  indis- 
pensible  for  higher  mathematics.  I  need  hardly  sav 
that  when  I  speak  of  words,  I  include  other  signs  like- 
wise, such  as  figures,  for  instance,  or  hieroglyphics,  or 
Chinese  and  Accadian  symbols.  All  I  maintain  is,  that 
thought  cannot  exist  without  signs,  and  that  our  most 
important  signs  are  words. 

Among  modern  English  logicians  there  is  a  curious 
lack  of  courage  on  this  point.  The  only  one  who  has 
what  is  now  called  the  courage  of  his  opinions,  is  Arch- 
bishop Whately.  He  declares  without  any  reservation  that 
logic  is  entirely  conversant  with  language.  All  the  rest 
shake  their  heads  from  one  horn  of  the  dilemma  to  the 
other.  Sir  William  Hamilton  deems  Whately's  opinion 
too  absurd  to  be  imputed  to  an  archbishop.  John  Stuart 
Mill,  though  in  this  case  less  bold  than  the  archbishop, 
stands  up  for  him  so  far  at  least  as  to  try  to  convince 
Sir  William  Hamilton  that  the  formation  of  concepts 
and  the  subsequent  process  of  combining  them  as  argu- 
ments, must  be  considered  as  a  process  of  language. 
But  Mill  himself,  in  his  great  work  on  logic,  cannot 
muster  the  same  courage  as  Whately.  "  Reasoning," 
he  says,  "  the  principal  subject  of  logic,  takes  place 
usually  by  means  of  words,  and  in  all  complicated  cases 
can  take  place  in  no  other  way."  But  by  what  other 
way  it  can  ever  take  place  he  never  shows.  He  calls 
language  one  of  the  principal  elements  or  helps  of 
thought,   but   he   never  mentions    any   other    helps     or 


instruments.  He  speaks  of  the  reasoning  of  brutes,  but 
forgets  that  this  is  but  a  metaphorical  expression,  and 
that  we  know  nothing  of  the  inside  of  brutes,  except 
by  analogy.  He  mistakes  the  abbreviated  or  silent  rea- 
soning of  man  for  reasoning  without  words,  though  he 
would  easily  have  seen  that  in  substituting  algebraic  or 
logarithmic  signs  for  the  ordinary  figures,  the  mathema- 
tician is  dealing  indirectly  with  numbers  and  with  num- 
bers only. 

The  same  uncertainty  pervades  nearly  all  our  hand- 
books of  logic.  Archbishop  Thomson  follows  indeed 
the  good  example  of  Archbishop  Whately,  when  he 
says  that  we  get  entangled  in  absurdities  by  any  theory 
which  assumes  that  either  thought  or  language  existed 
in  a  separate  state,  but  he  shrinks  from  drawing  the  con- 
clusion, that  logic  deals  with  language  and  with  lan- 
guage only. 

Mr.  Jevons  cannot  bring  himself  to  say  that  we 
never  think  without  words,  but,  as  a  cautious  reasoner, 
he  adds,  "  Hardly  ever  do  we  think  without  the  proper 
words  coming  into  the  mind." 

Professor  Fowler  seems  inclined  to  follow  Arch- 
bishop Whately.  "Practically"  he  says,  "we  always 
think  by  means  of  language;"  yet,  he  adds,  "  a  logician 
need  not  come  to  a  decision  on  this  point."  Can  there 
be  a  more  vital  question  for  a  logician  than  this?  Would 
any  writer  on  Optics  venture  to  say:  "  Practically  we 
see  with  our  eyes,  but  the  optician  need  not  make  up 
his  mind  on  this  point."  Professor  Green,  a  very  honest 
and  straightforward  thinker,  is  affected  by  the  same 
hesitation.  "  It  is  hard,"  he  writes,  "  some  say  it  is  im- 
possible, to  think  without  expressing  thought  in  lan- 
guage." 

To  me  it  seems  inconceivable  how  any  philosopher, 
that  is  to  say,  a  student  of  thought,  can  leave  such  a 
question  undecided.  I  can  understand,  as  I  said  before, 
certain  minds  being  so  completely  under  the  spell  of 
philosophical  mythology  as  to  find  it  impossible  to  con- 
ceive that  thought,  which  has  a  name  of  its  own,  should 
not  have  a  separate  existence,  apart  from  language. 
The  ancient  nations,  because  they  had  called  the  Un- 
known by  many  names,  became  polytheists,  and  power- 
ful thinkers  only,  such  as  y*£schylus,  could  perceive  be- 
hind the  many  names,  the  one  God.  But  what  I  cannot 
understand  is  how  people  could  be  half  polytheists,  half 
monotheists,  or,  as  applied  to  thought,  how  they  could 
bring  themselves  to  believe  that  thought,  though  gen- 
erally embodied  in  language,  could  from  time  to  time 
walk  about  as  a  disembodied  ghost.  I  have  myself  not 
the  slightest  doubt  that  the  time  will  come  when  this 
belief  in  disembodied  thought  will  be  looked  upon  as 
one  of  the  strangest  hallucinations  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  People  do  no  longer  believe  in  witches,  nor 
in  ghosts.  But  the  belief  in  disembodied  thought  will 
die  very  hard,  nay  history  teaches  us,  that  though  it  was 


312 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


scotched  by  some  of  our  most  powerful  thinkers,  it  al- 
ways raises  its  head  again  and  again.  If  anything  can 
o-ive  it  its  coup  de  grace,  it  is  the  Science  of  Languages 
though,  strange  to  say,  some  of  the  most  popular  rep- 
resentatives of  that  science  are  against  us.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  we  must  have  the  courage  of  our  opinions. 
We  must  make  no  concessions.  We  must  say  "  Never," 
not  "  Hardly  ever,"  and  this  "  Never,"  I  feel  convinced, 
will  mark  a  new  departure  in  the  history  of  philosophy, 
nay  it  will  supply  a  new  foundation  for  every  system  of 
philosophy  which  the  world  has  ever  known. 

THE  WORLD'S  SUN   AND   SAVIOR. 

BY    RICHARD    A.    PROCTOR. 

There  is  a  passage  in  Renan's  Vie  de  jfesus  relating 
to  the  worship  of  Mithras  which,  at  a  first  reading, 
appears  almost  like  a  jest.  After  describing  the  attrac- 
tion which  this  cult  seemed  to  have  for  the  various 
nations  and  races  under  the  government  of  Rome,  he 
goes  on  to  say  that  he  has  sometimes  permitted  himself 
the  thought  that,  had  not  the  religion  of  Christ  become 
predominant,  the  religion  of  Mithras  would  now  be  the 
worship  prevalent  throughout  the  world.  Considering 
that  the  religion  of  Mithras  was  unquestionably  the  wor- 
ship of  the  sun,  what  Renan  thus  said  sounds  to  the 
average  Christian,  to  whom  the  religion  of  Christ  is  the 
worship  of  God  the  Son,  as  incongruous  and  outrageous 
as  it  would  seem  to  the  average  Briton  or  American  to 
be  told  that,  had  not  English  become  the  predominant 
business  language,  Hawaiian  would  have  prevailed  as 
the  business  language  of  the  world.  But  the  apparent 
wildness  of  Renan's  remark  disappears  when  we  recog- 
nize the  evidence  which  shows  its  unquestionable  justice. 
The  people  under  Roman  sway  turned  as  eagerly  toward 
sun-worship  in  its  various  forms  as  the  people  of  Israel 
turned  to  the  cognate  worship  of  the  host  of  heaven. 
And  even  as  it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  the  Israelites 
ever  really  escaped  from  the  Sabaism  of  their  forefath- 
ers, seeing  that  to  this  day  the  whole  ceremonial  of  the 
Jewish  religion  is  obviously  based  on,  if  it  is  not  actually 
the  same  as  that  employed  in,  the  worship  of  the  heav- 
enly host,  so  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the  races 
which  embraced  Christianity  really  gave  up  sun-wor- 
ship, seeing  that  not  only  do  all  the  days  and  seasons, 
with  most  of  the  observances  of  sun-worship,  remain  in 
Christian  ceremonial,  but  the  whole  story  of  the  sun  is 
retained  in  two  at  least  of  the  gospel  records  of  the  life 
of  Christ.  In  fact  it  might  be  suggested,  without  any 
violent  improbability,  that  the  struggle  between  the 
religion  of  Christ  and  the  religion  of  Mithras,  considered 
by  Renan,  was  only  one  form  of  sun-worship  prevailing 
over  another,  the  worship  of  Serapis  overcoming  the 
worship  of  Mithras.  There  is  a  passage  in  a  letter  of 
the  Emperor  Hadrian  not  so  often  quoted  as  the  very 
doubtful  testimony  of  Tacitus,  hut  much  more  significant 


and  having  the  advantage  of  being  certainly  genu- 
ine, in  which  he  specially  states  that  the  Christians,  as 
he  had  known  them  in  Egypt,  were  worshipers  of 
Serapis,  the  sun-god,  and  that  their  chief  priests  were 
known  as  "bishops  of  Christ!" 

It  may  be  remarked  just  here  that  now  when  the 
doctrine  of  evolution  modifies  all  our  views  respecting 
the  progress  of'' nations  and  races,  not  only  in  civiliza- 
tion and  culture  but  also  in  morals  and  in  religious  ideas, 
there  is  nothing  surprising  in  the  presence  of  very 
decided  traces  of  nature-worship  in  all  modern  forms  of 
religion.  The  wonder,  indeed,  would  be  great  if  no 
such  traces  could  be  recognized.  For  while  it  is  certain 
that  apart  from  a  supernatural  revelation  (in  which,  I 
suppose,  no  intelligent  reasoner  can  now  believe)  every 
race  which  passes  beyond  a  certain  stage  of  culture  must 
attain  to  sun-worship  as  the  highest  and  purest  form  of 
nature-worship,  it  is  well  known  that  no  matter  how 
religion  itself  may  change,  religious  ceremonial  can 
scarcely  ever  be  modified.  Moreover  it  is  observable 
of  all  forms  of  religion  and  of  all  moral  teachings,  that 
no  matter  what  the  real  history  of  their  founder,  the 
story  of  the  sun,  most  impressive  of  all  nature's  myths, 
was  invariably  combined,  sooner  or  later,  with  the  nar- 
rative of  his  life.  So  was  it  with  Confucius,  with 
Zoroaster,  with  Gautama;  and  it  is  natural  that  so  also 
it  would  be  with  Christ.  Precisely  as  in  the  second  cen- 
tury the  writers  or  compilers  of  the  gospels  according  to 
(but  certainly  not  by)  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke  mixed 
up  with  the  account  of  one  Jesus  events  which,  as  every 
reader  of  Josephus  can  perceive,  really  belonged  to  the 
history  of  other  men  (most  of  them  also  named  Jesus), 
some  of  whom  were  alive  when  Jerusalem  fell  (or  more 
than  a  generation  after  the  death  of  Pontius  Pilate),  so 
those  same  writers  or  compilers  deemed  it  necessary  to 
show  also  that  all  the  remarkable  signs,  tokens  and 
events  belonging  in  the  ancient  solar  religions  to  the 
successive  sun-gods  appeared  or  occurred  also  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Son  of  God. 

That  the  worship  of  the  sun  should  prevail  for  a 
long  time  in  the  history  of  each  advancing  race,  after 
the  earlier  and  less  impressive  forms  of  nature-worship 
had  in  turn  prevailed  and  died  out,  was  altogether 
natural.  The  daily  victory  of  the  sun  over  the  powers 
of  darkness,  his  triumphant  return  to  power  ("rejoicing 
as  a  giant  to  run  his  course,")  in  the  midsouthern  heavens, 
and  his  slow  decadence  thence,  must  early  have  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  least  observant.  It  was  natural  that, 
even  in  that  first  beginning  of  solar  religion  in  which 
the  sun  was  regarded  as  god  of  the  day,  men  should 
hail  his  return  with  prayer  and  sacrifice  as  he 

"  Flatter'd  the  mountain  tops  with  sovereign  eye, 
Kissing  with  golden  face  the  meadows  green, 
Gilding  pale  streams  with  heavenly  alchemy." 

Equally    natural   was   it   that,  as    he   sank   in   the   west 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


313 


prayer  and  sacrifice  should  again  be  offered,  now  not  in 
adoration  but  in  propitiation,  lest  the  wrathful  red  of  the 
western  skies  should  portend  his  angry  departure  from 
the  world  whose  life  depended  on  his  beams.  With  a 
slight  change  we  may  believe  of  the  respective  races 
who  were  the  first  parents  of  modern  nations  what 
Blanco  White,  in  a  fine  sonnet,  suggests  in  regard  to  the 
impossible  first  parents  which  were  assigned  by  men 
ignorant  of  biological  possibilities  to  the  whole  human 
race — when  those  first  parents    noted  the  coming   on   of 

night: 

"  Did  they  not  tremble  for  this  glorious  frame, 
This  wondrous  canopy  of  light  and  blue?" 

So,  trembling,  they  offered  propitiatory  sacrifices,  after 
man's  way  when  anxious  about  his  personal  welfare. 
And  a  race  of  priests  came  into  existence,  quite  as 
naturally,  who  undertook,  for  a  consideration,  the 
important  business  of  offering  the  morning  sacrifice  of 
adoration  and  the  evening  sacrifice  of  propitiation. 

But,  as  longer  observation  showed  men  the  sun  as 
god  of  the  year,  a  much  more  impressive  doctrine  and 
a  much  more  complicated  ceremonial  came  into  exist- 
ence. By  this  time,  it  must  be  remembered,  the  influ- 
ence of  the  heavenly  bodies — sun,  moon,  planets  and 
stars — upon  the  affairs  and  fortunes  of  men  and  nations 
had  come  to  be  accepted  by  all.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to 
realize  the  confidence  with  which  our  own  forefathers 
as  well  as  those  of  all  other  races,  accepted  this  doctrine. 
Nowadays  none  but  the  ignorant  and  unwise  believe  in 
astrology,  and  none  but  rogues  pretend  to  believe, 
but  in  remote  times,  and  thence  onward  through  the 
beginnings  and  developments  of  the  religions  even  of 
to-day,  faith  in  the  influences  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
was  almost  universal.  When  this  was  so — when  the 
star-strewn  heavens  by  night  and  the  wondrous  canopy 
of  light  and  blue  by  day  were  men's  temple,  before  as 
yet  the  sun  and  moon  and  planets  had  descended  from 
their  dignity  as  gods — can  we  wonder  that  the  annual 
progress  of  that  sun-god,  whose  glory  meant  life,  while 
his  departure  to  the  gloomy  cave  of  winter  meant  death, 
should  be  watched  with  special  interest,  alternating 
between  anxiety  and  hope,  by  all  men?  The  story  of 
the  sun-god  as  the  savior  of  men  was  repeated  every 
year  before  men's  eyes,  though  only  the  priests  who 
were  practiced  astronomers  could  tell  the  exact  times 
when  he  passed  the  chief  stages  of  his  career. 

Consider  the  life  of  the  sun  as  god  of  the  year,  and 
we  can  see  a  reason  for  every  detail  in  the  ancient  solar 
myths  and  in  the  records  of  the  life  of  the  various  sun- 
gods. 

Begin  with  the  failing  of  the  power  of  the  sun  dur- 
ing the  autumn  months — for  we  cannot  rightly  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  the  sun  of  a  new  year  until  we 
have  considered  the  feelings  with  which  in  old  times 
men  must  have   watched  the   gradual   departure   (as  it 


seemed)  of  the  mid-day  sun  from  the  region  of  glory 
he  had  occupied  in  the  midsummer  heavens.  Day  by 
day  toward  the  time  of  the  autumnal  equinox  the  mid- 
day sun  sinks  lower  and  lower.  Nay,  as  day  follows 
day  his  rate  of  sinking  grows  more  and  more  rapid,  his 
diurnal  arc  from  the  eastern  to  the  western  horizon 
grows  shorter  and  shorter,  until  the  roughest  instru- 
mental means — dial,  shadow-throwing  obelisk  or  what 
not — shows  how  the  mid-day  strength  of  the  sun- cod 
is  waning.  A  fit  time  this  for  sacrifice  and  prayer,  for 
sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  because  of  the  work  the  wan- 
ing sun  has  clone,  the  beneficence  he  has  displayed  dur- 
ing the  months  of  summer;  but  a  time  also  for  sacrifice 
of  propitiation  lest  the  sun-god  should  depart  in  anger 
from  the  world.  We  see  the  clearest  traces  of  the 
diverse  feelings  with  which  men  watched  the  retreat  of 
the  sun  in  autumn  toward  the  gloom  of  winter  in  the 
Feast  of  Tabernacles  celebrated  by  the  Jews  at  this  sea- 
son, a  feast  rivaled  only  in  importance  and  duration  by 
the  Feast  of  the  Passover  in  spring,  and  in  the  Fast  of 
the  Atonement,  the  most  characteristic  feature,  perhaps, 
of  all  the  Jewish  ceremonial  system.  I  am  told  that  to 
this  day  the  Jews  regard  the  due  observance  of  this  day 
of  mourning  and  lamentation  as  the  most  marked  duty 
of  the  year.  Now,  as  of  old,  though  no  longer  in  the 
same  way,  the  soul  that  does  not  mourn  and  lament  on 
this  great  fast  day  is  cut  off  from  among  the  people. 
And  doubtless  in  the  far-off  days,  when  in  lamentation 
on  this  day  the  people  appealed  to  the  retreating  sun- 
god,  at  the  time  when  his  retreat  seemed  most  rapid,  to 
return  to  them,  it  was  a  solemn  duty  on  the  part  of  each 
member  of  the  community  to  join  in  the  prayers  and 
lamentations  by  which  they  hoped  to  prevail  on  their 
god  to  return  to  them. 

Thenceforward,  as  week  after  week  and  month  after 
month,  measured  by  the  orb  that  ruled  their  night  (the 
Measurer,  as  they  called  her)'  passed  on,  the}'  found 
their  god  sinking  lower  and  lower.  Shamash,  Shem- 
shin,  Samson,  the  power  whose  might  lay  in  his  rays, 
was  shorn  of  his  beams  by  Delilah,  the  gathering  gloom 
of  winter.  Yet  there  remained  this  to  encourage  hope 
of  his  restoration:  daily  he  sank  lower  and  lower,  but 
each  day  he  sank  less  than  the  preceding.  At  last  it 
seemed  as  though  when  men's  hearts  had  sunk  lowest 
(for  the  bulk  of  the  community  would  know  nothing 
of  those  tokens  of  return  which  would  seem  clearest  to 
the  astronomers,  their  priests),  he  ceased  to  sink  any 
lower.  The  sun  of  the  old  year  had  reached  that  point 
where  his  career  ends,  and  lo!  such  life  as  remained  in 
him  was  to  be  passed  on  to  his  son.  The  threatened 
desolation  was  to  be  averted.  The  priests  recognized 
the  approaching  advent  of  the  Savior  of  the  world.  As 
day  by  day  they  watched  at  this  season  of  the  winter 
solstice,  the  most  delicate  observations  possible  in  those 
days  disclosed   no   evidence   of  the  return  of  the  sun  to 


3M 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


mid-day  power;  the  sun  stood  still.  And  to  the  thought- 
ful mind  there  is  much  significance  in  the  continued  use 
of  the  word  solstice,  seeing  that  the  sun  does  not,  in  the 
astronomical  sense,  even  appear  to  stand  still.  We  see 
how  much  attention  the  astronomer  of  old  directed  to 
the  sun  at  mid-day  when  we  find  a  word  strictly 
referring  to  the  sun's  mid-day  height  still  used  as  if  it 
referred  to  the  sun's  course  along  his  yearly  apparent 
path. 

At  last,  three  or  four  days  after  the  winter  solstice, 
it  became  clear  not  only  that  the  sun  had  ceased  to  sink 
lower,  but  that  he  had  even  begun  to  pass  higher  at  his 
mid-day  culmination.  His  places  of  rising  and  of  set- 
ting were  also  now  manifestly  slowly  shifting  from  their 
most  southerly  positions  back  toward  east  and  west 
respectively.  But  not  until  the  heliacal  rising  of  a  cer- 
tain star  gave  the  desired  astronomical  evidence  of  the 
return  of  the  sun  to  his  new  year  place  could  the  astro- 
nomical priests  announce  the  birth  of  the  sun-god.  Then 
they  proclaimed  the  nativity  of  the  Savior  of  the 
threatened  world ;  for  then  these  magi  could  announce 
that  they  had  seen  his  star  in  the  east,  heliacally  rising 
before  him,  standing  over  the  place  (the  "cave,"  as  the 
unseen  half  and  the  southern  half  of  the  celestial  sphere 
were  alike  called)  where  the  Savior  was  born.  The 
Virgin  (constellation  and  sign  both)  in  those  days  was  in 
the  west,  with  upraised  arms  stretched  toward  her  son, 
fading  out  of  view  and  sinking  below  the  horizon  as  day 
advanced. 

Thenceforward,  day  by  day,  week  by  week,  month 
by  month  the  youthful  sun-god  increased  in  strength  and 
wisdom  (in  the  power  of  his  heat,  in  the  glory  of  his 
light)  till  at  length  the  time  came  when  he  was  to  pass 
from  the  winter  half  of  the  celestial  sphere,  crossing  the 
mystic  circle  which  divides  that  half  from  the  region  of 
the  sun's  glory  and  might  in  summer.  At  that  crossing 
— that  passover,  that  crucifying — came  naturally  the 
most  solemn  festival  of  the  whole  year.  Associated 
with  the  moon's  movements  (for  so  only  could  months 
be  determined)  its  astronomical  character  to  this  day 
attests  its  actual  origin.  The  same  priests  who  had  pro- 
claimed the  birth  of  the  sun-god  proclaimed  his  rising 
above  the  great  dividing  circle.  The  sun  is  risen,  he  is 
risen  indeed.  Forty  days  (such  seems  to  have  been  the 
special  time  appointed  for  watching  his  approach  to  this 
critical  circle)  they  had  observed  him  nearing  it;  now 
for  forty  days  more  they  watched  him  moving  along 
what  is  still  called  right  ascension,  and  is  still  measured 
by  astronomers  from  this  very  crossing  place.  Then,  and 
then  only,  his  ascension  was  completed  (and  Ascension 
Day  still  measures  forty  days  from  Easter).  Thereafter 
he  passed  to  his  throne  of  glory  in  the  midrealm  of  the 
heaven  father. 

And  so  year  by  year  the  story  of  the  sun-god  was 
repeated,  and  the  festivals    and    fasts,  the   sacrifices   and 


prayers  were  renewed  till  they  entered  into  the  very  life 
of  the  people,  never  to  be  given  up,  no  matter  what 
changes  might  come  over  their  forms  of  belief. 


CHATS  WITH   A  CHIMPANZEE. 

BY  MONCURE  D.  CONWAY. 
Part    V. 

On  going  to  my  tryst  next  day  I  was  stopped  by  a 
policeman,  who  informed  me  that  Lord  and  Lady 
Somebody  and  Maharajah  Somebodyelse  and  their 
suite  were  visiting  the  Monkey  Temple.  I  lost  nearly 
an  hour  of  my  Chimpanzee  in  this  way.  When  at 
length  this  fine  party  came  out  to  their  sedans  they  looked 
to  me — the  English  especially — like  tawdrily  dressed 
creatures  carried  about  as  a  show.  Monkeys  are 
carried  about  in  some  cities,  but  so  much  had  my  respect 
grown  for  monkeys  that  these  visitors,  still  laughing  at 
the  monkeys,  without  in  the  least  comprehending  them, 
seemed,  for  the  moment,  the  inferior  order.  The  illu- 
sion was  heightened  by  the  absurdity  that  such  com- 
monplace people  should  possess  the  privilege  of  seeing 
others  kept  at  a  distance  from  any  place  where  they 
wished  to  move.  I  could  not  help  growling  in  this  way, 
and  before  I  knew  what  I  was  doing  began  on  an 
unpolite  quotation  from  Shakespeare  about  "  man, 
proud  man,  drest  in  a  little  brief  authority,"  plunging 
on  to  the  words,  "  like  an  angry  ape,"  before  I  realized 
how  personal  the  similitude  was. 

"  I  really  beg  your  pardon,"  I  cried. 

"Go  on  with  the  quotation,"  said  the  Chimpanzee 
"  I  like  the  phrase." 

'"Like  an  angry  ape,  plays  such  fantastic  tricks 
before  high  heaven  as  make  the  angels  weep;  who, 
with  our  spleens,  would  all  themselves  laugh  mortal.'  " 

"Good!"  cried  the  Sage.  "  That  writer's  memory 
ran  a  long  way  back.  The  man  drest  in  brief  author- 
ity and  of  fantastic  tricks  was  actually  evolved  from 
the  Angry  Ape." 

"Why  angry?" 

"Ah  well,  I  must  leave  much  to  your  imagination. 
You  will  bear  in  mind  that  mankind  were  developed 
from  a  monkey  aristocracy.  The  few  first  talkers  kept 
together,  mated  together,  reproduced  their  superiorities, 
and  thus  an  aristocracy  of  birth  was  formed." 

"  I  have  been  taught  to  resent  the  idea  of  hereditary 
aristocracy." 

"  Possibly,  but  rather,  certain  historic  perversions  of 
it  like  the  Hindu  castes.  There  can  be  no  real  aristoc- 
racy except  that  of  birth  or  heredity.  So  all  would  per- 
ceive if  every  superiority  attested  high  birth  instead  of 
the  merely  accredited  birth  attesting  superiorty.  Titled 
and  crowned  people  are  often  low-born.  In  our  antho- 
poid  commonwealth  we  had  no  superiorities;  when  the 
talking  aristocracy  was  formed  they  began  to  have 
trouble.  The  power  of  speech  had  been  really  developed 
by  the    continued    mating    together    and    interbreeding 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3i5 


of  those  who  approximated  articulate  utterance. 
But  these  were  as  yet  few  compared  with  the  chatter- 
ing multitude.  The  mysterious  power  of  the  talkers 
excited  at  once  the  fear  and  the  jealousy  of  the  masses. 
The  angry  ape  appeared  at  the  head  of  a  mob.  The 
talking  aristocracy  would  have  been  all  slain  had  they 
not  been  able,,  through  their  power  of  communication, 
to  combine  more  perfectly  than  the  others.  Under  cer- 
tain circumstances,  it  has  been  said  two  and  two  do  not 
make  four,  but  forty.  So  it  was  when  the  first  talkers 
confronted  an  inarticulate  rabble.  However,the  atmos- 
phere of  anger  became  intolerable  to  the  talkers,  and 
they  all  fled.  They  migrated  from  forest  to  forest, 
hoping  that  they  might  find  som'e  talking  tribe  to  unite 
with,  for  they  were  too  few  to  hold  their  own  against 
the  more  ferocious  animals.  One  day — so  runs  the 
legend — when  they  were  seated  amid  the  foliage  of  a 
tree  they  observed  a  handsome  anthropoid  animal  ap- 
proach; he  took  a  palm  leaf,  on  it  made  some  marks 
with  a  stick,  then  fastened  it  to  a  tree  and  went  on  his 
way.  They  all  got  down  and  examined  the  leaf,  find- 
ing on  it  strange  marks  of  yellow  color.  They  left  the 
leaf  where  they  found  it,  resumed  their  seats  in  the  tree, 
and  watched  to  see  what  would  follow.  Soon  another, 
a  female  even  handsomer  than  he  who  had  marked  the 
leaf  approached,  took  down  the  leaf,  scrutinized  it,  then 
followed  on  the  exact  path  the  other  had  gone.  There- 
on the  whole  company,  after  a  brief  consultation,  pur- 
sued the  solitary  figure  and  surrounded  her.  They 
treated  her  gently,  and,  when  her  fears  were  soothed, 
found  that  she  could  talk  a  little — less  than  themselves. 
But  she  had  a  talent  which  they  had  not ;  she  could 
make  marks  on  any  surface  corresponding  to  sounds  she 
uttered.  She  made  them  understand  that  she  was  one  of 
a  small  company  which  had  developed  a  power  of  com- 
municating silently  by  these  marks  on  leaves,  and  who, 
like  themselves,  had  become  objects  of  jealousy  and 
fear  to  their  tribe.  They,  too,  had  become  exiles.  She 
guided  the  company  to  her  friends;  these  talkers  and 
writers  became  allies,  and  together  they  went  on  a  pil- 
grimage to  find  other  allies  of  similar  advancement. 
They  found  a  few  here  and  there,  and  at  length  had 
gathered  a  sufficient  number   to  form  a   powerful  tribe. 

Now,  it  had  become,  among  all  the  monkey  tribes,  a 
rumor,  then  a  tradition,  that  somewhere  there  existed  a 
society  of  nobler  beings,  a  realm  of  angels.  The  talking 
and  writing  people  in  the  distance  were  thus  dreamed  of 
among  the  lower  tribes ;  but  whenever  any  one  was  found 
among  them  developing  these  angelic  powers,  he  was 
slain,  or  had  to  fly.  Such  exiles  sometimes  found  their 
way  to  the  nobler  commonwealth. 

"You  will  observe  that  by  so  steadily  exiling  or 
slaying  their  superior  minds  the  old  ape  tribes  doomed 
themselves  to  remain  apes.  The  race  of  inferior  monkeys 
has  been  developed  from  those  who  rendered  progress 


impossible.  The  survival  of  the  fittest  for  preserving 
their  old  social  order  became  their  principle  of  existence. 
On  the  other  hand  the  exiles  drew  to  themselves  every 
variation  and  improvement  which  had  excited  the  fear 
or  jealousy  of  their  fellows.  Some  of  these  variations 
were  intellectual,  others  physical.  Two  or  three  would 
come  bringing  an  improved  heel,  others  a  rudimentary 
thumb,  yet  others  a  shapelier  nose  or  chin.  It  had 
been  gradually  recorded  on  palm  leaves  that  these  pecu- 
liarities could  he  transmitted  to  children.  Certain 
scribes  were  appointed  to  observe  and  register  the 
results  of  mating  one  superiority  with  another.  Nat- 
ural affections  followed  the  lines  of  improvement  so  indi- 
cated, and  any  affections  contrary  to  the  laws  formed  by 
experience  died  out — as  now,  in  Christian  societies,  sex- 
ual feeling  between  brother  and  sister  has  been  extir- 
pated. Here,  too,  as  already  mentioned  in  the  case  of 
an  earlier  phase,  freedom  was  the  great  factor  in  the  evo- 
lution.    So  long  as  the  principle  of  selection  was  purely 

and  exclusively  determined  bj'  improvement  of  the  race 

there  being  no  restriction  whatever  for  the  sake  of  any 
god — the  evolution  was  rapid.  The  progress  to 
humanity  was  by  grand  leaps.  As  in  the  case  of 
speech,  obtained  by  an  infinitesimal  change  of  form, 
leading  on  infinite  effects,  each  subsequent  attainment 
surrounded  itself  with  a  new  world.  Take  this  city  of 
Benares;  within  my  memory  it  has  been  transformed 
from  a  village  to  a  city.  By  what  means?  By  a 
kettle  of  water.  One  man  put  a  valve  on  it  that 
would  bind  or  loose  its  vapor  at  will.  Another  set 
the  kettle  on  wheels  and  called  it  a  steam  engine. 
The  face  of  the  world  is  changed.  That  kind  of  thing 
happened  millions  of  times.  Each  little  step  taken 
opened  a  world  of  resources,  with  powers  to  utilize 
them.      Man  was  developed. 

"  But  as  the  first  developed  talkers  and  writers  had 
been  comparatively  few,  so  the  first  men  were  compar- 
atively few;  and  these,  like  their  forerunners,  were  pur- 
sued by  fear  and  jealousy  of  the  half-humanized.  In 
this  higher  commonwealth  the  dismal  storv  of  the 
anthropoid  tribe  was  repeated.  The  aristocracies  of 
intelligence  and  beauty  were  forced  to  flee,  and  in  the 
end  formed  a  society  which  began  the  works  of  human 
civilization.  So  it  went  on  for  ages.  The  ape  seemed 
to  have  died  out  of  this  new  form.  He  might  reappear 
in  the  fantastic  tricks  of  boys,  but  education  soon  bound 
him.  But,  alas,  though  physically  bound  he  survived 
morally,  and,  in  the  further  progress  of  the  human 
society,  made  himself  felt.  For  man  found  himself 
surrounded  by  obstructions  and  enemies.  Serpents, 
wild  beasts,  diseases,  hurricanes,  drouth  and  famine 
beset  him.  He  fought  these  bravely  and  steadily  made 
headway  against  them  until  it  unfortunately  occurred  to 
some  of  the  least  courageous  to  try  and  explain  them 
metaphysically.      Now  there  had   been  preserved   from 


3i6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


their  ancient  apehood  a  tradition  of  the  wrathful 
gorillas  or  other  creatures  against  which  the  more 
human  forms  had  been  defended.  In  dreams  the  hated 
and  hunted  ancestors  of  humanity  have  been  haunted  by 
visions  of  the  Angry  Ape.  There  now  arose  some  mys- 
tery men  who  ascribed  outward  reality  to  the  vision 
coined  by  fear,  and  imagined  that  there  must  be  a  gigantic 
Ape,  creator  and  god  of  apes,  who  was  angry  and 
jealous  at  the  way  in  which  some  of  his  creatures  had 
taken  the  work  of  creation  into  their  own  hands.  The 
idea  once  started  response  came  from  the  closeted  ape 
lurking  in  each  of  the  least  developed.  These  now 
ascribed  thunder  and  lightning,  tempests  and  diseases,  to 
the  wrath  of  the  Supreme  Ape,  and  there  grew  a  panic- 
stricken  clamor  for  men  who  could  pacify  the  Ape 
demon.  In  response  to  this  clamor  appeared  the 
priesthood. 

"The  priesthood  declared  that  the  jealous  and  angry 
Supreme  Ape  would  destroy  them  all  unless  they  gave 
him  the  larger  part  of  their  food,  and  built  temples  to 
him,  and  in  these  supported  a  large  number  of  men  to 
kneel  before  him,  acknowledge  his  supremacy,  and  sing 
his  praises  all  the  time.  I  have  somewhere  one  of  the 
litanies  to  the  Eternal  Ape." 

"  I  should  much  like  to  see  it,"  said  I. 
The   Chimpanzee  went  off  and   returned  with  some 
very   old  and   dry  palm-leaves,   from   which  he  read  me 
the  following 

LITANY   TO  THE   HOLY   APE. 
O,   Ape  of  Apes,  we  acknowledge   Thee  to  be  our   Creator  and 

Ruler! 
Thou  art  angry  with  us  nearly  every  day. 
Just  art  Thou,  visiting  our  sins  upon  our  children. 
Thou  art  so  very,  very  just! 
Anger  is  thy  customary  attitude. 
Thou  art  angry  that  we  should  keep  Thee  angry. 
We  have  wickedly  eaten  the  fruit  of  knowledge.     Mad  art  Thou! 
We  have  walked  in  the  light  of  our  own  eyes.     Mad  art  Thou! 
We  have  followed  the  guidance  of  our  own  hearts.     Mad  art  Thou! 
We  have  set  before  us  the  wisdom  of  man  instead  of  fear  of  Thee. 

Mad  art  Thou! 
We  have   not  remembered   that  the  wisdom   of  man   is  foolish- 
ness to  the  Great  Ape.     Mad  art  Thou! 
Thou  god  of  wrath  ! 
Thou  jealous  god ! 
Thou  god  of  battles ! 
Almighty  Gorilla! 

The  sun  is  Thy  throne  and  the  sun- stroke  Thy  sceptre. 
Whirlwinds  are  wheels  of  Thy  chariot. 

Common  sense  cannot  stand  before  Thy  uncommon  abilities. 
Thou  sendest  Thy  plagues  and  our  reason  is  silenced. 
The  thunder  is  Thy  argument. 
The  logic  of  Thy  lightning  is  irresistible. 
Weak-minded  were  he  who  would  withstand  the  persuasiveness 

nl'  Thy  pestilences. 
Pity,  Everlasting  Ape,  our  inherited   depravity,  our  tendency  to 

think  for  ourselves! 
Through  accursed  human  knowledge  we  have  strayed  from  Thy 

ways  like  lost  monkeys. 
Yet,  O  Holy  Ape,  much  of  the  monkey  is  left  in  us  still. 


We   can  still   turn   from   the   tree  of  knowledge   to   the  tree   on 

which  cocoanuts  grow. 
Though  we  look   like  men  not  much  of  the  spirit  of  men  is  left 

in  us. 
We  will  part  with  all  of  it  if  Thou  wilt  smile  on  us. 
Thou  shalt  have  our  virgins,  or  Thy  priests  shall. 
Also,  two-thirds  of  our  wool. 
Likewise  of  our  bread  and  butter. 
All  who  deny  Thee  shall  be  roasted. 
Only  spare  us,  spare  us,  Holy,  Eternal,  Omnipotent  Ape!" 

"Good  God!"  cried  I  with  excitement,  as  the  Chim- 
panzee ceased. 

"Good  God!"  said  he,  looking  around.  "Who  is 
he?" 

"  It  was  only  an  exclamation,"  I  answered;  "never- 
theless— " 

But  before  I  could  enter  upon  any  theistic  discus- 
sion a  gust  of  wind,  from  a  storm  whose  rising  we  had 
not  noticed,  broke  through  the  court  and  scattered  the 
litany  leaves.  They  were  tossed  among  the  monkeys 
who  found  great  fun  in  chasing  them.  The  happy 
possessors  of  the  inscribed  leaves  perched  themselves 
at  various  points,  when,  surrounded  by  eager  groups 
they  played  with  their  treasures.  But  the  leaves  were 
very  ancient  and  dry,  and  in  a  few  moments  thev  were 
all  reduced  to  fine  dust.  Just  then  a  great  crash  of 
thunder  came,  and  my  old  Chimpanzee  looked  up  with 
a  twinkling  eye. 

"O  Angry  Ape,"  he  cried,  "you  have  overdone  it 
this  time  with  your  fantastic  tricks,  and  puffed  out  of 
the  world  your  last  litany." 

"  I  am  not  so  sure  of  that,"  I  remarked. 


DEMOCRATIC  THEORY  AND   PRACTICE. 

BY  W.  L.  GARRISON,  JR. 

In  considering  the  right  and  the  necessity  of  admitting 
women  to  the  franchise — opening  the  door  of  opportu- 
nity to  the  hitherto  suppressed  majority — the  still 
larger  question  of  universal  suffrage  presents  itself.  It 
may  safely  be  affirmed  that  many  advocates  of  woman 
suffrage  are  unprepared  to  accept  the  logical  conse- 
quences of  their  principles.  The  line  must  be  drawn 
somewhere,  but  each  disfranchised  class  would  diaw  it 
so  as  to  include  itself,  whatever  becomes  of  those  left 
shivering  outside  of  the  body  politic.  When  it  was 
proposed  to  admit  the  freedmen  to  citizenship,  there 
were  women  of  prominence  who  would  have  presented 
the  precedence  of  the  negro.  The  plea  was  plausible 
that  the  educated  women  were  much  better  fitted  to 
vote  intelligently  than  the  imbruted  product  of  slavery, 
and  only  political  necessity  forced  the  ballot  into  black 
hands,  as  the  same  necessity  had  already  compelled  Mr. 
Lincoln  to  proclaim  emancipation. 

A  recent  writer  in  the  North  American  Review  has 
called  attention  to  the  varied  and  unequal  laws  that 
determine  the  right  of  suffrage  in  the  different  States 
and  Territories.      No    uniformity    prevails.      Whatever 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


317 


may  be  our  Fourth-of-July  opinions  regarding  demo- 
cratic institutions,  the  fact  remains  that  the  democratic 
theory  of  the  founders  of  the  republic  is  as  little 
regarded  in  practice  as  was  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence in  the  days  of  slavery.  Therefore  the  oft- 
heard,  doleful  complaints  or  predictions  of  the  failure  of 
a  republican  form  of  government,  and  the  assertion  that 
our  democratic  experiment  is  on  trial,  may  be  truthfully 
met  by  the  affirmation  that  the  world  has  never  had  a 
republican  form  of  government,  and  the  only  thing  on 
trial  is  the  usurpation  which  calls  itself  a  democracy. 

Why  be  deceived  by  names?  Until  the  right  of 
the  most  ignorant,  the  poorest  and  even  the  immoral  to 
be  represented  at  the  ballot-box  equally  with  the  learned, 
the  rich  and  the  virtuous  is  acknowledged,  we  fall  short 
of  the  saving  theory  that  "government  derives  its  just 
power  from  the  consent  of  the  governed."  Otherwise 
the  unfortunate  classes  alluded  to  must  be  excepted 
from  the  definition  of  people.  When  Mr.  Lincoln 
characterized  our  government  as  "of  the  people,  by  the 
people  and  for  the  people,"  who  can  suppose  that  he 
meant  to  eliminate  the  very  ones  whose  hope  and 
encouragement  lay  in  self-government? 

In  nearly  all  governments  recognizing  the  mon- 
archical theory,  wealth  and  learning  have  known  how  to 
protect  themselves.  Unprotected,  unrepresented  and 
uncared  for,  except  in  so  far  as  they  could  be  used  to 
serve  and  profit  the  powerful  classes,  the  common  peo- 
ple have  toiled,  and  suffered  and  died.  Democracy  is 
the  final  attempt  of  human  nature  to  vindicate  its  own 
dignity  and  trustworthiness.  From  immemorial  times 
the  government  of  the  many  by  the  few  has  been  the 
rule.  Under  the  plea  of  divine  right,  or  personal  might, 
or  the  natural  order  of  society,  tyrants  have  been  in  the 
saddle,  and  the  mass  of  mankind  have  been  trodden  in 
the  dust.  Democracy  proclaims  the  inherent  and 
natural  rights  of  every  being  wearing  the  human  form. 
No  person,  however  lowly,  however  unlearned,  how- 
ever lacking  in  virtue  through  ignorance  can  rightfully 
be  excluded  in  choosing  the  rulers  of  all.  The  only 
basis  of  self-government  is  abiding  faith  in  humanity, 
and  a  recognition  that  all  human  growth  tends  heaven- 
ward as  naturally  as  plants  seek  the  light. 

These  axiomatic  truths  need  emphasizing  nowhere 
more  emphatically  than  in  this  republic,  where  with  the 
increase  of  material  comfort  and  education  comes  also 
the  assumption  of  the  rich  and  educated  that  they  alone 
should  control  the  franchise.  One  wearies  of  the  fash- 
ionable objection  to  giving  woman  her  political  rights, 
everywhere  offered  by  those  enjoying  the  prerogative, 
that  "we  have  too  wide  suffrage  already;  it  should  be 
limited  rather  than  extended."  No  voter  has  ever  yet 
been  discovered  who  unselfishly  says  "  as  suffrage  is  too 
broad,  therefore,  deprive  me  of  my  right  to  vote."  Test 
him  by  that  proposition  and  he  talks  of  the  tea-party   in 


Boston  Harbor  and  of  Bunker  Hill.  The  divine  right 
of  the  royal  family  of  Russia  to  govern  is  not  more  an 
article  of  faith  with  the  Czar,  than  is  the  conviction  of 
the  legal  voter  of  the  United  States  in  his  divine  rio-ht 
to  the  ballot. 

Is  it  not,  therefore,  the  most  effective  way  of  liber- 
ating woman  to  strike  for  the  right  of  every  human 
being  governed,  to  have  his  voice  represented  and 
recorded  at  the  polls,  with  only  the  acknowledged 
exceptions  which  bear  unfairly  on  no  one?  Of  course 
it  is  necessary  to  agree  that  an  arbitrary  limit  of  ao-e 
must  govern  the  admission  to  citizenship,  although  we 
admit  that  many  under  the  prescribed  age  may  be  more 
competent  to  vote  than  many  above  it.  The  rule  savors 
neither  of  injustice  nor  proscription. 

A  proper  rule  of  probation  for  foreigners  before 
voting  is  justifiable.  Otherwise  elections  might  be  car- 
ried by  importations  of  people  who  had  no  purpose  to 
remain;  but  foreigners  intending  to  become  bona  fide 
citizens  need  not  be  long  excluded.  The  feeble-minded 
and  the  insane  have  no  opinion  to  be  recorded,  and  the 
criminals,  having  deliberately  violated  laws  in  whose 
making  or  retention  they  have  an  equal  voice  with  all 
others,  have  forfeited,  for  a  period  at  least,  their  rio-ht  to 
be  consulted.  Having  proclaimed  themselves  enemies 
to  society  by  their  acts,  they  cannot  justly  complain  if 
society  protects  itself  by  excluding  them  from  it. 

With  these  exceptions  can  a  true  democracy  debar 
from  citizenship  even  its  most  unpromising  members? 
At  present  the  artificial  line  of  sex  is  drawn  in  all  the 
States,  with  partial  exceptions  of  a  limited  nature  in  a 
few.  In  Rhode  Island  property  qualifications  obtain; 
in  other  States  educational  tests  are  used,  and  race  differ- 
ences are  an  excuse  for  disfranchisement. 

The  legal  inability  arising  from  sex  is  receiving  too 
wide-spread  discussion  to  need  any  consideration  here. 
The  near  and  complete  recognition  of  woman's  equal 
citizenship  is  certain. 

The  property  qualification  has  not  made  Rhode 
Island  a  model  of  self-government,  and  its  speedy  aboli- 
tion is  a  foregone  conclusion.  Virtue  and  povertv  are 
not  incompatible,  and  wealth  is  often  the  possession  of 
the  ignorant.  An  educational  test  can  be  urged  with 
more  show  of  reason,  but  will  not  bear  examination.  It 
is  preparing  one  to  swim  while  prohibiting  him  from 
the  water.  Liberty  is  the  only  possible  preparation  for 
liberty,  and  to  borrow  Mr.  Lowell's  admirable  state- 
ment, "the  best  way  to  teach  a  man  how  to  vote  is  to 
give  him  the  chance  to  practice."  The  disfranchisement 
of  vice  is  impossible  because  a  moral  test  is  impossible, 
excepting  at  the  line  of  law  breaking.  Rags  and 
squalor  are  deceptive  tests,  as  the  distinguished  bank- 
presidents  and  mill-treasurers  resident  in  our  State  prisons 
demonstrate. 

If  the   democratic   theory  is   true   that  responsibility 


3*8 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


educates,  that  rights  and  duties  are  reciprocal,  it  is  the 
very  classes  which  fastidious  critics  of  our  form  of  gov- 
ernment would  exclude  from  the  polls  which  most  need 
to  be  brought  there.  Unless  the  assumption  is  correct 
that  the  mass  of  the  people  are  really  interested  in  good 
government,  if  only  shown  where  their  interests  lie,  we 
may  as  well  abandon  self-government  and  go  back  to 
"the  reign  of  Chaos  and  old  Night." 

The  founders  of  our  government  probably  never 
dreamed  of  the  strain  our  institutions  would  incur  from 
the  inundation  of  foreigners,  bred  under  despotism  and 
precipitated  en  masse  into  our  politics.  That  the 
system  has  borne  the  strain  so  well,  and  assimilated 
with  success  such  apparently  indigestible  material,  is 
proof  enough  of  its  vitality  and  virtue.  It  takes  but  a 
generation  to  transform  aliens  into  law-abiding  Ameri- 
can citizens.  The  process  is  not  always  savory,  but  the 
product  repays.  It  is  natural  that  abuses  should  be 
developed  and  mistakes  made,  but  as  the  people  cannot 
escape  payment  for  them,  they  learn  self-government 
most  through  suffering  and  discipline. 

It  cannot  be  demonstrated  that  one  class  was  ever 
able  to  understand  and  represent  the  needs  of  another. 
No  matter  what  sophistry  is  offered  in  its  justification  it 
is  a  power  that  cannot  lie  delegated.  Every  disfran- 
chised class  in  a  republic  is  an  oppressed  class,  be  it 
women,  Indians  or  Chinese.  From  national  contempt 
and  hatred  the  negro  has,  by  virtue  of  the  ballot,  gained 
the  deference  of  all  political  parties.  Our  theory  of 
government  allows  no  place  for  disfranchised  subjects. 
Their  existence  irritates  and  festers  to  the  discomfort  of 
the  whole  body.  The  Indian,  protected  by  law  through 
the  constitutional  method  of  the  ballot,  and  subject  to  its 
enactments,  loses  his  dangerous  nature  and  becomes 
harmless  as  a  citizen.  The  poultice  of  suffrage  allays 
the  sore  of  barbarism,  and  justice  is  a  better  safeguard 
than  armies.  Our  Chinese  population  awaits  the  same 
remedy,  and  American  politicians  will  yet  study  the 
language  of  compliment  for  the  countrymen  of  Confu- 
cius when  they  cast  American  votes. 

Democracy  suffers  the  penalty  of  its  own  disobe- 
dience. It  cannot  have  peace  or  safety  while  it  refuses 
to  live  up  to  its  creed.  Deprived  of  the  national 
method  of  expressing  dissatisfaction,  the  disfranchised 
find  more  dangerous  vents  for  their  discontent.  Suf- 
frage is  a  safety-valve.  Dumb  abuses  grow  in  silence, 
and  attain  threatening  proportions  before  society  is 
aware  of  their  existence.  Gifted  with  speech  they  call 
attention  to  themselves  for  their  own  destruction.  Sup- 
pression in  Russia  produces  dynamite  and  assassination. 
Expression  in  America  secures  a  guarantee  of  safety 
Siberia  cannot  give.  When  New  York  sends  a  pugilist 
and  gambler  to  represent  her  in  Congress,  like  pain  to 
the  body,  it  is  the  signal  that  something  is  wrong,  and 
the  doctors   are  called  in.     There   should    exist  no  dark 


spot  in  a  republic  unrepresented.  Stifle  the  political 
voice  of  Five  Points,  and  Fifth  Avenue  forgets  its  dan- 
gerous neighbor.  Allow  it  utterance,  and  wealth  unites 
with  philanthropy  to  extinguish  vicious  conditions. 

The  faithless  may  deplore  the  broadening  of  suffrage, 
but  it  is  futile  to  oppose  it.  To  quote  again  from 
Lowell's  address  on  Democracy  :  "  For  the  question  is 
no  longer  the  academic  one,  is  it  wise  to  give  every 
man  the  ballot,  but  the  practical  one,  is  it  prudent  to 
deprive  whole  classes  of  it  any  longer?  It  mav  be 
conjectured  that  it  is  cheaper  in  the  long  run  to  lift 
men  up  than  to  hold  them  down,  and  that  the  ballot  in 
their  hands  is  less  dangerous  to  society  than  a  sense  of 
wrong  in  their  heads." 

The  right  to  vote  once  grasped  has  never  been  vol- 
untarily relinquished,  and  in  spite  of  pessimism,  with 
every  extension  of  the  franchise,  society  has  rested 
more  safely  on  its  broadened  base.  So,  however 
threatening  appear  the  portents,  and  however  the 
tempests  roar,  the  ship  of  democracv,  now  too  far  upon 
its  course  to  put  back,  must 

"  Right  onward  drive  unharmed. 
The  port,  well  worth  the  cruise,  is  near 
And  every  wave  is  charmed." 


GOETHE  AND   SCHILLER'S  XENIONS. 

BY    DR.   PAUL    CARl'S. 

It  is  well  known  what  good  friends  Goethe  and 
Schiller  were.  After  the  two  great  jjoets  had  become 
personally  acquainted  they  inspired,  criticised  and  cor- 
rected each  other,  their  common  ideal  being  the  firm 
basis  of  their  mutual  friendship.  The  chief  monument 
of  their  alliance  are  the  Xenions,  a  collection  of  satirical 
epigrams  which  were  published  for  the  first  time  in  the 
Musen-Almanach  of  1797. 

Goethe  and  Schiller  had  many  enemies.  On  the  one 
side  the  orthodox  and  narrow-minded  pietists  considered 
their  poetry  as  irreligious  and  un-Christian;  they  accused 
them  of  paganism,  while  on  the  other  side  the  shallow 
rationalist  Nicolai,  a  man  of  some  common  sense  but 
without  any  genius,  railed  at  them  as  well  as  at  Kant, 
Fichte  and  other  great  minds  of  his  time  who  went 
beyond  his  depth  so  as  to  be  incomprehensible  to  him. 

Nicolai  was  a  rich  and  influential  publisher  in  Ber- 
lin; he  was  an  author  himself,  and  a  very  prolific  one 
too,  but  all  his  writings  are  barren  and  shallow.  On 
several  occasions  he  had  severely  criticised  Goethe,  and 
our  great  poet-twins  accused  him  that  in  fighting  super- 
stition he  attacked  poetry,  and  when  he  wanted  to  sup- 
press the  belief  in  spirits  he  tried  to  abolish  spirit  also. 
So  Goethe  makes  him  say  in  the   Walpitrgisnacht : 

"  Ich  sag's  Euch  Geistern  in's  Gesicht, 
Den  GV/s/e.s-Despotismus  leid  ich  nicht; 
Mein  Geist  kann  ihn  nicht  exerciren." 
[I  tell  you,  spirits,  to  your  face, 
I  give  to  spirit-despotism  no  place; 
My  spirit  cannot  practice  it  at  all.] 

— Bayard  Taylor's  Translation. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3X9 


In  the  years  1795  and  1796  Schiller  was  irritated 
because  his  periodical,  Die  Horen,  had  proved  a  failure, 
and  Goethe  was  dissatisfied  because  his  latest  publica- 
tions had  been  coolly  received  in  different  quarters. 
Therefore  they  decided  to  wage  a  destructive  war  against 
their  common  enemies,  and  to  come  down  upon  them  in 
a  literal'}-  thunderstorm.  The  poets  planned  in  company 
a  " poetical  devilry ,"  as  they  called  it,  and  named  their 
satirical  poetry  Xenions.  Xenion  means  originally  a 
present  which  the  host  gives  to  a  stranger  who  enjoys 
his  hospitality.  The  Roman  poet  Martial  called  his 
book  of  satirical  epigrams  Xenia ;  and,  as  Goethe  and 
Schiller  intended  to  deal  such  epigrammatical  thrusts  to 
Nicolai  and  other  offenders,  they  accepted  Martial's 
expression  and  called  their  verses  Xenions.  The  first 
Xenions  were  mostly  of  a  personal  character,  but  by  and 
by  they  became  more  general  and  lost  their  aggressive- 
ness. There  are  among  them  many  which  are  lofty  and 
full  of  deep  thought.  The  form  of  the  verses  is  like 
their  Roman  prototype,  the  distich,  i.  e.,  two  lines  con- 
sisting of  a  dactylic  hexameter  and  a  pentameter. 

The  distich  has  scarcely,  if  ever,  been  used  in  English 
poetry,  although  there  is  much  classical  beauty  in  its 
form.  The  hexameter  is  known  to  Americans  from 
Longfellow's  "  Evangeline."  The  pentameter  consists 
of  twice  two  and  a  half,  i.  e.,  five,  dactylic  meters 
r_u  u-u  u-]  which  are  separated  by  an  incision.  Instead 
of  two  short  syllables  there  may  be  always  one  long 
syllable,  with  the  exception  of  the  fifth  meter  of  the 
hexameter  and  the  latter  half  of  the  pentameter.  The 
schedule  of   a  distich,  accordingly,  is  like  this: 

-u~u— uU-u  u-u  u— u  u-u 
-lTu-uu-    I   -u  u-u  u- 

Goethe  and  Schiller's  distichs  are  not  always  very 
elegant,  and  sometimes  lack  in  smoothness  and  correct- 
ness. This  excited  the  anger  of  Voss,  the  famous  trans- 
lator of  Homer  in  the  original  meter  of  dactylic  hex- 
ameters. Voss  ridiculed  Goethe  and  Schiller  for  their 
bad  classical  versification  in  a  distich,  which  he  intention- 
ally made  even  worse  than  the  worst  of  theirs,  using  the 
words  with  a  wrong  accentuation: 

"In 'Weimar   and'  in   Je  ' -na,    they  make'  hexame  ' -ters    like 
this  '  one, 
But'  the  Pen  '  -tameters'      Are'  even  queer '  -er  than  this'  ." 

In  spite  of  some  awkwardness  and  lack  of  elegance 
in  diction,  the  Xenions  contain  gems  which  overflow 
with  sentiment  and  thought.  I  select  a  few  of  them 
which  seem  to  me  worth  translating. 

Schiller  says  about  the  dactylic  distich  and  its  har- 
monious structure: 

"  In  the  hexameter  rises  the  iet  of  a  wonderful  fountain, 

Which  then  graciously  back         In  the  pentameter  falls." 

Nicolai  had  attacked  Kant's  Transcendental  Philos- 
ophy, according  to  which  the  form  of  thought  as  well 
as  of  things   plays  an  important  part  in  the    explanation 


of  phenomena.  And  Schiller,  as  we  know  from  his 
aesthetical  essays,  considered  form  to  be  the  spirituality 
of  the  world.  The  material  of  a  piece  of  art  does  not 
constitute  its  value;  its  form  is  all-important.  Nicolai 
cannot  appreciate  form : 

"  War  he  wages  against  all  forms;  he  during  his  lifetime 

Only  with  troubles  and  pain       Gathered  materials  in  heaps." 

In  a  scientific  essay  the  subject  matter  is  important  in 
itself;  the  style  in  which  it  is  written  may  be  weak  ;  per- 
haps it  does  not  detract  much  from  the  value  of  such  a 
work.  But  in  art  the  form  is  essential.  The  idea  of  a 
poem  and  its  diction,  a  thought  and  its  expression  must 
form  a  harmonious  unity.  The  material  and  its  shape 
have  grown  to  be  one  thing.  The  matter  of  which  a 
piece  of  art  consists  is  forgotten  for  the  sake  of  its  form. 
Schiller  says,  somewhere  in  his  letters  on  aesthetics: 
"  The  annihilation  of  matter  bv  form  is  the  trite  secret 
of  art.^     This  explains  his  distich: 

"Truth  will  be  strong  although  an  inferior  hand  should  defend  it, 
But  in  the  empire  of  art       Form  and  its  contents  are  one." 

Neither  Goethe  nor  Schiller  took  to  the  idea  of 
supernaturalism.  If  the  human  mind  ventures  beyond 
nature,  it  may  construct  metaphysical  systems,  but 
they  stand  in  empty  space.  Genius  may  increase  nature 
by  giving  shape  and  form  to  it;  he  impresses  the  seal  of 
his  individuality  upon  it,  but  that  is  nature  also. 

"  Reason  may  build  above  nature,  but  finds  there  emptiness  only. 
Genius  can  nature  increase;       But  it  is  nature  he  adds." 

Another  double  distich  on  form  is  the  following: 

"  Good  of  the  good,  I  declare,  each  sensible  man  can  evolve  it; 
But  the  true  genius,  indeed,       Good  of  the  bad  can  produce. 
Forms  reproduced  are  mere  imitation.     The  genius  createth; 
What  is  to  others  well  formed,       Is  but  material  to  him." 

The  rule  of  beauty  is  oneness,  or  "  unity  in  variety  ": 

"  Beautv   is   always   but  one,  though    the  beautiful  changes  and 

varies 

And  'tis  the  change  of  the  one,       Which  thus  the  beautiful 

forms." 

Nicolai  describes  in  the  memoirs  of  his  journeys  how 

he  searched  for  the  fountain-head  of  the  Danube  in  the 

Black  Forest.     With  regard  to  this  a  Xenion  declares: 

"  Nothing  he  likes  that  is  great;  therefore,  oh!  glorious   Danube, 
Nickel  traces  thy  course       Till  thou  art  shallow  and  flat." 

Excellent  is  the  comparison  of  such  a  dunce  as 
Nicolai,  or  perhaps  of  another  conceited  person,  to  Soc- 
rates! The  oracle  at  Delphi  pronounced  Socrates  to  be 
wise  because  the  philosopher  had  declared  himself  to  be 
ignorant.  The  distich  says: 
"  Pvthia  dubbed  him  a  sage  for  proudly  of  ignorance  bragging. 

Friend,  how  much  wiser  art  thou?       What    he    pretended, 
thou  art." 

The  poets  did  not  even  spare  their  friends;  accord- 
ing to  the  ethics  of  pure  reason,  that  virtue  is  highest 
which  is  performed  against  our  own  inclination.  Schil- 
ler, though  an  admirer  of  Kant,  ridicules  the  rigidity  of 
his  ethics  in  one  of  his  Xenions.     The  poet  says: 


320 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


"  Willingly  serve  I  my  friends;  but  'tis  pity,  I  do  it  with  pleasure. 
And  I  am  really  vexed,       That  there's  no  virtue  in  me!  " 

And  he  answers  in  a  second  distich : 
"  There  is  no  other  advice  than  that  you  try  to  despise  friends, 

And,    with    disgust,    you    will    do       What    such    a    duty 
demands." 

David  Hume's  skepticism  was  in  Schiller's  time  super- 
ceded bv  Kant's  idealism.  Hume,  being  in  hades,  hears 
Kantian  philosophers  talk.  Their  ideas  are  all  confusion, 
he  thinks,  and  only  his  own  theory  is  consistent.  So 
David  Hume  says  to  a  neophyte: 

"  Do  not  speak  to  those  folks,  for  Kant  has  confused  all  together. 
Me  you  must  ask;    for  I  am,       Even  in  hades,  myself." 

A  crowd  of  many  people  generally  behave  very 
foolishlv,  although  the  single  individuals  who  constitute 
the  crowd  may  be  quite  sensible.  This  fact  has  been 
often  observed,  and  one  of  the  Xenions  says: 

"  Every  one  of  them,  singly  considered,  is  sensible,  doubtless, 
But,  in  a  body,  the  whole       Number  of  them  is  an  ass." 

Famous  is  the  following  distich: 

"  Science  to  one  is  the  Goddess,  majestic  and  lofty, — to  th'  other 
She  is  a  cow  who  supplies  Butter  and  milk  for  his  home." 

Often     quoted     for    their    ethical     value     are    these 

Xenions  : 

"  Art  thou  afraid  of  death?  thou  wishest  for  being  immortal! 

Live   as    a   part   of  the  whole,       When  thou  art  gone,   it 
remains."  * 

"  Out  of  life  there  are  two  roads  for  every  one  open: 

To  the  Ideal  the  one,    th'  other  is  leading  to  Death. 
Try  to  escape  in  freedom  as  long  as  you  live,  on  the  former, 

Ere   on   the   latter  you   are       Doomed  to  destruction  and 
death." 

"_Truth  which  injures,  is  dearer  to  me  than  available  errors. 
Truth  will  cure  all  pain,       Which  is  inflicted  by  truth." 

"No    one    resemble    the    other,  but    each    one    resemble  F the 
Highest! 
How  is  that  possible?    Say!        Perfect  must  ev'ry  one  be." 

Grandeur  is  not  a  matter  of  vastness,  but  of  lofti- 
ness; not  material  but  spiritual  greatness  makes  sublime: 

"  Our  astronomers  say,  their  science  is  truly  sublimest; 
But  sublimity,  sirs,       Never  existeth  in  space." 

The  poet  addresses  his  Muse: 
How   I   could   live  without  thee,  I  know  not.     But  horror  o'er- 
takes  me 
Seeing  these  thousands  and  more       Who  without  thee  can 
exist." 

We  conclude  with  two  distichs  on  religion.  Goethe 
as  well  as  Schiller  were  of  true  religious  instinct,  but 
both  were  averse  to  any  sectarianism  or  dogmatical 
belief: 


"  Which  religion  I  have?     There  is  none  of  all  you  may  mention 
Which  I  embrace;  and  the  cause?        Truly,  religion  it  is!" 

This  religion  is,  as  the  poets  express  it  in  the  above- 
quoted  distich,  to  live  as  a  part  of  the  whole,  as  a  part 
of  humanity.  The  answer  given  in  the  last  Xcm'on,  we 
may  well  imagine,  did  not  satisfy  the  narrow-minded 
orthodox.  They  cannot  bring  forward  reasons,  but  they 
say:  "Belief  is  a  matter  of  conscience;  if  you  do  not 
believe,  it  is  because  you  do  not  want  to."  Of  such 
people  the  Xcnion  says: 

"Well,  I  expected  it  so,  for,  if  they  have  nothing  to  answer, 

Then  they  immediately  make       Matter  of  conscience  of  it." 


*  Mr.  E.  C.  Hegeler  requests  me  to  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the 
importance  of  this  distich.     It  contains  in  nuce  "  the  fundamental  idea  of  Mon- 
1  he  original  German  is: 
Vor  dem  Tode  erschrickst  Du!     Du  wtinschest  unsterblich  zu  leben? 

LebimGanzen'     Wcnn  Du         I.ange  dahin  bist,  es  bleibt. 
This  "  living  immortal  "  by  living  in  the  whole  as  a  part  of  the  whole  is  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  Mr.   TIegeler  spoke  of  in   his   essay   "The   Basis  of 
Ethics/1  and  this  idea  is  the  salient  point  of  the  Monistic  doctrine  which  the 
founder  of  The  Open  Covkt  has  made  its  standing  programme. 


"CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE." 

BY  S.  V.  CLEVENGER,  M.  D. 

The  brain  being  one  of  a  number  of  associated  or- 
gans, it  is  not  remarkable  that  general  health  or  sickness 
should  affect  the  mind,  nor  that  mental  states  should  in- 
fluence bodily  conditions.  Hippocrates  knew  that  heart 
disease  caused  anxiety  which  was  expressed  in  the  face, 
and  everyone  knows  that  the  liver  difficulty  called  jaun- 
dice is  attended  with  the  "jaundiced  disposition,"  and 
that  the  spes  filtthisica,  a  peculiar  hopefulness,  belongs 
to  lung  consumption. 

Hope,  fear,  joy  or  grief  influence  the  nutrition  of  the 
body ;  a  fright  may  stop  the  digestion  of  a  meal  or  cause 
death  by  arrest  of  the  heart's  action;  joy  has  been  known 
to  kill,  and  excitement  to  impart  great  temporary 
strength.  A  very  superficial  examination  of  certain 
anatomical  facts  will  aid  the  reader  to  understand  this 
inter-dependence  of  mind  and  body,  and  intimate  the 
direction  in  which  the  physiological  psychologist  works. 
It  is  no  longer  blasphemy  to  call  the  heart  a  pump, 
though  that  is  precisely  the  charge  Plempius  from  his 
pulpit  made  against  Harvey  for  the  assertion,  nor  is  it 
flying  in  the  face  of  Providence  to  speak  of  the  arteries, 
capillaries  and  veins  as  tubes  through  which  the  blood 
is  pumped  by  the  heart;  but  when  this  half  knowledge 
is  built  upon  by  the  aid  of  the  microscope,  and  the  ob- 
server announces  that  the  entire  animal  economy  is  a 
mechanism  controlled  by  definite  physical  and  chemical 
laws,  and  apparently  nothing  else,  the  olden  denuncia- 
tions are  renewed. 

Ever}-  portion  of  the  body  must  have  its  food,  and 
the  blood  current  is  merely  elaborated,  diluted,  though 
concentrated,  food,  and  the  nerves  and  brain  require 
more  of  this  sustenance  than  other  parts.  Consciousness 
is  lost  the  instant  the  brain  is  not  supplied  with  blood, 
whether  from  heart  failure  or  other  cause.  Surrounding 
the  arteries  are  muscular  bands  that  by  contraction  and 
expansion  supplement  the  heart's  action  in  propelling 
the  blood  onward.  If  there  happen  to  be  irregularity 
in  the  constriction  or  dilatation  of  these  tubes,  through 
the  tightening  or  relaxation  of  the  enveloping  muscles, 
then  circulatory  aberrations  occur,  such  as  congestions, 
blushing,  flushing,  paleness,  rapidity  or  slowness  of  pulse, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


321 


etc.,  producing  convulsions,  apoplexy,  paralysis,  neural- 
gias, faintings;  and  where  these  disturbances  are  limited 
to  areas  instead  of  being  general,  certain  local  effects  fol- 
low, such  as  tumors  and  u'cers. 

Toward  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain  and  spinal 
marrow  proceed  a  multitude  of  sensory  nerves,  carrying 
inward  impressions  of  touch,  taste,  heat,  cold,  smell, 
si^ht;  telegraph  lines  that  relate  the  individual  to  the 
outer  world.  From  this  same  gray  matter  proceed  mo- 
tor nerves  to  all  the  muscles  that  move  the  arms,  legs, 
trunk,  head,  or  that  surround  the  intestines,  blood-vessels, 
the  lung  tubules  and  the  glands.  An  impression  that  is 
unpleasant  may  pass  over  some  of  the  sensory  nerves 
and  cause  the  motor  nerves  to  provoke  contractions  of 
its  muscles,  which  will  be  evidenced  by  a  start,  or  spring 
backward,  a  flushed  or  pallid  face,  an  outpour  of  per- 
spiration from  the  sweat  glands,  that  are,  for  the  time 
being,  paralyzed.  In  countless  instances  the  control  of 
the  body  by  the  nervous  system,  and  in  as  many  more, 
the  dependence  of  the  nervous  system  upon  the  healthy 
working  of  other  organs,  could  be  shown;  but  all  these 
facts  are  obtainable  by  experience  and  a  study  of  ele- 
mentary physiology. 

One  of  the  most  protean  ailments  is  known  as  hys- 
teria. The  sufferer  is  usually  a  female  and  in  most 
instances  has  inherited  an  unstable  nervous  system,  which, 
through  idleness,  social  dissipation  and  the  yielding  of 
relatives  to  every  caprice,  becomes  confirmed.  The  er- 
ratic working  of  her  circulation  may,  for  awhile,  shut 
off  blood  supply  from  the  back  part  of  the  brain  and 
afford  hysterical  blindness,  partial  or  complete;  if  the 
speech  center  in  front  of  the  left  ear  be  denuded,  by 
spasm,  of  blood,  then  there  is  "aphonia"  or  hysterical 
speechlessness,  or  feebleness  of  voice;  erratic  blood  sup- 
ply also  causes  the  "clavus"  or  hysterical  headache; 
similar  vascillating  nutrition  to  other  parts  may  set  up 
the  breathlessness,  even  the  mucous  rattling  in  the  lungs, 
that  simulates  pneumonia,  the  rapid  heart  action,  the 
writhings,  contortions  of  hysterical  convulsions  or  par- 
alytic conditions  and  limb  contractions. 

Hysterical  paralytics  have  been  known  to  be  bed- 
ridden for  years  and  upon  an  alarm  of  fire  spring  nimbly 
from  the  house,  or  after  months  of  successfully  main- 
tained cramped  position  of  a  leg  suddenly  straighten  it 
under  excitement,  or  when  chloroformed.  Minor  cases 
usually  complain  of  many  indefinite  things,  but  major  or 
minor  sufferers  invariably  react  favorably  to  mental  im- 
pressions if  suitably  afforded.  For  instance,  an  honest 
old  physician  frankly  told  the  father  of  an  hysterical  girl 
that  nothing  but  quackery  would  cure  her.  Resort  was 
had  to  an  "  Indian  doctor,"  who,  with  the  impressiveness 
of  his  mysterious  mumblings,  long  hair  and  emphatic 
assurances  of  omnipotence,  actually  induced  her  to  arise 
from  bed,  restored  to  health.  Years  afterward  some 
ruse  the  doctor  used  was  injudiciously  explained   to   her 


and  she  at  once  returned  to  her  bed  and  became  de- 
mented. Discipline  and  education  are  far  better  meth- 
ods than  such  deceit. 

Many  a  scientific  physician  has  suffered  in  his  own 
esteem  upon  being  credited  with  some  such  success,  acci- 
dentally gained,  and  many  a  charlatan  has  exulted  in  the 
discovery  of  some  such  power  over  cases  and  marched 
to  further  conquests  as  a  magnetic,  magneto-electric, 
mesmeric,  hypnotic,  spiritualistic,  faith-healer,  or  under 
some  such  designation. 

Dishonesty  and  ignorance  are  not  confined  to  any  so- 
called  school  of  medicine,  and  regularly  educated  physi- 
cians may  be  found  who  justify  their  resort  to  question- 
able means  of  securing  fees. 

It  is  not  alone  the  hysterical  who  are  susceptible  to 
mental  influence  over  diseases.  Many  a  good  old  prac- 
titioner has  been  told  "  The  very  sight  of  you  makes  me 
better,"  by  persons  who  could  not  be  classed  even  as 
nervous.  It  is  the  unconscious  operation  of  mentality 
that  occurs  every  minute  of  our  lives  and  is  most  notice- 
able when  the  pull  at  a  dentist's  door  bell  stops  a 
toothache. 

Members  of  the  Chicago  Medical  Society  can  tecall 
the  time  when  an  honest  ignoramus  detailed  his  wonder- 
ful power  in  several  cases  and  asked  for  an  explanation 
of  its  source.  A  better  informed  physician  present  sug- 
gested that  a  good-looking  doctor  was  the  secret  of  the 
recoveries  in  the  cases  described,  and  advised  him  to  look 
up  the  literature  of  hysteria. 

The  history  of  medicine  is  full  of  successive  epidemics 
of  quackery,  and  undoubtedly  during  them  many  cases 
have  been  permanently  benefited  through  emotional 
exercise,  while  more  have  been  temporarily  helped. 
The  old  superstition  of  the  kings'  ability  to  cure  scrofula 
by  his  touch  died  out  with  the  advance  of  knowledge,  it 
becoming  known  that  most  of  the  applicants  for  this 
species  of  divine  healing  did  not  have  the  king's  evil  at 
all,  and  that  the  coin  given  to  each  case  attracted  ma- 
lingerers. Perkins  by  means  of  his  "tractors,"  cylinders 
of  metal  held  in  the  hands,  "cured  "  multitudes  through- 
out Europe.  The  Grotto  of  Lourdes,  and  a  dance  upon 
the  tomb  of  Abelard  and  Heloise,  has  enabled  many  a 
cripple  to  throw  away  his  crutches,  but  some  way  or 
other  such  rages  die  out  and  people  need  some  new  im- 
position. 

One  of  the  most  prolific  sources  of  revenue  to  every 
species  of  charlatanry,  including  faith-cure,  is  mistaken 
diagnosis.  The  cancer  doctor  removes  false  cancers 
and  whenever  ignorance  pronounces  upon  the  nature  of 
its  own  disease,  knavery  is  ready  to  relieve  it  of  its 
troubles  and  its  cash.  In  this  recent  puerility  called 
"Christian  Science"  we  may  grant  that  not  all  its  votaries 
are  either  knaves  or  fools,  for  undoubtedly  people  who 
are  fairly  well  informed  on  most  topics,  and  who  are  sin- 
cere in  their  belief,  practice  it,  or  are  practiced   upon  by 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


it,  often  with  success  for  the  reasons  mentioned,  but  such 
people  are  guiltless  of  physiological  or  pathological 
knowledge,  know  nothing  of  the  fundamentals  of  scien- 
tific medicine  and  can  be  thus  uninformed  without  de- 
serving to  be  called  rascals  or  generally  ignorant. 

There  seems  to  be  bitter  internecine  war  among  these 
Christian  healers,  for  Mr.  Teed,  who  claims  to  be  the 
Messiah,  does  not  disdain  to  touch  the  patient,  while 
other  "  metaphysicians"  do  not  find  the  contact  neces- 
sary. Some  contributor  to  Mr.  Teed's  journal  perti- 
nently asks  how  it  is  possible  for  faith  healers  to  acquire 
all  this  wonderful  power  in  twelve  lessons  regardless  of 
their  being  atheists,  illiterate,  impure  or  the  reverse. 

"  Christian  Science"  can  effect  cures  in  many  hyster- 
ical cases, particularly  headaches  and  some  minor  troubles 
that  are  not  hysterical,  but  that  can  be  reached  through 
a  mental  impression ;  but  of  course  belief  is  a  sine  qua 
non.  That  or  any  other  species  of  medical  nonsense  can 
"cure"  self  limited  diseases  which  will  recover  if  left  to 
themselves.  The  post  hoc  ergo  propter  hoc  delusion  is 
constantly  held  up  to  the  student  of  medicine  to  warn 
him  that  he  must  not  think  a  recovery  to  be  a  cure  in 
every  case,  but  the  "metaphysician"  is  bothered  by  no 
such  misgiving.  Mumps  will  recover  in  a  week;  even 
typhoid  fever  and  rheumatism  in  six  weeks  if  not  treated 
at  all,  possibly  scarlatina  or  small-pox,  but  it  is  better  to 
aid  recovery  by  the  exercise  of  a  little  medical  common 
sense. 

It  would  be  safe  to  offer  a  reward  of  a  million  dol- 
lars for  any  "metaphysical"  cure  of  a  genuine  cancer, 
a  real  migraine,  an  actual  lung  consumption  or  even  a 
positive  corn,  not  to  mention  the  amputation  of  a  leg  or 
the  reduction  of  a  dislocation. 

Occasionally  we  hear  of  actual  failures  of  Christian 
Science  and  owing  to  the  very  materialistic  views  of  the 
educated  physician  he  is  not  surprised  at  such  failures 
any  more  than  at  the  inability  of  that  "science"  to  faith- 
cure  a  leak}'  water  pipe,  without  a  plumber,  or  to  faith- 
cure  into  solidity  one  of  Budensick's  wrecked  houses, 
for  when  Bright's  disease  means  that  the  kidneys  are 
disintegrating,  and  dropsy  follows  from  this  or  a  badly 
disorganized  heart,  which  does  not  pump  blood  to  the 
kidneys,  and  when  gangrene  or  decay  of  the  body, 
usually  the  legs,  follows  from  the  little  tubules  or  capil- 
laries being  plugged  up  or  not  conveying  the  needed 
nutrition  to  parts,  the  aforesaid  physician  cannot  possibly 
conceive  of  faith,  or  mummery  of  any  kind,  restoring 
these  tissues  any  more  than  it  can  build  a  house  or  pump 
out  a  sinking  ship. 

The  following  was  clipped  from  the  Chicago  Evening  Mail,  and  is  very 
much  to  the  point,  while  it  accounts  for  the  special  mentions  of  dropsy  and 
gangrene  made  above: 

Kansas  City,  Mo.,  June  10.— The  death  of  Mis.  Hannah  Updike,  from 
dropsy  and  gangrene,  while  in  the  hands  and  under  the  care  of  believers  in  the 
Christian  science,  rr  taith  cure,  is  exciting  no  end  of  comment  in  this  city. 
Mr-.  Updike  was  the  wife  <>f  a  well  known  stockman  of  Toneka,  and  was 
brought  here  and  placed  under  the  care  of  the  faith  healers  eight  days  ago,  at 
her  own  request.  She  was  suffering  from  dropsv  and  gangrene.  The  doctors 
had  pronounced  her  case  incurable.     Before  death  gangrene  had  spread  over  an 


entire  limb.  From  the  time  she  was  given  up  to  the  care  of  the  faith  healers 
all  medicines,  even  opiates,  were  stopped.  She  was  constantly  surrounded  by  a 
half-dozen  or  more  believers,  who  in  the  midst  of  her  terrible  agonies  urged  her 
to  believe  and  she  would  certainly  be  cured.  At  midnight,  Mrs.  Kunice  Behan, 
one  of  the  party,  stood  over  her  and  declared  that  "disease  must  succumb  to 
the  fiat  of  the  mind."  At  12:45  Mrs.  Updike  was  dead,  and  Mrs.  Houston,  the 
nurse  of  the  healers,  brushed  back  the  hair  from  her  cold  forehead,  and  said, 
sadly,  "She  surrendered  hope  to  fear." 

A  few  hours  before  her  death  her  agony  was  so  great  that  her  husband, 
against  the  protests  of  the  others  present,  gave  her  an  opiate.  "We  told  him 
not  to  do  it,"  said  one  of  the  attendants.  '  It  was  recognizing  the  power  of 
fear  over  the  mind.  It  also  dulled  the  mind,  and  prevented  it  from  rebelling 
with  all  its  power  against  the  results  o(  latent  fear,  which  we  hold  is  made 
manifest  on  the  body  in  different  forms  of  disease." 

"Did  you  know  she  was  dying?  '  a  reporter  asked. 

"The  mind  can  rise  above  all  emergencies,"  was  the  only  response. 

As  an  excuse  for  not  summoning  a  physician  to  at  lease  relieve  the  intense 
pain  of  her  dying  hours  one  of  the  healers  said:  "  Mrs.  Updike  became  a  true 
believer  in  the  cure  of  Christian  science.  We  are  censured  for  not  calling  ir  a 
physician,  but  had  we  done  so  it  would  have  been  a  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  some  material  injury  existed.  This  would  have  spoiled  the  Christian 
science  cure." 

In  speaking  of  the  case  Dr.  Ellston  said:  "I  consider  that  criminal  ignor- 
ance was  displayed  in  the  treatment  of  this  case.  The  law,  however,  has  no 
provision  for  punishing  ignorance." 


THE   MODERN   SKEPTIC. 

BY   JOHN    BURROUGHS. 
Pari  II. 

The  wise  skeptic  also  sees  that  faith  or  supersti- 
tion, rather  than  reason,  must  be  the  guide  of  the  mass 
of  mankind.  What  Strabo  said  nineteen  centuries  ago 
still  holds  true.  "It  is  impossible,"  said  the  old  Greek, 
"to  conduct  women  and  the  gross  multitude,  and  to 
render  them  holy,  pious  and  upright  by  the  precepts  of 
reason  and  philosophy ;  superstition  or  the  fear  of  the  gods 
must  be  called  in  aid,  the  influence  of  which  is  founded 
on  fiction  or  prodigies.  For  the  thunder  of  Jupiter, 
the  aegis  of  Minerva,  the  trident  of  Neptune,  the 
torches  and  snakes  of  the  Furies,  the  spears  of  the  gods 
adorned  with  ivy,,  and  the  whole  ancient  theology  are 
all  fables  which  the  legislators  who  formed  the  politi- 
cal constitution  of  States  employ  as  bugbears  to  overawe 
the  credulous  and  simple." 

But  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  individual,  of  a 
serene,  well-balanced,  well-ordered  life,  reason  is  the 
best.  "Prove  all  things,  hold  fast  that  which  is  good," 
is  the  voice  of  the  cool,  disinterested  reason,  directed 
to  the  individual.  And  when  one  sets  out  to  prove 
all  things,  what  guide  can  he  have  other  than  reason? 
This  is  "  the  light  that  lighteneth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world,"  this  and  conscience;  but  in 
the  region  of  speculative  opinion  and  belief,  conscience 
plays  a  very  subordinate  part.  "Few  minds  in  earn- 
est," says  Cardinal  Newman,  in  his  Apologia,  "can 
remain  at  ease  without  some  sort  of  rational  grounds 
for  their  religious  belief,  to  reconcile  theory  and  fact  is 
almost  an  instinct  of  the  mind."  It  certainly  is  in  our 
day,  more  so,  probably,  than  ever  before.  No  intelli- 
gent man  can  now  conscientiously  humble  his  reason 
before  his  faith,  as  good  Sir  Thomas  Browne  boasted 
he  could.  He  said :  "Men  that  live  according  to  the 
right  rule  and  law  of  reason,  live  but  in  their  own  kind, 
as  brutes  do  in  theirs."  He  said  we  are  to  believe,  "  not 
only  above  but  contrary  to  reason  and  against  the  argu- 
ment of  our  proper  senses."  A  good  many  other  people 
believed  so  too  about  that  time.  Poor  Ann  Arkens, 
young,  intelligent  and  beautiful,  was  stretched   upon  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


323 


rack,  then  burned  with  faggots  and  blown  with  gun- 
powder at  Smithfield,  all  because  she  could  not  believe 
against  the  "argument  of  her  proper  senses"  in  tran- 
substantiation,  that  the  bread  and  wine  the  priest  had 
mumbled  over  remained  anything  but  bread  and  wine. 

The  skepticism  of  our  day  is  mainly  the  result  of 
science,  of  the  enormous  growth  of  our  natural  knowl- 
edge. In  its  light  the  old  theology  and  cosmology  look 
artificial  and  arbitrary;  they  do  not  fit  into  the  scheme 
of  creation  as  science  discloses  it.  Our  science  is 
undoubtedly  ignorant  enough.  We  know  no  more 
about  final  causes,  after  science  has  done  its  best,  than 
we  did  before,  but  familiarity  with  the  laws  and  pro- 
cesses of  the  world  does  undoubtedly  beget  a  habit  of 
mind  unfavorable  to  the  personal  and  arbitrary  view 
of  things  which  the  old  theology  has  inculcated.  Sci- 
ence has,  at  least,  taught  us  that  the  universe  is  all  of  a 
piece  or  homogeneous;  that  man  is  a  part  of  nature; 
that  there  are  no  breaks  or  faults  in  the  scheme  of  crea- 
tion, and  can  be  none.  One  thing  follows  from  another 
or  is  evolved  from  another,  the  whole  system  of  things 
is  vital,  and  not  mechanical,  and  nothing  is  interpolated 
or  arbitrarily  thrust  in  from  without.  All  our  natural 
knowledge  is  based  upon  these  principles.  It  is  only  in 
theology  that  we  encounter  notions  that  run  counter  to 
them,  and  that  require  our  acceptance  of  doctrines  in 
which  our  powers  of  reason  and  observation  can  have 
no  part. 

The  man  of  science  has  no  trouble  in  discovering 
God  objectively — that  is,  as  the  all-embracing  force  and 
vitality  that  pervades  and  upholds  the  physical  universe 
— in  fact  he  can  discover  little  else.  Knock  at  any 
door  he  will,  he  finds  the  Eternal  there  to  answer.  But 
his  search  discloses  no  human  attributes,  nothing  he 
can  name  in  the  terms  he  applies  to  man,  nothing  that 
suggests  personality.  He  can  no  more  ascribe  person- 
ality to  infinite  power,  than  he  can  ascribe  form  to 
infinite  space.  Yet  he  knows  infinite  space  must 
exist;  it  is  a  necessity  of  the  mind,  though  it  drives 
one  crazy  to  try  to  conceive  of  it.  It  is  a  matter 
we  apprehend,  to  use  a  distinction  of  Coleridge,  but 
cannot  comprehend.  In  the  same  way  we  know  an 
infinite  power,  not  ourselves,  exists,  but  it  passes  the 
utmost  stretch  of  comprehension.  This  I  say,  is  disclos- 
ing God  objectively,  as  a  palpable,  unavoidable  fact.  To 
disclose  God  subjectively  through  the  conscience,  or  as 
an  intimate  revelation  to  the  spirit,  that  is  to  experience 
religion,  as  usually  understood.  The  person  finds  God  by 
looking  inward  instead  of  outward,  and  finds  him  as  a 
person.  Some  religious  souls  have  a  most  intense  and 
vivid  conception  of  God  subjectively,  who  cannot  find 
him  by  an  outward  search  at  all.  Cardinal  Newman  is 
such  a  man.  He  says  the  world  seems  simply  to  give 
the  lie  to  that  great  truth  of  which  his  whole  being  is  so 
full.     "  If   I    looked   into  a  mirror   and  did    not   see  my 


face,  I  should  have  the  sort  of  feeling  which  actually 
comes  upon  me  when  I  look  into  this  living,  busy  world 
and  see  no  reflection  of  its  Creator."  What  he  calls  this 
power,  of  which  all  visihle  things  are  the  fruit  and  out- 
come, does  not  appear.  Probably  nature  simply;  but  is 
nature  something  apart  from   God? 

While  this  inward  revelation  of  God  to  the  spirit  may 
be  the  most  convincing  of  all  proofs  to  the  person  ex- 
periencing it,  yet  it  can  have  little  force  with  another, 
little  force  as  an  argument,  because,  in  the  first  place,  it 
cannot  be  communicated  or  demonstrated.  All  inde- 
pendent objective  truth  is  capable  of  being  communi- 
cated and  of  being  verified ;  but  this  fact  of  which  New- 
man is  so  certain,  he  confesses  himself,  he  cannot  bring 
out  with  any  logical  force.  It  is  its  own  proof.  And 
in  the  second  place,  because  the  world  knows  how  de- 
lusive these  personal  impressions  and  inward  voices  are. 
Wen  have  heard  an  inward  voice  or  felt  an  inward 
prompting  that  has  led  them  to  commit  the  most  out- 
rageous crimes  against  humanity,  to  burn  witches  and 
heretics,  to  mortify  their  own  bodies,  or  to  throw  them- 
selves from  precipices.  Good  men  and  wise  men  have 
been  equally  sure,  upon  objective  evidence,  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  devil;  they  have  heard  his  promptings, 
his  suggestions,  and  they  have  fought  against  him.  Our 
fathers  were  just  as  sure,  upon  personal  grounds,  of  the 
existence  of  the  devil  as  Newman  is  of  the  existence  of 
God.  One  may  personify  the  whisperings,  or  the  mo- 
tives of  evil  within  himsdf,  and  give  it  a  bad  name,  and 
he   may  personify  the   nobler   and   higher  voices  within 

him  and  eive  it  a  good  name.      In  either  case  it  is  a  Sub- 
is  o 

jective  phenomenon,  which  the  man  bent  upon  exact 
knowledge  cannot  attach  much  weight  to.  Satan 
walked  and  talked  with  the  biblical  writers,  the  same  as 
did  God;  he  even  talked  face  to  face  with  God  himself. 
Not  long  since  a  respectable  mechanic  in  one  of  the 
large  cities  believed  himself  bewitched;  the  hallucina- 
tion worked  upon  him  till  he  took  to  his  bed,  and  finally 
he  actually  died,  to  all  intents  and  purposes  bewitched 
to  death. 

It  is  in  the  light  of  such  facts  and  considerations  as 
these  that  the  so-called  skeptic  refuses  to  credit  all  peo- 
ple tell  him  about  their  knowledge  of  God.  So  that  he 
is  finally  compelled  to  rest  upon  the  God  of  force  and 
law  of  outward  nature. 

It  is  also  to  be  said  that  the  decay  of  religious  be- 
lief in  our  times  is  rather  a  decay  of  creeds  and  dogmas 
than  of  the  spirit  of  true  religion — religion  as  love,  as 
an  aspiration  after  the  highest  good.  If  we  regard  it  as 
a  decay  of  Christianity  itself,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  Christianity  bears  no  such  intimate  relation  to  mod- 
ern life,  either  the  life  of  the  individual  or  to  the  life  of 
the  state,  as  polytheism  bore  to  the  life  of  the  ancient 
world.  It  is  rather  of  the  nature  of  an  aside  in  modern 
life,  while  in  Greece  and  Rome  and  in  Judea  the  natural 


324 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


religion  was  the  principal  matter.  The  whole  drama 
of  history  clustered  around  and  was  the  illustration  of 
this  central  fact.  The  state  and  the  church  were  one. 
The  national  e^ods  were  invoked  and  deferred  to  on  all 
occa-ions.  Every  festival  was  in  honor  of  some  divinity; 
the  public  games  were  presided  over  by  some  god.  In 
going  to  war,  or  in  concluding  peace,  solemn  sacrifices 
were  offered,  and  the  favor  of  the  gods  was  solicited. 

"  The  religion  of  polytheism,"  says  Gibbon,  "  was 
not  merely  a  speculative  doctrine  professed  in  the 
schools  or  preached  in  the  temples,"  on  the  contrary 
its  deities  and  its  rites  "  were  closely  interwoven  with 
every  circumstance  of  business  or  pleasure,  of  public  or 
private  life." 

In  comparison  with  many  oriental  p;ople  we  are  an 
irreligious  and  God-forsaken  nation.  No  gods  are 
recognized  by  the  state,  and  in  1796  Washington  signed 
a  treat}'  with  a  Mohammedan  country,  in  which  it  was 
declared  that  "  the  government  of  the  United  States  is 
not  in  an}'  sense  founded  on  the  Christian  religion." 

Hence,  whatever  we  owe  to  Christianity,  we  cannot 
begin  to  owe  to  it  what  the  ancient  peoples  owed  to 
their  religions.  Great  Britain  still  maintains  the  union 
of  church  and  state,  but  it  is  a  forced  and  artificial 
union;  it  is  a  union  and  not  a  oneness,  a  matter  of  law 
and  not  of  life,  as  in  ancient  times.  Yet  ours  is  an  age 
of  faith,  too,  faith  in  science,  in  the  essential  soundness 
and  goodness  of  the  world.  We  are  skeptical  about 
the  gods,  but  we  are  no  longer  skeptical  about  things, 
or  about  duty,  or  virtue,  or  manliness,  or  the  need  of 
well-ordered  lives.  The  putting  out  of  the  candles  on 
the  altar  has  not  put  out  the  sun  and  stars  too.  We 
affirm  more  than  we  deny.  We  no  longer  deny  the  old 
religions,  but  accept  them  and  see  where  they  belong. 
Man  is  fast  reaching  the  point  where  he  does  not  need 
these  kind  of  props  and  stays,  the  love  of  future  good 
or  the  fear  of  future  evil.  There  was  a  time  when  the 
pulling  down  of  the  temple  pulled  the  sky  down  with 
it,  all  motives  for  right  were  extinguished,  but  that  time 
is  past.  Righteousness  has  a  scientific  basis;  the  anger 
of  heaven  descends  upon  the  ungodly  in  the  shape  of 
penalties  for  violated  laws.  A  comet  in  the  heavens  is 
no  longer  a  fearful  portent,  but  sewer  gas  in  your  house 
is.  Cholera  is  not  a  visitation  for  ungodliness,  but  for 
uncleanliness,  which  is  a  form  of  ungodliness.  We  can- 
not pray  with  the  old  faith,  but  we  can  fight  intemper- 
ance with  more  than  the  old  zeal.  We  cannot  love 
God  as  our  fathers  did,  but  we  can  love  our  neighbor 
much  more.  The  spirit  of  charity  and  helpfulness  has 
increased  in  the  world  as  the  old  beliefs  have  declined. 
The  skeptics  and  disbelievers  could  never  slaughter  each 
other  as  the  Christians  have.  Science  substitutes  a 
rational  basis  for  right  conduct  in  place  of  the  artificial 
basis  of  the  church.  The  anger  of  the  gods  no  longer 
threatens  us;  the  displeasure  of   the  church  is  no  longer 


a  dread;  but  we  know  that  virtue  alone  brings  satisfac- 
tion. We  cannot  read  the  Bible  with  the  old  eves,  but 
we  read  nature  with  new  eyes. 

Probably  religion  has  long  ceased  to  play  any  im- 
portant part  in  the  great  movements  of  the  world.  A 
religious  war  is  no  longer  possible.  In  our  two  great  wars 
and  in  the  founding  of  this  republic,  religious  belief  was 
not  concerned  at  all.  The  skeptics  were  just  as  ardent 
and  just  as  brave  and  patriotic  as  the  believers.  The 
author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  a  skeptic. 
The  policy  of  England,  France,  Germany,  Russia,  is  it 
in  any  way  inspired  by  the  Christian  religion?  Never 
were  so  much  courage  and  hope,  and  benevolence  and 
virtue  in  the  world  as  to-day,  and  never  before  were  the 
ties  of  the  old  faiths  so  weak. 


HINDU    LEGEND. 

BY    GERTRUDE    AI.GER. 

At  Heaven's  gate  an  Indian  stood  alone, 
Whence  could  be  seen,  within,  a  golden  throne 
Awaiting  him,  'mid  glories  nigh  too  great 
For  earthly  eyes;  when  straightway  to  the  gate 
The  gods  came  down  and  bade  him  "Enter  in" 
Where  all  was  light  and  joy,  untouched  by  sin. 
The  weary  traveler  heard  the  sweet  request, 
Unmoved,  nor  entered  to  his  Heavenly  rest; 
But  only  said  "This  gate  I  cannot  pass 
Without  my  wife  and  brothers  who,  alas! — 
Have  fallen  on  the  road,  my  good  dog,  too, 
Is  left  behind,  and  not  till  it  be  true 
All  these  I  loved  in  life,  with  me  may  share 
The  Heavenly  glories,  will  I  enter  there." 
In  vain  the  gods  entreated  him,  for  he 
Was  deaf  to  all,  and  scarcely  seemed  to  see 
The  great  celestial  light  about  his  throne, 
And  all  the  wonders  meant  for  him  alone. 
'Twas  not  until  the  gods  had  given  assent 
To  all  he  wished,  that  he  would  be  content. 


Excommunication  seems  to  have  no  terrors  for  Dr. 
McGlynn.  In  a  recent  address  to  a  large  and  enthusi- 
astic audience  in  New  York,  he  said: 

But  then  they  say  they  have  excommunicated  me.  No;  no 
man  can  do  that.  There  are  only  two  beings  in  all  the  vast  uni- 
verse that  can  separate  me  from  God.  One  is  that  infinite,  wise, 
good  and  merciful  Being,  our  Heavenly  Father.  He  could  do  it; 
but  He  never  will  until  I  consent  first  to  separate  myself  from 
Him.  *  *  *  Then  there  is  only  one  other  being  in  all  the 
universe,  and  that  is  Edward  McGlynn.  He  can  separate  me 
from  Him.  *  *  *  In  such  cases  as  mine  their  excommunica- 
tions lose  their  terrors;  their  lightning,  produced  by  a  "super" 
from  behind  the  scenes;  their  thunder  a  bit  of  sheet-iron  shaken 
by  a  poor  devil  who  gets  fifty  cents  a  night.  An  unjust  excom- 
munication is  not  worth  the  paper  it  is  written  on.  It  is  with  his 
own  conscience  one  has  to  deal.  *  *  *  And  if  I  am  deprived 
of  the  sacraments  of  the  church,  I  am  theologian  enough  to  know 
that  I  can  save  mv  soul  without  them. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3^5 


The  Open  Court. 

A.    FORTNIOHTLY  JOURNAL. 


Published   every  other   Thursday  at    i6g   to    175  La  Salle  Street  (Nixor 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open-  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  i9  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  denned, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  "three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  Tiade  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  JULY  21,  1SS7. 


THE  FREE  RELIGIOUS  ASSOCIATION. 
At  the  last  annual  meeting  of  the  Free  Religious 
Association,  the  Executive  Committee  at  the  suggestion 
of  the  President,  were  authorized  and  requested  to 
"consider  the  conditions,  wants,  and  prospects  of  Free 
Religion  in  America  at  the  present  time,"  to  ascertain 
whether  the  reconstruction  of  the  Association  for  more 
extended  and  effective  efforts  toward  attaining  its  objects 
is  desirable  and  possible,  and  to  report  their  conclusions 
to  the  next  annual  meeting.  In  the  convention  the  fol- 
lowing morning  the  President  sketched  a  plan  which 
he  thought,  if  it  could  be  carried  into  effect,  adapted  to 
the  end  desired.  The  plan  was  briefly  the  division  of  the 
Association  into  "  four  working  sections,"  each  with  its 
own  organization,  but  the  whole  to  be  included  in  one  gen- 
eral organization.     He  indicated  the  sections  as  follows: 

1.  Section  of  Sociology  —  For  the  thoughtful  study  of  all 
problems  pertaining  to  the  social  elevation  of  mankind,  and  for 
inciting  and  organizing  practical  measures  to  promote  such 
progress. 

2.  Section  of  Religious  and  Ethical  Philosophy  — 
Designed  to   bring  together  scattered  thinkers  and  scholars  on 


these  subjects,  and  to  encourage  original  research  therein,  accord- 
ing to  the  scientific  method. 

3.  Section  of  Natural  Science  in  its  Relation  to 
Religion  and  Ethics  — For  intellectual  workers  occupying  a 
distinct  and  wide  domain,  yet  so  closely  allied  to  those  of  the 
second  Section  that  the  two  at  first,  perhaps,  might  best  be  classed 
together. 

4.  Section  of  the  Relation  of  Religion  to  the  State 
— For  resisting  encroachments  on  liberty  of  conscience  in  reli- 
gion, and  for  removing  barriers  to  such  liberty  which  may  still 
exist  in  statute  books,  contrary  to  the  fundamental  theory  of  civil 
government  in  this  country. 

The  Executive  Committee  desire  to  confer  with 
liberal  thinkers  within  or  without  the  Association,  as  to 
the  feasibility  of  this  or  some  similar  plan  for  enlarging 
and  strengthening  the  work  of  the  Association.  Mr. 
W.  J.  Potter,  the  President,  invites  correspondence  and 
suggestions  on  the  subject.  He  mav  be  reached  through 
his  post  office  address,  New  Bedford,  Mass. 

For  twenty  years  the  Free  Religious  Association  has 
maintained  a  free  platform,  from  which  orthodox  and 
heterodox  Christians,  Hebrews,  Buddhists,  monistic  and 
dualistic  thinkers,  Materialists  and  Spiritualists,  and  anti- 
Christians  merely,  or  those  not  advanced  beyond  the 
position  of  negation,  have  all  hail  an  opportunity  to 
define  and  defend  their  views,  and  each  in  his  own  way. 
The  papers  and  speeches  have  sometimes  been  of  a  high 
order  and  the  discussions  usually  intelligent  and  con- 
ducted with  courtesy  and  in  good  taste. 

The  Association  was  formed  in  the  interests  of  reli- 
gious enlightenment,  freedom  and  progress.  It  had  its 
origin  in  a  departure  from  Unitarianism,  and  it  has  been 
chiefly  under  the  management  of  those  who  had  found 
even  in  that,  the  most  liberal  of  the  Christian  denomina- 
tions, limitations  which  they  thought  inconsistent  with 
entire  freedom  of  thought.  In  drafting  the  statement  of 
their  aims  and  objects,  the  founders  of  the  Association 
used  language  such  as  in  the  church  they  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  employ  to  define  their  position  in  distinction  to 
the  Unitarian  creed. 

Mr.  Frothingham,  in  his  article  in  the  July  number 
of  the  North  American  Revieiv,  says  that  the  objects  of 
the  Free  Religious  Association,  as  its  constitution 
declared  at  the  beginning,  were  "to  encourage  the  scien- 
tific study  of  religion  and  ethics,  to  advocate  freedom  in 
religion,  to  increase  fellowship  in  spirit,  and  to  empha- 
size the  supremacv  of  practical  morality  in  all  the  rela- 
tions of  life."  Mr.  Frothingham  is  mistaken.  A  con- 
stitution with  the  objects  of  the  organization  so  stated 
could  not  have  been  adopted  twenty  years  ago.  Its 
leader  and  members  had  not  become  sufficiently  emanci- 
jjated  from  theological  beliefs  or  theological  phraseology. 
The  first  article  of  the  constitution,  as  originally  adopted, 
was  as  follows: 

This  Association  shall  be  called  the  Free  Religious  Associa- 
tion— its  objects  being  to  promote  the  interests  of  pure  religion, 


326 


THE    OPEN    COU  RT. 


to  encourage  the  scientific  study  of  theology,  and  to  increase  fel- 
lowship in  the  spirit;  and  to  this  end  all  persons  interested  in 
these  objects  are  cordially  invited  to  its  membership. 

The  amended  article,  from  which  the  quotation  is 
made  in  the  North  American  Review,  adopted  after  a 
year's  consideration,  and  not  without  some  opposition,  as 
late  as  1SS7,  marks  the  evolution  of  thought  inside  the 
organization  from  its  formation  to  that  date. 

The  Free  Religious  Association  has  done  a  good 
work;  and  if  some  such  plan  as  that  submitted  by  Mr. 
Potter  can  be  agreed  upon  and  carried  out,  we  have  no 
doubt  that  the  usefulness  of  the  organization  will  con- 
tinue and  be  greatlv  increased. 


THE   ROCK  AHEAD    IN    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

Some  years  before  ever  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union  had,  under  the  intrepid  and  wide-awake 
leadership  of  Frances  Willard,  become  awakened  to  the 
fact  that  the  ballot  would  be  the  most  effective  weapon 
in  its  warfare  against  intemperance;  before  the  great 
mass  of  its  members  had — lulling  their  religious  scruples 
to  rest  with  new  readings  of  St.  Paul — turned  their  faces 
doubtfully  in  the  direction  of  progress,  or  set  their  feet 
in  the  path  already  trodden  into  comparative  smoothness 
by  the  heterodox  pioneers  of  suffrage,  a  professedly 
ardent  lover  of  liberty  surprised  the  writer  by  what 
seemed  to  her  an  attack  on  the  true  principles  of  liberty 
in  his  earnest  opposition  to  any  immediate  action  with 
view  to  obtaining  the  franchise  for  women,  and  by  his 
stirring  appeal  to  her  as  a  freethinker  to  cease  effort  and 
agitation  in  that  direction.  '•  You  know  as  well  as  I  do," 
he  said,  "  that  women  as  a  class  are,  by  reason  of  their 
previous  condition  and  limitations,  far  in  the  rear  of  men 
in  their  views  of  intellectual  liberty.  Women  are  to-day 
the  chief  pillars  of  the  churches,  and  are  a  thousand 
times  more  subservient  to  the  wishes  and  will  of  the 
clergy  than  men.  We  who  understand  what  a  barrier 
to  liberty  of  conscience  and  expression  the  orthodox 
churches  must  remain,  ought  to  work  first  of  all  for  the 
upbuilding  on  solid  foundations  of  the  principles  of  true 
liberty  for  humanity.  If  we  do  not  secure  this  legally 
before  women  are  given  the  ballot,  or  have  outgrown 
the  influence  of  creeds,  we  shall  be  thrown  back  at  least 
a  century  in  our  work;  for,  if  women  could  vote  to-day, 
their  first  efforts  in  the  direction  of  influencing  legislation 
would  be,  under  leadership  of  their  revered  teachers,  the 
clergy,  to  mix  religion  with  politics,  to  put  the  name  of 
God  into  the  Constitution  as  a  shibboleth,  to  lay  traps  in 
law  to  fetter  free  expression  of  opinion  and  force  upon 
us  new  theological  shackles  to  take  the  place  of  those  we 
have  by  long  effort  succeeded  in  breaking,  or  which 
have  become  worn  out  by  time,  and  so  perhaps  plunge 
the  nation  into  intolerance  and  consequent  disaster.  I 
understand  your  feelings  as  a  woman  who  longs  to  see 
her  sex  relieved  of  the  bonds  which  it  has  become  used 


to.  I  understand  and  sympathize  with  that  love  of  lib- 
ertv  which  rebels  at  the  thought  of  refusing  to  aid  in 
whatever  direction  lihertv  calls;  but  reason  is  greater 
and  more  imperative  than  even  libertv,  and  reason  bids 
vou  work  for  the  larger  liberty  of  conscience  at  the  risk 
of  seeming  to  ignore  temporarilv  the  rights  of  your  sex." 

We  did  not  then  and  do  not  now  acknowledge  the 
justice  of  this  plea,  though  we  have  since,  as  we  had 
before,  heard  it  from  main'  other  sources.  Macaulay 
says  that  the  best  way  to  prepare  a  people  for  freedom 
is  to  give  them  freedom.  And  the  best  way  to  prepare 
women  to  recognize  and  respect  the  rights  of  others  is 
first  to  recognize,  and  permit  them  to  exercise,  their 
rights.  The  temporary  evil  resulting  from  any  narrow- 
ness on  their  part — due  largely  to  their  non-participation 
in  what  vitally  concerns  them,  and  the  restriction  of  their 
thought  to  merely  domestic  matters — will  be  more  than 
compensated  by  the  larger  views  and  broader  sympathies 
and  more  liberal  spirit  which  will  come  to  them.  But 
the  evil  feared  bv  our  pessimistic  prophet  is  neverthe- 
less a  possible  one  among  these  temporary  evils,  and 
unless  guarded  against  in  time,  may  prove  a  very  serious 
one.  Alreadv,  even  before  the  end  in  view  is  attained, 
we  find  evidence  here  and  there  of  the  underlying  spirit 
of  religious  intolerance  among  women  workers  for- suf- 
frage, which  is  sufficient  to  fill  the  hearts  of  the  true 
friends  of  the  movement  with  alarm  and  dismay,  and  it 
is  to  warn  against  the  encouragement  of  the  encroach- 
ments of  this  insidious  foe  to  progress  that  this  editorial 
is  written. 

Already  women  workers  for  suffrage  of  known 
heterodox  views,  however  careful  "  not  to  offend  one  of 
these  little  ones  "  by  parade  of,  or  reference  to,  their  own 
religious  opinions,  and  however  sensitively  regardful  of 
the  differing  opinions  of  their  co-laborers  bv  thoughtful 
avoidance  of  subjects  foreign  to  that  of  woman's  enfran- 
chisement, are  beginning  to  find  their  rights  of  opinion 
attacked  by  leaders  in  the  orthodox  flank  of  the  suffrage 
army.  Many  of  these  incidents,  of  course,  never  reach 
the  public,  but  one  or  two  instances  which  have  we  wish 
here  to  refer  to  as  indication  of  a  spirit  sure  to  bring 
disaster  to  the  woman's  cause  if  allowed  to  grow.  Mem- 
bers of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  seem 
thus  far  to  take  the  lead  in  this  aggressive  Phariseeism. 
We  quote  from  a  correspondent  of  the  Boston  Woman's 
Journal  of  a  recent  date : 

At  the  County  Convention  of  the  \V.  C.  T.  U.,  just  held  in 
Rock  Island,  111.,  the  hour  devoted  to  equal  suffrage  was  occupied 
by  Mrs.  Clara  Neymann,  of  New  York,  whose  services  were 
secured  by  the  Equal  Suffrage  Society  of  Moline  for  the  occasion. 

Mrs.  Louise  S.  Rounds,  State  President  of  the  Illinois  W.  C. 
T.  U.,  spoke  of  the  paper  presented  by  Mrs.  Neymann.  She  said 
she  had  heard  names  quoted — Emerson,  John  Stuart  Mill,  and 
Herbert  Spencer  —  eminent  names  that  would  live  for  years,  per- 
haps, but  not  one  word  of  Jesus,  to  whom  alone  this  reform  could 
look  for  permanent  support.  She  was  first  of  all  a  Christian, 
then  a  temperance  woman,  and,  last  of  all  —  having  come  to  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


y-i 


position  "gingerlv,"  as  her  hearers  would  witness  —  a  believer  in 
suffrage  for  women  on  temperance  grounds.  She  was  tired  of 
hearing  the  old,  threadbare  cry,  the  long-harped-on  tune,  of 
"  woman's  rights,"  preached  by  the  godless  women  who  had  been 
leaders  in  the  cause.  She  spoke  with  much  vehemence,  and 
struck  the  pew  with  her  hand  to  enforce  her  remarks. 

Several  ladies  present  mildly  deprecated  the  presi- 
dent's remarks,  and 

Mrs.  Neymann  asked  if  a  criticism  was  just  which  was  based 
solelv  on  negations.  As  she  understood  Mrs.  Rounds,  she  was 
criticised  for  what  she  had  failed  to  say,  not  for  what  she  had  said. 

It  would,  it  seems  to  us,  be  more  politic  for  the  pur- 
pose such  Christians  have  in  view  to  wait  until  some 
indiscriminate  and  enthusiastic  freethinker  assails,  in  the 
suffrage  meetings,  the  Christianity  of  some  suffragist. 
It  is  alwavs  safest,  in  view  of  gaining  adherents  to  one's 
opinions,  to  remain  upon  the  defensive.  It  is  cowardly 
and  unjust  to  attack  unprovoked ;  it  is  pusillanimous  to 
refuse  to  defend  one's  self  from  such  attack,  whether  it  be 
personal  violence  or  an  assatdt  upon  our  convictions. 
Certainly  no  greater  wrong  could  be  done  than  thus  to 
assail  one  so  careful  to  avoid  giving  cause  of  offense  to 
those  who  differ  from  her  theologically  as  the  gentle- 
mannered  an:l  loving-hearted  Mrs.  Nevmann, who,  while 
still  smarting  under  this  uncalled-for  attack,  relating  to 
us  the  particulars,  showed  not  one  trace  of  ill-will 
toward  her  opponent,  but  only  grief  tempered  by  sur- 
prise that  she  should  have  been  the  object  of  it. 

One  more  straw  indicative  of  how  strongly  the  cur- 
rent on  which  the  suffrage  movement  is  floating  is 
tending  toward  the  treacherous  rock  of  intolerance  we 
find  in  the  following  clipping  from  the  Chicago  Inter- 
Ocean  of  May  iS: 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Boynton  Harbert  presided  over  a  meeting  of 
the  Cook  County  Women's  Suffrage  Association,  held  at  the 
Sherman  yesterday  afternoon.  After  transacting  some  business 
prior  to  their  adjournment  for  the  summer,  a  few  remarks  were 
made  by  Mrs.  M.  E.  Holmes,  Galva,  111.,  President  of  the  State 
Suffrage  Association,  in  which  she  alluded  to  the  encouraging 
progress  being  made  in  the  State.  She  then  closed  by  saying 
that  the  one  thing  necessary  was  to  consider  the  relation  of  suf- 
frage to  the  church;  that  suffragists  stand  out  from  church  work 
too  much.  She  claimed  that  they  cannot  do  the  work  until  they, 
as  suffragists,  get  into  the  churches;  that  a  strict  spiritual  as  well 
as  a  suffrage  society  is  necessary.  She  said  this  is  the  only  way 
to  get  the  church  people  in  the  work.  A  strong  feeling  is 
prevalent,  that  suffrage  has  nothing  to  do  with  religion,  and,  if 
that  be  the  case,  she  wanted  nothing  to  do  with  suffrage.  Mrs. 
Underwood,  assistant  editor  of  The  Open  Court,  and  who 
recently  came  to  this  city  from  Boston,  asked  if  the  constitution 
of  this  association  touched  on  the  subject  of  religious  creed  or 
dogma.  The  question  was  asked,  she  said,  simply  for  informa- 
tion, as  in  Massachusetts  the  suffrage  movement  was  one  solely 
and  distinctly  separate  from  religion  and  prohibition,  and  she  felt 
it  should  so  continue,  as  there  are  many  of  its  leaders  like  Mrs. 
Stanton  and  others,  who  perhaps  hold  to  no  particular  religious 
creed  or  church,  and  would,  on  these  grounds,  be  barred  out  of 
the  movement  if  it  rested  on  creed  or  church  dogmas.  Several 
ladies  thought  this  an  attack  on  their  individual  church,  and  all 
came  forward  to  air  themselves  on  their  personal  church  and 
religious  tenets.     Mrs.   Harbert  soon  took  in   the  situation   and 


stopped  debate.  Mrs.  Underwood  in  a  few  words  made  herself 
plain  and  poured  oil  on  the  troubled  waters. 

To  some  it  may  seem  almost  impertinent  on  the  part 
of  members  of  an  association  which  comes  so  laggardlv 
into  the  field  of  suffrage  work,  to  say  to  those  who  have 
made  the  work  possible  to  them  that  they  do  not  choose 
to  work  with  them,  and  that  their  best  policy  is  to  give 
way  gracefully  to  the  newcomers,  who  feel  quite  compe- 
tent to  accept  any  stray  laurels  of  success  which  may 
now  be  won,  and  to  denounce  as  unworthv  of  recogni- 
tion such  leaders  in  the  movement  as  Mary  Wolstone- 
craft,  John  Stuart  Mill,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton, 
Frances  Wright,  Ernestine  L.  Rose,  Judge  Hurlbut, 
Lucretia  Mott,  Lydia  Maria  Child,  Parker  Pillsbury, 
Frances  D.  Gage,  and  hundreds  of  others  whose  names 
will  readily  occur  to  mind. 

Women  of  the  Christian  Temperance  Union,  beware 
of  this  rock  of  intolerance!  Read  history  and  ponder 
its  lessons;  learn  to  think  it  possible  that  your  wisdom 
may  not  comprise  all  the  wisdom  of  this  world,  and 
remember  that  the  heretics  of  yesterday  are  the  revered 
teachers  of  to-day.  s.  A.  u. 


A  prominent  Mexican  liberal  writes  that  the  church  in 
Mexico  is  fast  declining  in  influence.  "  The  men,"  he 
says,  "  are  generally  unbelievers,  although  they  are 
counted  as  church  members  because  they  do  not  take  the 
trouble  to  explain  their  position.  The  strength  of  the 
church  is  with  the  wo.nen  and  the  ignorant.  Attend 
the  services,  and  what  do  you  see?  Many  men?  No; 
nine  out  of  ten  worshipers  are  women.  The  fact  is, 
there  has  been  a  verv  rapid  sprerd  of  unbelief  among 
the  intelligent  men  of  Mexico.  The  school  of  Kant 
has  many  disciples.  Speculative  philosophv  has  taken 
root  among  our  students.  Those  representatives  of  the 
church  who  let  politics  alone  and  consider  only  the  spir- 
itual aspect  of  the  situation  are  greatly  alarmed  at  this 
growth  of  liberalism  in  religion.  At  the  rate  we  are 
going  we  shall  be  a  nation  of  believers  in  the  greatest 
freedom  of  religious  thought." 

The  following  short  sketch  of  Richard  A.  Proctor 
is  copied  from  the  Chicago  Tribune: 

The  eminent  English  astronomer,  Richard  Anthony  Proctor, 
has  decided  to  become  an  American  citizen,  and  is  building  a 
residence  at  Orange  Lake,  Florida,  the  great  orange  grove  section 
of  that  State.  The  learned  man's  wife  is  an  American,  and  it  is 
fair  to  presume  that  she  is  entitled  to  more  credit  than  the  sunny 
groves  of  Florida  for  her  husband's  intention  to  make  his  home 
in  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Proctor  was  born  in  England,  in  the  year  1S37,  m  good 
social  position,  and  received  a  thorough  education.  After  pre- 
paratory studies  in  several  private  schools,  he  proceeded  to  King's 
College,  London,  and  from  thence  to  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  was  graduated  in  1S60,  with  honors.  In  1S66 
he  was  appointed  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society  of 
England;  and  an  honorary  Fellow  of  King's  College,  London,  in 
1S73.     He    edited    the   proceedings   of  the    Royal  Astronomical 


328 


THE    OPBN    COURT. 


Society  in  1S72-73.  In  1S69  he  created  great  interest  by  main- 
taining against  the  almost  universal  opinion  of  astronomers,  the 
theory  of  the  solar  corona  and  also  that  of  the  inner  complex 
solar  atmosphere,  this  the  discovery  of  Professor  Young,  both  of 
which  have  since  been  accepted.  Mr.  Proctor  has  lectured  in  all 
the  principal  cities  of  England,  Canada,  the  United  States,  New 
South  Wales,  Victoria,  South  Australia,  New  Zealand  and  other 
countries.  He  knows  how  to  make  astronomy  interesting,  a  gift 
rare  as  well  as  most  desirable. 

Mr.  Procter  has  written  much  on  scientific  subjects  in  various 
publications,  and  is  the  author  of  more  than  sixty  books.  Knowl- 
edge, an  English  periodical  edited  by  him  and  which  has  a  large 
circulation  in  scientific  circles,  will  be  issued  as  an  American 
publication.  The  articles  on  astronomy  in  Apfletorfs  Encyclo- 
paedia and  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  were  written  by  Mr. 
Proctor,  who  constructed  a  chart  of  the  heavens,  and  in  1S74, 
added  greatly  to  his  reputation  by  his  learned  researches  into  the 
transits  of  Venus.  This  great  astronomer  is  a  man  of  strong 
domestic  tastes.  He  lost  his  first  wife  in  January,  1S79.  The 
present  Mrs.  Proctor,  who  is  a  niece  of  General  Jefferson 
Thompson,  of  Virginia,  became  so  in  May,  1SS1.  Her  husband 
had  made  a  tour  of  the  United  States  previously  to  the  time  of 
his  marriage  to  this  American  lady,  in  1S73-74,  1875,  and  just 
before  that  happy  event.  The  accession  of  Richard  A.  Proctor 
to  the  ranks  of  naturalized  Americans  will  be  a  decided  gain  to 
the  cause  of  learning,  scientific  inquiry  and  popular  instruction. 

#  *  * 

Referring  to  the  recent  Andover  decision,  the  Uni- 
tarian Review,  now  ably  conducted  by  Joseph  Henry 
Allen,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  pertinently  observes: 

The  press  as  a  whole,  continues  to  side  very  vigorously  with 
the  accused;  but  the  press,  as  well  as  the  trustees  in  their  recent 
manifesto,  confuse  two  radically  diverse  questions.  The  one  is  a 
question  of  sympathy  with  the  comparatively  liberal  and  humane 
spirit  displayed  at  Andover.  *  *  *  But  the  second  question 
is  the  plain  ethical  question  of  the  right  of  these  estimable  gentle- 
men to  teach  what  they  do  teach  in  the  place  they  hold  under  the 
local  conditions  of  their  foundations.  On  this  point,  which  is 
really  the  main  question  of  the  two,  we  hold  that  the  Visitors 
have  acted  justly,  and  that  a  high  standard  of  honor  should  have 
led  the  professors  to  resign  their  places  before  this.  They  are 
honorable  men,  but  the  confusion  of  mind  which  keeps  them 
where  they  are  is  to  be  regretted  in  the  interests  of  morality  and 
theology  alike.  If  taken  up  to  the  law  courts  the  Andover  case 
will  serve  to  advertise  the  dissensions  of  the  Trinitarian  Congre- 
gationalists,  and  the  liberal  cause  will  profit  thereby  ;  but  we  shall 
esteem  it  a  misfortune  should  the  courts  set  aside  the  decision  of 
the  Visitors.  The  thing  most  needed  now  by  our  Trinitarian 
brethren  is  a  new  and  free  Andover,  unshackled  by  a  creed  and 
the  necessity  of  maintaining  legal  obligations  which  are  not  those 
of  reason  and  of  truth. 

#  *  * 

Dr.  McGlynn's  speech  contains  a  very  significant  passage, 
which  the  Tribune  and  the  Sun,  not  less  significantlv,  have  sup- 
pressed.    We  quote  from  the  verbatim  report  of  the  Times: 

They  calumniate  me  when  they  say  I  took  the  stump  for  Mr. 
Cleveland.  It  is  a  lie.  They  tried  to  make  a  religious  feeling 
against  Mr.  Cleveland  because  he  vetoed  an  appropriation  of 
$25,000  for  a  Catholic  Protectory.  I  should  have  done  the  very 
same  thing  in  his  place. 

This  is  the  first  revelation  "  from  the  inside  "  of  the  reason 
why  "they  tried  to  make  a  religious  feeling  against  Mr.  Cleve- 
land." Everybody  knows  of  the  effort,  and  that  it  was  strong 
enough,  in  the  secrecy  which  enveloped  it,  very  nearly  to  defeat 
Mr.  Cleveland.  Many  people  also  knew  well  enough  the  reason 
for  it,  but  could  not  prove  it.     Now  it  is  officially   revealed   by   a 


man  who  knows  perfectly  what  was  going  on  in  the  councils  ot 
Mr.  Cleveland's  opponents  in  1SS4.  The  revelation  is  one  of  the 
greatest  pieces  of  Mr.  Cleveland's  proverbial  luck.  A  secret 
diversion  of  the  Roman  Catholic  vote  from  a  Democratic  cardi- 
date  is  a  serious  misfortune,  but  open,  announced  opposition  on 
religious  grounds  is  another  matter.  No  better  piece  of  luck 
could  befall  a  candidate  than  to  have  it  known  that  he  was  to  be 
"jumped  on  "  by  some  of  our  foreign  citizens  "  because  he  vetoed 
an  appropriation  of  $25,000  for  a  Catholic  Protectory."  Such  an 
announcement  would  insure  his  election.  Our  people  will  not 
stand  religion  in  politics;  least  of  all  will  they  stand  the  Pope  in 

politics. —  The  Nation. 

*  #  * 

Rev.  Dr.  Burgon,  Dean  of  Chichester,  in  replving 
to  Canon  Freemantle  in  the  April  number  of  the  Fort- 
nightly Review,  declares  that  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
is  false  and  "  the  veriest  foolishness,"  and  in  support  of 
this  opinion  he  says  that  "  man  is  never  found  at  all  in  a 
fossil  state."  The  editor  of  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  after  remarking  that,  had  Dr.  Burgon  "  opened 
the  most  elementary  contemporary  treatise  on  geology, 
he  would  have  found  that  abundant  fossil  remains  of 
man,  and  abundant  traces  also  of  his  works,  have  been 
found  in  association  with  the  bones  of  now  extinct  ani- 
mals," and  after  pointing  out  some  of  the  other  errors  of 
the  learned  dean,  adds:  "Dr.  Burgon's  article  will  do 
good.  The  extreme  ignorance  he  manifests  on  scientific 
questions,  and  the  unbounded  confidence  with  which  he 
nevertheless  undertakes  to  discuss  them,  will  open  the 
eyes  of  many  as  to  the  pressing  need  for  the  scientific 
education  of  the  clergy." 

#  *         * 

The  Protestant  clergy  of  Montreal  have  made  vigorous 
efforts  to  suppress  all  means  of  amusement  and  diversion  on  Sun- 
day, but  the  City  Council  has  resisted  these  attempts  to  curtail 
the  few  privileges  the  people  now  enjoy,  and  a  most  important 
advance  has  been  made  by  the  opening  of  the  Fraser  Institute  — 
the  free  public  library — on  Sunday.  This  is  owing  to  the  gen- 
erous and  wise  action  of  Mr.  John  H.  R.  Molson,  the  wealthy 
brewer,  who  has  donated  $10,000  to  the  Fraser  Institute,  upon  the 
condition  that  it  shall  be  opened  to  the  public  on  Sundays  at  the 
same  hours  as  upon  other  days.  The  trustees  have  accepted  the 
gift  and  the  conditions.  Mr.  Molson  is  a  vice-president  of  the 
Montreal  Pioneer  Freethought  Club,  which  was  the  first  insti- 
tution in  Montreal  to  open  its  reading  rooms  and  library  free  to 
the  public. — Secular  Thought. 

Mr.  O.  B.  Frothingham  has  an  article  in  the  North 
American  Review  for  July  on  "Why  Am  I  a  Free 
Religionist?  "  In  connection  with  his  reasons  for  belong- 
ing to  the  Association,  he  gives  some  account  of  its  ori- 
gin, early  history  and  possible  future.  The  treatment 
of  the  subject  is  not  so  full  as  we  could  wish,  but  there 
is  enough  in  the  article  to  make  it  of  interest,  especially 
to  members  of  the  Association. 

The  concluding  part  of  Professor  Cope's  great  essay, 
proof  of  which  has  not  been  returned  in  time  for  this 
issue,  will  be  inserted  in  No.  13. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


329 


TWO   PROPHETS. 

BY     ALFRED     II.     PETERS. 

The  greatest  human  possession  is  the  power  of  com- 
pelling thought.  He  is  the  most  godlike  man  who 
forces  the  world,  or  any  considerable  portion  of  it,  to 
accept  his  words  as  truth.  Chief  among  such  are  the 
establishers  of  great  ideas  hitherto  untried  or  unheard  of. 
These  become  founders  of  religions  and  of  systems  of 
ethics  and  of  physics,  spiritual  and  mental  sovereigns  of 
whose  title  there  is  never  any  dispute.  Second  only  to 
such  are  those  interpreters  and  confirmers  of  ideas,  more 
or  less  accepted,  who  possess  unusual  insight  or  expres- 
sion. These,  if  not  sovereigns,  are,  by  virtue  of  their 
being  stimulators  to  spiritual  and  mental  activity, 
the  prophets  and  ministers  of  the  race.  Of  the 
first  class  there  appears  but  one  in  a  thousand  years.  Of 
the  second,  every  generation  produces  one  or  more; 
leaders  and  shapers  of  their  age,  not  sure  of  the  first 
place,  but  sure  of  the  affection  and  reverence  of  mankind 
for  a  portion  of,  if  not  for  all  time.  Of  this  class  Frank- 
lin was  the  most  conspicuous  individual  produced  by  us 
previous  to  the  present  centurv.  No  one  of  our  coun- 
trymen, before  or  during  his  time,  influenced  general 
thought  throughout  the  world  as  did  he.  He  was,  pre- 
eminently, the  wise  man,  the  oracle  of  the  new  repub- 
lic. Of  the  same  class  in  this  century  two  men,  thus  far, 
overtop  all  others  as  thought-compellers  of  their  own 
time  in  the  United  States — Emerson,  the  fortifier  of"  hu- 
manity, and  Beecher,  its  apologist.  No  Americans,  save 
Franklin,  have  in  a  general  way  so  influenced  human 
opinion  as  have  these  two. 

Sprung  from  the  same  stock;  educated  for  the  same 
profession;  idealists  both;  no  teachers  ever  bore  to 
their  fellows  more  different  messages,  or  in  a  more  dif- 
ferent way.  Alike  optimists  and  humanitarians,  their 
theories  of  the  conduct  of  life  were  entirely  oppo>ite. 
Radical  dissenters  from  the  old  order  of  things,  the  dis- 
sent of  one  was  not  the  dissent  of  the  other.  Courage, 
tolerance,  and  a  hatred  of  cant  they  indeed  possessed  in 
common,  as  they  did  that  quality  of  intellect  which  can- 
not be  specialized,  whose  work  applies  to  all  time,  and 
to  one  part  of  the  world  as  much  as  to  another,  the  surest 
test  everywhere  of  human  greatness. 

As  the  advocate  of  reason  against  passion,  as  the  main- 
tainer  of  the  possibilities  of  the  human  will  and  the  de- 
clarer that  virtue  is  its  own  reward,  Emerson  is  the  later 
apostle  of  all  those  who  make  the  higher  life  dependent 
upon  themselves.  He  came  not  crying  repent,  so  much 
as  overcome.  Repentance  is  good,  but  not  to  require 
repentance  is  better.  Denial  of  self  for  others  is  good, 
but  to  make  it  unnecessary  that  others  should  deny  them- 
selves for  you  is  as  noble  as  it  is  to  deny  yourself  for 
them.  Charity  is  good,  but  why  make  occasion  for 
charity?  To  profit  at  another's  expense, whether  by  his 
good    will    or    by    your    dishonesty,   is  a   confession   of 


inferiority.  Human  inequality  is  a  natural  law;  what  one 
possesses  another  lacks.  Cease  then,  to  envy  what  is 
another's  and  make  the  most  of  what  is  your  own. 
Think  not  to  avoid  conflict,  which  is  an  inexorable 
condition  of  existence,  but  let  the  conflict  be  with  your- 
self. 

A  democrat  and  an  individualist  he  nevertheless  was 
by  temperment  exclusive,  as  all  very  fine  natures  are 
however  they  may  strive  to  be  otherwise.  To  him  the 
same  law  regulated  the  intermingling  of  men  that  regu- 
lates the  mingling  of  oil  and  water — like  seeks  like  and 
appeals  to  like  everywhere.  With  the  greedy,  cozening, 
time-serving,  passion-yielding  crowd  he  had  as  little  sym- 
pathy as  they  had  with  him.  No  man  ever  became  his 
disciple  whose  best  energies  were  exercised  upon  mate- 
terial  things.  With  all  fault-finders,  blamers  of  others, 
and  wearers  of  their  hearts  upon  their  sleeves  he  had  as 
little  patience  as  he  had  with  other  mendicants.  But 
wherever  he  saw  man  or  woman,  of  whatever  estate, 
walking  alone,  "consuming  their  own  smoke,"  doino- 
their  own  thinking  and  making  daily  trial  of  their  own 
strength,  there  he  recognized  one  in  earnest,  and  a  true 
yoke-fellow  with  himself. 

He  is  the  best  representative  of  the  stoic  school  of 
philosophy  which  the  nineteenth  century  can  show. 
Not  of  that  order  which  held  pain  to  be  no  evil,  or 
withstood  destiny  by  despising  everything  of  which  it 
could  deprive  them,  but  one  of  those  fate-abiding,  pas- 
sion-tempered spirits,  "  gentle  and  just  and  dreadless," 
of  whom  the  best  types  are  Seneca  and  Marcus  Anto- 
ninus. Like  them  he  believed  that  "  no  man  can  ever  be 
poor  who  goes  to  himself  for  what  he  want*."  He  held 
the  most  desirable  things  to  be,  not  commodity  and  su- 
premacy, things  dependant  upon  others,  but  appreciation 
and  perception,  things  dependant  upon  one's  self.  He 
taught  that  loss  is  a  necessity  to  which  we  should  build 
altars,  and  that  nothing  so  disenthralls  us  from  the  dis- 
turbing confusion  of  life  as  the  habit  of  thought. 

Of  course  it  is  to  the  intellectual  class  that  he  mainly 
appeals.  By  this,  however,  is  not  meant  those  merely  who 
are  engaged  in  bookish  pursuits,  but  that  great,  serious, 
and  for  the  most  part,  silent  company  of  men  and  women 
in  whom  there  exists  a  perpetual  hunger  of  the  mind. 
He  has  been  an  inspiration  to  meditative  spirits  and  per- 
ceivers  of  beauty  the  world  over.  Especially  helpful  is 
he  to  those  who  are  just  having  their  early  ideals  of  the 
world  undeceived.  The  most  critical  period  in  the  life 
of  every  right  dispositioned  young  man  or  woman  is 
when  they  first  realize  that  people  regard  haying  as 
more  important  than  being.  Such  an  one,  when  sore  at 
finding  "his  graces  have  served  him  but  as  enemies,"  is 
unspeakably  strengthened  and  comforted  by  the  lofty 
teaching  that  if  a  scrupulous  sense  of  honor  does  not 
pay,  materially  speaking,  yet  he  who  refuses  to  barter 
his    convictions   possesses  what    is  worth  more   than  all 


tin 


TOE    OPEN    COURT. 


rewards  of  policy— the  knowledge  that  the  world  could 
not  overcome  him. 

When  the  history  of  American  thought  is  finally 
written,  one  of  the  epochs  in  it  will  be  marked  by  the 
New  England  Transcendental  Movement.  This  was 
the  first  permanent  effort  in  the  republic,  on  the  part  of 
any  considerable  number,  toward  an  inquiry  into  the 
conduct  of  life  which  did  not  assert  for  itself  the  author- 
ity of  supernatural  revelation.  Unlike  the  movement 
of  Channing,  it  cut  entirely  loose  from  Christianity  and 
appealed  from  the  doctrine  of  human  weakness  to  the 
doctrine  of  human  strength.  It  was  the  first  re-affirma- 
tion of  the  philosophy  of  Zeno  by  any  recognized  body 
of  thinkers  which  had  been  heard  for  fifteen  centuries. 
No  matter  if  many  enthusiastic  people  brought  ridicule 
upon  the  movement  by  giving  its  name  to  their  own 
schemes  for  making  the  world  over  in  a  day.  Extrava- 
gance of  intellect  is  no  more  to  be  wondered  at  than 
extravagance  of  emotion.  It  was  one  of  those  periods 
in  society  which  the  historian  Grote  declares  especially 
valuable  to  study,  because  routine  is  broken  through  and 
the  constructive   faculties  called  into  exercise. 

The  first  effect  of  this  movement  was  a  decline  of 
reverence  for  all  authority  whatsoever  whose  claim  to 
directorship  was  founded  on  other  than  present  excel- 
lence. Its  next  effect  was  to  make  religious  indepen- 
dence respectable.  Its  latest  effect,  which  was  set 
back  twenty  years  by  the  war  for  the  Union,  was  to 
make  respectable  independence  in  politics.  The  same 
reo-ion  is  at  the  present  time  giving  most  uneasiness  to 
the  beneficiaries  of  politics  which  has  for  the  last  thirty 
years  given  most  uneasiness  to  the  beneficiaries  of  re- 
ligion. 

Of  this  movement  Emerson  was  the  acknowledged 
head.  Unlike  certain  others  he  did  not  abandon  the 
transcendental  principle  because  of  its  failure  to  work  an 
immediate  reformation.  Withdrawing  from  the  world 
he  consecrated  himself  to  contemplation,  like  a  me- 
diaeval mystic.  All  of  transcendentalism  that  was 
founded  upon  individual  effort  drew  from  him  its  main 
inspiration.  His  influence  is  seen  in  all  later  subjective 
literature.  Whether  he  was  poet  or  philosopher,  or 
both,  men  may  continue  to  differ,  but  there  is  no  differ- 
ence as  to  the  position  he  will  occupy  among  the  com- 
pellers  of  thought. 

Instead  of  the  doctrine  that  happiness  depends  mainly 
upon  one's  self,  the  mass  of  men  have  ever  preferred  to 
think  that  it  depends  upon  the  aid  of  their  fellows 
or  of  supernatural  powers.  They  would  fain  believe 
that  the  law  of  cause  and  effect  may  in  some  way  be 
made  void,  and  from  time  to  time,  therefore,  it  is  pro- 
claimed that  punishment  for  the  sins  of  one's  ancestors 
is  a  crime,  and  for  one's  own  a  mistake.  But  for  the 
tremendous  conviction  that  every  transgression  carries 
with   it   a  penalty,  this   doctrine   would   long  ago   have 


superseded  the  one  upon  which  all  civil  and  religious  gov- 
ernment has  been  thus  far  based.  Charity,  sympathy 
and  generosity  are  more  winning  virtues  than  justice, 
temperance  and  patience.  The  world  loves  the  one;  it 
does  not  love  the  other.  Its  submission  to  them  is  the 
homage  which  weakness  pays  to  strength. 

To  the  multitude  of  those  who  were  ready  to  break 
from  Puritanism,  the  transcendental  philosophy  was  no 
more  attractive  than  the  old  theology.  Its  creed  was 
equally  austere;  its  practice  no  less  disciplinary.  It  was, 
in  fact,  a  kind  of  Calvinism  whose  deity  was  a  natural 
instead  of  a  revealed  one,  and  wherein  election  depended 
principally  upon  one's  self.  Its  subjection  of  the  emo- 
tions to  the  intellect,  and  the  little  charity  exercised  by 
some  of  its  apostles  toward  human  weakness  made  its 
rejection  by  the  mass  of  people  an  assurance  from  the 
start.  It  was  a  life  with  more  love  in  it  for  which  they 
asked,  something  realistic  and  not  an  abstraction.  So 
true  it  is  that  "  the  blood  which  first  passes  through  the 
brain  is  never  so  red  as  that  which  flows  direct  from  the 
heart."  Another  dispensation  was  demanded,  and  pres- 
entlv  its  prophet  appeared. 

As  a  sympathizer  with  human  frailty  and  ignorance, 
as  a  believer  in  the  efficacy  of  forgiveness,  and  in  the 
possibility  of  a  common  brotherhood,  Beccher  was,  be- 
vond  all  others  of  his  time,  the  representative  of  such  as 
made  mutual  sympathy  the  ruling  principle  of  existence. 
Others  there  were,  as  honest  lovers  of  mankind  as  he, 
but  either  their  natures  were  too  fine  for  heartv  promis- 
cuous contact,  or  they  were  hedged  about  by  the  tradi- 
tional sanctity  of  their  calling,  and  were  priests  rather 
than  men.  Never  had  man  less  of  the  priest  about  him 
than  this  one.  Of  that  professional  air  which  makes  the 
ordinary  teacher  of  religion  everywhere  recognizable  he 
was  wholly  free.  And  he  was  no  less  so  actually  than 
in  appearance.  His  hearers  were  his  confessors  more 
often  than  he  was  confessor  to  them.  That  vast  multi- 
tude which  hung  upon  his  uttered  or  printed  words  had 
not  a  man  among  them  more  greedy  of  life  than  himself. 
There  was  a  coarseness  of  fiber  in  him  as  there  is  in 
all  popular  favorites.  His  expression  was  like  a  burst 
of  martial  music  whose  stirring  strains  have  oftentimes 
mingled  among  them  notes  which  grate  upon  a  refined 
ear.  Herein  was  the  secret  of  that  affection  which  the 
mass  of  his  countrymen  had  for  him  more  than  for  any 
other  orator  or  writer  of  his  time.  People  loved  him  as 
they  loved  Luther,  and  Mirabeau,  and  Lincoln,  because 
they  felt  he  was  of  the  earth,  like  themselves.  What  a 
successful  politician  he  might  have  become  had  he  been 
ambitious  of  place  anil  willing  to  accommodate  himself 
to  the  conditions  of  popular  suffrage? 

Those  opposed  to  his  opinions  felt  and  confessed  the 
magic  influence  of  his  personality,  and  even  criticism 
was  silent  among  those  to  whom  his  coarseness  of  ex- 
pression was  an  offense.      The  inconsistency  of  his  latei 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


with  his  earlier  religious  views  was  useless  against  him 
as  a  reproach.  Had  his  memorable  trial  resulted  in  con- 
viction, the  spirit  of  compassion  with  which  he  had  in- 
spired his  generation  would  have  poured  back  upon  him 
as  the  cloud  returns  to  the  earth.  If  the  religion  of  the 
future  is  to  be  based  upon  charity  Beecher  will  rank 
among  the  foremost  of  its  prophets. 

But  not  alone  of  the  spiritual  life  was  it  that  he  spoke 
as  one  having  authority.  When  his  vast  utterance  shall 
have  been  distilled  it  will  be  found  that,  beside  being  a 
man  lover,  he  was  an  earth  lover;  one  for  whom  there 
was  a  message  in  every  animate  or  inanimate  thing;  a 
Homeric  man,  the  half  of  whose  power  of  expression 
came  from  his  intercouse  with  thought-compelling  na- 
ture. He  was  indifferent  to  nothing  which  affected  the 
happiness  or  welfare  of  others.  One  is  astonished  at  his 
diversity  of  effort.  His  natural  bent  of  mind  seems  to 
have  been  toward  the  concrete  and  realistic.  He  was 
too  keen  an  enjoyer  of  material  things  to  occupy  himself 
with  speculations  upon  the  absolute.  Though  his  arms 
were  outstretched  to  every  repentant  evil  doer  yet  no 
man  ever  denounced  individual  or  corporate  injustice 
more  than  he.  Government  was  to  him,  as  Jefferson 
said,  the  art  of  being  honest.  Upon  every  political  issue 
his  voice  was  heard  in  defence  of  what  he  believed  to  be 
the  most  honest  side. 

It  is  true,  his  words,  like  the  words  of  every  orator, 
cannot  be  read  without  some  of  their  strength  being 
lost.  It  is  true,  also,  that  his  influence  has  to  no  great 
extent  been  felt  abroad.  His  thought  was  not  of  that 
condensed  kind  upon  which  men  of  letters  are  nourished, 
nor  of  the  technical  kind  sought  after  by  specialists.  His 
audience  was  that  great  middle  class  among  his  own 
countrymen  whose  minds  neither  dwell  apart  from  the 
flesh,  nor  are  so  benumbed  or  besotted  by  it  that  they 
are  incapable  of  regarding  anything  higher. 

To  such,  his  courage,  his  fervor,  and  his  homely  illus- 
tration were  an  irresistible  attraction,  whether  they  al- 
ways agreed  with  him  or  not,  while  to  weak,  bruised,  or 
erring  spirits  the  outpourings  of  his  life-appreciating, 
sympathetic  nature  were  a  peculiar  comfort  and  support. 
It  was  fortunate  for  his  fame  that  no  profession  could 
narrow  him,  no  party  enslave  him  nor  communion  label 
him.  Had  his  inconsistencies  been  double  what  they 
were  he  would  have  been  forgiven,  for,  notwithstand- 
ing them  all,  he  was  a  very  great  man,  and  at  his  death 
shaped  the  general  thought  of  the  American  people  more 
than  did  any  one  of  his  countrymen  then  living. 

The  author  of  John  Inglesa>it  asserts  that  "all 
creeds  and  opinions  are  but  the  result  of  character  and 
temperment."  Of  the  many  lives  which  might  be  cited 
to  prove  the  truth  of  this  saying  no  better  ones  can  be 
found  than  the  two  which  are  the  subject  of  this  article. 
Both  of  these  men  possessed  masterful  characters  and 
were    therefore     a     law     unto    themselves.      But     their 


temperments  werealtogetherunhke.  Emerson  was  bare- 
ly charitable  to  human  weakness,  because  his  predomi- 
nent  intellectuality  lifted  him  above  common  desire.  lie 
could  live  with  men  or  he  could  live  apart  from  them, 
and  in  his  hours  "f  depression  could  obtain  relief  within 
himself.  Beecher  pitied  and  extenuated  human  weak- 
ness, because  no  man  more  craved  intercourse  and 
sympathy  than  he.  The  virtue  of  Emerson  was  nega- 
tive; that  of  Beecher  was  positive.  One  looked  at  what 
a  person  was;  the  other  at  what  he  did.  Positive 
virtue  is  most  esteemed  by  men  of  action;  negative 
virtue  by  men  of  thought.  Positive  virtue  is  often 
the  reaction  from  positive  vice ;  negative  virtue  gen- 
erally has  less  to  repent  of.  Without  positive  virtue 
there  would  belittle  reform;  without  negative  virtue 
there  would  be  no  self-control.  Positive  virtue  and 
negative  virtue,  as  human  nature  now  exists,  appear  to 
be  equally  necessary,  but  if  all  men  were  negatively 
virtuous,  of  positive  virtue  there  would  be  no  need. 

When  to  their  own  work  is  added  the  work  of  their 
disciples,  one  cannot  help  thinking  that  from  these  two 
men  has  gone  forth  a  greater  influence  than  during  their 
time,  went  from  all  the  seats  of  learning  in  the  land 
combined.  Money  founds  and  endows  academies  and 
universities.  Men  dispense  instruction  therein,  learned, 
patient  and  for  the  most  part  unselfish.  Thither  flock  a 
multitude  of  youth;  a  few  to  get  wisdom,  many  to  get 
knowledge  and  more  to  get  a  start  in  the  world  or  to 
have  a  good  time.  A  certain  habit  of  thought  becomes 
current  and  a  certain  routine  of  instruction,  founded 
thereon,  for  a  time  prevails,  when  lo,  up  rises  some  mas- 
ter outside  of  the  schools,  teaching  without  authority, 
and  straightway  pupils  attend  on  him  from  the  farm, 
the  market  and  the  workshop,  and  students  in  ancient 
foundations  desert  their  alma  mater  to  sit  at  his  feet. 
Such  is  the  power  of  genius.  However  much  our  time 
may  be  accused  of  materialism,  let  genius  but  speak  and 
the  world  gives  ear.  Surely  a  generation  that  has 
grown  up  under  two  such  great  spiritual  teachers  cannot 
be  whollv  a  materialistic  one. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

ECCLESIASTICAL    ATTENTIONS    TO    MURDERERS. 
To  the  Editors:  Brighton,  England. 

Perhaps  in  America  vou  are  more  fortunate  than  we  are  in 
England  and  your  clergy  may  not  weaken  the  public  sense  of  the 
atrocity  of  murder  as  they  do  in  England,  by  the  ill-judged  obtru- 
sion of  consolation  on  men  rightfully  adjudged  to  the  gallows.  A 
few  years  ago  one  of  the  "  merry  miserable?  "  of  London,  in  Gt. 
Ccram  street,  was  murdered  by  her  paramour  in  the  night,  who  was 
conjectured  to  be  a  foreigner.  A  Danish  clergyman  of  spotless 
repute,  was  apprehended  on  suspicion.  Before  he  could  prove  his 
innocence,  which  he  speedily  did,  he  claimed  the  sympathy  and 
assistance  of  the  Chaplain  of  the  Middlesex  House  of  Detention 
"  as  a  brother  minister  and  a  brother  Christian."  The  "  brother 
clergyman  "  shrank  from  him  and  refused  his  hand  when  offered ; 


332 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


yet,  if  the  man  had  been  really  guilty  and  ordered  to  be  hanged, 
the  same  clergyman  would  have  shown  him  the  tenderest  atten- 
tions, and  would  have  assured  a  joyful  reception  at  the  throne  of 
God  to  a  man  whose  hand  it  was  pollution  to  touch  on  earth.  A 
case  of  this  kind  has  again  occurred  in  which  the  Bishop  of  Lin- 
coln has  been  the  actor.  I  send  you  the  protest  which  I  thought 
it  right  to  make  against  this  practice,  which  is  begetting  a  convic- 
tion in  England,  that  no  one  is  absolutely  sure  of  going  to  heaven 
unless  he  has  committed  some  murder. 
To  the  Right  Reverend  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Lincoln: 

It  being  my  intention  to  take  public  notice  in  Leicester  of  the 
inclosed  paragraph,  which  appeared  in  the  Daily  News  of  Febru- 
ary 22,  it  seems  right  that  I  should  first  ask  whether  so  incredible 
a  statement  can  be  true. 

"  Richard  Insole,  24,  fisherman,  was  executed  at  Lincoln,  at 
nine  o'clock  this  morning,  for  the  murder  of  his  wife  at  Grimsby. 
The  pair  had  lived  apart,  and  Insole  becoming  jealous,  shot  her 
with  a  revolver  five  times,  the  last  shot  being  fired  while  the 
woman  was  lying  on  the  floor.  Insole  paid  great  attention  to  the 
ministration  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  who  had  frequently  visited 
him.  The  bishop  administered  the  sacrament  to  him  on  Sunday 
morning  and  was  in  attendance  upon  him  from  eight  o'clock  this 
morning  until  just  before  the  execution." 

This  paragraph  represents  that  your  lordship  "  frequently 
visited"  Insole  the  wife  killer  of  Grimsby.  Can  it  be  that  a  bishop 
paid  these  flattering  attentions  to  a  brutal  murderer.  A  city  mis- 
sionary would  have  been  a  messenger  of  glory  grand  enough  for 
a  scoundrel  of  this  class.  Indeed,  the  self-respect  of  an  honest 
missionary  should  be  above  this  business.  It  is  said  that  your 
lordship  actually  administered  the  sacrament  to  this  murderer 
who  had  fired  at  his  wife  five  times,  the  last  time  when  she  was 
upon  the  ground.  What  can  men  think  of  the  sanctity  of  the 
sacramental  cup  which  touches  such  villainous  lips?  Was  Insole 
prepared  for  the  Holy  Communion  who  was  not  converted  save 
by  the  rope  round  his  neck?  Was  it  right  to  dispatch  to  the 
Court  of  Heaven  one  whom  your  lordship  as  a  gentleman  would 
never  think  of  proposing  as 'a  member  of  the  Athena'um  Club? 
Is  the  committee  of  the  Athenaeum  Club  more  dainty  as  to  whom 
it  associates  with  than  the  Holy  Trinity?  Did  Insole's  wife  goto 
heaven  who  was  sent  to  her  account  without  a  word  of  warning 
or  prayer  of  preparation?  If  she  is  gone  to  hell  is  it  right  that  In- 
sole, her  murderer,  should  be  in  heaven — she  crying  in  vain  for  a 
drop  of  water  to  quench  her  burning  tongue  while  he  who  sent 
her  into  damnation  is  supping  at  the  cool  springs  of  paradise?  If 
happily  she  be  in  heaven,  it  would  be  better  that  her  husband 
should  be  elsewhere.  How  could  the  murdered  and  the  murderer 
nestle  in  Abram's  bosom?  High  ecclesiastical  attentions  to 
coarse,  brutal,  blood-stained  criminals  is  to  condone  and  encour- 
age crime.  We  may  not  insult  the  doomed  however  vile — nor 
dTscourage  their  repentance;  but  we  should  warn  the  murderer 
that  if  he  thinks  himself  fit  company  for  "  the  just  made  perfect," 
he  must  himself  negotiate  his  own  admission  to  heaven.  We  who 
refuse  to  let  him  live  in  this  world  cannot  be  any  parties  to  solic- 
iting his  admission  to  the  company  before  the  throne.  How  can 
angels  wish  one  of  their  trumpets  blown  by  a  murderer?  Notes  of 
music  dyed  with  innocent  blood  must  tingle  the  ears  of  Jehovah. 
Alia  bishop  can  fitly  do  in  this  case  is  to  offer  prayers  for  the  soul 
of  the  murdered  wife — and  head  a  subscription  for  her  family.  He 
who  slew  her  should  be  left  to  the  hangman  in  this  world  and  to 
the  Judge  of  the  next. 

In  these  days,  when  Ave  are  told  that  those  misjudge  Chris- 
tianity who  question  the  morality  of  its  teachings — these  sacra- 
mental transactions  with  a  murderer  require  explanation  and  I 
shall  read  with  attention  any  I  may  receive,  if  your  lordship  really 
took  part  in  them — as  represented. 

Your  lordship  teaches  that  he  who  believes  that  Eve  was  but 
a  mere  primrose  dame,  filching  the  apple  of  freedom,  "shall  with- 
out doubt,  perish  everlastingly  " — while  here  is  a  wife  murderer 
who  (as  we  know  from  report)  fares  well,  eats  well,  sleeps  well 
and  dies  well,  with  the  bishop  at  his  elbow  to  impart  to  him  "the 
sure  and  certain  hope  of  a  glorious  resurrection."  Who  can  rec- 
oncile these  things.     Who  can  read  them  and  not  be  amazed? 

Whatever  part  your  lordship  may  have  taken  in  this  affair,  it 
has  been,  I  doubt  not,  from  humane  motives — but  motives  do  not 
make  morality— however  they  may  excuse  conduct. 

[At  the  anniversary  of  the  Secular  Institute  at  Leicester,  I  did 
as  I  intimated,  brought  the  correspondence  under  the  notice  of  the 
audience.  Between  the  time  of  sending  the  letter  to  the  Bishop 
of  Lincoln  and  the  public  citation  of  it,  there  was  time  for  a  reply. 


No  answer  came  nor  did  I  expect  it.  It  does  sometimes  occur  to 
a  bishop  that  he  professes  to  be  "a  soldier  of  Christ"  and  that  he 
ought  to  answer  for  the  faith  that  is  in  him,  when  reasonable  re- 
quirement is  made  to  him  to  that  effect.  Some  years  ago  when  I 
addressed  Bishop  Wilberforce,  then  in  the  occupancy  of  the  See 
of  Oxford,  he  gave  prompt  and  courteous  attention  to  my  inqui- 
ries though  the  occasion  of  them  and  the  nature  of  them  would  be 
held  to  excuse  his  disregard  of  them.  The  moral  sense  of  the 
community  is  much  sharper  than  it  was,  education  is  more  gener- 
ally diffused,  the  observation  of  clerical  ways  is  more  critical  than 
formerly,  and  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  might  usefully  have  ex- 
plained the  grounds  on  which  he  continued  a  practice  no  longer 
consonant  with  the  moral  feeling  of  the  age.  After  a  few  days  I 
addressed  to  his  lordship  the  following  further  communication :] 

Your  lordship  might  infer  from  my  recent  letter  that  it  was 
written  on  behalf  of  relatives  of  the  murdered  woman,  indignant 
at  the  distinction  conferred  upon  the  man  who  killed  her.  This  is 
not  so — I  do  not  know  them,  yet  I  own  that  in  all  such  cases  my 
sympathies  are  more  with  the  families  of  the  victim  than  with 
him  who  brought  the  misery  upon  them. 

It  was  from  moral  considerations  that  I  wrote.  The  public 
concern  is  with  restitution  rather  than  salvation.  As  far  as  possi- 
ble restitution  should  be  exacted  from  the  criminal.  In  days  when 
I  was  deputed  to  report  upon  executions  I  had  experience  of  mur- 
derers which  led  me  to  write  a  pamphlet  against  public  killing  as 
feeding  the  vanity  of  murderers  and  further  depraving  the  scoun- 
drel class  by  permitting  them  the  gratification  of  witnessing  mur- 
der without  responsibilty.  I  have  known  some  murderers.  The 
man  Forwood,  known  by  the  name  of  Southey,  the  name  which 
he  had  the  vanity  to  take — told  me  that  he  intended  to  kid  his 
wife  and  family.  His  wish  was  to  win  the  distinction  of  Trop- 
mann  by  a  great  crime.  As  he  represented  that  Lord  Dudley  was 
the  cause  of  his  misfortunes  I  suggested  that  he  should  kill  him, 
if  he  was  persuaded  of  the  rightfulness  of  redressing  private  wrong 
by  murder.  But  this  did  not  divert  him.  He  did  kill  seven  per- 
sons and  then  wrote  to  me  from  Maidstone  gaol  to  bring  his  case 
under  the  notice  of  the  public.  I  answered  that  "I  was  reluc  ant 
to  kick  a  man  when  he  was  down,  even  though  he  was  a  mur- 
derer, but  I  drew  the  line  at  a  man  who  killed  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren. I  hoped  that  his  frightful  ambition  of  notoriety  would  be 
ended  bv  the  rope."  I  have  reason  to  think  that  I  prevented  arti- 
cles being  written  on  his  trial,  as  he  was  hanged  without  attention 
being  bestowed  upon  him.  Until  that  case  arose  I  did  not  believe 
that  a  man  would  incur  the  gallows  for  the  sake  of  publicity.  As  I 
have  said,  I  doubt  not  that  your  lordship's  attentions  to  Insole 
were  dictated  by  honorable  pity,  and  not  inconsistent  with  the  let- 
ter and  spirit  of  Christianity.  Nevertheless,  administering  the 
Holy  Sacrament  to  murderers  effaces  the  terror  of  crime  and  di 
minishes  its  gravity  in  the  eyes  of  criminals.  The  interest  of 
society  is  in  restitution,  not  repentance  and  it  is  conducive  to  pub- 
lic morality  that  men  should  know  that  he  who  commits  a  crime 
in  which  restitution  is  impossible  places  himself  without  the  pale 
of  sympathy  in  this  world  or  of  mercy  in  the  next  unless  some 
expiatory  is  in  force  there.  George  Jacob  Holyoake. 


REPLY  TO  PROCTOR  ON  "COMMON  CONSENT." 

To  the  Editors: 

Will  you  kindly  give  space  to  a  brief  rejoinder  by  way  of 
counter-criticism  to  the  article  of  Richard  A.  Proctor  in  The 
Open  Court  of  June  9,  entitled  "Common  Consent  and  the 
Future  Life?"  The  attempt  is  made  to  prove  by  the  doctrine  of 
mathematical  probabilities  or  chances,  that  the  doctrine  of 
immortality  can  only  be  true  in  one  chance  in  ten  chances,  if  it 
is  to  be  decided  by  the  "common  consent"  of  the  "average 
minds."  Without  touching  upon  the  method  of  proof,  let  us  see 
where  this  same  doctrine  of  probabilities  will  lead  us  if  applied 
to  other  things  or  questions  about  which  there  is  "  considerable 
difficulty  "  of  decision. 

But  first  let  us  turn  Professor  Proctor's  proposition  around 
a  little  and  see  what  it  may  be  made  to  present  to  us.  By  the 
professor's  mathematical  deductions  the  belief  in  immortality  by 
"common  consent  "  is  not  likely  to  be  true  at  all,  or  only  in  the 
ratio  of  one  chance  in  ten,  or  one  hundred,  or  some  other  higher 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


33: 


mathematical  limit.  Therefore,  he  discards  this  proof  or  argu- 
ment as  to  immortality  as  utterly  valueless  in  a  scientific  or 
rational  aspect,  as  nothing  but  the  merest  blind  guess  work,  viith 
all  the  chances  against  it.  It  is  the  belief  in  immortality  against 
the  whole  field  of  real  difficulties,  mathematical  certainties  and 
logical  proofs. 

But  one  opinion  always  provokes  another.  Suppose  (and  it 
is  a  valid  supposition,  since  some  races  of  men,  sects  and  individ- 
uals have  always  disbelieved  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul)  that 
the  greater  part,  the  large  majority,  of  men  disbelieved  in  immor- 
tality; that  by  "common  consent  "  it  was  held  to  be  true  that 
there  was  no  immortal  life,  no  life  beyond  this  present  life.  Or, 
since  science  is  soon  expected  to  bring  most  men  to  see  the  falsity 
of  their  belief  in  immortality,  suppose  in  A.  D.  2100  it  is  found 
that  most  men  of  average  ability  shall  hold  the  belief  in  the  non- 
immortality  of  the  soul,  by  "common  consent,"  what  logically 
would  then  follow  from  the  application  of  Professor  Proctor's 
method  of  demonstration?  Namely  this:  Whatever  belief  is 
held  upon  a  subject  of  "  considerable  "  or  "real"  difficulty  by 
"common  consent"  can  only  be  true  one  chance  in  ten,  or  some 
higher  ratio — that  is,  it  is  not  true  at  all  —  it  is  an  untruth,  a 
falsehood.  Now  apply  this  principle  to  either  of  the  hypothetical 
cases  instanced,  and  what  is  the  result?  By  the  same  logic,  the 
same  method  of  mathematical  demonstration,  it  would  be  shown 
that  it  can  not  be  true  that  there  is  no  immortality,  or  only  to  the 
extent  of  one  chance  in  ten  or  oneliundred.  Therefore  its  alter- 
native must  be  true  and  must  be  accepted,  viz:  that  immortality 
is  true  in  the  ratio  of  chances  of  nine  to  ten  or  ninety-nine  to  one 
hundred. 

Or,  take  the  question  of  the  existence  of  a  personal  (spiritual) 
God,  which  I  suppose  Professor  Proctor  would  agree  was  a  sub- 
ject of  "  some  difficulty. "  The  "  common  consent  "  of  all  men, 
(perhaps  we  may  say  in  all  ages)  has  been  that  of  a  belief  in  such 
a  being.  But  by  the  application  of  the  professor's  theory  of 
mathematical  probabilities  the  question  is  easily  settled  in  the 
negative  "by  a  large  majority." 

Or,  take  the  question  of  the  liberty,  or  equality  of  civil  rights, 
of  men,  a  matter  of  "considerable  difficulty  "  as  history  shows. 
In  America  by  "  common  consent"  this  belief  is  held  as  an- 
nounced in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  And  does  Pro- 
fessor Proctor  want  to  applv  his  theory  of  mathematical  proba- 
bilities to  this  doctrine  to  show  its  absurdity  or  falsehood? 

Or,  take  the  question  of  honesty,  or  the  belief  among  men  by 
"  common  consent  "  that  one  should  tell  the  truth  and  should  not 
steal.  This  is  a  subject  of  "considerable  difficulty,"  too,  at  least 
there  is  quite  a  divergence  of  practice  among  men  in  regard  to 
it.  Do  we  have  to  apply  the  doctrine  of  mathematical  probabili- 
ties to  this  belief  to  decide  its  validity? 

If  Professor  Proctor  would  substitute  for  "common  consent" 
the  common  instinct  among  men  as  to  the  belief  in  immortality  a 
juster  element  would  be  introduced  into  the  discussion,  and  the 
question  could  then  be  studied  scientifically  in  the  line  of  its 
proper  demonstration. 

Is  it  not  true  that  the  " common  consent"  of  the  "average 
minds  "  among  men  in  regard  to  moral,  religious  (not  speculative) 
and  spiritual  questions,  and  as  to  the  faiths  and  beliefs  of  men  in 
regard  to  God  and  the  immortal  life,  is  a  legitimate  and  convinc- 
ing argument  in  itself,  and  one  which  no  scientific  or  mathemati- 
cal demonstration  can  reach  or  unsettle,  since  it  is  not  founded  on 
intellectual  conceptions  or  based  on  scientific  information? 

H.  D.  Stevens. 

BOOK   REVIEWS. 

L'Heredite  Psychologiqi'e.  Par  Tli.  Ribot.  Troisieme  Edi- 
tion. Corrigee  et  augmentee.  Paris,  1SS7. 
It  is  to  be  regreted  that  the  latest  English  issue  of  this  book 
is  a  mere  reprint  of  an  antiquated  translation,  and  we  now  call 
attention  to  the  third  edition  of  Ribot's  Heredity,  which  is  just 
out  and  has  not  as  yet  found  a  translator. 

In  the  preface  M.  Ribot,  says:  "This  new  edition  has  been 
revised  in  many  points.  The  researches  into  hereditary  insanity 
or  insanity  of  the  degenerated,  and  the  important  hypothesis  of 


Weismann  concerning  the  physiological  cause  of  heredity  could 
not  be  passed  by  in  silence.  Many  things  hive  been  gained  from 
recent  investigations  especially  from  the  excellent  work  of  M. 
De^'erine:  UHiriditi  dans  les  maladies  du  systeme  nerveuxi" 

Undoubtedly  M.  Ribot  is  the  man  whose  opinion  on  this 
question  is  to  be  valued  most  highly,  the  solution  of  which  can 
give  us  a  clue  to  the  scientific  explanation  of  evolution.  "We  do 
not  know  for  certain,"  says  Ribot,  "what  man  was  in  the  beginning 
and  we  can  not  say  what  man  will  be  in  the  future.  But  imagine 
him  in  his  natural  state  and  in  that  of  an  extreme  civilization. 
Compare  the  savage,  almost  naked,  his  brain  full  ol  images  but 
void  of  ideas,  *  *  *  with  a  highly  civilized  man,  cultivated 
in  art  and  literature  *  *  *  and  practicing  Goethe's  precept, 
"Try  to  understand  yourself  and  the  world."  Between  the  two 
extremes  the  distance  seems  infinite  and  yet  it  has  been  passed 
through  gradually,  step  by  step.  Without  doubt,  this  evolution 
resulting  from  the  complex  action  of  numerous  causes,  is  not 
entirely  due  to  heredity.  But  we  would  not  have  succeeded  in 
our  task,  if  the  reader  has  not  now  comprehended  that  heredity 
has  largely  contributed  to  produce  evolution." 

We  select  a  few  passages  from  one  of  the  most  interesting 
chapters  of  Ribot's  book,  Lcs  hypotheses  sur  VMriditi.  On  the 
ground  that  "psychical  heredity  is  one  aspect  of  biological  hered- 
ity," M.  Ribot  reviews  the  different  explanations  proposed  by 
Darwin,  Galton,  Herbert  Spencer,  Haeckel  and  Weismann.  The 
theories  of  the  three  former  savants  are  mostly  known,  or  at  least 
easily  accessible,  to  an  English  speaking  public.  The  views  of  the 
two  latter,  Haeckel  and  Weismann,  are  of  quite  recent  date,  and  a 
translation  of  what  the  author  says  about  their  theories  may  be 
welcome.     We  translate  from  pp.  403-405. 

"  The  latest  hypothesis  of  Haeckel,  known  under  the  name  of 
ferigenesis,  is  a  dynamical  explanation  of  heredity.  Darwin's  and 
also  Spencer's  hypotheses  do  not  reduce  heredity  to  a  purely 
anatomical  explanation,  but  these  writers  attributed  less  impor- 
tance to  the  dynamical  properties  of  living  matter  than  did 
Haeckel. 

"The  comparison  so  often  made  between  an  organism  and  a 
State,  Haeckel  maintains,  is  no  vague  and  far-fetched  analogy.  The 
cells  are  veritable  citizens  of  a  State,  and  we  may  consider  the 
body  of  any  animal  with  its  strong  centralization  as  a  cellular 
monarchy,  the  vegetable  organism,  the  centralization  of  which  is 
weaker,  as  a  cellular  republic.  The  cell,  however,  is  not  the  ele 
mentary  and  most  simple  organism.  Below  it  there  is  the  cytode, 
viz.,  a  mass  of  albuminoid  substance  without  nucleus  and  without 
membrane. 

"  Cells  and  cytodes  are  the  vital  units.  The  living  matter  of 
moneres  and  these  cytodes  Van  Beneden  and  Haeckel  call  flas- 
son,  i.  e.,  the  primordial  plastic  substance  of  which  protoplasm  is 
only  a  differentiation. 

"The  plassoncan  be  resolved  into  molecules  which  are  not 
resolvable  into  smaller  molecules,  but  constitute  the  ultimate  limit 
of  division.  These  are  the  flastidules.  It  is  in  the  nature  of 
plastidules  that  we  must  search  for  an  explanation  of  heredity  in 
all  its  forms.  "  According  to  Haeckel  each  atom  possesses  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  force;  it  is  animated.  The  atom  has  a  soul,  which 
means  that  it  exhibits  the  phenomena  of  pleasure  and  displeasure, 
of  desire  and  aversion,  attraction  and  repulsion.  If  every  atom 
is  endowed  with  sensation  and  will,  these  two  qualities  can 
not  be  considered  as  belonging  to  the  organism  as  a  whole,  and 
we  must,  therefore,  search  for  the  properties  which  distinguish 
the  plastidules  from  the  molecules,  and  constitute  the  real  essence 
of  life. 

"  The  most  important  of  these  properties,  it  appears  to  us,  is 
the  faculty  of  reproduction  or  memory,  which  appears  in  all  pro- 
cesses of  evolution,  and  especially  in  the  reproduction  of  organ- 
isms.    All   plastidules   possess    memory ;  this  faculty  is  absent  in 


334 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  case  of  all  other  molecules.  According  to  Haeckel  memory 
is  not  onlv  a  property  of  organized  matter,  he  ascribes  memory 'to 
all  living  matter.  This  memory,  common  to  plastidules,  explains 
heredity.  Haeckel  attributes  to  each  plastidule  an  undulatory 
rhythmical   motion. 

"  Bv  the  generative  act  a  certain  quantity  of  the  protoplasm  or 
albuminoid  matter  of  the  parents  is  transmitted  to  the  child,  and 
with  this  protoplasm  an  individual  and  special  form  of  molecular 
motion.  These  molecular  motions  call  forth  the  phenomena  of 
life  and  are  their  real  cause.  There  is  also  an  original  plastidulary 
motion  which  is  transmitted  by  the  parental  cell  and  preserved. 
The  influence  of  external  circumstance,  from  which  adaptation 
and  variability  result,  produces  a  modification  of  this  molecular 
movement." 

"  Haeckel  accordingly  draws  the  conclusion  :  '  Heredity  is  the 
memory  of  plastidules,'  or  the  transmission  of  the  movement  of 
plastidules  and  adaptation  consists  in  acquired  movements. 

"  Haeckel  trusts  that,  in  this  way,  he  has  given  a  monistic  and 
mechanical  explanation  of  heredity ;  monistic,  for  in  the  plasti- 
dules the  ordinary  properties  of  matter,  life  and  consciousness  are 
united,  mechanical,  for  his  hypothesis  is  based  on  the  principle  of 
a  communication  of  motion. 

"  More  recently  Weismann  has  proposed  a  new  and  important 
theory  of  heredity  under  the  name  of  continuity  of  the  germ- 
plasma  (Continuitdt  des  Keimflasma  ah  Grundlage  einer  Theorieder 
Vererbnng).  No  hypothesis  affirms  more  positively  the  invaria- 
ble and  indelible  character  of  hereditary  transmission.  It  is  based 
upon  the  investigations  of  different  contemporary  embryologists, 
especially  of  Van  Beneden,  who  have  shown  that  fecundation  con- 
sists in  a  fusion  of  the  male  and  female  germ  {noyau),  that  it  is  a 
copulation  only  of  germs,  and  that  the  body  of  the  cell  does  not 
take  any  part  in  it.  These  germs  contain  the  germinative  plasma. 
But  if  a  new  being  is  produced  only  a  part  of  this  plasma  is  used, 
the  rest  forming  a  reserve  which  serves  to  constitute  the  germi- 
native cell  of  the  offspring.  In  other  words,  the  plasma  which  is 
contained  in  the  germinative  cell  does  not  all  participate  in  the 
reproduction  of  the  new  organism.  Some  part  of  it  is  designed 
for  the  conservation  of  the  race,  and  deposited  from  the  beginning 
in  the  future  sexual  organs.  The  author  represents  the  continuity 
of  this  germinative  plasma  by  the  figure  of  a  long  root,  from 
which  offshoots  spring  at  certain  distances,  representing  the  indi- 
viduals of  successive  generations.  Each  of  the  two  germs  which 
unite  in  fecundation,  says  Welsman,  should  contain  the  germina- 
tive plasma  of  the  respective  parents,  the  progenitors  of  this  gen- 
eration. At  the  same  time  it  contains  the  nuclear  plasma  of  the 
germinative  cells  of  the  grandparents  and  the  great-grandparents. 
The  nuclear  plasma  of  the  different  generations  exists  in  always 
smaller  quantities,  according  to  the  distance  of  the  generation. 

"  The  germinative  plasmas  of  the  father  and  mother  constitute 
two  halves  of  the  child's  germ  cell,  of  the  grandfather  only  one- 
fourth;  that  of  the  tenth  generation  back  constitutes  only  one 
thousand  twenty-fourth  part.  Yet  the  latter  may  very  well  reap- 
pear in  the  formation  of  a  new  being.  The  phenomena  of  atavism 
prove  that  the  germinative  plasma  of  ancestors  can  manifest  its 
persistence  even  in  the  thousandth  generation  by  characters  which 
were  long  lost. 

"  These  hypotheses  show  the  difficulties  of  a  scientific  explana- 
tion of  heredity.  But,  after  all,  Ribot  says:  Heredity  is  one  of 
the  most  stable  manifestations  of  determinism.  In  the  domain  of 
life  continuity  cannot  take  a  more  palpable  form.  *  *  *  Hered- 
ity is  identity,  viz.:  the  partial  identity  of  the  materials  which 
constitute  the  organism  of  the  parents  and  that  of  the  child. 
*  *  *  By  heredity  we  feel  ourselves  linked  into  the  irrefrag- 
able chain  of  cause-,  and  effects,  and  by  heredity  our  poor  person- 
ality [noire  cliitive  ■personated')  is  attached  to  the  ultimate  origin 
of  things  through  the  infinite  concatenation  of  necessities."     p.  c. 


The  Problem  of  Evil:  An  Introduction  to  the  Practical 
Sciences.  By  Daniel  Greenleaf  Thompson,  author  of  A  Sys- 
tem  of  Psychology.  London:  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1887. 
Cloth,  Svo,  pp.  28r. 

This  work,  less  abstract  and  scientific  in  its  terminology  than 
the  previous  and  more  extensive  work  by  the  same  author,  A 
System  of  Psychology  assumes  the  philosophicalp  ositions 
therein  maintained,  and  proceeds  therefrom  to  a  discussion  of  the 
important  questions  respecting  belief  and  practical  duty  involved 
in  the  consideration  of  "The  Problem  of  Evil."  The  author  is, 
in  his  main  positions,  in  cordial  agreement  with  the  English  utili- 
tarion  school  of  thinkers.  From  this  standpoint,  in  the  work 
now  before  us,  he  criticises  Sedgwick,  Green  and  other  represent- 
atives of  intuitional  psychology  with  great  acuteness  and  vigor. 

After  expressing  his  dissent  from  the  various  theological 
explanations  of  the  origin  and  character  of  moral  evil  based  upon 
supernaturalism,  Mr.  Thompson  proceeds  to  compare  moral  evil 
with  evils  which  are  purely  physical  in  their  nature,  and  deduces 
the  conclusion  that  pain  is  the  index  of  evil,  both  moral  and  phys- 
ical— the  former  differing  from  the  latter  merely  in  the  additional 
element  of  volition  which  attends  it.  Evil,  as  suffered,  is  always 
pain,  even  if  it  be  moral  evil,  the  latter  being  only  pain  arising 
from  certain  peculiar  causes.  Pain  being  a  phenomenon  of  con- 
sciousness or  mind,  since  we  are  unable  to  determine  scientifically 
the  ultimate  origin  of  mind,  the  origin  of  evil  is  equally  beyond 
our  ken.  It  is  still  open  to  us,  however,  to  study  it  as  an  existing 
fact;  to  determine,  so  far  as  may  be,  its  proximate  causes,  and  to 
seek  for  the  most  effectual  and  scientific  means  for  its  elimination. 
It  is  to  this  practical  task  that  our  author  applies  himself  in  the 
work  before  us. 

If  pain  is  the  essential  element  in  moral  evil,  it  follows  that 
the  effort  for  its  elimination  is  but  another  expression  for  the 
search  for  happiness.  Our  author's  philosophy,  however,  is 
widely  removed  from  that  popular  conception  of  hedonistic  utili- 
tarianism which  issues  in  the  conscious  pursuit  of  individual 
pleasure.  His  trenchant  criticism  on  the  intuitional  philosophy 
of  Thomas  Hill  Green,  indeed,  is  based  largely  upon  the  fact  that 
the  strife  for  that  ideal  perfection  of  the  nature  of  the  individual 
which  is  held  up  as  the  chief  incentive  for  human  action  is  essen- 
tially egoistic  in  its  character.  Mr.  Thompson's  utilitarianism,  on 
the  contrary,  is  profoundly  altruistic  in  its  outcome.  "  The  chief 
good,"  he  maintains,  "is  not  coincident  necessarily  with  the  max- 
imum happiness  of  the  individual,  who  may  be  able  only  to  find 
his  good  in  his  own  selfish  ends;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  latter 
may  be  so  educated  as  to  derive  his  highest  happiness  from  the 
happiness  of  others,  and  find  his  chief  good  in  life  in  contributing 
to  the  realization  of  the  social  summum  boiium"  (p.  44).  The  cul- 
tivation of  an  altruistic  disposition  is,  therefore,  in  the  opinion  of 
our  author,  of  prime  importance  in  the  struggle  against  moral 
evil.  "Without  this,  enlightenment  is  wholly  in  vain;  men  are 
not  made  virtuous  bv  making  them  understand  intellectually  what 
virtue  is." 

The  observation  of  nature  also  demonstrates  that  the  chief 
social  good  is  most  likely  to  be  attained  when  the  largest  possible 
liberty  is  allowed  to  individual  conduct.  The  two  general  rules, 
therefore,  which  should  guide  us  in  our  efforts  for  the  extinction 
of  moral  evil  are  these: 

"First — Aim  at  the  minimum  of  extrinsic  restraint  and  the 
maximum  of  individual  liberty. 

"Second — Aim  at  the  most  complete  and  universal  develop- 
ment of  the  altruistic  character." 

The  four  chief  methods  of  reducing  evil  Mr.  Thompson  finds 
to  be:  "The  industrial  method,  working  for  the  control  and  mod- 
ification of  material  forces;  the  political  method,  aiming  to  estab- 
lish  security   and   justice;  the   philanthropic   method,  seeking  to 


THE    OPBN    COURT. 


33  S 


remove  evil  by  direct  altruistic  effort;  and  the  educational  method, 
which  endeavors  to  effect  the  development  of  individual  altruistic 
character"  (p.  95).  The  chief  obstacles  to  the  attainment  of  the 
desired  end  are:  The  artificial  morality  founded  on  an  assumed 
supernatural  system;  the  elevation  of  institutions  above  the  indi- 
vidual, which  "brings  up  the  controversy  between  authority  and 
individualism;"  the  allied  socialistic  fallacy,  and  the  persistent 
retention  of  egoistic  dispositions  in  individval  men  and  women. 

Under  the  head  of  "The  Great  Theological  Superstition,"  Mr- 
Thompson  attacks  with  rationality  and  vigor,  yet  in  good  spirit' 
the  theological  conception  of  sin  as  untrue  and  immoral,  leading 
in  various  directions  to  perverted  notions  of  morality,  checking 
the  altruistic  spirit  by  limiting  it,  in  effect,  to  those  of  kindred 
doctrinal  fellowship,  and  becoming  in  many  ways  "no  mean  hin- 
derance  to  the  growth  of  the  highest  and  best  religious  sentiments.'' 
Under  the  title  of  "The  Institutional  Fetich,"  our  author 
reprobates  that  prevalent  conception  of  our  time  which  asserts  for 
the  family,  the  State  and  the  church  a  rightful  authority  over  the 
individual,  independent  of  their  intrinsic  utility.  He  combats 
especially  some  recently  expressed  opinions  of  Bishop  Littlejohn 
and  President  Seelve  in  support  of  "  the  unqualified  sovereignty 
of  the  family  and  the  State,"  and  strenuously  maintains  the  right 
of  private  independent  judgment, — the  duty  of  criticising  freely 
the  imperfections  of  existing  institutions  and  striving  intelligently 
and  wisely  for  a  more  perfect  social  order.  He  finds  the  doctrine 
of  authority  to  be  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  elevation  and  enfran- 
chisement of  woman,  and  an  interference  with  the  just  rights  of 
the  child,  who  should  be  recognized  as  an  independent  human 
being  having  his  "own  independent  ends,  which  should  be 
respected."  Admitting  the  defects  in  existing  democratic  institu- 
tions, he  finds  the  cause  of  these  defects  in  egoism,  not  in  individ- 
ualism. "The  root  of  the  evil  is  a  self-centered  disposition  which 
is  not  to  be  remedied  by  setting  one  man  above  another."  This 
principle  of  authority  stimulates  an  aggravated  development  of 
egoism,  and  increases  the  evil  instead  of  abating  it. 

Under  the  head  of  "  The  Socialistic  Fallacy,"  Mr.  Thompson 
criticises  the  prevalent  tendency  to  find  in  socialism  and  industrial 
co-operation  the  relief  for  all  the  evils  which  afflict  society  and 
the  individual.  "Co-operative  organization  must  be  a  microcosm 
of  the  general  life,  and  subject  to  the  same  conditions."  Hence, 
we  can  expect  no  special  virtues  to  be  developed  in  the  commune 
or  the  co-operative  society  which  do  not  exist  in  individuals  or  in 
the  existing  social  organism.  On  the  contrary,  the  success  of 
socialism  implies  the  elevation  of  competent  individual  leaders 
above  the  masses,  and  thus  stimulates  a  growth  of  egoism  which 
is  fatal  to  the  highest  moral  and  social  conditions.  The  preva- 
lence of  the  existing  militant  system  is  also  deprecated  as  tending 
in  a  like  manner  to  defeat  all  efforts,  however  earnest,  for  the  pro- 
motion of  the  altruistic  character.  The  style  of  our  author  is 
admirably  clear,  and  the  general  tone  of  the  discussion,  covering 
as  it  does  a  wide  range  of  practical  questions  which  are  upper- 
most in  the  thought  of  millions  at  the  present  day,  will  doubtless 
secure  for  Mr.  Thompson's  book  a  wide  circle  of  intelligent  read- 
ers. No  thoughtful  person  can  rise  from  its  perusal  without  a 
quickened  sense  of  personal  responsibility  as  regards  the  import- 
ant problem  herein  discussed,  and  a  sincere  recognition  of  the 
thoughtfulness,  candor  and  ability  displayed  in  its  consideration- 


in  full  are  :    'The  Historical  (Jewish)  Jesus  and  tin-  Mythical  (Egyp- 
tian) Christ;  Paul  as  (t  Gnostic  Opponent  0/   Peter,  not  the  Apostle 
of  Historic  Christianity:   The  Logic  of  the  Lord,  or  Pre-Christian 
Savings  Ascribed  to  Jesus   the   Christ;    The  Devil  of  Darkness,  or 
Evil  in  the  Light  of  Evolution:  Man  in  Search  of  His  Soul  During 
Fifty  'Thousand  Tears,  and  Haw  he  Found  It ;    The  Seven  Souls  of 
Man  and   Their   Culmination   in   Christ.     Mr.  Massey's  main  pur- 
pose is   to  show  that  the  Christ,  like  Osiris  and  other  heroes  of 
astronomical   fables,   is  "  mythically   the   re-born   sun,  mystically 
the   re-born   spirit  or  glorified  ghost  of  man."     Substantially  the 
same  ground  had  been  taken  in  his  book  entitled  Natural  Genesis. 
The  view  of  Jesus  as  a  solar  myth  is  sustained   by   many  curious 
analogies  between  the  New  Testament  and  the  Egyptian  records, 
but  some   of  these  comparisons   seem   too   fanciful,  and  Natural 
Genesis  appears,  from  its  author's  own  statements,  to   have   found 
little  favor  with  the  eminent  Egyptologists  in  the  British  Museum. 
A  poet  is,  as  such,  singularly  incapacitated  for  success  in  abstruse 
investigations   like   those  undertaken  by  Mr.  Massey,  who  labors 
under  the  additional  disadvantage  of  not   having  had   any   early 
training   in  exact   scholarship.     That  he  should  have  worked  his 
way  up  so  far  above  the  privations  and  ignorance  of  his  boyhood 
is  greatly  to  his  honor,  especially  as  he  has  never  lost  that  sym- 
pathy with  the  toiling,  suffering  millions  which  has  made  him  a 
poet.     It  could  not  make  him  an  expert  antiquarian   also,  though 
he  might  still  win  laurels  as  a  novelist.     His  account  of  the  pre- 
historic  sayings  of  Jesus   is  especially   defective,  and   makes   no 
reference  to  one  which  occurs  in  an  early  manuscript  of  the  gos- 
pels, and  runs  somewhat  thus :  "  That  same  day  he  saw  one  plow- 
jig  on  the  Sabbath,  and  said  unto  him:   'Blessed  art  thou,  O  man, 
jf  thou  knowest  what  thou  art  doing;  but  if  thou  knowest  it  not, 
then  art  thou  a  transgressor  of  the  law  and  accursed.'  "     The  rep- 
resentation of  Paul  as  a  gnostic,  who  denounces  Peter  as  the  man 
of  sin,  or   Anti-Christ,   may  be   nearer   to   the  truth   than  is  the 
orthodox   view   that  the   two   apostles   worked   in  harmony;  but 
even  the  good  intention  of  showing  that  there  is   nothing   in   the- 
osophv  or  isoteric  Buddhism  worth  keeping  secret  from  all  except 
the  initiated,  does  not  justify  dwelling  so  long  on  the  old  fancy  of 
our  seven  souls,  the  first  of  which  is  in  the  blood  and  the  second 
in  the   breath,  while  the  place  of  the   other  five  is  immaterial  in 
every  sense.     We  can  agree  with  Mr.  Massey   that   there  should 
be  no  more  mystery  about  religion,  whatever  we  may  think  of  his 
praises  of  spiritualism,  of  his  censure  of  vaccination  and   vivisec- 
tion, or  of  his  fondness  for  sensational  hits. 


The  Historical  Jests,  and  Other  Lectures.  By  Gerald 
Massey.  Villa  Bordighiera,  New  Southgate,  London,  W. 
Those  who  love  the  author  of  "  Babe  Christabel,"  "There's 
No  Dearth  of  Kindness,"  "Lyrics  of  Love,"  "The  People's 
Advent,"  "  The  Cry  of  the  Unemployed,"  "  Nebraska,  or  the  Abo- 
litionist to  His  Bride,"  and  other  poems  as  precious  for  their  sym- 
pathy with  the  poor,  the  persecuted  and  the  oppressed  as  Whit- 
tier's,  may  be  much  surprised  at  these  six  pamphlets.     Their  titles 


The  Art  Amateur  for  July  has  many  fine  and  interesting 
illustrations.  The  colored  plate  representing  The  Kingfishers, 
after  a  painting  by  Miss  Ellen  Welby,  is  very  spirited  and  full  of 
life  and  motion.  The  colors  are  bright  indeed,  but  we  presume 
this  appearance  of  crudity  is  increased  in  the  reproduction.  The 
wood  cut  well  represents  the  washing  day  atmosphere,  hazy  and 
picturesque  with  steam  and  suds  of  Amanda  Brewster's  "  Lavoir 
in  the  Gatanais  "—wherever  that  may  be.  Another  wood  cut  in 
different  style,  very  bold  and  free — is  from  a  drawing  by  Thomas 
Hovenden  from  his  own  picture.  It  represents  "  Vendean  Peas- 
ants Preparing  for  Insurrection."  The  subject,  an  interior  of  a 
peasants'  house,  with  men  and  women  earnestly  discussing  or 
listenening  is  vigorously  portrayed  —  the  figures  are  good  — the 
attitudes  natural  and  the  faces  strong  and  expressive.  The 
sketches  of  costume  are  varied  and  interesting.  The  technical 
matter  is  also  good,  and  the  instructions  to  amateur  photographers 
and  decorators  are  full  of  value.  William  Hart,  in  an  article  on 
Painting  Landscapes  and  Cattle,  says  some  very  true  things  in 
regard  to  the  importance  of  shadow  in  painting  and  the  effect  of 
chiaro-oscuro  on  color.  The  rest  of  the  literary  work  is  less  inter- 
esting than  usual.  The  first  article  gives  a  dreary  enumeration 
of  deception  and  treachery  among  art  dealers,  which  may  be  useful 


336 


THE    OPE-N    COURT. 


as  warning  to  purchasers  if  not  instructive  to  students  of  art- 
Theodore  Child  gives  an  account  of  the  Paris  Salon,  but  he 
takes  delight  in  damping  the  pleasure  naturally  felt  at  our  coun- 
try-woman, Miss  Gardner's,  reception  of  a  third-class  medal,  by 
a  flippant  attack  upon  the  artist.  That  Miss  Gardner's  work 
should  be  influenced  by  the  counsels  and  help  of  her  distinguished 
friend  and  master  is  not  surprising  —  it  is  hard  to  separate  the 
merit  of  a  pupil  from  the  value  of  his  teacher.  But  Miss  Gard- 
ner has  worked  long  and  earnestly,  and  we  believe  conscien- 
tiously and  it  is  as  disrespectful  to  the  jury  as  to  her  to  assert 
that  she  is  "a  humbug,"  and  the  award  of  the  medal  "simply 
ridiculous."  Mist  Gardner's  friends  may  be  consoled,  however, 
on  turning  to  another  article  of  the  same  critic — on  the  Millet 
exhibit.  We  looked  eagerly  to  this  page,  hoping  for  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  works  of  the  great  artist  displayed  there.  Instead  of 
this  the  critic  favors  us  with  his  judgment  that  Millet  was  "  a 
very  poor  painter,  and  that  hi6  pictures  are  good  in  spite  of  their 
execution  which  is  generally  coarse,  brutal,  hesitating  and 
monotonous."  If  he  condemns  Millet  so  mercilessly,  Miss  Gard- 
ner may  prefer  his  censure  to  his  praise.  He  seems  utterly 
insensible  to  all  the  wonderful  charm  of  land  and  sky  which 
Millet  has  rendered  so  wonderfully.  He  appears  also  never  to 
have  learned  Coleridge's  great  lesson,  "  never  to  judge  a  work  of 
art  by  its  defects."  He  says  some  good  words  of  Millet's  repre- 
sentation of  humanity,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  recognize  his 
beauty.  The  portrait  of  Millet  i6  a  fine  wood  cut  and  has  some- 
thing of  his  characteristics,  but  the  wood  cut  is  not  delicate 
enough  for  human  portraiture. 


Mind  for  July  sustains  its  high  reputation  as  an  exponent  of 
psychologic  subjects  by  very  able  and  interesting  essays.  The 
first  is  a  continuation  of  Professor  William  James'  highly  inter- 
esting paper  on  "The  Perception  of  Space,"  in  which  many  curi- 
ous and  important  facts  are  brought  to  light.  F.  H.  Bradley  has 
an  essay  on  "Association  and  Thought,"  the  intention  of  which  is 
to  show  in  outline  how  thought  comes  to  exist.  Professor  John 
Dewey  contributes  a  paper  on  "Knowledge  or  Idealization,"  and 
E.  Gurney  on  "Further  Problems  of  Hypnotism."  The  discus- 
sions are  by  S.  II.  Hodgson  on  "Subject  and  Object  in  Psychol- 
ogy;" W.  L.  Mackenzie  on  "Recent  Discussions  on  the  Mus- 
cular Sense,"  and  M.  H.  Towry  "On  the  Doctrine  of  Natural 
Kinds."  The  Critical  Notices  are  "J.  Dewey,  Psychology,"  by 
the  editor;  "W.  Knight,  Hume,"  by  G.  F.  Stout;  "Scottish  Meta- 
physics Reconstructed,"  by  W.  H.  S.  Monck;  "M.  Carriere,  the 
Philosophical  Ideas  of  the  Renaissance,"  by  T.  Whittaker.  There 
is  a  full  list  of  notices  of  new  philosophical  works  and  interesting 
notes,  published  by  Williams  &  Norgate,  14  Henrietta  street, 
Covent  Garden,  London. 


The  June  number  of  the  Revue  de  Belglque  contains  notices 
of  two  interesting  books.  A  Canadian  missionary,  Petitot,  has 
published  the  results  of  his  study  of  Indian  myths  in  a  work  en- 
titled Traditions  indiennes  du  Canada  nord-ouest.  Paris:  Maison- 
neuve,  1S86,  538  pp.  An  answer  to  Seeley's  Natural  Religion  has 
been  made  by  a  French  scientist,  named  Guyan,  under  the  title  of 
Virreligion  de  Vavenir.  Paris:  Alcan,  1887,508  pp.,  Svo.  This 
prophecy  of  "the  Irreiigion  of  the  Future"  is  reviewed  by  Count 
Goblet  d'Alviella,  who  praises  highly  its  ability.  Guyan  begins 
by  a  survey  of  the  historical  development  of  religion,  which  he 
shows  to  consist  essentially  in  intimate  relations  between  man  and 
God.  His  second  part  insists  that,  in  laying  aside  its  intolerance, 
its  dogmatism,  its  belief  in  oracles,  devils,  etc.,  and  its  reliance  on 
sacraments,  and  its  idolatry  of  Scripture,  religion  has  grown  at  the 
same  time  purer  and  weaker,  so  that  there  is  every  reason  to  ex- 
pect the  process  of  self-purification  to  end  in  its  ceasing  to  exist. 
Any  one  who  doubts  this  will  do  well  to  compare  the  political  and 


social  force  exerted  by  the  church  six  hundred  years  ago,  with 
the  amount  to-day.  M.  Guyan  goes  on  to  predict  that  morality 
will  survive  religion,  and  that  the  place  of  the  dissolving  churches 
will  be  amply  filled  by  schools  of  philosophy,  ethical  culture  soci- 
eties, philanthropic  associations  and  art  clubs.  D'Alviella's  own 
view  of  these  questions  will  be  given  in  a  later  article.  His  quo- 
tations from  Virreligion  de  Vavenir  show  that  it  is  eminently 
worthy  of  a  speedy  translation  into  English. 


PRESS  NOTICES. 

The  Open  Court,  published  in  this  city,  is  one  of  the  ablest  journals  of  its 
class  in  the  United  States. — American  Commercial  Traveler,  Chicago,  III. 

The  Open  Court,  published  at  Chicago,  lias  in  its  issue  of  June  23d  some 
very  interesting  articles.  Some  of  the  best  writers  of  the  country  are  contrib- 
utors.— Narragansett  (R.  I.)  Times. 

Under  the  above  title  ["Jails  and  Jubilees  "J  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton 
contributes  an  interesting  article  to  The  Open  Court — the  brilliant  Chicago 
successor  of  the  Boston  Index — which  puts  strong  points  in  a  readable  way  on 
the  Irish-English  question. — Hartford  Times. 

The  lecture  on  "The  Identity  of  Language  and  Thought,"  by  Professor 
Max  Miiller,  published  in  the  last  number  of  The  Open  Court,  is  rather  the 
best  article  in  that  journal  of  useful  and  entertaining  literature.  To  us  that  one 
lectt  r?  is  worth  the  entire  subscription  price  of  the  magazine  fcr  one  year. — 
Daily  Reporter,  Maquoketa,  Iowa. 

The  Open  Court  is  a  fortnightly  journal  published  at  Chicago  and  devoted 
to  the  work  of  establishing  religion  and  ethics  upon  a  scientific  basis.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly an  able  periodical.  The  current  number  has  articles  from  Richard  A. 
Proctor,  John  Burroughs,  Prof.  Adams,  Moncure  D.  Conway,  and  from  other 
distinguished  scholars  and  scientists. — Lebanon  (Ind.)  Pioneer. 

Each  number  of  The  Open  Court  gives  additional  evidence  of  the  correct- 
ness of  the  Herald's  opinion  expressed  on  receipt  of  the  first  issue.  There  are, 
we  are  glad  to  know,  among  our  readers  mony  men  of  more  than  average  intel- 
ligence, who  would  like  just  such  a  publication.  To  such  we  would  say,  send 
to  B,  F.  Underwood,  169  La  Salle  street,  Chicago,  for  a  sample  copy. — Areola 
(l\l.)  Herald. 

The  Open  Court  is  a  new  fortnightly  journal  lately  established  in  Chicago, 
having  for  its  object  the  consideration  of  any  and  all  subjects  that  effect  us  in- 
dependent of  all  creeds  and  dogmas  with  a  view  to  establishing  ethics  and  re- 
ligion upon  a  scientific  basis.  The  Open  Court  will  be  greatly  appreiiated 
by  thousands  of  intelligent  men,  in  and  out  of  the  church,  who  have  become 
tired  of  old  superstitions,  and  who  prefer  reason  to  mere  assertion. —  The  Plain 
Viezv  (Minn.)  News. 

We  are  in  receipt  of  copies  of  the  Open  Court,  a  freethinkers'  magazine, 
published  fortnightly  at  Chicago.  It  declares  its  work  to  be  that  of  "  establish- 
ing religion  upon  a  scientific  basis."  In  other  words  it  will  endeavor  to  scien- 
tize  away  the  Christian  religion.  While  we  have  no  sympathy  with  such  aim, 
we  are  glad  to  get  The  Open  Court,  as  it  contains  some  excellent  contributions 
from  eminent  writers  of  the  materialistic  and  agnostic  schools,  is  ably  edited, 
and  its  letterpress  well  nigh  perfection. — Nelsonville  (Ohio)  News. 

Our  readers  will  remember  that  some  months  ago  we  spoke  very  highly  of 
the  new  literary  venture  at  Chicago,  The  Open  Court.  We  have  now  received 
it  regularly  for  several  months,  and  the  gnod  opinion  then  expressed  of  its 
initial  number  is  more  than  justified.  It  contains  the  ablest  and  freshest  thought 
t  f  the  age,  and  the  printing  and  paper  are  faultless.  To  a  thoughtful,  intelli- 
gent reader  we  know  of  nothing  so  well  worth  the  money  as  this  paper.  It  is 
published  fortnightly,  24  pages,  $3  per  year. — Anti- Monopolist t  Enterprise,  Kas. 

Its  object  is  to  investigate  the  great  moral,  social,  religious  and  philosoph- 
ical questions  affecting  the  interests  of  mankind,  from  a  scientific  and  inde- 
pendent standpoint.  The  editors  aim  for  the  truth  and  right,  which  can  be  best 
discovered  by  unprejudiced  and  impartial  examination  and  discussion  of  every 
matter,  and  while  they  freely  express  their  own  opinions  in  the  articles  written 
by  themselves,  they  expect  contributors  to  exercise  a  like  independence.  The 
journal  is  ably  edited,  and  among  its  contributors  are  some  of  the  greatest 
scholars  and  thinkers. — Sauk  County  (Wis.)  Democrat. 

The  table  of  contents  of  The  Open  Court  for  the  first  half  of  July  is  equally 
rich  and  varied  with  those  of  the  preceding  number-:.  Professor  F.  Max 
Miiller's  essay  on  "The  Identity  of  Language  and  Thought,"  Part  I.,  is  the 
initial  article,  followed  by  a  lecture  by  Professor  E.  D.  Cope  on  "  The  Thelo<?y 
of  Evolution,"  in  reply  to  Dr.  Montgomery's  criticisms  upon  the  subject.  Other 
leading  articles  are:  "A  Notable  Picture,"  by  R.  S.  Perrin;  "A  Modern  Mys- 
tery-play," by  M.  C.  O'Byrne;  "Failure  of  the  Radical  Method,"  by  Rev. 
Julius  H.  Ward;  "  Competition  in  Trades,"  by  Wheelbarrow.  Editorials  dis- 
cuss "The  Case  of  Professor  Egbert  C.  Smyth,  of  Andover,"  "  Public  Opin- 
ion," "Hypnotism,"  "  Co-operative  Congress  in  England,"  supplemented  with 
"  Editorial  Notes."  The  other  departments  are  supplied  with  a  like  variety  of 
articles  upon  equally  interesting  current  topics. —  )Visconsi?z  State  "Journal. 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work   of  Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon   a   Scientific   Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  13. 


CHICAGO,  AUGUST  4,  1887. 


\  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
1  Singli    Copies,  15  ns. 


[The  third  of  Prof.  F.  Max  Midler's  three  lectures 
on  the  "Science  of  Thought"  is  commenced  in  this 
issue.  This  lecture  on  "  The  Simplicity  of  Thought," 
is  not  published  nor  to  be  published  in  England,  having 
been  secured  exclusively  for  The  Open  Court,  in 
which  it  is  printed  from  the  author's  manuscript.  This 
distinguished  philologist  believes  that  language  is  the 
history  of  human  thought,  ami  no  other  man  living  prob- 
ably is  as  competent  as  he  to  read  this  history  under- 
standingly,  especially  those  pages  which  indicate  how 
men  reasoned  and  what  they  thought  during  the  world's 
intellectual  childhood.] 


THE  SIMPLICITY  OF   THOUGHT.* 

BY     PROF.    F.    MAX    MllLLER. 

One   of  three   Lectures   on  the  Science    of  Thought   delivered   at 
the  Royal  Institution,  London,  March,  1S7S. 

Part   1. 

If  the  conclusions  at  which  we  arrived  in  our  last 
lecture  are  correct — if  thought  and  language  are  identica', 
or,  at  all  events,  inseparable — it  would  seem  to  follow 
that  all  our  knowledge  is  "  merely  verbal  "  or  "  merely 
nominal."  To  most  people  this  will  seem  a  sufficient 
condemnation  of  any  argument  that  could  lead  to  so  pre- 
posterous a  conclusion.  If  we  want  to  express  our  most 
supreme  contempt  for  any  proposition  we  sav  it  consists 
of  mere  words.  What  in  our  days  we  are  most  proud 
of  is  that  in  all  our  pursuits  we  deal  with  facts  and  not 
with  words.  Words,  we  are  told,  are  the  daughters  of 
the  earth,  things  the  sons  of  heaven.  A  philosophy 
therefore,  which  would  attempt  to  change  all  our  knowl- 
edge into  mere  words,  could  hardly  expect  a  patient  hear- 
ing; certainly  not  in  the  country  of  Bacon. 

It  is  difficult  to  deal  with  such  an  objection,  because 
it  really  conveys  no  meaning  whatever.  There  must  be 
sense  in  every  word  we  use  in  argument, and,  as  I  pointed 
out  before,  there  is  no  sense  whatever  in  such  an  expres- 
sion as  mere  -words.  There  are  no  such  things  as  mere 
words,  unless  we  look  for  them  in  those  vast  cemeteries 
which  we  call  lexicons  or  dictionaries.  There  we  find, 
indeed,  mere  words,  dead  words,  unmeaning  words.  The 
German  language,  as  if  to  warn  us  against  taking  such 
corpses    for    living    words,    calls     them    wb'rter,    and 


*  Copyright,  1SS7,  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 


distinguishes  them   from    ivorte.     It   calls   a  dictionary   a 
■worterbuch,  not  a  -wort-bitch. 

Outside  a  dictionary,  however,  ami  outside  a  mad- 
house, there  are  no  such  things  as  mere  words;  noi  is 
there,  on  the  other  side,  any  such  thing  as  mere  thought. 

Things,  it  has  been  well  said,  arc  thinks,  and  thinks 
are  words.  Can  we  know  anything  except  by  means 
of  a  word?  Is  it  possible  to  become  conscious  of  any 
thought  except  by  means  of  a  name?  We  may  distin- 
guish, no  doubt,  between  names,  and  concepts,  and  per- 
cepts. But  percepts  (a  term  which  I  use  for  presentation, 
the  German  Vorstellung\  percepts  by  themselves  are 
nothing,  concepts  by  themselves  are  nothing,  while  it  is 
only  the  three  together — percept,  concept  and  name — 
that  constitute  what  we  mean  by  real  knowledge. 

Let  us  try  an  experiment.  It  is  possible  to  imagine 
that  people,  say  some  primitive  savages,  had  never  seen 
or  heard  of  gold.  How  would  they  become  acquainted 
with  it?  In  digging  they  might  receiye  the  impression 
of  something  glittering,  but  eyen  that  impression  would 
be  of  no  consequence  to  them  unless  they  were  startled 
by  it,  unless  their  attention  was  directed  to  it;  and  thus 
the  mere  sensation  of  glittering  became  changed  by  them 
into  something;  that  glitters.  That  change  of  the  sub- 
jective  sensation  into  an  object  of  sense  is  our  -work — it 
is  the  first  manifestation  of  the  law  of  causality  within  us. 

But  that  glittering  object  is  even  then  nothing  to  an 
intelligent  obseryer  unless  he  can  lay  hold  of  it  by  some 
concept;  that  is,  unless  he  can  name  it,  unless  he  can  call 
it  glittering.  We,  at  our  time  of  life,  find  no  difficulty 
in  calling  a  thing  glittering,  or  bright,  or  shining.  We 
have  names  and  concepts  ready-made  for  everything. 
But  all  these  names  and  concepts  had  first  to  be  made. 
A  number  of  single  percepts  of  glittering,  glimmering, 
flickering,  sparkling,  flashing,  flaming,  gleaming  things 
had  first  to  be  comprehended  under  one  general  aspect, 
while  at  the  same  time  a  root  had  to  be  found  to  express 
it.  How  these  roots  were  formed  I  explained  in  my  first 
lecture.  They  all  owe  their  origin  to  the  clamor  concom- 
itans  of  social  acts.  Thus  glittering  goes  back  to  a 
root  GUAR,  which  meant  at  first  to  melt,  to  fuse  by 
heat.  From  it  ghrita,  liquified  butter,  or  ghec.  What 
was  melted  and  liquified  by  heat  was  generally  not  only 
warm  but  also  shining,  so  that  the  same  root,  in  its 
objective  application,  came  to  mean  to  melt — that  is  to 
say,  to  be  in  a  state  of  melting,  to  glitter,  to  shine.     From 


33§ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


that  root,  used  in  that  meaning,  we  have  in  English  such 
variously  differentiated  forms  as  to  glint,  to  glitter,  to 
glisten,  to  gleam,  to  glimmer. 

With  such  a  root,  then,  which  was  at  the  same  time 
a  concept,  it  was  possible  to  conceive  and  name  that  glit- 
tering thing  which  had  been  dug  up  with  many  other 
things,  and  which  excited  our  attention  chiefly  by  this 
distinguishing  feature  of  being  bright.  But  by  being 
called  glitter  this  dug  up  thing  was  not  yet  gold.  Far 
from  it.  Its  old  name  in  Sanskrit,  hiranya,  said  no 
more  than  that  it  glittered,  and  not  everything  that  glit- 
ters is  gold.  Still,  even  that  first  name  marks  an  enor- 
mous advance  beyond  the  mere  fright  excited  in  an  ani- 
mal by  the  sight  of  a  flaring  object,  or  beyond  the  mere 
human  stare,  or  even  the  phantasma  in  our  memory.  It 
is  knowledge — not  much,  as  yet,  but  it  is  knowledge;  it 
is  the  work  of  intellect,  not  the  mere  passive  stupor  of 
the  senses. 

The  same  object  might  be  called  and  conceived  bv 
many  new  names,  and  with  every  new  name  new 
knowledge  would  be  added.  Whatever  new  qualities  a 
miner  discovered  as  distinguishing  this  glitter  from 
other  kinds  of  glitter,  would  be  added  by  means  of  new 
names,  or  new  adjectives.  By  this  process  what  we  call 
the  intension  of  the  first  name  would  grow  fuller  and 
fuller.  But  we  must  remember,  every  one  of  these  new 
qualities  could  be  known  again  by  the  same  process 
only  by  which  the  first  quality  of  glittering  was  known, 
namely,  by  being  named.  Suppose  our  primitive  sav- 
ages wanted  small  stones  for  building  purposes.  If 
among  the  stones  they  were  breaking  they  met  with 
some  that  would  not  break,  they  would  throw  them 
away,  and  thus  gold  might  be  called  rubbish  or  refuse. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  they  looked  out  for  material  that 
would  bend  and  not  break  on  being  struck,  they  would 
pick  out  the  old  glitter  which  they  had  thrown  away  as 
rubbish,  and  now  call  it  pliant,  flexible,  ductile,  malle- 
able. All  these  properties  were  attended  to,  known  and 
named  at  the  same  moment.  Gold  was  now  not  only 
bright,  but  malleable,  and  ductile,  and  by  a  constant 
repetition  of  the  process  of  naming  and  conceiving,  and 
conceiving  and  naming,  people  arrived  at  last  at  what 
we  call  true  knowledge  of  gold,  including  its  specific 
gravity,  and  its  power  of  "resisting  nitro-muriatic  acid, 
and  all  the  rest.  That  true  knowledge  may  be  more 
full,  more  accurate,  more  concerned  with  essential  quali- 
ties than  our  first  knowledge  of  mere  glitter.  But  there 
is  no  difference  in  kind.  Our  perfect  knowledge  is  as 
much  nominal  or  verbal  as  our  imperfect  knowledge 
was,  nor  can  it  ever  be  anything  else. 

It  may  be  said  by  those  who  think  it  right  to  despise 
what  they  call  verbal  knowledge,  that  such  knowledge 
would  not  help  us  to  distinguish  a  gold  sovereign  from 
a  brass  penny.  But  they  forget  that  without  a  name  we 
should    not   know  either   a   gold    sovereign    or   a  brass 


penny,  much  less  be  able  to  distinguish  them.  We  may 
do  what  we  like,  we  cannot  jump  out  of  our  skin,  and 
the  skin  of  all  our  thoughts  is  language.  WTe  begin,  no 
doubt,  with  sensuous  irritation  and  intuition,  but  intuition 
by  itself  is  not  knowledge,  it  is  blind;  conception  by 
itself  is  not  knowledge,  it  is  empty;  a  name  by  itself  is 
not  knowledge,  it  is  mere  sound.  Only  the  three  to- 
gether represent  what  we  mean  by  knowledge,  and  the 
final  embodiment  of  that  knowledge  is  the  word. 

If  that  is  so  with  the  names  of  things  which  we  can 
touch  and  handle,  it  is  far  more  so  with  the  names  of 
objects  which  we  cannot  reach  with  our  senses  at  all. 
Let  us  take,  for  instance,  the  word  species.  No  one  has 
ever  seen  or  handled  a  species.  Even  if  we  should  see 
what  used  to  be  meant  by  species,  we  should  not  know 
it  for  a  species,  unless  we  had  first  called  it  so.  The 
first  question,  therefore,  is,  How  did  we  ever  come  into 
the  possession  of  such  a  name  as  species?  This  is  a 
mere  matter  of  historical  research.  We  know  from 
history  that  species  was  a  Latin  rendering  of  the  Greek 
eldotr,  and  this  tldo?  has  been  adapted  in  Greek  philosophy 
as  a  convenient  term  for  distinguishing  a  lower  from  a 
higher  class.  Thus  bull-dogs,  greyhounds,  spaniels,  ter- 
riers would  be  called  species,  that  is  lower  classes  or 
sub-classes,  while  dog  would  be  considered  as  a  higher 
class  or  genus,  till  we  ascend  still  higher  and  compre- 
hend all  dogs,  pigs,  cows,  and  horses  as  a  higher  genus 
animal,  of  which  dogs  are  then  a  species  only. 

This,  however,  was  clearly  a  technical  emplo3'ment 
of  the  terms  species  and  genus,  and  these  names  must 
have  existed  before,  when  they  had  a  meaning  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  assigned  to  them  by  the  founders  of 
logic.  A  genus  meant  originally  a  breed,  and  was 
used  for  any  living  beings,  whether  animals  or  plants, 
which  could  be  traced  back  to  common  ancestors.  Eidos 
or  species,  on  the  contrary,  meant  originally  no  more 
than  what  is  seen,  the  aspect,  or  appearance  or  shape  of 
things.  These  two  words  were  found  convenient  even 
during  a  very  primitive  phase  of  thought.  Stones  that 
were  black  or  gray  or  yellow,  were  considered  as  differ- 
ent sets  or  sorts  or  species.  They  appeared  like  each 
other,  but  no  more.  Dogs  on  the  contrary,  that  were 
black  or  gray  or  yellow,  though  if  their  color  alone 
were  considered,  they  might  be  treated  as  sets  or  sorts  or 
species,  were  conceived  as  a  genus  or  breed,  if  it  could 
be  shown  that  they  belonged  to  one  and  the  same  litter. 
Thus  the  two  kinds  of  classification,  which  seem  to  us 
the  result  of  the  latest  scientific  thought,  the  genealogi- 
cal and  the  morphological,  were  foreshadowed  in  the 
earliest  words  of  our  language.  In  Sanskrit  also  we 
have  gati,  kith,  used  in  the  logical  sense  of  genus,  while 
species  is  expressed  by  dkriti,  which  means  form. 

Even  for  logical  purposes  these  two  words  genus 
and  species  were  by  no  means  very  appropriate.  What 
was  a  genus  from  one  point  of  view,  became  a  species 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


339 


from  another,  what  was  a  species  for  one  purpose,  be- 
came a  genus  for  another.  Genus  and  sub-genus,  class 
and  sub-class  would  therefore  have  answered  the  pur- 
pose far  better. 

The  very  fact,  however,  that  what  we  from  one 
point  of  view  call  a  species,  may  from  another  point  of 
view  be  called  by  us  a  genus,  shows  at  all  events  that 
logical  genus  and  species  are  of  our  own  making,  that 
we  name  and  conceive  them,  and  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  genus  or  species,  in  the  logical  acceptation  of 
of  these  words,  independent  of  ourselves. 

The  confusion,  however,  became  greater  still  when 
these  two  terms  were  transferred  from  logical  to  physi- 
cal science.  What  a  genus  was  in  nature  was  easy  to 
understand.  Individuals  descended  from  common  ances- 
tors formed  a  genus  or  a  breed.  In  some  cases  the  de- 
scent from  common  ancestors  might  be  doubtful,  but 
the  definition  of  genus  would  not  be  affected  by  such 
scientific  doubts. 

But  what  was  a  species?  If  people  had  asked  that 
question  before  they  introduced  that  word  into  the  tech- 
nical language  of  physiology  we  should  have  been  saved 
much  trouble  and  vexation  of  spirit.  If  different  species 
had,  or  may  have  had,  common  ancestors,  they  would 
form  together  one  genus/  if  not,  they  would  form  dif- 
ferent genera.  A  third  is  not  given,  and  there  is  no 
room  therefore  for  species  in  nature. 

We  must  never  forget  that  what  we  really  have  to 
deal  with,  what  is  given  us  to  digest  in  language  and 
thought,  are  individuals  and  nothing  else.  These  indi- 
viduals either  have  common  ancestors  or  they  have  not, 
at  least  so  far  as  our  knowledge  goes.  If  they  have 
common  ancestors  they  form  one  breed,  if  they  have 
not  they  form  different  breeds.  And  again  I  say,  where 
is  there  room  for  species? 

There  may  be  individuals  such  as  man  and  monkey, 
of  which  it  may  still  be  doubtful  whether  they  had  com- 
mon ancestors  or  not.  But  in  that  case  we  have  simply 
to  suspend  our  judgment,  and  we  know  that  in  the  end 
the  result  can  only  be,  either  that  they  belong  to  the 
same  breed  and  in  the  distant  past  had  common 
ancestors,  or  that  they  had  not.  There  is  no  room 
for  a  third  possibility,  for  which  we  want  the  name 
species. 

We  may  speak,  no  doubt,  of  more  or  less  permanent 
varieties,  and  if  we  like,  we  may  call  them  species. 
But  varieties  are  always  varieties  of  one  and  the  same 
original  breed,  while  species  are  supposed  to  be  some- 
thing very  different. 

If  there  ever  was  an  Augean  stable,  it  was  the  stable 
of  species,  and  to  have  cleared  that  stable  with  their 
powerful  brooms  will  always  be  the  glory  of  Darwin 
and  his  fellow  laborers. 

But  why  did  not  Darwin  go  a  step  further,  and 
with  one  stroke  kill  that  hydra   which   unless  entirely 


annihilated,  is  sure   to  put   forth   fresh   heads  again  and 
again? 

Species  is  a  mere  chimera,  a  myth,  that  is  to  say  a 
word  made  for  one  purpose  and  afterward  used  for  an- 
other. No  one  has  ever  seen  a  species,  and  even  if 
such  a  thing  as  a  species  existed,  we  should  not  know 
of  it  till  zee  had  conceived  and  named  it  as  such.  If  we 
want  to  discover  the  real  origin  of  species,  we  could 
only  do  so  by  tracing  the  history  of  that  name  and  con- 
cept from  stage  to  stage  back  to  its  first  beginnings. 
That  would  be  a  most  interesting  undertaking,  ami  it 
would  teach  us  at  least  this  one  lesson,  that  no  one  has 
any  right  to  say  that  species  means  this  and  does  not 
mean  that.  Species  means  neither  more  nor  less  than 
what  different  philosophers  define  it  to  mean.  We  often 
hear  disputants  laying  down  the  law  with  great  emphasis 
that  such  a  word  means  this  and  nothing  else.  Who  has 
given  them  a  right  to  say  this?  Every  word  has  no 
doubt  a  traditional  meaning,  but  traditional  meanings, 
like  everything  that  is  traditional,  are  constantly  chang- 
ing. There  is  no  more  in  a  word  than  what  we  put  in- 
to it,  nor  can  we  take  more  out  than  we  have  put  into  it. 
Darwin  himself  often  complains  of  this!  "No  one,"  he 
writes,  "has  drawn  any  clear  distinction  between  indi- 
vidual differences  and  slight  varieties,  or  between  more 
plainly  marked  varieties  and  sub-species  and  species." 
But  why  should  he  not  himself  have  tried  to  do  this? 
The  endless  disputes  whether  or  not  there  are  some  fifty 
species  of  British  brambles  will  no  doubt  cease  after 
Darwin's  researches;  but  so  long  as  the  name  of  species 
remains  in  natural  history  by  the  side  of  genus,  individ- 
ual, and  variety,  we  shall  never  get  out  of  the  real  bram- 
bles of  our  language,  that  is,  our  thought. 

Darwin  is  evidently  under  the  sway  of  the  old  defi- 
nition that  all  species  were  produced  by  special  acts  of 
creation.  I  have  not  been  able  to  trace  that  definition 
to  its  responsible  author,  but  surely  there  is  no  authority 
whatever  for  it.  The  term  species  was  formed  quite 
independently  of  any  such  theological  ideas. 

The  Greeks,  when  they  used  eidos,  or  species,  never 
thought  of  Zeus  as  their  originator.  Nor  do  I  think 
that  in  Germany  or  France  or  Italv  species  ever  had  that 
theological  odor.  Some  people  seem  to  imagine  that 
Darwin's  great  merit  consisted  in  having  proved  that 
species  were  not  the  result  of  special  acts  of  creation.  1 
doubt,  however,  whether  Darwin  himself  would  have 
cared  either  to  prove  or  to  disprove  this.  What  he  has 
proved  is,  "  that  the  only  distinction  between  species  and 
well-marked  varieties  is,  that  the  latter  are  known  or 
believed  to  be  connected  at  the  present  day  by  interme- 
diate gradations,  whereas  species  iverc  formerly  thus 
connected."  Where,  then,  is  the  ground  of  difference 
between  variety  and  species,  even  from  Darwin's  own 
point  of  view,  except  in  our  momentary  ignorance? 
What  used  to  be  called   species,  will   have   to  be   called 


34° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


either  genus,  sub-genus,  or  permanent  variety.  But 
there  will  in  future  be  no  room  for  species  in  the  vocab- 
ulary of  Natural  History. 

Does  not  this  show  how  entirely  we  think  in  names, 
and  how  even  the  strongest  minds  are  under  their  spell? 
If  Darwin  had  asked  himself  what  the  true  meaning  of 
species  was,  if  he  had  studied  the  history  of  the  word, 
which  is  after  all  its  best  definition,  he  would  have  seen 
that  the  word  has  no  right  at  all  to  exist  in  natural  his- 
tory, and  his  work  on  the  Origin  of  Species  would 
really  have  marked  the  end  of  all  species,  at  least  within 
the  realm  of  nature.  A  belief  in  species  in  natural  his- 
tory is  nothing  but  scientific  mythology,  and  what  Dar- 
win calls  the  search  after  the  undiscovered  and undiscov- 
erable  essence  of  the  term  species,  is  to  my  mind  no 
more  than  the  search  after  the  hidden  essence  of  Titans 
and  Centaurs.  As  soon  as  we  relegate  the  term  species 
to  that  sphere  of  thought  to  which  it  properly  belongs, 
the  air  becomes  perfectly  clear.  We  have  in  nature 
individuals  and  genera  or  breeds;  for  what  we  call  varie- 
ties are  no  more  than  the  necessary  consequence  of  the 
accumulated  effects  of  individualization.  The  slight  and 
almost  imperceptible  differences  which  keep  individuals 
apart  from  each  other,  which,  in  fact,  enable  them  to  be 
individuals,  may  by  inheritance  become  stored  and 
strengthened  till  they  constitute  what  we  call  a  variety 
in  nature.  Hut  these  centrifugal  forces  are  always  con- 
trolled by  the  centripetal  force  of  nature,  and  in  the  end 
the  genus  always  prevails  over  all  individualizing 
tendencies. 

La  Salle,  III,  July  12,  1SS7. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq,  Chicago: 

Dear  Sir  —  Please  publish  among  the  contributions  the 
translation  by  Dr.  Carus  of  "  L.  Carrau's  Analyse"  of  Abbot's 
Scientifii  Theism,  in  the  French  Revue  Philosofhiqae  for  June, 
[S87,  preceded  by  my  correspondence  with  Mr.  Abbot  in  refer- 
ence thereto.     Sincerely  yours,  Edward  C.  Hegeler. 


La  Salle,  111.,  June  30,  1S87. 
Francis  A".  Abbot,  Esq.,  Cambridge,  Mass. : 

Dear  Sir — The  French  Revue  Philosofhiqtie,  conducted  by 
Til.  Ribot,  brought  a  long  review  of  your  book,  Scientific  Theism. 
I  at  once  told  Dr.  Carus  (who  is  with  me)  we  should  prepare  a 
translation  of  it  for  The  Open  Court,  coming,  as  it  does,  from 
a  journal  of  so  high  standing,  also  from  an  entirely  outside  sphere. 

I  should,  however,  not  like  to  ask  the  editor  of  The  Open 
Court  for  the  publication  before  having  heard  from  you,  that 
you  will  not  look  upon  this  as  an  unfriendly  act  against  you,  as 
many  remarks  in  the  review  (though  Dr.  Carus  who  has  thor- 
oughly read  it,  thinks  it  impartial)  may  be  quite  hurtful  to  you. 

Also  to  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court  I  should  like  to 
be  in  the  position  to  say  that  the  publication  is  satisfactory  to 
you.  Perhaps  you  will  kindly  write  me  a  note  to  that  effect 
adapted  to  publication.  Sincerely  yours, 

Edward  C.  IIegeler. 


the  translation  of  M.  Carrau's  critique  of  my  Scientific  Theism  in 
the  Revue  Philosophique,  for  publication  in  The  Open  Court,  is 
received.  I  have  not  the  slightest  objection  to  criticism  of  any 
sort,  and  welcome  it  whenever  it  is  intelligent  and  fair.  I  have 
not  read  M.  Carrau's  article,  but  that  makes  no  difference. 

My  book  raises  questions  which  go  far  deeper  than  is  as  yet 
perceived  by  any  one,  and  which  sooner  or  later  will  command 
the  respectful  attention  and  study  of  every  thinker  who  aspires 
to  master  the  great  theme  of  which  it  treats.  Some  of  my 
American  critics  (for  instance,  Prof  Royce,  Dr.  Montgomery, 
Mr.  Gill  and  Mr.  Underwood)  have  criticised  before  they  have 
understood,  and  such  criticisms  are  profitless  to  all  concerned. 
But  the  reputation  of  the  Revue  Philosophique  justifies  a  hope 
that  its  criticism  will  at  least  prove  to  be  ad  rem;  and  there  will 
be  no  keener,  more  patient,  or  more  disinterested  reader  of  any 
pertinent  criticism  of  Scientific  Theism  than  its  author.  But  no 
criticism  of  it  can  possibly  be  pertinent  which  is  not  grounded  in 
long  and  intense  study.  I  wait  patiently  for  such  criticism  as 
that.  Very  truly  yours,  Francis   E.  Abbot. 

P.  S. —  You  are  at  liberty  to  print  this  note,  as  you  request,  if 
you  care  to  print  it  unchanged.  A. 


NoNQUITT  Beach,  Mass.,  July  7,  18S7. 
E.  <  .  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

Dear    Sir — Your  courteous   letter,  inquiring  if  I   object  to 


A    REVIEW    OF    FRANCIS     ELLINGWOOD    ABBOT'S 
SCIENTIFIC  THEISM. 

BY  L.  CARRAU. 
[Translated  from  the  French  in  the  Revue  Philosophique.     By  Dr.  P.  Carus.] 

F.  E.  Abbot's  Scientific  Tlieism  is  a  book  which 
scandalizes  most  of  the  philosophers  of  to-day.  There 
is  affirmed  the  existence  and  intelligibility  of  a  noume- 
non,  of  a  thing  in  itself;  the  exterior  world  is  supposed 
to  be  really  and  substantially  distinct  from  its  subjective 
representations.  And  what  is  worse,  this  assertion  is 
obtained  by  sufficiently  plausible  reasons  and  with  some 
strength  of  dialectics. 

In  an  important  introduction  Mr.  Abbot  inquires 
into  the  origin  of  idealism,  which  he  considers  as  the 
dominant  philosophy  of  our  time  anel  which  accortling 
to  him  is  an  irreconcilable  enemy  of  science.  Idealism 
has  been  established  by  Kant,  whose  great  reform  may 
be  summed  up  in  the  passage  of  the  preface  to  the  si  cond 
edition  of  his  Critique  of  Pure  Reason. 

"  It  has  hitherto  been  assumed  that  our  cognition 
must  conform  to  the  objects;  but  all  attempts  to  ascertain 
anything  about  these  a  priori,  by  means  of  conceptions, 
and  thus  to  extend  the  range  of  our  knowleelge,  have 
been  rendered  abortive  by  this  assumption.  Let  us,  then, 
make  the  experiment  whether  we  may  not  be  more 
successful  in  metaphysics  if  we  assume  that  the  objects 
must  conform  to  our  cognition." 

But  Kant  himself  has  only  continued  and  deepened 
the  nominalistic  tradition  of  the  Midelle  Ages.  The 
true  founder  of  idealism,  of  subjectivism,  of  phenome- 
nism  ( all  this  is  at  bottom  the  same),  is  Roscelin;  and 
nominalism  is  the  father  of  all  modern  philosophy. 

Nominalism  is  essentially  the  doctrine  which  refuses 
all  objective  reality  of  genera  and  species.  We  may 
distinguish  extreme  nominalism,  according  to  which  uni- 
versals  are  only   names  or  words  (nomina,  voces,Jiatus 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


341 


VOcis),  and  moderate  nominalism,  which  makes  of  them 
pure  concepts  of  the  mind  (Abailard,  William  of  Occam). 
In  both  cases  it  is  denied  that  the  relations  which  unite 
the  individuals  of  the  same  kind  and  the  differences 
which  separate  them  from  those  of  other  kinds,  have  an 
absolute  value  in  so  far  as  they  express  the  nature  of 
things  independent  of  the  mind. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  Cartesian  philosophy 
is  also  nominalistic.  The  only  cognizance  which  is  cer- 
tain in  itself  is  the  idea  of  one's  own  existence.  The 
universe  is  not  directly  known;  we  know,  by  which 
dodge  Descartes  succeeds  in  recovering  our  knowledge 
of  it.  Consistently  the  universe  remains  locked  up  in 
the  human  mind,  and  it  is  an  act  of  inconsistency  to 
which  Descartes  resorts. 

Logically  also  the  system  of  Kant  leads  to  the  negation 
of  the  noumenon ;  and  absolute  egotism  or  the  solipsism 
of  Fichte  is  the  natural  development,  the  last  word  of 
Kantism.* 

Berkeley  and  Hume,  Stuart  Mill  and  Spencer,  all 
these — and  a  legion  of  others,  who  by  misconceiving 
the  principal  of  the  relativity  of  cognizance,  conclude 
that  we  do  not  know  and  cannot  know  anything  but  our 
internal  representations,  the  modifications  or  states  of  our 
consciousness — all  these,  whether  they  acknowledge  it 
or  not,  are  the  heirs  of  nominalism,  they  continue  its 
work  and  tend  to  solipsism. 

There  is  also  another  historical  tradition  of  human 
thought  which  it  may  be  advisable  to  take  up.  It  is 
that  of  Greek  philosophy.  The  physicists  and  meta- 
physicians who  preceded  Socrates,  all  admit  the  exis- 
tence of  a  reality  in  itself.  The  principles  from  which 
these  philosophers  explained  the  world  were :  water,  air, 
fire,  atoms,  homoeomeries,  the  infinite,  numbers,  the 
internal  being.  The  human  mind  comprised  such 
reality  more  or  less  completely  and  nature  obtruded 
from  without  upon  thought.  It  had  not  yet  struck 
them  that  thought  itself  had  created  its  object  and  was 
only  contemplating  its  own  forms,  when  it  believed  to 
perceive  things.  The  first  subjectivists  were  the 
Sophists,  to  whom  individual  thought  is  the  measure  of 
reality  and  truth  (-navrw /ifrpuv  av&poxroc).  But  Socrates 
opposed  and  destroyed  for  centuries  to  come  the  sub- 
jectivism of  the  Sophist.  Plato,  Aristotle,  the  Epi- 
cureans, the  Stoics  are  realists  of  different  degree  and 
type.  Even  Pyrrho,  the  skeptic,  and  his  more  or  less 
faithful  disciples,  Arkesilas,  Carneades,  Aenesidemos 
and  Sextus  do  not  deny  the  existence  of  a  thing  in  itself. 
They  do  not  claim  that  the  mind  seizes  its  own 
representations  in  cognizance;  they  only  say  that  human 
opinions  concerning  the  nature  of  things  are  too  variable 
and  too  contradictory  and  cannot  therefore  be  accepted  as 
an  adequate  expression    of   truth.      With   regard   to  the 


*  We  need  not  mention  that  iue  would  be  careful  in  drawing  these  conclu- 
sions which  are  imputed  to  the  system  of  Kant.  (Annotation  of  Mr.  L.  Carrau.) 


Alexandrians,  their  theory   of    e.xtasis  suffices  to  clear 
them  of  all  suspicion  of  subjectivism. 

The  fathers  of  the  church  are  intemperate  realists, 
and  so  were  the  first  schoolmen.  Some  of  them  are 
realists  to  the  utmost  extreme,  as  Scotus  Eriget/a,  who 
resuscitated  Plato.  They  consider  universals  as  substances 
which  exist  independently  of  and  apart  from  individuals. 
Others  are  so  with  more  moderation  and  following 
Aristotle  take  universals  as  substances,  but  substances 
dependent  upon  and  inseparable  from  particular  things. 
Orthodoxy  in  the  service  of  realism  brought  on  intol- 
erance and  persecution.  The  revolution  of  nominalism 
became  necessary  and  beneficent  in  order  to  save  the 
liberty  of  human  thought.  But  this  work  of  nominal- 
ism is  now  long  fulfilled  and  it  is  sciei/tijic  realism  to 
which  the  future  belongs. 

The  scientific  realism  of  Mr.  Abbot  is  the  philoso- 
phy, or  rather  the  method,  which  is  to  replace  in  future 
all  modern  metaphysics  established  by  Kant  and  by 
nominalism.  But  what  does  Mr.  Abbot  mean  by 
scientific   realism?      He  says  in  chapter  1  : 

"  Modern  science  consists  of  a  mass  of  propositions 
respecting  the  facts,  laws,  order  and  general  constitution 
of  the  universe.  It  is  a  product  of  the  aggregate 
intellectual  activity  of  the  human  race,  and  could  no 
more  have  been  produced  by  an  individual  than  could 
the  language  in  which  its  propositions  are  expressed. 
These  propositions  incorporate  the  results  of  universal 
human  experience  and  reason,  from  which  all  elements 
of  personal  eccentricity,  ignorance  or  error  have  been 
graduall}'  eliminated  in  the  course  of  ages." 

The  essential  condition  of  certitude  for  science  is, 
therefore,  "  the  unanimous  consensus  of  the  competent." 
That  means  the  acquiescence  of  all  intelligences,  duly 
prepared,  to  general  propositions  which  constitute  uni- 
versal experience. 

But  propositions  express  relations,  and  relations  exist 
between,  ami  are  inseparable  from,  terms.  Science 
claims  that  the  relations  which  are  stated  to  exist,  exist 
among  objective  realities  and  are  real  as  much  as  they. 
The  propositions  of  science  have  an  objective  value.  If, 
for  instance,  science  declares  that  the  weight  of  one  atom 
of  hydrogen  is  about  the  0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,- 
109,312th  part  of  a  gram,  or  109,312  octillionth  grams, 
it  is  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  results  which  are 
obtained  are  no  mere  constructions  of  inner  states,  for 
no  internal  modification  can  represent  their  marvelous 
minuteness  of  gravity.  To  our  consciousness  it  is  rigor- 
ously equal  to  zero.  To  science  it  is  a  quantity  actually 
existing  in  nature.  It  is  just  this  quantity  and  not 
another;  and  no  analysis  or  combination  of  subjective 
concepts  will  explain  why  the  decimal  number  of  grams 
in  this  case  is  precisely  what  it  is. 

We  may  add  that  these  results  which  it  is  absolutely 
impossible     to     foresee — and    this   is    a   proof    of    their 


342 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


objectivity — can  be  ascertained  daily  and  constantly  by 
processes  which  force  the  assent  of  the  most  incredulous 
minds.  Mr.  Abbot  concludes  that  science  owes  its 
uninterrupted  progress  and  its  more  and  more  undisputed 
authority  to  a  method  which  is  exactly  opposed  to  that 
of  idealistic  philosophy;  consequently,  a  divorce  has 
been  effected  which  is  fatal  to  philosophy  as  well  as  to 
science — certainly  in  a  less  degree  to  the  latter  than  to 
the  former — and  that  this  separation  should  cease  for  the 
better  reputation  of  philosophy,  whose  discredit  might 
become  irremediable;  and  for  the  higher  interests  of  the 
human  mind  which  cannot  dispense  with  philosophy. 
And  this  separation  will  not  cease  unless  philosophers 
quit  a  sterile  subjectivism  and  leave  the  ego,to  enter  res- 
olutely into  the  universe  declaring  its  absolute  reality, 
unless  they  consider  their  own  thought  as  a  part  of  this 
universe  which  gives  to  it  its  existence,  its  value  and  its 
object;  unless  they  graft  upon  science  the  experimental 
objective  and  a  posteriori  method,  which  by  conquering 
nature  daily  increases  the  power  of  man  and  produces 
an  intercourse  of  intelligences  by  an  adherence  to  truths 
the  number  of  which  incessantly  increases. 

Kant  has  opposed  the  phenomenon  to  the  non-phe- 
nomenon, and  he  was  right.  But  this  opposition  soon 
becomes  with  him  that  of  the  phenomenon  and  nou- 
menon,  the  noumenon  being  taken  as  the  unknowable. 
In  other  words,  the  unknowable  is  the  incomprehensi- 
ble. Strange  perversion  of  the  meaning  of  terms! 
The  movfievmi  of  the  Greeks,  the  true  intelligible, 
becomes  in  modern  phraseology  exactly  its  contrary. 
What  cannot  be  known  is  only  what  does  not  exist  at 
all.  What  is  intelligible  is  cognizable,  if  not  actually 
known.  What  is  actually  known  is  the  phenomenon 
indeed;  what  remains  to  be  cognized  is  the  noumenon. 
But  at  bottom  it  is  one  and  the  same  reality,  a  reality 
which  exists  of  itself.  The  noumenon  of  to-day  will  be  the 
phenomenon  of  to-morrow.  There  are  not  two  distinct 
spheres  like  two  worlds  which  exclude  each  other. 
There  is  only  one  single  world,  the  intelligibility  of 
which  is  the  fundamental  postulate  of  science — a  postu- 
late which  may  be  proved,  if  it  were  necessary,  by 
each  new  discovery.  To  an  infinite  intelligence  all 
would  be  phenomenon,  to  man  the  non-phenomenon  is 
only  in  so  far  not  accessible  as  he  does  not  yet  know 
this  side  of  existence,  although  nothing  cuts  off  human 
intelligence  forever. 

Idealism,  subjectivism,  phenomenism  bear  in  them- 
selves their  contradiction.  If  nothing  exists  but 
what  is  represented,  what  is  represented  exists,  but 
in  proportion  as  it  is  represented.  In  other  words, 
the  subject  has  only  its  existence  in  and  by  its  dif- 
ferent successive  states.  Only  the  representation,  the 
act  of  consciousness  is  real  and  it  is  of  absolute 
reality.  It  is  at  once  all  subject  and  all  object.  It 
exists  in  itself.      That  means,  it  is  the  noumenon;  and  it 


means,  also,  that  all  which  exists  is  noumenon ;  and 
pure  phenomenism  leads  to  an  exclusive  noumenism, 
that  of  phenomenism. 

I  only  sketch  the  arguments  of  Mr.  Abbot.  They 
are  original,  and,  I  dare  say,  they  are  not  lacking  in 
thoroughness.  I  can  only  sum  up  their  essential  fea- 
tures and,  perhaps,  have  deprived  them  of  their  force. 
But  the  book  is  short,  and  I  commend  its  perusal,  to 
give  to  the  relationism  or  the  scientific  realism  of  the 
author  the  attention  which  it  deserves. 

Scientific  realism,  if  accepted,  must  lead  to  a 
religion  which  is  the  religion  of  science,  the  only  one 
which  modern  spirit  admits. 

If  the  fundamental  postulate  of  the  scientific  method 
is  infinite  intelligibility  of  the  universe  which  exists  in 
itself,  one  has  to  ask  what  is  intelligibility. 

Nothing  is  intelligible  but  relations.  Truly  our 
understanding  comprehends  nothing  but  relations,  for 
all  cognizance  can  be  resolved  into  judgments.  And  as 
we  have  said,  relations  are  not  separable  neither  in  exist- 
ence nor  in  thought  from  the  realities  themselves  among 
which  they  exist. 

"  It  was  the  great  defect  of  the  old  scholastic  realism 
to  treat  relations  as  if  they  were  things,  and  conceive 
them  as  separate  entities;  it  is  the  great  merit  of  the  new 
scientific  realism  to  treat  things  and  relations  as  two 
totally  distinct  orders  of  objective  reality,  indissolubly 
united  and  mutually  dependent,  yet  for  all  that  utterly 
unlike  in  themselves. 

"  The  thing  (  r6Si  u,  hoc  aliguid  unitm  numero,  das 
Ding,  das  Etzvas)  is  a  unitary  system  of  closely  corre- 
lated internal  forces,  and  manifests  itself  by  specific 
qualities,  actions,  or  motions;  the  qualities,  actions,  or 
motions  constitute  it  a  phenomenon;  the  system  of  rela- 
tions constitutes  it  a  noumenon — constitutes,  that  is,  both 
the  real  unity  of  the  thing  and  its  intelligible  character. 
This  immanent  relational  constitution  of  the  single  thing 
is,  according  to  the  theory  of  noumenism,  the  true 
'principle  of  individuation'  (firiucifiium  individual- 
itatis  —  quodvis  individuum  est  omnimodo  dctermina- 
tum);  perception  never  exhausts  or  discovers  all  the 
single  relations  of  determinations  which  it  includes, 
although  prolonged  attention  always  discovers  more  and 
more  of  them.  It  is  never  known  wholly,  which, 
however,  is  no  reason  for  denying  that  it  is  known  in  part 
by  science.  Scientific  discovery  has  thus  far  stopped 
with  the  atom  and  the  person,  as  the  practical  limits  of 
its  analysis  of  the  universe  into  single  things  (fidvade?, 
Einzclwesen,  Eiuzeldingc');  the  universe  itself  is  the 
all-thing  (allding) ;  between  these  extremes  is  a  count- 
less multitude  of  intermediate  composite  things,  (mole- 
cules, masses,  compounds,  species,  genera,  families, 
societies,  states,  etc.)  The  systems  of  internal  relations 
in  all  these  various  things  vary  immensely  in  complexity 
and    comprehensiveness  —  in    fact,   the    complexity    and 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


343 


comprehensiveness  of  the  system  determines  the  grade 
of  the  thing  in  the  scale  of  being;  but  in  every  case  the 
immanent  relational  constitution  of  the  thing  constitutes 
its  real  unity,  quiddity,  noumenal  essence,  substantial 
form,  formal  cause,  or  objectively  intelligible  character." 

The  universe,  therefore,  is  intelligible,  as  it  is  the  sys- 
tem of  systems.  But  what  is  intelligence?  It  is  (i)  the 
sole  discoverer  of  immanent  relational  constitutions;  (2) 
the  sole  creator  of  immanent  relational  constitutions. 
And  intelligence  manifests  this  creative  power  of  rela- 
tional constitutions  by  voluntary  activity  when  it  disposes 
of  means  having  in  view  an  end.  The  executing  will 
is  only  a  servant.  It  is  intelligence  which  conceives  ends 
and  discovers  means  for  their  realization.  Now,  means 
are  only  a  relational  system  having  in  view  the  end,  and 
the  end  itself  is  a  thing  conceived  as  possible,  i.  e.,  as  a 
system  of  immanent  relations. 

Let  me  add  that  intelligence  is  identical  in  all  its 
forms  and  its  degrees.  Moreover,  all  intelligence,  from 
the  instinct  of  animals  up  to  sovereign  thought,  has  as 
its  sole  function  to  discover  or  to  create  ends,  i.  e.,  svs- 
tems  of  immanent  relations.  Intelligence  is  essentially 
.  teleological. 

Let  us  draw  the  conclusions  of  Mr.  Abbot's  premises: 

The  infinite  intelligibility  of  the  universe  proves  its 
infinite  intelligence.  Indeed,  only  an  infinite  intelligence 
can  create  an  infinite  relational  constitution. 

"  The  infinitely  intelligible  universe  is  the  self-exist- 
ent totalitv  of  all  being,  since  there  is  no  'other'  to 
which  it  could  possibly  owe  its  existence.  But  that 
which  is  self-existent  must  be  self-determined  in  all  its 
attributes;  and  it  could  not  possibly  determine  itself  to 
be  intelligible  unless  it  were  likewise  intelligent.  To 
express  this  thought  in  less  abstract  terms:  the  universe 
must  be  the  absolute  author  or  eternal  originator  of  its 
own  immanent  relational  constitution.  The  intelligibil- 
ity or  relational  system  of  the  universe,  considered  as  an 
effect,  must  originate  in  the  intelligence  or  creative 
understanding  of  the  universe  considered  as  a  cause. 
This  is  substantially  the  meaning  of  Spinoza's  famous 
distinction  of   natura  naturans  and  natura  natnrataP 

From  this  infinite  intelligibility  and  this  infinite 
intelligence  of  the  universe  which  influence  one  another, 
follows  that  it  is  an  infinite  subject-object  or  an  infinite 
intelligence  having  consciousness  by  itself. 

The  immanent  relational  constitution  of  the  uni- 
verse-object being  infinitely  intelligible  must  be  an 
absolutely  perfect  system  of  nature.  Therefore :  It  is  no 
chaos,  which  would  be  no  system  at  all.  It  is  no  mere 
multitude  of  monads  or  atoms,  for  they  would  form  an 
unintelligible  aggregate  of  systems— and  it  is  no  mere 
machine,  for  a  machine  is  an  imperfect  system  which  can- 
not either  preserve  or  reproduce  itself.  It  is  a  cosmic 
organism,  for  such  an  organism  is  the  only  absolutely 
perfect  system. 


The  infinitely  intelligible  and  absolutely  perfect 
organic  system  of  nature  proves  that  the  universe-object 
is  the  eternal,  organic,  and  teleological  self-evolution  of 
the  universe-subject.  The  eternal  self-realization  or 
self  fulfillment  of  creative  thought  in  creative  being  is 
the  infinite  life  of  the  universe  per  se. 

The  evolution  theory,  it  is  true,  is  the  great  scientific 
conquest  of  our  century  ;  but  not  in  the  mechanic  and 
materialistic  sense  of  Spencer  and  Haeckel.  Their  own 
principles  refute  them.  They  speak  of  a  tendency  to 
preserve  the  type  of  ancestors  by  heredity,  of  a  tendency 
to  cast  out  by  selection  those  which  are  less  adapted  to 
the  struggle  for  existence,  as  if  the  word  tendency  did 
not  imply  an  immanent  teleology  in  nature  itself  and 
excludes  mere  mechanism! 

"  The  infinite  organic  and  organih'c  life  of  the 
universe  per  se  proves  that  it  is  infinite  wisdom  and 
infinite  will,  infinite  beatitude  and  infinite  love,  infinite 
rectitude  and  infinite  holiness,  infinite  wisdom,  goodness 
and  power,  infinite  spiritual  person,  the  living  and  life- 
giving  God  from  whom  all  things  proceed." 

This  deduction  of  Mr.  Abbot's  is  a  little  too  bold! 
Pantheism  generally  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  prove 
the  existence  of  an  immanent  thought  in  the  universe. 
The  God  of  Spinoza  has  an  attribute  which  resembles 
intelligence.  The  difficulty  commences  when  moral 
attributes  and  personality  are  required.  Spinoza  is  sup- 
posed having  excluded  them  from  his  "substance." 
Mr.  Abbot  wants  to  preserve  them;  and  I  am  by  no 
means  sure  that  he  has  succeeded.  I  have  no  space  to 
quote  here  the  passage  containing  his  argument,  but  I 
highly  appreciate  the  ingeniousness  of  his  dialectics  on 
this  point.  To  give  him  a  chance  of  being  appreciated 
it  would  be  necessary  to  reproduce  the  whole  last 
chapter  of  his  book.  There  his  views  are  summarily 
indicated,  and  we  hope  that  the  author  will  give  them 
in  another  work  the  full  development  they  deserve. 
Let  me  only  select  one  more  quotation  in  which 
sense  and  how  far  Mr.  Abbot  declares  himself  a  pan- 
theist: 

"  If  all  forms  of  monism  are  necessarily  deemed 
pantheism,  on  the  ground  that  pantheism  must  include 
all  systems  of  thought  which  rest  on  the  principle  of 
one  sole  substance,  then  scientific  theism  must  be  con- 
ceded to  be  pantheism;  for  it  certainly  holds  that  the  all  is 
God  and  God  the  all;  that  the  dualism  which  jjosits 
spirit  and  matter  as  two  incomprehensibly  related  sub- 
stances, eternally  alien  to  each  other  and  mutually  hos- 
tile in  their  essential  nature,  is  a  defective  intellectual 
synthesis  of  the  facts,  and  therefore  greatlv  inferior  to 
the  monism  which  posists  the  absolute  unity  of  substance 
and  absolute  unity  of  relational  constitution  in  one  or- 
ganic universe  per  se,  and  which  conceives  God,  the  in- 
finite subject,  as  eternally  thinking,  objectifving  and  re- 
vealing Himself   in  nature,  the  infinite  object.     *     *     * 


344 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


If,  on  the  other  hand,  pantheism  is  the  denial  of  all 
real  personality,  whether  finite  or  infinite,  then,  most 
emphatically,  scientific  theism  is  not  pantheism,  but  its 
diametrical  opposite.  Teleology  is  the  very  essence  of 
purely  spiritual  personality;  it  presupposes  thought, 
feeling  and  will.  *  *  *  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
unconscious  teleology,  if  it  is  not  conscious  in  the  finite 
organism,  as  of  course  it  is  not  in  the  organic  stiucture 
as  distinguished  from  the  organic  consciousness  and 
action,  then  it  must  be  conscious  in  the  infinite  organism 
which  creates  the  finite.  Ends  and  means  are  incon- 
ceivable and  impossible,  except  as  ideal  or  subjective 
relational  systems  which  the  creative  understanding 
absolutely  produces,  and  which  the  will  reproduces  in 
nature  as  real  or  objective  relational  systems;  hence  the 
recognition  of  teleology  in  nature  is  necessarily  the 
recognition  of  purely  spiritual  personality  in   Goel. 

"  For  every  deeply  religious  philosophy  must  hold  fast, 
at  the  same  time,  the  two  great  principles  of  the  tran- 
scendence anel  the  immanence  of  God.  If  God  is  not 
conceived  as  transcendent  He  is  confounded  with  matter, 
as  in  hylozoism,  materialism  or  material  pantheism.  But 
if  He  is  not  conceived  as  immanent  He  is  banished  from 
His  own  universe  as  a  Creator  ex  nihilo  and  mere  infi- 
nite mechanic.  Scientific  theism  conceives  Him  as 
immanent  in  the  universe  so  far  as  it  is  known,  and 
transcendent  in  the  universe  so  far  as  it  remains  unknown 
— immanent,  that  is,  in  the  woilel  which  lies  beyond 
human  experience.  This  is  the  only  legitimate  or  philo- 
sophical meaning  of  the  worel  transcendent;  for  God  is 
still  conceiveel  as  immanent  alone,  anel  in  no  sense  tran- 
scendent in  the-  infinite  universe  per  se.  Hence,  the 
merely  subjective  distinction  of  the  transcendence  and 
immanence  of  God  perfectly  corresponds  with  that  of 
the  '  known'  and  the  '  unknown  '  as  absolutely  one  in 
real  being;  God  is  'known'  as  the  immanent,  anel 
'  unknown '  as  the  transcendent,  but  He  is  absolutely 
knovvable  as  both  the  immanent  anel  the  transcendent. 
It  is  really  denial  of  Him  to  confound  Him  with  the 
'  unknowable- '  or  unintelligible — that  is,  the  non-exist- 
ent. Scientific  theism  eloes  not  insult  and  outrage  the 
human  mind  by  calling  upon  it  to  worship  what  it  can- 
not possibly  understand — an  unreal  quantity,  a  surd,  a 
square  root  of  minus  one,  an  '  unknowable  reality,' 
which  is  only  a  synonym  for  impossible  reality  or  abso- 
lute unreality;  for  that  is  the  quintessence  of  supersti- 
tion. But  it  gives  an  idea  of  God  which  not  only  satis- 
fies the  demands  of  the  human  intellect  but  no  less  those 
of  the  human  heart." 

Such  language  is  elevated  anel  makes  us  think.  Shall 
I  say  that  I  am  not  entirely  convinced  ?  The  infinite- 
personality  of  the  universe  gives  me  the  impression  of 
a  contradiction.  A  person  must  be-  an  ego,  and  an  ego 
exists  only  on  the  condition  of  a  non-ego.  A  person 
is  necessarily   limited;  if  he   has  consciousness,  he   must 


distinguish  himself  from  what  he  is  not.  I  know  that 
on  this  account  a  personal  God  would  not  be  all  being, 
anel  it  is  a  pit}'  without  doubt  that  there  is  existence  out- 
side of  Goel;  and  such  non-divine  existence  must  either 
have  been  created  by  Him  or  be  co-eternal,  as  in  the  sys- 
tem of  Plato  or  Stuart  Mill.  But  it  seems  a  greater 
pity  still  that  God  cannot  he  a  person  analogous  to  our- 
selves, only  more  perfect.  It  is  a  pity,  at  least,  if  we 
look  at  it  from  the  demands  of  the  heart.  The  hearts 
which  I  know  are  entirely  apathetic  to  such  a  divine 
nature,  to  such  a  cosmic  system.  It  is  an  excellent  God 
for  intelligence,  but  no  object  for  love.  To  love  the 
universe  and  the  laws  of  the  universe,  or  the  order  of 
the  world,  are  poetic  expressions.  Truly  one  really 
loves  only  that  being  which  can  respond  to  one's  tender- 
ness, a  heart  which  burns  with  the  same  fire.  The  uni- 
verse has  for  man  neither  heart  nor  tenderness;  at  least 
man  has  never  become  aware  of  it.  I  think  Goel  must 
be  at  once  immanent  anel  transcenelent,  but  it  is  a  tran- 
scendent God  to  whom  prayer  and  love  is  offered;  it  is 
not  the  law  of  gravitation  or  the  systems  of  suns  or 
atoms  which  are  addressed.  And  if  this  part  of  the 
universe  which  is  unknown  still  be  a  transcendent  God, 
I  judge  from  analogy  that  the  unknown  universe  will 
be  neither  more  merciful  nor  more  helpful  than  the  uni- 
verse now  known.  Man  implores  a  God  just  against 
the  universe  anel  against  fate,  which  are  often  cruel  in 
their  laws.  Whether  we  may  be  mistaken  or  not  in  the 
belief  that  Goel  exists  I  do  not  examine  here,  but  I 
eleclare  that  man's  heart  will  be  entirely  changed  if  the 
divine  nature  of  the  scientific  theism  suffice  him. 

I  cannot  enter  into  a  discussion  of  Mr.  Abbot's  book ; 
it  would  take  too  much  time  and  space.  It  may  suffice 
having  called  to  this  truly  remarkable  book  the  atten- 
tion of  such  men  as  still  expect  to  find  in  the  meditation 
of  these  deep  problems  the  ultimate  raison  d  ctre  and  the 
chief  dignity  of  thought. 


TH.   RIBOT  ON   DISEASES    OF  MEMORY. 

BY    DR.  PAUL    CARL'S. 

Materials  for  the  study  of  the  diseases  of  memory 
are  abunelant.  The  difficulty  lies  in  classifying  them — 
in  giving  to  each  case  its  proper  interpretation  and  in 
learning  its  true  bearing  upon  the  mechanism  of  mem- 
ory. Ribot  distinguishes  two  great  classes:  (I)  general 
and  (II)  partial  diseases  of  memory.  General  eliseases 
are  either  (l)  temporary,  (3)  periodica),  or  (3)  progres- 
sive. 

(1.)  'Jemporary  amnesia  usually  makes  its  appear- 
ance- suddenly  and  ends  in  the  same  way.  Trousseau 
reports  the  case  of  a  magistrate  who,  attending  a  meet- 
ing of  a  learned  society  in  Paris,  went  out  bareheaded, 
walked  as  far  as  the  quay,  returned  to  his  place  and  took 
part  in  the  discussions  with  no  knowledge  of  what  he 
had  done.     Very  often  acts  begun   in  the   normal   state 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


345 


are  continued  by  the  patient  during  the  period  of  autom- 
atism, or  woids  just  read  are  commented  upon. 

If  a  period  of  mental  automatism  is  not  accompanied 
by  consciousness  amnesia  does  not  need  explanation,  as, 
nothing  having  been  produced,  nothing  could  be  con- 
served or  reproduced. 

A  child  made  to  inhale  the  vapor  of  ether  or  ammo- 
nia, of  which  the  odor  was  disagreeable,  cried,  angrily: 
"Go  away,  go  away,  go  away!"  and  when  the  attack 
was  over  knew  nothing  of  what  had  taken  place.  If, 
in  this  case,  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  consciousness 
was  present,  we  mav  also  affirm  its  existence  in  many 
other  instances.  The  magistrate  just  mentioned  was 
able  to  direct  his  movements  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
evade  obstacles,  carriages  and  passers-by,  which  denotes 
a  certain  degree  of  consciousness.  In  cases  where  con- 
sciousness is  indicated  amnesia  can  be  explained  by  the 
dream-like  weakness  of  the  conscious  state,  which  is  so 
feeble  that  amnesia  ensues.  And  indeed,  the  states  of 
consciousness  which  constitute  the  dream  are  extremely 
weak.  Dreams  of  which  all  remembrance  immediately 
vanishes  are  very  common.  The  visions  of  the  night 
seem  very  vivid;  a  short  time  elapses  and  they  are 
effaced  forever.  They  seem  to  be  strong,  not  because 
they  are  so  in  reality,  but  because  no  other  stronger  stute 
exists  to  force  them  into  a  secondary  position. 

We  pass  now  to  temporarv  amnesia  of  a  destructive 
character.  Cases  of  this  kind  are  of  greatest  interest.  A 
young  woman,  married  to  a  man  whom  she  loved  passion- 
ately, was  seized  during  confinement  with  prolonged  syn- 
cope, at  the  end  of  which  she  lost  all  recollection  of  events 
that  had  occurred  since  her  marriage,  inclusive  of  that 
ceremony.  She  remembered  very  clearly  the  rest  of  her 
life  up  to  that  point.  *  *  *  At  first  she  pushed  her 
husband  and  child  from  her  with  evident  alarm.  She  has 
never  recovered  recollection  of  this  period  of  her  life, 
nor  of  any  of  the  impressions  received  during  that  time. 
Her  parents  and  friends  have  convinced  her  that  she  is 
married  and  has  a  son.  She  believes  their  testimony, 
because  she  would  rather  think  that  she  lost  a  year  of 
her  life  than  that  all  her  associates  are  imposters.  But 
conviction  and  consciousness  are  not  united.  She  looks 
upon  husband  and  child  without  being  able  to  realize 
how  she  gained  the  one  and  gave  birth  to  the  other. 
The  explanation  of  this  case  may  be  found  in  the  impos- 
sibility of  the  reproduction  or  the  entire  destruction  of 
residua.  Strange  cases  of  amnesia  are  such  which 
require  a  complete  re-education.  We  quote  two  inter- 
esting cases  from  Forbes  Winslow  : 

"A  clergyman,  of  rare  talent  and  energy,  of  sound 
education,  was  thrown  from  his  carriage  and  received  a 
violent  concussion  of  the  brain.  For  several  days  he 
remained  utterly  unconscious  and  when  restored,  his 
intellect  was  observed  to  be  in  a  state  similar  to  that  of  a 
naturally  intelligent  child.     Although  in  middle  life,  he 


commenced  his  English  and  classical  studies  under  tutors 
and  was  progressing  satisfactorily,  when,  after  several 
months'  successful  study,  his  memory  gradually  returned 
and  its  former  wealth  and  polish  of  culture." 

"A  gentleman  about  thirty  years  of  age,  of  learning 
and  acquirements,  at  the  termination  of  a  severe  illness 
was  found  to  have  lost  the  recollection  of  everything, 
even  the  names  of  the  most  common  objects.  His  health 
being  restored,  he  began  to  re-acquire  knowledge  like  a 
child.  After  learning  the  names  of  objects  he  was 
taught  to  read,  and,  after  this,  began  to  learn  Latin.  He 
made  considerable  progress,  when,  one  day,  in  reading 
his  lesson  with  his  brother,  who  was  his  teacher,  he  sud- 
denly stopped  and  put  his  hand  to  his  head.  Being 
asked  why  he  did  so,  he  replied:  'I  feel  a  peculiar  sen- 
sation in  my  head;  and  now  it  appears  to  me  that  I  knew 
all  this  before.'  From  that  time  he  rapidly  recovered 
his  faculties." 

( 2. )  The  most  clearly  defined  and  the  most  complete 
instance  of  periodic  a/u/iesia  on  record  is  the  case  of  a 
young  American  woman  reported  by  Macnish  in  his 
Philosophy  of  Sleep.  "  Her  memory  was  capacious  and 
well  stored  with  a  copious  stock  of  ideas.  Unexpect- 
edly and  without  any  forewarning,  she  fell  into  a  pro- 
found sleep,  which  continued  several  hours  beyond  the 
ordinary  term.  On  waking  she  was  discovered  to  have 
lost  even'  trace  of  acquired  knowledge.  Her  memory 
was  tabula  rasa ;  all  vestiges,  both  of  words  and  things, 
were  obliterated  and  gone.  It  was  found  necessary  for 
her  to  learn  everything  again.  She  even  acquired,  by 
new  efforts,  the  art  of  spelling,  reading,  writing  and 
calculating,  and  gradually  became  acquainted  with  the 
persons  and  objects  around,  like  a  being  for  the  first  time 
brought  into  the  world.  In  these  exercises  she  made 
considerable  proficiency.  But,  after  a  few  months, 
another  fit  of  somnolency  invaded  her.  On  rousing 
from  it,  she  found  herself  restored  to  the  state  she  was 
in  before  the  first  paroxj'sm  ;  but  was  wholly  ignorant  of 
everv  event  and  occurrence  that  had  befallen  her  after- 
ward. The  former  condition  of  her  existence  she  now 
calls  the  old  state,  and  the  latter  the  new  state;  and  she 
is  as  unconscious  of  her  double  character  as  two  distinct 
persons  of  their  respective  natures.  For  example,  in 
her  old  state  she  possesses  all  the  original  knowledge,  in 
her  new  state  only  what  she  acquired  since.  *  *  * 
In  the  old  state  she  possesses  fine  powers  of  penmanship, 
while  in  the  new  she  writes  a  poor,  awkward  hand,  hav- 
ing had  neither  time  no  means  to  become  an  expert." 
These  periodical  transitions  lasted  for  four  years. 

A  second,  less  complete  but  more  common  form  of 
periodic  amnesia  is  that  of  which  Dr.  Azam  gives  an 
interesting  description,  in  the  case  of  Felida  X.,  and  to 
which  Dr.  Dufay  found  a  parallel  in  one  of  his  own 
patients.     A  brief  summary  will  suffice  for  our  purpose. 

A  woman  of  hysterical  temperament  was  attacked  in 


346 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


1S56  with  a  singular  malady  affecting  her  in  such  a 
manner  that  she  lived  a  double  life,  passing  alternately 
from  one  to  the  other  of  two  states,  which  Dr.  Azam 
defines  as  the  first  condition  and  the  second  condition. 
In  the  normal  or  first  condition,  the  woman  was  serious, 
grave,  reserved  and  laborious.  Suddenly,  overcome 
with  sleep,  she  would  lose  consciousness  and  awake  in 
the  second  condition.  In  this  state  her  character  was 
changed;  she  became  gay,  imaginative,  vivacious  and 
coquettish.  She  remembered  perfectly  all  that  had 
taken  place  in  other  similar  states  and  during  her  normal 
life.  Then,  after  the  lapse  of  a  longer  or  shorter  period, 
she  was  again  seized  with  a  trance.  On  awaking  she 
was  in  the  first  condition.  But  in  this  state  she  had  no 
recollection  of  what  had  occurred  in  the  second  condi- 
tion; she  remembered  only  anterior  normal  periods. 
With  increasing  years  the  normal  state  (first  condition) 
lasted  for  shorter  and  shorter  and  less  frequent  periods 
while  the  transition  from  one  state  to  the  other,  which 
had  formerly  occupied  something  like  ten  minutes  took 
place  almost  instantaneously.  For  purposes  of  special 
study,  the  essential  facts  in  this  case  may  be  summed  up 
in  a  few  words.  The  patient  passed  alternately  through 
two  states;  in  one  she  possessed  her  memory  entire;  in 
the  other  she  had  only  a  partial  memory  formed  of  all 
the  impressions  received  in  that  state.  The  case  reported 
by  Dr.  Dufay  is  analogous  to  that  just  given.* 

It  is  worth  noting  that  in  some  forms  of  periodica] 
amnesia  there  is  a  part  of  the  memory  which  is  never 
wiped  out,  but  which  remains  common  to  both  condi- 
tions. On  examining  the  general  characteristics  of 
periodical  amnesia  we  find,  in  extreme  cases  an  evolution 
of  two  memories.  The  two  memories  are  independent 
of  one  another ;  when  one  appears,  the  other  disappears, 
each  is  self-supporting-,  each  utilizes,  so  to  speak,  its 
own  material.  As  a  result  of  this  discerption  of  mem- 
ory, the  individual  appears  —  at  least  toothers  —  to  be 
living  a  double  life.  The  illusion  is  natural,  for  the 
Ego  depends  (or  appears  to  depend)  upon  the  possbility 
of  associating  the  present  states  with  those  that  are 
reanimated  or  localized  in  the  past.  There  are  two  dis- 
tinct centers  of  association  and  attraction.  Each  draws 
to  itself  certain  groups,  and  is  without  influence  upon 
others.  And  this  leads  us  to  a  great  subject,  viz.:  to  the 
conditions  of  personality .f 

The  Ego  is  no  distinct  entity  of  conscious  states. 
.Such  an  hypothesis  is  useless  and  contradictory;  it  is  a 
conception  worthy  of  a  Psycholog  in  its  infancy. 
Contemporary   science   sees  in   conscious  personality  a 


*  For  further  details,  see  Azam,  Re\ue  Scit'ntifique,  1S67,  May  20,  September 
16;  is77,  November  10;  1S79,  March  S.     And  Dufay,  ibid.,  iS76,July  15, 

f  Mr.  Hegeler  calls  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  these  instances  of  double 
consciousness  are  analogous  to  cases  of  hypnotism.  A  person  who  was  hypno- 
tised,when  awakened,  retains  in  the  normal  state  no  recollection  of  the  state  of 
hypnosis.  But  if  the  patient  is  hypnotised  again,  he  remembers  what  had  taken 
place  in  a  former  hypnotic  state  and  eventually  will  remember  it  in  succeeding 
states  of  hypnosis.  In  this  way  two  distinct  personalities  are  formed  in  one 
and  the  same  individual.  In  the  study  of  these  facts  the  key  to  problem  of  the 
soul  must  be  looked  for. 


compound  resultant  of  very  complex  states.  The  mechan- 
ism of  consciousness  is  comparable  to  that  of  vision.  Here 
we  have  a  visual  point  in  which  alone  perception  is  clear 
and  precise;  about  it  is  the  visual  field  in  which  percep- 
tion is  progressively  less  clear  and  precise  as  we  advance 
from  center  to  circumference.  The  Ego,  the  present  of 
which  is  perpetually  renewed,  is  for  the  most  part  nour- 
ished by  the  memory.  Beneath  the  unstable  compound 
phenomenon  of  consciousness  in  all  its  protean  phases 
of  growth,  degeneration,  and  reproduction,  there  is  a 
something  that  remains,  and  this  something  is  the 
obscure  consciousness  which  is  the  product  of  all  the 
vital  processes,  constituing  bodily  perception,  and  which 
is  expressed  in  one  word,  coeuaesthesis  (Germans  call  it 
"  Gemeingefiihl).  The  unity  of  the  Ego  is  not  that  of 
a  mathematical  point,  but  that  of  a  very  complicated 
mechanism;  it  is  a  consensus  of  vital  processes,  co-or- 
dinated by  the  nervous  system  and  by  consciousness  the 
natural  form  of  which  is  unity. 

(3.)  In  progressive  atnnesia  the  work  of  dissolution 
is  slow  and  continuous,  resulting  in  a  complete  destruc- 
tion of  memory.  Physicians  distinguish  between  differ- 
ent kinds  of  dementia  according  to  causes,  classing  them 
as  senile,  paralytic,  etc.  These  distinctions  have  no 
interest  for  us.  The  progress  of  mental  dissolution  is 
fundamentally  the  same,  whatever  be  the  cause,  and  this 
progress  is  to  us  the  only  fact  with  which  we  are  con- 
cerned. The  question  now  arises,  does  loss  of  memory 
in  this  dissolution  follow  any  regular  order? 

Amnesia  is  limited  at  first  to  recent  events,  extends 
to  ideas,  then  to  sentiments  and  affections,  and  finally  to 
actions.  A  priori  it  would  be  natural  to  believe  that 
the  latest  impressions  were  the  most  distinct  and  the 
most  stable.  But  if  with  the  beginning  of  dementia  the 
nervous  cells  degenerate,  they  become  a  prey  to  atrophy. 
Neither  a  new  modification  in  the  cells  nor  the  forma- 
tion of  new  dynamical  associations  is  possible,  or  at 
least  permanent. 

The  most  careful  observers  have  remarked  that  the 
emotional  faculties  are  effaced  much  more  slowly  than 
the  intellectual  faculties.  At  first  thought  it  seems 
strange  that  states  so  vague  as  those  pertaining  to  the 
feelings  should  be  more  stable  than  ideas  and  intellectual 
states  in  general.  Reflection  will  show  that  the  feelings 
are  the  most  profound,  the  most  common  and  the  most 
tenacious  of  all  phases  of  mental  activity.  While  knowl- 
edge is  an  acquired  and  a  foreign  element,  feelings  are 
innate.  Feelings  form  the  self;  amnesia  of  the  feelings 
is  the  destruction  of  the  self. 

The  last  acquisitions  to  succumb  are  the  organic 
habits,  the  routine  of  daily  life.  This  requires  only  a 
minimum  of  conscious  memory,  having  its  seat  in  the 
cerebral  ganglia,  the  medulla  and  the  spinal  cord.  We 
thus    see    that    the  progressive  destruction   of   memory 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


347 


follows  a  logical  order,  a  law.  It  advances  progres- 
sively from  the  unstable  to  the  stable. 

If  memory  in  the  process  of  decay  follows  invariably 
the  path  just  indicated,  it  should  follow  that  the  same 
path  in  a  contrary  direction  is  the  process  of  growth ; 
forms  which  are  the  last  to  disappear  should  he  the  first 
to  manifest  themselves,  since  they  are  the  most  stable, 
and  the  synthesis  progresses  from  the  lower  to  the 
higher. 

And  so  it  is,  indeed.  Taine  quotes  a  very  instructive 
example  in  his  essay,  De  U 'intelligence :  "There  is  a 
case  of  a  celebrated  Russian  astronomer  who  first  forgot 
events  of  recent  experience,  then  those  of  the  year,  then 
those  of  the  latter  portion  of  his  life,  the  breach  contin- 
ually widening  until  only  remembrance  of  childhood 
remained.  The  case  was  thought  to  be  hopeless.  But 
dissolution  suddenly  ceased  and  repair  began ;  the  breach 
was  gradually  bridged  over  in  a  contrary  direction; 
recollections  of  youth  appeared,  then  those  of  middle 
age,  then  the  experiences  of  later  yeais,  and  finally  the 
most  recent  events.  His  memory  was  entirely  restored 
at  the  time  of  his  death." 

(II.)  The  facts  of  partial  amnesia,  that  there  should 
be  loss  of  memory  for  music  and  for  nothing  else, 
appear  inexplicable  and  almost  miraculous.  But  if  we 
have  an  accurate  idea  of  what  the  word  really  means, 
the  marvelous  element  disappears,  and  these  facts,  far 
from  exciting  our  wonder,  are  seen  to  be  natural  and 
logical  consequences  of  a  morbid  influence.  Memory 
may  be  resolved  into  memories,  just  as  the  life  of  an 
organism  may  be  resolved  into  the  lives  of  the  organs, 
the  tissues,  the  anatomical  elements  which  compose  it 
Gall,  the  first  to  protest  againt  the  view  that  memory 
has  one  special  and  only  one  seat  in  our  brain,  assigned 
to  each  faculty  its  own  special  memory,  and  denied  the 
existence  of  memory  as  an  independent  function. 

The  case  recorded  by  Sir  H.  Holland  has  been  often 
cited.  "  I  descended,"  he  says,  "two  very  deep  mines  in 
the  Harz  Mountains,  remaining  some  hours  underground 
in  each.  While  in  the  second  mine,  and  exhausted  both 
from  fatigue  and  inanition,  I  felt  the  utter  impossibility 
of  talking  longer  with  the  German  inspector  who 
accompanied  me.  Every  German  word  and  phrase 
deserted  my  recollection ;  and  it  was  not  until  I  had 
taken  food  and  wine,  and  been  some  time  at  rest,  that 
I  regained  them." 

A  surgeon,  who  was  thrown  from  his  horse  and 
remained  for  some  time  insensible,  described  the  accident 
distinctly  upon  his  recovery,  and  gave  minute  directions 
with  regard  to  his  own  treatment.  But  he  lost  all  idea 
of  having  either  wife  or  children,  and  this  condition 
lasted  for  three  days.  Is  this  case  to  be  explained  by 
mental  automatism  ?  The  subject,  while  partly  uncon- 
scious, retained  all  his  professional   knowledge. 


Is  it  now  necessary  to  admit  that  the  cerebral  residua 
corresponding  to  an  idea,  and  those  corresponding  to  its 
vocal  sign,  its  graphic  sign,  and  to  the  movements  that 
express  the  one  or  the  other,  are  associated  in  the  cortex? 
And  what  anatomical  conclusions  are  we  to  draw  from 
the  fact  that  there  may  be  loss  of  memory  of  movements 
without  that  of  ideas,  of  speech  without  that  of  writing, 
or  of  writing  without  that  of  speech  ?  We  can  only  sug- 
gest these  queries,  which  we  are  unable  to  answer. — 

There  are  also  cases  entirely  opposite  in  character, 
where  functions  that  were  apparently  obliterated,  have 
been  revived,  and  vague  recollections  attain  extraordi- 
nary intensity.  Is  this  exaltation  of  memory,  which  phy- 
sicians term  hvpermnesia,  a  morbid  phenomenon?  It  is, 
at  least,  an  anomaly.  General  excitation  of  memory 
seems  to  depend  entirely  upon  physiological  causes,  and 
particularly  upon  the  rapidity  of  the  cerebral  circulation. 

There  are  several  accounts  of  drowned  persons  saved 
from  imminent  death  who  agree  that  at  the  moment  of 
asphyxia  they  seemed  to  see  their  entire  lives  unrolled 
before  them  in  the  minutest  incidents.  One  of  them 
testifies  that  every  instance  of  his  former  life  seemed  to 
glance  across  his  recollection  in  a  retrograde  succession, 
not  in  mere  outline,  but  the  picture  being  filled  with 
every  minute  and  collateral  feature,  forming  a  kind  of 
panoramic  picture  of  his  entire  existence,  each  act  of  it 
accompanied  by  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong.  An  analo- 
gous case  is  that  of  a  man  of  remarkably  clear  head,  who 
was  crossing  a  railway  in  the  country  when  an  express 
train  at  full  speed  closely  approached  him.  He  had  just 
time  to  throw  himself  down  in  the  center  of  the  road 
between  the  rails,  and  as  the  train  passed  over  him,  the 
sentiment  of  impending  danger  to  his  very  existence 
brought  vividly  into  his  recollection  every  incident  of 
his  former  life  in  such  an  array  as  that  which  is  sug- 
gested by  the  promised  opening  of  the  great  book  at  the 
last  great  day." 

Even  allowing  for  exaggerasion,  these  instances  show 
a  superintensity  of  action  on  the  part  of  the  memory  of 
which  we  can  have  no  idea  in  its  normal  state.  Certain 
religious  ecstacies  manifested  in  last  moments  are  often 
cases  of  hypcrmnesia.  They  are  in  the  view  of 
psychology  only  the  necessary  effects  of  irremediable 
dissolution. 

All  these  cases  corroborate  the  fact  that  memory 
depends  upon  nutrition.  What  is  quickly  learned  is 
soon  forgotten,  and  the  expression  "to  assimilate  knowl- 
edge "  is  not  a  metaphor.  The  psychical  fact  has  an 
organic  cause.  For  the  fixation  of  recollections  time  is 
necessary,  since  nutrition  does  not  do  its  work  in  a 
moment. 

Cellular  modifications  and  dynamic  associations  are 
assumed  to  be  the  material  basis  of  recollection.  There 
is  no  memory,  no  human  brain,  it  matters  not  how 
crowded  it   be,  that   is   not  able  to   retain  all  that  comes 


34« 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


within  its  grasp,  for,  if  j^ossible,  cellular  modifications 
are-  limited,  the  possible  dynamic  associations  are  innu- 
merable. 

REMARKS    BY    MR.    E.    C.   HEGELER    ON   THE  TWO 
FOREGOING   ARTICLES. 

As  founder  of  this  journal  I  have  presented  in  its 
first  number  my  views  on  religious  and  ethical  subjects, 
quoting  modern  psychology  as  their  main  support. 
Hering's  essav  on  Memory  as  a  General  Function  of 
Organized  Matter,  has  since  been  presented  to  the 
readers.  Further,  a  compilation  from  Ribot's  Diseases 
of  Memory  (the  title  to  which  book  the  American 
translator  has  supplemented  by  the  words,  an  Essav  in 
the  Positive  Psychology')  has  been  presented  in  part  and 
is  continued  in  this  number,  giving  those  most  instruc- 
tive examples,  the  cases  of  double  consciousness,  or  the 
formation  of  two  personalities  not  knowing  of  each 
other,  in  one  brain. 

I  have  deemed  it  of  importance  that  this  explanation 
of  the  nature  of  personality  appear  side  by  side  with 
the  review  of  Francis  E.  Abbot's  Scientific  Theism, 
hoping  that  it  will  have  a  clarifying  effect.  I  share  with 
Mr.  Abbot  the  desire  of  preserving  the  "  God  Ideal," 
but  object  to  individualizing  God,  which  is  a  limitation. 
I  agree  with  Mr.  Abbot  in  imagining  the  great  All  (em- 
bodying what  the  words  God  and  Universe  imply  when 
united)  as  possessing  intelligence  or  reason.  What  reason 
and  intelligence  are,  however,  modern  psychologj'  and 
the  science  of  language  have  taken  from  the  domain  of 
mystery.  Intelligence  will  appear  and  evolve  where- 
ever  life  appears  throughout  the  universe. 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 


"THE    WORST     ENEMY    OF    WOMAN    IS    WOMAN." 

BY    ELIZABETH    CADY    STANTON. 

In  his  strictures  on  my  article  "Jails  and  Jubilees," 
Mr.  Hegeler  makes  the  assertion  that  "the  worst  enemy 
of   woman  is  woman." 

Such  an  assertion  in  so  influential  a  journal  as  The 
Open  Court  must  nut  pass  unchallenged.  There  are 
many  old  saws  repeated  from  time  to  time  unquestioned 
that  pass  into  accepted  proverbs  because  no  one  points 
out  their  falsehood  and  absurdity.  The  above  wholesale 
libel  on  womanhood  is  one  of  these,  as  the  most  casual 
survey  of  the  facts  of  history  will  readily  prove. 

The  established  customs  of  all  nations;  state  and 
church  governments;  civil  and  canon  law;  the  tone  of 
literature,  sacred  and  secular,  alike  show  that  woman's 
worst  enemy  is  man. 

All  social  customs  are  based  on  the  idea  of  woman's 
inferiority  and  her  necessary  subjection  to  man  for  the 
go  »1  order  of  society,  but  the  fact,  that  in  proportion  to 
her  higher  education  and  development  she  repudiates  his 
authority,  shows  that  her  subordination  has  not  been  of 
her  own  choice.     Hence  to  make  woman  responsible  for 


any  of  the  evils,  moral  or  material,  that  have  grown  out 
of  her  enforced  condition  of  ignorance  and  folly  is  to 
the  last  degree  unreasonable. 

We  must  not  blame  Chinese  women  for  cramping 
their  feet  in  iron  shoes,  nor  Turkish  women  for  their 
folly  and  imbecility  in  the  slavery  of  the  harem,  nor 
American  women  for  lapping  their  ribs,  boring  holes  in 
their  ears,  or  cultivating  an  excresence  like  a  camel's 
hump  on  their  spines.  Men  are  responsible  for  all  this. 
They  do  not  care  what  women  do  to  exaggerate  their 
own  helplessness  and  ignorance.  Masculine  opposition 
has  been  uniformly  called  out  to  keep  women  as  they 
are,  to  suppress  their  individual  life,  larger  liberty  and 
higher  education.  Their  protests  have  been  loud  and 
long  against  women  entering  the  colleges,  the  profes- 
sions, the  world  of  profitable  work,  but  they  have  never 
made  any  organized  opposition  against  the  customs  that 
degrade  and  defraud  them.  For  every  step  in  progress 
that  woman  has  made  toward  the  freedom  she  enjovs 
to-day,  she  is  indebted  to  her  own  sex. 

Because  one  woman  has  questioned  the  goodness  and 
wisdom  of  the  Queen  of  England,  it  will  hardly  do  for 
Mr.  Hegeler  to  pass  so  sweeping  a  libel  on  all  woman- 
kind. 

To  farther  prove  that  man  has  always  been  woman's 
worst  enemy,  look  at  his  constitutions,  state  and  national, 
at  his  civil  and  criminal  codes  for  one-half  the  citizens 
of  the  United  States — for  the  mothers  who  rocked  the 
cradle  of  the  Republic. 

The  English  system  of  jurisprudence  from  which 
sprung  our  American  law,  from  Blackstone  down  to 
Story,  is  invidious  and  inimical  toward  woman.  Lord 
Brougham  has  well  said,  "the  English  common  law  for 
woman  is  a  disgrace  to  the  civilization  and  Christianity 
of  the  nineteenth  century." 

Women  have  had  no  voice  in  the  making  of  these 
laws  and  constitutions,  but  for  half  a  century  at  least, 
have  publicly  protested  against  them,  and  all  the  modifi- 
cations made  in  these  infamous  statutes,  have  been  the 
result  of  the  pravers  and  petitions  of  women.  Although 
Congress  during  one  century  has  passed  fifteen  amend- 
ments to  the  United  States  Constitution  securing  new 
liberties  to  men,  we  have  thus  far  asked  in  vain  for  any 
new  guarantees  to  protect  the  interests  of  women.  Al- 
though native  born,  virtuous,  intelligent,  law  abiding 
citizens,  we  hold  the  anomalous  position  of  subjects  un- 
der a  foreign  yoke.  We  are  taxed  without  representa- 
tion, tried  without  a  jury  of  our  peers,  having  no  voice 
in  the  laws  and  rulers  under  which  we  live.  Representa- 
tives from  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  German}'  and 
France  make  and  administer  the  law  for  the  daughters 
of  Jefferson,  Hancock  and  Adams,  and  we  have  no 
redress. 

If  we  turn  from  the  state  to  the  church,  another  in- 
stitution   equally    dominated   by    man,  we   find    nothing 


THE    OREN    COURT. 


3-19 


there  to  inspire  one  ray  of  hope.  The  status  of  women 
bap'iz  d  into  the  church  is  even  more  degraded  than 
born  as  a  citizen  into  the  state,  because  the  whole  Chris- 
tian system  is  built  on  the  doctrine  of  original  sin,  and 
woman  its  chief  actor  and  author. 

The  canon  laws  expressing  the  thought  of  the  "  Holy 
Fathers"  from  St.  Augustine  down  to  Cardinal  Gibbons, 
as  well  as  the  Jewish  prophets  and  Christian  apostles,  as 
recorded  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  are  one  and 
all  so  degrading  to  my  sex  that  the  Rev.  Charles  Kings- 
ley  has  well  said,  "this  will  never  be  a  good  world  for 
woman  until  every  remnant  of  the  canon  law  is  swept 
from  the  face  of  the  earth."  All  these  voluminous  eccle- 
siastical authorities,  unknown  to  women  in  general,  have 
emanated  from  the  brain  of  man;  for  violations  of  the 
sacred  code,  the  penances  and  disciplines  have  been  ad- 
ministered by  man.  Women  have  been  exiled,  impris- 
oned, scourged,  tortured,  drowned,  burnt  alive,  by  the 
edicts  of  man.  Through  the  trying  period  of  celibacy 
and  witchcraft  her  sufferings  make  the  blackest  page  in 
human  history,  and  yet  the  doctrine  of  her  subjection 
through  omnipotent  sin,  the  source  and  center  of  all 
woman's  wrongs  and  miseries  is  echoed  by  "holy  men" 
in  their  pulpits  at  this  hour,  and  worse  than  all,  claimed 
to  be  by  divine  authority.  Verily  in  the  church  as  well 
as  in  the  state,  woman's  worst  enemy  has  been  man. 

Man  held  the  key  to  the  literature  of  the  world  for 
centuries,  and  there  we  find  philosopher,  scientist,  novelist 
arid  poet,  secular  and  sacred  alike,  down  to  our  own  day, 
uniting  in  one  grand  chorus  on  the  frailty  and  wicked- 
ness of  woman.  In  the  beautiful  garden  of  Eden,  the 
ideal  Eve  in  her  primeval  purity  and  dignity,  when  ad- 
dressing Adam  is  made  to  say,  "God  thv  law,  thou 
mine."  No  one  but  a  blind  man  could  conceive  of  such 
a  base  surrender  of  individual  sovereignty  by  a  being 
fresh  from  the  hands  of  her  Maker.  And  what  a  reflec- 
tion on  the  Maker,  is  a  character  devoid  of  all  moral 
responsibility. 

"God  thy  law,  thou  mine."  And  this  has  been 
quoted  by  men  in  all  times  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
sentiments  that  ever  fell  from  the  lips  of  woman.  But 
while  Milton  sums  up  the  highest  virtues  of  the  sex  in 
one  line,  Pope  takes  two.     He  says: 

Some  men  to  business,  some  to  pleasure  take, 
While  every  woman  is  at  heart  a  rake. 

Similar  sentiments  characterize  all  masculine  authors, 
Swift,  Fielding,  Aristotle,  Rousseau,  Montaigne,  Ches- 
terfield and  Lord  Bacon,  each  in  turn  making  woman  the 
target  of  their  wit,  vulgarity  and  satire.  Our  later 
writers  sugar  coat  their  arrows,  but  the  same  poison 
lurks  underneath.  Thackeray,  Dickens,  James  and 
Howells  have  all  alike  painted  for  the  world's  amuse- 
ment exaggerated  types  of  weak  and  vicious  women, 
while  a  tender  truthfulness  regarding  their  own  sex, 
generally  pervades  the  writings  of  women. 


What  novelist  ever  drew  a  grander  heroine  than 
Charlotte  Bronte's  Jane  Eyre?  What  poet  ever  painted 
so  pure  a  character  as  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning's 
Aurora  Leigh  ? 

In  the  department  of  science  these  masculine  enemies 
have  at  last  attacked  the  size  and  s  distance  of  woman's 
brains.  They  have  actually  explored  the  cranial  arch  of 
the  female  head  to  show  that  cur  brains  weigh  less  and 
are  of  an  inferior  quality  to  their  own.  If  a  woman, 
who  knows  that  half  their  facts  published  to  the  world 
are  pure  fabrications,  makes  any  defence,  her  communi- 
cation is  curtailed  and  put  in  fine  print  at  the  end  of  the 
periodical,*  while  those  who  libel  the  feminine  brain 
are  spread  out  in  coarse  print  over  many  pages. 

1  think  I  have  given  facts  enough  to  dispro\e  Mr. 
Hegeler's  assertion.  As  to  his  personal  criticism  I  have 
only  to  say  that  in  my  arraignment  of  the  Queen  of 
England,  as  the  representative  of  a  great  nation,  I  did 
not  over-estimate  the  influence  she  might  have  exerted 
in  half  a  century  to  improve  the  condition  of  her  subjects. 
Had  she  given  as  much  thought  to  lightening  the  taxes  on 
her  people,  as  to  increasing  her  private  fortune;  had  her 
economies  been  in  personal  and  family  deprivations  so 
that  she  could  herself  have  made  the  necessary  marriage 
settlements  on  her  children,  and  built  the  desired  monu- 
ments to  her  husband,  such  economies  would  have  in- 
deed been  praiseworthy  .  But  on  the  contrary  she  has 
kept  her  private  fortune,  steadily  accumulating,  intact, 
while  enjoying  unbounded  luxuries  for  herself  and  chil- 
dren by  enormous  taxes  on  her  subjects.  Such  economy 
rightly  named  is  avarice,  and  there  is  no  merit  in  it. 

Mr.  Hegeler  says  he  never  read  a  harsher  criticism 
of  Victoria  than  my  article  in  The  Open  Court.  If 
mine  has  been  the  one  discordant  note  in  the  grand  ju- 
bilee chorus  to  the  Queen,  it  is  because  behind  all  the 
busy  preparations  for  the  most  brilliant  pageant  the 
world  has  ever  witnessed,  of  gilded  rovalty  and  nobility, 
my  eyes  beheld  the  dark  shadows  on  the  back-ground 
of  homeless,  starving  men,  women  and  children,  into 
whose  desolate  lives  would  never  come  one  touch  oi 
light  or  love.  There  is  something  to  me  unspeakably 
sad  in  the  eager  gazing  multitudes  that  crowd  the  streets 
on  these  grand  gala  days.  There  is  ever  a  sphinx-like 
questioning  look  in  their  upturned  faces,  that  seems  to 
say,  "Ah!  must  the  many  ever  suffer  that  the  few  may 
shine?"  As  the  sun  went  down  cm  that  21st  of  June, 
what  a  contrast  in  the  close  of  the  day's  festivities  be- 
tween the  children  of  luxury  and  want. 

Some  brilliant  in  jewels,  velvet  and  lace,  are  borne 
in  gilded  equipages  to  their  palace  homes,  gay  with 
music,  flowers  and  innumerable  lights";  there  to  feast  on 
rich  viands  from  every  quarter  of  the  globe ;  to  pose  in 
the  stately  quadrille  or  whirl  in  the  giddy  waltz,  and 
rest  at  last  on  soft  couches,  curtained    in  rich  India  silks, 

*  See  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  Jane. 


35° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


to  dream  of  life  as  one  long  tournament.  Others  turn 
from  the  gorgeous  pageant  weary  and  worn,  hungry 
and  hopeless,  to  thread  the  dark  alleys  to  their  cheerless 
homes  in  some  ding}'  court,  to  gnaw  a  dry  crust,  rest  on 
a  bundle  of  straw  and  dream  of  the  long  road  they 
have  traveled  and  the  dreary  vista  of  life  that  opens  be- 
fore them.  Who  that  can  share  in  imagination  one 
hour  the  miseries  of  England's  impoverished  people,  can 
rejoice  in  a  reign  of  fifty  years  that  has  cost  the  nation 
22,000,000  of  pounds  sterling  in  extra  allowances  to  the 
Queen  and  her  children,  in  addition  to  the  legitimate 
cost  of  the  royal  household  and  the  hereditary  property 
rights  of  the  throne. 


CAN   RELIGION   HAVE  A   SCIENTIFIC  BASIS? 

BY    LEWIS    G.  JANES. 

The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court,  it  is  stated, 
is  "  to  establish  religion  on  a  scientific  basis;"  and  "  the 
scientific  study  of  religion,"  is  declared  to  be  one  of  the 
dominant  purposes  of  the  Free  Religious  Association. 
A  valued  friend,  however,  who  shall  here  be  nameless, 
but  who  is  an  officer  of  the  Free  Religious  Association, 
and  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  general  tenor  and 
character  of  The  Open  Court,  has  more  than  once 
affirmed  in  public  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  the 
discovery  of  a  scientific  basis  for  religion.  Religion,  he 
asserts,  is  an  ultimate  fact  in  human  nature.  It  existed 
before  the  first  glimmerings  of  science  were  perceived 
by  the  human  mind.  Its  object  and  mission  then  were 
essentially  what  they  still  remain,  in  spite  of  the  mani- 
fold changes  which  time  has  wrought  in  its  form  and 
expression.  Then,  as  now,  it  gave  utterance  to  man's 
sense  of  dependence  upon  a  power  external  to  himself. 
Then,  as  now,  it  framed  upon  human  lips  the  symbolic 
words  for  those  emotions  of  awe  and  reverence  with 
which  man  regards  the  "Power,  not  himself,"  in  whose 
presence  he  dwells  eternally.  In  the  lowest  fetichism  as 
in  the  highest  theism  the  characteristic  features  of  what 
we  term  religion,  are  manifest. 

The  attempt  to  establish  religion  on  a  scientific  basis, 
is  therefore,  my  friend  declares,  illogical  and  certain  in 
the  nature  of  things  to  be  defeated.  If  it  were  possible, 
it  would  break  the  continuity  of  that  line  of  develop- 
ment by  which  the  crude  emotional  expression  of  primi- 
tive man  has  become  displaced  by  the  loftiest  aspirations 
of  theistic  worship.  It  would  establish  a  broad  line  of 
demarcation  between  religions  true  and  religions  false, 
whereas  all  religions  have  hail  an  essential  truth  in  their 
foundation  and  raison  d'etre,  and  the  falsehood  and  error 
which  have  mingled  with  their  various  historical  mani- 
festations, have  simply  given  voice  and  expression  to 
that  immaturity  of  thought  and  feeling,  that  limitation 
of  intellectual  and  social  environment,  which  were  pecu- 
liar to  the  particular  time  and  place  in  which  each  form 
of  religion  arose  and   commanded   allegiance.      It  would 


repeat  the  error  of  Christianity  in  separating  itself  thus 
radically  in  thought  from  its  historical  antecedents. 

Such  in  substance  is  my  friend's  criticism  upon  the 
attempt  to  establish  religion  on  a  scientific  basis.  Are 
his  objections  to  this  effort  logical  and  rational?  Are 
they  founded  upon  a  true  conception  of  what  constitutes 
a  " scientific  basis  "  for  religion  ?  To  me  it  does  not  so  ap- 
pear. Religion,  he  asserts,  is  an  ultimate  fact  of  human 
nature.  To  this  I  heartily  assent.  Being  a  fact  of  na- 
ture— of  human  nature — therefore,  it  seems  to  me,  it  is 
susceptible  of  that  careful  study,  that  thoughtful  analy- 
sis and  orderly  classification,  which,  when  successfully 
applied  to  other  natural  facts  and  phenomena,  have  es- 
tablished them  on  scientific  foundations.  Already  we 
have  the  vigorous  and  growing  science  of  comparative 
religion,  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  which  constitutes, 
doubtless,  one  of  the  essential  conditions  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  religion  on  a  scientific  basis.  Already  we 
have  the  germs  at  least  of  a  rational  philosophy  and 
psychology  which  will  enable  us  to  assign  religion  to  its 
proper  place,  and  give  due  weight  to  its  claims  and  au- 
thority in  the  development  of  a  perfect  and  symmetrical 
human  nature.  Scholars  and  writers  like  Kuenen,  Tiele 
and  Max  Miiller  in  the  department  of  comparative  re- 
ligion, like  Spencer,  Fiske  and  Thompson  in  the  de- 
partment of  philosophy  and  psychology — what  are  they 
but  builders  of  this  new  temple  of  a  religion  based  upon 
science,  dedicated  to  reason  and  the  fair  uses  of  hu- 
manity's new  day,  which  is  just  beginning  to  dawn  upon 
the  earth  ? 

That  religion  in  its  earlier  manifestations  antedated 
the  beginnings  of  science,  constitutes,  therefore,  no  valid 
reason  why  it  may  not  be  finally  established  upon  a 
scientific  basis.  On  the  contrary  it  affords  the  first  and 
essential  condition  for  such  an  establishment.  The  fact 
must  first  be  given  before  it  can  be  assigned  its  due 
place  in  that  orderly  arrangement  and  classification 
which  constitutes  its  scientific  relationship  to  other  facts. 
But  something  more  than  this  susceptibility  to  systematic 
stud)'  and  orderly  arrangement  is  intended,  no  doubt,  in 
the  conception  of  the  establishment  of  religion  on  a 
scientific  basis.  Heretofore  religion  has  claimed  the 
right  to  maintain  its  theories  of  the  universe  and  of 
man's  relation  thereto,  to  enforce  its  mandates  upon  so- 
ciety, to  declare  ethical  sanctions  and  to  regulate  the 
lives  of  individuals  and  the  destinies  of  nations,  inde- 
pendent of  the  dictates  of  reason  and  of  the  progress  of 
scientific  discovery.  It  has  said,  "Thus  shalt  thou  be- 
lieve concerning  the  creation  of  the  world,  concerning 
rituals  and  creeds,  concerning  the  right  and  authority  of 
church  and  state  over  the  individual,  for  I  am  God's 
vice-gercnt,  endowed  with  supernatural  authority  to 
announce  the  infallible  truth."  When  science  declared 
the  earth  to  be  globular  in  form,  religion  said,  "Not  so; 
does    not    the    Scripture   speak    of    the   'four    corners' 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


351 


of  the  earth,  and  can  that  which  is  round  have  cor- 
ners? Believe  this  heresy  of  science  at  your  peril!" 
When  science  affirmed  that  the  earth  revolved  around 
the  sun,  religion  maintained  the  geo-centric  theory, 
based  upon  an  alleged  infallible  revelation  of  its  truth. 
When  science  and  reason  declared  that  men  had  rights 
as  opposed  to  oppressive  rulers,  religion  asserted  the 
divine  right  of  kings.  When  reason  affirmed  the  authority 
of  moral  science  in  questions  of  human  duty,  religion 
interposed  its  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord "  as  final  and 
irrevocable  upon  all  problems  of   practical  ethics. 

The  establishment  of  religion  on  a  scientific  basis 
involves  the  relegation  of  all  these  and  of  all  other  simi- 
lar questions,  to  science  and  reason  for  their  solution.  It 
necessitates  the  acceptance  of  reason  as  the  final  arbiter 
in  all  these  problems.  It  disclaims  the  unfounded 
assumption  of  authority,  based  upon  alleged  supernatural 
revelations  of  truth.  At  the  same  time,  religion  estab- 
lished on  a  scientific  basis  will  be  equally  removed  from 
that  crude  and  dogmatic  form  of  liberalism  which,  while 
it  affirms  its  allegiance  to  free  thought,  places  all  the 
emphasis  upon  the  freedom,  and  little  or  none  upon  the 
thinking.  Its  credo  must  be  the  intelligent  affirmation 
of  principles  which  have  been  thoroughly  thought  out, 
viewed  upon  every  side,  and  found  to  conform  to  and 
harmonize  with  all  discovered  and  demonstrated  truth. 
It  must  submit  even  such  rational  affirmations  to  the 
deepening  thoughts  and  widening  intelligence  of  each 
successive  age  and  generation,  neither  rejecting  the  old 
simply  because  it  is  old,  nor  approving  the  new  for  its 
novelty,  but  modifying  or  adhering  to  the  form  of  its 
doctrine  with  respect  solely  to  the  greater  or  less  of  truth 
and  accuracy  in  its  statement.  Relinquishing  no  jot  or 
tittle  of  its  character  as  religion,  it  will,  nevertheless, 
become  more  and  more  completely  rational,  and  thus 
appeal  to  the  convictions  and  command  the  allegiance  of 
all  thoughtful  and  sincere  men  and  women.  Recog- 
nizing the  good  that  is  in  all  the  historical  forms  of 
religion,  it  will  cultivate  a  generous  charity  toward  all. 
It  will  condition  its  fellowship  on- character,  not  on  creed ; 
it  will  answer  dogmatism  with  courteous  appeals  to 
reason  and  to  conscience,  and  its  conquests  will  be  those 
of  love  and  not  of  physical  force.  Where  it  cannot  confi- 
dently affirm  the  great  hopes  of  the  older  faiths,  it  surely 
wiil  not  dogmatically  deny  them,  for  all  dogmatism  is 
foreign  to  the  scientific  spirit.  Denving  only  what  is 
manifestly  irrational  and  false,  it  will  greatly  believe 
those  things  which  are  of  good  report  and  which  har- 
monize with  all  that  we  truly  know  of  this  wonderful 
universe  in  which  we  live,  and  of  our  own  more  won- 
derful natures. 

"  We  are  in  transition,"  said  Emerson,  "  from  the 
worship  of  the  fathers  who  enshrined  the  law  in  a  pri- 
vate and.  personal  history,  to  a  worship  which  recognizes 
the  true  eternity  of  the  law,  its  presence  in  you  and   me, 


its  equal  energy  in  what  is  called  brute  nature  and  in 
what  is  called  sacred.  The  next  age  will  behold  God  in 
ethical  laws,  as  mankind  begins  to  see  them  in  this  age, 
self-equal,  self-executing,  instantaneous  and  self-affirmed ; 
needing  no  voucher,  no  prophet,  no  miracle.  *  *  * 
There  will  be  a  church  founded  on  moral  science;  at 
first  cold  and  naked,  a  babe  in  the  manger  again;  the 
algebra  and  mathematics  of  ethical  law — the  church  of 
men  to  come,  without  shawm  or  psaltery,  or  sackbut; 
but  it  shall  have  heaven  and  earth  for  its  beams  and 
rafters,  science  for  symbol  and  illustration.  It  will  fast 
enough  gather  beauty,  music,  picture,  poetry.  The 
nameless  thought,  the  nameless  power,  the  super-per- 
sonal heart,  it  shall  repose  upon."  Such  was  our 
prophet's  vision  of  the  church,  in  that  day  when  religion 
shall  be  established  on  a  scientific  basis.  In  a  like  noble 
faith,  fronting  a  vision  so  grand  and  beautiful,  shall  we 
not  all  press  forward  in  the  line  indicated  by  The  Open 
Court,  and  strive  for  its  speedy  realization  ? 


TEMPLES  AND   TEMPLE-CITIES. 

BY  B.  W.  BALL. 

We  are  told  that  the  French  government  has  at  last 
succeeded  in  obtaining  leave  from  the  Greek  govern- 
ment to  search  at  Delphi  for  remains  of  the  temple 
which  stood  there.  "It  is  supposed,"  says  the  London 
Daily  JVews,  "that  there  are  priceless  treasures- 
buried  in  the  ground.  There  was  no  sanctuary  to 
which  so  many  valuable  presents  were  made  as  to  the 
Delphic  one."  This  is  true  enough,  but  in  the  fourth 
century,  b.  c,  the  Phocians  plundered  the  Delphic 
temple  of  its  most  valuable  and  venerable  ex  votos,  such 
as  the  golden  donatives  of  the  Lydian  King  Krcesus, 
which  were  melted  down  and  turned  into  money.  For 
a  long  course  of  centuries,  it  is  said,  the  Delphic  soil  has 
not  been  disturbed.  Delphi  was  for  ages  the  Holy  See 
or  chief  temple-city  of  Greek  paganism.  Its  priesthood, 
through  the  oracle  which  uttered  its  responses  there, 
governed  the  primitive  world  or  guided  the  policy  of 
all  its  leading  States.  The  Delphic  temple  stood  high 
up  above  the  level  of  the  sea  in  a  Parnassian  glen, 
"among  savage  gorges  and  cold  springs,"  overlook- 
ing what  is  now  the  Gulf  of  Lepanto.  Its  site  was- 
most  picturesque  and  commanding.  Secluded  from  the 
world  in  a  mountain  solitude  and  yet  accessible,  both  by 
sea  and  land,  as  the  immense  throngs  of  pilgrims,  who 
frequented  the  temple  in  the  palmy  days  of  its  priest- 
hood, indicated.  That  priesthood,  according  to  Bishop 
Thirwall,  one  of  the  ablest  historians  of  primitive  Greece, 
did  not  abuse  or  misuse,  upon  the  whole,  the  vast  power 
which  it  wielded  for  so  many  centuries.  The  best 
account  of  the  oracle  religion,  which  had  its  seat  at 
Delphi,  may  be  found  in  the  history  of  Greece, by  Ernst 
Curtius.  He  exhausts  the  subject,  and  the  chapters- 
which  he  devotes  to  it  are  most  interesting  contributions 


35 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


to  the  religious  history  of  mankind,  and  are  worthy  to 
he  bound  in  the  same  volume  with  Gibbons'  celebrated 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  chapters,  which  relate  the  rise 
and  early  progress  of  Christianity.  The  Delphic  orac- 
ular religion,  as  the  religion  of  the  most  refined, 
intellectual  and  rational  people  of  antiquity  was,  of 
course,  not  a  mere  gross  superstition.  The  god 
Apollo  was  an  ideal  Greek,  or  Hellene,  the  presiding 
genius  of  art,  lyric  poetry,  heroic  games,  and  light  and 
right.  In  fact  he  might  have  been  called  the  god  of 
"sweetness  and  light,"  the  jaatron  deity  of  old  Hellenic 
culture  and  civilization,  under  whose  prophetic  direction 
that  civilization  was  diffused  all  round  the  shores  of  the 
Midland  .Sea.  He  was  the  god,  also,  of  the  art  of  heal- 
ing as  well  as  of  prophesy,  the  assuager  of  pain  and  the 
soother  of  guilty  consciences.  Mr.  Gladstone,  it  seems, 
has  a  special  reverence  for  this  old  Greek  divinity.  In 
fact  he  regards  Apollo  as  the  Greek  equivalent  of  the 
Hebrew  Messiah  and  Deliverer  or  Savior,  while  he 
deems  the  motherless  goddess,  Athene,  the  tutelary 
genius  of  Athens,  as  the  pagan  equivalent  of  the  logos, 
or  word.  However  this  may  be,  it  may  be  truthfully 
affirmed  that  the  oracle  religion  of  Apollo  is  entitled  to 
rank  among  the  purest  and  most  civilizing  of  the  fore- 
most religions  of  the  world.  It  must  have  been  such  to 
have  been  the  chief  religion  of  ancient  Hellas,  and  to 
have  exercised  the  control,  which  it  did,  over  all  the 
outlying  nations  of  the  ancient  world.  It  was  in  the 
days  of  its  supremacy  a  cosmopolitan  or  truly  catholic 
religion,  in  comparison  with  which  the  Judaism  of  the 
period  was  the  religion  of  an  obscure  semi-barbaric  race 
of  shepherds,  whose  deity  matched  with  Apollo  was  a 
merely  tribal  god  with  an  altogether  limited  and  local 
jurisdiction.  In  the  days  of  Byron  the  Delphic  oracular 
cave  was  used  as  a  shelter  for  cows.  To  such  base 
uses  had  it  been  degraded  by  the  lapse  of  centuries. 
Yet  the  Delphic  steep,  with  its  great  oracular  shrine, 
was  the  center  of  the  moral  development  of  the  most 
advanced  and  civilized  moiety  of  primitive  humanity. 
Its  rocky  soil  was  trodden  by  the  feet  of  the  most 
famous  men  of  antiquity.  Its  Lesche,  or  Conversations- 
haus,  was  brilliant  with  cartoons  from  the  brush  of 
Polygnotus.  The  dramatic  poet,  Euripides,  in  his 
beautiful  tragedy  of  /,.//,  and  Plutarch,  in  one  or 
two  of  his  miscellanies,  gives  us  a  vivid  glimpse  of  the 
daily  life  of  the  great  Grecian  temple-city,  which  was 
a  sort  of  watering  place  for  the  old  pagan  world.  On 
its  steep  the  Amphictyonic  Council  held  one  of  its 
annual  sessions.  This  was  what  would  be  called  in 
Christian  parlance  a  Panhellenic  ecclesiastical  gather- 
ing, which  regulated  the  Religious  concerns  of  Hellas, 
and,  in  particular,  saw  that  the  Delphic  oracle  suffered 
no  detriment  or  desecration.  Byron  was  a  visitor  to 
the  Delphic  glen  during   his  tour  through   Greece.      He 


says  in    his     Ch  hie  Harold,  that    though    Apollo     no 
longer  haunted  the  oracular  grot, 

Some  gentle  spirit  still  pervades  the  spot, 
Sighs  in  the  gale,  keeps  silence  in  the  cave 
And  glides  with  glassv  foot  o'er  yon  melodious  wave. 
Delphi   would  be  just  the  spot,  in  which  an  enthusi- 
astic Hellenist  might  read  to  most  advantage  the  history 
of  primitive   Greece,  with  the   Gulf  of   Lepanto  spark- 
ling  far  below  and  the  peaks   of   Parnassus  above   him 

Soaring  snow-clad  through  its  native  skv 
In  the  wild  pomp  of  mountain  majesty. 

Read  in  such  a  storied  and  sublime  locality  the  his- 
tory of  Greece  would  have  a  new  significance.  Another 
English  nobleman  who  visited  Delphi,  viz:  the  late 
Lord  Houghton,  better  known  as  the  poet  Milnes,  also 
wrote  some  fine  verses  inspired  by  the  genius  loci,  he 
says  or  sings : 

Beneath  the  vintage  moon's  uncertain  light, 

And  some  faint  stars  that  pierced  the  film  of  cloud 

Stood  those  Parnassian  peaks  before  my  sight, 

Whose  fame  throughout  the  ancient  world  was  loud. 

Still  could  I  dimly  trace  the  terraced  lines 

Diverging  from  the  cliffs  on  either  side; 
A  theatre  whose  steps  were  filled  with  shrines 

And  rich  devices  of  Hellenic  pride. 

***** 

Still  rise  the  rocks  and  still  the  fountain  flows. 

***** 

Desolate  Delphi!  pure  Castalian  spring! 

Hear  me  avow  that  I  am  not  as  they, 
Who  deem  that  all  about  you  ministering 

Were  base  imposters,  and  mankind  their  prey  ; 

That  the  high  names  they  seemed  to  love  and  laud 
Were  but  the  tools  their  paltry  trade  to  ply; 

This  pomp  of  faith  a  mere  gigantic    raud, 
The  apparatus  of  a  mighty  lie! 

Le'  those  that  will,  believe  it;  I,  for  one, 
Cannot  thus  read  the  history  of  my  kind; 

Remembering  all  this  little  Greece  has  done 
To  raise  the  universal  human  mind. 
***** 

I  know  that  hierarchs  of  that  wondrous  race, 
By  their  own  faith  alone,  could  keep  alive 

Mysterious  rites  and  sanctity  of  place, — 

Believing  in  whate'er  they  might  contrive. 

It  may  be  that  these  influences  combined 

With  such  rare  nature  as  the  priestess  bore, 

Brought  to  the  surface  of  her  stormy  mind 
Distracted  fragments  of  prophetic  lore. 

In  modern  spiritualistic  parlance  the  Delphic  priestess 
was  a  clairvoyant,  medium,  or  mind- reader.  The  oracle 
was  shrewd  and  its  priesthood  knew  all  about  the  States 
and  cities  of  the  world  of  its  day  and  all  about  every 
prominent  person  and  family  in  it.  They  could  speak 
all  the  languages  of  their  time. 

Once  temples  and  temple-cities  were  the  centers  not 
only  of  moral  but  of  political  influence.  The  Moham- 
medan world  has  for  its  metropolis  such  a  city,  viz., 
Mecca.     Rome,  with  its  St.  Peter's   Church,  is   in   like 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


353 


■manner  the  ecclesiastical  metropolis  of  the  two  hundred 
millions,  be  the  same  more  or  less,  -who  believe  in  Roman- 
ism. But  the  scientific,  enlightened,  rational  civilization 
of  to-day,  and  the  foremost  modern  communities,  do  not 
acknowledge  allegiance  to  high  priests  or  recognize  tem- 
ples or  temple-cities  as  centers  of  power  and  influence 
where  supernatural  aid  and  counsel  can  be  obtained. 
The  great  shrines  and  temple-cities  of  all  the  creeds  and 
religions  and  of  every  age,  clime  and  race,  were  and  are 
all  external  manifestations  and  outgrowths  of  the  same 
superstitious  mood  of  mind  and  the  same  dense  igno- 
rance of  nature  and  natural  law.  Memphis,  Sai's,  Jeru- 
salem, Delphi,  Rome,  Mecca  and  Benares  were  and  are 
all  on  the  same  moral  plane,  all  claiming  to  be  centers 
and  radiating  points  of  supernatural  power  ami  influ- 
ence. There  was  a  time  when  this  preposterous  claim 
•was  universally  acknowledged.  But  that  time  has  gone 
bv  so  far  as  all  really  modern  men  and  communities  are 
•concerned.  There  are  still  shrines  and  so-called  shrine- 
cures,  and  pilgrims  and  pilgrimages  to  shrines  and  so- 
called  holy  cities;  but  the  people  who  indulge  in  such 
eccentricities,  and  who  believe  in  such  exploded  super- 
naturalisms,  though  living  in  and  breathing  the  air  of 
the  world  of  to-day,  belong  really  to  the  past  of  several 
centuries  back.  They  are  absurd  survivals  of  gross 
ignorance,  credulity  and  superstition. 

From  an  aesthetic  point  of  view  and  as  relics  of  a 
nearly  extinct  mood  of  the  human  mind  the  Parthenon 
of  Athens,  the  Pantheon  of  Rome,  and  the  Pyramids  of 
Egypt,  and  the  ruins  of  the  old  Samothracian  temples, 
and  St.  Peter's  dome,  and  the  great  old  mediaeval  cathe- 
drals and  minsters  of  Europe  are  noteworthy  and 
interesting.      We  may  even  say  with  Emerson,  that 

These  temples  grew  as  grows  the  gras*, 
and  that 

Love  and  terror  laid  the  tiles. 

But  we  cannot  forget  the  bestial  condition  of  the 
people  who  toiled  at  the  bidding  of  piiests  and  kings, 
almost  guerdonless,  to  rear  these  monstrous  and  useless 
architectural  enormities  to  swell  the  arrogance  of  abso- 
lute hierarchs  and  monarchs.  A  pine-board  New  Eng- 
land meeting-house  really  indicates  a  higher  civilization 
than  do  or  did  such  gorgeous  temples  as  I  have  enu- 
merated. 

CHOPPING  SAND. 

BY   WHEELBARROW. 

I  believe  there  is  somewhere  in  the  laws  of  me- 
chanics a  principle  known  as  "  waste  of  power."  At 
all  events,  I  have  heard  the  phrase  used  by  workingmen, 
and  although  I  do  not  understand  its  technical  or  scien- 
tific meaning,  I  suppose  it  refers  to  some  leak  or  other 
defect  in  the  machine  or  implement,  in  consequence  of 
which  its  mechanical  efforts  are  weakened,  and  some  of 
its    labor     lost.     I    fear    that  many    of    the    efforts     of 


workingmen  to  improve  their  condition  are  in  the 
wrong  direction,  and  therefore  a  "waste  of  power." 

Much  effort  is  being  used  to  relieve  the  mechanic 
trades  from  the  competition  of  convict  labor.  I  think 
this  effort  is  a  "  waste  of  power."  Lately  I  pointed  out 
the  unfairness  of  the  demand  that  convicts  be  not  per- 
mitted to  work  at  the  mechanic  trades,  but  only  "on 
the  roads."  As  a  worker  "on  the  roads,"  I  claimed 
protection  also  from  convict  competition,  ft  is  gratify- 
ing to  notice  that  my  claim  has  been  conceded  by  the 
trades  as  reasonable  and  just,  for  in  the  platform  adopted 
by  the  Anti-Monopoly  Convention  in  New  York,  the 
demand  that  convicts  be  compelled  to  "  work  upon  the 
roads"  has  been  abandoned,  and  it  is  only  now  required 
that  they  be  employed  at  such  labor  as  will  be  least  in 
competition  with  workingmen  outside. 

It  is  plain  as  figures  that  if  they  are  employed  at  any 
useful  or  productive  labor  at  all,  the)'  must  compete 
with  somebody,  and  in  that  case  the  spirit  of  the  resolu- 
tion requires  that  they  be  employed  at  the  most  expen- 
sive occupations;  at  those  trades  which  pay  the  highest 
wages,  because  they  can  best  afford  to  stand  the  compe- 
tition. Of  course  this  doctrine  will  not  be  admitted, 
and  having  made  the  circuit  of  every  useful  trade  and 
calling  in  the  land,  we  bring  up  at  last  against  the 
frank  position  we  should  have  maintained  in  the  begin- 
ning, namely,  that  convicts  must  be  compelled  to  work 
at  something  that  produces  nothing,  and  I  suggest  that 
they  be  employed  at  chopping  sand. 

I  have  no  patent  on  this  plan;  it  is  not  original  with 
me.  I  have  seen  it  actually  tried,  and  I  know  its  value. 
Once  I  was  employed  with  some  other  men  in  building 
a  house.  I  was  bricklayer's  clerk.  My  duty  was  to  carry 
up  the  bricks  in  a  hod,  while  the  bricklayer  fixed  them 
with  his  trowel,  square  and  true.  This  was  before  the 
hod  carrying  business  was  prostrated  by  the  competition 
of  the  pulley  and  the  rope,  and  when  I  used  to  find  it  a 
healthful  rest  and  recreation  from  the  monotony  and 
weary  iteration  of  the  shovel  and  the  pick.  One  day 
the  boss  brought  a  young  fellow  with  him  to  work 
upon  the  job.  He  had  taken  him  as  an  apprentice  to 
the  bricklayer's  trade;  he  gave  some  instructions  about 
setting  the  youth  to  work,  and  then  went  away.  The 
new  comer  was  not  well  received,  for  it  was  clear  as 
print  that  unless  he  should  tumble  off  a  scaffold  and 
break  his  neck,  he  would  grow  into  a  "competitor"  at 
the  bricklaying  business  with  the  very  men  then  work- 
ing on  the  job.  "What  shall  we  set  him  at  for  a 
beginning?"  said  one  of  the  men  to  the  foreman.  "Set 
him  to  chopping  sand,"  he  .-nswered,  and  that  was  done. 

It  was  explained  to  the  new  comer  that  the  sand 
they  were  using  was  rather  coarse,  and  that  some  of 
a  finer  quality  was  required.  A  hatchet  was  given 
him,  a  bushel  or  two  of  sand  was  placed  in  front  of 
him,   and   he  was    told  to  chop  it  up  fine.     He  worked 


354 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


faithfully  and  well,  but  at  last  he  discovered  that  all 
his  labor  was  a  "  waste  of  power,"  that  although  he 
might  chop  forever,  the  sand  would  remain  the  same. 
Here  then  is  the  solution  of  the  convict  labor  problem, 
set  the  convicts  to  chopping  sand;  this  will  give  them 
work  enough,  and  the  results  will  be  the  desired  noth- 
ing. How  much  of  the  workingmen's  efforts  to  improve 
their  social  condition  is  based  on  false  reasoning;  how 
much  of  it  is  a  useless  "waste  of  power,"  a  weary 
chopping  of  sand ! 

Again,  if  the  hard  labor  of  convicts  is  intended 
merely  as  a  punishment,  nothing  can  be  more  exqisitely 
refined  and  cruel  than  the  labor  of  chopping  sand.  To 
work  and  produce  nothing  is  torture.  The  divine 
quality  of  labor  is  proved  by  the  pleasure  its  product 
brings.  Whether  the  profit  of  it  comes  to  the  worker 
or  not,  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  know  that  by  his  work 
something  exists  that  did  not  exist  before,  or  exists  in 
better  shape.  In  my  childhood  I  knew  an  old  man  for 
wl.om  my  father  use  to  work.  His  name  was  Andrew 
Mann.  Poverty  and  hardship  were  his  lot  in  early 
life,  but  in  his  old  age  he  had  become  very  rich,  partly 
through  some  lucky  speculations,  and  partly  through 
the  ''unearned  increment"  of  some  town  property 
which  he  had  bought  in  an  early  day.  Riches  bring  to 
a  man  the  luxury  of  eccentricity,  and  there  are  some 
men  who  from  lack  of  early  education,  or  some  other 
aptitudes,  enjoy  no  other  luxury  in  old  age.  Andrew 
Mann  was  one  of  these. 

One  day  a  poor  man  came  to  him  for  charity. 
"Why  do  you  not  go  to  work?"  he  said;  the  man 
answered  that  he  could  not  get  employment.  "I  want 
a  man  to  turn  a  grindstone,"  said  old  Andrew;  "you 
can  have  the  job  if  you  want  it,  and  I'll  give  you  a 
dollar  a  day."  The  poor  man  gladlv  accepted  the 
offer  and  went  to  work.  He  turned  the  grindstone 
merrily  under  the  old  man's  directions,  but  nobody 
came  to  grind  anything.  This,  of  course,  was  none  of 
his  business,  and  he  kept  on  turning.  At  last  he 
became  very  tired,  and  said,  "Mr.  Mann,  isn't  somebodv 
coming  to  grind  something?"  "  No,"  said  his  employer; 
"but  go  ahead  with  your  work."  Like  the  never-ending 
drip  of  water  on  the  head,  this  profitless  toil  at  last  be- 
came intolerable,  and  the  poor  man  fairly  begged  his  tor- 
mentor to  send  a  man  to  grind  an  axe,  or  a  chisel,  or  a 
hatchet,  or  anything  at  all  that  would  show  some  ben- 
efit from  his  toil.  But  the  old  man  was  inexorable,  and 
told  him  to  grind  on.  At  last  the  torture  became  insup- 
portable, and  the  man  threw  up  the  job.  "I  don't 
object  to  turning  a  grindstone,"  he  said,  "if  I  could  see 
anything  to  grind,  but  to  grind  away  at  nothing  will 
drive  me  mad."  If  punishment  alone  is  the  object  of 
convict  labor,  and  if  it  is  good  social  economics  that 
convicts  must  not  earn  anything,  then  let  them  turn 
barren  grindstones  or  chop  sand. 


NATURE'S   LESSON. 

BY  W.  F.  BARNARD. 

What  time  we  murmur,  saying  "wear}'  life!" 

And  deem  our  task-work  overburdensome, 

How  all  the  gladder  voices  of  the  world 

Sing  through  our  sighing  with  announcement  sweet 

Of  labor  done  with  willingness  and  joy. 

The  flowers  give  their  perfume  to  the  wind, 

Growing  for  beauty's  sake  the  whole  year  through. 

The  trees  made  vocal  with  the  voice  of  birds, 

Put  forth  the  bud  to  keep  themselves  in  leaf; 

And  every  living  thing  lives  out  its  life, 

Intent  to  reach  some  end  whate'er  befall. 

The  rivers  flow  unwearied  evermore, 

Through  all  their  curves  and  shallows,  and  through  all 

Their  rapids  that  disturb  them,  singing  still; 

The  loudest  in  the  rapids,  bearing  on 

With  only  thought  to  find  the  sea  at  last 

That  answers  to  their  singing  with  its  deep 

And  everlasting  solemn  organ-tones, 

Announcing  all  the  labor  of  its  tides. 

The  very  hills  keep  silent  watch  and  ward 

Above  the  world,  their  sleepless  summits  raised 

To  mark  the  passage  of  the  sun  and  moon 

And  everlasting  journeys  of  the  stars; 

That  fail  not,  coming  ever  with  the  night, 

Brightest  in  darkness. 

All  obey  the  law ; 
Which  bids  them  live  and  work.     That  highest  law, 
To  which  our  lives  shall  set  themselves  at  last 
More  fully  and  completely,  seeking  naught 
But  strength  to  keep  the  path  that  points  alway 
To  something  nobler  than  they  yet  have  known; 
The  strength  to  be  as  steadfast  as  the  stars, 
And  faith  to  keep  them  faithful  to  the  end. 


This  is  the  way  one  of  our  Chicago  dailies  refers  to 
the  Concord  philosophers  L 

The  Concord  School  of  Philosophy  opened  with  the  ther- 
mometer in  the  90's,  and  at  once  fell  to  a  discussion  of  Aristotle's 
doctrine  of  reason.  If  people  so  defiant  of  hot  weather  as  these 
should  be  sunstruck,  it  would  serve  them  right.  Who  but  people 
that  have  lost  their  reason  would  discuss  abstruse  theories  of  rea- 
son with  the  thermometer  in  the  90's? 


It  remains  completely  unknown  to  us  what  objects  may  be  in 
themselves  and  apart  from  the  receptivity  of  our  senses.  We 
know  nothing  but  our  manner  of  perceiving  them,  that  manner 
being  peculiar  to  us,  and  not  necessarily  shared  in  by  every  being, 
though,  no  doubt,  by  every  human  being.  This  is  what  alone 
concerns  us. — Kant  (Mux  MUller's  Trans.),   Vol.  II.,  f.  jy. 


At  the  bottom  of  all  the  anarchism  in  this  country  is  laziness 
The  Russian  anarchist  has  some  reason  for  seeking  the  life  of 
his  despotic  ruler;  but  here,  where  no  amount  of  assassination 
will  better  his  condition,  the  anarchist  has  no  status.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  his  anarchy  is  a  business — out  of  the  laboring  man's 
pocket. — Puck. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


355 


The  Open  Court 

^  Fortnightly  Journal.  ' 


Published   every  other   Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  iNixor. 
Buildingi,  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

B.  F.  UNDERWOOD,  SARA  A.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager.  Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open*  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy-  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  denned, 
■will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
■which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois,  to  whom  should 
be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

'  THURSDAY,  AUGUST  4,  18S7. 


THE    CONCORD     SCHOOL    OF    PHILOSOPHY. 

It  is  now  eight  years  since  these  courses  of  summer 
lectures  were  started  by  Mr.  A.  Branson  Alcott  and 
Mr.  F.  B.  Sanborn.  The  father  of  the  Little  Women 
•was  then  earnestly  exhorting  young  people  to  study  the 
Westminster  Catechism,  which  teaches  that  mankind  are 
under  the  wrath  of  God,  and  insists  on  the  duty  of  "op- 
posing all  false  worship"  and  the  sin  of  "tolerating  a 
false  religion."  He  and  his  friend,  Dr.  Jones,  of  Jack- 
sonville, this  State,  continued  during  several  years  to 
preach  a  reactionary  transcendentalism,  no  longer  heard 
at  Concord,  in  language  still  so  often  quoted  in  the  news- 
papers, that  the  present  lecturers  are  supposed  to  be 
more  unintelligible  than  is  actually  the  case.  The  pre- 
siding intellect  from  the  first  has  been  that  of  Dr.  Wm. 
T.  Harris,  a  man  of  singularly  beautiful  character,  great 
acuteness  in  metaphysics  and  strong  moral  earnestness. 
He  is  one  of  those  thinkers  who  unwittingly  puts  his  own 
ideas  into  the  works  which  he  interprets.  He  is  some- 
times very  abstruse,  and   his  most  impressive  utterances 


are  so  much  like  those  of  an  orthodox  clergyman 
of  the  new  school,  that  his  lectures,  with  those  of  the 
two  mystics  just  mentioned,  gave  the  early  sessions  a 
rather  conservative  tone.  The  original  orthodoxy  of  the 
school  has  been  much  mitigated  of  late  by  the  part  taken 
by  Messrs.  Fiske,  Davidson  and  others.  Dr.  Edmund 
Montgomery  has  sent  in  three  lectures  which  have  at- 
tracted much  notice.  The  last,  that  on  Aristotle's 
Theory  of  Causation  in  Its  Relation  to  Modern 
Thought,  was  read  on  Thursday  morning,  July  14th, 
and  judging  from  reports  given,  is  remarkable  for  the 
great  vigor  with  which  the  reality  of  the  external  world 
is  asserted,  and  not  as  a  mere  form  of  thought,  but  as  the 
result  of  definite  sources  of  power  which  are  no  part  of 
the  human  mind,  and  which  are  known  to  us  through 
our  senses.  Professor  Davidson  pronounced  the  paper 
one  of  the  best  he  had  ever  heard,  but  thought  that  its 
author  had  in  some  cases  misunderstood  Aristotle,  which 
is  what  every  commentator  on  him,  so  far  as  we  know, 
says  of  every  other.  His  main  objection  to  the  essay 
was  that  it  did  not  explain  the  fondness  of  men  for  seek- 
ing after  ultimate  causes,  which  taste,  however,  has  been 
sufficiently  accounted  for  perhaps  by  Conite,  as  a  char- 
acteristic of  the  pre-scientific  stage  of  thought.  Dr. 
Harris  took  exceptions  to  what  was  said  about  Aristotle 
by  both  Davidson  and  Montgomery,  and  asserted  against 
the  latter,  the  subjectivity  of  things  in  themselves. 

The  disappointment  at  the  absence  of  Dr.  Mont- 
gomery was  great.  A  Concord  correspondent  wrote  to 
the  Boston  Post: 

If  the  doctor  doesn't  show  himself  to  the  world  at  the  next 
session  of  the  school,  the  Concord  faculty  and  6tudents  will  un- 
questionably— to  use  words  in  his  lecture  to-day — emphatically 
deny  that  he  is  a  real  man,  subsisting  as  a  substantial  entity  out- 
side of  themselves. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  Aristotle's  views 
of  metaphysics  were  discussed  thoroughly  and  con- 
stantly. A  just,  though  rather  summary,  survey  was 
given  of  his  contributions  to  ethics,  sociology  and  poli- 
tics, the  lecture  of  Professor  Ferri,  of  Rome,  on  the  last 
subject,  having  found  a  translator  in  Mrs.  Helen  Camp- 
bell. The  best  work  of  the  great  peripatetic,  that  of 
laying  the  foundations  of  natural  science,  was  treated  of 
in  only  a  single  lecture,  nominally  on  Aristotle's  Physi- 
ological Doctriftes.  His  real  services  to  that  science 
were  almost  entirely  ignored ;  and  extravagant  praises 
were  lavished  on  his  habit  of  beginning  the  study  of 
natural  phenomena,  by  trying  to  reason  out  what  they 
ought  to  be  according  to  the  supposed  design  of  nature, 
before  looking  to  see  what  they  reallv  were.  Thus 
special  investigation  was  disparaged  in  favor  of  speculat- 
ing on  what  we  imagine  to  have  been  the  divine  inten- 
tions. This  view  was  accepted  by  the  faculty,  but 
nothing,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  was  said  of  Aristotle's 
real  discoveries  in  zoology,  or  of  the  attention  he  gave 
to    meteorology   and    astronomy,   although    Dr.   Harris 


356 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


made  the  surprising  statement  that  there  does  not  exist 
a  sino-le  science  which  was  not  named  and  defined  by 
Aristotle,  and  reference  was  made  to  praise  given  by 
Cuvier  and  Agassiz  to  their  great  forerunner. 

The  most  interesting  of  Aristotle's  theories,  that 
about  the  drama,  was  made  the  subject  of  nine  lectures, 
the  first  of  which  was  delivered  on  Wednesday  evening, 
Tul\  13th,  by  Mr.  Davidson,  who  showed  what  full  and 
rich  use  the  Greek  drama  made  of  all  the  arts,  especially 
muMC,  to  which  the  proper  place  cannot  easily  be 
given  by  us  moderns,  who  have  ceased  to  employ  the 
choruc. 

Shakespeare  and  his  contemporaries  were  treated  of 
in  six  lectures.  Mr.  Edwin  D.  Mead  showed  how  much 
mistaken  Mr.  Snider,  a  lecturer  in  previous  years,  had 
been  in  representing  Julius  Caesar  as  a  champion  of  the 
world-spirit  against  the  state.  The  usurper  was  led  by 
personal  ambition.  Among  other  dramas  bringing  the 
individual  into  collision  with  institutions,  are  Timon  of 
Athens  and  Coriolanus.  He  also  said  that  Sophocles 
aims  to  show  that  Antigone  is  punished  unjustly;  and 
Dr.  Harris  remarked  that  she  is  really  a  champion  of 
religious  institutions  against  political  ones.  How  far 
Shakespeare  was  in  advance  of  the  Greek  dramatists  in 
letting  the  punishment  of  criminals  proceed  from  their 
own  conscience  rather  than  from  any  arbitrary  decree  of 
a  supernatural  Nemesis,  was  spoken  of  by  Professor 
Shackford.  Dr.  Barlol  spoke  to  a  large  audience  of  the 
healthy  delight  in  this  world  shown  by  the  great  dram- 
atist, who  is  not  like  Emerson,  a  celestial  visitor,  but 
has  taken  out  his  .naturalization  papers.  Marlowe,  the 
most  revolutionary  writer  of  his  century,  was  depicted 
by  Mr.  Sanborn,  as  were  Ford  and  Massinger  by  Mrs. 
Cheney.  Mrs.  Howe  spoke  on  Aristophanes  and  the 
Elizabethan  Drama,  and  Mr.  Cooke  on  Brozvning's 
Dramatic  Genius. 

Among  the  most  instructive  lectures  was  that  of 
Professor  Davidson,  on  Education  in  Greece.  He 
showed  how  the  old  method  which  sought  merely  to 
make  good  citizens,  was  reconciled  with  the  new  theory 
of  getting  knowledge  for  its  own  sake  by  Socrates,  who 
answered  the  question,  How  to  restore  the  lost  moral 
sanctions?  by  inventing  liberty,  which  should  be  de- 
fined as  "action  guided  by  knowledge  and  insight,  not 
by  habit  and  traditional  authority." 

Another  of  his  lectures,  which  was  particularly 
charming  because  it  contained  so  many  of  his  own 
translations,  showed  how  far  all  other  women  have  been 
surpassed  in  poetic  genius  by  the  "violet-crowned, 
chaste,  sweet-smiling  Sappho,"  whom  the  Greeks  placed 
next  to  Homer,  and  whose  intensity  resembles  Dante, 
except  in  its  freedom  from  mysticism,  while  the  mascu- 
line strength  of  Burns  is  united  in  her  to  the  exquisite 
womanly  pathos  and  humor  of  Lady  Nairn.  Onlv  one 
of   her  songs,  whose   number  must   he  estimated   by  the 


hundred,  has  been  suffered  to  come  down  to  us  unmuti- 
lated  by  monkish  bigotry,  which  delighted  to  perpetrate 
such  scandals  as  that  about  her  suicide  on  account  of  un- 
requited love.  She  is  now  known  to  have  lived  to  a 
good  old  age,  and  to  have  been  the  happy,  honored 
mother  of  the  child  of   whom  she  savs, 

I  have  a  little  maid  as  fair 
As  any  golden  (lower. 

Among  other  fragments  which  have  been  spared  by 
the  church  is  this, 

The  lullaby  of  waters  cool 
Through  apple  boughs  is  softly  blown, 

And,  shaken  from  the  rippling  leaves, 
Sleep  droppeth  down. 

All  antiquity  admired  these  lines  addressed  to  some 
friend  of  her  own  sex: 

I  hold  him  as  the  gods  above, 
The  man  who  sits  before  thy  feet 
And,  near  thee,  hears  thee  whisper  sweet, 

And  brighten  with  the  smiles  of  love. 

Thou  smiled'st;  like  a  timid  bird 
My  heart  cowered,  fluttering  in  its  place: 
I  saw  thee  but  a  moment's  space, 

And  yet  I  could  not  frame  a  word. 

Her  own  prophecy, 

I  think  there  will  be  memory  of  us  yet 
In  after  days, 

has  been  fulfilled,  for  as  another  Greek  poet  said, 

Sappho's  white,  speaking  pages  of  dear  song 
Yet  linger  with  us,  and  will  linger  long. 

One  of  Dr.  Harris'  four  lectures  presented  what  he 
calls  "  my  best  contribution  to  philosophy."  This  theory 
which  is  said  to  have  been  attained  by  no  other  philoso- 
pher, may  be  summed  up  thus.  We  can  perceive  noth- 
ing but  what  we  can  identify  with  what  was  familiar 
already.  This  identification  is  made  unconsciously 
through  syllogisms.  Sense-perception  could  not  begin 
without  a  priori  ideas.  Unconscious  syllogizing  forms 
the  warp  and  woof  of  human  experience.  The  mind 
acts  in  the  form  of  syllogisms  upon  the  presentation  of 
every  sense-perception.  A  similar  view  is  claimed,  how- 
ever, for  Rosmini,  and  Mill  (  Logic,  II,  III)  shows  the 
inconsistency  of  the  "set  of  writers"  who  "  represent 
the  syllogism  as  the  correct  analysis  of  what  the  mind 
actually  performs  in  discovering"  truths  of  science  and 
daily  life,  with  "the  doctrine,  admitted  by  all  writers  on 
the  subject,  that  a  syllogism  can  prove  no  more  than  is 
involved  in  the  premises."  I  must  protest  with  Mephis- 
topheles  against  the  idea  that 

What  we've  done  at  a  single  stroke,  easy  and  free, 
Has  got  to  take  place  in  steps,  one,  two  and  three. 

Dr.  Harris  and  Professor  Davidson  are,  without 
doubt,  the  pillars  of  the  school ;  but  there  is  some  dif- 
ference of  opinion  as  to  which  of  them  is  its  indispens- 
able support.  Most  of  the  lecturers  who  were  annouced 
on  the  programme   have  attended   for  at  least  a  day  or 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


35/ 


two,  or  sent  in  their  lectures  to  he  read  by  others;  and 
and  there  have  been  fewer  disappointments  than  a  year 
ago.  The  attendance  has  been  smaller,  owing  partly  to 
the  dryness  of  the  main  subject,  and  partly  to  the  num- 
ber of  hot  days  before  the  session  began;  and  a  scholar 
who  has  been  present  at  several  of  the  sessions  writes 
us,  "  No  one  of  ability  comes  here  now  except  to  lecture, 
and  but  few  of  the  audience  can  take  in  what  is  origi- 
nal in  the  metaphysics."  Perhaps  this  statement  needs 
some  qualification.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  one  of  the 
hottest  and  least  accessible  spots  in  Concord  should  have 
been  picked  out  for  the  chapel  on  account  of  nearness 
to  the  house  in  which  Mr.  Alcott  formerly  dwelt. 
The  school  closed  Thursday  evening  last  week,  with  a 
reading  of  Scotch  ballads  after  another  lecture  by  Pro- 
fessor Davidson.  Jin^lisli  and  Scotch  Philosophers 
and  Poets  of  Nature,  beginning  with  Thomson,  were 
provisionally  announced  as  the  subjects  for  next  year. 

The  present  management  of  the  Concord  School  is 
not,  in  our  opinion,  adapted  to  make  its  work  one  of 
great  importance  in  the  solution  or  discussion  of  philo- 
sophical questions.  The  school  is  controlled  not  by 
minds  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  modern  scientific  and 
philosophic  thought,  but  by  one  or  two  men  whose 
chief  tastes  and  interests  are  merely  literary.  Hence  it 
resorts  to  the  discussion  of  Greek  and  Elizabethan 
literature,  when,  as  the  Boston  Herald  observes,  it  ought 
to  be  "a  wrestling  place  of  the  giants  of  the  earth." 
"As  a  coterie  of  a  few  bright  men  engaged  in  literary 
studies,  it  has  no  future,  but  as  the  arena  for  free  philo- 
sophical discussion,  it  should  have  special  attraction  for 
our  best  thinkers  in  the  field  of  philosophy,  sociology 
and  religion." 


GERMAN    INFLUENCE    IN    AMERICA. 

What  Dr.  McGlynn,  the  excommunicated  priest, 
says  in  his  rather  sensational  article  in  the  August 
number  of  the  North  American  Review  in  favor  of 
the  rights  of  conscience,  the  separation  of  Church 
and  State,  the  equal  taxation  of  the  property  of  all 
corporations,  without  exception  in  favor  of  any 
ecclesiastical  bodies,  and  the  support  from  the  com- 
mon treasury  only  of  common  schools  and  common 
charities  is  good,  although  but  a  repetition  of  what 
our  liberal  journals  have  been  saying  for  years. 
What  he  presents  respecting  the  attitude  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  toward  our  public  schools  is, 
too,  doubtless,  just.  But  many  of  his  statements  — 
such  as  that  American  institutions  are  in  danger 
from  German  influence,  that  there  is  a  scheme  on 
foot  to  Germanize  the  country  and  to  make  the  Ger- 
man as  much  the  national  language  as  English,  and 
that  this  influence  has  its  stronghold  in  the  Catholic 
church,  which  like  the  country  at  large  is  to  be  Ger- 
manized— will     not     strengthen     confidence     in     his 


sagacity   and   judgment   among  intelligent   unpreju- 
diced thinkers. 

German  is  as  much  the  language  of  Protestantism 
and  Freethought  as  of  Roman  Catholicism.  German 
immigrants  are  among  the  most  intelligent  and 
liberty-loving  that  come  to  this  country;  they  be- 
come attached  to  our  institutions  and  yield  to  those 
forces  which  soon  make  all  immigrants  Americans 
and  determine  the  leading  language  of  the  country. 
German  as  well  as  English  is  a  language  of  science, 
philosophy,  poetry  and  song,  a  knowledge  of  which 
is  necessary  to  a  liberal  education,  and  it  is  not 
strange  that  Germans  cling  to  this  language  anil  use- 
it  to  teach  their  children  German  learning  and  litera- 
ture; but  this  is  done  without  neglecting  to  learn  and 
use  the  language  in  which  most  of  the  business  of 
the  country  is  done  and  in  which  its  constitution 
and  laws  are  written.  There  is  nothing  to  indicate 
that  the  Catholic  church  is  especially  interested  in 
increasing,  or  that  our  institutions  are  in  danger 
from  German  influence,  which  in  this  country  is 
strongly  republican  and  on  the  whole  liberal  in  its 
religious  character. 


It  is  stated  on  apparently  good  authority  that 
there  is  not  much  demand  for  the  revised  editions  of 
either  the  Old  or  the  New  Testament,  compared  with 
the  demand  for  King  James'  version,  which  with  all 
its  errors,  is  still  preferred  by  the  people.  Mr. 
Magee,  of  the  Methodist  Book  Establishment,  said 
recently  to  a  reporter: 

The  revised  version  is  no  good  as  an  article  of  merchandise, 
and  we  would  not  venture  to  order  a  half  dozen  copies  at  one 
time.  The  people  have  no  confidence  in  it,  and  are  not  willing 
to  adopt  the  mere  verbal  changes.  There  is  too  much  capital 
represented  in  the  old  Bible  to  be  supplanted. 

*  *  * 

Professor  Cope,  in  the  American  Naturalist,  calls 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Nero  type  of  physiog- 
nomy is  becoming  frequent  among  the  weaklings 
who  lounge  about  club  rooms  and  are  taught  to  do 
nothing  but  gratify  their  senses.  Imbecility  and 
family  extinction  flow  from  power  used  for  debasing 
purposes.  The  history  of  the  Romanoff  Czars  of 
Russia  give  extreme  illustrations  of  this. 

A  minister  was  questioning  his  Sunday  school  concerning 
the  storv  of  Entychus — the  young  man  who,  listening  to  the 
preaching  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  fell  asleep,  and  falling  down,  was 
taken  up  dead.  "What,"  he  said,  "do  we  learn  from  this  solemn 
event?"  when  the  reply  from  a  little  girl  came  pat  and  prompt: 
"  Please,  sir,  ministers   should   not  preach  too  long  sermons!  "- 

Investigator. 

*  *  # 

"  Bov,"  said  a  schoolmaster,  putting  his  hand  on  the  boys' 
shoulder,  "  I  b=lieve  Satan  has  got  hold  of  you."  "  I  believe  so 
too,"  replied  the  boy. 


;ss 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


MONTGOMERY  ON   THE   THEOLOGY   OF 
EVOLUTION.* 

BY    PROFESSOR    E.  D.  COPE. 
Part  II. 

I  must  here  warn  my  readers  not  to  infer  that  my 
doctrine  involves  any  foresight  or  intention  on  the  part 
of  living  things  as  to  their  evolution.  Consciousness  is 
first  passive,  and  is  merely  stimulated  by  contact  with 
matter.  Its  subsequent  action  is  determined  first  by  its 
immediate  needs,  and  second  by  the  intelligence  with 
which  it  satisfies  them.  No  animal,  except  man,  has  yet 
taken  into  account  the  future  evolution  of  his  kind,  and 
■even  he  in  a  majority  of  instances  neglects  to  adopt  the 
measures  necessary  to  accomplish  it.  Sensation  is  a 
humble  department  of  mind,  but  it  has  accomplished 
•wonders.  The  action  of  the  environment  alone,  with- 
out its  intelligent  response,  would  have  extinguished  life 
almost  as  soon  as  it  had  birth  on  the  earth. 

I  refer  here  to  the  recent  expression  of  Weissmann, 
that  structures  acquired  through  the  movements  of 
animals  cannot  be  inherited  by  their  descendents.  He 
leases  this  opinion  on  the  fact  that  the  reproductive 
elements  of  animals  have  a  continuous  life;  i.  e.,  that  the 
reproductive  cells  have  their  origin  from  certain  cells  of 
the  gastrula,  and  that  protoplasm  of  the  one  has  an 
.-absolute  continuity  of  existence  from  that  of  the  other. 
Let  this  be  granted;  the  fact  is,  however,  clearly  demon- 
strated by  paleontology,  that  characters  have  been  suc- 
cessively acquired  by  animals,  and  that  they  have  been 
inherited.  And  it  can  be  shown  that  these  characters 
.are  just  as  much  due  to  mechanical  causes  as  would  have 
been  the  case  with  so  much  dead  matter,  moved  in  the 
same  -cay.  But  that  the  motions  of  the  animals  could 
have  taken  place  in  the  manner  they  have,  excepting 
under  the  original  influence  of  consciousness  is  not  for 
&  moment  to  be  supposed. 

Professor  Weissmann's  reproductive  cells,  like  other 
cells,  experience  nutrition  in  the  course  of  their  exist- 
ence. Tnis  is  necessary  to  supply  the  material  necessary 
to  segmentation,  both  before  and  after  fertilization.  It 
is  the  molecular  condition  of  this  nutrition  which  deter- 
mines the  changes  noted  in  inheritance,  and  which  con- 
stitute evolution. 

The  fact  is  that  evidence  of  the  control  of  mind  over 
matter  is  much  clearer  when  sought  for  in  the  special 
•department  of  science  called  phylogeny  (or  evolution ) 
than  in  any  of  the  departments  which  deal  with  finished 
creations.  Mind  is  then  seen  to  be  related  to  matter 
somewhat  as  the  builder  is  related  to  his  house.  When 
the  house  is  finished,  we  no  longer  behold  him  as  a 
creator;  on  the  contrary,  we  see  him  everywhere  under 
restraint.  The  walls  prevent  him  to  the  right  and  left, 
and  the  floors  and  ceilings  below  and  above.  lie  is 
compelled  to  lie  on  the  bed  he  has  made  for  himself,  to 

« A  Lecture  by  E.  D.  Cope.     Arnold  &  Co.:    Philadelphia.     1SS7. 


cook  in  his  kitchen  and  to  eat  in  his  dining-room.  His 
liberty  is  curtailed  on  every  hand.  His  house  wears 
out,  and  it  must  be  repaired  from  time  to  time  at  his 
own  expense.  But  do  we  learn  of  the  man's  true  rela- 
tions to  the  house  by  these  observations?  Surely  not. 
We  must  see  him  as  the  builder  before  we  comprehend 
his  importance  to  the  house.  So  it  is  with  physiology 
or  functioning  as  compared  with  phylogeny  or  crea- 
tion. Function  of  all  kinds,  whether  in  the  processes  of 
life,  or  of  chemical  or  of  physical  energy,  betrays  little  of 
the  creator.  It  is  rather  the  destroyer  that  we  see. 
Phylogeny,  on  the  other  hand,  shows  us  the  building 
and  the  builder.  In  many  living  processes,  however, 
both  functioning  and  building  go  on  simultaneously. 
Building  is  in  excess  of  destruction  when  use  adds 
something  to  pre-existent  structure.  But  when  use  is  in 
too  small  or  in  too  great  quantity,  not  addition,  but  sub- 
traction (or  degeneracy)  follows.  I  believe  that  the  pri- 
mary source  of  obscurity  in  all  discussions  on  the 
relations  of  mind  to  matter  is  the  failure  to  discriminate 
between  the  functioning  of  the  finished  machine,  and 
the  original  building  of  the  machine.  Functioning  is 
seen  in  the  automatic  stage  of  mind,  or  most  frequently 
in  the  automatic  stage  of  energy,  which  is  still  more 
remote  from  the  conscious  mind.  Yet  more  remote  from 
its  source  is  the  man-made  machine  which  records  and 
repeats  to  us  the  thoughts  of  its  author,  as  the  book  on 
the  phonograph,  to  which  Mr.  Montgomery  refers. 

j.    Objection  to  the  Doctrine  of  the  Unspccialized. 

Nothing  is  better  known  in  animal  and  vegetable 
phylogeny  than  that  the  unspecialized  is  the  parent  of 
the  specialized;  and  the  corresponding  truth  in  general 
evolution  is  well  stated  by  Spencer  as  the  process  of 
change  of  the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous. 
Ontogeny  teaches  the  same  truth  as  seen  in  the  growth 
of  the  mind  from  infancy  to  maturity,  and  in  this  field, 
as  in  that  of  inferior  functions,  ontogeny  probably 
repeats  phylogeny.  I  have  cited  the  mind  of  the 
amceba  as  the  most  primitive  and  the  most  generalized, 
and  have  declared  that  from  this  primitive  consciousness, 
aided  by  its  copartner  memory,  the  varied  and  more 
complex  minds  of  all  higher  animals  have  been  derived. 
Dr.  Montgomery  opens  his  objection  to  this  view  by 
denying  consciousness  to  the  amceba.  In  proof  of 
this  he  asserts  "that  nutritive  assimilation  and  the  pro- 
trusion and  retraction  of  processes  take  place  solely  by 
dint  of  the  chemical  and  physical  relations  subsisting 
between  the  organism  and  its  medium,  and  between 
different  parts  of  its  own  protoplasm"  (Part  III).  Now 
I  do  not  question  the  truth  of  the  above  statement.  I 
have  nowhere  stated  assimilation  of  nutritive  material 
to  be  accompanied  by  consciousness,  or  at  least  to  be 
produced  by  it,  nor  is  the  contractility  of  protoplasm 
to  be  regarded  as  an  indication  of  the  presence  of  con- 
sciousness.    Not  even  designed  movements  mean  present 


THE    OF- EN    COURT. 


359 


consciousness;  but  I  believe  that  such  movements 
can  only  have  had  their  origin  in  consciousness.  That 
the  amccba  exhibits  conscious-designed  acts  is  testified 
to  by  Leidy  in  the  following  language:*  "The  amccba 
evidently  possesses  a  power  of  discrimination  and  selec- 
tion in  its  food,  for  although  it  appropriates  with  the 
latter  many  particles  of  vegetal  tissues,  and  even 
abundance  of  sand-grains,  it  commonly  rejects  dead 
diatom  shells,  and  the  empty  shells  of  other  alga?." 
Leidy  also  remarks  :y  "Personal  consciousness  is  ob- 
served as  a  conditio>i  of  each  and  every  living  animal, 
ranging  from  microscopic  forms  to  man."  But  it  is  not  yet 
demonstrated  that  the  amccba  may  not  be  degenerate  and 
automatic,  rather  than  the  most  primitive  of  animals. 

There  is  an  incredulity  as  to  the  mentalitv  of  ani- 
mals which  is  natural  to  the  human  being.  The  only 
way  to  get  over  this  state  of  mind  is  to  observe  them. 
Dr.  Montgomery  has  studied  the  protozoa,  and  if  he  has 
not  seen  them  perform  designed  acts  he  differs  in  experi- 
ence from  some  of  the  ablest  students  of  the  subject. 

The  second  objection  (b)  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
unspecialized  is  directed  against  the  opinion  that  proto- 
plasm is  a  generalized  substance.  He  remarks  (Part 
III)  that  I  "obviously  believe  morphologically  unor- 
ganized protoplasm  to  be  also  molecularly  unorganized." 
This  sentence  does  not  correctly  express  my  opinion  as 
I  have  stated  it  in  several  places  in  The  Origin  of  the 
Fittest.  I  there  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  proto- 
plasm consists  of  an  association  of  simple  substances 
which  represent  the  four  predominant  types  of  chemi- 
cal valency.  From  this  I  infer  that  the  result  is  likely 
to  be  a  greater  or  less  mutual  restraint  of  the  four  types 
of  molecular  motion,  producing,  perhaps,  a  neutraliza- 
tion of  much  of  it  through  interference.  •  This  is  further 
suggested  by  the  very  inert  character  of  protoplasm  itself. 
Again,  I  understand  that  static  chemical  energy  is  the 
condition  of  stabilitv  of  chemical  compounds.  This  sta- 
bility is  therefore  the  expression  of  the  most  positive 
types  of  chemism,  and  we  know  that  these  types,  as 
expressed  in  stable  compounds,  arc  many.  But  proto- 
plasm displays  neither  chemical  energy  as  a  whole,  in 
relation  to  other  substances,  nor  stability  of  union  as 
regards  its  component  parts.  So  far,  then,  as  regards 
the  type  of  energy  known  as  chemism,  protoplasm  is 
one  of  the  most  generalized  of  substances,  and  this 
statement  will  be  true,  of  course,  with  reference  to  such 
molecular  movements  as  express  that  kind  of  energy. 
It  is  just  this  weakness,  in  all  probability,  which  gives 
opportunity  for  the  kind  of  motion  or  energy  which  rep- 
resents vitality,  whether  it  be  conscious  at  a  given  time 
and  place,  or  whether  it  be  a  recent  product  of  conscious 
energy,  of  the  reflex  or  some  other  automatic  form.  Dr. 
Montgomery   has   missed  my  meaning    on    this    subject 


^Monograph  of  Fresh  Water  RhizopoJs  of  North  America,  1879,  p.  44. 
^Christian  Register,  April  7,  18S7. 


completely,  and  his  argument  thus  loses  its  relevancy.  I 
admit  and  believe  fully  that  the  molecular  peculiarity  of 
the  protoplasm  of  different  species  of  living  things  is 
the  very  cause  and  condition  of  inheritance,  anil  have 
so  published.  But  this  has  obviously  nothing  to  do 
with  chemical  energv. 

4.      Objection  to  Inference  of  Deity. 

As  a  basis  of  inference  for  the  existence  of  primitive 
mind  or  Deity,  we  have  then  the  following  facts:  First, 
the  direction  of  energy  by  will;  second,  the  direction  of 
the  evolution  of  organic  beings  either  immediately  or 
primitively  by  will;  third,  the  necessity  for  belief  in  an 
anti-chemical  type  of  energy  to  account  for  the  stability 
of  living  protoplasm.  As  a  matter  of  speculation  we 
havetthe  extreme  improbability  of  the  restriction  of  mind 
to  the  earth,  among  the  myriad  bodies  of  the  universe. 

The  fact  second  above  mentioned  involves  the  "law 
of  the  unspecialized,"  since  evolution  shows  that  primi- 
tive forms  are  always  unspecialized,  both  in  mechanical 
and  mental  organism  and  function.  According  to  this 
principle  the  primitive  mind  must  be  simple  and  without 
those  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  which  characterize 
the  highest  known,  that  is,  human,  minds.  On  this 
ground  Dr.  Montgomery  asserts  that  my  primitive  mind 
or  Deity  must  be  of  lower  constitution  than  human 
minds,  but  perhaps  of  about  the  grade  of  that  of  the 
amoeba.  Taken  by  itself  this  view  has  a  reasonable 
appearance.      (Critique,  Part  II.) 

Not  wishing  to  reach  any  conclusion  by  an  a  priori 
method,  I  have  as  I  think,  in  the  first  and  second  propo- 
sitions above  enumerated,  confined  myself  to  demon- 
strated facts.  I  have  in  the  third  proposition  stated  a 
fact  of  which  the  interpretation  requires  further  scien- 
tific evidence  for  its  support,  but  in  the  correctness  of 
which  I  have  nevertheless  great  confidence.  Facts  may 
sometimes  appear  to  land  the  logical  reasoner  in  absurd- 
ities, but  it  may  be  in  such  case  confidently  assumed 
that  the  absurdity  is  but  an  appearance  of  temporary 
duration.  The  reductio  ad  absurditm  of  Dr.  Mont- 
gomery of  a  "generalized,"  and  therefore  utterly  inapt 
Deity  from  my  premises,  is  an  instance  of  this  kind.  If 
I  believed  that  the  physical  basis  of  Deity  is  protoplasm, 
his  reductio  would  be  legitimate,  but  I  have  in  various 
ways  asserted  my  disbelief  in  such  an  idea,  a  disbelief 
which  necessarily  follows  from  an  extension  of  the 
"doctrine  of  the  unspecialized  "  to  the  inorganic  world. 
Function,  mental  and  other,  follows  organization  in  the 
organic  world,  but  not  a  step  would  ever  have  been 
taken  without  consciousness  to  inaugurate  it.  The  same 
law  was  probably  applied  to  the  construction  of  proto- 
plasm, which  though  generalized  in  respect  to  chemical 
functions,  is  itself  the  product  of  specialization  from  still 
simpler  antecedents.  Under  the  circumstances  we  are 
forced  into  a  hypothesis  in  order  to  explain  facts  other- 
wise inexplicable.     It  is  this: 


\6o 


^l-A, 


rHE    OPEN    COU  RT 


We  know  that  consciousness  of  every  degree  may 
he,  and  is,  experienced  by  men,  as  results  of  various 
physical  interferences.  We  see  the  same  phenomenon 
in  all  living  things.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
the  case  is  different  in  the  universe  generally.  We  may 
believe  that  consciousness,  like  combustion,  will  invade 
every  physical  basis  which  is  capable  of  exhibiting  it 
whether  in  greater  or  lesser  degree.  Is  there  any  reason 
to  suppose  that  protoplasm  is  the  best  substance  in  the 
universe  for  the  display  of  the  phenomena  of  conscious- 
ness? Probably  not.  Certainly  not  if  we  are  to  judge 
from  its  exhibitions  in  the  protozoa.  Metaphorically 
speaking,  protoplasm  without  some  peculiarities  of  or- 
ganization of  which  we  know  nothing,  appears  to  be 
almost  am-esthetic  to  consciousness.  We  do  not  know 
the  physical  basis  of  the  most  pronounced  consciousness, 
but  we  can  safely  conclude  that  it  is  not  protoplasm. 
Science  will  probably  some  day  reveal  it  to  us.  That  it 
will  be  chemically  inert  we  may  well  believe,  but  how 
complex  may  be  its  molecule,  cannot  be  surmised.  If 
the  law  of  the  unspecialized  is  true  in  molecular  physics 
as  it  is  in  chemistry  and  in  organism,  it  will  be  the  sim- 
plest of  substances,  the  protyle  of  chemical  speculation. 

The  question  of  the  immortality  of  the  lesser  mind 
of  man  is  inseparably  connected  with  that  of  the  exist- 
ence of  Deity.  Direct  evidence  on  this  question  is  al- 
most wanting.  I  say  almost,  in  view  of  the  many  asser- 
tions made  by  reliable  people  as  to  the  appearance  to 
them  of  persons  after  death,  which  I  am  unable  to  re- 
fute or  accept.  Nevertheless  a  belief  in  a  primitive  or 
predominent  mind,  or  Deity,  is  entirely  favorable  to  a  be- 
lief in  immortality.  If  the  human  mind  can  acquire  a 
relation  to  a  physical  basis  similar  to  that  of  the  divine 
imind,  it  must  continue  to  exist.  As  development  of  will 
has  elevated  the  human  mind  from  its  humble  beginnings, 
we  naturally  look  to  the  same  source  for  further  pro- 
gress. Evolution  looks  on  the  interaction  of  social  forces 
of  contending  and  co-operating  interests  and  affections, 
as  the  source  of  that  development  of  the  standard  of 
will-action  which  we  call  moral.  And  it  is  evident  that 
if  there  be  an)'  existence  beyond  the  present  one,  a 
moral  order  is  the  only  one  which  is  practicable  as  a 
state  of  enjoyment.  Moral  will  power  then  represents 
the  highest  attribute  of  mind,  whether  greater  or  lesser, 
and  we  must  suppose  that  it  has,  like  other  mental  func- 
tions, a  correspondingly  peculiar  molecular  basis.  Anil 
it  must  he  the  creator  of  this  basis  under  the  general 
law  of  the  limited  control  of  mind  over  physical  energy. 
It  seems  eminently  reasonable  that  the  development  of 
will  in  man  should  eventuate  in  the  production  of  a 
type  of  energy  similar  in  kind  to  that  which  expresses 
will  in  Deity,  and  that  it  should  be  persistent  in  the  one 
ease  as  it  is  in  the  other. 

5.      Conclusion. 

The  objections  which  Dr.  Montgomery  has  expressed 


against  the  Theology  of  Evolution  are  the  effective' 
ones  that  can  and  will  be  made.  As  the  reader 
perceives,  I  do  not  regard  them  as  affecting  its  stablility. 
As  I  have  attempted  nothing  but  fundamentals,  so  there 
is  no  dispute  as  to  details.  But  I  wish  to  say  in  con- 
cluding, that  from  a  scientific  standpoint  the  subject  is 
in  its  most  primitive  stages.  I  shall  be  gratified  if  I 
have  succeeded  in  effecting  one  result  in  some  minds; 
that  is,  if  I  have  proven  to  their  satisfaction  that  the 
question  is  at  least  an  open  one,  and  that  instead  of  the 
result  of  scientific  research  having  proved  inimical  to  a 
belief  in  the  past,  present  and  future  existence  of  con- 
scious mind  in  the  universe,  it  is  decidedly  and  posi- 
tively favorable  to  such  a  belief.  I  refer  to  conscious 
mind  as  a  practical  question  which  interests  everybody. 
The  unconscious  mind,  though  highly  important  from  a 
scientific  point  of  view,  is  not  important  to  theology  or 
morals.  Doubtless  some  automatic  form  of  energy 
exists  to  which  Haeckel's  expression  atom-soul  may  be 
applicable,  and  his  plastidule-soul  may  be  my  bathmism; 
but  no  one  who  believes  in  the  immortality  of  these  or 
any  other  forms  of  energy  only,  can  be  regarded  sa 
believing  in  the  immortality  of  consciousness.  Argu- 
ments both  for  and  against  such  immortality  derived 
from  the  consideration  of  the  conservation  of  such  forms 
of  energy,  are  perfectly  idle.  We  do  not  know  of  any 
form  of  inorganic  energy  that  is  persistent,  that  is  that 
does  not  undergo  constant  metamorphosis,  excepting 
heat,  and  this  is  not  the  physical  hasis  of  consciousness. 
Of  a  somewhat  less  mysterious  and  inscrutable  char- 
acter than  the  plastidule-soul  of  Haeckel  is  the  "per- 
durable substratum"  of  Montgomery.  Some  explana- 
tion of  the  mysteries  of  evolution  and  mind  must  be 
had,  and  these  hypotheses  represent  the  efforts  in  this 
direction  of  two  able  men.  The  latter  does  not  adopt 
the  view  of  Haeckel,  but  endeavors  in  his  highly  inter- 
esting article  on  the  "  Substantiality  of  Life,"*  to  dem- 
onstrate the  existence  of  a  "perdurable  substratum  "  for 
the  display  of  organic  phenomena,  both  mental  and 
non-mental.  He  puts  in  philosophical  form  the  hypoth- 
esis of  the  soul.  I  ennnot  perceive,  however,  that  he 
adduces  other  than  speculative  evidence  for  the  exist- 
ence of  this  "substratum,"  or  that  he  succeeds  in  abol- 
ishing the  "aggregation  hypothesis"  of  science.  That 
such  a  substratum  may  exist  I  will  not  attempt  to  deny, 
and  as  a  working  hypothesis  it  can  be  entertained  so 
long  as  it  does  not  conflict  with  tridimensional  realism. 
The  principal  ground  for  the  substratum  hypothesis  as 
regards  mind,  is  found  in  the  evanescent  quality  of  con- 
sciousness, and  in  the  precision  of  its  reappearances.  In 
the  language  of  the  article  quoted  (p.  31  )  "  conscious  states 
are  clearly  ephemeral  influences  of  an  enduring  being, 
poised — far  beyond  conceptual  comprehension — in  the 
exquisitely  exact  and  subtle  balance  of  what  symbolically 

*  Mind,  July,  1SS1. 
j 


the  open  court. 


361 


reveals  itself  to  us  as  vital  substantiality."  But  the  sub- 
stratum which  returns  consciousness  into  being  after 
unconsciousness  in  the  physical  organism,  is  the  auto- 
matic form  of  energy  which  effects  repair  of  exhausted 
tissue  (as  is  stated  by  the  author,  p.  25),  a  species  of 
energy  which  owes  its  individuality  to  the  conscious- 
ness which  preceded  it  in  time,  and  of  which  it  is  a 
dead  derivative  product.  No  other  "substratum"  is 
necessary  so  far  as  I  see,  but  I  am  not  at  present  pre- 
pared to  deny  its  existence.  We  know  of  the  creative 
power  of  consciousness;  of  anything  else  we  do  not 
know.  And  thus  knowing,  we  may  rest  in  a  definite 
hope  that  consciousness  does  and  will  continue  to 
create  a  form  or  forms  of  energy  which  will  persist  in  a 
physical  basis  which  is  more  permanent  than  that  per- 
ishable protoplasm  of  which  it  is  now  a  property. 

As  regards  any  unconscious  substratum  of  conscious- 
ness, not  tridimensional  matter  and  energy,  I  am  an  agnos- 
tic. I  do  not  know  what  represents  consciousness  during 
its  eclipse.  I  would  not  consider  my  hypothesis  fatally  de- 
fective if  it  should  be  discovered  that  there  is  nothing 
left  to  take  care  of  the  premises  during  its  absence,  but 
organic  energy.  This  is  the  field  for  future  research. 
Meanwhile  we  can  trust  consciousness  for  what  it  can  do 
when  it  is  present. 

There  are  some  minor  points  on  which  I  differ  more 
or  less  with  the  language  at  least  of  my  critic,  but  it  is 
not  desirable  to  extend  the  discussion  beyond  a  reason- 
able length.  One  of  these  is  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
impressions  produced  on  the  mental  organism  (brain) 
bv  external  stimuli.  I  have  asserted  that  the  man  re- 
ceives them,  and  is  passive.  Dr.  Montgomery  states 
that  they  are  received  in  a  form  that  is  as  much  "satu- 
rated with  intelligence"  as  are  the  movements  which  is- 
sue from  the  man  in  response.  Perhaps  this  statement 
is  a  little  fuller  than  its  author  intends  to  make.  In  the 
sense  in  which  I  used  the  word  passive,  i.  e.,  without  ex- 
hibition of  will,  my  statement  is  certainly  correct;  if  Dr. 
Montgomery  wishes  to  express  the  fact  that  perception 
as  a  subjective  act  possesses  all  the  peculiarities  of  the 
subject,  I  agree  with  him.  As  to  the  peculiarities 
of  perception  being  rightly  included  under  the  head 
of  intelligence,  I  doubt  it.  I  at  least  used  intelli- 
gence as  the  act  of  the  intellect,  for  which  perception 
simply  furnishes  the  material. 

In  closing  I  will  observe  that  the  personal  and  me- 
chanical conceptions  of  the  universe,  which  are  almost 
everywhere  regarded  as  antagonistic  and  mutually 
exclusive,  are  not  truly  such.  Both  are  true.  The  me- 
chanical type  of  order  is  the  automatic  product  of  the 
personal,  by  cryptopnoy.  It  is  the  dead  which  is  always 
present  with  the  living.  Catagenesis  is  the  only  theory 
which  reconciles  the  personal  and  mechanical  theories  of 
the  universe. 

The  views  expressed    in   the   preceding   pages   have 


been  necessarilv  discursive;  I  therefore  summarize  them 
so  far  as  they  relate  to  theological  issues. 

1.  Nothing  exists  excepting  tridimensional  matter 
and  its  properties  (or  behavior). 

2.  The  properties  of  matter  are  energy  (motion) 
and  consciousness. 

3.  Consciousness  is  not  a  property  of  universal 
matter,  but  is  conditioned  by  the  axiomatic  qualities  of 
matter,  of  extension  and  resistence. 

4.  The  mode  of  motion  (energy)  of  matter  is  on 
die  other  hand  primitively  conditioned  by  consciousness, 
but  ceases  to  be  so  conditioned  when  it  reaches  a  certain 
degree  of  automatism  (to  be  better  defined  by  future 
research). 

5.  Consciousness  ultimately  disappears  from  matter 
and  energy  w.i.ch  have  established  automatic  conditions; 
therefore  the  condition  of  the  persistence  of  conscious- 
ness is  the  maintenance  of  will,  the  antagonist  of  me- 
chanical automatism. 

6.  Every  new  process  of  conscious  will  creates 
new  (?  molecular)  machinery  in  the  conscious  matter. 

7.  Hence  physical  and  mental  development  de- 
pend on  the  will. 

S.  The  phylogeny  of  protoplasm  requires  a  parent 
substance. 

9.  Since  then  the  existence  of  primitive  mind  in  a 
primitive  physical  basis  is  far  more  probable  than  the 
opposite  view,  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being  is  ex- 
ceedingly probable. 

10.  Since  will  controls  the  movements  and  organi- 
zation of  matter,  the  persistence  of  human  conscious- 
ness in  other  worlds  than  the  earth  is  possible. 


MEMORY. 

Prof.  W.  D.  Gunning  gave  a  lecture  recently  at 
Keokuk,  la.,  on  "Memory"  in  which  he  presented  in- 
teresting facts  and  illustrations  in  support  of  positions 
which  have  been  maintained  in  papers  printed  in  this 
journal,  by  Mr.  Edward  C.  Hegeler,  Prof.  Ewald 
Ilering,  and  in  abstracts  of  some  of  Ribot's  works,  pre- 
pared for  and  presented  by  Mr.  Hegeler.  Professor 
Gunning  said  in  substance: 

You  sit  idly  on  a  veranda  in  Florida,  where  the  odor  of  flow- 
ers and  blossoms  regale  you,  but  pass  away.  A  woodpecker  tells 
his  song  from  a  neighboring  tree.  Years  pass  and  you  forget  it- 
You  happen  in  the  home  of  a  professor  in  Indiana,  and  from  a 
mocking  bird  you  hear  the  very  song — the  identical  song — you 
heard  from  a  woodpecker  in  Florida;  while  you  were  on  the 
veranda  a  mocking  bird  was  perched,  perchance,  on  the  ridgepole 
and  heard  the  song  as  idly  as  you,  but  its  brain  was  a  phonograph, 
and  the  symbols  passed  latent  through  five  generations,  when  the 
phonograph  began  to  unreel.  In  the  common  phonograph  the 
words  and  tones  of  the  human  voice  are  latent  in  the  dots  and 
dashes  of  the  ribbon,  and  the  instrument  speaks  back  to  you 
every  word  and  tone.  So  the  bird  carries  a  chronograph  in  its 
brain.  Where  is  Munchausen  with  his  storv  of  frozen  music 
which  sang  again  as  it  thawed?     Munchausen  told  a  story  of  a 


362 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


horse  hitched  to  a  church  steeple  not  so  marvelous   as   the   story 
which   a  horse   tells  of  itself  when   it  trembles  at  the  scent  of  a 
lion  it  does  not  see,  and  when  no  odor  of  a  lion  had  ever  assailed 
its  sense.     How  deeply  were  the  attacks  of  the  lion  indented  on 
the  brain   of  the  horse  perhaps  five  thousand  years  ago,  and  the 
phonograph  again  unwinds  at  a  whiff  from  a  lion's    cage   now. 
Every  organized  being  is  such  a  phonograph.     Darwin  found  the 
birds'  on  the  Gelapagos   Islands  so  tame  they  would  light  on  his 
hand.     No  man  had  been  there  to  teach  them  dread.     Since  then 
men  have  frequented  the  Island,  and  now  a  bird  at  sight  of  man 
shudders  as  a  horse  at  scent  of  a  lion.     The  birds  remember  how 
men  stoned  and   shot   his  ancestors  before  he  was  hatched.     At 
Rock  Island  the  government  forbids  man  to  kill  birds  and  articu- 
late brutes.     The  memory  of  persecution  is  already  fading  from 
the  memory  of  birds,  turtles  and  squirrels.     Some  had  forgotteni 
some  had  dim  recollection.     Under  the  touch  of  science  instinct 
has  stepped  from  its  robes  of  kingcraft  that  held  in  awe  the  mind, 
and    its    name    now   is    "unconscious   memory."     It   is  memory 
physiological   memory.     Instinct   may   be   called   the   "inherited 
experiences  of  a  species."     Memory,  in  its  lowest  phase,  is  a  func. 
tion  of  organized  matter.     Limbs  remember   lessons  of  walking 
and   walk    automatically.     The    vast    procession   of  life   through 
ages  of  earth  commensurate  with  the  spaces  of  the  heaven,  ever 
widening,  ever  gaining  new  powers  of  perceiving,  getting  deeper 
emotions,  never   quite   forgetting,  until   the   age   that  it  holds  in 
unconscious  memory  all  the  ages  foregone  and  man  is  impacted 
memory  of  all   yesterdays.      The   conception   takes   us   into   the 
inner   temple  of  nature.     Matter  and  mind  are  different  phases  of 
one   fact.     You   know   that   the   speech  or  song  from  the  phono- 
graph does  not  come  from   nothingness.     It   may   be   a   mystery  ? 
but   not   a  deep  one  to  science ;  and  if  it  were  it  would  only  type 
that   deepest   mystery,  the  unsolved   problem   of  philosophy,  the 
relation  of  the  mind  to  matter.     You  know  that  the   thoughts  of 
man  do  not  come   from  nothing.     Their  underlying  stratum  is  a 
gray,  lace-like  membrane.     When  you  remember  an   incident  of 
childhood    it    was    indented  on   the   life-stuff  of  the  mind.     The 
indented  tablet  gives  up   its  record,  and  thoughts  and  fancies  of 
the  past  flit  across  the  field  of  consciousness.     "Will  you  say  that 
in   assigning  a  natural  basis  to  memory   I  am  weighting  matter 
with  properties  which   it  cannot   carry?"     But   a   few  years   ago 
elementary   works   on   philosophy   gave   a   full   inventory   of  the 
properties  of  every  form  of  matter.     But  who  is  there  now  whose 
eyes   are   so   clairvoyant  over  the  realm  of  matter?     Who  could 
have  thought  that  a  sheet  of  paper  could  carry  latent,  as  long  as 
the  paper  endured,  the  tones  of  the  voice? 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


A   LETTER   FROM   ENGLAND. 

To  the  Editors:  London,  England. 

One  notable  sign  of  the  times  is  the  rebellion  in  Wales  and 
many  of  the  agricultural  districts  of  England,  against  the  payment 
of  certain  dues  to  the  Church  known  as  tithes.  The  payment  of 
tithes  in  England  originated  with  one  of  our  earliest  law-makers, 
Offa,  King  of  Mercia.  In  794  Otl'a  is  supposed  to  have  given  all 
his  tithes  to  the  Church  in  expiation  of  some  particular  sin.  This 
law,  of  course,  only  extended  over  Mercia,  the  dominion  controlled 
by  Ofl'a,  but  sixty  years  later  Ethelwolf  enforced  it  over  all  Eng- 
land, and  his  grant  to  the  Church  was  confirmed  by  succeeding 
kings.  William  I  (the  Conquerer),  following  Edward  the  Confes- 
sor, enacted  that  "  Of  all  corn  the  tenth  sheaf  is  due  to  God,  and 
therefore  let  it  be  paid  to  him."  In  like  manner,  if  any  shall  have 
a  herd  of  mares,  the  tenth  colt;  if  any  have  cows,  the  tenth  calf; 
of  cheeses,  the  tenth  cheese;  of  milk,  the  milk  of  the  tenth  day; 
the   tenth   part   of  the   profit   of  bees,   woods,    parks,    meadows, 


orchards  and  "of  all  things  which  the  Lord  shall  give."  If  any 
one  feels  inclined  to  withhold  his  tenth  part,  said  William  of  Nor- 
many,  then  he  shall  be  forced  the  payment  thereof. 

Tithes  are  divided  into  three  kinds,  predial,  mixed  and  personal. 
Predial  tithes  are  payable  on  the  annual  produce  of  the  ground; 
mixed  tithes  are  payable  on  things  nourished  by  the  ground  or  on 
the  fruits  thereof  (colts,  cheeses,  etc.);  personal  tithes  are  payable 
on  profits  arising  from  the  personal  labor  and  industry  of  man. 
The  tithes  are  also  divided  into  two  classes,  great  and  small.  The 
great  tithes  are  those  due  on  corn,  hay  and  wood.  The  small 
tithes  include  the  mixed  and  personal  and  all  the  predial  other  than 
those  which  come  under  the  head  of  "great." 

As  may  easily  be  imagined  the  payment  of  these  tithes  in  kind 
excited  much  ill-feeling  which  grew  as  the  years  went  on  so  that 
at  length,  in  the  years  1S36,  1837,  1S38  and  1839,  four  acts — known 
as  the  "Tithe  Commutation  Acts" — were  passed.  These  acts  pro- 
vide for  the  substitution  of  a  corn  rent,  payable  in  money,  for  all 
tithes.  Extraordinary  tithes  are  paid  on  hop  grounds  or  market 
gardens,  coming  into  cultivation  since  the  Tithe  Commutation 
Acts. 

In  England  the  objection  to  the  payment  of  tithes  is  directed 
mainly  against  the  extraordinary  tithes  and  the  principal  seat  of 
the  rebellion  is  in  the  great  hop  growing  districts  of  Kent.  In 
Wales,  however,  the  refusal  to  pay  tithes  bears  a  somewhat  differ- 
ent aspect  and  is  without  doubt  in  the  majority  of  cases,  objection 
on  the  part  of  non-conformists  to  pay  dues  to  a  church  to  which 
they  do  not  belong.  There,  then,  is  a  steady  resistance  against 
the  payment  of  any  tithes  whatsoever,  and  this  resistance  has  in- 
creased to  such  a  degree  that  the  agitation  is  now  popularly  known 
as  "  the  tithe  war." 

On  the  13th  of  May  the  bailiffs  employed  by  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners  went  to  Llandrills  to  serve  writs  of  distraint  on 
certain  rebellious  farmers — for  the  law  still  upholds  William's 
fiat,  that  he  who  is  inclined  to  withhold  his  tenth  part,  shall  be 
forced  the  payment  thereof.  On  one  farm  the  bailiffs  seized 
twelve  cattle  for  a  claim  of  £20;  on  the  next,  a  stack  of  hay  for 
£22;  on  the  third,  four  cows  for  £19.  There  was  tremendous  ex- 
citement in  the  neighborhood  and  the  bailiffs  were  prevented  from 
going  to  some  of  the  farms  by  large  crowds  which  had  assembled 
The  men,  armed  with  sticks,  hid  themselves  behind  hedges  until 
the  bailiffs  came  up  and  then  springing  suddenly  upon  them 
caused  them  to  run.  At  Cynwyd  (between  Corwen  and  Llan- 
drills, Merionethshire),  the  auctioneers  were  surrounded  by  farm 
laborers  and  stoned. 

Disturbances  are  continually  taking  place  at  the  sales  and 
a  force  of  250  police  were  sent  into  Meifod  Valley,  Montgom- 
eryshire, to  protect  the  representatives  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
in  selling  stock  seized  for  unpaid  tithe.  It  is  stated  that  no  fur- 
ther attempt  will  be  made  to  effect  the  sales  without  the  assist- 
ance of  the  military. 

I  have  just  been  staying  at  Jersey,  one  of  the  Channel  Islands, 
and  there,  I  am  informed,  tithes  are  payable  on  corn  and  apples 
only.  Curiouslv  enough,  corn  has  fallen  almost  entirely  out  of 
cultivation  and  there  are  now  comparatively  few  orchards,  it  has 
been  found  much  more  profitable  to  grow  potatoes  than  either 
corn  or  apples;  so  that,  at  Jersey,  although  the  clergy  have  the 
right  to  exact  tithes,  nevertheless  there  is  little  or  nothing  for 
them  to  exact  them  on. 

A  letter  from  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  which  appeared  in 
the  Times  of  May  15th,  upon  the  position  of  the  conservative 
party  and  the  Oaths  Bill  has  produced  considerable  agitation  in  the 
minds  of  many  members  of  his  party.  The  letter  is  somewhat 
long  as  Lord  Randolph  gives  his  view  of  the  course  of  action 
taken  by  Mr.  Bradlaugh  and  the  House  of  Commons  in  reference 
to  him  since  1880,  but  the  point  lies  in  the  concluding  paragraphs 
in   which  he  says,  "  I  am   strongly  of  opinion  that  the  hands  of 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


363 


those  who,  like  myself,  were  identified  with  opposition  to  Mr. 
Bradlaugh  in  a  former  parliament  are  tied.  Should  we  oppose 
and  defeat  the  bill  we  by  no  means  exclude  Mr.  Bradlaugh  from 
parliament;  all  we  do  is  that  we  provide  that  the  oath  shall  be  con- 
tinually profaned  whenever  Mr.  Bradlaugh  or  persons  of  similar 
opinions  are  elected  as  members  of  the  House  of  Commons.  By 
supporting  and  passing  the  bill,  on  the  other  hand,  we  secure  that 
the  parliamentary  oath  in  the  future  will  in  all  probability  only  be 
taken  by  those  who  believe  in  and  who  revere  its  effective  solem- 
nity." This  letter  of  Lord  Randolph  Churchill's  was  in  reply  to  one 
from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lee,  who  appealed  to  his  lordship  to  do  his  "  ut- 
most to  defeat  so  fundamentally  bad  and  so  destructive  a  measure  " 
as  that  Oaths  Bill,  which  he  says  is  backed  by  eight  revolutionists. 
The  day  after  Lord  Randolph  Churchill's  letter  appeared  there 
was  one  in  the  Times  from  a  very  old  and  venerated  member  of 
the  Tory  party,  the  Right  Hon.  J.  G.  Hubbard,  asking  to  explain 
why  conservatives  who  have  opposed  Mr.  Bradlaugh  in  the  past 
may  consistently  oppose  the  Oaths  Bill  now.  "An  affirmation  de- 
vised to  ignore  God  even  though  it  do  not  in  terms  exclude  Him  " 
writes  Mr.  Hubbard,  "  is  in  words  a  promise  or  a  declaration,  but 
the  words  can  have  no  binding  effect  upon  him  who  utters  them, 
for  he  owes  responsibility  to  no  being  beyond  or  higher  than  him- 
self, and  the  oath  or  affirmation  of  a  proclaimed  infidel  can  carry 
to  others  no  conviction  of  his  testimony,  and  can  impart  no  confi- 
dence in  his  promise.''  It  is  strange  how  meanlv  Christians  hold 
their  fellow-men,  they  do  not  seem  able  to  believe  that  men  will 
do  right  merely  because  it  is  right;  they  seem  to  think  that  men 
must  be  coerced  into  right  doing  by  fear  of  punishment  or  hope  of 
reward.  Of  course  I  am  now  considering  men  who  are  commonly 
supposed  to  be  honest;  fear  of  punishment  or  hope  of  reward  be- 
yond the  grave  never  withheld  the  dishonest  man  from  his  wrong- 
doing; the  punishment  and  the  reward  are  too  remote.  The  gaol 
is  much  more  effective,  it  is  nearer.  Several  other  letters  appeared 
in  the  Times,  of  no  great  importance,  and  then  came  one  from  Mr. 
Bradlaugh,  in  which  he  clearly  states  the  position  of  freethinkers 
in  regard   to  the  oath.  Hypatia  Bradlaugh   Bonner. 


Howard,  Mary  Carpenter,  Florence  Nightingale,  Robt.  Raikes, 
etc.,  witnessing  scenes  similar  to  that  which  nearly  deprived 
Mr.  Parton  of  his  reason,  have  had  their  whole  lives  changed 
thereby.  This  sort  of  crankiness  Mr  Parton  thinks  he  has  success- 
fully avoided.     To  me   his   case  seems  to  be  the  not  uncommon 

one  of 

"  One  lost  soul  more, 
One  task  more  declined,  one  more  footpath  untrod, 
One  more  devil's-triumph  and  sorrow  for  angels, 
One  wrong  more  to  man,  one  more  insult  to  God." 

John  Basil  Barnhii.l. 
[While  we  yield  to  Mr.  Barnhill's  special  request  to  print  the 
above,  we  must  say  that  in  our  opinion  it  fails  to  do  justice  to  the 
meaning  and  spirit  of  the  article  criticised. — Ed.] 


MR.    PARTON'S    ARTICLE    ON     "LABOR     CRANKS'' 
CRITICISED. 

To  the  Editors: 

May  I  ask  for  space  for  a  few  observations  on  Mr.  Parton's 
recent  paper  on  "  Labor  Cranks  "  [printed  in  The  Open  Court 
No.  5]?  I  am  not  at  all  disposed  to  challenge  the  correctness  of 
many  of  Mr.  Parton's  statements.  I  admit  that  an  overwhelming 
compassion  for  human  suffering  and  sorrow  has  wrought  a  cer- 
tain sort  of  ruin  in  many  a  life.  If  Jesus  had  not  had  this  over- 
whelming compassion,  he  might  have  escaped  what  Mr.  Parton 
would  doubtless  esteem  the  highly  unsatisfactory  end  of  a  public 
execution.  If  his  soul  had  been  of  a  different  fiber  he  might 
indeed  have  had  so  much  "  patience  and  tolerance  "  with  the  ideas 
current  in  his  time,  that  he  could  have  lived  with  impunity  to  a 
green  old  age,  and  have  become  one  of  the  most  illustrious  of  the 
hair-splitting  rabbis.  As  it  was  he  preferred,  like  many  other 
so-called  cranks,  "  to  give  to  misery  all  he  had — a  tear."  He  stands 
forever  a  "youth  to  fortune  unknown,"  but  not  to  fame.  Still,  no 
one  could  deny  that  by  his  untimely  taking  off  he  was  "disqual- 
ified from  thinking  beneficially  "  or  otherwise — that  he  thereby 
lost  the  "  power  of  communicating  with  other  minds." 

Mr.  Parton  admits  that  he  once  had  much  compassion  for 
suffering  and  sunken  humanity,  but  this  is  remembered  now  only 
as  a  youthful  indiscretion.  He  has  so  far  conquered  this  effeminate 
tendency  of  his  nature  that  he  can  now  contemplate  thousands  of 
his  fellow-creatures  in  misery  and  ignorance,  unmoved.  Did  not 
Nero  give  the  highest  proof  of  Mr.  Parton's  philosophy,  when  the 
Eternal  City  was  in  flames? 

Other   men  and   women — such   cranks,  for   instance,  as  John 


INTERNATIONAL     FREETHOUGHT    CONGRESS, 
1887. 

To  the  Editors:  June  n,  1S87. 

I  should  be  obliged  if  you  would  give  the  widest  publicity  to 
the  annexed  invitation.  I  should  also  be  very  pleased  to  send 
special  invitations  to  any  American  freethinkers  whose  names 
and  addresses  you  might  furnish  to  me. 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

C.  Bradlaugh. 

Bv  the  authority  ol  the  Council-General  of  the  International 
Federation  of  Freethinkers,  under  the  auspices  of  the  National 
Secular  Society  (of  which  I  am  president),  and  with  the  approval 
and  confirmation  of  the  freethinkers  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
in  conference  at  Rochdale  assembled,  I  most  earnestly  invite  you 
to  attend  the  sittings  of  the  International  Freethought  Congress, 
to  be  held  in  the  Hall  of  Science,  142  Old  street,  E.  C,  London, 
at  10:30  a.  m.,  on  Saturday,  September  10,  at  11:15  A-  M->  on 
Sunday,  September  11  and  at  10:30  A.  m.  on  Monday,  Septem- 
ber 12. 

Your  early  reply  will  be  esteemed  a  favor. 

Charles  Bradlaugh. 
20  Circus  Road,  St.  John's  Wood,  London,  N.W. 


MEMORY  AND  CONSCIOUS   MENTAL  LIFE. 
To  the  Editors :  New  York  City,  July  20,  1887. 

I  cannot  pass  by  the  very  courteous  queries  of  your  corres- 
pondent Janet  E.  Ruutz-Rees,  regarding  one  point  in  ray  article 
in  The  Open  Court,  on  the  subject  of  "  Personal  Immortality  " 
(May  12,  1SS7).  I  think  it  due  to  her  to  explain  a  little  more  fully 
mv  assertion  that  memory  is  essential  to  conscious  life.  I  did  not 
go  into  such  an  explanation  because  I  had  already  done  so  in  my 
System  of  Psychology.  In  the  analysis  of  consciousness  which 
I  make  there,  it  appears  that  conscious  experience  univers- 
ally requires  both  the  presentative  and  the  representative  as  neces- 
sary elements  and  that  no  consciousness  whatever  is  attained 
without  representation.  The  elements  of  conscious  experience 
are  agreement,  difference,  time,  representation  and  power,  active 
and  passive.  In  order  to  any  continuance  of  sensation  or  thought 
in  the  absence  of  which  continuance  there  can  be  no  conscious- 
ness) there  must  even  be  a  representation  from  moment  to 
moment  of  the  preceding  moment's  experience.  Without  this 
there  can  be  no  identification  nor  distinguishing.  Hence,  there 
can  be  no  perception  without  representation,  or  memory ;  and  it  no 
perception,  certainly  no  conscious  experience  whatever;  for  gen- 
eralization, abstraction  and  reasoning  evidently  depend  upon 
memory.  In  other  words,  representation  is  primordial  and  essen- 
tial to  all  consciousness.  The  latter  consists'  of  apprehensions  of 
likeness  and  difference ;  these  require  continuance,  else  there  could 
be  no  such  apprehension;  and  there  is  no  duration  of  the  expe- 
rience without  the  postulate  of  representation.  We  have  no  per- 
ception of  a  tree  without  a  re-cognition  of  the  object,  a  reference 
to  a  class  which  our  past  experience  has  enabled  us  to  constitute. 


364 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Where  there  is  sensation  with  representation  at  a  minimum,  cog- 
nition is  at  a  minimum  ;  and  when  we  get  so  low  down  in  the  scale 
of  consciousness  as  to  find  that  there  is  substantially  no  memory 
we  discover  that  there  is  no  consciousness.  As  representation 
varies  so  conscious  mental  life  varies  in  degree  of  definiteness. 

I  shall  hardly  venture  to  repeat  the  analysis  made  in  my 
Psychology.  Indeed,  you  could  not  allow  me  the  space.  But  if 
it  should  happen  that  your  correspondent  has  access  to  the  work 
in  question  (London:  Longmans  &  Co.,  18S4),  she  will  find  my 
ideas  fully  set  forth  in  Chapters  IX,  XXXII,  XXXVII) 
XXXVIll"  and  XXXIX. 

In  conclusion  let  me  thank  her  both  for  the  inquiry  she  makes 
and  for  her  own  suggestions  upon  the  general  topic. 
Very  truly  yours, 

Daniel  Greenleaf  Thompson. 

BOOK    REVIEWS. 

The  Emancipation    of  Massachusetts.     By  Brooks  Adams. 

Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,     18S7;  pp- 

3S2.     Price  $1.50. 

No  better  evidence  of  the  rapid  advance  of  Freethought  in 
this  age  could  be  offered  than  this  work,  written  by  a  Boston 
lawyer,  the  grandson  of  the  sixth  and  the  great  grandson  of  the 
second  President  of  the  United  States,  and  a  member  of  a  family 
remarkable  for  its  legal,  political  and  literary  ability;  a  work 
which  has  already  met  with  angry  criticism  from  orthodox 
sources,  and  with  dubious  comment  from  the  conservative  critics 
of  the  secular  press.  If  it  had  been  written  by  any  active  and 
avowed  Freethinker  and  issued  by  a  Freethought  publishing  con- 
cern, it  would,  even  in  these  days  of  growing  liberalism,  have 
been  generally  denounced  as  a  bitter  libel  upon  the  revered  his- 
torical idols  of  the  old  Bay  State,  and  the  "Puritan  ancestors" 
upon  which  the  state  prides  itself.  The  work  is  written  in  a  vig- 
orous style,  in  a  daring  spirit  and  is  eloquently  palpitant  with  the 
intense  desire  of  its  lawyer-author  to  bring  forward  in  the  strong- 
est light  "the  other  side"  of  a  story  which  lie  seems  to  feel  has 
been  only  half  told  hitherto,  and  that  half  with  manifest  theologi 
cal  and  partial  bias.  The  "emancipation"  of  which  the  book 
claims  to  give  the  history,  is  the  evolution  of  colonial  Massachu- 
setts from  what  the  author  calls  a  "  theocracy  "  to  a  genuinely 
republican  form  of  government.  Mr.  Adams  says,  "there  would 
seem  to  be  a  point  in  the  pathway  of  civilization  where  every 
race  passes  more  or  less  under  the  dominion  of  a  sacred  caste. 
When  and  how  the  more  robust  have  emerged  into  freedom  is 
uncertain,  but  enough  is  known  to  make  it  possible  to  trace  the 
process  by  which  this  insidious  power  is  acquired  and  the  means 
by  which  it  is  perpetuated,"  and  it  is  this  which  he  here  under- 
takes to  do  in  the  case  of  Massachusetts,  with  whose  history  that  of 
his  own  family  is  so  closely  interwoven.  His  arraignment  of  the 
Puritan  clergy  is  very  severe.  He  accuses  them  of  arrogance,  big- 
otry, cruelty  and  greedy  assumption  and  abuse  of  power.  He  does 
not  hesitate  to  make  strong  accusations  or  to  use  straightforward 
phrases  in  regard  to  them,  of  which  we  give  a  few  samples.  "  The 
clergy  held  the  State  within  their  grasp  and  shrank  from  no  deed 
of  blood  to  guard  the  interests  of  their  order."  "  One  striking 
characteristic  of  the  theocracy  was  its  love  for  inflicting  mental 
suffering  upon  its  victims."  "  1  he  power  of  the  priesthood  lies 
in  submission  to  a  creed.  In  their  onslaughts  on  rebellion  they 
have  exhausted  human  torments;  nor  in  their  lust  for  earthly 
dominion   have   they 'felt  remorse,  but  rather  joy   when   slaying 

Christ's  enemies  and  their  own."     " who  was  bred  for  the 

church,  and  whose  savage  bigotry  endeared  him  to  the  clergy." 
"The  duplicity  characteristic  of  theological  politics."  During 
the  supremacy  of  the  clergy  the  government  was  doomed  to  be 
both  persecuting  and  repressive."     "An  established  priesthood  is 


naturally  the  firmest  support  of  despotism."  "An  autocratic 
priesthood."  "A  venomous  priesthood,"  etc.  He  brings  up  a 
startling  array  of  witnesses  against  the  evil  wrought  by  the 
clergy  in  the  matter  of  the  witchcraft  craze,  and  their  treatment 
of  Quakers,  Anabaptists  and  others  who  presumed  to  differ  from 
their  Congregational  creed.  Some  of  the  evidence  in  these  cases 
read  like  nightmare  horrors  set  down  in  cold  print.  His  pen  por- 
traits of  some  of  those  whose  names  are  familiar  to  us  in  colonial 
history  are  often  strongly  drawn  and  set  these  heroes  before  us  in 
entirely  new  lights.  Especially  vivid  are  his  delineations  of  the 
Mathers,  father  and  son,  Increase  and  Cotton,  also  of  Samuel 
Adams,  Anne  Hutchinson,  John  Cotton,  John  Winthrop,  John 
Endicott  and  others.  Extracts  are  given  from  the  Mather's  pri- 
vate diaries,  which  revtal  in  a  pathetically  ludicrous  light  the 
intense  religious  self-deceptions  of  these  two  undoubtedly  strong 
men,  and  suggests  thoughtful  studies  of  human  nature.  Mr. 
Adams  does  not  fail  to  render  due  justice  to  the  nobler  charac- 
teristics of  these  men,  his  main  purpose  being  to  show  what  effect 
sincere  belief  in  their  creeds  had  upon  their  actions  and  their 
time.  Speaking  of  the  pilgrim  fathers,  he  observes  truly,  "The 
exiles  of  the  Reformation  were  enthusiasts,  for  none  would  then 
have  dared  defy  the  pains  of  heresy,  in  whom  the  instinct  onward 
was  feebler  than  the  fear  of  death.  Yet  when  the  wanderers 
reached  America  the  mental  growth  of  the  majority  had  culmi- 
nated, and  they  had  passed  into  the  age  of  routine,  and  exactly 
in  proportion  as  their  youthful  inspiration  had  been  fervid,  was 
their  later  formalism  intense."  In  this  sentence  is  a  lesson  and  a 
warning  to  the  enthusiasts  of  to-day. 


Aphorisms    of    the    Three    Threes.     By   Ed-ward    Owings 

To~vne.     Chicago:      Charles    H.   Kerr    X'    Co.,   1887;  pp.    41. 

Price,  $1.00. 

The  rather  mystifying  title  of  this  handsomely  printed  and 
daintily  bound  volume  leads  one  in  these  days  of  "occult"  inves- 
tigation to  expect  something  more  romantic  than  the  really 
prosaic  origin  of  it  as  given  by  the  compiler  in  the  preface,  which 
is  that  a  club  of  gentlemen  in  Chicago  dine  together  on  "  every 
ninth  night  after  the  first  night  of  each  and  every  of  the  nine 
months  following  the  ninth  month  of  the  year,"  and  enter  into 
elaborate  conversation,  "seated  in  threes  at  three  three  legged 
tables,"  and  that  one  of  these  nine,  in  a  spirit  of  friendly  appre- 
ciation of  the  wit  and  wisdom  of  his  companions,  has  noted  one 
hundred  and  eighty-one  of  the  sayings  which  appeared  to  him 
particularly  wise  or  sparkling  and  made  a  book  of  them  which  is, 
we  hope,  gratifying  to  those  thus  complimented.  Doubtless,  in 
the  glamour  thrown  over  these  sayings  by  a  good  dinner  and  its 
accompaniments,  they  seemed  to  their  reporter  worthy  of  so 
enduring  a  form,  but  we  fear  they  will  strike  the  majority  of 
unbiased  readers  as  being  mainly  a  collection  of  platitudes,  com- 
monplace, sophistic  or  pert. 


The  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  August  is  filled  with  its  usual 
abundance  of  progressive  educative  literature,  among  which  we 
can  only  briefly  note  ex-President  A.  D.  While's  "New  Chapters 
in  the  Warfare  of  Science,"  which  deal  with  the  Middle  Age 
ecclesiastical  views  respecting  meteorological  phenomena;  these 
are  sharply  contrasted  with  the  almost  universal  modern  view 
that  law  governs  them  all.  In  "Astronomy  with  an  Opera  Glass" 
Mr.  Serviss  describes  and  illustrates  pictorially  what  can  be  seen 
in  the  moon  and  the  sun  with  that  handy  little  instrument.  Grant 
Allen  gives  a  review  of  "The  Progress  of  Science  from  1836  to 
to  18S6,"  or  substantially  the  period  covered  by  the  reign  of 
Queen  Victoria.  A  biographical  sketch  and  a  portrait  are  given 
of  Paul  Gervais,  a  French  zoologist  and  paleontologist.  The 
subjects  of  "Scientific  Orthodoxy,"  and  the  application  of  "Phys- 
ical Culture  as  a  Means  of  Moral  Reform,"  are  discussed  in  the 
"Editor's  Table." 


The  Open  Court 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and  Religion  Upon  a  Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  14. 


CHICAGO,  AUGUST  18,  1887. 


\  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
i  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


THE  SIMPLICITY  OF   THOUGHT.* 

BY     PROF.    F.    MAX    MtlLLER. 

One  of  three   Lectures  on  the  Science    of  Thought  delivered   at 
the  Royal  Institution,  London,  March,  1S7S. 

Part    II. 

[Not  published  nor  to  be  published  in  England.] 

All  difficulties  which  visit  us  in  the  various  spheres 
of  thought,  whether  scientific,  historical,  philosophical, 
or  religious,  vanish  as  soon  as  we  carefully  examine  the 
words  in  which  we  think.  Let  us  see  clearly  what  we 
have  put  into  every  word,  its  so-called  intention,  and  let 
us  never  try  to  take  more  out  of  it  than  we  or  others 
have  put  into  it.  My  wonder  is,  not  that  we  misunder- 
stand ourselves  and  others  so  often,  but  rather  that  we 
ever  understand  ourselves  and  others  correctly.  From 
our  earliest  childhood  we  accept  our  words  on  trust. 
We  fill  them  at  random,  and  when  we  come  to  compare 
and  to  exchange  them,  we  are  surprised  if  thev  do  not 
always  produce  on  others  the  same  effect  which  they 
produce  on  ourselves. 

And  if  that  is  so  in  treating  of  the  common  affairs  of 
life,  how  much  more  mischief  must  language  produce, 
when  we  deal  with  philosophical  problems?  To  my 
mind  true  philosophy  is  a  constant  katharsis  of  our 
words,  and  the  more  completely  this  process  of  purifica- 
tion is  carried  out,  the  more  completely  the  clouds  will 
vanish  which  now  obscure  Logic,  Physiology,  Meta- 
physics and  Ethics.  How  could  there  be  contradictions 
in  the  world,  if  we  ourselves  had  not  produced  them  ? 
The  world  itself  is  clear  and  simple  and  right;  we  our- 
selves only  derange  and  huddle  and  muddle  it.  Hamann 
said  many  years  ago:  "Language  is  not  only  the  foun- 
dation of  the  whole  faculty  of  thinking,  but  the  central 
point  also  from  which  proceeds  the  misunderstanding  of 
reason  herself."  There  is,  therefore,  no  help  or  hope 
for  philosophy  except  what  may  come  from  the  science 
of  thought,  founded  as  it  is  on  the  science  of  language. 

I  can  only  give  a  few  illustrations,  but  every  one  will 
be  able  to  carry  out  the  same  experiment  for  himself. 

How  often  do  we  hear  it  said :  "  I  am  not  a  material- 
ist; still,  there  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  for  materialism." 
What  is  the  meaning  of  that?  It  simply  means  that  we 
are  playing  with  words,  or  rather  that  words  are  play- 
ing with  us. 

If  we  want  to   know   what  materialism   is  we  must 


*  Copyright,  1S77,  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 


first  of  all  study  the  meaning  of  the  word  matter.  The 
history  of  a  word,  if  only  we  could  get  at  it  in  all  its 
completeness,  is  always  its  best  definition.  It  has  been 
the  fashion  to  laugh  at  etymologies,  but  in  laughing  at 
etymologies  we  are  only  laughing  at  ourselves.  Every 
word  is  an  historical  fact  as  much  as  a  pyramid.  Now 
a  pyramid  may  seem  a  very  foolish  and  ridiculous  build- 
ing, but  for  all  that  it  represents  a  real  primitive  thought 
executed  in  stone,  just  as  every  word  represents  a  real 
primitive  thought  executed  in  sound.  The  builders  of 
the  pyramids  and  the  architects  of  our  language  are  so 
far  removed  from  us  that  in  trying  to  interpret  what  they 
meant  by  their  pyramids  or  by  their  words  we  are  apt 
to  go  wrong.  But  the  very  fact  that  we  are  able  to  tell 
when  our  interpretation  has  been  wrong  shows  that  we 
are  competent  also  to  judge  when  our  interpretation  is 
right.  The  etymological  meaning  of  every  word  shows 
us  the  intention  with  which  that  word  was  framed,  and 
allows  us  an  insight  into  the  thoughts  of  those  palaeozoic 
people  whose  language  we  are  still  speaking  at  the  pres- 
ent moment.  Moment  is  not  a  very  ancient  word,  but 
how  does  it  come  to  mean  present  time?  A/omen  turn 
stands  for  movimentitm,  and,  being  derived  from  moverc, 
it  meant  motion,  and,  applied  to  time,  the  motion  of 
time.  "At  the  present  moment  "  was  therefore  intended 
originally  for  "  at  this  motion  of  time,"  or,  it  ma}'  be, 
"  at  this  motion  of  the  shadow  on  the  dial."  But  moment 
had  also  another  meaning.  It  meant  anything  that 
makes  move,  therefore  weight,  importance,  value.  Now 
if  we  tried  to  derive  the  second  meaning  from  the  first, 
we  should  go  wrong;  and  we  should  at  once  be  set 
right  by  any  one  who  knew  that  momentum  in  Latin 
was  used  also  for  the  weight  which  made  the  scales  of 
a  balance  move,  which  was  therefore  a  matter  of  impor- 
tance, something  decisive,  something  momentous. 

If,  then,  in  the  same  manner  we  ask  for  the  original 
meaning  of  matter,  we  find  that  it  comes  to  us  through 
French  from  Latin  materies.  Matcries  in  Latin  meant 
the  solid  wood  of  a  tree,  then  timber  for  building;  and 
it  had  that  meaning  because  it  was  derived  from  the  root 
MA,  to  measure,  to  make.  Wood  became  and  was 
called  materies  only  when  it  had  been  measured  and 
properly  shaped  for  building  purposes.  From  meaning 
the  wood  with  which  a  house  was  built  it  came  to  mean 
anything  substantial  out  of  which  something  else  had 
been  shaped  and  fashioned.     If  people  made  a  wooden 


366 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


idol,  they  distinguished  between  the  material,  the  wood 
and  the  form.  When  statues  were  made  of  metal  or 
marble,  these  also  were  called  the  matter  or  material; 
and  at  last,  whenever  the  question  came  to  be  asked  what 
anything — what,  in  fact,  the  whole  world — was  made  of, 
the  same  word  was  used  again  and  again,  till  it  came  to 
mean  what  it  means  with  us  now,  matter,  as  distinguished 
from  form.  This  matter,  then,  which  may  be  wood,  or 
metal,  or  stone,  or  at  last  anything  of  which  something- 
else  is  supposed  to  consist,  is  clearly  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  senses.  The  senses  can  never  give  us  any  informa- 
tion about  matter  in  general,  because,  as  we  saw,  matter 
may  be  either  wood,  or  stone,  or  metal,  or  anything  else, 
and  such  a  protean  thing  escapes  entirely  the  grasp  of 
the  senses.  We  know  matter  as  a  name  only,  not  as 
matter,  but  as  a  name  which  conveys  exactly  what 
we  have  put  into  it,  neither  more  nor  less. 

If  that  name  had  been  used  by  philosophers  by  pro- 
fession only  they  might  no  doubt  have  differed  about  the 
right  meaning  of  the  word,  but  they  would  have  felt 
hound  to  give  us  an  exact  definition  of  it.  But,  unfor- 
tunately, philosophy  cannot  reserve  a  language  for  its 
own  purposes.  Whatever  terms  philosophers  coin  soon 
enter  into  the  general  currency ;  they  are  clipped  and 
defaced  and  recast  in  the  most  perplexing  way.  People 
now  speak  of  decaying  matter,  and  matters  of  impor- 
tance. "What  is  the  matter?"  people  say,  and  they 
answer,  "  It  does  not  matter." 

Such  is  the  injury  which  words  suffer  by  wear  and 
tear  that  true  philosophers  feel  it  all  the  more  incumbent 
on  themselves  to  call  in,  from  time  to  time,  the  most 
important  words  to  weigh  and  assay  them  once  more, 
and  then  to  fix  once  for  all  the  exact  meaning  which  they 
mean  to  attach  to  them.  Locke*  defined  matter  as  an 
extended  solid  substance.  I  doubt  whether  we  gain 
much  by  that  definition,  for  substance  comprises  no  more 
than  matter,  while  extended  and  solid  means  hardly 
more  than  that  matter  exists  in  space  and  time.  At  all 
events  if  matter  escapes  the  grasp  of  our  senses,  so  does 
substance.  To  speak  of  matter  and  substance  as  some- 
thing existing  by  itself  and  presented  to  the  senses,  is 
again  mere  mythologj-. 

Mill  evidently  felt  that  substance  was  nothing  sub- 
stantial but  a  mere  abstraction,  that  is,  a  word;  and  he 
therefore  defined  matter  as  the  "  permanent  possibility  of 
sensation."  But  that  is  a  mere  playing  with  words.  We 
cannot  say  matter  is  possibility,  for  in  doing  so  we  stray 
from  one  category  into  another.  We  can  only  say  mat- 
ter is  what  renders  sensation  possible,  or,  more  correctly 
still,  matter  is  what  can  be  perceived,  provided  that  it 
possesses  perceptible  qualities.  The  important  feature 
in  Mill's  definition  of  matter  is  the  contrast  which  he 
establishes  between  matter  and  mind,  the  former  being, 
according  to  him,  the  permanent  possibility  of  sensation, 

*On  the  Understanding,  IV.,  3;  p.  420.     (Ed.  London,  1S30.) 


i.  e.,  of  being  perceived;  the  latter  the  permanent  pos- 
sibility of  feeling,  i.  e.,  of  perceiving. 

If,  then,  we  once  define  matter  as  what  by  its  quali- 
ties can  permanently  be  felt,  in  opposition  to  mind  or 
what  can  permanently  feel,  it  is  clear  that  in  all  our  rea- 
sonings about  matter  we  ought  to  abide  by  this  defini- 
tion. What,  then,  shall  we  say  to  a  declaration  such  as 
we  find  in  Mill's  Logic,  that  it  is  a  mere  fallacy  to  say- 
that  matter  cannot  think.  He  cannot  mean  a  fallacy  of 
the  senses,  for,  as  I  explained  before,  matter,  as  such — 
that  is,  matter  without  its  qualities—  can  never  fall  under 
the  cognizance  of  the  senses.  Matter  is  a  word  and 
concept  of  our  own  making,  and  it  contains  neither  more 
nor  less  than  we  have  put  into  it.  But  whatever  we 
may  put  into  this  thought-word,  we  must  not  put  into  it 
what  is  contradictory. 

Now  I  ask,  is  it  not  self-contradictory  first  to  define 
matter  as  what  can  be  perceived,  in  opposition  to  mind, 
or  what  perceives,  and  then  to  turn  round  and  say  that 
after  all  matter  also  may  not  only  perceive,  but  think  ? 
Mill  would  not  venture  to  say  that  thought  was  possible 
without  perception,  and  therefore  his  argument  that  it  is 
a  fallacy  to  say  that  matter  cannot  think  seems  to  me  a 
contradiction  in  terms.  I  do  not  say  that  we  could  not 
conceive  thought  to  be  annexed  to  any  arrangements  ot 
material  particles.  On  the  contrary,  I  should  say  that 
our  experience  never  shows  us  thought  except  as  annexed 
to  some  arrangement  of  material  particles.  But  when 
we  have  once  separated  matter  from  thought,  when  we 
have  called  matter-  what  is  perceived,  in  opposition  to 
thought  or  what  perceives,  we  must  not  eat  our  own 
words  or  swallow  our  own  thoughts  by  saying  that,  for 
all  we  know,  matter  may  think  or  mind  may  be  touched 
and  handled. 

From  this  point  of  view  I  call  materialism  no  more 
than  a  grammatical  blunder.  It  is  the  substitution  of  a 
nominative  for  an  accusative,  or  of  an  active  for  a  passive 
verb.  At  first  we  mean  by  matter  what  is  perceived, 
not,  indeed,  by  itself,  hut  by  its  qualities;  but  in  the  end 
it  is  made  to  mean  the  very  opposite,  namely,  what  per- 
ceives, and  is  thus  supposed  to  lay  hold  of  and  strangle  itself. 
What  causes  the  irritations  of  our  senses  is  confounded 
with  what  receives  these  irritations;  what  is  perceived 
with  what  perceives,  what  is  conceived  with  what  con- 
ceives, what  is  named  with  the  namer.  It  is  admitted 
on  all  sides  that  there  never  could  be  such  a  thing  as  an 
object  or  as  matter  except  when  it  has  been  perceived  by 
a  subject  or  a  mind.  And  yet  we  are  asked  by  material- 
ists to  believe  that  the  perceiving  subject,  or  the  mind,  is 
really  the  result  of  a  long  continued  development  of  the 
object  or  of  matter.  This  is  a  logical  somersault  which 
it  seems  almost  impossible  to  perform,  and  yet  it  has  been 
performed  again  and  again  in  the  history  of  philosophy. 

And  do  not  suppose  that  I  have  an)'  prejudice  against 
materialism.     To  my  mind  spiritualism  commits  exactly 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


367 


the  same  grammatical  blunder  as  materialism.  We  can- 
not compare  matter  and  spirit,  and  say,  like  the  old 
Gnostics,  that  one  is  of  the  devil  and  the  other  of  God. 
Matter  is  the  temple  of  the  spirit.  It  is  immense,  it  is 
incomprehensible,  it  is  marvelous.  Matter  is  all  that  is 
given  us  to  know,  and  the  whole  wisdom  of  the  human 
race  constitutes  but  a  very  small  portion  of  what  matter 
is  meant  to  teach  us.  Why,  then,  should  we  despise 
matter  instead  of  falling  on  our  knees  before  it,  or  at  all 
events  listening  with  reverential  awe  to  the  lessons  which 
the  Highest  Wisdom  has  designed  to  teach  us  from 
behind  its  vail  ? 

There  is  nothing  morally  wrong  in  materialism  as  a 
philosophical  system.  Its  weakness  arises  from  the 
fundamental  grammatical  blunder  on  which  it  is  based, 
the  change  of  it  into  /. 

And  the  same  blunder  underlies  spiritualism.  Spirit 
was  one  of  the  many  names  by  which  human  ignorance 
tried  to  lay  hold  of  the  perceiver  as  distinguished  from 
the  perceived.  It  is  a  poor  name,  if  you  like;  it  meant 
originally  no  more  than  a  puff  or  whiff,  a  breeze,  a 
breath.  It  is  an  old  metaphor,  and  all  metaphors  are 
dangerous  things.  Still,  as  long  as  we  know  what  we 
mean  by  it,  it  can  do  no  harm.  Now,  whatever  defini- 
tion may  be  given  of  spirit  by  different  philosophers, 
they  all  agree  in  this:  that  spirit  is  subjective,  perceiving, 
knowing;  and  if,  therefore,  spiritualism  tried  to  account 
for  what  is  objective,  perceived  or  known  as  spirit,  it 
commits  exactly  the  same  grammatical  blunder  as  mate- 
rialism, it  changes  I  into  it. 

Matter  and  spirit  are  correlative,  but  they  are  not 
interchangeable  terms.  In  the  true  sense,  spirit  is  a 
name  for  the  universal  subject,  matter  for  the  universal 
object.  And  as  there  can  be  no  subject  without  an 
object,  nor  an  object  without  a  subject,  neither  can  there 
be,  within  a  narrower  sphere,  spirit  without  matter,  nor 
matter  without  spirit.  Matter  is  determined  by  us  quite 
as  much  as  we  are  determined  by  matter.  As  we  have 
made  and  defined  the  two  words  and  concepts,  matter 
and  spirit,  they  are  now  inseparable;  and  the  two  sys- 
tems of  philosophy,  materialism  and  spiritualism,  have 
no  sense  by  themselves  but  will  have  to  be  merged  in 
the  higher  system  of  idealism.  The  science  of  language 
teaches  us  what  such  words  as  matter  and  spirit  meant 
in  the  beginning,  and  what  they  came  to  mean  in  course 
of  time  in  different  schools  of  philosophy.  The  science 
of  thought  has  to  teach  us  what  such  words  shall  or  shall 
not  mean  in  future ;  nay,  it  has  sometimes  to  relegate 
them  altogether  from  the  dictionary  of  philosophy. 

These  few  illustrations  must  suffice  to  show  you 
what  work  the  science  of  thought  has  to  do.  It  has  to 
carry  out  a  complete  reformation  of  all  philosophy,  and 
it  has  to  do  this  by  examining  the  foundations  on  which 
philosophy  stands,  by  analyzing  every  brick  with  which 
its  walls   have   been   built,  by   testing  'all   the  arches  on 


which  its  cupola  is  made  to  rest.  If  we  think  in  words 
we  must  never  take  words  on  trust,  but  must  be  read}- 
to  give  an  account  of  every  term  with  which  our  think- 
ing and  speaking  is  carried  on. 

I  showed  how  in  natural  history  the  one  term 
species,  which  was  introduced  at  random  we  hardly 
know  by  whom,  has  caused  endless  confusion  of  thought. 
As  there  was  the  term  species,  it  was  taken  for  granted 
that  there  must  be  something  corresponding  to  it  in 
nature.  Now  I  have  nothing  to  say  against  species  in 
the  Aristotelian  sense  of  the  word.  It  is  a  useful  word 
for  many  purposes,  as  when  we  have  to  speak  of  swords, 
or  knives,  or  books,  or  any  other  sorts  of  things  as  so 
many  species.  But  in  nature  there  is  no  need  and  no 
room  for  species,  and  to  try  to  find  the  origin  of  species 
in  nature  is  like  trying  to  find  the  origin  of  ghosts  and 
goblins.  The  science  of  thought  is  meant  to  break  the 
spell  of  words,  but  that  spell  is  far  more  powerful  than 
we  imagine. 

One  of  the  richest  sources  of  philosophical  mythol- 
ogy springs  from  the  transition  of  nouns  of  quality  into 
nouns  of  substance.  We  are  quite  correct,  for  instance, 
in  saying  I  feel  hungry,  or,  I  am  hungry  and  thirsty 
and  we  may  safely  speak  of  our  hunger  or  thirst  if  we 
restrict  these  words  to  the  expression  of  qualities  or 
states.  But  when  language  leads  us  on  to  say,  I  have 
hunger,  I  have  thirst,  hunger  and  thirst  are  apt  to 
become  entities.  We  then  go  on  to  say  that  we  are 
driven  by  hunger  or  thirst,  or  that  we  have  lost  our  hun- 
ger and  thirst,  that  is,  our  appetite.  And  then  the  ques- 
tion arises,  What  is  hunger  and  thirst,  or  what  are  our 
appetites,  our  desires,  our  passions?  We  imagine  we 
have  to  possess  something  which  we  may  call  our  pas- 
sions. We  ask  for  their  seat,  for  their  origin,  for  their 
nature,  and  then  the  psychologist  steps  in  and  dissects 
these  passions,  and  describes  them  as  if  they  were  things 
or  entities  by  themselves,  like  corpses  on  a  dissecting 
table. 

In  this  case,  however,  a  little  reflection  suffices  to 
show  us  that  to  speak  of  passions  and  appetites  by  them- 
selves is  only  a  convenient  way  of  speaking,  and  no  one 
would  think  that  he  was  being  robbed  if  passions  are 
shown  to  be  no  more  than  states  of  feeling. 

It  is  different,  however,  when  the  science  of  thought 
proceeds  to  show  by  exactly  the  same  analysis  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  intellect,  understanding  and  reason. 
"  I  reason  "  meant,  as  we  saw,  "  I  add  and  subtract."  If, 
then,  we  proceed  to  say  that  we  possess  reason,  that 
means  no  more  than  that  we  possess  addition  and  sub- 
traction. No  one,  however,  would  say  that,  because  we 
can  combine,  or  add  and  subtract,  therefore  there  is  some 
entity,  or  faculty,  or  power,  or  force  within  us  called 
combination,  which  enlightens  us,  which  lifts  us  above 
the  animal  creation,  which  rules  our  thoughts — nay, 
which  governs  the  whole  world.      I  do  not  deny  that  we 


368 


THB    OPEN    COURT. 


reason;  on  the  contrary,  I  hold  that  we  do  nothing  else. 
But  as  little  as  we  possess  a  thing  called  hunger  because 
we  are  hungry,  or  a  thing  called  patience  because  we  are 
patient,  do  we  possess  a  thing  called  reason  because  we 
are  rational.  Why,  then,  should  philosophers  trouble 
their  heads  about  the  true  seat  of  reason,  whether  it  is 
in  the  brain  or  in  the  heart  or  in  the  stomach?  Why 
should  they  write  it  with  a  capital  R,  and  make  a  god- 
dess of  Reason  and  worship  her,  as  she  was  actually 
worshiped  in  the  streets  of  Paris?  What  would  the 
French  mob  have  said  if  they  had  been  told  that  in  wor- 
shiping this  goddess  of  Reason  they  were  worshiping 
addition  and  subtraction?  Yet  so  it  was;  and  possibly 
addition  and  subtraction  were  something  far  more  per- 
fect and  wonderful  than  the  goddess  of  Reason  before 
whom  they  knelt  and  burnt  incense. 

This  is,  of  course,  an  extreme  case  of  philosophical 
mythology  and  idolatry,  but  the  number  of  these  psycho- 
logical gods  and  goddesses,  heroes,  fairies  and  hobgob- 
lins is  very  large.  Our  mind  is  swarming  with  them^ 
and  every  one  of  them  counts  a  number  of  worshipers 
who  are  deeply  offended  if  we  doubt  their  existence. 
The  protests  are  already  beginning,  as  I  fully  anticipated, 
against  my  philosophical  heresy  in  having  denied  the 
existence  of  reason,  intellect  and  understanding.  As  the 
Ephesians  cried  out  with  one  voice  about  the  space  of 
two  hours,  "  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians!"  I  know 
I  shall  have  to  hear  for  the  space  of  more  than  two 
hours,  the  shout  of  my  critics,  "  Great  is  the  Reason, 
great  is  the  Intellect,  great  is  the  Understanding  of  the 
Reviewers!"  Yet  I  am  not  a  blasphemer  of  the  great 
goddess  of  Reason;  all  I  have  tried  to  show  is  that  to 
reason — that  is,  to  add  and  to  subtract — is  simply  an  act 
which  we  perform,  and  that  the  goddess, if  goddess  there 
must  be,  is  not  an  image  which  fell  down  from  Jupiter, 
but  the  voice  within  us  which  makes  us  keep  a  true 
account  of  all  we  think  and  speak  and  do. 

It  is  difficult — nay,  it  is  impossible — to  give  in  a 
course  of  three  lectures  an  adequate  idea  of  what  I  mean 
by  the  science  of  thought,  still  more  to  answer  all  the 
more  or  less  obvious  objections  that  may  be  raised  against 
the  fundamental  principle  of  that  science,  namely,  the 
identity  of  thought  and  language.  1  must  ask  you  to 
look  upon  these  three  lectures  as  a  kind  of  a  preface  only ; 
and  if  you  think  the  subject  worthy  of  a  fuller  considera- 
tion, this  large  volume  on  the  Science  of  Thought 
which  I  have  just  published  will  give  you  all  the  neces- 
sary material,  and  will  supply  the  answers  to  many  of 
the  questions  which  have  been  addressed  to  me  by  some 
of  those  who  have  done  me  the  honor  of  attending  these 
lectures.  One  of  the  questions  which  I  have  been  asked 
most  frequently  is:  If  thought  is  identical  with  language, 
what  about  deaf  and  dumb  people?  Are  they  unable 
to  think  because  they  are  unable  to  speak  ? 

My  answer  is,  first  of  all,  that  deaf  and  dumb  people 


are  exceptions,  and  we  must  not  allow  our  general  argu- 
ments to  be  influenced  by  a  few  anomalies.  Secondly, 
I  have  the  authority  of  the  best  judges,  such  as  Professor 
Huxley,  for  stating  that  a  man  born  dumb,  notwithstand- 
ing his  great  cerebral  mass  and  his  inheritance  of  strong 
intellectual  instincts,  would  be  capable  of  few  higher 
intellectual  manifestations  than  an  orang  or  a  chimpan- 
zee if  he  were  confined  to  the  society  of  dumb  associates. 
Thirdly,  we  must  remember  that  words  are  not  the  only 
embodiment  of  thought.  Holding  up  three  fingers  is  as 
good  a  sign  for  the  addition  of  one,  one,  one,  as  the 
sound  of  three.  Shaking  the  fist  in  the  face  is  as  express- 
ive as  saying  "Don't."  Hieroglyphic  writing  shows  us 
how  our  thoughts  may  be  embodied  in  signs  without 
any  reference  to  the  sound  of  spoken  words,  and 
Chinese  is  read  and  understood  perfectly  by  people  who, 
when  they  pronounce  and  speak  it,  are  quite  unintelli- 
gible to  each  other. 

It  is  by  means  of  signs  appealing  to  the  sense  of 
sight,  and  not  at  first  to  the  sense  of  hearing,  that  deaf 
and  dumb  people  are  educated  and  thus  become  what 
they  were  meant  to  be,  rational  beings. 

Again,  as  to  animals,  I  have  been  asked  whether 
they,  because  they  are  dumb,  must  be  declared  to  be 
incapable  of  thought.  Here  the  science  of  thought 
steps  in  at  once  and  says:  "Before  you  ask  whether 
animals  think,  define  what  you  mean  by  thinking." 
Descartes,  in  his  famous  aphorism  which  is  supposed  to 
form  the  foundation  of  all  modern  philosophy,  Cogito, 
ergo  s»m,  explains  cogito,  I  think,  as  comprising  every 
kind  of  mental  action.  If,  therefore,  we  mean  by  think- 
ing, perceiving,  enjoying,  remembering,  fearing,  loving 
and  all  the  rest,  we  have  no  grounds  for  denying  ani- 
mals, particularly  the  higher  animals,  the  possession  of 
these  qualities.  Their  enjoyments,  their  fears  and  hopes, 
their  loves  and  disappointments  may  be  different  from 
ours,  still,  with  the  usual  discount,  animals  may  claim 
for  the  troubles  of  their  souls  the  same  words  which  we 
use  for  our  own.  Every  philosopher,  however,  knows 
that  what  we  seem  to  know  of  the  inner  workings  of 
the  mind  of  animals  we  cannot  know  directly,  but  by 
analogy  only.  We  judge  by  signs.  If,  then,  we  mean 
by  thought  that  mental  function  which  has  its  outward 
sign  and  embodiment  in  language,  we  must  say  that  ani- 
mals do  not  think  as  we  think,  namely,  in  words.  They 
may  think  in  their  own  way.  Their  way  of  thinking 
may  be,  for  all  we  know,  more  perfect  than  our  own. 
I  am  inclined  to  believe  all  the  good  that  can  possibly  be 
said  of  animals,  but  I  cannot  allow  that  they  think,  if 
we  define  thinking  by  speaking. 

Definition,  here  as  elsewhere,  is  the  only  salvation  of 
philosophy.  If  we  wish  to  fight  and  conquer  we  must 
look  to  our  swords;  if  we  wish  to  argue  and  to  conquer 
we  must  look  to  our  words.  "  Looking  to  our  words  " 
is  the  fundamental  lesson  of  the  science  of  thought.    Do 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


369 


not  let  us  despise  words.  They  are  the  most  wonderful 
things  in  the  world.  Their  history,  or,  as  we  now  call 
it,  their  evolution,  is  more  surprising  than  evolution  in 
any  other  sphere  of  nature.  The  beginnings  are  so  few 
and  so  small,  their  final  outcome  so  magnificent  and  over- 
whelming. To  some  minds,  I  know,  nothing  seems 
grand  or  worthy  of  admiration  except  what  is  intricate, 
complex  and  almost  unintelligible;  to  others  there  is 
nothing  more  fascinating  than  what  is  simple,  regular 
and  almost  transparent.  The  science  of  thought  appeals 
to  the  latter  class.  And  as  Kant,  when  in  his  Critique 
of  Reason  he  had  disentangled  the  skein  of  mediaeval 
philosophy,  exclaimed  in  the  words  of  Persius: 
"  Tecum  habit  a  et  novis  quam  sit  tibi  curta  supelles  I  " 
we  may  sum  up  the  result  of  the  science  of  thought  in 
the  same  words:  "Dwell  with  thyself  and  you  will 
know  how  small  thy  household  is!" 


SEPARATION   OF  CHURCH   AND   STATE. 

STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION   IN  FRANCE. 

Part  I. 

BY    ALBERT    REVILLE,  PROFESSOR    IN    THE    COLLEGE    OF    FRANCE. 

It  is  to  readers  American  and  liberal  that  I  now 
address  myself;  and  to  readers,  consequently,  accustomed 
to  live  where  Church  and  State  are  separated,  and  who, 
if  I  am  not  mistaken,  would  find  it  somewhat  difficult  to 
put  themselves  into  the  same  frame  of  mind  as  the  socie- 
ties of  the  old  world.  There,  almost  everywhere,  union 
is  still  the  rule,  even  in  old  Republics  such  as  that  of 
Switzerland.  I  shall  perhaps  even  surprise  more  than 
one  of  my  readers,  in  telling  them  that  in  these  Swiss 
Republics  it  is  the  democracy  that  maintains  the  union, 
the  aristocracy  that  is  rather  disposed  to  separation. 
Swiss  democrats  are  afraid  that  the  severance  might  be 
too  much  in  favor  of  plutocracy. 

I  ought  equally  to  recall  to  my  American  readers 
that  the  English  mind  in  general — of  which  they  repre- 
sent the  triumphant  outcome  upon  new  ground  and  freed 
from  old  traditions — is  already  in  England  itself  more 
disposed  toward  this  separation  than  the  Continental 
mind,  whether  of  France  or  of  Germany.  Historical  prec- 
edents on  the  Continent  have  accustomed  the  people,  for 
centuries  past,  to  ask  for  the  intervention  or  support  of 
the  State  upon  matters  from  which  it  becomes  more  and 
more  evident  that  the  State,  as  such,  should  hold  itself 
aloof.  This  is  most  distinctly  visible  in  the  so-called 
Latin  races,  who  inherited  from  the  Roman  domination 
a  pronounced  taste  for  centralization  in  all  things;  and 
with  the  French  people  this  is  the  case. 

In  England,  albeit  there  exists  a  State  Church  largely 
endowed  and  privileged,  the  considerable  numbers  and 
the  diversities  of  dissenters  show  that  the  mind  of  the 
English  people  is  not  inherently  opposed  to  separation 
and  that  the  disestablishment  of  the  Anglican  Church  is 
only  now  a  question  of  time. 

In  France,  what  is  the  situation? 


Since  the  Revolution  of  'S9,  omitting  the  fifteen 
years  of  the  Bourbon  restoration,  1S15  to  1830,  there 
has  been  no  State  Church.  The  State,  as  such,  pro- 
fesses no  definite  religion.  Very  often,  until  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  actual  Republic,  facts  have  been  in  disac- 
cord with  this  constitutional  principle,  inasmuch  as  on 
many  an  occasion  such  as  public  festivals  and  military 
masses,  and  in  rules  for  public  instruction,  the  State  has 
seemed  to  make  profession  of  Roman  Catholicism,  basing 
its  action  upon  the  incontestable  fact  that  Roman  Cathol- 
icism was  the  religion  of  the  great  majority  of  French- 
men. The  latter  Empire  made  itself  above  all  conspic- 
uous in  these  fallings  off  from  acknowledged  principles. 
But  this  inconsistency  was  owing  to  customs  of  old  date 
or  to  momentary  causes,  rather  than  to  any  formal  inten- 
tion of  making  Catholicism  a  State  religion.  It  had 
long  been  criticised  and  blamed  by  the  most  liberal- 
minded;  and  the  existing  Republic,  able  at  length  to  put 
into  practice  the  principles  of  liberal  democracy,  has  not 
ceased  to  harmonize  facts  and  theory.  The  govern- 
ment, as  such,  does  not  identify  itself  with  any  particular 
sect  and  labors  actively,  in  its  laws  for  public  instruction 
and  for  military  organization,  to  put  out  of  sight  the  last 
absolute  privileges  which  the  Church  of  Rome  still 
possesses. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  French  State  recognizes  and 
subsidizes  the  churches  that,  by  the  number  of  their 
adherents  and  their  secular  assemblies  on  the  national 
soil,  appear  to  have  a  right  to  its  official  recognition  and 
to  its  aid.  As  a  set-off  to  this,  it  claims  the  right  to 
supervise  and  to  intervene,  where  the  nomination  of 
their  ministers  and  the  management  of  their  property 
are  concerned. 

In  the  first  place,  we  have  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  which  looks  upon  the  forty  to  fifty  millions  of 
francs,  or  even  perhaps  a  little  more,  that  are  allotted  to 
it  annually  for  the  support  of  its  clergy  and  its  services, 
as  an  indemnity  intended  to  replace  the  revenues  that  it 
drew  from  its  real  estate  prior  to  the  Revolution  of  '89. 
When  the  Constituent  Assembly  merged  all  these  pos- 
sessions, termed  mort-main,  in  the  national  domain,  it 
decided  that  thenceforward  the  Catholic  priests  should 
receive  an  allowance  from  the  State.  This  agreement, 
unacknowledged  during  the  revolutionary  turmoil,  was 
affirmed  by  the  concordat  entered  into  between  Napo- 
leon, when  First  Consul,  and  the  Court  of  Rome,  and 
since  that  time  it  has  not  ceased  to  be  binding.  It  is  to 
be  noted  here  that  in  France,  considering  the  great 
numerical  preponderance  of  Roman  Catholics,  the  older 
and  the  modern  governments  have  always  deemed  it 
expedient  to  take  precautions  for  guaranteeing  the 
national  autonomy  against  possible  pretentions  or 
encroachments  on  the  part  of  the  Popes,  who,  from 
motives  really  or  apparently  religious,  might  meddle 
with  French  affairs  and  thus  restrict  the  independence 


37° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


of  the  country.  It  is  clear  that  the  man  whose  indi- 
vidual conscience  is  submitted  to  a  priest,  himself  depend- 
ent on  a  foreign  superior,  is  not  as  a  citizen  as  free  as  he 
would  be  if  he  depended  only  on  his  God,  without  an 
intermediary  essential  for  his  salvation.  It  is  thus  that, 
conformably  with  the  concordat,  the  government  nomi- 
nates the  bishops,  the  Court  of  Rome  giving  them  only 
ecclesiastical  confirmation,  as  also  the  cure's  of  impor 
tant  parishes,  the  others  being  simply  officiating  minis 
ters.  If  a  bishop  appears  to  it  to  have  abused  his  epis- 
copal power  in  a  manner  prejudicial  to  public  tranquility 
or  the  national  interest,  it  can  summon  him  before  the 
Council  of  State  and  have  him  condemned  by  appeal 
from  the  ecclesiastical  to  the  civil  court,  such  condemna- 
tion authorizing  the  chief  of  the  .State  to  banish  him 
from  its  territory.  This  extreme  course  has,  however, 
for  a  long  period  remained  purely  theoretical. 

In  the  same  way  the  French  State  recognizes  and 
subsidizes  the  Reformed  Church  (the  old  Calvinists), 
that  numbers  about  a  million  of  adherents.  It  is  the 
President  of  the  Republic  who  confirms  the  pastors 
nominated  by  the  Consistories — these  latter  being 
appointed  by  suffrage  of  the  faithful  —  after  being 
satisfied  that  they  hold  university  diplomas  granted  by 
the  State  faculties,  in  proof  of  regular  studies  and  satis- 
factory examinations.  To  this  end  the  State  supports 
two  faculties  of  Protestant  theology,  one  at  Montauban, 
the  other  in  Paris.  That  of  Strasbourg  was  taken  away 
from  France,  with  Alsace  itself,  at  the  close  of  the  last 
war  with  Germany. 

This  mutilation  of  territory,  for  which  France  cannot 
console  herself,  has  also  greatly  diminished  the  Church 
called  Lutheran,  or  that  of  the  Confession  of  Augsbourg, 
which  counted  in  Alsace  the  larger  number  of  its  follow- 
ers, and  which,  save  in  Paris  and  in  the  old  country  of 
Montbeliard,  has  now  but  few  communities.  Neverthe- 
less, it  continues  to  receive  for  its  pastors  and  its  churches 
the  subsidies  of  the  State. 

It  is  the  same  with  Jewish  communities,  that  are  sub- 
jected to  laws  similar  to  these  affecting  Protestant 
churches.  Further  still,  since  the  conquest  of  Algeria — 
although,  properly  speaking,  it  forms  no  part  of  the 
organic  law — the  French  government  grants  subsidies 
to  a  certain  number  of  Musselman  communities. 

There  is  then,  without  descending  into  details,  an 
undeniable  spirit  of  liberalism  and  equity  in  the  religious 
constitution  of  France;  and  in  this  country,  formerly 
ravaged  by  religious  wars  and  persecutions  of  grievous 
intensity,  it  may  be  said  that  the  Revolution  of  'S9 — 
except  during  the  Reign  of  Terror  and  during  the  years 
of  reaction  that  followed  the  Restoration—  inaugurated  an 
era  of  peace  and  tolerance,  such  as  the  old  regime  would 
not  have  been  willing  to  recognize  as  legitimate.  That 
old    regime,   concentrated   in    the    person    of    the   King 


of    France,    was    essentially    and   exclusively    Roman 
Catholic. 

However,  for  a  certain  number  of  years  past,  voices 
growing  more  and  more  numerous  have  been  crying  out 
for  the  suppression  of  the  budget  of  public  worship  and 
for  the  total  separation  of  Church  and  State. 

It  was  in  the  protestantism  of  the  French  tongue, 
under  the  impulse  of  Vinet  and  of  the  supporters  of  the 
Reveil  (French  Methodists),  that  the  first  claims  were 
made.  The  right  of  the  State,  as  such,  to  intermeddle 
in  the  government  of  the  Church  was  contested.  It  was 
held  that  the  Church,  lulled  to  sleep  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  the  State,  would  be  lacking  in  its  own  proper 
vitality,  directed  as  it  would  be  by  pastors,  diplomed  per- 
haps and  educated,  but  on  whom  the  official  investiture 
could  not  confer  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was 
this  movement  that  gave  rise  to  the  formation  of  a  cer- 
tain number  of  so-called  Free  Churches,  several  of 
which  exist  in  Paris  and  in  the  provinces.  At  the  same 
time  it  must  be  added — and  again  on  this  point  I  call 
attention  to  a  frame  of  mind  that  may  be  little  known 
and  perhaps  be  difficult  of  comprehension  in  America — 
the  mass  of  French  Protestants  look  with  apprehension 
upon  schisms  or  external  divisions  in  the  Church.  This 
alone  it  is  that  explains  why  it  has  not  yet  ostensibly 
divided  itself  into  two  groups,  the  one  liberal  and  more 
or  less  rationalistic,  the  other  orthodox  and  more  or  less 
faithful  to  the  old  orthodoxy.  The  fact  is,  the  two  do 
co-exist  under  cover  of  the  same  organism,  despite  the 
asperity  of  the  controversies  exchanged  between  theolo- 
gians of  opposite  views.  The  majority  of  French  Prot- 
estants, knowing  themselves  to  be  of  very  small  numeri- 
cal force  in  comparison  with  the  Roman  Catholics,  their 
memory  still  freshly  charged  with  the  sufferings  and 
rude  combats  of  their  ancestors,  regard  their  own  Church 
as  a  sort  of  religious  department  in  the  great  national 
country  of  the  other,  for  which  they  nourish  a  sort  of 
veneration,  an  affection  filial  and  tender,  not  easily  to  be 
reconciled  with  the  idea  of  separation  and  banding  apart. 
It  is  not  on  their  side  that  are  heard  the  most  violent  out- 
cries in  favor  of  detachment  from  the  State.  Without 
apprehension,  they  wait  to  see  what  will  come  from  the 
relations  of  the  Catholic  Church  with  republican 
democracy. 

It  is  hence  above  all  that  arises  the  getting-up  of 
interrogations  addressed  to  the  Chambers  and  to  the  gov- 
ernment. The  question  in  France  is  much  more  politi- 
cal than  religious.  For  the  ardent  Catholics  do  not  wish 
for  the  separation.  On  the  contrary,  they  would  much 
prefer  that  the  book  of  compromises  that  has  existed 
since  the  Revolution  should  be  suppressed,  and  that  the 
State  should  become  again  exclusively  Catholic  as  it 
was  formerly.  The  Roman  clergy  have  never  recog- 
nized as  legitimate  a  state  of  things  that  places  "error" 
and  "truth"  on  an  equal  footing. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


37i 


But  it  is  well-known  that,  of  all  the  countries  of 
Catholic  traditions,  France  is  the  one  where  the  Catholic 
creed  is  the  most  lowered  in  popular  esteem.  And  here 
there  must  be  no  exaggeration.  The  falling-off  from 
Catholicism  is  more  palpable  in  the  towns  than  in  the 
country,  in  certain  of  the  Central  and  Northern  depart- 
ments than  in  others.  Brittany,  a  notable  portion  of  the 
South,  and  French  Flanders,  in  a  word,  those  districts 
where  the  inferior  classes  still  speak  a  local  -patois,  still 
cling  earnestly  to  the  Catholic  faith.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  departments  the  most  industrious,  the  richest,  the 
most  densely  populated — except,  perhaps,  that  of  the 
Nord,  as  it  is  specially  called — are  in  great  measure 
emancipated  from  their  old  moral  bondage  to  the  clergy. 
It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  the  women  in  large 
majority  have  remained  more  deeply  attached  to  Cathol- 
icism than  the  men,  which  is  not  without  notable  influ- 
ence on  the  disposition  of  children  and  the  family 
instincts. 

But  as  a  general  rule  it  may  be  said  that  a  very  large 
proportion  of  young  Frenchmen  shake  off,  toward  the 
age  of  twentv,  the  religious  ideas  that  were  instilled  into 
their  childhood.  Skepticism  or  incredulity  take  their 
place,  augmented  by  the  gross  superstitions  that  the 
Catholic  clergy  uphold.  Mistrust  of  the  priesthood, 
when  it  is  not  a  passionate  hatred,  succeeds  to  earlier 
submission.  It  is  at  once  the  force  and  the  misfortune 
of  Roman  Catholicism,  that  the  majority  of  those  whom 
it  brings  up  in  its  school  confound  it  absolutely  with 
Christianity,  with  religion  in  itself,  and  think  themselves 
called  upon  the  moment  they  reject  the  Catholic  dogmas, 
to  reject  also  all  religious  belief.  Protestantism  has  in 
their  eyes  but  a  partial  approval.  It  is,  they  say,  less 
absurd,  less  anti-national,  more  liberal;  but  it  gives  them 
the  impression  of  having  halted  half-way,  of  being  odd, 
eccentric,  singular.  They  rather  incline  to  wish  it  well, 
but  remotely ;  and  above  all  have  rarely  any  idea  of 
entering  its  ranks.  So  much  the  more,  inasmuch  as 
marriage  brings  back  the  revolted  Catholic  as  a  matter 
of  course  into  a  sort  of  compromise.  The  promised 
bride  is  generally  a  devout  and  practicing  Catholic,  and 
she  could  not  be  had  without  a  Catholic  marriage.  The 
mother  desires  that  the  children  should  be  baptized;  and, 
for  the  sake  of  peace  the  man  consents  to  become  Cath- 
olic again  during  some  hours  of  his  life,  taking  it  out  by 
abuse  of  the  clergy  and  their  pretensions,  all  the  rest  of 
the  time. 

BREADTH    AND    EARNESTNESS. 

BY  CELIA  P.  WOOLLEY. 

A  friend  with  whom  I  was  lately  discussing  some 
question  of  social  reform,  and  the  efficacy  of  philan- 
thropic effort  in  general,  asked  me  if  I  did  not  think  the 
increased  knowledge  and  mental  breadth  which  the 
years  bring  to  all  of  us  were  almost  inevitably  accom- 
panied by  a  decreased  moral  enthusiasm?     The  question 


is  one  of  the  saddest,  but  one  also  which  every  thought- 
ful mind  is  compelled  to  ask  at  times.  My  friend  is  both 
thoughtful  and  intelligent,  with  conscience  and  sym- 
pathies keenly  alive  to  the  sufferings  and  shortcomings 
of  his  kind ;  one  of  those  natures  in  which  a  rigorous 
logic,  unrelieved  by  imagination  or  great  spiritual  trust 
and  insight,  governs  all  the  other  faculties.  Such  a 
nature,  always  subjecting  its  vision  of  ideal  truth  and 
goodness  to  the  narrow  measurements  of  intellectual 
definition,  is,  when  accompanied  by  a  sensitive  heart, 
necessarily  led  to  a  depressed  view  of  life  and  its  own 
surroundings.  It  is  my  observation  that  this  extreme 
conscientiousness,  applied  to  processes  of  thought  as  well 
as  to  practical  affairs,  forms  a  large  ingredient  of  the 
pessimistic  philosophy  of  the  day.  I  have  small  sym- 
pathy with  those  critics  who,  complacently  resting  on 
the  sublime  heights  of  their  idealistic  creeds,  are  con- 
tent scornfully  to  ignore  every  less  pleasing  interpreta- 
tion of  the  universe  than  their  own;  and  to  me  the 
pains  of  a  moderate  and  thoughtful  pessimism  are  more 
easily  understood  than  the  conceited  joys  of  an  unquali- 
fied optimism.  Without,  therefore,  taking  fright  at  or 
severely  condemning  my  friend's  view  as  set  forth  in  his 
question,  I  am  inclined  to  give  it  sober  examination. 

Doubtless  in  many  cases  breadth  of  intellectual  hori- 
zon is  gained  at  the  expense  of  moral  earnestness; 
but  this  is  haidlv  more  than  to  say  that  in  the  realm  of 
morals  as  in  nature  one  of  the  first  effects  of  an  enlarged 
view  is  loss  of  visual  distinctness.  Climbing  the  moun- 
tain to  catch  a  wider  vision  of  the  surrounding  country, 
the  adventurous  tourist  sees  both  less  and  more  than 
before;  smaller  details  and  particulars  are  lost  in  the 
largeness  of  the  scene,  and  have  become  blended  with 
the  general  landscape.  But  if  our  mountain  climber 
has  another  object  in  view,  is  a  practical  surveyor  let  us 
say,  intent  on  the  selection  of  a  new  town-site,  this 
larger  view  will  prove  as  useful  as  that  gained  from  the 
plain  below,  if  he  wishes  to  consult  scenic  effect  and 
fitness,  the  minor  morals  of  his  work,  along  with  more 
practical  needs.  The  same  truth  holds  in  the  moral 
realm.  The  social  reformer  needs  the  widest  possible 
survey  of  the  field  in  which  he  labors,  the  largest 
knowledge  of  men  and  human  motives,  and  of  the 
laws  governing  the  world's  j31'0?1'6515-  Proof  of  this 
is  found  in  the  advanced  charitable  methods  of  the  day. 
The  old  thoughtless  standards  of  benevolence,  with  the 
unreasoning  methods  of  help  and  relief  to  which  they 
gave  rise,  have  been  replaced  by  the  severe,  but  safe, 
instructions  of  scientific  philanthropy,  which  seeks  to 
work  upon  as  accurate  data  and  with  the  same  patience 
and  logical  precision  as  in  material  science.  The 
leaders  in  the  associated  charities  movement  are  basing 
their  efforts  upon  a  wider  knowledge  of  the  problem 
with  which  they  are  dealing  than  their  predecessors  pos- 
sessed, knowledge  taking  the  form  of  carefully-gathered 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


statistics,  yet  not  accompanied,  so  far,  by  a  depressed 
faith  in  their  work.  On  the  contrary,  the  workers  in 
this  particular  field  are  distinguished  for  their  cheerful 
courage  and  zeal.  In  this  case  wider  knowledge  means 
nearer  knowledge,  nearer  heart  as  well  as  brain  knowl- 
edge, intimate  acquaintance  and  sympathy  with  those 
elements  of  wrecked  and  diseased  manhood  which  make 
up  the  philanthropist's  problem.  All  true  knowledge 
that  men  gain  of  each  other,  of  whatever  class  or  con- 
dition, must  be  of  this  kind.  Failure  in  knowledge 
generally  results  from  failure  in  sympathy,  as  conversely 
stated  failure  in  sympathy  results  from  lack  of  knowl- 
edge. 

We  can  divorce  knowledge  from  moral  enthusiasm 
only  as  we  misinterpret  both  terms.  There  is  a  so-called 
culture  extant  in  our  times  which  admits  no  strong  unit- 
ing tie  with  conscience  and  the  sense  of  obligation;  that 
easy,  dilettante  conversance  with  books, —  knowledge 
often  of  the  names  of  things  rather  then  of  the  things 
themselves  —  that  complacently  holds  itself  aloof  from 
the  world's  duties  and  needs,  and  is  as  cold  and  selfish  at 
heart  as  any  form  of  brutal  tyranny  that  ever  oppressed 
the  race.  It  has  neither  breadth  nor  vitality,  nothing 
but  what  Margaret  Fuller  called  the  "cold  skepticism 
of  the  understanding."  No  such  abnormal  develop- 
ment of  one  set  of  faculties  above  another  can  be  digni- 
fied with  the  name  of  culture.  Equally  there  is  a 
kind  of  enthusiasm,  the  ardent,  undisciplined  faith  of 
youth,  which  the  superior  knowledge  of  manhood  cor- 
jects  and  modifies.  We  need  not  mourn  the  loss  of  such 
enthusiasm,  which,  useful  in  its  place,  appears  elsewhere 
as  silliness;  as  the  artless  trust  and  innocence  which 
make  up  the  charm  of  childhood  become  unbearable 
when  preserved  in  such  a  figure  as  Dickens  has  por- 
trayed in  Harold  Skimpole.  There  is  an  enthusiasm 
which  is  but  the  overflow  of  exuberant  fancy  and  child- 
ish good  nature,  as  there  is  another  which,  owning  the 
deeper  quality  of  faith,  I  like  rather  to  call  by  that  name, 
partaking  as  it  does  of  that  deep  soul-content  and  trust 
which,  in   spite  of  loss  and  discouragement,  still    abides. 

A  widening  knowledge  of  men  and  things  may 
bring  diminished  faith  in  immediate  results,  though  it 
need  not  do  that  if  we  estimate  results  on  the  side  of 
character  and  self-discipline.  When  enthusiasm  dies  it 
is  because  it  has  Been  too  much  engrossed  in  these  im- 
mediate results;  but  it  is  the  very  essence  of  faith  to 
wait  the  unseen  and  far  off.  Knowing  how  slowly  the 
world  was  made,  and  with  what  difficulty  man  has  won 
his  present  degree  of  progress,  the  wise  reformer  sub- 
mits to  copy  his  efforts  after  those  of  the  universe,  to 
work  along  the  slow,  sure  lines  of  nature  and  the 
world's  past  achievement,  moderating  his  hopes  to  the 
promises  here  conveyed.  Science  teaches  us  that  we 
can  do  anything  in  the  work  of  reform  but  hurry.  It  is 
because  things  do  not  move  faster,  and  a  hundred  failures 


seem  necessary  to  a  single  success,  that  my  friend 
and  others  like  him,  with  conscience  and  sympathy  un- 
duly excited  by  the  loss  and  waste  that  everywhere 
accompany  fruition,  are  led  to  their  present  mournful  es- 
timate of  things.  Perhaps  we  need  to  correct  our 
notions  of  failure.  The  lenses  Herschel  spoiled  before 
completing  the  final  perfect  one  were  failures  perhaps 
as  regarded  the  immediate  end  of  the  lens,  but  successes, 
rare  and  priceless,  as  related  to  the  development  of  the 
science  of  optics.  Moral  mistakes  hurt  and  hinder  the 
man  who  makes  them,  but  the  race  learns  to  conquer  its 
selfish  instincts  and  base  passions  in  no  other  way — and 
by  the  race  is  meant  no  glittering  abstraction,  but  the 
aggregated  number  of  individuals  like  ourselves. 

The  need  of  faith  remains  though  most  of  its  for- 
mer objects  have  passed  away ;  faith  in  principle,  the 
abiding  nature  of  those  laws  man  has  not  more  discov- 
ered than  wrought  out  of  his  own  hard,  glorious  experi- 
ence; faith  based  on  the  certainty  of  the  just  and  sure 
relation  cause  everywhere  sustains  to  effect.  I  make 
use  here  of  part  of  a  quotation  found  in  a  recent  vol- 
ume of  essays:  "Faith  is  a  misapplied  word  when  set 
to  the  theological  scheme  as  the  way  of  salvation;  faith 
to  me  now  is  something  which  follows  truthful,  disin- 
terested, sincere  action,  and  stands  waiting  to  see 
whether  you  will  accept  whatever  comes  of  such  con- 
duct, though  it  lead  where  you  know  not,  see  not,  away 
entirely  from  your  own  plan.  The  point  is  whether  I 
shall  wish  I  had  not  done  this  or  that,  whether  I  shall 
wish  another  way  had  been  chosen,  whether  I  will 
seek  to  retrace  steps,  or  whether  I  can  say  I  saw  not,  yet 
I  acted  to  do  right." 

John  Morley  presents  us  with  the  same  thought  in 
his  essay  on  Rousseau,  where  he  savs,  "  Men  and 
women  are  fairly  judged  by  the  way  in  which  they  bear 
the  burden  of  their  own  deeds.  The  deeper  part  of  us 
shows  in  the  manner  of  accepting  consequences." 

Life  is  the  greatest  of  consequences  so  far  as  the 
necessity  of  our  accepting  it  is  concerned.  Through  the 
combined  action  of  choice  and  necessity  we  find  our- 
selves caught  in  the  web  of  its  mingled  relations,  with 
something  we  have  agreed  to  call  duty  continually 
urging  us  forward;  something  we  have  learned  to  dis- 
tinguish as  hajDpiness  and  peace  of  mind  when  we 
choose  the  right  action  above  the  wrong,  and  as  unhap- 
piness  and  sense  of  guilt  when  we  make  the  contrary 
choice.  Such  knowledge  is  enough  to  determine  the 
practical  bent  of  men's  lives,  to  prove  the  growing 
worth  of  truth  above  falsehood,  right  above  wrong,  and 
thus  give  rise  to  that  assured  expectation  of  goodness 
we  call  faith. 

And  I  find  better  evidence  for  belief  in  the  con- 
tinued, hopeful  effort  of  man  to  promote  and  establish 
this  goodness,  in  that  system  of  thought  which  takes  all 
knowledge  for   its   province,  than   in   any  of  the  partial 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


373 


systems  of  the  past  based  on  miracle  and  credulous 
fancv.  Knowledge  but  increases,  not  destroys  man's 
power  of  usefulness  in  the  world  of  material  gain  and 
enterprise;  and  to  suppose  a  contrary  rule  obtains  in  the 
field  of  his  moral  achievment,  is  to  convert  the  universe 
into  a  hideous  satire ;  a  conclusion  which  experience  of 
truth  and  goodness  already  gained,  as  well  as  the  heart's 
instincts,  leads  us  to  promptly  rebel  against  and  deny. 

ARISTOCRATIC   PROTESTANTISM. 

BY  C.  K.  WHIPPLE. 

In  an  article  in  The  Open  Court  of  June  9,  con- 
trasting "  Protestantism  and  the  New  Ethics,"  I  find  the 
following  passage : 

"  The  general  mass  of  mankind  are  regarded  by  it 
("ordinary  Protestantism]  as  'children  of  wrath,'  from 
whom  a  remnant  are  graciously  to  be  selected  by  some 
mysterious  process.  Thus  the  ordinary  Protestant  doc- 
trine is  fundamentally  aristocratic,  denving  practically 
the  unity  of  mankind  (the  very  corner-stone  of  the  new 
ethics)  and  declaring  a  doctrine  of  divine  favoritism." 

This  statement  recalls  the  impression  made  upon  my 
mind  during  a  close  attendance,  for  several  years  pre- 
ceding and  following  1870,  upon  the  daily  prayer- 
meetings  of  the  Boston  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation. I  suppose  the  character  and  tendency,  the 
rules  and  methods  of  this  institution,  to  remain  now  as 
they  were  then;  and  if  so,  it  may  be  worth  while  to 
state  the  circumstances  which  then  made  me  consider  it 
"fundamentally  aristocratic,"  both  in  theory  and  practice. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  is  a  school 
of  preparation  for  membership  in  the  orthodox  church; 
or  more  accurately,  a  recruiting  office  for  enlistment 
there.  By  its  constitution  and  by-laws  two  classes  of 
members  are  established,  one  to  make  and  execute  the 
rules,  the  other  to  obey  the  rules;  one  to  govern,  the 
other  to  be  governed;  one  to  choose  offices  and  be  eligi- 
ble to  office,  the  other  to  hold  a  membership  thus 
restricted,  and  subject  to  the  further  restriction  of  lia- 
bility to  arbitrary  dismissal  by  vote  of  the  managers, 
without  cause  assigned.  It  was,  no  doubt,  these  pecu- 
liar features  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
which  caused  the  formation  of  the  "Boston  Young 
men's  Christian  Union"  a  really  unsectarian  and  exceed- 
ingly useful  society. 

I  say  really  unsectarian,  because  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  makes  special  claim  to  be  so,  and, 
curiously  enough,  does  it  on  the  ground  thaj  it  excludes 
from  its  superior  class  only  those  who  are  not  members 
of  orthodox  churches.  Membership  in  Unitarian  or 
Universalist  churches  would  absolutely  disqualify  for 
upper  membership  in  the  Association,  and  would  be 
regarded  as  worse  than  belonging  to  no  church  whatever. 

At  the  time  of  my  intimacy  with  the  Boston  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  its  sectarian  character  was 


further  shown  by  a  rigid  discrimination  against  unor- 
thodox literature  in  books  for  the  library  and  periodicals 
for  the  reading-room.  Nothing  was  consciously  admit- 
ted there  which  called  in  question  any  doctrine  or 
practice  of  the  orthodox  church,  or  which  even  pro. 
posed  inquiry  into  the  authority  upon  which  such 
doctrine  or  practice  rested.  The  idea  of  the  ruling 
authority  manifestly  was,  first,  by  perpetual  assertion 
and  assumption  to  persuade  the  inferior  class  that 
the  doctrines  there  taught  were  sound  and  indispu- 
table, and  next,  to  keep  from  their  knowledge  the  fact 
that  any  of  them  had  been  successfully  controverted.  For 
instance,  among  the  most  constant  and  emphatic  of  the 
assertions  and  assumptions  made  by  those  of  the  ruling 
class  who  conducted  the  meetings  were  these:  that  the 
bible,  in  all  its  parts,  was  "the  word  of  God;"  that  no 
error,  either  of  fact  or  doctrine,  could  be  found  in  either 
the  New  or  the  Old  Testament,  and  that  all  claims  of  the 
discovery  of  such  error  had  been  successfully  refuted. 
Every  one  of  these  assumptions  had  been  thoroughly 
disproved  in  the  works  of  Bishop  Colenso,  Francis  \Y. 
Newman,  William  Rathbone  Greg  and  William  E.  H. 
Lecky,  as  well  as  in  the  pamphlet  by  Andrew  Tackson 
Davis,  entitled  Self-  Contradictions  of  the  Bible.  But 
these  works  and  the  many  like  them  by  other  authors, 
would  neither  have  been  bought  for  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  library  nor  admitted  to  it  if 
offered  as  a  gift.  Yet  the  institution  of  whose  policy 
in  every  department  this  is  a  fair  specimen,  continually 
and  unblushingly  claimed  to  be  unsectarian. 

The  classification  of  members  as  high-caste  or  low- 
caste  was  made  at  the  very  beginning.  As  soon  as  an 
applicant  had  given  his  name,  age  and  residence,  he 
was  asked  by  the  Secretary:  "  Of  what  church  are  you  a 
member?"  If  his  reply  did  not  show  orthodox  church- 
membership,  he  was  assigned  to  the  inferior  class,  with 
no  vote  in  regard  to  the  officers,  or  the  administra- 
tion or  the  policy  of  the  society,  or  to  any  change 
which  might  seem  .desirable  in  either;  and  he  was  also 
required  to  give  his  signature  of  acquiescence  in  the 
system,  one  part  of  which  was  that  he  himself  might  at 
any  time  be  deprived  of  membership  at  the  mere  will  of 
the  Executive  Committee. 

It  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  young  men  of  even 
average  intelligence  and  self-respect  should  make  appli- 
cation for  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  such  a  table.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  a  place  so  large  as  Boston  there  is  no 
lack  of  ignorance  and  credulity,  and  even  so  excellent 
a  thing  as  piety  often  co-exists  with  both.  The  pious 
young  man  is  taught  to  consider  it  his  duty  to  take  part 
in  the  propagandist  work  of  the  Association,  and, 
though  he  is  of  course  assigned  to  the  governing  class, 
his  first  thought  is  of  doing  good  by  saving  souls,  and 
he  really  works  hard  at  it,  repeating  confidently  the 
formulas  which  the  church  has  put  in  his  mouth.     And 


374 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


to  the  poor  and  ignorant  young  man  who  is  not  yet  pious, 
but  who  believes  it  essential  to  become  so  in  the  church's 
sense,  there  are  many  attractive  things  in  the  view  of 
the  Association  given  by  those  who  invite  him  there. 
There  is  a  pleasant  room,  warmed  and  lighted  at  the 
appropriate  seasons,  with  pictures,  and  music,  and  liter- 
ature of  various  sorts,  and  companionship  spiritually 
desirable,  abundantly  cheap  at  $i.ooayear,  especially 
as  such  membership  is  (they  tell  him)  in  the  line  of  his 
present  duty,  and  also  in  the  way  of  salvation.  Is  it 
strange  that  many  walk  into  that  parlor,  and  continue  to 
sing  the  song  that  is  taught  them  there? 

The  ignorance  and  credulity  of  which  I  have  spoken 
were  bv  no  means  confined  to  the  subordinate  class. 
Both  qualities  were  conspicuous  in  the  majority  of 
young  men  who  joined  the  Association  while  I  was 
conversant  with  it.  Vew  few  of  them  seemed  capable 
of  giving  a  reason  for  either  their  faith  or  their  hope. 
Verv  few  seemed  to  have  the  slightest  conception 
of  the  nature  of  evidence.  And  yet  it  seemed  to  be 
taken  for  granted  as  a  settled  matter  by  both  classes  in 
the  Association  that,  as  soon  as  one  of  these  ignorant 
young  fellows  became  "pious,"  he  was  competent  to 
instruct  all  who  were  not  so.  And  it  was  pathetic  to 
see  the  humility  with  which  members  of  the  subordi- 
nate class  accepted  this  doctrine,  allowing  themselves  to 
be  catechized  and  lectured  by  one  who  had  last  week 
been  one  of  their  own  number,  without  venturing  to 
question  him  in  return,  or  to  doubt  that  the  superiority 
thus  claimed  was  real,  or  to  apply  the  test  of  reason  to 
his  pretensions. 

To  return  to  the  thought  quoted  at  the  beginning  of 
this  article  (that  the  ordinary  Protestant  doctrine  is 
fundamentally  aristocratic)  it  was  plain  from  the 
demeanor  of  both  classes  in  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  that  they  really  believed  that  class  No.  I 
possessed  more  rights  and  were  entitled  to  more  privi- 
leges than  class  No.  2;  and  that  the  doctrine  and  policy 
and  practice  of  the  Association  would  strongly  tend  to 
keep  them  and  their  successors  in  that  mind.  In  short, 
that  the  influence  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation tends  toward  a  return  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
pilgrim  fathers  that  the  saints  were  the  only  appropriate 
rulers,  and  that  the  right  to  vote  depended  upon  mem- 
bership in  the  church. 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    NEW    CHURCH. 
BY    EDWARD   CRANCH,    PH.B.,  M.D. 
"'What  is  Science,  rightly  known?' 
'Tis  the  force  of  Life  alone : 
Life  canst  thou  engender  never, 
Life  must  be  Life's  parent  ever." 

— Goethe  and  Schiller  (JCem'a). 

Life  is  a  force,  propagating  itself  in  perpetual  series, 
where  the  conditions  of  suitable  substances  and  conge- 
nial forces  are  present. 


All  forces  are  practically  one;  man  can  change  them 
but  not  renew  them,  else  could  he  produce  Perpetual 
Motion  and  the  Elixir  of  Life.  The  origin  of  force  for 
this  earth  is,  by  common  consent,  referred  to  the  sun,  on 
which  we  are  dependent  every  moment,  humbling  as  it 
may  sound.  But  what  is  the  source  of  the  sun's  power, 
and  does  life  and  vital  heat  come  from  our  sun,  or  from 
some  power  beyond?  In  short,  what  is  the  first  cause 
of  all  force  and  substance? 

All  past  religions  and  many  scientists  have  tried  to 
answer,  but  the  thought  of  the  world  has  gone  beyond 
all  that  has  hitherto  been  offered,  till  now  a  New  Church 
is  arising,  upsetting  all  previous  notions  of  a  plurality  of 
gods,  of  an  absolute  tyrant-god,  of  a  blind  principle 
called  Nature;  setting  these  aside  and  making  all  things 
new. 

Let  us  study  the  teachings  of  this  New  Church  a  lit- 
tle and  see  if  reason  and  experience  will  confirm  them. 

There  is  but  one  source  of  life  and  substance.  Could 
one  least  atom  of  outside  substance  be  a  source  of  life 
it  could  control  conditions,  being  self-existent,  and  make 
itself  infinite,  thus  destroying  the  universe,  for  there  is 
no  room  for  two  infinites. 

That  which  is  life  itself  must  include,  in  the  degree 
of  infinity,  all  the  manifestations  of  life  we  can  ever 
know;  therefore,  it  must  be  infinitely  powerful  and  in- 
finitely wise. 

As  there  can  be  no  life  without  substance,  therefore 
this  infinite  must  be  substance  itself;  indeed,  in  their 
very  source,  life  and  substance  must  be  identical,  and 
must  be  continually  proceeding  as  an  infinite  will, 
forming  and  creating,  according  to  the  endless  accom- 
modations of  infinite  wisdom.  The  only  form  that 
unites  will  and  wisdom  in  use,  is  the  human.  Animals 
have  only  a  semblance  of  them,  and  men  only  have  them 
in  an  imperfect,  finite  degree;  but  the  form  that  alone 
can  use  infinite  will  and  infinite  wisdom  is  a  Divine  Hu- 
manity, from  which  creation  has  proceeded,  something 
in  the  way  now  to  be  outlined. 

The  first  exhalations  from  this  Divine  Humanity,  sur- 
rounding him  as  every  man's  personal  atmosphere  of 
exhaled  particles  surrounds  his  body,  form  a  living  sun 
in  which  he  dwells,  apparently  far  beyond  everything 
else,  but  conscious  of  everything,  therefore  omniscient, 
and  so  omnipotent;  above  space  and  time,  by  which  he 
cannot  be  confined,  for  they  would  limit  the  infinite. 
Consider  our  own  thoughts;  are  they  not  superior  to 
both  space  and  time?  Witness  Rosalind's  pretty  riddle 
to  Orlando:  "I  will  tell  you  who  time  ambles  withal; 
who  time  trots  withal ;  who  time  gallops  withal,  and 
who  he  stands  still  withal." 

Being  the  source  of  all  power,  he  is  omnipotent,  but 
not  absolutely  so,  as  formerly  believed ;  for  he  can  do 
nothing  contrary  to  his  own  order,  consequently  cannot 
do  evil,  cannot  form  anything   hurtful,  nor  be  angry,  as 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


375 


is  the  case  with  finite,  and  therefore  necessarily  imper- 
fect creatures. 

The  emanations  from  this  living  sun  are  exactly  an- 
alagous  to  the  emanations  from  our  own  sun ;  that  is, 
they  consist  of  heat  and  light,  of  atmospheres  and  of  a 
world  of  objects,  created  from  substances  at  one  time 
atmospherical,  and  still  pervaded  by  those  atmospheres, 
by  which  forces  are  distributed  as  in  their  proper  media; 
just  as  in  this  world  our  planet  is  formed  of  substances 
at  one  time  fluid  or  gaseous  in  and  around  the  sun,  and 
still  pervaded  bv  such  atmospheres,  whose  vibrations 
and  changing  densities  bring  us  heat,  light  and  other 
forces. 

The  world  that  was  created  from  the  spiritual  sun 
was  a  spiritual  world,  ready  for  the  habitation  of  men 
yet  to  be  formed ;  for  no  superior  beings  exist,  no  angel 
lives  who  was  not  once  a  man,  woman,  or  child  on  this 
or  some  other  planet.  But  this  digresses.  To  return  to 
the  consideration  of  creation  in  its  order:  The  substances 
of  the  dead,  material  suns  were  formed  at  the  same  time 
and  from  the  same  spiritual  atmospheres  as  the  objects 
of  the  spiritual  world,  and  these  first-formed  material 
substances,  by  their  mutual  attractions,  contractions  and 
combustions,  continually  kept  active  bv  the  influences  of 
the  spiritual  sun,  formed  each  its  own  system  of  planets, 
which,  revolving  in  widening  orbits,  are  receding  from 
their  central  body,  perhaps  one  day  to  be  used  up  and 
scattered,  their  particles  going  to  form  other  suns  and 
systems,  for  matter  is  indestructible,  and  creation  must 
forever  go  on. 

Having  reached  a  reactionary  basis  in  the  rocks  and 
sands  of  the  lower  worlds,  the  Lord  began  to  introduce 
new  life  by  a  more  direct  way;  for  the  introduction  of 
life  was  not  entrusted  to  a  dead  sun,  only  the  care  of  it 
for  a  season.  All  creation  has  man  and  his  eternal  wel- 
fare as  an  object,  and  man  is  only  distinguished  from 
lower  forms  by  his  ability  to  know  and  co-operate  with 
his  Maker,  by  means  of  the  rationality  and  free-will, 
which  he  feels  within  himself;  the  earliest  men  had  no 
spoken  language;  no  outward  sign  of  separation  from 
the  lower  animals. 

The  many  series  of  living  forms  all  bear  some  relation 
to  man  and  resemble  him  in  some  one  or  more  of  his  men- 
tal and  physical  qualities;  hence,  the  resemblances  that 
have  been  attributed  to  self-evolution,  as  if  each  little 
polyp,  plant  or  animal  was  wise  enough  itself  to  determine 
what  it  needed,  and  alter  its  whole  structure  accordingly. 
If,  for  instance,  the  flesh-eating  flowers  of  Borneo  "  know 
enough"  to  imitate  the  smell  and  looks  of  raw  meat  to  at- 
tract their  pre}',  is  it  not  strange  that  they  went  so  far  in 
that  direction  and  did  not  improve  by  originating  self- 
motion,  which  perhaps  could  have  been  done  more  simply  ? 
The  fact  is,  we  so  seldom  use  the  only  powers  that  distin- 
guish us  from  animals  and  plants  that  we  are  often  at  a 
loss  where  to  draw  the  line   between  will   and  its  blind 


images  in  our  own  lower  life  and  in  the  life  of  the  lower 
forms. 

Evil  came  into  this  world  by  man's  own  abuse  of  his 
essential  qualities,  liberty  and  rationality,  and  his  conse- 
quent rejection  of  the  Divine,  and  exaltation  of  self  and 
the  world  in  His  place;  whereupon,  the  Lord,  in  tender 
mercy,  permitted  the  formation  of  hell,  where  evil  souls 
(for  the  souls  of  men  retain  all  their  vital  characteris- 
tics, and  men  and  women  live  as  men  and  women  after 
death  in  the  spiritual  world  before  spoken  of)  can  "  enjoy 
life,"  as  Bill  Nye  would  say,  "  in  their  poor  way,"  apart 
from  the  direct  influence  of  the  Lord,  who  is  not  respon- 
sible for  their  self  inflicted  misery,  any  more  than  the 
sun  is  responsible  for  the  poisonous  saps  that  grow  under 
his  beams.  The  Lord  did  not  create  such  poisonous  and 
hurtful  forms, but  they  have  risen  as  an  ultimation  of  the 
evil  states  of  hell,  which  place  will  finally  be  reduced  to 
greater  order,  though  like  the  order  of  a  prison,  con- 
trasting with  the  free  life  of  heaven  (for  which  all  men 
were  designed),  as  a  frog- pond  might  contrast  with  a 
forest  of  singing  birds. 

Man  has  the  power  while  yet  in  this  world,  of  choosing 
how  he  will  live,  and  establishing  that  life  by  habit; 
after  death  he  can  change  his  habits  no  more,  but  will 
forever  go  on  in  the  direction  he  has  chosen  here;  for  in 
that  world  there  is  no  material  foundation  in  which  alone 
the  man  can  be  radically  changed,  and  in  which  alone 
propagations  can  take  place. 

Forms  of  life  in  the  spiritual  world  other  than  man, 
are  created  instantly  by  the  Lord  from  the  atmospheres, 
etc.,  as  they  were  at  first  created  on  this  world,  though 
now  they  increase  by  germination  and  procreation. 

Having  skimmed  the  field  so  far,  space  fails  and  no 
more  can  be  said  than  to  refer  the  reader  to  the  writings 
of  the  New  Church  given  to  the  world  by  the  Lord 
Tesus  Christ,  the  very  Divine  Man  Himself,  by  means 
of  his  servant  Emanuel  Swedenborg. 

There  the  inquirer  will  find  full  light  on  the  nature 
of  the  two  worlds  and  their  respective  suns,  the  consti- 
tution of  the  human  mind,  the  relations  and  compari- 
sons of  human  and  animal  life,  including  the  new 
doctrine  of  discrete  degrees,  by  which  the  several  steps 
of  life  are  graded  as  higher  and  lower,  not  as  greater 
and  less;  all  this  and  much  more  will  be  unfolded  to  the 
mind  that  inquires  and  studies  in  the  right  spirit. 
"Thought  from  the  eye  shuts  the  understanding, 
but  thought  from  the  understanding  opens  the  eye." 
(Swedenborg.)       

To  Skepticism  we  owe  that  spirit  of  inquiry  which,  during 
the  last  two  centuries,  has  gradually  encroached  on  every  possible 
subject,  has  reformed  every  department  of  practical  and  specula- 
tive knowledge,  has  weakened  the  authority  of  the  privileged 
classes,  and  thus  placed  liberty  on  a  surer  foundation,  has  chas- 
tised the  despotism  of  princes,  has  restrained  the  arrogance  of  the 
nobles,  and  has  even  diminished  the  prejudices  of  the  clergy. — 
Thomas  Henry  Buckle. 


376 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  Open  Court. 

A.  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published  every  other  Thursday  at   i6g  to   175  La  Salle  Street  (Nixot 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.  UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  ot  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  "three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  Treasurer,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  111.,  to  whom 
should  be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 

THURSDAY,  AUGUST  18,  1887. 

MONISM  AND    MONISTIC    THINKERS. 

Monism—  from  the  Greek  monos,  single,  alone — is 
the  philosophical  conception  that  all  phenomena  have  a 
common  source,  and  that  one  ultimate  principle  under- 
lies them  all.  This  conception  is  presented  in  distinc- 
tion especially  to  the  various  forms  of  dualism — such,  for 
instance,  as  that  of  Descartes,  who  assumed  an  extended 
substance  devoid  of  thought,  and  an  unextended  think- 
ing substance — and  in  opposition  to  all  systems  which 
have  recourse  to  a  plurality  of  principles  to  explain 
mental  and  physical  phenomena. 

There  are  many  different  conceptions  of  monism,  all 
agreeing,  however,  in  the  single-principle  theory  as 
opposed  to  dualism.  Several  of  these  monistic  concep- 
tions were  referred  to  by  Dr.  Edmund  Montgomery  in 
a  series  of  articles  printed  in  the  first  three  numbers  of 
this  journal.  There  is  the  monism  of  .Spinoza,  "  the 
monism  of  substantiality,"  which  identifies  God  and 
nature  in  an  absolute  substance  that  possesses,  with  many 
attributes  unknown  to  us,  both  thought  and  extension: 


the  monism  of  Schelling,  "  a  monistic  system  of  trans- 
cendental realism ;"  Hartman's  "  monism  of  unconscious 
transcendental  Will,  logically  evolving  the  world ; " 
Hegel's  "monism  of  self-evolving  logical  reason,  of  the 
formal  deductive  sort;"  "a  spiritual  monism  which  gen- 
erally goes  by  the  name  of  Transcendental  Idealism ;" 
the  monism  of  Herbert  Spencer,  which  sees  in  mental 
and  physical  phenomena  but  different  modes  of  an  abso- 
lute inscrutable  Power;  the  mechanical  monism  of 
Haeckel,  according  to  which  every  atom  is  eternal  and 
has  "  sensation  and  volition,  pleasure  and  pain,  desire 
and  aversion,  attraction  and  repulsion,"  which  properties 
aggregating  parallel  to  combinations  of  material  parti- 
cles form  complex  souls,  even  the  souls  of  men;  the 
"  psycho-physical  monism "  of  Lewes,  according  to 
which  consciousness  is  the  subjective  aspect  of  the  same 
fact  of  which  brain  motion  is  the  objective  aspect;  the 
monism  of  Bain,  who  holds  that  physical  and  mental 
phenomena  are  the  properties  of  one  substance — "  a 
double-faced  unity."  We  have  seen  quoted  by  Mr. 
Hegeler,  as  expressive  in  a  general  way  of  his  monistic 
position,  the  pantheistic  words  of  Paul  on  Mars'  hill: 
"  For  in  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  " 
(Acts  xvii.  28).  Monotheism  may  fairly  be  regarded  as 
a  religious  form  of  monism. 

That  all  these  different  theories  of  monism  can  be 
true  is,  of  course,  impossible;  that  they  are  all  even 
logically  consistent  is  improbable;  that  any  one  of  them 
contains  the  entire  truth  is  extremely  unlikely  ;  that  the)' 
all  contain  certain  aspects  or  hints  of  the  truth  which, 
fused  into  a  synthesis  with  errors  eliminated,  would 
afford  a  better  explanation  of  phenomena  than  an)-  of 
them  singly  can  give,  is  reasonably  certain. 

On  another  page  may  be  found  a  number  of  passages 
which  we  have  extracted  from  the  writings  of  monistic 
thinkers.  Our  own  monistic  position,  which  we  have 
been  requested  to  state,  we  now  give  in  a  few  words: 

There  is  no  chance,  no  caprice  in  the  operations  of 
nature.  Every  motion  has  a  speed,  direction  and  des- 
tiny predetermined  by  its  condition  and  the  nature  of 
things.  Such  is  the  regularity  of  occurrences  in  the 
physical  world  that  in  those  groups  of  phenomena  which 
we  have  been  able  carefully  to  observe  and  study,  as  in 
astronomy,  we  can  predict  events  long  before  they  hap- 
pen. All  phenomena  are  connected  and  dependent,  and 
all  are  subject  to  causation;  there  is  no  event  without  an 
antecedent,  no  effect  without  a  cause;  in  the  succession 
of  phenomena  the  thread  of  continuity  is  unbroken  and 
the  condition  of  any  given  time  is  the  outgrowth  and 
product  of  all  pre-existent  times.  The  farthest  stars  are 
connected  with  our  planet,  and  the  remotest  ages  are 
related  to  the  present.  Evolution  and  involution  (dis- 
solution) are  waves  of  a  shoreless  ocean  that  belongs 
equally  to  the  beginningless  past  and  to  the  endless  future. 
Every  form  of  matter  is  the  product  of  the  modification 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


377 


of  previous  forms.    Every  form  of  force  is  a  manifestation 
of  the  universal  immanent  force 

"Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean  and  the  living  air. 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man : 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  beings,  all  objects  of  all  thought 
And  rolls  through  all  things." 

Mental  phenomena  are  no  more  exempt  from  causa- 
tion than  are  material  phenomena,  and  if  we  were  able 
to  see  the  contents  and  condition  of  any  mind  and  to 
calculate  the  forces  which  would  operate  upon  it,  we 
should  be  able  to  foresee  its  action  with  as  much  cer- 
tainty as  we  can  predict  the  velocity  of  a  falling  body. 

Mind  implies  organism  and  environment.  We  can 
have  no  conception  of  mind  without  matter,  and  no  con- 
ception of  matter  without  mind,  for  the  very  qualities 
which  we  ascribe  to  objects — color,  fragrance,  hardness, 
weight,  resistance,  etc. — are  but  so  many  different  names 
for  ways  in  which  we  are  consciously  affected.  Says  Dr. 
Ewald  Hering:  "Materialism  explains  consciousness  as 
a  result  of  matter;  idealism  takes  the  opposite  view, and 
from  a  third  position  one  might  propound  the  identity 
of  spirit  and  matter."  We  hold  to  the  monistic  view 
that  mental  and  physical  phenomena  are  manifestations 
of  the  same  reality,  and  that,  as  Haeckel  observes,  "  the 
whole  knowable  universe  forms  one  undivided  whole,  a 
'  monon,'  and  that  spirit  exists  everywhere  in  nature, 
and  we  know  of  no  spirit  outside  of  nature." 

Says  Prof.  F.  Max  Midler,  in  his  lecture  concluded 
in  this  number  of  The  Open  Court:  "Matter  and 
spirit  are  correlative,  but  they  are  not  interchangeable 
terms.  In  the  true  sense,  spirit  is  a  name  for  the  univer- 
sal subject,  matter  for  the  universal  object.  And  as  there 
can  be  no  subject  without  an  object,  nor  an  object  without 
a  subject,  neither  can  there  be,  within  a  narrower  sphere, 
spirit  without  matter,  nor  matter  without  spirit.  Matter  is 
determined  by  us  quite  as  much  as  we  are  determined  by 
matter.  As  we  have  made  and  defined  the  two  words  and 
concepts,  matter  and  spirit,  they  are  now  inseparable;  and 
the  two  systems  of  philosophy,  materialism  and  spirit- 
ualism, have  no  sense  by  themselves,  but  will  have  to  be 
merged  in  the  higher  system  of  idealism."  (In  a  system 
of  monistic  realism  we  should  say.) 

To  those  who  insist  that  we  must  think  of  the  uni- 
versal power  as  a  personality,  we  reply  in  the  words  of 
Tyndall:  "When  I  attempt  to  give  the  power  which  is 
manifested  in  the  universe  an  objective  form,  personal 
or  otherwise,  it  slips  away  from- me,  declining  all  manip- 
ulation. I  dare  not,  save  poetically,  use  the  pronoun 
'He'  regarding  it;  I  dare  not  call  it  'Mind;'  I  refuse  to 
call  it  even  a  '  Cause.'  Its  mystery  overshadows,  but 
it  remains  a  mystery,  while  the  subjective  frames  which 
my  neighbors  try  to  make  it  fit  simply  distoit  and  dese- 
crate it."  "Belief  in  the  personality  of  God  is  a  'theo- 
logic  cramp,'"  says  Emerson.     "A  personal   God  is  not 


thinkable  consistently  with  philosophical  ideas,"  observes 
Fichte.  "The  idea  of  a  personal  God  is  pure  myth- 
ology," says  Schleiermacher.  "Alas!"  exclaims  Goethe, 
"for  the  creed  whose  God  lives  out»ide  of  the  universe, 
and  lets  it  spin  round  His  finger.  The  universal  spirit 
dwells  within  and  not  without." 

"The  universal  spirit"  or  universal  immanent  force 
is  the  sum  total  of  Natures  capacities  and  powers,  which 
though  divided  like  the  billows  are  united  like  the  sea, 
constituting  from  everlasting  to  everlasting  an  unbroken 
unity,  while  producing  that  variety  of  form  and  mani- 
festation among  which  is  personality — a  phenomenon 
so  complex  and  in  which  there  are  such  concentration 
and  intensity  of  force  as  to  make  it  unique,  and  to  seem 
in  its  fulness  and  strength  to  exist  apart  from  the 
natural  order,  as  tho'  it  were  detatche ',  isolated,  inde- 
pendent, autonomous,  giving  rise  to  the  belief  that  its 
distinguishing  characteristics  are  the  essential  attributes 
of  the  universal  source  and  basis  of  all  activity.  But 
personality  is  connected,  as  science  can  demonstrate,  by 
countless  invisible  ties,  to  the  universal  order  from  which 
it  is  never  for  a  moment  severed;  and  it  is  one  of  the 
modes,  the  highest  known  to  us,  of  the  universal  power 
that  manifests  itself  to  us  with  such  wonderful  wealth 
and  diversity  of  form. 


CONCERNING  BOOKS  FOR  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

To  the  Editors: 

Would  vou  be  kind  enough  to  send  me  the  names  of  a  (ew 
good  books  suitable  for  a  little  girl  ten  years  old  to  read  that  are 
instructive  and  entertaining  without  being  religious.  In  using  the 
word  religious,  1  mean  in  the  general  acceptance  of  the  term.  I 
find  it  verv  difficult  to  get  children's  books  that  do  not  treat 
largelv  about  a  personal  God  and  immortality.  Perhaps  a  list  of 
such  books  might  be  interesting  to  more  than  one  mother  tnat 
reads  The  Open  Cocrt.  Yerv  truly  yours, 

Mrs.  C.  H. 

The  above  note  asks  a  question  which  in  various 
forms  is  so  often  repeated  by  parents  who  are  desirous 
that  their  children  should  grow  up  free  from  any  theo- 
logical bias  or  prejudice  that  we  very  willingly  give  here 
our  views  on  the  subject. 

It  is  natural  enough  that  parents  who  have  them- 
selves found  difficulty,  as  they  grew  into  a  wider  sphere 
of  thought,  in  emancipating  their  own  minds  from  the 
influence  of  false  dogmas  and  narrow  creeds  imbibed  in 
vouth  and  enforced  by  the  books  they  then  read,  should 
object  to  allowing  their  children  to  begin  life  thus  preju- 
diced; but  in  this  age  of  general  diffusion  of  knowledge 
and  of  steadily  growing  liberalism  in  the  churches,  and 
out,  it  seems  to  us  that  this  fear  is  in  great  part  ground- 
less. 

But  though  we  believe  with  Charles  Lamb  that  in 
a  well  selected  library  of  standard  works  children  should 
be  turned  loose  "to  browse  as  they  please  among  all  its 
treasures,  secure  to  pass  the  evil  without   knowing   it  to 


37* 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


be  evil,  and  to  gain  the  incalculable  good  that  comes 
from  familiarity  with  good  books;"  yet  in  these  days 
when  books  of  all  sorts  come  tumbling  from  the  press 
by  tons,  it  would  be  a  help  for  parents  anxious  to  guide 
their  children  in  the  direction  of  true  knowledge  and 
the  highest  morality  to  have  a  list  to  which  additions 
could  be  frequently  made,  of  the  books  which  would 
be  of  the  most  help  to  young  readers  in  these  direc- 
tions. 

In  one  of  the  magazines  lately  Rev.  Edward  Eg- 
gleston  gave  a  list  of  the  books  which  had  been  most 
helpful  to  him.  We  did  not  see  the  article,  but  have 
read  various  criticisms  of  his  taste  and  judgment  because 
of  the  character  of  some  of  those  aids.  These  criti- 
cisms could  not  but  be  unjust,  for  in  reading  as  in  eat- 
ing it  is  quite  as  true  that  "what  is  one  man's  meat  is 
another's  poison."  Lessons  might  be  gained  for  Mr.  Eg- 
gleston  from  books  which  might  be  hurtful  to  the  morals 
of  a  Sam  Jones  and  insipid  or  worthless  to  the  mind  of 
an  Emerson.  Thus  it  is  very  difficult  for  even  the 
wisest  parent  to  guide  unerringly  the  literary  tastes  of 
his  children,  and  the  wiser  the  parent  the  less  would  he 
hope  to  do  so.  But  it  still  is  wise  to  place  before  the 
developing  intellect  invitations  to  growth  by  the  choice 
of  the  best  in  all  good  directions.  That  is  the  utmost 
that  should  be  done. 

Except  in  books  directly  intended  for  orthodox 
Sunday-school  use,  there  is  comparatively  little  that 
has  a  decidedly  theological  tendency  in  these  days  of 
growing  liberalism.  Since  the  note  which  we  print 
was  received  we  have  looked  carefully  through  the 
contents  of  three  magazines  for  youth  for  the  cur- 
rent month,  Wide-Awake,  St.  Nicholas  and  Treasure 
Trove,  and  can  find  nothing  directly  theological  in  any 
of  them,  and  stranger  still,  no  direct  reference  even  to 
God  and  immortality,  save  in  some  few  verses.  Writers 
like  Charles  Egbert  Craddock,  Louise  Imogen  Guiney, 
H.  H.  Boyesen,  Frank  R.  Stockton,  Palmer  Cox,  Mar- 
garet Sydney,  Lizzie  Champney,  Elbridge  S.  Brooks, 
Sarah  K.  Bolton,  Rev.  Edward  A.  Rand,  Edward 
Everett  Hale  and  many  others,  give  lessons  in  courage, 
in  truth,  in  history,  in  art,  in  medicine,  in  helpful  work 
and  healthful  play,  without  bringing  in  any  reference  to 
creed,  dogma,  or  orthodox  religion.  For  ourselves,  we 
would  by  no  means  choose  to  keep  children  in  ignorance 
of  creeds  or  dogmas.  The  harm  done  by  them  has 
been  in  limiting  the  study  of  these  by  orthodox  parents 
to  each  parent's  particular  creed  and  church  tenets. 
Ignorance  is  always  harmful.  The  child  who  does  not 
know  what  creeds  are  is  unprepared  to  pass  judgement 
as  to  their  truth  or  untruth,  nor  will  a  spirit  of  mere 
contempt  for  creeds  be  shown  by  anv  unbelieving 
parent  who  has  come  to  his  unbelief  in  the  course  of 
his  search  after  truth,  for,  as  Mrs.  Oakes-Smith,  in  her 
poem,  "The  Creedman,"  beautifully  shows,  creeds  have 


done  their  necessary  part  in  the  evolution  of  man's 
intellect  and  morals.  So  let  the  children  read  freely — 
while  taught  to  use  their  reason  in  so  doing — that  they 
may  be  prepared  to  think  clearly  and  without  prejudice. 
So  only  can  their  minds  grow  symmetrical  in  wisdom 
and  their  thought  develop  harmoniously. 

The  genius  of  the  very  best  writers  in  all  depart- 
ments for  grown  people  is  now-a-days  enlisted  for  the 
benefit  of  the  rising  generation.  The  question  with  the 
parent  of  to-day  is  not  "  Where  can  I  find  suitable  read- 
ing?" but  "  What  shall  I  choose  from  this  over-abund- 
ance?" If  we  were  to  choose  a  small  library  for  the 
use  of  a  child  of  ten  or  twelve  years,  our  choice  would 
be  somewhat  as  follows: 

In  history,  Dicken's  Child's  History  of  England, 
Col.  Higginson's  Child's  History  of  the  United  States, 
and  Edward  Clodd's  Childhood  of  the  World-  in  biog- 
raphy, Plutarch 's  Lives,  Barton's  Captains  of  Industry, 
Sarah  K.  Bolton's  Girls  Who  Became  Famous,  and 
Eldredge  S.  Brooks  and  Miss  Jane  Andrews'  series  of 
short  biographical  sketches  for  young  readers;  in 
travel,  Livingstone,  Stanley,  Du  Chaillu,  Horace  Scud- 
der's  Bodley  books,  Louise  Alcott's  Shawl  Straps,  and 
Edward  Everett  Hale's  various  Family  FligJits  through 
different  countries,  are  all  delightful  reading;  in  science, 
R.  A.  Proctor's  Light  Science  for  Leisure  Hours, 
Arabella  Buckley's  series  of  Science  Studies,  Mary 
Treat's  Home  Studies  in  Nature,  Felix  Oswald's  zoo- 
logical sketches,  Trench  On  the  Study  of  Words,  and 
the  Appleton's  series  of  Science  Primers;  in  fiction, 
Louise  Alcott's  Old  Fashioned  Girl,  Little  Men  and 
Little  Women,  Lewis  Carroll's  Alice  in  Wonderland, 
Anstey's  Vice  T'ersa,  Jules  Verne's  Around  the  Afoon 
and  20,000  Leagues  Under  the  Sea,  Charles  Kingsley's 

Water  Babies,  Dicken's  David  Copperfield,  Dombey  <& 
Son,  Old  Curiosity  Shop,  Christmas  Carols  and 
Nicholas  Nicklcby,  George  Eliot's  Mill  on  the  Floss, 
Frances     H.     Burnett's    Little    Lord    Fauntleroy    and 

Fredrika  Bremer's  Home  and  Tlie  Neighbors;  in 
poetry,  Wordsworth,  Longfellow,  Whittier  and  Bryant. 

To  these  we  would  add  Ruskin's  Sesame  and  Lilies  and 
Ethics  of  the  Dust,  Charles   and    Mary  Lamb's  Tales 

from  Shakespeare,  the  Grimm   brothers'  Fairy   7^ales, 

Hans  Christian  Andersen's  works,  and  even  such  old 
books  as  ^Esofis  Fables,  Gulliver's    Travels,  Robinson 

Crusoe,  The  Arabian  Nights'1  Entertainment  and  Pil- 

ofinis  Progress. 

Children  are  usually  thorough  realists  and  like  books 
of  action  which  convey  truths  by  example,  rather  than 
didactic  works  which  bore  them  by  wearisome  preach- 
ing.     In  the  above  incomplete  list  we   have  aimed  only 

to  give  a  few  hints  to  those  who,  like  our  correspondent, 

have  probably  no  time  to  search  for  themselves  for  such 
literature  as  they  prefer  their  children  to  read. 

s.  a.  u. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


379 


BRAINS  AND  SEX. 
The  incidental  mention  of  relative  and  absolute  brain 
weights  and  sizes  of  the  sexes,  by  an  author  in  the 
Popular  Science  Monthly  last  April,  brought  out  a 
rather  peppery  reply  and  a  rejoinder  in  succeeding  num- 
bers.* Correlative  articles  made  a  timely  appearance 
in  the  July  issue.f 

Time  honored  post-mortem  statistics  were  cited  and 
sneered  at,  but  the  verv  evident  fact  was  maintained  that 
the  average  female  brain  weight  was  less  than  that  of 
the  male. 

The  worst  error  was  made  by  Dr.  Hammond,  who 
stated  that  "the  head  of  a  boy  or  girl  does  not  grow  in 
size  after  the  seventh  year;  so  that  the  hat  that  is  worn 
at  that  age  can  be  worn  just  as  well  at  thirty."  How 
the  doctor  could  have  made  such  a  blunder  is  incon- 
ceivable. He  reconsidered  the  matter  and  substituted 
brain  for  head,  but  that  could  not  dispose  of  the  hat 
preposterousness. 

The  main  points  brought  out  are  as  follows: 
The  brain   of  the  child  is  larger  in  proportion  to  its 
body  than   is  that  of  the  adult,  but   immaturity   should 
prevent  too  many  studies  being  undertaken  in  youth. 

The  men  and  women  who  have  made  the  most  of 
themselves  are  those  who  have  began  to  study  hard 
after  they  have  reached  adult  life. 

The  skull  of  the  human  male  is  of  greater  capacity 
than  that  of  the  female,  and  civilization  increases  the 
difference.  The  average  male  brain  weighs  a  little  over 
forty-nine  ounces,  the  female  a  little  over  forty-four 
ounces,  or  about  five  ounces  less.  The  proportion  being 
100:90. 

Relatively  to  the  weight  of  the  bedy  the  difference 
is  in  favor  of  women.  The  body  of  the  female  is  shorter 
and  weighs  less  than  that  of  the  male.  Thus  in  man 
the  weight  of  the  brain  to  that  of  the  body  average  as 
1  :36.50,  while  in  women  it  is  as  1  :^6-[6,  a  difference  of 
.04  in  her  favor. 

A  large  brain  may  have  its  gray  cortical  substance 
thinner  than  a  smaller  brain. 

In  man  the  frontal  lobe,  separated  from  the  posterior 
portion  by  the  "  fissure  of  Rolando,"  affords  43.9  per 
cent,  of  the  total  brain  length  in  the  male,  31.3  per  cent, 
in  the   female. 

The  specific  gravity  is  greater  in  male  than  female 
brains,  but  this  increases  in  insanity  and  old  age  in  both 
sexes.  The  doctor  makes  a  fair  allusion  to  the  mental 
differences  of  the  sexes,  based  upon  the  foregoing,  but 
his  critic  construes  his  remarks  into  implying  female 
incapacity  and  inferiority.      She   quotes  Topinard  to  the 

♦"Brain  Forcing  in  Childhood,"  by  Win.  A.  Hammond,  M.  D. ;  "  Sex  and 
Brain  Weight,"  by  Helen  H.  Gardener;  "Men's  and  Women's  Brains,  an 
answer  to  Miss  Helen  H.  Gardener  and  the  '  Twenty  of  the  Leading  Brain 
Anatomists,  Microscopists  and  Physicians  of  New  York,'  "  by  Wm.  A.  Ham- 
mond, M.  D. 

t"  Human  Brain  Weights,"  by  Joseph  Simms,  M.  D. ;  "  Mental  Differ- 
ences of  Men  and  Women,"  by  George  J.  Romanes. 


effect  that  "  the  brain  increases  with  the  use  we  make 
of  it." 

Dr.  Hammond  defends  his  position  by  asserting  that 
the  mental  differences  of  the  sexes  are  due  to  women  not 
having  availed  themselves  of  the  advantages  offered 
them  by  civilization.  He  does  not  deny  that  there  are 
some  female  brains  of  superior  weight  and  that  some 
woman  have  excelled,  mentally,  but  as  a  rule  he  holds 
that  women  are  logically  defective. 

Romanes  alleges  for  women  a  comparative  absence 
of  originality,  particularly  in  the  higher  levels  of  intel- 
lectual work,  but  there  is  no  disparity  in  powers  of 
acquisition  after  adolescence;  young  girls  being  more 
acquisitive  than  bovs  of  the  same  age.  After  develop- 
ment the  male  has  the  greater  power  of  amassing  knowl- 
edge. Woman's  information  is  less  wide  and  deep  and 
thorough  than  that  of  a  man.  In  musical  execution  he 
concedes  equality.  The  female  lacks  judgment  and 
impartiality  but  is  more  refined  in  her  sense  faculties, 
her  perceptions  are  more  rapid,  thoughts  swifter,  but 
superficial.  Her  will  control  is  less,  her  temper  is 
unstable  and  emotions  shallow.  Coyness,  caprice, 
vanity,  love  of  display  and  admiration,  for  pageants, 
society  and  even  "scenes,"  characterize  her.  Romanes 
concurs  with  Lecky :  "In  the  courage  of  endurance 
females  are  superior,  but  their  passive  courage  is  not  so 
much  fortitude  which  bears  and  defies,  as  resignation 
which  bears  and  bends.  They  rarely  love  truth,  though 
they  adore  what  they  call  'the  truth,'  or  opinions 
derived  from  others,  and  hate  vehemently  those  who  dif- 
fer from  them.  Their  thinking  is  a  mode  of  feeling,  they 
are  generous  but  not  in  opinion.  They  persuade  rather 
than  convince  and  value  belief  as  a  source  of  consolation 
rather  than  as  a  faithful  expression  of  the  reality  of 
things." 

Romanes  attributes  all  this  to  their  not  having 
enjoyed  the  same  educational  advantages  as  men,  and 
accords  women  preeminence  in  affection,  sympathy, 
devotion,  self-denial,  modesty,  long-suffering,  reverence, 
religious  feeling  and  morality.  Feminine  taste  is  good 
in  small  matters  but  untrustworthy  where  intellectual 
judgment  is  required.  He  attributes  much  to  the  coarser 
nature  of  man  suppressing  female  chances  for  equality, 
and  holds  that  the  coyness,  caprice  and  allied  weaknesses 
and  petty  deceits  are  acquired  and  inherited  self-defense 
traits,  intensified  by  natural  and  sexual  selection. 

We  have  room  only  to  indicate  some  important 
matters  that  were  wholly  neglected  or  but  merely 
hinted  at  by   The  Popular  Science  Monthly  writers. 

The  processes  of  development  known  as  embryology 
alone  settle  the  matter  of  sex  differentiation,  and  pro- 
claim woman  to  be  a  very  highly  organized  being — 
exquisitely  adjusted  to  an  important  life  relation,  that 
dominates  her  intellectually  as  well  as  physically,  afford- 
ing her   the  advantage  of   mental  refinements  and  the 


3  So 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


disadvantage  of  physical  inferiority.  In  the  offspring  there 
is  a  fusion  of  advantageous  traits  that  at  first  belong-  to 
both  sexes  unequally;  acquired  beauties  of  form  or  char- 
acter that  sexual  selection  perpetuates  and  perfects. 
The  mental  and  physical  superiority  of  the  average  male 
needs  the  amiable  governance  of  the  female  disposition. 
This  is  most  apparent  in  mining  countries  where  males 
preponderate  and  unconsciously  grow  coarse  in  their 
manners  and  ways  of  thinking. 

The  microscope  has  transferred  the  conception  of 
degrees  of  intelligence  from  gross  to  finer  morphology. 
Mere  brain  weight  counts  for  nothing,  except  for  the 
crudest  generalizations.  Of  more  consequence  are  the 
relative  quantities  of  white  and  gray  matter  in  brains, 
the  associating  nerve  bundles,  that  pass  in  showers  of 
minute  telegraph  lines  between  brain  parts,  and  of  equal, 
if  not  transcendent,  importance,  the  disposition  and 
development  of  the  blood  vessels.  Also  given  two 
brains  exactly  alike  a  difference  in  the  heart's  ability  to 
supply  blood  to  the  brain  will  determine  stupidity  in 
one  and  intellect  in  the  other.  Intelligence  depends 
more  upon  the  quantitative  relating  fibers  of  parts  of 
the  brain  than  upon  weights,  and  a  forty-ounce  brain 
may  have  a  more  intricate  microscopic  development  than 
one  that  weighs  fifty  ounces. 

The  normal  brain  exists  in  ratios  related  to  muscular 
development  and  the  brain  weighing  methods  fully 
demonstrate  that  woman  is  the  equal  of  man  in  this  par- 
ticular; that  is,  in  proportion  to  physical  development 
there  is  no  difference  in  the  associated  brain  quantity  in 
the  sexes. 

New  avenues  are  opening  up  to  women  and  decades 
change  our  views  concerning  women's  capacities.  Let 
there  be  the  fullest  chance  for  her  development.  She 
cannot  surpass  in  certain  matters,  but  let  opportunity 
and  not  a  priori  prejudice  settle  what  she  can  and  can- 
not do.  It  is  idle  to  fear  that  she  will  become  the  intel- 
lectual and  physical  monster  of  Bulwer's  Coming 
Race.  There  are  physiological  reasons  that  set  limits 
for  both  sexes. 

The  subject  is  exhaustless  and  we  reluctantly  leave 
much  that  we  wished  to  dilate  upon  unsaid.  Tenny- 
son's verse  appropriately  helps  our  closing: 

"The  woman's  cause  is  man's!  they  rise  or  sink 

Together,  dwarfed  or  godlike,  bond  or  free. 
***** 

"  For  woman  is  not  undeveloped  man, 

But  diverse:  could  we  make  her  as  the  man, 

Sueet  Love  were  slain:  his  dearest  bond  is  this, 

Not  like  to  like,  but  like  in  difference. 

Yet  in  the  long  years  liker  must  they  grow; 

The  man  be  more  of  woman,  she  of  man ; 

He  gain  in  sweetness  and  in  moral  height, 

Nor  lose  the  wrestling  thews  that  throw  the  world; 

She  mental  breadth,  nor  fail  in  childward  care, 

Nor  lose  the  childlike  in  the  larger  mind; 

Till  at  the  last  she  set  herself  to  man, 

Like  perfect  music  unto  noble  words." 


Prof.  Albert  Reville,  from  whose  pen  a  paper  on 
the  question  of  "Separation  of  Church  and  Sate"  in 
France,  is  commenced  in  this  number  of  The  Open 
Court,  was  born  in  Dieppe,  France,  November  4, 
1S26.  He  became  a  leading  minister  of  the  French 
Protestant  Church  at  Nimes  and  Luneray,  and  in  1S51 
pastor  of  the  Walloon  church  at  Rotterdam,  Holland. 
He  is  author  of  De  la  Redemption  (1859),  Essais 
dc  Critique  Religieuse  (i860),  Eudes  Critiques  Sur 
F Evangile  Selcn  S.  A/atthieu  (1S62),  La  Vie  de  Jesus 
de  i\I.  Renan  devant  les  Orthodoxes  et  devant  le  Cri- 
tique (i  S63),  Notre  Christ ianisme  et  Notre  Bon  Droit 
(1^64),  Historire  du  Dogtne  dc  la  Divinite  de  Jesus 
Christ  (1S69),  and  author  of  several  volumes  of  sermons 
and  many  essays  in  theological  reviews  and  numerous 
translations  of  religious  works  from  the  English  and  the 
German.  He  now  fills  the  chair  of  the  History  of  Re- 
ligions at  the  College  de  France,  Paris.  In  obtaining  an 
article  for  this  journal  from  the  distinguished  French 
scholar  we  are  largely  indebted  to  the  personal  influence 
and  effort  of  our  contributor,  Theodore  Stanton,  through 
whom  the  article  came  to  us  accompanied  with  a  note 
from  Professor  Reville,  which  reads  as  follows: 

To  Mr.  Sttrutou,  fellow-laborer  in  Open  Court : 

Dear  Sir — In  your  drawing-room,  not  far  from  the  Champs 
Elysees,  where  you  had  gathered  together  a  brilliant  and  charm- 
ing party,  you  did  me  the  honor  to  solicit  from  me,  for  The  Open 
Court,  an  article  on  the  separation  of  Church  and  State  as  con- 
nected with  the  actual  condition  of  France.  I  now  fulfill  the 
promise  that  I  then  made  you,  offering  at  the  same  time  an 
apology  for  the  delay — with  which  you  would  have  a  right  to  re- 
proach me.  But  latterly  I  have  been  altogether  absorbed  bv  the 
lectures  that  I  was  delivering  at  the  College  of  France  on  the  an- 
tique Roman  religion,  and  by  the  course  that  I  was  giving  at  the 
Sorbonne  on  the  history  of  Christian  dogmas. 
*  *  * 

The  following  passage  from  a  recent  letter  of  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  to  the  editors  of  The  Open 
Court,  will  be  read  with  interest  by  those  admirers  of 
George  Eliot  who  have  been  interested  in  the  discus- 
sion as  to  the  influence  of  her  marriage  to  George  Henry 
Lewes  upon  her  life  and  writings.  Mrs.  Stanton  writes: 
"I  dined  last  even.ng  at  John  Chapman's,  editor  of  The 
Westminster  Review.  He  handed  me  cut  to  dinner, 
and  I  had  the  post  of  honor  at  his  right  hand  which  gave 
me  the  opportunity  of  a  long  talk  with  him.  Among 
other  things  I  asked  him  about  George  Eliot,  as  she  was 
two  years  in  his  family.  As  it  is  a  disputed  point 
whether  Lewes  was  a  help  or  a  hindrance  to  her,  I 
asked  his  opinion.  He  said  that  he  (Lewes)  was  an 
inestimable  blessing  to  her  as  his  devotion  was  chival- 
rous and  sincere;  that  he  helped  her  in  every  way  and 
shielded  her  from  many  adverse  winds.  He  said  she 
was  a  highly  emotional  woman,  strong  in  her  feelings 
and  needed  love;  hence  her  relations  with  both  her  hus 
bands  were  natural  and  necessary  to  her  well-being." 

This  testimonv  accords  with  that  given  so  abundantly 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3S1 


in  George  Eliot's  own  letters  and  in  the  inscriptions 
made  by  her  on  successive  MSS.  of  her  writings,  as 
when  she  says,  "  I  am  very  happy — happy  in  the  high- 
est blessing  life  can  give  us,  the  perfect  love  and  sym- 
pathy of  a  nature  that  stimulates  my  own  to  healthful 
activity."  "  Mr.  Lewes  sends  his  kind  regards  to  you. 
He  too,  was  very  pleased  with  your  letter,  for  he  cares 
more  about  getting  approbation  for  me  than  for  him- 
self. He  can  do  very  well  without  it."  "  Mr.  Lewes 
makes  a  martyr  of  himself  in  writing  all  my  notes  and 
business  letters.  Is  not  that  being  a  sublime  husband? 
For,  all  the  while  there  are  studies  of  his  own  being  put 
aside — studies  which  are  a  seventh  heaven  to  him." 
The  MS.  of  "Adam  Bede"  bears  the  following  inscrip- 
tion: "To  my  dear  husband,  George  Henry  Lewes,  I  give 
the  MS.  of  a  work  which  would  never  have  been  writ- 
ten but  for  the  happiness  which  his  love  has  conferred 
on  my  life." 


have  wealth  it  will  be  applied  to  noble  ends,  to  better 
the  condition  of  his  fellows;  if  genius,  the  same  ends. 
Even  poverty  can  be  invested  with  beauties,  and  it  cer- 
tainly has  advantages,  which  are  set  forth  by  masterly 
pens  to  aid  multitudes  to  rise  above  continual  discontent. 
The  world  needs  a  new  crop  of  writers  who  will,  with- 
out the  cant  and  churchly  platitudes  of  the  last  century , 
put  forth  the  unparalleled  happiness  of  plain  virtue 
and  honest}'.  It  is  not  because  there  is  a  positive  dis- 
relish for  this  kind  of  writing,  that  there  are  so  few 
successful  books  of  this  kind,  so  much  as  because  of  the 
jaundiced,  whining  "goody-good"  way  in  which  they 
are  written.  Let  Mr.  Haggard,  with  his  undoubted 
ability,  play  a  trick  upon  his  readers  that  they  will 
never  forget  but  readily  forgive,  by  taking  for  his  hero 
one  who  has  an  object  in  life  worthy  of  the  man  and  the 
times.  Or  in  other  words,  tell  of  a  man,  and  not  of 
apes  who  fight  for  lust  and  cocoanuts. 


In  the  next  number  we  shall  begin  the  publication 
of  a  series  of  articles  on  Monistic  Mental  Science,  by 
Dr.  S.  V.  Clevenger,  and  regret  that  the  first  of  the 
series  was  crowded  out  of  this  issue.  It  will  be  a  popu- 
lar presentation  based  upon  fifteen  years'  stud}'  of 
nervous  and  mental  phenomena  in  their  biological  rela- 
tions. Wm.  W.  Ireland,  M.  D.  (Edin.),  formerly  of 
Her  Majesty's  Indian  Army,  in  his  recently  published 
book  The  Blot  on  the  Brain,  Studies  in  History  and 
Psychology,  page  237,  quoting  Dr.  Clevenger,  on  con- 
sciousness, says:  "  The  evolution  of  consciousness  in  the 
animal  kingdom  is  well  treated  in  Dr.  Clevenger's 
Comparative  Physiology  and  Psychology,  Chicago, 
1SS5,  Chap.  XII.  This  is  a  very  able  and  thoughtful 
book."  Other  competent  reviewers  have  been  equally 
laudatory. 

3fc  %:  =/f  * 

The  popular  novel  may  usually  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration in  estimating  the  average  taste.  People  who 
are  too  busy  to  read  a  page  of  any  standard,  thoughtful 
work,  find  abundance  of  time  to  wade  through  Hag- 
gard's stories  or  similar  nonsense.  The  terra  incognita1- 
■"  which  is  always  a  terrible  country,"  may  be  peopled 
and  equipped  by  the  wonder  pandering  author,  to  the 
heart's  content.  Africa  may  be  made  to  contain  the 
"secret  of  life,"  the  fountain  of  youth,  the  philoso- 
pher's stone,  the  mines  of  Solomon,  giants,  dwarfs,  any- 
thing you  please.  Jules  Verne  takes  advantage  of  curi- 
osity and  wonder  adroitly  to  teach  his  readers  what  in 
the  end  they  are  better  off  for  knowing;  but  novelists 
of  the  Haggard  order  make  wealth,  and  incidentally,  the 
possession  of  a  lovely  female  the  only  desiderata.  It  is 
a  prostitution  of  talents  to  cater  to  vulgar  ideas  of  life 
in  this  manner.  The  high  order  of  writers  will  strive 
to  make  you  think  that  sensuous  pleasures  are  not  the  only 
things   in   the  world  worth   striving  for.      If  their  hero 


The  last  of  Professor  F.  Max  Midler's  lectures  on 
"The  Science  of  Thought,"  given  at  the  Royal  Insti- 
tution, London,  last  March,  is  concluded  in  this  number 
of  The  Open  Court.  Some  additional  notes  received 
lately  from  the  author  will  be  printed  in  our  next  issue. 
These  valuable  lectures,  which  this  journal  was  very 
fortunate  (with  the  influence  and  aid  of  Mr.  Moncure 
D.  Conwav)  in  securing  for  its  columns,  will  soon  be 
issued  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company  in  a 
handsome  pamphlet. 

*  #  * 

Rev.  Phillips  Brooks,  of  Boston,  in  the  Princeton 
Review  suggests  to  a  surprised  profession  that  ministers 
should  learn  something  of  what  they  t  ilk  about.  He 
thinks  that  there  has  been  altogether  too  much  sneering 
at  the  theory  of  evolution  by  preachers  whose  only  idea 
of  that  theory  is  that  it  claims  man  to  have  descended 
from  a  monkey.  He  tells  them  that  as  congregations 
grow  better  informed  they  will  drop  away  from  ranters 
who  will  not  study  up  the  living  issues  of  the  day. 


CONCLUSION. 

BV  J.  F.   D. 

What  then  am  I  to  do? 

Simply  to  live  the  life  that's  given  me  to-day. 

Wholly  to  cast  myself  into  the  present  hour. 

Wherever  duty  calls,  or  human  suffering  waits  for  will- 
ing hands: 

And  to  the  unknown  future  leave  the  rest — 

So  will  I  pass  life's  journey  through. 

And  coming  to  the  end  of  this,  my  earthly  stay, 

Where'er  I  may, 

Know  ever  I  have  done  my  best, 

Kept  my  heart  clean  and  used  my  utmost  power. 

So  made  my  memory  dear  to  kindred  souls,  and  blest 
throughout  all  lands. 


382 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


THROUGH     WHAT     HISTORICAL     CHANNELS    DID' 

BUDDHISM     INFLUENCE     EARLY 

CHRISTIANITY? 

BY    GENERAL  J.  G.  R.    FORLONG,    AUTHOR    OF    "RIVERS    OF    LIFE." 
Part   I. 

For  many  years  past  this  has  been  a  question  which 
literary  and  scientific  thinkers  have  felt  ought  to  be 
answered.  Those  of  them  who  are  not  trammeled  by 
their  surroundings  have  for  the  most  part  felt  convinced 
that  there  has  been  a  close  connection,  and  that  the 
younger  Western  sister  has  borrowed  many  of  the  ideas 
and  some  of  the  legends  and  parables  of  the  older  East- 
ern brother;  whilst  the  scientific  evolutionist,  who  can 
neither  find  a  first  man,  first  rose,  nor  first  anything,  has 
stood  apart  silently  scouting  the  idea  of  a  first  faith 
either  of  Jew  or  Gentile,  Buddhist  or  Christian.  To 
such  an  one  the  prophet  or  reformer,  be  he  Buddha, 
Mahamad  or  Luther,  is  but  the  apex  or  figure-head  of  a 
pyramid  the  foundations  of  which  were  laid  long  before 
his  birth.  The  reformer  contributed,  indeed,  to  the 
beauty  and  symmetry  of  what  may  have  then  appeared 
a  formless  structure,  and  made  it  useful  to  his  fellows; 
but  even  he  himself  may  be  called  an  evolution  of  the 
growths  around  him— a  necessity  of  the  times,  and  a 
force  which  would  have  been  produced  had  he  never 
been  born.  Circumstances  but  led  up  to  the  production 
of  a  suitable  nature  to  work  out  a  mayhap  inscrutable 
and  eternal  law.  Such  a  theory  of  evolution  argues  for 
a  Buddhism  before  Buddha  and  Christianity  before 
Christ,  and  to  this  the  sage  of  Buddha  Gaya  agreed  in 
regard  to  himself,  when  he  said  he  "  was  only  the  fourth 
Tathagata." 

Many  scholars  are  now  of  opinion  that  from  North- 
ern India  to  trans-Oxiana,  in  the  lone  mountain  caves, 
especially  of  Afghanistan  and  Kashmir,  and  in  the 
passes  leading  therefrom  (like  the  Bamian  and  others 
into  Baktria  ),  as  well  as  in  Balk  and  other  important 
cities,  the  precepts  and  practices  familiar  to  us  as  of  the 
essence  of  Buddhism  were  well  known  to  the  Asiatic 
world.  These  were,  it  is  believed,  promulgated  there  by 
the  third  Buddha,  Kasyapa,  and  his  followers  some  one 
thousand  years  before  the  royal  Brahman  heretic  of 
Kapila  Vasta  arose  to  combat  priestcraft  ami  the  agnos- 
tic heresies  of  the  Sankhya  philosophic  schools,  then — 
in  the  seventh  century  B.C.  —  led  by  the  Rishi  Kapila. 
Yet  the  ultra-evolutionist,  as  well  as  most  students  of 
history  and  religions,  have  long  felt,  as  Professor  Max 
Midler  expressed  himself  three  years  ago,  that  "we 
should  be  extremely  grateful  to  anybody  who  would 
point  out  the  historical  channels  through  which  Bud- 
dhism had  influenced  early  Christianity."* 

My  own  researches,  extending  over  many  years,  had 
long  made  it  quite  clear  to  me  that  the  advance  of  Bud- 
dhist thought  westward  prior  to  the  teaching  of   Christ 


• *  India:  What  Can  It  Teach  Us?    P.  279. 


and  rise  of  Christian  literature — and  how  much  more  so- 
before  170  A.c,  the  date  when,  according  to  many 
learned  critics,  we  have  first  cognizance  of  the  Gospels 
— was  sufficiently  and  historically  plain,  and  I  put  the 
subject  aside,  assured  that  some  specialists  less  busy  and 
more  competent  than  myself  would  attend  to  it.  But  a 
literary  friend,  looking  over  some  of  my  own  researches 
in  connection  with  a  polyglot  Dictionary  of  Compara- 
tive Religions,  has  begged  me  to  place  some  of  the  evi- 
dence and  conclusions  at  once  before  the  public  as  of 
pressing  importance  at  this  moment;  and  I  will  now  try- 
to  do  so  as  far  as  the  limits  of  a  popular  review  admit. 

Sir  William  Jones,  although  no  longer  a  good  author- 
ity in  these  days  of  maturer  knowledge,  came  to  the 
conclusion,  after  a  long  course  of  original  research  in  the 
sacred  writings  of  India,  that  "the  Sramans  or  Buddhist 
monks  of  India  and  Egypt  must  have  met  together  and 
instructed  each  other,"  and  this  is  metaphorically  still  to 
some  extent  the  conclusions  of  many  scholars;  but  scien- 
tific thought  demands  that  we  produce  our  proofs,  or 
very  close  and  conclusive  evidence  of  the  early  western 
march   of  Buddhism. 

We  premise  that  our  readers  have  somewhat  studied 
the  history  of  Buddhism;  that  they  know  it  is  about 
twenty-six  centuries  since  the  groves  of  Buddha  Gaya 
and  woodland  colleges  of  Nalanda  sent  forth  a  new  gos- 
pel of  work  for  our  fellows  of  doing  good  without 
seeking  reward  here  or  hereafter — and  that  India  and 
trans-India  followed  and  upheld  the  teacher  for  over 
twelve  hundred  years;  and  that  still  about  one-third  of 
the  human  race  profess  to  do  so;  that  too  many  revere 
him  as  a  god,  mixing  up  the  first  high  and  pure  teaching 
of  their  faith  with  all  the  varied  old  and  new  doctrines, 
rites  and  follies  peculiar  to  each  race  and  land  which 
adopted  it. 

Every  religion  has  had  to  submit  to  this  ordeal,  and 
the  greater  its  ethical  purity  and  want  of  forms,  rituals 
and  ceremonies,  so  much  the  more  have  the  busy  multi- 
tude sought  to  frame  and  fall  back  on  some  tangible 
symbolism  without  which  they  do  not  feel  that  they  have 
a  veritable  piety.  Millions  of  Buddhists  believe  that 
"  their  Lord  will  come  again  to  redeem  His  people," 
appearing  as  Maitri,  like  the  tenth  Hindu  Avatara,  the 
"  Kalki,"  who,  as  a  "Lord  of  Light,"  riding  a  milk- 
white  steed  and  wielding  a  golden  scimitar,  is  then  to- 
overthrow  all  enemies  and  efface  evil  and  unbelief. 

History  tells  us  that  Gotama,  the  Buddha,  the  son 
of  a  King  of  Oudh,  was  born  about  623,  and  died  in 
543  B.C.,  though  these  dates  are  disputed  to  some  tiifling 
extent  —  here  of  no  consequence.  We  will  assume  that 
he  died  in  500  B.C.,  at  Kusa  Nagara,  not  far  from  his 
birthplace  full  of  years  and  honors. 

All  nations,  says  the  Rev.  Dr.  Eitel,  of  China, 
"  have  drank  more  or  less  of  his  sweet  poison,"  and 
especially  men   of  learning  and  philosophy  —  nay,  even 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


383 


the  Christian  missionaries  themselves  according  to  Sir 
E.  Reid's  "Japan"  (see  i.  70  et  sa/.);  where  this  author 
details  the  close  similitudes  existing  between  Buddhist 
and  Christian  parables,  miracles  and  legends,  and  the 
Essenic  doctrines  of  the  Jordan.  It  is  on  account  of 
this  parallelism  that  students  have  sought  such  confirm- 
atory evidence  as  history  affords  of  the  westward 
approach  of  early  Buddhism,  and  of  that  last  Buddhist 
wave  which,  in  250  B.C.,  surged  from  its  centre  —  the 
capital  of  the  Magadha  empire  of  the  Ganges — in  the 
proselytising  reign  of  the  good  and  pious  Asoka,  the 
so-called  "Buddhist  Constantine,"  but  who,  says  the 
Rev.  Isaac  Taylor,  is  scandalized  by  such  a  comparison. 
("Alphabet,"  ii.  293.) 

For  some  300  years  before  this  the  faith  of  "  Sakya 
the  Muni"  had  been  diligently  and  kindly  pressed  upon 
the  people  of  India  and  all  the  valleys  of  Kashmir  and 
Afghanistan  by  argument,  precept  and  example;  for 
Gotama  Buddha  was  a  quiet  evangelist,  desiring  to 
reform  the  corrupt  faiths  of  his  country  after  having 
first  reformed  himself  by  study  and  meditation  for  many 
years  in  the  sequestered  forests  of  Raja  Griha- — a  prac- 
tice we  see  followed  by  Pythagoras  (perhaps  a  Butha- 
guru)  and  other  reformers  like  Apollonius  of   Tyana. 

The  Brahmans  merely  looked  on  Buddha  as  the 
establisher  of  a  new  monastic  order;  and  when  he  told 
his  early  disciples  that  he  was  going  to  renounce  idle 
meditation  and  prayer,  and  go  forth  into  the  busy  world 
to  preach  a  gospel  of  good  works,  they  forsook  him  and 
fled.  Brahmans  eventually  considered  his  life  and 
teaching  to  be  so  good  that  they  claimed  and  still 
acknowledge  him  as  the  ninth  incarnation  of  their  solar 
god.  They  did  not  look  upon  him  as  driving  all  men 
into  a  lazy  life  in  monasteries;  but  regarded  his  teach- 
ing as  we  do  Christ's  —  that  if  we  are  willing  and  able, 
we  may  "sell  all  and  follow  the  Lord."  Brahmanism 
only  rejected  Buddha  because  he  refused  to  assert  what 
he  did  not  know,  especially  in  regard  to  their  animistic, 
annihilation  and  transmigration  doctrines.  For  reject- 
ing these  he  was  held  to  be  as  atheistic  as  the  philosophic- 
schools  which  he  had  risen  to  oppose. 

Asoka,  though  a  good  Buddhist,  was  a  believer  in 
"  Isana,  Brahma,  or  an  ineffable  spirit,"  confessing  this 
in  his  Lat  and  Rock  inscriptions,  so  that  we  may  term 
him  and  most  of  his  pious  followers  Stoics.  We  see 
that  he  was  acquainted  with  the  leading  current  phases 
of  Western  thought,  and  apparently  with  Zenon  and 
other  leaders. 

Asoka  was  a  highly  religious  man,  and  very  zealous 
in  propagating  his  faith,  using  with  this  object  all  his 
manifold  opportunities  as  the  head  of  a  great  empire, 
and  all  the  influence  which  this  gave  him  with  foreign 
powers,  ambassadors  and  literary  foreigners. 

On  one  of  his  Lats  he  inscribed — "  Without  extreme 
zeal  for  religion,  happiness  in  this  world  and  the  next  is 


difficult  to  procure.  *  *  *  All  government  must 
be  guided  by  religion,  and  law  ruled  by  it.  Progress  is 
only  possible  by  religion,  and  in  it  must  we  find 
security." 

In  another  edict  he  defines  religion  as  "consisting  in 
committing  the  least  evil  possible,  in  doing  much  good, 
in  practicing  pity,  charity,  veracity,  and  in  leading  a 
pure  life." 

These  were  his  views  when  presiding  over  the  third 

great   Buddhist    Council   of   Patna,  of  about  309   is.c. 

the  second  having  met  say  most  Buddhists  in  443,  con- 
sidered to  be  the  first  centenary  of  "  the  Master's  death." 

The  Padma  Purana  affirms  that  Buddhism  is  older 
than  Vedantism  and  anterior  to  the  era  of  Aranyakas 
and  Upanishads,  and  that  the  wars  described  in  the 
Mahabharata  were  waged  between  Buddhists  and  Brah- 
mans, and  that  this  pre-Gotama  Buddhism  died  out 
about  900  B.C.,  in  the  time  of  Ripunjava  of  Magadha. 
(See  Dutfs  India,  and  the  Puranas  he  quotes.) 

Other  Puranas  written  about  the  time  the  Vedas 
were  codified,  mention  Buddha  and  the  leading  doctrines, 
customs  and  ideas  of  Buddhism;  and  the  Chinese  pil- 
grim Fa  Hian  says  he  found  in  400  A.c.  a  Buddhist  sect 
who  acknowledged  only  the  teachings  of  the  Buddhas 
prior  to  Sakya  Muni. 

Nowhere  did  he  find,  nor  do  we  to-day,  that  these 
pre-Buddha  prophets  were  denied  or  their  teachings 
rejected.  On  the  contrary,  Gotama's  teaching  is  par- 
ticularly esteemed  as  confirmatory  of  and  emphasizing 
that  of  the  earlier  Tathagatas.  All  are  held  to  be  alike 
inspired  by  the  first  or  Adi  Buddha.  Oxiana,  with  Balk 
and  Samarkand,  appear  to  have  been  early  centers  of 
this  faith;  and  Sir  H.  Rawlinson  points  to  some  monu- 
mental remains*  of  it  in  bricks,  etc.,  see  his  remarks  on 
Kasyapa,  the  Buddha  preceding  Sakya  Muni.  We 
are  assured  that  Kasyapa's  followers  existed  long  prior 
to  the  cave-dwelling  Sacac,  those  Indo-Skythic  propa- 
gandists who  before  and  after  the  time  of  Darius  I. 
dwelt  in  every  mountain-pass  where  they  could  meet 
and  converse  freely  with  travelers,  and  thus  widely  pro- 
pagate their  doctrines.  Gradually  the  caves  were 
enlarged,  so  as  to  accommodate  even  five  hundred  listen- 
ers, like  some  in  the  Bamian  pass;  and  these,  as  well  as 
the  "  cave  towns,"  are  universally  acknowledged  to  be 
the  work  of  Buddhists. 

The  Kasvapa-B»dd/i/sts  whose  remains  the  Chinese 
pilgrims  found  in  Balk,  had  as  predecessors  Konaga- 
mana  and  Ka-ku-sandka,  apparently  zealous  mission- 
aries, coeval  with  the  Jewish  patriarchs,  and,  like  them 
four  of  twenty-four — suggestively  solar  in  idea.  There 
is  a  considerable  literature  regarding  these  pre-Gotama 
Buddhas,  especially  the  third  and  second — "  the  son  of 
Jaina,"  and  probably  a  Jaina   Tirthankara,  who  is  said 


^Central  Asia,  p.  246,  etc.;   and  Proceedings  Royal  Geographical  Society, 
September,  1SS5. 


3§4 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


to  have  preached  as  far  east  as  the  lower  Ganges  in  2100 
B.C.*  Sabeans  were  then  removing  from  their  South 
Arabian  home  about  Safa  to  the  Turano-Kuthite  king- 
doms on  the  Euphrates,  as  well  as  seaward  to  India  and 
Ceylon.  In  1S00  B.C.,  a  counter-move  took  place  west- 
ward. The  colonists  on  the  lower  Indus,  the  home  of 
Ikshvakas  and  other  Sakae  of  Gotama's  Sakya  stock, 
then  moved  into  Abyssinia;  so  the  circulation  of  thought 
would  be  pretty  free  as  well  as  by  land  as  by  water. 

In  the  twelfth  century  B.C.,  Ayodhia  was  the  impor- 
tant Indian  capitol  of  the  kingdom  of  Oudh.  Hindus 
were  then  maturing  their  astronomical  calculations;  and 
the  Chinese  taught  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  and  were 
stretching  out  their  hands  to  Baktria,  and  in  the  seventh 
and  sixth  centuries  b.  c.  were  absorbing  the  Buddhist- 
like  teaching  of  the  Tao  or  "  Way  of  Life  and  Peace." 
These  were  inculcated  by  the  sage  Laotsi,  who  came 
from  the  borders  of  India,f  where  he  had  caught  up  a 
sort  of  Indo-Buddhist  Brahmanism,  which  he  adapted  in 
his  Taotist  Bible  to  Chinese  modes  of  thought.  He 
was  closely  followed  by  the  philosophical  schools  of 
Confucius,  which  rejected  his  animistic  theories,  and 
placed  reliance  rather  on  an  agnostic  and  practical  piety, 
more  congenial  to  the  Chinese  mind. 

How  many  waves  of  Buddhism  surged  back  and  for- 
ward between  Oxiana  and  Central  Asia  toward  India  on 
the  southeast  and  to  Khorasan  and  South  Caspian  States, 
we  can  only  guess;  but  one  great  wave  clearly  com- 
menced some  1,000  years  B.C.,  and  though  ever  and 
again  swept  back,  or  absorbed  for  a  time  in  strange  cur- 
rents, it  maintained  itself  among  the  fastnesses  of  the 
Koh-istan,  Hindu-Kush  and  Himalayas,  and  everywhere 
left  its  mark,  and  finally  established  itself  during,  if  not 
before,  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  over  all  the  mountains  and 
valleys  from  lower  Kashmir  into  Western  Persia  and 
Baktria.  From  Tara  natha's  History  of  Buddhism  and 
Spiegel's  Five  Gat/ias,  we  gather  that  Buddhist  missions 
existed   in  Western  Persia,  in  450  B.C.,  during  the  reign 

♦In  Alabaster's  Wheel  of  Law  and  Spence  Hardy's  Manual  of  Buddhism 
Chap.  IV.,  will  be  found  some  details  regarding  the  previous  Buddhas,  more 
especially  of  those  of  the  present  kalpa  (age).  The  author  quotes  approvingly 
Forbes's  estimate  of  the  times  of  the  three  preceding  Gotamas,  as  given  in  the 
Asiatic  Societv's  Journal  of  ]S36,from  which  we  gatt.er  that: 

1.  Kakltsanda  lived  about  3101  B.C.,  when  the  Turano-Akads  were  a  civil- 
ized power  in  and  around  Babylonia  and  when  Arabian  Sabeans  or  Shemites, 
were  beginning  to  push  them  onward.  2.  Ko-naga-mana  lived  about  2099 
B.C.,  when  Aryans  were  pressing  on  Turanian  India,  and  Shemites  ruling  Baby- 
lonia and  exploiting  Turano- Egyptians,  Kheta,  Hamaths,  etc.  3.  Kasyapa 
lived  about  1014  B.C.,  the  period  predicted  by  the  Chinese,  but  which  they  con- 
fused with  Gotama  Sakya  Muni. 

Fa  Hian  says  in  our  fourth  century  that  Baktrian  Buddhists  worshipped 
these  three  as  well  as  Gotama,  and  "the  entire  bones  of  Kasyapa,  or  the  relics 
of  his  entire  body,"  then  existed  in  Ayodhya  (Oudh),  which,  says  Spence 
Hardy,  "  agrees  with  the  Singhalese  records."  At  the  Sanchi  tope  of  say  250 
B.C.,  there  are  niches  for  all  the  four  Buddhas,  and  an  inscription  urging  devo- 
tees to  give  offerings  to  all;  and  on  the  great  bell  of  the  Rangoon  pagoda  it  is 
stated  that  in  the  Dagola  are  enshrined  divine  relics  of  the  three  Paiyas  "  or 
deities  preceding  Gotama.  Buddha,  always  recogni/.ed  and  revered  the  three,  and 
on  leaving  his  forest  retreat  for  Banares  he  visited  thei.-  thrones  in  a  temple 
there  and  proclaimed  them  of  his  Gotra  or  Brahman  sect.  The  twenty  Buddhas 
previous  to  them  were  Kshalriyas  of  a  further  back  Skythic,  Sakaj,  or  Sakya 
race — that  is,  Sogdians  B.iktrians.  Kasyapa  was  a  native  of  Kasi  or  Banares. 
tF.  II.  Balfour's  Taoist  Texts. 


of  Artaxerxes  Longamanus  and  some  were  there  and 
then  specially  located  and  favored  by  him.  Jews  had 
then  overrun  all  these  countries,*  and  were  striving  to 
re-establish  themselves  and  a  sacred  literature  in  Jiidea,f 
while  Greeks  were  listening  to  Sophokles,  Sokrates  and 
Anaxagoras,  then  ventilating  not  a  little  Buddhistic 
teaching:. 


MONISM. 

If  this  be  considered  pure,  unmitigated  materialism,  I  will 
not  dispute  it.  In  fact,  I  have  always  tacitly  regarded  the  con- 
trast so  loudly  proclaimed  between  materialism  and  idealism  (or  by 
whatever  term  one  may  designate  the  view  opposed  to  the 
former)  as  a  mere  quarrel  about  words.  They  have  a  common 
foe  in  the  dualism  which  pervaded  the  conception  of  the  world 
throughout  the  Christian  era,  dividing  man  into  body  and  soul,  his 
existence  into  time  and  eternity,  and  opposing  an  eternal  Creator  to- 
a  created  and  perishable  universe.  Materialism,  as  well  as  idealism, 
may,  in  comparison  with  this  dualistic  conception,  be  regarded  as 
monism,  i.  e.,  they  endeavor  to  derive  the  totality  of  phenomena 
from  a  single  principle — to  construct  the  universe  and  life  from, 
the  same  block.  In  this  endeavor  one  theory  starts  from  above, 
the  other  from  below;  the  latter  constructs  the  universe  from 
atoms  and  atomic  forces,  the  former  from  ideas  and  idealistic 
forces.  But  if  they  would  fulfill  their  tasks,  the  one  must  leap 
from  its  heights  down  to  the  very  lowest  circles  of  nature,  and  to 
this  end  place  itself  under  the  control  of  careful  observation; 
while  the  other  must  take  into  account  the  higher  intellectual  and. 
ethical  problems.  Moreover,  we  soon  discover  that  each  of  these 
modes  of  conception,  if  rigorously  applied,  leads  to  the  other. 
"It  is  just  as  true,"  says  Schopenhauer,  "that  the  percipient  is  a 
product  of  matter  as  that  matter  is  a  mere  conception  of  the  per- 
cipient, but  the  proposition  is  equally  one  sided."  "  We  are  jus- 
tified," says  the  author  of  the  History  of  Materialism,  more  explic- 
itly, "in  assuming  physical  conditions  for  everything,  even  for 
the  mechanism  of  thought;  but  we  are  equally  justified  in  con- 
sidering not  only  the  external  world,  but  the  organs,  also,  with 
which  we  perceive  it,  as  mere  images  of  that  which  actually 
exists."  But  the  fact  always  remains,  that  we  must  not  ascribe 
one  part  of  the  functions  of  our  being  to  a  physical,  the  other  to  a 
spiritual  cause,  but  all  of  them  to  one  and  the  same,  which  may 
be  viewed  in  either  aspect. — David  Frederick  Strauss,  The  Old 
Faith  and  the  Arew,  ff.  ro,  20. 

Whilst,  then,  we  emphatically  oppose  the  vital  or  teleological 
view  of  animate  nature  which  presents  animal  and  vegetable 
forms  as  the  production  of  a  kind  Creator,  acting  for  a  definite 
purpose,  or  of  a  creative  natural  force  acting  for  a  definite 
purpose,  we  must,  on  the  other  hand,  decidedly  adopt  that  view  of 
the  universe  which  is  called  the  mechanical  or  causal.  It  may 
also  be  called  the  monistic,  or  single  principle  theory,  as  opposed 
to  the  two-fold  principle,  or  dualistic  theory,  which  is  necessarily 
implied  in  the  teleological  conception  of  the  universe. — Ernst 
JIaeckel,  History  of  Creation,   Vol.  1,  p.  20. 

This  unity  of  all  nature,  the  animating  of  all  matter,  the 
inseparability  of  mental  power  and  corporeal  substance,  Goethe 
has   asserted   in    the    words:     "Matter   can    never   exist  and  be 


*Cf.  Hue's  Christianity  in  China  and  Tartar}',  i.  Chap.  I. 

fThe  Jews  on  the  Her-i-rud,  as  at  Herat  and  Baktria,  claim  to  have  been 
established  there  during  the  tumults  bewailed  by  Jeremiah  about  630  B.C.  They 
say  Herat  is  the  Hara  of  the  Old  Testament,  well  known  to  their  "Savior" 
Cyrus,  and  that  the  King  ol  Assyria  drove  two  and  a  half  of  their  tribes  toward 
Hara  previous  to  the  destruction  ot  their  first  temple.  We  have  records  of  fights 
between  Jews  and  Mazdeans  in  Herat,  regarding  putting  out  lights.  The 
religion  of  the  Her-i-rud  valley  and  Baktria  was  well  known  in  Syria  in  Asoka's 
time  (250  11. c);  most  of  these  countries  be:ug  then  ruled  by  Syrian  kino-sand 
Greeks. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


3§5 


active  without  mind,  nor  can  mind  without  matter."  These  first 
principles  of  the  mechanical  conception  of  the  universe  have 
been  taught  by  the  great  monistic  philosophers  of  all  ages.  Even 
Democritus  of  Abdera,  the  immortal  founder  of  the  atomic 
theory,  clearly  expressed  them  about  500  years  before  Christ;  but 
the  great  Dominican  friar,  Giordano  Bruno,  did  so  even  more 
explicitly. — //';'(/.,  /.  22. 

When  a  stone  is  thrown  into  the  air,  and  falls  to  earth  accord- 
ing to  definite  laws,  or  when  in  a  solution  of  salt  a  crystal  is 
formed,  the  phenomenon  is  neither  more  nor  less  a  mechanical 
manifestion  of  life  than  the  growth  and  flowering  of  plants,  than 
the  propagation  of  animals  or  the  activity  of  their  senses,  than 
the  perception  or  the  formation  of  thought  in  man.  This  final 
triumph  of  the  monistic  conception  of  nature  constitutes  the 
highest  and  most  general  merit  of  the  theory  of  descent,  as 
reformed  by  Darwin. — Ibid.,  p.  23. 

Scientific  materialism,  which  is  identical  with  our  monism, 
affirms  in  reality  no  more  than  that  everything  in  the  world  goes  on 
naturally — that  every  effect  has  its  cause,  and  every  cause  its  effect. 
It  therefore  assigns  to  causal  law — that  is,  the  law  of  a  necessary 
connection  between  cause  and  effect — its  place  over  the  entire 
series  of  phenomena  that  can  be  known. — Ibid.,  P-3J. 

In  order,  then,  to  avoid  in  future  the  usual  confusion  of  this 
utterly  objectionable  moral  materialism,  with  our  scientific 
materialism,  we  think  it  necessary  to  call  the  latter  either 
monism  or  realism.  The  principle  of  this  monism  is  the  same 
as  what  Kant  terms  "  principles  of  mechanism,"  and  of  which  he 
expressly  asserts,  that  without  it  there  can  be  no  natural  science 
at  all.  This  principle  is  quite  inseparable  from  our  non-miracu- 
lous history  of  creation,  and  characterizes  it  as  opposed  to 
the  teleological  belief  in  the  miracles  of  a  supernatural  history 
of  creation. — Ibid.,  p.  37. 

The  opponents  of  the  monistic  or  mechanical  conception  of 
the  world  have  welcomed  Agassiz's  work  with  delight,  and  find 
in  it  a  perfect  proof  of  the  direct  creative  action  of  a  personal 
God.  But  thev  overlook  the  fact  that  this  personal  Creator  is 
onlv  an  idealized  organism,  endowed  with  human  attributes. 
This  low  dualistic  conception  of  God  corresponds  with  a  low 
animal  stage  of  development  of  the  human  organism.  The 
more  developed  man  of  the  present  day  is  capable  of,  and  justi- 
fied in,  conceiving  that  infinitely  nobler  and  sublimer  idea  of  God 
which  alone  is  compatible  with  the  monistic  conception  of  the 
universe,  and  which  recognizes  God's  spirit  and  power  in  all  phe- 
nomena without  exception.  This  monistic  idea  of  God,  which 
belongs  to  the  future,  has  already  been  expressed  by  Giordano 
Bruno  in  the  following  words:  "A  spirit  exists  in  all  things, 
and  no  body  is  so  small  but  contains  a  part  of  the  divine  sub- 
stance within  itself,  by  which  it  is  animated."  It  is  of  this  noble 
idea  of  God  that  Goethe  says:  "  Certainly  there  does  not  exist  a 
more  beautiful  worship  of  God  than  that  which  needs  no  image, 
but  which  arises  in  our  heart  from  converse  with  nature."  By  it 
we  arrive  at  the  sublime  idea  of  the  unity  of  God  and  nature. — 
Hid.,  pp.  70,  71. 

Undoubtedly  every  clear  and  logical  thinker  must  draw 
from  the  facts  of  comparative  anatomy  and  ontogeny  which 
have  been  brought  forward,  a  mass  of  suggestive  thoughts  and 
reflections  which  cannot  fail  of  their  effect  on  the  further  devel- 
opment of  the  philosophical  study  of  the  universe.  Neither  can 
it  be  doubted  that  these  facts,  if  properly  weighed  and  judged 
without  prejudice,  will  lead  to  the  decisive  victory  of  that  philo- 
sophical tendency,  which  we  distinguish,  briefly,  as  monistic  or 
mechanical,  in  distinction  from  the  dualistic  or  teleological,  on 
which  most  philosophical  systems  of  ancient,  mediaeval  and 
modern  times  are  based.  This  mechanical  or  monistic  philoso- 
phy asserts  that  everywhere  the  phenomena  of  human  life,  as 
well  as  those  of  external   nature,  are   under  the  control   of  fixed 


and  unalterable  laws,  that  there  is  everywhere  a  necessary  causal 
connection  between  phenomena,  and  that,  accordingly,  the  whole 
knowable  universe  forms  one  undivided  whole,  a  "  monon."  It 
further  asserts,  that  all  phenomena  are  produced  by  mechanical 
causes  [causae  efficicntes],  not  by  prearranged,  purposive  causes 
[causae filiates].  Hence  there  is  no  such  thing  as  "freewill"  in 
the  usual  sense.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  light  of  this  monistic 
conception  of  nature,  even  those  phenomena  which  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  regard  as  most  free  and  independent,  the 
expressions  of  the  human  will,  appear  as  subject  to  fixed  laws  as 
any  other  natural  phenomenon.  Indeed,  each  unprejudiced  and 
searching  test  applied  to  the  action  of  our  "free  will"  shows  that 
the  latter  is  never  really  free,  but  is  always  determined  by  previous 
causal  conditions,  which  are  eventually  referable  either  to  Heredity 
or  to  Adaptation.  Accordingly,  we  cannot  assent  to  the  popular 
distinction  between  nature  and  spirit.  Spirit  exists  everywhere 
in  nature,  and  we  know  of  no  spirit  outside  of  nature.  Hence, 
also,  the  usual  distinction  between  natural  science  and  mental 
science  is  entirely  untenable.  Every  real  science  is  at  the  same 
time  both  a  natural  and  a  mental  science.  Man  is  not  above 
nature,    but    in    nature. — Haeckcl,    The    Evolution    of  Man,    Vol. 

2,  /•  454S- 

He  [a  critic]  knows  that  I  have  repeatedly  and  emphatically 
asserted  that  our  conceptions  of  matter  and  motion  are  but 
symbols  of  an  unknowable  reality ;  that  this  reality  cannot  be 
that  which  we  symbolize  it  to  be;  and  that  as  manifested  beyond 
consciousness  under  the  forms  of  matter  and  motion,  it  is  the 
same  as  that  which,  in  consciousness,  is  manifested  as  feeling 
and  thought.  Yet  he  continues  to  describe  me  as  reducing  every- 
thing to  dead  mechanism.  If  his  statement  on  pp.  383-4  has 
any  meaning  at  all,  it  means  that  there  exists  some  "  force  oper- 
ating ab  extra"  some  "external  power"  distinguished  by  him  as 
"mechanical,"  which  is  not  included  in  that  immanent  force  of 
which  the  universe  is  a  manifestation ;  though  whence  it  comes 
he  does  not  tell  us.  This  conception  he  speaks  of  as  though  it 
were  mine;  making  it  seem  that  I  ascribe  the  moulding  of  ogan- 
isms  to  the  action  of  this  "mechanical"  "external  power,"  which 
is  distinct  from  the  inscrutable  cause  of  things.  Yet  he  either 
knows,  or  has  ample  means  of  knowing,  that  I  deny  every  such 
second  cause;  indeed  he  has  himself  classed  me  as  an  opponent 
of  dualism.  I  recognize  no  forces  within  the  organism,  or  with- 
out the  organism,  but  the  variously  conditioned  modes  of  the 
universal  immanent  force;  and  the  whole  process  of  organic 
evolution  is  everywhere  attributed  by  me  to  the  cooperation  of 
its  variously-conditioned  modes,  internal  and  external. — Herbert 
Spencer,  Principles  of  Biology,   Vol.  i,p.  401. 

The  expression  "substance  of  mind,"  if  we  use  it  in  any  other 
way  than  as  the  x  of  our  equation,  inevitably  betrays  us  into 
errors;  for  we  cannot  think  of  substance  save  in  terms  that  imply 
material  properties.  Our  only  course  is  constantly  to  recognize 
our  symbols  as  symbols  only  and  to  rest  content  with  that  duality 
of  them  which  our  constitution  necessitates. 

The  unknowable,  as  manifested  to  us  within  the  limits  of  con- 
sciousness in  the  shape  of  feeling,  being  no  less  inscrutable  than 
the  unknowable  as  manifested  beyond  the  limits  of  consciousness 
in  other  shapes,  we  approach  no  nearer  to  understanding  the  last 
by  rendering  it  into  the  first.  The  conditioned  form  under  which 
being  is  presented  in  the  subject  can  not,  any  more  than  the  con- 
ditioned form  under  which  being  is  presented  in  the  object,  be  the 
unconditioned  being  common  to  the  two. — 1Kb.,  Principles  of  Psy- 
chology, §  63. 

The  genetic  or  monistic  origin  and  development  of  life  on  the 
globe  is  fast  passing  through  the  same  phases,  and  is  now  on  its 
high  way  to  recognition  and  admission  to  the  class  of  truths 
whose    opposite     is  ^first    long    believed,  because    wearing    the 


3S6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


outward  garb  of  reality. — Lester  F,  Ward,  Dynamic  Sociology, 
I  ~ol.  i,  f.  49. 

Yet  here  in  the  dependence  of  the  will  we  have  a  paradox 
which  clings  with  the  utmost  tenacity,  even  to  the  most  enlight- 
ened of  mankind.  They  have  been  compelled  to  admit  the 
monistic  principle  in  the  celestial  bodies,  in  the  inorganic  world, 
perhaps  in  the  organic  world.  They  may  be  even  willing  to  agree 
that  man  is  himself  a  genetic  product,  that  brain  has  been  mechan- 
ically evolved,  that  sensation  and  even  thought  are  the  effects 
of  antecedent  causes,  but  when  the  great  demi-god  "  will  "  is 
sought  to  be  rolled  in,  they  take  fright  and  resist  this  last 
encroachment. — Ibid.,  p.  jo. 

From  the  array  of  great  names  which  philosophy  and  sci- 
ence have  given  to  the  world,  I  have  singled  out  those  of  Auguste 
Comte  and  Herbert  Spencei  as  the  subjects  of  these  brief 
sketches,  not  so  much  in  consequence  of  any  assumed  preemi- 
nence in  these  two  men  above  others,  as  because  they  alone,  of 
all  the  thinkers  of  the  world,  have  the  merit  of  having  carried  their 
generalizations  from  the  phenomena  of  inorganic  nature  up  to 
those  of  human  action  and  social  life.  Of  all  the  philosophers 
that  humanitv  has  brought  forth,  these  two  alone  have  conceived 
and  built  upon  the  broad  principle  of  the  absolute  unity  of 
Nature  and  her  laws  throughout  all  their  manifestations,  from  the 
revolutions  of  celestial  orbs  to  the  rise  and  fall  of  empires  and 
the  vicissitudes  of  social  'customs  and  laws.  This  grand  monistic 
conception  is  the  final  crown  of  human  thought,  and  was 
required  to  round  out  philosophy  into  a  form  of  symmetry,  whose 
outlines,  at  least,  admit  of  no  further  improvement. — Ibid.,  pp. 
142,  143. 

Count  Goblet  d'Alviella,  in  his  Contemporary  Evolution  of 
Religious  Thought,  refers  to  " monistic  solutions  in  which  mind 
is  looked  upon  as  the  property  or  manifestation  of  matter  (material- 
ism); where  matter  is  made  the  outcome  of  mind  (spiritualism); 
or,  in  the  third  place,  where  mind  and  matter  are  taken  to  be  the 
opposite  of  one  and  the  same  mysterious  reality  (monism 
proper)." 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  two  great 
generalizations  of  our  scientific  era,  the  interconvertiblity  of 
forces  and  the  evolution-hypothesis,  has  worked  out  with  most 
comprehensive  grasp,  profound  penetration  and  exquisitely  subtle 
thought  that  great  system  of  "  Synthetic  Philosophy,"  which  we 
all  so  highly  admire.  Following  with  genuine  philosophical  zest 
the  monistic  bent,  he  has  also  attempted  to  crown  the  whole  ma- 
jestic structure  by  an  all-comprehensive  outlook,  showing  how 
the  infinite  variety  of  physical  and  mental  phenomena  forming 
our  manifest  world  all  issue  from  one  single  absolute  power. 
According  to  this  conception,  all  physical  occurrences,  as  well  as 
all  mental  states,  are  but  so  many  different  modes  of  this  one 
Absolute. — Edmund  Montgomery,  M.  D.,  The  Open  Court,  p.  10. 

"The  prime  matter  is  to  be  laid  down,  joined  with  the  primi- 
tive form,  as  also  with  the  first  principles  of  motion,  as  it  is  found. 
For  the  abstraction  of  motion  has  also  given  rise  to  innumerable 
devices,  concerning  spirits — life  and  the  like — as  if  there  were  not 
laid  a  sufficient  ground  for  them  through  matter  and  form,  but  they 
depended  on  their  own  elements.  But  these  three  (matter,  form  and 
life)  are  not  to  be  separated,  but  only  distinguished;  and  matter  is 
to  be  treated  (whatever  it  may  be)  in  regard  to  its  adornment, 
appendages  and  form,  as  that  all  kind  of  influence,  essence,  action 
and  natural  motion  may  appear  to  be  its  emanation  and  conse- 
quence.— Quoted  from  Francis  Bacon  by  II.  G.  Atkinson. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


A  priest  made  the  remark  that  the  Archbishop's  suspension 
of  Dr.  McGlynn  had  made  suspension  respectable,  and  that  the 
Pope's  excommunication  made  excommunication  ridiculous. — 
The  Independent . 


COMMON   CONSENT,  THE   SOUL,   IMMORTAL  LIFE, 
AND  THE  GODHEAD. 

To  the  Editors:  St.  Joseph,  Mo. 

In  commenting  upon  what  I  have  said  respecting  Common 
Consent,  Mr.  Stevens  has  overlooked  the  distinction  between 
common  consent  in  matters  of  opinion  and  the  common  accept- 
ance of  demonstrative  reasoning  respecting  established  truths. 
He  has  thus  been  led  to  treat  the  subject  of  my  essay  illogically, 
finally  begging  the  whole  question  at  issue.  In  his  closing  par- 
agraphs he  asks  whether  the  common  consent  of  average  minds 
among  men  in  regard  to  moral,  religious  (not  speculative)  and 
spiritual  questions,  and  as  to  the  faiths  and  beliefs  of  men  in 
regard  to  God  and  immortal  life,  is  not  a  legitimate  and  convincing 
proof  in  itself,  and  one  which  no  scientific  or  mathemalical  dem- 
onstration can  reach  or  unsettle,  since  it  is  not  founded  on  intel- 
lectual conceptions  or  based  on  scientific  information?  As  this  is 
precisely  the  question  at  issue,  and  as  Mr.  Stevens  has  not  even 
touched  the  arguments  I  employed,  it  might  seem  almost  idle  to 
discuss  his  letter;  but  it  may  be  well  that  I  should  point  out  the 
mistakes  into  which  many  fall  who  treat  this  matter  as  Mr. 
Stevens  has,  and  the  worthlessness  of  common  consent  in  matters 
of  opinion,  not  as  illustrated  by  the  argument  from  probabili- 
ties, but  as  illustrated  again  and  again  by  facts,  and  more 
especially  in  regard  to  opinions  on  moral,  religious  and  spiritual 
questions.  I  must  premise,  however,  that  I  am  not  able  to  recog- 
nize the  precise  force  of  Mr.  Steven's  exclusion  of  speculative 
questions  in  religion;  for  whatever  opinions  men  may  hold  on 
such  subjects  as  the  immortal  life  and  deity,  which  he  includes  as 
appropriate  subjects  for  the  application  of  the  argument  from 
common  consent,  must  necessarily  be  speculative. 

Consider  the  opinions  of  men  in  old  times  on  the  heavens 
above,  the  earth  beneath,  and  the  waters  in  some  places  the 
fires  elsewhere  under  the  earth.  When  ideas  relating  to  such 
subjects  were  matters  of  opinion,  all  men  practically  agreed  in 
regarding  the  heavens  above  as  the  temple  of  deity,  and  the 
orbs  they  saw  moving  over  the  heavens  as  either  themselves 
deities  or  the  special  instruments  of  deity,  appointed  as  powers  to 
influence  in  various  ways  the  fortunes  of  men.  They  regarded 
the  earth  as  the  one  fixed  abode  of  all  God's  creatures,  except 
such  celestial  intelligences  and  powers  as  had  their  home  in 
heaven,  and  such  immaterial  beings  as  existed  in  hades.  And 
recognizing  the  signs  of  intense  heat  beneath  the  earth's  surface, 
and  the  evidence  in  certain  regions  of  sulphurous  emanations 
from  below,  they  were  led — universally  where  such  signs  were 
obvious — to  regard  the  region  under  the  earth  as  a  place  of  pun- 
ishment for  the  wicked,  where  their  souls  might  be  purified  as 
by  fire. 

Now  here  are  opinions  which  may  be  very  aptly  compared 
with  the  opinions  men  entertain  now  (as  they  entertained  them 
also  then)  respecting  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  It  may  be 
regarded  as  a  merely  accidental  difference  that  observation  and 
experiment  have  enabled  men  to  ascertain  (which  in  old  times 
men  deemed  to  be  impossible),  the  incorrectness  of  the  commonly 
accepted  view  about  heaven,  earth,  and  hell,  whereas  in  regard  to 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  men  have  not  obtained  and  never  can 
obtain  any  scientific  information.  Common  opinion  in  each  case 
was  based  originally  on  observed  facts  patent  to  all.  We  know 
what  those  facts  were  in  the  case  of  heaven,  earth  and  hades.  In 
the  question  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  we  know  also  what 
the  facts  were;  and  so  far  as  these  facts  are  concerned,  science, 
which  does  not  express  a  definite  opinion  in  regard  to  the  ques- 
tion itself  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  has  very  definitely  shown 
that  common  consent  was  altogether  mistaken.  All  men 
agreed    in  regarding    the    breath  as  the  spirit    or  soul  of  man, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


387 


inasmuch  that  the  very  word  "spirit"  means  simply  "  breath." 
In  Greek  fneuma  and  psyche  ("spirit"  and  "soul")  alike 
mean  "air  "or  "breath;"  in  Latin  spirit  us  and  anima  have 
the  same  meaning.  A  writer  in  the  Middle  Ages  employing,  as 
was  customary,  the  Latin  language,  had  to  use  the  same  word  for 
the  Holy  Gho^t,  for  the  spiritual  part  of  man,  and  for  rough  or 
smooth  breathings;  he  could  only  differentiate  by  adjectives 
between  the  spiritus  sanctus,  the  spiritus  asper,  and  the  spiritus 
/em's.  In  Greek  to  give  up  the  ghost  (piieumn  ap/iienni),  like  our 
own  "expiring,"  was  to  breath  out  lite,  while  one  and  the  same 
word,  fneumatikos,  served  to  signify  "  what  relates  to  air  or  wind," 
"  what  is  spiritual  or  ghostly,"  and  "  what  refers  to  the  third  per- 
son of  the  Trinity."  It  was  a  natural  mistake,  and  therefore  a 
matter  on  which  common  consent  naturally  went  wrong,  to 
regard  that  invisible  essence  which  seems  to  be  breathed  out  and 
in  during  life,  and  to  pass  away  at  death,  as  the  spirit  of  man,  the 
true  soul,  which  passes  awav  at  death,  into  the  ethereal  realms 
around  and  above  us,  remaining  itself  unchanged.  Had  any  one 
in  those  old  days,  when  common  consent  regarded  the  breath  as 
the  soul,  stated  the  actual  facts  as  science  has  since  explained 
them — had  he  told  his  mistaken  fellows  that  the  breath  drawn  in 
is  simply  a  part  of  the  air,  itself  a  mixture  of  gases  of  such  and 
such  properties;  that  a  certain  highly  interesting  process  akin  to 
combustion  takes  place  when  the  air  has  entered  the  lungs;  and 
that  as  a  result  of  this  process  the  breath  expired  is  a  gaseous 
mixture  of  entirely  different  character  from  the  gaseous  mixture 
inspired — he  would  have  been  regarded  as  striking  a  blow  at  all 
the  ideas  men  held  most  holy,  as  giving  a  material  and  most 
irreligious  interpretation  of  man's  immortal  part,  his  pneuina, 
spiritus,  or  "  ghost."* 

Equally  natural,  and  equally  to  be  corrected  by  observation 
and  reasoning,  was  the  idea  that  the  "  shadow  "  is  another  self, 
not  spiritual  like  the  breath,  though  immaterial,  and  not  belonging 
to  the  upper  ethereal  regions,  but  to  the  place  of  shades.  The 
Greek  skin,  the  Latin  umbra,  and  ourow«i"shade"(asin  Pope's  "For- 
give, blest  shade,  the  tributary  tear"),  all  attest  the  kindship,  which 
before  observation  and  experiment  had  corrected  such  ideas, 
men  recognized  between  the  shadow  of  a  man  during  life  and  his 
ghost  in  the  "realm  of  shades."  It  might  seem  that  science 
need  hardly  have  been  called  in  to  correct  so  obvious  a  mistake. 
But  common  consent  about  such  matters  dates  back  from  before 
even  the  merest  beginnings  of  science. 

I  touched  in  my  former  essay  on  the  further  series  of  mis- 
takes by  which  common  consent  found  in  the  phenomena  of 
trance,  catalepsy,  etc.,  evidence  that  the  spirit,  soul,  shade,  or 
ghost — the  ethereal  part  of  man — could  pass  from  the  corporeal 
part  during  life  and  return  after  visiting  other  scenes;  while 
in  dreams  men  not  only  recognized  this  power  during  life  but 
supposed — since  they  dreamed  of  the  dead — that  the  spirits  of  the 
dead  could  revisit  the  living.  Science  has  certainly  so  far 
explained  the  phenomena  of  dreams,  trance,  catalepsy,  as  to 
show  that  they  afford  not  a  particle  of  evidence  in  favor  of  an 
independent  spiritual  existence. 

We  see  that  science  has  in  reality  had  a  great  deal  to  say 
about  the  reasons,  at  any  rate,  on  which  common  consent  based 
its  faith  in  immortal  life.  Not  a  shred  of  the  old  evidence  or 
of  those  old  reasons  now  remains.  Even  as  to  the  doctrine  itself, 
considered  independently  of  such  mistaken  ideas,  science  has 
had  much  to  say.     Consciousness,  memory,  and  reflection,  which 


*  It  may  be  remarked  that  though  the  word  "  ghost"  was  not  derived  from 
"  gas,"  the  relationship  between  "  ghost"  and  "  gas"  is  none  the  less  obviously 
indicated  by  the  circumstance  that  the  word  "  gas"  was  derived  from  "  ghost" 
— or  rather  from  its  Dutch  equivalent, gecst — by  Van  Helmont,  in  1644.  The 
German  geist,  the  Dutch  gest,  the  Swedish  gaxa,  and  our  English  "ghost" 
are  all  akin  to  "  yeast,"  and  relate  to  fermentation,  boiling,  bubbling,  the 
emission  of  gaseous  matter  from  within  matter  not  gaseous. 


are  all  essential  to  the  conception  of  any  immortality  worth  con- 
sidering, have  all  been  shown  to  be  functions  of  the  brain, 
depending  not  only  on  the  brain's  existence,  but  on  its  existence 
in  suitable  condition  for  its  special  work.  Apart  from  this,  which 
renders  the  idea  of  a  conscious,  remembering,  and  thinking 
immortality,  almost  inconceivable,  science  recognizes  in  every 
exercise  of  these  functions  a  certain  amount  of  energy  expended. 
Even  while  the  brain  is  in  full  vigor,  it  cannot  work  without 
intervals  of  rest  during  which  its  powers  may  be  recruited ;  and 
taking  the  whole  life  of  man,  the  brain,  like  the  rest  of  the  bodv, 
is  limited  lo  the  exercise  of  a  certain  total  amount  of  energy. 
Now,  to  imagine  immortal  consciousness,  everlasting  memory, 
and  eternal  reflection,  is  to  imagine  an  infinite  amount  of 
energy  exerted  by  a  being  essentially  finite  in  his  powers  as 
observed  during  life, — apart  from  the  fact  that  the  only  organ  bv 
which,  during  life,  this  being  was  able  to  exert  that  kind  of  energy 
has  been  destroyed  before  he  began  this  infinite  expenditure  of 
energy. 

Science  shows  her  moderation  and  caution  by  refusing,  even 
in  the  presence  of  all  this  evidence,  to  assert  what  she  has 
not  been  able  to  prove,  that  immortality  is  absolutely  impossi- 
ble. Science  can,  and  does  indeed,  assert  the  doctrine  of  the  res- 
urrection of  the  body  to  be  wholly  inconsistent  with  ascertained 
facts  and  possibilities.  But  whereas  common  consent  is  ready 
confidently  to  assert  the  immortality  of  the  soul  as  certain — as 
something  which  may  not  only  he  known,  but  felt  to  be  real — 
science,  though  knowing  immortality  to  be  almost  certainly 
impossible,  yet  refrains  from  asserting  this  impossibility,  because 
it  has  not  been  absolutely  proved.  Now  if  we  compare  the  doc- 
trine of  immortality,  as  thus  far  dealt  with  by  science,  with  the 
doctrine  formerly  held  by  men  respecting  earth,  heaven  and  hell, 
we  see  that  the  resemblance  is  complete,  up  to  the  point  where 
high  probability  in  favor  of  the  accepted  doctrines  about  the 
earth  give  place  to  absolute  demonstration.  There  is  not,  proba- 
bly there  never  can  be,  absolute  demonstration  that  immortal  life  is 
impossible.    ' 

We  may  agree  with  Mr.  Stevens  that  the  thoughts  of 
such  demonstration  is  conceivable.  But  he  goes  on  to  sav  that  if 
such  demonstration  were  obtained  and  all  men  convinced,  com- 
mon consent  would  be  in  favor  of  the  doctrine  of  no  immortality, 
which,  therefor*,  if  my  reasoning  about  common  consent  is 
sound,  must  be  untrue.  But  the  case  of  the  earth,  heaven,  and 
hell,  illustrates  the  fallacy  of  this  reasoning.  Common  consent 
made  the  earth  flat,  with  the  heavens  above  and  the  fires  of  hell 
beneath;  and  common  consent  was  altogether  mistaken.  Does 
common  consent  now  make  the  earth  a  globe,  surrounded  bv 
star-strewn  space,  and  inclosing  an  intensely  heated  nucleus?  and 
does  common  consent  thus,  according  to  my  reasoning,  show 
this  view  to  be  incorrect?  Common  consent  does  neither  of 
these  things.  Common  consent  has  not  formed  and  adopted  the 
opinion  that  the  earth  is  a  globe,  but  has  simply  accepted  the 
reasoning  by  which  the  few  who  observe,  experiment,  and  reflect, 
have  established  that  teaching  as  a  demonstrated  fact.  The 
theory  that  common  consent  is  absolutely  certain  to  go  wrong  in 
matters  of  opinion,  by  no  means  implies  that  the  average  mind 
cannot  be  convinced  by  facts  and  reasonings  collected  by  minds 
either  above  the  average  or  specially  devoted  to  particular 
researches. 

Similar  considerations  apply  to  all  the  examples  cited  bv  Mr. 
Stevens.  It  is  certain  that  the  average  man  bv  no  means 
adopted  honesty,  truth,  and  independence,  as  things  good  in 
themselves.  It  has  been  only  in  response  to  the  teachings  of  the 
few  that  right  ideas  have  ever  been  adopted,  in  any  large  com- 
munity of  men,  on  these  points.  Even  to  this  day  independence 
of  thought,  by  which  the  more  capable  reasoners  should  form  and 
adopt  their  own  views,  and  the  generality  should  accept  teachings 


388 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


which  are  clearly  and  convincingly  presented  to  them,  has  not  yet 
been  admitted  to  be  good;  in  so  much  that  even  here  in  America 
to  say  that  a  man  is  a  freethinker  implies  censure,  though  no 
man  can  be  called  free  at  all  who  is  not  free  in  thought.  Gen- 
eral agreement  in  such  matters  is  only  obtained  when  the  aver- 
age mind  has  been  so  far  trained  as  (i)  to  recognize  its  natural 
tendency  to  error,  and  (2)  to  be  able  to  follow  sound  reasoning 
though  not  able  of  itsell  to  form  sound  opinions. 

With  regard  to  the  question  of  a  personal  Deity,  common 
consent  has  gone  wrong  again  and  again;  while  again  and  again 
science,  as  it  advanced,  has  been  able  to  point  out  the  mistakes 
underlying  common  opinion.  Men  personified  as  gods  the  powers 
of  nature — wind,  rain,  sun,  storm,  river,  sea — all  that  in  any  way 
seemed  to  possess  independent  will  and  power;  next  they  raised 
their  eyes  to  the  heavens  and  recognized  personal  will  and  power  in 
sun  and  moon,  in  planets  and  stars.  And  even  when  at  last  the 
thought  of  one  power  at  the  back  of  all  these  was  admitted, 
men  still  erred  in  picturing  the  personal  qualities  of  that  power  after 
such  examples  among  men  as  they  mistakenly  judged  to  be  noblest 
and  best — the  successful  warrior,  the  monarch,  the  despot  who 
claimed  and  forced  sacrifices  from  the  people.  As  men  advanced, 
their  ideas  of  the  personality  of  God  improved  correspondingly. 
But  we  may  be  sure  that  common  consent  has  all  along  been 
wrong,  and  is  wrong  still,  in  forming  anthropomorphic  ideas  of  the 
personality  of  Deity ;  since  it  thus  pictures  that  personality  after 
models  necessarily  imperfect.  The  idea  of  science,  which  has 
always  been  the  idea  of  the  few  more  thoughtful  men — the 
Isaiahs,  the  Pauls,  the  Darwins,  the  Spencers — that  the  person- 
ality of  Deity  must  be  something  beyond  all  human  powers  of 
conception,  is  practically  proved  by  the  common  consent  ot 
average  minds  in  the  contrary  ideas  to  be  the  only  true  doctrine 
in  this  matter.  Richard  A.  Proctor. 


LETTER  FROM   NEW  YORK. 

July,  1S87. 

If  Boston  has  its  Concord,  so  also  has  New  York  its  Orange. 
What  the  Hillside  Chapel  is  to  the  former,  is  St.  Cloud  to  the 
latter,  an  unobtrusive  building  in  a  little  hamlet  on  the  summit 
of  Orange  mountain,  600  feet  above  the  sea-level  and  fourteen 
miles  from  the  great  city. 

Orange  itself,  consisting  of  a  chain  of  beautiful  suburban  vil- 
lages climbing  a  winding  valley  and  a  picturesque  mountain  guard- 
ing it  upon  the  west,  rightfully  regards  this  mountain  top  as  the 
choicest  gem  in  all  its  emerald  setting.  From  its  summit  can  be 
seen  a  wondrous  picture  of  thriving  towns,  isolated  farm-houses 
and  growing  cities,  set  in  the  midst  of  billowy  verdure,  till,  in  the 
hazy  distance,  New  York  hangs  upon  the  horizon  like  a  city  of 
a  dream. 

At  St.  Cloud  was  lately  held  a  course  of  lectures  called  the 
Summer  School  of  Philosophy,  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Davidson,  so  favorably  known  to  the  general  public,  as 
well  as  to  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court  as  a  philologist 
and  philosopher.  "  Partly,"  as  Mr.  Davidson  says,  as  "  a  prep- 
aration for  the  lectures  of  the  Concord  School  of  Philosophy, 
and  partly  as  a  supplement  to  them,"  these  lectures  were 
given,  and  with  great  success.  There  were  students  from  St. 
Louis,  from  the  South  and  from  various  portions  of  New 
England,  and  the  request  is  unanimous  for  a  repetition  of  the 
course  next  year. 

Fourteen  lectures  were  given  on  various  phases  of  Aris- 
totle's thought,  beginning  with  a  paper  by  Mr.  Davidson  on 
Greek  Philosophy  up  to  Aristotle's  time.  These  day  lectures 
were  devoted  to  "  Practical  Philosophy  "  and  a  corresponding 
number  of  evening  lectures  to  Aristotle's  Esthetic  Philosophy, 
the  whole  giving  a  very  complete  and  logical  introduction  to 
Greek  thought  in  its  highest  aspects. 


The  speakers,  in  addition  to  Professor  Davidson,  were  Mr. 
Edwin  D.  Mead,  Dr.  Fillmore  Moore  and  Mrs.  Helen  Campbell. 
The  first  six  evening  lectures  were  given  to  the  Greek  drama,  the 
remainder  to  Greek  art,  profusely  illustrated  with  the  stereopticon, 
by  Mr.  Davidson,  whose  enthusiasm  for  all  things  Grecian 
waxed  high  during  a  long  residence  in  that  land  to  whose 
thinkers  we  owe  so  much. 

In  Mrs.  Campbell's  lecture  on  the  "  Hygienic  Advantages  of 
the  Greek  Dress,"  that  essayist  took  the  ground  that  it  is  now  in 
use  only  in  a  modified  form  in  the  evening  dress,  but  that  we 
could  have  fashions  adapted  to  modern  needs  and  still  meet  all 
the  requirements  of  ease,  grace  and  beauty.  "  The  key-note  of 
Greek  dress  was  liberty,  of  ours,  slavery,"  she  said,  "  and  we 
must  be  emancipated."  When  shall  that  time  come?  All  hail 
to  any  school  of  philosophy  which  shall  help  the  leaders  of 
thought  to  devise  and  introduce  to  favorable  notice  a  style  of 
clothing  that  shall,  at  least,  have  the  negative  value  of  ceasing  to 
restrict  those  functions  that  give  free  play,  when  unimpeded,  to 
those  noble  powers  of  the  mind  which  depend  so  much  on 
healthful  vehicles  of  expression. 

Taking  these  two  summer  schools  at  Concord  and  St.  Cloud, 
modern  students  have  little  excuse  for  ignorance  concerning  the 
character  and  teachings  of  that  philosopher  who,  more  than  two 
thousand  years  ago,  determined  to  comprehend  and  explain  all 
phenomena.  In  fact  with  a  positiveness  amounting  to  dogma- 
tism Aristotle  declared  that  the  perception  of  truth  by  the 
spirit  is  absolutely  infallible.  As  through  scientific  observation 
and  discovery,  the  field  is  constantly  enlarging,  the  need  of  the 
study  of  phenomena  is  daily  growing  more  imperative.  It  follows 
that  such  schools  of  philosophy  are  necessary,  even  if,  as  Carlyle 
says,  "  all  that  a  university  or  final  highest  school  can  do  for  us,  is 
still  but  what  the  first  school  began  doing — teach  us  to  read." 
Even  so,  will  not  the  final  school  apply  the  philosophy  of  the 
past  to  explain  what  is  read  in  the  multiform  phenomena  of  the 
present?  One  of  our  best  teachers  has  wisely  said:  "The  over 
soul  nourishes  me  and  unlocks  new  magazines  of  power  and 
enjoyment  every  day.  I  will  not  meanly  decline  the  immensity 
of  good,  because  I  have  heard  that  it  has  come  to  others  in 
another  shape." 

There  are  new  social  schools  as  well  as  schools  of  philosophy, 
held  under  other  names.  The  Nineteenth  Century  Club,  of  New 
York,  is  one.  Projected  by  Courtlandt  Palmer,  and  made  a  suc- 
cess by  the  help  of  such  brilliant  society  leaders  as  Allan  Thorn- 
dike  Rice,  of  the  North  American  Review,  and  Mrs.  John  S. 
Sherwood,  it  embraces  in  its  membership  those  who  try  to  soften 
intellectual  tastes  by  the  elegance  of  fashionable  associations,  or 
who  aspire  to  lift  fashion  into  the  atmosphere  of  literature. 

During  three  winters  the  monthly  meetings  of  this  club, 
held  in  the  noble  rooms  of  the  American  Art  Association,  have 
been  filled  to  overflowing  by  members  and  guests  to  listen  to 
papers  read  by  eminent  men,  upon  social  and  literary  topics  per- 
tinent to  the  times.  These  essays  have  been  followed  by  discus- 
sions, frequently  of  great  originality  and  force,  which  have  held 
the  audience  until  well  nigh  midnight.  They  have  been  inevit- 
ably liberalizing  in  their  tendency,  although,  of  course,  creeds 
have  not  been  directly  considered. 

The  Nineteenth  Century  Club  is  remarkable  for  being  the 
first  large  association  in  the  city  in  which  men  and  women  meet 
on  the  same  footing.  The  President,  Courtlandt  Palmer,  well- 
known  for  his  liberal  and  progressive  views,  from  its  first  incep- 
tion cherished  the  idea  of  an  association,  which,  embracing  both 
sexes,  might  become  a  social  and  intellectual  power  in  a  city  that 
stands  in  need  of  the  combined  efforts  of  its  foremost  thinkers. 
The  social  masculine  club,  it  is  well-known,  is  subversive  to 
morals  as  to  domesticity ;  this  obviates  all  such  objections  while 
affording  many  incentives  to  the  average  attendant. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


389 


The  membership  has  been  confined  to  150  persons.  This  it 
is  now  proposed  to  double,  and  also  to  secure  a  building  to 
be  transformed  into  a  well-appointed  club  house,  with  a  restau- 
rant, library  and  parlors,  as  well  as  a  large  hall  for  stated  meetings. 
Women  are  upon  the  board  of  managers  and  have  proved 
efficient  in  business  as  in  discussions. 

That  women  are  growing  large  and  broad  enough  for  asso- 
ciated labor  has  been  amply  proved  in  Sorosis.  This  club,  exclu- 
sively for  one  sex,  is  an  educator  for  those  associations  in  which 
both  shall  one  day  work  harmoniously.  It  has  done  some  excel- 
lent work  during  the  past  year,  and  shows  a  deeper  interest  than 
ever  before  in  questions  of  profound  import.  Divided  into  com- 
mittees, each  group  studies  and  works  in  its  own  line,  either  of 
literature,  art,  education,  philanthropy,  house  and  home,  music 
or  science.  The  fruitage  of  these  committees  is  brought  into  the 
monthly  social  meeting,  and  essays  are  followed  by  extempora- 
neous discussions  and  sometimes  by  plans  of  labor  which  branch 
out  in  various  directions  and  take  years  in  which  to  mature.  To 
the  earnest  and  thoughtful,  Sorosis  is  refreshing,  stimulating  and 
enlarging.  It  goes  without  saying  that  such  a  society  is  an 
inspiration  to  liberal  thought. 

The  President,  M.  Louise  Thomas,  is  made  in  a  large 
mould  and  keeps  abreast  of  the  best  things,  of  the  age. 

In  a  late  journey  through  the  western  portion  of  New  England, 
I  have  everywhere  had  evidence  of  the  need  which  country  places 
have  of  the  help  that  city  prisoners  of  poverty  can  and  ought  to 
afford.  These  200,000  working  women  ought  to  be  scattered  over 
farms  and  hamlets,  east  and  west,  until,  by  the  very  scarcity  of 
woman's  labor  in  this  great  city  where  the  weak  are  inevitably  sub- 
merged, each  toiler  shall  command  a  fair  living  price.  The  con- 
gestion of  the  great  social  center  thus  relieved,  the  extremities 
would  feel  the  vivifying  influence  of  the  equalized  circulation, 
and  overworked  wives  and  mothers  in  country  homes  would  enter 
upon  healthier  and  happier  lives. 

Meantime  the  working-women  troop  by,  morning  and  even- 
ing, pale,  sad,  attenuated  shadows  of  the  ideal  woman.  Instead 
of  sending  large  sums  to  foreign  missions,  who  will  do  the 
greatest  of  all  missionary  work  in  one  or  all  of  our  foremost 
cities?  Who  will  establish  bureaus  in  which  to  train  200,000 
workers  for  those  homes  where  they  are  needed  and  which  they 
need.  Hester  M.  Poole. 


THE  COPE-MONTGOMERY   CONTROVERSY. 
To  the  Editors: 

In  re  the  Cope-Montgomery  controversy  one  who  has  read 
Herbert  Spencer's  works,  and  who  entertains  a  high  regard  for 
Professor  Cope's  genius  and  personal  friendship,  begs  leave  to 
criticise  the  Professor's  summary,  as  given  on  page  361  of  this 
magazine : 

1.  Tridimensional  matter  and  its  properties  maybe  all  that 
our  senses  can  realize,  but  it  does  not  follow  that  nothing  exists 
but  matter  and  motion.  At  one  time  the  sphericity  of  the  earth 
was  incomprehensible.  Newtonian  laws  enabled  the  idea  to  be 
grasped.  Similarly  we  cannot  predict  the  impossibility  of  a 
fourth  dimension,  or  that  radical  changes  in  human  conception  of 
things  may  not  occur,  based  upon  some  great  (but  now  incon- 
ceivable) discovery.  Spencer  disposes  of  all  this  in  the  present 
impossibility  of  understanding  ultimates. 

2.  The  properties  of  matter  may  as  well  be  stated  to  be 
energy  (motion),  of  which  consciousness  is  a  mode,  instead  of 
energy  and  consciousness. 

3-  Since  all  matter  has  extension  and  residence  how  can  con- 
sciousness (as  a  mode  of  motion,  or  not)  be  denied  as  a  property 
of  universal  matter? 

4.    As  consciousness  gradually  arises  from  certain  molecular 


grouping  and  passes  from  automatism  to  automatism,  its  extinc- 
tion, as  all  things  pass  from  the  indefinite  through  definite  to 
indefinite  again,  consciousness  can  only  be  excluded  from  the  list 
of  physical  forces  by  the  same  reasoning  that  would  bar  out  elec- 
tricity or  heat. 

5.  The  end  of  consciousness  is  automatism  just  as  less  friction 
is  evidentin  the  more  complete  adaptation  of  means  to  ends.  Auto- 
matism often  serves  better  ends  than  consciousness,  the  tendency 
of  the  former  is  to  end  in  the  latter,  through  the  law  of  least 
resistence,  that  operates  universally.  Will  only  apparently  antag- 
onizes mechanical  automatism  as  the  upward  rush  of  the  foun- 
tain only  apparently  antagonizes  gravitation,  while  depending 
upon  it. 

6.  Consciousness  is  evidentin  existence,  as  any  other  prop- 
erty of  matter,  and  as  resistance  becomes  less  it  disappears. 

7.  Will  is  a  product  of  pre-existing  conditions  of  matter,  and 
can  no  more  be  said  to  precede  or  cause  development  than  we 
can  say  the  egg  precedes  the  chicken,  or  the  chicken  precedes  the 
egg,  exclusively. 

S.  The  parent  substance  of  protoplasm  consists  of  molecules 
subject  to  physical  forces,  and  whether  these  constitute  all  there 
is  in  protoplasm  no  one  can  affirm  or  deny,  as  yet.  Hence  the 
entire  matter  is  argued  from  conjecture. 

9.  The  probability  of  a  primitive  mind  in  a  primitive  substance 
would  appear  to  the  physiological  chemist  to  be  unnecessary  and 
pananimistic,  which,  with  an  anthropomorphic  twist,  becomes 
pantheistic;  all  of  these  conceptions  being  more  sentimental  than 
reasonable,  and  as  incapable  of  proof  as  their  denial.  So  the 
existence  of  a  Supreme  Being  is  neither  probable  nor  improbable. 

10.  Since  will  controls  the  movements  and  organization  of 
matter,  and  the  movements  and  organization  of  matter  controls 
the  will,  the  persistence  of  human  consciousness  in  other  worlds 
than  the  earth  may  or  may  not  be  possible. 

S.  V.  Clevexger. 


THE   SEYBERT   COMMISSION    REPORT. 
To  the  Editors:  Barre,  Mass. 

The  preliminary  report  of  the  Seybert  Commission  for  inves- 
tigating modern  spiritualism  is  just  out,  and  deserves  more  than 
a  passing  notice  from  the  pen  of  the  reviewer. 

This  Commission  has  so  well  done  its  work,  even  in  its  pre- 
liminary report,  that  it  would  seem  as  if  an  unprejudiced  person 
need  only  to  read  this  book  to  be  convinced  that  all  the  so-called 
spirit  manifestations  can  be  produced  by  individuals  now  living, 
and,  therefore,  in  every  case  where  a  spirit  claim  is  made,  the  right 
to  demand  the  strictest  test  conditions  should  be  maintained  by 
every  investigator,  or  else  unfairness  be  conceded  on  the  part  of 
the  medium. 

Who  can  doubt,  after  reading  this  report,  that  these  ten  Com- 
missioners would  have  been  deceived  by  Slade,  as  was  Professor 
Zoellner  and  his  four  colleagues,  had  they  been  equally  satisfied 
without  any  knowledge  of  jugglery  to  take  everything  that  passed 
before  their  eyes  above  board  as  fact,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  their 
peering  beneath  the  board  (table)  and  there  discovering  the 
process  by  which  Slade  performed  his  wonderful  feats. 

The  exposure  of  Slade  is  not  unlike  that  by  Mr.  John  W. 
Truesdell,  of  Syracuse,  in  Bottom  Eacts.  But  the  Commission 
has  done  other  similar  good  work  in  showing  the  method  by 
which  the  "  sealed  letters"  are  opened  and  read,  materialization  is 
effected,  even  when  the  spirit  apparently  rises  through  the  floor 
in  the  presence  of  numerous  spectators,  and  the  various  other 
frauds  imposed  upon  a  too  credulous  public. 

But  I  will  not  detain  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court  with 
my  remarks,  but  refer  them  directly  to  the  book  itself,  only  pre- 
mising that  if  they  will  read  it  carefully  and  without  prejudice, 
they  will  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the  believers  in  spiritualism, 


39° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


who  have  been  converted  to  its  theories  by  any  of  the 
so-called  mediums  exposed  by  this  Commission  will  feel  that  they 
have  been  most  egregiously  humbugged. 

In  the  case  of  Mrs.  S.  E.  Patterson,  Dr.  Knerr,  a  member  of  the 
Commission,  saw  her  in  a  pocket  mirror,  adjusted  for  the  purpose, 
for  the  third  tunc  open  the  slates,  read  the  question,  and  do  the 
writing  that  she  avowed  was  performed  by  spirits. 

Dr.  Furness,  another  member  of  the  Commission,  who  sent 
questions  in  sealed  envelopes  to  four  of  the  most  noted  "  sealed- 
letter"  writers  in  the  country,  reports:  "In  every  instance  the 
envelopes  had  been  opened  and  reclosed ;  it  is,  therefore,  scarcely 
necessary  to  add  that  every  instance  bore  the  stamp  of  fraud." 

And  thus  it  went  on  with  nearly  all  the  mediums;  those  who 
were  not  detected  in  actual  fraud,  were  inferrentially  duplicating 
what  they  claimed  as  spirit  work,  while  none  gave  entire  satis- 
faction. 

The  famous  Slade-Zoellner  investigation,  the  accounts  of 
which  have  made  so  many  converts  in  this  country,  was  com- 
pletely exploded  by  Professor  Fullerton,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Commission,  who,  in  his  visit  to  Germany  in  1886,  held  long  con- 
ferences with  the  three  surviving  colleagues  of  Professor  Zoellner, 
by  which  he  was  able  to  ascertain  that  these  "  scientific  men" 
were  in  no  condition  to  arrive  at  a  correct  conclusion  in  reference 
to  the  subject  that  they  had  professed  to  investigate. 

"In  conclusion,"  the  Commission  reports,  "  we  beg  to  express 
our  regret  that  thus  far  we  have  not  been  cheered  in  our  investi- 
gations by  the  discovery  of  one  single  novel  fact;  but  undeterred 
by  this  discouragement,  we  trust,  with  your  permission,  [the 
Trustees  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania]  to  continue  them,  with 
what  thoroughness  our  future  opportunities  may  allow,  and  with 
minds  as  sincerely  and  honestly  open,  as  heretofore,  to  conviction." 

I  trust  this  investigation  will  go  on  until  such  scathing 
exposures  are  made,  that  not  one  solitary  trickster  can  be  found 
who  will  ply  his  or  her  infamous  trade  under  the  delusive  appel- 
lation, "Spiritual  Medium."  Ella  E.  Gibson. 


HIS   WIDOW. 

To  the  Editors: 

Expressions  that  were  introduced  into  a  language  and  gener- 
ally accepted  when  a  certain  condition  of  morals  or  manners 
rendered  them  true,  are  retained  when  the  condition  of  affairs  to 
which  they  formerly  applied  has  altogether  changed.  This 
is  especially  true  of  those  expressions  which  pertain  to  the 
lormer  degraded  position  of  women.  Among  these  terms  is  the 
distasteful  one  which  yet  remains  in  common  acceptation,  "  his 
widow."  The  words  husband  and  wife  have  sacred,  tender  asso- 
ciations to  those  who  are  bound  by  the  ties  of  love  in  faithful 
union.  My  husband  or  my  wife  does  not  suggest  an  offensive 
ownership,  and  there  is  equality  in  it. 

When  a  man  dies  his  wife  is  called  by  the  language  of  the 
law,  and  by  all  who  have  not  positive  objections  to  the  expression, 
"his  widow."  On  the  other  hand,  when  a  woman  dies  no  one 
ever  hears  of  her  widower.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  the 
term  should  be  used  in  one  case  rather  then  in  the  other.  It  but 
serves  as  a  reminder  of  the  days  when  a  man  held  absolute  rule 
over  his  wife;  of  the  time  when  she  was  virtually  his  while  they 
both  lived,  and  after  he  passed  into  the  realm  of  shadows  he  still 
clenched  his  ghostly  fingers  in  a  firm  grip  of  ownership,  which  is 
only  lelinquished  in  case  a  transfer  is  made  by  a  male  relative  of 
the  woman  to  a  more  substantial  individual  who  is  yet  in  the 
flesh;  given  away  as  the  church  puts  it,  for  according  to  the 
marriage  service  of  this  institution  a  woman  must  exchange 
hands  in  form  of  gift  from  one  man  to  another.  In  early  times 
it  was  not  always  a  gift,  but  a  price  was  required  by  the  legal 
owner  as  in  exchange  of  property  of  any  other  kind. 

I     know    clergymen     even    in    this    day  of    enlightenment 


who  decline  to  perform  the  Episcopal  marriage  service  when 
requested  to  omit  that  portion  of  it,  or  those  other  objectionable 
words  which  require  a  woman  to  serve  and  obey.  To  love  and 
honor  is  all  a  woman  can  promise  and  retain  her  dignity  and 
independence,  and  she  certainly  owes  no  thanks  to  a  church 
which  holds  to  a  service  which  degrades  her  to  a  position  of  ser- 
vitude. The  moral  influence  of  such  a  service  is  unqualifiedly 
bad,  and  when  the  Episcopal  church  starts  out  to  revise  its 
prayer-book,  the  marriage  service  should  be  stripped  of  its  bar- 
barisms as  unworthy  of  the  day  and  generation. 

The  expression  "his  widow"  came  from  the  time  when 
woman  had  no  resort  for  support  save  marriage;  no  chance  for 
position  unless  it  came  through  her  husband;  no  opportunity  to 
make  her  place  in  the  world  except  as  his  wife  or  his  widow. 
To  the  times  when  woman  could  never  be  in  the  nominative  case, 
but  always  in  the  possessive  referring  to  a  masculine  proper 
noun. 

When  a  married  woman  dies,  the  announcement  is  made 
somewhat  as  follows: 

Died,  Mary  L.  wife  of  James  Andrews. 
Sometimes  she  has  the  good  fortune  to  die  in  her  residence  or  her 
home,  or  the  homestead,  but  occasionally,  even  now,  she,  poor,  pen- 
niless, homeless  creature  dies  at  the  residence  of  her  husband; 
better,  to  be  sure,  than  the  infirmary,  but  yet  not  enough  her 
own  to  be  called  hers.  There  is  no  word  said  about  leaving 
a  widower.  She  often,  however,  leaves  a  husband;  but  should 
James  Andrews  die  first,  it  would  be  mentioned  that  he  left  not  a 
wife  but  a  widow.  Now  why  should  widow  be  used  in  one  case 
more  than  widower  in  the  other?  And  why  should  a  woman  who 
is  bereaved  of  her  husband  be  constantly  reminded  of  it  by  being 
called  his  widow,  or  still  worse  Widow  Andrews?  This  owner- 
ship does  not  cease  with  her  life,  but  on  her  tombstone  will  be 
placed  an  inscription  similar  to  that  prepared  by  the  famous 
Widow  Bedott,  and  the  "  late  relict  o'  Hezekiah"  is  fortunate  if 
she  does  not  sleep  in  a  row  of  "  tandem  wives,"  all  owned  by  the 
same  man.  The  number  of  these  one  sees  in  passing  through  a 
cemetery  suggests  the  idea  of  possession  has  not  yet  been  rele- 
gated to  the  barbarians  of  early  history.  The  cultivated  classes  of 
people,  however,  are  commencing  to  avoid  this  senseless  way  of 
marking  the  last  resting-places  of  women,  and  give  them  the 
individuality  of  their  own  names,  indicating  that  they  were  of 
sufficient  importance  to  be  remembered  for  what  they  were 
themselves  and  not  because  they  were  the  wives  of  men.  The 
man  has  his  name  without  mentioning  whether  he  was  a 
husband  or  widower;  although  he  may  have  been  tenderly  loved 
by  a  devoted  wife,  it  is  not  in  good  taste  to  state  the  fact  upon  his 
tombstone. 

May  the  day  soon  come  when  wife-stones  and  widow-stones 
shall  disappear  from  our  places  of  burial,  and  "  his  widow" 
become  an  obsolete  expression.  C.  McEveriiard. 


"THE  INSTITUTIONAL  ORDER." 

To  the  Editors: 

I  observe  in  your  issue  of  the  7th  inst.  an  article  on  the 
"  Failure  of  the  Radical  Method."  It  strikes  me  the  article  is 
misleading,  and  calculated  to  do  harm. 

First,  it  is  not  correct  to  confound  the  "  Radical  Method" 
with  the  "  Free  Religious  Association,"  of  Boston,  as  represent- 
ing "  the  dregs  of  the  great  reform  era  of  New  England,"  though 
the  Association  may  have  been  organized  to  give  utterance  to  rad- 
ical ideas.  The  article  allows  that  the  Association  has  had  and 
has  done  its  particular  work  for  twenty  years,  as  "a  critical 
judgment,"  "a  voice  in  the  wilderness,"  without  aiming  to  be 
"an  element  of  organized  life  in  the  community." 

I  had  supposed  that  the  leaders  and  co-workers  in  the  Free 
Religious     Association    were     positive     men    and     women  and 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


39 1 


forerunners  in  the  great  change  which  has  come,  rather  than  the 
dregs  of  anv  period.  In  so  far  as  they  worked  on  the  radical 
method  their  work  has  been  far  from  a  failure. 

Is  it  intended  to  say  that  everything  is  a  failure  which  is  not 
according  to  "  the  institutional  order,"  and  that  henceforth  posi- 
tive, radical  thought  must  be  discharged,  unpopular  utterances 
withheld,  and  all  of  us  must  fall  into  line  with  the  current  "con- 
servative religious  life?"  This  seems  to  be  the  implication,  as 
the  closing  sentence  reads:  "It  would  appear  that  even  the 
come-outers  from  organized  religion  are  compelled  to  fall  into 
lines  of  sympathy  and  union  with  the  institutional  order  from 
which  they  have  heretofore  most  vigorously  dissented." 

Is  this  so?  Is  success  to  be  found  only  in,  and  measured  by, 
popular  credulity?  That  every  great  movement  of  thought  does 
not  pass  into  organized  form,  does  not  gather  around  it  a  strong 
and  numerous  sect,  does  not  become  established  in  the  institu- 
tional sense,  is  not  surprising.  Such  men  as  Darwin  and  Huxley 
and  Spencer  do  not  work  to  build  up  sects,  but  to  modify  and 
direct  thought,  and  this  is  what  the  Free  Religious  Association 
has  done. 

The  institutional  order,  or  method,  is  to  establish  some  special 
phase  of  faith  or  worship  as  a  finality,  and  an  essential  to  save 
men  from  some  calamity.  The  radical  method,  aiming  to  pro- 
mote growth  and  progress  by  thinking,  does  not  let  society  rest 
in  any  half-truths  or  wrong  theories,  or  imperfect  conditions.  It 
accepts  traditions  and  established  rules  only  as  they  are  verified 
and  shown  to  be  true  by  experience,  and  calls  on  the  world  to  go 
forward  to  riper,  richer  harvests.  It  arouses  individual  capacity 
and  a  sense  of  power  and  responsibility,  which  the  anathema 
of  no  pope,  priest  or  synod  can  put  to  rest. 

I  do  not  understand  that  the  Free  Religious  Association  ever 
was  a  moral  reform  movement  or  intended  to  be  such.  If  it  sees 
fit  to  disband,  which  it  has  a  right  to  do,  its  members  will  not  in 
consequence  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  grasping,  selfish,  prose- 
lyting orders  of  any  name. 

The  cause  of  radical  thought  and  enlightenment  will  not  go 
backward.  None  of  us  can  live  and  work  alway ;  but  others  will 
take  up  and  carry  forward  the  torch  of  truth  even  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  firmest  instituted,  the  finest  and  most  massive  pillars 
of  antiquated  superstitions.  Institutions  decay.  Only  humanity 
and  truth  survive.  A.  N.  Adams. 


BOOK   REVIEWS. 


CHARACTER. 

The  following  is  from  a  friend  who  is  a  firm  theist: 
It  is  a  good  character  that  man  should  respect,  love  and  ven- 
erate, not  power.  This  regard  to  character  is  the  principle  that 
guides  the  intelligent  human  mind  in  our  relations  with  our  fel- 
low creatures,  and  no  reason  exists  why  we  should  set  aside  the 
application  of  it  to  the  character  of  any  mind  and  power  in  the 
universe.  If  the  character  of  a  God  by  his  deeds  and  general 
activities  is  known  to  be  unreasonable  and  vicious,  as  the  best 
human  judgment  sometimes  decides  the  moral  character  of  a 
man  to  be,  then  the  dignity  of  an  intelligent  and  honest  man 
justifies  him  in  withholding  from  such  a  God  all  respect,  esteem, 
or  worship;  for  a  God,  like  a  man,  should  be- judged  of  by  his 
deeds.  The  fact  of  such  a  God  having  power,  like  a  human  tyrant, 
to  crush  us  if  we  displease  him,  is  no  reason  why  man  with  his 
intelligence,  free  will,  dignity  and  courage,  should  crouch  in  fear 
and  pretend  to  love,  worship  and  adore  him. 

Let  our  honest  and  earnest  Christian  friends  see  to  it  that  the 
character  of  the  God  they  idealize  and  call  upon  us  to  venerate, 
love  and  worship,  has  the  ring  in  it  of  the  true  metal.  Is  it 
power  they  worship  or  is  it  character?  James  Eddy. 


The  High-Caste  Hindu  Woman.  By  Pundita  Ramabai  Saras- 
vati,  with  introduction  by  Rachel  S.  Bodley,  A.  M.,  M.  D., 
Dean  of  Woman's  Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania.  Phila- 
delphia,  18S7,  pp.  133. 

Nothing  marks  more  clearly  the  increase  of  communication 
between  the  peoples  of  the  earth — widely  separated  in  distance — 
and  the  great  enlargement  of  liberality  of  thought  and  feeling, 
than  the  publication  of  such  a  book  as  this.  It  is  an  appeal  to 
Americans  from  the  heart  of  India  to  help  her  women  to  educa- 
tion and  emancipation.  It  is  not  the  missionary  cry  that  here  are 
souls  perishing  eternally  without  the  knowledge  of  Christ.  We 
are  not  asked  to  convert  them  to  our  religion,  but  simply  to  help 
them  to  rise  above  a  condition  of  degradation  and  slavery  which 
makes  this  life  intolerable. 

The  author  of  this  book,  Pundita  Ramabai,  has  been  in  this 
country  for  over  a  year  and  is  well-known  to  many  persons  in 
Boston,  New  York  and  especially  in  Philadelphia.  She  is  quiet 
and  modest  in  appearance,  but  dignified  and  self-reliant,  and  she 
attracts  confidence  by  the  simplicity  of  her  manners  and  the 
moderation  and  earnestness  of  her  speech. 

Her  own  history  is  a  remarkable  one,  for  she  is  one  of  the 
very  few  native  Hindu  women  who  has  had  opportunity  for  good 
education  and  also  a  wide  knowledge  of  her  own  people.  Her 
father  was  an  educated  and  progressive  man,  who  was  strongly 
impressed  with  a  desire  that  his  wife  should  be  educated  like  the 
wife  of  the  reigning  Peshwa,  whose  learning  excited  his  admira- 
tion. But  the  first  wife  had  no  desire  to  be  instructed  and  the  ex- 
periment failed.  She  died  early,  however,  and  the  widower  not 
forgetting  his  purpose,  married  a  young  girl  of  nine  years  and 
carefully  educated  her.  But  the  objections  against  his  plan  were 
so  strong  that  he  was  obliged  to  retreat  to  the  jungle  to  form  a 
peaceful  home.  The  young  wife  Lakshimbai  "  grew  in  stature 
and  knowledge,"  and  the  father  devoted  himself  to  the  education 
of  his  children,  and  also  received  other  students,  who  were  attracted 
to  the  mountains  by  his  reputation  for  sanctity  and  learning. 

Ramabai  was  too  young  to  profit  much  by  her  father's  instruc- 
tions before  his  death,  but  her  mother  continued  the  good  work, 
and  it  is  to  her  that  she  dedicates  her  book — as  "  the  light  and 
guide  of  my  life." 

The  family  history  is  interesting  and  affecting,  for  they 
struggled  with  poverty  and  were  wanderers  without  a  home. 
After  her  parents'  death  Ramabai  traveled  through  India  with 
her  brother  and  thus  obtained  a  wide  knowledge  of  her  own  land 
and  the  condition  of  her  countrywomen. 

She  was  fortunate  in  remaining  single  until  the  age  of  six- 
teen, when  she  married  a  Bengali  gentleman,  a  graduate  of  the 
Calcutta  University.  "Afier  nineteen  months  of  happy  married 
life,"  she  says:  "  My  dear  husband  died  of  cholera.  A  few 
months  before  a  little  daughter  was  born  and  named  Manorama  " 
(heart's  joy). 

What  wonder  that  this  woman  so  prepared  for  her  mission  by 
early  training  and  by  the  joy  and  sorrow  of  her  own  experience, 
devotes  herself  to  the  elevation  of  her  own  sex,  and  especially  to 
the  relief  of  that  most  wretched  class  of  women — the  widows  of 
the  high-caste  families  of  India.  She  recognizes  all  that  has  been 
done  for  education  by  the  English  government  and  by  Christian 
missionaries,  but  neither  of  these  agencies  can  overcome  the  bar- 
riers placed  around  the  Hindu  widow  by  the  religion  and  customs 
the  country.  She  believes  that  the  only  teachers  who  can  really 
enter  the  zenanas  and  instruct  the  children,  are  those  of  their  own 
nation,  religion  and  caste;  and  in  the  widows,  often  young  girls 
who  have  known  nothing  of  marriage  but  the  name  and  the  re- 
strictions on  their  liberty,  she  finds  a  class  to  whom  this  occupa- 
tion would  be  the  greatest  of  blessings,  and  who  can  give  to  it  the 


392 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


time  for  thorough  preparation.  Her  plan  is,  therefore,  to  estab- 
lish a  Normal  School,  where  such  women  can  receive  a  thorough 
training  for  teaching.  They  must  be  supported  during  the  years 
thus  spent  in  preparation,  for  the  Hindu  widow  inherits  no  prop- 
erty from  either  father  or  husband.  The  details  of  her  plan  are 
given  in  this  book,  from  the  sale  of  which  she  hopes  to  receive 
help  toward  the  establishment  of  her  school.  A  committee 
has  already  been  formed  in  Boston  to  assist  her  in  her  work,  and 
we  confidently  believe  that  she  will  take  a  new  step  in  the  educa- 
tion of  women  in  India,  which  will  do  very  much  toward  break- 
ing the  yoke  which  the  laws  of  Men  v  have  bound  upon  the  necks 
of  this  unfortunate  portion  of  the  human  race. 

Ramabai  is  a  Christian— having,  as  she  says,  in  England, 
"gradually  learned  to  feel  the  truth  of  Christianity  and  to  see  that 
it  is  a  philosophy,  teaching  truths  higher  than  I  had  ever  known 
in  all  our  systems."  She  does  not  appear  to  accept  it  however,  in 
any  narrow  spirit,  and  she  wishes  carefully  to  guard  her  institu- 
tion from  any  theological  basis,  she  will  not  enjoin  the  reading  of 
the  Bible— or  attempt  to  make  her  pupils  Christians.  Her  effort 
will  be  to  enlighten  their  minds  and  lead  them  to  think  upon  all 
subjects  important  to  their  present  welfare  and  improvement. 

Her  book  is  written  with  great  simplicity  and  will  carry  con- 
viction to  many  minds.  One  or  two  critics  have  doubted  the  ex- 
istence of  the  evils  to  which  she  refers  and  have  declared  that  she 
speaks  of  things  which  existed  fifty  years  ago— but  which  English 
authority  has  put  an  end  to.  A  careful  reading  of  her  book  will 
show  her  acquaintance  with  all  that  has  been  done,  both  by  the 
English  government  and  English  philanthropists,  and  also  by 
that  noble  band  of  native  reformers,  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  but  these 
have  only  awakened  the  perception  of  the  need  of  reform,  and  the 
desire  to  enforce  it  in  individual  minds;  she  points  out  the  way  to 
carry  it  into  the  home,  the  very  citadel  of  the  old  religion  and  cus- 
toms, and  there  to  make  education  effective  for  the  welfare  of  the 
women  of  India.  From  all  the  testimony  we  have  been  able  to 
gather  from  other  sources,  she  understates  rather  than  exagge- 
rates  the  evils  she  proposes  to  remedy. 

Besides  the  interest  in  her  own  life  and  work,  we  find  in  the 
introduction  a  brief  notice  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Amandibai  Joshee, 
who  was  well  known  to  many  here  as  the  voung  physician  who 
graduated  at  Philadelphia,  and  went  afterward  as  an  interne  to 
the  New  England  Hospital  in  Boston.  Her  life,  which  promised 
so  much  of  help  and  encouragement,  was  closed  by  death  very 
soon  after  her  return  home.  Those  who  knew  her  here  will  be 
glad  to  possess  the  fine  photograph  of  her  which  accompanies  the 
book,  as  well  as  a  similar  one  of  Ramabai. 

The  introduction  is  by  the  well-known  Dean  of  the  Women's 
Medical  College  in  Philadelphia,  who  has  had  ample  opportunity 
to  know  these  two  remarkable  women — and  whose  testimony  is 
of  the  greatest  value,  from  her  high  reputation.  There  is  occa- 
sionally a  flavor  of  orthodoxy  which  does  not  seem  quite  in  keep- 
ing with  the  subject,  but  the  Dean's  action  has  been  so  broad  and 
liberal  that  we  will  not  find  fault  with  what  is  probably  a  custom- 
ary form  of  speech  which  does  not  bear  the  force  to  her  mind  that 
it  does  to  those  who  are  accustomed  to  a  more  radical  method  of 
thought. 

We  commend  this  book  heartily  and  have  hastened  to  bring 
it  into  The  Open  Court,  where  we  feel  sure  it  will  meet  a 
candid  reception  and  a  just  verdict.  E.  D.  C. 


extract  fun  out  of  even  dolorous  situations,  as,  for  instance,  in  the 
chapter  entitled  "  A  Raid  on  Canada,"  which  describes  a  night's 
encampment  on  a  deserted  and  unpleasant  little  island  in  Cana- 
dian waters,  which  they  were  glad  to  leave  after  one  night's  stay; 
but  this  is  the  way  the  Shaybacks  viewed  it  after  a  sleepless,  anx- 
ious night:  "Within  twenty-four  hours  what  had  been  accom- 
plished? We  had  wrested  an  uninhabited  island  from  the  domin- 
ion of  its  own  solitude.  We  had  established  law  and  order;  insti- 
tuted republican  government;  introduced  the  Christian  religion; 
reorganized  society  on  a  cooperative  basis;  effected  a  reform  in 
labor;  secured  the  rights  of  woman;  founded  a  free  public  library 
of  a  dozen  volumes  and  opened  a  school  of  practical  philosophy. 
And  now,"  said  Mr.  Shayback,  "all  that  remains  to  be  done,  with 
this  island  is  to  abandon  it  as  soon  as  possible."  And  so,  in  sev- 
enteen charming  chapters  of  delightful  description  of  idyllic  camp 
life  the  Shayback  couple  (who  seem  to  be  thoroughly  one),  make 
us  stay-at-homes  homesick  with  longing  to  "go  and  do  likewise," 
yet  an  undercurrent  of  feeling  warns  us  that  we  are  perhaps,  lack- 
ing in  the  right  sort  of  spirit  which  would  enable  us  to  accept 
with  equanimity  all  the  ups  and  downs  experienced  by  the  happy 
Shayback  campers.  Most  of  the  ten  seasons  of  camping  were 
passed  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Memphramagog,  in  Vermont,  but 
the  scene  is  varied  by  glimpses  of  peaceful  military  (or  militia) 
camp  life  near  Boston;  in  Maine  woods  and  in  missionary  life  in 
India.  The  latter  chapter  is  one  of  Mrs.  Barrows'  three  special 
contributions  to  the  book,  and  one  which  makes  us  feel  as  Mr. 
Barrows  premises  we  should — regret  "that  Mrs.  Barrows' name 
is  not  attached  to  a  larger  number  of  these  sketches."  We  advise 
all  next  year's  campers  to  take  the  Shaybacks  in  Camp  along  with 
them  for  profitable  advice  as  well  as  pleasureable  amusement. 


Among  the  many  attractions  of  the  Century  magazine  for 
August  (the  midsummer  holiday  number)  we  have  only  space 
to  note  Brander  Matthews  paper  on  "The  Songs  of  the  War," 
which  includes  authentic  accounts  of  the  origin  of  the  most  nota- 
ble of  the  songs,  with  autographs,  in  whole  or  in  part,  of  Ran- 
dall's "My  Maryland,"  Mrs.  Howe's  "Battle  Hymn  of  the 
Republic,"  and  Mr.  Gibbon's  "Three  Hundred  Thousand  More;" 
altogether  a  most  readable  paper  apart  from  its  relation  to  the 
war.  To  this  Mrs.  Howe  adds  an  account  of  the  circumstances 
attending  the  writing  of  her  hymn;  Edward  Atkinson's  discus- 
sion of  "Low  Prices,  High  Wages,  Small  Profits — What  Makes 
Them;"  Gen.  Greely's  description  of  an  episode  of  the  Lady 
Franklin  Bay  Expedition,  under  the  title  of  "Our  Kivigtok,"  a 
kivigtok  being,  in  the  language  of  the  explorer,  a  man  who  has 
fled  mankind  and  through  a  solitary  life  amid  nature's  surround- 
ings has  acquired  a  gift  of  clairvoyance;  and  a  short  paper  by 
William  Earl  Hidden,  entitled  "Is  it  a  Piece  of  a  Comet?"  A 
fine  portrait  of  Julia  Ward  Howe  is  the  frontispiece  of  this  num- 
ber, and  other  portraits  are  those  of  John  Brown  (whose  grave  at 
North  Elba  is  also  pictured),  Caleb  Cushing,  William  L.  Yancey, 
Generals  Schofield,  A.J.  Smith,  J.  I).  Cox,  James  H.  Wilson  and 
Emerson  Opdycke  of  the  Union  army,  and  Generals  Hood, 
Forrest,  Stephen  D.  Lee,  Cheatham  and  Cleburne  of  the  Con- 
federates. 


The  Shaybacks  in  Camp:  Ten  Summers  Under  Canvas.  By 
Samuel  J.  Barrows  and  Isabel  C.  Barrows.     Boston  and  New- 
York :   Houghton,  Mifflin  ..V  Co,  1S87;  pp.  305.     Price  $1.00. 
If  this  handsome  volume  were  a  veritable  romance  instead  of 
the  realistic  record  that  it  is,  it  would  still  be  a  delightful  vacation 
book  from  the  cheerful,  easy-going,  optimistic  spirit  of  its  authors 
who  seemingly  know  "how  to  make  the  best"  of  things,  and  to 


The  Chicago  Law  Times,  the  legal  quarterly,  edited  by 
Catherine  V.  Waite,  in  its  last  issue  dated  July,  18S7,  has  a  very 
carefully  prepared  and  cogent  article  anent  Woman  Suffrage, 
entitled  "  Suffrage  a  Right  of  Citzenship,"  written  by  Judge 
Waite,  the  husband  of  the  editress.  A  finely  engraved  portrait  of 
"John  Jay,  first  Chief-Justice  of  the  United  States,"  accompanies 
the  article  by  this  title;  Melville  W.  Fuller,  William  Brackett 
and  other  writers,  make  this  third  number  of  the  Law  Times  espe- 
cially interesting. 


The  Open  Court, 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon  a   Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  15. 


CHICAGO,  SEPTEMBER  1,  1887. 


(  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
i  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


THE    SOUL. 

BY    EDWARD    C.    HEGELER. 

In  a  late  number  of  our  journal  Dr.  Paul  Carus 
gives  us  a  translation  of  Goethe  and  Schiller's  Xenions, 
to  one  of  which  he,  at  my  request,  called  special  atten- 
tion in  the  foot-note.  "  This  distich  gives  us  in  nuce  the 
fundamental  idea  of  monism."      The  distich  reads: 

"Vor  dem  Tode  erschrickst  Du!     Du  wiinschest  unsterblich  zu 
leben? 
Leb  im   Ganzen !      Wenn   Du         Lange   dahin    bist,   es 
bleibt." 
"Art  thou  afraid  of  death?  thou  wishest  for  being  immortal! 

Live  as  a  part  of  the  whole,         When  thou  art  gone,  it 
remains." 

In  continuing  the  foot-note  Dr.  Carus  adds:  "This 
living  immortal  by  living  in  the  whole,  as  a  part  of  the 
whole,  is  the  immortality  of  the  soul  Mr.  Hegeler  spoke 
of  in  his  essay  on  '  The  Basis  of  Ethics.'" 

In  this  statement  of  my  views  the  words  "  of  the 
soul  "  should  have  been  omitted  after  immortality,  as 
the  distich  does  not  describe  soul  preservation,  but  gen- 
eral immortality.  If  we  think  that  life  will  possibly  be 
extinguished  on  our  earth,  though  probably  not  for  mill- 
ions of  years,  the  thought  that  we  are  parts  of  a  great 
whole  reaching  beyond  it  and  in  life-activity  elsewhere, 
and  the  thought  of  eternal  time  in  which  the  matter 
now  in  our  planet,  with  its  inherent  potential  life,  will 
play  its  role  again,  will  still   give  us  peace. 

I  described  something  more  definite  as  the  immortal- 
ity of  the  soul,  however,  and  will  endeavor  to  make  it 
more  explicit.  Through  all  the  years  of  my  life  from 
early  infancy  whatever  came  or  occurred  within  the 
sphere  of  my  sense  organs  formed  living  memories  or 
analogues  in  my  brain.  The  word  "  Soul  "  was  perma- 
nently formed  as  a  living  phonogram  in  intimate  con- 
nection with  a  certain  class  of  these  analogues  or 
memories,  so  that  now  this  word  to  me  is  the  living  key 
to  them. 

I  have  stated  before  that  the  nature  of  the  soul  is 
form  in  living  human  brain-matter.  Form  can  show 
itself  in  matter,  energy  and  feeling.  It  is  as  real  a 
thing  as  matter.  Imagine  we  have  a  statue  of  Wash- 
ington before  us;  let  it  be  of  bronze.  Of  what  import 
is  the  matter  in  it?  Before  the  bronze  was  in  the  form 
of  the  statue  it  was  liquid  in  a  ladle,  and  then  had  the 
form  of  the  hollow  of  the  ladle.     It  always  was  bronze 


in  some  form  or  other.  But  in  speaking  of  bronze,  or  of 
matter  in  general,  we  do  not  think  of  its  form;  the  word 
matter,  therefore,  stands  for  an  abstraction*  of  a  real 
thing,  including  only  a  part  of  what  makes  up  a  real 
thing.  The  statue  or  form,  aside  from  its  material, 
which  may  be  plaster  of  Paris  or  anything  else,  exists 
also  in  the  hollow  of  the  mold  in  which  the  statue 
was  cast.  Thus  form  stands  for  an  abstraction  or  a  part 
of  something  real ;  it  is  real,  as  much  so  as  matter. 

Speaking  of  form  of  energy,  I  imagine  to  have  two 
phonographs,  and  a  speech  recorded  on  the  tin-foil  of 
the  one;  in  the  other  the  tin-foil  is  blank.  The  geomet- 
rical line  imagined  as  resulting  from  a  longitudinal 
section  of  the  scratch  in  the  tin-foil  is  the  analogue  to 
the  speech.  Both  phonographs  are  turned  at  the  same 
time.  The  scratch  in  the  tin-foil  of  the  first  speaks;  a 
similar  line  is  made  in  the  tin-foil  of  the  second.  Both 
now  have  the  same  geometrical  line.  What  has  taken 
place  between  them  during  the  operation?  Energy, 
coming  formless,  or  rather  uniform,  from  my  arm  mus- 
cles in  turning  the  phonograph,  passed  though  the  air 
in  vibrations  corresponding  to  the  geometrical  line  in  the 
tin-foil  of  the  first  phonograph  and  was  received  by  the 
second,  producing  the  same  geometrical  line  in  its  tin- 
foil. Is  not  that  what  we  call  form  in  the  undulating 
geometrical  line  intimately  associated  with  energy  in 
these  vibrations?  It  must  be — we  have  form  asso- 
ciated with  energy. 

Feelings  are  of  different  intensity,  as  one  pain  is 
stronger  than  another.  Single  feelings  may  be  of 
longer  or  shorter  duration,  and  between  them  there  may 
be  definite  intervals  of  time.      Feeling's  also  differ  among: 

o  to 

themselves     as     various    tastes    or    odors,    or    as     those 


*  I  am  told  that  what  I  call  an  abstraction  is  usually  called  a  generalization, 
but  abstraction  is  the  more  correct  word.  If  a  generalization  is  made,  many 
things  having  something  in  common  are  put  together  and  what  thev  have  in 
common  is  specified  in  words.  It  is  then  forgotten  that  what  thev  do  not  have 
in  common  disappears  in  the  generalization.  The  same  takes  place  in  Galton's 
composite  photographs  of  the  members  of  a  family.  Only  that  remains  of  the 
several  faces  what  they  have  in  common.  This  implies  that  the  composite  pho- 
tograph is  entirely  contained  in  each  of  the  single  photographs  of  each  member, 
each  is  the  complete  composite  with  additions.  So  in  reality  the  composite 
photograph  is  an  abstraction — a  part — of  each  of  the  single  photographs. 

If  of  a  bronze  statue  and  a  bronze  cube  and  a  bronze  sphere  I  make  the  gen- 
eralization bronze,  I  in  reality  make  an  abstraction — the  bronze  is  in  each  ot 
them — the  form  is  not  noticed.  If  of  the  w<  rds  bronze,  lead,  iron  and  copper  1 
make  the  generalization  metal,  I  again  make  an  abstraction.  What  the  word 
metal  implies  is  in  all  of  them,  the  other  characteristics  are  omitted.  If  again  of 
the  words  metal,  wood,  water  and  air  I  make  the  so-called  generalization  matter, 
I  again  in  reality  make  an  abstraction,  what  is  meant  by  matter  is  completely 
found  in  each  of  them. 


394 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


accompanying  different  musical  notes.  In  this  way  I 
speak  of  the  feelings  I  have  on  hearing  a  melody,  as 
corresponding  to  the  geometrical  form  of  the  line  in  the 
tin-foil  of  a  phonograph  that  records  it. 

If  I  am  familiar  with  the  melody,  I  hold  that  living 
atoms  in  my  brain  have  arranged  themselves  in  a  form 
analogous  to  the  longitudinal  section  of  the  scratch  in  the 
tin-foil  on  my  previously  hearing  it.  This  chain  of 
atoms  is  stimulated  by  and  then  feels  the  melody,  that 
is,  is  conscious  of  it.  Separate  chords  of  the  melody 
awaken  other  memories;  the  melody  combines  them. 

The  word  soul  in  all  who  receive  the  usual  religious 
education  is  a  living  phonogram,  a  form  in  living  nerve- 
matter;  it  is  a  reality  within  us  as  much  as  the  heart  or 
the  lungs,  and  cannot  be  amputated  as  a  hand  can.  I  state 
here  that  by  a  word  I  mean  besides  its  own  sound  all 
the  associated  memories  thereby  awakened.  Most  of 
them  are  recorded  in  our  brain  as  language  in  other 
phonograms. 

The  common  definition  of  the  word  soul  compre- 
hends what  man  is  besides  what  he  has  in  common 
with  the  animal.  We  were  taught  that  the  animal 
has  no  soul,  and  that  everything  common  to  both  the 
animal  and  man  did  not  belong  to  the  human  soul. 
But  gradually  it  has  been  recognized  that  the  animal 
shares  those  qualities  more  or  less  which  we  have 
regarded  as  characteristics  of  the  soul  of  man.  The 
point  is,  that  man  has  more  soul  than  the  animal. 

Dr.  Bock  says  in  his  book  Vom  gesunden  und 
kranken  Menschen:  "  Durch  der  Sinne  Pforten,  zieht, 
tier  Geist  in  unsern  Koerper  (in  das  Gehirn  )  ein." 
[The  soul  enters  our  body  (the  brain)  through  the 
gateway  of  the  senses.]  On  another  page  he  says: 
"The  healthy  brain  necessarily  must  by  degrees  develop 
its  reason  through  external  impressions  by  means  of  the 
senses,  and  this  is  the  basis  of  education.  If  a  man, 
immediately  after  birth,  were  cut  off  from  the  world,  he 
could  not  attain  an)'  feature  of  human  reason;  and  if  a 
man  had  intercourse  onlv  with  animals  his  habits  would 
be  those  of  animals." 

How  these  external  impressions  are  recorded  in  the 
brain  naturally  becomes  a  problem.  The  photograph 
at  first  suggested  itself  as  an  explanation.  Think- 
ing in  pictures  is  a  constant  occupation  of  all  mechan- 
ical constructors  and  inventors.  These  pictures  or 
images  must  be  living  structures  in  the  brain;  as 
active  individuals  they  combine  to  more  complicated 
images.  Drawing,  model-making  and  trying  to  put 
real  things  together  arc  direct  helps  in  picture-thinking. 
Language-thinking  conies  to  aid  at  an  early  stage,  how- 
ever. I  low  language  could  record  itself  remained  mys- 
terious, it  seemed  so  complicated,  until  a  new  light 
was  given  by  the  invention  of  the  phonograph,  which 
could  reproduce  speech.  I  had  read  in  an  article  in  the 
Berlin  Gegcnwart  on  The  Origin  of  Reason,  by  Noire, 


just  about  that  time,  '■'■Alan  thi?iks  because  he  speaks ; 
he  has  concepts,  because  he  has  words/  "  and  how  simplv 
does  the  phonograph  record  words!  That  man's  brain 
can  record  language  in  as  simple  a  way  as  the  phono- 
graph is  undoubtedly  one  foundation  of  the  progress  of 
man  over  the  animal. 

I  have  overcome  any  hesitancy  to  pronounce  this  my 
opinion  (which  is  likely  shared  by  many  others)  so  posi- 
tively, by  the  course  our  increase  of  knowledge  of  the 
working  of  the  eye  has  taken.  That  the  eye  works  like  a 
photographer's  camera  we  learned  already  at  school;  that 
in  addition  a  liquid  analogous  to  the  photographer's 
chemicals  was  active  in  the  retina,  fixing  there  for  a  short 
time  pictures  thrown  on  it  by  the  lens  of  the  eye,  we 
learned  not  many  years  ago. 

In  the  Revue  PhilosopJiiquc  for  May,  1887,  I  find 
A.  Binet  quotes  a  hypnotic  state  described  for  the  first 
time  by  Berger,  of  Breslau.  If  the  crown  of  the  head 
of  a  somnambulistic  subject  is  pressed  strongly  with  the 
hand  his  state  is  changed.  lie  no  longer  answers  ques- 
tions asked  of  him,  but  repeats  them,  like  a  phonograph. 
He  reflects  like  a  mirror  all  gestures  and  movements 
made  before  him;  in  short,  he  has  become  an  automatic 
imitator. 

Among  the  erroneous  ideas  conveyed  by  the  word 
•'  soul  "  is  that  of  its  transcendentality.  This  was  so 
deeply  impressed  into  our  brain  that  we  hear  it  affirmed 
within  us  again  and  again.  We  cannot  destroy  the 
inner  phonogram  which  in  us  speaks  this  erroneous 
idea,  but  we  can  supplement  the  ideas  now  associated 
with  the  word  "  soul  "  with  ideas  correcting  those  which 
are  erroneous  among  them. 

We  know  the  doctrine  is  erroneous  that  the  soul  is 
born  with  the  child,  and  also  the  belief  that  the  soul 
at  the  moment  of  death  leaves  the  body  as  an  invisible 
substance;  but  it  is  still  wore  erroneous  to  dec/are  oil 
this  account  that  man  has  no  son/. 

What  the  human  soul  is  has  been  made  clear  to  me 
principally  by  the  leading  German  author  of  our  time- - 
Gustav  Freitag.  He  propounds  his  view  of  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soid  in  a  dialogue  which  takes  place  between 
Professor  Werner  and  his  wife  Use.*  Standing  before 
the  shelves  of  his  library  he  says  about  the  books: 

"  They  are  the  great  treasure-keepers  of  the  human 
race.  They  preserve  all  that  is  most  valuable  of  what 
has  ever  been  thought  or  discovered  from  one  century 
to  another,  and  they  proclaim  what  was  once  existing 
upon  the  earth." 

Anil  further  on  the  Professor  explains  how  the  souls 
of  men  actually  are  in  hooks: 

"  Since  the  invention  of  books  almost  all  that  zee  know 
and  call  learning  is  to  be  found  in  them.  But  that  is  not 
all,"  he  continued  in  a  whispering  tone;  '■'■few  knozv  that 
a  book  is  something  more  than  simply  a  product  of  the 


*The  l^jst  Manuscript^  Rook    II,  Chapter  -:. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


395 


creative  mind,  which  its  author  semis  forth  as  a  cabinet- 
maker does  a  chair  that  has  been  ordered.  '/here 
remains  attached,  undoubtedly,  to  every  hitman  work 
something  of  the  son/  of  the  /nan  who  has  produced  it '. 
But  a  hook  truly  contains  under  its  cover  tlte  real  soul 
of  the  man.  /lie  real  value  of  a  man  to  others — the 
best  portion  of  his  life — remains  in  this  form  for  the 
next  generation,  perhaps  to  the  most  distant  future. 
Moreover,  not  only  those  zvho  write  a  good  book,  but 
those  whose  lives  and  actions  are  portrayed  in  it,  con- 
tinue in  fact  living  among  us.  II  e  con 'verse  with 
them  as  with  friends  and  opponents ;  we  admire  and 
contend  with,  love  or  hate  them,  not  less  than  if  they 
dwe/t  bodily  among  us.  'J he  human  soul  that  is 
inclosed  in  such  a  cover  becomes  imperishable  on  earth, 
and  therefore  we  may  say  :  In  the  book  lasts  on  the  soul- 
life  of  the  individual,  and  only  the  soul  which  is  incasea 
in  a  book  has  reliable  duration  on  earth."  * 

"But  error  persists  also,"  said  Use,  "and  so  do  liars 
and  impure  spirits  if  they  betake  themselves  into  a  book.' 
■'They  undoubtedly  do,  but  are  refuted  by  better 
souls.  Very  different,  certainly,  is  the  value  and  im- 
port of  these  imperishable  records.  Few  maintain  their 
beauty  and  importance  for  all  times;  many  are  only  val- 
uable for  a  later  period,  because  we  ascertain  from  them 
the  character  and  life  of  men  in  their  days,  while  others 
are  quite  useless  and  ephemeral.  But  all  books  that 
have  ever  been  written,  from  the  earliest  to  the  latest,  have 
a  mysterious  connection.  For  no  one  who  has  written  a 
book  has  of  himself  become  what  he  is;  everyone  stands 
on  the  shoulders  of  his  predecessor ;  all  that  was  pro- 
duced before  his  time  has  helped  to  form  his  life  ana 
soul.  Again,  what  he  has  produced  has  in  some  sort 
formed  other  men,  and  thus  his  soul  has  passed  to  later 
times.  In  this  way  the  contents  of  all  books  form  one 
great  soul-empire  on  earth,  and  all  who  now  write-, 
live  and  nourish  t/iemselves  on  the  souls  of  the  fas 
generations. 

"  From  this  point  of  view  the  soul  of  mankind  is  one 
interminable  unity.  Every  single  individual  belongs 
to  it  he  who  lived  and  worked  in  past  limes  as  well  as 
he  who  now  breathes  and  creates  new  ideas.  lite  soul 
which  people  of  past  generations  felt  as  their  own  was 
and  is  still  transmitted  to  others.  What  has  been  writ- 
ten to-day  will  to-morrow,  perhaps,  be  the  possession 
of  many  thousand  strangers.  Who  long  ago  returned 
his  body  to  nature,  continues  to  live  on  earth  in  an 
unceasingly  renewed  existence,  and  comes  to  new  Ife 
again  daily  in  others" 

"  Stop,"  cried   Use,  entreatingly,  "  I  am  bewildered." 
"I  tell   vou  this  now,  because  I   feel  myself  an  unos- 
tentatious worker   in    this    earthly    soul    empire.      This 

*  In  the  translation  of  the  quotations  from  Gusta\  Frietag  I  have  used  the 
word  soul  for  the  German  word  "  Gel<tV'  I  ini^ht  have  translated  "  Gri\t"  bv 
"spirit"  or  hv  "mind,"  hut  the  word  "  soul "  expresses  lrul\  what  I  understand 
the  author  to  mean  by  the  word  "  GeistV 


feeling  gives  me  a  pleasure  in  life  which  is  indestructible, 
and  it  also  gives  me  both  freedom  and  modesty.  For 
whoever  works  with  this  feeling,  whether  his  powers 
be  great  or  small,  docs  so  not  for  his  own  honor,  but  for 
all.  He  does  not  live  for  himself,  but  for  all,  as  all  who 
have  existed,  continue  to  live  for  him." 

The  soul  is  the  form  of  a  very  complicated,  self-act- 
ing mechanism  of  living  matter,  wdiich  feels  in  a  part 
of  the  living  substance  which  is  in  action;  the  feelings 
correspond  in  form  to  the  most  essential  parts  of  the 
mechanism.  From  this  living  mechanism,  which  is  our 
soul,  all  we  do,  our  knowledge,  our  thinking  and  human 
emotions  proceed.  It  comprises  all  that  man  esteems 
highest  in  himself.  Does  this  thought  degrade  the  soul 
conception?  Not  to  me,  although  the  word  soul  always 
brings  to  consciousness  in  me  what  I  value  highest  in 
myself.  But  the  word  mechanism  conveys  a  higher 
meaning  than  before. 

The  conservation  of  energy  has  been  demonstrated. 
How  is  it  with  lifer  A  certain  quantity  of  organic  mat- 
ter is  exposed  to  sunlight  under  the  conditions  necessary 
for  life  on  the  surface  of  the  earth.  There  a  certain 
quantity  of  life  function  takes  place;  we  see  it  in  the  lux- 
urious growth  in  manifold  forms  in  the  tropic  forest,  as 
well  as  in  a  less  quantity  but  higher  form  in  the  brain 
of  civilized  man.  The  total  quantity  of  life  on  the 
surface  of  the  earth  in  the  course  of  one  year,  if  we 
could  measure  it,  I  hold,  would  be  found  nearly  the 
same  in  one  year  as  in  another.  It  would  be  found  to 
vary  with  solar  conditions  only. 

I  will  let  Dr.  Bock  speak  again.* 

"  'Nature  is  one  great  living  being,'  is  the  thought- 
ful dictum  of  a  famous  poet ;  and,  truly,  whether  your 
inquiring  mind  dwells  upon  its  nearest  surroundings  or 
roams  through  the  profundities  of  the  universe,  whether 
it  soars  to  the  skies  or  descends  into  the  depths  of  the 
earth,  you  will  find  everywhere  a  constant  change  of 
things,  a  process  of  consolidation  and  dissolution,  of  re- 
generation and  decay.  What  are  these  changes  but  life? 
When  death  seems  to  annihilate  its  victims,  new  beings 
rise  out  of  seeming  nothingness  and  if  you  compare 
the  simple  forms  which  were  destroyed  some  thousand 
of  years  ago,  with  those  more  perfect  organisms  which 
now  exist,  you  will  comprehend  the  truth  of  the  words: 
'Death  is  not  death;  death  is  the  elevation  of  mortal 
nature.'  " 

In  our  whole  bodv,  and  so  in  the  mechanisms  in  our 
brain,  the  feeling  (conscious),  living  matter  is  con- 
stantly renewed  by  new  feeling,  living  matter  of  the 
same  kind.  The  new  living  atoms  constantly  enter  into 
the  relative  positions  of  those  which  they  replace,  thus 
preserving  the  form  of  the  mechanisms,  anil  with  that 
our  memory. 

*This  quotation  from  Dr.  Bock's  book  is  translated  by  Dr.  Carus.  Hiosi 
id  Gustav  Freitag  are  hum  Mrs.  Malcolm's  translation,  revised  and  sup- 
plemented 


396 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


I  imagine  I  had  died  and  another  man  was  formed 
of  living  matter,  so  that  in  him  the  atoms  were  in  the 
same  relative  position  as  in  me;  he  would  be  my  con- 
tinuance, he  would  be  the  same  man  that  I  am,  as  I  am 
the  same  man  that  I  was  yesterday;  he  would  know  all  I 
know,  would  know  every  person  I  know  and  would  be 
known  as  I  am.  He  would  feel  as  I  do,  would  act  as  I 
do  under  the  same  circumstances,  would  give  the  same 
answer  to  the  same  question;  he  would  have  the  same 
character,  the  same  conscience,  the  same  morals,  he 
■would  have  my  soul. 

Can  we  thus  renew  ourselves?  Yes,  we  can  to  a 
great  extent.  We  can  form  our  soul  again  in  the  grow- 
ing generation  through  education  and  example,  individ- 
ually and  collectively. 

We  can  preserve  and  elevate  the  soul  of  the  present 
generation  and  of  posterity.  To  preserve  and  to  elevate 
the  quality  of  the  human  soul,  that  is  the  basis  of  ethics. 
Let  there  also  be  more  elevated  souls  in  number,  the 
more  the  better,  but  the  higher  quality  of  the  soul  is  the 
primary  aim  of  ethics. 

Pleasure  and  pain  in  the  higher  man  of  the  future 
will,  in  quantity,  probably  be  proportioned  as  now,  but 
their  form,  their  quality,  will  change.  The  proportion 
of  pleasure  and  pain  will  be  such  as  will  accompany 
man's  greatest  progress.  For  only  those  nations  will 
survive  which  remain  at  the  head  of  civilization. 

Whether  life  is  worth  living  is  not  the  question  of 
ethics,  it  is  beyond  our  control.  If  civilized  life  does 
not  continue,  savage  life,  or  even  the  life  of  brutes, 
will  take  its  place.  As  long  as  the  sun  shines  upon 
our  earth  under  similar  conditions  as  now,  so  long  the 
same  quantity  of  life  will  continue  upon  its  surface. 


SEPARATION   OF  CHURCH   AND   STATE. 

STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION  IN  FRANCE. 

Part  II. 

BY  ALBERT  REVILLE,  PROFESSOR  IN  THE  COLLEGE  OF  FRANCE. 

Thence,  there  are  many  grades  in  French  Catholicism  : 
ist.  Those  who  have  remained  believing  and  practicing 
Catholics.  2d.  Those  who  do  not  believe  and  scarcely 
practice,  but  who  have  certain  vague  religious  desires 
which  they  essay  to  satisfy  in  the  mystical  pomps  of 
Catholicism,  with  the  sentiment  of  art  rather  than  of 
faith.  3d.  Those  who  regret  that  Catholicism  should  be 
the  traditional  religion  in  France,  but  who  do  not  think  it 
possible  to  react  against  this  result  of  centuries,  and  who 
let  themselves  make  concessions  that  they  know  to  be 
desired  by  their  feminine  surroundings,  and  that  they 
look  upon  as  clue  to  propriety  and  good  taste.  4th 
Those  who  applaud  all  attacks  directed  against  the 
Church,  but  who  continue  none  the  less  to  bring  up  their 
children  in  Catholicism,  who  ask  the  priest  for  the  con- 
jugal rite,  and  who  die  under  the  administration  of  those 
sacraments  of  the  church   that  they  have  combatted  all 


their  lives.  5th  and  lastly.  Those  who  have  broken  with 
it  openly  and  radically,  do  not  have  their  children  bap- 
tized, are  married  only  before  the  Mayor,  and  desire  for 
themselves  no  other  funeral  rites  than  those  that  are 
purely  civil.  I  may  add  that  these  varieties  exist,  but 
that  they  intermingle  and  pass  one  into  the  other  in  such 
manner  as  to  produce  gradations  infinite  in  number  and 
absolutely  impossible  to  define. 

But,  in  France,  political  ideas  and  tendencies  are  as 
precise  and  dogmatic  as  religious  beliefs  are  incoherent, 
The  democratic  sentiment  is  very  generally  prevalent, 
taking  hold  even  of  classes  and  individuals  that,  from 
interest  or  tradition,  ought  to  repudiate  it.  Republican 
democracy  is  anti-Catholic,  because  Catholicism  and  its 
clergy  appear  to  be  irremediably  identified  with  the  old 
monarchical  and  aristocratic  regime.  There  are,  never- 
theless, some  democrats  sincerely  Catholic,  but  they  are 
very  few  in  number.  Ordinarily  a  French  democrat 
entertains  a  profound  dislike  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
is  much  inclined — not  to  persecute  it,  but  to  take  from 
it  all  the  support  that  it  can  still  find  in  existing  laws 
and  institutions.  It  might  even  be  said  that  it  is  too 
readily  supposed  that  the  actual  power  yet  remaining 
to  Catholicism  is  based  on  the  idea  that  it  can  depend 
upon  the  State  and  its  subsidies  and  its  official  protection 
— wherein  I  believe  that  it  deceives  itself. 

This  republican  democrat,  then,  is  quite  disposed  to 
clamor  for  the  separation  of  Church  and  State;  he 
applauds  the  newspaper  articles,  the  orators  at  public 
meetings  and  the  candidates  for  a  seat  in  the  Chambers, 
who  demand  it.  Neither  are  arguments  wanting  to  jus- 
tify the  view  he  takes. 

Notwithstanding,  says  he,  that  the  French  State  of 
to-day  gives  proof  of  greater  tolerance  than  the  old 
rdgime,  in  supporting  the  three  or  four  forms  of  religion 
that  share  its  territory  in  unequal  proportions,  by  what 
right  does  it  make  the  ever-increasing  number  of  those 
who  profess  no  distinct  creed  compete  under  this  system? 
Why  must  one  necessarily  be  Catholic,  Protestant,  or 
Jew,  in  order  to  share  the  budgetary  favors  of  a  govern- 
ment that  does  not  pretend  to  attach  itself  to  an)'  pro- 
fessed religion  ?  Why  are  these  advantages  awarded, 
with  the  money  of  all,  to  three  or  four  sects,  and  refused 
to  new  or  dissenting  worshipers  who  may  come  forward 
and  do  sometimes  appear?  This  is  neither  logical  nor 
just.  Besides,  what  does  the  Republic  effect  in  paying 
bishops  and  cures?  It  maintains  its  sworn  enemies  and 
puts  into  their  hands  the  arms  which  they  use  for  fight- 
ing it.  For,  Roman  Catholicism  and  its  clergy  are  and 
always  will  be  inimical  to  liberty.  The  absolute  author- 
ity that  they  arrogate  to  themselves,  their  hostility 
against  independent  science  that  recognizes  no  other 
rule  than  experience  and  experimental  method,  the  spirit 
of  weak  submission  that  they  spread  about  among  the 
people,  the  hesitation  in  thought  and  enterprise  that  they 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


397 


inspire,  the  sill}'  superstitions  that  they  patronize 
(Lourdes,  La  Salette,  the  Sacre  Cour),  their  horror  of 
free  examination,  their  subjection  to  a  foreign  priest 
always  in  sympathy  with  despotisms  and  oppressions — 
all  this  makes  the  Catholic  religion  and  its  priesthood 
the  born  adversaries  of  liberalism,  of  democracy,  of  the 
Republic.  The  Republic,  then,  plays  the  part  of  a  dupe 
in  continuing  to  support  by  its  money  and  its  patronage 
an  institution  radically  and  fatally  hostile  to  it.  With- 
out doubt,  consciences  must  be  respected  and  every  one 
must  be  left  free  to  devote  himself  to  the  worship  that 
suits  him,  or  to  practice  none  at  all  if  that  pleases  him 
better.  But  let  those  who  have  need  of  the  priest  and 
his  ceremonial  pay  for  them;  and  let  the  State,  whose 
sole  mission  is  to  safe-guard  the  liberty  of  all,  rid  itself 
at  length  of  this  onerous  obligation,  which  burden  our 
budgets  from  being  evenly  balanced,  which  is  opposed 
to  the  principles  of  justice  and  equality  and  which  only 
brings  difficulties  and  embarrassments  upon  the  Repub- 
lic, still  so  sorely  pressed. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  these  arguments  are 
extremely  specious.  But  the  other  side  must  also  be 
heard.  For,  there  are  also  politicians  who  advocate  the 
maintenance  of  the  actual  regime,  in  the  very  interest  of 
democracy  and  the  Republic. 

The)'  say  that  in  fact,  whether  it  be  matter  for  regret 
or  for  congratulation,  Catholicism  is  the  religious  form 
to  which  the  majority  of  Frenchmen  are  accustomed  ■ 
and  so  thoroughly  accustomed,  that  it  is  very  difficult  for 
them  to  comprehend  any  others.  The  Frenchmen  may 
be  skeptical,  indifferent,  incredulous — he  is  so  frequently ; 
but  if,  from  one  cause  or  another,  the  need  of  some 
religion  is  awakened  in  his  soul,  nine  times  in  ten  it  is 
in  Catholicism  alone  that  he  will  dream  of  seeking  its 
satisfaction.  Thence  it  follows  that  the  Catholic  Church, 
albeit  lessened  in  prestige  and  power  and  doomed 
according  to  all  appearances  to  be  further  and  further  les- 
sened, still  possesses  much  power  notwithstanding.  You 
incline  to  sever  the  pecuniary  and  administrative  tie  that 
binds  it  to  the  State; but,  consequently,  you  are  willing  to 
deprive  the  State  of  the  supervision  and  control  that  the 
existing  system  assures  to  it.  Are  you  certain  that  you 
will  not  thereby  augment  those  embarrassments  and 
those  dangers  which  you  reproach  the  Republic  with 
encouraging  and  creating  against  itself?  At  the  pres- 
ent time  the  State  is  armed  with  laws  that  protect  it 
sufficiently  well  against  the  terrible  sore  of  Catholicism, 
that  is  to  say,  the  convents  and  the  inevitable  abuses  of 
which  they  are  always  and  everywhere  the  generating 
hearth.  But  if  the  Catholic  Church,  by  its  separation 
from  the  State,  reconquers  its  entire  liberty,  what  will 
you  do  to  prevent  the  increase  in  all  directions  of  these 
strongholds  of  obscurantism  and  superstition?  How 
will  you  hinder  these  establishments,  that  receive  ever 
and  never  give  back,  from  imbibing  slowly  that  which 


is  most  solid  and  most  secure  in  the  public  wealth,  and 
from  reconstituting  the  scourge  of  the  mort-main  that  the 
Revolution  had  so  much  trouble  in  abolishing?  The 
bishops  are  to  a  certain  point  under  the  control  of  the 
State,  which  can  intervene  when,  through  blind  obedi- 
ence to  the  Court  of  Rome,  they  adopt  a  course  inimical 
to  national  interests  or  public  tranquility.  But  what 
will  you  do,  without  mixing  yourselves  up  in  affairs  that 
do  not  concern  you,  when  you  have  deprived  yourselves, 
by  separation,  of  the  arm  that  the  concordat  itself 
assured  you? 

And  then,  have  a  care!  Universal  suffrage  is  the 
rule;  and  this  suffrage  for  the  most  part  depends  upon 
the  peasants  who  constitute  the  numerical  majority  of 
the  French  nation.  Now,  the  French  peasant,  save  in 
some  departments,  is  not  exactly  clerical.  He  does  not 
like  to  see  his  cure  dabbling  in  politics.  One  cannot 
say  that  he  is  very  devout.  If  he  goes  to  mass  on  Sun- 
day it  is  rather  by  way  of  distraction  than  from  religious 
need ;  and  the  proof  of  this  is  that  he  very  often  remains 
gossipping  under  the  porch  while  his  wife  and  children 
are  attending  the  service  of  the  curd.  But,  besides  that 
he  is  not  radically  irreligious,  vou  will  never  persuade 
him  that  he  can  dispense  with  the  priest  to  baptize  his 
children,  to  teach  them  subsequently  their  catechism,  to 
bring  them  on  to  their  first  communion,  to  marry  and 
to  bury  himself.  These  things  are  done  and  seen  in  the 
large  towns;  in  the  country  they  are  unknown.  What, 
then,  are  you  going  to  do?  The  State  will  no  longer 
pay  the  cure  of  the  village;  so  be  it!  You  will  tell  the 
peasant  that  his  taxes  will  be  diminished  by  so  much. 
That  is  not  unwelcome  to  him.  But  you  will  add  that, 
if  he  desires  to  have  a  cure  he  must  himself  pay  for 
him.  Ah,  then  his  countenance  changes!  The  French 
peasant  is  very  thrifty;  he  works  hard  and  does  not  will- 
ingly part  with  the  money  that  he  has  so  much  trouble 
to  gain.  Be  sure  that  he  will  answer  you :  "  Much 
obliged  !  I  shall  not  pay  one  centime  less  to  the  receiver, 
because,  away  there  in  Paris  they  will  apply  to  other 
purposes  the  forty  or  fifty  millions  that  they  talk  of 
withdrawing  from  the  clergy,  while  I  into  the  bargain 
shall  still  have  to  pay  my  curd.  Your  most  obedient! 
Let's  say  no  more  about  it!" 

Thus  vou  would  run  considerable  risk  of  indisposing 
toward  the  republican  regime  the  peasant  who  has 
reluctantly  allied  himself  to  the  Republic,  but  who 
has  become  allied  to  it,  being  out  of  conceit  with  kings  and 
emperors.  You  attack  simultaneously  his  predilec- 
tions and  his  pocket.  Nothing  could  be  more  danger- 
ous; and  wisdom  counsels  the  maintenance  of  the  actual 
state  of  things  for  a  long  time  yet,  while  endeavoring  to 
ameliorate  them,  and  the  proceeding  only  by  slow  de- 
grees and  with  circumspection  to  measures  preliminary 
and  preparatory  to  this  great  change. 


39« 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


I  believe  that  I  have  thus  summed  up  with  impar- 
tiality and  moderation  the  arguments  that  are  put  forth 
on  one  side  and  the  other.  This  also  may  be  here 
remarked :  the  partisans  of  separation  are  the  stronger, 
so  long  as  they  hold  only  to  democratic  and  abstract 
theory ;  while  its  opponents  recover  the  advantage  when 
one  comes  down  to  practical  application.  This  explains 
why  the  men  of  the  Extreme  Left,  more  idealistic,  more 
prompt,  more  radical  in  their  manner  of  treating  politi- 
cal questions,  are  almost  without  exception  in  favor  of 
immediate  separation,  while  the  Republicans  termed 
Opportunists,  that  is  to  say  more  administrative,  more 
realistic,  look  upon  it  with  suspicion  as  a  danger.  And 
inasmuch  as  the  exercise  of  power  always  inclines  men 
to  moderate  the  absolutism  of  their  principles,  we  under- 
stand why  so  many  eminent  politicians,  Gambetta  for 
instance,  or  Mr.  Goblet,  who  were  reckoned  among  the 
notorious  partisans  of  separation,  when  once  they  had 
become  ministers,  recoiled  from  the  immense  difficulties 
that  would  have  resulted  from  carrying  it  out. 

I  repeat  it;  it  is  on  political  and  not  on  religious 
grounds,  that  this  qestion  will  be  solved  in  France.  If 
the  actual  Republic  were  to  perish  and  be  replaced  by 
a  monarchy,  royal  or  imperial,  separation  would  assuredly 
be  postponed  till  the  Greek  calends.  If  the  Republic 
maintains  itself  the  problem  of  separation  will  triumph 
in  the  end,  because  it  conforms  to  the  logic  of  a  veritable 
democracy.  But  if  it  be  wished  that  it  should  be  put 
into  operation  without  difficulty  and  without  danger,  the 
minds  of  the  masses,  especially  in  the  country,  must  be- 
more  fully  prepared  than  they  are  now.  If  advanced 
Radicalism  comes  into  power,  perhaps  the  change  may 
he  hastened  by  the  necessity,  in  which  the  radical  chiefs 
will  find  themselves,  of  realizing  or  at  least  of  endeavor- 
ing to  realize  this  part  of  their  programme  so  much 
preached  up.  But  all  this,  it  will  be  seen,  is  problem- 
atical; and  if  one  may  regard  the  principle  of  separation 
as  destined  to  triumph,  one  da}'  or  another,  by  the  sole 
force  of  republican  and  democratic  logic,  no  one  can  now 
declare  when  the  day  of  triumph  will  come,  still  less 
predict  the  events  which  may  advance  or  retard  it. 
I'ai  is,  July,  1.S.S7. 

TOLSTOI    AND   PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY. 

BY     U.    D.    GINNING. 

•'  My  Religion,"  from  the  pen  of  Tolstoi, should  make 
a  deep  impression  cm  the  Christian  Church.  This  Rus- 
sian Count  shows  that  ]esus  laid  the  emphasis  of  Chris- 
tianity on  a  few  simple  precepts.  Resist  not  evil.  L 
a  man  smite  you  give  him  the  other  cheek  for  another 
smiting.  "  The  I  lebrew  s,"says  Tolstoi,  "in  applying  the 
Mosaic  law  to  life,  were  obliged  to  observe  six  hundred 
and  thirteen  commandments,  many  of  which  were 
absurb  ju<\  cruel  and  vet  all  were  based  on  the  authority 
of  1  be  Scriptures.      The  doctrine  of   life  as  expressed  by 


Tesus  is  comprised  in  five  commandments.  Be  not 
angry.  Resist  not  evil.  Take  no  oath.  Lay  not  up 
treasure.     Judge  not." 

This  Russian,  who  is  a  scholar  as  well  as  a  count,  in 
reelucing  Christianity  to  such  simple  terms,  makes  his 
position  very  clear.  In  the  injunction  "  judge  not,"  the 
word  Kpivu  is  used  and  it  always  applies  to  the  passing  of 
judgment  in  a  court  of  justice.  What  Jesus  meant — and 
what  he  said  by  using  this  Greek  verb — was,  "  Have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  administration  of  justice." 

"  Be  not  angry."  In  the  New  Testament  this  com- 
mand is  qualified  by  the  adjunct  "  without  a  cause." 
The  qualification  kills  the  injunction.  But  the  little 
Greek  word  eurf,  which  means  "  without  cause,"  does  not 
appear  in  the  older  manuscripts.  Some  angry  Chris- 
tian, in  the  third  or  fourth  century  amended  Jesus  by 
slipping  in  the  word  e'uaj.  So  with  the  other  injunctions. 
They  were  simple,  direct  and  without  qualification.  Let 
us  concede  that  in  the  New  Testament  Jesus  is  fairly 
reported,  then  Tolstoi  has  the  argument.  Jesus  meant 
that  the  course  of  human  life  is  all  wrong,  radically 
wrong. 

But  a  scholar  might  say  to  Tolstoi,  "  Your  argument 
based  on  the  words  reported  as  coming  from  Jesus  is 
fallacious.  He  spoke  in  Aramaic,  a  very  barren  and 
physical  language.  After  many  years  had  passed  he 
was  reported  in  Greek,  a  metaphysical  language. 
What  force  can  attach  to  a  criticism  on  words  which  he 
never  used?  Of  what  force  is  any  verbal  criticism  on 
these  ancient  writings?  Remember  that  accuracy  in 
reporting  or  quoting  came  only  with  accuracy  in  think- 
ing, that  is,  with  science.  Not  a  writer  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament quoted  correctly  from  the  Old.  One  of  the  early 
church  dignitaries  makes  Solomon  say,  "  He  who  always 
fears  the  wind  will  never  sow."  Shakespeare  makes 
"the  Scripture"  say  that  "Adam  eligged."  Shakes- 
peare never  ciuotes  the  Bible  correctly.  In  New  Hamp- 
shire— so  it  has  been  told  to  me — lives  a  farmer  who 
heard  Forrest  in  Richard  the  Third.  The  tragedian 
broke  on  his  audience  with  Richard's  soliloquy  : 

"  Now  is  the  winter  of  our  discontent  made  glorious  summer 
by  this  sun  of  York." 

The  farmer's  report  to  his  neighbors  was  this:  "Forrest 
seemed  a  good  deal  down  in  the  mouth.  He  said  that  in 
the  winter  he  wasn't  contented  but  he  thought  that  next 
summer  when  his  son  got  back  to  New  York  he  would 
feel  a  little  better."  The  farmer  reported  Richard  much, 
I  think,  as  the  writers  called  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and 
Tohn  reported  certain  of  the  sayings  of  Jesus.  John 
reports  a  short  speech  to  a  Samaritan  woman  on  the  curb 
of  Jacob's  well.  Can  we  believe  that  the  pinions  which 
bore  him  up  into  the  celestial  blue^  where  above  all  lim- 
itations of  race  and  time  he  formulated  the  absolute 
religion,  should  strike  at  once  on  the  lower  air  and  he 
should  say,  "Salvation  is  of  the  Jews  ?" 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


399 


But  let  it  pass.  Assuming  that  we  have  the  words 
of  Jesus  fairly  reported  Tolstoi  is  right  and  the  Chris- 
tian is  he  who  never  gets  angry,  never  takes  an  oath, 
resists  not  evil,  never  passes  judgment  in  a  court  and  lays 
not  up  treasure.  Where  is  he  ?  As  I  have  never  seen 
Tolstoi,  I  never  saw  him.  Is  he  possible?  Is  even  Tol- 
stoi' a  real  Christian?  He  writes  in  a  vein  of  righteous 
anger  against  the  abuses  of  the  Russian  church  and  gov- 
ernment. Was  Jesus  a  faultless  primitive  Christian? 
When  he  launched  his  invectives  against  the  Pharisees  and 
when  he  lashed  the  money  changers  in  the  temple  was 
he  without  a  tinge  of  anger?  Tolstoi'  says  that  the  Disci, 
pies  obeyed  these  injunctions.  Did  they?  Was  Paul 
never  angry  at  Peter?  Was  he  in  a  very  placid  mood 
toward  Peter  and  Tames  and  Jude  when,  at  fever  heat, 
he  threw  off  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians?  It  may  be 
that  the  injunction,  "  Be  not  angry,"  requires  too  much 
of  human  nature,  but  at  the  bar  of  ethical  science  it  will 
stand  and  without  a  qualifying  adjunct.  Be  not  angrv. 
No  cause  will  justifv  you.  Anger  is  one  of  the  oldest 
emotions.  Cope  places  it  as  third  or  fourth  in  the  his- 
torv  of  evolution.  It  appeared  as  soon  as  a  mind  could 
feel  resistance  to  desire.  It  passed  from  the  animal  to 
the  human  and  is  part  of  the  old  jungle  stuff  we  are  try- 
ing to  throw  off.  It  does  no  good — which  is  another 
way  of  saying  that  it  brings  no  pleasure — to  the  heated 
mind  which  indulges  it  or  to  the  person  for  whom  it  is 
indulged. 

"  Resist  not  evil."  There  is  something  pathetic  in 
the  plea  for  this  injunction  by  a  nobleman  who,  all  his 
life,  as  he  now  thinks,  has  done  evil  and  resisted  evil- 
Through  all  time — this  is  the  spirit  of  his  argument 
— the  world  has  fought  evil  with  evil.  Men  have  tried 
to  put  down  wrong  by  resisting  wrong.  The  experi- 
ment has  failed.  There  was  a  teacher  who  told  us  to 
overcome  evil  with  compliance  and  to  oppose  to  the 
wrongdoer  neither  force  nor  law.  The  world  has  given 
him  no  heed.  Those  who  profess  discipleship  do  not 
obey.  But  this  teacher  was  divine  and  the  world  will 
never  be  healed  until  it  sees  that  the  whole  trend  of  its 
life  has  been  wrong  and  it  obeys  this  divine  precept. 

It  is  painful  to  find  yourself  not  in  mental  accord 
with  good  men.  But  this  piteous  appeal  to  the  world 
by  a  good  man  to  heed  certain  injunctions  uttered  by  the 
best  of  men  is  wrong  or  the  whole  universe  is  wrong. 
The  first  word  which  nature  ever  spoke  was  "  resist- 
ance." One- half  of  organic  nature  is  equipped  for 
aggression  and  the  other  half  for  resistance.  If  the 
primitive  mollusk  had  vielded  its  pulpy  body  to  the 
invading  tooth  there  would  be  no  mollusk  to-day.  If 
better  men  of  the  prime  had  vielded  to  the  club  and 
spear  of  worse  men,  there  would  be  no  social  order  or 
civilization  to-day.  In  vertebrate  land-life  there  was 
one  line  on  which  nature  moved  obedient  to  the  precept 
.of  non-resistance.      Setting  the  body  on  limbs  and  lifting 


it  up  over  the  ground  by  many  anatomical  devices, 
nature  resisted  the  pull  of  gravitation.  In  one  order  of 
reptiles  she  tired  of  resistance  and  by  abolishing  the 
limbs  yielded  to  gravitation.  The  result  of  this  non- 
resistance  was  the  snake.  I  like  not  the  backward  steps 
in  evolution  which  led  to  the  serpent.  I  like  not  the 
sight  of  virtue  on  its  belly  before  vice.  In  the  school  of 
Bronson  Alcott,  when  a  boy  had  done  a  bad  thing  he 
was  made  to  take  the  whip  and  flog  the  philosopher. 
Very  different  is  the  school  at  which  nature  has  been 
educating  man.  If  human  history  has  been  a  stream  of 
tendency  making  for  righteousness  it  is  because  the  whip, 
in  the  main,  has  been  in  the  hand  of  the  wiser  and  the 
better.  As  soon  as  man  woke  to  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil  the  voice  of  religion  sounded  through  his  mind, 
"  Resist  evil."  Buddha  did  a  wrong  thing  to  himself  and 
the  world  when  he  fed  himself  to  a  tiger.  Resist  the 
evil  within  you  and  the  evil  directed  toward  you,  and 
resist  by  whatever  means  will  be  effective.  You  cannot 
resist  gravitation  by  kind  words.  You  must  meet  it  on 
its  own  line  and  use  push  against  pull.  You  cannot 
resist  the  infestations  that  swoop  down  in  myriad  mouths 
on  your  field  or  garden,  with  prayer  or  incantation  or 
any  manner  of  saintliness.  You  must  meet  destruction 
with  destruction.  You  must  destroy  the  destroyer.  The 
mollusk  has  developed  a  shell  and  man  has  developed 
law. 

Time  was  when  men  were  without  law  but  the  law 
of  nature  spoke  in  the  smitten,  and  he  said,  "I  will  smite 
the  smiter."  "  An  eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth." 
The  old  Mosaic  law  was  close  to  the  older  law  of 
nature.  There  came  the  struggle  for  law.  Ihering 
has  shown  how  fierce  was  that  struggle.  To-day,  if  vou 
belong  to  any  civilized  people  on  the  globe,  vou  can 
recover  your  stolen  propertv  from  whatever  hands  may 
hold  it.  This  which  is  common  law  now,  was  one  of 
the  oldest  written  laws  of  Rome,  but  before  a  Roman 
senate  wrote  it  law  men  had  fought  it  into  law,  hand  to 
hand,  club  to  club,  spear  to  spear.  Now  that  we  have 
law — as  much  the  outcome  of  struggle  as  the  claw  on  a 
tiger's  foot — when  a  man  smites  you  you  need  not  smite 
him,  but  let  the  law  smite.  When  a  man  takes  away 
your  coat  you  must  not  give  him  your  overcoat,  nor 
strike  him,  but  you  must  sue  him  at  the  law.  This  is 
still  resisting  evil  by  force.  For  law,  as  Ihering  says, 
is  an  idea  which  involves  force.  If  Justice  holds  the 
balances  in  one  hand  she  holds  a  sword  in  the  other. 
And  if  it  was  the  duty  of  the  man  who  lived  before  "  the 
reign  of  law  "  to  resist  wrong  by  the  force  in  his  own 
arm,  it  is  tenfold  your  duty  to  resist  it  by  the  force  we 
have  put  into  the  arm  of  law.  If  you  do  not  resist  you 
wrong  the  State.  You  inflict  a  hurt  on  civilization. 
The  surrender  of  legal  rights  is  moral  suicide.  "  When 
a  man  has  made  a  worm  of  himself,"  says  Kant,  "  he 
has  no  right  to  complain  if  he  is  trampled  under  foot." 


400 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


While  Tolstoi  maintains,  very  strangely,  that  Jesus 
taught  there  would  be  no  conscious  individual  life  beyond 
the  grave,  he  lays  strong  emphasis  on  the  command  of 
Jesus  to  his  Disciples  to  give  little  heed  to  the  life  that 
now  is.  "  Get  you  no  silver  nor  gold  nor  brass  in  your 
purses;  no  wallet  for  your  journey,  neither  two  coats  nor 
shoes."  This,  argues  the  Count,  is  good  Scripture  and 
the  world  will  never  be  happy  till  it  obeys.  It  is  very 
miserable.  Search  it  from  pauper  to  millionaire  and  you 
will  find  no  happiness — till  you  reach  the  bare  walls  of 
a  cabin  in  which  a  Russian  count  is  mending  his  home- 
spun  pantaloons. 

Let  the  hurt  on  human  life  be  even  as  Tolstoi  thinks, 
is  healing  to  come  from  primitive  Christianity?  After 
eighteen  hundred  years  of  Christianity  are  we  to  try 
Christianity?  Poverty  was  the  morning  curse  of 
humanity,  and  still  it  is  the  curse  at  mid-day.  If  some 
other  intelligence  were  to  study  man  as  we  study  an  ant- 
hill, he  would  take  him  in  the  aggregate.  He  would 
sav :  "  This  species,  spread  over  almost  all  the  world, 
numbers  about  fourteen  hundred  millions,  a  number  less 
than  the  infusoria  in  a  cupful  of  stagnant  pond  water. 
Of  these  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  are  with- 
out a  shred  of  clothing,  and  seven  hundred  millions  are 
clothed  only  in  their  loins.  The  nude  hold  a  majority 
over  the  clad.  I  believe  this  bipedal  mammal  calls 
himself  homo  sapiens,  but  taking  him  in  the  aggregate 
the  better  name  would  be  homo  sylvestris,  for  only  the 
more  favored  have  got  out  of  the  woods.  The  creature 
seems  to  toil,  but  he  remains  poor.  He  is  improvident. 
He  does  not  "  take  thought  enough  of  to-morrow." 

The  reformer  is  too  often  the  man  who  takes  little 
thought  of  yesterdav.  But  we  are  made  of  yesterdays, 
and  the  line  on  which  evolution  has  moved  in  the  past, 
on  the  same  line  it  is  moving  now,  and  must  forever 
move.  The  ostrich,  in  structure  and  habits,  represents 
a  primitive  bird  which  improvidently  laid  her  eggs  on 
the  sand  and  had  no  thought  of  the  morrow.  Evolu- 
tion, leaving  the  ostrich  behind  as  a  work  of  rigidity, 
carried  other  birds  up  into  provident  nest-making.  A 
reformer  among  birds  seems  to  be  the  swallow.  It  does 
not  proclaim  the  gospel  of  the  ostrich,  but,  according  to 
Pouchet,  it  is  learning  a  better  art  of  nest- making  than 
its  ancestors  had.  You  may  as  well  expect  a  deflection 
of  the  line  on  which  evolution  has  moved  with  the  bird 
as  deflection  of  the  line  on  which  it  has  carried  man. 
Nearly  three  hundred  millions  of  the  human  race  build 
no  homes  and  have  no  shelter  except  what  nature  affords 
in  clefts  and  caves.  They  are  the  ostriches  of  men. 
The  Hebrews  called  that  bird  with  primitive  ways  "the 
daughter  of  howling,"  and  these  primitively  unclad, 
unhoused  men  are  the  "sons  of  howling."  They  are 
miserable.  Evolution,  outworking  on  men,  now  that 
its  chief   factor  is  mind,  is  synonymous  with  progress, 


and  it  leads  away  from   the  nature  housed,  not  toward 
them. 

Let  the  reformer  be  radical,  but  not  too  radical.  Let 
him  heed  the  advice  of  Emerson  and  "  hitch  his  wagon 
to  a  star,"  and  not  to  one  of  those  celestial  tramps  called 
comets.  This  is  only  an  Emersonian  way  of  saying — 
Move  with  the  great  cosmic  flow.  Do  not  break  with 
the  universe.  Do  not  think  to  reform  the  law  of  grav- 
itation. Work  with  t..e  better  forces  which  are  out- 
working through  nature  and  through  the  minds  of  men. 
If  you  are  following  the  pull  of  the  great  stars  in  the 
moral  firmament  you  will  resist  evil,  and  you  will  put 
a  reasonable  sum  of  gold  and  silver  in  your  purse,  and 
provide  "  a  wallet  for  your  journey." 


MONISTIC  MENTAL  SCIENCE. 

BY     S.  V.  CLEVENGER,  M.  D. 


INTRODUCTORY  SURVEY. 

The  discovery  of  the  laws  of  evolution  (natural  and 
sexual  selection,  the  mutability  of  species,  etc.)  gave  an 
impetus  to  the  study  of  plant  and  animal  life,  during 
the  past  quarter  century,  through  that  study  being,  for 
the  first  time,  afforded  definiteness  and  a  promise  of 
positive  reward  in  the  way  of  clearing  up  mysteries  and 
enabling  life  phenomena  to  be  scrutinized  chemically 
and  mechanically,  by  re-agents,  the  microscope  and  the 
balance.  The  promise  has  been  abundantly  fulfilled. 
Physiological  laboratories  and  classes  are  yearly  increas- 
ing, and  it  is  safe  to  predict  that  biology  will  not  only 
supplant  the  classics  but  will  be  made  the  main  instruc- 
tion from  the  primary  school  to  and  through  the  univer- 
sity. 

Why  this  will  occur  can  be  readily  explained:  All 
there  is  apparent  in  the  universe  is  apprehended  by  our 
senses.  If  we  understand  our  senses,  ourselves  and  our 
surroundings,  more  perfectly,  a  better  adjustment  can  be 
made  to  nature;  our  lives  can  be  made  more  fruitful, 
happier,  healthier  to  ourselves  and  our  neighbors. 

The  monistic  philosophy,  rightly  interpreted,  ex- 
plains what  you  can  and  cannot  do  and  know.  It  is 
thoroughly  unified  knowledge.  The  absurdity  that 
there  was  one  set  of  laws  for  man,  and  another  for 
everything  else,  animate  or  inanimate,  evolutionism  has 
fully  shown.  Monism  is  a  logical  inference  from  biol- 
ogy and  is  the  basis  of  right  living — ethics,  because 
through  it  we  realize  the  advantages  and  disadvantages 
resulting  from  certain  conduct  in  the  light  of  invariable 
cause  and  effect. 

There  is  a  growing  appreciation  of  the  soundness  of 
ethical  principles  based  upon  biological  research,  but  it 
is  sad  to  see  the  confusion  arising  from  biases  and  unsys- 
tematic study  of  these  principles.  Metaphysically  and 
theologically  educated  writers  often  realize  much  of  the 
grandeur  of  evolutionism,  but  they  are,  as  a  rule,  so  hope- 
lessly handicapped    by  cherished   unmeaning  phrases — 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


401 


language  disease — and  teleology  (the  purposiveness  of 
creation),  that  the  sprigs  of  truth  in  their  writings  are 
hidden  among  the  rank  weeds  or  pretty  flowers  of 
rhetoric.  It  is  fashionable  to  have  read  two  of  Spen- 
cer's works,  his  Education  and  The  Data  of  Ethics. 
Ethical  societies  usually  advance  the  last  named  book  as 
containing  the  summum  bonum  of  monism,  but  unless 
the  entire  Synthetic  Philosophy  has  been  perused  pre- 
viously it  is  as  valueless  as  a  trigonometrical  treatise 
would  be  to  one  who  had  not  learned  the  multiplication 
table.  Ethics  is  founded  upon  the  stud}-  of  sociology. 
Society  is  composed  of  individuals,  to  understand  whom 
requires  a  knowledge  of  psychology,  which  can  only  be 
acquired  through  physiology.  All  these  branches  con- 
cern man,  but  the  life  histories  of  plants  and  animals 
generallv  must  be  included  in  a  study  of  physiology- 
Physics  and  chemistry  are  the  keys  to  physiology  as 
well  as  to  other  studies.  Thus  is  indicated  what  should 
be  mastered  by  one  who  seeks  to  realize  the  relations  of 
body  and  mind  and  the  conservation  of  individual  and 
social  enjoyment. 

An  author  must  assume  a  plane  upon  which  to  meet 
his  readers.  Language  being  the  vehicle  of  ideas,  it 
does  not  follow  that  linguists,  rhetoricians,  elocutionists 
are  the  best  comprehenders  or  expositors  of  science 
(from  scio,  I  know),  for  vehicles  and  words  may  be 
empty  or  full  of  trash.  Latin  was,  formerly,  the  general 
container  of  book  knowledge,  but  a  dead  tongue  could 
not  tell  of  living,  growing,  multiplying  ideas.  The  old 
languages  were  broken  up  to  make  new  wagons  for  the 
accumulating  wealth  of  information. 

Therefore  while  the  classically  educated  person  is 
equipped  for  learning  science,  he  merely  vapors  if  he 
attempt  to  teach  it  before  he  has  learned  it. 

Notwithstanding  Max  Midler's  dictum  that  thought 
is  impossible  without  language  your  linguist  must  get 
his  ideas  before  he  can  express  them  in  words;  the  baby 
gets  the  impression  of  the  dog  by  sight  and  hearing  first, 
before  he  calls  it  "bow-wow,"  or  before  he  is  taught  to 
call  it  dog. 

Clearly,  then,  a  teacher  of  science,  with  chemistry 
and  physics  as  arguments,  cannot  appeal  to  the  meta- 
physicians nor  the  theologians  who  are  usually  unprovided 
with  elementary  knowledge  of  mundane  things.  But 
they  will  deny  that  it  is  necessary  to  know  chemistry  or 
natural  science  to  deal  with  theology  or  metaphysics. 
True  enough,  but  as  the  natural  sciences  now  include 
not  only  what  concerns  man  but  his  mind  and  social  re- 
lations, it  follows  that  the  theologian  and  metaphysician 
never  can,  as  such,  fathom  psychology  and  that  their 
methods  cannot  deal  with  the  mind. 

If  they  treat  of  subjective  phenomena  they  are  in 
the  plight  of  a  clock  that  would  call  the  jars  of  its  cog- 
wheels, spirit,  mind,  thought.  If  objective  matters  are 
considered    by   them,  their    methods   are    those   of   the 


savage  who  studies  the  wheezes,  puffs,  snorts,  whistlings, 
rattle,  groan.of  a  locomotive,  observes  its  wheels  revolve, 
its  surprising  speed,  and,  content  with  knowing  zchat  it 
does,  is  incapable  of  understanding  the  how  and  why, 
because  not  accustomed  to  analyze  machinery  or  com- 
prehend its  principles.  The  savage  assigns  a  spirit  to 
the  engine,  as  the  dualist  does  to  man,  and  both  are  satis- 
fied that  all  things  are  thus  explained.  It  seems  aston- 
ishing the  belief  could  survive  to-day  that  mind  exists 
independant  of  its  organ,  the  brain,  or  that  it  is  useless 
to  study  the  mechanism  of  thought  because  of  a  super- 
stitious fancy  that  there  is  some  tertimn  quid  that  can 
never  be  apprehended. 

We  need  not  quarrel  with  those  who  imagine  that 
mind  or  spirit  is  independent  of  brain  tissue  or  other 
material,  but  we  can  postulate  physical  force  and  matter 
as  sufficient,  and  see  whether  it  drives  us  into  absurdities 
or  affords  consistencies,  which  Descartes,  Hume,  Bacon, 
and  even  Aristotle,  would,  if  they  could,  to-day  acknowl- 
edge to  be  the  best  test  of  truth.  In  fact  consistency  is 
all  that  holds  any  theory  unassailable. 

Is  it,  then,  only  the  chemist  and  physicist  who  can 
understand  psychology  ?  In  its  completeness,  yes,  pro- 
viding biology  be  studied  by  them.  But  any  one  who  has  a 
fair  elementary  acquaintanceship  with  these  studies  can 
appreciate  the  force  of  arguments  dealing  with  them, 
all  the  more  readily  when  such  men  as  Huxley  or  Tyn- 
dall  essay  explanations,  as  they  have  done.  Bain  may 
be  fairly  regarded  as  the  pioneer  in  physiological  pys- 
chology,  but,  as  was  the  case  with  Carpenter  and 
Maudsley,  without  detracting  a  particle  from  the  value 
of  their  writings,  it  can  be  said  that  opportunity,  bias, 
education,  and  the  difficulty  with  which  so  recent  and 
vast  a  discovery  as  evolution  can  be  assimilated  by  one 
advanced  in  years,  prevented  them,  and  to  some  extent 
now  prevents  Ribot,  Bastian,  Mivart  and  other  popular- 
izers  from  benefiting  more  than  they  have  by  what  had 
been  worked  out  through  specialists  under  their  very- 
noses. 

Herbert  Spencer  and  Wundt  are  the  giants  in  psy- 
chology. Their  works  cannot  become  popular  because 
of  their  terminology  and  the  extensive  knowledge  of 
nature  presupposed  for  the  reader. 

Spencer's  unprecedented  catholicity  and  encyclo- 
pedic knowledge  covered  generalizations  in  psychology, 
and,  as  Proctor  says,  specialists  must  not  find  fault  with 
his  want  of  detail,  any  more  than  we  should  regard  a 
map  as  faulty  because  it  represented  cities  by  little 
circles  instead  of  precise  pictures. 

Wundt,  the  better  physiologist,  has  taken  up  the 
mechanics  of  psychology  more  accurately  and  completely 
than  Bain  and  more  extensively  than  Spencer,  because 
Wundt  figuratively  and  literally  used  the  microscope 
over  areas  Spencer  had  rapidly  glanced  at  with  his  intel- 
lectual telescope. 


402 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Subdivisions  of  these  biological  studies  among  an 
army  of  rank  and  file,  with  its  commanders,  carry  the 
conquests  along  ramifying  roads  to  subsequently  organ- 
ize the  knowledge  captured   for  the  benefit  of  all. 

Meynert,  in  Vienna,  has  sliced  the  brains  of  thou- 
sands of  animals  and  men  with  his  microtome,  and 
described  what  the  microscope  reveals  therein.  He  leads 
a  regiment  of  cerebral  microscopists.  Exner,  with  a 
corps  of  other  pathologists,  seeks  the  effects  of  disease 
upon  the  brain.  Von  Gudden,  Monk,  Ferrier  contend, 
through  experiments  and  comparison  of  results,  over  the 
physiological  interpretations  of  functions  of  different 
parts  of  the  brain.  Heubner  and  Duret  simultaneously 
discovered  an  important  principle  in  the  distribution  of 
blood  to  the  brain,  which  explained  many  peculiarities 
of  mental  disorders,  and  so  on  might  be  enumerated  list 
after  list  of  distinguished  men  who  are  doing  the  work 
that  does  the  most  good,  but  of  which  the  world  seldom 
hears  and  less  often  appreciates. 

The  scientific  method  of  teaching  is  from  the  known 
to  the  unknown.  The  logical  arrangement  of  biology 
is  from  the  lower  forms  of  life  to  the  higher;  but,  as 
general  readers  have  about  as  indefinite  ideas  of  the 
human  brain  as  they  have  of  protozoa,  and  a  vast  amount 
of  space  and  time  can  be  saved  by  beginning  with  the 
lower  manifestations  of  life  and  mind,  it  will  be  an 
advantage  to  so  commence. 

In  simplifying  the  language  used  by  biologists  and 
outlining,  rather  than  elaborating,  a  subject  so  vast  as 
that  which  concerns  life,  much  difficulty  is  encountered, 
for  the  technical  terms  often  put  into  few  words  what 
would  require  hours  to  explain,  and  there  is  an  appar- 
ent forfeiture  of  accuracy  in  condensing,  while  the 
greater  part  that  bears  upon  the  matter  must  be  left 
unmentioned. 

Let  us  do  the  best  we  can. 

It  seems  to  me  that  a  medical  student  with  a  philo- 
sophical turn  of  mind  would  be  led  by  degrees  into 
mechanical  monism,  thus: 

The  bones  are  levers  and  fulcra  to  move  the  body 
about;  the  muscles  pull  upon  these  and  bring  them  into 
changing  relations  with  each  other.  The  muscles  hence 
serve  as  ropes  and  pulleys.  The  nerves  stimulate  the 
muscular  movements,  and  the  similarity  between  the 
nervous  and  a  telegraphic  system  is  marked.  But  what 
is  the  nature  of  this  nerve  force?  Can  we  or  can  we  not 
understand  it?  Is  it  a  physical  force  at  all?  Certainly 
the  most  sensible  way  to  deal  with  this  problem  is  to 
study  it  out  just  as  you  would  any  matter  that  promised 
to  yield  much,  if  not  all,  information  to  the  microscope, 
the  scale--  and  the  measure. 

Fritz  Miiller  was  theologically  biased;  he  felt  that 
Darwin's  theory  was  incorrect,  and  to  enable  him  to 
know  that  it  was,  and  to  prove  it,  he  adopted  the  reductio 
ad  absurdum  reasoning   from   self-made  investigations, 


but  being  honest  and  accomplished,  brought  out  one  of 
the  best  proofs  of  the  evolutionary  theory  we  possess. 
Democritus,  500  B.C.,  suggested  the  mechanical  nature  of 
animate  things,  and  Giordano  Bruno,  a.d.  1600,  ampli- 
fied the  idea,  and  was  burned  at  the  stake.  Lesser, 
though  as  effective,  discouragements  have  prevailed 
against  mechanical  biology  even  to  this  day,  when 
everywhere  we  find  teleological,  dualistic  assertions 
argued  from,  and  but  feeble  support  for  the  opposite 
views. 

My  claim  is  that  teleology  and  dualism  have  led  to  a 
most  abominably  muddled  psychology.  From  the  dys- 
teleological  and  monistic  side  the  greatest  victories  may 
be  won  for  knowledge.  Fully  admitting  that  there  is 
an  "unknown,"  and  allowing  those  disposed  to  discuss 
it  in  appropriately  unknowable  terms;  granting  also 
that  the  ultimate  nature  of  physical  forces  and  matter 
are  not  understandable,  surely  if  we  postulate  that  those 
same  forces  and  elements  are  all  there  is  in  life,  for  argu- 
ment's sake,  we  are  entitled  to  a  patient  hearing;  and  if 
the  charge  is  made  that  a  conception  of  life  and  mind  is 
by  such  assumption  degraded,  we  can  retort  with  the 
query — By  what  right  do  you  consider  force  and  matter 
degraded  or  unworthy  of  containing  life  and  mind  in 
potential?  By  your  own  admission  you  allow  life, 
mind,  matter  and  force  to  have  sprung  from  the  same 
source! 

In  published  papers  collected  in  book  form*  I  dealt 
with  the  inextricably  dependent  relations  of  mind  and 
body ,  by  following  out  the  evolution  of  the  different  tis- 
sues, including  the  brain  structures.  As  these  chapters 
are  limited  to  main  issues  in  mental  operations,  want  of 
space  forbids  more  than  a  reference  to  the  associated 
topics.  Starting  with  the  desire  to  reduce  everything  to 
proximate  principles,  the  task  of  every  philosophy,  we 
pass  from  Galen  to  1523,  when  Fallopius  explained  what 
the  former  meant  by  his  "  partes  si 'milares"  or  usitn- 
pliccs"  which  were  bone,  membrane,  vein,  artery,  nails, 
hairs  and  skin.  Finally  the  cellular  theory  dawned,  in 
this  century,  and  these  proximate  divisions  have  given 
way  to  the  positive  knowledge  that  all  animal  parts 
proceed  from  simple  protoplasmic  cells  by  growth,  mul- 
tiplication and  differentiation.  All  plants  and  animals 
are  known  to  be  composed  of  cells,  little  particles  or 
specs  of  protoplasm  that  have  undergone  modifications, 
but  in  the  main  the  cell  shape  and  properties  are  observ- 
able by  the  microscope  in  all  tissues. 

Chemistry  takes  this  fundamental  cell  and  finds  that 
its  protoplasm  is  hydrogen,  oxygen,  carbon,  mainly,  with 
sometimes  other  elements  in  combination. 

Herbert  Spencer  plainly  sets  forth  the  unity  of  all 
nature;  particularly  when  he  shows  that  sociological 
matters  partake  of  and  depend  upon  the  peculiarities  of 


*  Comparative  Physiology  and  Psychology,  1SS5,  published  by  J.  C.  McClurg 
&  Co.,  pp.  247. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


403 


the  units,  the  individuals  that  compose  it.  He  also  indi- 
cates forcibly  the  similarity  of  the  laws  and  phenomena 
of  the  inorganic  and  organic,  but  he  does  not  fully 
identify  psychological  with  chemical  principles. 

In  subsequent  papers  of  this  series  my  endeavor  will 
be  to  show  that  not  only  is  there  a  relationship  between 
all  that  is  done  by  the  body  and  mind  of  man  and  other 
animals,  and  the  behavior  of  chemical  elements,  hut  that 
the  former  depends  upon  the  latter,  and  is  merely  a  dif- 
ferent expression  of  the  same  thing.  We  think  and 
move  about  because  nitrogen  tends  to  escape  from  molec- 
ular combinations,  and  oxygen,  on  the  contrary,  seeks 
to  unite  with  them;  and,  for  similar  reasons,  we  are 
born,  eat,  grow,  reproduce  and  die.  Because  of  the  dis- 
position like  and  unlike  elementary  atoms  have  to  unite  to 
form  molecules  we  hunger  and  love — the  two  feelings 
that  control  the  world,  as  Schiller  poetically  affirms. 
An  application  of  chemistry  can  even  explain  why  one 
of  these  feelings  may  sacrifice  the  other. 

The  affinity  of  atoms  for  one  another  may  be  taken 
as  the  cause  of  hunger;  the  higher  affections  may  be 
shown  to  have  sprung  from  hunger  by  positive  illustra- 
tions; and,  finally,  an  ethical  application  can  be  made  to 
show  that  the  insane  often  merge  every  higher  desire 
into  acquisitiveness,  or  a  beastly  food  hunger;  or  that  by 
mind  degeneration  atavism,  or  its  failure  to  develop, 
in  certain  respects,  beyond  savagery,  every  regard  for 
virtue,  honor,  love,  even  self-respect,  may  be  lost  in  the 
craving  for  money,  which  represents  the  means  of  ani- 
mal gratification. 

Nor  is  this  knowledge  useless,  for  it  bids  you  lift 
yourself  above  bartering  the  best  part  of  you,  sentiment 
and  honor,  for  a  price.  It  tells  you  that  you  may  pay 
too  dearly  for  "peace  and  comfort"  by  insuring  for 
yourself  and  progeny  moral  death.  From  these  and  sim- 
ilar considerations  we  may  conceive  of  the  foundation 
and  some  of  the  superstructure  of  a  practical  psychology 
based  upon  chemistry. 


CHATS   WITH   A  CHIMPANZEE. 

BY  MONCCRE  D.  CONWAY. 
Part    VI. 

On  my  next  visit  to  my  Sage  of  the  Monkey  Tem- 
ple he  beckoned  me  after  him,  and  led  the  way  through 
a  back  court  to  *a  sort  of  covert  behind  a  tank.  There  I 
found  a  shelf  on  which  were  a  dozen  palm  leaves  like 
those  which  had  been  destroyed  on  the  previous  day. 

"  I  do  not,"  he  said,  "  mean  to  trust  these  to  the  Ape- 
god,  nor  to  the  apes,  nor  their  worshippers.  It  may  be 
well  enough  for  the  litany  to  the  Angry  Ape  to  perish, 
but  these  are  more  important.  They  are  leaves  from 
the  lost  library  of  the  only  human  race  that  really  pos- 
sessed the  earth  —  living  neither  above  it  or  beneath  it." 

"  Did  they  have  a  great  library  ?  " 

"  Very    large.      But  in   the   long   war,  between   the 


intellectual  and  physical  giants  and  the  Ape-god  and  his 
humanlike  angels,  many  books  were  destroyed." 

"  I  listen." 

"  Here  is  a  leaf  of  history :  '  The  world  was  fair 
before  the  Ape-god  cursed  it.  Man  had  still  many 
obstructions  to  confront,  but  with  every  season  of  his 
growth  they  folded  beneath  him  and  withered,  leaving 
a  contribution  to  his  swelling  fruit.  Already  he  was  liv- 
ing in  a  world  of  his  own  creation.  By  his  art  grasses 
had  grown  into  vegetables,  poisonous  almonds  into 
peaches,  gourds  into  melons.  The  tiger  had  been  tamed 
to  a  kitten,  the  wolf  domesticated  to  a  dog.  The  hope 
of  man  climbed  daily  to  further  fulfillments,  itself  remain- 
ing illimitable.  It  appeared  that  men  would  domesti- 
cate the  whole  world  and  make  it  into  the  image  of  a 
perfect  man.  But  all  this  was  arrested  when  the  priest-' 
hood  arose  and  mankind  were  trained  to  cower  before 
the  forces  they  had  been  steadily  mastering.  No  more 
could  diseases  be  comprehended  and  extirpated  when 
they  were  believed  to  be  inflicted  by  an  invisible  power 
with  which  man  could  not  cope.  No  longer  could 
humanity  command  the  resources  of  wealth  when  it  was 
divided  between  hungry  altars  and  famished  families. 
Science  could  no  more  work  its  miracles  when  they 
were  declared  audacious  attempts  to  alter  the  laws  of 
God  or  to  seize  His  prerogative  of  modifying  His  own 
order.  Man  grew  lean  while  the  priesthood  waxed 
fat.  It  requires  much  to  feed  a  god.  He  devours 
briers  and  thistles  and  wild  things,  as  man  devours  things 
that  are  civilized.  So  where  man  had  planted  a  garden 
the  multiplying  gods  demanded  that  thorns  and  thistles 
should  grow.  The  tiller  of  the  soil  was  branded.'  Here 
the  palm  leaf  ends." 

"That  is  a  melancholy  page,"  I  said.  "Could  not 
such  men  suppress  their  priesthood?  There  must  have 
been  many  who  saw  through  their  superstitions,  and 
foresaw  the  degradation  that  must  follow." 

"Yes,  there  were  giants  in  the  earth — intellectual, 
moral,  scientific,  even  physical  giants — and  they  waged 
war  against  the  gods.  But  they  were  too  humane 
to  fight  with  the  ferocity  of  the  gods  and  their 
myrmidons;  they  tried  to  meet  violence  with  reasons. 
But  that  which  was  not  built  by  reason  cannot  be  pulled 
down  by  reason.  Superstition  had  entrenched  itself  in 
powerful  class  interests,  and  was  able  to  breed  and  train 
a  race  of  its  own.  The  unbelievers  were  killed  off,  the 
believers  survived  and  propagated  their  species.  The 
men  of  science  and  thought  would  have  been  at  once 
entirely  exterminated  had  they  not  exiled  themselves. 
They  went  off  and  built  a  great  city.  They  left  behind 
them  a  great  many  scriptures.  These  were  burnt  by 
the  priests." 

"  What  a  pity!  how  precious  they  would  now  be!  " 
I  said. 

"  There  were  some  women,  it  appears,  who  secretly 


4°4 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


sympathized  with  the  thinkers  who  had  gone.  While 
the  burning  of  books  was  going  on  they  pretended  to 
feed  the  flames,  but  they  preserved  some  bits  of  the 
inscribed  leaves.  One  or  two  sentences  of  each  had 
survived  the  fire,  and  these  were  secretly  copied  on  other 
leaves.  But  they  were  generally  without  order  or  con- 
nection. A  century  or  so  later,  when  the  descendants 
of  the  giants  were  brought  back  as  captives,  one  of 
these  got  hold  of  the  charred  remnants  of  the  ancient 
library  and  from  them  gathered  a  number  of  sentences 
and  proverbs.  On  the  night  before  he  was  offered  as  a 
burnt  offering  to  the  Ape-gods  (there  were  many  of  them 
by  this  time),  he  gave  his  manuscript  to  an  ancestor  of 
my  own  and  it  has  been  carefully  preserved  to  this  day." 
The  Chimpanzee  drew  from  the  shelf,  with  extreme 
care,  several  palm  leaves,  and  read — at  times  not  with- 
out emotion — what  were  called — 

SCRIPTURES    INSPIRED    BY    MAN. 

Man  is  an  incarnate  word. 

Man's  development  was  arrested  when  he  was  forbidden  free 
speech  about  reproduction. 

Our  satyrs  work  freely  in  the  realm  of  silence. 

Every  true  word  is  productive. 

So  far  as  one  is  dead  in  this  world  he  dreams  of  another. 

A  fool,  laying  up  for  a  rainy  day,  makes  every  day  rainy. 

What  men  call  heaven  is  a  moon  shining  by  contrast  with 
earth's  darkness. 

He  that  loseth  this  life,  why  will  he  not  lose  every  other? 

Farther  worlds  were  wasted  on  him  who  dwells  only  in  a 
closet  of  this. 

The  nightingale  is  actual,  the  angel  possible. 

The  diamond  is  a  pebble  till  polished. 

T  he  thorn  came  by  natural,  the  rose  by  human,  purpose. 

The  Brahmin  turned  brier  to  rose  for  Vishnu;  his  son  stole  it 
for  a  maid;  the  rosy  god  was  born. 

The  happy  hour  never  ends. 

Why  mourn  a  departed  dawn  which  has  left  its  flush  on  mv 
rose  ? 

Why  mourn  a  faded  rose  that  still  blushes  on  my  bride's 
cheek? 

In  all  sacred  books  are  heard  the  cries  of  gods  to  be  born  of 
woman. 

Love  is  the  unborn  babe  pleading  to  see  the  light. 

Marriage  at  an  altar  is  a  ceremony  preliminary  to  sacrificing 
children  on  it. 

Whoso  begets  a  child  sentences  an  innocent  man  to  death. 

A  morning  star  fell  from  heaven  that  it  might  bear  light  to 
man  at  his  midnight. 

With  every  babe  some  god  or  demon  is  born. 

Love's  eyes  are  bandaged  lest  he  foresee  and  refuse  existence. 

All  religion  begins  with  man  cowering  before  nature;  it 
should  end  with  nature  bending  before  man. 

Be  not  angry  with  the  gods,  they  know  not  what  they  do. 

Does  any  god  know?  then  pity  his  anguish  of  remorse. 

Not  one  cowrie  for  the  rich  god,  but  laks  of  gold  for  the 
poor  one. 

A  poor  god  sat  under  the  Bo  Tree;  another,  they  say,  hung 
on  its  crossed  limbs. 

When  man  had  created  a  melon  he  asked  pardon  of  the 
power  that  made  the  gourd. 

The  fear  of  God  is  the  beginning  of  folly. 


"  Run  for  the  doctor !  my  child  is  in  danger  of  going  to  para- 
dise ! " 

Gods  raged  with  jealousy  while  Buddha  was  fed  with  rice 
not  exacted. 

Never  did  altar  receive  a  gift  of  love. 

A  race  must  be  consumed  to  fatten  a  god. 

The  old  god  said  to  the  new,  "  Sit  on  my  right;"  but  on  the 
left  beats  the  heart. 

From  every  sin  a  virtue  grows. 

"  Surely  that  last  sentence  is  a  paradox,"  I  ex- 
claimed, as  the  Sage  folded  away  his  palm  leaves. 
"What  does  it  mean?" 

"Sin  is  the  transgression  of  divine  as  distinguished 
from  human  law.  There  could  be  no  such  distinction 
if  divine  were  one  with  human  law.  If,  then,  any  law 
is  imposed,  not  by  man  or  for  man,  only  for  the  gods, 
their  priests,  and  temples,  they  are  arbitrary  laws;  they 
are  ordered  by  privilege.  Obedience  to  them  implies 
fear,  abjectness,  meanness;  in  every  act  of  conformity 
some  part  justly  due  to  mankind  is  betrayed  to  a  class. 
Disobedience  implies  courage,  freedom,  justice.  Out  of 
every  sin — that  is,  transgression  of  arbitrary,  unequal,  and 
class  law  —  grows  some  virtue,  some  manly  force  which 
helps  to  liberate  the  reason  and  resources  of  man  for  the 
benefit  of  man.  For  man  can  owe  nothing  to  any  god; 
if  he  pay  god  anything  it  were  out  of  what  he  owes 
man." 

"But  alas  for  the  city!"  I  cried,  ready  to  weep. 
"  Why,  with  walls  of  such  precious  stones,  could  it  not 
stand  ? " 

"  Well,  it  was  too  beautiful,  its  people  too  happy. 
The  gods — I  mean  the  priests,  through  whom  those 
phantoms  act  on  the  world — the  gods  went  out  to  see 
the  city  and  the  towers  built  by  those  men  who  had 
refused  to  worship  them.  And  they  said :  '  Behold 
these  people  are  one;  they  all  dwell  in  homes  such  as 
with  us  are  reserved  for  gods;  their  houses  equal  our 
temples.  And  this  is  but  the  beginning  of  what  they 
will  do.  Nothing  will  be  withholden  from  them. 
Their  science  will  give  them  power;  their  towers  com- 
mand our  country.  What  if  they  should  assail  our 
comfortable  heaven  and  deliver  the  slaves  who  support 
our  power?  We  must  act  while  we  are  still  the 
stronger.'  So  they  invaded  the  beautiful  city,  cast  down 
its  towers,  and  took  its  inhabitants  captive." 

"  But  might  not  these  captives  yet  combine  and  teach 
and  leaven  the  lump  of  lower  humanity  which  had 
absorbed  them?" 

"  Ah,  the  gods  were  too  clever  for  that.  Their  own 
country  had  swarmed  with  people;  married  while  chil- 
dren, they  passed  their  lives  in  reproducing  their  childish- 
ness in  other  forms.  In  this  way  a  vast  country  had  been 
covered  and  different  dialects  of  speech  developed,  so  that 
the  different  provinces  could  not  understand  each  other. 
Now  the  gods  took  these  captives  who  had  been  of  one 
language,    and     carefully  divided   and  distributed   them 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4°5 


through  regions  where  they  would  he  compelled  to  use 
different  languages.  The  generations  of  them  that  fol- 
lowed them  could  not  combine  nor  co-operate.  They 
could  build  no  more  cities.  Was  not  that  a  master- 
stroke?" 

"  Yes,  for  a  devil." 

"  It  is  perfectly  true  that  by  a  perfect  mutual  under- 
standing mankind  could  reach  the  heaven  of  pious 
dreams  and  wield  powers  attributed  to  gods.  Now  that 
the  language  of  these  men,  representing  both  their  indi- 
vidual and  their  co-operative  existence,  was  broken  up, 
their  civilization  survived  only  as  a  torture.  What  could 
they  do?" 

"What  did  they  do?  " 

"  The  sun  is  low." 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE. 

BY  DR.  PAUL  CARUS. 

In  The  Open  Court  (No.  13)  the  question  was 
raised  by  Mr.  Lewis  G.  Janes:  "Can  religion  have  a 
scientific  basis?"  He  quotes  the  opinion  of  a  friend, 
who  says:  "There  can  be  no  such  thing  as  the  discov- 
ery of  a  scientific  basis  for  religion,  and,  therefore,  the 
attempt  to  establish  religion  on  a  scientific  basis  is 
declared  to  be  illogical  and  certain  in  the  nature  of 
things  to  be  defeated."  In  opposition  to  this  statement 
Mr.  Lewis  G.  Janes  expresses  his  view  that  it  does 
not  so  appear  to  him.  He  thinks  that  the  establishment 
of  a  religion  on  a  scientific  basis  is  a  great  and  noble 
aim,  and  he  concludes:  "Fronting  a  vision,  so  grand 
and  beautiful,  shall  we  not  all  press  forward  in  the 
line  indicated  by  The  Open  Court,  and  strive  for  its 
speedy  realization?" 

Yes,  we  shall!  And  I  gladly  notice  that  there  are 
many  prominent  men  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  who 
join  to  participate  in  our  work.  I  heartily  agree  with 
most  of  what  Mr.  Janes  says  about  such  a  religion  on  a 
scientific  basis,  but  I  would  venture  a  step  farther.  To 
me  it  does  not  appear  as  a  mere  possibility,  for  if  logical 
conclusions  are  to  be  considered  as  valid,  and  if  scien- 
tific arguments  must  be  accepted  as  evidence,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  religion  on  a  scientific  basis  is  possible,  nay  it 
is  necessary,  and  it  will  necessarily  develop. 

I  lately  heard  a  gentleman  say,  who  was  asked  by  a 
guest  of  his  to  which  church  or  religious  denomination 
he  belonged :  "  I  belong  to  the  most  orthodox  religion !" 
The  questioner  looked  rather  astonished  at  his  host, 
who  had  heretofore  in  conversation  pronounced 
extremely  liberal  and  even  radical  views.  This  answer 
was  unexpected  and  like  a  puzzle  to  him.  Then  the 
gentleman  continued:  "I  confess  to  the  religion  of 
science!" 

True,  the  religion  of  science  will  cultivate  a  gener- 
ous charity  toward  all  historical  forms  of  religion,  it 
will  be  liberal,  fair   and  just  in   judging  of  other  creeds, 


but  in  its  tenets  it  will  be  at  the  same  time  most  rigorous 
and  orthodox,  more  orthodox  than  anv  Catholic  and 
only  saving  church  ever  was,  be  it  Roman  or  Greek  or 
Episcopalean.  The  religion  of  science  will  not  appeal 
to  physical  force  and  does  not  want  the  unfounded 
assumption  of  authority,  for  it  must  rest  upon  intelli- 
gent arguments,  the  acceptance  of  which  is  enforced  by 
their  demonstrable  truth.  Mr.  Lewis  G.  Janes  says: 
"Its  conquests  will  be  those  of  love,"  and  I  will  not 
directly  contradict,  but  the  word  "  love,"  in  this  connec- 
tion, does  not  appear  to  me  sufficiently  clear.  I  believe 
that  the  conquests  of  the  religion  of  science  will  be  those 
of  conviction  by  the  strength  which  a  true  argument  car- 
ries in  itself.  At  any  rate  I  have  not  been  converted  to 
the  religion  of  science  by  any  kind  of  love,  but  by  the 
power  of  its  truth.  I  gave  up  the  Christian  faith  of 
my  youth  very  reluctantly,  and  I  almost  hated  those 
strong  scientific  arguments  which  came  to  destroy  what 
seemed  to  me  the  sole  hope  of  life  and  best  comfort  in 
death.  I  could  not  realize  at  first  that  these  bitter 
truths  which  seemed  to  poison  all  religious  feeling  con- 
tain a  medicine  for  the  pain  they  inflict;  but  now  I 
know  that  science  which  is  so  destructive  to  all  super- 
stitious forms  of  religion  is  at  the  same  time  the  basis  of 
the  only  true  religion,  viz.,  a  humanitarian  religion  and 
the  future  religion  of  humanity. 

The  erroneous  statement  that  religion  is  one  thing 
and  science  another,  and  that  both  are  separated  by  a 
gap  which  cannot  be  bridged  over,  is  an  invention  of 
the  schoolmen  and  has  been  proposed  and  obtained  for 
several  centuries,  merely  to  protect  science  from  hier- 
archical persecution.  In  the  dark  ages  theology  was 
praised  as  the  queen  of  all  sciences  (regina  scicntiaruni) 
and  philosophy  was  called  her  servant  maid  {ancilla 
theologiic).  Science  was  the  Cinderella,  although  she 
was  destined  to  become  princess  and  take  the  place 
from  which  she  was  kept  aloof  by  her  haughty  sister. 

The  thinkers,  scientists  and  philosophers  of  the 
Middle  Ages  often  arrived  at  conclusions  which  were  in 
direct  contradiction  to  the  teachings  of  theology,  and  in 
order  to  prevent  interference  the)'  invented,  as  it  were, 
the  axiom  that  something  might  be  true  in  philosophy- 
while  its  contrary  is  true  in  theology.  The  theologians 
were  much  puzzled  at  this  theory  but  being  accustomed 
to  many  self-contradictions  in  their  own  domain,  easily 
acquiesced  to  the  strange  axiom.  The  chasm  between 
religion  and  philosophy  became  wider  with  the  growth 
of  science  and  soon  theology  became  alarmed.  Now  it 
was  insisted  upon  on  either  side  that  science  and  religion 
should  not  be  confounded.  They  were  declared  to  be 
quite  distinct  and  should  have  no  communication  with 
each  other. 

The  most  ingenious  modern  formulation  of  this  erro- 
neous axiom  has  been  proposed  by  Schleiermacher, 
the    distinguished  disciple    of    Kant    and   Hegel  and    a 


406 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


famous  orator  in  the  pulpit.  He  declares  that  the  province 
of  science  is  the  realm  of  reason,  while  religion  is  a  mat- 
ter of  feeling  (Sachedes  Gcfiifcls),  and  as  such,  it  is  inde- 
pendent of  science.  He  is  right  when  saying  that  the 
religious  impulses  are  a  matter  of  our  emotions,  but  I 
deny  most  emphatically  that  religion  is  confined  to  the 
province  of  emotions.  The  religion  of  a  man  is  com- 
posed of  many  very  different  ingredients.  If  we  analyze 
one  special  form  of  religion  (  for  instance,  the  Islam,  or 
Christianity,  or  the  religious  convictions  of  a  single  man), 
we  shall  probably  find  that  it  is  a  queer  mixture  of  all 
things  which  can  influence  human  emotions;  it  consists 
of  ethical  prescripts,  of  scientific  facts,  of  superstitious 
traditions,  of  reverence  to  parents  and  teachers,  of  awe 
toward  an  indefinite  or  misunderstood  power,  of  human- 
itarian aspirations,  of  the  eagerness  to  cling  to  the  hope 
of  an  eternal  personal  existence,  etc.  Each  single 
religion,  or  rather  form  of  religion,  is  a  very  complicated 
structure  and  the  result  of  innumerable  factors. 
Science,  undoubtedly,  is  one  of  these  factors,  and,  as  the 
standing  programme  of  The  Open  Court  declares, 
it  should  be  so  prominent  as  to  be  "  the  basis  of  true 
religion."  Such  factors  of  religious  belief  as  have  been 
very  prominent  in  shaping  supernatural  religions,  viz.: 
superst.tion,  acquiescence  in  traditional  authority,  accept- 
ance of  illogical  dogmas  in  spite  of  and  indeed  because 
of  their  absurdity  (the  credo  quia  absurd/an'),  should  be 
abandoned.  And  if,  as  we  all  seem  to  agree,  religion  is 
trul}-  an  ultimate  fact  of  human  nature,  I  do  not  see 
any  earthly  reason  why  it  should  not  be  established  upon 
a  scientific  basis. 

Voltaire  said:  Lc  style  c"est  Vliomme!  This  is  true 
to  some  extent,  for  a  man  is  characterized  by  what  he 
does  and  by  the  way  he  expresses  himself.  Yet,  the  style 
a  man  writes,  characterizes  him  only  in  one,  although  a 
very  important  province  of  his  intellectual  existence.  I 
know  of  a  better  characteristic  of  man,  which  is  his  relig- 
ion. The  religion  of  a  man  is  the  man,  and  it  char- 
acterizes him.  I  do  not  mean  the  sect  or  creed  or 
denomination  to  which  he  belongs  or  the  belief  which 
his  church  accepts,  I  mean  the  religion  as  it  has  taken 
shape  in  his  brain  and  heart  and  as  it  proves  a  more  or 
less  live  and  influential  factor  in  the  determination  of  his 
actions. 

If  religion  is  an  ultimate  fact  in  human  nature, what, 
then,  is  it,  and  what  would  be  a  correct  definition  of 
religion?  The  theological  definition  declares  religion 
to  be  the  relation  of  man  to  God.  If  we  eliminate  the 
word  God,  which  to  many  means  a  personal  Deity,  and 
substitute  in  its  place  the  All,  or  the  Universe,  we  may 
retain  the  old  definition  in  this  form.  "Religion  is  the 
relation  of  man  to  the  All  or  the  Universe."  As  the  con- 
ception of  the  whole  Universe,  however,  is  one  which 
has  been  gradually  evolved  in  the  history  of  human 
kind,  the  origin  of  religion  and  its  foundation  in  human 


nature  needs  further  explanation  from  the  standpoint  of 
scientific  facts,  especially  from  the  results  of  modern 
anthropology  and  psychology. 

Chemistry  teaches  that  the  elements  into  which  mat- 
ter can  be  analyzed  are  immutable  and  invariable. 
Their  number  is  now  sixty  and  odds,  but  it  may,  and 
probably  will  be  reduced  to  less,  perhaps  to  two  or  even 
to  one.  That  would  not  make  any  difference,  however, 
with  regard  to  the  above  made  statement,  that  the  ulti- 
mate elements  of  matter  are  considered  as  invariable  and 
immutable.  Consequently  development,  progress  or 
evolution  cannot  and  must  not  be  looked  for  in  matter 
or  in  the  elements  of  matter.  Evolution,  progress  and 
improvement,  is  only  possible  through  a  change  of  the 
combinations  which  are  formed  by  the  elements.  The 
combinations  of  the  elements  admit  of  innumerable, 
indeed,  of  infinite  modifications.  The  atoms  of  living 
substance  can  be  grouped  in  a  more  orderly  array  and 
their  molecular  motion  can  be  arranged  in  such  a  way 
that  their  cooperation  loses  less  energy  and  produces 
more  effect.  In  this  way  they  will  grow  stronger  and 
have  a  better  chance  to  survive. 

A  single  cell  performs  the  same  functions  as  an  en- 
tire organism.  It  has  the  property  of  nutrition,  growth 
and  propagation.  If  a  cell  divides  into  two,  three  or 
more  filial  cells,  their  connection  need  not  be  broken  up 
entirely.  Several  cells  mav  lead  a  common  life — a  kind 
of  family  life  in  which  they  help  each  other  and  grow 
stronger  by  their  mutual  assistance.  A  division  of  labor 
will  prove  a  great  economy  of  work.  Certain  cells  will 
attend  to  certain  functions  for  the  whole  cell  community, 
and  the  whole  cell  community  will  supply  them  with 
the  necessary  food  and  strength  to  do  their  special  work. 
Thus  organs  develop,  and  from  the  cell  necessarily  or- 
ganisms evolve.  But  the  condition  under  which  organ- 
isms rise  into  existence  is  that  single  parts  are  subserv- 
ient to  a  greater  whole;  they  work  as  parts  of  a  whole 
and  accordingly  find  the  purpose  of  their  existence  not 
in  themselves,  hut  in  the  greater  unity  of  which  they 
are  parts.  Their  labor  serves  a  higher  idea,  and  their 
egotism  is  superseded  by  a  principle  which  can  be  com- 
pared to  the  duty  of  a  man  to  humanity.  And  this 
principle  contains  the  quintessence  of  ethics. 

Evolution  is  only  possible  because  this  ethical  prin- 
ciple is  a  law  of  nature.  It  is  in  the  empire  of  organ- 
ized matter  what  the  law  of  gravitation  is  in  the  cosmic 
world,  which  shapes  the  chaos  of  a  nebula  into  an 
orderly  arranged  planetary  system.  The  same  law  is 
the  cause  of  progress  in  human  society,  for  it  prompts 
the  single  individual  to  sacrifice  his  labor,  his  life's  best 
years  and  even  his  life  itself  for  the  propagation,  evolu- 
tion and  progress  of  his  race. 

The  ethical  law  is  a  scientific  fact.  It  is  a  funda- 
mental law  of  nature  and  can  be  proved  by  a  scientific 
observation  of  the  phenomena  of  nature. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


407 


Religion  accordingly  is  the  consciousness  of  any 
rational  being  that  it  is  not  a  separate  entity,  but  a  part 
of  a  greater  whole,  and  further  that  it  is  a  part  of  the 
great  whole,  the  Pan  of  the  Greeks,  the  All  or  the  Uni- 
verse. This  consciousness  is  (as  is  an}'  kind  of  con- 
sciousness) a  feeling  or  an  emotion,  but  its  substance  or 
contents  comprises  our  knowledge  of  the  All,  which  of 
course  varies  according  to  individuality,  education,  etc. 
This  consciousness  of  our  relation  to  the  All  should  not 
be  allowed  to  be  a  vague  enthusiastic  feeling,  indistinct 
in  its  object  and  purpose,  but  should  be  based  on  scienti- 
fic data.  This  is  the  only  way  to  make  religion  what  it 
ought  to  be,  viz.,  a  humanitarian  religion,  which  leads 
humanity  onward  on  the  path  of  progress.  This  reli- 
gion should  be  made  the  basis  of  all  education.  It 
should  be  implanted  in  the  hearts  of  our  children  so  as 
to  make  it  a  live  power  which  will  control  all  the  other 
emotions  and  thus  regulate  the  further  development  of 
human  kind. 

If  religion  is  the  consciousness  of  our  relation  to  the 
All,  ethics  teaches  us  how  to  act  accordingly.  Our 
actions  must  be  in  harmony  with  nature  and  in  unison 
with  the  universe.  We  must  constantly  bear  in  mind 
that  we  are  only  parts  of  humanity,  and  that  by  our  labor 
humanity  develops  to  higher  stages.  The  only  true 
religion,  therefore,  the  orthodox  religion  of  science,  in 
its  application  to  real  life,  is  ethics. 


A  REJOINDER  TO   MRS.   E.  C.   STANTON. 

BY    EDWARD    C    HEGELER. 

No.  13  of  The  Open  Court  brings  an  answer  from 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  to  my  criticisms  of  her 
article,  "Jails  and  Jubilees."  My  remarks  opened  with 
the  words,  "  I  believe  that  the  worst  enemy  of  woman 
is  woman;  it  is  not  only  a  matter  of  fact  that  we  find 
the  strongest  adversaries  of  woman's  rights  among  the 
fairer  sex,  but  ladies  are  always  severest  in  judging  and 
condemning  the  real  or  supposed  faults  of  their  sisters. 
This  truth  was  re-impressed  upon  my  mind  when  I  read 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton's  article,  'Jails  and  Jubi- 
lees,' and  it  is  the  more  noteworthy  as  she  is  one  of 
the  most  prominent  defenders  of  woman's  rights.  I 
never  read  a  harsher  criticism  on  Queen  Victoria  than 
hers." 

Mrs.  Stanton  says:  "In  his  strictures  on  my  article, 
'Jails  and  Jubilees,'  Mr.  Hegeler  makes  the  assertion 
that  'the  worst  enemy  of  woman  is  woman;'"  and  later: 
"  Because  one  woman  has  questioned  the  goodness  and 
wisdom  of  the  Queen  of  England,  it  will  hardly  do  for 
Mr.  Hegeler  to  pass  so  sweeping  a  libel  on  all  woman- 
hood." 

Mrs.  Stanton  draws  the  attention  from  the  real  sub- 
ject of  my  criticism — that  by  her  article  the  Queen  of 
England  and  her  husband  had  been  unjustly  attacked 
in    The  Open    Court  in    a  personal  manner.       Mrs. 


Stanton's  eloquent  argument  that  man,  not  woman,  is 
woman's  greatest  enemy,  brings  to  me  the  thought,  how- 
ever, that  for  woman  to  gain  full  independence  and 
equal  rights  with  man,  it  is,  above  all,  essential  that  she 
blame  herself  and  not  others  for  any  oppression  she 
suffers,  and  look  for  the  attainment  of  mental  weapons 
to  overcome  it. 

Mrs.  Stanton  further  makes  the  remark:  "Repre- 
sentatives from  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  Germany 
and  France  make  and  administer  the  law  for  the  daugh- 
ters of  Jefferson,  Hancock  and  Adams,  and  we  have  no 
redress."  I  myself  being  one  of  those  American  citi- 
zens who  came  here  invited  by  the  Constitution  and 
laws  to  equal  rights  with  those  who  were  born  here, 
have  to  reply  to  Mrs.  Stanton's  complaint — of  Ameri- 
can woman  being  governed  by  such  as  I  am — that  we 
European  born  citizens  brought  with  us  wives  and 
"daughters  also,  who  share  the  still  existing  inequalities 
of  American  born  women. 

Mrs.  Stanton  later  attempts  to  support  some  of  her 
former  personal  criticism  of  the  Queen  of  England,  but 
does  not  yet  think  of  stating  anything  praiseworthy  done 
by  a  woman  who  for  fifty  years  filled  a  difficult  position 
satisfactorily  to  a  large  majority  of  the  English  people. 

As  a  specification  to  her  former  criticism  Mrs.  Stan- 
ton substantially  states  that  the  Queen  of  England  accu- 
mulated a  private  fortune,  and  did  not  renounce  a  donation 
to  her  children,  as  she  had  saved  enough  for  them.  If 
Queen  Victoria  has  accumulated  a  private  fortune  she 
has  done  so,  not  for  her  personal  benefit,  but  for  her 
children.  Its  administration  will  only  be  troublesome 
to  her.  It  is  well  known  that  the  family  members  of 
crowned  heads  are  in  a  difficult  position  socially,  and 
that  much  is  expected  of  them  requiring  money,  which 
they  are  not  permitted  by  custom  to  earn.  I  think  the 
children  of  Queen  Victoria  have,  however,  made  an 
effort  to  make  themselves  useful  to  the  state. 

Further,  if  Mrs.  Stanton's  figures  of  the  amount 
paid  to  the  Queen's  family  are  correct,  I  can  say  that  but 
a  small  part  thereof  will  have  been  personally  consumed 
by  those  who  received  the  money.  This  only  gave 
them  the  means  of  making  themselves  useful  to  others, 
or  for  playing  a  role  in  the  ceremonial  government  of 
the  state.  What  I  mean  therewith  Herbert  Spencer's 
work  on  Ceremonial  Institutions  teaches.  How  impor- 
tant in  government  ceremonial  institutions  are  is  shown 
to  me  very  strongly  by  the  coronation  ordeal  (with  its 
enormous  expense)  which  the  Emperor  of  Russia  (I  be- 
lieve as  a  duty)  imposed  upon  himself  and  his  wife,  hav- 
ing to  look  for  the  assassin  at  every  step. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  we  find  it  necessary  to  send  as 
ambassadors  to  foreign  courts  men  of  private  wealth, 
because  we  are  not  willing  to  pay  them  enough  to  meet 
the  expenses  necessary  for  effectually  filling  their  pi  ices. 

In   this  connection   I   am  reminded  of  our  President 


yjS 


THK    OPEN    COURT. 


Haves,  who  has  tried  the  system  of  economy  suggested 
by  Mrs.  Stanton. 

Mrs.  Stanton  closes  with  a  dark  picture  of  misery 
among  the  lower  classes  of  the  English  people.  We 
find  the  same  distress  in  our  Republic.  It  is  commend- 
able of  Mrs.  Stanton  to  think  of  these  afflictions  in  the 
turmoil  of  a  jubilee  celebration,  but  it  is  wrong  person- 
ally to  blame  the  Queen  of  England  for  not  having 
solved  the  social  question. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  DRESS  UPON  DEVELOPMENT. 

BY   FLORA   MCDONALD. 

When  science  destroyed  our  faith  in  the  long-revered 
fig  leaf  and  its  purpose,  there  was  seemingly  no  alter- 
native left  but  to  adopt  the  theory  of  our  modern  dress 
reform  agitators,  and  regard  clothes  only  as  the  promo- 
ter of  creature  comfort.  But  the  one  great  clothes 
philosopher  the  world  has  ever  known  would  have  us 
view  the  subject  differently.  In  the  adoption  of  clothes) 
he  discovers  not  merely  the  satisfaction  of  an  animal 
want.  "  In  all  man's  habilatory  endeavors  an  architec- 
tural idea  will  be  found  lurking;  his  body  and  the  cloth 
are  the  site  and  material  whereon  and  whereby  his 
beautiful  edifice  of  a  person  is  to  be  built."  The  con- 
servation of  spiritual  force  renders  man  both  the  author 
and  work  —  the  creator  and  the  created  —  of  his  envi- 
ronment. The  spiritual  energy  expended  in  an  act  to 
generate  his  surroundings,  becomes  at  once  a  vital 
power  to  reproduce  in  him  the  idea  of  which  they  are 
the  visible  expression.  An  attitude  of  body  cannot  be 
assumed  for  any  length  of  time  without  creating  a  cor- 
responding attitude  of  mind.  Neither  can  a  dress  be 
adopted  without  arousing  in  the  wearer's  mind  the  idea 
of  which  it  is  the  expression.  Nations,  classes,  individ- 
uals, differentiate  themselves  in  dress.  As  all  civilized 
people  bear  a  resemblance  to  one  another,  affected  only 
by  climatic  and  other  natural  influences,  so  are  they  distin- 
guished from  all  savages  in  physiognomy  and  their 
habilatory  methods.  Less  marked  differences  between 
one  civilized  people  and  another  show  less  marked  dif- 
ferences of  dress,  but  that  difference  exists,  deep-rooted 
—  not  merely  a  matter  of  cut  and  cloth,  but  a  matter  of 
mind. 

The  national  characteristics  of  his  dress  represent  to 
the  wearer  all  those  ideas  which  make  his  country  dear 
to  him,  and  kindle  in  his  heart  the  fire  of  patriotism. 
A  large  foreign  element,  then,  introduced  in  the  midst 
of  a  people  and  maintaining  its  foreign  dress,  must  be 
an  element  dangerous  to  the  country  in  which  it  is  found. 
The  emigrant  may  swear  himself  hoarse,  vowing  alle- 
giance to  the  government  of  his  adoption;  but  so  long 
as  he  persists  in  wearing  the  dress  of  his  fatherland,  his 
loyalty  may  not  unjustly  lie  distrusted.  It  has  been 
noticed  that  the  emigrant  who  comes  to  America  fully 
determined  to  cut  loose  from  old  associations  and  worship 


our  gods,  makes  his  first  act  of  devotion  in  a  clothing 
store.  A  Japanese  or  Chinese  student,  anxious  to 
become  familiar  with  English  customs,  will  wisely 
adopt  English  costumes.  Habiting  himself  in  English 
dress  on  entering  an  English  college,  he  unconsciously 
makes  easier  the  acquiring  of  a  broad  knowledge 
of  English  ideas  and  institutions  by  thus  removing 
prejudices  which  his  native  attire  would  constantly  sug- 
gest. A  government  supply  of  "store  clothes"  for  the 
Indian  would  undoubtedly  prove  a  great  aid  in  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem,  What  shall  we  do  with  our  noble  red 
man?  Similarity  of  dress  is  an  expression  of  similarity 
of  interests.  Clothe  the  Indian  like  the  white  man,  we 
present  to  him  the  idea  of  common  interests — of  fra- 
ternity. His  blanket,  war-paint  and  feathers  exist 
between  him  and  civilization  only  as  persistently  as 
does  the  cue  of  the  Chinaman  hang  between  him 
and  Americanization. 

Professor  Teufelsdrockh's  high  glee  in  imagining 
"  at  some  royal  drawing-room  the  Duke  this,  the  Arch- 
duke that,  Colonel  A.  and  Colonel  B.,  and  innumerable 
Bishops,  Generals  and  miscellaneous  functionaries,  all 
advancing  gallantly  to  the  Anointed  Presence,  when 
suddenly  the  clothes  fly  off  the  whole  dramatic  corps 
and  Dukes,  Grandees,  Bishops,  Generals — Anointed 
Presence  itself,  straddling  there  without  a  shirt  on," 
was  the  rare  glee  provoked  by  reason.  For  a  time  a 
certain  lofty  expression  of  piety  might  distinguish  the 
naked  Bishop  from  his  fellows,  and  an  unmistakable  air 
of  royalty  might  preserve  the  Anointed  Presence  from 
insult.  So,  for  a  time,  were  an  exchange  of  clothes  to 
take  place,  the  Admiral  wou'd  be  uncomfortable  in  the 
Bishop's  gown,  the  Bishop  awkward  with  the  General's 
sword,  the  General  uneasv  with  the  crown  of  the 
Anointed  Presence  upon  his  head.  But  so  do  "  our  clothes 
tailorize  and  demoralize  us,"  if  the  Admiral  persevered 
in  wearing  the  Bishop's  gown,  he  would  soon  discover 
in  his  soul  a  liking  for  lengthy  prayers  and  high  living, 
and  be  fore  long  would  detect  about  himself  an  air  of  supe- 
rior piety  which  would  be  not  a  little  confusing;  while 
the  General  accustoming  his  head  to  the  weight  of  the 
crown  would  one  day  find  the  palm  of  his  hand  itching 
for  a  sceptre.  An  idea  constantly  presented  to  us  by 
our  environment  becomes  a  powerful  factor  in  our 
development.  Radical  reformers  invariably  adopt  some 
radical  change  in  their  dress,  and,  in  so  doing,  provide 
themselves  with  a  strong  moral  support.  The  visible 
expression  of  a  motive  which  prompts  their  acts  and 
makes  them  different  from  their  fellows,  weakens  the 
influence  of  their  fellows  upon  them  by  plainly  setting 
them  aside  as  creatures  animated  by  impulses  contrary 
to  the  general  impulse.  In  communities  where  rigid 
discipline  is  maintained,  there  can  be  no  question  but 
that  the  wearing  of  a  uniform  by  the  members  aids  in 
sustaining  this   discipline.     The   individuality  of  persons 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


409 


is  merged  into  the  individuality  of  the  community.  The 
person  is  less  liable  to  assert  his  will  power  because  of 
having  always  before  him  the  idea  of  the  whole.  The 
animus  of  the  community  becomes  all-powerful.  Relig- 
ious orders  thus  endure;  mutinies  among  sailors  and 
soldiers  are  thus  made  more  infrequent;  and  outbreaks 
in  prisons  and  reformatories  are  less  often  suggested. 
While  there  can  be  no  two  views  of  the  effect  of  uni- 
form dress  upon  discipline,  it  is  a  question  whether  its 
influence  is  for  the  best  in  prisons  and  reformatories. 
When  our  prison  system  is  universally  such  that  we 
have  a  class  of  hopeless  criminals  under  life-sentence 
separate  from  criminals  under  indeterminate  sentences, 
in  the  former  case  where  discipline  would  be  the  main 
consideration,  no  change  of  dress  may  be  desired.  But 
where  there  is  hope  of  reform,  there  is  but  little  doubt 
that  the  shaven  heads  and  striped  garb  commonly  seen 
in  reformatories  has  a  deteriorating  influence  upon 
moral  development. 

The  habit  of  the  monk  is  assumed  as  an  expression 
of  the  lofty  ambition  of  his  soul,  and,  being  thus  differ- 
entiated because  of  his  piety,  he  becomes  literally  virtu- 
ous before  the  eyes  of  men  and  in  his  own  sight.  This 
outward  demonstration  of  virtue  constantly  re-acts  on 
his  soul  to  its  good.  Likewise  differentiate  a  man 
because  of  his  viciousness,  you  connect  the  idea  of  vice 
so  intimately  with  him,  with  his  concept  of  himself,  as 
to  form  a  decided  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  moral 
uplifting.  The  soul  to  be  healthy,  must  have  all  chan- 
nels of  expression  unobstructed.  Where  reform  is 
possible,  individuality  should  not  only  be  permitted,  but 
encouraged  in  every  way.  The  adoption  of  this  prin- 
ciple in  the  treatment  of  the  insane,  has  been  productive 
in  all  instances  of  good  results.  A  member  of  one  of 
our  State  Boards  of  Charities  and  Reforms  asserts,  how- 
ever, that  in  the  matter  of  dress  there  is  still  room  for 
great  improvement  in  our  insane  hospitals.  The  inmates 
do  not  wear  uniforms,  but  said  he,  "they  are  dressed  in 
ill-fitting,  hard  looking  cheap  clothes,  apparently  so  as 
to  make  them  more  keenly  alive  to  their  condition  and 
thus  retard  their  recovery,  which  is  also  hindered  by  the 
exercise  of  a  cheap  superiority  over  them,  assumed  by 
hired  attendants  because  of  their  miserable  appearance." 
The  charity  of  the  wealty,  which  is  ever  seeking  new 
courses,  might  well  be  directed  in  experimenting  with  a 
change  in  the  manner  of  clothing  our  subjects  for 
reform,  moral  and  intellectual. 

The  dress  reform  agitators  look  to  nothing  but 
physical  comfort  and  health.  Physical  health  insured, 
promotes  intellectual  development.  Dwarf  the  body, 
the  mind  suffers.  But  this  intermediate  influence  which 
dress  brings  to  bear  upon  development,  demands  less 
attention  than  the  immediate  influence  which  the  idea 
conveyed  by  dress  exerts.  If  the  body  is  pinched  and 
pained,  and  so  inducing  mental  discrepancies,  there  is  a 


sentinel  on  guard  to  cry  out  against  the  treatment. 
Nature  rebels,  and  disease  gives  forth  a  warning.  In 
the  other  instance,  however,  incalculable  harm  may  be 
wrought,  and  no  signal  of  distress  seen  or  heard.  The 
desires  and  aim  of  the  demi-monde  seek  expression  in 
a  style  of  dress  that  is  unhesitatingly  copieil  by  pro- 
fessedly pure  women  in  professedly  respectable  society. 
No  woman  can  do  this  without  becoming  a  patent  factor 
for  evil.  She  may  assume  the  dress  of  a  Cora  Pearl, 
and,  to  all  appearances,  preserve  her  own  purity  intact, 
but  she  must  augment  base  passions  in  men  that  are 
strong  enough  at  their  best.  That  she  does  not  at  the 
same  time  experience  moral  loss  herself,  is  scarcely  to  be 
credited  —  is  to  lie  sincerely  doubted,  in  fact.  The  sub- 
tile influence  of  her  dress  is  ever  at  work,  reproducing 
in  her  ideas  of  which  it  was  originally  the  expression, 
and  creating  about  her  a  moral  atmosphere  in  which  she 
maintains  a  healthy  appearance  only  because  circum- 
stances kindly  give  her  no  opportunity  for  exposure. 
"  Men  form  laws  to  suit  their  own  interests,  and  then 
term  these  laws,  moral  laws —  God's  laws,"  said  George 
Sand  bitterly.  Whatever  we  may  call  these  laws,  what- 
ever mean  motive  may  have  originated  them,  they  are 
necessary  to  the  continuance  of  all  institutions  we  count 
good;  and  since,  being  the  creation  of  man,  they  depend 
for  their  existence  upon  the  temper  of  the  individual, 
happiness  demands  that  everything  directed  against 
them  should  be  frowned  down.  It  has  been  found  well 
for  our  advancement  that  men  hold  their  iniquity  within 
certain  bounds,  but  that  women  be  above  reproach. 

Again  considering  no  duty  but  duty  to  self — which 
is,  after  all,  duty  to  God — it  behooves  us  to  look  care- 
fully to  the  growth  and  development  of  our  children. 
We  send  them  to  school  five  days  in  a  week,  religiously 
start  them  off  to  Sunday  school  on  the  seventh  day, 
dress  them  like  puppets  every  day,  and  are  surprised 
that  our  excellent  management  produces  so  few  earnest, 
genuine  souls!  The  chief  beauties  of  childhood  are 
simplicity  and  spontaneity,  and  both  of  these  beauties 
we  destroy  as  speedily  as  ma}'  be  with  the  frippery  and 
furbelows  we  clothe  them  in.  We  cramp  growing  bodies 
and  paralize  growing  minds.  We  force  the  follies,  the 
mockeries  the  foolish  restraints  of  fashionable — or,  if 
you  will,  conservative  life  upon  children  before  they 
have  got  beyond  "the  murmur  of  the  outer  infinite 
which  unweaned  babes  hear  in  their  sleep,  and  are 
wondered  at  for  smiling."  We  are  willing  they  should 
be  taught  the  creed  and  thirty-nine  articles,  but  at  the 
same  time  we  see  to  it  that  they  are  impressed  with  a 
proper  sense  of  the  importance  of  a  becoming  confirma- 
tion robe.  Innocent  childish  lips  wonderingly  repeat: 
"Thou  shalt  not  steal,  thou  shalt  not  kill,  thou  shalt  not 
commit  adultery" — but  how  many  learn  the  lesson  of  the 
lilies  of  the  field?  To  best  further  its  development,  the 
dress  of  a  child  should  express  but  one  idea — simplicity. 


4io 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Its  little  soul  finds  the  most  trivial  phenomenon  of  this 
big;  world  a  perplexing  study,  and  do  not  confuse  it  and 
obstruct  its  growth  by  forcing  it  to  an  immediate  recog- 
nition of  that  thing  apart  from  the  natural  world — man's 
world.  The  soul  that  in  its  youth  forms  an  intimate 
acquaintance,  a  quick  sympathy  with  undefiled  nature, 
is  never  without  a  companion  and  never  without  anally. 


THE    LAOKOON    OF    LABOR. 

BY    WHEELBARROW. 

Most  of  us  have  seen  the  picture  of  Laokoon  and  his 
two  sons  in  the  embrace  of  the  avenging  serpents  sent 
to  punish  them  for  sacrilege.  I  think  that  was  their 
offense;  or  perhaps  it  was  blasphemy.  It  was  some 
crime  against  religion,  and  the  punishment  was  of  that 
exquisite  cruelty  that  angry  gods  delight  in.  I  am 
not  familiar  with  the  legend  connected  with  the  picture, 
but  I  have  read  that  the  piece  of  sculpture  from  which 
it  is  taken  is  considered  superior  to  every  other  work  of 
art  in  the  world.  I  can  readily  believe  it,  for  even  the 
picture  shows  the  muscular  contortions  of  the  strong 
man  in  his  agony.  But  they  avail  him  nothing.  His 
masculine  sinews,  hardened  and  distended  by  the  death 
struggle,  only  furnish  a  firmer  fulcrum  for  the  grip  of 
the  serpents,  and  he  and  his  boys  are  crushed   together. 

Like  Laokoon  of  old,  the  American  laborer  and  his 
children  struggle  in  the  coils  of  the  strong  serpents — 
monopoly  and  aristocracy.  Capital  furnishes  their  con- 
strictive power,  and  every  effort  for  freedom  only  tight- 
ens the  grip.  We  strike  for  higher  wages,  and  end  bv 
"  signing  the  document,"  making  our  slavery  a  matter 
of  record,  and  mortgaging  our  children  "  even  to  the 
third  and  fourth  generation."  On  the  altar  of  "  brother- 
hood "  we  immolate  fraternity,  and  forbid  the  cunning 
hands  of  our  neighbor's  boys  to  learn  an  honest  trade 
because  we  work  at  it.  We  incorporate  the  principle  of 
caste  into  the  religion  of  labor,  and  sneer  at  the  "plug" 
workman  while  denying  him  the  right  to  learn.  We 
butt  our  heads  against  stone  walls,  under  the  delusion 
that  the  exercise  toughens  the  brain  and  strengthens  the 
mind.  Assailing  capital  we  insist  on  being  paid  in  cheap 
dollars  for  dear  work,  and  with  inverted  patriotism  we 
carry  torches  in  the  fool  parade  whose  transparencies 
demand  "  high  prices  for  everything."  I  have  a  right  to 
talk  like  this,  because  a  moment  ago,  when  I  went  down 
to  the  shed  for  a  hod  of  dear  coal,  I  saw  inglorious  in 
the  corner  the  helmet  that  I  wore  and  the  torch  that  I 
bore  "  in  the  last  campaign,"  when,  in  company  with 
two  thousand  other  patriots,  I  escorted  "  the  orator  of 
the  occasion  "  to  the  grand  stand.  I  have  "the  privi- 
lege of  the  floor,"  for  I  got  a  sore  throat  in  cheering  his 
fluent  glib-gab  as  he  boasted  of  our  great  prosperity, 
and  called  upon  us  all  to  vote  earlv  and  often,  and  bring 
our  neighbor  to  vote  for  the  man  that  made  everything 
dear.     The    same    crusading    will     be    done    again     by 


workingmen  next  year,  but  "not  for  Joseph — if  he 
knows  it — not  for  Joe."     I  have  carried  my  last  torch. 

Before  labor  can  be  lifted  up  to  its  rightful  dignity 
every  workingman  and  every  man  willing  to  woik 
must  be  made  free  of  the  "  brotherhood."  By  helping 
one  another  we  all  rise  together;  bv  dragging  each 
other  down  we  all  fall  together.  So  long  as  the  man 
who  lays  the  bricks  treats  as  his  inferior  the  man  who 
carries  them  up  the  ladder,  neither  of  them  is  free;  so 
long  as  the  man  who  drives  the  engine  despises  the 
man  who  pushes  the  wheelbarrow,  so  long  monopolv 
will  hold  them  in  a  common  bondage.  This  is  the 
philosophy  of  all  experience  since  man  first  hecame  the 
hired  man  of  his  brother. 

I  once  had  a  job  of  shoveling  at  a  place  called  Man- 
chester, in  Virginia,  just  opposite  Richmond.  One 
Sunday  I  was  taking  a  walk  with  a  friend  in  Richmond, 
and  I  remarked  the  inequality  of  the  negroes  in  the 
streets,  as  indicated  by  their  personal  appearance.  Some 
were  ragged,  brutal-  faced,  and  twisted  out  of  shape  by 
premature  and  unnatural  toil  ;  others  were  well  clad 
and  evidently  well  fed.  One  bright  mulatto,  of  genteel 
figure  and  face,  was  clad  in  black  broadcloth  ;  he  wore  a 
shiny  silk  hat  and  carried  a  cane.  It  was  easy  to  see 
also  that  there  were  castes  among  them,  superiors  and 
inferiors,  and  that  the  higher  orders  looked  with  scorn 
upon  the  lower  classes.  I  thought  that  those  finely 
dressed  negroes  were  probably  free.  "  No,"  said  my 
friend,  "  they  are  all  slaves,  but  there  are  degrees  even 
in  slavery;  there  are  'soft  things'  there  as  in  freedom." 
Next  day  I  was  standing  by  the  Washington  monu- 
ment, when  I  saw  a  procession  of  negroes  fastened  by 
couples  to  a  long  chain.  They  were  marching  to  the 
shambles  to  be  sold,  where  I  followed  them  to  see  the 
auction.  That  lot  of  fellow-Christians  brought,  on  an 
average,  about  six  dollars  a  pound.  Among  them  was 
the  bright  mulatto — plug  hat,  broadcloth  and  all.  He 
was  chained  to  a  vulgar  looking  field  hand.  All  super- 
cilious airs  were  gone,  and  every  face  carried  the  same 
hopeless  look  of  despair.  All  distinctions  were  leveled 
in  the  handcuffs  that  tightened  them  to  a  common  chain. 
So  it  is  with  the  workingmen.  We  may  build  steps  on 
which  to  place  the  various  crafts  one  above  another, 
with  the  laborer  and  his  wheelbarrow  at  the  bottom, 
but  while  we  are  doing  that  concentrated  capital  is  bind- 
ing us  by  couples  to  an  impartial  degradation.  We 
can,  if  we  will,  reverse  the  fate  of  Laokoon  and  strangle 
the  serpents,  but  we  must  all  work  together;  the  trowel 
must  not  tyrannize  over  the  hod,  nor  the  jackplane  sneer 
at  the  shovel. 


A  correspondence  between  F.  Galton,  George 
Romanes,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  and  Prof.  Max  Miiller, 
forming  an  appendix  to  the  lectures  on  the  "Science  of 
Thought,"  will  be  printed  in  our  next  issue. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4n 


The  Open  Court. 

A.  FortniohtlyJournal. 

Published  every  other  Thursday  at   169  to   175  La  Salle  Street  (Nixor 
Building*,  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN»COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  I-.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  denned, 
■will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  Treasurer,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  111.,  to  whom 
should  be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders 

THURSDAY,  SEPTEMBER  i,  1SS7. 

AN   OVERTAXED  ORACLE. 

"Unfortunately,"  confesses  Rev.  D.  P.  Livermore,  in 
reply  to  the  arguments  of  the  Rev.  H.  M.  Dexter,  of 
the  Corigregationalist,  against  Woman's  suffrage — "  The 
Bible  has  been  pressed  into  the  support  of  almost  every 
wrong  under  the  heavens,  and  it  has  been  interpreted  in 
the  interest  of  intemperance,  of  drunkenness,  of  wine-bib- 
bing, of  slavery,  of  polygamy,  of  unjust  government,  of 
witchcraft,  of  superstition,  persecution  and  bloodshed) 
and  to  destroy  the  heathen  and  massacre  the  Indians." 
Rev.  Mr.  Livermore  objects  to  such  manifest  overtax- 
ing of  the  Christian  oracle  when  Dr.  Dexter  offers  the 
Bible  as  authority  against  woman  suffrage,  in  which 
Mr.  Livermore  chivalrously  believes;  but  we  wonder 
whether  he  and  other  Christian  suffragists  feel  like  mak- 
ing any  protest  in  the  interest  of  truth  and  common 
sense  when  enthusiastic  clergymen  like  Rev.  J.  W.  Bash- 
ford  and  Rev.  C.  C.  Harrah  offer  to  prove  from  the 
Bible  (and  doubtless  imagine  that  they  do  so),  the  one, 
that  it  is  in  favor  of  woman's  suffrage;  and  the  other,  that 


Jesus  Christ  was,  in  the  light  of  our  new  definitions  of 
woman's  enfranchisement,  "  the  emancipator  of  women." 
It  does  not  seem  at  first  thought  worth  while  to  offer 
any  contradiction  of  these  absurd  affirmations,  but  the 
recollection  of  the  intense  earnestness  with  which  Mr. 
Harrah's  little  pamphlet  was  recommended  by  a  leading 
speaker  at  a  recent  woman  suffrage  meeting  as  the  work 
most  needed  by  woman  suffragists  to-day,  and  the  enthu- 
siastic applause  with  which  the  recommendation  was 
received  by  a  majority  of  the  women  present,  together 
with  the  fact  that  Rev.  Mr.  Bashford's  leaflet  "  The  Bible 
for  Woman  Suffrage  "  and  Rev.  Mr.  Harrah's  tract 
"  Jesus  Christ  the  Emancipator  of  Women,"  are  indorsed 
in  the  strongest  manner  by  some  of  the  leading  woman 
suffragists,  and  are  being  industriously  circulated  and 
extravagantly  praised  in  the  supposed  interests  of  woman 
suffrage,  makes  it  seem  imperatively  necessary  to  call 
a  halt  in  "  booming  "  such  false  pretences  and  to  enter 
vigorous  protest  against  dishonesty  of  statement  in  fur- 
therance of  a  cause  which  needs  no  such  false  props, 
and  which  will  ultimately  be  injured  by  them. 

It  is  thoroughly  dishonest  to  drag  in  as  evidence  in 
any  case  a  law  or  utterance  ante-dating  the  possibility  of 
the  existence  of  such  case.  Neither  the  Bible  nor  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  can  be  authority  in  the 
matter  of  woman  suffrage,  a  question  which  at  the  time 
they  were  written  had  no  raison  d^etre.  In  the  moral 
and  intellectual  evolution  of  mankind  "  new  occasions" 
will  forever  "teach  new  duties,"  and  no  generation,  how- 
ever noble  or  advanced,  can  frame  immutable  laws  for 
a  generation  vet  unborn,  since  the  environments  and 
needs  of  that  people  can  be  understood  and  provided  for 
only,  or  best,  by  themselves. 

Mr.  Bashford  rests  his  claim  that  the  Bible  is  for 
woman  suffrage  on  a  few  passages  which  he  unhesitat- 
ingly (though  with  the  most  amiable  motives)  warps 
and  distorts  from  their  very  evident  meaning  when 
taken  with  their  contexts;  such  as,  "  In  the  image  of 
God  created  he  him,  male  and  female  created  he  them, 
and  God  said  let  them  have  dominion  over  all  the 
earth."  In  this  passage  Mr.  Bashford  finds  authority 
in  the  word  "them,"  which  he  proceeds  to  interpret  to 
his  own  satisfaction.  This  pronunciamento,  however, 
took  place  after  the  creation  of  both  man  and  woman, 
but  Rev.  Mr.  Dexter  in  "Common  Sense  as  to  Woman 
Suffrage,"  strikes  the  ground  from  under  Mr.  Bash- 
ford's  feet  by  discovering,  through  the  same  oracle — 
that  "before  the  creation  of  Eve,  even — the  keynote  of 
the  divine  intent  as  to  the  female  nature,"  is  struck  in 
God's  declaration,  "  It  is  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone: 
I  will  make  a  help- meet  for  him."  "The  word  used," 
says  Mr.  Dexter,  "is  significant.  It  is  ezer,  coming 
from  the  verb  '  to  bring  aid,  or  succor.'  We  submit 
that  it  involves  a  certain  natural  implication  of 
secondariness  and  subordination."     Another  text  which 


412 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Mr.  Bashford  interprets  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage  are 
the  oft  quoted  words  of  Paul,  "  There  is  neither  Jew 
nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is 
neither  male  nor  female,  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ 
Jesus,"  of  which  Mr.  Dexter  affirms  that  Paul  is  "  not 
talking  about  'rights'  of  any  kind,  but  of  the  abso- 
lute identity  of  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men  as  sin- 
ners before  the  cross."  We  give  the  third  evidence 
which  Mr.  Bashford  offers  from  his  oracle  in  favor  of 
his  position  with  his  own  underlining,  and  that  too,  is 
from  Paul,  "  Nevertheless  neither  is  the  man  without 
the  woman  nor  the  woman  without  the  man  in  the 
Lord"  which  Mr.  Bashford  thinks  Paul  added  to  his 
mention  of  the  historical  fact  that  man  is  the  head  of  the 
woman,  for  fear  that  '-  his  words  on  the  subjection  of 
woman  might  be  tortured  into  falsehood." 

The  groundwork  of  Rev.  Mr.  Harrah's  claim  is 
outlined  in  this  sentence  from  his  little  work.  "  Noth- 
ing in  Tesus'  reform  work  has  a  pre-eminence  over  the 
recognition  of  women  and  their  rights.  In  no  instance 
does  he  appear  in  controversy  with  them."  Also,  that 
he  had  a  large  following  of  women  [as  every  reformer 
has  had  J,  and  that  "where  the  golden  ride  is  true  the 
subordination  of  woman  is  a  tie"  in  which  case  woman's 
subordination  was  also  a  lie  long  before  Christ  was 
born,  as  it  was  enunciated  by  Confucius  in  China  five 
hundred  years  before,  and  is  thus  given  in  the  Confu- 
cian Analects  "  Tsze-Kung  asked,  saying,  '  Is  there  one 
word  which  may  serve  as  a  rule  of  practice  for  all  one's 
lifer'  The  master  said,  '  Is  not  reciprocity  such  a  word? 
What  you  do  not  want  done  to  yourself  do  not  do  to 
others;'"  and  Thales  and  Isocrates  in  Greece,  expressed 
the  same  idea  in  nearly  the  same  words;  and  in  the  Jew- 
ish Talmud,  which  Jesus  must  have  been  familiar  with, 
the  Rabbi  Hillel  says,  "  Do  not  to  another  what  thou 
wouldst  not  he  shouldst  do  to  thee;  this  is  the  sum  of 
the  law." 

Rev.  Mr.  Harrah  in  his  well  intentioned  but  labored 
effort  to  prove  "Jesus  Christ  the  Emancipator  of  Wo- 
men," omits  explaining  why  in  the  best  summary  of  the 
morality  inculcated  by  Christ,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
there  is  no  reference  to  woman  whatever  save  in  the 
advice  given  to  men  concerning  divorce,  or  how  it  hap- 
pened that  among  the  twelve  specially  called  to  promul- 
gate his  doctrines  there  was  no  woman,  or  why  he  per- 
mitted the  Magdalene  to  kneel  at  his  feet  and  pay  him 
such  homage,  and  why  it  has  taken  nearly  nineteen  cen- 
turies for  Christian  ministers  to  discover  this  part  of  his 
mission,  the  majority  of  them  refusing  to  believe  it  even 
now,  and  why  the  churches  which  profess  to  acknowl- 
edge him  as  their  head  still  refuse  to  permit  woman  to 
take  other  than  a  subordinate  part  in  their  organization 
and  government. 

But  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  enter  upon  a  detailed 
discussion   of   claims  so  absurd,  and   claims  which  such 


eminent  theologians  as  Horace  Bushnell,  Morgan  Dix, 
Austin  Phelps,  Dr.  Patton,  Dr.  Dexter  and  Bishop 
Spaulding,  with  many  other  learned  and  famous  clergy- 
men have  not  been  able  to  perceive  in  their  copies  of 
the  Bible.  Indeed  their  oracle  has  spoken  "  with  no 
uncertain  sound"  in  direct  opposition  to  such  claims. 
Our  only  purpose  in  writing  this  is  to  call  attention  to  the 
unfairness  and  disingenuousness  of  employing  such  pleas 
in  the  woman  suffrage  movement,  and  to  beg  our  Chris- 
tian co-workers  to  have  faith  in  the  inherent  and  trans- 
parent justice  of  that  movement  and  forbear  using  in  its 
behalf  arguments  as  flimsy  as  they  are  untrue. 

Woman's  suffrage  does  not  need  Biblical  sanction 
for  its  success,  and  it  is  simply  ridiculous  at  this  late 
dale  to  make  pretense  of  having  it.  In  Christ's  time 
and  much  later,  woman's  equality  with  man  was  in  no 
way  recognized.  Enthusiastic,  sincere,  tender-hearted 
reformer  as  Jesus  was,  this  reform  was  never  once 
dreamed  of  by  him.  The  majority  of  men  were  not 
then  in  possession  of  equality  of  rights,  political  or 
other;  and  everywhere  throughout  all  ranks  and  condi- 
tions of  life,  woman  was  considered  man's  inferior. 
How  preposterous  then,  to  profess  to  believe  that  the 
mission  of  Jesus  was  the  emancipation  of  women. 

It  is  certain  that  the  doctrine  that  through  woman 
sin  entered  the  world,  and  that  her  position  is  essentiallv 
subordinate,  so  plainly  taught  by  Paul,  was  a  part  of 
the  earl)'  Christian  belief,  and  Mr.  Lecky  tells  us  "  It  is 
probable  that  this  teaching  had  its  part  in  determining 
the  principles  of  legislation  concerning  the  sex  " — legis- 
lation which  put  woman  in  a  "  much  lower  legal  posi- 
tion than  in  the  Pagan  Empire."  Mr.  F.  M.  Holland  in  his 
"  Rise  of  Intellectual  Liberty  "  remarks  that  "  no  ancient 
Christain  of  unblemished  orthodox}'  showed  himself  so 
friendly  to  female  independence  as  the  skeptical  Seneca, 
Plutarch,  Pliny,  Hadrian  and  Antoninus  Pius.  Cle- 
ment of  Alexandria,  who  lost  his  place  on  the  list  of 
saints  more  than  a  century  ago  on  account  of  his  liber- 
ality, urged  that  women  have  as  much  right  as  men  to 
study  philosophy,  and  gave  high  praise  to  Miriam,  Sap- 
pho, Theano  and  Leontium.  These  names,  with  those  of 
Portia,  Livia,  Agrippina,  the  Arrias,  Fannia,  Sulpicia, 
Zenobia  and  Hypatia,  show  that  more  female  ability 
had  been  developed  before  the  establishment  of  Chris- 
tianity than  can  be  found  afterward  for  centuries.  Wo- 
men had  almost  ceased  to  figure  in  history  except  as 
devotees." 

It  seems  to  us  that  even  those  who  reverence  the 
Bible  as  the  revealed  word  of  God,  a  divine  revelation, 
should  object  to  having  it  longer  used  as  an  empty-headed 
oracle  whose  mouth  can  only  echo  back  each  individual 
wisdom-seeker's  own  opinion.  It  is  time  too  that  women 
should  begin  to  understand  the  laws  of  natural  justice  as 
taught  by  history  and  experience  to  all  people  of  all 
faiths;  instead    of  relying   for   their  ideas   of   right   and 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


413 


wrong  on  an  ancient  book  which  is  considered  divine 
by  but  a  comparatively  small  number  of  the  earth's 
population.  No  Bible  can  forever  uphold  wrong;  for 
whenever  men  grow  intelligent  enough  to  judge  by  its 
fruits  and  its  possibilities  as  to  the  right  of  a  question, 
sacred  books  will  either  be  pushed  aside,  or  as  to-day, 
lamely  interpreted  in  the  interests  of  justice;  hut  a  too 
frequently  changed  interpretation  must  weaken  its  hold 
on  the  mind  as  a  true  oracle.  s.  a.  u. 


THE  ALCOHOL   QUESTION. 

In  the  Freethinker's  Magazine  for  August  is  re- 
printed from  Demoresfs  Magazine,  a  lecture  by  Mr. 
T.  B.  Wakeman,  in  which  is  presented  the  Gough  side 
of  the  subject  of  temperance  with  a  show  of  scientific 
support.  Mr.  Wakeman  attempts  to  show  that  alcohol 
is  a  poison,  and  he  advocates  the  suppression  of  its  sale 
and  manufacture  for  a  beverage.  He  would  have  it 
sold  only  as  a  poison,  and  so  labeled  when  sold,  under 
heavy  penalties,  as  is  the  case  with  arsenic. 

He  argues  that  alcohol  is  a  poison  because  it  is  an 
excrementitious  product  of  fermentation.  He  seems  not 
to  be  aware  of  the  fact  that  every  plant  or  animal  organ- 
ism depends  for  its  life  upon  the  excrementitious  pro- 
duct of  associated  cells.  In  physiology  secretion  and 
excretion  are  convertible  terms,  and  an  application  of 
the  lecturer's  logic  would  make  a  mother's  milk  poi- 
sonous to  her  infant.  The  properties  of  food  upon 
which  the  torula  feeds  must  have  a  definite  relation  to 
excreted  alcohol,  or  the  process  stops;  just  as  too  much 
nitrogen  will  interfere  with  breathing.  But  neither 
nitrogen   nor  alcohol,  for  these    reasons,   is    poison. 

Where  is  Mr.  Wakeman's  warrant,  aside  from 
ZelPs  Encyclopedia,  for  stating  that  bread  is  free 
from  alcohol,  or  that  alcohol  is  not  assimilated  in 
the  human  body.  Some  of  his  scientific  assertions 
are  rather  reckless,  to  say  the  least;  for  instance: 
that  alcohol  is  death  to  all  animal  cells  and  tissues; 
that  a  half  ounce  of  pure  alcohol  will  kill  a  man, 
that  it  causes  an  "explosion"  of  the  nervous  system; 
that  it  never  gets  further  down  than  the  stomach; 
that  it  inflames  and  rots  the  lungs;  that  it  causes  nitro- 
glycerine explosion  in  the  brain  cells.  In  opposition  to 
these  statements  there  is  the  highest  scientific  authority 
for  saying  that  alcohol  judiciously  taken  prevents  the 
death  of  cells  and  tissues.  Dead  animal  substance  is 
prevented  from  decomposing  by  immersion  in  it,  in  most 
instances.  Scandinavians  have  been  known  to  drink 
several  ounces  of  pure  alcohol  at  one  time.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter of  acquired  toleration.  In  lung  consumption,  it  pre- 
vents lung  decay  instead  of  causing  it.  It  is  assimilated 
with  extraordinary  rapidity  and  ease  by  the  animal 
economy,  and  it  is  this  very  readiness  of  assimilation 
that  makes  it  dangerous  when  improperly  used. 

It  is  affirmed  by  many  of  the  ablest  and  latest  scientific 


authorities  that  alcohol  is  a  food.  Dr.  Hammond,  in  his 
Physiological  Memoirs,  narrates  that  from  personal  ex- 
perimentation, it  is  a  food  and  a  tissue  conserver.  He 
says:  "The  use  of  alcohol  even  in  moderation  cannot, 
therefore,  be  exclusively  approved  or  condemned.  The 
laboring  man  who  can  hardly  provide  bread  and  meat 
enough  to  preserve  the  balance  between  the  formation 
and  decay  of  his  tissues,  finds  here  an  agent  which, 
within  the  limits  of  health,  enables  him  to  dispense  with 
a  certain  quantity  of  food  and  yet  keep  up  the  strength 
and  weight  of  his  body.  On  the  other  hand,  he  who 
uses  alcohol  when  his  food  is  more  than  sufficient  to 
supply  the  waste  of  tissue,  and  at  the  same  time  does 
not  increase  the  amount  of  his  physical  exercise,  or  drink 
an  additional  quantity  of  water,  by  which  the  decay  of 
tissues  would  be  accelerated,  retards  the  metamorphosis 
while  an  increased  amount  of  nutrition  is  being  assimi- 
lated, and  thus  adds  to  the  plethoric  condition  of  the 
system,  which  excessive  food  so  generally  induces." 

In  continued  fevers,  such  as  typhoid,  whisky  in  suit- 
able doses,  is  generally  regarded  by  medical  practitioners 
to  be  the  life  sustaining  medicine.  It  is  impossible  to 
dispense  with  alcohol  as  a  solvent  for  drugs.  It  is  of 
more  use  in  pharmacy  than  any  other  substance.  In 
old  age,  or  enfeeblement  from  various  causes,  it  is  inval- 
uable. Physiological  chemistry  affords  something  be- 
sides the  fanciful  effects  of  alcohol  upon  brain  tissue 
such  as  "explosions."  Alcohol  accelerates  the  heart's 
activity,  suffuses  the  brain  with  blood,  and  through  this 
extra  blood  supply  causes  increased  brain  activity,  just 
as  oxygen  will  if  inhaled.  In  excess,  the  pernicious 
after  effects  of  blood  quality  changes  are  experienced, 
and  in  extreme  cases,  rupture  of  the  minute  brain  ves- 
sels, or  still  further  atrophy  or  shrinking  of  the  brain 
tissues  follows. 

Temperance  advocates  miss  valuable  assertions  made 
in  their  favor  by  specialists,  because  such  things  are  not 
sought  for  in  the  scientific  writings  where  they  abound. 
Michet  accredits  one-half  the  insanity  in  France  to 
heredity,  and  Guslain  places  it  at  thirty  per  cent.  An- 
stie  ascribes  the  origin  of  this  heredity  largely  to  alcohol 
excesses.  So  that  if  we  take  the  lowest  figure  and  assign 
one-half  of  it  as  intemperate  ancestry  causation,  then  we 
have  fifteen  per  cent,  of  inherited  insanity  caused  by 
drunkenness  in  progenitors.  Lunier,  after  careful  com- 
piling of  records,  asserts  that  fifty  per  cent,  of  the 
idiots  and  imbeciles  in  Europe  had  notoriously  drunken 
parents. 

Lord  Shaftesbury,  who  was  for  fifty  years  head  of  the 
English  lunacy  commission,  claimed  that  fifty  per  cent,  of 
the  insanity  in  England  was  caused  by  intemperance. 
Directly  and  indirectly  forty  per  cent,  is  a  figure  adopted 
by  many  asylum  experts  as  loss  of  mentality  due  to  alcohol 
out  of  the  total.  Thecalculations  of  penologists  and  alms- 
house statisticians  are  appalling,  and  need  elimination  of 


4H 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


error  probabilities.  They  variously  assign  fifty  and 
ninety  per  cent. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  undue  use  of  alcohol 
makes  wretched  havoc  in  the  world,  but  we  think 
that  a  special  study  should  be  made  of  the  alcohol 
question  in  its  sociological  aspects  by  ascertaining,  first, 
■why  it  is  that  there  is  so  universal  addiction.  An  an- 
swer to  this  question  would  be  the  first  step  toward  the 
means  of  controlling  the  abuse.  Camp-meeting  tactics 
may  do  a  little  good  among  the  ignorant,  but  clamoring 
for  the  suppression  of  the  manufacture  of  alcohol  be- 
cause it  does  in  many  instances  work  great  harm,  may 
be  paralleled  by  the  attempt  of  the  Mexican  mob  to 
tear  down  telegraph  lines  when  informed  that  lightning 
was  electricity. 

While  the  great  evils  from  the  use  of  alcohol 
are  beyond  dispute,  they  are  not  greater  to-day  than 
in  the  past.  Sir  Walter  Scott  cannot  be  regarded 
as  a  faithful  portrayer  of  the  old  times  in  every  particu- 
lar, yet  his  pictures  of  the  sottishness  of  all  ranks,  castes 
and  decrees,  were  afforded  him  by  the  accurate  recorders 
upon  whom  he  drew.  In  proportion  as  a  wider  exped- 
iency has  controlled  mankind,  the  grosser  accompani- 
ments of  intemperance  have  lessened.  The  evil  assumes 
new  guises  as  times  change,  one  of  the  vilest  of  which, 
we  can  see  in  the  saloon  influence  in  politics.  But  scien- 
tific legislation,  and  an  aroused  public  sentiment,  grapple 
with  this  depravity,  and  the  world  moves  on  to  better 
days  as  it  always  has,  even  though  haltingly  sometimes. 


Professor  E.  S.  Morse,  as  President  of  the  Ameri- 
can Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  New 
York,  at  its  thirty-sixth  annual  session,  on  resigning  to 
his  successor,  delivered  a  remarkable  address,  entitled^ 
*'  A  Decade  of  Evolution,"  which  was  a  continuation  of 
an  essay  he  read  at  Buffalo  eleven  years  ago  devoted  to 
showing  the  part  American  students  had  taken  in  devel- 
oping the  theory  of  evolution,  an  essay  that  called  forth 
a  letter  from  Darwin,  who  was  surprised  at  the  results 
of  American  research.  Professor  Morse  is  one  of  the 
most  radical  evolutionists.  His  own  contributions  to 
science  have  been  of  a  substantial  and  valuable  charac- 
ter, and  his  recent  address  will  be  looked  for  by  many, 
who  did  not  have  the  pleasure  of  hearing  it,  with  eager 
interest. 

There  must  be  many  thousand  people  living  who 
have  had  their  heads  "  examined  "  by  O.  S.  Fowler,  the 
lecturer  and  writer,  who  died  the  other  day  at  his  home 
in  Connecticut  at  the  age  of  78.  He  was  good  at  read- 
ing character  from  face,  head  and  general  appearance, 
and  he  presented  in  a  popular,  entertaining  way  much 
useful  information  in  regard  to  health  and  various 
reforms.  These  descriptions  of  character  which  Fowler 
and  other  lecturers  on  phrenology  gave  at  the  close  of 


their  lectures  attracted  large  audiences  some  years  ago, 
and  contributed  to  the  quite  extensive  belief  in  phrenol- 
ogy as  a  science  which  then  prevailed,  and  to  a  less 
extent  still  prevails  among  people  unacquainted  with 
anatomy  and  physiology.  But  phrenology  long  ago 
received  its  coup  de  grace  in  scientific  quarters,  and  the 
little  there  was  in  it  the  craniologist  absorbed  and  made 
a  few  of  his  generalizations. 

#  #  * 

Prof.  Spencer  F.  Baird,  Secretary  of  the  Smithson- 
ian Institution  and  United  States  Commissioner  of  the 
Fish  and  Fisheries,  who  died  August  19th,  was  author  of 
valuable  works  on  birds  and  mammals  of  North  America, 
was  scientific  editor  of  the  Annual  Record  of  Science 
and  Industry  and  for  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  he 
edited  the  annual  report  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
He  was  honorary  and  corresponding  member  of  the 
most  renowned  scientific  societies  of  the  world.  He 
was  born  in  1S23  at  Reading,  Pa.  He  was  appointed 
Commissioner  of  Fish  and  Fisheries  in  1S71  by  Presi- 
dent Grant. 

A  Chinaman,  Wong  Ching  Foo,  tells,  in  The  North  American 
Review,  "Why  Am  I  a  Heathen?"  It  is  an  amusing  article,  and 
reverses  things  finely.  It  musters  all  the  evils  of  the  world,  and 
asserts  that  they  are  the  fruit  of  Christianity ;  and  then  it  marsh- 
als against  them  all  the  virtues,  and  labels  them  heathenism. 
Such  an  argument  is  unanswerable,  but  it  sounds  as  if  it  were 
written  by  a  disciple  ol  Mr.  Ingersoll  as  a  travesty. — Independent \ 

This  article  by  a  heathen  may  serve  to  help  make 
some  theologians  see  the  injustice  of  their  method  of 
defending  Christianity — i.  e.,  to  muster  all  the  evils  of 
the  world  and  ascribe  them  to  paganism  and  skepticism, 
and  marshal  against  them  all  the  virtues  and  label  them 
heathenism  or  skepticism.  There  is  room  for  improve- 
ment in  controversial  method  and  spirit  on  the  part  of 
Christians  as  well  as  on  the  part  of  the  opponents  of  their 
faith.  Wong  Chin  Foo's  article,  while  presenting  many 
facts,  is  unjust  to  Christianity,  but  its  injustice  consists 
in  treating  one  system  of  ieligion  in  the  same  style  and 
spirit  in  which  advocates  of  this  system  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  treating  all  others.  They  should  not  be  sur- 
prised to  see  their  own  argument  turned  against  them  in 

retaliation. 

*  *  # 

In  a  private  letter  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Oakes-Smith 
writes:  "  We  of  to-day  claim  too  much  as  originators. 
Ann  Lee,  the  Shaker,  led  the  way  to  equality  of  sex, 
and  Jeremy  Bentham,  having  defined  original  and  in- 
alienable human  rights,  adds,  'and  these  are  inherent  in 
woman  as  well  as  man.'  The  first  one  who  spoke  upon 
and  advocated  woman's  rights  in  this  country  was  John 
Neal,  of  Portland,  Me.,  who  was  the  personal  friend 
and  pupil  of  Jeremy  Bentham.  Indeed  the  world  has 
never  been  utterly  without  its  witness  for  the  entire 
equality   of   man    and   woman,  as  a   thing    self-evident, 


THE    OPEN    COU  RT 


4»5 


though  ignored,  set  aside,  and  forbidden  in  the  stress,  of 
social  and  political  evolution.  Three  hundred  years  ago 
Montaigne  had  said  just  what  we  claim  now,  '  Women 
are  not  to  blame  at  all  when  they  refuse  the  rules  of 
life  that  are  introduced  into  the  world;  for  as  much  as 
the  men  made  them  without  their  consent.'  *  *  * 
We  certainly  are  approaching  the  full  recognition  of 
what  we  claim,  but  we  have  much  to  learn,  ami  this 
elaborate  record  of  what  we  have  done  seems  utterly 
childish.  *  *  *  Sixty  years  ago  I  helped  my  hus- 
band in  editing  his  daily  paper,  but  was  never  deluded 
into  the  feeling  that  this  was  an  extraordinary  thing  on 
my  part." 

Miss  Lillian  Whiting,  discussing  in  the  Boston  Trav- 
eller the  question  of  American  art,  says:  "The  picture 
that  is  planned  with  an  eye  to  the  market  alone  cannot 
hold  the  spontaneous  fervor  of  the  master.  Any  artistic 
achievement  that  is  really  great  must  be  born  out  of  a 
great  atmosphere.  The  artist  who  would  produce  noble 
work  must  live  nobly,  not  ignobly;  must  live  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  ideals  and  not  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
market-place.  All  great  art  periods  have,  too,  been  re- 
ligious periods.  Belief  in  purer  purposes;  faith  in  the 
ultimate  realization  of  diviner  dreams  produce  the  at- 
mosphere favorable  to  artistic  inspirations.  We  must 
sometimes  be   silent  if   we  would   listen    to  the  voice   of 

the  gods. 

■  *  *  * 

A  correspondent  corrects  us  as  to  the  title  of  Colonel 
T.  W.  Higginson's  history  as  given  hastily  in  an  editorial 
in  our  last  number.  Its  correct  title  is  Young  Folks' 
History  of  the  United  States.  Books  suggested  by 
correspondents  for  the  use  of  young  readers  are :  The 
Story  of  Channing ',  The  Story  of  Theodore  Parker, 
by  Frances  E.  Cooke;  Tom  Brown's  School  Days  at 
Rugby,  by  Hon.  Thomas  Hughes;  Mrs.  A.  M.  Diaz's 
"  William  Henry  "  books  and  John  Spicer's  Lectures; 
E.  E.  Hales's  Ten  Times  One  is  Ten;  and  for  girls 
especially,  The  American  Girl's  Home  Book  of  Work 
and  Play,  by  Helen  Campbell,  assisted  by  Mrs.  Hester 
M.  Poole,  and  Susan   D.  Powers's  "  House  and  Home  " 

series. 

%         %         ^ 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  in  the  very  delightful  install- 
ment of  "  Our  One  Hundred  Days  Abroad,"  given  in 
the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  September,  says:  "I  have 
sometimes  thought  that  I  love  so  well  the  accidents  of 
this  temporary  terrestrial  residence,  its  endeared  locali- 
ties, its  precious  affections,  its  pleasing  variety  of  occu- 
pation, its  alternations  of  excited  and  gratified  curiosity, 
and  whatever  else  comes  nearest  to  the  longings  of  the 
natural  man,  that  I  might  lie  wickedly  homesick  in  a 
far-off  spiritual  realm  where  such  toys  are  done  with." 
"  We  may  hope,"  he  goes  on,  "that  when  the  fruits  of 
our  brief  early  season  df  three  or  four  score  years  have 


given  us  all  thev  can  impart  for  our  happiness;  when 
'the  love  of  little  maids  ami  berries'  and  all  other 
earthly  prettinesses  shall  'soar  and  sing,'  as  Mr.  Emer- 
son sweetly  reminds  us  they  all  must,  we  may  hope  that 
the  abiding  felicities  of  our  later  life-season  may  far  more 
than  compensate  us  for  all  that   have  taken  their  flight." 

#  *  # 

The  American  Idea,  a  new  liberal  paper  published 
at  Liberal,  Mo.,  (M.  D.  Leahy,  editor)  says: 

It  is  time  that  we  had  ceased  firing  at  dead  creeds  and  devote 
some  of  our  energy  to  supplying  the  wants  of  the  social  and 
moral  nature  of  man.  *  *  *  Efforts  are  now  being  made  to 
arouse  the  liberals  of  the  West  to  the  necessity  of  this  work. 
Preparations  are  being  made  for  calling  a  convention  of  Western 
liberals  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  upon  a  high  basis  of  ethical 
culture.  Every  one  should  give  it  their  hearty  encouragement. 
We  feel  that  this  movement  will  meet  the  earnest  cooperation  of 
all  liberals,  and  shall  be  glad  to  give  our  readers  an  opportunity 
to  express  themselves  through  these  columns  in  regard  to  the 
matter.  Let  us  not  be  satisfied  with  having  destroyed  the  dun- 
geons of  superstition,  but  rather  let  us  rear  upon  their  ruins  the 
glorious  temple  of  high  ethical  culture  and  true  moral  growth. 

*  *  * 
Says  the  Boston  Advertiser  : 

The  school  of  Agassiz  and  Dawson  is  not  making  head  at 
present  against  the  evolutionists.  But  this  school  has  done  a 
lasting  service  in  its  warning  against  the  admission  of  assump- 
tions in  lieu  of  evidence.  The  case  for  evolution  should  be  stated 
without  straining  facts  to  tit  conclusions. 

All  conservative  and  reactionary  schools,  no  doubt, 
do  some  good  service  incidentally,  but  we  cannot  forget 
that  what  the  opponents  of  evolution  have  declared 
to  be  "  mere  assumptions  "  have  generally  turned 
out  to  be  facts,  and  proofs  of  the  theory.  '  Assump- 
tions in  lieu  of  evidence"  have  not  been  confined  to  the 
side  that  has  won;  they  are  still  presented  by  the  "school 
of  Agassiz  and  Dawson,"  which  continues  its  ineffective 
opposition  to  the  great  conception  of  natural  evolution 
by  feebly  repeating  "  assumptions  in   lieu   of  evidence." 

The  death  of  Alvan  Clark,  the  great  artificer,  the  work  of 
whose  skillful  fingers  brought  the  heavens  nearer  by  many  miles, 
suggests  anew  the  ancient  lesson  that  patience  and  thoroughness 
are  the  conditions  of  success  of  the  higher  order.  It  is  a  little 
tiling  to  grind  glass  better  than  another  man.  It  is  a  great  thing 
when  the  grinder  puts  his  patience,  his  caution,  the  delicacy  of 
his  touch,  and  the  careful  accuracy  of  his  measurement  at  the 
service  of  the  astronomer,  and  instantly  brings  all  the  stars  ot 
heaven  nearer  to  his  gaze,  while  bringing  within  the  range  ot  ob- 
servation some  that  he  never  saw  before.  His  last  great  achieve- 
ment was  the  making  of  a  lens  for  the  Lick  Observatory,  thii  t\  - 
six  inches  in  diameter.  He  toiled  in  a  little  room  in  Cambridge, 
incessantly  rubbing  lump^  of  curved  glass;  but  his  work,  lifted  to 
its  proper  place,  glorifies  lor  man  the  whole  celestial  sphere. — 
Christian  Register. 

*!  *  # 

Col.  T.  W.  Higginson  (who  will  soon  contribute  an 
article  to  The  Open  Cot'KT|  calls  our  attention  to  the 
fact  that  Prof.  Alberl  Neville,  is  author  of  a  life  of 
Theodore  Parker. 


4-i6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


THROUGH     WHAT     HISTORICAL     CHANNELS    DID 

BUDDHISM     INFLUENCE     EARLY 

CHRISTIANITY? 

BY    GENERAL  J.  G.  R.    FORLONG,    AUTHOR    OF    "RIVERS    OF    LIFE." 
Part   II. 

Aristoxenos  of  the  Alexandrian  era,  mentions  that 
"An  Indian  Magus  sorcerer  or 'Great  One'  visited  Sok- 
rates,"  and  that  many  philosophers  were  then  preaching 
abstinence  from  all  wine  and  animal  food,  as  well  as 
promulgating  strange  theories  of  metempsychosis.  An 
Indian  monk,  Kalanus  (evidently  Kalinai),  had  also 
sealed  his  doctrine  and  sincerity  by  immolating  himself 
at  Persepolis;  and  all  such  matters  would  be  well 
known  and  scattered  further  afield  by  Alexander  and 
his  savans,  when  in  the  beginning  of  the  next  century 
(200  B.C.)  they  were  traversing  the  whole  Persian  em- 
pire, and  gleaning  all  they  could  of  India — her  histories, 
religions  and  rites.  Baktria  had  then  fully  embraced 
neo-Buddhism,  and  long  before  our  era  this  had  perme- 
ated nearly  all  Asia  and  become  virtually  the  State  re- 
ligion of  vast  empires  in  China  and  India,  and  wras  in 
the  mouth,  if  not  the  heart  of  all  monarchs,  princelets, 
priests  and  the  learned  from  the  Pacific  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean. 

We  are  apt  to  forget  that  intercourse  throughout 
Asia  was  as  free  and  complete  1,000  years  b.c.  as  it  is 
to-day,  except  in  the  case  of  British  India,  with  its  gieat 
metalled  highways,  railroads,  and  telegraphs.  Else- 
where throughout  the  East  caravansaries  and  tracks, 
called  roads,  existed  then  as  now ;  but  the  roughness  of 
the  latter  impeded  not  the  interchange  of  thought, 
which  passed  then  even  more  easily  than  now  from 
tribe  to  tribe;  for  bounds  were  less  defined  and  wild 
hordes  moved  more  freely  then,  and  a  belief  in  the 
divinity  or  holiness  of  the  pious  pilgrim-teacher  or  her- 
mit was  more  universal ;  hence  he  was  less  molested  and 
more  respected,  and  his  opinions  more  freely  dissemi- 
nated than  in  these  skeptical  days. 

Thus  no  important  phase  of  thought,  especially  in 
regard  to  religion,  its  inspired  leaders  and  their  miracles 
was  long  hidden.  Even  fables  and  folk-lore,  as  well  as 
sandal-wood,  "  apes,  ivory  and  peacocks,"  were  as  well 
known  in  Jerusalem  as  India.  "That  a  channel  of 
communication  was  open  between  India,  Syria  and  Pal- 
estine in  the  time  of  Solomon,  is  established,"  says  Prof. 
Max  Midler,  "beyond  doubt  by  certain  Sanskrit  words 
which  occur  in  the  Bible  as  names  of  articles  of  export 
from  Ophir,  which  taken  together  could  not  have  been 
exported  from  any  country  but  India."* 

The  Professor  says  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose, 
even  at  the  time  when  the  Book  of  Kings  is  believed  to 


*  Dr.  Burnell  claims  a  Tamil  source  for  Solomon's  tuki,  or  peacocks,  the 
Tamil  for  which  is  tngai,  and  it  is  most  probable  that  the  Arabian  Sabean 
traders  got  these  birds,  apes  and  sandal-wood  from  the  Indian  Travankor 
traders,  where  these  articles  are  indigenous.  Indeed,  sandal-wood  grew  only 
there,  and  the  coasting  tirbes  would  transport  it  to  the  Abirs  at  the  mouths  of 
the  Indus,  which  would  lead  Hebrews  to  say  it  came  from  Ophir  or  Abirea. 


have  been  written,  that  the  commercial  intercourse  be- 
tween India,  the  Persian  Gulf,  the  Red  Sea  and  the 
Mediterranean  was  ever  completely  interrupted. 

He  sees  traces  of  the  far  East  in  the  treasures  dug 
up  from  the  depths  of  ancient  Troy,  just  as  we  have 
found  gold  coins,  etc.,  of  Thrakian,  Persian,  Parthian, 
Greek  and  Skythian,  at  Banares — pait  of  that  great 
"drain  of  550  millions  of  sesterces,"  which  Pliny  tells 
us  Indians  took  annually  from  the  West  (VI,  26). 

We  now  know  that  the  literature  of  Buddhism  has 
been  the  source  of  much  of  our  oldest  folk-lore,  legends 
and  parables — a  Sanskrit  fable  appearing,  says  Max 
Midler,  in  one  of  the  comedies  of  Strattis  of  about  400 
B.C.,  and  "the  judgment  of  Solomon  "  (in  regard  to  di- 
viding a  living  child  in  two)  appearing  in  a  much  more 
human  form  in  the  Tibetan  Buddhist  Tripitaka* 

If  fables  and  legends  so  traveled,  how  much  more 
would  the  great  sayings  and  doings  of  a  mighty  prophet 
— one  who  swayed  and  guided  the  most  earnest  thoughts 
of  many  millions  over  a  fifth  of  the  earth's  surface — be 
wafted  into  lands  eagerly  listening  to  every  breath  or 
sound  on  these  subjects?  And  that  they  were  earnest  in 
their  search,  we  see  from  divers  ancient  sources. 

Until  lately  direct  evidence  of  the  path  of  Buddhism 
westward  has  been  scanty,  but  continually  increasing; 
and  European  scholars,  though  hitherto  reticent,  have 
more  and  more  recognized  the  faith  in  many  distinctive 
features  of  the  Putha-goru,  Essenic,  and  Alexandrian 
schools,  which  especially  rose  in  favor  when  the  knowl- 
edge of  Eastern  thought  brought  back  by  the  savans 
and  armies  of  Alexander  the  Great  began  to  permeate 
the  West.  All  these  were  growths  which  it  is  for  us  to 
try  and  trace.  Out  of  a  wide-spread  heterogeneous 
archaic  Buddhism  arose  that  ethical  wave  of  neo-Bud- 
dhism which  impelled  Gotama  Buddha  to  resist  the 
tyranny  of  the  old  faiths  as  well  as  the  cold  agnostic 
philosophies  of  the  Sankya  schools  of  Kapila  Vastu. 
In  the  West  Buddhism  found  a  fitting  nidus,  and  un- 
doubtedly enormously  facilitated  the  advance  of  all  the 
ethical  teaching  ascribed  to  "the  Great  Galilean." 

The  Western  world  was,  some  three  centuries  B.C., 
tiring  of  the  dry  Vedanta-like  metaphysics  such  as 
Buddha  had  contended  against,  and  all  the  Cabala-like 
doctrines  which  Putha-goras  and  his  successors  had 
labored  to  instill.  These  continued  to  grow,  evolving 
later  into  the  ethical  and  theistic  theories  of  the  Stoics. 
But  the  learning  and  philosophies,  however  religious, 
from  Putha-goras,  and  Xenophanes  of  530,  through  the 
times  of  Protagoras,  the  "first  Sophist"  or  "Atheist," 
and  Anaxagoras  to  Zenon  of  250  B.C.,  seemed  a  forced 
culture  too  high  and  advanced  for  the  masses.  They 
could  but  gaze  in  bewilderment  at  the  teaching  of  Stoas 
and   Groves,  and   wonder  what  it   all   meant  and  what 


*  India:    What  Can  It   Teach    Us  f  p.  io-ii,  and    Rhys   David's   Buddhist 
Birth-Stories. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


417 


they  were  expected  to  do,  for  this  is  the  first  and  a  cru- 
cial question  with  the  busy  work-a-day  world. 

The  people  were  still  in  the  spiritualistic  stage  by 
nature  and  inclination.  They  required  miracles  and  de- 
manded the  divine  right  of  all  who  taught  religion. 
Mere  laborers  for  "the  meat  which  perishes,"  they 
firmly  believed  in  spirits  or  gods  in  and  around  them, 
and  could  see  no  religion  apart  from  divine  inspiration — 
that  greatest  of  all  miracles,  or  at  least  Divine  intuition 
— the  Sam-bodhi  which  Buddha  had  to  confront  even 
in  the  colleges  of  Nalanda. 

Only  cultured  Stoics  could  appreciate  the  higher 
Buddhism,  and  these,  says  Bishop  Lightfoot,  "essen- 
tially followed  Buddha,  first,  as  to  a  common  belief  in 
the  supreme  good  derived  by  the  practice  of  virtue; 
secondly,  in  self-reliance  and  the  assertion  of  conscience; 
and  thirdly,  in  the  reality  of  the  intuitional  apprehen- 
sion of  truth."  Stoicism,  he  continues,  "was,  in  fact, 
the  earliest  offspring  of  the  union  between  the  religious 
consciousness  of  the  East  and  the  intellectual  culture  of 
the  West,  *  *  *  (for)  Zeno,  the  Phenician,  zcas  a 
child  of  the  East,  and  only  when  his  stoicism  had  East- 
ern affinities  did  it  differ  seriously  from  the  schools  of 
Greek  philosophy.  To  these  affinities  may  be  attributed 
the  intense  moral  earnestness  which  was  its  charac- 
teristic" {'Epist.  Phil?  II,  273).  What  truer  Bud- 
dhism could  there  be,  than  such  as  this  which  then 
echoed  and  re-echoed  from  Grove  to  Stoa? — "Submit, 
my  brothers,  without  grumbling  to  the  unavoidable 
necessity  by  which  all  things  are  governed.  Free  thy- 
self from  all  passions  and  be  unmoved  in  joy  as  in  sor- 
row." Compare  also  our  Canonical  Ecclesiastes  which 
was  written  about  200  B.C.  and  is  full  of  Buddhistical 
stoicism. 

But  let  us  seek  more  facts  showing  how  knowledge 
on  all  subjects  was  transmitted  in  ancient  times.  In  500 
B.C.,  China  received  from  Babylon  much  of  its  myth- 
ology and  legendary  history,  and  about  425  B.C.,  as 
General  Cunningham's  archaeological  researches  show, 
India  had  cognizance  of  most  European  styles  of  archi- 
tecture, and  that  of  Ionia  and  Corinth  almost  as  soon  as 
these  styles  were  practised  by  Greeks.  Ezra  and  Nehe- 
miah  had  just  then  come  up  from  the  temples  of  Baby- 
lon well  acquainted  with  all  that  was  going  on  in  the 
East,  and  had  begun  editing  the  Old  Testament.  Sok- 
rates  had,  a  generation  back,  consorted  with  an  Eastern 
monk  and  many  magi,  The  second  great  Buddhist 
Council  had  been  held,  urging  missionary  efforts,  and 
the  Buddhistic  "Jaina  Sutras"  and  most  of  the  Indian 
epics  were  well  known.  From  400  to  440  we  have 
much  Buddhistic  teaching  in  Plato,  Epikuros,  Pyrrho, 
Aristotle,  and  others,  and  we  hear  the  latter  speak  of 
the  Indo-Buddhistic  "Kalani"  in  connection  -with  sup- 
posed Jews;  and  when,  in  330,  Alexander  the  Great 
and  his  3,000  savans  were  on  their  way  farther  east — to 


Baktria  and  India — Buddhism  was  strong  from  the 
Oxus  and  Heri-rud  to  farthest  India,  Siam  and  her 
;sland  groups.  By  317  B.C.,  the  energetic  Chandra 
Gupta,  Emperor  of  Northern  India,  had  married  a 
daughter  of  Seleukos,  and  expelled  the  Greeks  from 
India;  but  Megasthenes,  the  Greek  ambassador,  and 
his  staff  were  still  with  the  emporer,  compiling  histories 
of  India,  its  kings,  peoples,  religions,  rites  and  customs; 
and  another  Indian  Sraman  or  Buddhist  monk,  the  Ka- 
lanos  before  mentioned,  had  shown  the  West  how  indif- 
ferent the  pious  should  be  to  this  world,  its  joys  or  pains, 
by  mounting  a  burning  pyre  in  sight  of  the  multitudes 
of  Persepolis.  We  have  evidence  says  Professor  Beal, 
that  about  this  time  Greek  plays  passed  into  India  direct 
from  Alexandria  to  Baroch  or  Baroda,  and  northward 
to  Ujain,  the  viceroyalty  of  the  young  Asoka,  though 
they  might  more  easily  have  passed  from  Baktria,  then 
an  independent  Greeko-  Buddhist  kingdom.  Jews  had 
compiled  their  Chronicles,  and  Berosus  his  histories  of 
nations,  their  genesis  and  faiths,  and  Greeks  were  then 
translating  the  Zand  Avesta  from  the  Pehlvi,  as  Greek 
Jews  were  their  Pentateuch  from  the  Hebrew.  The 
age  was  alive  everywhere  with  busy  thinkers  and  writ- 
ers, whom  the  Greeks  and  other  savans  of  the  shattered 
armies  of  Alexander  had  stirred  into  life  and  formed 
into  literary  centers,  from  the  Ganges  to  the  Oxus,  and 
all  over  Mesopotamia- even  into  the  desert  capital  of 
Zenobia,  then  a  link  between  East  and  West. 

Darmestettr  says  that  "  the  plays  of  yEschylos  and 
Sophokles  were  read  at  the  Parthian  court,  and  the  rela- 
tionship between  Parthia  and  Western  Asia  was  very 
close," — how  much  closer  with  Buddhistic  India  and 
Baktria?  Buddhism  had  of  course  indirectly  attracted 
the  attention  of  Jews  through  the  Eastern  Parthians, 
and  Josephus  states*  that  the  Parthian  prince,  Pacorus 
(well  acquainted  with  Buddhism),  ruled  over  Syria. from 
Jerusalem  as  a  capital,  and  he  quotes  Aristotle  as  say- 
ing (about  340  B.C.?)  that  the  Jews  of  Ccele-Syria  were 
Indian  philosophers  called  in  the  East,  Calami'''' 
(Kalani?)  or  "sugar-cane  people,"  and  only  Jews  be- 
cause they  lived  in  Judea.  These  "Jews,"  said  Aristotle, 
derived  from  Indian  philosophers  wonderful  fortitude 
in  life,  diet  atid  continence.  They  were,  in  fact,  Bud- 
dhists, whom  the  great  Greek  confounded  with  some 
Syrians."}-  Now  the  "sugar-cane  people"  of  India  were 
the  Ikshvakas  (in  Pali,  Okkakis)— the  name  of  Bud- 
dha's family — and  they  were  Sakas,  Sakyas,  or  Aryan 
Scyths,  who  had  an  ancient  settlement  near  the  mouth  of 
the   Indus  at  Kala-mina,  the  black- land  (?)— Aristotle's 


*  Contra  Apian,  I,  2,  and  cf.  Hardy's  Man.  of  Bud.,  135,  3— quoting  Csama 
de  Korasi's  paper  in  Bengal  Asiatic  oi  Aug.  1SS3;  And.  Sit.  Lit.,  40S;  Lije  o 
Bud.,  403;  and  Bud.  in  China,  by  Professor  Beal,  65,  260. 

+  This  is  not  strange,  for  Jews  appeared  to  try  and  identify  themselves  with 
many  stocks.  Josephus  quotes  occasions  when  they  are  called  Parthians  and 
Lacedemonians.  They  were  then  as  now  great  traders,  travelers,  and  captives 
or  slaves,  even  to  Greeks.— Joel,  IX,  6;  Ants.,  XII,  4-10. 


4  ib 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Calami  and  our  Potala  or  Tata  a  place  holy  in 
Christian  tradition  as  being  the  city  where  St.  Thomas 
died,  and  where,  therefore,  he  and  his,  would  readily  ob- 
tain all  the  Buddhist  doctrines  then  long  current  among 
Syrian  and  Judean  Essenes,  etc. 

Such  foundations  and  wide-spread  growths  could  not 
fail  to  influence  the  then  rising  Christian  literature,  and 
there  was  ample  time  for  them  to  do  so  even  if  the  Gos- 
pels were  fixed  and  recognized  in  the  first  half  of  the 
second  century ;  how  much  more  so,  if  as  the  learned 
author  of  Supernatural  Religion  and  others  show- 
there  was  no  trace  of  them  among  the  churches  till 
about  175  a.c.  Kalamina  was  well  known  as  the  early 
pre-Indian  home  of  the  Ikshvaku  or  "sugar-cane"  line 
of  kings,  and  from  hence  they  moved  upward  to  Ujain 
and  Oudh,  where  they  rose  to  become  the  royal  line  of 
Ayodhya,*  and  this  accounts  for  the  many  non-Indian 
peculiarities  in  the  forms  and  dress  of  Buddha,  as  seen  in 
his  images  a  fact  which  has  long  made  scholars  suspect 
his  trans-Indian  origin.  Well  may  a  reverend  professor 
say:  We  have  thus  on  the  Indus,  in  350  B.C.,  "a  covert 
reference  to  Buddha's  family,  and  perhaps  to  Bud- 
dhists." Now,  history  shows  us  that  Babylon  was  con- 
sidered by  many  the  headquarters  of  the  Jewish  faith 
from  the  second  century  B.C.  to  the  first  century  a.c.i 
and  that  to  it  the  learned  and  pious  of  Jerusalem  ever 
looked  as  their  city  of  light  and  learning,  and,  says  the 
Mishna,  even  flashed  the  news  of  the  appearance  of  the 
new  moon  toward  it  from  Mount  Olivet,  as  did  Mala- 
chis'"Sun  of  Righteousness"  flash  his  first  morning 
ray  over  the  sacred  mountain  into  the  carefully  oriental 
sanctuary  on  the  haram. 

From  the  third  century  B.C.,  Jews  spread  all  over 
Babylonia  into  Baktria  and  the  farthest  East;  and  the 
highest  recommendation  a  member  of  the  holy  city 
could  then  advance  was,  that  he  had  been  in  the  San- 
hedrim of  Babylon,  as  in  the  case  of  the  wise  Hillel  of 
Christ's  time,  who  was  educated  in  the  Babylonian 
schools.  "  Balk,  the  Mother  of  Cities,"  as  Hwen  Tsang 
calls  it  in  his  Afemoires,  was  visited  by  him  because  of 
its  very  ancient  Buddhist  history;  and  there,  in  our 
seventh  century,  he  reverently  studied  the  ruins  of  the 
great  Nan  Bihar,  or  "  New  Monastery."  He  tells 
us  "it  was  constructed  by  tlie  first  king  of  this  mother 
of  cities"  pointing  to  a  vast  age,  for  even  so  old  a  pre- 
Gotama  centre,  and  confirming  the  testimony  of  relics 
which  are  being  found  in  the  ruins  of  this  celebrated 
Vihar  —  see  Rawlinson's  Central  Asia,  and  remarks  on 
"the  Buddha  preceding  Sakya  Muni." 

Eusebius,     St.    Augustine,f    and     several     orthodox 


fathers,  point  to  a  kind  of  Christianity  before  Christ, 
with  Sunday  services  of  prayer  and  praise,  like  those 
which  arose  in  our  second  century;  in  fact  all  Western 
Asia,  from  the  third  century  B.C.,  was  excited  on  these 
subjects;  and  if  we  believe  the  legends  of  the  churches, 
it  was  on  this  account  that  St.  Thomas  and  other  Chris- 
tians pressed  eastward  in  search  of   the  Eastern  focus. 


*  Asoka  claimed  to  sj.ririL;  from  t  il  lir*l  Okkaka  king— Hardy,  p.  1,5.1.     lli> 

grandfather  Chandra,  the  Gurla,  of  the  South  Indus  dynasty,  there  first  raised  the 

banner,  which   he   bore   In   the  walls   of   Palibothra  or  Patna,  where  he 

established  his  Muuryan  dynasty.     All  these  were  Sakyas  like  Gotama  Sakya- 

Muni. 

|<l    <  ,l,    ,./   <;,;!,   and    the    Rev.    I»     Is.  Taylor's    And.  Christ,  where   he 
that  Christian  mon;isli    ism  1  our    from  India. 


THE   SIN    OF   THE   ATOM. 
BY    VIROE. 

(mil  was  lonely — silent  space- 
Was  His  sole  abiding  place- 
On  the  lips  of  darkness  yet 
Kiss  of  love  had  not  been  set; 

Then  by  darkness,  Power's  bride, 
This  poor  dust  was  vivified, 
And  the  first-born  daughter,  Light, 
Spun  the  planets  from  the  night; 

With  her  distaff  sat  to  spin 
Cords  of  force  to  hold  them  in  : 
Cords  remotest  cycles  feel 
In  the  whirling  of  her  wheel 

So  forever,  toiling  thus, 
Light  has  tarried  virtuous; 
But  the  atom  scornful  stood 
In  his  new,  free  hardihood, 

And  before  thy  life  began 
On  this  planet,  conscious  man, 
By  the  atom  disobeyed 
Was  the  law  envenomed  made. 

In  the  Eden  of  our  race 

So  was  wrought  the  first  disgrace; 

Now  the  atom's  guilty  stains 

Course,  death-laden,  through  our  veins: 

There  our  long  and  bitter  plaint; 
There  the  leper's  fearful  taint ; 
There  the  sudden  poison  pang 
Of  the  cruel  cobra's  fang; 

There  the  atom's  shameless  sin 
Let  the  rabies'  virus  in, 
And  .his  rebel  hardihood 
Poisoned  nature's  perfect  blood. 
*  *  *  *  * 

Mortal!  so  some  prouder  race 
Yet  may  mourn  for  thy  disgrace, 
In  some  cycle  vast  and  great 
That  thou  canst  not  estimate. 

Man!  what  knowest  thou  of  man? 
What  of  God's  divinest  plan? 
fool!  thou  dost,  not,  canst  not  know 
Mow  life's  pulses  throbbing  go, — 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


iq 


Canst  not  tell  how  far  thou  art 
From  the  heat  of  nature's  heart; 
Nor  what  nobler  veins  thy  sin 
Lets  the  death-drop  virus  in. 

*  *  *  *  * 

Vet,  in  spite  of  all  thou  dost, 
Light  is  true,  and  God  is  just; 
Though  temptation  may  not  plead, 
Nor  thv  sorrows  intercede, 

Though  the  sting  my  vision  saw 
Was  ot"  death  that  poisoned  law, 
And  the  horror  sin  has  done 
Through  the  deathless  cycles  run, 

In  some   subtle,  perfect  way 
Out  of  darkness  comes  the  day; 
In  some  vast  alembic,  filled 
With  the  false  is  truth  distilled. 

TO-MORROW. 

TKANSI.ATBD   FROM   Tilt   FRENCH    OF    VICTOK    IILi 
BY    GOWAN    LEA. 

The  future  ours?     Ah  no, 

It  is  the  gods'  alone! 
The  hours  are  ringing  low 

"Farewell"  in  every  tone. 
The  future!      Think!      Beware! 
( )ur  earthly  treasures  rare, 
Hard  won  through  toil  and  care. 

Our  palaces  and  lands, 
Great  victories,  and  all 
Possessions,  large  and  small, — 
But  only  to  us  fall, 

As  birds  light  on  the  sands! 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE    LABOR   QUESTION. 

To  the  Editors : 

In  a  note  by  the  editor  on  the  criticism  by  John  Basil  Barn- 
hill,  of  the  article  entitled  "  Labor  Cranks  "  by  James  Parton  in 
The  Open  Court  of  April  14,  there  seems  to  me  to  be  a  half 
apologetic  tone  to  the  readers,  as  though  the  criticism  would  not 
have  been  published  except  " by  special  request,"  and  the  editor 
adds,  "that  in  our  opinion  it  [the  criticism  ]  tails  to  do  justice  to 
the  meaning  and  spirit  of  the  article  criticized." 

It  has  been  to  me  a  source  of  surprise  and  sorrow  that  The 
Open  Court,  which  pledges  itself  to  "the  independent  discus- 
sion "  of  social  problems  that  "  are  engaging  the  attention  of 
thoughtful  minds  and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depends  largely 
the  highest  interests  of  mankind,"  was  an  almost  closed  Court 
to  one  side  of  one  of  the  greatest  questions  that  is  now  being 
agitated.  Each  article  that  has  appeared  on  the  labor  question 
has  apparently  deprecated  any  movement  made  by  the  working 
class  to  better  their  condition,  and  to  these  articles  there  have 
been  no  replies,  until  at  last  Mr.  Barnhill  offers  a  few  words  of 
criticism  on  one  of  these  articles,  and  receives  for  it  something 
very  like  a  snub  from  the  editor. 


I  would  like  to  say  a  few  words  with  reference  to  Mr.  Par- 
Inn's  article  and  Mr.  Barnhill's  criticism,  if  the  editor  will  extend 
to  1111'  the  special  grace  granted  Mr.  Barnhill,  including  even  the 
prospective  snub. 

If  the  " meaning  and  spirit "  of  the  article,  which  the  editot 
thinks  Mr.  Barnhill  fails  to  see,  is  the  elaboration  ot  Miss  Mar 
tineau's  idea,  that  the  man  who  is  one-sided,  with  one  idea,  and 
cannot  see  a  subject  "by  the  light  of  other  minds,"  nor  "in  its 
relation  to  other  ideas,"  then  the  editor  is  right.  This  is  undoubt- 
edly the  spirit  of  the  article,  the  one  which  the  editor  sees  most 
prominent.  But  it  is  the  incident  related  in  the  article  which 
reveals  the  gradual  growing  of  the  writer  out  of  a  sympathy  with 
suffering,  into  indifference,  that  has  forced  itself  upon  the  mind 
of  Mr.  Barnhill,  as  it  has  upon  the  minds  of  other  readers  of  the 
article,  who  still  are  able  to  sympathize  with  any  condition  that 
humiliates  and  depresses  humanity.  Such  feel  that  although  Mr. 
Parton  made  then  in  his  early  life  "a  narrow  escape  from  being 
a  labor  crank,"  he  had  by  his  lapse  from  a  tender  feeling  toward 
suffering,  done  —  "one  wrong  more  to  man,  one  more  insult  to 
God." 

It  is  not  necessary  for  Mr.  Parton  to  go  back  to  bovhood  and 
to  England  to  search  for  a  story  of  human  suffering  and  wrong. 
The  storv  of  any  tenement  house  in  New  York  city  to-day,  will 
move  any  man  or  woman  who  is  not  educated  by  fortunate  cir- 
cumstance into  indifference  to  suffering  in  the  mass,  to  an  "angel's 
sorrow,"  over  the  wrongs  which  poverty  has  wrought  to  mankind. 

That  this  was  the  tangible  idea  to  Mr.  Barnhill  is  seen  in  his 
strong  language  —  none  too  strong  —  "Mr.  Parton,"  he  says, 
"admits  that  he  once  had  much  compassion  for  suffering  and 
sunken  humanity,  but  this  is  remembered  now  only  as  a  youthful 
indiscretion.  He  has  so  far  conquered  this  effeminate  tendency 
of  his  nature  that  he  can  now  contemplate  thousands  of  his  fellow 
creatures  in  misery  and  ignorance  unmoved. "(1)  That  this  is  not 
too  strong  language  toward  Mr.  Parton  can  be  seen  by  re-reading 
his  article  carefully.  He  has  the  stock  arguments  of  nearly  all 
writers  upon  political  economy,  and  reiterates  its  pet  principles  in 
the  fine  writing  which  pleases  the  privileged  class,  but  never 
reaches  the  great  uncultured  mass.  Well,  I  suppose  this  is  better 
business  than  to  "brood  too  much  over  the  sorrows  of  mankind." 
He  cites  Henry  George  as  an  uncommonly  gifted  writer,  a  good 
citizen,  a  benevolent  man,  and  "who  once  studied  the  works 
of  other  economists  and  may  do  so  again,"  which  will  be  far 
better  for  himself  and  everybody  else  than  "brooding  over  a  state 
of  things,  that  has  led  him  into  the  conclusion,  that  the  land,  like 
the  air  and  the  sea  belongs  to  all  the  people  alike." 

It  remains  to  be  seen  which  will  be  of  the  greatest  benefit  to 
humanity  for  Mr.  George  to  study  political  economists,  or  to  raise 
a  standard  of  freedom  from  the  bondage  of  landlordism. 

Men  and  women  who  get  their  ideas  from  books,  and  men 
and  women  who  get  their  ideas  from  contact  with  the  questions 
themselves  in  everyday  life  are  very  far  apart.  What  is  it  Emer- 
son says  about  getting  an  education  at  the  town  pump?  I  cannot 
recall  the  words,  but  the  idea  is  well  given  in  an  editorial  in  The 
Open  Court  of  the  same  issue  containing  Mr.  Parton's  article- 
entitled,  "Genuine  and  Spurious  Culture."  "The  so-called  cul- 
ture of  the  age,"  writes  the  editor,  "  lacks  in  robust  intellectual 
qualities,  without  any  noble  moral  purpose,  and  inspired  by  no 
lofty  enthusiasm,  serves  only  to  widen  the  gulf  between  its  disci- 
ples and  the  masses,  increasing,  on  the  one  side,  contempt  for 
the  'great  unwashed'  pursuing  their  prosaic  avocations,  and 
exciting  on  the  other  side,  aversion  to  a  mere  intellectualism 
which  ignores  the  hard  facts  of  life,  is  indifferent  to  the  condition 
of  the  millions,  and  concerns  itself  almost  wholly  with  mere 
literary  questions  which  have  but  a  remote  bearing  on  the  practi- 
cal questions  of  the  hour."  And  again  —  "There  is  no  culture 
worthy  of  the  name  which  does  not  include  with   the  acquisition 


420 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


of  knowledge,  development  of  the  moral  nature,  strengthening 
of  the  love  of  right  and  hatred  of  wrong." 

In  these  words  we  find  the  ring  of  that  true  all-roundedness 
that  Miss  Martineau  meant.  If  this  "meaning  and  spirit"  could 
be  seen  in  Mr.  Parton's  article,  or  any  of  the  articles  published  in 
The  Open  Court  upon  the  questions  which  are  agitating  the 
masses,  they  would  be  beyond  criticism.  They  are,  however,  as 
one-sided  as  any  written  by  "  Labor  Cranks." 

I  have  grieved  over  this  one-sidedness  of  The  Open  Court 
because  it  is  the  outcome  of  the  dear  old  Index  which  I  have 
cherished  from  its  birth  as  if  it  had  been  a  bantling  of  my  own.  (2) 

It  cannot  be  contradicted  that  the  labor  question  is  one  of  the 
greatest  problems  of  the  hour.  It  is  moving  the  masses,  and  it 
owes  its  enthusiastic  agitation,  as  much  to  the  "cranks"  —  the 
one-idea  agitators,  as  to  the  principles  involved  for  benefiting 
humanity,  for  which  its  agitation  stands. 

The  "crank"  has  always  been  .an  important  fac  or  in  all 
reformatory  movements.     He  was  the  original  reformer,  agitator 

not  alwavs   agreeable  and  intelligent,  nor  able  to  see   his  idea 

"  in  its  relation  to  other  ideas,  nor  in  the  light  of  other  minds," 
but  he  could  stir  the  unthinking  to  look  up  and  out  of  a  dreary 
depressed  rut  of  superstition  or  social  degradation  and  was  useful. 
If  the  crank  has  been  made  by  "  brooding  over  the  sorrows  of 
mankind,"  he  has  not  at  least  shut  his  ears  to  the  cry  of  anguish, 
nor  steeled  his  "tender  heart  to  the  sight  of  suffering,"  but  has 
tried  to  do  something,  though  may  be  not  in  the  most  graceful 
manner,  to  show  to  the  world  some  way  by  which  such  suffering 
can  be  made  impossible  in  the  future. 

This  term  is  applied  indiscriminately,  so  common  is  its  pres- 
ent use,  to  any  person  who  has  a  hobby  —  whether  it  be  a  phi- 
losophy or  a  philanthropic  scheme.  The  crank  of  this  generation 
may  be  the  hero  of  a  later  one,  as  has  been  the  case  in  the  past, 
with  men  and  women  who  have  grown  cranky  by  brooding  over 
the  sorrows  of  mankind,  and  have  in  their  way  helped  to  move 
the  car  of  progress  which  bears  humanity  onward  toward  better 
things.  A.  Bate. 

[  (i)  We  adhere  to  the  opinion  that  this  language  conveys  a 
wrong  impression  as  to  the  meaning  and  spirit  of  Mr.  Parton's 
article,  which  showed  no  lack  of  sympathy  with  the  cause  of  labor. 
The  article  having  appeared  so  far  back  as  April,  we  thought  it  but 
just  to  Mr.  Parton  to  make  the  remark  to  which  exception  is  taken, 
and  to  indicate  the  number  of  the  paper  in  which  the  article  was 
printed. 

(2)  The  Open  Court  is  not  devoted  especially  to  the  labor 
question ;  but  its  discussion  is  within  the  scope  of  the  journal,  and 
certainly  it  has  neither  been  excluded  from  these  columns  nor  one- 
sided, as  our  correspondent  may  satisfy  himself  by  looking  care- 
fully through  the  several  numbers  of  the  journal. — Ed.] 


BOOK   REVIEWS. 


A    History    of    England    in   the    Eighteenth    Century. 

By  William  Ed-ward  Hartpole  Lecky.     Volumes  V.   and  VI. 

New  York:     D.   Appleton   &  Company,   18S7;   pp.  602  and 

610.     $2.25  each. 

These  two  volumes  give  the  political  history  of  England,  Ire- 
land and  France,  from  17S4  to  February  1,  1793;  and  several 
topics  are  extended  beyond  these  dates.  Within  them  the  account  is 
tolerably  complete,  though  there  is  scarcely  any  reference  to  Scot- 
land, or  to  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings,  which  was  so  prominent 
in  the  proceedings  of  Parliament  in  17SS.  English  literature, 
which  has  had  only  incidental  notices  in  previous  volumes,  receives 
the  munificent  allowance  of  ten  pages,  including  three  devoted  to 
Pope;  Burns  has  eight  lines,  praising  him  for  inserting  "  a  few 
strokes  of  genius  "  into  the  old  Scotch  ballads,  but  not  referring 
to  the  beauty  of  his  own  songs  or  the  vigor  of  his  satires- 
Lady    Nairn    is    not    mentioned    on    the    page    given    to   female 


authors,  and  of  Mrs.  Macaulay  we  hear  only  that  she  is  no 
longer  read,  and  not  that  she  ought  to  be  by  every  one  who 
wishes  to  find  out  how  unjustifiable  Cromwell's  usurpation 
really  was.  It  is  high  time  that  Americans,  at  least,  should 
know  more  about  the  republican  historian  of  England,  the  fearless 
defender  of  the  revolution.  Still  more  singular  is  Lecky's  failure 
to  refer  to  Scotland's  men  of  science,  or  to  any  of  her  philosophers, 
except  Hume.  Room  for  all  these  subjects  might  easily  have 
been  gained  by  abridging  the  three  hundred  and  eleven  pages 
which  treat  of  Ireland  from  1782  to  1793,  and  which  are  not  likely 
to  diminish  the  regret  with  which  the  reader  learns  that  Lecky 
means  to  devote  his  next  and  last  volume  entirely  to  the  still 
vexed  isle  and  to  say  nothing  more  about  England,  except  inci- 
dentally. No  historian  can  speak  of  Ireland  with  more  authority  ; 
but  her  history  might  more  properly  have  been  confined  to  sup- 
plementary volumes  than  been  told  in  chapters  which  interrupt 
the  connection  of  those  devoted  to  English  affairs,  or  else  shorten 
their  space.  The  latter  defect  is  especially  marked  in  the  failure 
of  the  historian  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Spirit  of  Rational- 
ism to  give  even  forty  pages  to  such  subjects  as  the  defeat  of  the 
attempts  to  repeal  the  laws  according  to  which  taking  the  sacra- 
ment of  an  Episcopalian  priest  was  required  of  all  office-holders, 
while  belief  in  Unitarianism,  refusal  to  attend  some  orthodox 
church,  and  eating  meat  on  fast  days  were  among  penal  offences. 
The  age  was  on  the  whole  growing  less  intolerant,  as  is  shown  by 
Mr.  Lecky;  but  he  does  not  give  any  full  view  of  the  many  influ- 
ences which  were  cooperating  to  bring  about  this  great  change. 
And  he  forgets  how  much  Voltaire  did  to  make  persecution  abso- 
lute, when  he  indorses  Paley's  declaration  :  "  I  deem  it  no  infringe- 
ment of  religious  liberty  to  restrain  the  circulation  of  ridicule, 
invective  and  mockery  upon  religious  subjects."  The  employ- 
ment of  ridicule  against  errors  about  religion  should  not  be  forbid- 
den, or  even  regretted,  so  long  as  Sabbatarianism  makes  Sunday 
recreation  impossible  for  multitudes  who  need  it  grievously,  while 
the  agonies  of  death  from  cancer  are  increased  by  the  credulity 
with  which  the  victim  obeys  the  command  of  the  "  Christian 
Science "  quacks,  not  to  use  any  of  the  well-known  means  of 
relieving  her  sufferings,  because  "In  reality  there  is  no  pain!" 
Mr.  Lecky's  conservatism  also  leads  him  to  deprecate  the  estab- 
lishment of  universal  suffrage  and  to  omit  from  his  elaborate 
account  of  Pitt  any  reference  to  those  utterances  of  the  great 
statesman  in  favor  of  Home  Rule  in  Ireland,  just  published  in  full 
bv  Mr.  Gladstone.  Still  more  surprising  is  the  assertion,  on  a 
page  headed  "  Conservatism  of  Freethinkers,"  that  "  there  is  cer- 
tainly no  natural  or  necessary  affinity  between  free  thinking  in 
religion  and  democracy  in  politics."  (Vol.  V.  p.  309.)  What,  on 
the  contrary,  is  there  more  natural  than  the  habit  of  looking  at 
both  religion  and  politics  from  the  same  standpoint?  Our  own 
neighbors  are  usually  as  independent  and  progressive  in  politics 
as  in  religion;  and  fair  and  thorough  study  of  history  proves  that 
it  has  always  been  so.  Mr.  Lecky  appeals  to  the  case  of  Hobbes, 
but  does  not  tell  us  how  he  disproved  the  divine  right  of  kings. 
Nor  does  he  here  mention  Henry  Martin,  Algernon  Sidney, 
Blount,  Collins,  Shaftesbury,  Franklin,  Jefferson,  Paine,  God- 
win, Burns,  Mary  Wollstonecraft,  Catharine  Macaulay,  and  other 
democratic  freethinkers,  though  he  makes  all  he  can  out  of  Boling- 
broke,  Hume  and  Gibbon.  So  again,  we  are  not  told  how  revolu- 
tionary Spinoza  was  in  all  directions,  though  we  read  that  his 
contemporary,  Bayle,  "wrote  with  horror  of  the  democratic  and 
seditious  principles  disseminated  among  French  Huguenots,  and 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  great  writers  of  the  period  of 
the  Encyclopedia  were  animated  by  a  different  spirit."  Two  of 
these  writers,  Diderot  and  Holbach,  produced  together  one  of 
the  most  democratic  and  seditious  books  ever  printed,  a  fact  which 
Lecky  nowhere  mentions,  though  he  speaks  elsewhere  of  the 
socialistic  writings  of  their  contemporaries,  Mably  and  Morelly. 
He  mentions  that  Raynal  protested  against  the  French  revolution 
in  old  age,  but  not  that  he  had  helped  to  bring  it  about.  The 
seven  pages  about  Voltaire  do  not  refer  to  his  sympathy  with  the 
Genevese  democrats  and  American  revolutionist;  and  Rousseau 
appeared  much  more  revolutionary,  both  in  theology  and  politics, 
to  his  own  contemporaries  than  would  be  supposed  from  reading 
this  history.  Nothing  more  need  be  said  about  this  argument  to 
prove  "  Freethinkers  not  naturally  revolutionists,"  than  that  it 
makes  no  reference  to  Mine.  Roland  or  any  of  her  great  associates. 
These  defects  in  Mr.  Lecky's  work  deserve  our  notice  all 
the  more  on  account  of  his  many  and  well-known  merits.  He 
will  always  have  a  prominent  place  on  the  book-shelves  of 
thoughtful  and  liberal  people;  and  whatever  might  otherwise  be 
too  revolutionary,  in  the  writers  whom  we  should  put  beside  him, 
will  be  speedily  neutralized  by  his  cautious  moderation  and  pru- 
dent deference  to  practical  duties  and  vested  rights.         F.  M.  H. 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon   a   Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  16. 


CHICAGO,  SEPTEMBER  15,  1887. 


J  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


SOME     RELATIONS     OF    SCIENCE     TO     MORALITY 
AND     PROGRESS. 

BV    G.    GORE,    LL.D.,    F.R.S. 
Part  I. 

In  an  address  delivered  in  Birmingham  at  the  unveil- 
ing of  the  statue  of  Sir  Josiah  Mason,  Sir  John  Lub- 
bock  correctly  remarked  that  it  is  not  "merely  in  a 
material  point  of  view  that  science  would  benefit  this 
nation.  She  will  raise  and  strengthen  the  national  as 
surely  as  the  individual  character."  In  illustration  of 
this  statement  I  would  gladly  be  permitted  to  make  the 
following  remarks,  with  the  object  of  showing  that  our 
moral  character  is  being'  strengthened  by  a  general 
recognition  of  scientific  laws  as  a  foundation  of  the 
chief  rules  of  moral  conduct. 

It  is  commonly  believed  that  moral  actions  are  alto- 
gether unaffected  by  scientific  conditions;  that  science 
has  little  or  no  connection  with  morality,  that  it  can 
shed  no  light  upon  the  questions  of  the  freedom  of  the 
human  will,  the  origin  of  sin  and  evil,  etc.,  and  that 
moral  phenomena  cannot  be  scientifically  investigated, 
but  must  be  examined  by  other  methods  than  those  usu- 
ally employed  by  scientific  researchers. 

While  earnestly  wishing  not  to  disturb  the  cherished 
beliefs  of  other  persons,  I  venture  to  say  that  moral 
phenomena  have  relations  to  physical  and  chemical 
ones,  and  are  capable  of  being  scientifically  investigated, 
and  that  the  chief  rules  of  morality  have  a  scientific 
foundation.  It  is  well  known  that  the  moral  faculties 
are  capable  of  being  strongly  affected  by  a  physical 
shock  to  the  brain,  by  intoxicating  liquors,  drugs,  etc., 
and  that  by  placing  temptations  before  persons  experi- 
ments may  be  made  on  their  morality.  That  the  physi- 
cal state  of  poverty  is  a  source  of  crime,  and  that  of 
wealth  conduces  to  licentiousness,  are  also  commonly 
known  facts. 

The  method  of  scientific  research  is  alike  in  all  sub- 
jects. 

The  essential  nature  of  truth,  viz.,  universal  consist- 
ency, or  agreement  with  all  known  truths,  is  the  same 
in  all  subjects,  the  chief  mental  powers  employed  in  dis- 
covering truth  are  also  the  same  in  all  inquiries,  in 
morals  as  in  physics  and  chemistry.  There  is  no  easy 
method  or  special  faculty,  call  it  "conscience"  or  what 
we  will,  which  enables  us  to  infallibly  arrive  at  truth  in 
moral  questions;  we  investigate   such   problems   by  the 


aid  of  precisely  the  same  intellectual  powers  and  pro- 
cesses as  we  do  physical  and  chemical  ones,  viz.,  by 
means  of  perception,  observation,  comparison,  and  in- 
ference, employed  upon  the  whole  of  the  evidence,  by 
observing .  facts,  comparing  them  and  drawing  infer- 
ences, by  analyzing,- combining  and  examining  the  evi- 
dence in  every  possible  way,  and  thus  arriving  at  consis- 
tent conclusions.  What  is  right  and  good  and  what  is 
wrong  and  evil  are  determined  by  precisely  the  same 
general  mental  methods  as  what  is  true. 

But  although  in  investigating  moral  questions  we 
must  employ  the  usual  intellectual  processes  we  may 
arrive  at  correct  conduct  in  two  ways,  viz.,  either  blindly 
or  intelligently;  blindly  by  trusting  to  our  inherited  and 
acquired  tendencies,  and  intelligently  by  the  conscious 
use  of  our  knowledge  and  intellectual  powers. 

Morality  is  an  art,  consisting  of  rules  which  are  to 
be  followed.  At  present  it  is  in  the  empirical  or  dog- 
matic state,  and  has  not  arrived  at  the  scientific  stage  or 
been  hitherto  recognized  as  being  based  upon  funda- 
mental scientific  principles.  We  obey  certain  rules  be- 
cause they  have  been  found  to  be  good,  because  we  are 
told  to  do  so,  or  because  it  is  the  custom,  and  not  be- 
cause the  rules  are  enforced  by  the  divine  authority  of 
immutable  laws. 

Aloral  phenomena  are  subject  to  the  law  of  causation. 

The  affairs  of  this  world  appear  to  be  governed  not 
by  what  we  consider  strict  rules  of  justice,  but  by 
necessity,  i.  e.,  by  the  fundamental  principle  of  causation 
and  the  other  great  laws  of  science.  According  to  the 
scientific  view  of  universal  causation,  the  present  state 
of  the  universe  is  a  consequence  of  all  its  past  condi- 
tions, and  its  future  is  all  implicitly  contained  in  the 
present,  and  will  be  evolved  out  of  it  in  accordance  with 
the  laws  of  indestructibility  of  matter  and  energy,  and  the 
equivalency  of  forces.  Out  of  nothing,  nothing  alone 
can  come.  We  can  not  create  anything,  not  even  an  idea. 
All  things  are  evolved.  It  has  taken  ages  to  evolve  our 
present  state  of  knowledge.  We  are  wonderfully  con- 
stituted;  while  each  man  is  all  important  to  himself, 
and  often  acts  as  if  he  was  the  center  of  all  things,  he 
is  but  as  an  atom  upon  this  great  globe,  and  the  earth 
itself  is  only  a  minute  speck  in  the  universe,  one  amongst 
a  hundred  millions  of  worlds. 

According  to  the  law  of  causation,  whatever  is, 
under  the  given  conditions,  must  be.     Starvation  forces 


422 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


a  man  to  steal,  and  our  regard  for  the  safety  of  our 
property  compels  us  to  punish  him.  Whatever  is,  also 
must  be,  whether  it  agrees  with  our  ideas  of  justice  or 
not;  if  the  number  of  paupers  around  us  was  doubled, 
we  should  have  to  pay  double  poor-rate,  whether  we 
helped  to  produce  the  increased  pauperism  or  not.  Af- 
flictions visit  the  saint  as  well  as  the  sinner,  and  we  have 
no  choice  but  to  remain  upon  this  planet  and  accept 
this  life  with  all  its  pains  and  penalties. 

All  animals  are  as  puppets  subject  to  the  great  physi- 
cal powers  of  the  universe.  About  fifteen  hundred 
millions  of  human  beings  are  carried  through  space 
upon  the  surface  of  this  globe  at  a  rate  of  about  eighty 
thousand  miles  an  hour,  whether  they  are  willing  or 
unwilling;  and  man  is  only  one  out  of  about  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty  thousand  different  kinds  of  living  crea- 
tures; he  is  also  only  permitted  to  live  a  limited  number 
of  years,  and  his  body  is  then  compelled  to  return  as 
dust  to  the  earth  from  whence  it  came.  The  great 
number  and  variety  of  diseases  and  accidents  to  which 
he  is  subject,  show  the  narrow  limits  of  his  power  of 
resistance  to  natural  influences. 

Less  important  matters  must  yield  to  greater  ones. 

By  the  unavoidable  laws  of  nature,  less  important 
objects  are  obliged  to  yield  to  greater,  life  of  all  kinds 
is  ruthlessly  sacrificed  when  more  serious  interests  are  at 
stake.  The  wholesale  destruction  of  human  life  and 
happiness  by  earthquakes,  famines,  volcanoes,  storms 
and  floods,  takes  place  utterly  regardless  of  the  suffer- 
ings and  cries  of  mankind.  The  preservation  of  human 
life  is  of  less  importance  than  the  proper  adjustment  of 
terrestrial  forces  and  the  operation  of  great  natural  laws. 
By  a  single  earthquake  in  Java  about  thirty-two  thou- 
sand persons  were  killed  and  multitudes  injured,  rend- 
ered homeless  and  insane;  during  famines  in  India,  mill- 
ions of  human  beings  have  died  in  an  entirely  helpless 
state  by  the  fearful  process  of  starvation,  and  the  simple  list 
of  earthquakes,  floods,  and  famines  within  historic  times 
would  fill  a  volume.  "In  Japan  earthquakes  occur  at  the 
rate  of  two  a  day."  (Nat //re,  Vol.  XX XIV,  p.  456.) 
Various  religious  beliefs,  also,  which  afforded  consolation 
to  millions  of  believers,  are  gradually  being  sacrificed  to 
the  resistless  progress  of  new  knowledge,  regardless  of 
the  mental  suffering  thus  occasioned.*  Science,  however, 
has  already  by  means  of  telegraphs  and  steam  locomo- 
tion, nearly  rendered  famines  impossible,  and  will  prob- 
ably in  due  time,  render  more  uniform  and  more  consist- 
ent with  truth  some  of  our  religious  beliefs,  and  thus 
harmonize  religion  itself. 

The  idea  of  Evil  is  essentially  human. 

Probably,  in  the  view  of  an  infinite  intelligence, 
whatever  is,  is    right,  and    all    that  is,  is   good,  but   our 

•The  Par-see  priest,  who,  after  having  traveled  a  great  distance  to  worship 
thi       sacred  tire"  at  Baku,  is  shocked  to  find  the  object  of  his  devotions  sur- 
rounded by  oily  derricks,  petroleum  reservoirs,  oil  distilleries,  the  machinery  of 
dcrn    1  I'im  e  and  .'  busy  manufacturing  population. 


intelligence  is  extremely  finite,  and  therefore  whatever 
causes  pain,  unhappiness,  or  discomfort  to  sentient  crea- 
tures, especially  to  ourselves,  we,  in  the  narrowness  of 
our  views,  call  an  evil,  and  he  who  wilfully  does  an  evil 
act  is  termed  a  sinner.  A  volcanic  outburst  on  an 
uninhabited  planet  would  not  be  considered  an  evil, 
because  it  would  not  affect  sentient  creatures.  We  fear 
pain  as  if  it  was  always  an  evil,  but  it  is  usually  a  check 
to  wrong  conduct  and  is  often  of  great  good  in  warning 
us  to  take  care  of  our  life.  The  endurance  of  pain  often 
secures  to  us  greater  subsequent  pleasure.  Injuries  and 
benefits  are  alike  due  to  natural  agencies,  and  pain  and 
evil  are  results  of  the  same  causes  as  that  which  is  good 
and  pleasant;  the  same  cold  atmosphere  which  kills  the 
feeble,  invigorates  the  strong,  the  rain  falls  where  we  do 
not  as  well  as  where  we  do  require  it,  the  same  wind  which 
wafts  a  ship  to  port  detains  the  outward  bound.  All 
evil  and  good  is  relative,  and  that  which  is  a  curse  to  one 
man  is  often  a  blessing  to  another;  money  is  a  blessing  to 
the  wise,  but  often  a  curse  to  the  foolish. 

The  Scientific  basis  of  Rules  of  Morality. 

No  one  but  a  person  ignorant  of  science  would  deny 
the  supremacy  of  scientific  laws  over  the  existence  and 
actions  of  mankind,  or  that  the  principles  of  science  con- 
stitute a  foundation  of  rules  of  human  conduct.  The 
laws  of  nature  are  the  commands  of  God,  and  are  cer- 
tainly a  basis  of  moral  as  well  as  of  physical  guidance; 
the  first  rule  of  righteousness,  "  That  zee  should  do  unto 
another  as  zee  would  have  him  do  unto  us  under  like, 
circumstances"  is  manifestly  based  upon  the  great  law 
of  causation,  viz,  that  "  the  same  cause  always  produces 
the  same  effect  under  like  conditions;"  and  if  this  law 
was  uncertain  the  rule  would  be  unsafe.  Herein  lies  a 
fundamental  and  scientific  basis  of  morality,  which  every 
teacher  of  that  subject  will  probably  have  to  study. 

The  Scientific  basis  of  Life  and  Consciousness. 

That  our  existence  depends  upon  physical  and  chem- 
ical circumstances,  is  admitted  by  all  intelligent  persons; 
no  one  will  deny  that  air  and  warmth  are  necessary  to 
our  existence,  or  that  foods  sustain  and  poisons  destroy 
life.  Not  only  our  existence  but  also  our  consciousness 
of  existence,  depends  essentially  upon  scientific  condi- 
tions, the  same  fundamental  circumstance,  viz,  inequality 
of  impression  which  compels  a  stone  to  move  or  a  vol- 
taic couple  to  produce  an  electric  current,  excites  a  man 
to  feel  and  think  and  this  non-uniformity  of  impression 
as  the  basis  of  consciousness  and  thought  is  known  as 
"  the  theory  of  relativity  of  impression."  We  cannot 
even  think  of  an  event  in  time  or  a  point  in  space,  with- 
out reference  to  some  other  event  or  point,  without  a 
difference  of  impression  we  can  distinguish  nothing. 
Time,  space  and  the  rapid  motion  of  the  earth  in  its  orbit 
being  perfectly  uniform  in  their  influence  upon  us,  are 
not  directly  peiceptible  to  our  senses;  and  even  the  pres- 
sure   of    the  atmosphere    while     it    is    uniform  is    not 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


423 


perceived.  When  we  wish  to  lose  consciousness  and 
thought,  or  fall  asleep,  we  exclude  as  completely  as  we 
can  all  changes  of  impression,  of  motion,  sound,  light, 
pain  and  pleasure;  unusual  and  changing  impressions 
prevent  slumber. 

Scientific  necessity  consistent  with  freedom  of  Will. 

The  question  of  freedom  of  the  will  is  elucidated  by 
science.  Man  is  as  truly  and  probably  as  completely 
subject  to  causation  as  is  a  stone  or  a  plant.  The  human 
will  is  not  a  causeless  phenomenon,  it  is  determined  by 
motives,  by  influences  within  and  around  us,  potent 
causes, such  as  alcohol  within,  or  danger  to  life  from  with- 
out, powerfully  affect  our  volition.  If,  as  is  sometimes 
asserted,  volition  was  a  "  supernatural  power,"  experi- 
ments could  not  be  made  upon  it  by  means  of  alcohol, 
drugs,  etc.  We  often  cannot  detect  our  own  motives, 
because  we  cannot  think  and  at  the  same  time  com- 
pletely survey  our  act  of  thought,  the  two  simultaneous 
actions  in  the  same  organ  being  incompatible.  The 
freedom  of  the  will  is  limited,  we  are  only  really  free 
when  we  conform  to  natural  laws,  and  we  are  usually 
restrained  when  we  attempt  to  disobey  them;  the  larger 
our  knowledge  of  natural  laws  the  greater  our  freedom 
of  volition.  There  are  bounds  of  freedom  of  action 
which  we  may  not  exceed,  we  are  more  free  to  obey 
moral  rules  than  to  infringe  them,  we  are  much  less  free 
to  do  evil  than  to  do  good,  less  to  cause  pain  than  to 
confer  pleasure,  but  all  living  creatures  are  free  to  inflict 
pain  upon  others  in  certain  cases,  especially  when  it  is 
necessary  in  order  to  maintain  life,  and  this  is  the  basis 
of  justification  of  animal  slaughter,  of  all  surgical  oper- 
ations and  of  so-called  "  vivisection "  experiments. 
These  scientific  facts  agree  with  and  reconcile  the  seem- 
ingly contradictory  doctrines  of  free  will  and  necessity. 

But,  notwithstanding  that  we  are  usually  more  con- 
strained to  do  right  than  wrong  by  the  influence  of 
natural  laws  and  circumstances,  we  still  appear  to  be 
able  to  control  our  own  actions  and  do  as  we  like  within 
certain  limits.  This  power  of  self-regulation,  however, 
so  commonly  regarded  as  a  proof  of  conscious  free- 
dom, is  not  so,  because  it  is  possessed  by  various  inani- 
mate mechanisms,  a  steam  engine  for  example,  which, 
by  its  action  upon  an  intermediate  agent,  the  governor, 
regulates  its  own  speed. 

Scietitific  basis  of  Sin  and  Evil. 

Scientific  knowledge  sheds  light  upon  the  origin  of 
evil,  sin  and  suffering.  The  very  existence  of  evil  is 
dependent  upon  non-uniformity  of  cerebral  impression ; 
if  there  was  no  inequality  of  such  impression  there  would 
be  no  consciousness,  and  therefore  no  pain  or  unhappi- 
ness,  sin  or  evil.  Consciousness  of  pleasure  as  the  result 
of  obedience,  and  of  pain  or  unhappiness  as  the  effect  of 
error  or  disobedience,  operate  as  regulators  of  conduct, 
and  largely  compel  us  to  act  rightly.  The  existence  of 
evil  is  also  related  to  the  size  and  condition  of  the  human 


brain;  perfectly  moral  conduct  would  probably  necessi 
tate  perfect  knowledge,  and  perfect  knowledge  would 
probably  require  an  infinitely  perceptive  and  perfect 
brain,  but  a  man's  brain  can  only  retain  a  finite  number 
of  ideas  and  a  very  limited  amount  of  knowledge.  A 
perfect  man  would  be  a  god  and  have  infinite  percep- 
tion and  intelligence,  but  as  man  does  not  possess  these 
attributes,  he  has  no  infallible  guide  to  correct  conduct; 
"  conscience  "  does  not  absolutely  tell  him,  and  reason, 
based  upon  very  limited  knowledge,  is  the  final  but  falli- 
ble arbiter  in  all  cases. 

New  scientific  knowledge  diminishes  evil. 

Knowledge  is  frequently  indispensable  to  moral  con- 
duct; there  are  plenty  of  difficult  cases  in  life  in  which 
the  desire  to  do  right  is  not  sufficient;  the  commission  of 
evil  is  usually  a  result  of  ignorance,  and  if  men  could  in 
all  cases  foresee  and  completely  realize  all  the  conse- 
quences of  their  acts,  they  would  rarely  commit  sin. 
The  results  of  wrong  doing  are  essentially  the  same, 
whether  it  is  intentional  or  accidental.  The  evil  which 
we  are  absolutely  compelled  to  do  is  not  necessarily 
immoral.  The  chief  causes  of  sin  and  error  are  the  finite 
capacities  of  our  brain,  the  incompleteness  of  human 
knowledge  and  defective  training  and  education.  Man's 
ignorance  is  gigantic.  "  Knowledge  is  power"  and  new 
truth  makes  us  free.  It  is  increased  knowledge  which 
makes  men  more  free  to  act  rightly,  and  it  is  largely  by 
the  discovery  and  dissemination  of  truth  that  science  con- 
duces to  morality.  Truth  is  divine  and  the  great  scien- 
tific laws  which  govern  the  universe  and  mankind  are 
divine  commands,  and  those  who,  either  through  igno- 
rance or  intention  disobey  them,  do  so  at  their  peril.  It 
is  a  conspicuous  fact  that  those  who  profess  to  study  and 
inculcate  divine  commands,  largely  omit  to  study  and 
expound  these,  there  is,  however,  a  sufficient  cause  for 
this.  If  those  laws  were  generally  known  and  acknowl- 
edged, there  would  be  more  unanimity  of  religious 
belief  and  a  less  amount  of  sectarian  strife. 


ARE  WE   PRODUCTS  OF  MIND  ? 

BY  EDMUND  MONTGOMERY,  M.D. 
Part  I. 

I.       Voluntary  movement  the  key  to  the  problem. 

A  solid  scientific  basis  cannot  be  given  to  ethics  and 
religion  before  the  following  question  is  definitely  set- 
tled :  In  what  relation  does  mind  or  consciousness  actually 
stand  to  our  own  body  and  to  physical  nature  in  general  ? 

No  scientifically  warranted  answer  has  gained  cur- 
rency thus  far.  It  has  not  yet  become  certain  whether 
our  bodily  organization  is  an  outcome  of  mental  effi- 
ciency, or  whether  mind  is,  on  the  contrary,  an  outcome 
of  organic  activity,  or  whether  mind  and  the  organism 
are  two  separate  but  intercommunicating  entities. 

It  is  quite  certain,  however,  that  our  ethics  and 
religion  have  always  taken  shape,  and  will  continue  to 


424 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


take  shape,  in  accordance  with  our  faith  in  one  or  the 
other  of  these  modes  of  connection,  believed  to  subsist 
between  the  two  constituents  of  our  seemingly  dual 
nature. 

Now,  if  we  desire  to  build  on  a  firm  scientific  foun- 
dation, and  not  go  on  blindly  surmising  or  eternally 
see-sawing,  we  have  seriously  to  grapple  with  the  prob- 
lem, however  abstruse  and  uninviting  this  task  may 
appear  to  many.  There  is,  indeed,  much  likelihood 
that,  before  long,  scientific  philosophy  will  succeed  in 
solving  it,  for  it  is  a  riddle  whose  parts  are  all  openly 
manifest. 

I  have  recently  drawn  the  attention  of  the  readers  of 
this  journal  to  a  scientifically  grounded  attempt  at  solu- 
tion of  this  great  problem  of  mind  and  organization  on 
the  part  of  one  of  our  foremost  students  of  organic  evo- 
lution; and  they  have  since  had  the  privilege  of  becom- 
ing acquainted  with  a  concise  and  forcible  statement  of 
it  by  its  own  author. 

In  this  his  very  courteous  and  highly  interesting  reply 
to  my  criticism,  Professor  Cope  does  not  feel  compelled  to 
budge  one  inch  from  his  former  position.  He  still  main, 
tains  "that  mind  is  a  property  of  matter  in  energetic 
action;  or,  in  other  words,  that  mind  is  the  property  of 
some  kind  of  energy;"  that,  if  this  be  admitted,  then 
"mind  is  the  property  of  something  which  possesses 
momentum,  and  is  also  a  property  of  some  kind  of 
motion,"  and  "  as  these  are  the  conditions  essential  to  the 
communication  of  motion  to  other  matter,  mind  can  con- 
trol matter,  (a.  c.  d.)  " 

lie  "  awaits  with  interest  a  disproval  of  these  posi- 
tions." 

To  this  pithy  declaration  of  his  leading  propositions 
it  may  at  once  be  objected  that  the  "  energy  "  endowed 
by  Professor  Cope  with  the  additional  efficiency  of  con- 
sciouslv  deflecting  matter  from  its  mechanical  path  is  a 
power  nowise  recognized  in  physical  science.  It  is  here 
an  entirely  novel  agency,  and  it  involves  as  complete  a 
petitio  principil  as  can  well  be  found,  for  it  assumes, 
unproved,  to  start  with,  all  that  is  called  in  question, 
namely,  that  "  mind  can  control  matter."  From  the 
premise,  that  "matter  in  energetic  action"  "can  be  con- 
scious," it  does  by  no  means  legitimately  follow  that  this 
accompanying  consciousness  is  able  to  control  the  ener- 
getic activity  of  the  otherwise  purely  mechanical  motion 
of  such  matter. 

The  only  "  energy  "  hitherto  recognized  by  physical 
science—  the  very  same  science  of  objective  observation 
to  which  Professor  Cope  professes  faithfully  to  adhere — 
this  "  energy "  is  strictly  and  solely  the  power  which 
moving  matter  possesses  of  working  absolutely  precise 
mechanical  effects  upon  other  matter.  Therefore,  no 
amount  of  consciousness  superadded  to  this  power  can 
possibly  affect  the  physical  result.  Even  fully  admitting 
Professor  Cope's  fundamental   proposition  that  "  energv 


can  be  conscious,"  it  would  not  be  the  consciousness  ot 
the  energy,  but  the  energy  itself,  namely,  y2  Mv2 
which  does  all  the  moving.  This  is  incontestably  the 
doctrine  taught  by  our  present  physical  science  in  accord- 
ance with  its  a  posteriori  method,  and  there  is  no  get- 
ting round  it,  unless  you  upset  it  altogether. 

Besides,  "  energy  "  cannot  properly  be  called  "  a 
property  of  matter."  Energy  is  matter  itself  in  mechan- 
ical motion,  and  its  effects  are  always  mechanically 
wrought  on  other  matter — never  on  the  matter  which  is 
its  own  vehicle.  But  it  is  clear  that  consciousness,  in 
order  to  control  matter,  would  have,  first  of  all,  to  impart  a 
designed  motion  to  the  very  matter  in  which  it  itself 
resides. 

Leaving,  however,  physical  science  out  of  sight,  is  it 
not  anyway  rather  strange  that  the  property  of  a  thing 
should  be  able  to  control  the  thing  itself,  of  which  it  is 
a  mere  property  ?  And  stranger  still  that  "  the  property 
of  a  property  "  should  reach  all  the  way  back  and  con- 
trol the  very  matrix  in  which  it  inheres  and  on  which  its 
very  existence  is  consequently  dependent  ? 

These  few  remarks  seem  to  me  to  contain  a  sufficient 
disproval  of  Professor  Cope's  positions.  But  the  real 
question  under  consideration  lies  much  deeper;  and  as  it  is 
a  most  momentous  one  I  will  go  to  the  root  of  it  by  assert- 
ing that  whoever  believes  that  mental  power  of  some 
kind  is  moving  our  body  has  consistently  to  adopt  all 
the  tenets  of  Professor  Cope's  Theology  of 'Evolution.  If 
we  really  move  our  limbs  by  dint  of  the  mental  power 
generally  called  "  will  " — and  how  many  theologians, 
philosophers  and  scientist  are  there  who  are  not  com- 
mitted to  this  assumption? — then  it  can  be  consistently 
concluded  that  our  entire  body,  with  all  its  vital  func- 
tions, has  been  originated  by  a  like  mental  power,  and 
that  such  mental  power  must  be  inherent  in  wholly 
unorganized  matter. 

All  those,  then,  who  believe  that  it  is  mental  effi- 
ciency by  which  we  are  controlling  our  body  should 
clearly  understand  that  Professor  Cope's  strange  evolu- 
tional and  theological  conclusions  are  the  only  scien- 
tifically warranted  outcome  of  this  almost  universally 
accepted  order  of  dependence.  If  the  alleged  relation 
proves  true,  then  we  need  seek  no  further  for  a  well- 
grounded  creed;  for  Professor  Cope  has,  in  that  case, 
established  the  only  consistent  one,  and  he  has  done  this 
with  a  profusion  of  scientific  means  unknown  to  those 
who  before  him  have  raised  theological  superstructures 
on  th*same  foundation. 

Hitherto  it  has  been  mainly  the  obvious  and  wonder- 
ful adaptation  of  living  forms  to  their  surroundings  and 
aims  of  life,  that  has  afforded  a  powerful  plea  for  the 
direct  workmanship  of  a  supreme  mind.  And  the 
argument  for  such  a  consciously  designing  interference 
with  physical  nature  on  the  part  of  a  divine  intelligence, 
was    here    also    experientally    supported    solely    by  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


425 


assumed  fact,  that  our  own  mind  originates  our  volun- 
tary movements,  and  gives  them  their  purposive  direction. 

But  the  phenomena  of  instinct,  in  which  purposive 
activities  of  a  marvelous  kind  are  evidently  a  direct 
outcome  of  consciousless  organization,  seemed  seriously 
to  invalidate  the  only  plausible  premise,  from  which  the 
argument  of  design  derived  its  convincing  power.  In 
the  latter  part  of  last  century,  however,  the  doctrine 
that  instincts  are  the  outcome  of  former  conscious  expe- 
rience and  activities,  which  have  become  bodily  organ- 
ized in  the  race,  began  to  be  formulated.  And  the 
well-known  fact  that  conscious  activities  tend,  even  dur- 
ing individual  life,  to  become  "automatic"  gave  strong 
confirmation  to  this  opinion,  rendering  it,  in  fact,  all  but 
certain. 

Now  the  question  here  is  the  same  as  everywhere  in 
this  discussion.  Are  the  activities  which  we  experience 
as  accompanied  bv  consciousness  really  originated  and 
directed  by  it?  If  so,  then  Professor  Cope  is  right 
from  beginning  to  end.  For  if  consciousness  originates 
specific  activities,  and  if  these  specific  activities,  by  being 
frequently  originated  by  consciousness,  compel  the  mate- 
rial in  which  they  manifest  themselves  gradually  to 
assume  that  peculiar  constitution,  which  enables  it  after- 
ward to  perform  these  same  activities  without  the  help 
of  consciousness — then  it  is  incontestable  that  conscious- 
ness and  nothing  else  has  done  the  entire  work  of 
organization,  imparting  to  it,  moreover,  specific  energies 
by  which  it  becDmes  capable  of  performing  definite 
vital  functions.  And,  as  higher  vitality  and  higher 
organization  are  wrought  by  successive  degress  on  a 
basis  of  lower  vitality  and  lower  organization,  beginning 
with  morphologically  wholly  unorganized  material 
which  is  manifesting  only  most  primitive  vital  activities, 
it  may  consistently  be  concluded  that  vitality  and  organ- 
ization are  in  all  their  gradations  the  exclusive  product 
of  conscionsness.  But  as  such  constructive  conscious- 
ness cannot  be  deemed  competent  to  create  out  and  out 
the  very  material  upon  which  it  is  working,  it  must 
necessarily  be  itself  inherent  in  the  least  organized  kind 
of  matter  found  in  existence,  and  this  is  as  far  as  we 
know,  the  interstellar  ether.  Consciousness,  in  this 
light,  is  imperishable.  In  organic  nature  it  securely 
withdraws,  step  by  step,  from  its  organized  product, 
leaving  at  last  its  entire  manufactured  and  worn  out 
shell  behind. 

These  are  the  principal  tenets  of  the  Theology  of 
Evolution,  all  founded,  not  as  Professor  Cope  believes 
on  "observed  phenomena,"  according  to  the  a  -posteriori 
method,  but  on  the  single  a  priori  assumption,  that  it  is 
our  mind  which  is  originating  the  movement  of  our 
limbs.  This  foundation  granted — and  it  is  actually 
granted  by  all  thinkers  who  believe  in  the  motor  power 
of  mental  volition — I  myself  confidently  join  Professor 
Cope  in  awaiting  "  the  disproval  of  these  positions." 


Evolution  has  become  the  almost  universally  adopted 
creed  of  our  age,  and  the  time  has  arrived  when  a 
more  searching  and  exhaustive  view  of  it  has  to  be 
formulated.  Is  it  really  only  the  result  of  selected  for- 
tuitous variations?  Or  rather  the  effect  of  the  mixing 
of  divers  reproductive  elements?  Or  perhaps  the  conse- 
quence of  adaptive  modifications  wrought  exclusively 
by  the  influences  of  the  medium  ?  Or  the  outcome  of 
fatalistic  mechanical  combinations  in  keeping  with  the 
principle  of  the  conservation  of  energy?  Or,  on  the 
contrary,  the  constant  work  of  premeditated  design  on 
the  part  of  a  supreme  consciousness?  Or,  at  least,  the 
work  of  mental  power  emanating  from  the  organic 
individual?  Or  is  it  merely  our  own  imperfect  illusory 
apprehension  in  time-shattered  glimpses  of  a  perfect 
reality,  which  is  eternally  and  simultaneously  abiding 
in  universal  thought?  Or  is  it,  finallv,  in  all  verity, 
what  it  experientially  appears  to  be,  namely,  the  grad- 
ual intrinsic  elaboration  of  individuated  living  substance, 
by  dint  of  multifold  modes  of  interaction  with  its 
medium? 

We  are  nearly  all  convinced  that  evolution  takes 
place.  We  desire  to  know  more  fully  how  it  takes 
place,  and  what  it  really  signifies. 

In  this  search  for  further  and  more  profound  eluci- 
dation the  evolutional  views  of  the  neo-Lamarckian 
school,  to  which  Professor  Cope,  with  the  help  of 
recent  biological  progress  and  his  own  original 
researches,  has  given  consistent  expression,  must  be 
deemed  highly  important.  They  are  radically  opposed 
to  prevailing  biological  and  philosophical-  conceptions. 
It  is  evident  that  they  are  in  glaring  contrast  with  the 
teaching  of  mechanical  biologists,  who  have  long  been  in 
the  ascendant  in  the  scientific  world,  and  who  are  holding 
that  in  organic  nature  no  other  power  is  operative,  than 
that  very  same  mechanical  force  or  energy,  which  they 
declare  to  be  the  moving  efficiency  in  inorganic  nature. 
And  they  are  in  glaring  contrast  also  with  the  teaching 
of  idealistic  thinkers,  who  deny  altogether  the  existence 
of  anvthing  but  mind  and  its  various  modes. 

It  is  significant  that — devoting  his  attention  to  bio- 
logical researches  of  quite  another  kind  than  those  I 
have  been  pursuing — Professor  Cope  was  led,  as  well 
as  myself,  to  adopt  anti-mechanical  views  of  evolution. 
Indeed,  the  close  and  critical  study  of  any  kind  of 
organic  process,  renders  evident  the  truth,  that  here,  at 
all  events,  the  combination  of  material  particles  and  the 
energies  displayed  by  such  combinations,  are  of  an 
altogether  hyper-mechanical  nature.  And  this  scientific- 
ally well-grounded  insight  seems  to  me  to  constitute  an 
essential  advance,  not  only  in  biology,  but  also  in 
physics. 

It  was  direct  observation  of  this  anti-mechanical 
state  of  things  which  first  induced  me  to  question  the 
general  validity  of  the  principle   of  the   conservation  of 


1  -''' 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


<r^ 


energy.  For  how  could  this  supreme  mechanical  prin- 
ciple be  generally  true,  when  it  proved  to  be  incompati- 
ble with  the  facts  of  organic  constitution  and  evolution? 
If  Professor  Cope  had  chanced  to  come  across  the 
papers,  in  which  I  attack  the  mechanical  view  of  nature, 
pleading  for  the  existence  of  specific  energies,  as  natur- 
ally belonging  to  special  material  combinations,  he 
would  have  understood  my  scientific  position.  He 
would  have  found  that  I,  in  opposition  to  the  mechan- 
ical physicists  have  long  been  holding,  that  energy  or 
motion  is  not  an  entity  separable  from  the  substratum 
which  forms  its  vehicle,  and  therefore  not  transferable 
from  one  substance  to  another,  as  now  universally 
taught  in  physical  science.  And  knowing  this,  he 
would  not  have  accused  me  of  arguing  about  energy  as 
if  it  were  "a  concept  distinct  from  matter."  He  would 
also  have  become  aware,  that  I,  like  himself,  am  a  firm 
believer  in  specific  or  hyper-mechanical  modes  of  energy. 
My  first  paper  in  Mind  bore  the  title,  "The  Depend- 
ence of  Quality  on  Specific  Energies?"1 


THE  POSITIVE  VIRTUES. 

BY    PROFESSOR  THOMAS    DAVIDSON. 
Part  I. 

In  the  Shorter  Catechism,  which  every  Presby- 
terian is  supposed  to  know  by  heart,  there  is  a  question : 
What  is  sin?  The  answer  to  it  is:  Sin  is  any  want  of 
conformity  unto  or  transgression  of  the  law  of  God. 
Here  the  law  of  God  is  recognized  as  the  'NV.orm  of 
human    action,   and    two   kinds  of  departure    from   that 

svorm    are   distinguished — sins    of   omission  and   sins  of 

commission.  There  are  many  excellent  things  in  the 
Shorter  Catechism,  and  this  is  one  of  them.  The  law 
of  God  is  the  worm  of  human  action,  and  there  are  two 
forms  of  departure  from  that  law. 

What  is  the  law  of  God  ?  It  is  the  ultimate  law  of 
universal  being;  it  is  the  fundamental  law  of  the  uni- 
verse. No  matter  how  we  conceive  God,  if  he  is  the 
Supreme  Being,  this  must  always  be  true,  and  this, 
indeed,  is  all  that  is  necessary  for  us  to  know.  As  a 
being  is,  so  will  he  act.  There  is  no  possible  departure 
from  that  law.  Even  God,  therefore,  be  he  what  he 
may,  must  act  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  his  being, 
and  if  he  be  the  Supreme  Being,  he  must  act  in  accord- 
ance with  the  laws  of  being  itself.  The  law  of  God, 
therefore,  is  the  supreme  law  of  being.  And  this  law 
is  the  worm  of  the  actions  of  all  that  is.  All  laws  are 
but  partial  expressions  of  this  law — suited  for  partial 
application.  The  two  possible  forms  of  departure  from 
this  law  we  call  sins  of  omission  and  sins  of  commission. 
The  former  are  failures  to  do  what  the  law  requires; 
the  latter,  perpetrators  of  what  the  law  forbids.  Cor- 
responding to  these  sins  or  vices  are  two  classes  of 
virtues,  which,  for  symmetry's  sake,  we  may  call  virtues 
uf    omission    and   virtues   of   commission.     The    former 


consist  in  refraining  from  doing  what  the  law  forbids; 
the  latter,  in  doing  what  the  same  law  enjoins.  Now  if 
we  call  the  point  which  separates  the  line  of  the  omis- 
sive  virtues  from  that  of  the  commissive  virtues  zero,  all 
departures  from  omissive  virtue,  that  is,  all  sins  of 
omission  will  be  negative,  while  all  positive  com- 
missive virtues  will  be  positive.  If,  then,  a  man  should 
do  nothing  forbidden  by  the  law  of  God,  and  at  the 
same  time  should  do  nothing  which  it  positively 
enjoins,  he  would  be  at  the  zero-point  of  virtue.  He  could 
not  be  called  vicious  or  sinful,  nor  could  he  be  called 
virtuous.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a  man  had  failed  to 
observe  some  of  the  interdicts  of  the  law,  and  done 
some  of  the  things  which  it  positively  enjoined,  he 
might,  if  the  latter  were  more  numerous  or  important, 
have  a  balance  of  positive  virtue  in  his  favor.  In  other 
words,  a  man,  though  disregarding  many  of  the  thou- 
shalt-not's  of  the  law,  might,  by  strenuously  carrying 
out  some  of  its  thou-shalt's,  be  on  the  whole  a  virtuous 
man. 

This  is  a  view  of  virtue  and  vice  that  is  very  rarely 
taken,  and  the  reason  of  the  fact  is  not  hard  to  find.  It 
lies  in  the  conviction  entertained  by  all  the  nations  of 
Christendom  that  man  is  a  fallen  creature—  a  conviction 
which  has  sunk  so  deep  that  I  once  heard  it  gravely 
and  solemnl)'  asserted  from  the  platform  of  the  non- 
Christian  Ethical  Society  of  Chicago.  The  lecturer, 
on  that  occasion,  told  his  assembled  congregation  that 
all  things  in  the  universe,  guided  by  the  unknowable, 
were  what  they  were  meant  and  intended  to  be,  the 
only  exception  being  man.  Man  alone  had  fallen 
below  his  ideal.  The  result  of  this  belief  in  man's  fall 
and  depravity  has  been  that  his  whole  moral  aim  has 
been  to  get  back  to  the  zero-point  of  virtue,  from  which 
he  started,  from  which  he  fell.  Of  course,  at  his  crea- 
tion (supposing  him  to  have  been  created)  he  could  not 
have  any  virtue,  since  all  virtue  lies  in  action  exerted 
freely  and  intelligently;  he  was  at  the  zero-point  of 
virtue. 

Now  it  is  one  of  the  glories  of  the  doctrine  of  evolu- 
tion, indeed  its  chief  moral  glory,  that  it  has  overthrown 
this  doctrine  of  human  depravity — a  doctrine  following 
naturally  enough  from  the  notion  of  creation,  as  one  can 
easily  see.  The  doctrine  of  evolution  teaches  us  that 
man,  so  far  from  being  the  only  depraved  being  in  the 
universe,  is  the  noblest  being  in  it,  so  far  as  we  know. 
It  might,  indeed,  even  go  much'  further  and  show  that 
man  is  the  only  being  known  to  us  who  has  any  virtue, 
any  moral  nature,  any  power  of  being  virtuous  or  other- 
wise. Evolution  shows  that  man,  instead  of  being  a 
fallen  creature,  is  continually  rising.  What  has  at  times 
made  him  look  like  a  fallen  creature  is  the  fact  that  he 
is  a  moral  being  and  has  an  ideal  of  himself  quite  differ- 
ent from  and  superior  to,  his  reality.  A  dog  can  never 
seem  fallen  to  himself,  because  he  has  no  ideal  of  himself. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


427 


Dante,  in  the  first  canto  of  the  Paradiso,  while  stand- 
ing on  the  summit  of  the  Mount  of  Purgatory,  and  before 
beginning  his  ascent  toward  heaven,  says:  "If  I,  alone 
by  myself,  was  that  which  thou  didst  originally  create, 
O  love  which  governest  the  heavens,  thou  knowest,  thou 
that  with  thy  light  didst  lift  me  up."  In  other  words, 
Dante  surmises  that,  at  the  end  of  a  course  in  purgatory, 
man  only  gets  back  to  his  original  state  of  innocence. 
He  was  created  perfect,  fell,  and  at  the  end  of  all  his 
moral  efforts,  gets  back  just  to  where  he  began — the  zero 
point  of  virtue.  This  is  the  pessimistic  and  dishearten- 
ing view  of  human  life,  that  has  pervaded  the  Christian 
Church  from  the  beginning,  that  pervades  it  now — a 
view  against  which  every  man  who  loves  his  kind  and 
wishes  to  see  it  advance  in  self-respect  and  spirituality, 
ought  to  protest  with  all  his  might.  Man's  fall  is  a  bar- 
barous myth,  the  source  of  other  barbarous  myths,  such 
as  the  incarnation  and  the  atonement.  Of  course,  if 
there  was  no  fall,  there  was  no  need  or  place  for  atone- 
ment.    And  this  is  the  actual  fact. 

But  not  only  has  the  fable  of  a  fall  degraded  human 
nature  in  its  own  eyes,  and  thereby  enervated  it ;  it  has 
had  a  most  injurious  effect  upon  the  whole  theory  and 
practice  of  moral  life.  It  has  made  the  whole  aim  of 
that  life  to  be  a  striving  to  attain  the  zero-point  of  virtue, 
a  mere  freedom  from  vice;  mere  blamelessness.  When 
Christianity  in  its  ecclesiastical  form  held  sway  over  the 
minds  of  men,  its  highest  ideal  was  monasticism,  whose 
entire  aim  was  blamelessness,  moral  zero.  What  were 
the  three  vows  with  which  the  monk  and  the  nun  bound 
themselves.  Poverty,  chastity  and  obedience.  In  other 
words,  they  vowed  to  refrain  from  the  use  of  the  foods 
of  the  outer,  material  world,  from  the  use  of  their  bodies, 
and  from  the  use  of  the  active  powers  of  the  soul. 
They  made,  as  they  said,  a  complete  sacrifice  of  them- 
selves; and  in  this  they  gloried  as  their  greatest  merit. 
In  order  to  avoid  doing  evil  with  their  souls,  bodies  and 
belongings,  they,  as  far  as  possible,  refrained  from  using 
them  at  all,  shrunk  from  having  any  responsibility  for 
them.  This  is  the  strict  meaning  of  the  monastic  vow, 
by  keeping  which  men  and  women  expected  to  attain 
blamelessness.  So  they  folded  their  hands  and  their 
knees,  and  instead  of  toiling  manfully  for  their  daily 
bread,  and  instead  of  conquering  the  tendency  to  evil 
by  filling  their  time  and  minds  with  strong  actions 
tending  to  good,  they  prayed  to  a  power  outside  of  them  : 
"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  *  *  Lead  us  not 
into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil."  I  suppose  it 
will  be  considered  almost  blasphemy  to  speak  against 
the  Lord's  prayer,  as  the  old  prayer  from  the  Talmud  is 
called  in  Christian  societies,  nevertheless  the  two  petitions 
which  I  have  cited  are  unmanly  and  therefore  immoral. 
Man's  business  is  to  work  for  his  daily  bread,  not  to  beg 
for  it,  and  by  doing  good  work,  to  leave  no  room  for 
temptation  to  evil.     And  when  a  man   does  toil  for  his 


daily  bread,  he  has  a  right  to  it  against  all  the  world. 
If  a  man  had  any  ground  for  praying  at  all,  he  ought 
to  pray  not  "deliver  me  from  evil,"  but  "encourage 
me  to  do  good." 

The  monastic  view  of  life,  which  is  simply  the 
Christian  view  carried  to  its  ultimate  consequences,  is 
completely  selfish — selfishness  looking  a  long  way 
ahead,  and  making  an  omnipotent  power  its  abettor.  A 
Dominican  monk  once  said  to  me:  "We  rejoice  in 
being  persecuted.  Every  persecution  which  we  undergo 
is  so  much  merit  in  God's  sight,  so  much  promise  of 
future  bliss."  I  replied:  "But  how  about  those  who 
persecute  you?  Are  you  glad  that  they,  by  sinning,  in 
persecuting  you,  should  be  laying  up  for  themselves 
stores  of  future  misery  in  order  to  contribute  to  your 
bliss?"  "We  have  nothing  to  do  with  that,"  he  replied; 
"in  the  race  for  eternal  life,  it  is  every  one's  business  to 
save  his  own  soul,  without  any  regard  to  what  happens 
to  others.  All  the  rest  we  leave  to  God ;  that  is  His 
business;  our  business  is  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come." 

We  have  got  so  far  away  now-a-days  from  histor- 
ical Christianity  that  this  bold  statement  of  the  conse- 
quences of  that  system  almost  shocks  us,  and  yet  it  is 
what  the  large  majority  even  of  Protestant  Christians 
practically  believe.  I  say,  therefore,  that  the  Christian 
view  of  life  is  selfish ;  the  Christian  view  of  what  con- 
stitutes morality  utterly  degrading.  Blamelessness, 
freedom  from  vice  is  good,  admirable,  most  desirable; 
but,  even  when  it  is  attained,  it  is  but  the  zero-point 
of  virtue;  there  is  nothing  positive  in  it.  There  is  no 
virtue  in  poverty ;  on  the  contrary,  there  is  great  virtue 
in  honest  wealth,  properly  used.  There  is  no  virtue  in 
chastity,  in  the  monastic  sense.  On  the  contrary,  there 
is  great  virtue  in  true  wedlock — the  complete  union  of 
two  complementary  human  beings  for  the  noblest  ends. 
There  is  no  virtue  in  obedience,  in  the  sacrifice  of  free- 
dom; on  the  contrary,  all  virtue  depends  upon  the  pos- 
session and  use  of  freedom.  That  is  the  very  meaning 
of   virtue. 

As  I  was  crossing  the  Appennines  to  the  south  of 
Perugia,  a  few  years  ago,  an  Italian  gentleman,  who 
was  sitting  next  to  me  in  the  train  said,  pointing  to  a 
yellow  building  high  up  on  the  mountain-side:  "That 
is  a  most  interesting  building."  "Why?"  said  I.  "It 
was  there,"  he  replied,  "  that  a  man  of  genius  discovered 
the  way  whereby  for  ages  millions  of  men  have  been 
able  to  live  without  doing  any  work."  "That,"  said  I, 
"is  certainly  a  most  remarkable  discovery — when  I 
come  to  think  of  it,  the  most  remarkable  ever  made. 
But  who  was  this  wonderful  economical  genius,  so 
much  needed  in  our  time?"  "Saint  Francis  of  Assise," 
he  said,"  and  that  is  the  house  to  which  he  retired  after 
leaving  the  world,  and  before  he  appeared  as  the 
founder  of  the  order  named  after  him.     The  Fraciscans 


L>8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


you  know  are  the  begging  monks."  I  did  know,  and  I 
knew,  too,  that  when  some  one  begs,  some  one  must 
give,  and  give  something  that  has  been  earned  by  some 
one's  toil.  I  know  that  to  beg,  instead  of  laboring,  is  to 
live  upon  others'  toil.  So,  after  all,  I  had  no  very  high 
respect  for  the  memory  of  St.  Francis,  notwithstanding 
his  feverish  piety  rewarded  with  hallucinations  and  the 
stigmata  of  the  crucifixion. 


THE    MYSTERY  OF  PAIN   IN   A  NEW   LIGHT. 

BY    XENOS    CLARK. 

I  wish  to  point  out  the  important  consequences  of  a 
novel  fact  which  has  been  suggested  to  me  by  Mr. 
John  Burroughs'  essay  in  No.  5  of  The  Open  Court. 

Mr.  Burroughs'  theme  is  "  Reason  and  Predisposi- 
tion," and  he  goes  so  keenly  and  instantly  to  the  root  of 
things  that  one  cannot  help  wishing  he  may  often  give 
his  thoughts  to  the  public  of  this  journal.  Impassioned 
and  firmly  convinced  thinkers  will  most  need  and  will 
least  appropriate  the  lesson  of  Mr.  Burroughs'  essay, 
but  no  one  can  claim  exemption  from  the  subtle  error 
which  he  exposes — an  error  which  we  are  fonder  of  at- 
tributing to  our  opponents  than  to  ourselves,  but  which 
in  reality  underlies  all  intellectual  life.  The  error,  as  he 
says,  is  this,  that  most  men  in  the  formation  of  their 
opinions  are  governed  more  by  predisposition,  or  un- 
conscious bent  and  tendency,  than  by  reason;  and  that 
reason  is  merely  the  faculty  by  which  we  seek  to  justify 
the  course  of  this  deeper  seated  determining  force  or 
bent;  so  that  with  most  men  reason  is  an  advocate  and 
not  a  judge,  and  does  not  so  much  try  the  case  as  plead 
the  case. 

If  it  be  true  that  our  instincts  and  predispositions  are 
clients  in  whose  behalf  reason  not  so  much  tries  as  pleads 
cases,  then  it  is  well  to  know  the  character  of  these 
clients.  It  may  prove  on  examination  that  if  constitu- 
tional bias  rules  reasoning,  then  so  much  the  better  for 
reason;  or  it  may  prove  the  contrary;  but  in  any  case 
nothing  can  lie  worse  than  an  unestimated  force  in  our 
mental  conclusions. 

The  most  obvious  instance  of  constitutional  bias  is 
the  common  inclination  to  think  a  noble  and  inspiring 
theory  true  because  it  is  noble  and  inspiring;  and  in  the 
case  of  men  deeply  gifted  with  feeling  anil  imagination, 
like  the  poets,  this  bias  becomes  so  vastly  overpowering 
as  to  place  a  reader  who  has  the  gift  of  intellectual  sin- 
cerity in  a  painful  quandary.  For  the  reader  who  has 
the  gift  of  intellectual  sincerity,  being  deeply  suscepti- 
ble to  poetic  influence,  yearns  to  follow  the  poets  of  his 
time  in  their  lofty  conclusions,  and  yet  he  sees  clearly 
their  constitutional  bias;  he  sees  that  the  poet's  conclu- 
sions are  true  only  for  a  world  of  .poets.  On  the  other 
side  there  is  the  bias  of  the  hard-headed  thinkers,  who, 
having  not  much  emotion  themselves,  do  not  see  the  po- 
tent  part    that    emotion   plays   in  the   world.     It   never 


occurs  to  them,  for  instance,  that  what  really  establishes 
the  faith  of  true  believers  in  God  is  not  reason,  but  holi- 
ness of  heart.  They  resemble  people  with  no  sense  of 
smell  who  think  devotion  to  perfumes  a  subject  for  argu- 
ment rather  than  a  matter  of  feeling. 

Now  the  great  strength  of  constitutional  bias,  or  to  call 
it  broadly,  of  instinct,  lies  in  its  hereditary  nature.  When 
instinct  speaks  it  is  with  the  voice  of  the  long  line  of 
ancestors  through  which,  with  accumulating  intensity,  it 
has  descended  to  its  present  inheritor.  We  love  life — it 
is  not  we  but  the  entire  ancestral  line  that  loves;  the  set- 
ting sun  entrances  our  vision — but  we  look  with  the  eyes 
of  innumerable  forefathers.  The  notable  fact  about  all 
these  instincts  built  up  by  heredity  is  that  they  are  life 
conserving,  they  cling  blindly  and  passionately  to  life. 
This  trait,  so  serviceable  in  practical  matters,  proves  an 
impediment  when  we  come  to  the  great  open  question 
of  the  nature  and  value  of  life  itself;  for  here  instinct 
with  its  blind  love  of  life,  manifested  in  a  thousand  deli- 
cate and  unsuspected  ways,  obviously  tends  to  bend  the 
philosopher's  conclusions  all  in  one  way. 

But  may  it  not  after  all  be  safer  to  trust  instinct  than 
reason,  and  does  not  the  origin  of  instinct  in  the  experi- 
ence of  numberless  ancestors  give  it  sanction  to  speak 
with  authority  on  the  problems  of   human  destiny? 

My  special  purpose  is  to  answer  this  question,  and 
to  show  that  there  is  one  life  problem  at  least  on  which 
the  voice  of  instinct  must  of  necessity  be  false.  This  is 
the  problem  of  human  suffering — "the  mystery  of  pain." 

It  must  first  be  noted  that  the  nature  of  men's  in- 
stincts depends  on  the  character  and  fortune  of  their  an- 
cestors. The  ancestral  line  is  the  mould,  instinct  is  the 
cast.  Now  there  is  one  character  pertaining  to  all  ances- 
tors whatever,  and  which  must  therefore  leave  its  mark 
upon  all  instinct;  it  is  the  character  of  parentage. 
Every  ancestor  shall  possess  at  least  that  degree  of  well- 
being  which  enables  a  person  to  marry  and  rear  chil- 
dren. Even  more,  he  shall,  if  a  remote  ancestor,  possess 
not  only  sufficient  well-being  to  rear  children,  but  to 
rear  children  who  in  their  turn  can  rear  children  and  so 
on.  The  entire  ancestral  line  of  every  living  man  is  of 
this  character.  Every  such  man  comes  of  a  race  nurtured 
in  well-being,  and  his  instincts  represent  only  the  ex- 
perience of  such  a  race.  Here  we  discover  a  limit  to 
the  validity  of  our  instincts;  they  are  valid  only  for  a 
world  of  well-being,  just  as  a  poet's  conclusions  are  true 
only  for  a  world  of  poets. 

But  there  is  also  a  world  of  ill-being,  as  one  need 
not  look  long  to  discover.  A  fraction  of  every  genera- 
tion die  childless;  they  are  the  utterly  crippled,  the  bed- 
ridden for  life,  the  insane,  the  victims  of  crushing  acci- 
dents, and  all  upon  whom  the  deeper  curse  of  life  falls 
so  heavily  as  to  prohibit  every  thought  of  marriage. 
And  it  is  evident  now  that  this  world  of  ill-being  leaves 
absolutely  no  direct  impress  on  the  inherited  instincts  of 


THK    OPKN    COURT. 


429 


the  race;  for  without  children  there  is  no  heredity,  and 
without  heredity  there  is  no  transmission  of  instinct. 

Here,  then,  is  the  respect  in  which  the  voice  of  in- 
stinct is  false  when  it  is  questioned  upon  the  problem  of 
human  suffering.  While  instinct  belongs  wholly  to  the 
world  of  well-being,  the  problem  of  human  suffering 
pertains  solely  to  the  world  of  ill-being,  and  so  the  two 
stand  entirely  apart. 

The  current  explanations  of  suffering  are  well 
known.  The  problem  of  course  relates  to  the  darker 
suffering  which  crushes  men's  lives  instead  of  elevating 
them,  and  it  is  customary  to  say  of  this  evil  that  it  is 
the  curse  which  God  put  upon  Adam;  or  that  it  is  a 
mysterv  which  will  be  explained  in  another  life;  or  that 
it  is  intended  to  humble  the  pride  of  knowledge;  or  to 
test  faith;  or  that  good  could  not  exist  without  evil;  or, 
finally,  that  some  lives  are  blighted  from  birth  in  order 
that  others  may  have  an  opportunitv  to  pity  and  help 
this  extremity  of  distress. 

Such  explanations  are  common  in  the  books  called 
theodicies,  in  philosophical  svstems,  anil  under  one  sub- 
tle form  and  another,  in  all  the  inspired  literature  of  the 
time.  Not  one  of  them  can  survive  a  moment  in  an  in- 
tellect which  insists  on  sincerity  and  clearness  at  any 
cost.  Such  explanations  are  too  obviously  an  instance 
where  reason  does  not  so  ?mtch  try  the  case  as  plead  the 
case.  We  cannot  go  happily  about  our  lives,  nor  can 
we  retain  our  inspiring  views  of  human  destiny  while 
this  night-mare  of  cruel  suffering  in  part  of  the  race 
hangs  over  us;  and  so  we  must  devise  an  anodyne  in  the 
shape  of  an  "explanation."  The  instinctive  love  of 
life  furnishes  the  motive,  and  reason  simply  fulfills  what 
is  required  of  it  by  instinct. 

For  men  pursuing  ordinary  avocations,  it  is  well  to 
remain  blind  to  the  darker  side  of  life,  as  they  could  not 
live  and  work  otherwise;  but  in  the  intellectual  life,  the 
very  highest  purpose  is  clearness  of  vision.  And  it  is  a 
painful  and  admonishing  thought,  when  in  the  intellec- 
tual life  we  strive  to  estimate  fairly  the  lot  of  the  suffer- 
ers of  each  generation  who  pass  away  and  leave  no 
sign,  that  our  strongest  instincts  are  warring  against  a 
just  conclusion,  and,  do  what  we  will,  must  impercepti- 
bly bias  us. 

It  may  be  said  in  comment  on  the  above  reflections, 
that  one  can  easily  find  people  who  suffer  ill  and  yet 
who  seem  to  rear  children, even  in  excess.  This  is  true; 
but,  as  a  rule,  ill  in  the  lives  of  such  people  does  not 
exist  as  an  overpowering  trait,  but  comes  in  that  mixt- 
ure with  happiness  which  makes  life  at  least  tolerable. 
When  ill  becomes  a  sole  trait  of  life,  then  parentage 
vanishes.  It  may  be  said  also  that  sympathy  and  pity 
are  instincts  which  look  kindly  on  suffering.  It  is  in- 
deed so,  but  only  in  a  subordinate  degree ;  sympathy 
and  pity  are  derived  not  from  suffering  in  our  ancestors, 
but    from    their  sight  of    suffering    in   others.     It  still 


remains  true  that  the  most  heavily  stricken  of  past  gen- 
erations have  no  direct  representation  in  the  powerful 
court  of  present  instinct. 

For  the  purposes  of  a  somewhat  artificial  illustration, 
then,  we  may  liken  life  to  a  perpetual  lottery  which  has 
a  drawing  once  in  every  generation.  The  prize-holders 
naturally  look  upon  this  lottery  with  favor,  and  transmit 
this  view  to  their  descendants,  who  pass  it  on  to  theirs, 
until  it  becomes  a  class  instinct.  But  the  blank-holders, 
who  hardly  can  share  this  opinion,  have  no  vote  in  the 
continuance  of  the  lottery,  since  by  their  crippled  posi- 
tion in  life  their  voice,  if  they  can  uplift  it  at  all,  has  no 
weight.  Nor  can  the  lesson  of  their  hard  experience  be 
transmitted  as  an  instinct  to  descendants,  because  there 
usually  are  no  descendants.  If  this  were  not  so,  if  the 
hard  experience  could  be  transmitted  to  descendants, 
then  there  would  arise  an  adverse  class  instinct  of  the 
blank-holders  to  offset  the  class  instinct  of  the  prize- 
holders.  But  this  being  impossible,  the  only  class  in- 
stinct in  the  field  is  that  of  the  priz;-holders,  who  have 
the  vote  all  their  own  way,  and  they  naturally  decide 
in  favor  of  the  lottery.  It  is  their  bread,  their  happi- 
ness, their  inspiration,  as  it  was  their  fathers'.  They 
look  with  pity  on  the  blank-holders;  they  will  even  share 
bread  with  them ;  but  the  lottery  cannot  be  invalidated 
on  their  account;  it  is  too  exciting,  too  inspiring — it  is 
art,  science,  religion,  the  whole  domain  of  man's  won- 
derful life,  or,  let  us  be  careful  to  say,  of  the  prize-hold- 
er's wonderful  life.  Still,  the  fate  of  the  blank-holder 
is  a  gnat  in  the  prize-holder's  eye,  and  he  has  spent 
much  time  trying  to  explain  it  away  in  books  on  the 
"  mystery  of  pain,"  the  "problem  of  evil,"  and  the  like. 
The  attempt  is  considered  laudable,  especially  among 
philosophers;  but  if  one  of  the  blank-holders,  himself  a 
philosopher  perchance,  attempts  to  raise  his  voice  against 
the  injustice  of  the  lottery,  and  to  protest  against  having 
his  hard  fate  explained  away  factitiously,  that  is  consid- 
ered very  reprehensible,  and  he  is  very  likely  to  be 
called  hard  names. 


MONISTIC  MENTAL  SCIENCE. 

BY  S.  V.  CLEVENGER,  M.  D. 
THE  CHEMISTRr  OF  PRIMITIVE  LIFE  AND  .VI.VD. 

When  the  dogmatism  of  the  legendary  cosmogenies 
is  so  evident,  fault  should  not  be  found  with  a  sketch  of 
the  earth's  history  as  revealed  by  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion, because  it  contains  much  that  cannot  be  demon- 
strated, and  conjecture  (based  upon  reasoning)  fills  in 
the  gaps.  Then  let  Lockyer's  primordial  gas,  which 
originated  we  don't  know  how,  have  given  rise  to  the 
heavier  hydrogen,  and  different  degrees  of  compression 
of  hydrogen  constitute  the  other  elements.  Laplace's 
nebular  hypothesis  follows  and  show  how  the  earth 
solidified  its  crust,  after  having  existed  eons  as  a  gaseous 
cloud. 

Next  in  order  the  theory  of  spontaneous  generation 


43° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


(a  mere  guess,  but  one  that  is  defensible)  accounts  for 
the  protista  (the  plant-animal  forms),  and  the  monera, 
that  preceded  them.  By  easy  grades  we  ascend  from 
lower  to  higher  plants,  from  protophytes  through  sea 
weeds,  mosses,  ferns,  to  flowering  plants;  and  from  lower 
animals,  the  protozoa,  through  worms,  star  fishes,  shell 
fish,  to  vertebrates  and  man. 

If  we  could  get  out  of  ourselves  and  regard  every- 
thing objectively,  unbiased  by  our  feelings  and  the  famil- 
iarity that  blinds  and  deludes,  we  would  be  able  to 
conceive  this  planet  reduced  to  the  size  of  a  hickory  nut, 
upon  whose  surface  a  magnifying  apparatus  would 
reveal  lesser  specs  changing  places,  forms  and  colors. 
Further  magnification  would  show  us  man  looking  like 
a  period,  growing  to  the  stature  of  an  exclamation  point 
(probably  a  theist),  or  an  interrogation  point  (probably 
a  scientist).  From  these  spring  other  dots, and  the  larger 
ones  dissolve.  All  move  about,  some  collide,  others 
cling  together,  still  others  avoid  one  another.  These 
simple  movements,  further  inspection  tells  us,  are  caused 
by  position  changes  effected  by  the  more  minute  particles 
that  compose  these  small  objects. 

Allowing  the  world  with  its  flora  and  fauna  to 
regain  its  natural  size  and  placing  a  man  under  our  pow- 
erful microscope  until  he  appears  to  be  as  large  as  the 
earth,  we  learn  that  all  the  grosser  movements  he  has  made 
were  occasioned  by  the  collision,  clinging  together,  move- 
ments of  avoidance  and  other  place  changes  on  the  part 
of  little  spheres  like  bird  shot  and  cricket  balls,  known 
as  atoms  and  molecules.  A  very  close  and  constant 
arrangement  of  these  elementary  balls  constitute  his 
bones,  which  are  pulled  to  and  fro  by  the  sidewise  and 
lengthwise  rush  of  similar  balls  not  so  compactly 
arranged,  which  form  the  muscles.  Great  nerve  cables 
of  millet-seed  like  grains,  here  and  there  rapidly  crowd 
one  another,  in  turn  producing  commotion  among  the 
muscle  components.  But  it  is  difficult  to  discern  which 
is  cause  or  effect  in  all  this  swirl.  The  big  balls  strike 
the  little  ones  and  start  them  agog,  the  little  ones  retaliate, 
to  be  in  turn  hit  at  by  the  larger.  In  fact  cause  and 
effect  exchange  places,  and  everything  this  bag  of  millet- 
seed,  bird  shot  and  cricket  balls  does  depends  upon  the 
preponderence  of  one  kind  of  molecules  over  the  others, 
and  an  endless  series  of  accidents. 

Here,  for  example,  was  an  oxygen  atom  jerking 
away  from  less  congenial  company  to  seize  upon  two 
hydrogen  atoms,  the  three  balls  then  becoming  known 
as  a  molecule  of  water,  countless  groups  of  which  could 
be  seen  everywhere  in  our  giant.  Many  of  these  H20 
groups  were  very  exclusively  associating  only  with  their 
own  kind  and  repelling  the  advances  of  other  molecules 
which  sought  their  company ;  but  here  and  there  one  of 
the  objectionable  molecules  happened  to  meet  with  some 
atoms  it  wanted  and  could  capture  and,  presto,  meta- 
morphosis.   The  formerly  repulsive  A,  which  B  avoided, 


picked  up  an  X  and  no  time  was  lost  before  ABX 
became  a  new  molecular  candidate  for  the  envy,  syco- 
phancy and  wiles  of  others.  This  X  was  often  a  metallic 
atom. 

Restoring  our  man  to  his  less  than  six  feet  of  height, 
his  molecular  make  up  disappeared  and  we  find  that 
accidents  of  atomic  grouping  make  this  particular  per- 
son present  an  ugly  appearance.  His  comrades  with 
more  pleasing  visages  are  not  attracted  to  him ;  women 
deride  and  repel  him.  Chance  fills  his  pockets  with  the 
element  auritm,  and  a  change  occurs  comparable  to  the 
one  noted  before.  His  acquisition  enables  him  to  select 
whom  he  pleases  as  associates.  One  known  as  Fool 
and  another  called  Knave  became  gilded  and  secured 
the  sisters  Cupidity,  who,  though  detesting  their  mates 
helped  them  to  multiply  their  kind.  These  comparisons 
are  not  strained.  There  is  more  than  simile  or  metaphor 
in  them.  If  a  house  be  built  of  bricks  does  not  the  pile 
of  bricks  preserve  the  individual  brick  nature?  Because 
it  is  a  house  it  is  none  the  less  a  brick  pile,  with  all  the 
properties,  such  as  hardness,  porosity,  uninflamability, 
contained  in  each  separate  brick.  Grouping  of  atoms 
into  molecules  and  these  into  compound  molecules  do 
not  make  such  combinations  any  the  less  chemical,  even 
though  man  is  the  thing  built  from  the  molecules. 

We  may  start  with  the  simple  one-celled  animal 
called  the  amoeba.  It  is  a  representative  of  the  modi- 
fied cell  that  is  found  to  produce,  by  multiplication  of 
itself,  all  animal  tissues.  The  muscles,  membranes, 
skin,  etc.,  of  man  are  made  up  of  cell  upon  cell  of  proto- 
plasmic origin,  closely  allied  to  this  unicellular  organism, 
and  the  white  blood  corpuscles  are  called  amoeboid  be- 
cause they  resemble  the  amceba:  surprisingly  in  all 
things. 

This  amceba  may  be  found,  under  the  microscope,  in 
stagnant  water,  damp  earth,  or  in  animal  matter,  creep- 
ing about  with  activity,  but  no  constancy  of  direction. 
It  seems  to  be  a  living  spec  of  white  of  egg;,  the  mi- 
nute granules  in  it  flowing  first  to  one  part,  then  another; 
pushing  out  "  false  feet "  into  which  the  entire  mass 
flows,  and  so  moves  about.  When  it  encounters  food, 
usually  minute  vegetable  particles,  the  substance  passes 
into  the  animal  composition,  and  what  cannot  be  assimi- 
lated is  merely  moved  away  from — excreted. 

Insignificant  as  these  amcebic  motions  appear,  they 
are  weighted  with  the  most  important  problems  life  can 
present,  for  the  quarrel  is  over  what  causes  the  amoeba 
to  move  at  all.  Cope  and  others  assign  it  consciousness, 
or  will  power.  Very  well;  but  such  assumption  has 
been  an  effectual  bar  to  rational  inquiry  into  mental 
science.  Without  positively  denying  that  this  animal, 
as  well  as  lower  and  higher  ones,  may  be  conscious  we 
can  ignore  that  consideration  altogether,  or  claim  that 
consciousness  and  will  are  merely  effects  of  the  chemi- 
cal and  physical  forces  at  work  in  and  upon  the  animal. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


43 T 


Low  forms  of  life,  like  this,  may  be  kept  dried  and  ap- 
parently dead,  indefinitely,  but  moisture  restores  activity. 
Of  itself  this  fact  shows  the  purely  mechanical  nature 
of   life. 

The  main  composition  of  the  protoplasm  of  the 
amceba,  is  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen  and  nitrogen,  rep- 
resented by  the  symbols  C,  H,  O,  N.  It  feeds  upon 
plants  which  contain  similar  elements.  In  fact  it  eats 
that  to  which  it  is  chemically  attracted.  Its  hunger, 
then,  is  chemical  affinity.  Assimilation,  eating,  is  a 
process  of  molecular  exchange,  chemical  saturation. 
Hydrogen  hungers  for  oxygen.  The  amoebic  proto- 
plasm molecules  CHON  hunger  for  CHON.* 

We  have  gained  our  first  step  in  mental  science.  A 
feeling,  a  desire,  is  reduced  to  a  chemical  explanation. 
Remember  it,  for  upon  it  every  subsequent  step  depends: 

/.  Hunger  is  chemical  affinity ',  the  desire  inherent 
in  atoms  for  one  another.  Hunger  is  the  first,  the  primi- 
tive desire,  so  acknowledged  by  thinkers  from  other 
poin's  of  view,  but  they  did  not  see  what  we  now  claim 
to  be  its  origin.  Growth  of  the  mass  must  follow  as 
the  molecules  add  to  their  number,  size  and  weight,  by 
chemical  combinations;  by  eating.  This  is  evident  and 
axiomatic,  but  simple  as  it  appears,  like  a  geometrical 
axiom  it  is  liable  to  be  obscured  or  lost  sight  of  as  we 
advance. 

Growth,  thus,  is  our  second  step  gained: 

2.  Grozcfh  arises  from  chemical  saturation,  from 
hunger  satisfaction,  from  eating.  This  is  more  evident 
than  i,  in  all  animal  life. 

Next  the  amceba  reproduces  itself  by  the  simplest 
possible  means,  it  divides  as  a  consequence  of  over- 
growth, and  we  then  have  two  amoebae;  the  new  addi- 
tional form  is  excreted  off  from  the  old  one,  and  observ- 
ing that  such  particles  as  silica  or  lime  carbonate,  which 
it  cannot  take  up  are  repelled,  rejected,  excreted,  we 
find  as  a  consequence  that  excretion  depends  upon,  or  is: 

a,  chemical  indifference  or  repulsion, 

l>,  a  consequence  of  assimilation, 

c,  an  overgrowth  consequence,  in  reproduction. 

J.  Excretion  is  a  consequence  of  hzinger  satis- 
faction. 

4.  Reproduction  is  a  consequence  of  growth,  and 
a  process  of  excretion. 

The  amceba  absorbs  oxygen  and  exhales  carbonic 
acid;  it  breathes.     But   oxygen  is  a  food,  and  inhalation 

*  So  much  depends  and  could  be  said  upon  this  inference,  it  can  be  but  cur- 
sorily dealt  with  here.  The  objection  to  the  atomic  affinity  likeness  of  hunger 
being  in  that  protoplasm  converts  dead  into  living  molecules,  may  be  met  by 
Hoppe-Seyler's  claim  (Chemical- Physiology  Institute  Inaugural  Address)  that 
living  protoplasm  consisted  of  anhydrous  oxy-hvdro-carbon  molecules  capable 
ot  motion  in  a  hydrated  medium.  When  such  molecules  combined  with  the 
water  in  which  they  moved,  then  the  protoplasm  was  dead.  Living  protoplasm 
is  like  quantities  of  CHON  moving  in  water:  H»0;  now  if  CHON,  in 
certain  quantities,  becomes  CHONH.O  (while  the  symbolism  is  far  from  being 
exact),  an  idea  of  what  occurs  when  protoplasm  dies  (the  machine  stoppage) 
may  be  gained.  The  next  step  toward  dissolution  being  the  breakin?  up  of  the 
compound  altogether;  the  dismantling  of  the  machine.  But  it  is  impossible  to 
go  deeply  into  such  matters  in  popular  essays. 


is  but  a  process  of  assimilation,  hence  breathing  is  eating 
and  proposition  1  includes  it.  The  rejected,  exhaled 
carbonic  acid  is  excreted;  so  proposition  3  includes 
that  matter. 

Prehension,  or  taking  hold  of  its  food  is  another 
function,  but  it  is  only  an  effect  of  1  ;  attraction  of  mole- 
cules. The  ama'ba  moves  about,  but  the  same  molecu- 
lar attractions  account  for  such  movements  partly;  light 
sets  up  a  series  of  attractive  motions  in  it;  heat  increases 
within  certain  limits  its  activity;  eddies  move  it,  and  the 
simplest  explanation  of  light  and  heat  attraction  would 
be  through  their  expanding  the  nearest  portion  acted 
upon,  setting  up  a  flow  of  granules  into  that  part,  re- 
sulting in  a  forward  movement  toward  the  light.  The 
composition  of  forces  would  account  even  for  its  occa- 
sionally moving  away  from  its  food,  thus: 


Fig.  1. 

Let  A  represent  the  position  of  the  amceba  at  one 
instant;  the  line  A  C  the  direction,  and  force,  10,  of  at- 
traction of  a  ray  of  heat  and  light.  The  line  A  B,  with 
the  attraction  =5  of  a  diatom,  or  some  other  molecular 
combination  which  is  food  and  has  attractive  affinity  for 
the  amceba.  The  parallelogram  of  forces  will  decide  D 
to  be  the  direction  in  which  A  will  move;  apparently 
away  from  its  food. 

These  motions  can  be  made  more  complex  by  the 
inconstancy  of  the  environment,  heat,  light,  electricity, 
sound,  chemism,  eddies,  all  exerting  their  influences  and 
confusing  the  directness  of  motion. 

Lastly — 

5.  Locomotion  is  due  to  hunger  [chemical  affinity) 
and  to  other  physical  forces.  We  thus  have  all  the  life 
activities  of  this  low  animal  explained  as  the  result  of 
force  and  matter.  Objectively  regarded  we  have  satis- 
fied the  conditions,  but  fault  may  be  found  with  having 
brought  in  the  subjective  term  hunger.  This  can  be 
disposed  of  by  admitting  that  we  can  only  judge  of 
hunger  objectively  in  others,  whether  man,  dog,  or 
amceba,  by  what  it  causes  them  to  do,  and  comparing 
such  actions  with  our  own  under  like  circumstances, 
which  subjectively  we  realize  to  be  due  to  hunger. 
Perhaps  a  feeble  consciousness  is  a  prod2ict  of  these 
molecular  and  mass  motions — who  can  say?  We  have 
much  of  the  aboriginal  disposition  to  concede  will 
power  or  sensibility  to  any  complex  mechanical  motions. 
The  Zuni  Indians  worshiped  the  great  Corliss  engine 
at  the  Chicago  water-works,  and  wanted  to  cast  them- 
selves into  its  wheels  as  into   the  arms  of  a  good    spirit; 


432  THE    OPEN    COURT. 

similarly  the  remark  is  often  made  by  the  intelligent  and  motions  have  regard  to  satisfying  hunger,  and  its  mushy 

educated:    "That  locomotive  acts  as  though  it  lived,"  or  body  is  constructed  to  take  hold  of  things.     Prehension 

"That  machine  almost  talks."     If  we  knew  the  amoeba  or  taking  hold  of  things  is  an  ability  merely  developed, 

to  be  composed  of  crystalline   matter  we  would    merely  but   not   changed    in    the    higher   animal    life,  for   arms, 

wonder  at  its   mechanical    motions;  because   it   is   flesh-  hands  and  jaws  are  for   food   prehension;    the   legs   and 

like  we   assign    it   life,  though  we    know  that   flesh    and  feet  take  hold  of  the  ground  in  the  food  search;  ribs  as- 

crystals  are  but  chemical   elements  differently  combined.  sist    other  organs   in   oxygen    (food)    prehension.     The 

President  Sorbv,  of  the  Royal  Microscopical  So-  fundamental  life  processes  having  merely  more  elaborate 
ciety,  estimates  that  in  one  one-thousandth  of  an  inch  organs  in  the  higher  than  in  the  lower  forms,  to  con- 
sphere  of  albumen  (protoplasm),  there  are  530,000,-  serve  the  same  necessary  ends.  While  in  this  protozoon 
000,000  molecules.  With  protozoa  one-tenth,  or  one  the  only  sensation  it  has  refers  to  eating,  all  other  sensa- 
one-hundredth  of  an  inch  in  size,  there  would  be  pro-  tions  are  differentiated  from  it,  and  if  you  reflect  a  little, 
portionately  more.  It  becomes  possible  to  conceive  how  you  will  know  that  all  thought  is  ultimately  traceable 
organisms  even  a  hundred-thousandth  of  an  inch  can  to  that  homely  act.  Stop  eating  for  a  while  and  be  con- 
molecularly  exist.      So   the  difference   between   the  flea  vinced. 

and   the  elephant,  mentally   as   well   as  physically,  need  You  get  from  this  your  first  philosophical  conception 

not  be  other  than  a  merely  quantitative  one,  for  qualita-  of  pain    and  pleasure.     An   unsatisfied   tension  of  the 

tive  development  may  go  on  with  the   lesser   number  of  amoebic  molecules  in  the  one  and  the  act  of  gratification 

molecules.     Thus  we  surmount  the  idea  that  mere  size  in  the  other.     Indifference  comes  with  plethora,  which 

of  brain  or  body  has  anything  to  do  with  relative  intel-  causes  quiesence   or  cessation   of   maximum   motion — an 

lectuality  considered  as  a  molecular  property.  important   fact,  for   satiety  is  akin  to  death.     The    filled 

Diagrams  sometimes  more  forcibly  illustrate  what  is  up  amoeba  does  not  move.     Activity  increases  in  all  ani- 

meant:  mal  life,  within  certain  limits,  with   hunger  or  other  de- 

The  albuminoid,  protoplasmic,  one-celled  animal,  the  sire.     Satisfaction  palls,  cloys, 

amoeba  (Fig.  2)  may  be  roughly  represented  as  a  pile  of  Volumes  could  be  written  to  justify  these  views,  but 

chemical    atoms,   each   dot   representing    a    molecule   of  we  are  only  glancing  at  matters. 

such  atoms :  Fancy  the  molecules  that  compose  protoplasm   to  be 

grouped  in  little  piles  like  Fig.  6,  and  when  attracted  to 


Fig.  j.  Fig.  3. 

Attracted  toward  a  piece  of  alga  (Fig.  3),  which 
passes  into  the  amoeba  and  causes  it  to  grow  (Fig  4).  It 
rejects  the  uneatable  part  and  becoming  too  large,  splits 
— reproduces  (Fig.  5). 


Fig-  4-  Fig.  5. 

Under  the  designation  chemism  we  have  disposed  of 
moving,  breathing,  eating;  from  which  as  a  conse- 
quence proceeded  growth,  reproduction  and  excretion. 
We  called  the  chemical  attraction  involved  in  eating, 
hunger,  a  desire,  a  feeling,  a  sensation.  Do  not  let  us 
get  confused  at  this  or  any  other  stage,  by  mixing  up 
terms,  or  making  distinctions  where  none  exist;  desires 
and  feelings  are  sensations  from  first  to  last,  and  we 
shall  so  see  them  to  be.  Then  sensation  is  nothing  but 
molecular  motion.  When  the  little  molecules  are  mov- 
ing about,  from  whatever  cause,  sensation  is  evoked. 
It  is  not  sensation  that  moves  them,  but  the  movements 
produce  the  sensation;  which  is  a  mere  incident  of  the 
motion  as  friction  heat  is  to  machinery  motion.     All   its 


Fig.  6.  Fig.  7. 

other  similar  molecules  their  commotion  would  appear 
something  like  Fig.  7.  If  this  motion  invariably  took 
place  under  similar  influences,  then  the  more  these  influ- 
ences occurred  the  better  adjustment  would  there  be  to 
a  repetition  of  them — adaptation,  and  the  motion-sensa- 
tion would  become  instinctive,  automatically  induced. 
Now  if  food  attraction  caused  this  motion  once,  it  is  ap- 
parent that  it  can  do  so  again.  The  repetition  of  this 
motion  would  lie  one  phase  of  memory.  If  this  molec- 
ular disturbance  were  induced  by  some  other  cause  than 
chemical  attraction,  such  as  a  chance  movement  of  the 
particles  in  the  amoeba,  then  we  have-  other  phases  of 
memory,  anticipation,  recollection  and  feelings,  such  as 
dreams  are  made  of,  imperfect,  mixed.  The  Chladni 
figures  may  be  cited : 


feisr  'A  •■•  s 

Fig.  8. 


m 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


433 


Such  and  many  other  forms  appear  when  a  glass 
plate  upon  which  sand  is  strewn  is  thrown  into  vibra- 
tions by  musical  notes.  Each  figure  is  definite  for  its 
producing  note  and  will  be  reproduced  by  that  note. 

Sensation  may  be  likened  to  the  vibration  of  a  piano 
string  produced  in  its  usual  wav  through  the  kev  and 
hammer  stroke.  Memory  is  the  reproduction  of  the 
same  vibrations,  whether  induced  in  the  usual  or  some 
other  way. 

Summing  up  what  we  have  deduced  from  the  pro- 
toplasmic motions,  we  have,  life  processes,  such  as  eat- 
ing, growth,  excretion,  reproduction  and  general  loco- 
motory  movements  accounted  for  as  interacting  physical 
force  and  matter,  with  incident  and  consequent  produc- 
tion of  pain  and  pleasure,  sensation  and  memory. 

Minds  unused  to  evolutionary  conceptions  will  ask 
what  all  this  has  to  do  with  man  and  his  mentality. 
Refer  to  modern  text  books  on  physiology,  embryology 
and  histology  (microscopic  anatomy),  botanical  and 
zoological  works,  and  you  will  discover  statements 
clearly  made  or  implied  throughout,  to  the  effect  that 
man  is  but  a  colony  of  amreba-like  cells,  grouped  and 
differentiated  to  effect  better  the  same  functions  inherent 
in  the  original  amoeba  cell.  While  all  the  processes  are 
carried  on  by  one  dot  of  protoplasm  in  the  case  of  the  one- 
celled  animal,  the  many-celled  animal,  such  as  man,  has 
certain  groups  of  cells  highly  developed  in  one  direc- 
tion, others  in  another;  with  the  necessarv  diminution 
of  other  abilities  in  the  specially  developed  instances, 
just  as  the  good  blacksmith  may  not  be  a  good  clerk, 
but  specialism  has  developed  both  as  advantageous  to 
society.  The  clerk  and  blacksmith  are  not  the  less  men 
because  specialized,  the  brain  and  muscle  cells  are  none 
the  less  cells.  The  association  of  these  functions  with 
their  sensations,  through  an  internuncial  nervous  system 
may  be  likened  to  the  metropolitan  and  continental  link- 
ing of  interests  by  telegraphs.  In  effect  this  will  appear 
as  we  proceed,  to  be  more  than  analogy;  it  is  homology 
or  identity. 

The  monistic  philosophy  shows  that  society  acts  as 
the  man  acts,  and  his  nature  is  that  of  his  cells;  these  in 
turn  are  governed  by  molecular  attributes,  but  that  man 
can  react  upon  his  composition  and  give  direction  to  his 
acts  bj'  conforming  better  to  nature's  laws,  through 
knowing  those  laws;  and  achieve  thereby  the  maximum 
allotment  of  happiness  for  himself  and  others. 


FREE  THOUGHTS. 

BY  FELIX  L.  OSWALD,  M.  D. 

Public  calamities  are  generally  followed  by  revivals 
of  hyperphysical  religion.  But  does  that  prove  the 
merit  of  other- worldliness?  Hard  times  are  equally 
apt  to  revive  the  alcohol-vice.  In  default  of  better 
consolations  the  children  of  sorrow  are  prone  to  have 
recourse  to  spiritual  and  spirituous  narcotics. 


With  all  its  hierarchic  polemics  the  Old  Testament 
holds  to  the  terra  tirma  of  secularism  and  optimism  and 
has  helped  to  counteract  the  anti-physical  dogmas  of  its 
appendix.  Hence  the  Hebraic  tendencies  of  the  manlier 
nations  of  Christendom.  The  North  British  Puritans 
were  Hebrews  of  the  Maccabee  type,  Jews  in  kilts  and 
cuirass,  flaunting  the  banner  of  the  cross  but  preferring 
to  ignore  the  duty  of  passive  submission  to  tyranny. 
Their  very  cant,  their  watchword  and  nomenclature 
were  borrowed  fiom  the  camp  of  Gideon,  rather  than 
from  Golgatha.  South  of  the  Alps,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  gnostic-anti-natural  element  preponderates.  Saint- 
worship,  emasculated  ethics,  Buddhist  monachism  and 
Buddhist  indolence.  Xorth  and  South  America  pre- 
sent a  similar  contrast.  Our  very  Sunday-schools 
prefer  Old  Testamentarian  "lessons  of  the  day." 

The  tendencies  of  city -life,  in  some  of  its  phases, 
may,  however,  rival  the  influence  of  an  enervating 
climate,  and  in  the  crowded  vice-centers  of  the  colder 
latitudes  there  is  no  lack  of  Protestant  Jesuits,  anti-nat- 
uralists of  that  specially  repulsive  type  combining  a 
joy-hating  intolerance  with  pedantry  and  cold-blooded 
selfishness.  Their  hatred  of  optimism  feels  its  impotence 
in  the  swift  currents  of  modern  civilization  and  avenges 
itself  by  slander  and  occasional  Jew-baits. 

Modern  ocean  steamers  are  built  on  the  "safety- 
cabin,"  or  water-tight  compartment  plan.  A  storm- wave 
may  crush  the  fore-castle  and  the  buoyancy  of  the 
remaining  sections  will  still  float  the  ship.  Modern 
clergymen,  it  seems,  are  trying  to  construct  a  sea-worthy 
creed  on  a  similar  plan.  Their  patent  gospel-ships 
comprise  two  or  three  wholly  distinct  safety-cabins;  a 
temperance  compartment,  an  anti- Mormon  compart- 
ment, an  entertaining  literature  and  picnic  section.  If 
the  storm-waves  of  public  opinion  should  smash  the  fore- 
castle with  its  haloed  figure-head,  they  hope  to  float  by 
virtue  of  an  intact  stern-hold,  stuffed  with  light  litera- 
ture and  emptied  beer  barrels. 

The  church  of  Rome  disdains  such  precautions.  The 
loss  of  her  untenable  provinces  has  proved  a  good 
riddance  and  simplified  the  administration  of  her  crown 
lands.  Her  borders  are  swarming  with  smugglers, 
peddling  no  end  of  drugs  and  patent  nostrums,  but  the 
frontier-guards  can  afford  to  connive.  They  know  that 
Buddhism  is  an  incurable  disease. 

This  metamorphic  century  of  ours  resembles  the 
era  of  Juvenal  in  too  many  respects  to  mistake  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  analogy.  The  temples  of  the  prevail- 
ing creed  still  multiply,  but  their  masonry  lacks  the 
cement  of  faith;  their  walls  tower,  but  the  omens  of 
impending  collapse  appear  in  ever-widening  splits  and 
gaps.  Moralists  seek  a  new  basis  of  ethics;  philoso- 
phy goes  hand  in  hand  with  skepticism;  faith  raves  at 
the  glimpses  of  sunlight,  peering  through  the  withered 
tree-tops  of  the  sacred  grove,  and  calls  upon  the  doubted 


434 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


deities  to  testify  in  their  own  behalf.  But  the  Gods  are 
silent.  Is  their  glory  fading-  in  the  glare  of  a  brighter 
light,  or  are  they  yielding  their  throne  to  a  new 
dynasty  ?  No  philosopher  of  the  Caesarean  era  sus- 
pected the  significance  of  the  portents  that  ushered  in 
the  eve  of  a  dismal  night,  and  who  shall  read  the  signs 
of  our  own  times?  The  fitful  signs  of  a  coming  change 
that  may  bring  a  new  sunrise,  or  a  fading  of  the  stars  in 
a  spreading  night-mist?  Where  is  our  guarantee 
against  a  relapse  of  obscurantism?  Religious  freedom? 
Rome  had  plenty  of  that  freedom,  and  the  gates  that 
admitted  Grecian  philosophers  admitted  also  Buddhist 
fanatics  and  Syrian  monks.  And  the  trouble  is  that  the 
energy  of  such  fanatics  is  very  apt  to  prevail  against 
all  other  energies  whatever.  Science?  The  Protestant 
revolt  has  favored  her  revival;  but  science  is  a  tool  that 
lends  itself  to  all  purposes.  The  science  that  rears  the 
dome  of  an  observatory  also  reared  the  dome  of  St. 
Peter  and  the  stronghold  of  the  inquisition,  and  will 
flash  its  electric  lights  in  the  council-house  of  the  prop- 
aganda as  brightly  as  in  a  lecture  hall. 

But,  for  better  or  worse,  a  change  is  near  at  hand. 
The  doom  of  the  old  creed  will  only  be  hastened  by  the 
tactics  of  its  modern  defenders.  The  mystagogues  of  the 
Eleusinian  festivals  lost  their  last  chance  of  prestige  when 
they  attempted  to  recruit  the  host  of  their  votaries  by 
an  alliance  with  buffoons  and  mountebanks,  and  our 
revival- mongers,  too,  may  find  that  the  costs  of  their 
popularity  wdl  prove  a  ruinous  investment.  The  forlorn 
hope  of  the  latter-day  crusades  will  not  survive  the  fate 
of  their  allies;  the  church  that  resisted  the  hosts  of  Islam 
will  succumb  to  the  aid  of  the  Salvation  Army.  Wit- 
ness the  following  circular  recently  issued  by  an  "  adju- 
tant" of  that  army  in  the  State  of  Kansas:  "Smiling 
Belle,  from  Wichita,  the  girl  who  jumped  out  of  a  two- 
story  window   to   get  salvation,  will   be    at 's  Rink, 

to-night,  at  S  P.  M.  Cyclones  of  salvation!  Tornadoes 
of  power!  Gales  of  grace!  Celestial  hurricanes!  Col- 
lection at  the  door  to  defray  expenses."  Oh,  yes.  The 
moral  expenses,  however,  might  exceed  the  estimate. 

The  Moslem  fanatics  recovered  their  reason  in  t..e 
cooler  latitudes  of  Europe,  and  the  Spanish  Caliphate 
became  a  nursery  of  industry  and  science.  Is  it  not  pos- 
sible that  the  temperate  zones  of  our  own  continent  will 
do  as  much  for  their  Spanish  conquerors?  Chili  is  gain- 
ing prestige  on  the  vantage-ground  of  political  inde- 
pendence and  may  at  any  time  raise  the  standard  of 
religious  emancipation.  Buenos  Ay  res,  too,  is  fast 
becoming  untenable  for  the  ultramontanes.  Pessimism 
will  not  flourish  in  a  healthy  soil.  The  priest-ridden 
burghers  of  old  Spain  would,  indeed,  hardly  recognize 
their  relatives  in  the  broad-shouldered  rancheros  of  the 
pampas,  who  have  faced  tornadoes  and  rampant  steers 
and  decline  to  quail  before  a  Papal  bull. 

Indoor  life,  on    the   other   hand,  will    not    fail  to   tell 


upon  the  descendants  of  Cromwell's  Ironsides,  and  its 
continued  influence  may  yet  strangely  displace  the  bal- 
ance of  power  in  northern  Europe.  In  the  days  of 
Robin  Hood  a  British  yeoman  was  probably  a  match 
for  a  dozen  mujiks ;  but  for  the  last  eighty  years  the 
children  of  that  yeoman  have  been  stunted  in  slums  and 
spinning  mills,  while  the  sons  of  the  Russian  boor  have 
steeled  their  sinews  in  the  uplands  of  the   Caucasus  and 

the  steppes  of  Iran  and  Turkestan,  and  Despotism, 

to  be  sure,  handicaps  the  prowess  of  its  defenders,  but 
there  is  also  a  Nemesis  of  wealth,  and  history  has  repeat- 
edly proved  that  the  civilization  of  valient  barbarians  is 
child's  play  compared  with  the  regeneration  of  wornout 
epicureans.  Within  a  century  after  the  battle  of  Xeres 
dela  Frontera  the  Moorish  swashbuckler  had  classic 
highschools,  while  a  millennium  of  appeals  to  honor 
and  patriotism  has  failed  to  revive  the  heroic  age  of 
Rome. 

Is  the  marasmus  of  wornout  nations  a  wholly  incur- 
able disease?  Incurable  in  some  of  its  phases,  says  Ex- 
perience, —  at  least  by  all  remedies  thus  far  discovered. 
Nations  may  recover  from  the  incubus  of  the  most  crush- 
ing oppression;  witness  Hungaria,  Israel  and  the  Prot- 
estant Netherlands,  just  as  Time  will  repair  the  ravages 
of  a  forest-fire  or  a  tree-breaking  tornado;  the  roots  of 
the  blighted  woodlands  retain  their  vitality  and  respond 
to  the  stimulus  of  the  first  reviving  shower.  But  spring 
and  summer  return  in  vain  if  the  soil  itself  has  lost  its 
reproductive  power,  and  Time  has  no  cure  for  the  spell 
of  Shiva,  the  god  of  the  listless  desert. 

The  star  of  empire,  after  keeping  its  westward 
course  for  a  century  or  two,  has  sometimes  reappeared 
in  the  East,  as  in  622,  when  the  crescent  rose  to  eclipse 
the  light  of  Mars,  or  in  1S70,  when  the  comet  of  the 
second  empire  was  wrecked  against  the  solid  orbs  of  a 
northeastern  constellation.  Greece,  Rome,  Araby, 
Spain,  England,  France,  Prussia — the  eagles  and  the 
lions  have  had  their  day;  will  it  be  the  bear's  turn  next? 
Or  the  Danubian  wolf's?  Magyar  enterprise  is  making 
itself  felt  in  literature  and  art  as  well  as  in  politics,  and 
there  is  a  tradition  that  the  Castle  of  Buda  will  yet  be- 
come the  capitol  of  a  great  empire.  Within  our  States — ■ 
united  or  disunited,  the  star  of  supremacy  will  pursue  a 
similar  zigzag  course,  though  with  the  same  westward 
trend  which  seems  to  presage  a  long  pause  on  the  shores 
of  the  Pacific. 

Mr.  Edwin  D.  Mead  will  lecture  as  usual  durirgthe 
coming  season,  giving  courses  or  single  lectures,  chiefly 
upon  literary  and  historical  subjects — "Puritanism;" 
"  The  Pilgrim  Fathers;"  "  The  American  Poets;"  "  The 
British  Parliament;"  "Gladstone;"  "Samuel  Adams;" 
"Carlyle  and  Emerson;"  "  Dante;"  "  Immanuel  Kant;" 
"Lessing's  'Nathan  the  Wise,'  or  the  Gospel  of  Tolera- 
tion," etc.  Mr.  Mead's  address  is  73  Pinckney  street, 
Boston. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


435 


The  Open  Court. 

A.  Fortnightly  Journal. 

Published   every  other   Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  iNixor 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  denned, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
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All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  E. 
Underwood,  Treasurer,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  111.,  to  whom 
should  be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 


THURSDAY,  SEPTEMBER  15,  1SS7. 

THE  OLD  AND   NEW   PHRENOLOGY. 

A  friend  takes  exception  to  our  "  low  estimate  of 
phrenology,"  as  indicated  by  a  paragraph  printed  in  the 
last  number  of  this  journal.  He  thinks  that  it  is  entitled 
to  be  regarded  as  a  "true  and  useful  science,"  although 
he  makes  no  attempt  to  prove  his  position.  Our  remark 
referred  of  course,  to  the  old  phrenology,  or  bumpology, 
as  taught  in  the  lectures  and  writings  of  the  late  Prof. 
O.  S.  Fowler  and  others  of  his  class  who  profess  to 
describe  character — each  particular  intellectual  and  moral 
quality — by  the  elevations  and  depressions  of  the  skull. 
We  are  not  aware  that  there  is  to-day  any  man  of 
science  who  holds  to  this  absurd  theory. 

As  the  pseudo-sciences  alchemy  and  astrology  gave 
rise  to  chemistry  and  astronomy  so  phrenology  has  been 
succeeded  by  craniology  and  cerebrology.  Races  are 
now  known  to  have  hend  shapes  peculiar  to  themselves; 
but  only  in  a  general  way  does  the  skull  conformation 
indicate  mentality.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  says: 
"You    can    tell    by    bumps    what    is    in    a    man's   head 


as  readily  as  what  is  in  a  safe  by  feeling  its  door  knob." 
Most  of  the  phrenological  deductions  are  illogical  and 
many  are  controverted  by  facts.  For  instance  "  vita- 
tiveness,"  or  the  desire  to  live,  is  located  by  phrenology 
over  the  mastoid  process,  behind  the  ear;  a  huge  bump 
of  bone  into  which  a  lancet  is  often  deeply  thrust  by 
surgeons  without  fear  of  touching  the  brain.  The  "  per- 
ceptives" — form,  si/e,  color,  weight  appreciation,  are 
placed  along  the  eyebrow  ridge,  though  the  brain  is 
very  remote  from  that  part,  and  primitive  races  or  even 
apes  have  the  largest  development  of  that  arch. 

Gall  observed  that  the  best  scholars  had  protuberant 
eyes,  so  he  located  "  language "  behind  the  optic,  an 
absurd  proceeding,  for  the  widely  opened  eye  is  an 
expression  of  wonder,  the  exercise  of  which  faculty  has 
led  to  erudition  in  general.  In  Gall's  time  linguistics 
were  the  height  of  knowledge,  hence  his  conclusions. 
Constructiveness  and  combativeness  belong  to  a  high 
grade  of  intellect,  and  while  we  can  deny  that  they  have 
the  exact  locations  assigned  by  phrenologists  it  is  not 
remarkable  that  the  increased  brain  size  that  accompa- 
nies brain  exercise  should  widen  the  head  in  the  region 
assigned  to  these  bumps.  Reasoning  power  and  perti- 
nacity could  more  properly  be  thus  placed,  but  as  the 
frontal  brain  develops  and  broadens  the  forehead  the 
skull  does  not  always  keep  pace  with  this  growth,  so 
that  one  with  a  narrow  or  even  low  forehead  may  have 
a  large  brain  compressed  into  narrower  compass.  Per 
contra,  the  disease  called  hydrocephalus  may  give  the 
idiot  the  "  front  of  Jove."  There  is  a  tendency  of  the 
cranium  to  adapt  itself  to  brain  growth,  but  the  rigid 
bones  require  centuries  to  establish  radical  changes;  the 
softer  tissues  beneath  folding  up  in  lines  of  least  resist- 
ance. It  can  be  readily  seen  from  this  how  head  shape 
could  be  a  race  characteristic,  but  give  no  clue  to  indi- 
vidual traits,  save  in  the  crudest  ways. 

Says  Prof.  Gunning  (in  Life  History  of  our  Planet, 
p.  289):  "  In  the  Museum  of  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion may  be  seen  a  cranium  of  enormous  size  and 
most  perfect  symmetry.  Such  a  noble  forehead!  and 
balanced  against  this  such  a  perfect  backhead !  All  the 
lines  and  curves  so  strong,  so  graceful ! 

'  A  combination  and  a  form  indeed, 
Where  every  god  did  set  his  seal 
To  give  the  world  assurance  of  a  man.' 

"The  owner  of  the  head  was  a  miserable  Indian 
who  never  got  from  it  so  much  as  a  beaver  trap!" 

The  new  phrenology  is  deduced  from  the  study  of 
the  brain  itself  and  brings  into  that  study  mathematics, 
physics,  chemistry  and  other  sciences  where  the  old 
phrenology  was  isolated  in  this  respect,  often  defiant  of 
exact  knowledge.  O.  S.  Fowler  used  to  say  to  his  audi- 
ences "  Newton's  Principia  is  all  bosh.  It  is  not  gravi- 
tation that  holds  the  planets  in  space,  /  have  discovered 
that  it  is  electricity."     The  new  phrenology  is  cultivated 


4.V- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


as  a  branch  of  anthropology  by  learned,  modest  men  who 
never  give  "  character  charts." 


Professor  O.  F.  Lumry,  formerly  of  Wheaton  Col- 
lege, has  withdrawn  from  the  Congregationalists,  and  in 
an  elaborate  paper,  which  abounds  with  Scriptural  quo- 
tations and  expressions  of  Christian  piety  and  zeal, 
argues  that  all  churches  as  now  organized  are  "  parts  of 
the  great  apostasy,  and  constitute  together  mystic  Babv- 
lon."  Such  words  as  "  Many  pastors  have  destroyed 
My  vineyard ;  they  have  made  My  pleasant  portion  a 
desolate  wilderness,"  and  "  Woe  be  unto  the  pastors  that 
destroy  and  scatter  the  sheep  of  My  pasture;"  "  Behold, 
I  am  against  the  shepherds,  and  I  will  require  My  flock 
at  their  hands  and  cause  them  to  cease  feeding  the  flock; 
neither  shall  the  shepherds  feed  themselves  any  more, 
for  I  will  deliver  My  flock  from  their  mouth  that  they 
may  not  be  meat  for  them." — such  words  of  reproof 
and  condemnation  Professor  Lumry  thinks  applicable 
to  the  Christian  clergy  of  to-day.  We  have  space  for 
but  a  few  passages  from  his  extraordinary  document  : 

With  wiser  provision  for  its  own  integrity  and  permanence 
Catholicism  educate*  its  brightest,  most  promising  male  children 
for  priests,  and  secures  their  loyalty  to  itself  bv  providing  for 
their  support  without  common  labor,  whether  for  the  time  she 
has  church  work  for  them  to  do  or  not.  To  do  this  she.  under  the 
plea  of  greater  sanctity,  denies  them  marriage  and  the  burden  of 
families,  and  hence  the  need  of  large  salaries.  Protestantism 
trains  the  minds  and  develops  expensive  tastes  in  her  upper 
orders,  and  then  turns  them  out  to  prey  upon  the  churches.  As 
an  inevitable  result  hers  is  the  very  genius  of  division  and 
sectism.  *  *  *  On  the  principle  that  where  rogues  fall  out 
honest  men  get  their  dues,  Protestantism  is  more  favorable  to  the 
rights  of  the  citizen,  yet  she  has  the  distinguishing  mark  of  the 
great  apostasy — an  order  or  orders  above  the  equal  brotherhood. 
If  reforms  of  abuses  are  attempted,  the  chief  positions  in  the  move- 
ment designed  to  further  become  the  perquisites,  usually,  of  min- 
isters who  have  fallen  out  of  rank  among  the  active  men  of  their 
order,  but  who  exhibit  wonderful  zeal  in  their  unclerical  calling, 
at  least  while  it  affords  them  a  fat  living.  *  *  *  To  constitute 
a  sacred  order  above  the  equal  brotherhood  it  is  only  necessary 
that  there  be  one  or  more  things  that  must  be  done  which  only 
such  order  can  do,  as  administering  the  rights  of  baptism  and  the 
communion,  or  performing  the  marriage  ceremony.  Protestant- 
ism, then,  not  only  has  its  hierarchy,  but  that  sacred  body,  while 
not  bound  by  secret  oaths,  after  the  manner  of  some  communions, 
is  yet,  to  some  extent,  a  secret  society  or  order.  As  we  have  seen 
from  Paul's  language,  it  was  secret  in  its  working,  and  it  is 
to-day  measurably  secret  in  its  working,  since,  while  its  acts  vitally 
aftect  the  inferior  order,  its  motives  are  never,  perhaps,  fully 
explained  to  such  order. 

*  *  » 

One  of  the  few  writers  able  to  treat  "lofty"  themes 
with  sense  and  penetration  is  Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton. 
There  is  an  interesting  passage  in  which  he  says:  "  Hu- 
man life  is  so  extremely  various  and  complicated,  while 
it  tends  every  day  to  still  greater  variety  and  complica- 
tion, that  all  maxims  of  a  general  nature  require  a  far 
higher  degree  of  intelligence  in  their  application  to  indi- 
vidual cases  than  it  ever  cost  originally  to  invent  them." 


This,  to  our  mind,  indicates  with  exactness  the  weak- 
ness of  most  sermon-writing.  The  usu.d  sermon  is 
merely  a  "maxim  of  a  general  nature"  long  drawn  out, 
ami  it  treats  virtue  and  vice  and  all  the  problems  of 
conduct  as  if  there  never  could  be  any  difficulty  in  mak- 
ing "  the  application  to  individual  cases."  But  this  is 
just  where  the  difficulty  does  lie,  often.  A  minister 
urges  a  parent  to  observe  J>is  duties  to  his  child,  and  this 
is  very  well;  but  what  troubles  the  parent  is  not  so  much 
the  question  of  duty  in  general,  as  the  question  how  to 
reconcile  the  duty  of  kindness  with  the  duty  of  severity, 
or  possibly,  a  man  is  foolishlv  incompetent  with  chil- 
dren, and  the  wife's  whole  life  becomes  a  painful  strug- 
gle to  prevent  his  ruining  them,  without  alienating  his 
affection  by  her  interference.  It  is  at  best  a  compromise, 
and  only  years  of  experience  teach  the  best  course;  but 
what  special  light  will  he  get  from  any  sermon? 
Church  morality  knows  nothing  of  compromises;  the 
complexities  that  make  most  the  real  difficulties  of  life 
for  ordinary,  honest  people  it  never  recognizes.  If  a 
devoted  wife  stands  between  two  sins,  the  sin  of  conceal- 
ing, in  fact,  lying  about — her  husband's  guilt  and  the 
sin  of  blighting  his  chance  of  a  better  life  by  exposure, 
she  will  hardly  find  her  difficultv  solved  in  her  Sunday 
pew.  The  sort  of  wisdom  common  in  sermons  may 
thus  be  said,  with  no  unfairness,  to  resemble  rather  a 
general  praise  of  medicine  than  an  offering  of  specific 
remedies.  Of  course  the  latter  task  is  much  more  diffi- 
cult than  the  former. 

7T  *  # 

In  Herbert  Spencer's  Retrospect  and  Prospect  are 
indices  of  better  times  ahead  when  the  evolved  social 
organism  and  its  individual  components  will  have  loftier 
aims,  ideas  and  methods.  Take  the  important  matter  of 
marriage  incentive.  Primitively  the  woman  was  a  chat- 
tel to  be  stolen  or  bought;  nowadays  there  is  a  feeling 
of  reprobation  of  wife  purchase  or  husband  purchase, 
and  marriage  without  respect  or  affection  on  both  sides 
is  degradation  indeed.  In  this  day  it  is  simply  returning 
to  savagery  voluntarily  with  all  the  lowering  of  the 
moral  tone  that  implies.  Novelists  often  make  use  of 
the  greed  that  sometimes — not  always — attends  senility, 
and  picture  the  magpie  parent  gloating  over  the  daugh- 
ter's "sparkling  diamond  ring"  that  is  part  of  the  sacri- 
ficial junk.  Romantically  enough  would  read  a  story 
of  an  accomplished  young  lady  mating  with  a  man  she 
detests,  whose  only  attractive  possession  is  alleged  cash, 
all  fur  the  sake  of  a  parent  to  whom  she  is  de- 
voted; but  such  things  do  occur,  and  until  a  little  reflec- 
tion is  accorded  the  act,  its  immorality  is  less  apparent. 
The  blind  worship  of  wealth  makes  fools  of  the 
envious.  Spencer  looks  for  the  world  to  make  a  distinc- 
tion in  favor  of  the  man  who  has  made  his  fortune  by 
brain  work,  as  in  manufactures  and  other  useful  indus- 
tries.   The  servility  of  the  masses  to  wealth  disgusts  those 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


437 


who  possess  it,  and  much  of  the  cynicism  and  heartless- 
ness  often  found  connected  with  it  is  due  to  their  com- 
mon experience  that  the  respect  monev  compels  is  un- 
stable, that  the  love  it  buys  is  spurious. 

*  *  * 

A  Sabbath-school  superintendent  writing  from  Lex- 
ington, Va.,  to  a  religious  paper,  in  regard  to  the  relig- 
ious condition  of  colored  men,  considers  "  the  appear- 
ance of  skepticism  among  them  an  indication  of  quick- 
ened mental  movement,  although  certainly  in  the  wrong 
direction."  Among  the  instances  lie  gives  is  the  fol- 
lowing: 

But  now  came  a  question  unexpected  as  difficult:  "  Were  the 
days  mentioned  in  Genesis  like  our  day,  twenty-four  hours  long, 
or  were  they  long  periods  of  time?" 

"  Ah,"  said  I  to  the  questioner,  "  we  have  gotten  into  deep 
water  where  neither  I  nor  you  can  readily  touch  bottom.  All  I 
have  time  here  to  say  is,  that  many  learned  and  good  men,  as 
well  as  some  others  not  so  good,  believe  that  the  days  of  Moses 
are  to  be  taken  for  long,  very  long  periods,  and  many  as  learned 
and  good  insist  that  they  are  meant  to  be  taken' just  as  the  words 
stand — for  days  of  twenty-four  hours  in  length."  I  was  not 
sorry  when  the  striking  of  the  clock  just  here  indicated  the  hour 
for  closing  the  class,  and  so  ended  the  discussion.  *  *  *  It  is 
plain  to  be  seen  that  the  same  profound  questions  that  have  taxed 
the  powers  of  philosophers,  scholars  and  divines,  and  which  are 
to-day  still  vexing  the  world,  are  presenting  themselves  to  the 
mind  of  the  colored  Bible-class.  *  *  *  The  colored  people 
are  using  in  a  very  indiscriminate  way  their  newly  acquired 
ability  to  read.  I  feel  sure  that  the  young  men  to  whom  I  have 
referred,  had  gotten  a  glimpse  of  the  crude  skepticism  indicated 
by  their  questions  from  the  newspapers,  and  other  current  writ- 
ing of  the  day. 

*  *  * 

The  contest  between  the  liberal  and  clerical  parties 
in  Mexico  increases  in  intensity.  The  Monitor  Repub- 
lican charges  the  clergy  with  plots  against  republican 
institutions  and  with  having  a  well  formed  plan  to  de- 
stroy religious  liberty.  An  anti-clerical  league  has  been 
formed  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  auxiliary  leagues  are 
to  be  organized  throughout  the  Republic.  Recently  in 
Pueblo  the  bishop  warned  the  people  not  to  have  even 
the  slightest  social  or  business  intercourse  with  Protest- 
ants, and  much  feeling  has  been  excited  by  this  among 
the  liberals  who  are  of  Catholic  faith.  The  religious 
controversy  is  likely  to  enter  into  the  next  presidential 
election.  The  clericals  seem  bound  to  oppose  the  devel- 
opment of  intercourse  with  the  United  States,  as  favored 
by  the  Diaz  administration,  and  the  clerical  organs  all 
over  the  country  show  marked  hostility  to  the  United 
States  and  American  institutions. 

*  *  * 
Dr.  P.  I.  Carpenter  writes: 

The  deep  philosophy  of  childhood!  "Mamma,"  said  Lilian, 
aged  seven,  the  other  day,  "  what  sort  of  a  place  is  heaven  ?  "  So 
mamma  explained  to  her  the  orthodox  picture  of  heaven.  "And 
now,  mamma,  what  sort  of  a  place  is  hell?"  And  mamma 
explained,  as  delicately  as  she  could,  the  foul  and  sinful  nightmare 
called  by  the  orthodox,  hell.    "  Well,"  said  Lilian,  after  a  moment's 


reflection,  "I  don't  think  I  want  to  go  to  either  of  those  places 
when  I  die,  mamma.  1  think  I'd  rather  be  a  corpse."  This  sim- 
ple child's  philosophy  calls  to  ray  mind  a  certain  deep  and  beauti- 
ful legend  of  the  Middle  Ages:  "St.  Louis, the  king,  having  sent 
Iv.o,  Bishop  of  Chartres,  on  an  embassy,  the  bishop  met  a  woman 
on  the  way,  grave,  sad,  fantastic  and  melancholic,  with  fire  in  one 
hand  and  water  in  the  other.  He  asked  what  those  symbols 
meant.  She  answered  'My  purpose  is  with  fire  to  burn  paradise, 
and  with  water  to  quench  the  flames  of  hell,  that  men  may  serve 
God  without  the  incentives  of  hope  and  fear,  and  purely  for  the 
love  of  God.'"  This  is  suggested  to  mv  mind  by  your  clipping 
from  the   Boston    Transcript,  and  I  take  the  liberty  of  sending  it 

to  vou. 

*  *  * 

Not  only  the  individual  experience  slowly  acquired, 
but  the  accumulated  experience  of  the  race,  organized  in 
language,  condensed  in  instruments  and  axioms,  and  in 
what  may  be  called  the  inherited  intuitions — these  form 
the  multiple  unity  which  is  expressed  in  the  abstract 
term  "  experience." — G.  II.  Lewes. 

*  *  # 

Anthropomorphism  will  never  be  obliterated  from 
the  ideas  of  the  unintellectual.  Their  God,  at  the  best, 
will  never  be  more  than  the  gigantic  shadow  of  a  man — 
a  vast  phantom  of  humanity,  like  one  of  those  Alpine 
spectres  seen  in  the  midst  of  the  clouds  by  him  who 
turns  his  back  to  the  sun. —  J.  W.  Draper. 
%  %  % 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that,  wherever  he  goes,  a  Unitarian  minis- 
ter will  commonly  receive  the  most  kindly  treatment  from  Catho- 
lics. Perhaps,  because  we  are  so  far  apart,  they  never  feel  any 
danger  of  being  classified  with  Unitarians. — Christian  Register. 

You  cannot  convert  the  world  to  liberalism  by  spread-eagle 
oratory  and  a  brass  band.  You  have  got  to  show  by  its  fruits 
that  it  is  good  and  then  good  people  will  gradually  gravitate 
toward  it. — Monroe  s  Iron-Clad  Age. 


UNREVEALED. 

BY      HELEN      T.      CLARK. 

Life's  good  gifts  come, 


And,  lo!  unheeded  under  foot  we  tread 

The  bloom  that  for  us  sweetness  might  have  shed — 

Before  whose  blessing  we  are  blind  and  dumb! 

Broad  highways  lead 
Up  from _ the  fens  of  darkness  and  despair; 
Yet  our  poor  faltering  feet  must  stumble  there, 
And  groping  'mid  the  thorns  our  brows  must  bleed. 

Our  true  friends  reach 
Strong  hands  to  help  us  o'er  the  heights  of  pain ; 
Yet  to  our  alien  ears  their  cries  are  vain — 
We  own  them  not — by  glance,  or  touch,  or  speech. 

Ah,  me!  when  from  our  eyes 
Some  swift  day  rends  the  veil,  yet  all  too  late, 
How  shall  we  stand  and  mourn  without  the  gate, 
Wringing  frail  hands  in  impotent  surprise! 


438 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


MAGNANIMITY. 

BY    SARA    A.    UNDERWOOD. 

In  dreams  came  Life  to  Youth.     "  Behold!" 
.She  said,  "  my  hand  doth  gifts  enfold — 

From  these  select  thine  aim. 
Whate'er  the  good  thou  deem'st  supreme, 
That  gift  is  thine;  but  in  Fate's  scheme 

But  one  gift  canst  thou  claim. 

"  Bethink  thee,  then,  and  wisely  choose; 
No  right  is  mine  thee  to  refuse, 

However  wrong  thy  choice." 
"  What  are  thy  gifts?"   Youth,  wondering,  cries, 
Hope  speaking  in  his  earnest  eyes 
And  in  his  vibrant  voice. 

"  Wealth,  Fame,  Love,  Power,  Song,  sweet  Ease, 
Pride,  Pleasure,  Art,  Ambition — these 

Are  but  a  few  of  scores 
'Twould  weary  me  to  name.     Name  thou 
That  which  will  thee  most  bliss  allow — 

'Tis  thine  from  out  my  stores." 

"  Since  thou  may'st  give  one  gift  alone, 
Grant  me,"  cried  Youth  in  rapturous  tone, 

"  That  which  is  held  most  rare! 
The  gift  the  gods  for  heroes  save." 
"  Nay,"  said  Life,  gently,  "  though  thou'rt  brave 
To  ask  that  gilt,  forbear! 

"  Take  thou — for  I  may  thus  advise — 
Some  lesser  gift,  some  lower  prize, 

Which  thee  more  peace  shall  bring; 
Since  its  strange  secret  sweet  delight 
Is  won  through  many  a  bitter  fight 

Of  stern  self-conquering." 

Fire  sudden  flashed  from  Youth's  brave  eyes, 
Clear  rang  his  voice — "  No  sacrifice 

Is  hard  to  win  the  Best; 
No  lesser  gift  I  take,  oh,  Life — 
Welcome   be  turmoil,  hurts  and  strife — 

I've  courage  for  the  test!" 

"  Nay,  harder  test  than  strife  thou'lt  meet; 
This  gift  first  bitter  tastes,  then  sweet 

Beyond  all  common  ken. 
Canst  thou  swear  fealty  to  mankind, 
To  thine  own  needs  grow  deaf  and  blind 
To  uplift  fallen  men? 

"  Canst  thou  unwavering  stand  by  truth 
In  weal  or  woe?     Ah,  even,  Youth, 

When  Love  pleads  error's  cause? 
Canst  thou  sweet-natured  keep  when  those 
Thou'rt  sworn  to  aid  turn  bitterest  foes, 

And  Justice's  self  withdraws? 

"  Canst  thou  with  patience  dumbly  hear 
The  ignorant  hmnts  of  those  held  dear! 


Worse,  far,  than  sneer  of  foe! 
Nor  be,  by  jibings  undeserved, 
A  moment  from  thy  duty  swerved, 

Content  to  Duty  know? 

"  Canst  stand  unmoved  by  prayer  or  fear 
When  Right  demands,  thy  course  severe; 

Nor  feel  one  glow  of  wrath 
When  men  shall  curse  thy  steadfast  course 
And  vainly  try  by  bribes  or  force 

To  turn  thee  from  thy  path  ? 

"  Canst  thou  thy  patience  firmly  keep, 
So  good  be  done — though  others  reap 

The  harvest  thou  hast  sown; 
If  honors  which  are  justly  thine 
'Mid  enemies'  laurels  brightly  shine, 

While  thou  standst  by  unknown? 

"  Canst  thou,  when  foes  repent,  forgive, 
Nor  let  upbraiding  memories  live 

In  look,  or  tone,  or  word? 
The  weak  uphold  who  hurled  thee  down, 
And  Ignorance  teach  without  a  frown 

Or  taunt  when  it  has  erred  ? 

"  Canst  undismayed  see  insolent  fraud 
Thy  place  obtain,  while  fools  applaud 

Thy  friendships  undermined  ; 
Nor  stop  thy  work  to  vengeance  wreak, 
But. patient  wait  (till  Time  shall  speak), 

A  verdict  true  to  find  ? 

"  Canst  thou  at  length  face,  dauntless — Death  ! 
And  if  need  be  with  thy  last  breath 

Inspire  more  craven  souls? 
And  knowing  hatred  may  assail 
Thy  memory,  neither  blame  nor  rail 

At  those  whom  hate  controls?" 

"  The  faith  thus  kept — the  victory  gained — 
What  guerdons  won,  what  joy  attained?" 

Asked  Youth,  now  faltering,  grave. 
"  Ah,  then,"  smiled  Life,  "  thy  soul  shall  glow 
With  light  divine,  and  thou  shalt  know 
The  best  that  life  e'er  gave. 

"  This  gift  brings  others  in  its  wake; 
The  earth  shall  into  music  break — 

An  undertone  of  song — 
Which  shall  inspire  with  its  refrain 
Thy  soul  to  dare  and  dare  again 

In  battle  'gainst  the  wrong." 

"  O  name  this  gift  of  wondrous  power!" 

Urged  Youth,  "  and  grant  it  for  my  dower — 

O  say  it  may  be  mine!" 
Into  Life's  face  new  beauty  broke, 
With  thrilling,  reverent  voice  she  spoke — 

"  Magnanimity  lie  thine!" 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


439 


THROUGH     WHAT     HISTORICAL     CHANNELS     DID 

BUDDHISM     INFLUENCE     EARLY 

CHRISTIANITY? 

BY    GENERAL    T-  <5.  R-    FORLOXG,    Al'THOR    OF    "RIVERS    OF    LIFE." 
Part   III.— Concluded. 

The  old  "  Aurea  Legenda"  states  that  St.  Thomas, 
instructed  by  God,  went  as  a  mason  to  build  the  palace 
of  King  Gondophares  or  Gondoforu?,  in  Meilau  or  Black 
Mina  {Kala-Mina  in  the  language  of  India)  the  cradle  of 
the  Buddist  Ikshvakus  on  the  Indus  at  Patala,  the  present 
Tatta.  Here  St.  Thomas  was  believed,  according  to  the 
most  trustworthy  legends,  to  have  been  martyred  in  60 
A.c,  and  Professor  Beal,  in  noticing  this  in  General  Cun- 
ningham's Archtrological  Survey  of  India,  Vol.  II,  of 
lS62-65,adds  (p.  13S):  "It  is  remarkable  that  about  this 
time  (50  A.c.)  Asvaghosha,  the  famous  Buddist  mis- 
sionary, was  taken  by  Chanda  or  Gandha,  apparently  an 
immediate  successor  of  Gondophares,  to  Northern 
India  as  his  secretary  or  personal  adviser;"  and  we 
know  that  Asvaghosha's  teaching  and  writings  were 
thoroughly  Buddhistic,  and  exactly  such  as  the  anti- 
kosmic  Essenes  and  their  Christian  conquerors  would 
be  likely  to  adopt,  and  which  in  fact  they  did  teach. 
The  Professor  adds,  as  showing  the  wide  area  early 
traversed  by  Buddhism,  that  "  the  Chinese  writer  Falin, 
in  his  Po-tsi-lun,  brings  a  mass  of  evidence  to  show 
that  Buddhist  books  were  known  in  China  before  the 
time  of  the  Emperor  She-hwang-ti,  of  221  B.C."  Dur- 
ing his  reign  an  Indian  monk,  Lifang,  and  seventeen 
companions  introduced  Buddhist  sacred  writings  into 
China,  regarding  which  Falin  and  others  "give  full 
particular,  resting  on  the  best  foundations,  as  to  the  per- 
secutions and  imprisonment"  of  the  sect,  and  many 
supposed  miraculous  deliverances,  none  of  which  could 
have  been  invented,  says  Professor  Beal.  It  is,  as  he 
adds,  "an  historical  fact"  that  Buddhism  had  waxed 
strong  under  the  Emperor  Wu-ti,  140-S6  B.C.;  had 
become  a  State  religion  of  China  under  Ming-ti,  58— 76 
a.c,  and  that  Asvaghosha's  great  poem  appeared  in 
China  about  this  time.* 

Eusebius  and  Epiphanius  tell  us  that  Demetrius,  the 
librarian  of  Alexandria,  urged  his  royal  master,  the 
Greeko-Egyptian  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  "the  con- 
queror of  Baktria,"  to  try  and  secure  the  sacred  writings 
of  India  for  his  great  library  in  Alexandria;  and  we 
may  be  very  sure  this  literary  king  did  so,  and  did  not 
find  it  a  difficult  task,  for  he  reigned  from  2S3  to  247 
B.C. — that  is,  during  almost  the  whole  life  of  the  pros- 
elytising Emperor  Asoka,  then  inscribing  his  Buddhis- 
tic tenets  on  rocks  and  pillars  throughout  Northern 
India  and  Afghanistan,  and  stretching  out  his  hands  to 
Greeks,  Baktrians  and  Chinese,  proving  that  Buddhism 
was  the  first  and  perhaps  the  greatest  of  missionarv 
faiths. 


*  Cf.  Beal,  at  pp.  53,  90,  etc.,  and  Father  Hue's  China  and  Tartary  when 
-quoting  the  Syrian  Chron.  and  Roman  Breviary,  he  says:  ''Thomas  fell 
pierced  with  arrows  at  Calamina." 


It  was  not  with  closed  eyes  and  ears  that  Ptolemy  and 
his  savans  would  pass  over  all  the  intermediate  States 
toward  Babylon,  Baktria  and  India,  countries  where 
Ezraitic  Jews  were  still  compiling  their  sacred  writings, 
aided  by  the  Babylonian  Sanhedrim,  the  schools  of 
Berosos,  and  the  Greek  centers  which  sprung  up  on 
the  scattering  abroad  of  the  hosts  of  Alexander. 

Ptolemy  Philadelphus  died  in  247,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Ptolemy  Energetes,  who  was  coeval  with 
Antiochus  Theos,  "the  Antiyako  1'ona  Raja1''  men- 
tioned by  Asoka,  and  to  whom  he  sent  Buddhist 
missionaries.  These  would  of  course  preach  to  amazed 
Western  armies  the  brotherhood  of  all  men,  and  the 
immorality  of  war,  save  that  against  our  own  evil  incli- 
nations ("the  world  and  the  devil,"  in  later  Western 
parlance)  and  the  beauty  of  contentment  even  in  pov- 
erty and  rags. 

They  would,  like  their  lord,  urge  that  it  was  more 
glorious  to  subdue  one's  self  than  to  rule  multitudes;  to 
be  a  saviour  of  men  rather  than  a  conqueror;  to  strive  to 
assuage  the  untold  miseries  of  the  world,  rather  than, 
by  indulging  vanity  and  passion,  to  add  to  the  normal 
weight  of  sorrow.  From  such  teaching  would  naturally 
arise  the  Therapeuts,  Essenes,  etc. ;  and  we  know  of 
the  former  in  200  B.C.  and  the  latter  about  150  B.C. 
Thus  we  need  not  wonder  at  Eusebius  and  others  point- 
ing to  a  kind  of  "  Christianity  before  Christ,"  for 
Eclectics  and  such  like  sects  had  organized  churches, 
with  deacons,  presbyters  or  similar  office-bearers,  and 
these  "used  to  meet  on  the  Sabbath  evenings  for  prayer, 
praise  and  other  religious  exercises."* 

But  to  return  to  Asoka.  He  had  adopted  Buddhism 
in  274,  and  became  emperor  in  263  B.C.  when  he  dis- 
patched embassies  to  all  the  Greek  kings  of  Baktria, 
Persia,  and  westward,  and  entered  upon  a  free  corres- 
pondence with  many  literary  foreigners.  In  250  we 
find  the  plays  of  Sophokles  being  read  in  the  camps  and 
courts  of  Eastern  Parthian  princes,  one  of  whom  trans- 
lated, as  before  stated,  no  less  than  one  hundred  and 
seventy-six  distinct  Buddhist  works  into  Chinese,  though 
Professor  Beal  thinks  this  may  have  taken  place  about 
149  a.c,  which  seems  much  too  late.  Even  this  date 
does  not  invalidate  our  arguments  and  conclusions 
drawn  from  many  other  facts,  and  much  circumstan- 
tial evidence,  viz.,  that  long  before  our  gospels  (170 
a.c)  Western  Asia  was  saturated  with  Buddhism,  and 
especially  so   all  the  widely    extended   Parthian  empire. 

It  is,  as  Professor  Beal  says,  "  an  historical  fact,"  that 
Antigonus  Gonatas,  king  of  Makedon,  is  mentioned  in 
three  copies  of  one  of  the  Edicts  of  Asoka,  of  say  240 
B.C.,  and  Antigonus  was  the  patron  if  not  the  disciple  of 
"Zenon  the  Eastern,"  and  invited  Zenon  to  his  Court  as 
a  teacher  of  doctrines  very  similar  to  Buddhism.  We 
are  told  that  "  he  must  have  known  as  much  of  Asoka 


*  Rev.  Dr.  Cunningham's  Croal  Sects,  1SS6. 


44o 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


as  that  edict  writer  did  of  him,  Antigonus,"  and  he 
would  naturally  wish  for  Zenon  at  his  Court,  for  he  taught 
as  Asoka  taught. 

Buddhists  have  no  caste  like  Hindus,  to  keep  them 
apart  from  foreigners,  and  Asoka  was  believed  to 
have  Greek  blood  in  his  veins,  inasmuch  as  his  grand- 
father, Chandra-Gupta,  who  is  believed  to  have  died  291 
B.C.,  had  married  a  daughter  of  Seleukos,  which 
accounts  for  Asoka's  evident  bent  westward.  He  sent 
embassies  to  five  Greek  monarchs,  which  shows  "a  close 
connection  between  India  and  the  Western  world."* 
When  Asoka  died  in  221  B.C.,  Buddhism  was  the 
acknowledged  leading  faith  from  the  farthest  western 
limits  of  Parthia  up  toward  the  Hari-rud  ("  Heri-river" 
of  Herat)  to  Baktria  and  mid-Asia  into  China.  It  was 
supreme  in  India  to  Ceylon,  and  rapidly  becoming  so 
in  Barma,  Siam  and  the  Indian  Archipelago;  and  the 
great  maritime  Sabean  races  of  Arabia  had  become 
familiar  with  all  its  customs,  rites  and  symbolisms  at 
their  every  port-of-call  in  the  furthest  Eastern  seas,  so 
that  the  highly  religious  races  of  Egypt  "  would  hear 
all  about  it  bv  channels  similar  to  those  by  which,"  as 
Darmestettr  shows,  "  the  Greek  plays  reached  Baroch 
or  Baroda." 

At  this  time  also — 221  B.C. — we  find  Chinese  armies 
on  the  lower  Oxus,  then  thronged  with  Buddhists  of 
the  old  and  new  schools;  and  Falin,  the  Chinese  writer^ 
was  rejoicing  that  his  country  had  then  a  large  Buddhist 
literature.  Again,  is  190  B.C.,  China  was  pressing  hard 
upon  Parthia,  and  endeavoring  to  invade  India,  where 
vast  shrines,  like  those  of  Sanchi  and  Amravati,  were 
rising  everywhere;  and  no  effort  was  spared  by  some 
million  of  zealous  monks  in  propagating  their  great 
Tathagata's  teachings.  In  this  busy  second  century 
B.C.,  we  also  find  Buddhistic  Sakas,  or  Sakyas,  seizing 
Seistan  and  Khorasan,  and  the  Chinese  emperor,  Wu-ti, 
sending  embassies  to  Parthian  and  Indian  kings.  One 
of  Asoka's  sons — Jalaka — was  king  of  Kashmir  and  its 
outlying  districts,  stretching  into  Kabul^  and  toward 
Baktria;  and  another  son — Kunala — was  ruling  over 
all  northwest  India,  and  almost  as  earnest  as  his  great 
father  in  propagating  his  faith. 

When  Asoka's  dynasty  fell,  about  150  B.C.,  the 
Baktrian  Greeks  again  pressed  across  into  the  heart  of 
Buddhism,  and  under  Menander,  established  them- 
selves over  most  of  the  Panjab,  and  reigned  there  from 
at  least  130  to  50  B.C.  "It  was  with  this  Menander," 
thinks  Professor  Beal,  "that  the  so  famous  discussion 
occurred,  known  in  Pali  as  the  Milinda-panho,  or  dia- 
logues between  King  Milinda  and  the  Buddhist  sage 
Naga-Sena."  This  traversed  all  the  abstrusest  doc- 
trines of  Buddhism,  as  well  as  burning  questions  of  a 
special  creation — the  soul,  immortality,  etc. — then  agi- 
tating  the   whole   eastern  and   cultured   portions  of  the 

*  Cf.  pp.  133-170  Beat's  Buddhism  in  China  and  all  Cap.  IX. 


Western  world.  Jews  and  Gentiles  were  then  busy 
propagating  these,  each  on  their  own  lines;  but  the 
light  was  from  the  East. 

Alexander  Polyhistor  tells  us  that  in  his  time — 
100  to  50  b.c — Buddhists  in  Baktria  taught  and  prac- 
ticed all  manner  of  Buddhistic  continence  and  asceticism, 
and  that  for  a  century  before  his  day  the  city  of 
Alassada,  on  the  upper  Oxus,  was  famed  as  a  mission- 
ary center  from  which  Buddists  propagated  the  faith. 
It  was,  in  fact,  a  vast  S.  P.  G.  "Society  for  the  propa- 
gation of  the  gospel  in  foreign  parts,"  where  learned 
and  trusted  "  fathers  of  the  church"  taught  young  mis- 
sionaries how  to  combat  "  the  non-Buddhistic  religions 
of  the  world."  This  is  the  propaganda  which  would 
naturally  start  such  sects  as  the  Therapeuts  of  200 
and  the  Essenes  of  150  b.c.,' the  Baptizers  of  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Jordan,  culminating  in  Johanites  and 
Manicheans  of  Ctesiphon.  By  59  B.C.,  Chinese  Budd- 
hists ruled  over  all  Eastern  Turkestan,  in  direct  and 
constant  intercourse  with  Parthia,  whose  rule  extended 
into  Syria;  and  in  37  a.c  Roman  armies  were  travers- 
ing all  Mesopotamia,  and  in  40  A.c,  when  Apollonius 
of  Tyana  was  returning  from  India,  a  great  massacre  of 
Jews  took  place  in  Babylon,  dispersing  the  race  to 
furthest  east  and  west.  The  year  7S  a.c  was  the  impe- 
rial era  of  Buddhism,  the  Saka  of  all  Sakyas.  The 
times  were  ripe  and  had  been  ripening  rapidly  from  600 
B.C.,  when  Persians  said  their  new  Zoroastrianism  had 
already  been  preached.  Greeks  and  Westerns  had 
listened  to  every  doctrine  of  Europe  and  Asia,  and 
Messiah  after  Messiah  had  arisen  more  or  less  known 
to  all.  It  wanted  but  the  loosening  of  Roman  rule  and 
faith  for  any  new  religion  to  rise  and  be  successful,  pro- 
vided it  was  sufficiently  mystical  and  somewhat  remote 
and  Eastern  in  its  history,  and  combining  in  its  morals, 
rites  and  symbolisms  what  had  become  sacred  in  the 
eyes  of  all. 

Alexandria  then  dethroned  Balk  and  Samarkand  as 
"the  Meka  of  the  west."  It  was  a  vast  center  of 
religious  philosophies,  arts  and  industries,  where  the 
Egyptian  Chrestos  "the  good"  had  given  place  to  a 
"Divine  Logos" — to  the  Jewish  "wisdom  of  Solomon," 
and  of  "  Tesus,  son  of  Sirach,"  and  then  to  the  Jesus  of 
Paul.  Here  the  religions  of  Zoroaster,  of  Magi, 
Essenes,  Jews,  Greeks  and  Christians  were  familiar  to 
every  reader,  and  freely  discussed  in  numerous  literary 
and  religious  societies,  and  we  therefore  hesitate  not  to 
affirm  that  so  likewise  were  known  the  great  philoso- 
phies of  Vedantistsand  Buddhists,  and  of  all  the  schools 
preceding  and  following  the  reformation  of  the  great 
Guru,  who  had  before  the  end  of  the  second  century 
B.C.  converted  at  least  200  millions  of  Asiatics,  and 
stirred  to  its  base  every  school  of  thought  in  Asia. 

Like  Christianity,  Buddhism  has  been  called  a 
pessimism,   for  it  too  was  more  especially  addressed  to 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


44 l 


the  weary  and  heavy  laden;  telling  them  to  he  content 
with  their  lot,  and  consider  the  lilies  how  they  grow,  to 
beg  from  door  to  door,  and  seek  comfort  by  the  silenc- 
ing of  the  passions;  and  it  met  with  a  success  unknown 
to  any  other  faith.  It  passed  through  the  usual  fiery 
ordeals  of  faith,  and  was  long  scouted  at  by  Jew  and 
Gentile,  Christian  and  Pagan,  but  especially  by  kings 
and  nobles  and  captains  of  armies,  like  those  of  Alex- 
ander in  330-325  b.c.  This  was,  however,  as  before 
stated,  some  500  years  before  our  Canonical  Gospels 
were  written,  or  rather  known  to  be  written,  according 
to  history  and  the  great  historical  inquiry  of  the  author 
of  Supernatural  Religion. 

The  savans  of  Alexander  found  Buddhism  strongly 
in  the  ascendant  from  India  to  the  Oxus  and  the  Kas- 
pian,  and  with  a  powerful  proselytising  agency  then  ad- 
vancing westward.  Restless  Sramans,  monks,  priests  and 
peripatetic  mendicants,  had  never  ceased  to  wander  over 
half  of  Asia  to  proclaim  their  great  master's  message 
from  the  time  of  his  Nirvana,  about  500  B.C.,  and  the 
caves  and  cells  of  the  Bamiau  Pass,  and  those  on  the 
Cophes,  Oxus  and  Hori  Rud  had  re-echoed  to  their 
chants  and  teaching  long  before  Greeks  entered  Ariana. 
The  Grecian  invasion  would  greatly  facilitate  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Buddhist  missionaries,  and  they  had  ample 
time  between,  say  300  B.C.  and  150  A.C.,  to  fulfill  their 
gospel  mandate,  that  "all  must  preach  what  the  master 
taught — that  who  so  hides  his  faith  shall  be  struck  with 
blindness."  Thus  diligent  Sramans  had  long  sought 
every  lone  pass  in  wild  mountains  or  river  gorges, 
where  they  knew  armies  or  travelers  must  pass  and  rest, 
in  order  "to  compass  their  pioselytes,"  and  the  wider  to 
disseminate  their  faith  in  all  lands.  They  urged  on 
king  and  peasant,  the  robber  and  murderer,  that  the 
world  was  but  a  passing  show  in  which  they  should  try 
to  assuage  the  miseries  of  their  fellows;  that  they 
should  ponder  less  upon  their  gods  and  more  on  a  gos- 
pel of  duty;  and  though  this  h  d  little  immediate  effect, 
and  on  some  never  had  any,  yet  it  commended  itself  to 
good  men,  and  lightened  the  burdens  of  the  weary. 


THOUGHT  WITHOUT    WORDS. 
The  following  correspondence  between  Mr.  F.  Gal- 
ton,  Mr.  George  Romanes,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  etc.,  and 
Professor  Max  Midler  on  "Thought  Without  Words," 
is  reprinted  from  Mature  after  careful  revision : 

I.       LETTER    FROM    MR.    F.    GALTON,    F.R.S. 

May  12,  1SS7. 
The  recent  work  of  Prof.  Max  Muller  contains  theories  en 
the  descent  of  man  which  are  entirely  based  on  the  assertion  that 
not  even  the  most  rudimentary  processes  of  true  thought  can  be 
carried  on  without  words.  From  this  he  argues  that  as  man  is 
the  only  truly  speaking  animal  the  constitution  of  his  mind  is 
separated  from  that  of  brutes  by  a  wide  gulf,  which  no  process  of 
evolution  that  advanced  by  small  steps  could  possibly  stride  over. 
Now,  if  a  single  instance  can  be  substantiated  of  a  man  thinking 
without  words,  all  this  anthropological  theory,  which  includes 
the  more  ambitious  part  of  his  work,  will  necessarily  collapse. 


I  maintain  that  such  instances  exist,  and  the  first  that  I  shall 
mention,  and  which  I  will  describe,  al  length,  is  my  own.  Let 
me  say  that  I  am  accustomed  to  introspection,  and  have  practised 
it  seriously,  and  that  what  I  state  now  is  not  random  talk  but  the 
result  of  frequent  observation.  It  happens  that  I  take  pleasure 
in  mechanical  contrivances;  the  simpler  of  these  are  thought  out 
by  me  absolutely  without  the  use  of  any  mental  words.  Suppose 
something  does  not  fit;  I  examine  it,  go  to  my  tools,  pick  out  the 
right  ones,  and  set  to  work  and  repair  the  defect,  of: en  without  a 
single  word  crossing  my  mind.  I  can  easily  go  through  such  a 
process  in  imagination,  and  inhibit  any  mental  word  from  present- 
ing itself.  It  is  well  known  at  billiards  that  some  persons  play 
much  more  "with  their  heads"  than  others.  I  am  but  an 
indifferent  player;  still,  when  I  do  play,  I  think  out  the  best 
stroke  as  well  as  I  can,  but  not  in  words.  I  hold  the  cue  with 
nascent  and  anticipatory  gesture,  and  follow  the  probable  course 
of  the  ball  from  cushion  to  cushion  with  my  eye  before  I  make 
the  stroke,  but  I  say  nothing  whatever  to  myself.  At  chess,  which 
I  also  play  indifferently,  I  usually  calculate  my  moves,  but  not 
more  than  one  or  two  stages  ahead,  by  eye  alone. 

Formerly,  I  practised  fencing,  in  which,  as  in  billiards,  the 
"  head  "  counts  for  much.  Though  I  do  not  fence  now,  I  can 
mentally  place  myself  in  a  fencing  position,  and  then  I  am  intent 
and  mentallv  mute.  I  do  not  see  how  I  eould  have  used  mental 
words,  because  they  take  me  as  long  to  form  as  it  does  to  speak 
or  to  hear  them,  and  much  longer  than  it  takes  to  read  them  b}' 
eye  (which  I  never  do  in  imagination).  There  is  no  time  in 
fencing  for  such  a  process.  Again,  I  have  many  recollections 
of  scrambles  in  wild  places,  one  of  which  is  still  vivid,  of 
crossing  a  broad  torrent  from  stone  to  stone,  over  some  of  which 
the  angry-looking  water  was  washing.  I  was  intellectually 
wearied  when  I  got  to  the  other  side,  from  the  constant  care  and 
intentness  with  which  it  had  been  necessary  to  exercise  the 
judgment.  During  the  crossing,  I  am  sure,  for  similar  reasons 
to  those  already  given,  that  I  was  mentally  mute.  It  may  be 
objected  that  no  true  thought  is  exercised  in  the  act  of  picking 
one's  way,  as  a  goat  could  do  that,  and  much  better  than  a  man. 
I  grant  this  as  regards  the  goat,  but  deny  the  inference,  because 
picking  the  way  under  difficult  conditions  does,  I  am  convinced, 
greatly  strain  the  attention  and  judgment.  In  simple  algebra, 
I  never  used  mental  words.  Latterly,  for  example,  I  had  some 
common  arithmetic  series  to  sum,  and  worked  them  out  not  by 
the  use  of  the  formula,  but  by  the  process  through  which  the 
formula  is  calculated,  and  that  without  the  necessity  of  any 
mental  word.  Let  us  suppose  the  question -was,  how  many 
strokes  were  struck  by  a  clock  in  twelve  hours  (not  counting  the 
half-hours), -then  I  should  have  written  1,  2  .  .  .;  and  below  it, 
12,  11,  .  .  .;  then  2  ....  13  X  12,  then  13  X  6  —  78.  Addi- 
tion, as  De  Morgan  somewhere  insisted,  is  far  more  swiftly  done 
by  the  eye  alone;  the  tendency  to  use  mental  words  should  be 
withstood.  In  simple  geometry  I  always  work  with  actual  or 
mental  lines;  in  fact,  I  fail  to  arrive  at  the  full  conviction  that  a 
problem  is  fairly  taken  in  by  me,  unless  I  have  contrived  some- 
how to  disembarrass  it  of  words. 

Prof.  Max  Muller  says  that  no  one  can  think  of  a  dog  without 
mentally  using  the  word  dog,  or  its  equivalent  in  some  other 
language,  and  he  offers  this  as  a  crucial  test  of  the  truth  of  his 
theory.  It  utterly  fails  with  me.  On  thinking  of  a  dog,  the 
name  at  once  disappears,  and  I  find  myself  mentally  in  that  same 
expectant  attitude  in  which  I  should  be  if  I  were  told  that  a  dog 
was  in  an  obscure  part  of  the  room  or  just  coming  round  the 
corner.  I  have  no  clear  visual  image  of  a  dog,  but  the  sense 
of  an  ill-defined  spot  that  might  shape  itself  into  any  specified 
form  of  dog,  and  that  might  jump,  fawn,  snarl,  bark,  or  do 
anything  else  that  a  dog  might  do,  but  nothing  else.  I  address 
myself   in    preparation    for   any    act   of  the   sort,  just   as    when 


442 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


standing  before  an  antagonist  in  fencing  I  am  ready  to  meet 
anv  thrust  or  feint,  but  exclude  from  my  anticipation  every 
movement  that  falls  without  the  province  of  fair  fencing. 

He  gives  another  test  of  a  more  advanced  mental  process, 
namelv,  that  of  thinking  of  the  phrase  "cogito,  ergo  sum"  with- 
out words.  I  addressed  myself  to  the  task  at  a  time  when  I  was 
not  in  a  mood  for  introspection,  and  was  bungling  over  it  when 
I  insensibly  lapsed  into  thinking,  not  for  the  first  time,  whether 
the  statement  was  true.  After  a  little,  I  surprised  myself  hard 
at  thought  in  my  usual  way — that  is,  without  a  word  passing 
through  mv  mind.  I  was  alternately  placing  myself  mentally 
in  the  attitude  of  thinking,  and  then  in  that  of  being,  and  of 
watching  how  much  was  common  to  the  two  processes. 

It  is  a  serious  drawback  to  me  in  writing,  and  still  more  in 
explaining  myself,  that  I  do  not  so  easily  think  in  words  as 
otherwise.  It  often  happens  that  after  being  hard  at  work,  and 
having  arrived  at  results  that  are  perfectly  clear  and  satisfactory 
to  myself,  when  I  try  to  express  them  in  language  I  feel  that  I 
must  begin  by  putting  myself  upon  quite  another  intellectual 
plane.  I  have  to  translate  my  thoughts  into  a  language  that 
does  not  run  very  evenly  with  them.  I  therefore  waste  a  vast 
deal  of  time  in  seeking  for  appropriate  words  and  phrases,  and 
am  conscious,  when  required  to  speak  on  a  sudden,  of  being 
often  verv  obscure  through  mere  verbal  maladroitness,  and  not 
through  want  of  clearness  of  perception.  This  is  one  of  the 
small  annoyances  of  my  life.  I  may  add  that  often  while 
engaged  in  thinking  out  something  I  catch  an  accompaniment 
of  nonsense  words,  just  as  the  notes  of  a  song  might  accompany 
thought.  Also,  that  after  I  have  made  a  mental  step,  the 
appropriate  word  frequently  follows  as  an  echo;  as  a  rule,  it 
does  not  accompany  it. 

Lastlv,  I  frequently  employ  nonsense  words  as  temporary 
symbols,  as  the  logical  x  and  y  of  ordinary  thought,  which  is  a 
practice  that,  as  may  well  be  conceived,  does  not  conduce  to 
clearness  of  exposition.  So  much  for  my  own  experiences, 
which  I  hold  to  be  fatal  to  that  claim  of  an  invariable  dependence 
between  thoughts  and  words  which  Prof.  Max  Miiller  postulates 
as  the  ground  of  his  anthopological  theories. 

As  regards  the  habits  of  others,  at  the  time  when  I  was 
inquiring  into  the  statistics  of  mental  imagery,  I  obtained  some 
answers  to  the  following  effect:  "  I  depend  so  much  upon  mental 
pictures  that  I  think  if  I  were  to  lose  the  power  of  seeing  them 
I  should  not  be  able  to  think  at  all."  There  is  an  admirable 
little  book  published  last  year  or  the  year  before  by  Binet,  Sur  le 
Raisonnement,  which  is  clear  and  solid,  and  deserves  careful 
reading  two  or  three  times  over.  It  contains  pathological  cases  in 
which  the  very  contingency  of  losing  the  power  of  seeing  mental 
pictures  just  alluded  to  has  taken  place.  The  book  shows  the 
important  part  played  by  visual  and  motile  as  well  as  audile, 
imaginations  in  the  act  of  reasoning.  This  and  much  recent 
literature  on  the  subject  seems  wholly  unknown  by  Prof.  Max 
Miiller,  who  has  fallen  into  the  common  error  of  writers  not  long 
since,  but  which  I  hoped  had  now  become  obsolete,  of  believing 
that  the  minds  of  everyone  else  are  like  one's  own.  His  apti- 
tudes and  linguistic  pursuits  are  likely  to  render  him  peculiarly 
dependent  on  words,  and  the  other  literary  philosophers  whom 
he  quotes  in  partial  confirmation  of  his  extreme  views  are  likely 
for  the  same  cause,  but  in  a  less  degree,  to  have  been  similarly 
dependent.  Before  a  just  knowledge  can  be  attained  concerning 
any  faculty  of  the  human  race  we  must  inquire  into  its  distri- 
bution among  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  on  a  large 
scale,  and  not  among  those  persons  alone  who  belong  to  a  highly 
specialized  literary  class. 

I  have  inquired  myself  so  far  as  opportunities  admitted,  and 
arrived  at  a  result  that  contradicts  the  fundamental  proposition 
in  the  book  before  us,  having  ascertained,  to  my  own  satisfaction 


at  least,  that  in  a  relatively  small  number  of  persons  true  thought 
is  habitually  carried  on  without  the  use  of  mental  or  spoken 
words.  Francis  Galton. 

II.       LETTER    FROM    THE    DUKE   OF   ARGYLL. 

Argyll  Lodge,  Kensington,  May  12,  1S87. 

I  do  not  see  that  Prof.  Max  Miiller's  theory  of  the  insepara- 
bility of  thought  from  language,  whether  true  or  erroneous,  has 
any  important  bearing  on  the  origin  of  man,  whether  by  evolution 
or  otherwise.  It  is  a  question  at  all  events  to  be  studied  by  itself, 
and  to  be  tested  by  such  experiments  as  we  can  make  by  intro- 
spection, or  by  such  facts  as  can  be  ascertained  by  outward  ob- 
servation. 

My  own  opinion  is  strongly  in  favor  of  the  conclusion  urged 
by  Mr.  F.  Galton.  It  seems  to  me  quite  certain  that  we  can  and 
do  constantly  think  of  things  without  thinking  of  any  sound,  or 
word,  as  designating  them.  Language  seems  to  me  to  be  neces- 
sary to  the  progress  of  thought,  but  not  at  all  necessary  to  the 
mere  act  of  thinking.  "  It  is  a  product  of  thought;  an  expression 
of  it;"  a  vehicle  for  the  communication  of  it;  a  channel  for  the 
conveyance  of  it;  and  an  embodiment  which  is  essential  to  its 
growth  and  continuity.  But  it  seems  to  me  to  be  altogether  erro- 
neous to  represent  it  as  any  inseparable  part  of  cogitation.  Mon- 
keys and  dogs  are  without  true  thought  not  because  they  are 
speechless;  but  they  are  speechless  because  they  have  no  abstract 
ideas,  and  no  true  reasoning  powers.  In  parrots  the  power 
of  mere  articulation  exists  sometimes  in  wronderful  perfection. 
But  parrots  are  no  cleverer  than  many  other  birds  which  have  no 
such  power. 

Man's  vocal  organs  are  correlated  with  his  brain.  Both  are 
equally  mysterious  because  they  are  co-operative,  and  yet  separ- 
able, parts  of  one  "plan."  Argyll. 

III.       LETTER    FROM    MR.    HYDE    CLARKE. 

32  St.  George's  Square,  S.  W.,  May  12,  28S7. 

Having  much  of  the  same  experience  as  Mr.  Galton,  I  never- 
theless prefer  dealing  with  a  larger  group  of  facts.  I  have  often 
referred  to  the  mutes  of  the  seraglio  at  Constantinople,  who  can- 
not be  charged  with  thinking  in  words.  They  have  their  own 
sign  conversation  among  themselves,  and  which  has  no  necessary 
reference  to  words.  Even  the  names  of  individuals  are  suppressed 
among  themselves,  though  they  sometimes  use  lip  reading  to  an 
outsider  to  make  him  understand  a  name.  Any  one  having  a 
knowledge  of  sign  language  is  aware  that  it  is  independent  of 
words.     The  tenses  of  verbs,  etc.,  are  supplied  by  gestures. 

The  mutes  are  not  deficient  in  intelligence.  They  take  a  great 
interest  in  politics,  and  have  the  earliest  news.  It  is  true  this  is 
obtained  by  hearing,  though  they  are  supposed  to  be  deaf-mutes, 
but  among  themselves  everything  is  transmitted  by  signs. 

Hyde  Clarke. 

IV.  LETTER  FROM  MR.  mellard  reade. 
I  think  that  all  who  are  engaged  in  mechanical  work  and 
planning  will  fully  indorse  what  Mr.  Francis  Galton  says  as  to 
thought  being  unaccompanied  by  words  in  the  mental  processes 
gone  through.  Having  been  all  my  life  since  school-days  en- 
gaged in  the  practice  of  architecture  and  civil  engineering,  I  can 
assure  Prof.  Max  Miiller  that  designing  and  invention  are  done 
entirely  by  mental  pictures.  It  is,  I  find,  the  same  with  original 
geological  thought — words  are  only  an  incumbrance.  For  the 
conveyance  and  accummulation  of  knowledge  some  sort  of  sym- 
bols are  required,  but  it  appears  to  me  that  spoken  language  or 
written  words  are  not  absolutely  necessary,  as  other  means  of 
representing  ideas  could  be  contrived.  In  fact,  words  are  in 
many  cases  so  cumbersome  that  other  methods  have  been  devised 
for  imparting  knowledge.  In  mechanics  the  graphic  method,  for 
instance.  T.  Mellard  Reade. 


THR    O  P  R  N    CO  IT  RT. 


ii.; 


V.       LETTER    FROM    S.    F.    M.    '). 

On  reading  Mr.  Galton's  letter,  I  cannot  help  asking  how 
Prof.  Max  Miiller  would  account  for  early  processes  of  thought 
in  a  deaf-mute:  does  he  deny  them?  S.  F.  M.  Q. 

VI.      LETTER    FROM    PROF.    MAX    MULLER. 

All  Souls'  College,  Oxford,  May  15,  1887. 

Dear  Mr.  Galton — I  have  to  thank  you  for  sending  me  the 
letter  which  you  published  in  Nature,  and  in  which  you  discuss 
the  fundamental  principle  of  my  recent  book  on  the  Science  of 
Thought,  the  identity  of  language  and  reason.  Yours  is  the  kind 
of  criticism  I  like — honest,  straightforward,  to  the  point.  I  shall 
try  to  answer  your  criticism  in  the  same  spirit. 

You  say,  and  you  say  rightly,  that  if  a  single  instance  could 
be  produced  of  a  man  reasoning  without  words,  my  whole  system 
of  philosophy  would  collapse ;  and  you  go  on  to  say  that  you  your- 
self are  such  an  instance — that  you  can  reason  without  words. 

So  can  I,  and  I  have  said  so  in  several  passages  of  mv  book. 
But  what  I  call  reasoning  without  words  is  no  more  than  reason- 
ing without  pronouncing  words.  With  you  it  seems  to  mean  rea- 
soning without  possessing  words.  What  I  call,  with  Leibniz, 
symbolic,  abbreviated,  or  hushed  language,  what  savages  call 
"speaking  in  the  stomach,"  presupposes  the  former  existence  of 
words.  What  you  call  thinking  without  words  seems  to  be 
intended  for  the  thinking  of  beings,  whether  men  or  animals,  that 
possess  as  yet  no  words  for  what  they  are  thinking. 

Now  let  us  try  to  understand  one  another — that  is  to  say,  let 
us  define  the  words  we  are  using.  We  both  use  thinking  in  the 
sense  of  reasoning.  But  thinking  has  been  used  by  Descartes 
and  other  philosophers  in  a  much  wider  sense  also,  so  as  to  include 
sensation,  passions  and  intuitive  judgments,  which  clearly  require 
no  words  for  their  realization.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  define 
what  we  mean  by  thinking  before  we  trv  to  find  out  whether  we 
can  think  without  words.  In  my  book  on  the  Science  of  Thought 
I  define  thinking  as  addition  and  subtraction.  That  definition 
may  be  right  or  wrong,  but  every  writer  has  the  right  -nay,  the 
duty,  I  should  say — to  explain  in  what  sense  he  intends  to  use 
certain  technical  terms.  Though  nowadays  this  is  considered 
rather  pedantic,  I  performed  that  duty  on  the  very  first  page  of 
my  book,  and  it  seems  somewhat  strange  that  a  reviewer  in  the 
Academy  should  accuse  me  of  not  having  defined  what  I  mean  by 
thinking,  for  most  reviewers  look  at  least  at  the  first  page  of  a 
work  which  is  given  them  to  review. 

Now,  the  cases  which  you  mention  of  wordless  thought  are 
not  thought  at  all  in  my  sense  of  the  word.  I  grant  that  animals 
do  a  great  deal  of  work  by  intuition,  and  that  we  do  the  same — 
nay,  that  we  often  do  that  kind  of  work  far  more  quickly  and  far 
more  perfectly  than  by  reasoning.  You  say,  for  instance,  that  vou 
take  pleasure  in  mechanical  contrivances,  and  if  something  does 
not  fit  vou  examine  it,  go  to  your  tools,  pick  out  the  right  one,  set 
to  work  and  repair  the  defect  often  without  a  single  word  crossing 
your  mind.  No  doubt  you  can  do  that.  So  can  the  beaver  and 
the  bee.  But  neither  the  beaver  nor  the  bee  would  say  what 
you  say,  namely,  that  in  doing  this  "you  inhibit  any  mental  word 
from  presenting  itself."  What  does  that  mean  if  not  that  the 
mental  words  are  there,  the  most  complicated  thought- words,  such 
as  tool,  defect,  fit,  are  there?  only  you  do  not  pronounce  them,  as 
little  as  you  pronounce  "  two  shillings  and  sixpence"  when  you 
pay  a  cabman  half-a-crown. 

The  same  applies  to  what  you  say  about  billiards  and  fencing. 
Neither  cannoning  nor  fencing  is  thinking.  The  serpent  coiling 
itself  and  springing  forward  and  shooting  out  its  fangs  does  neither 
think  nor  speak.  It  sees,  it  feels,  it  acts;  and,  as  I  stated  on  p.  8 
of  my  book,  that  kind  of  instantaneous  and  thoughtless  action  is 
often  far  more  successful  than  the  slow  results  of  reasoning.  Well 
do  I  remember  when  I  was  passing  through  my  drill  as  a  volun- 
teer, and  sometimes  had  to  think  what  was  right  and  what  was 


left,  being  told  by  our  sergeant,  "Them  gentlemen  as  thinks  will 
never  do  any  good."  I  am  not  sure  that  what  we  call  genius  mav 
not  often  be  a  manifestation  of  our  purely  animal  nature — a  sud- 
den tiger's  spring  rather  than  une  longtte  falience. 

It  is  different,  however,  with  chess.  A  chess-player  mav  be 
very  silent,  but  he  deals  all  the  time  with  thought-words  or  word- 
thoughts.  How  could  it  be  otherwise?  What  would  be  the  use 
of  all  his  foresight,  of  all  his  intuitive  combination,  if  he  did  not 
manipulate  with  king,  queen,  knights  and  castles?  and  what  are 
all  these  but  names,  most  artificial  names,  too,  real  agglomerates 
of  ever  so  many  carefully  embedded  facts  or  observations? 

An  animal  may  build  like  the  beaver,  shoot  like  the  serpent, 
fence  like  the  cat,  climb  like  the  goat:  but  no  animal  can  play 
chess,  and  why?  Because  it  has  no  words,  and  therefore  no 
thoughts  for  what  we  call  king,  queen  and  knights,  names  and 
concepts  which  we  combine  and  separate  according  to  their  con- 
tents— that  is,  according  to  what  we  ourselves  or  our  ancestors 
have  put  into  them. 

You  say,  again,  that  in  algebra,  the  most  complicated  phase 
of  thought,  we  do  not  use  words.  Nay,  you  go  on  to  say  that  in 
algebra  "  the  tendency  to  use  mental  words  should  he  withstood."  No 
doubt  it  should.  The  player  on  the  pianoforte  should  likewise 
withstand  the  tendency  of  saying,  now  comes  C,  now  comes  D, 
now  comes  E,  before  touching  the  keys.  But  how  could  there  be 
a  tendency  to  use  words,  or,  as  you  say  in  another  place,  "to  dis- 
embarrass  ourselves  of  •■words"  if  the  words  were  not  there?  In 
algebra  we  are  dealing  not  only  with  words  but  with  words  of 
words,  and  it  is  the  highest  excellence  of  language  if  it  can  thus 
abbreviate  itself  more  and  more.  If  we  had  to  pronounce  every 
word  we  are  thinking  our  progress  would  be  extremely  slow.  As 
it  is,  we  can  go  through  a  whole  train  of  thought  without  uttering 
a  single  word,  because  we  have  signs  not  only  for  single  thoughts 
but  for  whole  chains  of  thoughts.  And  yet,  if  we  watch  ourselves, 
it  is  very  curious  that  we  can  often  feel  the  vocal  chords  and  the 
muscles  of  the  mouth  moving  as  if  we  were  speakinc;  nay,  we 
know  that  during  efforts  of  intense  thought  a  word  will  some- 
times break  out  against  our  will;  it  may  be,  as  you  say,  a  nonsense 
word,  yet  a  word  which  for  some  reason  or  other  could  not  be 
inhibited  from  presenting  itself. 

You  say  you  have  sometimes  great  difficulty  in  finding  appro- 
priate words  for  your  thoughts.  Who  has  not?  But  does  that 
prove  that  thoughts  can  exist  without  words?  Quite  the  contrary. 
Thoughts  for  which  we  cannot  find  appropriate  words  are  thoughts 
expressed  as  yet  by  inappropriate,  very  often  by  very  general, 
words.  You  see  a  thing  and  you  do  not  know  what  it  is,  and 
therefore  are  at  a  loss  how  to  call  it.  There  are  people  who  call 
everything  "that  thing" — in  French  "chose" — because  thev  are 
lazy  thinkers  and,  therefore,  clumsy  speakers.  But  even  "thing" 
and  "chose"  are  names.  The  more  we  distinguish,  the  better  we 
can  name.  A  good  speaker  and  thinker  will  not  say  "that  thing," 
"  that  person,"  "that  man,"  "that  soldier,"  "that  officer,"  but  he 
will  say  at  once  "that  lieutenant-general  of  fusiliers."  He  can 
name  appropriately  because  he  knows  correctly,  but  he  knows 
nothing  correctly  or  vaguely  except  in  a  string  of  names  from 
officer  down  to  thing.  Embryonic  thought  which  never  comes 
to  the  birth  is  not  thought  at  all,  but  only  the  material  out  of 
which  thought  may  spring.  Nor  can  infant  thought,  which  can- 
not speak  as  yet,  be  called  living  thought,  though  the  promise  of 
thought  is  in  it.  The  true  life  of  thought  begins  when  it  is 
named,  and  has  been  received  by  baptism  into  the  congregation 
of  living  words. 

You  say  that  "after  you  have  made  a  mental  step  the  appro- 

.  propriate  word  frequently  follows  as  an  echo;  as  a  rule,  it  does  not 

accompany  it."     I  know  very  well  what  you  mean.     But  only  ask 

yourself  what  mental  step  you  have  made  and  you  will  see  you 

stand  on  words;  more  or  less  perfect  and  appropriate,  true;  but 


444 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


nevertheless,  always  words.  You  blame  me  for  having  ignored 
your  labors,  which  were  intended  to  show  that  the  minds  of  every 
one  are  not  like  one's  own.  You  know  that  I  took  a  great  deal  of 
interest  in  your  researches.  They  represented  to  me  what  I 
should  venture  to  call  the  dialectology  of  thought.  But  dialects 
of  thought  do  not  affect  the  fundamental  principles  of  thinking; 
and  the  identity  of  language  and  reason  can  hardly  be  treated  as 
a  matter  of  idiosyncrasy. 

You  also  blame  me  for  not  having  read  a  recent  book  by 
Monsieur  Binet.  Dear  Mr.  Galton,  as  I  grow  older  I  find  it  the 
most  difficult  problem  in  the  world  what  new  books  we  may  safely 
leave  unread.  Think  of  the  number  of  old  books  which  it  is  not 
safe  to  leave  unread;  and  yet,  when  I  tell  my  friends  that  in  order 
to  speak  the  lingua  franca  of  philosophy  they  ought,  at  least,  to 
read  Kant,  they  shrug  their  shoulders  and  say  they  have  no  time, 
or,  korribile  dictu,  that  Kant  is  obsolete.  I  have,  however,  ordered 
Binet,  and  shall  hereafter  quote  him  as  an  authority.  But  who  is 
an  authority  in  these  days  of  anarchy  ?  I  quoted  the  two  greatest 
authorities  in  Germany  and  England  in  support  of  my  statement 
that  the  genealogical  descent  of  man  from  any  other  known  ani- 
mal was  as  yet  unproven,  and  I  am  told  by  my  reviewer  in  the 
Academy  that  such  statements  "deserve  to  be  passed  over  in 
respectful  silence."  If  such  descent  were  proved  it  would  make 
no  difference  whatever  to  the  science  of  thought.  Man  would 
remain  to  me  what  he  always  has  been,  the  perfect  animal;  the 
animal  would  remain  the  stunted  man.  But  why  waste  our 
thoughts  on  things  that  may  be  or  may  not  be?  One  fact  remains : 
animals  have  no  language.  If,  then,  man  cannot  think — or,  better, 
cannot  reason — without  language,  I  think  we  are  right  in  contend- 
ing that  animals  do  not  reason  as  man  reasons,  though  for  all  we 
know  they  may  be  all  the  better  for  it. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Francis  Gallon,  Esc/.,  F.Tc.S.  F.  Max  Muller. 

(THIS  CORRESPONDENCE  TO  HE  CONCLUDED  IN  NEXT  ISSUE.) 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

THE    ETHICAL  MOVEMENT   IN   ENGLAND. 

To  I  lie  Editors  : 

In  these  days  an  increasing  number  of  people  in  England  feel 
ready  to  say  with  Emerson's  devout  friend,  "  On  Sundays,  it 
seems  wicked  to  go  to  church."  For  if  they  go  to  church  their 
moral  nature  is  shocked  by  the  wholly  conventional  morality 
which  is  preached  there.  Respectability  rather  than  goodness 
seems  to  be  valued  there.  There  is  an  absence  of  reality  and 
enthusiasm  in  the  affair;  dull  mediocrity  in  the  pulpit  addressing 
itself  to  genteel  decorum  in  the  pew.  Ruskin  once  said  that  he  had 
heard  about  two  thousand  sermons,  and  never  in  one  of  them  a 
hint  as  to  the  conflict  between  God  and  mammon.  How  could 
there  be?  The  preacher  is,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  the  paid  servant 
of  mammon  who  would  be  likely  to  dismiss  him  speedily  if  he 
preached  unpleasant  truths.  Now,  the  old  theological  heaven 
having  lost  its  attractions  and  the  old  theological  hell  its  terrors, 
and  both  having  become  as  unreal  to  all  intelligent  people  as  Tar- 
tarus or  the  Elysian  Fields;  it  follows  necessarily  that  for  any  true 
teacher  of  men  nothing  is  left  but  the  dealing  with  the  evils  of 
actual  life,  the  preaching  of  a  higher  social  ideal,  and  the  impe- 
rious command  to  men  to  leave  all  and  follow  that  ideal.  For 
reasons  which  I  gave  in  a  previous  paper  I  am  convinced  that,  in 
most  cases,  a  Protestant  preacher  cannot,  ipso  facto,  satisfy  these 
ethical  demands  of  our  time.  And  as  there  are  others  who  hold 
the  same  view,  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  ethical  movement  in 
America  has  attracted  some  attention  in  this  country;  with  the 
result  that  last  year  an  Ethical  Society  was  founded  in  London, 
which  ha^  just  issued  its  first  report. 


I  think  the  first  impetus  to  the  ethical  movement  here  was 
given  by  my  friend  Mr.  J.  Graham  Brooks,  of  Brockton,  Mass., 
when  he  was  in  England  upwards  of  two  years  ago.  Mr.  Brooks 
made  the  name  and  writings  of  Mr.  Salter,  of  Chicago,  well  known 
in  a  small  circle  in  London  ;  and  I  also  did  my  best  to  circulate  the 
lectures,  copies  of  which  Mr.  Salter  was  good  enough  to  send  me 
from  time  to  time,  and  which  contained,  in  my  judgment,  the  kind 
of  teaching  best  adapted  to  the  sociely  of  our  own  time. 

The  little  Ethical  Society  which  has  been  established  in  Lon- 
don is  a  small  affair  with  modest  pretensions.  It  has  about  thirty 
members,  a  very  small  income,  and  no  local  habitation.  Its 
most  active  members  are  young  men  who  have  accepted  in  its 
main  principles  the  philosophy  of  the  late  Thomas  H.  Green,  of 
Oxford,  and  some  of  whom  were  actually  his  pupils.  This  phi- 
losophy, setting  before  each  one  of  us  the  development  of  a  good 
will  as  the  thing  to  be  aimed  at,  declares  that  this  good  will  can 
only  be  realized  in  a  social  life  of  self-conscious  persons.  Man's 
life,  though  a  part  of  nature,  is  not  merely  natural;  and  hence 
Darwinism,  or  any  other  merely  naturalistic  scheme  of  thought 
can  furnish  no  ethical  basis  for  human  action.  For  \ye  act  in  the 
light  of  an  ideal;  and  our  action  is  ethical  or  non-ethical  accord- 
ing as  it  helps  or  hinders  the  realizing  of  that  ideal.  And  that 
ideal  itself  is  an  ideal  for  all ;  cooperation  among  men  is,  there- 
fore, needful  for  its  attainment.  These,  as  I  understand,  are 
Green's  main  ethical  principles;  and  though  the  Ethical  Society 
acknowledges  as  such  no  special  master,  yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
most  of  its  members  accept  this  philosophy  which,  as  being  anti- 
individualistic,  is  eminently  in  accord  with  the  social  tendencies 
of  our  time. 

The  Ethical  Society  thus  states  its  principles:  "The  members 
of  this  society  agree  in  believing  that  the  moral  and  religious  life 
of  man  is  capable  of  a  rational  justification  and  explanation. 
They  believe  that  there  is  at  present  great  need  (a)  for  the  exposi- 
tion of  the  actual  principles  of  social  morality,  generally  acknowl- 
edged though  imperfectly  analyzed  in  current  language,  (i)  for 
presentation  of  the  ideal  of  human  progress,  and  (c)  for  the  teach- 
ing of  a  reasoned  out  doctrine  on  the  whole  subject."  The  pros- 
pectus further  states  that  it  will  be  "the  duty  of  the  society  to  use 
every  endeavor  to  arouse  the  community  at  large  to  the  import- 
ance of  testing  every  social,  political  and  educational  question,  by 
moral  and  religious  principles."  The  members  also  propose  to 
"organize  systematic  ethical  instruction"  by  lectures  at  working- 
men's  clubs,  cooperative  societies,  and  in  connection  with  the 
movement  for  the  extension  of  university  teaching. 

During  the  past  winter  a  series  of  lectures  under  the  auspices 
of  the  society  was  given  at  Toynbee  Hall,  the  University  settle- 
ment in  the  east  of  London.  These  lectures  were  given  by  differ- 
ent persons,  but  there  was  a  general  unity  in  the  teaching  pre- 
sented. Among  the  subjects  were  "Society  as  Organic,"  "Con- 
science," "  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  upon  Earth."  These 
lectures  were  attended  by  audiences  varying  from  forty  or  fifty  to 
one  hundred  persons,  a  portion  of  whom  were  workingmen.  At 
the  close  of  the  lecture  any  person  is  permitted  to  put  a  question 
on  the  subject  under  consideration,  and  a  short  discussion  is 
invited.  By  this  means  difficult  points  are  cleared  up  and  vital 
questions  more  thoroughly  pressed  home.  It  is  expected  and 
hoped  that  next  winter  a  lecture  may  be  given  every  Sunday  and 
that  the  work  of  the  infant  society  may  be  somewhat  extended. 
By  this  opportunity  thus  afforded  for  moral  culture,  it  is  hoped 
that  those  who  feel  the  wickedness  of  going  to  church  and  who 
have  consequently  nothing  to  do  on  Sundays,  may  have  somp 
kind  of  spiritual  nutriment  offered  in  place  of  orthodoxy's  barren 
husks. 

While  thus  stating  briefly  the  avowed  aims  of  the  Ethical 
Society  and  the  ideas  under  which  it  has  been  constituted,  I  must 
add  that  I  doubt  whether,  on  its  present  lines,  it  will  fill  anything 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


445 


at  all   like   the   positions    which   the   various   American   societies 
occupy.     The   society  is,  in  a  word,  too  academic;  at  least  that  is 
my  humble   judgment.     What    is    specially  needed   is    a    society 
which  should  unite  cultured  people  with  workingmen.     Theoreti- 
cally there  is  nothing  in   the  constitution   of  the  Ethical   Society 
in  London,  which  forbids  it  accomplishing  this ;  practically  it  does 
not  do   so.     Our   workingmen  really   need    some    strong   ethical 
movement,  for  they  have  nothing  at  present  but  their  trade  unions 
and  their  politics.     (I  speak  of  course  of  the  better  and  more  intel- 
ligent portion;  with  the  residuum  nothing  at  present  can  be  done, 
or  indeed  ever  can   be  done  until  there   is  a    revolution   in  their 
physical  surroundings).     Secularism,  which  at  its  best  is  rather  a 
poor   business,  is    somewhat   played    out.     Socialism    which   has 
stepped  into  its  place  in  London  and  in  parts  of  the  north  of  Eng- 
land, is  not,  as  generally  preached    at  the  street  corners,  of  a  dis- 
tinctly ethical  stamp.     And  as  on  every  side  of  them  the  workers 
see  greed  and   self-interest  the   dominating  forces,  it  is   a  wonder 
to  me  that  they  are  as  upright   as  they  are.     From  the    churches 
they  are   almost  entirely   divorced,   except    in   the  case   of    Irish 
Catholics.     Those  institutions  are  for  their  masters  and  their  well- 
dressed  families,  not  for  the  working  classes.     There  is,  therefore! 
a  gap  which  an  ethical   society  might  usefully  fill.     But  if  such  a 
society  is  to  do  anything  for  the  sad  and  weary  toilers  of  modern 
society,  it  must  state  and  clearly  the  necessary  implications  of  its  be- 
lief.    That  is,  it  must  put  an  end  forever  to  the  fatal  divorce  between 
thought  and   action  which   is   the  great  cause  of  our  weakness. 
The  kind  of  truths,  e.  g.,  embodied  in  Mr.  Salter's  lecture  on  "The 
Social   Ideal,"  mean,  if  carried   into  action,  nothing   less   than   a 
complete  sweeping  revolution    in    our  whole   actual    life,  social, 
industrial,  political.     These   ideas  are  either  meant  to  be  carried 
out,  or  they  are  merely  so  much  empty  verbiage.     That  is  what 
workmen  whose    minds   are  constantly    in    touch    with    realities 
feel;  and  they  are  right  in  so   feeling.     A  society,  therefore,  must 
to-day  act  as  well  as  speak.     It  must  not  only  teach  men  to  think 
rightly,  but  also  to  act  courageously.     The  Church  stands  helpless 
before    the   public   criminal,  before    the    grasping   capitalist,   the 
fraudulent  speculator,  the  dishonest   legislator.     She  cannot,  dare 
not,  denounce  these  men  or  the  society  which  produces  them,  for 
of  that  society  she  is  part  and  parcel.     But  an  ethical  society  which 
is  based  not  on  miraculous   legends  but   on    moral   truth;  which 
looks  to  the  healing  of  the  wounds  of  human  life  here  and  now 
and  has   no  concern   with   golden   streets  and   palm  branches   in 
cloud-cuckoo   land — such  a   society  must   do    what   the   Church 
refuses  to  do,  if  it  is  to  produce   any  adequate  effect.     The   more 
its  members  chance  to  dislike  the  violent,  anarchical  agitation  of 
the  modern  revolutionist,  the  more  strenuously  should  they  strive 
to  head  a  moral,  peaceful  revolution.     For  it  is  nothing  less  than 
revolution  in  some  shape  which  is  at  hand.     The  social,  economic 
and  political  forces,  are   all   making  in   that  direction ;  and   those 
men  will  render  the  greatest  service  to  mankind  who  can   mould 
these  forces  in  accordance  with   the   loftiest  ethical  ideal.     But   it 
that  is  to  be  done,  speculation   and  action  must  go  hand  in  hand; 
nor  must  the  college-bred  man  shrink  in  timid  hesitation  from  the 
world  of  strife  where   the   masses  of  the  people  are  half  uncon- 
sciously trying  to  work  out  in  their   necessarily  rude  methods  the 
greatest  social  transformation  the  world  has  ever  known.     I    am 
induced  to  offer  this  criticism  because  I  do  not  think  the  excellent 
leaders  of  the  London  Ethical  Society  at  present  fully  realize  the 
implications  of  their  own  doctrines.  William  Clarke. 


JAMES  PARTON  ON  LABOR  CRANKS  AGAIN. 

To  Hie  Editors:  Newburyport,  Mass.,  Sept.  9,  18S7. 

I  regret  to  see  by  the  communications  of  Mr.  A.  Bate  and 
Mr.  J.  B.  Barnhill  that  I  did  not  succeed  in  conveying  my  mean- 
ing and  intent  in  an  article  published  in  The  Open  Court  upon 
"Labor   Cranks."     I   must   attribute  this    wholly  to   my  want   of 


skill  or  care.  I  fully  agree  with  both  your  correspondents  in 
the  opinion  that  the  proper  object  of  human  endeavor  is  the  alle- 
viation of  the  common  lot.  All  things  and  all  men  are  import- 
ant or  unimportant,  estimable  or  the  contrary,  only  as  they  pro- 
mote or  hinder  this  supreme  interest.  I  heartily  congratulate 
Mr.  Bate  that  we  are  now,  at  this  late  day,  after  ages  of  misdi- 
rected effort,  face  to  face  with  the  true  and  final  problem— a  more 
just  and  scientific  distribution  of  the  results  of  human  labor 
— a  better,  safer  and  more  interesting  existence  for  the  average 
man.  Immense  progress  has  been  made  in  this  direction  during 
the  last  two  centuries,  and  that  progress  is  due  to  men  who  have 
wrought  in  a  friendly  spirit — men  who  have  patiently  discovered 
truth  or  skillfully  applied  old  truth  to  new  uses.  The  men  of 
wrath  and  hate  have  not  helped  at  all,  and  never  will.  It  is  the 
good  and  compassionate  persons  who  aid  in  this  superlative  and 
never-ending  task  of  making  all  men  sharers  in  the  best  that 
man  possesses. 

As  to  cranks,  they  are  of  two  kinds-  -those  made  morbid  bv 
compassion  for  others,  and  those  made  morbid  by  an  excessive 
regard  for  themselves.  A  gigantic  ego  is  the  usual  impelling 
motive  of  the  cranks  that  hate,  denounce  and  destroy.  These  are 
the  cranks  to  be  feared  and  opposed.  Not  the  other  kind,  the 
noble  crank,  whose  very  errors  often  contain  more  wisdom  than 
the  correct  opinions  of  many  whom  they  disturb  and  alarm.  The 
Duke  of  Argyll  may  be  a  sounder  political  economist  than  Henry 
George,  but  the  atom  of  regenerating  truth  in  George  will  never 
cease  to  operate  until  no  duke,  nor  any  other  man,  will  own 
20,000  acres  of  the  common  estate,  and  the  duke's  successor  will 
himself  laugh  at  the  preposterousness  of  such  a  distribution. 

James  Parton. 

GOETHE  AND   SCHILLER'S  XENIONS. 

To  the  Editors : 

In  The  Open  Court  of  July  :i  there  appeared  an  article 
entitled  "Goethe  and  Schiller's  Xenions."  The  author,  Dr.  Paul 
Carus,  while  making  the  article  proper  consist  in  translations  of 
and  comments  upon  some  of  the  distichs,  begins  by  explaining 
the  construction  of  the  Latin  distich  upon  which  model  many  of 
them  were  written.  In  doing  this  he  lays  himself  open  to.  the 
charge  of  incompetency.  Passing  such  grammatical  errors  as  the 
substitution  of  the  words  meter  and  meters  for  foot  and  feet,  we 
come  to  the  announcement  that  "  the  hexameter  is  known  to 
Americans  from  Longfellow's  Evangeline"  and  that  "  the  pen- 
tameter consists  of  twice  two  and  a  half,  i.  e.,  five  dactylic  meters, 
which  are  separated  by  an  incision.  Instead  of  two  short  sylla- 
bles there  may  always  be  one  long  syllable,  with  the  exception  of 
the  fifth  meter  of  the  hexameter  and  the  latter  half  of  the  pen- 
tameter." 

To  those  who  are  equal  to  the  task  of  understanding  this  may- 
it  be  submitted;  to  the  student  it  is  simple  nonsense. 

What  does  Dr.  Carus  mean  by  a  pentameter  being  "  sepa- 
rated by  an  incision  ? "  and  why  has  he  not  used  the  proper  word 
"caesura,"  which  means  "division,"  and  not  "incision,"  in  speak- 
ing of  that  separation?  And  why  has  he,  as  a  crowning  error, 
omitted  to  speak  of  the  caesura,  which  divides  the  hexameter? 
This  glaring  mistake  would  be  enough  in  itself  to  prove  his  lack 
of  knowledge  upon  the  subject  which  he  essays  to  treat;  and  an 
examination  of  his  "schedule  "  of  the  distich  reveals  no  ca?sura 
in  the  hexameter.  Explanations  of  verse  construction  are  not 
difficult,  but  to  one  who,  like  Dr.  Carus,  has  not  thoroughly  qual- 
ified himself  great  difficulties  are  presented.  He  is  like  one  who 
tries  to  explain  the  laws  which  govern  mathematics  without  that 
knowledge  of  terms  which  is  necessary  in  order  to  make  himself 
understood. 

Of  his  translations  it  may  be  said  that  they  reveal  a  disposi- 
tion to  make  hexameters  whether  the  original  lines  are  hexametric 


II" 


THR    OPEN    COURT. 


or  not,  and  of  course  faithfulness  to  the  text  must  be  to  some 
degree  sacrificed  as  a  result.  Comparison  of  the  originals  of  the 
first  and  thirteenth  of  the  distichs,  as  well  as  the  one  addressed  to 
the  Muse,  with  their  translations,  will  show  clearly  that  great 
liberty  has  been  taken  with  them.  And  lastly  it  may  be  said 
that  a  thorough  knowledge  of  two  languages  is  a  qualification 
necessary  to  insure  correct  and  worthy  translation  of  literature, 
whether  in  the  form  of  yerse  or  prose.  That  the  former  is  the  more 
difficult  goes  without  saying,  and  Dr.  Cams  in  attempting  this 
has  shown  most  clearly  y  lack  of  that  qualification. 

W.  F.  Barnard. 


DR.    CARUS'    REPLY. 

Mr.  Barnard  speaks  of  my  "explaining  the  Latin  distich." 
I  said  "the  Xenions  are  imitations  of  a  Roman  poet's  verses," 
from  which  statement  Mr.  Barnard  apparently  draws  his  wrong 
conclusion.  The  distich  is  as  little  Latin  as  it  is  German  or  En- 
glish, it  is  Greek. 

I  say  that  the  hexameter  consists  of  six  and  the  pentameter 
of  fiye  meters.  This  is  so  true  that  it  is  a  tautology.  Mr.  Barnard 
^avs,  it  is  "a  grammatical  (!)  error."  According  to  him  f  should 
say,  "  the  hexameter  has  six  feet"  Why,  then  did  the  Greek  not 
call  it  ffdiroi'f  (six-foot)?  They  called  it  ffauerpoc  (six-meter). 
Incidentally  a  dactylic  meter  consists  of  one  foot,  but  other 
meters,  as  the  iambic,  consist  of  two  feet.  This  simple  fact  ex- 
plains why  the  inaccurate  and  sloven  expression  "foot "  should 
not  be  used  for  the  correct  term  "meter." 

Although  the  pentameter  consists  of  twice  two  and  a  half 
meters,  its  name  pentameter  is  a  misnomer.  I  should  take  pleas- 
ure in  explaining  this  puzzle,  but  it  would  lead  me  too  far  now. 

Mr.  Barnard  asks  why  I  did  not  use  the  proper  term  ccesura. 
I  did  not  use  it  because  I  wanted  to  avoid  the  Latin  and  Greek 
terminology. 

Mr.  Barnard  declares  that  I  "as  a  crowning  error  omitted  to 
speak  of  ///*'  ca:sura  which  divides  the  hexameter."  He  also 
blames  me  for  having  omitted  it  in  the  schedule.  Let  me  state 
that  the  hexameter  can  have  many  different  caesuras  (e.  g.  Kara 
-,imv  -<;,.-y,n,,i,  Tn-ih/iii/itr)/-,  iH(h/!it/<ta'/i).  Accordingly  it  would 
have  been  an  impossibility  to  adorn  my  schedule  with  the  ciesuia  of 
the  hexameter. 

Mr.  Barnard  says  caesura  means  "division"  not  "incision." 
A  Latin  scholar  who  has  not  quite  forgotton  the  elementaries, 
will  tell  him  that  cajsura  is  derived  from  ccederc,  "to  cut." 
Division  in  the  English  language  can  be,  but  must  not  be,  "a  cut." 
I  advise  Mr.  Barnard  to  consult  the  English  dictionaries  before 
he  writes.  He  will  find  that  the  division  of  the  House  of 
Congress  is  no  cutting  it  assunder  like  a  piece  of  wood.  How- 
ever, the  ciesura  is  a  cutting  of  the  verse. 

I  stated  in  my  article  that  the  two  halves  of  the  pentameter 
are  separated  by  an  incision.  Mr.  Barnard  makes  of  it:  "The 
pentameter  is  separated  by  an  incision,"  and  then  asks  what  that 
nonsense  means. ,  I  do  not  know  how  the  pentameter  itself  can 
be  separated.  Mr.  Barnard  must  first  state  from  what,  but  can  by 
no  means  make  me  answerable  for  it's  distortion  of  my  sentence. 

Mr.  Barnard  says,  that  "my  translations  reveal  a  disposition 
to  make  hexameters,  whether  the  original  lines  are  hexametric  (!) 
or  not."  The  original  lines  are  not  simply  hexametric,  they  are 
distichs  and  so  are  my  translations.  The  term  hexametric  can 
not  well  be  applied  to  the  pentameters. 

If  Mr.  Barnard  really  made  an  attempt  at  comparing  the  two 
versions,  he  betrays  that  his  knowledge  of  German  does  not  sur- 
pass his  knowledge  of  Latin. 

The  original  of  the  first  distich  is: 
In'  Weimar  und'  in  Je'  na  macht'  man  Hexa'  meter  wie'  der. 
A'ber  die  Pen'  tameter'     Sind'  doch  noch  ex'  cellenter'. 


^Sly  translation  is  (the  accentuation  is  intentionally  wrong  in 
both  versions) : 

In    Weimar  and'  in  Je'  na  they  make'  Hexame'  ters  like  this'  one. 
But'  the  Pen'  tameters'       Are'  even  queer'er  than  this'. 

The  original  of  the  thirteenth  distich  is: 
Jeder,  nimmst  du  ihn  einzeln,  ist  leidlich  klug    und  verstiindig, 
Aber  in  corpore  gleich     Wird  euch  ein  Dummkopf  daraus. 

I  translate : 

Every  one  of  them,  singly   considered,  is   sensible,   doubtless. 

But  in  a  body  the  whole         Number  of  them  is  an  ass. 

Here  I  confess  guilty  having  translated  Dummkopf  with  ass. 
Not  every  ass  is  necessarily  a  Dummkopf. 

The  distich  addressed  to  the  Muse  is  in  German  : 
Was  ich  ohne  Dich  ware,  ich  weiss  es  nicht!     Aber  ich  schaudre 

Seh'  ich  was  ohne  Dich  Hundert  und  Tausende  sind. 

I  translate : 
How  I  could  live  without  thee,  I    know  not.       But    horror   o'er- 
takes  me 

Seeing  these  thousands  and  more         Who   without  thee  can 
exist. 

Mr.  Barnard  is  welcome  to  furnish  more  literal  and  better 
translations.  If  he  deems  that  task  too  easy,  he  may  translate 
the  following  distich  into  Latin  or  German: 

Barnard  my  scurrilous  critic  reveals  a  grotesque  disposition. 

Badly  to  libel  himself,  while  he  his  neighbor  reviles. 

If  Mr.  Barnard  had  known  before,  how  little  he  knew  of  the 
subject,  I  do  not  doubt,  he  would   have    used  more  decent    lan- 
guage, if  he  had  spoken  at  all.     An  old  Latin  proverb  savs: 
O  si  tacuisses,  philosophus  mansisses. 

Dr.  Paul  Carus. 


BOOK   REVIEWS. 


Facts  and   Fictions  of   Mental  Healing.     By  Charles  M. 

Barrows,    author    of  Bread  Pills,   a    Study   of  Mind   Cure. 

Boston:     H.    H.    Carter   &    Karrick,    1SS7.     Cloth,    pp.   248. 

Price  $1.25. 

The  hold  which  psychological  investigation  or  "Mental 
Science"  has  taken  upon  the  public  mind  during  the  last  three 
or  four  years  is  nowhere  so  strongly  shown  as  in  the  abundant 
flow  from  the  press  of  literature  on  the  subject.  Periodicals, 
leaflets,  pamphlets  and  books  reach  us  from  every  direction  giving 
the  differing  views  of  individual  investigators  and  believers  on  a 
subject  which  as  yet  has  received  from  no  one  of  these  writers 
adequate  scientific  explanation  satisfactory  to  thoughtful  minds. 

The  work  before  us,  written  from  the  standpoint  of  a  believer 
in  the  reality  of  many  of  the  cures  said  to  be  effected  by  "Mental 
Healers,"  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  we  have  seen  on  the  subject. 
It  is  written  in  a  style  so  clear,  sensible,  earnest  and  vigorous 
that  whatever  one  may  believe  on  the  matter  the  attention  is 
held  from  beginning  to  end.  Mr.  Barrows,  we  understand,  has 
had  exceptional  opportunities  in  his  own  family  circle  for  study- 
ing the  methods  and  phenomena  of  what  he  appropriately  terms 
"psychopathy,"  and  has  for  several  years  in  the  spirit  of  sincere 
impartial  inquiry  read  all  the  pros  and  cons,  and  investigated 
personally  many  of  the  alleged  "mind  cures"  effected  by 
"Christian  Scientists,"  "Metaphysicians,"  " Mental  Hearers,"  etc., 
and  apparently  has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  in  many  cases 
real  cures  are  effected  by  a  force  in  nature  which  has  not  yet  been 
sufficiently  investigated  to  be  rightly  understood  or  made  use  of. 
He  says:  "The  day  is  not  far  distant,  let  us  hope,  when  a  repu- 
table doctor  may  elect  to  employ  mental  treatment  instead  of 
prescribing  a  drug,  and  not  lose  caste."  In  this  work  the  author 
gives  a  comprehensive  risumi  of  the  history  of  mental  healing, 
and  in  doing  so  goes  much  further  back  in  time  than  many  readers 
would   expect.     He   quotes  from   many   authorities  both   for  and 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


447 


against  the  practice,  and  nowhere  emphasizes  his  own  particular 
views,  but  gives  what  he  thinks  impartial  evidence  and  leaves  the 
reader  to  draw  his  own  conclusions.  He  treats  the  subject  in  a 
philosophical  as  well  as  historical  manner,  devoting  one  chapter 
to  a  consideration  of  the  Brahminic  philosophy,  and  another  to 
Emerson's  idealism,  considering  both  as  having  relation  to  the 
more  spiritual  aspects  of  his  theme,  and  illustrates  his  points 
often  with  pertinent  and  charming  quotations  from  the  best  poets. 


Christian  Science  pamphlets,  containing  addresses  by 
Emma  Hopkins,  Ursula  Gestefield  and  Mrs.  M.  Phelon,  have 
been  received,  all  substantially  agreeing  in  their  views.  Of 
"Christian  Science"  Mrs.  Hopkins  says,  we  see  the  lion  and  the 
lamb  lie  down  together,  when  science,  the  sworn  enemy  of 
religion  in  the  past,  and  religion,  stern  persecutor  of  science  in  all 
ages,  are  yoked  together  as  fellow-workers  in  a  common  cause, 
by  calling  each  the  explanation  and  defense  of  the  other,  and  bv 
each  claiming  to  be  the  enlightener  and  saviour  of  humanity. 

Ursula  N.  Gestefield  declares  that  "Christian  Science"  means 
vastly  more  than  a  new  and  improved  method  of  healing  the 
sick.  It  does  not  simply  mean  the  cure  of  disease  in  others  by 
the  use  of  something  which  one  has  been  taught.  It  means 
self-conquest,  spiritual  growth  and  development ;  and  through  this 
self-conquest,  growth  and  development,  which  are  the  result 
of  the  understanding  of  what  he  is  aiming  at,  he  becomes 
that  which  enables  him  both  to  prevent  and  overcome  all  forms 
of  Buffering;  and  Mrs.  Phelon  feels  sure  that  disease  only  came 
with  man's  "  fall"  and  consequent  knowledge  of  good  and  evil ;  "  if 
man  knew  not  evil,"  she  oracularly  says,  "  but  thought  only  good, 
his  mentality,  latent  or  active,  nould  never  produce  disease  or 
suffering  upon  himself  or  others." 


Among  other  literature  on  the  subject  recently  received  by  us 
is  a  little  book,  price  50  cents,  written  by  L.  P.  Mercer  and 
published  bv  C.  II.  Kerr  &  Co.,  of  this  city,  entitled  The  Net*) 
/Hr///,  with  a  chapter  on  "Mind  Cure,"  which  is  written  from 
the  Swedenborgian  standpoint.  Mr.  Mercer  remarks  of  the 
"Physical  Wave,"  of  which  "Mind  Cure"  is  one  of  the  devel- 
opments that  "there  are  epochs  marked  by  the  influx  of  new 
forces,  giving  new  impulses  to  popular  thought  and  accompanied 
with  revelation  of  new  truths  as  to  the  material  of  thought.  Not 
oscillations  of  thought,  but  advances  to  new  platforms  and 
standpoints.  A  characteristic  of  our  time  is  the  vague  conscious- 
ness of  such  a  beginning.  *  *  *  It  means  that  the  Lord  will 
have  a  new  church  and  a  new  religion.  The  time  is  come  and  the 
forces  are  set  in  motion.  The  new  church  [i.  e.  Swedenborgian] 
stands  unmoved  in  the  midst  of  all  these  fluctuations.  *  *  * 
She  expects  these  movements  before  they  occur.  She  knows  the 
meaning  of  them  before  they  mature." 

Yorfragen  der  Ethik.     By  Dr.  Christoph  Sigwart.     Freiburg 

im  B.     1S86. 
Sketch  of  a  New  Utilitarianism.     By  W.  Don..   Lighthall, 

.1/.  A.,  B.  C.  L. 

Two  pamphlets  on  ethical  subjects  lie  before  me.  One  from 
the  Old  World,  the  other  from  the  New,  the  one  written  byacorv- 
pheus  of  German  philosophy,  viz.,  a  well-known  professor  of  the 
old  University  of  Tubingen,  the  other  by  an  American,  who  is 
not  as  far  as  I  know,  a  philosopher  by  profession  but  only  from 
inclination.  Each  so  different  in  character  and  education,  start- 
ing from  quite  contrary  principles  finally  agrees  with  the  other 
and  fundamentally  they  teach  the  same  ethics — Sigwart,  the 
scholar  of  Nestor-like  wisdom,  carefully  weighing  all  pros  and 
cons,  Lighthall,  the  confident  and  aspiring  American,  boldly 
soaring  to  loftier  heights  and  thus  amplifying  his  horizon. 

Sigwart  is  imbued  with  the  spirit  and  tendencies  of  the  accu- 
mulated religious  and  philosophic  thought  of  humanity,  but  he  is 


at  the  same  time  open  to  new  ideas;  the  weak  side  of  Kant's  cate- 
goric imperative  is  not  hidden  from  his  critical  eye  although  he 
is  not  lacking  in  appreciation  of  the  great  thinker  of  Koenigsberg. 
Sigwart  carefully  considers  the  claims  of  a  happiness  theory 
in  ethics  and  although  in  the  end  he  does  not  accept  it,  it  never- 
theless serves  to  moderate  the  rigidity  of  his  traditional  altruism. 
He  concludes  his  essay  with  these  words: 

"The  satisfaction  which  can  be  equally  realised  by  all  men 
must  be  found  ultimately  in  the  certainty  of  purpose  which  lies 
beyond  individual  consciousness  and  its  limits.  This  purpose  is 
to  work  for  humanity  and  the  universe  in  order  to  appreciate  one's 
own  value  as  the  bearer  of  a  higher  idea  and  the  executor  of  a 
divine  will.     Here  ethics  and  metaphysics  meet." 

The  contrary  path  has  been  pursued  by  Mr.  Lighthall.  He 
started  from  utilitarianism  and  found  it  insufficient  as  a  solid 
ethical  foundation.  In  the  search  for  supplying  this  deficiency  he 
went  to  the  ancient  as  well  as  to  the  German  philosophers  and 
found  what  he  wanted.  The  result  of  his  search  is  what  he  calls 
"  a  new  utilitarianism  " — a  utilitarianism  in  which  he  gets  rid  of 
hedonism  and  the  theory  that  an  exclusive  personal  happiness  is 
and  must  be  the  only  spring  of  man's  actions.  His  utilitarianism 
has  broadened  into  altruism.  He  concludes  with  the  famous  dic- 
tum of  the  philosopher  on  the  Roman  throne-  Aurelius:  "Con- 
stantly regard  the  universe  as  one  living  being,  having  one  sub- 
stance and  one  soul ;  and  observe  how  all  things  have  reference 
to  one  perception — the  perception  of  this  one  living  being;  and 
how  all  things  act  with  one  movement."  P.  c. 


The  Monk's  Wedding.     Boston:    Cupples  &  Hurd. 

This  novel,  which  comes  to  us  in  the  most  alluring  type  and 
paper,  the  daintiest  of  binding,  for  summer  reading,  is  translated 
by  Miss  Sarah  Adams,  from  the  German  of  Conrad  Ferdinand 
Meyer.  It  is  a  tragic  story  of  med:vval  times,  purporting  to  be 
told  by  Dante  to  a  princely  group  of  listeners  around  the  hearth 
of  a  Noble  in  Verona.  It  is  told  in  modern  style  and  with  a  dig- 
nitv  quite  in  keeping  with  the  "  mingled  seriousness  and  disdain  " 
made  to  characterize  the  narrator,  and  the  novel  is  full  of  all  the 
tragic  elements  of  that  boisterous  period.  The  hero  of  the  story, 
as  the  title  indicates,  is  a  monk.  He  has  been  from  childhood 
restrained  by  his  vows  to  a  life  so  blameless  as  to  be  proverbial 
for  its  saintliness.  When  for  reasons  of  family  policy  he  is 
released  from  these  monastic  vows,  the  reaction  is  so  violent  and 
immediate  that  his  passion  overrides  all  law  and  all  intention  ot 
conduct  and  he  becomes  a  victim  to  the  wildest  and  most  disas- 
trous impulses.  There  is  material  enough  for  a  much  longer 
story  and  tragedy  enough  for  those  murderous  Italian  times ;  and 
if  other  stories  told  by  the  friends  who  were  gathered  around  that 
Verona  fireside  for  evening  entertainment,  were  as  bristling  with 
events  and  daggers  as  Dante's  was,  the  guests  must  have  all 
needed  the  stirrup  cup  before  they  separated  for  sleeping. 


The  Scientific  Basis  of  Progress,  including  that  of  Morality. 
By  G.  Gore,  I.L.  D.,  /•".  R.  S.,  author  of  Tiie  Art  of  Scien- 
tific Discovery,  The  Principles  and  Practice  of  Electro-deposition, 
The  Art  of  Eiectro-Mctallur±!\\  etc.  London  and  Edinburgh  : 
Williams  &  Norgate;  pp.  21S. 

The  aim  of  this  work  is  to  show  that  the  essential  starting 
point  of  human  progress  lies  in  scientific  discovery,  that  new- 
truths  are  evolved  by  original  research  made  in  accordance  with 
scientific  methods,  to  illustrate  these  processes  by  examples  and 
to  point  out  how  such  research  can  be  encouraged.  The  greatest 
obstacle  to  the  discovery  of  new  knowledge  the  author  declares 
to  be  the  wide-spread  ignorance  of  the  dependence  of  human 
welfare  upon  scientific  research,  of  the  vast  importance  ot  new 
truth  as  a  fundamental  source  of  progress.  As  advance  origi- 
nates in   new    knowledge,  unless  new  discoveries  are  made,  new 


44§ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


inventions  and  improvements  must  sooner  or  later  cease.  A 
chapter  is  devoted  to  showing  the  importance  of  new  scientific 
knowledge   as   a  source  of  mental  and   moral  advancement. 

Dr.  Gore  shows  not  only  large  acquaintance  with  science,  but 
philosophic  insight  and  breadth  and  comprehensiveness  of  thought. 
The  work  is  one  which  should  be  read  by  all  those  who,  under 
the  influence  of  theological  and  metaphysical  theories  and 
methods,  are  unable  to  see  the  intimate  relation  between  scientific 
and  moral  progress. 


Review  of  the  Evidences  of  Christianity.  By  Abner  Knee- 
land.  Boston :  J.  P.  Mendum,  Investigator  office,  1S87  ;  pp.  204. 
Abner  Kneeland  was  for  a  number  of  years  a  Universalist 
minister,  recognized  in  his  denomination  as  one  of  its  rrlost  learned 
representatives.  But  he  changed  his  views  and  more  than  half  a 
century  ago  was  a  figure  of  considerable  prominence  owing  to  his 
outspoken  opposition  to  all  forms  of  supernaturalism.  He  founded 
the  Boston  Investigator  and  was  its  first  editor.  He  was  tried  for 
"  blasphemy,"  convicted  and  sentenced  to  two  months  imprison- 
ment in  Leverett  street  jail,  Boston.  The  specific  charge  was  that 
he  had  expressed  disbelief  in  the  existence  of  a  God.  He  was 
admitted  by  his  prosecutors  and  persecutors  to  be  a  man  of 
upright  life  and  of  many  noble  traits  of  character. 

We  are  reminded  of  these  facts  by  this  volume,  the  tenth 
edition  of  a  course  of  lectures  given  in  New  York  by  Mr.  Kneeland 
in  1829.  The  lectures  were  drawn  chiefly  from  a  series  of  essays 
which  appeared  in  the  fifth  volume  of  the  Correspondent,  a  radi- 
cal freethought  journal  published  in  New  York."  Mr.  Kneeland 
refers  to  the  author  of  the  articles,  who  wrote  over  the  pseudonym 
"  Philo  Veritas,"  as  "  my  learned  friend."  The  author,  if  we  mis- 
take not,  was  Professor  Thomas  Cooper,  of  Columbia  College, 
S.  C,  a  man  of  ability  and  learning  and  of  great  vigor  of  expres- 
sion, who  wrote  on  scientific,  political  and  theological  themes 
with  equal  readiness  and  zeal.  The  lectures  contain  many  facts, 
citations  and  references  and  much  sound  argument  in  regard  to 
Christianity"  historically  considered,  but  it  would  be  strange  if 
after  more  than  fifty  years  of  research  and  discussion,  more  accu- 
rate and  valuable  treatises  on  the  same  subject  had  not  appeared. 


The  Bible:   What  is  It?    By  J.D.Sliaiv.  Waco,  Texas;  pp.49. 

Price  25  cents. 
The  Divinity  of  Christ.  By  J.  D.  Shazr;  pp.  49.  Price  2ocents. 

In  these  pamphlets,  Mr.  Shaw,  formerly  a  Methodist  minister 
of  some  prominence,  now  editor  of  a  liberal  monthly,  The  Inde- 
pendent Pulpit,  discusses  the  fundamental  claims  of  orthodox 
Christianity.  The  author  attempts  no  original  criticism,  but  he 
presents  some  of  the  objections  to  the  popular  belief  as  to  the 
authority  and  infallibility  of  the  Scriptures  in  a  concise  and  forci- 
ble manner  and  in  a  temperate  spirit. 


The  Art  Amateur  fitly  ushers  in  the  golden  month  of  Sep- 
tember by  an  excellent  fac  simile  in  color  from  a  painting  of 
Chrysanthemums  by  Victor  Dargon.  The  little  head,  intended 
for  a  plaque  by  Ellen  Welby,  is  too  naive  and  pretty  to  be  copied 
and  distorted  by  all  manner  of  fault  in  the  workmanship  of  young 
amateurs.  The  reading  matter  is  rather  largely  commercial,  occu- 
pied more  with  the  sale  of  pictures  than  their  production.  We 
find,  however,  a  pleasant  sketch  with  a  portrait  of  a  young  Penn- 
sylvania artist,  Wm.  Anderson  Coffin,  and  some  notes  of  his 
recollections  of  Bonnat's  Life  School.  Those  young  students  who 
think  themselves  neglected  if  a  teacher  is  not  always  at  their 
elbow,  will  be  surprised  to  find  that  he  thought  three  weeks  a  very 
reasonable  interval  between  his  visits.  Three  weeks,"  he 
laughed,  "oh,  that  is  nothing,  sometimes  le  Pere  Coynet  did  not 
come  for  a  year."  The  picture  of  "  Salome,"  by  Henri  Regnault, 
is  far  from  attractive  in  black  and  white,  but  the  description  of  it 


is  very  interesting  and  undoubtedly  the  magic  of  color  lends  it  a 
wonderful  charm.  Margaret  Bertha  Wright  gives  a  pleasant  little 
sketch  of  Normandy,  "  The  Artists'  Country."  The  technical 
and  decorative  articles  are  good  as  usual.  We  are  shocked  to  find 
the  Amateur  allowing  the  use  of  the  word  phenomenal  in  its  pres- 
ent slang  meaning.  "  His  success  was  phenomenal,"  how  absurd! 
We  think  he  would  have  preferred  that  it  should  be  real. 


The  Revue  de  Belgique  for  August,  begins  with  an  article 
by  Count  Goblet  d'Alviella,  on  the  reorganization  of  Belgian 
liberals.  There  is  also  the  first  essay  of  a  series  giving  a  minute 
account  of  the  revolution  in  Brabant  in  1790.  Much  more  general 
interest  will  be  excited  by  a  very  able  review  of  Taine's  History  of 
the  French  Revolution.  The  famous  author  is  proved  guilty  not 
only  of  contradicting  himself  frequently,  but  of  omitting  to  men- 
tion many  of  the  best  'acts  of  the  Convention,  for  instance,  the 
establishment  of  a  uniform  system  of  weights  and  measures,  as 
well  as  of  normal  and  polvtechnic  schools.  All  progressive  and 
liberal  movements  have  so  much  in  common  that  it  is  a  great  pity 
to  see  public  opinion  in  America  and  England,  about  the  French 
Revolution,  molded  into  reactionary  channels  by  that  excessive 
fondness  for  finding  fault  which  mars  the  otherwise  brilliant  work 
ofhothTaine  and  Carlyle. 


This  story,  which  appeared  a  few  months  ago  in  an  English 
journal,  is  heartily  laughed  at  on  both  sides  of  the  Tweed : 

Long  ago  a  dreadful  war  was  waged  between  the  King  of 
Cornwall  and  the  King  of  Scotland,  in  which  the  latter  pre- 
vailed. The  Scottish  king,  highly  elated  by  his  success,  sent  for 
his  Prime  Minister,  Lord  Alexander. 

Weel,  Sandy,"  said  he,  "  is  there  ne'er  a  king  we  canna  con- 
quer the  noo?"  [now.] 

"  An'  it  plase  Yer  Majesty,  I  ken  but  o'  a'e  king  that  Yer 
Majesty  canna  conquer." 

"And  wham  is  he,  Sandy?" 

Lord  Alexander,  reverently  looking  up,  said: 

"The  King  of  Heeven." 

"The  King  of  whaur,  Sandy?" 

"  The  King  of  Heeven." 

The  Scotch  King  did  not  understand,  but  was  unwilling  to 
show  any  ignorance. 

"Just  gang  yer  ways,  Sandy,  and  tell  the  King  of  Heeven  to 
give  up  his  dominions,  or  I'll  come  mysel'  and  ding  him  o'  them, 
and  mond,  Sandy,  ye  do  not  come  back  till  us  until  ye  have  done 
our  biddin'." 

Lord  Alexander  retired,  much  perplexed,  but  met  a  priest, 
the  sight  of  whom  put  a  thought  into  his  head  which  reassured 
him,  and  he  returned  and  presented  himself  before  the  throne. 

"Weel,  Sandy,"  said  the  King,  "have  ye  seen  the  King  of 
Heeven,  and  what  says  he  to  our  biddin'?" 

"  An'  it  plase  Yer  Majesty,  I  ha'e  no  seen  the  King  himsel', 
but  I  ha'e  seen  one  of  his  accredited  meenisters." 

"  Well,  what  says  he?" 

"  He  says  Yer  Majesty  mav  e'en  ha'e  his  kingdom  for  the 
asking  o'  it." 

"Was  he  saeceevil?"  said  the  King,  warmed  to  magnanimity. 
"Just  gang  yer  ways  back.  Sandy,  and  tell  the  King  o'  Heeven 
that  for  his  civility,  nae  Scotchman  shall  ever  set  foot  in  his 
kingdom!" 


PRESS  NOTICES. 

We  have  on  our  table  a  copy  of  The  Open  Cockt,  a  new  scientific  relig- 
ious semi-monthly  journal,  published  at  Chicago,  111.  It  is  rilled  with  interest- 
ing articles  from  the  pens  of  the  best  writers  in  the  countiv. — Battle  Lake 
(Minn.)  Review. 

The  Open  Coukt,  a  fortnightly  journal  published  in  Chicago  and 
"devoted  to  establishing  ethics  and  religion  upon  a  scientific  basis,"  has 
reiched  our  table.  It  has  a  list  of  able  writers  and  discusses  live  topics  of  the 
day.     We  hope  it  will  continue  to  come  to  us. —  Cameron  (Mo.)  Observer. 

We  are  in  receipt  of  a  copy  of  The  Open  Coukt,  a  journal  published  at 
175  La  Salle  street,  Chicago,  111.,  every  other  week,  and  is  devoted  to  the  work 
of  establishing  ethics  and  religion  upon  a  scientific  basis.  We  find  that  the 
journal  possesses  no  little  amount  of  common  sense  and  sound  logic,  and  that 
it  contains  contributions  of  many  of  the  ablest  thinkers  of  this  age. —  Tustin 
(Mich.)  Echo. 


The  Open  Court. 

A.  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon  a   Scientific   Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  17. 


CHICAGO,  SEPTEMBER  29,  1887. 


\  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


SHAKERS     AND     SHAKERISM. 

BY    HESTER    M.    POOLE. 

A  late  visit  to  the  Shakers  at  the  instance  of  one  of 
their  elders,  filled  me  with  a  desire  to  lay  before  your 
readers  some  account  of  these  people  so  interesting  to  the 
thoughtful  student  of  humanity,  yet  so  little  understood. 

On  the  eastern  boundarv  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
twenty  miles  as  the  crow  flies  from  the  Hudson,  and 
contiguous  to  the  beautiful  hills  of  Berkshire,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, lies  about  six  thousand  acres  of  land  owned  and 
tilled  by  the  Shakers  of  Mt.  Lebanon. 

A  lonely  and  peaceful  scene  expands  before  the  visi- 
tor who  rides  through  these  well-tilled  farms  and  in- 
spects workshops  and  dwellings.  Along  the  street  one 
group  of  buildings  succeed  another,  five  in  all,  contain- 
ing three  hundred  or  more  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages. 
Each  group  constitutes  a  family,  presided  over  by  two 
men  and  two  women,  whose  wisdom,  patience,  and 
tenderness  are  constantly  challenged  in  administering 
more  especially  to  the  spiritual  necessities  of  those  under 
their  charge.  They  are  assisted  in  the  temporal  affairs 
(  by  two  deacons  and  two  deaconesses,  whose  wisdom  is 
available  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  good  of  the 
society.  • 

The  family  life  is  that  of  a  religious  communism,  the 
intention  being  as  far  as  possible,  to  preserve  and  per- 
petuate primitive  '  Christianity.  Body  and  soul  are 
consecrated  to  this  purpose.  It  is  a  part  of  their  un- 
written creed  to  study  the  laws  of  hygiene  and  conform 
to  them,  to  live  in  celibacy,  and  to  exercise  justice  in  the 
earning,  owning  and  distribution  of  property. 

Among  them  are  neither  bond  nor  free,  rich  nor 
poor.  All  are  incited  to  industry,  thrift,  generosity  and 
fraternity,  and  there  is  a  strong  psychologic  power  in 
such  sentiments,  which,  when  exercised  by  masses  of 
people,  produces  an  influence  that  not  even  the  stranger 
within  the  gate  can  quite  escape.  The  despot  or  the 
millionaire  would  feel  out  of  place  among  those  "  gentle 
ascetics,"  whose  lives  are  a  rebuke  to  that  spirit  of 
greed,  selfishness  and  love  of  luxury  which  is  the  curse 
of  modern  civilization.  We  find  at  Mt.  Lebanon  sev- 
eral hundred  people  living  in  a  simple,  pure,  whole- 
some manner,  without  the  help  of  courthouse,  jail,  grog 
shops  or  the  three  professions,  so  that  even  from  an  ex- 
ternal point  of  view,  Shaktrism  is  eminently  successful. 

All  the  buildings  occupied  by  the  respective  families, 


constructed  of  wood,  brick  and  stone,  are  commodious 
and  well  ventilated.  The  arrangements  for  cooking  and 
eating  are  admirable;  in  fact,  in  regard  to  appliances 
for  comfort  and  sanitation  they  take  the  lead  among 
progressive  peoples. 

The  table,  almost  entirely  vegetarian,  is  perfect. 
Food  is  fresh,  abundant,  exquisitely  cooked  and  served 
with  care  and  intelligence.  Cereals,  with  the  exception 
of  superfine  flour,  are  cleansed  and  crushed  in  their  own 
mills  and  used  in  a  variety  of  ways.  There  is  a  large 
dairy  and  tons  of  fruit,  deliciously  prepared,  are  ranged 
in  storerooms  for  the  winter's  consumption.  Woman's 
work  is  simplified  by  curious  machinery  invented  and 
made  by  some  of  their  leaders.  All  work,  but  none 
overwork.  Garments  are  homemade  and  until  lately 
woolen  clothing  was  homespun  and  home-woven.  An 
abundance  of  spring  watfr  is  carried  into  every  build- 
ing, ventilation  and  drainage  are  excellent  and  sickness 
is  almost  a  myth.  Cleanliness  of  the  person  and  of  their 
dwellings  is  carried  to  its  utmost  extent.  It  follows 
that  simplicity  of  furnishing  is  necessary,  and  that  their 
apartments,  in  comparison  with  those  of  the  world,  look 
plain  and  bleak. 

Yet  recreation  and  rest,  sunshine  and  cheerfulness 
are  terms  having  real  meaning.  "Age  cannot  stale  nor 
custom  wither"  men  and  women  who  live  so  near  to 
nature  and  in  the  exercise  of  such  noble  qualities.  Ac- 
cordingly they  very  generally  appear  to  be  from  ten  to 
twenty  years  younger  than  they  really  are.  Many 
reach  extreme  old  age  and  finally  pass  away  from  the 
natural  decay  of  the  body,  with  little  sickness  or  pain. 
The  expression  of  the  face  is  mild,  benignant  and 
serene,  sometimes  approaching  high  spiritual  beauty. 

So  much  for  the  religion  of  the  body — the  only 
basis  of  the  scientific  and  enduring. 

Before  reviewing  their  religious  tenets  it  may  be 
well  to  state  that  their  origin  is  found  in  the  Revolu- 
tionists of  Dauphind  and  Nivarais,  France,  about  the 
year  16S9.  Offshoots  of  the  parent  stock  formed  a 
society  in  England  in  1747;  and  two  years  prior  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  by  the  American  colonies, 
Ann  Lee,  with  seven  of  her  followers,  landed  on  these 
shores. 

From  the  little  spark  brought  over  by  them  a  fire 
was  kindled  which  vivified  many  souls,  and  in  New 
Lebanon  over  a  century  ago,  these  gathered  together 


45° 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


and  built  their  first  house  for  public  worship.  From 
that  period  they  have  acted  as  a  leaven  among'  the  ele- 
ments of  progress. 

Mother  Ann,  so-called  from  that  tender  maternal 
love  which  would  fain  save  a  world  from  sin  and  suffer- 
ing, was  the  first  seer  to  enunciate  the  principle  that  the 
Great  First  Cause  is  dual — He  and  She — Father  and 
Mother.  It  is  certain  that  Theodore  Parker  obtained 
his  conception  of  this  deific  attribute  from  the  Shakers, 
as  shown  by  his  correspondence.  This  duality  is  now 
so  generally  accepted  that  churchmen  are  apt  to  forget 
that  the  Jewish  Jehovah  and  the  Christian  God  was 
forceful,  revengeful  and  on  occasion  hateful.  This  one 
sided  Creator  lacked  all  that  sweet  plentitude  of  wom- 
anly love,  which  united  with  a  manhood  of  correspond- 
ing wisdom,  would  alone  be  worthy  of  reverence.  And 
Christendom  waited  seventeen  centuries  for  a  woman  to 
declare  the  duality  of  the  Deific  Essence. 

This,  then,  is  the  central  idea  of  Shakerism.  Ranged 
about  it  are  others,  not  the  result  of  dry  reasoning,  but 
of  experiences  similar  to  those  of  Paul  and  the  Penta- 
costal  church.  Profoundly  reverent  by  nature,  they 
recognize  a  "divine  afflatus,"  which  is  the  inspiration  of 
all  real  development.  This  divine  element  they  believe 
has  manifested  itself  whenever  the  condition  of  an  indi- 
vidual or  of  society  affbided  occasion,  from  the  begin- 
ning of  history  through  Moses,  Isaiah,  Swedenborg, 
Whitfield  and  others  down  to  the  time  of  Mother  Ann, 
and  even  since  then.  They  declare  that  "the  continu- 
ous revelations  of  truth  will  ever  be  the  leading  lines  of 
human  progress." 

What  is  now  known  as  modern  Spiritualism  is  ac- 
cepted by  them  as  a  fact.  They  assert  that  all  phases  of 
mediumship  were  common  among  them  several  years 
prior  to  the  first  rap  heard  at  Hydeville  and  that  its  advent 
to  the  general  public  was  then  foretold.  In  its  higher 
phases,  shorn  of  crudities  and  monstrosities,  it  is  still 
sometimes  exhibited.  Witness  the  sweet,  pathetic  yet 
simple  melodies  which  come,  "the  gift  of  the  spirit,"  as 
they  believe,  to  one  or  another,  either  in  private  or  in 
public  worship.  A  brother  or  a  sister  at  such  times  is 
inspired  to  sing  a  new  song  to  new  music,  which,  when 
written  down  becomes  a  permanent  possession.  A  large 
book  has  been  published  consisting  of  these  inspirational 
hymns,  which  is  in  constant  use. 

They  do  not  generally  believe  in  the  miraculous 
birth  or  divinity  of  Jesus,  hut  consider  that  lie  was  divine 
in  the  sense  of  having  power  to  rise  above  the  lower 
propensities.  His  mission  was  "simply  and  fully  to 
manifest  the  divine  attributes  to  man  "  more  than  any 
other  one  who  has  ever  lived. 

They  also  believe  that  the  first  wave  of  deific  light 
sweeping  over  the  earth  after  the  Reformation,  began 
with  the  Quakers.  Its  mission  was  to  "prepare  the 
world    for   the   divine    form  of   human    society,"  or   the 


"kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth."  The  second  appear- 
ance of  this  wave  or  the  "  Christ-Spirit"  was  manifested 
in  and  through  woman  in  the  form  of  Ann  Lee. 

They  accept  the  Christian  Bible  allegorically  and 
literally  and  include  among  Bibles  the  Koran,  Talmud, 
Zendavesta  and  other  books  sacred  to  various  nations. 
They  discountenance  war,  never  go  to  law  among  them- 
selves, and  aim  to  act  in  a  just,  humane  and  brotherly 
manner  to  all  men. 

In  regard  to  women  "  It  is  the  only  society  in  the 
world,  so  far  as  we  know,"  said  Eldress  Anna,  "where 
woman  has  absolutely  the  same  freedom  and  power  as 
man  in  ever)'  respect."  And  the  world  may  well  hail  the 
advent  of  woman's  era  if  it  shall  usher  in  such  noble  types 
of  womanhood  as  we  found  at  Mt.  Lebanon,  hid  under 
the  quaint  cap  and  staid  dress  of  the  gentle  sisterhood. 

In  regard  to  the  future,  Elder  Evans  has  declared  their 
belief  to  be  that  "  The  old  heavens  and  earth — united 
church  and  state — are  fast  passing  away,  dissolving 
with  the  fire  of  spiritual  truth.  Out  of  the  material  of 
the  old,  earthly,  civil  governments,  a  civil  government 
will  arise — is  even  now  arising — in  which  right,  not 
might,  will  predominate.  It  will  be  purely  secular,  a  genu- 
ine Republic.  Men  a  ad  women  will  be  citizens.  All 
citizens  will  be  free-holders.  They  will  inherit  and  pos- 
sess the  land  by  right  of  birth.  War  will  cease  with  the 
end  of  the  old  monarchical,  theological  earth.  *  *  * 
In  the  new  earth  sexuality  will  be  used  only  for  repro- 
duction; eating  for  strength,  not  gluttony;  drinking  for 
thirst,  not  drunkenness.  And  property,  being  the 
product  of  honest  toil — as  those  who  will  not  work  will 
not  be  allowed  to  eat — will  be  for  the  good  of  all,  the 
young  and  the  old."  . 

Purity  of  mind  and  body  is  necessary  to  Shakerism. 
But  virgin  celibacy  has  in  it  nothing  of  moroseness  or 
asceticism.  A  pleasant  relation  is  maintained  between 
the  brethren  and  sisters,  fostered  by  social  meetings  in 
which  reading,  conversation  and  discussions  upon  topics 
germane  to  the  welfare  of  humanity  take  place.  In 
these,  all  who  choose  to  do  so,  participate. 

Believing  that  human  theologies  perish  in  the  using, 
while  the  revelations  of  truth  are  continuous  and  pro- 
gressive, they  earnestly  watch  and  wait  for  every  sign 
of  the  domination  of  the  spirit  of  truth  and  justice  over 
that  of  error  and  falsehood  in  the  government  or  in 
social  life.  As  to  them,  the  fall  of  man  consists  in  "dis- 
orderly relationships,"  and  the  serpent  is  the  sensuous 
nature.  They  are  strenuous  in  the  advocacy  of  purity 
and  temperance.  And  here  it  may  be  said  that  the  insti- 
tution of  marriage  is  not  condemned  by  the  Shakers. 
All  men,  they  consider,  are  bound  to  make  the  animal 
propensities  tributary  to  their  higher  natures,  while  mar- 
riage is  a  purely  worldly  institution.  They  are  called  to 
a  higher  order  of  life,  to  "come  out  of  the  world  and 
be  separate. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


45i 


The  following  description  of  this  growth  from  a 
lower  to  an  upper  plane,  is  from  the  pen  of  one  of  their 
number. who  wears  his  eighty  odd  years  as  a  crown  of 
wisdom  and  beauty. 

"Allow  me  to  assure  you,  scientific  men,  philoso- 
phers, doubters,  and  all  interested,  that  whenever  human 
spirits  are  in  the  right  condition  and  are  about  to  change 
from  the  animal  emotional  to  the  divine  t  motional  life, 
that  there  will  be  manifestations  of  intelligent  spiritual 
affinities,  forces,  effusions  of  the  divine  spirit,  producing 
extraordinary  results  as  on  the,  day  of  Pentecost.  There 
will  be  deep  conviction  of  sin,  hodilv  agitations,  gifts  of 
tongues,  curing  diseases,  discernment  of  spirits  and 
striking  with  fear  the  hardened  sinner  and  unbelieving 
opposer." 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  their  beliefs,  the  catho- 
licity of  thought  evinced  by  their  leaders,  the  compre- 
hensive grasp  of  affairs,  the  judgment  of  the  trend  and 
comparative  value  of  social,  political  and  religous  move- 
ments, the  balancing  of  various  reforms,  the  interest 
maintained  in  scientific  discoveries  and  inventions,  the 
depth  and  breadth  of  that  love  of  humanity  which 
dominates  every  motive,  is  something  as  surprising  as  it 
is  delightful  to  the  dispassionate  visitor. 

Prof.  Richard  T.  Ely,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
who  sojourned  at  Mt.  Lebanon  for  a  few  weeks,  gives 
this  testimony  in  regard  to  that  visit:  "The  feeling 
grew  upon  me  that  I  was  in  a  social  observatory,  view- 
ing as  from  another  planet  the  buying  and  selling,  the 
hurrying  to  and  fro,  the  marrying  and  giving  in  mar- 
riage, the  toil,  the  pleasure,  the  vanity,  the  oppression, 
the  good  and  the  evil  among  men  on  earth." 

There  are  seventeen  communities  of  Shakers  in  this 
country,  containing  in  all  between  four  and  five  thou- 
sand individuals.  These  are  situated  in  the  States  of 
New  York,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  Hamp- 
shire, Maine,  Ohio  and  Kentucky.  Elder  F.  W.  Evans, 
the  able  and  venerable  senior  elder  at  Mt.  Lebanon,  has 
just  returned  from  a  visit  to  England,  at  the  solicitation 
of  sympathizers  in  Great  Britian  who  desire  to  establish 
a  community.  Adherents  are  conslantly  joining  them, 
though  in  the  nature  of  things  not  in  large  numbers. 
Those  who  believe  and  work  in  unison  with  their  aims, 
yet  who  remain  without  the  fold,  are  more  numerous. 
However  this  may  be  these  people  who  dispense  with 
liquor  and  tobacco,  who  subsist  on  grains  and  fruits  and 
live  near  to  the  great  heart  of  nature,  practice  as  well 
as  preach  a  temperance  and  a  religion  well  worthy  of 
respectful  attention. 


KARL    HEINZEN. 

BY    K.    PETER. 

We  shall  endeavor,  in  a  condensed  sketch,  to  give 
some  information  about  one  of  the  most  advanced  and 
outspoken    pioneers   in   search    of  truth,   and   the   most 


fearless  advocate  and  promotor  of  religious  and  politi- 
cal independence  of  the  present  age.  But  with  the 
best  efforts  it  is  hardly  possible  to  render  full  justice  to 
the  intrepid  champion  of  unconditional  liberty,  and  the 
ardent  devotee  of  unlimited  democracy  as  the  sole  end 
and  means  for  the  attainment  of  truly  humane  life- 
conditions. 

Karl  Heinzen  is  not  as  widely  known  among  Amer- 
icans, as  he  deserves  to  be,  because  almost  all  his  polem- 
ical and  political  writings  appeared  in  the  German 
language,  only  a  few  of  his  essays  and  pamphlets  having 
been  translated  into  English.  Still  among  his  most 
intimate  friends  and  admirers  among  Americans  are 
names  of  such  lustre  as  those  of  Wendell  Phillips, 
William  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  many  other  ornaments  of 
real  democracy. 

To  Karl  Heinzen  most  properly  applies  the  famous 
epithet:  Sans  peur  et  sans  reproche,  since  his  life  was 
an  incessant  battle  against  tyranny  and  oppression  in 
whatever  form  or  guise  they  appeared.  Despots  of  the 
state  or  church,  notwithstanding  their  array  of  armed 
mobs,  trembled  before  his  mighty  pen  from  the  time  he 
flung  in  their  faces  his  awe-inspiring  gauntlet,  entitled, 
The  Prussian  Bureaucracy,  As  a  political  writer  of 
irresistible  power  he  sprang  into  existence  like  a  meteor, 
or  like  Minerva  from  Jupiter's  head.  His  book  was 
revolutionaiy  in  character. 

Henceforth  he  was  chased  from  country  to  country, 
and  finally  driven  from  the  continent,  after  a  five  years' 
exile  in  Switzerland,  whence  the  menaces  of  the  infuri- 
ated despots  had  caused  his  expulsion  by  overawing  the 
little  Republic.  A  glorious  deed  of  petty  revenge;  all 
the  great  powers  in  arms,  commanding  millions  of 
bayonets,  against  the  great  power  of  the  pen!  Poor 
Helvetia  had  to  submit,  but  the  indomitable  spirit  of 
Heinzen  could  not  be  suppressed. 

In  England  he  could  have  made  his  fortune  if  he 
had  been  able  or  weak  enough  to  accommodate  himself 
to  circumstances,  but  his  proud  republican  spirit  shrank 
from  associating  with  individuals  who  were  not  thor- 
oughly of  his  political  persuasion.  His  pamphlet 
entitled,  Lessons  of  the  Revolution,  which  the  ex-Duke 
of  Brunswick,  against  Heinzen's  will,  published  in  the 
Deutsche  Zeitung,  raised  such  a  political  storm  and 
involved  Heinzen  in  such  embarrassing  difficulties,  that 
all  his  resources  of  income  were  cut  off  at  once.  He 
resolved  to  leave  Europe  and  looked  to  the  great  West- 
ern Republic  for  new  fields  of  labor  to  gain  the  means 
for  his  future  existence. 

Untiring  as  ever  were  his  efforts  here  also  in  enlight- 
en o 

ening  and  humanizing  mankind,  in  spite  of  the  scanty 
means  of  subsistence  which  his  incessant  labors  yielded 
him,  yea,  in  spite  of  persecution,  calumny  and  defama- 
tion by  the  slavocratic  mob  and  other  reactionary  parties. 
The  pro-slavery   mob  was   then  all-powerful,   and   the 


452 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


promulgator  of  human   rights,   irrespective   of  sex  or 
color,  was  in  constant  peril  of  his  life. 

First  Heinzen  tried  his  fortune  in  New  York  by 
resuscitating  a  weekly  German  paper,  called,  Die 
ScJinei/post,  which  he  had  edited  during  his  first  sojourn 
in  America  (1S47-4S)  in  company  with  Tyssowsky,  the 
ex-dictator  of  Krakau. 

Of  the  revolutionary  enthusiasm  that  reigned  among 
the  Germans  of  America  two  years  before,  hardly  a 
trace  was  left ;  thus  the  funds  for  his  enterprise  were  not 
forthcoming  as  copiously  as  previously  promised,  and 
the  paper  died  seven  months  later,  after  a  lingering  ill- 
ness of  atrophy.  All  the  slave-traders'  rabble,  the  aristo- 
cratic nonentities,  the  communistic  Utopians  and  the 
enemies  of  women's  emancipation  were  set  against  him 
in  deadly  array.  The  Schnellpost  expired  on  the  1st 
of   September,  1S51,  but  gave  not  up  its  "ghost." 

The  second  paper,  also  published  in  New  York  was 
the  New  York  Deutsche  Zeitung,  his  favorite  issue, 
making  its  appearance  on  the  second  of  the  same  month, 
and  lived  three  months.  Next  in  order  came  Janus, 
which  struggled  for  twelve  months.  All  these  splen- 
didly edited  papers  died  of  the  same  disease;  want  of  a 
few  hundred  dollars!  The  want  of  "filthy  lucre," 
and  superabundance  of  public  meanness  stopped  the 
publication  of  the  only  decent  German  papers  then 
existing! 

During  the  summer  of  1S52,  while  the  Janus  was 
committed  to  the  care  of  an  assistant  editor,  Heinzen 
ventured  on  a  lecturing  tour  through  the  principal  States 
of  the  Union,  the  expected  proceeds  whereof  he  had 
designed  for  the  revolution  in  Europe,  but  met  with  a 
sore  disappointment,  the  only  returns  resulting  in  debts 
for  traveling  expenses  and  a  sickness  of  several  months' 
duration.  In  Philadelphia  where  he  lectured  "On 
Brotherly  Love,"  he  had  an  audience  of  thirty-six;  in 
Cincinnati,  Dayton,  Chicago  and  Toledo  he  was  threat- 
ened with  execution,  because  the  democratic  mob  in 
those  cities  represented  him  as  being  "in  the  pay  of  the 
whigs!" 

In  Albany  he  was  offered  gratuitously  the  City  Hall, 
splendidly  lighted  —  but  he  had  two  listeners  —  a  Ger- 
man school  teacher  and  an  American  who  understood 
German!  But  not  in  the  least  disheartened  by  all  these 
depressing  experiences,  on  the  contrary,  ready  and  will- 
ing to  undertake  anything  honorable  to  make  his  living 
while  promoting  his  life's  aim — the  propagation  of 
intelligence,  the  spreading  of  truth — he  accepted  a  call 
from  Louisville,  Ky.,  to  edit  the  Herald  of  the  West ; 
and  there,  in  the  very  teeth  of  the  lion,  he  proclaimed 
his  abhorence  of  slavery,  in  spite  of  all  threats  and  diffi- 
culties—  he  held  his  Thermopylae  against  all  hosts,  a 
modern  Leonidas.  But  the  fate  overtook  him  there 
also;  after  three  months  hard  work,-  and  adding  five 
hundred   new    subscribers   to   the   subscription    roll,  one 


night  fire   was   set  to  the  press-room  and  the   establish- 
ment laid  in  ruins. 

Thus  his  fifth  promising  enterprise  came  to  .an  end, 
but  not  his  enterprising  spirit.  The  sad  experience, 
however,  gathered  at  Louisville  and  the  disgusting 
atmosphere  of  the  slave-holding  State  ripened  his  resolu- 
tion to  strike  his  tent  and  to  transfer  his  household  gods 
to  New  York  again,  in  spite  of  its  meanness  and  indif- 
ference regarding  efforts  put  forth  in  the  interests  of 
progress.  After  a  year's  residence  in  Louisville  he 
started  for  the  East  and  remained  there,  publishing  the 
most  independent  paper  ever  issued  in  any  part  of  the 
globe — Tlie  Pioneer.*  For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  this  fearless  weekly  gladdened  the  hearts  and 
fired  the  courage  of  its  readers  by  the  presentation  in 
its  columns  of  the  most  thoroughgoing  investigations 
and  elucidations  in  every  department  of  useful  knowl- 
edge, scientific,  literary,  political,  economical  and  ethical 
treatises  being  the  topics  of  every  issue.  Its  appearance 
was  an  ever  recurring  holiday  to  the  educated  and  pro- 
gressive minds  of  honest  truth-seekers  in  earnest,  from 
the  first  number  to  the  last. 

The  12th  of  November,  1SS0,  was  a  day  of  sorrow 
throughout  the  camp  of  the  radicals.  The  great 
spirit  of  the  indefatigable  investigator  and  disseminator 
of  truth  in  every  accessible  branch  of  desirable  knowl- 
edge, who  never  gave  way  to  any  aggressor,  however 
powerful,  was  silenced  by  the  inexorable,  irresistible 
victor  to  whom  all  must  succumb  who  never  submit  to 
anything  else. 

On  the  1 2th  of  June,  18S6,  a  monument  worthy  of 
the  noble  hero  who,  in  accordance  with  his  last  wish, 
sleeps  in  the  shady  grove  on  Forest  Hill,  was  unveiled 
by  his  friends  and  admirers,  in  an  earnest,  solemn,  but 
unostentatious  way,  fitting  the  occasion.  Vows  of 
unswerving  adherence  to  his  principles  were  renewed  and 
new  ones  made  to  further  his  propositions  and  to  spread 
broadcast  his  unimpeachable  maxims  for  the  redemption 
of  oppressed  humanity,  by  enlightening  the  minds  of 
the  victims  of  unscrupulous  schemers. 

However  brilliant  the  genius  of  Heinzen  was,  it  was 
a  gift  of  nature;  however  accomplished  his  education,  it 
was  a  benefit  of  favorable  circumstances;  but  his  char- 
acter was  mostly  an  acquisition  by  his  free  choice  and 
stern,  decisive  determination.  Like  ancient  prototypes 
of  Greece  or  Rome  and  some  radiant  examples  of  the 
heroes  of  '76,  his  unimpeachable  integrity,  his  never 
failing  veracity,  his  ardent  devotion  to  unlimited  liberty 
and  his  imperturbable  constancy,  together  with  his 
unbiased,  unselfish  love  of  his  fellow  men  he  had  acquired 

*  It  was  begun  at  Louisville,  January  1st  to  October,  1S54;  continued  at 
Cincinnati.  November,  1S54,  till  June,  1S55;  New  York  held  it  from  that  time  to 
December,  1S5S:  it  was  then  transferred  to  lioston,  where  it  was  printed  down 
to  1S79,  when  a  serious  illncss-of  Heinzen  imperiously  demanded  that  the  prin- 
cipal burden  should  be  laid  on  other  shoulders;  thus  The  Pioneer  was  merged 
in  the  Feidenker,  of  Milwaukee,  after  an  independent  existence  of  twenty-six 
years'  duration,  and  under  the  sole  management  of  its  founder. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


453 


by  great  efforts.  These  grand  traits  form  the  character- 
istic lineaments  of  the  classic  man  and  appear  in  all  his 
acts  and  writings. 

With  him  there  was  only  one  divinity,  Reason;  only 
one  worship,  the  cultivation  of  Truth,  her  daughter; 
only  one  right,  the  right  to  life  and  liberty;  only  one 
duty,  the  duty  of  assisting  his  fellow  man  to  happiness. 
With  him  there  was  no  compromise  admissible  between 
reason  and  absurdity,  truth  and  falsehood,  right  and 
wrong;  he  never  made  the  slightest  concession  to  pusil- 
lanimous expediency,  nor  ever  had  an  excuse  for  neglect 
of  duty,  whether  caused  willingly  or  by  incapacity;  he 
followed  the  straight  (as  the  shortest)  line  of  logic  to  the 
bitter  end  of  the  last  consequence,  unaffected  by  per- 
sonal gain  or  loss.  We  might  be  permitted  to  quote 
Wendell  Phillips'  words  in  regard  to  his  appreciation  of 
the  character  of  Heinzen,  as  they  were  delivered  in  an 
address  at  the  anniversary  celebration  ofHeinzen's  birth- 
day on  the  22d  of  February,  1SS1,  in  the  Turn-Halle, 
of  Boston,  after  the  opening  speech  of  Mrs.  Clara 
Neymann,  of  New  York.* 

Wendell  Phillips  said  that  he  made.. his  acquaintance 
with  Heinzen  in  the  troublous  times  of  the  war  of  the 
rebellion,  and  valued  him  highly  as  the  great  intellectual 
leader  of  the  Germans.  "  I  never  met  him  on  the 
streets,"  he  said  "  without  a  feeling  of  the  highest 
respect,  and  this  respect  I  paid  the  rare,  almost  unexam- 
pled courage  of  the  man.  Mr  Heinzen  in  this  respect 
stands  almost  alone  among  the  immigrants  to  these  shores. 
His  idea  of  human  right  had  no  limitation.  His  respect 
for  the  rights  of  a  human  being  as  such  was  not  to  be 
shaken.  The  temptation  to  use  his  talent  to  gain  repu- 
tation, money,  power,  at  a  time  when,  a  poor  emigrant, 
he  lacked  all  these  and  was  certain  of  acquiring  them, 
was  great;  yet  all  these  he  laid  calmly  aside  for  the 
sake  of  the  eternal  principle  of  right,  of  freedom.  He 
espoused  the  detested  slave  cause  at  a  time  when  to  do 
so  meant  poverty,  desertion  of  fellow  countrymen, 
scorn,  persecution  even.  Thus  he  acted  in  every  cause. 
What  seemed  to  him  right,  after  the  most  unsparing 
search  for  truth,  he  upheld,  no  matter  at  what  cost. 
During  the  war,  feeling  that,  through  ignorance  or 
timidity  on  the  part  of  Lincoln's  government,  precious 
lives  and  treasures  were  being  wasted,  he  was  foremost 
among  a  few  leading  men  who  proposed  the  nomination 
of  Fremont  for  the  presidency.  We  had  many  private 
meetings  and  much  correspondence  with  leading  men  in 
New  York.  I  shall  never  forget  some  of  those  con- 
versations with  Mr.  Heinzen.  He  was  so  far-seeing 
and  sagacious;  he  was  so  ingenious  in  contriving;  his 
judgment  so  penetrating. 

"One  other  characteristic  he  had  belonging  only  to 
truly  great  men.  There  was  a  kind  of  serenity  and 
dignity  about  him,  as  one  sure  of  the  right  in  the  course 

*  Published  in  The  Free  Religions  Itniex,  March  3,  1SS1. 


which  he  took,  in  the  principles  which  he  stated.  He 
was  far  in  advance  of  other  minds;  but  he  was  sure,  in 
his  trust  in  human  nature,  that  all  others  would  come, 
must  come,  to  the  same  point  with  himself.  He  could 
wait.  Few,  possessing  equal  mental  ability,  are  able 
also  to  do  this.  The  greatest  courage  is  to  dare  to  be 
wholly  consistent.  This  courage  Heinzen  showed,  when 
a  little  yielding,  so  little  as  would  have  been  readily 
pardoned  on  the  ground  of  common  sense,  would  have 
gained  him  popularity,  fame,  money,  power.  He 
remained  true  to  himself." 

Wendell  Phillips  was  no  flatterer,  being  himself  an 
independent  spirit  and  reformer  of  great  achievements, 
as  is  well  known  by  his  contemporaries.  Such  an 
eulogy  of  a  congenial  mind  carries  all  its  forcible  weight 
in  itself. 

Heinzen's  exceptional  standpoint  and  disposition  in 
contradistinction  to  the  great  masses  was  not  conducive 
toward  gathering  multitudes  of  friends  around  him, 
because  very  few  understand  or  believe  that  a  wise  man 
should  like  to  benefit  the  race  without  having  in  first 
view  his  own  advantage;  yea,  they  even  call  it  foolish 
to  do  good  for  the  sake  of  the  good  itself,  especially 
such  an  ungrateful  good  as  uncompromising  truth. 

Still  Heinzen  numbered  among  his  friends  numerous 
congenial  lovers  of  liberty,  and  was  on  intimate  terms 
with  the  best  known  apostles  of  universal  liberation  of 
mankind,  indeed  with  the  flower  of  spiritual  knighthood 
of  the  era.  In  Europe  he  had  among  his  sincerest  co- 
workers the  most  eminent  of  all  nations.  It  will  suffice 
to  mention  a  few  of  them,  such  as  are  generally  famously 
known  throughout  the  civilized  world:  Mazzini,  Ruge, 
Freiligrath,  Herwegh,  Ledru  Rollin,  Louis  Blanc, 
Galeer  and  many  others.  In  America  he  associated  with 
the  most  advanced  freethinkers  and  advocates  of  free- 
dom, such  as  Wendell  Phillips,  William  Lloyd  Garri- 
son, Horace  Seaver,  Mrs.  Ernestine  Rose,  and  a  host  of 
others,  American  and  German.  His  work  contributed 
to  effect  such  a  change  of  the  public  mind  as  to  turn  it 
in  overwhelming  force  against  the  curse  of  slavery. 
We  are  all  familiar  with  the  protracted  struggle, 
endangering  the  life  of  the  Republic,  and  the  final  victory 
of  justice.  He  was  also  among  the  first  intrepid  cham- 
pions of  the  emancipation  of  woman,  incessantly  vindi- 
cating the  rights  of  the  fair  sex,  to  liberate  the  better 
half  of  mankind  from  the  despotism  of  the  "  lord  and 
master,"  and  the  drudgery  of  a  degrading  thraldom. 
This  one  of  his  life's  aims  is  not  yet  accomplished,  but 
will  be  in  the  progress  of  a  more  humane  civilization. 

Karl  Heinzen  was  also  the  first  socialistic  thinker 
who  lucidly  demonstrated  the  perversity  of  the  ruling 
economical  system.  In  his  pamphlet  (translated  into 
English)  Communism  and  Socialism,  he  not  only 
refuted  the  untenable  doctrines  and  vagaries  of  the 
communistic    demagogues,   but    proposed    a    reform   so 


454 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


simple  and  easily  feasible  in  a  real  democracy,  that  all 
later  efforts  of  the  Georges  and  the  like,  are  mere  far- 
thing candles  in  comparison  with  the  flood  of  light  he 
threw  on  the  subject  by  original  investigations  so  thor- 
ough-going that  hardly  anything  in  the  form  of 
improvement  can  be  added  to  the  all-absorbing  problem, 
which  must  ere  long  find  its  realization,  if  utter  ruin  of 
existing  economical  conditions  and  anarchistical  troubles 
are  to  be  avoided. 

Heinzen  was  the  head  and  leader  of  the  German 
Radicals,  whose  comprehensive  programme,  embracing 
all  possible  ameliorations  as  far  as  human  nature  per- 
mits, includes  among  the  improvements  of  most  urgent 
necessity  in  a  genuine  democracy :  The  abolition  of  the 
presidency  (royalty  in  disguise),  and  of  the  utterly  super- 
fluous, reactionary  house  of  the  Senate,  as  the  sources 
of  all  unrepublican  drawbacks  of  a  truly  representative 
government  of  the  people.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century 
he  was  unremittingly  engaged  in  discussing,  elucidating 
and  recommending  such  improvements  which  are  neces- 
sary to  fulfill  the  promises  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, the  only  Magna  Charta  of  human  rights,  the 
unsurpassable  gospel  of  freedom. 

Every  issue  of  his  weekly  political  catechism,  The 
Pioneer,  bears  testimony  as  well  to  his  unique  ingenuity, 
as  to  his  peerless  investigations  of  the  means  and  ways 
best  adapted  to  bring  about  an  ideal  realization  of  human 
happiness  as  far  as  human  nature  is  capable  of. 

Besides  The  Pioneer,  involving  a  vast  amount  of 
labor  and  scrupulous  research  in  collecting  all  the  most 
interesting  data  of  scientific  discoveries  and  investiga- 
tions of  convincing  power,  and  wherein  he  had  hardly 
any  assistance,  he  found  leisure  time  enough  to  deliver 
and  to  publish  a  great  number  of  instructive  lectures  in 
divers  cities  of  the  Union.  The  most  important  of  these 
lectures  and  treatises  are  collected  in  two  volumes, 
entitled,  Radicalism  in  America,  gems  of  discussions 
and  gold  mines  of  ingenious  thoughts  and  propositions. 

If  he  hated  and  dispised  anything  more  than  priest- 
craft and  despots,  against  whom  he  declared  any  weapon 
justifiable,  it  is  the  muddy -headed  rabble  who  caused  the 
employment  of  bullets  and  dynamite  in  a  republic, 
instead  of  the  all-effective  weapons  of  the  ballot,  if 
properly  used  and  as  it  is  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution. 

It  is  to  be  regretttd  that  his  numerous  writings  are 
accessible  to  so  few  Americans,  because  they  are  pub- 
lished in  German  and  only  a  limited  number  has  been 
translated  into  English.* 

Many   generations  to  come  will  have  to   draw    from 


*  Among  the  hitter  may  be  had,  at  a  liberal  price,  at  the  Freidenker  Pub- 
lishing Co.'s  office,  470  E.  Water  St.,  Milwaukee,  the  following:  Six  Letters  to 
a  Pius  Man  ;  The  True  Character  of  Humboldt ;  Lessons  of  a  Century  ,'  What 
is  Humanity  f  What  is  Real  Democracy  ?  The  Germans  anil  the  Americans  ; 
Mankind  the  Criminal  (This  one  seems  to  be  out  of  print,  but  may  be  procured 
before  long)  J  Communism  and  Socialism.  Among  those  collected  in  two  vol- 
umes are  pearls  of  wisdom,  like :  Public  Opinion  ;  M  ho  and  What  is  the  People  ? 
Has  the  World  a  Purpose  f   Truth ,'   The  Future,  etc. 


these  inexhaustible  sources  of  instruction  if  they  in 
earnest  intend  to  inaugurate  a  human  society  on  a  basis 
truly  humane. 

A   NEW  THEORY  OF  MONISM. 

BY    REV.    WILLIAM    I.    GILL,    A.M. 

An  excellent  editorial  article  on  "  Monism  and  Monis- 
tic Thinkers"  appeared  in  The  Open  Court  of  August 
iS  which  well  set  forth  a  summary  of  all  monistic  theo- 
ries which  have  gained  reputation  and  standing.  There 
is  at  least  one  other  theory  yet  possible,  and  that  other  I 
would  like  to  present  to  the  readers  of  The  Open 
Court.  In  the  article  referred  to  Mr.  Underwood 
says  of  these  theories,  "  that  any  one  of  them  contains 
the  entire  truth  is  extremely  unlikely;  that  they  all  con- 
tain certain  aspects  or  hints  of  the  truth  which,  fused 
into  a  synthesis  with  errors  eliminated,  would  afford  a 
better  explanation  of  phenomena  than  any  of  them 
singly  can  is  reasonably  certain."  I  think  the  theory  I 
have  to  propound  will  promote  this  "  fusion  of  truth 
and  elimination  of  error." 

This  theory  begins  with  sense  and  reduces  all  its 
known  objects  to  subjective  states.  Here  it  is  at  one 
with  all  theories  of  psychological  Monism  and  with 
nearly  all  modern  investigators  in  psychology.  This, 
when  understood,  reduces  all  the  known  and  knowable 
universe  to  a  logical  and  metaphysical  unity.  Every- 
thing whatsoever  that  is  known  or  can  be  known  is  a 
mode  of  consciousness.  All  beyond  this  is  unknown. 
If  there  is  anything  beyond  this  in  the  universe  it  is  the 
inferred  cause  of  this.  So  far  all  Monists  are  agieed; 
and  that  there  is  something  beyond  this  they  are  also 
agreed.  Some  affirm  that  this  cause  is  intrinsically 
unknowable,  except  as  the  great  undifferentiated  source 
of  all  the  known.      These  are  called  agnostics. 

It  is  just  here  that  the  new  theory  of  Monism 
switches  off,  or,  rather,  keeps  right  on  the  broad,  clear 
track  of  cognizance,  instead  of  entering  on  the  unknown. 
It  affirms  that  the  immediate  cause  and  source  of  phe- 
nomena are  knowable,  and  that  directly,  and  that  it  is 
definable,  as  clearly  as  any  ultimate  thought  or  reality 
is  definable. 

Now,  let  us  clearly  understand  wherein  all  Monists 
are  agreed.  The)'  are  agreed  that  we  know  phenomena 
as  such,  and  that  all  phenomena  are  modes  of  conscious- 
ness, modes  of  thought,  subjective  states.  Now,  a  sub- 
jective state  is  the  state  of  a  subject,  and  so  we  know 
what  is  a  subject  so  far  as  we  know  what  is  a  subjective 
state.  A  subject  is  that  which  feels  or  is  conscious  of 
these  states.  It  is  that  which  thinks  and  feels.  It  is 
true  we  know  this  only  relative  to  thought  and  feeling — 
just  because  it  is  relative  or  related  to  thought  and  feel- 
ing; and  only  for  that  fundamental  reason  it  can  never 
be  known  otherwise.  We  know  it  just  as  absolutely  as 
we   know   the   phenomena,   which   we    know    only    as 


THE    OR  EN    COURT. 


455 


related  to  a  subject.  Thought  is  conceivable  only  in 
relation  to  a  thinker,  and  the  thinker  is  known  only  in 
relation  to  thought.  We  know  one  term  just  exactly 
the  same  as  we  know  the  other.  To  call  one  the  known 
and  the  other  the  unknown  is  illogical. 

We  therefore  know  the  conscious  subject  as  a  power 
to  think  and  feel  and  will.  This  is  as  far  as  we  can  go. 
It  is  the  pole  of  being  and  existence.  There  is  no 
beyond,  real,  possible  or  conceivable.  This  is  the 
logical  and  metaphysical  ultima  TIiulc — a  power  to 
think,  feel  and  act.  A  power  is  substance;  the  only 
substance  and  reality.  As  the  subject  and  its  phenomena 
are  one,  so  all  phenomena  are  force  and  substance,  the 
various  modes  in  which  force  or  substance  exists  and 
operates.  Hence  all  known  and  knowable  phenomena, 
force  or  substance  are  ego,  one's  own  individual  reality; 
and  the  substantive  power  which  consitutes  this  ego  is 
self — manifested  in  these  phenomena.  These  phenomena 
are  of  two  classes,  the  sensible  and  the  supersensible. 
The  sensible  constitute  what  is  called  the  material  uni- 
verse, which  is  simply  a  complexus  of  sensations.  The 
supersensible  constitute  all  other  actions  and  affections 
of  the  ego.  Thus  all  the  known  and  knowable,  the 
whole  universe  of  phenomena  and  its  noumenal  source, 
constitute  the  ego  and  its  modes,  which  modes  are,  of 
course,  the  ego  itself  so-and-so  existing  and  acting;  and 
they  are  what  they  are  because  the  ego  is  of  such  a 
nature  or  kind  of  force  as  to  produce  them  necessarily 
and  in  lexical  order  and  relation  to  each  other.  Matter 
is  but  the  sense — mode  of  mind,  and  mind  is  simply 
thinking  power,  which  is  the  ultimate  unit  of  all  things. 
This  power  evolves  the  universe,  including  all  organic 
forms.  It  therefore  existed  before  the  organism,  and 
will  survive  it;  but, as  one  of  its  temporary  and  complex 
modes,  there  is  an  organic  ego,  which  depends  on  a  sen- 
sible environment.  The  organism  is  only  a  subjective 
state,  and  implies  a  subject  which  is  not  organic,  and 
this  subject  of  all  phenomena,  including  all  the  universe, 
is  what  we  call  ourselves,  or  the  ego. 

Here  we  have  a  perfect  scientific  and  philosophical 
unity  which  is  ultimate  and  all-comprehending.  It 
comprises  all  that  our  modern  Monists  include  in  God 
and  the  universe.  It  is  the  Pan  of  science  and  philos- 
ophy. It  is  the  infinite  substance  of  Spinoza,  with  its 
two  great  complex  modes  of  thought  and  extension.  It 
is  the  God  as  well  as  the  universe  of  Goethe  as  defined 
by  him  when  he  says,  as  quoted  by  the  editor  in  The 
Open  Court:  "Alas  for  the  creed  whose  God  lives 
outside  of  the  universe,  and  lets  it  spin  round  his  finger. 
The  universal  spirit  dwells  within  and  not  without." 
All  this  universe  and  its  informing  spirit,  called  God,  is 
our  ego,  the  conscious  individual  subject.  "  The  sum 
total  of  nature's  capacities  and  powers"  knowable  to 
any  man,  "  from  everlasting  to  everlasting,"  are  the  man 
himself  and  no  more  or  less. 


It  will  be  conceded  that  there  is  more  than  one  indi- 
vidual; but,  since  all  that  is  directly  known  is  ego,  it  is 
a  serious  question  how  we  can  prove  the  existence  of 
anything  else.  The  new  theory  achieves  this  by  a  scien- 
tific induction,  the  method  of  which  cannot  here  be 
given  or  indicated.  This  accomplished,  it  has  demon- 
strated that  there  is  an  indefinite  number  of  universes 
with  their  informing  spirit,  each  finite  and  all  of  them 
together  finite.  This  indefinite  multiplication  of  uni- 
verses, with  all  their  glories  and  intrinsic  force,  consti- 
tutes an  immense  elevation  and  enlargement  of  the 
conception  of  Being. 

But  how  are  these  egoistic  universes  related  to  each 
other?  There  cannot  be  a  natural  law  of  interaction 
between  them,  since  all  known  and  scientific  relations  of 
cause  and  effect  are  confined  to  the  mutual  interaction  of 
the  modes  of  each  universe.  The  lexical  relation  of 
egos  or  universes,  therefore,  can  only  be  explained  by 
reference  to  a  power  which  comprehends  and  controls 
all,  and  who  has  determined  that  they  shall  be  so  con- 
stituted that  they  will  always  act  and  be  affected  accord- 
ing to  their  varying  relations  to  each  other.  Thus  the 
God  of  this  new  Monism  is  "  outside  of  the  universe," 
because  he  is  outside  of  each  individual  finite  agent,  and 
is  infinitely  greater  than  each  and  all  of  them  together. 
"  Inside"  and  "outside"  are  indeed  relevant  only  to  the 
sensible  phenomena  of  each  finite  being.  These  only 
occupy  space.  Man,  the  real  total  man,  does  not 
occupy  space,  but  constitute  space  and  all  extension;  and 
he  does  not  dwell  jn  the  universe,  but  the  universe  in 
him  as  a  part  of  his  own  energy  and  activity.  To  Deitv 
there  is  no  space,  no  "  within "  or  "  without,"  simply 
because  he  has  not  our  sense  constitution,  which  implies 
finity. 

Whether  God  is  a  "  person "  is  a  question  which 
should  be  answered  only  after  we  have  agreed  on  the 
meaning  we  attach  to  the  word  person.  If  by  person 
we  mean,  not  an  organic  form  or  any  form  for  the 
imagination,  but  simply  a  power  of  self-conscious  intelli- 
gence, then  we  shall  have  to  call  God  a  person.  We 
directly  know  nothing  but  conscious  modes,  and  it  is 
only  in  the  light  of  them  that  we  can  conceive  God, 
God  must  be  intelligent  and  know  himself  as  intelligent, 
and  this  is  our  definition  of  personality. 


TH.    RIBOT    ON    WILL. 

IiY    DR.    P.  CARUS. 

The  problem  of  the  will  must  be  explained  from 
the  principle  of  evolution.  The  question  is,  how  will 
developes  from  its  lower  to  its  higher  forms.  Ribot 
approaches  the  subject  not  as  did  his  predecessors  by 
discussing  the  evolution  of  will,  but  by  studying  its  dis- 
solution. 

The  diseases  of  the  will  serve  as  instances  in  which 
certain  agencies  of  the  will-power  fail  to  work,  and  the 


456 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


ingenious  psychologist  uses  them  successfully  instead  of 
experiments. 

Ribot  shows  that  in  every  voluntary  act  two  dis- 
tinct elements  can  be  discerned  :  (  I  )  The  consciousness 
of  willing,  or  the  mental  state  which  is  expressed  by 
the  "  I  will,"  and  which  of  itself  possesses  no  efficacy; 
and  (2)  a  highly  complex  psycho-physiological  mech- 
anism, in  which  alone  the  power  of  acting  or  inhibiting 
action  has  its  seat.  This  mechanism  again  works  two- 
fold:  (1)  As  impulsion,  and  (2)  as  inhibition.  Its 
result  is  activity,  which  thus  is  not  a  beginning  but  an 
end,  not  a  first  appearance  but  a  sequel. 

The  activity  of  the  new-born  babe  is  purely  reflex. 
A  higher  stage  may  be  observed  in  children  and  sav- 
ages when  desire,  almost  like  a  reflex  action,  tends 
directly  and  irresistibly  to  express  itself  in  acts.  It 
marks  a  progress  from  the  first  stage  inasmuch  as  it 
denotes  a  beginning  of  individuality,  for  desire  sketches 
in  faint  outline  the  individual  character.  When  a  suffi- 
cient store  of  experience  exists  to  allow  of  the  birth  of 
intelligence,  there  appears  a  new  form  of  activity;  viz. 
ideo- motor  activity.  Thoughts  become  the  cause  of 
movements. 

There  are  three  groups  of  ideas  the  tendency  of 
which  to  transform  themselves  into  acts  is  (1)  strong, 
(2)  moderate  and  (3)  weak,  or  in  a  certain  sense  zero. 
The  first  group  are  intellectual  states  of  high  intensity, 
fixed  ideas  that  "  come  home  to  us."  It  may  happen 
that  the  idea  of  a  movement  is  of  itself  incapable  of 
producing  that  movement;  but  let  emotion  be  added 
and  it  is  produced.  Most  of  the  passions  when  they 
rise  above  the  level  of  mere  appetite  are  to  be  referred 
to  this  group.  The  second  group  represents  rational 
activity;  it  is  that  of  the  will  proper.  Here  the  thought 
is  followed  by  the  act  after  a  longer  or  shorter  delibera- 
tion. The  third  group  are  abstract  ideas  (generaliza- 
tions ).  These  ideas  being  representations  of  represent- 
ations, the  motor  element  is  at  a  minimum.  If  an 
abstract  idea  becomes  a  motive  to  action,  other  elements, 
it  is  most  probable,  are  added  to  it.  So  voluntary  activity 
proceeds  in  its  development  from  simple  reflex  action 
where  the  tendency  to  movement  is  irresistible,  to  the 
abstract  idea  where  it  is  minimized. 

Will  may  be  defined  as  a  conscious  act  more  or  less 
deliberate  having  in  view  an  end.  Maudsley  and  Lewes 
define  it  to  be  "impulse  by  ideas,"  but  it  is  more;  it  is 
also  a  power  to  arrest  action.  It  is  (1)  a  power  of 
impulse,  and  (2)  a  power  of  i?iliibition. 

We  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  some  special 
nerves  exercise  the  function  of  inhibition. 

The  simplest  instance  of  the  phenomenon  of  inhibi- 
tion in  the  nervous  system  is  seen  in  the  suspension  of 
the  movements  of  the  heart  by  excitation  of  the  pneu- 
mogastric  nerve.  We  know  that  the  heart  (independ- 
ently of  the  intracardiac  ganglia)  is  innervated  by  nerve 


filaments  coming  from  the  great  sympathetic  which 
accelerates  it  pulsations,  and  also  by  filaments  from  the 
vagus  nerve.  If  the  latter  is  cut,  the  cardiac  move- 
ments increase;  excitation  of  its  central  terminus  on  the 
contrary  suspends  them  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time. 
The  vagus  therefore  is  an  inhibiting  nerve. 

In  all  voluntary  inhibition  two  things  have  to  be 
considered :  the  mechanism  that  produces  it,  and  the 
state  of  consciousness  that  accompanies  it.  We  volun- 
tarily arrest  laughter,  yawning,  coughing  and  certain 
passionate  movements,  bv  putting  in  action  the  antago- 
nistic muscles.  Such  inhibition  is  far  from  being  the 
rule.  Some  individuals  appear  to  be  utterly  incapable 
of  it.  Others  exercise  it,  but  very  unequally.  Few 
men  are  at  all  times  masters  of  themselves. 

All  education  is  based  on  inhibition.  How  do  we 
arrest  the  movements  of  anger  in  a  child?  By  threats, 
by  reprimands,  that  is  to  say,  by  producing  a  new  state 
of  consciousness  of  a  depressing  kind,  capable  of  check- 
ing action.  If  inhibition  is  repeatedly  produced,  the 
result  is  that  an  association  tends  to  be  formed  between 
the  two  states.  The  first  calls  forth  the  second,  its  cor- 
rective, and  from  habit  inhibition  becomes  more  and 
more  easy  and  rapid. 

The  origin  of  will  is  based  upon  the  property  of 
reacting  possessed  by  all  living  matter.  The  voluntary 
act  in  its  complete  form  is  not  merely  the  transformation 
of  a  state  of  consciousness  into  movement,  but  it  pre- 
supposes the  participation  of  the  whole  group  of  con- 
scious and  sub-conscious  states  which  make  up  the  ego  at 
a  given  moment. 

Volition  is  a  passing  to  action ;  it  closes  the  debate 
which  took  place  among  the  different  motives.  A  new 
state  of  consciousness,  the  motive  chosen,  is  imported 
into  the  ego  as  an  integral   part  of  it. 

The  diseases  of  the  will  indicate  that  will  is  either 
impaired  or  abolished.  There  may  be  impairment  of 
the  will  (1)  from  lack  of  impulse,  which  is  designated 
by  the  term  aboulia  (lack  of  will),  and  (2)  from  excess 
of  impulse,  which  is  caused  by  a  weakness  or  absence 
of  the  power  of  inhibition. 

As  instances  of  the  first  group,  Ribot  cites  cases  of 
irresolution  and  apathy  in  which  all  other  conditions  are 
normal;  the  muscular  system  as  well  as  the  intelligence 
remain  intact.  Ends  are  clearly  apprehended,  means 
likewise,  but  passing  to  action  is  impossible. 

"A  magistrate,"  Mr.  Ribot  quotes  from  Esquirol 
(I,  420),  "  highly  distinguished  for  his  learning  and  his 
power  as  a  speaker,  was  seized  with  an  attack  of  mono- 
mania in  consequence  of  certain  troubles  of  mind.  He 
regained  his  reason  entirely  but  would  not  attend  to  his 
business,  though  he  well  knew  that  it  suffered  in  conse- 
quence of  this  whim.  His  conversation  was  both 
rational  and  sprightly.  When  advised  to  travel  or  to 
attend  to  his  affairs  he  would  answer:  lI  know  that  I 


TUB    OPBN    COURT. 


457 


should,  but  I  am  unable  to  do  it.  Your  advice  is  very 
good;  I  wish  I  could  follow  it.'  'It  is  certain,'  he 
said  to  me  one  day,  '  that  I  have  no  will  save  not  to 
will,  for  I  have  my  reason  unimpaired,  and  I  know 
what  I  ought  to  do,  but  strength  fails  me  when  I  should 
act.' " 

Prof.  T-  H.  Bennett  records  the  case  of  a  gentle- 
man who  frequently  could  not  carry  out  what  he  wished 
to  perform.  Often  on  endeavoring  to  undress  he  waited 
two  hours  before  he  could  take  off  his  coat.  All  his 
mental  faculties  were  perfect,  only  his  volition  was  im- 
paired. On  one  occasion,  having  ordered  a  glass  of 
water,  it  was  presented  to  him  on  a  tray  but  he  could 
not  take  it,  though  anxious  to  do  so.  He  kept  the  serv- 
ant standing  before  him  half  an  hour,  when  the  obstruc- 
tion was  overcome.  He  describes  his  feelings  to  be  "as 
if  another  person  had  taken  possession  of  his  will." 

Aboulia  appears  in  different  forms,  according  to  the 
causes  which  paralyze  the  will.  A  curious  kind  of 
aboulia  is  Platzangst  or  agoraphobia,  a  case  of  which, 
as  observed  by  Westphal,  may  serve  as  typical :  "A 
traveler  of  strong  constitution,  perfectly  sound  of  mind 
and  presenting  no  disorder  of  the  motor  faculty,  is  sud- 
denly seized  with  a  feeling  of  alarm  at  the  sight  of  an 
open  space,  as  a  public  square.  When  about  to  cross 
one  of  the  large  squares  of  Berlin,  he  fancies  the  dis- 
tance to  be  several  miles,  and  despairs  of  ever  reaching 
the  other  side.  This  feeling  grows  less  or  disappears  if 
he  goes  around  the  square,  following  the  line  of  houses, 
also  if  he  has  some  person  with  him  or  even  if  he  sup- 
ports himself  on  a  walking  cane." 

Other  instances  of  aboulia  are  melancholia,  stupor, 
irresolution  and  griibelsucht.  The  latter,  being  a  con- 
stant "  psvchological  rumination,"  as  Legrand  du  Saulle 
expresses  it,  consists  of  a  state  of  continual  hesitation  for 
the  most  trivial  reasons  without  the  ability  to  reach  any 
definite  results.  M.  du  Saulle  describes  a  patient  of 
this  kind.  "A  very  intelligent  woman  could  not  go 
into  the  street  but  she  would  continually  ask  herself:  '  Is 
some  one  going  to  jump  out  of  a  window  and  fall  at  my 
feet?  Will  it  be  a  man  or  a  woman?  Will  the  person 
be  wounded  or  killed?  If  wounded,  will  it  be  in  the 
head  or  the  legs?  Will  there  be  blood  on  the  pave- 
ment? Shall  I  call  for  assistance,  or  run  away,  or  recite 
a  prayer?  Shall  I  be  accused  of  being  the  cause  of  this 
occurrence?  Will  my  innocence  be  admitted?' "  And 
this  questioning  goes  on  without  end. 

The  perplexity  of  such  a  morbid  state  of  mind 
expresses  itself  also  in  acts.  The  patient  does  not 
attempt  anything  without  endless  precautions.  If  he 
has  written  a  letter  he  reads  it  over  and  over  again  for 
fear  he  should  have  forgotten  a  word  or  committed 
some  mistake  in  spelling.  If  he  locks  a  drawer  he  must 
make  sure  again  and  again  that  it  was  done  aright.  It 
is  the  same  as  to  his  dwelling;  he  has  to  satisfy  himself 


repeatedly  as  to  the  doors  being  locked,  the  keys  in  his 
pocket,  the  state  of  his  pocket,  etc. 

If  aboulia  is  no  impairment  of  the  motor  centers,  it 
must  be  a  disturbance  of  the  incitements  they  receive. 
The  muscular  effort  most  be  distinguished  from  the  voli- 
tional, and  there  are  two  types  of  the  volitional,  of 
which  the  one  consists  in  overcoming  languor  and  tim- 
idity (impulsion),  the  other  in  arresting  the  passional 
movements  (inhibition).  Very  curious  are  the  instances 
where  patients  are  governed  by  impulses  often  of  the 
strangest  kind  which  they  are  unable  to  suppress.  They 
use  improper  language  in  spite  of  themselves  or  cannot 
restrain  themselves  from  doing  what  they  abhor.  There 
are  even  homicidal  and  suicidal  impulses  of  such  kind. 
Such  impulses  take  hold  of  persons,  if  the  subordination 
of  tendencies — the  will — is  broken  in  twain. 

':I  have  seen,"  says  Luys,  "  a  number  of  patients 
who  repeatedly  attempted  suicide  in  the  presence  of 
those  who  watched  them,  but  they  had  no  recollection 
of  the  fact  in  their  lucid  state.  And  what  proves  the 
unconsciousness  of  the  mind  under  these  conditions  is 
the  fact  that  the  patients  often  do  not  perceive  the  inef- 
ficiency of  the  methods  they  employ." 

Hysterical  persons  also  furnish  innumerable  exam- 
ples to  manifest  an  uncontrollable  tendency  toward  the 
immediate  gratification  of  their  caprices  or  the  satisfac- 
tion of  their  wants.  Such  cases  of  irresistible  impulses 
as  are  unconscious,  exhibit  the  individual  reduced  to  the 
lowest  degree  of  activity;  viz.  that  of  pure  reflex  action. 
The  human  being  under  these  conditions  is  like  an  ani- 
mal that  has  been  decapitated,  or  at  least  deprived  of  its 
cerebral  lobes. 

Ribot  quotes  instances  of  irresistible  impulses  which 
were  accompanied  with  consciousness,  from  a  book  by 
Marc  (De  la  folieconsideree  dansses  raports  avec  les  ques- 
tions medico-judiciaires).  "A  lady  subject  at  times  to 
homicidal  impulses  used  to  request  to  be  put  under 
restraint  by  means  of  a  strait-waistcoat,  and  would  let 
her  keeper  know  when  the  danger  was  past  and  when 
she  might  be  allowed  her  liberty.  A  chemist  haunted 
with  similar  homicidal  impulses  used  to  have  his  thumbs 
tied  together  with  a  ribbon,  and  in  that  simple  restraint 
found  the  means  of  resisting  the  temptation.  A  servant 
woman  of  irreproachable  character  asked  her  mistress 
to  dismiss  her  because  she  was  strongly  tempted  to  dis- 
embowel the  infant  she  took  care  of  whenever  she  saw 
it  undressed.  A  victim  of  melancholia  haunted  with 
the  thought  of  suicide,  arose  in  the  night,  knocked  at 
his  brother's  door  and  cried  out  to  him,  '  Come  quick  ; 
suicide  is  pursuing  me,  and  soon  I  shall  be  unable  to 
withstand  it.' " 

Sometimes  fixed  ideas  of  a  character  frivolous  or 
unreasonable  find  lodgment  in  the  mind  of  a  person  who, 
in  spite  of  knowing  that  they  are  absurd,  is  powerless  to 
prevent  them  from  passing  into  acts.     There  is  the  often 


45§ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


quoted  case  of  an  art  amateur  who,  happening  to  see  a 
valuable  painting  in  a  museum,  felt  an  instinctive  impulse 
to  punch  a  hole  through  the  canvas.  Between  acts 
which  are  frivolous  and  those  which  are  dangerous  the 
difference  is  only  quantitative.  The  latter  exhibits  the 
former  in  enlarged  proportions. 

How  must  we  explain  the  mechanism  of  these  dis- 
organizations of  the  will? 

In  the  normal  state  an  end  is  chosen,  approved  and 
attained  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  elements  of  the  ego,  whether 
all  or  a  majority  of  them,  concur  toward  attaining  it. 
Our  states  of  consciousness — feelings,  ideas  with  their 
respective  motor  tendencies — form  a  consensus  which 
converges  toward  this  end  with  more  or  less  effort  by 
means  of  a  complex  mechanism  made  up  of  both  impul- 
sions and  inhibitions.  In  the  state  of  abnormal  volition 
either  of  these  agencies  are  weak.  In  aboulia  the  powers 
of  impulsion  are  debilitated;  and  in  cases  of  morbid 
impulses  inhibition  is  lacking.  In  this  state  the  subor- 
dination of  tendencies  which  constitutes  the  will  is  sus- 
pended. There  is  no  consensus,  but  anarchy  prevails, 
which  allows  any  improper  impulse  to  be  executed. 

When  we  compare  the  case  of  aboulia  with  that  of 
irresistible  impulses,  we  see  that  in  the  two  cases  will 
is  impaired  owing  to  totally  opposite  conditions.  In  the 
one  case  impulsion  is  wanting  although  the  intelligence 
is  intact ;  in  the  other,  the  power  of  co-ordination  and  of 
inhibition  being  absent,  the  impulse  passes  into  action  in 
purely  automatic  fashion. 

(to  be  continued.) 


SOME      RELATIONS     OF    SCIENCE     TO     MORALITY 
AND    PROGRESS. 

BY    G.    GORE,    LL.D.,    F.R.S. 
Part  II. 

Progress  and  pleasure  depend  upon  scientific  con- 
ditions. 

We  are  creatures  of  progress,  and  progress  implies 
imperfection,  and  advance  toward  a  less  imperfect 
state.  In  consequence  of  natural  laws  we  are  com- 
pelled to  advance  through  error,  sin  and  suffering 
toward  truth  and  righteousness,  and  we  have  but  little 
choice  in  the  matter.  Without  progress,  and  the  pain 
and  labor  attending  it,  we  would  experience  less  hap- 
piness. Life  consists  of  alternations  of  ])ain  and  pleas- 
ure, labor  and  repose — the  contrast  of  pain  heightens 
pleasure  and  our  consciousness  of  pleasure  is  propor- 
tionate to  the  difference;  a  proper  use  of  our  powers 
relieves  pain  and  imparts  pleasure  by  circulating  the 
fluids  of  our  body  and  of  our  brain.  Absolute  monotony 
of  impression  producing  death.  Much  of  our  pleasure 
results  from  mental  development;  the  expansion  of  the 
mental  powers  of  the  individual  by  education  during 
youth,  and  that  »f  the  human   species  during  successive 


generations  by  the  discovery  of  new  knowledge,  is  a 
source  of  enjoyment,  and  this  enjoyment  is  one  of  the 
causes  which  incite  scientific  men  to  investigate  nature 
and  discover  new  truths.  The  happiness  of  most  per- 
sons is  sufficient  to  make  life  desirable.  All  our  pleas- 
ures as  well  as  our  pains  depend  upon  nonuniformity  of 
impression ;  change  of  impression  usually  produces 
pleasure,  if  our  actions  harmonize  with  natural  laws, 
and  pain  if  the}' disagree  with  them. 

Knowing  by  bitter  experience  the  painful  contin- 
gencies of  life,  we  constantly  try  to  evade  them,  to 
obtain  more  gratification  than  natural  laws  will  allow, 
we  seek  the  enjoyment  without  the  sacrifice;  but  we  do 
not  often  succeed.  We  constantly  prefer  that  which  is 
pleasant,  and  ignorantly  avoid  self-denial,  even  when  it 
leads  to  greater  happiness.  We  continually  seek  little 
pleasures  and  neglect  great  truths;  cultivating  our  lower 
faculties  and  neglecting  our  higher  ones.  With  most 
men  the  greatest  immediate  success,  the  most  money 
and  not  the  greatest  good  is  the  chief  object  of  life,  but 
even  the  best  of  possessions  is  bought  too  dearly  if 
obtained  at  the  cost  of  disobedience.  There  is  little  hap- 
piness without  labor,  and  the  greatest  pleasure  is 
obtained  by  doing  the  greatest  good,  by  obeying  the 
second  rule  of  righteousness,  viz., "  to  constantly  endeavor 
to  wisely  promote  the  welfare  of  all  men"  and  to  effect 
this  object,  knowledge  is  indispensable.  By  the  discov- 
ery of  new  truth,  science  assists  us  to  obey  this  rule. 
Knowledge  yields  happiness  which  wealth  cannot  pur- 
chase. General  happiness  is  best  secured  by  conforming 
to  all  the  laws  which  govern  us,  and  thus  making  the 
best  use  of  all  our  powers.  "  To  will  what  God  doth 
will,  that  is  the  only  science  that  gives  us  any  rest." 

Mental  action  is  being  elucidated  by  science. 

According  to  scientific  evidence,  the  various  forms  of 
energy  known  as  heat,  light,  electricity,  magnetism, 
chemical  affinity  and  nervous  and  vital  action,  mani- 
fested by  dead  and  living  substances,  are  not  entities, 
but  conditions  of  the  material  structures  in  which  they 
occur,  and  the}-  appear  to  be  incapable  of  existing  inde- 
pendently of  those  bodies.  While  also  energy  appears 
to  possess  the  attribute  of  endless  existence,  the  various 
forms  of  it  known  as  individual  forces  are  constantly 
changing  into  each  other.  The  chemical  energy 
exerted  during  the  combustion  of  a  pound  of  coal,  when 
converted  into  mechanical  power,  is  capable  of  lifting 
a  pound  weight  twenty-three  hundred  miles.  As  scien- 
tific knowledge  has  largely  enabled  us  to  solve  the 
question  of  the  abstract  existence  of  these  modes  of 
activity,  so  is  it  gradually  assisting  us  to  decide  whether 
mental  action  is  capable  of  existing  independently  of 
material  substances,  and  whether  it  is  thus  fundamentally 
different  from  all  other  forms  of  energy.  If  mind  is  not 
a  condition  of  brain,  but  is  capable  of  separate  and 
independent  existence,  the  question  arises,  what  becomes 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


459 


of  it  during  a  state  of  perfect  sleep  or  unconsciousness — 
when  all  mental  action  ceases? 

Scientific  basis  of  advance  in  civilization. 

According  to  the  usual  properties  of  organized  tissue, 
when  the  human  body  dies,  the  brain  decays  and  the 
impressions  existing  upon  it  perish,  and  thus  every 
generation  of  men  requires  to  be  educated  anew,  and 
man  has  to  wade  through  countless  ages  of  error  in  a 
gradual  progress  toward  truth,  each  generation  advanc- 
ing only  a  little.  All  things,  whether  painful  or  pleas- 
ant, work  together  for  universal  advance.  Civilization 
progresses  by  means  of  new  knowledge;  discoverers, 
inventors  and  thinkers  advance,  and  expositors  sustain 
the  intellectual  and  moral  condition  of  mankind.  With- 
out new  knowledge  there  would  be  no  progress.  Igno- 
rance is  the  great  impeding  influence.  Intelligent  per- 
sons constitute  the  advancing,  and  ignorant  ones  the 
retarding  section  of  our  race.  The  different  parts  of 
the  community  must  all  advance  together,  because  igno- 
rance and  intelligence  rarely  agree.  Persons  who  are 
too  ignorant  to  improve,  deteriorate  and  die  out,  and 
those  who  are  too  advanced  in  knowledge  are  restrained. 
The  ignorant  American  aborigines  have  disappeared  in 
the  presence  of  civilized  Europeans. 

The  rate  of  progress  depends  upon  scientific  condi- 
tions. 

There  must  be  a  speed  of  growth  of  knowledge  and 
morality,  both  of  the  individual  and  of  the  species,  a 
rate  of  human  progress,  and  it  depends  essentially  upon 
the  scientific  fact  that  every  action  in  a  material  substance 
requires  time;  nervous  impulse  travels  at  a  rate  of  about 
sixty  metres  a  second;  even  thought  is  not  instantaneous; 
the  fcrrmation  of  a  simple  notion  requires  about  i-25th 
of  a  second ;  it  takes  time  to  form  ideas,  much  time  to 
indoctrinate  a  generation  with  new  truths,  and  greater 
time  to  eradicate  old  errors.  The  discovery  of  new 
knowledge  also  is  a  very  difficult  and  tedious  process. 
The  rate  of  progress  of  morality  and  civilization  is  a 
product  of  the  opposing  influences  of  intelligence  and 
ignorance,  and  is  limited  by  our  cerebral  capacities. 
Ignorance  operates  as  a  moderator  of  speed.  All 
improvements  require  time. 

Our  advance  appears  to  be  very  slow,  and  it  is  only 
by  a  survey  of  the  past  that  we  can  at  all  realize  the 
progress  we  have  made,  or  how  largely  we  are  indebted 
to  new  knowledge  for  our  present  degree  of  comfort 
and  happiness.  Five  hundred  years  ago  we  were  with- 
out what  we  now  consider  to  be  many  of  the  necessa- 
ries of  life.  We  consumed  neither  tea,  coffee,  cocoa, 
potatoes  or  tobacco,  and  sugar  was  a  luxury  purchased 
only  by  the  rich ;  without  these  even  the  poorest  persons 
would  now  consider  themselves  unable  to  live.  But  few 
medicines  had  been  discovered ;  pharmacy  was  very 
imperfect;  the  arts  of  medicine  and  surgery  were  not 
much  developed;  chloroform  and  quinine  had   not  been 


found;  sanitary  appliances  were  not  invented;  chlorine, 
disinfectants,  deodorizers  and  antiseptics  were  unknown, 
and  we  were  subject  to  epidemics  and  plagues.  In  con- 
sequence, also,  of  there  being  no  telegraph,  or  quick 
means  of  conveyance,  multitudes  of  persons  were  starved 
during  famines  before  food  could  be  obtained.  No 
longer  ago  than  the  year  1S71,  through  one  of  these 
causes,  thousands  of  persons  were  starving  in  Persia, 
while  in  some  of  the  Western  States  of  America  corn 
was  being  burned  in  stoves  in  place  of  coal.  (Scientific 
American,  Jamnry,  1S72.)  Being  without  books  or 
newspapers  our  intellectual  enjoyments  were  few,  and 
ignorance,  with  all  its  evil  consequences  of  immorality, 
etc.,  was  prevalent.  In  those  "good  old  times"  the 
weak  were  robbed  and  oppressed  by  the  strong,  crime 
was  rarely  punished,  and  men  lived  more  like  the  beasts 
in  the  field.  Ever  since  that  period  knowledge  has  con- 
tinually increased;  it  still  continues  to  grow,  and  every 
year  it  adds  to  our  material  comforts,  our  mental  enjoy- 
ments and  our  ability  to  act  aright.* 


ARE  WE  PRODUCTS  OF  MIND? 

BY  EDMUND  MONTGOMERY,  M.D. 

Part  II. 

This  is  the  essential  point  on  which  Professor  Cope 
and  myself  are  agreed.  We  both  hold  that  all  really 
organic  structures  have  been  and  are  being  built  up  by 
hyper-mechanical  means,  and  that  their  vital  functions 
are  a  display  of  hyper-mechanical  energies.  But  con- 
cerning the  nature  of  the  powers  or  influences  that  are 
at  work  in  this  organizing  process  and  in  this  functional 
activity,  we  are  radically  at  variance.  Professor  Cope 
believes,  as  already  stated,  that  consciousness — which  he 
is  now  inclined  to  restrict  more  particularly  to  conscious 
will — is  the  specific  influence  which  has  originated  and 
is  still  originating  organic  structures  and  functions;  and 
that  it  manages  to  accomplish  this  by  consciously  deflect- 
ing material  particles  and  their  motion  from  the 
mechanically  prescribed  path ;  coercing  them  into  the 
specific  combinations  which  we  call  organic,  and  impart- 
ing to  them  the  specific  modes  of  motion  which  we  call 
vital. 

To  sustain  this  bold  assertion  amid  all  the  given  facts 
of  organic  nature,  various  ingenious  and  rather  doubt- 
ful assumptions  are  required.  Notwithstanding,  it 
must  be  confessed  that  Professor  Cope  has  not  only 
been  very  consistent  in  his  reasoning,  but  has  also  mostly 
supported  it  by  more  or  less  plausible  analogies  to 
established  scientific  facts.     At  present,  however,  we  are 

*  In  the  thirteenth  century  we  knew  nothing  of  foreign  wines,  foods  or 
fruits,  watches,  clocks,  steel  pens,  bank  notes,  ch  cks,  money  orders,  the  postal 
system,  police,  telegraphs,  paved  streets,  macadamized  roads,  stage  coaches, 
cabs,  omnibuses,  tramways,  railways,  canals,  steam  engines,  steamships,  gas 
lighting,  electric  light,  electroplating,  photography,  tricycles,  sewing  machines, 
pianos,  silk,  alpaca,  wool,  soap,  coal  tar  dyes,  artificial  manures,  phosphorus 
matches,  petroleum  lamps,  german  silver,  agricultural  machinery,  articles  of 
gutta-percha  and  India  rubber,  etc.,  and  many  other  conveniences.  With- 
out new  knowledge  we  could  never  have  acquired  our  present  advantages. 


460 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


concerned  only  with  the  refutation  of  his  fundamental 
assumption,  and,  though  highly  tempting,  we  must 
refrain  from  entering  upon  questions  specifically  bio- 
logical. 

The  supposition  that  conscious  energy  inherent  in 
matter  has  originated  vitality  and  organization,  leads 
unavoidably  to  the  inference  that  the  highest  kind  of 
consciousness  resides  in  the  least  organized  matter. 
Consequently,  what  we  call  progressive  organization 
can  be  really  only  a  more  and  more  elaborate  excre- 
tional  product,  from  which  consciousness  has  more  or 
less  withdrawn — nothing  but  "  a  dead  derivative  pro- 
duct," as  Professor  Cope  himself  expresses  it.  Evolu- 
tion, and  its  accompanying  specializations,  are  in  this 
light  essentially  processes  of  deterioration,  and  not  of 
elevation.  The  most  perfect  state  of  things  exists  then 
beyond  and  before  all  organization.  For  the  supreme 
mind  has  a  wholly  unorganized  body,  consisting  proba- 
bly of  intersteller  ether.  And  this  least  specialized  of 
all  substances  must  evidently  be  the  creative  matrix  of 
everything  in  existence,  containing  potentially  every 
kind  of  matter  and  every  kind  of  energy,  and  being 
moreover  endowed  with  the  highest  potency  of  mind  or 
consciousness. 

Carried  along  by  the  irresistable  drift  of  his  funda- 
mental assumption,  that  mind  can  control  matter, 
Professor  Cope,  the  zealous  student  of  organic  nature 
and  evolutionist  far  excellence,  feels  compelled  to  teach, 
that  "all forms  of  energy  have  originated  in  the  process 
of  running-down  from  the  primitive  energy"  (O.  of  F.,  p. 
433);  that  all  forms  of  matter  have  originated  in  the 
process  of  running-down  from  the  primitive  matter; 
that  all  forms  of  consciousness  have  originated  in  the 
process  of  running-down  from  the  primitive  conscious- 
ness. And  it  is  this  primitive  consciousness  which 
has  constructed  all  material  forms,  and  created  all  special 
modes  of  energy.  Consequently,  we  ourselves,  all  in 
all,  are  mere  mental  excretions. 

These  strange  logical  outcomes,  reversing  as  they  do 
the  actual  order  of  manifest  nature,  are  in  my  judg- 
ment a  sufficient  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  the  entire 
position.  And  we  need  only  examine  Professor  Cope's 
own  attempt  at  elucidation,  to  become  distinctly  aware 
of  the  unsurmountable  difficulty,  which  stands  in  the 
way  of  deriving  the  slowly  progressive  evolution  of  body 
and  mind  actually  manifest  in  nature  from  the  "  running- 
down  "  of  a  supremely  elevated  state  of  matter  and 
mind,  imagined  to  subsist  somewhere  beyond  actually 
manifest  nature.  The  direct  influence  of  the  supreme 
conscious  will  must  have,  under  these  suppositions, 
itself  originated  the  lowest  material  combination  in 
which  individual  conscious  will  became  incorpo- 
rate. This  primitive  individual  will  Professor  Cope 
himself  admits  to  have  been  of  a  most  undeveloped 
kind.     lie  says:  "  As  development  of  will  has  elevated 


the  human  mind  from  its  humble  beginnings  we 
naturally  look  to  the  same  source  for  further  pro- 
gress." Now,  Professor  Cope,  and  with  him  all 
those  who  believe  in  the  power  of  pure  mental  volition 
to  effect  progressive  evolution,  are  here  logically  forced 
to  maintain  one  of  the  two  possible  outcomes  of  the  rela- 
tion alleged  to  subsist  between  a  supreme  mind  and  the 
individual  minds.  The  first  of  these  alternatives  is  sub- 
versive of  Professor  Cope's  theology ;  the  second  of  his 
science. 

If,  namely,  the  most  primitive  individual  mind  or 
will  has  itself  gradually  developed  the  higher  individual 
mind  or  will;  if  it  was  really  thus  possible  in  nature  for 
something  lower  to  bring  about  the  development  of 
something  higher,  then  there  was  no  need  whatever  for 
a  highest  something  to  give  a  first  start  to  this  evolu- 
tional process,  which  must  have  begun  at  the  lowest 
possible  point  in  the  scale  of  development.  The  assump- 
tion of  a  supreme  mind  or  will  would  be  here  altogether 
superfluous. 

Or  if,  on  the  contrary,  inferior  individual  mind  or 
will  cannot  of  itself  give  rise  to  superior  individual  mind 
or  will,  then  progressive  evolution  must  have  been  all 
along  effected,  not  at  all  by  individual  will,  but  by  a 
constant  influx  of  the  supreme  will.  It  would  then  be 
this  supreme  will  alone  that,  degrading  itself  at  first  to 
the  lowest  depth  by  originating  meanest  states  of  being, 
was  now  keeping  going  the  entire  irksome  process  of 
development  for  its  own  particular  divertisement,  while 
our  proud  human  conceit  of  self-willed  and  self-effected 
progress  would,  under  such  conditions,  turn  out  to  be  a 
most  pitiful  delusion. 

It  is  to  the  latter  and  strangest  of  these  alternatives 
that  Professor  Cope's  premises  really  lead.  But  how- 
ever strange  and  anti-natural  such  ultra-theological  con- 
clusions may  appear  I  repeat  that  if  it  is  true  that  mind 
coerces  matter,  superintending  its  grouping  and  direct- 
ing its  motion,  then  these  very  conclusions  are  not  only 
legitimate  but  irrefutable,  and  they  will  have,  therefore, 
to  be  accepted  as  the  only  veritable  and  solid  "scientific 
basis  for  ethics  and  religion."  It  is  on  this  account  that  a 
serious  examination  of  the  fundamental  assumption  of 
this  creed — the  assumption,  namely,  that  consciousness 
or  will  can  move  matter — is  called  for  in  The  Open 
Court. 

Who  can  seriously  deny  that  we  and  other  living 
creatures  have  a  body  and  are  conscious,  and  that  these 
two  modes  of  existence  differ  essentially  from  each 
other?  Here  lies  dead  the  bodily  frame  of  a  dog.  Not 
Ions'  agro  the  wagging  of  his  tail  and  his  affectionate 
pranks  left  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  devoted  creature 
was  conscious,  and  now  it  is  just  as  certain  that  con- 
sciousness is  no  longer  present;  that  it  has  somehow 
vanished  from  out  the  lifeless  form.  Idealists  as  well  as 
materialists  are  forced  to  concede  that  consciousness  and 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


461 


the  bodily  structure  are  not  one  and  the  same  thing; 
that  they  are  indeed  two  very  different  modes  of 
existence. 

Now,  if  consciousness  or  will  can  and  does  actually 
move  any  part  of  our  bod}-,  Professor  Cope  may  well 
defy  whomsoever  to  overturn  his  conclusions.  The 
Theology  of  Evolution,  with  all  its  implications,  will 
then  have  to  be  adopted  as  our  final  religion. 

Of  such  paramount  import  is  this  question  of  the 
relation  of  mind  and  body.  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore, 
that  it  has  become  the  central  problem  of  modern  phi- 
losophy, and  it  is  clear  that  all  ethical  and  religious 
speculations  must  remain  vague  and  inconclusive  so  long 
as  it  is  not  positively  settled.  Do  not  all  prevailing 
creeds  derive  their  character  and  gain  their  influence 
through  an  accepted  faith  in  some  special  kind  of 
relation  of  mind  or  spirit  to  body  and  to  nature  in  gen- 
eral? And  do  not  almost  all  religions  teach  that  mind 
controls  body  ? 


THE  POETS  OF  LIBERTY  AND  LABOR. 

BY    WHEELBARROW. 

THOMAS  HOOD. 

How  like  a  bonny  bird  of  God  he  came, 

And  poured  his  heart  in  music  for  the  pcor; 

And  trampled  manhood  heard,  and  claimed  his  crown, 

And  trampled  womanhood  sprang  up  ennobled ! 

The  world  may  never  know  the  wealth  it  lost, 

When  Hood  went  darkling  to  his  tearful  tomb. 

Gerald  Masse y. 

There  are  some  hearts  born  into  this  world  that 
never  die.  Like  the  great  ocean,  they  encircle  all 
humanity,  and  throb  forever.  Upon  them  trampled 
manhood  and  trampled  womanhood  fling  themselves  for 
comfort  when  tired  and  sorrow-laden.  There  the  laborer 
finds  rest,  and  there  he  picks  up  new  courage  to  help 
him  in  the  battle  for  bread.  Among  those  immortals 
Thomas  Hood  stands  "  crowned  and  glorified."  Upon 
his  breast  labor  lays  her  troubles  and  her  wrongs.  Out 
of  his  bosom  comes  an  inspiration  that  shall  some  day 
give  the  toilers  victory. 

Those  thoughts  came  to  me  this  morning,  as  I  was 
reading  an  account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  "Trades 
Assembly,"  which  met  last  Sunday  at  No.  57  North 
Clark  street.  I  cannot  exactly  account  for  it,  but  some- 
how or  other,  on  reading  Mr.  McLogan's  description  of 
the  workingwomen,  I  turned  instinctively  to  Thomas 
Hood,  for  spiritual  strength.  I  turned  for  consolation 
to  the  inspired  writings  of  the  prophet  who  sang  "The 
Song  of  the  Shirt;"  and  again  I  heard   him  say — 

Oh,  men,  with  Sisters  dear! 

Oh,  men,  with  Mothers  and  Wives ! 
It  is  not  linen  you're  wearing  out, 

But  human  creatures's  lives. 

I  have  still  a  hope  that  Mr.  McLogan  was  mis- 
informed, and  that  it   is   not  true  that  "  whole   families 


have  to  work  eleven  hours  a  day  to  earn  twelve  dollars 
a  week."  I  trust  that  Mr.  Foley  was  in  error  when  he 
said  that  "  the  average  wages  of  women  in  Chicago 
shops  and  factories  was  only  60  cents  a  day."  If  those 
statements  are  true,  they  reveal  a  profligate  condition  of 
society,  and  the  end  is  easy  to  foresee.  That  society 
can  not  stand.  It  is  built  on  the  shifty  sands  of  in- 
equality' and  injustice,  where  no  government  has  ever 
yet  been  safe  in  this  world.  This  condition  will  breed  a 
social  gloom,  out  of  which  we  shall  see  growing  a 
funnel-shaped  cloud  reaching  from  earth  to  heaven. 
We  shall  hear  the  roar  of  a  whirlwind  that  will  shake 
our  political  inheritance  to  its  foundations,  and  perhaps 
destroy  it. 

I  don't  know  much  about  poetry ;  of  the  great  poets 
nothing  at  all.  I  cannot  understand  them  for  lack  of 
education.  I  can  only  interpret  those  poets  that  under- 
stand me,  and  there  is  not  a  line  in  Thomas  Hood  that 
I  cannot  comprehend.  Many  of  his  verses  seem  woven 
of  threads  drawn  from  my  own  life  and  experience, 
and  I  almost  fancy  that  I  wrote  them.  How  glorious  it 
is  to  know  something!  What  a  splendid  thing  is  learn- 
ing! In  my  sorest  poverty  I  never  envy  a  man  riches, 
but  I  have  always  been  jealous  of  his  better  education. 
When  I  was  a  youth  I  had  a  job  of  work  at  Cambridge, 
in  England.  Here  were  colleges  all  around  me.  In 
this  one  Milton  studied;  in  that  one  Byron;  in  that 
other  one  Newton  trained  his  mighty  mind.  Those 
colleges  were  all  castles  fortified  against  me.  I  used  to 
look  up  at  the  walls  as  I  passed  by  them,  and  long  to 
get  inside,  that  I  might  feed  on  the  learning  that  had 
developed  those  mighty  men.  I  used  to  look  at  the 
young  fellows  there  of  my  own  age,  students  of  the 
university,  with  an  envy  that  I  have  never  felt  in  all  my 
life  toward  any  others  of  my  brother  men.  As  they 
passed  me  clad  in  their  uniforms  of  cap  and  gown,  I 
hated  them  with  jealousy.  In  a  fool's  vanity  I  some- 
times think,  even  now,  that  perhaps  I  might  have  been 
somebody  if  I  could  have  had  a  chance  at  schooling  in 
my  youth.  But  at  thirteen  I  entered  the  ranks  of 
slavery,  and  there  was  no  more  school  for  me.  Per- 
haps it  is  because  I  cannot  understand  the  great  poets, 
that  I  cherish  with  stronger  affection  those  who  have 
come  down  to  my  own  level,  and  woven  my  own  sor- 
rows into  song.  It  may  be  that  this  is  why  I  cherish 
Thomas  Hood. 

Statements  like  those  of  the  Trades  Assembly, 
revealing  the  slave-condition  of  the  needle-women  ot 
London,  brought  from  the  soul  of  Thomas  Hood  that 
indignant  protest  known  as  "The  Song  of  the  Shirt." 
It  startled  men  out  of  their  guilty  ease.  It  rang  across 
the  land,  filling  England  with  alarm,  as  though  the 
archangel's  trumphet  was  calling  Dives  to  judgment. 
Every  man  tried  to  shift  the  sin  upon  his  neighbor  and 
in  affected  anger  inquired,  Who  has  been   starving  the 


462 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


women  of  England?  Out  of  the  rhyme  of  Thomas 
Hood  came  back  the  answer  to  every  monopolist, 
"Thou  art  the  man."  There  was  discomfort  in  the 
mahogany  pews,  for,  drowning  the  preacher's  voice  and 
the  roar  of  the  great  organ,  was  heard  the  shrill  wail  of 
the  hungry  seamstress : 

It's  oh!  to  be  a  slave, 

Along  with  the  barbarous  Turk, 
Where  woman  has  never  a  soul  to  save, 

If  this  is  Christian  work. 

***** 
With  fingers  weary  and  worn, 

With  eyelids  heavy  and  red, 
A  woman  sat  in  unwomanly  rags, 

Plving  her  needle  and  thread — 
Stitch,  stitch,  stitch, 
In  poverty,  hunger  and  dirt. 

And  still  with  a  voice  of  dolorous  pitch, — 

Would  that  it's  tone  could  reach  the  rich, — 
She  sang  this  song  of  the  shirt. 

In  did  reach  the  rich,  and  they  tried  to  buy  peace 
for  their  consciences  that  winter  by  copious  giving  of 
alms,  but  above  all  that,  the  voice  of  Labor  cried  like  a 
storm,  "  We  want  not  charity  but  justice." 

It  is  difficult  to  say  which  had  the  greater  influence 
upon  the  heart  of  England,  the  "Song  of  the  Shirt,"  or 
"The  Bridge  of  Sighs."  One  was  really  the  comple- 
ment of  the  other.  Together  they  smote  the  adaman- 
tine social  system  like  the  rod  of  Moses  on  the  rock  of 
Horeb,  and  the  waters  of  healing  gushed  forth.  There 
was  a  stupid  alderman  of  London,  Sir  Peter  Laurie — 
Dickens  has  satirized  him  in  "  The  Chimes" — whose 
mission  it  was  to  "put  down"  suicide,  and  whenever  any 
of  the  girls  who  jumped  into  the  river  from  Waterloo 
Bridge,  were  rescued  by  the  boats,  and  brought  before 
him,  he  punished  them  by  sending  them  to  prison. 
"  I  am  determined  to  put  down  suicide,"  he  used 
to  say ;  but  he  never  thought  of  putting  down  the 
social  crime  that  made  the  suicide.  Nor  did  English 
public  sentiment.  It  was  thick  and  stolid  as  the  head 
of  Sir  Peter  Laurie.  Newspapers  moralizing  could 
not  arouse  it,  neither  could  the  passionate  denunciations 
of  orators  and  statesmen.  Then  came  the  poet,  and 
awakened  it  to  a  higher  sense  of  duty,  and  to  wiser 
plans  of  charity.  Hood's  poem  appeared,  and  a  new 
light  shone  upon  the  bridge.  By  the  gleam  of  it 
"society"  could  see  itself  pushing  the  girls  into  the 
river,  and  in  self-accusation  said:  "  Sir  Peter,  you  ought 
to  send  us  to  prison,  and  not  the  girls."  A  more  humane 
feeling  was  created,  which  shaped  itself  into  schemes  of 
social  amelioration,  and  into  better  laws.  There  was  no 
more  talk  of  "putting  down"  suicide  by  sending  girls 
to  prison.  And  ever  after  that,  when  some  homeless  and 
forsaken  wanderer  sought  rest  in  the  dark  waters,  there 
was  no  harsh  condemnation,  but  men  said  with  genuine 
sorrow — 


One  more  unfortunate, 

Weary  of  breath, 
Rashly  importunate, 

Goneto  her  death. 

Take  her  up  tenderly, 

Lift  her  with  care, 
Fashioned  so  slenderly, 

Young  and  so  fair. 

*  *  * 

Make  no  deep  scrutiny 
Into  her  mutiny, 

Rash  and  undutiful ; 
Past  all  dishonor, 
Death  has  left  on  her 

Only  the  beautiful. 

There  was  not  a  man  of  healthy  morals,  in  all  the 
town  of  London,  who  was  not  awakened  by  the  elo- 
quent reproach  of  the  poet,  a  reproach  memorable  now 
throughout  all  the  English  world,  familiar  in  Melbourne 
and  Chicago,  as  in  England — 

Alas!  for  the  rarity 
Of  Christian  charity 

Under  the  sun! 
Oh!  it  was  pitiful! 
Near  a  whole  city  full 

Home  she  had  none. 

And  every  libertine  was  smitten  with  disgrace  and 
terror  when  he  read — 

In  she  plunged  boldly, 
No  matter  how  coldly, 

The  rough  river  ran, — 
Over  the  brink  of  it, 
Picture  it — think  of  it 

Dissolute  Man ! 
Lave  in  it,  drink  of  it 

Then,  if  you  can  ! 

To  hammer  philosophy  into  shapes  of  beauty  is  the 
calling  of  the  poet.  What  a  grand  workman  was 
Hood!  What  melodies  rang  out  from  his  anvil,  and 
what  sparks  from  his  hammer  flew!  What  chaste  and 
lovely  forms  he  made!  Every  one  of  his  creations 
ministered  unto  virtue,  and  none  of  them  could  be  used 
to  decorate  a  wrong.  Like  Burns,  he  lifted  labor  up, 
and  left  it  a  step  higher  than  he  found  it.  His  humor 
was  an  overflowing  well,  so  copious  that  some  men  used 
to  think  there  could  not  be  any  room  in  him  for  greater 
poetry.  And  yet  his  wit  and  humor,  so  delightful,  and 
so  pure,  were  but  the  framework  to  poetic  jewels  worthy 
to  shine  in  the  coronet  of  Shakespeare. 

Certes,  the  world  did  praise  his  glorious  wit, 

The  merry  jester  with  his  cap  and  bells! 

And  sooth  his  wit  was  like  Ithuriel's  spear: 

But  'twas  mere  lightning  from  the  cloud  of  his  life, 

Which  held  at  heart  most  rich  and  blessed  rain. 

There  was  an  abundant  English  market  for  cant 
when  Hood  was  in  his  prime;  but  though  poor,  and 
troubled,  and  sick,  he  would  not  pander  to  Mammon, 
either   in   church    or   state,  and    so   the   rich   rewards  of 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


463 


soul-servility  passed  him  by.  But  the  poet  kept  his 
gift,  unsullied  by  hypocrisy  or  bribe.  As  he  would  not 
flatter  the  popular  beliefs,  bigotry  assailed  him.  One 
prominent  reviewer,  Rae  Wilson,  Esq.,  criticised  his 
poems  as  having  an  irreligious  tendency,  and  Hood's 
replv  left  Mr.  Wilson  looking  like  a  scarecrow.  Such 
banter,  and  comedy,  and  fun,  have  rarely  been  united  to 
overwhelm  an  assailant  as  they  are  in  the  "Ode  to  Rae 
Wilson."  Seldom  has  the  uncharitable  character  of 
self-assumed  piety  been  so  vividly  exposed  as  in  that 
ode.  I  know  nothing  superior  to  it,  except  "Holy 
Willie's  Prayer."     It  is  full  of  gems  like  this: 

Spontaneously  to  God  should  tend  the  soul, 
Like  the  magnetic  needle  to  the  pole ; 

But  what  were  that  intrinsic  value  worth, 
Suppose  some  fellow  with  more  zeal  than  knowledge, 
Fresh  from  St.  Andrew's  College, 

Should  nail  the  conscious  needle  to  the  North? 

Mr.  Wilson   was  of  St.  Andrew's,  and   Hood   con- 
tinues thus: 

I  will  not  own  a  notion  so  unholy, 

As  thinking  that  the  rich  by  easy  trips 

May  go  to  heaven,  whereas  the  poor  and  lowly, 
Must  work  their  passage,  as  they  do  in  ships. 

One  place  there  is — beneath  the  burial  sod, 
Where  all  mankind  are  equalized  by  death; 

Another  place  there  is — the  Fane  of  God, 
Where  all  are  equal  who  draw  living  breath. 


He  who  can  stand  within  that  holy  door, 

With  soul  unbowed  by  that  pure  spirit-level, 

And  frame  unequal  laws  for  rich  and  poor, — 
Might  sit  for  Hell,  and  represent  the  Devil. 

That  lust  of  gold  which  coins  the  poor  man's  child- 
ren into  monev,  hides  its  face  from  the  scorn  of  Thomas 
Hood.  His  poetic  wrath  scorches  avarice  like  fire. 
The  laboring  heart  is  drawn  by  the  magnetism  of  his 
preaching  up  to  a  healthier  atmosphere,  where  the  cur- 
rents of  life  flow  purer,  and  where  humanity  sees  more 
clearly  the  work  it  has  to  do.  Not  for  ever  shall  the 
greed  of  privileged  classes  rob  the  laborer  of  the  profits 
of  his  toil.  Every  day  the  workingmen  are  learning 
something  new.  By  and  by  they  will  know  their  duty 
and  organize  their  power.  Then  the  moral  force  of  a 
great  cause,  backed  by  a  voting  strength  invincible,  will 
put  them  in  possession  of  their  great  estate.  Not  by 
fighting,  not  by  bombs  and  bullets;  these  are  barbarism. 
The  labor  triumphs  that  are  coming  will  be  moral  vic- 
tories, and  even  they  must  be  preceded  by  our  conquest 
of  ourselves.  If  we  seek  justice,  we  must  do  it;  if  we 
demand  liberty,  we  must  grant  it.  The  whole  domain 
of  handicraft  must  be  free  to  all  the  people.  The  right 
to  learn  a  trade  must  be  conceded  to  every  American 
boy;  and  after  he  has  learned  it,  the  right  to  work  at  it 
must  not  be  taken  from  him.  We  have  much  self- 
discipline   to  undergo  yet,  and   the  sooner  we   go  into 


moral    training   the   better.      The    control    of  our    own 
appetites  must  come  before  our  final  victory. 


THOUGHTS    ON    EVOLUTION. 

A    THEISTIC     VIEW. 

BY  JAMES  EDDY. 

Some  great  mind  above  the  human  with  power  to 
execute  the  decisions  of  its  own  divine  will,  must  have 
conceived  the  great  principle  of  evolution,  or  constant 
change  in  all  organized  existences  and  in  the  vegetable 
kingdom,  substance  or  matter  forming  no  exception  to 
this  great  principle  of  gradual  change  in  locality,  and 
from  solid  to  debris,  from  debris  to  solid.  The  least 
change  seems  to  be  in  the  ego  or  conscious  identity  of 
mind;  for  each  individual  human  being  persistently 
recognizes  himself  from  his  first  dawnings  of  thought 
through  a  long  life  of  changes  in  his  weight  and  form, 
changes  in  views,  in  guiding  principles,  in  politics,  in 
religion,  and  it  is  a  notable  fact  that  no  man,  woman  or 
child  would  change  his  mental  constitution,  his  own 
identity  for  that  of  another.  John  Brown  kuows  him- 
self intimately,  knows  his  own  hopes,  his  own  secret 
thoughts  which  nobody  else  knows,  his  own  enjoyments; 
knows  what  he  most  loves,  knows  his  own  ego  is  his 
own,  realizes  that  his  own  existence  is  a  precious,  unique 
original,  unlike  any  other,  given  by  God  himself,  for 
his  own  special  enjoyment,  and  neither  he  nor  any  other 
man  would  swap  his  own  identity  for  that  of  another 
man  or  woman.  John  Brown  would  like  a  change  of 
conditions,  and  he  is  constantly  striving  to  evolve  himself 
into  better  conditions.  In  this  sense  we  each  and  all 
believe  in  evolution,  in  which  every  man  and  woman 
play  a  conspicuous  part. 

No  man  can  conceive  of  a  beginning  of  creation  in 
nature,  but  since  evolution  makes  a  continuous  change 
of  form,  of  mind,  and  conditions  in  ourselves  and  in 
our  progeny,  is  not  man  with  all  other  races  involved  in 
the  process  of  a  perpetual  creation.  There  certainly 
exists  in  active  operation  on  this  earth  a  law  of  advance- 
ment, of  evolution,  which  implies  progress  in  man 
toward  perfection ;  in  animals  by  instinct  toward  better 
conditions  and  usefulness;  in  trees,  toward  more  perfect 
trees,  etc.  Since  mind  is  the  power  that  moves  all  ma- 
terial things,  all  evolutionary  changes  must  be  affected 
through  the  operations  and  activities  of  mind  in  every 
grade  of  existence.  Not  quite  satisfied  with  its  present 
state,  there  is  a  perpetual  effort  of  the  human  mind  to 
exchange  its  present  good  conditions  for  the  better,  and 
an  exciting  hope  and  aim  to  arrive  finally  at  the  best 
conditions  in  life.  Through  the  influences  of  the  human 
mind  the  domestic  useful  races  of  animals,  birds,  etc., 
are  improved.  By  the  exercise  of  human  intelli- 
gence also  are  wild  fruits,  shrubs  and  flowers  made  more 
beautiful  and  perfect. 

The  kind  intent,  the  benevolent  purpose,  of  a  Higher 


464 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Power  is  visible  in  all  our  natural  relations  and  pursuits. 
Useless  would  be  the  nervous  activities  of  the  human 
mind  if  no  objects  were  furnished  upon  which  to  exer- 
cise our  faculties.  It  matters  not  from  how  humble  a 
point  humanity  originated,  since  we  did  not  originate 
ourselves  we  have  no  responsibility  in  this  matter.  It 
was  by  some  Divine  Power  we  came  into  life.  If 
through  a  monkey  race,  as  Darwin  supposes,  then  with 
pride  we  may  look  back  and  point  to  the  fact  that  from 
an  humble  beginning,  through  the  efforts  of  the  hitman 
mind,  we  have  evolved  ourselves  to  be  what  we  now 
are?  Our  progress  has  been  made  gradually  in  time, by 
experiences  laid  away  in  the  individual  mind,  by  the 
power  of  memory  and  the  ability  given  to  every  age  to 
draw  from  the  great  store-house  af  traditional  and  his- 
torical experiences. 

There  are  two  sides  to  the  power  of  evolution.  Let 
us  not  forget  that  the  human  mind  is  constituted  with  a 
power  of  will  and  free  agency  which  is  its  own  to  exer- 
cise. This  free  will  may  be  used,  and  is  used  as  a  re- 
tardative  ftozvcr,  in  the  processes  of  the  evolution  of  hu- 
manity. Human  free  will  is  limited  as  compared  with  a 
higher  will  power  outside,  but  is  never  interfered  with 
so  far  as  it  goes,  by  any  power  in  the  universe;  for  it  is 
morally  impossible  it  should  be,  by  any  just  power 
above  the  human,  except  by  the  reformatory  bad  effects 
or  consequences  attached  to  errors  and  crimes,  and  the 
good  effects  attached  to  wise  and  virtuous  actions. 
Evolution  does  not  escape  this  power  of  individual  and 
united  human  will,  which  is  often  wrongfully  used  to 
set  back  the  advance  of  knowledge  and  general  prog- 
ress. We  see  this  retardative  power  in  bad  personal 
habits,  in  rum  and  tobacco,  in  wilful  perseverence  in 
doing  wrong  when  we  have  power  to  do  right;  in 
organizing  and  sustaining  bad  governments  and  bad 
religions,  idealizing  gods  with  a  bad  character,  and  in 
doing  generally  all  the  evil  that  human  free  will  and 
liberty  permits  us  to  accomplish  in  this  world. 

Let  us  organize  no  government,  no  religion,  in  which 
the  great  principle  of  progress  or  evolution  toward  the 
better  is  not  recognized ;  and  we  want  no  evolution  in 
which  the  retardative  power  of  human  will  and  free 
agency  is  not  also  recognized.  If  there  were  no  freedom 
of  will  and  power  in  man  to  do  evil,  there  could  be  no 
merit  attached  to  being  virtuous,  and  no  justice  in  Divine 
Power  in  attaching  good  consequences  to  virtue,  rather 
than  to  vice.  All  inventions,  all  discoveries,  all  progress 
in  the  arts,  all  governments,  all  organizations  moral  and 
religious,  in  short,  all  evolutionary  advances  toward  the 
good  or  toward  the  bad  in  human  affairs,  are  made 
through  the  activities  and  freedom  of  the  human  mind 
ami  heart. 

Articles  by  Colonel  Iligginson,  George  Jacob 
Holyoake,  W.  M.  Salter  and  Richard  A.  Proctor  will 
soon  appear  in  the  columns  of  The  Open  Court. 


The  Open  Court. 

A.  Fortnightly  Journal. 

Published   every  other   Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street     Nixor 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  of  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  denned, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
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All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F. 
Underwood,  Treasurer,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  111.,  to  whom 
should  be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 


THURSDAY,  SEPTEMBER  29,  1SS7. 

ANARCHY  AND  THE  ANARCHISTS. 

While  anarchism  with  its  more  intelligent  repre- 
sentatives is  but  a  dream  of  an  advanced  social  con- 
dition in  the  distant  future  in  which  men  will  be  able 
to  live,  each  a  law  unto  himself,  without  need  of  the 
state  or  government,  it  is,  as  advocated  by  those  the 
most  commonly  identified  with  it,  but  little  more  than 
dissatisfaction  with  the  existing  social  order,  hatred 
of  the  rich  and  a  disposition  to  remove  poverty  and 
inequalities  of  condition  by  violence. 

How  the  killing  of  men  who  employ  labor  or  the 
destruction  of  their  property  is  to  bring  about  the 
results  desired,  is  something  of  which  the  anarchists 
evidently  have  no  very  definite  idea.  They  are 
dominated  more  by  passion  than  by  reason,  and  it  is 
not  strange  that  their  harrangues  and  writings  are 
marked  chiefly  by  fierce  denunciations  and  bitter 
revilings.  The  leaders,  and  indeed  the  adherents,  are 
mostly  products  of  the  despotism  of  the  old  world, 
and    the    only    methods    of  reform    in    which    they 


TUB    OPEN    COURT. 


465 


have  any  confidence,  are  those  revolutionary  methods 
which  are  the  last  resort  of  oppressed  men  who 
have  no  voice  in  the  government  of  their  country.  Of 
the  milder  methods  suited  to  a  country  where  the  poor 
man's  vote  counts  as  much  as  that  of  the  millionare, 
where  the  power  of  changing  and  abolishing  old 
laws  and  making  new  ones  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
people,  if  they  are  but  intelligent  and  wise  enough 
to  use  it,  where  there  is  equality  of  opportunity,  and 
the  chances  of  success  are  open  to  all,  where  the 
majority  of  the  men  of  wealth  commenced  life  poor, 
and  the  highest  positions  and  powers  are  enjoyed 
by  those  who  have  belonged  to  the  common  ranks 
of  life — of  the  methods  suited  to  such  a  country,  to 
secure  needed  changes,  these  anarchists  seem  to 
have  little,  if  any,  appreciation.  Many  of  them 
doubtless  have  had  hard  experiences  and  they  nat- 
ural!}' dwell  on  the  contrasts  afforded  by  the  condi- 
tion of  the  miserably  poor  and  that  of  the  "plutoc- 
racy." The  capitalist  they  regard  as  the  enemy  of 
workingmen,  and  the  laws  which  protect  him  in  the 
possession  of  his  property  and  the  conduct  of  his 
business,  as  iniquitous  and  diabolical.  In  short,  the 
existing  social  order  is  held  to  be  about  as  bad  as  it 
possibly  can  be,  and  the  way  to  peace  and  prosper- 
ity for  all  is  believed  to  be  through  the  destruction  of 
existing  laws  and  institutions. 

In  this  country  society  can  afford  to  allow  men 
almost  unlimited  liberty  in  presenting  and  discuss- 
ing theories,  but  it  cannot  safely  allow  men  to  advo- 
cate the  destruction  of  life  and  property,  or  to  incite 
others  to  deeds  of  violence.  If  the  authorities  of 
this  city  had,  months  before  the  Haymarket  meeting 
was  held,  arrested  and  punished  the  men  who  advo- 
cated the  use  of  dynamite  as  a  means  of  redressing 
wrongs,  real  or  imaginary,  in  this  country,  they 
would  have  done  no  more  than  their  duty,  and  the 
terrible  disaster  probably  never  would  have  occurred. 
By  their  inaction  they  unwittingly  encouraged  the 
violence,  and  to  that  extent  share  the  responsibility 
for  the  great  crime.  Freedom  of  speech  when  exer- 
cised in  advocating  murder  as  a  means  of  solving 
social  or  economic  questions  is  a  kind  of  freedom 
which  cannot  be  permitted  in  this  republic  while  it 
has  among  its  population  creatures  who  can  be 
incited  to  deeds  of  violence  by  such  speech.  Men 
who  resort  to  such  irrational  and  savage  means  to 
bring  about  social  changes,  must  be  treated  as  public 
enemies  and  punished  as  criminals. 

At  the  present  moment  the  public  mind  is  pro- 
foundly agitated  by  the  imminent  fate  of  the  seven 
anarchists  who  are  lying  under  sentence  of  death  in 
Chicago.  Every  heart  that  feels  is  touched  by 
their  situation  and  that  of  their  families.  It  is 
impossible   for   those   reared   under   complex   social 


conditions  like  ours,  whose  minds  have  not  been 
dwarfed  and  sympathies  narrowed  by  race  or  relig- 
ious prejudices,  and  whose  hearts  have  not  been 
hardened  by  crime,  to  remain  untouched  by  the  sight 
or  contemplation  of  any  case  of  distress,  even  when 
the  sufferer  has  brought  it  on  himself  by  his  crimi- 
nal foil}-. 

But  the  capacity  for  sorrow  as  well  as  for  joy  is 
limited,  and  so  many  and  so  great  are  the  demands 
upon  our  pity  and  sympathy,  that  we  readily  forget 
sad  scenes  and  incidents  of  the  past  while  we  are 
agitated  by  those  of  the  present.  Multitudes  who 
are — and  to  their  credit — full  of  commiseration  for 
the  anarchists  who  are  condemned  to  die  on  the  nth 
of  November,  give  little  or  no  thought  now  to  the 
fate  of  the  guardians  of  the  law  who  were  cruelly 
murdered  by  a  dynamite  bomb  in  this  city,  or  of  the 
widowhood,  orphanage,  and  anguish  caused  by  that 
terrible  tragedy.  While  sympathy  is  felt  and  ex- 
pressed for  the  anarchists  in  their  misfortune,  and 
for  their  wives  and  children,  those  who  died  in 
defense  of  law  and  order,  and  their  widows  and 
orphans  should  not  be  forgotton.  To  the  men  who 
thus  died  a  monument  should  be  erected,  and  for 
their  families  ample  provision  should  be  made  by 
the  State.* 

Security  of  life  and  property  is  an  essential  con- 
dition of  civilization,  and  it  must  be  maintained 
'against  every  influence  that  threatens  it,  whether  it 
be  the  savagery  of  the  plains  or  the  worse  moral  sav- 
agery of  Most  and  his  followers.  For  its  defense 
laws  are  enacted  and  men  appointed  with  authority 
to  enforce  them.  These  laws  express  the  will  of  the 
people,  and  the  public  officers,  from  the  policeman 
to  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  country,  are  servants 
of  the  people,  appointed  or  elected  to  execute  the 
laws  which  the  people  through  their  representatives 
have  made.  The  murder  of  a  public  servant  is  a 
crime  which  all  good  citizens  should  unite  in  pun- 
ishing, and  the  memory  of  every  public  servant  who 
dies  by  violence  in  the  performance  of  duty  should 
be  honored  as  a  soldier  falling  in  defense  of  his 
country,  and  his  family  be  treated  not  less  gener- 
ously than  the  family  of  the  soldier  slain  on  the 
battle-field. 

Whether  justice  and  the  best  interests  of  society 
demand  that  the  anarchists  in  this  city  who  have 
been  sentenced  to  death  be  executed,  or  that  their 
sentence  be  commuted  by  the  exercise  of  executive 
clemency;  whether  even  justice  to  them  does  not 
demand  the  new  trial   which  has  been  denied  them 


*  Since  this  article  was  put  in  type  letters  and  editorials  have  appeared  in 
the  Chicago  dailies  proposing  the  erection  of  a  monument  lo  tlte  memory  of  the 
policemen  who  weie  killed  by  the  bomb  in  Haymarket  square.  A  desire  to 
commemorate  the  services  of  these  men  should  have  shown  itself  in  the  com- 
mencement of  this  work  months  ago. 


466 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State — these  are  ques- 
tions on  which  there  is  a  divided  opinion.  Most  of 
the  large  daily  journals  and  the  religious  press  urge 
that  the  death  penalty  be  enforced.  Others,  including 
all  the  labor  journals  that  have  come  under  our  notice, 
a  dozen  or  more,  (which  generally  regard  the  verdict 
and  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  we  are  sorry  to 
note,  as  the  result  of  class  influence,)  express  the  con- 
viction that  the  sentence  is  unjust,  and  not  a  few  of 
them  declare  that  its  execution,  if  it  occurs,  will  be 
nothing  less  than  "  judicial  murder."  Certain  it  is 
that  there  is  a  grave  suspicion  abroad,  whether  well 
founded  or  not,  that  in  the  conviction  of  the  men  the 
substance  of  the  law  was  broken. 

In  the  presence  of  a  catastrophe  so  tremendous 
as  the  execution  of  seven  fellow  beings,  a  journal 
devoted  to  justice,  to  liberty,  to  humanity  cannot 
remain  silent.  In  the  mad  whirl  of  passion  where 
the  condemned  men,  so  to  speak,  are  being  tossed 
and  flung  about  by  friends  and  foes,  it  behooves  us 
to  weigh  well  our  words,  and  to  be  sure  that  they  are 
words  of  reason  untinged  by  passion  or  prejudice. 
There  are  State  trials  famous  in  history,  not  because 
of  their  dramatic  character  and  surroundings,  nor 
because  of  the  magnitude  of  the  crimes  involved, 
but  because  in  those  trials  the  law  itself  was  twisted 
out  of  moral  symmetry  to  gratify  public  revenge,  and 
justice  itself  was  thereby  violated  and  the  founda- 
tions of  liberty  polluted.  There  are  those  who,  with- 
out the  least  sympathy  with  anarchy  or  its  meth- 
ods— who,  indeed,  hold  them  in  abhorrence — yet 
express  grave  apprehensions  that  if  the  men  con- 
demned to  die  on  the  nth  of  November  are  put 
to  death  according  to  their  sentence,  their  case  may 
be  memorable  also  for  the  enormity  of  the  trial  more 
even  than  for  the  enormity  of  the  crimes  charged. 
We  do  not  say  that  these  apprehensions  have  just 
grounds,  but  they  exist. 

In  The  Index  of  October  14,  18S6,  we  said 
editorially: 

There  is  no  doubt  whatever,  we  presume,  that  popular  feeling 
in  Chicago  against  the  condemned  men  has  been  and  still  is  very 
strong.  This  is  not  strange  considering  the  brutal  manner  in 
which  the  appointed  guardians  of  peace  and  order  were  murdered, 
and  the  conviction  that  these  men  are  responsible  for  the  crime. 
The  only  question  is  whether  public  opinion — an  element  which 
under  any  circumstances  has  to  be  taken  into  account — operated 
to  prevent  a  just  and  fair  trial.  This,  so  far  as  we  can  judge  from 
meagre  reports,  was  not  shown.  Judge  Gary,  after  all  that  could 
be  said  in  defense  of  the  condemned  anarchists,  saw  no  reason 
for  granting  a  new  trial.  At  the  same  time  it  is  probable  that 
the  men,  most  of  them  products  of  European  despotism,  were 
infatuated  with  certain  chimerical  schemes,  held  under  the  name 
of  anarchy,  and  were  working,  as  they  believed,  for  social  reform, 
misled  by  the  diabolical  teachings  of  Most,  that  they  w  ere  blinded 
by  fanaticism  to  the  folly  of  their  words  and  acts,  and  did  not 
fully  consider  their  practical  consequences.  While  there  can  be 
nothing  but  condemnation  for  attempts  to  carry  out   anv  social 


theories  by  killing  innocent  human  beings,  we  are  of  the  opinion 
that  the  authorities  can  aftbrd  to  be  lenient  with  these  criminals 
and  to  show  them  that  mercy  which  was  not  shown  to  the  victims 
of  their  misguided  zeal  and  short-sighted  scheme  for  revolution- 
izing society.  Let  the  death  sentence  be  commuted  to  impr'son- 
ment,  by  which  the  law  will  be  sufficiently  vindicated  and  the 
unfortunate  men  and  their  sympathizers  may  come  to  see  the 
absurdity  of  their  anarchistic  theories  and  the  criminal  folly  of 
their  plotlings  against  social  order  and  human  life  It  is  very 
doubtful  whether  the  further  efforts  now  being  made  for  a  new 
trial  prove  more  successful  than  did  the  motion  overruled  by- 
Judge  Gary. 

Now  nearly  a  year  later,  after  reading  carefully 
the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  in 
the  case  of  the  anarchists,  we  regret  that  the  men 
have  been  refused  a  new  trial.  Protesting  against 
the  irrational  cruelty  preached  by  the  anarchists 
when  they  advocated  private  vengeance  for  alleged 
public  wrongs  and  their  sanguinary  threats  of  revo- 
lution, and  looking  at  the  case  by  the  light  of  the 
trial  alone,  we  do  not  believe  that  all  the  accused 
were  fairly  proven  guilty  of  murder  or  of  conspiracy 
to  murder.  Guilty  they  may  be,  one  and  all,  but 
doubts  in  our  mind  are  so  strong  as  to  the  guilt 
of  two  of  the  condemned  men  that  we  regret  another 
trial  was  not  granted  them.  True,  the  verdict  has 
been  affirmed  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State, 
but  the  decisions  of  Supreme  Courts  are  not  infallible 
and  have,  in  many  instances,  been  contrary  to  justice 
and  right. 

A  careful  perusal  of  the  decision  in  question  will, we 
believe,  show  that  it  is  open  to  serious  criticism,  not 
only  for  the  manner  in  which  certain  points  are  pre- 
sented, but  also  for  the  omission  of  others  which 
ought  to  have  been  presented.  We  can  mention 
here  but  a  few  instances.  The  court,  after  passing 
judgment  upon  a  number  of  objections  raised  by  the 
defense,  which  they  consider  "most  important" 
speaks  of  "some  other  points  of  minor  importance 
which  are  not  noticed."  "As  to  these,"  it  remarks, 
"it  is  safe  to  say  that  we  have  considered  them  and 
do  not  regard  them  as  well  taken."  When  a  man 
condemned  to  die  alleges  certain  errors  in  his  trial, 
and  asks  the  court  of  last  resort  to  pass  upon  them, 
a  refusal  to  do  so  is  a  wrong  as  plainly  visible  to  lay- 
men as  to  lawyer.  It  is  a  solemn  thing  to  sentence 
a  fellow  man  to  death,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  tell 
him  that  points  of  his  appeal  have  been  considered, 
and  that  they  are  not  well  taken.  The  proof  that 
they  have  been  considered  should  appear  in  reasons 
for  rejecting  them,  and  it  is  therefore  the  duty  of  the 
court  to  show  wherein  they  are  not  well  taken. 

The  judges,  in  justice  to  the  condemned  men, 
should  have  criticised,  so  it  seems  to  us,  not  only 
such  points  as  they  themselves  considered  "most 
important,"  but  also  every  point  which  the  men  whose 
lives   were  at  stake   regarded   as  of  any  importance 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


467 


whatever.  The  decision  was  not  the  reversal  of  aver- 
dict;  it  was  the  affirming  of  the  sentence  of  death 
against  seven  men.  The  defendants  had  an  equal 
right  with  the  judge  to  say  what  errors  were  "impor- 
tant." Considering  that  the  court  was  weaving  a  long 
rope  for  the  hanging  of  seven  men — weaving  it  out  of 
a  confused  tangle,  composed  of  threads  of  evidence, 
some  of  which,  according  to  the  decision  itself,  were 
proper  and  some  of  them  not,  the  statement  of  the 
court  that  any  further  comment  "would  swell  the 
opinion,  already  of  inordinate  length,  into  still  more 
tiresome  proportions"  is,  in  our  opinion,  no  sufficient 
excuse.  There  are  many  cases  involving  only  dollars 
in  which  longer  opinions  have  been  written  without 
exhausting  either  the  court  or  the  readers  interested 
in  the  cases.  A  legal  friend  calls  our  attention  to 
the  Mordaunt  case,  a  mere  suit  for  divorce,  in  which 
the  opinion  is  five  times  as  long  as  that  is  in  regard 
to  the  anarchists.  In  the  claimant  case,  a  trial  for 
perjury,  the  opinion  is  ten  times  as  long.  Dividing 
the  opinion  by  seven,  the  number  of  men  doomed, 
the  allowance  for  each  is  not  large,  and  there  seems  to 
be  no  good  reason  for  refusing  to  discuss  specifically 
any  of  the  alleged  errors. 

One  of  the  members  of  the  court,  after  the  deci- 
sion had  been  announced,  said  that  he  did  "not  wish 
to  be  understood  as  holding  that  the  record  is  free 
from  error,"  but  "that  none  of  the  errors  complained 
of  are  of  such  a  character  as  to  require  a  reversal  of 
the  judgment."  "In  view  of  the  number  of  defend- 
ants on  trial"  (with  other  facts  mentioned),  "the 
wonderment"  to  him  was  that  the  errors  were  not 
more  numerous  and  of  a  more  serious  character. 
Now  one  of  the  errors  alleged  is  that  the  defendants 
were  refused  the  right  to  be  separately  tried.  Mr. 
Justice  Mulvey,  confessing  errors,  permits  them  to 
prevail  in  the  doom  of  seven  men,  on  grounds 
one  of  which  and  the  first  mentioned  is  that  errors 
were  inevitable  where  so  many  men  were  tried 
together.  Was  it  the  fault  of  the  defendants  that 
eight  men  were  tried  "all  in  a  row?"  Shall  the 
prosecution  take  advantage  of  its  own  mistake,  if  not 
its  own  wrong?  Whether  designed  or  not,  the  effect 
of  such  a  number  of  defendants  was  to  throw  confusion 
into  the  jury  box,  and  errors  into  the  rulings  and 
instructions  of  the  court  below. 

By  trying  all  the  men  together  the  peril  of  each 
one  of  them  was  multiplied,  for  each  had  to  defend 
himself  against  his  own  words  and  actions  and  those 
of  the  other  seven.  This  was  not  fair,  and  we  doubt 
whether  it  is  good  law  in  capital  cases.  What  is  Mr. 
Justice  Mulvey's  opinion  on  this  point  ?  He  approves 
the  judgment,  but  condemns  errors  in  the  record  and 
omits  to  specify  the  errors  to  which  he  refers. 
These  evidently  are  not  the  minor  errors  confessed 


in  the  decision  itself,  because  Mr.  Justice  Mulvey 
intimates  that  his  origin!?!  intention  was  to  write  a 
separate  opinion.  We  agree  with  him  that  this  is 
what  he  "should  have  done." 

The  Supreme  Court  confesses  that  erroneous 
instructions  were  given  to  the  jury  by  the  court 
below,  but  contends  that  correct  instructions  on  the 
same  points  were  also  given,  and  that  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  jury  to  consider  all  the  instructions  together. 
In  the  language  of  the  court: 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  jury  to  consider  all  the  instructions  together 
and  when  the  court  can  see  that  an  instruction  in  the  series, 
although  not  stating  the  law  correctly,  is  qualified  by  others,  so 
that  the  jury  were  not  likely  to  be  misled,  the  error  will  be 
obviated. 

This  claim  cannot  fairly  be  allowed  to  one  side 
and  denied  to  the  other.  The  defendants  have  as 
good  a  right  to  claim  that  the  bad  instructions  quali- 
fied the  good  ones  as  the  prosecution  has  that  the 
good  ones  qualified  the  bad.  Who  shall  decide 
which  of  them  influenced  the  jury?  How  many 
jurors  are  competent  to  analyze  a  legal  mixture  com- 
posed of  good  and  bad  instructions  given  by  the 
court? 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  District  Attorney,  in 
his  zeal  to  convict,  broke  through  the  lines  of  profes- 
sional etiquette  which  the  humane  spirit  of  the  law 
has  thrown  around  his  office.  It  is  laid  down  in  the 
books  that  the  prosecuting  attorney,  like  the  judge, 
shall  stand  absolutely  impartial  between  the  prisoner 
and  the  State.  He  must  not  revile  the  prisoner  nor 
insult  him.  He  must  not  make  fact-statements  in 
his  argument,  nor  offer  to  the  jury  his  own  opinion 
on  the  question  of  guilt  or  innocence;  because,  says 
Mr.  Bishop  in  his  treatise  on  criminal  law,  if  he  is  a 
popular  man  in  whom  the  jury  have  great  confidence, 
his  mere  opinion  may  have  greater  weight  than  the 
sworn  testimony  of  other  men.  All  these  rules  were 
violated  in  this  case,  against  the  protest  of  the  pris- 
oners' counsel,  and  yet  the  Supreme  Court  decides 
that  the  "  improprieties"  were  not  such  as  to  warrant 
a  reversal  of  the  judgment.  General  Butler  said  a 
few  days  ago:  "I  thoroughly  believe, as  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Massachusetts  once  expressed  it,  that  'a 
man  has  a  right  to  quibble  for  his  life'";  but  a  man 
certainly  has  no  right  to  quibble  for  the  death  of 
other  men. 

Macaulay  tells  us  of  a  great  state  trial  that  took 
place  in  England  nearly  two  hnndred  years  ago. 
Preston,  Ashton  and  Elliott  had  been  indicted  for 
high  treason  in  connection  with  the  Jacobite  plot. 
They  had  actually  invited  a  French  army  to  land  in 
England  to  help  the  scheme  to  overturn  the  govern- 
ment. The  popular  clamor  against  them  was  loud 
and  threatening.     Chief  Justice  Holt  presided  at  the 


468 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


trial.  Somers,  the  Solicitor-General  prosecuted, 
with  Pollexfen  to  help  him.  All  these  were  bitter 
enemies  of  the  prisoner  and  their  politics,  and  we 
quote  the  manner  of  their  trial  as  we  find  it  in 
Macaulay: 

Early  in  January,  Preston,  Ashton  and  Elliott,  had  been 
arraigned  at  the  Old  Bailey.  They  claimed  the  right  of  severing 
in  their  challenges.  It  was  therefor  necessary  to  try  them 
separately.  The  Solicitor-General,  Somers,  conducted  the  prose- 
cution with  a  moderation  and  humanity  of  which  his  predecessors 
had  left  him  no  example.  "  I  did  never  think,"  he  said,  "  that  it 
was  the  part  of  any  who  were  of  counsel  for  the  King  in  cases  of 
this  nature  to  aggravate  the  crime  of  the  prisoners,  or  to  put  false 
colors  on  the  evidence."  Holt's  conduct  was  faultless.  "  I  would 
not  mislead  the  jury,  I'll  assure  you,"  said  Holt  to  Preston,  "  nor 
do  you  any  manner  of  injury  in  the  world."  "  Whatever  my  fate 
may  be,"  said  Ashton,  "I  cannot  but  own  that  I  have  had  a  fair 
trial  for  my  life." 

It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  issue  in  the 
Supreme  Court  was  not  between  the  punishment  of 
the  defendants  and  their  absolute  acquittal,  but 
between  death  and  a  new  trial;  and  we  believe  that 
by  reason  of  the  errors  confessed  in  the  decision 
itself  a  new  trial  should  have  been  allowed.  And 
this  is  the  conviction,  we  are  assured,  of  men  as 
eminent  for  legal  ability  and  attainments  as  any  of 
the  learned  gentlemen  by  whom  this  decision  has 
been  rendered.  A  lawyer  in  this  city  remarked  a 
few  days  ago:  "I  believe  the  men  are  guilty  and 
ought  to  be  hanged,  but  I  am  sorry  that  they  did  not 
have  a  fair  trial."  Guilty  or  not,  if  they  "did  not 
have  a  fair  trial,"  they  should  have  another. 

Assuming  that  the  men  are  guilty,  as  the  evidence 
indicates  that  the  most  of  them  are,  we  still  adhere 
to  the  conviction  expressed  in  The  Index  months  ago, 
that  the  highest  justice  and  the  best  interests  of 
society  would  be  promoted  by  the  commutation  of 
their  sentence. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences,  four  years  ago,  Dr.  S.  V.  Clevenger 
was  invited  to  detail  the  law  which  he  had  discovered 
regulating  the  distribution  of  valves  in  the  veins. 
When  the  doctor  concluded  his  blackboard  demonstra- 
tion Prof.  E.  D.  Cope  spoke  at  length,  with  his  well- 
known  eloquence,  commending  the  discovery  as  an  im- 
portant one,  for  a  very  mysterious  matter  had  become 
thereby  wonderfully  simplified,  and  evolutionism  had  re- 
ceived a  new  support.  In  effect  Dr.  Clevenger's  law 
straightens  out  a  confused  arrangement  of  valved  and 
unvalved  veins  in  man,  that  the  medical  student  had  to 
memorize  arbitrarily,  thus:  The  arm  and  leg  veins  and 
those  between  the  ribs  have  valves,  while  other  perpen- 
dicular and  horizontal  veins  have  no  valves.  It  occurred 
to  the  doctor  that  these  peculiarities  must  have  been  ac- 
quired in  our  quadrupedal  ancestry,  and  he  drew  a  dia- 
gram  of  the   human  veins   as   they  would    appear   in  a 


man  "on  all  fours."  The  simplicity  of  the  distribution 
became  thus  startlingly  apparent.  In  this  position  the 
perpendicular  veins  are  valved,  the  horizontal  are  without 
valves,  and  the  blood  is  helped  toward  the  heart  against 
gravitation.  Clevenger's  law  is  approximately  but  suffi- 
ciently worded  :  "Dorsad  veins  only  are  valved"  That 
is,  only  such  veins  have  valves  as  those  that  pass  to  the 
heart  toward  the  back.  No  one  has  ever  announced  any- 
thing new  that  was  of  service  to  his  fellow  men,  without 
at  least  a  reprimand.  Sir  Charles  Bell's  practice  as  a  phy- 
sician fell  away  from  him  wdien  he  wrote  an  essay  on 
the  mechanism  of  the  human  hand.  Dr.  Clevenger 
was  offered  the  chair  of  Comparative  Anatomy  and 
Physiology  in  a  university,  the  president  of  which  was  a 
clergyman,  but  when  his  evolutionism  was  made  apparent 
by  his  first  announcement  of  this  discovery,  the  profes- 
sorship offer  was  withdrawn.  This  matter  was  dis- 
cussed in  The  Nation,  in  1SS4,  after  the  appearance  of 
Dr.  Clevenger's  lengthy  "  Disadvantages  of  the  Upright 
Position,"  as  the  leading  article  in  the  American  Natur- 
alist, January,  1SS4. 

Rev.  W.  G.  Babcock,  Boston,  Mass.,  writes: 
Mr.  Clark  says  in  The  Open  Court,  page  429:  "  For  men 
pursuing  ordinary  avocations,  it  is  well  to  remain  blind  to  the 
darker  side  of  life,  as  they  could  not  otherwise  live  and  work." 
He  also  says:  "When  ill  becomes  a  sole  trait."  Again  he 
likens  life  to  a  perpetual  lottery,  with  prizes  and  blanks.  He 
may  be  right  in  the  position  that  with  most  men  reason  is  an 
advocate  and  not  a  judge;  but  does  he  mean  that  evil  is  not  only 
an  unsolved  but  an  insolvable  problem?  Does  he  really  mean 
that  the  fundamental  law  of  the  universe  admits  of  two  classes  of 
human  beings,  prize-holders  and  blank-holders? 

I  have  noticed  that  evil  has  always  had  very  able  advocates 
in  the  great  criminal  court  of  human  affairs — and  have  concluded 
that  "the  world  of  ill-being"  is  not  a  world  where  "ill  is  the 
sole  trait,"  but  where  there  is  a  good  deal  of  satisfaction  of  some 
kind.     Can   any   one   with  reason    complain   that    he  was   born? 

#  *  * 

The  Boston  Herald  in  an  article  exposing  the 
absurdities  of  "Christian  science  and  mind-cure," 
remarks: 

Not  the  least  curious  thing  about  the  whole  is  the  intrepid 
logic  with  which  the  leaders  accept  the  most  delirious  conse- 
quences of  their  principles.  In  vain  does  the  humble  skeptic 
object  against  the  pure  mind  theory  that  a  dose  of  arsenic  will  kill, 
even  though  taken  under  the  supposition  that  it  was  sugar. 
True,  serenely  admits  Mrs.  Eddv,  but  it  was  not  the  arsenic  that 
did  it;  it  was  the  inherited  mental  error,  working  unconsciously 
in  the  victim,  the  error  that  arsenic  is  unwholesome.  "The  few," 
she  says,  "  who  think  a  drug  harmless,  where  a  mistake  has  been 
made  in  the  prescription,  are  unequal  to  the  many  who  have 
named  it  poison,  and  so  the  majority  opinion  governs  the  result." 
This   last  is   truly  delicious.     The   majority   opinion  governs  the 

result.     Was  ever  so  sublime  a  tribute  paid  to  democracy? 

#  #  # 

Professor  Stuckenberg,  of  Berlin,  sorrowfully  ad- 
mits that  German  Protestantism  is  losing  its  power 
among  the  people.  As  an  illustration  of  this  decline 
the  religious  condition  of  Berlin  is  thus  mentioned: 

The  population  of  that    city   increases  at  the  rate  of  50,000 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


469 


annually,  but  there  is  no  corresponding  increase  in  churches.  Ten 
years  ago  there  were  500,000  inhabitants  outside  of  the  center  ol 
the  city,  with  but  twenty  churches  and  twenty-four  ministers. 
Now  the  number  of  inhabitants  in  these  districts  has  nearly 
doubled,  but  no  new  churches  have  been  built. 


WHEN   SUMAC   GLIMMERS   RED. 

BV     ELISSA    M.    MOORE. 

Across  the  sky  cold  clouds  are  driven, 
From  tree  and  shrub  bright  leaves  are  riven 

And  at  my  feet  are  spread  ; 
Around  me,  gaudy  flowers  gleam  yellow, 
Fair  Nature's  still  most  royal  color, 

When  sumac  glimmers  red. 

The  gentian  in  the  marsh  is  hiding, 
There  till  the  first  cold  frost  abiding, 

By  hidden  waters  fed ; 
Through  glistening  leaves  full  shyly  glancing 
In  bluest  dress  is  still  entrancing, 

When  sumac  glimmers  red. 

The  timid  swallows  southward  turning, 
For  brighter  suns  and  flowers  are  yearning, 

Mourning  the  glory  fled. 
For  now  how  soon  is  Autumn  waning, 
And  now  how  fast  is  winter  gaining 

When  sumac  glimmers  red. 

Though  woods  in  brightest  dress  are  gleaming, 
Their  bravery  is  but  in  seeming, 

Shadows  fall  overhead. 
The  nights  grow  chill  when  close  the  flowers, 
A  secret  sadness  fills  the  hours 

When  sumac  glimmers  red. 

Sadly  I  turn  from  Autumn's  splendor 
Of  leaves  that  glow  in  sad  surrender, 

And  whisper  "  Youth  hath  fled." 
Vague  shadows  of  the  past  close  round  me, 
Sorrow  outlived  again  hath  bound  me 

When  sumac  glimmers  red. 


HO  THEOS  META   SON. 

BY    GOW'AN    LEA. 
HYMN. 

To  live  in  every  thought 

A  life  so  true  and  pure; 
To  do  in  every  deed 

The  noblest,  and  endure; 
To  hate  with  direst  hate 

The  wrong  and  sin  we  see ; 
The  sinner  to  restore 

With  gentlest  charity ; — 
This  is  the  heavenly  mind, 

No  matter  where  'tis  found ; 
A  soul  at  one  with  good, 

Knows  only  hallowed  ground. 


SONG. 

BY    HORACE    L.    TRAUBEL. 
TO  EMERSON: 

Thou  wert  measurer  of  the  spheres, 

All  were  servants  made  for  thee; 

In  the  hollows  of  the  sea, 

In  the  strong-veined  heroes  sent, 

In  the  roses  of  the  field, 

Thou  hadst  traced  for  kindred  eyes 

Songs  of  glory,  new-revealed, 

Of  a  universe  content. 

to  carlyle: 
Truth  had  held  thee  to  its  heart — 
Truth,  that  scatters  from  the  deep 
Deeds  of  union,  part  with  part, 
O'er  the  worlds  the  gods  may  keep; 
Sternly  hath  thy  prophet-voice 
Touched  the  chord  to  fix  in  man 
Beauty — when  the  souls  rejoice, 
Duty — when  they  bravely  plan. 

choral: 
Out  of  need  the  heroes  came; 
Out  of  need  they  move  us  still; 
Grimly,  in  the  smoke  and  flame, — 
Sweetly,  from  the  starry  hill, — 
Life  was  pledged  to  love  and  truth! 
Leagued  with  day  and  night  they  stand, 
Youth  with  rugged  brother-youth, 
Heart  to  heart  and  hand  to  hand! 


LOVE. 

BY    MRS.    EMMA    TITTLE. 

O,  Love! 
Thou  art  an  orphan  in  this  world  of  ours 
Wearing  a  coronet  of  dead  white  flowers, 
Who,  with  sad  eyes,  and  lashes  meek  and  wet, 
Art  dreaming  dreams  which  fill  thee  with  regret. 

O,  Love! 
Fore'er  divine  in  this  sin  sullied  world! 
Thy  tender  lips  contempt  has  never  curled, 
Thy  pearly  fingers  cannot  wear  a  stain, 
Albeit  they  link  with  Sorrow,  Sin  and  Pain. 

O,  Love! 
Thou  of  the  drooping  lash  and  downcast  eyes, 
Wreathed  by  the  angels  in  thy  native  skies, 
Shalt  wear  again  a  living  wreath  of  white 
Touched  by  the  glory  of  supernal  light. 

O,  Love! 
Thou  art  no  egotist,  in  boastful  tone 
Claiming  thy  angelhood,  and  thine  alone; 
But,  sighing  sadly,  that  each  wistful  quest 
Tells  thee  the  sinless  angels  know  thee  best. 


47° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


THE     OCCULT    SCIENCES     IN     THE    TEMPLES    OF 
ANCIENT    EGYPT.* 

BY  GEORGIA  LOUISE  LEONARD. 

[A  paper  read  at  the  "Fortnightly  Conversation,"  Washington,  D.  C, 
May  5,  1887.] 

In  a  search  for  information  concerning  Egyptian 
occultism  one  spends  his  time  in  vain  who  seeks  it  in  the 
ordinary  channels  of  literature.  He  will  not  find  it  in 
books  which  ornament  parlor  tables,  nor  will  it  gener- 
ally be  found  treasured  on  the  shelves  of  great  libraries. 
Scientists,  historians,  archaeologists,  even  Egyptologists 
themselves,  ignore  all  mention  of  the  occult,  or  speak  of 
it  only  with  derision.  To  them,  the  idea  of  a  religion, 
the  highest  aspect  of  which  was  essentially  esoteric,  pre- 
sided over  by  priests  who  were  not  only  the  possessors 
of  dread  secrets,  but  the  accredited  workers  of  wonders, 
has  in  it  something  manifestly  absured. 

Where  then  are  we  to  look  for  the  treasures  of  which 
we  are  in  search  ?  The  avenues  are  not  many  where  seek- 
ing leads  to  rinding.  When  the  majority  of  scholars 
who  have  earned  world-wide  reputations  in  their  several 
departments  of  knowlege,  and  evinced  therein  both  fair- 
ness and  discrimination,  are  a  unit  in  refusing  not  only 
to  believe  in,  but  even  to  investigate  the  psychic  phenom- 
ena of  their  own  day,  how  can  we  expect  them  to  treat 
with  any  degree  of  consideration  the  symbolism  of  a 
veiled  science  and  religion  which  have  been  dead  these 
two  thousand  years?  As  illustrations  of  this  class  of 
minds  there  is  Maudsley  who  reduces  with  ease  all 
"  Supernatural  Seemings  "  to  "  Natural  Causes,"  as  at 
present  generally  understood.  Then  we  have  Herbert 
Spencer  in  whose  Principles  of  Sociology  all  unknown 
or  apparently  occult  manifestations  are  treated  as  so 
many  phases  of  the  law  of  mental  development — the 
final  outcome  of  which  is  practical  materialism,  or  a  total 
elimination  of  the  super- sensuous  from  the  domain  of 
experience.  Again  there  is  Tylor  in  whose  Primitive 
Culture  an  effort  is  made  to  establish  the  theory  of 
evolution  by  the  application  of  the  ethnographic  method 
to  the  comparative  evidence  of  the  various  stages  of  relig- 
ious progress. 

Mr.  Tylor  informs  us  that  "it  is  the  harsh,  and  at 
times  even  painful,  office  of  ethnography  to  expose  the 
remains  of  crude  old  culture  which  have  passed  into 
harmful  superstition,  and  to  mark  these  out  for  destruc- 
tion, "j-  In  this  author's  work  on  "Anthropology"  we 
are  still  further  enlightened:  "The  student  who  wishes 
to  compare  the  mental  habits  of  rude  and  ancient  peo- 
ples  with   our  own,  may" — he   tells  us — "look   into  a 

*  In  treating  this  subject  but  little  more  than  suggestions  can  he  furnished  ; 
tor,  as  I  shall  endeavor  to  show,  those  who  stand  without  the  veil,  cannot  view 
the  mysteries,  and  the  key  to  the  penetralia  is  never" loaned,  so  far  as  I  can  dis- 
cover. 

I  make  for  the  Egyptian  priests  no  claims  for  a  knowledge  of  the  supernat- 
ural—-but  for  the  natural  that  is  lost  or  obscured  in  the  waste  and  dust  of  past 
ages. 

I  Tylor.     Primitive  Culture,  Vol.  II.  p.  453. 


subject  which  has  now  fallen  into  contempt  from  its 
practical  uselessness,  but  which  is  most  instructive  in 
showing  how  the  unscientific  mind  works;"  and  this 
subject  is  "Magic!"* 

Dr.  Hammond  in  this  country  and  Dr.  Carpenter  in 
England,  have  each  investigated  to  a  certain  extent  some 
phases  of  psychic  phenomena.  Instead  of  the  impartial 
verdict  which  we  naturally  expected  from  them,  we 
have  only  reiterated  statements  of  preconceived  opinions, 
enunciated  with  renewed  assumptions  of  authority  ;  and  in 
no  uncertain  terms  are  told  that  "  barefaced  imposture," 
or  "  innocent  delusion  "  will  adequately  account  for  the 
whole  thing.  The  former  of  these  eminent  gentlemen 
will  not  even  admit  the  existence  of  an  unknown  species  of 
"  force,"  or  an  undiscovered  "  natural  law."  Mr.  John 
Fiske,  who  never  loses  an  opportunity  to  discredit  the 
attainments  of  the  ancients,  proves  an  able  second  to 
Dr.  Hammond.  He  sneers  at  Prof.  Crookes  for  his 
suggestions  of  a  "psychic  force,"  and  characterizes  his 
method  of  research  as  that  of  the  "  barbaric  myth-maker 
and  the  ill-trained  thinker."-j- 

In  any  search  into  occultism  it  is  quite  evident  we 
must  look  elsewhere  for  assistance  than  to  such  scientists 
and  historians  as  these.  To  such  the  words  of  Lord 
Bacon  are  especially  applicable:  "  We  have,"  he  says, 
"  but  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  discoveries  in  arts 
and  sciences,  made  public  in  different  ages  and  countries, 
and  still  less  of  what  has  been  done  by  particular  per- 
sons, and  transacted  in  private;"  and  he  further  says, 
"  As  to  those  who  have  set  up  for  teachers  of  the  sciences, 
when  they  drop  their  character,  and  at  intervals  speak 
their  sentiments,  they  complain  of  the  subtlety  of  nature, 
the  concealment  of  truth,  the  obscurity  of  things,  the 
entanglement  of  causes,  and  the  imperfections  of  the 
human  understanding;  thus  rather  choosing  to  accuse 
the  common  state  of  men  and  things,  than  make  con- 
fession of  themselves. £ 

To  unravel  the  ///'story  of  the  occult  sciences  of 
Egypt,  is  nearly  as  difficult  as  to  rediscover  the  sciences 
themselves.  True  it  is  that  dozens  of  old  papyrus  rolls 
have  been  brought  forth  from  dark  tombs  to  the  light  of 
day;  true  that  all  the  monuments  of  her  land  were  once 
a  pictured  glory — her  history  and  her  religion  chiseled 
deep  into  every  fragment  of  her  mighty  pylons  or  the 
massive  columns  of  her  vast  sanctuaries.  True  again, 
that  these  writings  have  been  translated  to  the  world; 
but  the  task  has  been  accomplished  by  those  of  alien 
race,  of  foreign  tongue,  and  a  hostile  faith.  Honest  and 
patient,  then,  as  these  scholars  may  be,  it  is  not  singular 
they  have  failed  to  comprehend  the  full  significance  of 
ideas  veiled  in  obscure  or  mystical  language,  and  have 
stigmatized  many  a  precious  Egyptian  scroll  as  childish 
and  absurd.     And  yet — those  who  will  may  discover  in 

*Tylor.     Anthropology,  p.  33S. 

f  Fiske.     Darwinism  and  Other  Essays,  p.  125. 

%  Bacon.    Novum  Organum,  pp.  4-5. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


471 


them  priceless  germs  of  truth  half  hid  'midst  the  clumsy 
modern  renderings  of  a  speech  long  dead. 

Though  much  valuable  information  concerning  the 
mysteries,  is  derived  from  the  classic  writers,  they  are 
often  provokingly  silent  upon  the  very  points  which  we 
most  wish  them  to  elucidate,  and  not  seldom  do  the)' 
wholly  misconceive  the  vital  principles  of  the  Egyptian 
religion,  and  overlook  the  most  important  sciences. 

Herodotus,  who  was  the  most  painstaking  and  accu- 
rate of  historians,  and  entered  into  the  minutiae  of  things 
when  at  liberty  to  do  so,  frequently  piques  our  curiosity, 
only  that  it  may  end  in  disappointment — for,  when  we 
fancy  he  is  about  to  divulge  some  secret,  the  narrative 
abruptly  terminates  with  the  statement  that  he  is  not 
permitted  to  speak  further  on  the  subject.  Diligently 
gleaning  from  the  priests  of  the  great  universities  of 
Sai's,  Memphis  and  Heliopolis,  whatever  of  interest  or 
wisdom  he  could  induce  them»to  impart,  much,  of  neces- 
sity, which  he  saw  and  heard  honor  forbade  him  to 
reveal ;  and  if  he  was  initiated  into  an)-  of  the  mysteries 
that  fact  alone  would  preclude  all  discussion  as  to  their 
character. 

Plato,  Diodorus,  Strabo  and  Pliny  the  Elder,  have 
also  left  valuable  records  of  their  sojourns  in  Egypt;  and 
Plutarch's  treatise  upon  Isis  and  Osiris,  has  been  the 
source  of  valuable  information  regarding  the  worship  and 
esoteric  doctrines  of  the  Egyptians.  The  writings  of 
Plato — which  to  many  are  shrouded  in  mysticism — con- 
tain a  wealth  of  thought  and  suggestion  for  those  who 
enter  upon  their  study  with  the  true  divining  spirit. 

For  thirteen  years  the  great  Greek  sat  at  the  feet  of 
the  priests  of  Heliopolis,  adopting  their  customs,  con- 
forming to  their  rites  and  sharing  in  their  wisdom.  The 
reasons  which  prevented  Herodotus  from  disclosing  the 
sacred  teachings,  were  still  more  potent  in  the  case  of 
the  Athenian  philosopher. 

Many  historians,  from  the  old  Greek  and  Roman  to 
the  Arab  writers  of  the  Middle  Ages,  have  discoursed  of 
Egypt,  her  manners  and  customs,  laws,  religion,  and 
sacred  mysteries;  while  scores  of  exhaustive  modern 
works  treat  of  her  ancient  grandeur.  The  chief  diffi- 
culty to  be  met  in  any  search  into  her  more  secret  his- 
tory, lies  in  the  fact  that  her  vast  learning  was  zealously 
guarded  and  revealed  only  to  those  who  by  long  and 
faithful  devotion  and  rigid  purity  of  life  had  rendered 
themselves  its  fitting  depositories;  and  upon  the  most 
binding  assurances  that  it  should  never  be  divulged. 

We  know  that  the  majority  of  our  learned  scholars 
den}'  that  the  Egyptian  priests  had  anything  to  teach  us, 
or  that  they  knew  anything  of  which  we  are  ignorant 
to-day.  We  will  turn  then  from  these  modern  text- 
books to  what  Mr.  Tylor  calls  "the  antiquated  disserta- 
tions of  the  great  thinkers  of  the  past,"*  and  learn  what 
they  thought  of  Egypt  and   her  fame.      They  tell  us  of 

*  Tylor.    Primitive  Culture,  Vol.  II.  p.  444. 


her  splendid  civilization,  her  incomparable  grandeur,  her 
time-defying  monuments,  the  perfection  of  her  arts,  the 
profundity  of  her  science,  the  excellence  of  her  institu- 
tions, the  purity  of  her  religion  and  her  ethics,  and  the 
happiness  of  her  people.  And  her  own  gigantic  ruins 
bear  witness  to  the  truth  of  all  they  say.  Where  now 
lie  the  crumbling  remnants  of  her  tombs,  her  temples 
and  her  palaces;  where  the  bats  flap  their  dusky  win^s 
and  the  jackal's  shrill  cry  wakes  the  echoes  in  deserted 
halls;  there  once  arose  a  succession  of  spjendid  towns, 
instinct  with  rich,  varied  and  tumultuous  life. 

When  Egypt  was  far  on  her  path  of  decline  there 
came  to  her  still  mighty  cities,  the  flower  and  genius  of 
other  lands  to  partake  at  the  fount  of  her  wisdom. 
Some  550  years  b.c.  the  Greek  Thales  went  there  to 
learn  mathematics  and  astronomy;  and  afterward  the 
great  Athenian  law-giver  studied  jurisprudence;  and  fol- 
lowing close  upon  Solon  came  Pythagoras,  of  whom 
Harriet  Martineau  says:  "I  strongly  suspect  it  would 
be  found,  if  the  truth  could  be  known,  that  more  of  the 
spiritual  religion,  the  abstruse  philosophy,  and  the  lofty 
ethics  and  political  views  of  the  old  Egyptians  have 
found  their  way  into  the  general  mind  of  our  race 
through  Pythagoras,  than  by  any  or  all  other  channels, 
except,  perhaps,  the  institutions  of  Moses  and  the  specu- 
lations of  Plato."*  Then  came  Hecataeus  of  Miletos, 
to  whom  the  priests  of  Egypt  showed  the  statues  of 
three  hundred  and  forty-five  high-priests,  each  one  the 
direct  lineal  descendant  of  his  predecessor;  arK]  Iater 
Herodotus  and  Eudoxus  and  Anaxagoras  and  Plato, 
and  many  other  foreigners.  To  quote  from  Miss  Mar- 
tineau once  more,  "  It  really  appears  as  if  the  great  men 
of  Greece  and  other  countries  had  little  to  say  on  the 
highest  and  deepest  subjects  of  human  inquiry  till  they 
had  studied  at  Memphis,  or  Sai's,  or  Thebes,  or  Heliop- 
olis."f  And  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  writes:  "  No  one 
will  for  a  moment  imagine  that  the  wisest  of  the  Greeks 
went  to  study  in  Egypt  for  any  other  reason  than  be- 
cause it  was  there  that  the  greatest  discoveries  were  to 
be  learnt."  J 

Did  all  these  brilliant  minds  pursue  an  ignis  fatuus? 
Was  the  boasted  science  of  Egypt  a  chimera? 

We  will  see  what  was  claimed  for  her  science  and 
her  art,  and  whence  they  came.  Let  us  go  back  to  her 
earliest  historic  clays — back  so  far  that  imagination  is 
lost  in  the  mist  of  ages. 

What  is  our  first  view  of  her?  and  who  are  her  peo- 
ple ?  Autocthones,  or  colonists  from  a  distant  land off- 
shoots of  some  great  primeval  parent  stock?  The  first 
view  which  history  presents  to  us  is  that  of  a  highly 
civilized  nation  at  the  very  acme  of  its  power  and 
grandeur.     Dr.  Tiele  tells  us  that  "  When  the  Egyptian 


*  Eastern  Travel^  p.  $2. 
t  Eastern  Travel,  p.  S3. 
\  Manners  and  Customs^  Vol.  II.  p.  316. 


472 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


nation  enters  upon  the  scene  of  the  world's  history,  it  is 
already  full-grown;"*  and  Mariette  Bey  states  that 
"  From  the  earliest  times  Egyptian  civilization  was  com- 
plete"! But  this  hardly  helps  us.  Though  the  latter 
of  the  authors  just  named  takes  us  back  to  5,004  years 
B.C.,  we  are  no  nearer  a  solution  of  the  enigma  of  this 
people's  beginnings.  Whether  this  civilization  was 
wholly  a  product  of  Egyptian  soil,  or  whether,  on  the 
contrary,  it  was  imported  in  pre-historic  times,  with 
some  great  influx  of  peoples  from  abroad,  it  is  impos- 
sible in  the  present  state  of  historical  research,  to  deter- 
mine. The  probabilities  are  that  the  Egyptians  were 
an  Aryan  off-shoot  from  some  primeval  race  whose  his- 
tory is  lost  in  the  night  of  time,  and  that  from  that  race 
they  inherited  their  knowledge  of  the  arts  and  the 
occult  forces  of  nature.  However  that  may  be,  when 
first  we  encounter  the  Egyptians  we  are  brought  face  to 
face  with  the  direct  evidences  of  their  learning  and  skill. 
It  is  proper  to  state  at  this  point  that  the  question 
of  the  derivation  and  duration  of  Egyptian  civilization 
has  been  entered  into  for  the  sole  purpose  of  showing 
that  the  claim  of  this  people  to  a  high  antiquity  and  an 
exact  and  elaborate  science,  is  by  no  means  preposterous, 
as  I  shall  endeavor  to  show. 

Upon  the  very  threshold  of  their  history  —  under 
Menes  the  first  king  —  we  find  them  in  full  possession  of 
the  practical  sciences  of  hydrostatics  and  hydraulic 
engineering  and  mechanical  construction.  Already  had 
they  turned  the  course  of  the  Nile,  and  reared  the  city 
of  Memphis  with  its  gigantic  temples  and  palace.  We 
learn  that  even  at  this  early  day  there  were  from  thirty 
to  forty  colleges  of  the  priests  who  studied  the  occult 
sciences  and  practical  magic.  (And  here  let  us  stop  a 
moment  and  examine  this  word  "  Magic,"  which  has 
been  so  long  degraded  from  its  ancient  meaning.  As 
originally  employed  it  signified  the  attainment  of  wisdom, 
and  command  over  the  hidden  poweis  of  nature.  There- 
fore a  magician  was  one  versed  in  the  secret  knowledge, 
and  an  initiate  into  the  arcane  mysteries.  In  other 
words  he  was  the  scientist  of  his  time.  In  this  sense 
only  are  those  two  terms,  magic  and  magician  here  used). 
The  cities  of  Memphis,  Ileliopolis,  Thebes  and  later. 
Sal's,  became  the  great  centers  of  Egyptian  learning, 
Their  splendid  temples  formed  the  nuclei  around  which 
clustered  schools,  universities,  observatories  and  priestly 
habitations. 

There  were  many  different  orders  of  the  priests, 
ranging  from  the  simple  scribe  to  the  high-priest  him- 
self; but  it  was  only  those  of  the  highest  degree  who 
were  permitted  to  become  the  repositories  of  that  occult 
lore  which  had  come  down  from  the  remotest  ages.  In 
the  silence  and  obscurity  of  the  lowest  crypts  of  the 
temples     these    priestly    sages     conducted     their    secret 

*  Tiele.     Egyptian  Religion,  p.  (J. 

f  Mariette  Bey.     Hist.  Ancienne  DJ Egypte,  p.  19. 


ceremonies  and  magical  operations,  and  hither,  doubtless, 
were  brought  the  candidates  for  initiation  into  the  greater 
mysteries. 

Among  the  branches  of  learning  pursued  by  them 
were  mathematics,  astronomy,  astrology,  metallurgy, 
chemistry  and  alchemy,  all  of  which  bore  an  occult 
aspect. 

(TO  BE  CONTINUED.) 


THOUGHT  WITHOUT  WORDS. 

The  following  correspondence  between  Mr.  F.  Gal- 
ton,  Mr.  George  Romanes,  Mr.  J.  J.  Murphy,  etc., 
and  Professor  Max  Miiller  on  "  Thought  Without 
Words,"  is  reprinted  from  Nature  after  careful  revision  : 

VII.       LETTER    FROM    MR.    F.  GALTON,    F.R.S. 

42  Rutland  Gate,  S.  W.,  May  iS,  1887. 

Dear  Professor  —  Thank  you  much  for  your  full  letter. 
I  have  not  yet  sent  it  on  to  Nature  because  it  would  have  been 
too  late  for  this  week's  issue*  and  more  especially  because  I 
thought  you  might  like  to  reserve  your  reply,  not  only  until  you 
had  seen  my  own  answer  to  what  you  have  said  in  it,  but  also 
until  others  should  have  written,  and  possibly  also  until  you  had 
looked  at  Binet,  and  some  of  the  writers  he  quotes.  So  I  send 
you  very  briefly  my  answer,  but  the  letter  shall  go  to  Nature  if 
you  send  me  a  post-card  to  send  it. 

In  my  reply,  or  in  any  future  amplification  of  what  is  already 
written,  I  should  emphasize  what  was  said  about  fencing,  etc., 
■with  the  head,  distinguishing  it  from  intuitive  actions  (due,  as  I 
and  others  hold,  to  inherited  or  personal  habit). 

The  inhibition  of  words  in  the  cases  mentioned  was,  I  should 
explain,  analogous  to  this: — There  are^streets  improvements  in 
progress  hereabouts.  I  set  myself  to  think,  by  mental  picture 
only,  whether  the  pulling  down  of  a  certain  tobacconist's  shop 
(i.  e.  its  subtraction  from  the  row  of  houses  in  which  it  stands) 
would  afford  a  good  opening  for  a  needed  thoroughfare.  Now,  on 
first  perceiving  the  image,  it  was  associated  with  a  mental  per- 
ception of  the  smell  of  the  shop.  I  inhibited  that  mental  smell 
because  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  what  I  wanted  to  think  out. 
So  words  often  arise  in  my  own  mind  merely  through  association 
with  what  I  am  thinking  about;  they  are  not  the  things  that  my 
mind  is  dealing  with;  they  are  superfluous  and  they  are  embar- 
rassments, so  I  inhibit  them. 

T  have  not  yet  inquired,  but  will  do  so,  whether  deaf-mutes 
who  had  never  learnt  words  or  any  symbols  for  them,  had  ever 
been  taught  dominoes,  or  possibly  even  chess.  I  myself  cannot 
conceive  that  the  names  —  king,  queen,  etc. —  are  of  any  help  in 
calculating  a  single  move  in  advance.  For  the  effect  of  many 
moves  I  use  them  mentally  to  record  the  steps  gained,  but  for 
nothing  else.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  not  a  few  first-rate 
chess-players  calculate  by  their  mental  eye  only. 

In  speaking  of  modern  mental  literature,  pray  do  not  think 
me  so  conceited  as  to  refer  to  my  own  writings  only.  I  value 
modern  above  ancient  literature  on  this  subject,  even  if  the  mod- 
ern writers  are  far  smaller  men  than  the  older  ones,  because  they 
have  two  engines  of  research  which  the  others  wanted: — 

(1)  Inductive  inquiry,  ethnological  and  other.  The  older 
authorities  had  no  vivid  conception  of  the  different  qualities  ol 
men's  minds.  They  thought  that  a  careful  examination  of  their 
own  minds  sufficed  for  laying  down  laws  that  were  generally 
applicable  to  humanity. 

(2)  They  had  no  adequate  notion  of  the  importance  of  mental 
pathology.  When  by  a  blow,  or  by  a  disease,  or,  as  they  now 
say,  by  hypnotism,  a   whole  province  of  mental  faculties  can  be 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


473 


abolished,  and  the  working  of  what  remains  can  be  carefully 
studied,  it  is  now  found  that  as  good  a  clue  to  the  anatomy  of  the 
mind  may  be  obtained  as  men  who  study  mangled  limbs,  or  who 
systematically  dissect,  may  obtain  of  the  anatomy  of  the  body. 

I  add  nothing  about  the  advantage  to  modern  inquirers  due  to 
their  possession  of  Darwinian  facts  and  theories,  because  we  do 
not  rate  them  in  the  same  way. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Francis  Galtcn. 

Professor  Max  Miiller. 

VIII.       LETTER    FROM    PROF.    MAX    MILLER. 

OxKORD,#May  19,  1SS7. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Galton —  If  you  think  mv  letter  worth  pub- 
lishing in  Nature,  I  have  no  objection,  though  it  contains  no  more 
I  ban  what  anybody  may  read  in  rav  Science  of    Thought. 

Nothing  proves  to  my  mind  the  dependence  of  thought  on 
language  so  much  as  the  difficulty  we  have  in  making  others 
understand  our  thoughts  by  means  of  words.  Take  the  instance 
you  mention  of  a  shop  being  pulled  down  in  your  street,  and 
suggesting  to  you  the  desirability  of  opening  a  new  street.  There 
are  races,  or,  at  all  events,  there  have  been,  who  had  no  name  or 
concept  of  shop.  Still,  if  they  saw  your  shop,  they  would  call  it 
a  house,  a  building,  a  cave,  a  hole,  or,  as  you  suggest,  a  chamber  of 
smells  and  horrors,  but  at  all  events  a  tiling.  Now,  all  these  are 
names.  Even  thing  is  a  name.  Take  away  these  names,  and 
all  definite  thought  goes;  take  away  the  name  thing,  and  thought 
goes  altogether.  When  I  say  word,  I  do  not  mean  flatus  vocis,  I 
always  mean  word  as  inseparable  from  concept,  thought-word  or 
word-thought. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  you  may  tench  deaf-and-dumb  people 
dominoes;  but  deaf-and-dumb  people,  left  to  themselves,  do  not 
invent  dominoes,  and  that  makes  a  great  difference.  Even  so 
simple  a  game  as  dominoes,  would  be  impossible  without  names 
and  their  underlying  concepts.  Dominoes  are  not  mere  blocks  of 
wood;  they  signify  something.  This  becomes  much  clearer  in 
chess.  You  cannot  move  king,  or  queen,  or  knight  as  mere  dolls. 
In  chess,  each  one  of  these  figures  can  be  moved  according  to  its 
name  and  concept  only.  Otherwise  chess  would  be  a  chaotic 
scramble,  not  an  intelligent  game.  If  you  once  see  what  I  mean 
by  names,  namelv  that  by  which  a  thing  becomes  notum  or 
known,  I  expect  you  will  say,  "  Of  course  we  all  admit  that  with- 
out a  name  we  cannot  really  know  anything." 

I  wonder  you  do  not  see  that  in  ah  mv  writings  I  have  been 
an  evolutionist  or  Darwinian  fur  sang.  What  is  language  but 
a  constant  becoming?     What  is  thought  but  an  Ewiges  Werden? 

Everything  in  language  begins  by  a  personal  habit,  and  then 
becomes  inherited;  but  what  yve  students  of  language  try  to 
discover  is  the  first  beginning  of  each  personal  habit,  the  origin 
of  every  thought,  and  the  origin  of  every  word.  For  that  pur- 
pose ethnological  researches  are  of  the  highest  importance  to  us, 
and  you  will  find  that  Kant,  the  cleverest  dissector  of  abstract 
thought,  was  at  the  same  time  the  most  careful  student  of  ethnol- 
ogy, the  most  accurate  observer  of  concrete  thought  in  its  endless 
variety.  With  all  my  admiration  for  modern  writers,  I  am  in 
this  sense  also  a  Darwinian  that  I  prefer  the  rudimentary  stages 
of  philosophic  thought  to  its  later  developments,  not  to  say  its 
decadence.  I  have  learnt  more  from  Plato  than  from  Comte.  But 
I  have  ordered  Binet  all  the  same,  and  when  I  have  read  him  I 
shall  tell  you  what  I  think  of  him. 

Yours  very  truly, 

F.  Max  Mit.ler. 

IX.       LETTER    FROM    MR.    GEORGE  J.    ROMANES,  F.  R.  S. 

June  4,   1S87. 
There  appears  to  be  some  ambiguity  about  this  matter  as  dis- 
cussed in  the  correspondence  which  has  recently  taken  place  in 


your  columns.  In  the  first  instance  Mr.  Galton  understood  Pro- 
fessor Max  Miiller  to  have  argued  that  in  no  individual  human 
mind  can  any  process  of  thought  be  ever  conducted  without  the 
mental  rehearsal  of  words,  or  the  verbum  men/ale  of  the  School- 
men. Now,  although  this  is  the  view  which  certainly  appears  to 
pervade  the  Professor's  work  on  "The  Science  of  Thought," 
there  is  one  passage  in  that  work,  and  several  passages  in  his  subse- 
quent correspondence  with  Mr.  Galton,  yvhich  express  quite  a  dif- 
ferent view — namely,  that  when  a  definite  structure  of  conceptual 
ideation  has  been  built  up  by  the  aid  of  words,  it  may  afterward 
persist  independently  of  such  aid;  the  scaffolding  was  required 
for  the  original  construction  of  the  edifice,  but  not  for  its  subse- 
quent stability.  That  these  two  views  are  widely  different  may 
be  shown  by  taking  any  one  of  the  illustrations  from  the  Nature 
correspondence.  In  answer  to  Mr.  Galton,  Professor  Max  Miiller 
says:  "It  is  quite  possible  that  you  may  teach  deaf-and-dumb  peo- 
ple dominoes ;  but  deaf-and-dumb  people,  left  to  themselves,  do 
not  invent  dominoes,  and  that  makes  a  great  difference.  Even  so 
simple  a  game  as  dominoes  would  be  impossible  without  names 
and  their  underlying  concepts."  Now,  assuredly  it  does  "make  a 
great  difference  "  whether  we  are  supporting  the  view  that  domi- 
noes could  not  be  flayed  yvithout  names  underlying  concepts,  or 
the  view  that  without  such  means  dominoes  could  not  have  been 
invented.  That  there  cannot  be  concepts  without,  names  is  a  well- 
recognized  doctrine  of  psychology,  and  that  dominoes  could  not 
have  been  invented  in  the  absence  of  certain  simple  concepts 
relating  to  number  no  one  could  well  dispute.  But  when  the 
game  has  been  invented,  there  is  no  need  to  fall  back  upon  names 
and  concepts  as  a  preliminary  to  each  move,  or  for  the  player  to 
predicate  to  himself  before  each  move  that  the  number  he  lavs 
down  corresponds  with  the  number  to  which  he  joins  it.  The 
late  Dr.  Carpenter  assured  me  that  he  had  personally  investigated 
the  case  of  a  performing  dog  which  was  exhibited  many  years 
ago  as  a  domino-player,  and  had  fully  satisfied  himself  that  the 
animal's  skill  in  this  respect  was  genuine — i.  e.,  not  dependent  on 
any  code  of  signals  from  the  showman.  This,  therefore,  is  a 
better  case  than  that  of  the  deaf-mute,  in  order  to  show  that  domi- 
noes can  be  played  by  means  of  sensuous  association  alone.  But 
my  point  now  is  that  two  distinct  questions  have  been  raised 
in  your  columns,  and  that  the  ambiguity  to  which  I  have  referred 
appears  to  have  arisen  from  a  failure  to  distinguish  between  them. 
Every  living  psychologist  will  doubtless  agree  with  Professor 
Max  Miiller  where  he  appears  to  say  nothing  more  than  that  ii 
there  had  never  been  any  names  there  could  never  have  been 
any  concepts;  but  this  is  a  widely  different  thing  from  saying 
what  he  elsewhere  appears  to  say — i.  e.,  that  without  the  mental 
rehearsal  of  words  there  cannot  be  performed  in  anv  case  a 
process  of  distinctively  human  thought.  The  first  of  these  two 
widely  different  questions  may  be  dismissed  as  one  concerning 
which  no  difference  of  opinion  is  likely  to  arise.  Touching  the 
second,  if  the  Professor  does  not  mean  what  I  have  said  he 
appears  in  some  places  to  say,  it  is  a  pity  that  he  should  attempt 
to  defend  such  a  position  a*  that  chess,  for  instance,  cannot  be  played 
unless  the  player  "deals  all  the  time  with  thought-words  and 
yvord  thoughts."  For  the  original  learning  of  the  game  it  was 
necessary  that  the  powers  of  the  various  pieces  should  have  been 
explained  to  him  by  means  of  words;  but  when  this  knowledge 
was  thus  gained  it  was  no  longer  needful  that  before  making  any- 
particular  move  he  should  mentally  state  the  powers  of  all  the 
pieces  concerned,  or  predicate  to  himself  the  various  possibilities 
yvhich  the  move  might  involve.  All  these  things  he  does  bv  his 
specially-formed  associations  alone,  just  as  does  a  draught-player, 
who  is  concerned  with  a  much  simpler  order  of  relations;  in 
neither  case  is  any  dtmand  made  upon   the  verbum  men/ale. 

Again,  if  the   Professor  does  not  mean  to  uphold   the   view 
that  in  no  case  can  there  be  distinctively  human  thought  without 


474 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  immediate  and  direct  assistance  of  words,  it  is  a  mistake  in  him 
to  represent  "the  dependence  of  thought  on  language"  as  abso- 
lute.* The  full  powers  of  conceptual  ideation  which  belong  to 
any  individual  man  may  or  may  not  all  have  been  due  to  words 
as  used  by  his  ancestors,  his  contemporaries  and  himself.  But, 
however  this  may  be,  that  these  powers,  when  once  attained,  may 
afterward  continue  operative  without  the  use  of  words  is  not  a 
matter  of  mere  opinion  based  an  one's  own  personal  introspection, 
which  no  opponent  can  verify ;  it  is  a  matter  of  objectively  demon- 
strable fact,  which  no  opponent  can  gainsay.  For  when  a  man  is 
suddenly  afflicted  with  aphasia  he  does  not  forthwith  become  as 
the  thoughtless  brute;  he  has  lost  all  trace  of  words,  but  his 'rea- 
son may  remain  unimpaired.  George  J.  Romanes. 

X.       LETTER    FROM    MR.   J.  J.    MURPHY. 

Belfast,  June  19,  18S7. 

I  have  postponed  offering  you  any  remarks  on  Professor  Max 
Miiller's  "  Science  of  Thought  "  until  I  had  read  the  book  through. 

1  think  Professor  Miiller  is  on  the  whole  right,  that  language 
is  necessary  to  thought,  and  is  related  to  thought  very  much  as 
organization  to  life.  The  question  discussed  by  some  of  your 
correspondents,  whether  it  is  possible  in  particular  cases  to  think 
without  language,  appears  to  me  of  little  importance.  I  can 
believe  that  it  is  possible  to  think  without  words  when  the  subjects 
of  thought  are  visible  things  and  their  combinations,  as  in  invent- 
ing machinery  ;  but  the  intellectual  power  that  invents  machinery 
has  been  matured  by  the  use  of  language. 

But  Professor  Miiller  has  not  answered,  nor  has  he  asked,  the 
question,  on  what  property  or  power  of  thought  the  production  of 
language  depends.  He  has  shown  most  clearly  the  important 
truth  that  all  names  are  abstract — that  to  invent  a  name  which 
denotes  an  indefinite  number  of  objects  is  a  result  of  abstraction. 
But  on  what  does  the  power  of  abstraction  depend?  I  believe  it 
depends  on  the  power  of  directing  thought  at  will.  Professor 
Miiller  lays  stress  on  the  distinction  between  percepts  and  con- 
cepts, though  he  thinks  they  are  inseparable.  I  am  inclined  to 
differ  from  him,  and  to  think  that  animals  perceive  as  vividly  as 
we  do,  but  have  only  a  rudimentary  power  of  conception  and 
thought.  I  think  the  power  of  directing  thought  at  will  is  the 
distinctively  human  power,  on  which  the  power  of  forming  con- 
cepts and  language  depends.  Joseph  John  Murphy. 

XI.       LETTER    FROM    MR.    ARTHUR    EBBELS. 

Chaphan,  June  6,  1S87. 

After  reading  the  correspondence  published  in  Nature  (Vol. 
XXXVI.,  pp.  :8,  52  and  100)  on  this  subject,  it  has  occurred  to  me 
that  the  difficulties  anthropologists  find  in  Professor  Max  Miiller's 
theory  are  connected  chiefly  with  his  peculiar  definitions. 

In  his  letters  to  Mr.  Galton,  Professor  Miiller  narrows  the 
domain  of  his  theory  to  a  considerable  extent.  By  defining 
thought  as  the  faculty  of  "  addition  and  subtraction,"  and  by  tak- 
ing language  as  composed  of  "word-thoughts"  or  "thought- 
words,"  Professor  Miiller  excludes  from  his  theory  all  those 
processes  which  are  preliminary  to  the  formation  of  concepts. 
Thus  narrowed,  I  do  not  see  that  his  doctrine  in  any  way  touches 
the  wider  question,  whether  reasoning,  as  generally  understood, 
is  independent  of  language.  If  we  keep  to  the  terms  of  this 
theory,  thoughts  and  words  are  undoubtedly  inseparable.  But 
this  does  not  in  the  least  imply  that  all  thought  is  impossible  with- 
out words. 

When  we  enlarge  the  scope  of  our  terms  it  is  at  once  evident 


*  E.  g. — "  I  hope  I  have  thus  answered  everything  that  has  been  or  lhat  can 
possibly  be  adduced  against  what  I  call  the  fundamental  tenet  that  the  science 
of  language,  and  what  ought  to  become  the  fundamental  tenet  of  the  science  ot 
thought,  namely,  that  language  and  thought,  though  distinguishable,  are  insep- 
arable, that  no  one  truly  thinks  who  does  not  speak,  and  that  no  one  truly 
speaks  who  does  not  think." — "Science  of  Thought,"  pp.  63-64. 


that  thoughts  and  words  are  not  inseparable.  It  is  all  very  well 
to  join  together  "  thought- word  "  and  "word-thought."  Yet  the 
thought  is  something  quite  distinct  from  the  mere  sound  which 
stands  as  a  word  for  it.  A  concept  is  formed  from  sensations. 
Our  thoughts  are  occupied  with  what  we  see,  and  feel,  and  hear, 
and  this  primarily.  Thus  it  is  that,  in  the  wider  sense  of  think- 
ing, we  can  think  in  pictures.  This  is  the  mental  experience  which 
Professor  Tyndall  so  highly  prizes.  He  likes  to  picture  an  imagi- 
nary process,  not  in  words,  not  even  by  keeping  words  in  the 
background,  but  in  a  mental  presentation  of  the  things  themselves 
as  they  would  affect  his  senses.  Surely,  then,  if  the  mind  can 
attend  to  its  own  reproduction  of  former  sensations,  and  even 
form  new  arrangements  of  sensations  for  itself  quite  irrespective 
of  word-signs,  as  Mr.  Galton  and  most  other  thinkers  have  experi- 
enced, it  is  evident  that  thought  and  language  are  not  inseparable. 

All  this  is,  of  course,  somewhat  apart  from  Professor  Miiller's 
restricted  theory.  But  the  question  follows,  how  from  these  wider 
thoughts  do  we  become  possessed  of  the  faculty  of  abstraction? 
Does  not  the  one  shade  imperceptibly  into  the  other?  Professor 
Miiller  answers  no,  and  here  I  think  he  is  at  fault.  It  is  at  this 
point  that  anthropologists  part  company  with  him.  If  he  be 
right,  how  do  people  learn?  According  to  his  theory  new 
thoughts  when  they  arise  start  into  being  under  some  general 
concept.  I  do  not  deny  that  they  are  placed  under  some  general 
concept,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  something  entirely  independent 
of  the  general  concept  has,  for  convenience,  been  placed  under 
it,  and  this  something  must  be  called  a  thought.  No  doubt  the 
thought  is  at  first  vague  and  indefinite,  and  only  when  it  becomes 
definite  does  it  require  a  name.  But  here  one  can  plainly  trace 
the  genesis  of  a  thought,  and  the  adaptation  of  a  word  as  a  symbol 
for  it.  The  new  concept  and  its  sign  do  not  arise  simultaneously. 
There  are  two  distinct  growths,  not  one  only,  as  Professor  Miil- 
ler's theory  presupposes.  The  connection  may  be  subtle  and 
close,  but  the  two  elements  can  be  easily  separated.  It  avails 
nothing  to  say  that  until  the  thought  is  placed  under  a  concept  it 
is  not  a  thought.  This  is  a  mere  question  of  definition,  not  of 
actual  fact. 

I  would  point  out  one  other  consideration.  If  Professor 
Miiller's  theory  were  true  for  all  kinds  of  thinking,  development 
would  be  imposible.  If  man  could  not  think  without  language, 
and  could  not  have  language  without  thinking,  he  would  never 
have  had  either,  except  by  a  miracle.  And  scientific  men  will 
not  accept  the  alternative.  We  can  conceive  shadowy  thoughts 
gradually  shaping  to  themselves  a  language  for  expression,  and 
we  can  understand  how  each  would  improve  the  other,  until  by 
constant  interaction  a  higher  process  of  thought  was  introduced. 
But  we  cannot  conceive  the  sudden  appearance  of  the  faculty  of 
abstraction  together  with  its  ready-made  signs  or  words. 

I  have  often  wished  that  Professor  Miiller  would  state  dis- 
tinctly how  his  theory  accounts  for  the  very  first  beginnings  of 
language.  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  any  explanation  of 
this  point  in  his  "  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language." 

Arthur  Ebbels. 

xii.     letter  from  mrs.  a.  grenfell. 

As  poets  have  extraordinary  inklings  and  apcrcus  on  the  most 
abstruse  scientific  questions,  Wordsworth's  opinion  on  this  matter 
(quoted  by  De  Quincy)  is  worth  considering:  Language  is  not 
the  "dress"  of  thought,  it  is  the  "incarnation."  This  is  Shelley's 
apcrcu  of  Darwinism.  Man  exists  "  but  in  the  future  and  the 
past;  being,  not  what  he  is,  but  what  he  has  been  and  shall  be." 

How  to  "distil  working  ideas  from  the  obscurest  poems" — to 
use  Lord  Acton's  words — is  one  of  the  secrets  of  genius. 

A.  Grenfell. 

[The  conclusion  of  this  correspondence  has  to  be  deferred  to  our  next 
issue.    Ed.] 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


475 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


MR.  BARNARD'S   DEFENSE  OF  HIS  CRITICISM. 

To  the  Editors: 

I  regret  exceedingly  that  my  criticism  of  Dr.  Carus'  article 
was  looked  upon  by  him  as  "scurrilous."  Had  I  known  of  the 
disposition  with  which  he  would  have  received  it  I  should  proba- 
bly have  never  written  the  letter,  but  now  that  it  has  been  done  I 
feel  that  justice  demands  that  I  shall  prove  true  those  statements 
which  my  letter  contained,  and  in  so  doing  save  myself  from  the 
abvss  of  execration  in  which  a  "scurrilous  critic"  must  expiate  his 
crime. 

In  my  letter  I  said  Dr.  Carus  "begins  by  explaining  the 
construction  of  the  Latin  distich"  (Latin  in  this  instance).  I  now 
offer  his  own  words  in  evidence:  "The  form  of  the  verses  is  like 
their  Roman  prototype  the  distich ;  i.  e.  two  lines  consisting  of  a 
dactylic  hexameter  and  a  pentameter."  Is  not  this  an  explana- 
tion of"  the  construction  of  the  Latin  distich?"  Dr.  Carus  goes 
into  a  more  exhaustive  explanation  in  the  article  which  called 
forth  my  criticism  and  ends  h\-  presenting  a  schedule  of  a  distich, 
but  I  have  quoted  enough  of  the  explanation  to  answer  my  pres- 
ent purpose  and  will  now  turn  to  his  letter  and  quote  from  it. 
Dr.  Carus  says,  in  quotation  marks  as  though  quoting  from 
his  article,  "  I  said  '  The  Xenions  are  imitations  of  a  Roman 
poet's  verses.'"  This  is  his  answer  to  my  statement  that  "  Dr. 
Carus  begins  by  explaining  the  construction  of  the  Latin  distich." 
I  was  surprised  on  looking  over  his  article  to  find  that  the  sen- 
tence "  the  Xenions  are  imitations  of  a  Roman  poet's  verses  "  was 
not  there,  yet  Dr.  Carus  informs  us  that  that  was  what  he  said. 
It  would  be  of  interest  to  me  and  perhaps  some  others  if  Dr.  Carus 
would  point  out  that  division  of  his  article  in  which  the  sentence 
occurs.  I  criticised  his  use'of  the  words  "meter"  and  "meters," 
instead  of  foot  and  feet.  The  ground  upon  which  my  criticism 
was  based  was  the  fact  that  the  words  foot  and  feet  are  used  in 
speaking  of  the  divisions  of  a  line  of  verse  in  the  standard  English 
treatises  on  prosody.  What  the  Greek  terms  are  Dr.  Carus  has 
told  us,  and  in  claiming  the  right  to  use  them  in  this  instance  he 
has,  it  seems  to  me,  become  inconsistent,  for  he  gives  as  his  reason 
for  not  using  the  word  caesura  a  desire  "  to  avoid  the  Latin  and 
Greek  terminology."  I  said  the  use  of  the  words  meter  and 
meters  to  designate  foot  and  feet  was  ungrammatical.  I  still 
adhere  to  that  belief,  but  wish  to  qualify  my  statement  by  saying 
that  their  use  is  unwarranted  in  an  article  written  in  English  unless 
it  be  a  translation.  The  words  foot  and  feet  are  not  misleading 
in  any  way  whatever. 

In  my  letter  I  stated  that  Dr.  Carus  "as  a  crowning  error 
omitted  to  speak  of  the  caesura  which  divides  the  hexameter,"  and 
I  also  censured  him  for  omitting  it  from  his  schedule.  To  this  he 
replies  "that  the  hexameter  can  have  many  caesuras,"  gives  ex- 
amples, and  then  says  "accordingly,  it  would  have  been  an  impos- 
sibility to  adorn  my  schedule  with  the  caesura  of  the  hexameter." 
Why  "an  impossibility"?  Is  the  fact  that  the  hexameter  can 
have  many  caesuras  a  reasonable  excuse  for  failing  to  mention  it? 
for  failing  to  note  that  the  caesura  always  has  a  place  in  a  true 
hexameter?  And  now  let  us  examine  his  schedule  and  see  if  he 
is  warranted  in  omitting  the  caesura  from  its  hexameter.  As  he 
gives  it,  it  consists  of  five  dactylic  feet  and  one  trochaic  or  spon- 
daic foot,  six  feet  in  all.     Its  equivalent  in  words  would  be: 

Like  the  wild  rush  of  the  se;i  |l  that  aye  bellows  and  foams  in  its  anger, 
the  caesura  coming  between  the  first  syllable  of  the  third  foot  and 
the  remainder  of  the  line.  To  say  that  "  it  would  have  been  an 
impossibility  "  to  place  a  caesura  in  his  schedule  of  an  hexameter  is 
equal  to  saying  that  an  hexameter  has  no  caesura.  He  could  have 
put  one  in  either  of  the  several  places  where  it  might  occur,  and 
should  have  done  so. 


Dr.  Carus'  use  of  the  word  incision  in  place  of  caesura,  the 
Latin  term,  is  defended  by  him  with  not  a  little  bitterness.  I  am 
advised  "to  consult  the  English  dictionaries"  and  am  informed 
that  the  word  "casura  is  derived  from  ardcrc,  'to  cut.'"  There- 
fore, since  making  an  incision  is  but  to  cut,  Dr.  Carus  feels  justi- 
fied in  using  the  word  incision  to  denote  the  separation  of  a  verse 
into  two  parts. 

Reference  to  Webster  (last  edition)  yields  the  following  as  the 
definition  of  the  word  caesura:  "C.esi/ra.  Latin.  A  cutting  off, 
a  division,  stop,  from  caedre,  caesum,  to  cut  off  (Pros)  A  pause 
or  division  in  a  verse ;  a  separation,  by  the  ending  of  a  word,  or  by 
a  pause  in  the  sense,  of  syllables  rythmical!}-  connected." 

My  suggestion  of  the  word  division  as  the  proper  one  is  sus- 
tained by  Webster.  Dr.  Carus  says  the  word  "  caesura  is  derived 
from  ccedere,  '  to  cut.'  "  Webster  says  the  word  caesura  is  derived 
from  the  word  ccedere,  which  means  "  to  cut  off"  To  make  an 
incision  is  not  "  to  cut  oft","  is  not  to  separate ;  but  "  to  cut  oft  "  is 
to  make  a  division,  is  to  separate;  thus  the  word  "division"  can 
be  used  in  place  of  the  word  caesura,  but  the  word  "  incision  "  can- 
not be  properly  so  used. 

Dr.  Carus  misunderstands  my  statement  regarding  his  dispo- 
sition to  make  hexameters  whether  the  original  lines  were  hex- 
ameters or  not.  I  meant  that  the  upper  line  of  the  distich,  while 
it  should  be  an  hexameter,  was  often  lame  and  imperfect,  and  I  said 
in  effect  that  Dr.  Carus  strove  to  make  hexameters  whether  the 
originals  were  true  ones  or  not,  and  that  in  doing  so  he  not  seldom 
added  expressions  for  which  there  was  no  warrant.  The  meaning 
of  this  he  distorts  to  an  amusing  extent. 

I  mentioned  the  first  and  thirteenth  of  the  distichs  as  exam- 
ples of  translations  which  seemed  to  me  imperfect  and  not  seldom 
unworthy.  I  should  have  said  "the  first  (commencing  with  those 
written  by  Goethe  and  Schiller)  and  the  thirteenth,  as  well  as  the 
one  addressed  to  the  Muse,  are  inadequate  translations."  That  I 
did  not  express  this  clearly  I  am  conscious,  and  regret  that  as  a 
result  Dr.  Carus  was  led  to  reproduce  the  wrong  distichs  except 
in  one  case — that  of  the  one  addressed  to  the  Muse.  Examina- 
tion will,  I  feel  sure,  prove  the  justice  of  my  criticism  of  these 
three  distichs. 

A  translator  must  be  thoroughly  conversant  with  the 
resources  of  a  language  ere  so  difficult  a  thing  as  the  translation 
of  poetry  into  it  may  be  attempted,  and  he  who  essays  to  do  this 
work  may  be  sure  that  in  no  other  way  can  he  so  easily  evince  his 
wealth  or  poverty  of  ability  as  a  translator. 

Let  me  say  again  that  I  regret  the  necessity  of  writing  this 
second  letter;  but  feeling  that  to  some  extent  I  was  misunder- 
stood and  this  misrepresented,  I  have  treated  the  subject 
again  and  at  this  length.  I  am  unambitious  of  continuing  the 
discussion,  and  I  trust  that  in  this,  my  last  word,  enough  truth  is 
expressed   to  justify   me   in   the  position  which  r  have  taken. 

W.  F.  Barnard. 


CONCLUDING   COMMENTS   BY  DR.  CARUS. 

I  received  instead  of  an  apology  a  defense  of  Mr.  Barnard's 
criticism,  and  will  again  take  the  trouble  of  patiently  pointing 
out  its  errors. 

My  words,  "The  Xenions  are  imitations  of  a  Roman  poet's 
verses,"  are  a  condensation  of  a  longer  passage  in  my  essay. 
The  fact  is,  Greek  literature  had  become  so  fashionable  in  Rome 
that  the  Roman  poets  abandoned  their  old  style  and  introduced 
Greek  measures.  Martial  selected  for  his  Xenions  the  Greek 
distich,  and  Schiller  and  Goethe  when  imitating  him,  selected 
the  distich  also,  which,  unobjectionably,  remains  Greek  in  this 
and  any  other  instance. 

The  reason  now  presented  in  defense  of  "foot"  for  "meter" 
is  true  only  so  far  as  some  English  prosodists  use  the  terms  foot 
and  meter  as  synonyma.     Whenever  they  do,  they  merely  prove 


476 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


that  they  are  not  well  informed.  The  confusion  which  prevails 
on  this  subject  among  lexicographers  is  an  excuse  to  any  other 
man,  but  it  is  no  apology  for  the  scholar  and  still  less  for  the 
critic  who  means  to  censure  others. 

Concerning  the  use  of  foreign  terms,  it  is  advisable  to  omit 
them  in  popular  essays,  but  it  is  quite  consistent  with  this  rule  to 
use  them  whenever  necessary.  Consistency  is  a  test  of  truth, 
and  it  is  consistent  to  say,  if  cxsuras  are  divisions  of  a  line  of  verse, 
and  if,  also,  feet  are  "the  divisions  of  a  line  of  verse,"  that 
caesuras  are  feet.  Such  is  the  consequence  of  looseness  in 
expression. 

In  regard  to  the  ca-sura  of  the  hexameter  I  brierlv  repeat,  as 
there  are  many  different  caesuras  we  can  not  put  the  ca-sura  in  a 
schedule  of  an  hexameter,  and  if  I  had  put  in  a  (viz.,  any)  ca-sura, 
it  would  have  been  misleading.  I  omitted  many  more  things  of 
no  less  importance  than  the  caesuras  of  the  hexameter.  My  not 
mentioning  them  is  by  no  means  equivalent  to  a  declaration  that 
they  do  not  exist. 

I  am  now  told  that  my  "disposition  to  make  hexameters"  (viz.i 
true  hexameters)  is  the  reason  why,  as  stated  in  the  criticism' 
"faithfulness  to  the  text  must  be  sacrificed  as  a  result;"  viz.  faith- 
fulness in  reproducing  the  deficiencies  of  the  originals.  Any 
amusement  which  can  be  derived  from  this  new  idea  of  faithful- 
ness is  entirely  at  Mr.  Barnard's  expense. 

As  Mr.  Barnard  apparently  misapplied  the  word  "division,"  I 
advised  him  to  consult  English  dictionaries.  However,  he  should 
not  resort  to  Webster's  authority  for  an  explanation  of  the  Latin 
words  arsin-a  and  ccedere.  The  word  ccedere,  "  to  cut,"  was  origi- 
nally used  for  cutting  down  trees  as  we  may  judge  from  its  ety- 
mology. Ccedere  is  derived  from  cadere  "  to  fall  "  and  means  "  to 
make  fall,"  cadere  is  the  causitive  verb  of  cadere.  They  are 
related  to  each  other  as  in  English  "  to  fall  "  and  "  to  fell,"  or  as 
"to  sit"  and  "to  set,"  and  in  German  fallen  and  fallen.  Ca-sura 
originally  means  a  cutting  down,  and  then  any  cutting  or  a  cut- 
ting oil.  "Incision"  would  be  a  free  translation  which  suits  the 
occasion  and  which  for  our  purpose  is  as  literal  as  it  can  be.  The 
English  word  "  incision "  is  derived  from  the  same  root  as 
"  ca-sura,"  lor  it  is  the  Latin  incisio  which  was  originally  iiictrsio. 
Incisiois  the  act  of  cutting,  while  ccesnra  means  the  cut  produced. 
The  English  might  have  formed  the  word  "  ctesure  "  from  cresura, 
but  they  did  not.  So  is  happens  that  for  a  translation  of  "caesura" 
we  have  to  resort  to  its  cousin-word  (it  is  rather  its  nephew) 
"  incision." 

Must  I  add  that  "division  "  belongs  to  quite  another  province 
of  words,  being  derived  from  the  Latin  divisio?  It  is  a  separation 
much  more  comparable  to  a  selection  by  choice  or  to  the  sifting  in 
a  sieve.  Before  the  division  the  parts  may  have  been  intermingled. 
That  incision  and  division  can  sometimes  besynonyma  is  a  matter 
of  course. 

I  quote  the  distichs  to  which  Mr.  Barnard  refers  above: 

Im  Hexameter  steigt  des  Springquells  flussige  Saule, 
Im  Pentameter  drauf       Fallt  sie  melodisch  herab. 

In  the  hexameter  rises  the  jet  of  a  wonderful  fountain, 
Which  then  gracefully  back       In  the  pentameter  falls. 

The  following  distich  is  addressed  to  Science: 

Einem  ist  sie  die  hohe,  die   himmlische  Gottin,  dem  anderen 
1st  sie  die  milchende  Kuh,   Die  ihn  mit  Butter  versorgt. 

Science  to  one  is  the  Goddess,  majestic  and   lofty,— to  th'  other 
She  is  a  cow  who  supplies  Butter  and  milk  for  his  home. 


of  Christianity,"  "The  Causes  of  the  Present  Condition  of 
Women,"  "  Heathen  and  Christian  Superstition,"  etc.  She 
may  be  addressed  care  of  Fritz  Schiitz,  editor  of  Rundschau, 
New  Ulm,  Minnesota. 


BOOK   REVIEWS. 


Mrs.  Hedwig  Ileinrich-Wilhelmi,  a  writer  of  ability,  is 
expected  to  arrive  this  fall  in  New  York,  and  to  lecture  before  the 
Turners  and  other  German  freethinkers,  on  such  subjects  as 
"  Moral   Responsibility,"    "  Cremation,"    "  Origin   and     Working 


Journal  d'uk   Piiilosophe.     Par  Lucicn  Arriat.     Paris:   FeMix 
Alcan,  108  Boulevard  Saint-Germain.     1887. 

This  handsomely  printed  volume  is  a  medley  of  essays  and 
letters,  in  all  numbering  forty-seven,  dealing  with  all  sorts  of 
questions  in  literature,  art,  education,  ethics  and  theology,  but 
treating  of  philosophy  too  briefly  and  superficially  to  justify  the 
title,  especially  as  the  most  prominent  of  the  two  imaginary 
authors,  who  are  here  represented  as  interchanging  their  thoughts, 
portraj  s  himself  as  much  more  of  a  botanist  than  a  metaphysician. 
He  gives  to  the  collection  what  little  unity  it  possesses,  by  telling 
how  he  wins  a  lady  whose  only  objection  to  marrying  him  is  that 
her  brother  has  been  dishonest,  and  she  has  made  up  her  mind  o 
expiate  his  crime,  and  keep  the  disgrace  within  the  family,  by 
marrying  a  cousin  whom  she  does  not  care  for.  Her  name,  Mile. 
B.,  is  also  given  to  a  much  gentler  character,  one  of  several  imag- 
inary types  of  womanhood,  and  not  a  very  high  one.  That  any 
real  lover  could  have  thus  taken  in  vain  the  name  of  his  mistress 
is  so  incredible,  that  this  circumstance  works  with  others  to  justify 
the  suspicion  that  the  collection  has  been  made  up  hastily,  and 
mainly  from  materials  written  long  before.  The  essay  just 
referred  to,  that  on  "The  Genius  of  Women,"  is  much  the  longest 
in  the  volume;  and' the  central  idea  is,  that  whatever  a  woman 
may  be  otherwise,  she  is  universally  and  characteristically  a 
mother,  and  either  wishes  to  be  one  or  else  regrets  that  she  is  not. 
"Some  women,"  he  adds,  "  have  a  foolish  ambition  for  escaping 
from  the  rule  of  their  sex.  Is  it  worth  while  to  spoil  one's  true 
genius  without  succeeding  in  stripping  off  one's  nature?  Can  we 
suppose  that  evolution  has  been  artificial  as  regards  one  sex  in  all 
places  and  since  the  beginning  of  time?"  If  M.  Arre'at  were  to 
visit  America,  he  would  see  that  one  of  the  noblest  results  of 
evolution  has  been  the  emancipation  of  women.  His  conclusions 
are  never  revolutionary  ;  and  he  usually  does  not  reach  any,  but 
drops  a  subject  almost  as  soon  as  he  takes  it  up.  Two  of  these 
flashes  of  criticism  are  called  out  by  M.  Guyau,  whose  IrreligionoJ 
the  Future  has  already  been  noticed  incidentally  in  The  Open 
Court.  "You  have  without  doubt,  read  the  last  book  of  M. 
Guyau,"  writes  one  friend  to  the  other.  "This  distinguished  phi- 
losopher announces  the  end  of  positive  religions  and  forms  of 
worship.  I,  too,  think  that  the  man  of  the  future  will  not  be  the 
religious  man  of  the  past;  and  a  scientific  conception  has  long 
ago  taken  the  place  of  the  ancient  doctrines  in  my  thoughts.  But 
I  consider  that  this  great  novelty  of  a  society  without  a  church 
involves  two  hypotheses,  that  of  the  unlimited  progress  of  the 
race,  and  that  of  an  equality  of  intellectual  growth  among  all 
classes  in  society.  But  the  irreligion,  in  which  many  are  at 
present,  is  far  from  being  a  permanent  and  proper  moral  condi- 
tion; and  the  masses  may  perhaps,  find  a  philosophy  capable  not 
only  of  satisfying  their  hopes  of  a  religion,  but  of  fulfilling  its 
office  of  moral  discipline,  take  shape  amid  strange  vicissitudes." 
More  valid  is  the  objection  that  the  theory  of  "one  of  our  most 
distinguished  philosophers,  M.  Guyau,"  that  art  is  a  stimulus  of 
life  which  produces  pleasure,  does  not  account  for  the  fact  that 
artistic  beauty  is  always  the  result  of  some  special  kind  of  artistic 
industry.  The  literary  criticisms  are  the  best  part  of  the  work; 
but  on  the  whole  it  is  too  much  like  those  collections  of  letters 
addressed  to  no  one  in  particular,  which  were  formerly  produced 
in  great  numbers  in  this  country  and  England,  but  speedily  found 
their  way  to  the  dead  letter  office  of  literary  history.         F.  M.  H. 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon  a  Scientific   Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  18. 


CHICAGO,  OCTOBER  13,  1887. 


!  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


THE   STRONGHOLD   OF  THE  CHURCH. 

BY  COL.  T.  W.  HIGGINSON. 

Those  who  can  look  back  over  that  half  century 
whose  progress  has  been,  according  to  G.  J.  Holyoake, 
equivalent  to  a  peaceful  revolution,  have  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  learn  some  lessons.  One  of  these  is  that  a 
revolution,  however  great,  is  apt  to  come  out  in  a  differ- 
ent shape  from  that  predicted  by  the  revolutionists. 
Changes  occur,  but  not  just  the  changes  anticipated. 
Emerson  declared,  forty  years  ago,  that  what  hold  the 
popular  faith  had  upon  the  people  was  "gone  or  going." 
He  asked  why  we  should  drag  the  dead  weight  of  the 
Sunday  school  over  the  globe — and  lived  to  see  his  own 
daughter  holding  a  Sunday  school  for  little  Arab  chil- 
dren on  the  Nile.  Reformers  predicted  the  decay  of 
church  buildings  and  the  cessation  of  the  clergy ;  but  I 
suppose  that  there  never  was  a  decennial  period  when 
so  many  or  so  costly  churches  were  erected  in  America 
as  within  the  last  ten  years,  culminating  in  a  proposed 
Protestant  cathedral  at  New  York,  which  is  to  cost  ten 
millions.  There  has  undoubtedly  been  a  diminution  in 
the  relative  number  of  clergymen  proceeding  from  our 
older  colleges,  but  there  are  enough  still  to  fill  the  pul- 
pits, whencesoever  they  come;  and  those  who  visit 
Trinity  Church  in  Boston  or  St.  George's  Church  in  New 
York  cannot  doubt  that  eloquent  preachers  yet  have 
power  to  draw  audiences.  The  number  of  people  who 
habitually  absent  themselves  from  church  may  be  very 
large;  and  the  average  congregation  may  be  somewhat 
smaller  than  formerly;  but  there  are  surely  no  external 
indications  of  approaching  decay. 

The  spirit  of  Emerson's  predictions  has  vindicated 
itself,  not  in  any  outward  wrecking  of  the  Church,  but 
in  its  inward  remoulding.  The  reason  why  so  many 
well-meant  attacks  upon  it  fall  unheeded  is  because 
reformers  persist  in  attacking  the  Church  of  fifty  years 
ago,  which  does  not  now  exist,  instead  of  recognizing 
the  changed  condition  of  the  new  one.  They  treat  the 
modern  edifice,  past  which  a  hundred  young  men  ride 
unmolested  on  bicycles  every  Sunday,  as  if  it  were  the 
old  one  with  a  constable  at  each  door.  Doctrines  and 
habits  are  altered,  but  it  proves  the  strength  of  the 
organization  when  it  thus  changes  front,  as  Major 
Anderson  was  stronger  by  abandoning  Fort  Moultrie 
and    falling    back    on    Fort    Sumter.      The  question  is 


whether  the  party  of  attack  is  destined  to  be  as  persist- 
ent and  flexible  as  the  party  of  defence? 

When  we  ask  what  is  the  secret  of  the  present 
strength  of  the  Church,  I  think  we  must  find  it  in  this — 
that  the  Church  has  to  a  great  extent  abandoned  the 
attitude  of  grimness  and  moroseness,  and  has  substituted 
in  its  place  the  doctrine  of  human  happiness.  Formerly 
people  went  to  church  and  held  to  religion,  for  the  most 
part,  not  because  they  enjoyed  it,  but  because  they  thought 
it  their  duty ;  if  they  did  not  enjoy  it,  this  proved  it  all  the 
more  to  be  their  duty.  It  is  a  great  transformation. 
Young  people  in  growing  up  now  find  a  pleasure  in  the 
religion  that  is  presented  to  them;  things  unattractive  are 
by  general  consent  laid  aside;  revivalists  rely  on  love, 
rather  than  on  fear.  No  matter  how  utterly  inconsist- 
ent all  this  may  be  with  creeds  and  traditions,  it  is  done. 
Church-parlors  are  annexed  to  "  the  sacred  edifice,"  and 
there  is  provision  for  stewed  oysters  and  ice-cream ; 
the  children  are  provided  with  "  flower  concerts "  in 
summer  and  with  "Christmas  trees"  in  winter;  the 
whole  flavor  of  the  institution  is  altered;  it  is  concilia- 
tory and  not  denunciatory,  and  meets  people  half  way. 

But  when  the  Church  is  once  willing  to  do  this, 
and  to  trust  to  honey  rather  than  vinegar  for  the  catch- 
ing of  its  flies,  it  has  certain  immense  advantages  as  com- 
pared with  the  current  forms  of  opposition.  Two  things 
it  has  to  offer  of  especial  value  to  the  average  human 
heart — the  belief  in  immortality  and  the  belief  in  the 
personal  providence  or  guidance  of  the  Deity.  I  am 
not  speaking  now  of  the  truth  of  these  doctrines,  but  of 
their  attractiveness.  It  is  generally  admitted  among  those 
who  disbelieve  in  personal  immortality,  for  instance, 
that  the  belief  in  it,  if  separated  from  all  questions  of 
future  penalties,  makes  men  happier.  It  is  rare  to  find 
a  parent,  by  a  child's  deathbed,  who  actually  prefers  to 
think  of  that  child  as  annihilated;  and  so  on  with  the 
other  affectionate  relations  of  life.  Now,  the  assurance 
of  immortality  is  the  very  thing  which  the  Church  under- 
takes to  give;  no  other  organization  attempts,  officially, 
as  it  were,  to  give  it,  except  that  movement  known  as 
Spiritualism,  and  this  in  turn  offers  so  much  which  seems 
improbable  or  incredible  that  the  "scientific"  mind 
commonly  finds  it  even  harder  to  embrace  Spiritualism 
than  Christianity.  It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that 
atheism  could  make  out  as  good  a  case,  in  respect  to 
morals  and  philanthropy,  as  the  Christian  faith  ;  but  it 


47§ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


certainly  does  not  secure  so  much  happiness,  so  far  as 
the  faith  in  immortality  is  needful  to  happiness.  "  It 
may  be "  can  never  be  quite  so  comforting  to  the 
bereaved  heart  as  "It  is;"  and  the  Church,  which  gives 
this  positive  assurance — no  matter  whether  it  be  done 
with  or  without  reason— will  always  have  a  certain  hold 
on  those  who  find  in  happiness  "  our  being's  end  and 
aim." 

So  in  regard  to  personal  guidance  by  a  superintend- 
ing power.  To  many  the  feeling  of  a  special  providence 
outlasts  all  traces  of  other  theological  tradition ;  and  even 
Emerson  held  to  it  on  the  spiritual  side  when  he  said: 
"  There  is  no  bar  or  wall  in  the  soul  where  God,  the 
cause,  and  man,  the  effect,  begins,"  and  added  :  "  We  lie 
open  on  one  side  to  all  the  depths  of  infinite  being."  In 
the  sense  of  practical  guardianship  one  would  think  that 
this  confidence  must  soon  yield  to  the  actual  experiences 
of  life.  I  never  heard  a  more  thrilling  piece  of  oratory 
than  when  Charles  Bradlaugh,  in  his  own  London 
lecture- room,  described  to  a  great  audience  the  position 
of  a  shipwrecked  mother,  praying  God  to  save  her  child 
and  holding  the  baby  higher  and  higher  in  her  arms 
until  the  relentless  waves  submerged  both  at  last.  But 
the  faith  in  an  inward  guide  outlasts  that  in  outward  prov- 
idences, and  adapts  itself  to  pantheism  as  well  as  theism, 
though  not  to  atheism,  and  scarcely  even  to  agnosticism; 
and  it  moreover  equalizes  all  conditions  and  sends  peace 
through  the  whole  being. 

"  I  would  not  care  how  low  my  fortunes  were 
Might  but  my  hopes  still  be,  what  now  they  are, 
Of  help  divine,  nor  care  how  poor  I  be, 
If  thoughts,  yet  present,  might  abide  with  me: 
For  they  have  left  assurance  of  such  aid  w 

That  I  am  of  no  dangers  now  afraid." 

All  the  world  over,  in  every  form  of  faith,  we  find 
sweet  and  beautiful  souls  who  have  this  kind  of  happi- 
ness. Goethe  himself,  in  his  "  Confessions  of  a  Fair 
Saint,"  has  drawn  such  a  type.  Whatever  fine  types  the 
anti-religious  attitude  can  produce,  it  can  never  yield 
precisely  this. 

The  stronghold  of  the  Church  therefore  lies  in  this, 
that — whatever  may  have  been  the  case  formerly — it 
now  gives,  or  is  supposed  to  give,  more  happiness  than 
is  found  among  its  opponents.  This,  and  not  any  mere 
superstition,  is  what  has  got  to  be  overcome  or  super- 
seded if  men  would  do  away  with  the  Church,  or  with 
what  it  represents,  religion.  It  is  not  enough  to  show  that 
the  intellect  of  the  world  or  its  morals  or  its  mutual 
benevolence  will  be  as  effectual  without  religion  as  with 
it;  the  mass  of  men,  by  our  own  showing,  seek  happi- 
ness, and  we  have  got  to  convince  them  that  they  will  be 
happier  without  it.  Can  we  fairly  say  that  we  have  yet 
met  the  Church  on  this  ground?  To  some  extent  we 
may  have;  the  effect  of  the  transcendentalism  of  Emer- 
son, and   certainly  of   Parker,  was  to  make  men  happy; 


but  we  can  hardly  expect  to  win  the  universe  through 
its  love  of  happiness  by  a  good  deal  that  now  passes  for 
science.  There  is  certainly  something  very  curious 
about  a  religious  doctrine  which  tries  to  win  the  young 
heart  by  singing  "There  is  a  Fountain  Filled  with 
Blood;"  but  is  it  any  improvement  to  try  to  win  it  by 
books  entitled  "  The  Martyrdom  of  Man"?  Which  is 
the  higher  pursuit,  that  of  truth  or  of  happiness,  I  will 
not  undertake  to  say;  nor  is  there  to  my  own  mind  any 
necessary  antagonism  between  them!  Having  always 
been  a  theist  and  a  believer  in  immortality,  I  am  not 
speaking  for  my  own  case;  nor  is  my  own  personal 
sympathy  with  the  Church,  or  conscious  need  of  it,  any 
greater  than  before.  But  when  asked  whether  religion 
without  science  or  science  without  religion  makes  men 
happier  in  the  trials  and  bereavements  of  life,  I  fear  that 
it  is  necessary,  up  to  this  point,  to  concede  to  religion  a 
slight  advantage.  This  advantage,  slight  though  it  be, 
is  the  stronghold  of  the  Church ;  and  I  for  one  am  wait- 
ing, with  the  .  profoundest  interest,  to  see  how  human 
evolution  adapts  itself  to  the  situation.  That  all  will 
come  right  in  the  end  is  my  strongest  conviction. 


A   MISCONCEPTION   OF  IDEALISM. 
BY    W.    M.    SALTER. 

In  speaking  of  a  misconception  of  idealism  it  would 
be  franker,  perhaps,  to  say  that  I  mean  a  misconception 
of  what  I  understand  to  be  idealism.  There  are  doubt- 
less other  uses  of  the  word  than  mine;  and  others  who 
seem  to  me  to  be  extravagant  and  uncritical  in  their 
thinking  may  have  the  same  right  to  be  called  idealists 
that  I  have.  Every  one  must  use  words  as  he  himself 
understands  them  and  it  is  only  incumbent  upon  him  to 
be  self-consistent  in  doing  so.  I  need  not  explain  that  it 
is  philosophical  rather  than  ethical  idealism  that  I  have 
in  mind.  All  systems  of  ethics,  no  matter  how  other- 
wise contradictory  they  may  be,  are  ideal — for  they  all 
try  to  indicate  to  man  what  he  should,  do,  rather  than 
what  he  does.  But  philosophical  idealism  may  be  held 
and  may  be  rejected  by  those  who  have,  perhaps,  equal 
right  to  be  called  philosophers. 

By  idealism  I  mean  the  doctrine  that  the  material 
world  about  us  is  reducible  to  sensations.  This  world 
has  then  an  existence  not  in  itself,  but  in  our  minds — 
"  our  minds "  being  a  general  expression  for  sentient 
subjects  of  any  sort,  whether  animal  or  human.  The 
course  of  reasoning  is  a  simple  one.  It  has  been  stated 
by  Huxley  in  his  essays  on  Descartes  and  on  Berkeley. 
Helmholtz  is  an  equally  notable  defender  of  idealism  in 
Germany.  Herbert  Spencer  has  given  it  a  masterly 
exposition  in  his  Psychology.  If  I  may  be  pardoned 
self-mention  in  such  illustrious  company,  I  may  say  that 
I  have  sought  to  give  an  entirely  popular  and  untech- 
nical  statement  of  the  idealist  doctrine  in  the  Journal 
of  Speculative  Philosophy,  for  July  and   October,  1SS4. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


479 


The  question  is,  what  do  we  mean  by  saying  an  apple  is 
sweet  or  sour,  an  orange  is  fragrant,  a  rose  is  yellow  or 
red,  and  so  on?  What  is  sweetness,  or  fragrance,  or 
color?  If  one  stops  to  think  for  a  moment  and  has  no 
prepossessions  to  serve,  but  simply  interrogates  his  own 
consciousness,  he  is  very  apt  to  answer  that  sweetness  is 
a  taste,  a  feeling,  a  sensation  or  experience  which  he  has 
or  may  have.  And  he  may  say  the  like  of  fragrance — 
that  a  delicious  smell  is  an  experience  or  feeling,  rather 
than  anything  separable  from  himself.  It  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  realize  the  same  of  sound;  it  is  a  sensation  of  ours, 
which  something  without  us  causes,  but  which  is  itself 
an  impression  upon  us.  One  may  even  come  to  feel  the 
same  to  be  true  of  color.  And  it  is  plainly  true,  if  one 
stops  but  for  a  moment  to  seriously  reflect,  of  weight. 
Let  any  one  ask  himself  what  he  means  by  calling  a 
body  heavy — and  he  can  only  say  that  heaviness  is  some- 
thing he  distinctly  feels;  so  that  if  he  lifts  a  bod}'  with 
a  strong  sensation  of  that  sort  he  calls  it  heavy,  and  if 
with  little  or  none,  he  calls  it  light.  If  I  and  everybody 
else  could  lift  a  forty-pound  stone  as  easily  as  I  lift  a 
feather,  it  would  scarcely  mean  anything  to  say  that  it 
weighed  forty  pounds.  That  is,  all  these  qualities  of 
matter  (and  these  are  about  all  there  are,  unless  hard- 
ness and  softness,  resistance,  solidity,  are  reckoned  dis- 
tinct qualities — and  in  any  case,  they  are  no  less  reduci- 
ble than  the  rest  to  sensations*)  are  really  experiences 
of  ours.  Of  course,  we  do  not  produce  them;  they  are 
produced  in  us,  they  come  to  us  from  without;  but  still 
they  are  (whatever  their  causes  may  be)  our  own  impres- 
sions, and  were  we  not  alive  nor  other  beings  like  our- 
selves, they  could  not  be  said,  in  strictures,  to  exist.  A 
pain  without  somebody  to  feel  it  would  be,  as  every- 
body would  say,  an  absurdity;  idealism  adds  that  odors 
that  nobody  smells  and  tastes  that  nobody  experiences 
and  colors  that  nobody  perceives  and  sounds  that  nobody 
hears  and  weights  and  resistances  that  nobody  feels  are 
unmeaning,  though  the  sources  whence  these  sensations 
come  to  us  may  well  exist  outside  of  us,  and  indeed  must, 
if  our  causal  instinct  has  any  validity.  These  different 
sensations  grouped,  arranged  in  time  and  space,  make  up 
the  objects  and  intelligible  order  of  the  world.  Our  sensa- 
tions, strictlv  speaking,  are  limited  to  the  present  moment, 
but  by  virtue  of  memory  and  imagination  and  thought, 
we  can  picture  to  ourselves  the  past  and  probable  future 
of  the  world  as  well,  and  distant  objects  as  well  as  those 
in  the  immediate  horizon.  The  past  means  what  we 
should  have  experienced,  had  we  been  living,  or  what 
perhaps  others  have  experienced;  the  future  means  what 


*  It  may  have  to  be  admitted  (I  do  not  say  it  does)  that  form  and  shape 
and  extension  are  not  sensations:  yet  if  so,  it  is  probable  that  the  form  of  an 
apple,  for  example,  means  the  limits  of  certain  sensations  in  space,  just  as  the 
duration  of  any  material  object  may  mean  the  limits  of  certain  sensations  in 
time.  Prof.  William  James  holds  in  recent  articles  ("The  Perception  of 
Space,"  and  "The  Perception  of  Time,"  in  the  Mind,  1SS7,  and  the  Journal  of 
Speculative  Philosophy,  October,  1SS6,  respectively)  that  space  and  time  are 
themselves  elements  of  sensations. 


we  should  experience  could  we  live  on,  or  what  others 
possibly  will  experience.- 

Such,  very  brief!}'  and  imperfectly  stated,  is  what  1 
understand  by  idealism.  It  is  opposed  to  materialism,  it 
is  opposed  to  what  is  ordinarily  called  realism.  Real- 
ism holds  that  material  objects  are  real  things  outside  of 
us  and  existing  entirely  independently  of  our  sensibility ; 
it  is  simply  the  instinctive,  uncritical  way  we  all  have  of 
thinking.  The  idealist  starts  from  it,  but  by  a  little 
closer  scrutiny  discovers,  as  he  thinks,  that  the  apple 
and  the  orange  and  the  rose  and  the  tree  and  the  earth 
and  the  stars  are  simply  so  many  groups  of  sensations, 
and  that  the  real  outside  things  are  not  these,  but  some- 
thing else  which  gives  them  to  our  minds.  Idealism  is 
not  inconsistent  with  a  deeper  realism;  but,  if  I  am  not 
mistaken,  absolutely  implies  it. 

And  now  for  the  misconception  of  the  idealistic 
position.  It  is  that  according  to  idealism  the  material 
world  is  the  creation  of  our  minds,  and  so  an  illusion. 
This  is  the  most  common  notion,  perhaps,  of  the  mean- 
ing of  idealism.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  average 
man  has  some  reason  for  so  thinking,  for  not  only  do 
learned  critics  of  the  doctrine  so  represent  it,  but  idealists 
themselves  have  so  reasoned  and  written.  A  valued 
contributor  to  the  old  Index,  Mr.  L.  G.Janes,  once  said 
there  that  it  was  "the  favorite  postulate  of  the  idealist 
that  matter,  the  external  universe,  is  an  illusion,  a  sub- 
jective creation  of  the  mind."  The  able  and  conscien- 
tious explorer  of  primitive  Christian  history,  Judge 
Waite,  of  Chicago,  in  addressing  the  Philosophical 
Societv  some  years  ago,  considered  "  no  skepticism  so 
complete  and  overwhelming  as  that  of  the  idealist,"  and 
the  universe  of  the  idealist  seemed  to  him  "a  most 
stupendous  delusion."  Professor  Fisher,  of  Vale,  a 
most  discriminating  and  candid  writer,  identified  some 
time  ago  in  the  Princeton  Review,  idealism  with  the 
doctrine  that  sense-perception  is  due  exclusively  to  the 
mind's  own  nature  and  "is  elicited  by  no  external 
object."  Even  our  Coryphaeus  in  philosophy,  Dr. 
Montgomery,  speaks  (in  a  late  number  of  The  Open- 
Court)  of  the  "teaching  of  idealistic  thinkers,  who 
deny  altogether  the  existence  of  anything  but  mind  and 
its  various  modes."  Turning  to  those  who  are  them- 
selves idealists,  we  find  Mr.  W.  I.  Gill,  as  acute  a 
writer  as  The  Index  ever  possessed,  saying  that  the 
phenomena  of  the  external  world  are  not  only  modes 
of  the  mind,  but  "evolved  from  the  mind;"  that  the 
ego  is  "their  grand  central  source  and  cause"  as  well  as 
subject.  Lange  seems  to  give  countenance  to  the  same 
notion  when  he  says:  "Das  Auge  mit  dem  wir  zu  sehen 
glauben  ist  selbst  nur  ein  Product  unserer  Vorstellung  " 
(the  eye  by  which  we  suppose  that  we  see  is  itself  only 
a  product  of  our  thought).  Wundt  calls  our  "  ganze 
AutTassung  der  Aussenwelt "  an  "  Erzeugniss  unseres 
eigenen  Bewusstseins,"  though  he   allows    that    in  some 


480 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


sense  things  exist  independently  of  us,  and  so  suggests 
that  one  may  make  misleading  statements  which  cover 
no  real  misconception.  Emerson,  after  Fichte  and  the 
other  intellectual  giants  of  Germany  in  the  early  part  of 
this  century,  speaks  of  material  things  as  "visions 
merely,  wonderful  allegories,  significant  pictures  of  the 
laws  of  the  mind."  It  should  he  confessed,  however, 
as  Mr.  Edwin  D.  Mead  has  pointed  out  with  reference 
to  Fichte,  that  the  external  world,  according  to  this 
philosopher,  is  not  posited  merely  by  the  individual 
man,  but  by  the  world-spirit  through  him,  so  that  in  one 
sense  its  cause  is  outside  of  him;  and  this  holds  true  of 
Hegel  and  of  Emerson,  and  something  like  this  may  be 
the  thought  of  Mr.  Gill. 

Now  all  this  may  be  idealism ;  it  is,  perhaps,  not 
inconsistent  with  idealism  ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  ideal- 
ism, and  it  is  inconsistent  with  idealism  as  I  understand 
it.  Because  the  grass  and  the  trees  and  the  sky  are 
mental  experiences,  it  does  not  follow  that  I  give  them 
to  myself.  Not  only  have  I  no  consciousness  of  doing 
so,  but  I  seem  to  be  distinctly  conscious  that  I  do  not 
produce  them,  but  rather  meet  with  them ;  they  happen 
to  me,  they  are  given  to  me,  and  because  I  do  not  know 
what  or  who  the  giver  is,  makes  no  difference  as  to  this 
primary  consciousness.  It  is  this  consciousness,  I  am 
persuaded,  that  is  at  the  root  of  the  firm  conviction  of 
most  people  that  the  material  world  exists  outside  them ; 
it  does  so  exist,  in  the  sense  that  its  cause  or  causes  do, 
and  that  our  coming  and  going,  our  seeing  and  not  see- 
ing, our  even  living  or  not  living,  has  nothing  to  do 
with  these  causes,  but  only  with  their  effects  upon  our- 
selves. There  is  no  sound  without  some  one  to  hear  it; 
but  if  one  does  not  hear  it,  the  cause  of  the  sound  may 
exist  all  the  same.  There  is  no  weight  without  some 
one  to  feel  it;  but  that  which  predetermines  the  possi- 
bility of  such  a  sensation  is  not  affected  at  all  by  the  fact 
that  we  not  have  it.  If  there  is  no  mirror  there  is  no 
reflection;  but  the  mirror  is  not  the  cause  of  the  re- 
flection— or,  at  least,  the  whole  cause.  The  inference 
is  all  but  irresistible  that  there  is  something  outside  us, 
which  produces  the  sensations  within  us.  It  is  true  that 
thought  and  the  categories  of  thought  may  do  much, 
and  much  more  than  we  ordinarily  think,  in  giving 
shape  to  the  various  objects  of  the  material  world,  in 
making  them  objects  as  distinct  from  scattered  sensa- 
tions and  in  tracing  the  so-called  laws  of  matter.  Never- 
theless there  is  something  thought  cannot  do;  it  cannot 
give  us  a  sensation  or  the  rudiments  of  one;  it  cannot 
produce  the  faintest  smell  or  the  feeblest  sound ;  these 
have  to  come,  they  cannot  be  created — though  we  may 
indeed  learn  the  laws  of  their  coming  and  so  have  them, 
to  a  certain  degree,  at  pleasure.  Sensations  are  an  irref- 
ragable proof  that  there  is  something  else  besides  our- 
selves in  the  world,  call  it,  picture  it,  think  it  what  we 
will. 


The  world  is  not  illusory,  not  a  creation  of  our  own. 
It  is  our  world  and  has  no  meaning  apart  from  us  or 
from  beings  like  us,  yet  it  is  given  us;  and  though  the 
sources  or  givers  are  beyond  our  eyes,  they  are,  and 
they  alone  truly  are.  We  pass  and  the  world  passes; 
they  abide  There  is  a  sober,  critical,  I  might  almost 
say,  scientific  idealism,  as  well  as  an  imaginative  and 
extravagant   one. 


ARE  WE  PRODUCTS  OF  MIND? 

BY   EDMUND  MONTGOMERY,  M.D. 
Part   111. 

U  hv  mind  cannot  control  body. 

I  wish  Professor  Cope  had  read  the  series  of  papers 
in  which  I  endeavor  to  explain  the  relation  of  mental 
realization  to  objective  reality.  It  is  doubtful,  however, 
whether  this  would  have  shaken  his  faith  in  materialistic 
or  tridimentional  realism,  and  thus  helped  to  give  him  a 
more  favorable  opinion  of  the  "problem  of  cognition," 
which,  according  to  his  present  conviction,  leads  to 
"mere  verbal  quibbling." 

Nevertheless,  it  is  quite  incontestable,  that — as  re- 
vealed by  the  "problem  of  cognition" — the  relativity  of 
knowledge,  disclosing  the  mental  constitution  of  all  our 
perceptions  and  conceptions,  has  to  be  taken  as  a 
truth  infinitely  more  certain,  than  any  materialistic 
ontology  conceived  regardless  of  this  same  "prob- 
lem of  cognition."  A  scientist,  who  enters  into'  specu- 
lations about  the  relation  of  mind  to  organization  and  to 
nature  in  general,  cannot  venture  to  ignore  this  funda- 
mental philosophical  insight,  and  yet  expect  his  theories 
to  come  out  all  right.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  construct 
a  correct  view  of  nature,  and  especially  of  the  relation 
of  mind  to  non-mental  reality,  without  having  realized 
this  most  immediate  of  all  truths;  viz.  that  the  world  is 
revealed  to  us  in  the  medium  of  our  own  individual,  con- 
sciousness, which  can  consist  of  nothing  but  mental 
modes. 

This  once  understood,  it  becomes  evident  that  non- 
mental  reality  is  inferred  and  not  immediately  given; 
and  that  the  immediately  given  facts,  from  which  object- 
ive reality  is  thus  inferentially  constructed,  are  those 
compulsory  perceptions:,  which  arise  in  us  through  sense- 
stimulation.  We  experience,  as  immediately  given  in 
this  way,  perceptions  only.  These  we  interpret  accord- 
ing to  their  relation  to  previous  experience,  which 
experience  is  likewise  of  mental  consistency.  It  is,  con- 
sequently, not  so  self-evident  as  Professor  Cope  imag- 
ines, that  mind  is  a  property  of  matter.  It  is,  on  the 
contrary,  certain  that  what  we  realize  as  matter — namely 
all  sensibly  perceived  qualities  of  a  supposed  objective 
substratum — are  our  own  mental  states,  presented  in 
our  own  individual  space-perception.  Our  individual 
realization  of  matter  consists  thus  altogether  of  con- 
scious states.     And  how  can  we  then  correctly  attribute 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


l8i 


as  property  of  such  mentally  constituted  matter,  the 
very  mental  stuff  of  which  it  consists?  How  can  our 
mind  or  consciousness  be  a  property  of  some  of  its  own 
mental  or  conscious  percepts?  Surely,  a  thing,  or  exis- 
tent of  whatever  kind,  cannot  possibly  be  a  property  of 
some  part  of  itself. 

If  Professor  Cope  had  come,  in  conformity  with 
most  thinkers,  to  lose  his  primitive  faith  in  the  existence 
outside  his  consciousness  of  that  very  same  material  and 
tridimentional  world,  which  he  evidently  only  knows  as 
phenomenon  within  his  consciousness,  he  would  have 
found  it  a  rather  perplexing  task  to  recognize  rightly 
the  veritable  nature  of  objective  reality  and  its  relation 
to  mind. 

The  ever  recurring  philosophical  question  here  is 
whether,  as  the  entire  given  content  of  consciousness  is 
undoubtedly  of  mental  consistency,  reality  itself  may 
not  be  altogether  a  creation  of  mind;  or,  in  other  words, 
whether  thought  may  not  be  identical  with  being?  If 
this  is  denied,  then  it  has  to  be  positively  shown  why 
we  have  a  right  to  assume  that  "being"  or  "reality " 
subsists  in  all  verity  in  the  form  of  non-mental  existents 
beyond  our  own  percepts. 

To  gain  firm  ground  amid  these  idealistic  quicksands' 
where  "  the  feet  sink  at  every  step,"  it  is  of  the  utmost 
consequence  clearly  to  recollect  that  we  have  real  expe- 
rience of  mind  only  in  connection  with  living  organisms, 
and  that  the  higher  the  organism,  the  higher  also  its  mind. 
Sundry  attempts  scientifically  and  philosophically  to  ex- 
plain these  empirically  given  facts  have  led  me  to  the  con- 
clusion that  mind  is  in  verity  a  forceless  outcome  of  vital 
organization;  and  not,  vice  versa,  organization  a  product 
of  mental  power.  Perceptions,  memories,  thoughts, 
volitions,  as  mental  phenomena,  I  hold  to  be  outcomes 
of  vital  organization.  And  I  do  not  hold  that  vital 
organization  is,  vice  versa,  a  construction  effected  by  the 
mental  or  conscious  quality  of  such  phenomena  as  per- 
ceptions, memories,  thoughts  and  volitions.  Far  from 
believing  that  it  is  "  absurd  "  to  think  that  what  we  know 
as  consciousness  is,  and  has  always  been,  confined  to  the 
narrow  limits  of  vital  organization,  it  seems  to  me  on 
the  contrary  a  most  unwarranted  and  entirely  unverified 
assumption  to  maintain  that  consciousness  exists  any- 
where unconnected  with  vital  organization.  For,  it  is 
quite  certain,  that  in  actual  nature  we  find  consciousness 
in  all  its  modifications  wholly  and  strictly  dependent  on 
specific  organization,  and  occurring  in  direct  experience 
nowhere  without  it.  My  biological  knowledge,  both 
physiological  and  pathological,  has  rendered  it  indeed 
utterly  impossible  for  me  to  imagine  any  kind  of  con- 
sciousness detached  from  vital  organization. 

Professor  Cope  believes  that  we  can  arrive  at  true 
conclusions  concerning  reality  simply  by  following  the 
method  of  objective  science,  which  trusts  fully  the  testi- 
mony of  our  senses,  confining  itself  altogether  to  sensibly 


"observed  phenomena  as  foundation  materials."  He 
says:  "In  our  modern  observations  of  natural  phenom- 
ena we  have  not  only  the  mutual  aid  rendered  by  one 
sense  to  another,  but  the  corroborative  evidence  of 
numerous  and  intelligent  co-workers." 

This  probing  of  natural  phenomena  by  aid  of  the 
senses  is  indeed  the  true  method  of  investigation  where 
we  have  to  deal  with  perceptible  or  so-called  -physical 
phenomena.  But  when  mental  phenomena  are  thought 
to  interfere  in  the  perceptible  or  physical  nexus,  how  are 
we  to  ascertain  this  alleged  fact  of  interaction  by  the 
method  of  sensible  observation  ?  It  is  quite  evident  that 
mental  phenomena  cannot  themselves  be  observed  in  the 
same  manner  as  physical  phenomena. 

Here  we  have  unquestionably  arrived  at  the  point 
where  the  method  of  objective  observation  completely 
forsakes  us.  We  are  compelled  to  call  in  the  aid  of 
introspection,  and  the  aid  also  of  a  theory  of  cognition, 
which  attempts  to  harmonize  the  two  different  positions; 
that  of  objective  observation  and  that  of  mere  inner 
or  subjective  awareness. 

Professor  Cope,  beholding  the  designed  volitional 
movements  of  animal  organisms,  feels  convinced  that 
they  are  not  mechanically  effected ;  that  they  are  cen- 
trally originated  by  quite  another  mode  of  efficiency. 
I  entirely  agree  with  him.  I  am  no  less  convinced  of 
the  hyper-mechanical  nature  of  these  movements  and  of 
their  central  origin.  But  through  what  kind  of  efficiency 
do  they  derive  their  specific  character?  Professor  Cope 
says  through  consciousness.  I  say  through  centrally 
established  organization.  And  in  favor  of  this  latter 
view  it  must  be  admitted,  and  is  indeed  unhesitatingly 
admitted  by  Professor  Cope,  that  such  movements, 
seemingly  impelled  by  consciousness,  can  be  and  often 
are  in  reality  and  at  present  the  outcome  of  consciousless 
organization;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  no  evi- 
dence of  any  kind  positively  to  show  that  consciousness 
is  anywhere  in  nature  a  power  capable  of  moving  mat- 
ter. Indeed,  a  close  and  critical  examination  of  the 
given  state  of  things  renders  it  obvious  that  conscious- 
ness itself  can  never  become  such  a  moving  power;  for 
it  turns  out  to  be  itself  in  its  very  existence  and  in  all 
its  manifold  modifications  strictly  dependent  on  specific 
constitution  and  on  specific  activities  of  the  manifesting 
substance. 

Still,  I  fully  concede  that  it  intuitively  appears  to  us, 
as  if  our  voluntary  actions  were  performed,  not  only 
in  concomitance  with  consciousness,  but  under  its  con- 
trol. And  this  is  so  for  a  similar  reason  to  that  which 
makes  it  intuitively  appear  to  us  as  if  the  world  within 
our  own  individual  preception  were  in  all  verity  the 
real  objective  world.  We  know,  namely,  our  body, 
like  all  other  things,  only  as  it  is  revealed  to  us  in  our 
individual  consciousness,  not  as  it  exists  independently 
of  this  conscious  realization.     In  performing  voluntary 


4S2 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


movements  we  ideally  realize  the  central  process  as 
what  we  call  ideational  forecast  and  volitional  flat;  and 
thereupon  sensibly  perceive  the  peripheral  outcome  as 
movement  of  our  body.  We  are  at  once  inwardly  con- 
scious of  the  so-called  volitional  part  of  voluntary  move- 
ment, while  we  experience  its  motor  part  only  after- 
ward through  the  roundabout  way  of  sensory  percep- 
tion. These  two  facts  are  both  facts  within  our  con- 
sciousness; though  the  first  of  them  is  introspectively 
realized,  while  the  other  is  or  can  be  realized  objectively 
by  means  of  the  senses.  We  have  an  immediate  inner 
experience  of  the  central  activity,  but  a  mediate  sense- 
stimulated  experience  of  the  peripheral  activity. 

Now,  as  we  are  not  in  the  least  conscious  of  the 
organic  process,  which  in  reality  connects  the  brain- 
function  with  the  distant  muscular  function,  such 
objectively  perceptible  muscular  function  naturally 
appears  as  a  strange  and  yet  actual  outcome  of  what  is 
introspectively  realized  as  ideal  conception  and  volun- 
tary impulse.  We  are  aware  that  the  central  process 
and  its  peripheral  outcome  are  certainly  in  some  way 
connected  with  each  other.  And  though  we  realize  the 
central  process  only  through  introspection  as  an  ideal 
experience,  while  the  peripheral  outcome  is,  on  the 
contrary,  realized  through  the  senses  as  perceptual 
movement,  we  feel  strongly  impelled  to  take  for  granted 
that  this  extrinsically  awakened  perception  of  ours  is 
indeed  the  direct  effect  of  the  intrinsic  ideas  and  feel- 
ings. It  seems  to  us  as  if  our  mentally  experienced 
volition  were  indeed  the  actual  cause  of  the  movement 
perceived  as  a  sequent  of  it.  It  is,  however,  obviously 
absurd  to  believe  that  an  inner  idea  or  feeling  of  ours 
can  be  the  efficient  cause  of  a  perception  awakened 
in  us  through  our  senses  by  external  stimulation,  emana- 
ting from  the  non-mental  existent  known  as  our  body. 

VVhen  we  see  an  arm  moving,  though  this  percep- 
tion is  undoubtedly  a  conscious  state  of  ours,  we  are 
nevertheless  convinced  that  there  is  a  real  organic 
existent — a  real  arm — subsisting  outside  our  consciousness 
and  performing  the  veritable  act,  which  we  perceive  as 
movement.  This  firm  conviction,  that  a  veritable  extra- 
conscious  or  physical  existent  is  compelling  its  presenta- 
tion in  consciousness,  attaches  to  all  our  sense-stimulated 
percepts.  It  is  not  so  with  our  intrinsically  arising  ideas 
and  feelings,  with  our  emotions,  thoughts  and  volitions. 
We  do  not  refer  them  in  the  same  way  to  the  compelling 
presence  of  some  extra-conscious  existent.  They  seem, 
on  the  contrary,  to  our  introspective  view,  to  be  entirely 
self-subsisting,  to  be  floating  self-made  in  a  medium  of 
their  own.  That  this  is  altogether  an  illusion,  that  they 
are  likewise  the  outcome  of  the  activity  of  a  definite, 
extra-conscious  existent,  can  be  positively  and  most  dis- 
tinctly realized  by  an  observer,  who  is  in  a  position 
actually  to  perceive  the  organ  of  whose  activity  they 
are  the  outcome. 


The  above  considerations  render  clear,  that  nothing 
in  introspective  consciousness  can  possibly  be  the  verit- 
able cause  of  those  perceptual  movements  which 
become  conscious  to  us  through  sense- stimulation 
effected  by  the  external  existent  known  as  our  body. 
It  is,  indeed,  the  activity  of  a  certain  definitely  percep- 
tible organ  of  this  same  body  which  gives  rise  to  the 
introspectively  realized  ideas  and  feelings,  initiating 
also  the  complex  and  specific  stimulation,  whose  periph- 
eral outcome  is  perceived  as  purposive  movement. 
To  the  dreaming  subject  the  vivid  and  complex  con- 
scious states,  which  make  up  the  eventful  phantasma- 
goria he  is  witnessing,  seem  to  be  altogether  self-sus- 
tained, emanating  from  no  organic  matrix.  But  no 
scientific  philosopher  doubts  at  present  that  the  deter- 
mining condition  of  this  phantasmal  display  consists 
really  in  a  most  definite  functional  brain-activity.  Such 
dependence  of  the  inner  conscious  experience  upon  an 
organic  process  is  as  certain  a  scientific  fact  as  any  other 
well-ascertained  dependence  in  nature.  And  are  not  the 
intelligent  gestures  and  vocal  sounds,  accompanying  the 
inner  vision  of  the  dreamer,  likewise  an  outcome  of  the 
same  organic  brain-activity,  which  is  disclosing  itself  as 
intensely  significant  also  to  his  ideal  sight?  Can  any 
one  seriously  believe  that  it  is,  for  instance,  a  mentally 
constituted  enemy,  whom  the  deluded  sleeper  is  seeing 
so  distinctly  approaching  in  his  inner  field  of  vision,  or 
the  ideal  forecast  of  the  ingenious  way  he  is  determin- 
ing to  encounter  him,  or,  indeed,  anything  else  con- 
sciously present  in  his  dream,  which  is  setting  his  motor 
brain-molecules  designedly  vibrating,  so  that  their  prop- 
agated activity  will  give  rise  to  those  expressive  move- 
ments of  his  features  and  arms,  and  to  the  still  more 
expressive  movements  of  his  vocal  cords,  which  appear 
to  the  beholder  and  listener  "saturated  with  intelli- 
gence"? Surely  all  phenomena  here  present,  whether 
introspectively  realized  as  ideal  perceptions,  thoughts  and 
volitions,  or  objectively  apprehended  as  purposive 
movements  and  intelligent  speech,  are  alike  due  to  the 
play  of  centrally  organized  powers. 

It  is,  then,  obviously  no  self-subsisting  idea  or  feeling 
which  gives  rise  to  what  we  perceive  as  purposive  move- 
ments, but  a  genuine  organic  process  taking  place  in 
what  is  most  distinctly  perceptible  as  the  brain  of  the 
subject,  who  erroneously  believes  his  ideas  and  feelings 
to  be  self-subsisting,  and  on  the  strength  of  this  illusion 
takes  them  for  the  veritable  cause  of  these  purposive 
movements  of  his. 

Every  definite  conscious  volition  rests  on  a  definite 
conscious  forecast  of  the  act  to  be  performed,  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  specific  medium  in  which  it  is  to  be  performed, 
and  to  the  peculiar  end  which  is  thereby  to  be  attained. 
All  this  ideal  play  is  admitted  to  be  strictly  dependent 
on  previously  organized  experience.  Therefore,  the 
consciousness,   imagined    to    set    going    such   a  definite 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4*3 


concatenation  of  organic  efficiencies,  can  be  figured  only 
as  an  outside  agent  playing  upon  their  springs  of  action, 
as  a  performer  plays  upon  a  musical  instrument,  or  a 
telegraph  operator  upon  his  machine. 

So  antiquated  a  way  of  imagining  the  relation  of 
consciousness  to  intelligent  vital  function  is,  however, 
not  Professor  Cope's  way.  He  believes  some  unspecial- 
ized,  hyper-organic  will-power  to  create  for  the  execu- 
tion of  designed  aims  new  specific  energies,  which  force 
unformed  material  within  the  central  organ  to  assume 
those  special  modes  of  motion,  which  propagated  to  the 
peripheral  organs,  issue  as  purposive  movements.  In 
this  case  the  definite  conscious  forecast,  with  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  organic  instrument  to  be  used,  of  the 
medium  in  which  it  is  to  be  used,  and  of  the  aim  to  be 
accomplished,  would  have  to  belong  to  the  performing 
unspecialized  will-power,  which  would  then  evidently 
be  an  omniscient,  transcendent  power  using  us  organic 
individuals  as  mere  passive  tools  for  its  own  aims. 


PROMETHEUS  UNBOUND. 

BY  F.  M.  HOLLAND. 

yEschylus  told  in  "Prometheus  Bound,"  that  great 
drama  which  has  been  translated  admirably  by  Plumptre 
and  Mrs.  Browning,  how  cruelly  the  ideal  philanthro- 
pist, who  gave  fire  to  mortals  and  taught  them  all  other 
useful  knowledge,  was  tortured  for  refusing  to  help 
Jupiter  avert  the  doom  which  threatened  to  end  his 
guiltv  reign.  How  righteous  would  have  been  the 
destruction  of  the  Olympian  tyranny,  is  shown  by  the 
presentation  on  the  stage  of  poor  Io,  one  of  the  many 
victims  of  deified  lust.  This  was  not  the  first  time  that 
the  great  conflict  between  morality  and  religion  made 
itself  heard  in  literature.  The  Hebrew  prophets  had 
already  denounced  the  priests.  yEschylus  does  not 
appear  to  have  done  much  more  than  state  the  problem. 
He  probably  wrote  three  plays  on  this  subject  to  be 
acted  successively  the  same  day,  according  to  custom; 
but  this  is  the  only  one  that  has  come  down  to  us;  and 
the  series  appears  to  have  ended  in  a  reconciliation. 
Thus  runs  the  legend  of  Prometheus,  as  universally 
received  in  ancient  Greece;  and  no  other  solution  would 
then  have  been  tolerated.  The  hero  who  defies  almighty 
wrath  so  grandly  in  this  drama  could  scarcely  have  sunk 
to  selling  himself  and  all  mankind  as  basely  as  he  is 
made  to  do  by  the  mocking  Lucian.  Still  there  must 
have  been  some  sort  of  compromise,  according  to  even 
^Eschylus.  The  legend  has  also  been  treated  of  by 
Hesiod,  Goethe,  Longfellow  and  Robert  Browning. 
Various  myths  about  the  theft  of  fire  from  the  gods,  by 
some  primitive  friend  of  man,  for  instance  the  dog  or 
the  spider,  have  been  found  among  the  Algonquins, 
Australians,  Bushmen,  Finns,  New  Zealanders  and  other 
savages.     Shelley     has   not  only   told    the    story    more 


beautifully  than  any  one  else,  but  has  been  the  only 
great  writer  who  has  let  it  end  as  it  should. 

His  "  Prometheus  Unbound  "  opens  by  showing  the 
champion  of  mankind,  bound  to  the  icy  precipice,  and 
waiting  calmly,  as  day  breaks,  for  the  destined  hour 
which  shall  free  earth  from  the  almighty  Tyrant,  who 
gives  her  sons  nothing  better  than  fear,  self-contempt 
and  barren  hope,  as  a  reward  for  prayer  and  praise,  and 
toil  and  hecatombs  of  broken  hearts.  So  certain  is  the 
deliverance  that  hatred  of  heaven's  cruel  King  has 
changed  to  pity;  and  Prometheus  takes  back  the  curse 
which  he  pronounced  long  ago.  He  refuses  to  betray 
the  mighty  secret  with  all  the  pride,  but  none  of  the 
passion,  portrayed  by  .Eschylus;  and  he  is  not  punished 
with  the  lightning  and  the  vulture,  as  in  the  Greek 
drama,  but  with  revelations  of  the  misery  inflicted  on 
men  by  those  who  have  tried  to  liberate  them.  The 
furies  show  Jesus  dying  on  the  cross,  with  the  result 
that  his  name  has  become  a  curse,  and  those  most  like 
him  are  hated  and  persecuted  by  his  slaves.  France, 
too,  is  seen,  hurled  by  her  desire  to  establish  truth, 
freedom  and  brotherly  love,  into  a  chaos  of  fratricidal 
bloodshed,  ending  in  renewed  slavery  to  tyrants. 
Prometheus  triumphs  over  the  mocking  furies,  by  the 
firmness  with  which  he  declares  that  he  pities  every  one 
who  does  not  sorrow  with  him  over  this  misery,  which 
proves  nothing  except  that  the  reign  of  superstition  and 
tyranny  has  become  too  wicked  to  endure.  These 
hopes  are  confirmed  by  the  songs  of  friendly  spirits, 
who  predict  more  successful  revolutions,  and  show  what 
good  has  been  already  done  by  philosophy   and   poetry. 

That  same  morning  a  sea  nymph  who  loves  Prome- 
theus is  guided  by  melodious  voices  down  to  the  cave  of 
Demogorgon.  This  mysterious  power,  whose  name 
reminds  us  of  that  of  Demiurge,  given  to  the  Creator 
by  the  most  liberal  of  the  early  Christians,  appears  as  a 
shapeless  darkness.  From  within  issues  a  voice  declar- 
ing that  all  good  things  are  made  by  God.  To  repeated 
questions  who  made  madness,  crime,  self-contempt,  fear 
of  hell  and  other  evils,  Demogorgon  answers:  "He 
reigns."  The  nymph  asks  who,  then,  is  to  be  called 
God;  but  the  reply  is: 

I  spoke  but  as  ye  speak, 
For  Jove  is  the  supreme  of  living  things. 

*     *     *     A  voice 
Is  wanting;  the  deep  truth  is  imageless; 
For  what  would  it  avail  to  bid  thee  gaze 
On  the  revolving  world?     What  to  bid  speak 
Fate,  Time,  Occasion,  Chance  and  Change?     To  these 
All  things  are  subject  but  Eternal  Love. 

After  these  words,  reminding  us  of  Shelley's  belief 
in  "a  pervading  Spirit  co-eternal  with  the  universe," 
though  not  in  "  a  creative  Deity,"  Demogorgon 
announces  that  the  destined  hour  has  come.  The  roof 
of  the  cave  is  rent  asunder,  and  the  chariots  of  the 
Hours  are  seen  passing  over.     One,  darker  than  all  the 


4§4 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


rest,  tarries  to  take  up  the  terrible  shadow  and  carry  it 
to  heaven.  There  sits  Jupiter,  waiting  for  the  mighty 
offspring  who  is  to  help  him  trample  out  the  last  sparks 
of  doubt  and  insurrection  among  men.  But  Demogor- 
gon  is  so  terrible  that  Jupiter  can  only  cry:  "Awful 
shape!  what  art  thou?"     The  answer  is: 

Eternity!     Demand  no  direr  name. 
Descend,  and  follow  me  down  the  abyss. 
I  am  thy  child,  as  thou  wert  Saturn's  child; 
Mightier  than  thee;  and  we  must  dwell  together 
Henceforth  in  darkness.     Lift  thy  lightnings  not. 
The  tyranny  of  heaven  none  may  retain, 
Or  re-assume,  or  hold,  succeeding  thee. 

Jupiter  and  Demogorgon  sink  together  out  of  sight; 
the  reign  of  personal  gods  is  ended;  Prometheus  is 
unbound;  and  men  are  free  forever.  Speaker  after 
speaker  then  tells,  sometimes  in  the  most  musical  of 
songs,  how  there  will  be  no  more  wars;  how  all  thrones 
are  kingless  on  earth  as  well  as  in  heaven;  how  men 
and  women  have  ceased  to  fear,  or  hate,  or  scorn,  or 
deceive  any  one,  and   how   man   has  become  king  over 

himself, 

Exempt  from  awe,  worship,  degree, 
Man,  one  harmonious  soul  of  many  a  soul, 
Whose  nature  is  its  own  divine  control, 
Where  all  things  flow  to  all,  as  rivers  to  the  sea. 

Especially  beautiful  is  the  chorus  of  spirits  who  sing: 

We  come  from  the  mind 

Of  human  kind, 
Which  was  late  so  dusk,  and  obscure,  and  blind. 
*  *  *  *  *  * 

From  those  skyey  towers 

Where  Thought's  crowned  powers 
Sit  watching  your  dance,  ye  happy  Hours! 

Shelley's  faith  in  republicanism  and  hatred  of  anarch- 
ism are  not  so  plainly  manifested  in  "Prometheus 
Unbound"  as  in  "The  Revolt  of  Islam,"  "Hellas," 
"Ode  to  Liberty,"  and  "The  Masque  of  Anarchy;" 
but  this  may  be  ascribed  to  the  same  sense  of  poetic 
fitness  which  here  fortunately  kept  his  peculiar  views 
about  marriage  out  of  sight.  His  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  political  and  intellectual  freedom  has  been  fully  justi- 
fied by  many  glorious  victories,  not  only  in  England, 
France  and  Italy,  but  in  America,  since  the  publication 
of  his  greatest  poem  in  1S20.  So  much  of  the  thor- 
oughly good  and  radical  work  then  called  for  in  "Pro- 
metheus Unbound  "  remains  still  undone,  that  we  ought 
to  ask  ourselves  if  we  are  not  too  easily  satisfied  with 
what  has  been  accomplished  by  our  predecessors,  and 
too  timid  and  slothful  in  carrying  on  the  great  war 
against  all  tyranny  and  superstition.  I,  for  one,  cannot 
rest  silent,  until  I  see  Prometheus  unbound  as  fully  in 
Russia,  Ireland  and  Germany  as  in  America,  and  until  I 
cease  to  hear,  even  in  this  most  free  of  all  countries,  the 
groans  of  the  chained  Titan  still  arising  from  suffragists 
baffled  by  the  apathy  of  the  suppressed  sex;  from  toilers 
against  intemperance,  who  find  those  who  ought  to  help 


them  enforce  the  laws  we  have,  care  only  for  enacting  a 
law  which  we  shall  never  really  have  except  as  a  dead 
letter;  from  labor  reformers  who  see  the  workmen  not 
only  help  support  the  worst  monopolies  which  the  dark 
ages  have  bequeathed  us,  but  start  a  new  one  which 
threatens  beggary  to  ail  those  of  their  own  class  not 
self-bound  slaves  to  the  caprices  of  despotic  upstarts;  and, 
worst  of  all,  from  champions  of  free  thought  who  find 
the  dungeons  that  have  been  broken  open  still  full  of 
prisoners  who  prefer  to  stay  there,  and  the  fetters  that 
have  been  rent  in  twain  busily  refashioned  into  new 
chains.  We  all  need  the  faith  of  Prometheus  in  the 
freedom  which  must  surely  come. 


MONISTIC  MENTAL  SCIENCE. 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF    THE    NERVES    AND    BRAIN. 

BY    S.    V.    CLEVENGER,  1U.D. 

The  brain  and  nervous  system  are  generally  regarded 
as  the  centers  of  mind  and  sensation.  The  view  is  cor- 
rect enough  in  one  way  and  wholly  erroneous  in  another, 
for  there  are  more  animals  without  than  with  brains,  or 
even  nervous  systems,  to  whom  mind  and  sensation  can- 
not properly  be  denied. 

The  protoplasmic  amceba,  that  reduces  the  problems 
of  physiology  to  their  simplest  forms,  is  irritable. 
Mechanical  irritation,  such  as  the  prick  of  a  pin,  will 
stimulate  it  to  accelerated  motion.  Any  living  matter 
that  thus  explodes  energy  when  stimulated  is  said  to  be 
"  irritable."  Irritability  is  the  function  most  highly 
developed  in  the  nerves,  especially  the  nerve  centers, 
and  it  is  through  the  motions  induced  we  have  the  only 
objective  evidence  of  sensation.  If  you  prick  a  man  and 
he  writhes,  you  surmise  he  has  felt  it;  if  he  does  not 
move  you  do  not  know  whether  he  felt  the  prick  or  not. 
Contractions  are  very  common  manifestations  of  irrita-  , 
bility,  but  so  interchangeable  are  "  vital  "  and  physical 
forces,  sometimes  the  stimulus  produces  heat  instead  of 
"  vital  "  movements. 

In  the  protoplasm,  from  which  all  the  tissues  pro- 
ceed, reside  the  abilities  of  all  those  tissues.  For 
example,  the  nervous  system  is  eminently  irritable,  the 
muscles  are  eminently  contractile;  other  organs  have 
developed  special  abilities,  such  as  locomotory,  prehen- 
sile, gustatory,  reproductory,  respiratory.  What  was 
possessed  undifferentiated  by  the  simple  protoplasmic 
cell  has  become  separately  the  functions  of  particular 
groups  of  cells.  How  this  came  about  is  the  problem  of 
comparative  physiology  which  the  theory  of  evolution 
is  solving.  The  body  and  mind  are  too  indissolubly 
connected  to  admit  of  any  psychology  being  other  than 
absurd  if  all  physiological  functions  are  not  discussed ; 
but  the  necessity  for  condensing  compels  us  to  skim  over 
some  of  the  most  interesting  processes  of  development 
with  mere  references. 

The      one-celled    developed     into    the     many-celled 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4S5 


animal,  the  morula  (Fig.  9)  or  mulberry  form,  because  the 
cells,  instead  of  escaping,  were  bound  together  by  an 
outer  membrane.  The  morula  ate  and  grew,  as  did  the 
amoeba,  only  when  it  burst  by  repletion  it  liberated  one- 
celled  animals  that  afterward  became  many-celled,  simply 
because  the  materials  that  composed  the  young  were 
split  off,  inherited,  from  the  parent,  and  for  purely 
mechanical  reasons  the  life  history  of  parent  anil  offspring 
would  be  the  same. 

The  gastrula  stage  (Fig.  10)  comes  next  when  the 
manv-celled  animal,  the  mulberry  form,  collapsed  and 
formed  a  bag  with  a  layer  of  cells  inside  and  another 
outside.  This  stage  is  represented  by  a  vast  number  of 
animals,  such  as  the  sea-anemones  and  worms. 


£W!3® 


Fig.  o.  Ki|T.    10. 

Elongate  the  gastrula  animal,  and  vou  have  the 
worm  shape.  Gradual  improvements  occurred  in  some 
of  these  forms,  as  favorable  circumstances  were  encoun- 
tered, and  step  bv  step  the  rudimentary  intestine  devel- 
ops a  stomach  and  other  subsidiary  organs,  as  the  habits 
of  the  descendents  change  and  adaptation  is  necessary. 
Blood  vessels  appear,  and  their  evolution  can  be  easily 
traced  to  the  twisting  of  an  artery  upon  itself  to  form  a 
heart,  and  further.  Likewise  the  course  of  limb  growth 
through  blunt  projections,  fins,  up  to  wing  or  arm  and 
feet  successively;  the  change  of  swimming  bladder  into 
lungs  and  the  advancement  of  protoplasm  into  cartilage 
and  some  of  the  latter  into  bone,  the  passage  also  of 
protoplasm  cells  into  unstriped  muscle  cells,  thence  into 
the  striped  muscles.  All  this  came  about  through  acci- 
dent. The  collapsed  morula  found  it  had  a  bag  in 
which  albuminous  substances  could  be  held  and  digested 
better.  The  cells  that  lined  this  bag  as  naturally  and 
readily  developed  into  special  eating  cells  as  politicians 
become  thieves — through  opportunity,  ability  and  desire. 
Special  reproductory  cells  developed  from  the  internal 
sac.  Every  organ  may  be  traced  in  its  growth  from  the 
egg  (a  single  protoplasmic  cell),  and  in  its  successive 
modifications  in  series  of  animals  succeeding  one  another 
from  the  amoeba  to  the  man. 

That  the  feeling  of  love  was  derived  from  hunger, 
and  is  identical  with  it  in  protozoa,  can  be  explained  here 
only  in  a  general  way.*     The  folly  of  the  metaphysical 

*I  condense  from  the  article  which  first  announced  my  theory,  in  Science 
(S.  Y.),June  i,  iSSi: 

A  paper  on  "Researches  into  the  Life  History  of  Monads,"  by  Dallinger 
and  Drysdale,  was  read  before  the  Royal  Microscopical  .Society,  December  3, 
1S73,  wherein  fissure  of  the  monad  was  described  as  being  preceded  by  the 
absorption  of  one  form  by  another.  One  monad  would  fix  on  the  sarcode 
of  another,  and  with  it  coalesce.  The  large  remaining  monad  would  undergo 
fission  and  multiplication.  I.eidy  asserts  that  the  amoeba  is  a  cannibal,  where- 
upon Michels  {American  "Journal  of  Microscopy,  July,  1S77)  infers  that  the 
inonera  and  ameeba  cannibalism  is  in  furtherance  of  reproduction.     It  seems  to 


systems  is  evident  in  ignoring  the  bearings  of  this 
most  powerful  sentiment,  and  its  derivation,  upon  all  life 
relations. 

The  relativity  of  the  terms  excretion  and  secretion  is 
noticeable  when  we  study  how  the  cell  groups  live  that 
make  up  the  body.  One  set  of  cells  may  be  situated  to 
receive  the  unelaborated  food,  part  of  which  it  absorbs 
and  part  passes  through  its  cellular  contents  chang£d  to 
other  conditions.  This  changed  food  becomes,  per 
force,  that  upon  which  the  next  set  of  cells  thrive  best, 
and  we  may  follow  these  changes  from  meat  and  vege- 
tables ingested  to  the  secretion  of  milk  and  tears. 

Thus  we  are  compelled  to  shamefully  slur  over  the 
grand  stories  biology  has  to  tell  in  the  endeavor  to  reach 
the  nervous  system  quickly.  But  perpetual  reference  to 
the  other  organs  must  be  made  to  apjjreciate,  anything 
like  adequately,  what  the  brain  does. 

We  have  seen  that  certain  cells  develop  extraordi- 
narily what  primarily  was  the  single-cell  ability.  From 
the  amoeba  performing  with  its  one  little  protoplasmic 
dot  all  the  life  activities  we  have  in  the  higher  metazoa 
intestinal  cells  that  elaborate  food  and  hold  other  activi- 
ties in  abeyance,  muscle  cells  that  contract  to  stimuli, 
ovarian  cells  that  centralize  reproduction,  lung  cells  that 
are  mainly  respiratory ."j" 

To  a  greater  or  less  extent  the  original  abilities  are 
preserved  in  every  cell,  no  matter  what  function  it 
serves.  All  cells  must  eat,  secrete,  reproduce — some 
rapidly,  others  slowly.  The  work  devolving  upon  them 
determines  how  much  of  and  what  particular  character 
shall  predominate,  as  with  men. 

When  the  many-celled  animal  without  a  nervous  sys- 
tem receives  an  impression  and  responds  to  it  bv  moving, 
the  impulse  is  propagated  from  one  cell  to  the  next  and 
but  sluggish  motions  are  induced.  Manifestly  it  would 
be  an  advantage  to  have  a  telegraph  system  to  cause 
instantaneous  and  united  action. 

Little  amceba-like  animals  J  happening  to  live  where 
sand  abounded  picked  up  an  overcoat  of  that  material  by 
agglutination.  The  mollusc  falling  in  with  chalky  and 
other  lime  particles,  which  it  separated  from  its  food  by 
excretion,  developed  its  shell  because  the  secretion  hap- 
pened to  adhere  externally.  The  hermit  crab  finds  a 
covering  already  made,  and  occupies  it  by  squatter 
right.  It  does  not  matter  to  any  one  of  these  how  the 
advantage  befell;  it  is  taken  as  such  and  adjusted  to. 
The  fighting  cock  will  use  the  steel  gaffs  as  though  they 
had  grown  from  his  legs,  nor   is  the  cell  a  particle  more 

me,  when  we  consider  similar  fusions  in  alg.e  and  protozoa  and  the  fact  that 
fission  produces  offspring,  no  matter  whether  repletion  comes  from  food  or  can- 
nibalism, the  identity  of  the  act  thnt  precedes  fission  and  the  hunger-appeasing 
act  justifies  the  belief  that  hunger  primitively  developed  the  other  desire  as 
a  differentiation. 

t  Observe  that  the  lung  is  appended  to  the  upper  part  of  the  alimentary 
canal  as  evidence  of  the  association  of  eating  and  respiration,  and  that  the 
oviducts  and  cloaca  are  connected  in  birds  and  embryos  of  higher  animals,  indi- 
cating the  ingestive  and  excretory  nature  of  multiplication. 

$The  rhizopod  {astrodiscus  arenaccus). 


486 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


particular.  It'  it  find  in  its  environment  material  that 
has  enough  affinity  for  it  to  remain  in  its  vicinity,  and  a 
life  process  is  subserved  by  that  fact,  things  chemical 
and  mechanical  in  nature  perpetuate  the  association  by 
natural  selection. 

As  the  rhizopod  could  not  have  acquired  his  covering 
where  there  was  no  sand,  the  ancestral  worm  could  not 
have  picked  up  a  nervous  system  in  the  absence  of 
assimilable  phosphates.  These  nerve  compounds  had  a 
molecular  mode  of  action  altogether  different  from  any- 
thing experienced  before  by  the  animals.  With  evolu- 
tion of  higher  types  the  explosive  substance  was  excreted 
irregularly  and  later  more  definitely,  as  Cope  has  shown* 
was  the  case  with  the  skeletons  of  early  reptilia.  Next 
an  encapsulating  membrane  formed  about  these  lines  ot 
phosphatic  granules  in  obedience  to  the  ordinary  patho- 
logical process  that  an  intermediary  tissue  will  form 
about  any  foreign  substance  as  a  resultant  of  the  mode 
of  operation  of  the  two  tissues.  In  due  time  an  area  of 
nerve  granules  finds  itself  being  suppressed  at  one  point 
and  arranged  at  another  until  the  fully  developed  nerv- 
ous system  appears. 

The  possibility  of  so  important  a  structure  as  the 
nervous  having  been  acquired  by  accident,  seems  prepos- 
terous, but  let  us  reason  from  other  matters  to  it.  You 
realize  that  accident  kills  many.  If  vou  study  the 
matter  closer  you  will  be  convinced  it  kills  more. 
Accidents  determine  such  things  as  marriages  and  births 
as  well  as  deaths.  Fortune  or  misfortune  are  accidental. 
By  chance  and  accident  is  here  meant  what  is  generally 
accepted  to  be  their  meanings.  Strictly  speaking  when 
everything  is  the  outcome  of  some  preceding  cause,  there 
can  be  no  such  phenomenon  as  an  accident,  but  in  the 
sense  of  opposed  to  design  it  is  a  convenient  term. 

Bony  excretions  at  first  indefinitely  arranged  served 
but  a  feeble  purpose,  but  afterward  definitely  arranged 
in  lines  relating  the  muscles  contraction  became  more 
direct  and  useful. 

At  first  all  tissues  indifferently  exuded  the  bone  and 
nerve  granules,  but  eventually  certain  cells  became  the 
ones  best  suited  to  elaborate  these  materials  and  we  have 
the  osteal  and  the  nerve  cells  as  a  result  of  this  high 
grade  evolution. 

When  nerve  granules  began  to  be  linearly  arrangedf 
even  then  these  rudimentary  nerves  served  but  hap- 
hazard uses.  Each  pellet  was  an  excreted  compound  of 
phosphorus  with  organic  hydro-carbonaceous  materials 
which,  however  faintly  it  exploded,  when  disturbed, 
became  a  new  experience  in  the  environment  to  be  reck- 
oned upon.  Heat  and  light  increased  its  molecular 
"  kick."  Electricity,  though  less  often  met  with,  affected 
the  substance  more  than  anything  else. 

♦  Fossil  Batrachia,  American  Naturalist,  1SS3. 

t  Kleinenburg's  Hydra  and  Hnbrecht's  Pseudoxematon  nervosum,  a  low 


At  first  doubtless  this  was  a  disease,  an  excresence 
that  was  annoying  to  the  animal,  but  a  re-adjustment 
occurred  on  the  basis  of  reconciliation  and  a  new  mode 
of  life-working.  The  cells  then  were  shocked  by  the 
new  tissue,  but  such  forms  as  could  not  rid  themselves 
of  it  encapsulated  it,  covered  it,  just  as  a  bullet  in  the 
body  would  be  covered,  in  time,  by  a  sac.  The  inter- 
cellular distribution  of  these  nerve  granules  would  now 
exert  no  effect  upon  the  cells,  but  whenever,  by  occasional 
exposure  of  the  granules  to  an  influence  that  would 
cause  the  explosion,  it  was  discovered  that  instead  of 
having  to  wait  for  motions  to  be  transferred  from  cell  to 
cell  before  the  entire  organism  could  be  affected  by 
motory  causes  this  new  tissue  conveyed  the  needed 
stimulation  promptly  to  a  distant  cell  in  a  very  simple 
way.  The  law  of  least  resistances  determined  the  next 
step.  The  granules  would,  from  being  diffused,  be 
arranged,  by  the  motions  of  the  low  animal,  in  some 
kinds  of  lines,  even  though  badly  defined  ones.  The 
quick  conveyance  of  impressions  made  the  cell  colony 
more  energetic,  and  wherever  this  energy  happened  to 
conserve  life  the  species  with  the  most  definite  nerve 
strands  survived. 

Hunger  woujd  develop  colonial  motion  in  the  direc- 
tion of  hunger  appeasing  movements.  The  part  which 
is  most  affected,  the  intestinal  tract,  becomes  for  the 
time  being  the  center  of  stimuli  production. 

The  law  of  association  steps  in  to  determine  what 
cells  shall  be  united.  The  general  cell  need  of  oxygen 
establishes  a  muscular  and  nervous  means  for  circula- 
tion, and  other  hunger  appeasing  processes  make  routes 
and  means  elsewhere. 

What  is  known  as  the  neuroglia  or  gray  matter  of 
the  nervous  system  I  regard  as  the  product  of  cells  that 
have  developed  molecular  irritability  above  all  other 
functions;  the  fact  that  this  gray  matter  is  without 
cell  membranes  counts  for  nothing — development  neces- 
sitated this  peculiarity. 

A  highly  sensitive  neuroglia  substance,  A,  would 
transmit  its  irritations  rapidly  to  a  contiguous  highly 
contractile  muscle,  B,  thus: 


A  B 


Then  when  the  sensitive  neuroglia  was  concealed 
and  nerve  granules  conveyed  the  impressions  inward  the 
next  arrangement  appears — S,  the  "sensory  nerves" — 
Better  definition  gives  lines  of 
nerves  instead  of  the  plexus — 
Then  s      |~ 

follows    - 


m 


an  illy  arranged  set  of  nerves  between  the  muscles  and 
the  gray  matter,  afterward  becoming  better  arranged — 

as     the     "  motor     nerves." 
This  is  really  what  occurs 


in  the  embryological  development  of  every  animal  that 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4S7 


has  a   nervous  system  at  all,  as  well   as  in   the  "phy- 
togeny," or  evolutionary  progress. 

We  are   now   prepared    to   consider   reflex    nervous 
action.      Toin  a  lot  of  these  segments  thus: 


and  the  diagram  represents  the  spinal  cord  and  nerves 
of  the  connecting  link  between  vertebrates  and  inverte- 
brates.* 

Up  to  this  stage  indifferent  tissues  have  secreted  the 
nerve  granules;  thereafter  the  basis  substance  of  sensa- 
tion, the  neuroglia,  A,  develops  these  nerve  elements, 
and  under  the  microscope  the  homogeneity  of  the  neu- 
roglia disappears,  and  ascending  through  intelligence 
becomes  more  and  more  filled  with  fibrils  of  fine  gran- 
ules of  a  nervous  character. y 

Yet  development  goes  on  and  the  neuroglia  gen- 
erates nerve  cells,  whose  office  it  is  to  more  rapidly  and 
readily  form  these  granules  for  the  axis  cylinders  of  the 
nerves. 

The  number  of  impulses  or  irritations  required  to 
produce  a  continued  contraction  in  the  feebler  developed 
muscles  is  thirty  per  second;  in  the  voluntary  muscles, 
such  as  are  concerned  in  moving  the  body  or  limbs, 
nineteen  and  one-half  per  second.*  Fewer  impulses 
passing  over  a  nerve  result  in  tremors  or  trembling.  A 
lowered  vitality,  such  as  drunkards  exhibit,  or  when 
there  is  emotional  diversion,  interferes  with  the  proper 
succession   of  impulses,  and  the   muscles  are  tremulous. 

The  inseparableness  of  psychic  and  physical  life  is 
evident  from  lowest  to  highest,  but  may  be  well  illus- 
trated by  the  headless  lancelet  and  the  lamprey  eel 
with  a  feeble  but  better  developed  nervous  system.  The 
last  cut  essentially  represents  the  spinal  cord  of  the 
lancelet,  with  ingoing  sensory  and  outgoing  motor 
nerves.  If  an  irritation  passes  in  over  one  of  the  first- 
mentioned  nerves  and  reaches  the  gray  irritable  matter 
of  the  cord  the  irritability  is  communicated  up  and  down 
the  gray  and  irradiated  to  the  general  muscular  system 
through  the  motor  nerves.  (Diffusion).  Now,  if  a 
certain  sensory  nerve  bundle  became  subjected  more 
than  others  to  a  peculiar  impression  the  nearest  motor 
nerves  would  not  only  respond  most  energetically,  but 
the  gray  molecules  would  perforce  arrange  themselves 
better  to  accommodate  the  passage  of  the  impulse. 
Here  we  have  our  sensation  and  memory  again,  only 
in  this  case  with  special  tissues  for  their  seat — the  neu- 
roglia. But  the  motions  are  just  as  liable  not  to  serve  as 
to  serve  a  useful  purpose,  and  that  is  the  fact  we  can 
observe  when   a  worm  or  even  some   low  vertebrate  is 


interfered  with;  their  motions  do  not  seem  to  be  prop- 
erly adjusted  to  a  reasonable  end,  as  when  the  eel  in 
escaping  wriggles  toward  instead  of  away  from  vou. 
Plainly  such  low  forms  as  by  accident  procured  a  better 
adjustment  and  moved  in  response  to  stimuli  in  a  way 
to  secure  prey  and  escape  enemies  would  not  only  sur- 
vive but  multiply  by  descent  the  higher  forms  so  insti- 
tuted, and  these  improved  nervous  systems  would  lift 
their  successors  gradually  through  the  vertebrate  series 
to  the  highest  life. 

If  there  be  a  choice  of  two  routes  for  the  passage  of 
the  impulse  in  the  gray  matter  the  wavering  between 
these  two  routes  constitutes  hesitation,  which  we  shall 
see  a  little  later  on  is  the  basis  of  doubt,  thought,  reason  1 
When  by  any  superiority  of  advantage  over  the  other  a 
route  is  selected  the  irritation  disturbs  a  more  direct 
tract  of  molecules  in  the  cord  gray,  so  as  to  invariably 
respond  to  the  given  stimulus,  and  a  certain  set  of 
muscles  are  moved,  then  automatism  is  established,  and 
we  have  instinct,  which  is  the  end,  the  aim,  the  death  of 
reason.     These  deductions  will  be  fortified  as  we  proceed. 


*  Amphioxiis  laiireolatus. 
t  Exner. 
%  Helmholz. 


TH.    RIBOT    ON    WILL. 

BY    DR.    P.  CARUS. 
Part  11. 

Impairment  of  the  power  of  attention  is  a  diminu- 
tion of  the  will-power  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term. 
Attention  may  be  natural  and  spontaneous,  or  it  may  be 
voluntary. 

Spontaneous  attention  may  be  observed  in  the 
crouching  animal  watching  for  its  prey;  the  child 
intently  gazing  at  some  spectacle;  the  poet  contemplat- 
ing an  inward  vision,  or  the  mathematician  brooding 
over  the  solution  of  a  problem.  The  true  cause  of  it  is 
an  affective  state  which  excites  our  interest.  Eliminate 
emotion,  and  all  is  gone.  Voluntary  attention,  which  is 
commonly  credited  with  marvelous  feats,  is  only  an  arti- 
ficial imitation  of  spontaneous  attention. 

Instances  of  mediocre  minds  in  whom  spontaneous 
attention  is  impaired  are  numerous.  But  it  is  more 
interesting  to  study  the  case  of  a  gifted  man  who  lacks 
the  power  of  direction.  Thus  we  shall  see  a  perfect 
contrast  between  will  and  thought.  Coleridge  is  an 
instance  of  this. 

Dr.  Carpenter  quotes  a  description  of  Coleridge  in 
Chap.  VII.  of  Carlyle's  Life  of  fohn  Sterling:  "  Cole- 
ridge's whole  figure,  good  and  amiable  otherwise,  might 
be  called  flabby  and  irresolute,  expressive  of  weakness 
under  possibility  of  strength.  He  hung  loosely  on  his 
limbs,  with  knees  bent  and  stooping  attitude.  In  walk- 
ing he  rather  shuffled  than  decisively  stepped;  and  a 
lady  once  remarked,  he  never  could  fix  which  side  of 
the  garden  walk  would  suit  him  best,  but  continually 
shifted  in  corkscrew  fashion  and  kept  trying  both. 
*     *     *     His  talk  wasdistinguishedlike  himself  by  irres- 


48S 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


olution;  it  disliked  to  be  troubled  with  conditions  and 
definite  fulfillments.  *  *  *  You  put  some  question 
to  him,  instead  of  answering  it,  he  would  accumulate 
formidable  apparatus  for  setting  out  toward  answering 
it.  *  *  *  There  was  probably  never  a  man 
endowed  with  such  remarkable  gifts  who  accomplished 
so  little  that  was  worthy  of  them,  the  great  defect  of  his 
character  being  the  want  of  will  to  turn  his  gifts  to 
account.  *  *  *  At  the  very  outset  of  his  career, 
when  he  had  found  a  bookseller  who  promised  him 
thirty  guineas  for  poems  which  he  recited  to  him,  he 
went  on  week  after  week  begging  and  borrowing  for 
his  daily  needs  in  the  most  humiliating  manner  until 
he  had  drawn  from  his  patron  the  whole  of  the  prom- 
ised purchase  money  without  supplying  him  with  a  line 
of  that  poetry  which  he  had  only  to  write  down  to  free 
himself  from  obligation." 

The  composition  of  the  poetical  fragment  "Kubla 
Khan1'  in  his  sleep,  as  told  in  his  Biographia  Litter- 
aria,  is  a  typical  example  of  automatic  mental  action. 
He  fell  asleep  while  reading  the  passage  in  Pitrclias's 
Pilgrimage  in  which  the  "stately  pleasure  house"  is 
mentioned,  and  on  awaking  he  felt  as  if  he  had  com- 
posed from  two  to  three  hundred  lines,  which  he  had 
nothing  to  do  but  to  write  down,  "the  images  rising  up 
as  things,  with  a  parallel  production  of  the  correspond- 
ent expressions,  without  any  sensation  or  consciousness 
of  effort."  The  whole  of  this  singular  fragment  as  it 
stands,  consisting  of  fifty-four  lines,  was  written  as  fast 
as  his  pen  could  trace  the  words;  but  having  been  inter- 
rupted by  a  person  on  business  who  stayed  with  him 
above  an  hour,  he  found  to  his  surprise  and  mortification 
that  "  though  he  still  retained  some  vague  and  dim  recol- 
lection of  the  general  purport  of  the  vision,  yet  with  the 
exception  of  some  eight  or  ten  scattered  lines  and 
images,  all  the  rest  had  passed  away  like  the  images  on 
the  surface  of  a  stream  into  which  a  stone  has  been  cast, 
but,  alas  without  the  after-restoration  of  the  latter." 

The  impairment  of  voluntary  attention  occurs  in  two 
forms.  The  one  is  produced  artificially,  the  other  is  a 
special  type  of  aboulia.  The  artificially  produced 
impairment  of  voluntary  attention  is  characterized  by-  a 
superabundance  of  feelings  and  ideas  in  a  given  time,  as 
obtains  in  the  state  of  alcoholic  intoxication.  The 
exuberance  of  cerebral  activity  is  more  noticeable  in  the 
more  intellectual  intoxication  produced  by  hasheesh  or 
opium.  The  individual  feels  himself  overwhelmed  by 
the  irresistible  tide  of  his  ideas,  and  language  is  too  slow 
to  express  the  rapidity  of  his  thoughts.  But  at  the  same 
time  the  power  of  directing  the  course  of  his  ideas 
becomes  weaker  and  weaker  and  the  lucid  moments 
grow  shorter  and  shorter. 

The  other  form  of  impairment  of  the  voluntary 
attention    is    a    disease  which  consists   in    a   progressive 


diminution   of  the   directive    power    and   ends    with   an 
inability  of  any  intellectual  effort. 

Attention,  by  its  origin,  is  of  the  nature  of  reflex 
action.  Voluntary  attention,  the  highest  form  of  which 
is  reflection,  rests  upon  the  involuntary,  and  derives  from 
it  all  its  force.  Compared  with  the  latter  it  is  very  pre- 
carious. The  mechanism  of  attention  acts  by  the 
impulse  of  a  fictitious  emotion  and  an  inhibition  of  all 
other  impulses  and  movements.  Education  has  to 
develop  the  power  of  these  fictitious  emotions  and  make 
them  stable  by  repetition.  Helvetius  says:  "All  intel- 
lectual differences  between  one  man  and  another  spring 
only  from  attention." 

Hysteric  caprice  is  not,  as  some  physicians  have 
strongly  contended,  an  exaltation;  it  indicates  an 
absence  of  will.  Capriciousness  is  at  most  velleity,  the 
merest  sham  of  volition.  Dr.  Huchard  gives  a  descrip- 
tion of  hysterical  persons:  "One  prominent  trait  of 
their  character  is  mobility.  From  day  to  day,  from 
hour  to  hour,  from  minute  to  minute  they  pass  with 
incredible  rapidity  from  joy  to  sadness,  from  laughter  to 
tears."  *  *  *  "They  behave,"  says  Ch.  Richet, 
"like  children  who  oftentimes  can  be  made  to  laugh 
heartily,  while  their  cheeks  are  still  wet  with  the  tears 
they  have  shed!  Their  character  changes  like  the  views 
of  a  kaleidoscope." 

The  instability  of  hysteric  persons  is  a  fact;  its  cause 
is  very  probably  to  be  found  in  functional  disorders 
and  the  lack  of  a  solid,  stable  basis.  If  the  physiological 
conditions  are  out  of  order,  if  the  motor  apparatus  is 
deranged;  if  the  vaso-motor,  secretory  and  other  func- 
tions are  disturbed — how  can  we  expect  a  stable  equilib- 
rium of  the  whole  organism?  It  would  be  a  mira- 
cle if  a  stable  character  could  rest  upon  so  wavering  a 
base. 

Impairment  of  the  will  can  lead  to  its  absolute 
extinction.  The  psychic  activity  is  or  seems  to  be  com- 
pletely suspended  in  deep  sleep,  in  anaesthesia,  in  coma 
and  similar  states  which  indicate  a  return  to  vegetative 
life.  Ecstasy  and  somnambulism  are  the  morbid  cases 
of  an  extinction  of  will.  They  are  instances  where  one 
form  of  mental  activity  remains  while  there  is  no  possi- 
bility of  choice  followed  by  act. 

Ecstasy,  whether  mystic  or  morbid  or  physiological 
or  cataleptic,  is  fundamentally  the  same  in  all  its  forms. 
Some  ecstasists  reach  the  ecstatic  condition  naturally  in 
virtue  of  their  physical  constitution;  others  assist  nature 
by  artificial  processes,  Tor  instance  by  gazing  fixedly  at 
something,  a  luminous  subject,  or  the  sky,  or  one's  navel 
(after  the  manner  of  the  monks  of  Mount  Athos),  or  by 
repeating  continually  the  monosyllable  OM  (a  name  of 
Brahma).  The  Buddhists  call  their  ecstasy  the  earthly 
Nirvana,  Christians  the  enjoyment  of  God. 

St.  Theresa  thus  describes  her  physical  state  during 
her  "  raptures:"     "Oftentimes   my  body  would   become 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4S9 


so  light  that  it  no  longer  possessed  any  weight — some- 
times I  no  longer  felt  my  feet  touching  the  ground. 
While  the  bodv  is  in  rapture,  it  remains  as  though  it 
were  dead,  and  often  is  absolutely  powerless  to  act.  It 
retains  whatever  attitude  it  may  have  assumed  at  the 
moment  of  the  access;  thus  it  continues  standing  or 
seated,  the  hands  open  or  closed, — in  a  word  it  continues 
in  the  state  wherein  the  rapture  found  it.  Though 
commonly  a  person  does  not  lose  feeling,  still  it  has 
happened  to  me  to  be  entirely  deprived  of  it.  This  has 
occurred  very  rarely,  and  it  has  lasted  only  for  a  very  short 
time.  Most  frequently  feeling  remains;  but  a  person 
experiences  an  indefinable  disturbance;  and  though  it  is 
impossible  to  perform  any  external  act,  one  still  can 
hear  a  sort  of  confused  sounds  coming  from  a  distance. 
And  even  this  kind  of  hearing  ceases  when  the  rap- 
ture is  in  the  highest  degree." 

There  can  be  no  choice  in  ecstasy.  Choice  presup- 
poses that  complex  whole  ego  which  has  disappeared. 
There  is  nothing  that  can  choose,  nothing  that  is  chosen. 
As  well  might  we  suppose  an  election  without  either 
electors  or  candidates. 

Ecstasy  is  the  reduction  of  a  mental  state  to  a  one- 
imaged  idea,  which  engrosses  the  entire  consciousness. 
Consciousness  exists  only  on  the  condition  of  a 
perpetual  change,  it  is  essentially  discontinuous.  A 
homogeneous  and  continuous  consciousness  is  an  impos- 
sibility. In  ecstasy  consciousness  either  disappears  or 
comes  back  only  at  intervals..  There  is  absolute  abolition 
of  will,  the  conscious  personality  being  reduced  to  one 
single  state  which  is  neither  chosen  nor  rejected,  but 
merely  suffered. 

Somnambulism,  hypnotism  and  analogous  states  are 
not  identical  in  all  individuals  and  in  every  case.  What- 
ever be  its  cause,  the  hypnotised  subject  is  an  automaton 
which  acts  according  to  the  nature  of  his  organization.  At 
a  word  from  the  operator,  the  hypnotised  subject  rises, 
walks  or  sits  down.  His  only  will,  as  we  say,  is  that  of  the 
operator.  By  giving  to  his  members  certain  postures  we 
can  awaken  in  him  the  emotion  of  pride,  terror,  anger, 
devotion,  etc.  If  we  place  him  in  the  position  for 
climbing,  he  moves  his  limbs  as  if  he  were  going  up  a 
ladder.  If  we  put  in  his  hands  any  instrument  he  has 
been  wont  to  employ,  he  goes  to  work  with  it.  The 
position  given  to  the  members  awakens  in  the  cerebral 
centers  the  corresponding  psychical  states  with  which 
they  have  become  associated  by  much  repetition.  The 
passage  to  action  is  the  easier  because  there  is  nothing 
that  hinders  it,  neither  a  power  of  inhibition,  nor  any 
antagonistic  state.  The  idea  awakened  by  the  operator 
has  sole  dominion  in   the   slumbering   consciousness. 

Some  cases  of  somnambulism  are  very  doubtful. 
Burdach  tells  of  "a  very  fine  ode"  which  was  com- 
posed in  a  state  of  somnambulism.  The  story  has  often 
been    told    of    the    abbe    who    in   preparing    a   sermon 


corrected  and  pruned  his  sentences.  Facts  ot  this  kind  are 
so  numerous  that  even  making  allowance  for  credulity 
and  exaggeration,  it  is  impossible  to  reject  them  all. 
And  is  not  what  the  poets  call  inspiration  an  involun- 
tary and  almost  unconscious  sort  of  brain  work — at 
least  it  is  not  conscious  save  in  its  result. 

We  find  among  hypnotised  persons  instances  of 
resistance.  An  order  is  not  obeyed  or  a  suggestion  is 
not  followed  immediately.  One  of  Richer's  subjects 
readily  allowed  himself  to  be  metamorphosed  into  an 
officer,  a  sailor,  etc.,  but  he  refused  with  tears  in  his 
eyes,  to  be  transformed  into  a  priest.  This  could  suffi- 
ciently be  explained  from  the  whole  atmosphere  in 
which  the  man  had  lived. 

It  ma}'  be  remarked  that  it  is  difficult  for  the 
observer  to  say  what  power  of  reacting  persists  in  the 
person  who  resists,  and  the  person  himself  is  no  better 
judge.  In  the  period  of  somnambulic  drowsiness  a  cer- 
tain consciousness  is  retained;  but  even  if  an  educated, 
intelligent  man  submits  to  the  operation,  it  is  difficult  to 
him  to  make  sure  that  he  is  not  simulating. 

"A  friend  of  mine,"  Richet  relates,  "who  was  hyp- 
notised, but  not  quite  put  to  sleep,  observed  closely  this 
phenomenon  of  impotence  coincident  with  the  illusion 
of  the  possession  of  his  will.  When  I  indicated  to  him 
a  movement  to  perform,  he  always  executed  it,  though 
before  being  magnetised  he  was  quite  determined  to 
resist.  This  he  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  accounting 
for  after  awakening.  'Certainly,'  he  said,  'I  could 
resist,  but  I  have  not  the  will  to  do  so.'  Sometimes  he 
is  tempted  to  believe  that  he  is  simulating.  '  When 
I  am  dozing,'  he  says,  '  I  simulate  automatism  though  I 
could,  as  it  seems  to  me,  act  otherwise.  I  begin  with 
the  firm  resolution  not  to  dissimulate,  but  in  spite  of 
myself,  when  sleep  begins,  it  seems  to  me  that  I  simu- 
late.' " 

This  power  of  resistance,  weak  though  it  be,  is  the 
last  survival  of  individual  reaction,  and  the  illusion  of 
this  feeble  power  of  inhibition  must  correspond  with 
some  equally  precarious  physiological  state. 

In  the  normal  state  volition  is  a  choice  followed  by 
act.  The  necessary  conditions  of  a  choice  may  be 
called  will.  They  form  a  very  complex  mechanism  of 
both  impulsion  and  inhibition.  If  impulsion  is  absent, 
no  tendency  to  act  appears,  as  in  aboulia;  if  inhibition  is 
absent  or  impulsion  is  too  intense,  it  prevents  the  act  of 
choice,  as  in  hysteria  and  in  instances  of  caprice;  if  inhibi- 
tion excludes  all  external  impressions  and  annihilates  im- 
pulsion, will  is,  extinguished,  as  in  ecstasy  and  somnambu- 
lism. Accordingly  will  is  a  cause  with  respect  to 
volition,  but  in  itself  it  is  a  sum  of  effects  which  result 
from  and  vary  with  its  physiological  constituents. 

Character  is  the  psychological  expression  of  a  given 
organism,  it  is  not  an  entity  but  the  resultant  of  the 
innumerable  infinitesimal  states  and  tendencies  of  all  the 


49° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


anatomical  elements  that  constitute  a  given  organism. 
It  is  the  ultimate  stratum  whereon  rests  the  possibility 
of  will  and  which  makes  the  will  strong  or  weak,  inter- 
mittent, average  or  extraordinary. 

The  will  has  for  its  basis  a  legacy  registered  in  the 
organism  which  has  come  down  from  generations  innu- 
merable. Upon  this  basis  rests  the  conscious  and  indiv- 
idual activity  of  the  appetites,  desires,  feelings  and 
passions.  Their  co-ordination  is  more  complex  and  far 
less  stable  than  the  primordial  automatic  activity  of  the 
organism.  Higher  still  we  have  ideomotor  activity; 
this  is  perfect  volition.  It  may  therefore  be  said  that 
perfect  volition  forms  a  hierarchic  co-ordination,  i.  e. 
co-ordination  with  subordination,  so  that  all  shall  con- 
verge toward  a  single  point,  which  is  the  end  to  be 
obtained.  The  morbid  cases  are  all  reducible  to  absence 
of  hierarchic  co-ordination;  viz.  to  independent,  irregu- 
lar, isolated,  anarchic  action. 

Volition  comes  not  from  above  but  from  below;  it  is 
a  sublimation  of  the  lower  elements.  Volition  may  be 
compared  to  the  keystone  of  an  arch.  To  that  stone  the 
arch  owes  its  strength,  even  its  existence;  nevertheless, 
this  stone  derives  its  power  from  the  other  stones  that 
support  it  and  press  it  on  all  sides,  as  it  in  turn  presses 
them  and  gives  them  stability. 

When  the  nervous  system  is  disturbed  by  any  dis- 
ease, tbe  latest  and  highest  structures  are  the  first  to  fail. 
The  more  voluntary  parts  are  always  much  more  gravely 
paralyzed  than  the  others.  The  course  of  dissolution  is 
from  the  complex  to  the  simple,  from  the  voluntary  to 
the  automatic,  and  the  final  term  of  evolution  is  the 
initial  term  of  dissolution.  The  functions  last  to  be 
acquired  are  the  first  to  degenerate.  In  the  individual, 
automatic  co-ordination  precedes  co-ordination  springing 
from  the  appetites  and  passions;  this  latter  precedes  vol- 
untary co-ordination,  and  the  simpler  forms  of  voluntary 
attention  precede  the  more  complex. 

In  the  development  of  species,  according  to  the  evo- 
lution theory,  the  lower  forms  of  activity  existed  alone 
for  ages;  then  with  the  increasing  complexity  of  the 
co-ordinations  came  will.  Hence  a  return  to  the  reign 
of  impulsion,  with  whatever  brilliant  qualities  of  mind  it 
may  be  accompanied,  is  in  itself  a  regression.  The  will 
varies  in  complexity  and  in  degree;  it  attains  extraordi- 
nary power  only  among  a  privileged  few;  but  though  it 
performs  great  feats,  it  has  a  very  lowly  origin.  It  has 
its  rise  in  a  biological  property  inherent  in  all  living 
matter  and  known  as  irritability,  that  is  to  say,  reaction 
against  external  forces.  From  irritability-  the  physio- 
logical form  of  the  law  of  inertia—  spring  sensibilty  and 
mobility,  those  two  great  bases  of  psychic  life. 

In  the  nature  of  great  men  some  mighty  irrepres- 
sible passion  is  fundamental.  This  passion  controls  all 
their  thought  and  it  is  the  man.      Such  men  present  the 


type  of  a  life  always  in   harmony  with  itself,  because  in 
them  everything  converges  to  a  definite  aim. 

The  "I  will"  shows  that  a  state  of  consciousness 
exists,  but  it  does  not  constitute  the  situation ;  it  has  in 
itself  no  efficacy  in  producing  action,  for  the  "I  will" 
is  like  the  verdict  of  a  jury  by  a  consensus.  It  may  be 
the  result  from  a  charge  of  the  judge  and  very  passion- 
ate pleadings  of  disagreeing  parties.  There  are  groups 
of  conscious,  subconscious  and  unconscious  states  which 
altogether  eventually  find  expression  in  an  action  or  the 
inhibition  of  an  action.  All  this  psycho-physiological 
work  of  deliberation  results  in  a  state  of  consciousness, 
or  the  "I  will"  which  pronounces  the  verdict.  If  will 
in  the  sane  man  is  a  co-ordination  exceedingly  complex 
and  instable,  it  is  by  reason  of  its  very  superiority  easily 
broken  up,  being,  as  Maudsley  says,  "  the  highest 
force  yet  introduced  by  nature — the  last  consummate 
efflorescence  of  all  her  wondrous  works." 


THE  POSITIVE  VIRTUES. 

BY    PROFESSOR  THOMAS    DAVIDSON. 


Part  II. 


Monasticism,  as  I  have  said,  is  Christianity  carried  to 
its  ultimate  consequences.  It  has  lost  its  hold  upon  the 
modern  world,  in  large  degree.  And  not  only  so,  but 
the  modern  world  has  actually  turned  against  it,  no 
only  rejecting  and  despising  it,  but  proscribing  it.  In 
most  of  the  countries  of  Europe,  the  monasteries  have 
been  broken  up  and  their  property  has  been  confiscated. 
Whatever  may  be  said  by  formal  lawyers  about  the 
justice  of  this  confiscation,  it  was  the  result  of  a  right 
instinct  and  a  true  insight.  Monasticism  is  not  only  not  the 
highest  form  of  human  life;  it  is  not,  strictly  speaking, 
human  life  at  all. 

But,  though  monasticism,  the  extreme  form  of  Chris- 
tianity, has  been  overthrown,  the  spirit  which  made 
monasticism  possible  still  prevails,  and  molds  all  our 
notions  of  morality.  Moral  life,  to  most  people  even 
now,  means  an  endeavor  to  reach  the  zero-point  of  vir- 
tue, a  state  of  simple  innocence;  as  the  New  Testament 
puts  it,  "  to  become  as  little  children."  A  man  or  a 
woman  satisfies  all  our  notions  of  virtue,  who  does  not  con- 
travene one-half  of  the  Ten  Commandments — the  third, 
sixth,  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth;  that  is,  who  does  not 
swear,  murder,  commit  adultery,  steal  or  lie;  and  we  are 
not  over  particular  about  any  of  these  sins,  except  mur- 
der, unless  a  man  commits  them  in  such  an  awkward 
way  as  to  become  a  public  scandal.  Hut,  even  granting 
that  our  notion  of  virtue  presupposed  strict  adherence  to 
the  whole  decalogue,  the  notion  would  still  be  a  very 
imperfect  one,  a  very  low  and  false  one.  There  is  no 
positive  virtue  whatever  in  obeying  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, or  any  number  of  commandments,  telling  us  to 
refrain  from  certain  courses  of  action.  There  is  simply 
absence  of   vice.      Virtue  consists  in  doing  good,  not  in 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


49 1 


refraining  from  evil.  There  is  no  generosity  in  paying 
one's  debts,  even  if  one  should  be  left,  in  consequence, 
without  a  penny.  Generosity  begins  where  a  man  gives 
what  positively  belongs  to  him — his  money,  or,  better 
yet,  his  moral  and  intellectual  sympathy  and  help.  And 
so  with  the  other  virtues. 

The  spiritual  deadness  of  the  piesent  time,  the  fer- 
tile source  of  nearly  all  the  other  evils  which  infest  us, 
is,  in  very  large  measure,  due  to  the  current  doctrine, 
based  upon  the  myth  of  a  fall,  that  man  is  a  fallen  and 
depraved  creature,  and  that  his  sole  aim  is  to  return  to 
his  primitive  state  of  innocence — in  other  words,  the 
doctrine  that  virtue  is  simply  the  absence  of  vice. 

If  there  is  anything  that  our  present  world  needs,  it 
is,  to  be  freed  from  the  doctrine  of  a  fall  and  from  all 
its  implications.  The  implications  are  more  tenacious 
and  more  hurtful  than  the  doctrine  itself,  and  many  peo- 
ple who  have  escaped  from  the  latter  are  still  bound, 
hand  and  foot,  in  the  former.  Of  these  implications, 
the  most  baneful  in  its  consequences,  perhaps,  is  the 
notion  that  virtue  is  the  absence  of  vice,  and  that,  in  order 
to  be  virtuous  a  man  need  not  contribute  any  positive 
amount  to  the  world's  good.  Of  this,  above  all  things, 
we  must  rid  ourselves,  and  learn  that  we  must  not  only 
forsake  evil,  but,  further,  learn  to  do  good. 

Let  us  see  for  a  moment  what  would  be  the  results 
of  this  riddance — of  coming  to  the  conviction  that,  in 
order  to  be  virtuous,  a  man  must  not  only  avoid  vice, 
but  contribute  positively  to  the  world's  good — contribute 
knowingly  and  of  set  purpose. 

The  first  result  will  be,  that  we  shall  have  less  respect 
than  we  now  have  for  mere  respectability.  Respecta- 
bility is  a  word  which  admirably  designates  the  moral 
condition  that  corresponds  to  the  zero-point  of  virtue,  as 
currently  fixed.  A  respectable  man  is  simply  one  who 
has  no  debts  recorded  in  the  public  moral  ledger.  He 
need  not  have  any  credits  recorded  either.  Now,  one 
of  the  most  powerful  obstacles  to  high  and  manly  mor- 
ality is  the  honor  accorded  to  this  kind  of  man  by  the 
public  generally.  A  man  may  be  deficient  in  everything 
that  constitutes  the  true  man  and  the  true  citizen;  he 
may  know  nothing  of  the  history  of  man,  of  his  physical 
or  mental  constitution;  he  may  know  nothing  of  art, 
science,  literature,  religion,  politics  or  political  economy; 
he  mav  know  little  of  his  country's  history ;  he  may  take 
no  share  in  any  scheme  for  the  public  weal ;  he  may  vote 
with  the  party  that  promises  to  protect  his  business  best 
or  he  mav  not  vole  at  all;  he  mav  spend  his  whole  life 
in  collecting  wealth  for  himself  and  his  family,  without 
ever  asking  whom  such  acquisition  mav  oppress,  and 
yet,  so  long  as  he  does  not  lie  or  steal  vulgarly,  that  is, 
beyond  the  degree  of  lying  and  stealing  allowed  in  the 
code  of  industrial  and  commercial  morality,  he  is 
accounted  a  good  and  respectable  man,  and  his  success 
in  obtaining  wealth  is  counted  to  him  for  righteousness. 


He  is  received  everywhere  during  his  life,  and  honored 
and  lamented,  as  a  virtuous  man,  after  his  death.  On  the 
other  hand,  let  a  man  be  public-spirited;  let  him  be  well 
versed  in  the  history  of  man;  let  him  understand  man's 
needs;  let  him  be  an  active  member  in  all  schemes  for 
public  well-being,  whether  they  be  economical,  social, 
political  or  religious;  but  let  him,  at  the  same  time,  have 
some  fault  of  appetite  or  passion;  say,  let  him  but  once 
have  committed  some  single  act  under  the  influence  of 
his  lower,  carnal  nature,  and  all  his  public  spirit,  all  his 
efforts  for  the  well-being  of  his  kind,  will  be  forgotten, 
and  his  little  peccadillo  will  be  trumpeted  over  the  world 
by  prurient  or  sanctimonious  scandal-mongers,  who  are 
so  little  themselves  that  they  cannot  even  understand  a 
man  of  large  positive  virtue  and  public-mindedness.  It 
is  so  pleasant  to  be  able  to  find  a  man  who  does  not 
come  up  to  our  little,  three-inch  model  of  virtue,  with 
whom  we  can  favorably  compare  ourselves  and  plume 
ourselves  on  the  result!  But,  in  spite  of  all  this,  the 
tiny  standard  mav  be,  in  the  main,  conventional.  It 
may  be  a  standard  that  does  not  measure  human  virtue 
at  all,  but  merely  human  dread  of  such  standards  and 
base  human  bowing  down  to  conventional  usage. 

This,  of  course,  is  in  every  sense  wrong,  and  leads 
to  most  undesirable  and  painful  results.  The  man  of 
strong,  generous  character,  with  here  and  there  a  little 
surface  fl.iw  in  it,  that  the  smallest  nature  can  detect  and 
gloat  over,  is  in  all  his  undertakings  harassed  bv  a  crowd 
of  puny  critics,  who  distort  and  misrepresent  his  motives 
and  his  acts,  until  he  is  almost  fain  to  leave  the  silly, 
blind  world  to  its  own  ways  and  their  consequences. 
See  what  a  pother  was  raised  over  poor  Goethe's  faults, 
over  Burns's!  How  many  sermons,  condemning  these 
men  as  dangerous  to  humanity,  have  been  preached  and 
still  are  preached,  from  pulpits  that  have  only  words  of 
eulogium  for  the  selfish  capitalist,  who  has  ruined  and 
enslaved  hundreds  of  other  men,  in  order  that  he  may 
have  the  comfort,  the  power  and  the  vulgar  considera- 
tion that  come  of  wealth.  What  an  unworthy  fly-plague 
of  carping  and  sanctimonious  condemnation  has  risen 
from  the  moral  swamps  of  the  world  on  account  of  cer- 
tain facts  in  the  lives  of  great  women,  like  George  Sand 
and  George  Eliot.  One  would  think  the  "Neither  do  I 
condemn  thee "  had  never  been  uttered.  In  the  midst 
of  all  this  carping  and  condemnation,  the  great  positive 
virtues  of  these  men  and  women  are  forgotten.  They 
have  not  the  virtues  professed  by  curates  and  church- 
wardens, and  therefore,  they  have  no  virtues  at  all! 
And  yet  Goethe  and  Burns  and  George  Sand  and  George 
Eliot  were  far  more  virtuous  people  than  any  curate  or 
church- warden  that  ever  was.  If  we  do  not  see  and  feel 
this,  it  is  because  we  have  a  false  idea  of  what  constitutes 
virtue,  and  think  that  it  consists  in  merely  seeking  the 
zero-point  of  goodness  and  being  content  with  that. 

Let  me  not  be   misunderstood   here.      I   have  not  the 


49- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


smallest  intention  of  depreciating  the  specific  virtues  of 
the  curate  and  the  church-warden.  They  are  virtues,  great 
virtues,  and  the  world  would  he  on  an  evil  path,  if  they 
were  made  light  of  in  theory  or  disregarded  in  practice. 
Hut  they  are  not  all  virtue;  they  are  not  even  the  great- 
est of  virtues.  A  man  may  lack  them  in  their  perfection, 
and  yet  be  a  more  virtuous  man  than  he  who  has  them 
and  them  alone.  The  selfish,  respectable  Pharisee  is  a 
far  less  virtuous  man  than  the  great-hearted,  strong- 
pulsed,  loving  toiler  for  humanity,  who  occasionally 
allows  his  exuberant  love  to  flow  into  wrong  channels. 
Perhaps,  of  all  the  obstacles  to  human  advancement  and 
well-being,  there  is  none  so  great  as  respectable  Philis- 
tinism, self-r.ghteous,  self-contented,  unsympathetic, 
shell-bound.  It  was  against  Philistines  that  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  protested  so  vehemently,  declaring  that  the 
most  sensual  of  men,  the  inhabitants  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrha,  would  stand  higher  at  the  bar  of  virtue  and 
justice  than  they.  It  is  against  this  class  of  people  that 
the  growl  of  modern  socialism  and  communism  is 
directed,  and  it  is  this  class  that  will  be  swept  away,  if 
ever  socialism  gains  the  upper  hand.  Respectability  is 
arrested  moral  evolution — evolution  arrested  at  the  zero- 
point  of  virtue  and  often  below  it.  And  we  shall  soon 
come  to  recognize  this,  and  to  treat  mere  respectability 
as  it  ought  to  be  treated,  as   but  the  babyhood  of  virtue. 

(TO  HE  CONTINUED.) 


SONNET. 

IiY  COWAN  LEA. 
[written  on  returning   from  visiting  somh  homes  OF  THE  l'OC 

OCTOBER    2,     1SS7.] 

TO    THE    ARTS. 

Hail  Music!     Waft  me  now  upon  thy  wings 
Beyond  these  vapors  of  the  murky  night; 
Bear  me  afar  to  regions  fair  and  bright, 

Where  with  one  grand  accord  the  angels  sing! 

Thou  'rt  whispering  of  an  ideal  spring 
Where  Poesv  and  all  the  Arts  delight 
In  honoring  each;  where  the  inspired  sight 

Sees  beauty  underlying  everything. 

Ye  white-robed  seraphs — Music,  Poesv — 
Descend  amid  earth's  poverty  and  pain ! 

Make  sufferers  forget  their  misery; 

And  evil-doers  vow  to  sin  no  more; 
Say  unto  each  :     "  My  brother,  try  again ! 
I  would  unlock  for  thee  thy  prison  door." 


ON    FINISHING    "THE    RUINS." 

VOLNEY. 

In  skies  of  truth  thy  star  shall  ever  gleam — 

Thou  Galahad  whose  quest  was  light;  ne'er  can 

A  grateful  world  thyself  auoht  other  deem 

Than  great  as  wise — untinged  by  sect  or  clan; 

Nor  bigotry  defame  thee — patriot,  scholar,  man! 

#  * 


The  Open  Court. 

^v    FORTNICHTLY  JOURNAL. 

Published   every  other   Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  (Nixor 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  ct  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  onlv  for  editorial  matter. 

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THURSDAY,  OCTOBER  13,  1SS7. 

MORAL  AND  SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 
It  may  be  safely  said,  that  the  more  science  we  have, 
the  more  morality  also  will  we  have.  True,  much  immo- 
rality is  seen  in  communities  that  .are  in  possession  of 
considerable  knowledge,  and  we  hear  it  said,  that  in 
some  savage  tribes  is  found  a  morality  which  shames 
civilized  nations.  But  such  statements  predicated  upon 
superficial  comparison  of  simple  and  complex  communi- 
ties are  of  little  value.  If  we  would  form  an  idea  of  the 
difference  in  the  moral  character  of  the  savage  and  the 
civilized  man,  we  must  imagine  the  Digger  Indians  sud- 
denly organized  into  a  community,  with  institutions  and 
agencies  as  numerous  and  relations  as  complex  as  those 
of  the  City  of  Chicago.  Such  a  change,  were  it  possi- 
ble, would  at  once  involve  not  only  great  intellectual 
development,  but  the  education  of  the  moral  sense  and 
such  differentiation  of  moral  conduct  as  would  be  neces- 
sary to  adjust  the  members  of  the  community  to  the 
requirements  of  the  new  life.  Such  intellectual  and 
moral    changes   cannot  be   effected  without   science,  and 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


493 


then  only  by  slow  changes  extending  through  centuries. 

Morality  depends  upon  scientific  progress;  and  if  a 
people  who  have  made  considerable  advancement  in 
science  is  still  more  or  less  under  the  dominion  of  laws 
and  habits  which  belong  to  an  unadvanced  condition,  it 
shows  only  how  largely  the  present  may  be  in  slavery 
to  the  past,  and  illustrates  that  men  may  outgrow  beliefs 
and  vet  be  under  the  influence  of  those  beliefs.  Many 
imagine  that  they  have  emancipated  themselves  from 
the  thralldom  of  creeds,  when  they  have  all  the  dog- 
matism, bigotry  and  bitterness  which  those  creeds  engen- 
dered in  their  ancestors,  and  which  they  themselves  have 
received  partly  by  education  ami  partly  by  inheritance. 

It  is  science  that  has  chief!}'  promoted  the  practical 
morality  we  have  to-day  in  the  most  enlightened  com- 
munities, because  it  is  science  that  has  taught  us  what  is 
involved  in  all  the  old  precepts,  and  enables  us  to  realize 
them  in  life.  The  words  "Be  just"  express  the  whole 
duty  of  man  under  all  circumstances,  in  all  climes;  but 
intellectual  development,  including  scientific  knowledge, 
has  enabled  man  to  learn  what  is  just.  The  abolition  of 
slavery  and  the  growth  of  international  law  were  made 
possible  by  science,  not  by  the  repetition  of  precepts 
known  to  the  ancients  as  well  as  to  ourselves.  The  fact 
that  much  needs  to  be  done  to  make  men  understand 
morality  in  the  application  of  its  principles  to  practice  is 
illustrated  by  the  unwillingness  of  the  orthodox  clergy 
to  consent  to  the  taxation  of  church  property,  when 
thev  know  that  such  taxation  compels  people  who  do 
not  believe  in  the  churches  to  suppoit  them.  It  is  sec- 
ular knowledge  and  scientific  progress  that  will  finally 
effect  this  change,  and  not  simply  repeating  the  words 
of  Tesus  and  exhorting  men  to  obey  them.  The  broth- 
erhood of  man  was  taught,  not  only  by  Jesus,  but  by 
poets  and'sages  in  India  and  Greece;  what  the  brother- 
hood of  man  really  means  in  actual  life  was  not  under- 
stood until  science  brought  men  and  nations  into  com- 
munication, and  indeed,  is  not  fully  understood  yet. 
The  invention  of  the  telegraph  has  done  more  to  pro- 
mote the  brotherhood  of  man  than  all  the  preaching  to 
which  men  have  listened  since  that  invention  commenced 
its  work  of  uniting  men  in  the  bonds  of  a  common 
humanity.  It  is  now  enabling  us  to  put  in  practice 
what  was  before  to  a  large  extent  mere  theory,  because 
it  is  making  men  more  cosmopolitan  in  their  views  and 
sympathies.  And  so  the  invention  of  printing,  which 
has  spread  knowledge  broadcast,  has  been  an  important 
factor  in  social  advancement,  which  means  also  moral 
progress. 

Science,  by  affording  men  good  surroundings,  teach- 
ing them  how  to  live,  making  them  acquainted  with 
their  numerous  relations,  giving  them  good  laws  and 
correct  ideas  of  nature  and  of  duty,  strengthens  and 
develops  the  highest  sentiments  and  the  noblest  traits 
of  character.      Left  without  these  scientific  aids,  without 


this  knowledge  that  comes  to  help  man  in  controlling 
the  forces  of  nature,  left  simply  to  the  worship  of  an 
unseen  Being  or  to  a  dreamy,  nebulous  contemplation 
of  the  universe,  man  never  could  have  advanced  from 
the  conditions  of  savage  life  to  those  of  the  present  day. 
With  the  increasing  complexity  of  man's  observations 
and  experiences,  upon  which  the  enlargement  of  the 
mind  and  the  growth  of  the  moral  sentiment  have 
depended,  science  has  extended  her  empire,  while  the 
domain  of  theology  lias  become  smaller,  or  has  been  con- 
tinually excluded  from  the  province  of  verifiable  knowl- 
edge. We  insist  then  upon  the  importance  of  science, 
'not  only  in  its  application  to  what  are  called  physical 
facts,  but  in  its  application  to  the  human  mind,  its 
expressions  and  products,  including  the  religious  senti- 
ment and  the  moral  sentiment  as  well  as  religious  sys- 
tems and  the  moral  code. 

PLEASURE  AND   PAIN. 

Some  references  to  happiness  and  unhappiness  that 
were  made  by  Mr.  John  Burroughs  and  Mr.  Xenos 
Clark  in  preceding  numbers  of  The  Open  Court  sug- 
gest an  issue  that  thoughtful  people  must  face,  as  the 
well-disposed  with  cool  intellects  take  the  reins  of  the 
world's  affairs  from  the  well-disposed  with  heated  emo- 
tions. Mr.  Clark  makes  a  fair  statement  of  the  blank- 
holder's  fate  being  a  gnat  in  the  prize-holder's  estima- 
tion, and  the  blank-holder's  protest  being  very  disagree- 
able to  the  prize-holder.  We  must  recognize  the  fact 
that  when  one  holds  the  prize  he  thinks  differently  from 
what  he  would  if  he  held  the  blank.  Herbert  Spencer 
shows  that  sympathy  arises  as  an  altruistic  feeling 
through  conceiving  ourselves  in  the  place  of  the  one 
needing  the  sympathy,  and  Dr.  Clevenger  claims  that 
"  it  is  owing  to  this  that  ladies  may  crush  bugs  and  flies 
without  compunction,  while  the  naturalist  who  studies 
them  and  recognizes  their  pain  and  pleasure  kinship  with 
ourselves,  usually  refrains  from  the  unnecessary  infliction 
of  pain.  The  rich  forthis  reason,  seldom  feel  forthe  poor. 
In  fact,  those  who  ride  in  carriages,  have  an  involuntary 
contempt  for  those  who  go  afoot.  The  knowledge 
that  this  is  a  natural  feeling  should  only  operate  toward 
overcoming  it.  Unpleasant  information  of  this  kind 
usually  invokes  a  storm  of  denial  from  the  mob.  They 
prefer  to  think  themselves  descendants  of  the  angels  and 
refuse  to  analyze  their  own  sentiments.  The  unwel- 
come truths  should  be  faced  and  an  honest  endeavor 
made  to  develop  good  traits  that  we  do  not  possess." 

Instead  of  indulging  in  mere  unreasoning  denunci- 
ations, or  going  to  the  pessimistic  extreme  of  bewailing 
the  uselessness  of  efforts  to  improve  the  condition  of  the 
unfortunate,  or  taking  the  middle  course  of  lazv  indif- 
ference to  suffering,  we  should  see  what  science  can  do 
in  the  premises. 

There  is  a   great   amount  of   suffering   all    about   us 


494 


THE    OR  EN    COURT. 


which  the  hospital,  the  asylum  and  other  systematic  and 
unsystematic  charity  fail  to  reach,  and  from  the  dismal 
point  of  observation,  the  sighs,  groans  and  shrieks  of 
humanity  seem  condensed  into  tornadoes  and  thunder 
peals.  But  the  beautiful  world  perennially  blooms,  its 
fountains  play,  while  music  and  festivities  unceasingly 
lead  the  prize-holders  to  forget  the  existence  of  miser)' 
elsewhere.  And  it  is  natural  for  the  fortunate  and 
happy  to  avoid  the  suffering  of  others,  notwithstanding 
that  the  prize-holder  of  to-day  who  is  fertile  in  excuses 
for  his  inability  to  do  aught  for  his  fellows,  to-morrow 
may  be  the  blank-holder  with  unlimited  suggestions  as 
to  how  he  could  be  helped,  and  with  surprise  at  the 
heartlessness  of  the  rich;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
shivering,  half-starved  wretch  of  yesterday,  may  when 
fortune  overtakes  him,  turn  away  from  the  outstretched 
hand  with  the  plea  "One  cannot  help  everybody." 

Something  is  being  done  and  wisely  done  for  the 
poor  and  unfortunate,  but  that  something  is  a  straw 
toward  the  construction  of  a  Holland  dyke.  Sociology 
as  a  study  should  be  the  recreation  of  the  munificent. 
Through  its  cultivation  reasons  for  things  could  be 
plainly  seen.  From  understanding  the  causes  of  pain 
and  sorrow  in  the  world,  the  remedies  can  best  be 
administered.  All  that  concerns  men  should  be  induc- 
tively studied.  Knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  exist- 
ence begets  an  interest  and  disposition  to  improve  them. 
Those  who  have  the  means  as  well  as  the  ability  may 
feel  the  keenest  delight  in  mastering  the  intricate  prob- 
lems which  the  miseries  of  life  present.  Such  men  as 
Saltaire  boldly  attack  the  difficulties  and  afford  experi- 
ences that  may  be  profitably  regarded  by  others.  The 
discovery  has  been  made  in  the  Eastern  States  that 
reformed  tenement  houses  which  afford  greater  comfort 
to  the  poor  are  paying  investments,  and  this  suggests 
that  direct  advantages  of  a  pecuniary  nature  may  in  the 
future  move  to  great  humanitarian  measures.  In  fact 
the  world  is  finding  out  by  practical  experience  that 
both  directly  and  indirectly  it  pays  to  be  decent,  consid- 
erate and  humane.  The  highest  expediency  is  the 
highest  wisdom. 


The  last  issue  of  Freethinkers'  Magazine  reprints 
our  editorial  on  the  alcohol  question  "  to  preserve" 
( this  is  what  Mr.  T.  B.  Wakeman,  the  associate  edi- 
tor, says)  "the  valuable  facts  with  which  the  article 
concludes,  and  also  a  precious  bit  of  fog  — the  amus- 
ing confusion  of  our  esteemed  metaphysical  contem- 
porary, The  Open  Court,  over  secrete  and  excrete'' 
An  equally  "metaphysical"  writer  named  Carpenter 
is  responsible  for  that  amusing  confusion,  for  he 
states  (p.  357,  Principles  of  -Human  Physiology) 'that, 
'The  literal  meaning  of  secretion  is  separation;  the 
ordinary  processes  of  nutrition  involves  a  separation 
of  components  of  the  blood,  and  every  such  removal 


may  be  considered  in  the  light  of  an  act  of  excretion 
so  far  as  the  blood  and  the  rest  of  the  organism  are 
concerned.  There  is  no  other  fundamental  differ- 
ence between  the  two  processes  than  such  as  arises 
out  of  the  diverse  distinctions  of  the  separated  mat- 
ter." Foster's  Physiology,  p.  16,  also  says:  "The  dis- 
tinction between  excretion  and  secretion  is  unimpor- 
tant and  frequently  accidental."  The  skin  secretes 
and  excretes  perspiration.  In  the  same  sense  milk  and 
bile  are  secreted  and  excreted.  Certainly  this  is  a 
subject  with  which  Mr.  Wakeman  is  not  acquainted. 

Of  Dr.  Edmund  Montgomery,  who  during  the' 
past  fortnight  has  been  the  guest  of  Mr.  Edward 
C.  Hegeler  at  Ea  Salle  and  of  the  editors  of  this  jour- 
nal and  other  friends  in  Chicago,  the  Tribune  of  this 
city  makes  the  following  mention: 

Among  the  late  arrivals  in  Chicago  is  Dr.  Edmund  Mont- 
gomery, a  gentleman  well  known  among  thinkers  by  his  scientific 
and  philosophic  writings.  He  is  a  Scotchman,  born  in  Edinburg 
in  1835.  He  studied  in  German  universities — Heidelberg,  Berlin, 
Bonn,  Wurzbtirg,  Prague  and  Vienna.  Was  acquainted  with 
Schopenhauer  in  1850,  when  he  lived  at  Frankfort,  and  with 
Moleschott  and  Helmholtz,  whose  lectures  he  attended.  From 
i860  to  1S63  he  had  a  laboratory  at  St.  Thomas'  Hospital,  Lon- 
don, and  was  there  lecturer  on  physiology.  A  lecture  by  him 
before  the  Royal  Society  on  "  Cells  in  Animal  Bodies  "  a'tracted 
much  attention  among  scientific  men,  and  extravagant  theories 
of  life  were  erected  on  the  strength  of  his  conclusions.  Lung 
trouble  compelled  him  to  exchange  climate,  and  for  six  years  he 
practiced  medicine  at  Madeira,  Mentone  and  Rome.  In  1871 
appeared  at  Munich  his  work  often  cpuoted  in  controversy,  enti- 
tled, Die  Kanthche  Erienntnisslchre  Widerlegt  von  Standfunhte 
dcr  Em  fin-  (Kant's  Theory  of  Knowledge  Refuted  from  the 
Empirical  Standpoint).  It  is  a  powerful  criticism  of  Kantism  and 
a  strong  plea  for  what  the  author  calls  "  naturalism."  Dr.  Mont- 
gomery combines  the  qualifications  and  tastes  of  the  philosopher 
with  those  of  the  man  of  science.  He  has  devoted  years  to  the 
microscopic  examination  of  the  lower  forms  of  life,  and  his  con- 
tributions to  biology  have  been  most  valuable.  For  several  years 
he  has  been  a  contributor  to  I  he  London  periodical,  Mind,  the 
ablest  philosophical  journal  in  the  world.  His  two  papers  read 
before  the  Concord  School  of  Philosophy,  although  lie  was  not 
personally  present,  attracted  wide  attention  by  their  originality 
and  depth.  Some  years  ago  Dr.  Montgomery,  on  account  of  his 
ill-health,  came  to  this  country  and  went  South,  where  he  bought 
a  plantation  in  Texas,  on  which  he  has  since  lived. 
*  #  * 

All  that  is  valuable  or  realizable  in  religion,  belongs 
properly  to  the  domain  of  science.  Fundamentally  con- 
sidered, religion  is  an  expression  of  man's  relation  to  the 
universe,  and  it  is  a  part  of  the  sum  total  of  human  expe- 
rience. If  it  be  objected  that  religion  is  an  emotion  and 
is  not  observable,  and  cannot  therefore  be  dealt  with  by 
the  methods  of  science,  the  reply  is,  that  it  is  the  w  ork 
of  science  to  take  cognizance  of  our  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings, to  compare  and  arrange  them,  to  observe  their 
objective  effects  and  to  bring  them  within  the  province 
of  classified  knowledge  by  reducing  them  to  order  and 
system.     To  speak  of  religion  as  beyond  or  outside  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


495 


scientific  domain,  is  to  speak  of  what  is  beyond  the 
power  of  the  human  mind  to  consider  or  conceive  in 
relation  to  the  life  and  character  of  men.  Whether 
religion  be  regarded  as  doctrines  formulated  into  creeds, 
and  organized  into  systems,  or  as  an  intuition  or  ten- 
dency in  our  nature,  the  result  of  ancestral  experiences 
extending  back  through  the  ages  to  the  time  man  began 
to  experience  emotion  in  contemplating  nature,  and  his 
relation  thereto,  it  is  the  work  of  science  to  illumine 
the  mind  in  regard  to  this  subject. 

*  *  * 

Germany  settles  the  fro  and  con  of  patent  medicine 
manufacture  by  compelling  the  compounder  to  print  a 
list  of  the  ingredients  on  his  labels.  Foreign  goods  of 
the  kind  are  analyzed  by  government  chemists.  A 
widely  advertised  kidney  cure  was  thus  officially  an- 
nounced to  contain  nothing  medicinal  but  a  small  quan- 
tity of  winter-green.  It  is  to  the  interest  of  the  great 
"public  educator,"  the  daily  newspaper,  not  to  antago- 
nize this,  in  the  main,  nefarious  business.  Patent  medi- 
cine venders  grow  wealthy  upon  the  credulity  ot  the 
ailing.  The  entire  matter  is  not  a  simple  one,  but  may 
be  resolved  into  a  few  considerations  as  follows:  Manu- 
facturers of  proprietary  medicines  are  not  always  igno- 
rant of  the  effects  of  remedies,  but  as  a  rule  they  are; 
nor  are  they  always  dishonest,  but  dishonesty  has  great- 
scope  in  the  vending  of  nostrums,  and  to  say  they  do 
not  often  take  advantage  of  popular  want  of  knowledge 
would  be  untrue.  Usually  the  combination  was  origi- 
nated by  some  physician  and  found  to  be  effective  in 
certain  cases,  but  it  is  not  wise  to  rely  upon  untrained 
judgment  as  to  the  applicability  of  drugs  to  disease. 

*  *  * 

We  cordially  welcome  to  these  columns  Col.  T. 
W.  Higginson,  one  of  America's  best  known  scholars 
and  thinkers,  from  whose  pen  this  number  of  The 
Open  Court  contains  a  thoughtful  and  suggestive 
article  on  "The  Stronghold  of  the  Church."  Even 
those  who  are  obliged  to  dissent  from  some  of  his 
conclusions,  as  we  certainly  are,  will  nevertheless 
find  his  thought,  even  on  these  points  of  difference, 
worthy  of  the  most  careful  consideration. 

*  #         # 

There  can  be  no  industrial  prosperity,  no  popular 
reform,  no  extension  of  freedom,  no  progress,  without 
security  of  life  and  property,  which  is  necessarily  imper- 
iled or  weakened  by  every  act  of  lawless  violence  that 
goes  unpunished.  Intelligent  workingmen,  looking 
beyond  the  moment,  instead  of  restricting  their  own 
liberties  and  opportunities  by  encouraging  mob  law 
and  riotous  demonstrations,  will  trust  to  education,  agi- 
tation and  the  ballot  for  reforms  which  some  in  their 
ignorance  and  short-sightedness  imagine  they  can  secure 
by  coming  together,  arming  themselves  with  clubs,  and 
making  raids  upon  private  property.     There   is   nothing 


that  gives  greater  satisfaction  to  those  who  have  no 
sympathy  with  the  masses,  and  who  rejoice  whenever 
anything  occurs  to  which  they  can  point  in  seeming 
confirmation  of  their  theory  that  the  working  class  must 
be  "kept  under  with  a  strong  hand,"  than  the  very  acts 
of  lawlessness  which  these  poor  sons  of  toil,  in  their 
simplicity,  think  will  redress  their  grievances  and   right 

their  wrongs. 

*  *  * 

Nothing  that  exists  is  exempt  from  the  law  of  inte- 
gration and  disintegration.  Nations,  like  individuals, 
have  their  stages  of  adolescence,  full  development  and 
decay.  Religious  orders  may  be  founded  by  sincere, 
even  though  deluded  minds,  and  eventually  the  weak 
points  in  their  systems  find  them  out  as  the  world  moves 
past  them.  Secret  societies  usually  have  some  basis  of 
good  in  their  composition,  and  men  are  banded  in  an 
exclusive  brotherhood  ostensibly  to  accomplish  some 
noble  purpose,  and  doubtless  in  the  aggregate  good  of 
some  kind  is  done,  but  every  human  institution  presents 
opportunities  for  designing  persons,  which  they  are  not 
slow  to  utilize.  In  churches  or  societies  the  hypocrite 
is  loudest  in  his  professions,  the  strictest  to  observe  the 
outward  requirements.  Too  often  is  the  announcement 
unblushingly  made  that  the  object  of  joining  a  lodge  was 
a  purely  mercenary  one:"  It  helps  my  business."  If  this 
were  claimed  as  incidental  to  the  joining  and  that  the 
desire  to  find  a  field  of  usefulness  was  the  main  incentive, 
it  would  not  be  so  bad.  What  must  be  consequent  upon 
organizations — whatever  their  pretensions — filling  up 
with  men  who  want  to  make  something  out  of  one 
another?  It  is  not  surprising  that  low  grade  politicians 
should  see  their  chances  in  such  brotherhoods,  to  further 
their  knaveries  and  to  be  guaranteed  a  certain  amount  of 
immunity  from  punishment  for  crimes  committed.  We 
do  not  doubt  that  a  strict  interpretation  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  nearly  every  secret  society  would  enable  the 
well-disposed  to  oppose  rascalities,  but  with  the  prosper- 
ity of  every  institution  comes  a  disposition  to  ignore,  to 
misinterpret  and  pervert  its  recorded  principles.  The 
wolves  grow  more  powerful  and  the  lambs  are  afraid  to 
bleat.  Nothing  short  of  a  recognition  of  the  universal 
brotherhood  of  man  should  satisfy  any  one.  If  you 
fancy  your  means  or  opportunities  are  not  sufficient  to 
enable  you  to  be  positively  helpful  to  the  world  at  large, 
a  little  reflection  will  convince  you  that  you  can  help 
abundantly  if  vou  conquer  yourself  and  refrain  from 
doing  positive  harm  to  your  neighbors. 

Mr.  Salter  in  his  excellent  article  printed  on 
another  page  applies  the  word  idealism  to  a  philo- 
sophical theory  which  is  as  thoroughly  realistic  as 
any  theory  can  be.  The  antithesis  of  his  idealism  is 
not,  as  we  are  accustomed  to  use  the  word,  realism, 
but  crude  eighteenth  century  materialism. 


496 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


THE    OCCULT     SCIENCES     IN     THE    TEMPLES     OF 
ANCIENT     EGYPT. 

BY    GEORGIA    LOUISE    LEONARD. 

[A  paper  read  at   the  "  Fortnigntly  Conversation,"  Washington,  D.  C, 

May  5th,  1SS7.] 

t  Conclusion.) 

The  most  conservative  Egyptologists  admit  that  this 
ancient  people  possessed  a  very  considerable  knowledge 
of  both  mathematics  and  astronomy.  Prof.  Proctor 
speaks  of  them  as  being  "  astronomers  of  great  skilly* 
and  says,  "  they  were  manifestly  skillful  engineers  and 
architects,  and  as  surely  as  they  were  well  acquainted 
with  the  properties  of  matter,  so  surely  must  they  have 
been  acquainted  with  the  mathematical  relations  upon 
which  the  simpler  optical  laws  depend.  Possibly  they 
knew  laws  more  recondite,  hut  the  simpler  laws  they 
certainly  knew."f  In  Appendix  'A'  to  this  author's 
work  on  The  Great  Pyramid,  we  are  told,  in  relation 
to  the  amount  of  mathematical  and  astronomical  knowl- 
edge in  their  possession,  that  in  these  particulars  "mod- 
ern science  has  made  no  real  advance  upon  the  science 
known  to  the  builder  of  the  great  pyramid. "|  In  this 
connection  the  opinion  of  Prof.  Henry  Draper,  is  inter- 
esting. Speaking  of  the  great  pyramid  he  says:  "  So 
accurately  was  that  wonder  of  the  world  planned  and 
constructed,  that  at  this  day  the  variation  of  the  compass 
may  actually  be  determined  by  the  position  of  its  sides. "§ 

Upon  the  ceiling  of  the  beautiful  temple  of  Dende- 
rah  there  is  a  representation  of  the  zodiac.  It  has  been 
claimed  that  this  is  a  work  of  the  Ptolemaic  period;  but 
an  inscription  found  at  Denderah  distinctly  states  that 
the  building  had  been  restored  in  accordance  with  a 
plan  discovered  in  the  writings  of  the  Khufu,  or  Cheops, 
who  belonged  to  the  fourth  dynasty.  Certainly  this  evi- 
dence is  strongly  presumptive  of  the  antiquity  of  this 
celestial  map. 

In  considering  the  amount  of  mathematical  and 
astronomical  knowledge  possessed  by  the  Egyptian 
priests,  we  must  remember  that  they  kept  their  cyclic 
notations  in  the  profoundest  mystery,  as  their  calculations 
applied  equally  to  the  spiritual  as  to  the  physical  pro- 
gress of  mankind. 

The  "  Sacred  Books  "  of  the  Egyptians  were  ascribed 
to  Hermes  Trismegistus,  and  ante-dated  Menes.  They 
were  1,100  in  number,  we  are  told  by  Tamblicus,  and 
forty-two  were  still  extant  in  the  time  of  Clement  of 
Alexandria.  They  contained  an  epitome  of  the  secret 
knowledge,  and  treated  of  many  different  subjects.  The 
majority  of  those  books  are  now  lost  to  us,  and  of  them 
we  know  only  what  has  been  preserved  in  the  works  of 
later  writers.     Diogenes    Laertius     makes  a  statement, 


*  Proctor.     The  Great  Pyramid,  p.  127. 
flbid.,  p.  11S. 

%  Ibid.,  p.  191.  (Appendix  "A,"  by  Joseph  Baxendell,  F.  K.  A.  S.) 
§  Draper.    Intellectual  Development,  Vol.  I.  p.  Si. 
Diog.     Laer.     Proem  II. 


probably  derived  from  these  lost  books,  that  the  Egyp- 
tians possessed  records  of  373  solar  eclipes  and  S32 
lunar;  and  he  carries  back  these  observations  to  the 
period  of  48,863  years  before  Alexander.  Bunsen* 
remarks,  "If  they  were  actual  observations  they  must 
have  extended  over  10,000  years,  for  the  ancients  assur- 
edly observed  and  reckoned  none  but  total  or  almost 
total  eclipses."  "  In  Egypt,  if  anywhere,"  says  Dio- 
dorus,y  "  the  most  accurate  observations  of  the  positions 
and  movements  of  the  stars  have  been  made.  Of  each 
of  these  thev  have  records  extending  over  an  incredible 
series  of  vears.  They  have  also  accurately  observed  the 
courses  and  positions  of  the  planets  and  can  truly  pre- 
dict eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon."  The  truth  of  these 
statements  it  would  be  folly  to  doubt,  when  we  are 
assured  by  HeroditusJ  in  the  most  positive  terms,  that 
"thev  knew  these  things  with  accuracy,  because  they 
always  computed  and  registered  the  years." 

That  portion  of  their  calculations  which  was 
regarded  as  the  most  secret,  undoubtedly  related  to  the 
evolution  of  our  planet,  both  physically  and  spiritually — 
such  evolution  proceeding  in  cycles,  of  greater  or  lesser 
duration.  They  taught  that  the  close  of  the  "great 
vear"  was  attended  by  destructive  cataclysms  either  of 
fire  or  water  —  like  that  which  in  "  one  awful  day  and 
night"  submerged  Atlantis  beneath  the  waves,  as  told 
to  Solon  by  the  Egyptian  priests — and  that  a  corres- 
ponding change  took  place  both  in  the  physical  and 
intellectual  world. 

Astrologv  was  pursued  hand  in  hand  with  the 
higher  mathematics  and  astronomy.  Professor  Proctor 
seeks  to  prove  in  his  work  on  the  great  pyramid  that 
that  monument  wqp  reared  not  alone  as  a  tomb  for 
Khufu,  but  for  astronomical  and  astrological  purposes 
as  well.  Very  likely  this  was  so,  but  is  it  not  possible 
that  there  were  also  other  reasons?  Why  was  it  oriented 
with  wonderful  exactness?  Why,  of  necessity,  con- 
structed in  the  pyramidal  form,  with  its  apex  pointing 
toward  heaven?  What  meant  the  long  secret  passages, 
and  the  seven  impenetrable  chambers,  one  succeeding 
another?  and  what  purpose  did  the  great  sarcophagus 
serve  which  Professor  Piazzi  Smythe  declares  was  used 
for  a  corn-bin  ? 

Mystery  surrounds  us  upon  every  side  as  we  seek  to 
solve  these  problems  of  the  past. 

Astrology  was  believed  in  implicitly  by  the  Egyp- 
tians, and  they  considered  unquestioned  the  influence  of 
the  planets  upon  the  destines  both  of  individuals  and  the 
human  race  collectively.  Mr.  Tylor,g  speaking  of  as- 
trology, says  that  "its  professors  appear  to  have  been 
the  earliest   to  use   the  magnetic  compass  to  determine 

*  Bunsen.     Egypt's  Place,  Vol.  I.  p.  14. 
I  Diodorus  Sir,  2-113, 

*  Book  II.,  145. 

§  Tyler.     Anthropology,  p.  341. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


4y7 


the  aspects  of  the  heavens,"  and  admits  that  "the  magi- 
cian gave  the  navigator  his  guide  in  exploring  the 
world." 

The  Egyptians  took  careful  note  of  all  singular  or 
unusual  occurrences,  whether  related  to  the  heavenly 
bodies  or  to  themselves,  and  observed  omens  connected 
with  everything  they  undertook.  They  even  watched 
the  day  when  any  one  was  born. 

Perhaps  in  no  branches  of  science  was  their  knowl- 
edge more  conspicuously  apparent  than  in  those  of 
chemistry  and  alchemy.  It  has  been  vigorously  denied 
that  they  understood  anything  more  than  the  rudiments 
of  chemistry — and  as  for  alchemy!  the  idea  has  been 
treated  with  derision.  A  few  instances  will  show  their 
superiority  to  modern  achievements,  and  inference  may 
be  left  to  do  the  rest.  In  the  perfect  imitation  of 
precious  stones  we  have  never  even  approached  them. 
Many  splendid  imitations  of  emeralds,  amethysts,  and 
other  gems  of  rich  and  varied  hues,  have  been  found  in 
the  tombs  of  Thebes;  and  their  brilliancy  and  perfec- 
tion is  such  that  the}-  almost  defy  detection.  Among 
the  immense  emeralds  mentioned  by  classic  authors,  was 
the  colossal  statue  of  Serapis,  in  the  Labyrinth,  nine 
cubits,  or  thirteen  and  a  half  feet  in  height,  and  com- 
posed of  one  single  stone.  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  and 
the  learned  Winkleman  speak  in  enthusiastic  terms  of 
the  beautiful  specimens  of  stained  glass  —some  of  which 
have  the  appearance  of  the  most  exquisite  mosaics. 

Egypt  was  an  immensely  rich  country,  and  it  may 
be  a  pertinent  question  to  ask,  Whence  came  this  enor- 
mous wealth?  We  know  that  mines  were  worked  for 
gold  and  silver,  that  tributes  were  exacted  from  sub- 
jugated nations,  and  that  a  goodly  sum  was  derived 
from  the  fisheries.  But  all  these  sources  could  not  pro- 
duce a  tithe  of  her  yearly  revenue.  Enough  was  spent 
upon  public  decoration  to  bankrupt  a  state.  Egypt 
was yellow  with  gold!  Besides  the  thousands  of  her 
toys,  jewels,  statues  and  art  objects  of  the  solid  metal, 
we  learn  that  the  sculptures  on  lofty  walls,  the  orna- 
ments of  a  colossus,  the  doorways  of  temples,  the  caps 
of  obelisks,  parts  of  numerous  large  monuments,  and 
even  the  roofs  of  palaces  and  the  bodies  of  mummies 
were  covered  with  gold  leaf. 

The  statue  of  Minerva  sent  to  Cyrene  by  Amasis 
and  the  sphinx  at  the  pyramids  are  instances.  Were 
then  the  learned  priests  makers  of  gold?  In  the  reign 
of  the  Emperor  Diocletian,  the  Egyptians  rebelled 
against  Rome,  and  for  nine  years  did  not  lack  money  to 
carry  on  the  war.  Struck  by  their  riches,  the  Emperor 
instituted  a  strict  search  throughout  the  land  for  all 
writings  on  alchemy.  These  books  he  ordered  to  be 
burnt,  hoping  thus  to  destroy  the  secret  of  Egypt's 
wealth. 

It  is  useless  to  deny  to  these  strange  dwellers  in  the 
old  temples,  a   skill    and    a   knowledge   far   beyond    our 


own,  and  which  we  can  only  wonder  at  and  imitate,  not 
equal. 

Magic  in  its  highest  sense  was  a  part  of  the  daily  life 
of  the  Egyptian  priests. 

Plato,  we  know,  studied  with  these  priests.  Leckv* 
tells  us  that  "  whenever  his  philosophy  has  been  in  the 
ascendent  it  has  been  accompanied  by  a  tendency  to 
magic."  This  magic  was  practiced  by  the  priests  in 
divers  ways,  some  of  which  we  can  only  guess  at. 
They  were  seers,  clairvoyants,  diviners  and  dreamers  of 
dreams.  They  understood  and  manipulated  the  subtlest 
properties  of  matter.  No  wonder  they  were  not  aston- 
ished at  the  exhibitions  of  Moses,  who  had  learned  all 
he  knew  in  their  own  temples! 

In  their  religious  works,  veiled  as  they  are  in  sym- 
bolism, we  discover  a  belief  in  an  all-pervading,  universal 
essence — call  it  the  astral  ether,  or  psychic  force,  or  od, 
or  biogen,  or  akas,  or  what  you  will — from  which 
emanated  all  things,  and  which  could  be  controlled  and 
directed  by  those  who  were  instructed  and  otherwise 
properly  qualified.  They  believed  in  ghosts,  and  that 
the  living  under  certain  well-known  conditions  could 
communicate  with  the  souls  of  the  departed. 

Gtrald  Massey,f  in  discussing  Egyptian  terms,  says 
that  "All  that  is  secret,  sacred,  mystical,  the  innermost 
of  all  mystery,  apparently  including  some  relationship 
to  or  communion  with  the  dead,  is  expressed  by  the 
Egyptian  word  'Shet;'"  and  in  speaking  of  second- 
sight  or  clairvoyance,  he  assures  us  distinctly  that  "  the 
ancients  were  quite  familiar  with  this  phenomenon." 

No  one  who  impartially  examines  the  mass  of  evi- 
dence derived  from  Egyptian  and  classic  sources,  can 
fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  belief  that  the  Egyptian 
priests  were  perfectly  familiar  with  all  classes  of  psychic 
phenomena,  characterized  as  modern,  and  that  they  were 
also  in  possession  of  secrets  pertaining  to  the  so-called 
exact  sciences,  as  well  as  of  the  occult,  of  which  we 
to-day  have  no  knowledge  or  conception.  We  know  of 
a  surety  that  many  of  their  arts  are  lost — perhaps  beyond 
recovery.  When  shall  we  equal  them  in  metallurgy? 
When  learn  how  to  impart  elasticity  to  a  copper  blade? 
or  to  make  bronze  chisels  capable  of  hewing  granite? 
Wilkinson*  says,  "We  know  of  no  means  of  tempering 
copper,  under  any  form  or  united  with  any  alloys,  for 
such  a  purpose;"  and  adds,  "We  must  confess  that  the 
Egyptians  appear  to  have  possessed  certain  secrets  for 
hardening  or  tempering  bronze  with  which  we  are 
totally  unacquainted." 

After  five  millenniums  the  brilliancy  of  the  colors 
used  by  the  Egyptian  artist  remains  undimmed.  After 
seven  millenniums  we  wonder  at  the  durability  of  their 
paper,  and  the  lasting  qualities  of  their  wafer-like  cement. 


*  Rationalism  in  Europe,  Vol.  I.  p.  43. 

\  Massey.     Beginnings,  Vol.  II.  pp.  34, 35. 

%  Wilkinson.     Manners  and  Customs,  Vol.  II.  p.  255. 


49§ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


We  disinter  the  mummies  which  have  rested  undis- 
turbed since  the  pyramids  were  built — and  examine  the 
still  perfect  features,  and  the  long  hair,  and  the  very 
teeth   filled   with    gold   ages   ago  by    Egyptian  dentists 

and    we  view   with   amazement   the  bandages    1,000 

yards  in  length  in  which  these  forms  are  swathed — and 
then  we  are  obliged  to  confess  that  modern  surgery  can 
not  equal  the  bandaging,  and  modern  medical  art,  and 
modern  chemistry  are  masters  of  no  means  by  which  a 
human  body  may  be  preserved  for  5,000  years. 

When  we  have  undisputed  evidence  as  to  their 
achievements  in  these  directions,  is  it  the  part  of  wisdom 
to  deny  that  they  may  have  possessed  other  arts  and  other 
sciences,  which  we  are  unable  to  equal  or  approxi- 
mate ? 

It  has  been  asserted  that  the  Egyptian  priests  were 
frauds  and  charlatans — deceivers  of  the  people,  wily 
tricksters,  and  the  vicious  worshippers  of  many  Gods. 
In  the  first  place,  none  were  admitted  to  the  priesthood 
save  such  as  were  especially  fitted  by  their  purity  of  life 
and  holiness  of  aspiration.  The  ordeals  through  which 
candidates  were  obliged  to  pass  were  very  severe,  their 
lives  sometimes  being  exposed  to  great  danger.  The 
priests  were  humble  and  self-denying  and  remarkable 
for  simplicity  and  abstinence.  Plutarch*  speaks  of  them 
as  "  giving  themselves  up  wholly  to  study  and  medita- 
tion, hearing  and  teaching  those  truths  which  regard  the 
divine  nature."  They  took  great  care  to  preserve  from 
profanation  their  secret  rites,  and  excluded  all  who  were 
considered  unfit  to  participate  in  solemn  ceremonies. 
Clement-}-  says  they  were  confined  to  those  "  who  from 
their  worth,  learning  and  station  were  deemed  worthy  of 
so  oreat  a  privilege."  Nor  was  there  motive,  either  for 
o-ain  or  reputation.  All  the  great  priests,  scholars  and 
sages  could  be,  if  they  so  desired,  supported  by  the  State 
— ample  accommodation  being  provided  for  them  within 
the  temple  precincts,  where  in  quiet,  ease  and  retirement, 
they  could  pursue  their  deep  researches  and  subtle 
experiments. 

They  were  worshipers  of  one  only  God,  whose 
very  name  was  so  sacred  it  was — according  to  Herodotus 
— unlawful  to  utter;  and  their  various  divinities  but  per- 
sonified some  form  of  the  divine  attributes.  Inter- 
blended  and  inter-dependent  we  find  Egyptian  science 
and  religion.  To  understand  the  one  we  cannot  remain 
ignorant  of  the  other.  To  the  Egyptian  his  religion 
was  everything.  He  regarded  his  abode  upon  earth  as 
but  a  short  journey  upon  the  pathway  of  eternal  life. 
To  the  future  which  stretched  before  him  he  turned 
with  hope  and  longing.  He  did  not  believe  that  when 
his  short  life  closed,  physical  existence  was  ended.  Again 
and  again,  his  religion  taught,  he  would  return  to  earth, 
to    work    out   in    higher   forms    his    spiritual    salvation. 


( This  doctrine  of  re-incarnation,  often  called  transmi- 
gration or  metempsychosis,  has  been  generally  grossly 
misunderstood  by  writers  who  have  attempted  to  explain 
it).  With  this  belief  was  connected  the  doctrine  of  the 
"cycle  of  necessity."  Can  our  Egyptologists  say  what 
this  cycle  was?  or  what  it  signified?  and  can  they  further 
tell  what  the  winged  scarabaei  of  Egypt  symbolized? 
which  are  found  by  the  hundreds  in  the  tombs  of 
Thebes!  They  cannot,  I  fear,  tell  us  these  things  any 
more  than  they  can  explain  the  septenary  composition 
of  man,  or  his  triune  character;  any  more  than  they  can 
interpret  the  "unpronounceable"  name,  which  Herodo- 
tus dared  not  disclose! 

Their  code  of  ethics  was  singularly  pure  and  exalted. 
They  believed  not  only  in  the  negative  virtues,  but  the 
positive  also;  and,  "A  moral  life,  a  life  of  holiness  and 
beneficence,  was  conceived  of  as  being  a  matter  of 
solemn  obligation  to  the  Deity  himself."  The  highest 
principles  alone  were  inculcated  ;  and  always  in  the  heart 
of  the  Egyptian  priest  were  treasured  the  words  of  his 
great  example  —  the  noble  prince  and  moralist — Ptah- 
hotep;  "Mind  thee  of  the  day  when  thou  too  shalt  start 
for  the  land  to  which  one  goeth  to  return  not  thence; 
good  for  thee  will  have  been  a  good  life;  therefore  be 
just  and  hate  iniquity;  for  he  who  doeth  what  is  right 
shall  triumph !" 

Have  modern  scholars  a  surer  guide  to  honor  and 
uprightness,  than  the  old  Egyptian  Magist? 

Have  we  any  right  to  utter  words  of  censure  or  con- 
demnation? 

Egvpt  is  dead.  Her  priests  have  passed  away,  and 
buried  with  them  in  the  recesses  of  impenetrable  tombs, 
lie  her  wisdom,  her  magic,  and  her  glorv.  Her  greatest 
of  all  foresaw  her  dread  eclipse,  and  time  has  but  veri- 
fied the  dark  prophetic  words  of  the  mighty  Hermes: 
"O,  Egypt,  Egypt,  of  thy  religion  there  will  be  left 
remaining  nothing  but  uncertain  tales,  which  will  be 
believed  no  more  by  posterity  —  words  graven  on  stone 
and  telling  of  thy  piety!" 


*  Wilkinson.     Manners  and  Crtstoms,  Vol.  III.  p.  54. 
f  Ibid.,  Vol.  III.  p.  3S9. 


THOUGHT  WITHOUT  WORDS. 

The  conclusion  of  correspondence  between  Mr. 
Arthur  Nicols,  et  al.,  and  Professor  Max  Miiller  on 
"  Thought  Without  Words,"  reprinted  from  Nature 
after  careful  revision: 

Mil.       LETTER    FROM    MR.    ARTIIFR    NICOLS. 

Watford,  June  3,  1SS7. 
The  interesting  discussion  between  Mr.  Francis  Galton  and 
Prof.  Max  Miiller  on  this  subject  will  doubtless  raise  many  ques- 
tions in  the  minds  of  those  who  have  paid  some  attention  to  the 
habits  of  animals.  I  have  been  asking  myself  whether,  if  Prof. 
Max  Miiller  is  right  in  his  conclusion — "  Of  course  we  all  admit 
that  without  a  name  we  cannot  really  know  anj'thing  "  (an  utter- 
able  name,  I  presume),  and  "  one  fact  remains,  animals  have  no 
language" — animals  must  not,  therefore,  be  held  by  him  incapable 
of  knowing   anything.     This  would    bring    us    to    the   question 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


499 


whether  animals  know  in  the  same  manner  as  men,  or  in  some 
other  manner  which  men  do  not  understand.  Now,  I  think — at 
least  it  is  as  strong  a  conviction  as  I  am  capable  of  entertaining — 
that  animals  not  only  know,  but  deal  with  the  materials  of  knowl- 
edge— facts — in  a  manner  quite  indistinguishable  from  the  man- 
ner in  which  I  mentally  handle  them  myself.  Thus,  I  place  an 
animal  in  circumstances  which  are  quite  unfamiliar  to  it,  and  from 
which  it  is  urgently  pressed  to  escape.  There  are  two,  or  per- 
haps three,  courses  open  to  it;  one  being,  to  my  mind,  patently 
the  most  advantageous.  It  tries  all  of  them,  and  selects  that 
which  I  should  have  chosen  myself,  though  it  is  much  longer  in 
coming  to  its  conclusion.  Here  the  animal  has  the  same  facts  as 
the  man  to  deal  with,  and,  after  consideration  and  examination, 
its  judgment  precisely  corresponds  with  the  man's.  I  cannot,  then, 
find  it  possible  to  deny  that  the  mental  operations  are  identical  in 
kind;  but  that  they  are  not  so  in  degree  can  be  demonstrated  by 
my  importing  into  the  situation  an  element  foreign  to  the  expe- 
rience of  the  animal,  when  its  failure  is  certain.  It  makes  no  dif- 
ference whether  the  animal  is  under  stress,  or  acting  voluntarily. 
It  may  frequently  be  found  to  choose  the  method  which  most 
recommends  itself  to  the  man's  judgment.  Every  student  of  ani- 
mals is  familiar  with  numbers  of  such  cases.  Indeed  thev  are 
constantly  being  recorded  in  the  columns  of  Nature,  and  abound 
in  all  accepted  works  on  animal  intelligence.  I  am  quite  prepared 
to  admit  that  where  there  are  two  or  more  courses  open  to  it  the 
animal  will  occasionally  select  that  which  presents  the  greatest 
difficulties  and  labor  most  assiduously  to  overcome  them,  some- 
times trying  the  remaining  courses  and  returning  to  that  which  it 
first  chose.  Darwin  gives  a  good  example  of  the  honey-bee 
(Origin  of  Species,  p.  225,  edition  1872).  But  no  one  will  be  sur- 
prised at  imperfect  judgment  or  vacillation  of  will  in  an  animal, 
when  such  are  common  among  men. 

Prof.  Max  Muller  lays  down  the  very  distinct  proposition  that 
"animals  have  no  language."  I  suppose  ntterable  language  is  meant. 
Is  this  so?  That  their  sign-language  is  both  extensive  and  exact 
(and  even  understood  to  some  extent  as  between  widely  different 
species)  most  naturalists,  I  apprehend,  will  entertain  no  doubt. 
But  has  any  species  an  utterable  language?  What  is  to  be  the 
test  of  this?  First  there  is  the  whole  gamut  of  vocal  expressions — 
which  even  we  understand — conveying  the  ideas  of  fain,  pleasure, 
unger,  -warning.  What  sportsman  who  has  stalked  extremely  shy 
animals  does  not  know  the  moment  a  bird  or  animal  utters  a  cer- 
tain note  that  he  is  discovered?  If  Prof.  Max  Muller  will  not 
admit  this  to  be  language,  I  for  one,  must  ask  him  what  it  is. 
It  conveys  to  others  a  distinct  idea,  in  general  if  not  in  special 
terms,  and  seems  to  me  quite  equivalent  to  "  Oh  dear!"  "This  is 
nice  "  (expressed,  I  believe,  in  some  African  language  by  the  redu- 
plicated form  num-num,  the  letter  11  having  the  same  value  as  in 
the  Spanish  manana),  "  Leave  of,"  "  Look  out,"  "  Come  here," 
etc.  Those  who  have  heard  animals  calling  to  one  another,  par- 
ticularly at  night,  and  have  carefully  noted  the  modulations  of 
their  voices  (why  should  there  be  modulations  unless  they  have  a 
definite  value),  will  find  it  very  hard  to  accept  Prof.  Max  Miiller's 
conclusion  that  "animals  have  no  language."  Every  female 
mammal  endowed  with  any  kind  of  voice  has  the  power  of  saying 
"  Come  here,  my  child,"  and  it  is  an  interesting  fact  beyond  ques- 
tion that  the  knowledge  of  this  call  is  feebly  or  not  at  all  inherited, 
but  must  be  impressed  upon  the  young  individual  by  experience. 
Further,  the  young  brought  up  by  an  alien  foster-mother  pay  no 
attention  to  the  "  Come  here,  my  child,"  of  the  alien  species.  The 
clucking  of  the  hen  meets  with  no  response  from  the  ducklings 
she  has  reared,  even  when  she  paces  frantically  by  the  side  of  the 
pond  imploring  them  not  to  commit  suicide.  But  let  us  creep  up 
under  the  banks  of  a  sedgy  pool  at  about  this  time  of  year.  There 
swims  a  wild  duck  surrounded  by  her  brood,  dashing  here  and 
there  at  the  rising  Phryganidic.     Now  let  the  frightful  face  of  man 


peer  through  the  sedges.  A  sharp  "quack  "  from  the  duck,  and 
her  brood  dive  like  stones,  or  plunge  into  the  reeds.  She,  at  least, 
knows  what  to  say  to  them. 

The  already  inordinate  length  of  this  letter  precludes  me  from 
offering  any  instances  of  the  communication  at  specific  intelligence 
by  means  of  the  vocal  organs  of  animals.  I  think  it  probable  that 
we  far  underrate  the  vocabulary  of  animals  from  deficient  atten- 
tion— and,  I  speak  for  myself,  stupidity.  Possibly  Prof.  Max 
Muller  has  not  yet  examined  "  Sally,"  the  black  chimpanzee.  If 
not,  he  would  surely  be  much  interested.  She  is  by  no  means 
garrulous,  but  in  spite  of  her  poor  vocal  capacity,  if  he  should  still 
consider  that  she  "  cannot  really  know  anything"  on  that  account, 
I  must  have  completely  misinterpreted  his  letter  to  Mr.  Galton. 

Arthur  Nicols. 
xiv.     letter  from  prof.  max  muller. 

The  Molt,  Salcombe,  July  4,  1S87. 

As  I  found  that  you  had  already  admitted  no  less  than  thir- 
teen letters  on  1113-  recent  work,  Science  of  Thought,  I  hesitated 
for  some  time  whether  I  ought  to  ask  3-011  to  admit  another  com- 
munication on  a  subject  which  can  be  of  interest  to  a  very  limited 
number  of  the  readers  of  Nature  only.  I  have,  indeed,  from  the 
very  beginning  of  my  philological  labors,  claimed  for  the  science 
of  language  a  place  among  the  physical  sciences,  and,  in  one 
sense,  I  do  the  same  for  the  science  of  thought.  Nature  that  does 
not  include  human  nature  in  all  its  various  manifestations  would 
seem  to  me  like  St.  Peter's  without  its  cupola.  But  this  plea  of 
mine  has  not  as  yet  been  generally  admitted.  The  visible  mate- 
rial frame  of  man,  his  sense-organs  and  their  functions,  his  nerves 
and  his  brain,  all  this  has  been  recognized  as  the  rightful  domain 
of  physical  science.  But  beyond  this  physical  science  was  not  to 
go.  There  was  the  old  line  of  separation,  a  line  drawn  by 
mediaeval  students  between  man,  on  one  side,  and  his  works,  on 
the  other;  between  the  sense-organs  and  their  perceptions;  be- 
tween the  brain  and  its  outcome,  or,  as  it  has  sometimes  been 
called,  its  secretion — namely,  thought.  To  attempt  to  obliterate 
that  line  between  physical  science,  on  one  side,  and  moral  science, 
as  it  used  to  be  called,  on  the  other,  was  represented  as  mere  con- 
fusion of  thought.  Still,  here  as  elsewhere,  a  perception  of 
higher  unity  does  not  necessarily  imply  an  ignoring  of  useful  dis- 
tinctions. To  me  it  has  always  seemed  that  man's  nature  can 
never  be  fully  understood  except  as  one  and  indivisible.  His 
highest  and  most  abstract  thoughts  appear  to  me  inseparable 
from  the  lowest  material  impacts  made  upon  his  bodily  frame- 
And  "  if  nothing  was  ever  in  the  intellect  except  what  was  first 
in  the  senses,"  barring,  of  course,  the  intellect  itself,  it  follows 
that  we  shall  never  understand  the  working  of  the  intellect,  un- 
less we  first  try  to  understand  the  senses,  their  organs,  their  func- 
tions, and  in  the  end  their  products.  For  practical  purposes,  no 
doubt,  we  may,  nay  we  ought,  to  separate  the  two.  Thus,  in  my 
own  special  subject,  it  is  well  to  separate  the  treatment  of  pho- 
netics and  acoustics  from  higher  linguistic  researches.  We  may 
call  phonetics  and  acoustics  the  ground  floor,  linguistics,  the  first 
story.  But  as  every  building  is  one — the  ground  floor  purposeless 
without  the  first  story,  the  first  story  a  mere  castle  in  the  air  with- 
out the  ground  floor — the  science  of  man  also  is  one,  and  would 
according  to  my  opinion,  be  imperfect  unless  it  included  psy- 
chology in  the  widest  meaning  of  that  term,  as  well  as  physi- 
ology ;  unless  it  claimed  the  science  of  language  and  of  thought, 
no  less  than  the  science  of  the  voice,  the  ear,  the  nerves,  and 
the  brain,  as  its  obedient  vassals.  It  was,  therefore,  a  real  satis- 
faction to  me  that  it  should  have  been  Nature  where  the  questions 
raised  in  my  Science  of  Thought  excited  the  first  interest,  provok- 
ing strong  opposition,  and  eliciting  distinct  approval,  and  I  vent- 
ure to  crave  your  permission  on  that  ground,  if  on  no  other,  for 
replying  once  more  to  the  various  arguments  which  some  of  your 
most    eminent    contributors   have   brought    forward   against    the 


5°° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


fundamental  tenet  of  m_v  work,  the  inseparableness  of  language 
and  reason. 

Many  of  my  critics  write  as  if  they  had  never  heard  before  of 
the  identity  of  language  and  reason.  They  call  such  a  theory  a 
paradox,  unconscious,  it  would  seem,  of  the  fact  that  to  the  great 
majority  of  mankind  all  philosophy  is  a  paradox,  and  unaware 
likewise,  that  the  same  opinion  has  been  held  by  some  of  the 
greatest  philosophers  of  antiquity,  of  the  middle  ages,  and  of 
modern  times.  I  have  not  invented  that  paradox.  All  I  have 
done  or  attempted  to  do  is  that,  while  other  philosophers  have 
derived  their  arguments  in  support  of  it  from  mere  theory,  I  have 
taken  mine  from  facts,  namely  the  facts  supplied  by  the  science  of 
language. 

Some  of  my  critics  again  seem  to  have  sniffed  something 
heterodox  in  this  identity  of  language  and  reason,  forgetting  that 
philosophy  was  never  meant  to  be  either  orthodox  or  heterodox 
in  the  theological  sense  of  those  words,  and  unaware  likewise,  as 
it  would  seem,  that  this  opinion  has  been  held  and  defended  by- 
some  of  the  most  orthodox  and  some  of  the  most  heterodox  of 
modern  writers.  I  shall  mention  two  names  only,  Cardinal  New- 
man and  M.  Taine.  Cardinal  Newman  in  his  Grammar  of  Assent 
(p.  S),  where  he  tries  to  define  ratiocination  or  reasoning,  begins 
by  carefully  separating  from  ratiocination,  as  I  have  done,  all  that 
is  purely  sensuous  or  emotional,  the  promptings  of  experience, 
common  sense,  genius,  and  all  the  rest,  restricting  "thought"  to 
what  can  be  or  has  been  expressed  in  words.  He  then  proceeds: 
"Let  then  our  symbols  be  words;  let  all  thought  be  arrested  and 
embodied  in  words.  Let  language  have  a  monopoly  of  thought; 
and  thought  go  for  only  so  much  as  it  can  show  itself  to  be  worth 
in  language.  Let  every  prompting  of  the  intellect  be  ignored, 
every  momentum  of  argument  be  disowned  which  is  unprovided 
with  an  equivalent  wording,  as  its  ticket  for  sharing  in  the  com- 
mon search  after  truth.  Let  the  authority  of  actions,  common 
sense,  experience,  genius,  go  for  nothing.  Ratiocination  thus 
restricted  and  put  into  grooves,  is  what  I  have  called  Inference, 
and  the  science  which  is  its  regulating  principle,  is  Logic." 

M.  Taine  pronounces  quite  as  explicitly  in  favor  of  the  theory 
that  reasoning,  if  properly  restricted  and  defined,  takes  place  by 
means  of  words  only,  and  cannot  take  place  in  any  other  way. 
In  his  work,  Dc  V Intelligence  (1S70),  after  distinguishing  between 
proper  and  common  names,  he  shows  that  a  common  name  is  at 
the  same  time  general  and  abstract  (Vol.  I.  p.  25),  and  that  these 
general  and  abstract  names  are  really  what  we  mean  by  general 
and  abstract  ideas.  "  Partout  ce  que  nous  appelons  une  ide'e  ge'ne- 
rale  nee  d'ensemble,  n'est  qu'un  nom;  non  pas  le  simple  son  qui 
vibre  dans  l'air  et  e'branle  notre  oreille,  011  l'assemblage  de  lettres 
qui  noircisseut  le  papier  et  frappent  nos  yeux,  non  pas  meme  ces 
lettres  apercues  mentalement,  ou  "ce  son  mentalement  prononce\ 
mais  ce  son  ou  ces  lettres  doue\  lorsque  nous  les  apercevons  ou 
imaginons,  d'une  proprtete'  double,  la  proprtete'  dMveiller  en  nous 
les  images  des  individus  qui  appartiennent  a  une  certaine  classe 
de  ces  individus  seulement,  et  la  proprifftd  de  renai'tre  toutes  les 
lois  qu'un  individu  de  cette  meme  classe  et  seulement  quand  un 
individu  de  cette  meme  classe  se  presente  a  notre  memoire  ou  a 
notre  experience." 

"  Ce  ne  sout  pas  les  objets  epais  ni  les  objets  ideaux  que  nous 
pensons, — mais  les  caracteres  abstraitsqui  sout  leurs  generateurs; 
ce  ne  sout  pas  les  caracteres  abstraits  que  nous  pensons,  mais  les 
noms  communs  qui  leur  correspondent!  " 

I  may  divide  the  letters  published  hitherto  in  Nature  into 
three  classes,  unanswerable,  answered  and  to  be  answered. 

I  class  as  unanswerable  such  letters  as  that  of  the  Duke  of 
Argyll.  His  Grace  simply  expresses  his  opinion,  without  assign- 
ing any  reasons.  I  do  not  deny  that  to  myself  personally,  and  to 
many  of  your  readers,  it  is  of  great  importance  to  know  what 
position  a  man  of  the  Duke's  wide  experience  and  independence 


of  thought  takes  with  regard  to  the  fundamental  principle  of  all 
philosophy,  the  identity  of  language  and  thought,  or  even  on  a 
merely  subsidiary  question,  such  as  the  geneaological  descent  of 
man  from  any  known  or  unknown  kind  of  animal.  But  I  must 
wait  till  the  Duke  controverts  either  the  linguistic  facts,  or  the 
philosophical  lessons  which  I  have  read  in  them,  before  I  can 
meet  fact  by  fact,  and  argument  by  argument.  I  only  note,  as  a 
very  significant  admission,  one  sentence  of  his  letter,  in  which  the 
Duke  says:  "Language  seems  to  me  to  be  necessary  to  the  prog- 
ress of  thought,  but  not  at  all  necessary  to  the  mere  act  of  think- 
ing." This  sentence  may  possibly  concede  all  that  I  have  been 
contending  for,  as  we  shall  see  by  and  by. 

I  class  as  letters  that  have  been  answered  the  very  instructive 
communications  from  Mr.  F.  Galton,  to  which  I  replied  in  Nature 
of  June  2  (p.  101),  as  well  as  several  notes  contributed  by  corres- 
pondents who  evidently  had  read  my  book  either  very  rapidly,  or 
not  at  all. 

Thus,  Hyde  Clarke  tells  us  that  the  mutes  at  Constantinople, 
and  the  deaf-mutes  in  general,  communicate  by  signs,  and  not  by 
words — the  very  fact  on  which  I  had  laid  great  stress  in  several 
parts  of  my  book.  In  the  sign-language  of  the  American  Indians, 
in  the  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  of  Egypt,  and  in  Chinese  and  other 
languages  which  were  originally  written  ideographically,  we  have 
irrefragable  evidence  that  other  signs,  besides  vocal  signs  or 
vocables,  can  be  used  for  embodying  thought.  This,  as  I  tried  to 
show,  confirms,  and  does  not  invalidate,  my  theory  that  we  cannot 
think  without  words,  if  only  it  is  remembered  that  words  are  the 
most  usual  and  the  most  perfect,  but  by  no  means  the  only 
possible  signs. 

Another  correspondent,  "S.  F.  M.  Q.",  asks  how  I  account 
for  the  early  processes  of  thought  in  a  deaf  mute.  If  he  had 
looked  at  page  63  of  my  book,  he  would  have  found  my  answer. 
Following  Professor  Huxley,  I  hold  that  deaf-mutes  would  be 
capable  of  few  higher  intellectual  manifestations  than  an  orang  or 
chimpanzee,  if  they  were  confined  to  the  society  of  dumb  associates. 

But,  though  holding  this  opinion,  I  do  not  venture  to  say  that 
deaf-mutes,  if  left  to  themselves,  may  not  act  rationally,  as  little 
as  I  should  take  upon  myself  to  assert  that  animals  may  not  act 
rationally.  I  prefer  indeed,  as  I  have  often  said,  to  remain  a  per- 
fect agnostic  with  regard  to  the  inner  life  of  animals,  and,  for  that, 
of  deaf-mutes  also.  But  I  should  not  contradict  anybody  who 
imagines  that  he  has  discovered  traces  of  the  highest  intellectual 
and  moral  activity  in  deaf-mutes  or  animals.  I  read  with  the 
deepest  interest  the  letter  which  Mr.  Arthur  Nicols  addressed  to 
you.  I  accept  all  he  says  about  the  sagacity  of  animals,  and  if  I 
differ  from  him  at  all,  I  do  so  because  I  have  even  greater  faith  in 
animals  than  he  has.  I  do  not  think,  for  instance,  that  animals, 
as  he  says,  are  much  longer  in  arriving  at  a  conclusion  than  we 
are.  Their  conclusions,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  watch  them, 
seem  to  me  far  more  rapid  than  our  own,  and  almost  instanta- 
neous. Nor  should  I  quarrel  with  Mr.  Nicols  if  he  likes  to  call 
the  vocal  expressions  of  pain,  pleasure,  anger,  or  warning,  uttered 
by  animals,  language.  It  is  a  perfectly  legitimate  metaphor  to 
call  every  kind  of  communication  language.  We  may  speak  of 
the  language  of  the  eyes,  and  ev%i  of  the  eloquence  of  silence. 
But  Mr.  Nicols  would  probably  be  equally  ready  to  admit  that 
there  is  a  difference  between  shouting  "Oh!"  and  saying  "  I  am 
surprised."  An  animal  may  say  "  Oh!"  but  it  cannot  say  "I  am 
surprised;"  and  it  seems  to  me  necessary,  for  the  purpose  of  accu- 
rate reasoning,  to  be  able  to  distinguish  in  our  terminology 
between  these  two  kinds  of  communication.  On  this  point,  too,  I 
have  so  fully  dwelt  in  my  book  that  I  ought  not  to  encumber 
your  pages  by  mere  extracts. 

I  now  come  to  the  letters  of  Mr.  Ebbels  and  Mr.  Mellard 
Reade.  They  both  seem  to  imagine  that,  because  I  deny  the 
possibility   of  conceptual   thought  without   language,  I   deny  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5QI 


possibility  of  every  kind  of  thought  without  words.  This  objec- 
tion, too,  they  will  find  so  fully  answered  in  my  book,  that  I  need 
not  add  anything  here.  I  warned  my  readers  again  and  again 
against  the  promiscuous  use  of  the  word  "  thought."  I  pointed  out 
(p.  29)  how,  according  to  Descartes,  any  kind  of  inward  activity, 
whether  sensation,  pain,  pleasure,  dreaming,  or  willing,  may  be 
called  thought;  but  I  stated  on  the  very  first  page  that,  like  Hobbes, 
I  use  thinking  in  the  restricted  sense  of  adding  and  subtracting. 
We  do  many  things,  perhaps  our  best  things,  without  addition  or 
subtraction.  We  have,  as  I  pointed  out  on  page  20,  sensations  and 
percepts,  as  well  as  concepts  and  names.  For  ordinary  purposes 
we  should  be  perfectly  correct  in  saying  that  we  can  "  think  in 
pictures."  This,  however,  is  more  accurately  called  imagination, 
because  we  are  then  dealing  with  images,  presentations  (  Vorstel- 
lungeii),  or,  as  I  prefer  to  call  them,  percepts  and  not  yet  with 
concepts  and  names.  Whether  in  man  and  particularly  in  the 
present  stage  of  his  intellectual  life,  imagination  is  possible  with- 
out a  slight  admixture  of  conceptual  thought  and  language,  is  a 
moot  point;  that  it  is  possible  in  animals,  more  particularly  in 
■Sally,  the  black  chimpanzee  at  the  Zoological  Gardens,  I  should 
be  reluctant  either  to  deny  or  to  affirm.  All  I  stand  up  for  is  that, 
if  we  use  such  words  as  thought,  we  ought  to  define  them.  Defi- 
nition is  the  only  panacea  for  all  our  philosophical  misery,  and  I 
am  utterly  unable  to  enter  into  Mr.  Ebbels's  state  of  mind  when 
he  says :  "  This  is  a  mere  question  of  definition,  not  of  actual  fact." 

When  Mr.  Ebbels  adds  that  we  cannot  conceive  the  sudden 
appearance  of  the  faculty  of  abstraction  together  with  its  ready- 
made  signs  or  words,  except  by  a  miracle,  he  betrays  at  once  that 
he  has  not  read  my  last  book,  the  very  object  of  which  is  to  show 
that  we  require  no  miracle  at  all,  but  that  all  which  seemed  mirac- 
ulous in  language  is  perfectly  natural  and  intelligible.  And  if  he 
adds  that  he  has  not  been  able  to  discover  in  my  earlier  works  any 
account  of  the  first  beginnings  of  language,  he  has  evidently  over- 
looked the  fact  that  in  my  lectures  on  the  science  of  language  I 
distinctly  declined  to  commit  myself  to  any  theory  on  the  origin 
of  language,  while  the  whole  of  my  last  book  is  devoted  to  the 
solution  of  that  problem.  My  solution  may  be  right  or  wrong, 
but  ij  certainly  does  not  appeal  to  any  miraculous  interference  for 
the  explanation  of  language  and  thought. 

There  now  remain  two  letters  only  that  have  really  to  be 
answered,  because  they  touch  on  some  very  important  points, 
points  which  it  is  manifest  I  ought  to  have  placed  in  a  clearer 
light  in  my  book.  One  is  by  Mr.  Murphy,  the  other  by  Mr. 
Romanes.  Both  have  evidently  read  my  book  and"  read  it  care- 
fully; and  if  they  have  not  quite  clearly  seen  the  drift  of  my 
argument,  I  am  afraid  the  fault  is  mine  and  not  theirs.  I  am 
quite  aware  that  my  Science  of  Thought  is  not  an  easy  book  to 
read  and  to  understand.  I  warned  my  readers  in  the  preface  that 
they  must  not  expect  a  popular  bpok,  nor  a  work  systematically 
built  up  and  complete  in  all  its  parts.  My  book  was  written,  as  I 
said,  for  myself  and  for  a  few  friends  who  knew  beforehand  the 
points  which  I  wished  to  establish,  and  who  would  not  expect  me, 
for  the  mere  sake  of  completeness,  to  repeat  what  was  familiar  to 
to  them  and  could  easily  be  found  elsewhere.  I  felt  certain  that  I 
should  be  understood  by  them,  if  I  only  indicated  what  I  meant; 
nor  did  it  ever  enter  into  my  mind  to  attempt  to  teach  them,  or  to 
convince  them  against  their  will.  I  wrote  as  if  in  harmony  with 
my  readers,  and  moving  on  with  them  on  a  road  which  we  had 
long  recognized  as  the  only  safe  one,  and  which  I  hoped  that 
others  also  would  follow,  if  they  could  once  be  made  to  see  whence 
it  started  and  whither  it  tended. 

Mr.  Murphy  is  one  of  those  who  agree  with  me  that  language 
is  necessary  to  thought,  and  that,  though  it  may  be  possible  to 
think  without  words  when  the  subjects  of  thought  are  visible 
things  and  their  combinations,  as  in  inventing  machinery,  the 
intellectual  power  that  invents  machinery  has   been   matured  by 


the  use  of  language.  Here  Mr.  Murphy  comes  very  near  to  the 
remark  made  bv  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  that  language  seems  neces- 
sary to  the  progress  of  thought,  but  not  at  all  necessary  to  the 
mere  act  of  thinking,  whatever  that  may  mean.  But  Mr.  Mur- 
phy, while  accepting  mv  two  positions — that  thought  is  impossi- 
ble without  words,  and  that  all  words  were  in  their  origin 
abstract — blames  me  for  not  having  explained  more  fully  on  what 
the  power  of  abstraction  really  depends.  So  much  has  lately 
been  written  on  abstraction,  that  I  did  not  think  it  necessary  to 
do  more  than  indicate  to  which  side  I  inclined.  I  quoted  the 
opinions  of  Aristotle,  Bacon,  Locke,  Berkeley  and  Mill,  and  as  for 
myself  I  stated  in  one  short  sentence  that  I  should  ascribe  the 
power  of  abstraction,  not  so  much  to  an  effort  of  our  will,  or  to 
our  intellectual  strength,  but  rather  to  our  intellectual  weakness. 
In  forming  abstractions  our  weakness  seems  to  me  our  strength. 
Even  in  our  first  sensations  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  take  in  the 
whole  of  every  impression,  and  in  our  first  perceptions  we  cannot 
but  drop  a  great  deal  of  what  is  contained  in  our  sensations.  In 
this  sense  we  learn  to  abstract,  whether  we  like  it  or  not;  and 
though  afterwards  abstraction  may  proceed  from  an  effort  of  the 
will,  I  still  hold,  as  I  said  on  page  4,  that  though  attention  can  be 
said  to  be  at  the  root  of  all  our  knowledge,  the  power  of  abstrac- 
tion may  in  the  beginning  not  be  very  far  removed  from  the  weak- 
ness of  distraction.  If  I  had  wished  to  write  a  practical  text-book 
of  the  science  of  thought,  I  ought  no  doubt  to  have  given  more 
prominence  to  this  view  of  the  origin  of  abstraction,  but  as  often 
in  my  book,  so  here  too,  I  thought  safienti  sat. 

I  now  come  to  Mr.  Romanes,  to  whom  I  feel  truly  grateful 
for  the  intrepid  spirit  with  which  he  has  waded  through  my  book. 
One  has  no  right  in  these  days  to  expect  many  such  readers,  but 
one  feels  all  the  more  grateful  if  one  does  find  them.  Mr. 
Romanes  was  at  home  in  the  whole  subject,  and  with  him  what  I 
endeavored  to  prove  by  linguistic  evidence — namely,  that  concepts 
are  altogether  impossible  without  names — formed  part  of  the  very 
A  B  C  of  his  psychological  creed.  He  is  indeed  almost  too  san- 
guine when  he  says  that  concerning  this  truth  no  difference  of 
opinion  is  likely  to  arise.  The  columns  of  Nature  and  the  opin- 
ions quoted  in  my  book  tell  a  different  tale.  But  for  all  that  I  am 
as  strongly  convinced  as  he  can  be  that  no  one  who  has  once 
understood  the  true  nature  of  words  and  concepts  can  -possibly 
hold  a  different  opinion  from  that  which  he  holds  as  well  as  I. 

It  seems,  therefore,  all  the  more  strange  to  me  that  Mr. 
Romanes  should  have  suspected  me  of  holding  the  opinion  that 
we  cannot  think  without  pronouncing  or  silently  rehearsing  our 
thought-words.  It  is  difficult  to  guard  against  misapprehensions 
which  one  can  hardly  realize.  Without  appealing,  as  he  does,  to 
sudden  aphasia,  how  could  I  hold  pronounciation  necessary  for 
thought  when  I  am  perfectly  silent  while  I  an  writing  and  while 
I  am  reading?  How  could  I  believe  in  the  necessity  of  a  silent 
rehearsing  of  words  when  one  such  word  as  "therefore"  may 
imply  hundreds  of  words  or  pages,  the  rehearsing  of  which  would 
require  hours  and  days?  Surely,  as  our  memory  enables  us  to 
see  without  eyes  and  to  hear  without  ears,  the  same  persistence  of 
force  allows  us  to  speak  without  uttering  words.  Only,  as  we 
cannot  remember  or  imagine  without  having  first  seen  or  heard 
something  to  remember,  neither  can  we  inwardly  speak  without 
having  first  named  something  that  we  can  remember.  There  is 
an  algebra  of  language  far  more  wonderful  than  the  algebra  of 
mathematics.  Mr.  Romanes  calls  that  algebra  "ideation,"  a  dan- 
gerous word,  unless  we  first  define  its  meaning  and  lay  bare  its 
substance.  I  call  the  same  process  addition  and  subtraction 
of  half-vanished  words,  or,  to  use  Hegel's  terminology,  aufgeho- 
bene  Worte;  and  I  still  hold,  as  I  said  in  my  book,  that  it  would 
be  difficult  to  invent  a  better  expression  for  thinking  than  that  of 
the  lowest  barbarians,  "speaking  in  the  stomach."  Thinking  is 
nothing  but  speaking  minus  words.   We  do  not  begin  with  thinking 


5°i 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


or  ideation,  and  then  proceed  to  speaking,  but  we  begin  with 
naming,  and  then  by  a  constant  process  of  addition  and  subtrac- 
tion, of  widening  and  abbreviating,  we  arrive  at  what  I  call 
thought.  Everybody  admits  that  we  cannot  count — that  is  to 
say,  add  and  subtract — unless  we  have  first  framed  our  numerals. 
Why  should  people  hesitate  to  admit  that  we  cannot  possibly 
think,  unless  we  have  first  formed  our  words  ?  Did  the 
Duke  of  Argyll  mean  this  when  he  said  that  language  seemed 
to  him  necessary  for  the  frogress  of  thought,  but  not  at  all  for 
the  mere  act  of  thinking  ?  How  words  are  framed,  the  science 
of  language  has  taught  us;  how  they  are  reduced  to  mere  shad- 
ows, to  signs  of  signs,  apparently  to  mere  nothings,  the  science 
of  thought  will  have  to  explain  far  more  fully  than  I  have  been 
able  to  do.  Mr.  Romanes  remarks  that  it  is  a  pity  that  I  should 
attempt  to  defend  such  a  position  as  that  chess  cannot  be  played 
unless  the  player  "  deals  all  the  time  with  thought- words  and  word- 
thoughts."  I  pity  myself  indeed  that  my  language  should  be  liable 
to  such  misapprehension.  I  thought  that  to  move  a  "castle" 
according  to  the  character  and  the  rules  originally  assigned  to  it 
was  to  deal  with  a  word-thought  or  thought  word.  What  is 
"castle"  in  chess,  if  not  a  word-thought  or  thought- word?  I  did 
not  use  the  verb  "  to  deal "  in  the  sense  of  pronouncing,  or  rehears- 
ing, or  defining,  but  of  handling  or  moving  according  to  under- 
stood rules.  That  this  dealing  might  become  a  mere  habit  I  pointed 
out  myself,  and  tried  to  illustrate  by  the  even  more  wonderful  plav- 
ingot  music.  But  however  automatic  and  almost  unconscious  such 
habits  may  become,  we  have  only  to  make  a  wrong  move  with  the 
"castle  "and  at  once  our  antagonist  will  appeal  to  the  original 
meaning  of  that  thought-word  and  remind  us  that  we  can  move 
it  in  one  direction  only,  but  not  in  another.  In  the  same  manner, 
when  Mr.  Romanes  takes  me  to  task  because  I  said  that  "  no  one 
truly  thinks  who  does  not  speak,  and  that  no  one  truly  speaks  who 
does  not  think,"  he  had  only  to  lay  the  accent  on  truly,  and  he 
would  have  understood  what  I  meant — namely,  that  in  the  true 
sense  of  these  words,  as  defined  by  myself,  no  one  thinks  who 
does  not  directly  or  indirectly  speak,  and  that  no  one  can  be  said 
to  speak  who  does  not  at  the  same  time  think.  We  cannot  be  too 
charitable  in  the  interpretation  of  language,  and  I  often  feel  that  I 
must  claim  that  charity  more  than  most  writers  in  English.  Still, 
I  am  always  glad  if  such  opponents  as  Mr.  Romanes  or  Mr.  F. 
Galton  give  me  an  opportunity  of  explaining  more  fully  what  I 
mean.  We  shall  thus,  I  believe,  arrive  at  the  conviction  that  men 
who  honestly  care  for  truth,  and  for  the  progress  of  truth,  must 
in  the  end  arrive  at  the  same  conclusions,  though  they  mav 
express  them  each  in  his  own  dialect.  That  is  the  true  meaning 
ot  the  old  dialectic  process,  to  reason  out  things  bv  words  more 
and  more  adequate  to  their  purpose.  In  that  sense  it  is  true  also 
that  no  truth  is  entirely  new,  and  that  all  we  can  aim  at  in  philos- 
ophy is  to  find  new  and  better  expressions  for  old  truths.  The 
poet,  as  Mrs.  A.  Grenfell  has  pointed  out  in  her  letter  to  Nature 
(June  23,  p.  173),  often  perceives  and  imagines  what  others  have 
not  yet  conceived  or  named.  In  that  sense  I  gladly  call  myself 
the  interpreter  of  Wordsworth's  prophecy,  that  "  the  word  is  not 
the  dress  of  thought,  but  its  very  incarnation." 

F.  Max  Mullek. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

AN  ARGUMENT    FOR    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 
To  the  Editors: 

The  movement  is  based  on  the  fact  that  women  are  not  suffi- 
ciently represented  by  men.  If  they  were,  there  would  be  no 
agitation.  And  men  are  even  less  unfit  for  representing  children 
than  for  representing  women.  The  child  and  the  man  differ 
much  more  than  the  child  and  the  woman,  in  character,  in  average 


state  of  opinion  (for  instance  about  religion)  and  in  amount  of 
home  life.  Most  children  have  much  more  to  do  with  the 
mother  than  the  father,  as  well  as  much  more  in  common.  The 
women  who  are  not  mothers  usually  have  something  to  do  with 
children  as  aunts,  sisters,  or  teachers.  The  fact  that  the  female 
bird  and  the  young  are  alike  in  plumage  is  not  without  a  parallel 
in  our  race;  and  neither  is  the  fact  that  it  is  the  female  who  stays 
by  the  nest.  When  we  consider  how  much  children  gain  by  a 
government  good  enough  to  make  the  schools  what  they  should 
be,  and  how  much  they  lose  by  a  government  bad  enough  to  let 
civil  war,  famine,  or  pestilence  break  out,  we  must  admit  that 
their  interests  need  as  full  a  representation  as  possible.  And  this 
cannot  be  given  unless  women  vote.  F.  M.  Holland. 


RELIGION   AND   ITS  CORRELATIONS. 

To  the  Editors : 

Religion,  wisdom,  science  and  knowledge  are  things  that 
should  harmonize  with  each  other;  but  to  make  one  a  basis  for  the 
other  as  when  we  speak  of  a  scientific  basis  for  religion,  does  not 
appear  to  be  a  correct  use  of  terms.  Religion  as  I  understand  it 
(after  a  half  century  investigation  of  the  constitution  of  man  )  is 
a  fundamental  element  of  human  nature  —  a  reverent  love,  which 
relates  to  all  that  is  good  and  great  —  but  not  to  the  great  alone, 
as  many  misconceive  it.  The  stern  spirit  of  the  warrior  recognizes 
and  adores  power  alone,  and  recognizes  in  the  infinite  mystery 
of  the  universe  only  power  and  arbitrary  will.  This  is  the  con- 
ception embodied  in  churches  which  arose  in  barbaric  ages.  A 
more  perfect  manhood  recognizes  happiness,  benevolence  and 
beauty  as  well  as  power.  Hence  to  the  normal  man  and  woman 
there  is  an  ample  sphere  and  gratification  for  their  reverence,  love 
and  admiration,  in  the  world  of  nature  and  humanity,  as  they  are 
continually  around  us,  whether  we  look  or  not,  beyond  the  appar- 
ent to  the  ultimate  occult  power. 

He  who  does  not  so  look  is  commonly  called  an  atheist,  yet 
the  fact  that  he  is  more  interested  in  the  visible  realities  of  which 
he  can  have  some  understanding  than  in  the  invisible  causes 
which  he  thinks  no  one  can  understand,  does  not  render  him  any 
less  a  religious  man  if  his  emotional  faculties  are  fully  and  nor- 
mally developed.  Indeed  many  of  them  who  have  been  called 
atheists  were  more  truly  religious  than  their  bigoted  opponents, 
who,  without  true  religion  (without  either  reverence  or  love), 
tyrannize  fiercely  over  their  fellows,  and  blindly  believed  in  an 
infinite  tyrant  whose  very  existence  true  religion  makes  us  unwill- 
ing to  admit.-  Who  can  doubt  that  Voltaire  and  Hume  had  a 
fuller  and  purer  religious  nature  than  the  majority  of  the  church- 
men of  their  time? 

With  this  view,  to  which  I  think  the  disciples  of  Comte 
should  not  object,  and  which  would  harmonize  with  the  sentiments 
of  Mill,  religion  is  an  element  of  character  highly  congenial  with 
and  promotive  of  the  study  of  nature  and  attainment  of  all  truth' 
but  absolutely  rebellious  against  the  harsh  spirit  which  has  been 
organized  in  the  so-called  Christian  church,  which  has  inherited 
its  spirit  from  Constantine  and  Athanasius. 

Now  comes  the  question  upon  which  modern  thinkers  divide. 
Does  this  loving  and  reverent  study  of  the  universe  —  of  man  and 
all  that  surrounds  him  —  lead  to  the  recognition  of  a  grand,  invisi- 
ble and  almost  inconceivable  power  behind  or  within  its  phe- 
nomena? Does  not  the  fact  that  force  is  invisible  and  almost 
inconceivable  as  to  its  basis  or  origin,  and  that  all  moving  powers 
of  every  kind,  as  well  as  all  intelligence  or  organizing  guidance,  is 
invisible,  intangible  and  inaccessible  to  all  our  faculties  except 
reason,  lead  toward  the  opinion  that  the  grand  aggregate  of  power 
and  guiding  capacity  should  be  recognized  as  possessing  the  attri- 
butes which  appear  in  universal  nature  —  an  incalculable  amount 
of  energy,  of  stability,  and  of  benevolent  organizing  wisdom?  If 
the  quality  of  producing  good  is  called  benevolence  or  love  in 


the:  open  court. 


5°3 


man,  why  mav  not  the  same  expression  (since  we  have  no  other) 
be  applied  to  the  infinite  source  of  happiness,  of  joy  and  beauty, 
though  we  are  unable  to  comprehend  it? 

However,  the  reader  may  decide  that  question  in  reference 
the  Great  Unknown,  I  must  claim  that  in  a  strictly  inductive 
spirit  we  are  advancing  steadily,  if  not  rapidly,  as  I  think,  toward 
a  better  understanding  or  conception  of  the  Great  Unknown, 
guided  or  rather  impelled  by  the  religious  spirit  (which  is  not  the 
spirit  of  the  church)  which  leads  us  to  recognize  all  the  rare  and 
marvelous  facts  of  the  universe  as  exponents  of  its  mysteries. 

In  that  reverent  and  loving  spirit  we  recognize  in  ourselves 
and  our  fellows  an  intelligence,  love  and  will  which  though  inac- 
cessible to  physical  science  are  really  powers  that  act  upon  and 
with  matter,  and  being  thus,  forces  in  the  highest  sense  of  the 
word  force,  as  well  as  self  conscious  powers,  they  cannot  ration- 
ally be  supposed  to  pass  into  nonentity  with  the  decomposition  ot 
the  body,  any  more  than  caloric  can  be  supposed  to  pass  into 
annihilation  when  the  steam  which  it  sustained  is  condensed  into 
water.  This  argument  from  analogy  and  from  the  persistence  of 
force,  may  not  be  imperatively  conclusive,  but  becomes  conclusive 
when  the  scientist  who  traces  the  lost  caloric  of  steam,  succeeds 
as  well  in  tracing  the  lost  intelligence  and  will  which  survive  the 
body,  which  have  been  recognized  by  millions  and  which  the  most 
rigidly  accurate  and  careful  experiments  of  scientists  in  the  last 
thirty  years  have  demonstrated  to  be  as  perfect  in  their  disem- 
bodied state  as  they  ever  were  in  their  embodied  form  and 
location. 

To  the  prejudice  which  resists  the  acceptance  of  such  testi- 
mony I  would  say  it  is  not  compatible  with  a  just  respect  for  our 
fellow  beings.  The  honorable  scientist  should  ever  be  encour- 
aged to  persist  in  the  fearless  pursuit  of  truth  b3'  the  candid  and 
courteous  reception  of  his  verified  statements,  and  the  refusal  to 
receive  them  and  to  test  them  is  not  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry  but 
the  spirit  of  intolerant  bigotry  which  has  so  long  dominated  alike 
in  the  church,  in  the  learned  professions,  and  in  government. 

I  hold  that  the  absolute  demonstration  of  the  continued  life 
of  man  as  a  spiritual  being  carries  us  very  far  on  the  way  to 
recognize  spiritual  power  of  a  transcendently  greater  nature  and 
capacity,  to  the  conception  of  which  advancing  science  will  surely 
lead  us. 

Returning  to  the  question  of  religion,  which  as  a  sentiment 
embraces  all  that  is  great,  wise  and  good,  does  it  not  necessarily 
embrace  the  spiritual  world  of  disembodied  humanity,  and  the 
power  which  is  above  all — but  can  it  be  confined  to  the  invisible.' 
I  trow  not.  Our  love,  hope  and  poetic  fervor  reach  out  first  to 
that  which  is  seen,  and  from  the  seen  advance  to  the  unseen; but 
the  religion  that  reaches  only  to  the  seen  is  none  the  less  a  genu- 
ine religion  and  is  far  more  a  true  religion,  than  the  vindictive  and 
credulous  impulses  which  recognize  in  fear  the  imaginary  tyrant 
of  the  universe.  Joseph  Rodes  Buchanan. 


TOLSTOI. 

To  the  Editors : 

The  article  by  W.  D.  Gunning,  in  the  issue  of  The  Open 
Court  of  September  1st,  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  your  paper, 
It  will  deepen  and  extend  the  already  lively  interest  awakened  in 
the  religious  world  by  the  late  publication  of  My  Religion,  by 
Count  Tolstoi.  It  will  also  serve  to  sharpen  the  public  appetite 
for  the  promised  two  volumes  now  in  preparation  by  the  same 
author,  namely,  A  Criticism  on  Dogmatic  Theology  and  a  IVew 
Translation  of  the  Four  Gospels.  Hosts  of  those  who  have  read 
My  Religion  cannot  but  regret  that  Tolstoi  should  be  hindered, 
even  for  a  moment,  from  accomplishing  his  work,  by  dabbling  in 
the  unimportant  business  of  cobbling  shoes  and  working  in  the 
field.  He  has  more  pressing  work  upon  his  hand — that  of  unfold- 
ing and  making  clear  to  prince  and  peasant  the  doctrine  of  Jesus. 


That  doctrine  -will  rule  the  world,  when  it  is  seen  and  felt  in  its 
tivine  simplicity. 

Mr.  Gunning  says,  "  Resist  evil  by  whatever  means  will  prove 
■ftective."  But  the  world's  doctrine,  an  eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for 
a  tooth,  says  Tolstoi,  has  never  proved  itself  effective.  It  has 
only  aggravated  the  evil.  Now  leave  the  doctrine  of  the  world 
and  apply  earnestly  the  doctrine  of  Jesus.  This  certainly  seems 
to  be  a  reasonable  demand.  The  whip  which  lacerates  the  body 
has  thus  far  had  but  indifferent  success  in  the  expulsion  of  evil. 
Satan  cannot  cast  out  Satan.  Jesus  said  to  the  sinning  woman — 
go,  and  sin  no  more.  This  would  be  a  very  lax  way  of  dealing 
with  social  evil  say  those  who  still  adhere  to  the  Mosaic  code. 
Nothing  short  of  stoning  her  to  death  will  prove  effectual.  For- 
giveness, kindness,  tender  sympathy  for  the  fallen  are  only  a 
premium  on  vicious  conduct. 

Very  well,  we  now  have  presented  face  to  face  Mr.  Gunning's 
remedy  for  evil  and  that  of  Tolstoi's.  If  we  must  choose  either,  I 
certainly  greatly  prefer  the  latter  remedy.  It  seems  more  rational, 
more  human,  more  divine,  more  efficient,  more  satisfactory  every 
way.  For  myself  I  have  tried  to  live  out  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  for 
more  than  fourscore  years,  and  do  not  feel  that  I  have  suffered  for 
it  in  body,  or  mind  or  estate.  I  do  not  think  the  world  at  large  would 
suffer  by  carrying  out  the  precepts  of  Jesus  in  their  full  scope  and 
spirit.  That  the  Church  has  not  carried  them  out  proves  only  its 
weakness  and  its  conformity  to  the  doctrine  of  the  world.  I 
rejoice  that  there  are  even  a  few  in  the  world  who  have  not  bowed 
down  to  Baal,  but  have  stood  bravely  for  the  truth  as  exemplified 
in  the  life  and  teachings  of  the  wise  man  of  Nazareth.        j.  s.  b. 

BOOK   REVIEWS. 

Ueber  religiose  und  wissenschaftliche  Weltan- 
schauung. Ein  historisch-kritischer  Versuch  von  Prof.  Dr. 
L.  Biichner.  Verfasser  von  "  Kraft  und  Stoff,"  u.  s.  w. 
Leipzig:  Verlag  von  Theodor  Thomas,  1S87. 
This  handsomely  printed  pamphlet  of  75  pages  is  a  greatly 
enlarged  edition  of  the  address  given  by  the  famous  author  of 
Force  and  Matter,  before  the  Freidenker-Bund,  or  association  of 
German  freethinkers,  at  Apolda,  Saxony,  May  31,  1SS5,  on  the 
conflict  between  religious  and  scientific  views.  As  now  published, 
the  essay  begins  by  defining  religion  as  faith  in  spiritual  beings, 
and  in  supernatural  powers  which  rule  as  they  please  over  nature 
and  men.  With  a  religion  which  seeks  to  realize  all  its  ideals  in 
this  earthly  life,  and  in  the  relations  of  man  to  man,  Prof.  Biich- 
ner has  no  controversy.  Starting  thus  with  the  common  and 
time-honored  definition  of  religion,  he  goes  on  to  tell  how  it  origi- 
nated in  ignorance  of  the  causes  of  natural  phenomena,  dreams 
for  instance.  The  earliest  scientific  discoveries  were  favorably 
received;  and  there  was  but  little  persecution  of  new  views  before 
the  appearance  of  Christianity,  with  such  excessively  spiritual  and 
unwordly  aims,  as  well  as  with  such  blind  reliance  on  revelation, 
as  made  the  conflict  between  religion  and  science  inevitable.  The 
various  phases  of  this  struggle  are  related  with  great  descriptive 
power  down  to  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Nothing  is 
said,  however,  of  the  next  hundred  and  fifty  years,  during  which 
the  papacy  was  attacked  successively  by  Philip  of  France,  Dante, 
Louis  of  Bavaria,  Ockham,  Rienzi,  Tauler,  Wycliffe  and  Huss. 
The  omission  is  especially  to  be  regretted,  because  this  is  also  the 
period  of  the  revival  of  learning,  as  well  as  of  the  new  birth  o( 
literature,  art  and  commerce.  These  secularizing  influences  are 
too  important  to  be  disregarded  ;  and  the  latter  part  of  the  historical 
survey  is  not  only  much  less  minute  than  the  earlier  portion  but 
less  accurate,  for  instance  in  putting  Tindal,  Shaftesbury  and  Mira- 
baud  in  the  seventeenth  century  instead  of  the  eighteenth.  These 
defects  are    pointed  out    in    hope   that   they  will  be  corrected  in 


5°4 


THE    OPEN    COURT, 


'ater  editions,  as  well  as  in  the  English  translation,  which  will  be 
eagerly  expected. 

Dr.  Biichner's  real  ability  as  an  historian  is  manifest,  as  he 
shows  how  the  excesses  of  the  French  Revolution  have  tempted 
wealthy,  powerful  and  cultivated  people  to  abandon  the  cause  of 
free  thought,  which  is  now  in  consequence  obliged  to  look  for  its 
most  zealous  champions  to  the  working  classes.  What  has  been 
lost  through  the  failure  of  the  thinkers  and  scholars  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  to  take  up  religion  as  boldly  as  those  of  the 
eighteenth,  has  been  more  than  made  good,  he  says,  by  the 
mighty  activity  and  brilliant  discoveries  of  science.  She  has 
brought  to  light  a  number  of  facts  which  are  utterly  irreconcilable 
with  the  vital  and  fundamental  principles  of  theology.  No  con- 
cession or  compromise  can  do  away  with  this  irrepressible  con- 
flict between  religion  and  science,  nature  and  revelation,  church 
and  progress,  faith  and  knowledge.  The  gap  between  these  two 
views  is  rapidly  becoming  too  wide  for  people  long  to  continue  to 
hold  with  both  sides  at  once.  Those  who  do  this  are  already 
beginning  to  find  it  unprofitable;  and  it  will  soon  be  impossible. 

And  philosophy  is  as  badly  off  as  religion.  No  one  with  a 
sound  mind  believes  in  the  Abracadabra  and  proposition-jingle  of 
the  metaphysical  wizards  and  conjurers.  Since  it  has  been  proved 
scientifically,  that  man  is  a  product  of  nature,  closely  connected 
with  all  other  organisms  and  governed  in  every  respect  by  uni- 
versal physical  laws,  so  that  whatever  he  knows  is  a  result  of 
natural  processes,  all  attempts  to  go  back  to  Kant  have  become 
useless;  and  the  mysterious  "Thing-in-itself "  under  whose  pro- 
tecting wings  refuge  has  been  sought  for  all  the  metaphysico- 
theological  paraphernalia  has  been  found  out  to  be  only  a  cloak 
for  ignorance  or  indecision  in  philosophy.  If  there  were  a 
"  Thing-in-itself"  it  could  never  become  a  subject  for  thought;  as 
men  have  no  relations  with  it,  and  only  visionaries  and  ghost-seers 
profess  to  have  seen  any  indications  of  its  influence. 

People  ask  us  what  we  can  give  to  atone  for  taking  away 
all  that  has  made  life  supportable.  Let  us  answer  with  an 
ancient  Roman,  saving:  u  Diis  extinctis^  deoque  successit  hutnan- 
itasf"  ''As  belief  in  God  departs,  faith  in  man  arrives!"  Man 
has  been  lost  in  a  wilderness  of  religious  illusions  and  theological 
controversies;  but  he  will  be  restored  to  himself  by  scientific  and 
liberal  views.  Into  the  place  of  the  wretched  slave  of  supra- 
mundane  powers  steps  the  self-reliant  man  who  knows  that  he 
owes  all  his  material  and  mental  riches  to  nature  and  to  himself, 
and  that  he  is  able  to  raise  himself  far  higher  than  he  has  yet 
attained.  Paradise  is  not  behind  but  before  us,  and  is  not  to  be 
reached  by  divine  grace  and  help  but  by  human  struggles  to 
escape  from  all  the  countless  relics  of  barbarism,  and  especially 
from  what  have  been  and  always  will  be  the  worst  enemies  of 
man — superstition,  ignorance  and  dread  of  the  supernatural.  This 
effort  after  happiness  and  truth  for  ourselves  and  others  is  the 
foundation  of  the  Freethinkers'  religion.  For  we,  too,  have  a 
religion,  an  ideal  conception  to  which  we  can  devote  our  powers; 
a  faith  not  in  the  supernatural  but  in  what  is  higher  and  better,  in 
something  above  the  present  state  of  man  and  nature — not  an 
aim  forever  unattainable,  but  one  within  our  ultimate  reach. 
Here  again  we  come  into  full  opposition  to  the  religious  view  that 
God  orders  all  things  as  they  ought  to  be,  so  that  every  inde- 
pendent effort  of  ours  to  make  any  improvement  can  be  only  a 
sinful  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  Omnipotent.  F.  M.  H. 


The  prevailing  philosophy  among  Americans  is  an  extreme 
optimism,  "in  consequence  whereof  pain  and  misery  must  be 
considered  as  the  result  of  error  and  ill-will,  both  due,  as  at 
present  the  phrase  goes,  'to  the  degradation  and  shackling  of  the 
science  of  political  economy.'  [Progress  and  Poverty^  The 
philosophy  for  the  people  which  Mr.  Cherouny  proposes  is  "pure 
and  undefiled  pessimism."  Pessimism  teaches  "that  there  are 
limits  to  the  human  will  and  its  light,  the  intellect,"  and  "  the 
application  of  the  doctrines  of  pessimism  to  matters  of  govern- 
ment *  *  *  were  the  foundation  of  the  policy  of  those  fathers 
of  the  Revolution  who  are  known  in  history  by  the  name  of  the 
Federalists." 

Thus  Mr.  Cherouny  attempts  a  combination  of  Schopen- 
hauer's philosophy  with  Hamilton's  statesmanship.  He  trusts  to 
find  in  the  restriction  of  the  individual  will,  the  ethical  basis  for  a 
strong  government. 

In  political  economy  the  editor  of  the  Philosophy  for  the  Peo- 
ple compares  the  Unions  of  to-day  with  the  mediaeval  guilds. 
Both  are  very  much  alike  in  origin  and  development  —  even  the 
boycott  existed,  under  another  name.  "  Socialism,"  Mr.  Cherouny 
says,  "  with  its  destructive  optimism  and  exaggerated  pessimism, 
cannot  enlighten  the  future.  Its  well-meaning  propagators  —  the 
Powderlys,  McGlynns,  Georges  —  are  conjuring  up  spirits  they 
cannot  control."  As  a  remedy  is  proposed :  "  The  United 
States  must  change  their  policy,  not  their  form  of  government." 
Instead  of  viewing  national  economy  from  the  standpoint  of  a 
business  man  and  applying  to  the  whole  the  measure  of  an  indi- 
vidual, the  science  must  in  the  future  look  upon  industrial  life 
from  the  national  point  of  view;  whence  all  appear  as  one  body 
with  interests  entirely  different  from  and  often  adverse  to  those  of 
individual  business  men." 

Two  sketches  are  attached  to  the  first  number,  "  Unhappi- 
ness"  and  "Happiness;"  the  former  to  a  great  extent  is  a  free 
translation  of  a  famous  passage  from  Schopenhauer,  the  latter  is 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  Schopenhauer's  philosophy. 

Far  from  agreeing  in  every  respect  with  Mr.  Cherouny's 
theories,  we  nevertheless  expect  that  his  publication  will  do  much 
good.  The  unbounded  optimism  and  individualism  of  Americans 
needs  a  corrective,  and  although  I  should  not  like  to  see  our 
youthful  nation  drift  into  pessimism,  the  study  of  and  acquaint- 
ance with  pessimistic  thinkers  would  prove  of  great  advantage. 


Philosophy  for  the  People.  Quarterly.  New  York :  The 
Cherouny  Printing  and  Publishing  Co.,  1887. 
Mr.  Henry  Cherouny,  the  editor  and,  at  least  in  the  first  num- 
ber, sole  contributor  of  this  quarterly,  undertakes  to  contend 
"against  popular  prejudices  as  well  as  against  those  speculists 
who  never  touch  truth  but  to  distort  it,  nor  any  sound  principle 
but  to  drive  it  to  extremes." 


The  Art  Amateur  for  October  is  especially  rich  in  its  pic- 
torial illustrations.  A  print  in  oils  of  an  old  wind-mill  is  very 
strong  and  effective.  The  wood-cut  of  a  group  of  armed  horse- 
men, from  Edouard  Detaille,  is  vigorous  and  spirited,  and  several 
cattle  pieces,  by  Emile  Van  Mauke,  are  very  well  rendered. 
An  interesting  criticism  on  this  painter  leads  us  to  examine  these 
prints  more  carefully.  Victor  Dargon  Gladiolis  strike  us  as  too 
crowded,  and  Edith  Scannell's  neatly  drawn  figures  are  just  what 
they  have  always  been.  The  designs  are  good,  especially  the 
"pomegranates,"  by  Sarah  Wynfield  Higgin,  and  the  design  for 
a  wood  panel,  by  C.  M-  Jenckes.  There  is  much  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  "  tricks  of  the  trade."  A  curious  case  has 
occurred  in  New  York  of  the  arrest  of  a  fellow  selling  trashy  pic- 
tures by  gas-light.  The  prosecuting  attorney  justified  the  police- 
man on  the  ground  of  an  old  State  law  forbidding  picture  auctions 
after  dark.  The  Mayor  declares  that  the  law,  since  it  is  a  law, 
must  be  enforced,  as  it  is  the  fashion  in  that  city  to  hold  picture 
sales  by  night.  This  decision  has  caused  some  excitement  among 
picture  dealers.  Some  interesting  extracts  are  given  from  Madame 
Cave's  Drawing  from  Memory.  This  book  attracted  some  atten- 
tion thirty  or  more  years  ago.  The  main  point  of  it  is  that  a 
pupil  should  make  a  tracing  of  a  picture,  and  then  from  memory 
draw  the  important  points  so  accurately  that  they  will  stand  the 
test  of  being  matched  with  the  tracing.  So  great  an  authority  as 
Delacroix  gave  it  his  commendation,  thinking  it  a  good  method 
to  secure  accuracy  in  lengths  and  for  shortenings.  As  the  popu- 
lar direction  in  drawing  has  of  late  turned  so  far  from  thorough- 
ness and  correctness,  it  is  well  to  call  attention  to  this  book, 
although  its  methods  may  seem  too  mechanical.  "Montezuma" 
cannot  be  happy  without  another  ill-natured  fling  at  Miss  Gard- 
ner, which  we  presume  will  not  hurt  her,  and  Greta  writes  her 
gossiping  letter  from  Boston.  The  technical  instructions  in 
painting  and  photography  are  valuable,  and  must  help  the  solitary 
amateur  very  much. 


The  Open  Court 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing   Ethics  and   Religion   Upon   a   Scientific   Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  19. 


CHICAGO,  OCTOBER  27,  1887. 


i  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


PERSONA. 

BY  PROF.  F.  MAX  MULLER. 
Part  I. 

If  all  our  thoughts  are  embodied  in  our  words,  it 
follows  that  the  best  way  to  study  the  growth  of  our 
thoughts  is  to  study  the  growth  of  our  words.  We 
know  that  almost  every  word  has  a  number  of  mean- 
ings even  now,  and  if  we  trace  words  back  from  century 
to  century,  we  are  often  astonished  at  the  variety  of 
purposes  which  they  have  been  made  to  serve.  The 
philosopher  by  profession  may,  if  he  likes,  ignore  all 
this.  He  has  a  perfect  right  to  say,  this  word  shall  in 
future  mean  this  and  nothing  else.  It  would  be  a  bless- 
ing if  every  philosopher  would  do  this,  and  though  it 
does  not  follow  that  language  would  always  obey  his 
sic  volo,  sic  jubeo,  yet  we  should  at  all  events  be  far 
better  able  to  follow  his  own  nights  of  fancy.  But  apart 
from  what,  according  to  our  opinion,  certain  words 
ought  to  mean,  there  is  a  far  more  important  question, 
namely,  what  certain  words  have  meant,  and  how  they 
came  to  mean  what  they  meant.  In  this  lies  the  whole 
problem  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  our  thought. 
And  if  the  Science  of  Thought  is  ever  to  assume  a  posi- 
tive character,  if  historical  facts  are  ever  to  take  the 
place  of  mere  speculation  in  the  analysis  of  our  mind, 
it  can  be  done  in  one  way  only,  namely,  by  studying  in 
a  truly  historical  spirit  the  continuous  growth  of  our 
words.  One  instance  will  show  better  what  I  mean 
than  lengthy  arguments.  Let  us  take  such  words  as 
person,  personal,  personality.  They  are  now  very 
abstracts  terms.  In  fact,  nothing  can  be  more  abstract 
than  person.  It  is  neither  male  nor  female,  neither 
young  nor  old.  As  a  noun  it  is  hardly  more  than  what 
to  be  is  as  a  verb.  In  French  it  may  even  come  to  mean 
nobody.  For  if  we  ask  our  Concierge  at  Paris  whether 
anybody  has  called  on  us  during  our  absence,  he  will 
reply,  " Personne,  monsieur"  which  means,  '•'■Not  a 
soul,  sir." 

Of  course  person  is  the  Latin  persona.  It  came  to 
us  from  Rome,  but  the  journey  was  long  and  its  adven- 
tures many. 

In  Latin  persona  meant  a  mask,  made  of  thin  wood 
or  clay,  such  as  was  worn  by  the  actors  at  Rome.  It  is 
curious  that  while  the  Greek  actors  always  wore  these 
masks,  the  Roman  actors  did  not  adopt  them  at  first. 
Thus  while  nearly  all  technical  Latin  terms  connected 


with  the  theatre  were  borrowed  from  Greek,  the  name 
for  mask,  -puauxov,  was  never  naturalized  in  Italy.  The 
story  goes  that  a  famous  actor,  Roscius  Gallus  (about 
100  B.C.),  introduced  masks,  which  had  been  unknown 
before  on  the  Roman  stage,  because  he  had  the  misfor- 
tune to  squint.  This  may  or  may  not  be  true,  but  I 
confess  it  sounds  to  me  a  little  like  a  story  invented  by 
malicious  friends.  Anyhow  it  is  strange  that,  if  Roscius 
had  introduced  masks  simply  in  order  to  hide  certain 
blemishes  of  his  face,  the  name  given  to  them  in  Latin, 
possibly  by  Roscius  Gallus  himself,  should  have  been 
persona,  i.e.  that  which  causes  the  voice  to  sound.  We 
can  understand  why  the  Greeks  called  their  masks  wp6- 
auiTov,  which  means  simply  what  is  before  the  face,  the 
mask  thus  worn  being  meant  to  indicate  the  character 
represented  by  each  actor  on  the  stage.  To  us  it  seems 
almost  incredible  that  the  great  Greek  actors  should 
have  submitted  to  such  mummeries,  and  should  have 
deprived  themselves  of  the  most  powerful  help  in  act- 
ing, the  expression  of  the  face.  But  so  it  was,  and  we 
are  told  that  it  was  necessary,  because  without  these 
prosopa,  which  contained  some  acoustic  apparatus  to 
strengthen  the  voice  of  the  actor,  they  could  not  have 
made  themselves  heard  in  the  wide  and  open-air  theatres 
of  Greece. 

Why  these  masks  should  have  been  called  persona 
in  Latin,  i.e.  through-sounder,  requires  no  further 
explanation;  but  the  story  of  Roscius  Gallus,  the  squint- 
ing actor,  becomes  thereby  all  the  more  doubtful, 
particularly  if  we  remember  that  Plautus  already  was 
able  to  use  the  diminutive  persolla  in  the  sense  of  "  You 
little  fright!"      (Plaut.  Cure.  i.  3.  36.) 

I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that  persona,  as  a  feminine, 
was  a  genuine  Latin  word,  the  name  of  an  instrument 
through  which  the  voice  could  be  made  to  sound,  and 
more  particularly  of  the  mask  used  by  Greek  actors. 

Gellius  (v.  7)  informs  us  that  a  Latin  grammarian 
who  had  written  a  learned  work  on  the  origin  of  words, 
Gavius  Bassus  by  name,  derived  persona  from  per- 
sonare,  to  sound  through,  because  "the  head  and  mouth 
being  hidden  everywhere  by  the  cover  of  the  mask  and 
open  only  through  one  passage  for  the  emission  of  the 
voice,  drives  the  voice,  being  no  longer  unsettled  and 
diffused,  into  one  exit  only,  well  gathered  together,  and 
thus  makes  it  sound  more  clear  and  melodious.  And 
because  that  mask  makes  the  voice  of  the   mouth  clear 


5°6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


and  resonant,  therefore  it  has  been  called  persona,  the  o 
being  lengthened  on  account  of  the  form  of  the  word." 
I  should  have  thought  that  with  regard  to  the  origin 
and  the  formation  of  a  word  which  had  become  current 
at  Rome  not  so  very  long  before  his  time,  the  testimony 
of  a  scholar  such  as  Gavius  Bassus  was,  would  have 
carried  considerable  weight.  But  no;  there  is  nothing 
that  scholars,  who  can  discover  nothing  else,  like  so 
much  as  to  discover  a  false  quantity.  The  o  in  the  Latin 
adjective  persouus,  they  say,  is  short,  that  in  persona  is 
long.  No  doubt  it  is,  and  Gavius  Bassus  was  well 
aware  of  it,  but  he  says  the  o  was  lengthened  on  account 
of  the  form  of  the  word.  Is  not  that  clear  enough  for 
a  grammarian  ?  Are  there  not  many  words  in  which 
the  vowel  is  lengthened  or  strengthened  on  account  of 
the  form  of  the  word  ?  Have  we  not  in  Sanskrit  the 
same  root,  svan,  which  froms  svdna,  sound,  but  svdtia, 
sounding? 

However,  before  we  enter  on  the  defence  of  our  own 
derivation,  let  us  see  whether  our  opponents  can  produce 
a  more  plausible  one.  Scaliger,  the  great  Scaliger,  in 
order  to  avoid  a  false  quantity,  went  so  far  as  to  derive 
persona  from  irepi  opii,  what  is  round  the  body,  or  even 
from  -ept^uadai,  to  gird  round.  Is  not  this  straining  at  a 
gnat  and  swallowing  a  camel  ?  We  have  only  to 
consider  that  such  an  etymology  was  possible,  and  possi- 
ble with  a  Scaliger  who,  taking  all  in  all,  was  perhaps 
the  greatest  classical  scholar  that  the  world  has  ever 
known,  in  order  to  see  how  completely  classical  schol- 
arship has  been  purified  and  reinvigorated  by  compara- 
tive philology.  Would  even  the  most  insignificant  of 
Greek  professors  now  venture  on  such  an  etymology 
which,  not  much  more  than  three  hundred  years  ago, 
was  uttered  without  any  misgivings  by  the  prince  of 
classical  scholars? 

About  a  hundred  years  later,  another  great  author- 
ity, Vossius,  the  author  of  an  Ety?nologicum  Alagnum, 
represented  persona  as  a  corruption  of  the  Greek  pro- 
sopon.  Now  it  is  quite  true  that  the  Romans  made  sad 
havoc  with  some  of  the  words  which  they  adopted  from 
Greek,  but  we  may  go  through  the  whole  Tensaurns 
Palo-graccus,  lately  published  by  Saalfeld  (1SS4),  with- 
out finding  anything  approaching  to  such  violence. 

However,  I  must  confess  classical  scholars  are  not  the 
only  offenders.  Professor  Pott,  the  Nestor  of  compara- 
tive philologists,  rather  than  incur  the  suspicion  of 
committing  a  false  quantity,  suggests  that  persona  may 
be  a  corruption,  if  not  of  prosopon,  at  least  of  a  possible 
adjective  prosopina,  while  the  change  of  prosopina  into 
persona  might  be  justified  by  the  analogous  change  of 
Persephone  into  Proserpina.  I  do  not  think  that  the 
equation  Persephone:  Proserpina^  prosopina :  persona 
would  be  approved  of  by  many  mathematicians,  and 
there  remains  besides  the  other  objection  that  Perse- 
phone was  a   real  Greek  word,  but  prosopina  was  not. 


We  must  try  to  find  out,  therefore,  whether  Latin 
could  not  have  formed  two  words,  one  personns,  mean- 
ing resounding,  and  another  persona,  meaning  a  resound- 
ing instrument.  It  is  well  known  that  the  radical 
vowels  i  and  u  are  constantly  strengthened  in  certain 
derivatives.  I  still  think  that  the  best  name  for  that 
change  is  Guva,  but  if  it  is  thought  better  to  begin  with 
the  strong  vowels  or  rather  diphthongs  ai  and  au,  and 
call  i  and  u  their  weakened  forms,  I  do  not  think  that 
we  either  lose  or  gain  much  by  this  change  of  fashion. 
I  hold  that  what  Hindu  grammarians  have  explained  as 
Guna,  or  strengthening,  accounts  best  for  such  words  as 
dux,  dncis  and  duco,Jjdcs  and  j~idus,  dicax  and  dico,  etc. 

Exactly  the  same  process  would  account  for  sono 
and  personus  by  the  side  of  persona.  We  are  not  sur- 
prised at  sopor  and  sopio,  toga  and  contdgiiifn,  sagax 
and  sdgus,  placidus  and  pldcare,  even  sedere  and 
scdare.  We  have  in  Sanskrit  dsu,  quick,  in  Greek, 
(JM-f,  in  Latin  oc-ius,  all  derived  from  a  root,  .-Is,  which 
preserves  its  short  vowel  in  acus  and  acntus.  We  know 
that  causative  verbs  in  pirticular  lengthen,  if  possible, 
their  short  vowel,  as  we  see  in  sopire,  pldcare,  scdare.* 
If  therefore  our  phonetic  conscience  pricks  us,  all  we 
have  to  do  is  to  admit  a  causative  formation  of  sonare, 
and  persona  would  then  mean  exactly  what  it  does 
mean,  namely  something  which  causes  the  voice  to  sound 
through.  In  fact  persona  by  the  side  of  sottare  is  no 
more  irregular  than  perjugis,  continual,  by  the  side  of 
jug,  in  conjiix,  coujugis. 

Whoever  invented  or  started  this  word,  whether  a 
squinting  actor  or  some  maker  of  musical  instruments 
at  Rome,  had  certainly  no  idea  of  what  would  be  the 
fate  of  it.  It  is  a  very  fascinating,  though,  no  doubt,  a 
very  mischievous  amusement,  to  roll  down  stones  from 
the  crest  of  a  hill.  Some  start  away  briskly,  but  come 
to  a  sudden  stop.  Others  roll  down  slowly,  and  after  a 
time  vanish  from  our  sight.  But  now  and  then  a  quite 
insignificant  pebble  will  strike  against  other  stones,  and 
they  will  roll  down  together,  and  loosen  a  large  stone 
that  was  only  waiting  for  a  slight  push.  And  down 
they  go,  like  an  avalanche  of  earth  and  dust,  tearing  up 
the  turf,  uprooting  trees,  jumping  high  into  the  air,  and 
making  havoc  all  along  their  course,  till  they  settle  down 
at  last  in  the  valley,  and  no  one  can  say  how  these 
strange  boulders  came  to  be  there.  So  it  is  with  words. 
Many  are  started,  but  they  will  not  roll.  Others  roll 
away  and  nothing  seems  to  come  of  them.  But  this 
word  persona  has  rolled  along  with  wonderful  bounds, 
striking  right  and  left,  suggesting  new  thoughts,  stirring 
up  clouds  of  controversy,  and  occupying  to  the  present 
day  a  prominent  place  in  ali  discussions  on  theology  and 
philosophy,  though  few  only  of  those  who  use  it  know 
how  it  came  to  be  there. 


♦Corsscn,    Uber  Aussprache  des  Lateinischen.  Vol.   I.    p.   391    seq. ;   Htib- 
schmann,  lntiogermanischer  Vocalismus,  p.  57. 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


507 


Persona  proved  to  be  a  very  handy  and  useful  word, 
and  I  hardly  know  what  we  should  have  done  without 
it.  In  languages  which  do  not  possess  such  a  word 
whole  trains  of  thought  are  missing  which  we  express 
by  distinguishing  between  the  mask  and  its  wearer. 
Both  came  to  be  called  persona,  and  hence  a  double 
development  in  the  meanings  of  the  word. 

When  persona  was  taken  in  its  first  meaning  of 
mask,  representing  not  the  real,  but  the  assumed  char- 
acter of  an  actor,  nothing  was  more  natural  than  to  say, 
for  instance,  of  a  dishonest  man  that  he  was  wearing  a 
persona.  Thus  persona  took  the  sense  of  false  appear- 
ance, and  Seneca  (Ep.  24.  13)  was  able  to  say  that  we 
ought  to  remove  the  mere  appearance  or  persona,  not 
only  from  men,  but  also  from  things:  Non  hominibus 
tautum,  scd  et  rebus  persona  dementia  est  et  reddendo. 
facies  sua.  Personatus  was  used  of  a  man  who  had  to 
appear  different  from  what  he  really  was,  and  Cicero, 
writing  to  Atticus  (15.  1.  4),  exclaimed,  £hiid  est  cur 
ego  personatus  ambulem?  "Why  should  I  walk  about 
in  an  assumed  character?  "  We  speak  of  personating 
in  a  slightlv  different  sense,  namely,  when  some  one, 
for  fraudulent  purposes,  tries  to  pass  for  some  one  else. 
In  Latin,  however,  persona  was  not  always  used  in  the 
sense  of  a  deceptive  appearance,  for  we  see  Cicero 
remarking  that  "  lie  who  teaches  philosophy  takes  upon 
himself  a  very  serious  part:"  Qui philosophiam  pro- 
fitetnr,  gravissimam  mini  sustinere  videtur  personam 
(Cic.  in  Pis.  cap.  29  ). 


THE   OLD   MAN   OF  THE  SEA. 
BY  PROF.  W.  D.  GUNNING. 

In  boyhood  I  was  entertained  by  the  story  of  the 
Arabian  Nights.  My  sympathies  were  roused  by  the 
plight  of  Sindbad,  the  sailor,  going  about  with  the  Old 
Man  of  the  Sea  on  his  shoulders.  I  did  not  allegorize, 
I  did  not  spiritualize.  I  had  no  new  wine  for  old  bot- 
tles. I  knew  Sindbad  only  as  a  sailor  and  the  wrinkled 
old  man  only  as  one  who  had  been  a  stroller  on  his  own 
limbs  till  he  found  portage  on  Sindbad.  I  wondered 
why  Sindbad  took  him.  I  thought  the  old  man  must 
have  said:  "You  see  I  am  in  a  helpless  plight.  You 
see  how  old,  withered  and  weazen  I  am.  I  am  very 
light.  I  have  wandered  along  this  shore  so  long  there 
is  nothing  left  of  me  but  a  shriveled  skin  over  rickety 
bones.  Let  me  sit  on  your  shoulder  just  a  little  while. 
I  am  so  light  you  will  hardly  feel  me  and  you  have 
only  to  tell  me  when  you  are  tired  and  I  will  dismount." 
The  silly  sailor  heard  and  yielded.  The  wily  old  man 
climbed  up,  locked  his  legs  firmly  around  Sindbad's 
breast  and  stuck  there  to  the  end  of  life. 

All  "  which  thing,"  as  Paul  would  say,  is  an  allegory. 
Sindbad  is  not  a  man,  but  Man.  The  Old  Man  of  the 
Sea  is  not  time-wrinkled,  but  Time.  He  is  past  time. 
He  is  the  Past.     He   comes   to  man   and  says:     "I   am 


very  old.  I  have  marked  the  tides  on  the  shore  of  this 
island  in  the  sea  of  worlds  till  other  worlds  have  grown 
dim  with  age.  This  scythe  wherewith  I  clip  the  gen- 
erations has  mown  down  such  myriad  lives  as  to  make 
the  crust  of  the  globe  impact  of  their  skeletons.  The 
world  was  growing  old  when  I  passed  before  the  cra- 
dle of  humanity.  I  made  record  of  the  faltering  steps 
of  infant  man.  I  knew  him  when  he  knew  not  me. 
I  knew  him  when  he  conceived  of  me  as  a  something 
'cut-off'  and  called  me 'time,' that  is,  a  thing  cut.  In 
the  very  life-stuff  of  the  race  I  recorded  the  tattooing  of 
the  mind  with  superstition.  Take  me  on  your  shoulder. 
I  will  guide  your  feet.      I  will  sit  lightly." 

Man  heard  and  yielded,  and  the  Old  Man  mounted 
and  locked  his  limbs  around  our  breast  and  laid  his 
hand  on  our  brain.  And  there  he  sits,  bestriding  us  as  the 
Old  Man  of  the  Sea  bestrode  Sindbad.  In  his  left 
hand  he  carries  the  ripe  sheaves  of  error;  in  his  right 
the  seeds  of  truth.  .Shake  him  off  we  cannot.  How 
he  clings  to  us  in  the  very  names  we  give  him!  Why 
do  we  divide  a  day  into  twenty-four  hours  and  an  hour 
into  sixty  minutes?  It  is  because,  long  ago,  shepherds 
on  the  plains  of  Babylonia  happened  to  divide  the  day 
into  twenty-four  parts  and  one  of  these  into  sixty.  It  is 
because  Nebuchadnezzar  happened  to  adopt  the  time- 
scale  of  the  shepherds.  It  is  because  Hipparchus  jour- 
neying to  Babylon,  found  and  took  to  Athens  the  time- 
division  of  the  Chaldeans.  From  Babylon  it  journeyed 
to  Athens,  from  Athens  to  Rome,  from  Rome  to  the 
world,  from  the  world  of  Rome  down  the  ages  till  its 
foot-prints  are  on  the  face  of  your  watch.  The  Old 
Man  guides  your  hand  when  you  paint  the  numbers  on 
the  dial  of  a  clock. 

Why  is  our  notation  decimal?  It  is  because  nature, 
having  wrought  indefinitely  as  to  arithmetic,  came  to 
the  number  five  for  the  digits  on  a  mammal's  foot,  a 
number  which  she  held  and  passed  up  into  the  fingers  ot 
a  man.  The  first  men  counted  on  their  fingers,  and 
because  the  bathmodon  which  preceded  man  on  his  line 
had  five  toes  our  notation  is  decimal.  The  Old  Man 
lays  his  hand  on  your  brain  when  you  stamp  your  coin 
or  your  paper  in  denominations  often.  How  he  presses 
on  the  brain  of  the  pugilist,  who  calls  his  fist  "  a  bunch 
of  fives,"  the  very  name  used  by  Hesiod  in  the  dawn  of 
the  mind  life  of  Greece! 

Why  do  we  wear  the  marriage  ring?  It  is  because 
the  shaggy  man  of  the  prime  wooed  his  wife  with  a  club 
and  led  her  to  his  cave  with  a  rope  on  her  wrist.  When 
the  age  of  iron  came  the  thing  was  passing  into  a  symbol. 
The  tie  of  the  rope  gave  place  to  a  rime  of  iron.  The 
symbolism  passed  from  the  wrist  to  the  finger,  from  iron 
to  gold,  but  still,  in  parts  of  Germany,  the  bride,  for  a 
time,  must  wear  iron.  How  lightly  the  Old  Man  sits 
on  a  lady's  finger  whispering  servitude  where  a  man 
had  whispered  love! 


5°8 


THB    OPEN    COURT. 


Why  do  less  developed  men  in  parts  of  Ireland,  at  a 
wedding,  make  pretence  of  capturing  a  bride  and  taking 
her  away  by  force?  It  is  a  shadow  cast  down  the  slope 
of  centuries  from  a  cruel  reality. 

Why  do  we  perpetrate  the  folly  of  robing  ourselves 
in  black  after  the  death  of  a  friend  ?  It  is  because  our 
unloving  ancestors  disguised  themselves  so  that  the 
dreaded  ghost  whose  body  they  were  burying  would 
not  know  them  and  therefore  could  not  haunt  them. 
The  Old  Man  sits  heaviest  on  our  shoulder  at  the  tomb, 
in  the  church,  and  by  the  throne.  There  is  hardly  a 
funeral  custom  to-day  whose  root  is  not  in  a  ceremony 
of  the  ancient  man  to  bar  out  an  ancient  ghost. 

An  Anglican  bishop  once  said  to  me  that  in  matters 
of  the  church,  when  they  would  mend  the  creed  or  the 
ritual  they  did  as  those  who  mend  an  old  riddle.  They 
mend  an  old  fiddle  with  a  piece  of  another  old  fiddle. 
And  so  with  the  harp  of  Zion,  every  new-born  church 
which  would  mend  it  still  uses  a  piece  of  the  harp  of 
David  or  timbrel  of  Deborah. 

The  costume  which  we  cast  off  centuries  ago  is  still 
the  costume  of  royalty.  Royalty,  like  religion,  delights 
to  robe  itself  in  cast-off  customs  and  costumes.  Incest 
continued  to  be  royal  after  it  had  ceased  to  be  common. 
The  Incas  married  Coyas,  their  sisters.  Herod  married 
his  sister,  Cleopatra  her  brother. 

Let  the  Old  Man  speak  from  a  remoter  past.  Abra- 
ham married  his  half  sister.  In  explaining  to  Abimelek 
a  falsehood  which  he  had  taught  her  to  speak,  he  said, 
"  True,  she  is  my  sister,  the  daughter  of  my  father,  not 
the  daughter  of  my  mother,  and  therefore  she  became  my 
wife."  It  is  as  if  he  had  said,  "  If  we  had  been  of  the  same 
mother  custom  would  not  have  tolerated  our  marriage. 
Kinship  goes  through  the  mother."  The  act  of  Abra- 
ham was  the  outcrop  of  an  old  stratum.  His  words  to 
Abimelek  are  as  the  label  of  a  geologist  on  a  stratum  of 
the  globe.  I  read  it  thus:  In  this  stratum,  as  old  in  the 
history  of  man  as  the  Potsdam  sandstone  in  the  history 
of  the  earth,  a  number  of  men  held  a  wife  in  common. 
Polyandry  is  older  than  polygamy.  Abrasions  from 
this  stratum  will  pass  far  down  in  the  history  of  man 
and  Rome  will  write  in  her  law  "  -partus  seqiiitur  ven- 
trum"  and  America  will  translate  it  into  her  slave  code 
"  The  chain  follows  the  mother."  The  Old  Man  on  our 
shoulder  was  holding  the  pen  for  every  president  who 
sat  in  that  White  House  in  Washington,  till  Lincoln. 

He  had  taken  us  to  Palestine  and  was  telling  us 
something  of  deep  significance.  Abraham  stands  out 
from  the  door  of  his  tent  in  Mamie  a  dim  form  on  the 
horizon  line  between  history  and  fable.  The  language 
of  his  race  will  tell  us  in  another  way  what  he  told  with- 
out knowing  it,  to  Abimelek.  The  Hebrew  language 
had  no  word  for  uncle  and  consequently  no  word  for  its 
co-relative,  nephew.  The  language  did  not  discrimi- 
nate between  a  father  and  a  father's  brother.     It  implied 


a  state  of  society  in  which  a  number  of  brothers  held  a 
wife  in  common.  From  this  state  of  polyandry  Abra- 
ham had  passed,  but  the  Old  Man  who  bestrides  us, 
already  old,  was  bestriding  him  and  saying,  "  You  must 
not  marry  your  mother's  daughter,  although  you  can 
wed  without  blame  the  daughter  of  your  father."  Now 
the  Semitic  is  a  very  old  race.  We  can  trace  all  the 
races  of  Europe  and  the  Hindu  and  Persian  of  Asia 
back  about  five  thousand  years,  when  we  find  them 
potential  in  the  loins  of  a  shepherd  race  at  the  foot  of 
the  Himalayas.  But  the  Semitic  did  not  blend  even  with 
the  Aryan.  Five  thousand  years  ago  there  were  the 
Negroes,  the  Negritoes,  the  Mongols,  the  Turks,  the 
Semites  and  the  Aryans.  If  they  diverged  from  a  com- 
mon ancestral  race,  not  a  word  from  the  tongue  of  that 
race  is  known  to  survive  in  any  language  spoken  to-day. 
The  Old  Man  who  remembers  the  habits  of  primeval 
man  has  forgotten  his  words. 

In  the  Nilgherry  Hills  of  India  we  find  tribes  arrested 
in  development  at  the  stage  of  polyandry.  It  is  only 
those  especially  devoted  to  religion  who  keep  up  the 
custom  of  many  husbands  to  one  wife.  It  is  said  that 
wherever  we  find  a  tribe  addicted  to  eating  dog  we  may 
infer  that  the  tribe  has  lately  been  addicted  to  eating 
man.  When  cannibals  reform  they  tone  off  on  dog. 
So,  it  would  seem,  when  the  race  was  reforming  from  a 
vice  it  toned  off  on  religion.  The  men  of  the  Nilgherry 
Hills  blend  with  the  pre-Semites  in  the  practice  of  poly- 
andry. Now,  the  languages  of  the  American  Indian, 
the  non-Hindus  of  India,  and  the  Mongols  are,  like  the 
Hebrew,  barren  of  names  for  uncle  and  nephew.  These 
old  races,  like  the  pre-Semite,  lived  in  polyandry. 

How  heavily  the  Old  Man  sits  on  Australia!  How 
heavily  his  hand  presses  on  the  Australian  brain!  His 
pendulum  which,  over  all  the  universe,  was  beating  out 
his  steps  stopped  on  its  upward  beat  in  Australia.  Crea- 
tion reached  the  kangaroo  and  stopped.  Man  reached 
Australia  while  yet  a  child-man  and  his  growth  stopped. 
On  the  south  coast  he  has  hardly  attained  to  the  tribal 
state.  He  lives  in  sexual  promiscuity  under  a  single 
restriction.  As  we  push  our  way  backward  we  find  the 
lines  of  custom  converging  toward  the  Australian. 

So  much  has  the  Old  Man  on  our  shoulder  been 
telling  us.  What  a  welcome  the  world  gave  to  man! 
Fangs,  claws,  thorns,  thistles,  the  buzzing  lance  of  the 
insect,  the  invisible  bivouac  in  earth  and  air  of  the  microbe, 
simoons,  typhoons,  war  of  wind  with  wave  and  tooth 
with  claw — that  was  the  world  which  cradled  the  new- 
born man.  And  how  roughly  the  new-born  man 
fitted  his  cradle!  Painful  to  the  child-man  was  the 
leopard's  claw  and  pelting  storm,  more  painful  his 
own  dawning  thoughts.  Turn  a  horse  into  a  world 
it  does  not  know  and  every  object  within  range  of  its 
senses  will  seem  a  thing  of  life — so  low  on  the  scale 
begins    animism.     So    was    the    world    to   infant    man. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


509 


Our  own  ancestors  who  looked  from  hurdles  of  the 
sheep-fold  on  the  Himalayas  saw  the  mighty  domes 
robed  in  snow,  enduring  but  never  going,  as  if  they 
were  colossal  behemoths  at  rest,  and  called  them 
breathers.  They  saw  the  river  rushing  on  at  the  moun- 
tain's foot,  never  at  rest,  and  called  it  the  runner.  They 
saw  the  lightning's  forked  flash,  and  called  it  the  smitcr. 
They  felt  the  pelting  storms,  and  called  them  "  maruts," 
the  pounders. 

"  Far  along  from  peak  to  peak  the  rattling  crags  among 
Leaped  the  live  thunder — " 

to  them  real  live  thunder,  and  they  called  it  the  roarer. 
They  saw  the  azure  dome  over-spanning  the  domes  of 
granite,  and  called  it  the  enfo/der,  and,  at  last,  the  all- 
enfolding  Heaven-Father.  All  things  lived.  There 
were  no  abstractions.  Even  an  oath  was  a  concrete 
thing.  When  Zeus  was  going  to  swear  he  sent  Iris  to 
the  earth  to  bring  up  the  oath  in  a  golden  ewer. 

To  the  ancient  man  all  things  lived  and  most  things 
fought.  Nature  was  a  plenum  of  fight.  In  the  ocean 
the  war  of  each  against  all  is  so  fierce  that  now  and  then 
the  finny  fighter  leaps  up  to  fight  the  feathered  fighter 
in  the  world  of  air  above.  So  to  the  ancient  man  earth 
seemed  too  small  for  the  fierceness  of  its  battle  and  it 
regurgitated  into  heaven.  The  synod  of  gods  on 
Olympus  supplemented  a  conclave  of  fighters  below. 
One  god  was  armed  with  thunder-bolts,  another  with 
bow  and  arrows,  another  with  a  kind  of  a  pitchfork, 
another  with  a  club.  Some  were  armed  with  pesti- 
lence. Apollo  twanged  from  his  silvery  bow  the 
unseen  shafts  of  disease  that  pierced  the  dogs  and 
Greeks  before  the  walls  of  Troy.  Sophocles  sings 
of  the  great  plague  at  Athens  as  caused  by  the 
shafts  of  unarmed  Mars.  Jahweh  was  more  fiercely 
armed  than  any  god  on  Olympus.  He  was  Jahweh  of 
war  hosts.  He  was  armed  with  a  glittering  sword 
which  he  bathed  in  blood,  with  arrows  which  drank 
blood,  with  fire  which  he  rained  down  on  rebellious 
men,  with  lightning  which  he  shot  forth  like  arrows, 
with  snow  and  hail  which  Job  tells  us  he  reserved 
against  the  day  of  battles,  and  with  pestilence  which  he 
reserved  against  the  day  of  peace. 

These  doleful  voices  we  are  hearing  from  the  cradle 
of  our  race  may  seem  an  empty  waste  of  words.  Our 
manly  voice  is  in  no  danger  of  going  back  to  childish 
treble.  No,  but  the  treble  and  piping  of  the  child-man 
are  teaching  us  a  lesson  we  dearly  need.  The  religion 
of  Christendom  is  based  on  the  assumption  that  man  is  a 
fallen  race.  His  fall  was  so  tragic  it  dragged  down  all 
life  and  even  inanimate  nature.  While  the  protoplasts 
of  the  race,  Adam  and  Eve,  were  embowered  in  Eden 
the  lion  and  the  fawn,  the  shrike  and  the  dove,  the  spider 
and  the  fly  were  living  in  peaceful  fellowship  in  a  world 
which  was  all  paradise,  and  even  the  fish,  as  sung  in 
Paradise  Lost,  at  the  hour  for  dining,  left  their  watery 


world  to  browse  the  tender  grass  on  its  shore!  No  thorn 
was  on  the  rose,  no  claw  was  on  the  tiger,  no  fang  was 
m  the  asp,  no  grave  had  opened  under  the  foot  of  man, 
no  storm  raged  over  his  head,  no  storm  of  passion  raged 
in  his  heart,  the  "  maruts,"  those  pounders  of  the  sky, 
were  lulled  to  zephyrs  and  the  great  globe  itself  lay 
peaceful  on  its  lap  of  fire.  He  fell;  he  tasted  the  fruit 
of  the  tree  of  knowledge  and  Milton,  who  sings  the  faith 
of  Christendom,  says  that 

"  Earth  trembled  from  her  entrails  as  again 
In  pangs,  and  nature  gave  a  second  groan." 
The  thorn  came  on  the  rose,  the  claw  came  on  the 
tiger,  the  fang  came  on  the  asp,  graves  began  to  open 
under  the  feet  of  men,  "  hiss  to  hiss  returned  "  through 
all  the  world  "from  forked  tongue  to  forked  tongue;" 
strong  angels  bore  commission  from  the  throne  of  light 
to  tip  the  earth's  pole  and  at  once  the  zephyr  rose  to  a 

blast, 

"  Then  from  the  north 
Of  Norembega  and  the  Samoed  shore, 
Bursting  their  brazen  dungeon,  armed  with  ice 
And  snow  and  hail  and  stormy  gust  and  flaw," 

the  winds  came  roaring  and  bellowing  over  sea  and 
land ;  another  angel  ministrant  from  the  throne 

"Told  the  thunder  when  to  roll  with  terror, 
Through  the  dark  aerial  hall," 
and  told  the  lightning  when  to  stab,  while  Satan,  as  if 
in  despair  of  competing  with  God  in  dark  deeds  toward 
earth  and  man,  was  content  to  build  a  bridge,  cemented 
with  asphaltic  slime  and  pinned  with  adamant,  from 
earth  to  hell. 

The  Old  Man  of  the  Sea  who  bestrode  Sindbad 
drank  wine  and  broke  into  speech.  Under  the  enchant- 
ment of  science  the  Old  Man  who  bestrides  us  speaks. 
Hear  him.  All  that  you  are  and  all  that  you  have  are 
an  outgrowth.  In  me  was  the  root.  In  the  future  shall 
bend  the  golden  fruit.  Be  charitable  toward  the  tramp. 
He  is  your  heritage  from  me.  The  first  men  were 
tramps.  The  tramp  who  roams  the  highway  to-day 
with  no  floor  under  his  feet  but  the  turf,  no  roof  over 
his  head  but  the  sky,  equals  the  first  tramp  plus  shoes 
on  his  feet,  plus  a  coat  on  his  back,  plus  a  hat  on  his  head. 
Be  charitable  toward  the  dark  of  mind  and  perverse  of 
will.  They  are  anachronisms,  the  gray  of  morning  mist 
flecking  the  skies  of  noon.  Be  compassionate  toward 
those  whose  nudity  is  girt  only  with  feathered  cincture, 
and  whose  nudity  of  mind  is  veiled  only  by  platted  shreds 
from  that  weed  of  superstition,  the  night-shade.  They 
are  my  gift  to  you.  They  are  children  of  the  dawn  who 
have  lingered  far  on  in  the  day,  children  still,  old  and  stiff. 
To  them  you  owe  your  gods,  your  demons  and  your  ghosts. 
Be  charitable  even  toward  me,  the  Past.  Bear  me  lightly 
and  do  not  drop  me  abruptly.  Whatever  triumph  you 
have  made  over  me,  the  sanctity  of  marriage  for  my 
laxity,  guard  it — as  the  apple  of  the  eye  guard  it.  With 
these  triumphs  under  your  feet,  with  the  light  of  science 


5!° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


in  your  eyes,  behind  you  unnumbered  ages  of  prepara- 
tion, within  you  unspeakable  potencies,  before  you  the 
hills  of  light,  move  on  and  while 

"The  great  globe  shall  spin  forever 
Down  the  ringing  grooves  of  change" 
yourselves  change  with  the  changing  time,  work  out 
the  past  with  his  claws  and  fangs  and  pestilential  gods, 
work  in  the  crowning  race  of  man  that  "eye  to  eye 
shall  look  on  knowledge"  and  feel  no  burning  on  the 
brow  and  no  ache  on  the  heart. 


SEPARATENESS  IN   RELIGION. 

BY  GEORGE  JACOB  HOLYOAKE. 

The  last  place  in  which  the  separateness  of  things 
distinct  comes  to  be  perceived  is  in  theology.  Lord 
Dalling — who  as  Sir  Henry  Bulwer  was  a  diplomatist 
of  repute,  and  therefore  by  profession  a  master  of  dis- 
tinction in  terms,  yet  described  as  an  atheist  Paine 
who  never  went  further  than  disbelief  of  the  Bible,  was 
as  passionate  a  theist  as  Theodore  Parker,  and  hated 
atheism  as  much  as  Robespierre.  George  Henrv  Lewes 
on  one  occasion  depicted  as  an  atheist  that  "Sea-green" 
Republican.  Two  things  so  distinct  as  the  secular  from 
the  atheistic  is  not  yet  clear  to  the  English  mind.  The 
Bishop  of  Peterborough  maintains  that  they  are  the  same 
thing.  This  error  was  the  great  obstacle  which  prevented 
us  obtaining  in  England  national  secular  education.  The 
dreamy  prosaic,  much  smoking,  much  pondering  Dutch 
are  the  only  nation  in  Europe  which  keeps  secular  sepa- 
rate from  religious  instruction,  and  thereby  rears  the 
best  citizens  and  the  best  Christians  in  the  world — and 
is  the  only  country  which  sends  to  Heaven  clear-headed 
saints.  Prof.  Francis  William  Newman,  the  one  dis- 
tinguished scholar  whose  style  is  as  clear  as  Huxley's,  is 
never  confused.  He  discerns  separateness  through  all 
the  wide  region  of  religion.  "By  the  Church,"  he  says, 
"are  meant  those  who  are  actual  fellow- workers, whether 
with  conscious  or  unconscious  religion.  There  are  a 
large  margin  of  estimable  persons  in  whom  kindliness, 
generosity  and  purity  predominate  in  their  characters 
who  profess  no  religion  at  all."*  As  a  comprehensionist 
Richard  Baxter  was  far  inferior  to  Professor  Newman. 
Mr.  Spurgeon,  who,  at  the  annual  supper  of  his  college 
said  he  had  "  an  absolute  hatred  of  advanced  thought,"f 
of  course  sees  no  sacredness  in  secular  things;  but  lead- 
ers of  "advanced  thought  "—as  the  late  Thomas  Scott, 
of  Norwood,  who  published  a  hundred  essays  in  further- 
ance of  it,  issued  one  on  "  Secularism,"  which  set  forth 
that  the  secular  was  essentially  and  of  its  nature  atheistic. 
Mazzini  with  all  his  fine  Italian  penetration,  never  saw 
any  separateness  in  the  two  things. 

The  faculty  of  discerning  separateness  was  a  charac- 
teristic of   ancient  thought  though  seemingly  lost  to  the 

«  I'.  W.  Newman.     Tht  Netn  Crusade. 

t  Rev.  T.  R.  Stevenson's  Report  cited  in  Inquirer,  May  7,  1SS7. 


modern  thinker.  Mrs.  L.  Maria  Child,  in  her  most 
famous  work,  tells  us  that  Crishna  taught  that  "who- 
ever constantly  and  sincerely — whether  in  love  or 
enmity-bent  his  heart  toward  the  Deity — was  sure  to 
obtain  liberation  (salvation)  incarnated  in  human  form." 
Thus,  if  Crishna  was  our  spiritual  lawgiver,  the  secular 
thinker  would  not  be  excluded  from  the  rewards  of  the 
religious. 

There  was  a  strong  element  of  the  perspicacity 
which  discerns  separateness  in  theology  in  Chalmers, 
who  astonished  his  generation  by  the  saying  that  "  Hell 
was  not  a  place  but  a  state."  Yet,  three  centuries  ago 
Marlowe  said  the  same  thing  with  a  splendor  of  per- 
spicuity which  no  modern  preacher  has  attained.  In 
reply  to  the  question  of  Faustus  to  the  nimble  Fiend, 
"  How  comes  it  then  that  thou  art  out  of  Hell?"  Mephis- 
topheles  replies: 

"  Why  this  is  Hell,  nor  am  I  out  of  it: 
Think'st  thou  that  I  who  saw  the  face  of  God, 
And  tasted  the  eternal  joys  of  Heaven, 
Am  not  tormented  with  ten  thousand  Hells 
In  being  deprived  of  everlasting  bliss?" 

But  my  concrete  purpose  here  is  to  point  out  the 
separateness  of  the  secular  from  the  atheistic. 

There  is  hardly  any  remark  among  the  common- 
places of  discussion  which  denotes  more  looseness  of 
thought  than  the  saying  that  "it  is  not  worth  while  to 
dispute  about  names."  Names  are  the  signs  of  ideas  in 
the  minds  of  those  who  intelligently  use  them.  If  I 
announce  that  I  shall  write  on  Bells  some  might  sup- 
pose I  had  in  view  the  "Bells"  of  Erckmann-Cha- 
trian's  Polish  Jew,  or  church  bells,  or  vesper  bells — but 
no  one  would  expect  from  me  a  paper  on  bottle-nosed 
whales.  The  selection  of  right  names  is  the  object  and 
the  necessity  of  discussion;  and  debate  is  foolishness  to 
any  who  think  names  indifferent. 

A  man  comes  into  this  world  without  being  con- 
sulted as  to  time,  or  place,  or  part  he  has  to  play.  He 
soon  hears  that  there  is  another  world  also.  People  who 
have  found  the  world  ready-made  and  not  badly  fur- 
nished have  concluded  that  some  Being  whom  they 
called  Deity  had  provided  it  and  "  personally  conducts" 
it,  or  as  Carlyle  says  "  sits  outside  and  sees  it  go."  As 
however,  this  Being  is  never  seen  about,  nor  has  any 
address  in  this  world,  it  has  been  concluded  that  His 
abode  is  in  another  world,  and  that  there  are  two  worlds, 
one  known  and  one  unknown.  The  interpreter  of  the 
real  world  is  Experience ;  the  interpreter  of  the  supposed 
world  is  Theology.  One  thing  appears  quite  clear,  that 
these  two  worlds  are  distinct.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
carol  which  sings  of  "three  ships  which  came  sailing  by 
containing  Joseph  and  his  fair  lady  " — everybody  can 
see  that  the  ships  were  distinct  from  the  passengers, 
though  how  Joseph  and  Mary,  two  persons  only,  were 
distributed  in  three  ships  has  never  been  explained. 

In  course  of  time  it  comes  to  be  perceived   by  those 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5" 


who  think  that  this  world  is  but  part  of  an  infinite  sys- 
tem called  Nature,  and  the  other  world  is  described  as  an 
illimitable  dominion  to  which  is  given  the  name  of 
Spirit-world.  Then  two  persons  arise,  the  first  who  is 
called  Theist,  declares  his  belief  that  nature  is  incapable 
of  self-existence  and  self-sustainment  and  that  it  was 
originated  by  the  Lord  of  the  spirit  dominions.  The 
second  person  who  bears  the  name  of  Atheist,  avows 
his  belief  that  nature  is  self-sufficient,  self-acting,  with- 
out beginning  or  end,  and  that  it  is  self-contained  bear- 
ing within  its  eternal  womb  all  secrets,  all  mysteries, 
all  miracles,  all  time,  all  destiny.  The  theist  may  be 
right  or  the  atheist  may  be  right,  but  neither  know  abso- 
lutely whether  he  is  or  not. 

At  the  same  time  there  are  other  persons  not  less 
reflective  but  more  diffident  and  unpretending,  described 
by  the  name  of  Neutralists  or  Secularists,  who  say  that 
upon  questions  so  vast  they  give  no  opinion — not  having 
sufficient  knoweldge.  Belief  implies  evidence.  To 
arrive  at  a  conclusion  upon  infinite  things  the  premises 
must  be  infinite,  and  to  marshal  infinite  premises  and 
judge  them,  are  beyond  finite  capacity  and  not  necessary 
for  the  practical  purposes  of  life  and  duty. 

The  origin  of  this  world  not  being  obvious  or  deter- 
minable, all  men  would  perish  were  they  called  upon  to 
make  the  discovery  as  a  condition  of  the  enjoyment  of 
this  world.  The  question  of  the  authorship  of  this 
world  is  as  distinct  from  its  uses  as  is  the  architect  from 
a  house  or  the  owner  from  an  estate.  An  occupier  can 
tell  whether  his  habitation  is  well  built,  well  drained, 
well  ventilated,  well  situated,  although  he  may  never 
know  who  was  the  architect.  Any  competent  person 
can  tell  whether  an  estate  is  well  wooded,  well  watered, 
well  cultivated,  although  the  landlord  may  be  unknown. 
In  the  same  way  the  fitness  of  this  world  as  a  pleasant 
and  profitable  dwelling  place  is  quite  distinct  from  our 
knowledge  of  who  designed  it,  or  who  owns  it.  From 
all  appearances  the  contriver  and  proprietor  of  this  world 
looks  for  no  acknowledgment  save  the  happiness  of  the 
inhabitants  and  exacts  no  rental  save  that  of  progress. 

Ever  increasing  experience  convinces  those  who 
observe  that  science  is  the  providence  of  life  and  human 
affairs  can  be  conducted  without  theology,  which  in  its 
precepts  and  policv  is  avowedly  alien  to  this  world.  By 
secularism  is  meant  a  series  of  precepts  the  truth  of 
which  can  be  tested  in  this  life — precepts  by  which 
morality,  justice  and  honor  can  be  inculcated  and  sus- 
tained. The  reverence  of  that  which  is  true,  and  right 
and  compassionate  is  human,  and  some  think  religious, 
and  more  so  than  many  theories  of  theology  which  take 
that  name. 

It  is  said  by  many  that  there  is  One  who  watches 
over  this  world  ready  to  aid  all  who  call  upon  Him.  If 
this  were  true  there  would  be  neither  error  nor  want 
anywhere,  for  we  know   that   all   the    inhabitants   have 


been  at  Him  with  their  passionate  requests.  The  rule 
theology  lays  down  for  success  is  that  "  we  should  pray 
as  though  there  was  no  help  in  us  and  work  as  though 
there  was  no  help  in  Heaven."  This  is  doubling  our 
labor.  The  secularist  sees  that  secular  exertion  is  alone 
productive,  chooses  that  course  without  complaint.  The 
secularist,  therefore,  selects  for  study  the  material  means 
of  this  life,  with  a  view  to  human  welfare  and  improve- 
ment. But  always  avoiding  large  statements  which 
exceed  human  knowledge — he  does  not  say  with 
the  absolute  materialist,  that  there  is  nothing  in  nature 
save  "  force  and  matter,"  because  that  is  more  than  he 
knows  or  can  know.  The  maxim  of  Pope  is  ever  true — 
Say  first  of  God  or  man  below 
What  can  we  reason  but  from  what  we  know." 

The  secularist  may  have  few  principles  but  they 
have  that  certitude  which  can  be  tested  by  the  experi- 
ence of  this  life.  He  does  not  pretend  to  see  more  than 
he  can  see.  Unambitious  common  sense  is  sufficient  for 
him.  He  takes  it  for  granted  that  the  Unknown  is 
unknown.  He  does  not  undertake  to  say  whether 
nature  is  the  outcome  of  intellect  or  intellect  the  out- 
come of  nature — and  it  does  not  matter  which  we  believe 
or  we  should  have  been  told  all  about  it.  He  does  not 
seemingly  blaspheme  the  universe  like  the  theist,  by- 
denying  that  nature  is  incapable  of  taking  care  of  itself, 
nor  does  he  put  upon  Deity  the  dread  and  ceaseless 
responsibility  of  eternal  vigilance  to  keep  all  the  worlds 
going  and  answer  the  conflicting  and  unceasing  peti- 
tions of  all  the  millions  of  mankind.  The  secularist 
makes  no  exactions — he  nurtures  no  discontent — he  gives 
Heaven  no  trouble.  He  seeks  to  express  his  thankful- 
ness, by  self-dependent  effort  for  personal  improvement, 
and  sums  up  all  duty  in  endeavors  to  extend  the  secular 
blessings  of  this  life  to  others,  confident  that  if  a  future 
existence  shall  come  to  pass,  that  he  will  have  qualified 
himself  for  it  by  having  made  a  common  sense  use  of 
this.  Thus,  while  the  atheist  worries  himself  as  to  how 
this  world  came  to  be  and  why  it  goes  on — the  secular- 
ist spends  his  time  in  trying  to  discover  the  best  uses  to 
which  the  world  that  is,  may  be  put.  How  far  a  theist 
may  be  a  secularist  will  depend  upon  the  nature  of  his 
theism.  He  who  thinks  Deity  intends  this  world  to  be 
a  vale  of  tears  will  very  likely  keep  it  so,  as  far  as  he  is 
concerned.  He  who  thinks  the  world  can  be  put  right 
bv  prayer,  is  a  fool  if  he  engaged  in  personal  effort  to 
do  it.  A  mendicant  theist  who  is  always  whining  to 
Heaven  to  help  him  and  who  really  believes  Heaven  will 
do  it,  will  be  a  poor  hand  at  self-help;  but  a  theist  who 
thinks  Heaven  is  best  pleased  with  that  creed  which  pro- 
duces the  best  deeds  for  the  service  of  humanity,  mav 
he  a  good  secularist.  So  mav  an  atheist  who  has  no 
theory  which  diminishes  his  interest  in  the  secular  affairs 
of  this  world,  but  if  he  makes  the  acceptance  of  the 
atheistical  principle  a    condition  of  secular   devotion,  he 


;i2 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


deters  nearly  all  the  world  from   looking  at  secularism 
or  even  wishing  to  be  of  that  opinion. 

The  essence  of  secularism  is  separateness.  It-  study 
is  the  laws  of  the  universe,  not  its  cause.  The  theist  and 
the  atheist  both  hold  unprovable  views — the  secularist 
deals  only  with  what  is  provable  by  experience.  His 
duties  are  in  the  realm  of  reality.  Outside  it  and  dis- 
tinct from  it  lies  the  splendid  realm  of"  speculation  which 
all  men  love  to  explore,  but  in  which  no  man  can  live. 
Atheism  like  theism  has  a  theory  of  the  origin  of  things. 
Secularism  has  a  theory  of  the  uses  of  things;  it  is  herein 
that  they  are  distinct. 

The  dim  sky  line  of  the  other  world  is  but  the  bor- 
der-land of  the  realities  of  the  world  we  know.  We 
may  say  with  St.  John  "  For  the  life  is  manfested  and 
we  have  seen  it."  We  can  tell  the  perfume  of  a  flower 
without  knowing  who  the  gardener  is.  A  knowledge 
of  the  construction  and  uses  of  a  steam  engine,  a  loco- 
motive, or  a  steamboat,  does  not  depend  on  knowing 
that  Wall,  or  Stephenson,  or  Fulton,  or  Bell  originated 
it.  Thus  we  can  study  the  secular  uses  of  this  world 
apart  from  the  speculations  of  the  atheist  who  thinks 
the  world  eternal,  or  the  theist  who  thinks  it  was  created. 

Even  Mohammed  discerned  that  secular-mindedness 
was  prudence  when  the  devout  believer  said  to  him,  "  I 
will  set  my  camel  free  and  commit  him  to  God."  "  Tie 
thy  camel  first  and  then  commit  him  to  God,"  replied 
Mohammed.  The  prophet  had  separateness  in  his 
mind.  Theologians  say  we  must  do  what  we  can  and 
leave  the  rest  to  God.  On  the  contrary  the  secularists 
say  God  has  done  what  he  chooses  best  and  leaves  the 

rest  to  us. 

ARE  WE  PRODUCTS  OF  MIND? 

BY   EDMUND  MONTGOMERY,  M.D. 
Part  IV. 

The  foregoing  remarks  will  suffice  to  disclose  the 
depth  and  intricacy  of  the  great  problem  of  voluntary 
movement.  But  as  the  all-important  question  of  the  rela- 
tion of  mind  to  non-mental  existence,  turns  on  the  correct 
understanding  of  the  nature  of  these  so-called  voluntary 
movements,  we  must  not  shirk  the  task  of  again,  ami 
more  thoroughly,  scrutinizing  this  mighty  stronghold 
of  all  those  who  believe  that  what  we  know  as  our 
mind  is  controlling,  or  at  least  can  control,  what  we 
know  as  our  body. 

When' a  person  is  moving  his  arm,  an  observer  per- 
ceives the  arm  and  its  motion.  Different  senses  render 
one  another  mutual  aid  in  making  sure  of  this  percepti- 
ble fact,  and  numerous  and  intelligent  observers  will 
corroborate  it.  We  then  desire  to  know  the  cause  of 
this  movement.  Still  adhering  to  the  same  method  of 
sensible  observation,  we  find  that  the  foifcr  of  movi?ig 
resides  in  the  substance  of  the  muscles;  for  the  muscles 
contract  and  move  the  arm  when  directly  stimulated  by 
artifical    means.     We    discover,    however,    that    in   the 


self-moving  organism  the  stimulation  of  the  muscles  is 
effected  through  nerves.  Proceeding  with  our  method 
of  sensible  observation,  we  ascertain  further  that  it  is 
a  molecular  stir  in  the  nerve-substance,  which  naturally 
acts  as  stimulating  cause.  And  if  it  were  practically 
possible  to  trace  this  molecular  stir  along  the  nerves  up 
to  its  origin,  we  would  find  in  a.  definite  part  of  the 
brain  nothing  whatever  but  another  specific  mode  of 
motion.  Arrived  at  this  ultimate  organic  station,  the 
question  is,  What  has  given  rise  to  this  molecular 
motion  and  imparted  to  it  its  strangely  specific  character 
of  being  able  to  stimulate  in  a  definite  purposive  man- 
ner a  definite  set  of  muscles?  Professor  Cope  main- 
tains that  it  is  consciousness,  which  is  not  only  the 
prime  mover,  but  which  is  also  imparting  the  specific 
character  to  the  motions.  I,  on  the  contrary,  maintain 
that  the  motion  is  spontaneous  and  intrinsic,  meaning 
thereby  that  it  is  effected  and  receives  its  hyper-mechan- 
ical character  through  specific  non- mental  forces  inher- 
ent in  the  living  substance  itself — not  being  mechanically 
produced  by  externally  imparted  energy,  nor  by  mental 
influences,  but  by  evolutionally  organized  efficiency. 

Consistently  following  the  method  of  sensible  obser- 
vation, I  find  by  unmistakable  evidence  that  the  living 
substance,  or  so-called  protoplasm,  possesses  such  a 
power  of  spontaneous  and  specific  activity.  And  I  con- 
clude that  brain-substance  being  the  highest  kind  of  living 
substance  will  possess  in  the  highest  degree  of  perfection 
such  power  of  spontaneous  and  specific  activity  — not  being 
coerced  to  function  specifically  save  by  its  own  intrinsic 
constitution.  This  kind  of  verifiable  spontaneity, 
dependent  on  the  organized  power  of  moving  or  the 
power  of  performing  other  specific  functions  by  dint  of 
inherent,  hyper- mechanical  energies,  is  a  strictly  condi- 
tional and  altogether  different  kind  of  spontaneity  from 
that  imagined  by  Professor  Cope  in  common  with  ideal- 
ists to  be  a  peculiarity  of  free  consciousness. 

We  know  that  artificial  stimulation  of  the  brain 
will  incite  purposive  movements  of  the  ectodermic  mus- 
cles. Surely,  then,  the  power  of  initiating  such  pur- 
posive movements  must  organically  reside  in  the  brain- 
substance.  This  state  of  dependence  is  corroborated 
furthermore  by  no  end  of  pathological  evidence.  The 
mere  fact  that  definite  mental  or  conscious  faculties, 
volitional  as  well  as  receptive,  are  exterminated  with  the 
disintegration  of  definite  parts  of  the  brain,  and  reappear 
with  reintegration  of  these  parts,  ought  to  tell  very 
forcibly  in  favor  of  the  dependence  of  consciousness  on 
organization. 

We  know,  moreover,  that  artificial  stimulation  by 
means  of  sundry  drugs  will  incite  all  manner  of  con- 
scious states.  Surely,  then,  the  power  of  emitting  such 
conscious  states  must  reside,  likewise,  as  an  organized 
endowment  in  the  brain-substance.  And  this  also  is 
corroborate  by  much  pathological  evidence. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5*3 


Now,  as  some  kind  of  brain-function  gives  thus  rise 
to  conscious  states,  while  another  kind  of  brain-function 
initiates  purposive  movements,  it  is  clear  that  the  con- 
nection, found  to  obtain  between  these  two  modes  of 
brain-function,  is  entirely  organic,  taking  place  between 
two  specific  brain-functions,  and  not  between  a  super- 
organic  conscious  state  as  impelling  power  on  the  one 
side  and  a  specific  brain-function  as  its  effect  on  the 
other.  Do  not,  moreover,  the  marvellously  purposive, 
and  yet  so  strangely  "automatic"  performances  of 
hynotized  subjects  on  suggestive  stimulation,  also  most 
forcibly  point  to  an  organic  connection  between  idea- 
tional nerve-centres  and  volitional   nerve-centres? 

Surely,  my  endeavor  here,  all  along,  is  faithfully  to 
adhere  to  "  observed  phenomena  as  foundation  materials." 
But  how  does  it  stand  in  this  respect  with  Professor 
Cope?  How  does  he  seek  to  prove  his  assertion  that 
mind  is  the  prime  mover  and  director  of  voluntary 
activity?  He  does  so  by  completely  abandoning  at  this 
most  critical  juncture  the  method  of  sensible  observa- 
tion, and  suddenly  assuming  the  entirely  opposite  method 
of  introspection.  His  assertion  inevitably  means,  I 
know — not  by  sensible  observation — but  by  dint  of  mere 
introspective  and  individual  feeling,  that  it  is  conscious- 
ness in  the  form  of  will,  which  is  moving  my  arm;  or 
which  is  imparting  purposive  movements  to  yours.  But 
we  may  well  ask,  whether  he  really  knows  what  he 
asserts  to  know,  even  when  we  allow  him  thus  illegit- 
imately and  inadvertently  to  pass  over  from  the  objective 
to  the  subjective  standpoint.  Does  he  know  that  a  cer- 
tain state  of  consciousness  within  him  is  acting  as  prime 
mover  and  director  on  that  particular  part  of  the  brain 
where  the  molecular  motion  originates,  whose  propaga- 
tion acts  as  a  specific  stimulus  to  the  muscles  of  the  arm  ? 
Surely,  he  must  confess,  that  he  is  entirely  ignorant  of 
all  that  is  going  on  in  his  brain;  and  that  it  is  indeed 
utterly  inconceivable  how  a  conscious  state  can  move 
matter  of  which  it  is  wholly  unconscious.  Who  knows 
while  thinking  and  willing  that  he  does  this  through  his 
brain?  So  unconscious  are  we  of  the  seat  of  conscious- 
ness, that  the  great  Aristotle  believed  the  heart  to  be  its 
organ ;  taking  the  brain  to  be  merely  a  cold  and  rather 
useless  mass.  Mind  or  consciousness  wells  up  from  an 
unfelt  organic  matrix,  through  unfelt  organic  activity. 
How  can  it  possibly  control  the  matrix  and  its  activity, 
of  whose  existence  it  is  wholly  unconscious,  while 
receiving   its   own  birth  from  it? 

The  puzzle  here  arises  chiefly  from  neglect  of  the 
theory  of  cognition;  that  is  from  matter  being  believed 
to  exist  in  reality  as  perceived  by  us.  We  perceive  as 
constituting  the  physical  world  nothing  but  what  we 
call  matter  and  motion ;  and  to  the  cause  of  the  possible 
effect  or  "  work,"  which  such  perceptible  matter  in 
motion  is  able  to  produce  by  acting  on  other  percepti- 
ble matter,  we  give  the   name  of  "energy."     Energy, 


then,  is  a  perceptibk  state  of  that  objectively  observable 
substratum  which  we  generally  call  matter.  The  realm 
of  perceptible  existents  together  with  their  perceptible 
activities,  is  the  realm  of  physical  phenomena.  From 
this  same  standpoint  of  objective  science  we  cannot  pos- 
sibly perceive  and  observe  any  kind  of  mental  phenom- 
enon. The  brain  of  an  observed  organism  may  function 
as  much  as  it  pleases,  we  can  perceive  and  observe  there 
nothing  whatever  but  matter  in  motion.  Keeping  con- 
sistently the  attitude  of  sensible  observation  we  cannot 
possibly  become  aware  that  conscious  phenomena  are 
simultaneously  experienced  by  the  observed  organism. 
Xo  mutual  aid  of  the  senses  or  of  "co-workers"  avails 
here.  Consequently,  mind  or  the  conscious  states  expe- 
rienced by  the  observed  organism  are  not  and  cannot  be 
a  "  property  "  of  that  which  we  are  perceiving  as  matter 
in  motion.  That  which  the  observer  perceives  as  matter 
in  motion,  or  brain  in  functional  activity,  is  a  phenome- 
non within  his  own  individual  perception.  The  con- 
scious states  simultaneously  experienced  by  the  observed 
organism  are  phenomena  occurring  within  its  own 
self.  How,  then,  can  a  phenomenon  occurring  within 
one  being  be  a  property  of  a  phenomenon  occurring 
within  another  being?  Mind,  therefore,  cannot  possibly 
be  a  property  of  that  which  we  perceive  as  "  matter  in 
energetic  action." 

Mind  or  consciousness  is,  thus,  neither  a  property  of 
matter,  nor  the  controller  of  our  movements.  The 
marvel  of  voluntary  movement  lies  far  deeper  than  con- 
sciousness. Perhaps  we  may  succeed  in  throwing  some 
little  additional  light  on  it  by  working  still  further  upon 
"  observed  phenomena  as  foundation  materials." 


TOUCHED    BY    PROPHECY. 

BY    ELIZABETH    OAKES    SMITH. 

I  am  not  a  pessimist;  far  from  it.  On  the  contrary, 
I  believe  in  the  good  time  coming,  the  sweet  by-and-by 
(spoken  about  reverently),  the  millennium,  and  what- 
ever else  is  of  a  buoyant,  hopeful  nature;  I  think  the 
world  an  uncommonly  good  world,  and — and  with  some 
drawbacks  upon  which  1  am  about  to  touch,  growing 
every  day  better;  but — but  I  must  tell  what  happened. 

f  was  in  the  country  on  a  beautiful  day  in  June,  the 
month  of  roses,  bright,  fresh,  redolent  of  all  sweets; 
bees  mumbling  the  farina  of  hollyhocks,  and  humming- 
birds plunging  bill  deep  into  honeysuckles,  and  birds 
breaking  out  into  song  as  if  they  felt  as  I  did,  that  it 
was  a  delight  to  live  and  breathe.  I  stepped  lightly, 
envying  the  school  children  out  at  recess  who  went  by 
me  at  a  hop,  skip  and  jump,  which  it  were  indecorous  in 
me  to  imitate. 

Buzz — whir — and,  like  a  shot,  and  looking  like  a 
Brobdingnag  bug,  a  bicycle  whirled  past  me,  the  man  a 
spider  in  the  center  of  his  web. 

"  What  a  libel  upon  the  loveliness  of  the  landscape," 


5*4 


THE   OPEN    COURT. 


I  muttered,  and  then  whiz — whiz — whir — and  half  a 
dozen  others  came  on  like  a  battalion  of  large  beetles  or 
a  troop  of  tarantulas. 

"Why  need  people  be  in  such  breathless  haste  on  a 
day  like  this?"  I  ejaculated,  and  seated  rnyself  upon  a 
stump  by  the  roadside  around  which  had  clustered  long 
spikes  of  sweetbrier,  full  of  pale  pink  blossoms.  The 
moist  sweetness  of  the  place  harmonized  with  my  feel- 
ings, and  I  was  not  displeased  when  a  toad  lazily 
emerged  from  his  den  of  leaves  and  sat  swallowing,  as 
toads  do.  I  sat  speculating  about  that  precious  jewel  in 
his  head,  when  there  arose  upon  the  air  such  yells  and 
howls,  screeches  and  screams,  in  every  possible  pitch,  that 
no  human  brain  could  imagine  what  was  up  and  out  to 
create  such  a  din. 

School  children  hallooed  as  only  children  can,  and  came 
rushing  to  where  I  sat,  while  men  bellowed  "  clear  the 
track!"  shouted,  threw  up  their  arms  and  used  an  amount 
of  expletives,  marvellous  to  hear.  I  sprang  to  my  feet, 
and  at  that  instant  a  Wild  Locomotive,  a  resonant  steam- 
eagle,  as  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  calls  it,  came  thun- 
dering down  the  track,  roaring  and  leaping,  jumping  up 
and  plunging  down  like  an  incarnate  fiend  from  the 
lower  regions.  On,  on  it  went,  scattering  cattle,  pedes- 
trians and  vehicles — onward,  onward,  and  I  heard  its 
shriek  reverberated  from  hill  to  hill  and  repeated  by  a 
thousand  echoes.  Why  need  a  locomotive  go  wild  on 
a  day  like  this!  a  heavenly  June  day?  How  much  mis- 
chief it  will  do  in  its  audacious  frolic  is  past  calculation. 
Bicycles  on  the  road,  wild  locomotives  on  the  track  — 
what  next  ? 

The  melancholy  Jaques  would  have  been  beguiled 
from  his  mood  by  an  experience  like  mine  this  June  day. 
Accordingly,  after  musing  awhile,  I  silently  determined 
to  take  the  first  stage-coach  to  be  found  on  the  road  and 
make  my  way  to  parts  unknown.  What  were  roses  and 
sunshine  and  sweetbrier  to  me  with  inroads  of  bicycles 
and  wild  locomotives?  Alas!  we  challenge  destiny  when 
we  attempt  to  turn  our  face  against  it. 

Seating  myself  in  an  old-fashioned  stage,  we  trav- 
eled onward  at  a  moderate  pace.  1  like  an  old-fashioned, 
meditative  horse — passing  under  trees,  up  hill  and  down 
dale,  softly  striking  a  hoof  here  and  there  to  waken  the 
sylvan  gods;  he  seems  to  be  the  natural  outgrowth  of 
forest  glades  and  mountain  rills.  I  leaned  back  in  a 
dreamy  content,  thinking  how  much  better  this  mode  of 
traveling  was  to  one  of  gentle  sensibilities  than  to  be 
going  helter-skelter  fortv  miles  an  hour  in  a  railroad  car. 

The  hazards  to  life  and  limb  multiply  daily,  I  mused, 
and  the  brain  is  too  slow  in  devising  precautionary 
measures.  Commend  me  to  an  old-fashioned  vehicle 
and  a  horse,  and  deliver  me  from  the  cantraps  of  engines 
gone  astray.  Here,  as  I  sit,  I  am  as  much  at  ease  as  the 
traveler  "in  mine  Inn."  As  we  pass  through  a  wood 
of   pines   the   delicious   aroma   comes    gratefully    to   the 


nerves  lacerated  as  mine  had  been  this  lovely  June  day. 
This  uproar,  this  hazard,  this  wild,  unearthly  yelling 
to  which  the  generations  have  not  been  educated  up  to,  is 
demoralizing  the  child  in  his  cradle,  and  he  toddles  into 
strange  vices  and  crimes  while  he  should  be  sucking  his 
thumb  and  making  mud  pies. 

While  I  thus  theorized,  I  had  been  abstractedly 
listening  to  a  sound  that  at  intervals  struck  upon  the  ear. 
I  at  first  lazily  thought  it  the  bellowing  of  an  ox,  a 
legitimate  sound  in  a  rural  landscape,  but  as  it  grew 
louder  I  perceived  a  difference.  I  have  traveled  through 
the  wilds  of  Moosehead  Lake,  the  sources  of  the  Penob- 
scot and  the  drear  Mount  Katahdn,  and  listened  to  the 
solitary  cry  of  the  loon  in  these  desolate  regions,  and  the 
call  of  the  moose  to  its  mate  under  midnight  stars,  and 
I  now  perceived  that  this  new  detonation  upon  the  air 
was  a  mixture  of  all  these;  less  melancholy  and  more 
sharp. 

Suddenly  a  horseman  at  full  speed  galloped  up  to  our 
driver  and  screamed  at  the  top  of  his  voice — 

"  Turn  your  old  stage  into  the  woods;  hide  the  horses 
out  of  sight,  and  make  the  women  shut  up  their 
throats." 

Scarcely   had    he  delivered    this    courteous   message 
than  several  other  horsemen  appeared   and   the   sound  | 
grew    momently   neater;    a  quick,    sharp   trumpet   cry 
followed  by  a  little  sharp  one,  like  a  period  at  the  end  of  a 
sentence. 

"  Gorry !"  cried  a  country  bumpkin  by  my  side. 


Marcy 


ejaculated   a    stout  dame  with    a 


basket  of  eggs  in  her  lap. 

"Goodness,  gracious!"  exclaimed  a  pretty  young  girl, 
her  round  eyes  growing  rounder,  and  clinging  to  my 
arm  to  smother  down  a  scream. 

In  the  meanwhile  there  was  a  heavy  tramp — tramp 
— a  roar  or  trumpet  blast — horses  galloping,  men  shout- 
insr,  and  rising  above  all  this  an  unwonted  sound, 
whether  of  man  or  beast,  or  resounding  instrument 
none  could  tell. 

The  driver  turned  his  horses  into  the  woods,  utter- 
ing expletives  and  lashing  them  furiously,  ever  and 
anon  crying  out — 

"  You  women  in  there  hold  your  tongues,  or  you'll 
catch  it!"  and  we  went  under  limbs  of  trees,  over 
stumps  and  bushes,  into  holes  and  out  of  ditches.  There 
was  a  pause;  our  horses  were  still,  the  stage  ceased  to 
oscillate,  and  that  terrible  cry  of  a  beast,  if  beast  it  was, 
suddenly  ceased. 

I  looked  out  of  a  glass  window,  six  by  three  inches 
in  size,  at  the  rear  of  the  stage,  and  there  I  discerned 
the  meaning  of  the  hubbub. 

Onward  approached  a  huge  elephant,  trunk  high  in 
air,  ears  flapping  like  vans  to  a  wind-mill,  and  feet 
planted  ready  to  do  the  worst  upon  whatever  might 
impede   her   way.     Right   and    left  she  swung-    her  big 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5*5 


proboscis,  and  ever  and  anon  gave  way  to  a  loud, 
malignant  scream  full  of  threatening  vengeance. 

Close  beside  her  tramped  a  little  elephant,  the  exact 
counterpart  of  the  mother  in  all  but  bulk.  It  was  a 
ridiculous  fac  simile.  It  swung  its  little  trunk  right 
and  left  and  up  in  the  air  exactly  in  the  same  way,  and 
did  its  best  to  make  as  much  noise.  Every  time  it 
screamed  the  mother's  scream  grew  more  threatening, 
and  the  young  imp  enjoying  the  tantrums  of  its 
respected  mother,  redoubled  its  juvenile  efforts  to  cre- 
ate commotion. 

Reaching  the  spot  where  we  were  hidden  both 
animals  stopped  short.  The  mother  sniffed  the  air 
viciously;  the  young  one  did  the  same.  The  large 
brute  drew  back  her  haunches,  stretched  forward  her 
immense  front  feet  ready  to  start  upon  destruction,  and 
gave  out  snorts  and  cries  to  curdle  the  blood,  closely 
followed  by  the  same  attitudes,  and  the  same  cries  in 
the  little  brute  so  far  as  she  had  the  power  to  follow 
her  leader.  They  sniffed  the  air,  they  stamped  and 
snorted,  and  I  already  felt  that  huge  trunk  smashing  in 
the  stage  top,  and  mashing  every  bone  and  muscle  to  a 
jelly. 

Great  was  the  commotion.  Horsemen  prodded  the 
hides  of  both  animals  and  lashed  and  beat  them,  but  the 
huge  beast  was  determined  to  make  a  cushion  of  our 
bodies.  They  tried  to  start  the  young  imp  along  the 
road,  but  it  only  sidled  round  its  mother.  At  length  a 
long  pole  armed  with  steel  driven  into  the  young  one's 
haunch  started  it  down  the  road  with  a  yell  followed 
by  its  furious  mother. 

"  What  next,"  I  ejaculated.  To  be  run  over  by 
bicycles  and  wild  locomotives  in  the  morning,  and 
threatened  by  elephants  at  noonday!  Such  is  the 
progress  of  civilization — the  great  wall  of  China  has 
long  been  a  useless  encumbrance;  the  castles  of 
Europe  are  of  no  more  utility  than  tadmor  of  the 
desert;  the  catapult  cringes  before  artillery;  the 
armor  of  the  gallant  knight  with  shield  and  cuirass  are 
nothing  before  a  minie-rifle;  the  trireme  is  forgotten, 
and  even  the  mighty  frigate,  in  view  of  the  iron-clad. 

The  mechanism  of  man  overpowers  man  himself. 
He  will  crowd  himself  out  of  the  world.  His  many  inven- 
tions neutralize  the  spirit  that  is  in  him;  his  hand  will 
need  be  idle  for  the  busy  brain  is  inventing  methods  by 
which  he  can  live  without  work.     I  pulled  the  string. 

"  Driver,  let  me  out,  please." 

He  did  so,  and  I  walked  onward  careless  of  where  I 
went.  I  will  get  all  the  good  I  can  out  of  this  beauti- 
ful June  day,  in  spite  of  bicycles  and  elephants  in  the 
road  and  wild  engines  on  the  track.  No  generation  can 
be  educated  up  to  the  mechanism  of  the  times — the 
brain,  instead  of  being  the  pulpy  thing  it  is,  will  have  to 
be  transposed  to  iron  to  bear  as  I  have  borne  even  the 
hazards  of  one  day  in  our  present  civilization. 


I  see  in  the  great  future  man  annihilated  by  the 
force  of  his  own  onwardness;  not  a  man  upon  the  earth, 
but  it  goes  on  the  same  in  its  orbit  with  the  unceasing 
spinning  round  of  cogs  and  wheels  and  the  clank  of 
machinery,  keeping  up  a  perpetual  motion;  a  lonely 
world  with  no  music  but  the  machinery  that  man  has 
left  behind  him,  and  no  singing  bird  but  that  of  his 
automata.  • 


CHATS   WITH   A   CHIMPANZEE. 

BY  MONCCRE  D.  CONWAY. 

Part    VII. 

On  the  day  following  the  conversation  last  recorded, 
I  was  awakened  at  dawn  by  my  interpreter  and  informed 
that  a  festival  of  peculiar  sanctitv  had  already  begun  on 
the  Ganges.  Hastening  to  the  river  I  secured  the  only 
barge  left  by  the  sight-seers,  and  was  just  putting  out 
from  shore  when  my  attention  was  arrested  by  Ameri- 
can voices.  Turning  I  saw  two  gentlemen  and  a  lady 
in  evident  distress  because  they  could  not  obtain  a  barge, 
and  at  once  offered  them  places  on  mine.  For  this  thev 
were  grateful,  and  we  soon  fell  into  pleasant  relations. 
The  lady  was  young  and  witty,  and  also  a  beauty  of  the 
Virginian  type.  We  floated  gently  amid  the  devout 
bathers,  passed  the  Widows'  Ghaut — where,  near  the 
pyre  where  they  were  once  consumed  with  their  hus- 
bands' bodies  they  now  disported  themselves  in  the 
waves — and  witnessed  many  interesting  ceremonies.  At 
length  the  party  with  me  desired  to  be  put  on  shore,  it 
being  Sunday,  and  the  lady  wishing  to  attend  the  Eng- 
lish church  service.  She  invited  me  to  go  with  them; 
and  the  invitation  was  accompanied  with  such  friendly 
tones,  dimpled  smiles,  and  looks  from  eyes  in  which  piety 
and  coquetry  were  so  sweetly  blended,  that  I  became 
the  easy  victim  of  the  very  stupidest  preacher  I  ever 
heard  in  my  life.  Alas,  alas,  that  was  not  the  worst  of 
it.  When  the  hour  arrived  at  which  I  should  have  been 
listening  to  the  revelations  of  my  beloved  Chimpanzee,  I 
found  myself  wedged  between  two  large  English  dow- 
agers without  hope  of  extrication.  I  had  to  sit  it  out.  I 
learned  patience  from  a  passage  the  preacher  read  from 
Job.  While  he  read  it  I  gazed  out  on  the  palms  and 
banyans;  these  helped  me  to  detach  his  husk  of  mistrans- 
lation and  misinterpretation  from  the  old  poem.  I  pic- 
tured to  myself  the  oriental  man  of  Uz,  sitting  amid  the 
ruins  of  his  life,  perhaps  in  that  city  where  I  now  sat, 
rejecting  one  after  another  the  unreal  consolations  of  his 
orthodox  comforters,  exposing  their  fictitious  solutions 
of  life's  problems,  and  bravely  confronting  the  demon 
offered  him  as  a  deity.  Beneath  the  clergyman's  bathos 
I  heard  the  pathos  of  that  great  heart's  longing  to  be 
hidden  in  a  cave,  there  to  sleep  in  dreamless  repose  until 
his  change  should  come,  and  he  should  awaken,  and, 
even  if  fleshless,  should  see  the  fairer,  humaner,  diviner 
world  of  which  he  dreamed  amid  his  griefs. 

My    lost   opportunity    of   meeting    my    Chimpanzee 


5 '6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


could  not  be  recovered  that  day,  because  of  ceremonies 
going-  on  in  the  Monkey  Temple.  On  the  next  morn- 
ing I  sped  to  the  pi. ice.  I  apologized  to  my  friend,  and 
blushinglv  admitted  that  I  had  been  tempted  into  church 
by  a  pretty  face,  but  he  easily  forgave  me. 

"How  can  I  wonder?"  he  said.  "My  ancestors 
gave  ten  thousand  years  to  the  creation  of  that  beaut}'; 
it  took  them  two  thousand  years  to  evolve  it  out  of  exist- 
ence in  their  own  race,  and  free  themselves  from  its 
spell;  it  were  miraculous  if  you  should  be  able  to  achieve 
a  like  emancipation  in  one  morning." 

Completely  mystified  by  this  I  silently  awaited  my 
Sage's  further  words. 

"Itjs  droll,"  he  presently  continued,  "  that  people 
should  imagine  that  '  the  gods' ever  created  a  lady; — 
that  the-e  ferocious  forces,  symbolized  in  images  with 
tusks,  swords,  skull-necklaces,  ever  created  the  rosy 
cheek,  dimpled  smile,  loving  eyes,  tender  breast,  of  a 
beautiful  woman.  You  can  still  find  in  some  remote 
regions,  unvisited  by  civilization,  the  hideous  hag  created 
by  the  gods.  The  beautiful  woman  is  an  artificial  being 
— a  creation  of  human  and  social  selection." 

"  Yet  such  refined  women  may  be  seen  worshiping 
the  horrible  personifications  of  lightning,  famine,  disease, 
death." 

"No,  not  worshiping  but  kneeling  before  them; 
originally  it  was  through  terror,  but  gradually  they  have 
so  invested  those  horrible  creators  with  their  own  refin- 
ing humanity  that  there  have  been  developed  some 
softer  and  kindlier  deities.  These  are  all  the  seed  of  the 
civilized  woman,  and  they  have  bruised  the  heads  of  the 
old  serpent-gods,  the  primitive  afflictors  of  mankind. 
This  is  the  genesis  of  the  baby-gods,  such  as  Krishna 
and  Christ:  They  are  fed  by  the  breast  of  woman,  and 
grow  to  be  lovers.  Krishna  dancing  with  the  cow-girls 
is  as  mvstical  to  his  worshipers  as  Christ  with  the  Marvs. 
All  real  and  fine  religion  is  the  heart  falling  in  love  with 
an  invisible  lover.  These  divine  lovers  begin  as  victims 
of  the  nature-gods,  but  steadily  supercede  them.  There 
is  now,  thanks  to  woman,  little  more  left  of  the  rude 
'creators'  than  their  names  and  images--the.se  being 
often  mentally  turned  into  mystical  meanings  the  very 
reverse  of  their  original  significance." 

"Why  then  do  you  speak  of  having  evolved  female 
beauty  out  of  existence?" 

"  Well,  existence  was  found  intolerable.  As  I  have 
already  told  you,  the  beautiful  world  we  had  developed 
above  the  rude  stocks  of  nature  was  arrested  by  our 
priesthood,  and  ultimately  crushed  beneath  a  fictitious 
universe  which  they  conceived  by  superstition  and  made 
real.  Our  ancestors  failed  in  their  repeated  efforts  to 
subdue  this  elaborated  sham,  this  apotheosis  of  the  Lie, 
under  which  man  was  degraded.  Had  they  never 
known  anything  better  they  might  have  borne  it, but  they 
had    become  as  a  race  of  giants   pinioned   by  pygmies. 


When  they  were  sundered,  scattered  about,  their 
tongue  divided  and  confused,  as  I  have  related,  there 
still  survived  in  their  descendants  a  consciousness  born  of 
the  higher  condition  from  which  they  had  been  degraded. 
This  consciousness  was  the  source  of  their  agony." 

"Suicide  remained  open  to  them." 

"  It  did.  And  the  finer  spirits  so  sought  release. 
But  cunning  nature,  concerned  only  for  continuance  of 
the  species,  could  not  be  cheated  in  that  way.  Some 
still  faintly  clung  to  life — mere  physical  life — and  these 
were  sufficient  to  form  a  basis  of  evolution.  Since  the 
suicides  did  not  live  to  propagate  their  moral  species, 
there  was  a  survival  of  the  least  suicidal — then  of  the 
non-suicidal.  The  suicidal  having  perished,  the  race 
was  organized  on  the  principle  of  the  will  to  live,  how- 
ever miserable  existence  might  be.  The  scourge  of 
consciousness  must  be  got  rid  of  by  some  other  method. 
Then  there  appeared  among  us  a  traveler  from  far 
regions  beyond  the  sunset,  who  told  us  of  peoples  who 
had  overthrown  priesthoods  and  temples  like  our  own, 
and  who  were  conquering  the  fierce  inorganic  forces 
before  which  our  masters  and  their  myrmidons  were 
kneeling.  After  him  came  a  prophet  who  declared  that 
these  western  races — humanized  gods,  he  called  them— 
would  in  some  glorious  latter  day  reach  our  land,  and 
raise  our  descendants  to  freedom  and  happiness.  That, 
indeed,  was  an  insufficient  .consolation  for  those  then 
living;  and  a  sigh,  a  longing,  swelled  many  a  heart  that 
it  might  sink  into  long  sleep,  and  awaken  in  that  far 
future  to  find  the  world  changed,  renovated,  imparadised 
by  the  advent  of  those  distant  divine  freemen.  There 
was  an  old  poem  or  legend  of  one  whose  household, 
family,  life,  were  laid  in  ruins  by  a  powerful  demon; 
and  how  that  just  man  amid  his  desolations,  longed  to 
be  hidden  in  a  cave  till  his  Vindicator  should  come, 
and  stand  in  the  latter  day  on  the  new  earth,  when  the 
right  should  prevail ;  and  how  this  came  to  pass.  Some 
believed  this  to  be  true  history.  But  meanwhile  the 
inner  demon,  Consciousness,  intensified  for  our  ancestors 
the  evils  of  existence,  and  they  lent  a  ready  ear  to  all 
who  proposed  any  means  of  death-in-life.  One  for  this 
end  invented  wine,  but  that  cup  of  Lethe  was  too 
transient. 

"  At  length  there  passed  through  these  fields  and 
cities  a  lone  wayfaring  man, — he  whom  men  now  call 
Buddha.  He  it  was  whose  voice  reached  the  fallen  vic- 
tims of  the  lower  race,  and  pointed  them  to  a  heaven  of 
unconsciousness — to  Nirvana." 

"It  is  a  favorite  belief  of  some  that  Nirvana  is  but 
another  name  for  conscious  and  immortal    blessedness." 

"  It  is  but  one  more  example  of  the  rule  that  a 
prophet's  popularity  is  at  the  cost  of  his  truth.  Every 
great  teacher  in  the  end  is  made  to  teach  precisely  the 
reverse  of  what  he  actually  taught.  That  makes  him 
fit  to  be    a   god;  then   after   ages  he   is   again   reversed, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5i7 


becoming  human,  and  somewhat  like  his  original  self. 
After  Buddhism  was  exterminated  from  India,  Buddha 
was  adopted  as  a  god — an  incarnation  of  Vishnu — whereas 
if  there  was  anything  in  which  that  teacher  was 
especially  earnest,  it  was  in  his  denial  of  the  existence 
of  any  and  every  god.  1  should  not  wonder  if  some 
fools  should  have  made  him  out  a  vulgar  thaumaturgist." 

"  That,  indeed,  has  actually  happened.  Some  Ameri- 
can Spiritualists — pretended  interviewers  of  ghosts — 
have  settled  themselves  in  India,  describing  themselves 
as  Theosophists.  One  of  their  adherents  has  written  a 
fraudulent  book  called  Esoteric  B/tdd//ism,'n\  which  he 
brings  the  name  of  Buddha  to  sanction  and  bolster  the 
tricks  of  a  female  imposter  who  is  making  dupes  of 
pietistic  young  Hindus." 

"  So  remorseless  time  fossilizes  the  noblest  spiritual 
forms!  Buddha  believed  in  no  system,  either  philosoph- 
ical or  religious;  he  taught  no  creed  about  the  universe. 
His  whole  intellectual  force  was  given  to  radical  denial 
of  the  existing  systems,  on  which  the  inorganic  world 
had  built  a  mental  and  moral  prison  of  delusions.  The 
millions  to  whom  he  came  dwelt  in  hell.  Their  33,000,- 
000  deities  were  distributed  torturers  of  man,  woman 
and  child.  Buddha  announced  that  not  one  of  them 
existed,  that  all  gods  were  phantasms  of  fear.  The 
world  began  to  breathe  more  freely.  It  was  glad  tidings 
also  when  he  declared  that  there  was  no  conscious  life 
after  death;  for  the  poor  wretches  around  him  had 
believed  that,  save  a  small  elect  caste,  they  were  destined 
to  pass  through  8,400,000  births  and  deaths,  each  a  pro- 
longed torture.  His  Nirvana  was  no  more  than  the 
promise  that,  for  the  good,  death  should  be  the  annihila- 
tion of  consciousness.  But  if  men  were  inhuman,  given 
up  to  animal  passions,  he  suggested  that  there  might  be 
danger  that  their  individual  consciousness  might  awaken, 
after  death,  in  the  form  of  that  animal  to  whose  innocent 
characteristic  they  had  added  a  human  perversion. 
Immortality  was  for  the  bad.      It  was  all   very   simple." 

"  Yet,  a  vast  and  various  growth  of  metaphysics  has 
now  overlaid  Buddhism." 

"  I  have,  hidden  in  a  secret  place,  a  discourse  once 
given  by  Buddha  on  this  very  spot  where  we  are  con- 
versing. Some  day  I  will  read  it  to  you.  But  just  now 
I  remember  that  you  inquired  why  it  was  we  evolved 
female  beauty  out  of  existence.      It  was  because — " 

"  Alas,"  I  said,  feeling  my  face  burn  with  shame,  "  1 
must  now  leave  you,  for  I  have  an  engagement  at  this 
hour  to  dine —  " 

"  With  your  fair  countrywoman,"  said  the  Sage, 
smiling. 

THE  POSITIVE  VIRTUES. 

BY    PROFESSOR  THOMAS    DAVIDSON. 
Part  III.  — Concluded. 

A  second  result  of  the  true  view  of  virtue  will  be 
that  our  sympathies  will  be  increased  toward  the  mem- 
bers of  those  classes  of  society  that  are  not   respectable, 


in  the  usual  acceptation  of  that  term-  the  publicans  and 
the  sinners.  Recognizing  that  the  negative  virtues  are, 
after  all,  the  smallest  of  the  virtues,  we  shall  not  be 
so  ready  as  we  are  now  to  erect  a  wall  of  partition 
between  ourselves  and  those  who  are  lacking  in  these. 
We  shall  likewise  come  to  feel  that  a  comparative 
deficiency  of  these  virtues,  especially  such  of  them  as 
consist  in  overcoming  passion,  is  entirely  compatible 
with  a  very  large  amount  of  positive  virtue.  There  is 
nothing  more  tragic,  nothing  more  awesome  and 
pathetic,  than  the  cold-bloodedness  with  which  society 
transforms  itself  into  an  inexorable  fate,  to  crush  poor 
women,  who  in  their  excess  of  love,  have  yielded,  be  it 
but  once,  to  passion.  I  wonder  how  many  ever  read 
Hugh  Miller's  touching  story  (and  it  was  a  true  one) 
entitled,  Her  Last  Half-  Crown.  In  it,  the  Scottish 
stonemason  sketches,  with  inimitable  simplicity,  the  life 
of  one  of  society's  outcasts,  in  whose  wreck  the  stern 
virtue  of  unselfish  honesty  had  survived  in  all  its  purity 
and  grandeur.  He  attempts  no  defense;  but  he  con- 
demns the  judge  who  would  condemn  her,  to  silence,  by 
drawing  a  line,  and  writing  under  it:  "My  thoughts 
are  not  your  thoughts,  neither  are  your  ways  my  ways, 
saith  the  Lord."  Yes,  truly.  Our  thoughts  regarding 
justice  and  virtue  are  very  narrow  and  defective.  In 
estimating  a  character,  we  rarely  attempt  to  treat  it  as 
a  whole.  We  simply  ask  whether  it  falls  short  of  a 
certain  conventional  and  negative  standard,  and,  if  it 
does,  we  condemn  it;  if  not,  we  accept  it.  But  the 
only  true  way  of  estimating  a  character  is  to  look  at 
both  sides  of  it,  to  set  off  its  positive  virtues  against  its 
negative  vices,  and  strike  a  balance.  Our  methods  of 
dealing  with  men  who  have  committed  some  simple 
fault  are  utterly  barbarous.  Let  a  man,  under  some 
momentary  influence  commit  theft,  albeit  his  previous 
life  has  been  not  only  free  from  fault,  but  productive  of 
much  good,  we  take  him  out  of  all  his  natural  surround- 
ings, and  deprive  him  of  all  the  means  of  doing  good, 
shut  him  up,  make  him  feel  that  he  is  a  bad  and  a  dis- 
graced man,  and  that  his  life  has  been  an  utter  failure. 
All  this  is  utterly  and  completely  wrong.  The  case, 
of  course,  is  very  different  when  a  man  can  be  shown 
to  be  an  habitual  thief.  Society  then  is  entirely  right 
in  protecting  itself  from  the  man's  acts  and  example,  by 
shutting  him  up.  A  man  who  steals  habitually,  it  may 
safely  he  concluded,  cannot  have  any  great  store  of 
positive  virtue. 

And  here  we  must  draw  an  often  neglected  distinc- 
tion between  two  classes  of  vices — vices  of  passion  and 
vices  of  selfishness  or  calculation.  Both  are  bad 
enough;  there  is  no  use  in  trying  to  say  one  word  for 
either;  but  vices  of  calculation  are  worse  and  imply  a 
worse  man  than  vices  of  passion.  And  yet  in  practice 
the  opposite  theory  is  held.  Nay,  vices  of  calculation 
are  often  held  to  be    no  vices   at  all,  but  are  praised   as. 


5*8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


smartness.  The  man  who  makes  money  by  pretend- 
ing that  his  goods  are  what  they  are  not,  and  the  man 
who  induces  a  joint-stock  company  to  water  its  stock, 
in  order  to  blind  a  victimized  public  to  the  amount  of 
the  company's  gains,  is  a  much  more  vicious  man  than 
he  who  occasionally  gets  drunk  or  commits  fornication. 
The  one  is  malignant,  the  other  is  only  weak.  The 
one  has  positive  vice;  the  other  has  only  negative  virtue. 

But  there  is  a  third  and  very  grave  class  of  vices, 
which  are  not  considered  vices  at  all,  but  rather  solid 
virtues — and  these  are  vices  of  prejudice.  These 
vices,  it  is  true,  imply,  perhaps,  less  moral  obliquity 
than  the  others;  but  in  their  consequences  they  are  more 
far-reaching  than  any.  They  are,  moreover,  the  most 
common  of  all  vices.  The  reason  why  they  are  so 
little  regarded  is  the  same  as  that  for  which  the  positive 
virtues  are  so  little  regarded,  and  this  is  just  because 
they  are  negatives  of  the  positive  virtues,  and  not  of 
the  negative  ones.  The  doing  of  positive  good  not  being 
recognized  as  the  chief  of  virtues,  the  failure  to  do  posi- 
tive good  is   not  recognized  as   the  chief  of  vices. 

Vices  of  prejudice  belong  among  the  negatives  of 
the  positive  virtues.  The  thing  that  a  man  of  strong 
positive  virtue  will  most  carefully  do  will  be  to  find  out 
in  what  way  his  efforts  can  be  most  effectively  applied 
for  the  good  of  humanity.  The  man  who  does  not 
do  this  fails  in  one  of  the  most  important,  and,  indeed, 
in  the  most  fundamental  of  the  active  and  positive 
virtues.  He  must  of  necessity  be  the  victim  of  preju- 
dice; for  the  only  safeguard  against  prejudice  is  knowl- 
edge, and  knowledge  can  he  gained  only  by  study  and 
experience.  Radicalism  is  one  of  the  greatest  virtues; 
the  absence  of  it,  one  of  the  greatest  vices.  And  this 
brings  me  to  the  third  and  perhaps  the  most  important 
result  of  a  change  of  view  with  regard  to  the  nature  of 
virtue. 

This  result  is  that  we  shall  come  to  regard  the  want 
of  knowledge,  and  even  the  good  that  is  done  under  the 
influence  of  this  want,  as  of  small  account.  We  shall 
regard  the  men  and  women  who  live  on  according  to 
old  and  traditional  formula;,  and  who  do  what  they  con- 
sider good  in  the  old  traditional  ways,  without  taking 
due  care  to  study  the  circumstances  and  needs  of  their 
own  time,  as  what  Jesus  called  them — mere  play-actors. 
The  Greek  word  {uro/cpmfa,  which  we  usually  render  by 
hypocrite,  means  simply  play-actor — a  man  whose  life  is 
not  an  acting-out  of  his  own  inner  nature  and  convic- 
tions, hut  a  playing  of  a  part  learnt  from  tradition, 
from  bibles  and  catechisms.  Nine-tenths  of  the  good, 
worth v,  respectable  people  of  our  time  are  hypocrites  in 
the  Scripture  and  Greek  sense  of  the  term.  They  live 
by  tradition.  They  act  as  their  fathers  did,  simply 
because  their  fathers  did  so  act,  without  inquiring 
whether  such  action  suits  our  time  and  is  calculated  to 
do  good  in  it.      Lowell  savs 


"New    occasions   teach    new    duties;  time    makes    ancient   good 

uncouth : 
We  must  upward   still,  and  onward,  who  would  keep  abreast  of 

truth." 

Exactly  so,  and  this  is  what  mere  play-actors  will 
never  learn.  Inasmuch  as  their  hearts  do  not  beat  in 
unison  with  the  universal  life  of  their  time,  they  live  on 
and  with  the  shadows  of  the  past.  They  are  in  truth 
hobgoblins,  haunting  the  living  present. 

There  never  was,  in  the  world's  history,  a  time  when 
hypocrisy  or  play-acting  was  so  out  of  place  as  it  is  now. 
In  the  last  fifty  years,  the  world,  in  all  its  relations,  has 
changed  as  it  never  changed  before.  Men's  conditions 
have  widened,  and  with  them  their  thoughts,  aims  and 
ideals.  Complications  and  problems  have  arisen  never 
dreamt  of  before.  The  old  faiths  do  not  meet  men's 
spiritual  needs,  or  solve  their  intellectual  problems,  pro- 
posed by  advancing  science.  The  old  education  does  not 
fit  men  for  the  duties  of  the  present  life.  The  old  ways  of 
doing  good,  which  suited  small  communities,  where 
manufacture  and  commerce  ran  in  narrow  grooves,  do 
not  answer  for  the  great  communities  which  improved 
means  of  communication  have  made  possible. 

The  great  enterprises  and  competitions  of  modern 
industry  have  brought  about  conditions — 'mountains  of 
injustice  leading  to  spiritual  and  physical  degredation — 
with  which  the  old  remedies  are  utterly  incompetent  to 
deal.  As  well  might  one  think  to  quench  a  Chicago 
fire  with  a  few  old-fashioned  water-buckets  filled  from 
a  draw-well,  as  to  settle  the  problems  and  difficulties  of 
modern  life  with  the  old  ways  of  doing  good. 

In  spite  of  this  self-evident  fact,  the  great  mass  of 
our  so-called  good  people  are  doing  their  good  in  the 
old  ways,  which  are  now  often  ways  of  doing  evil. 
Their  old-fashioned  charities,  for  the  doing  of  which  so 
many  people  are  considered  worthy  and  good,  are  often 
only  so  much  money  thrown  into  the  capitalists'  already 
overflowing  coffers.  They  simply  enable  the  poor  to 
be  content  with  less  wages,  to  accept  a  smaller  share  of 
the  profits  of  labor  from  theiremployers,  and  thus,  by 
increasing  the  power  of  the  industrial  aristocracy,  to 
weld  on  more  firmly  the  chains  of  their  own  slavery. 
The  fact  is,  that  charity  in  the  old  sense  has  no 
proper  place  in  our  world.  A  system  that  requires 
charity  is  already  more  or  less  rotten,  because  it  is  a 
system  in  which  some  parts  are  not  self-sustaining,  in 
which  some  human  beings  have  to  place  themselves  in 
the  degrading  position  of  dependence,  of  requiring  good, 
without  being  able  to  perform  any.  Unfortunately  such 
charity  must,  in  extreme  cases,  be  done,  just  as  poison 
must  sometimes  be  swallowed;  but  we  ought  never  to 
blind  ourselves  to  the  meaning  of  such  charity.  In 
truth,  charity  is  twice  cursed;  it  curses  him  that  gives 
and  him  that  takes. 

We  must  do  our  very  best  to  put  an  end  to  charity, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5*9 


by  putting  an  end  to  the  need  for  it.  We  must,  there- 
fore, in  the  first  place,  without  hypocrasy  or  fear,  labor  to 
discover  what  those  social  and  religious  arrangements 
are  which  cause  the  need  for  charity,  by  making  men 
weak  and  incapable  of  self-help,  and  then  we  must  labor 
with  all  our  might  to  remove  these  conditions,  and 
replace  them  by  better  ones.  Moreover,  if  we  find 
men  and  women,  so-called  respectable,  who  fail  to  do 
this,  we  shall  have  a  right  to  condemn  them,  as  lacking 
in  those  virtues  that  belong  to  their  day  and  genera- 
tion, the  only  virtues  that  are  of  any  real  moment.  We 
shall  have  a  right  to  call  upon  them  to  leave  off  their 
antiquated  play-acting,  and  come,  like  sensible  people, 
and  virtuously  live  their  own  true  lifeand  the  life  of  the 
present  world. 

To  recapitulate:  The  view  of  man's  nature  revealed 
to  us  by  the  doctrine  of  evolution  shows  us  that  he  is 
not  a  fallen  creature,  but  a  perpetually  rising  one — that 
his  moral  aim  is  not  to  attain  the  zero-point  of  virtue, 
the  state  of  paradisiac  innocence,  but  to  increase  forever 
in  positive,  active  virtue  and  power.  The  practical 
results  of  this  view  upon  our  ideas  of  virtue  are,  in  the 
main,  three: — 

1.  We  learn  to  have  little  regard  for  those  nega- 
tive virtues  which  take  the  form  of  mere  respectability,  in 
comparison  with  the  positive  virtues,  which  consist  in 
doing  positive  good. 

2.  We  learn  to  have  much  more  sympathy  than 
formerly  with  those  whom  the  world  does  not  count 
respectable,  the  publican6  and  the  sinners. 

3.  We  learn  to  reject  those  old-fashioned  forms  of 
doing  good,  that  do  not  meet  the  needs  of  our  time,  and 
to  despise  the  uninquiring,  self-complacent  hypocrisy 
that  prompts  only  such  forms. 

In  a  single  word,  we  come  to  call  upon  men  and 
women  to  lay  aside  prejudice  and  hypocrisy,  to  study 
and  know  their  own  nature,  and  the  world,  material, 
social,  political  and  spiritual,  in  which  they  live,  and 
then,  taking  off  their  fashionable  gewgaws  and  furbe- 
lows, to  step  down  into  the  area  of  present  human  life, 
and,  like  true  sons  of  the  light-god  Ahura-Mazda,  do 
battle  with  Angro-Mainyus,  the  Prince  of  Darkness. 
When  they  do  this,  they  will  find  that  all  that  their 
efforts  after  respectability  ever  gave  or  promised,  is 
obtained  with  ease — and  more.  The  negative  virtues  do 
not  insure  the  positive  ones;  but  the  positive  ones  do 
insure  the  negative  ones.  A  man  whose  soul  and  life 
are  filled  with  devotion  to  an  aim  that  calls  forth  the 
strongest  efforts  of  his  will  and  his  nerves,  runs  no  risk 
of  sinking  into  vice.  It  is  only  for  idle  hands  that  Satan 
finds  mischief.  It  is  for  want  of  the  wholesome  excite- 
ment of  well-doing  that  men  seek  the  unwholesome 
excitement  of  evil-doing. 

The  future  well-being  of  society,  as  well  as  the 
moral  and   physical  health  of  the  individual,  depends,  in 


great  measure,  upon  the  transference  of  our  highest 
reverence  from  the  mere  negative  virtues — a  reverence 
induced  by  obsolete  notions  concerning  a  creation  and  a 
fall — to  the  positive  virtues,  shown  by  the  theory  of 
evolution  to  be  the  highest.  And  the  active  virtues  are 
of  three  kinds — unwearied  search  for  knowledge, 
unbounded  love  in  accordance  with  knowledge,  and 
indefatigable  heroism,  prompted  by  such  knowledge 
and  such  love. 


NEW    VIEWS    OF    RELIGION    AND    ETHICS. 

BY    F.    M.    HOLLAND. 

Some  remarkable  contributions  to  the  work  of  eman- 
cipating morality  from  theology  have  recently  been 
made  by  a  French  philosopher  who  has  not  yet  reached 
the  age  of  thirty- five.  M.  Guyau  was  only  twenty 
when  he  won  a  prize  from  the  French  Academy  of 
Moral  and  Political  Science  for  an  essay  on  utilitarianism, 
which  has  since  been  published  in  two  volumes,  the  one 
mainly  occupied  with  Epicurus,  Lucretius  and  Helvetius, 
and  the  other  with  Bentham,  Mill  and  Spencer.  His 
knowledge,  not  only  of  the  literature,  but  of  the  spirit 
of  Epicureanism,  was  so  profound  that  this  volume  was 
said  by  the  Rcvuc  Philosophiquc  to  have  done  honor 
to  French  philosophy,  while  one  of  the  ablest  of  living 
moralists,  Professor  Sidgwick,  called  it  in  Mind "  not 
only  the  most  ample  and  appreciative,  but  also—  in  spite 
of  some  errors  and  exaggerations — the  most  careful  and 
penetrating  account  of  the  ethical  system  of  Epicurus." 
M.  Guyau  has  also,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  annexed 
note,  written  poems  highly  praised  in  Paris;  a  discussion 
of  pending  questions  in  aesthetics,  like  the  prospects  of 
art  in  a  republic,  the  relations  of  art  and  science,  and  the 
alleged  antagonism  between  art  and  manufactures;  a 
sketch  of  an  original  theory  of  ethics;  and  a  prophecy 
of  the  Irreligion  of  the  Future.  The  last  work  was 
submitted  by  Count  Goblet  d'Alviella  to  an  elaborate- 
review,  which  originally  appeared  in  the  Revue  dc  Rel- 
gique  and  has  just  been  republished  in  pamphlet  form.* 

All  M.  Guy au's  books  are  inspired  by  love  of 
science,  liberty  and  progress.  The  arts  seem  to  him 
gainers  by  the  growth  of  science,  democracy,  factories, 
and  even  railroads.  The  victories  of  Epicurus  and 
Lucretius  over  superstition  are  commemorated  with  the 
comment  that  all  religions  which  represent  the  past  as 
better  than  the  present  are  essentially  hostile  to  progress. 
So  also  is  the  optimism  which  inspires  the  most  advanced 
forms  of  religion  to-day,  since  if  everything  is  for  the 
best  there  can  be  nothing  to  improve.  Optimism  means 
apathy  of  the  moral  sense,  demoralization  of  man  by 
God.     If  evil    has  been    permitted   by  him   in   order  to 

*  The  works  of  M.  Guyau  are,  La  Morale  a" Epicure  et  ses  Rapports  avec 
Us  Doctrines  Contemporaines  (which  may  be  ordered  for  $2.75  through  E.  Stei- 
ger,  25  Park  place,  New  York,  or  from  the  publisher,  Felix  Alcan,  Paris) ;  La 
Morale  Anglaise  Contemporaliie,  $2.75;  Vers  d'ltn  Philosopke,  $1.30;  Les  Prob- 
lemes  de  V Estlietique  Conteinporaine,  $1  .$S;  Esquisse  d'unMorale  sans  Obliga 
tion  ni Sanction,  $i.S5;  V Irrtligion  de  VAvenir,  $2.75. 


^20 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


make  us  better,  then  its  gradual  disappearance  must  be 
continually  and  inevitably  making  us  worse.  And  as 
for  immortality,  "a  doctrine  which  is  God's  main  ex- 
cuse," full  evidence  has  been  given  by  science,  not  only 
of  the  transitoriness  of  individuals  and  even  races,  but 
also  of  the  absence  of  any  influence  from  disembodied 
spirits  over  natural  phenomena.  (See  Rsquisse  pp. 
63-84.)  "  Blessed  are  ye  of  little  faith,  who  do  not  wish 
to  debase  your  intellectual  nobility,  and  who  never  cease 
to  scrutinize  your  feelings  and  test  your  reasonings;  you 
do  not  believe  that  you  will  ever  be  able  to  know  the 
whole  eternal  truth,  and  precisely  on  this  account  are 
you  the  only  thinkers  who  can  hold  any  part  of  it;  you 
have  enough  of  the  true  faith  to  keep  on  searching, 
where  others  stop;  the  future  is  yours;  and  it  is  you 
who  will  mould  humanity  in  coming  ages.''1  (Esquisse, 
p.  235.)  "  Doubt  is  only  consciousness  that  our  thought 
is  not  absolute  truth,  and  can  never  grasp  it,  even  indi- 
rectly; in  this  light  doubt  is  the  most  religious  act  of 
human  thought.'''  (U  Irreligion,  p.  329.)  "All  that  is 
respectable  in  the  religions  is  merely  the  germ  of  that 
spirit  of  scientific  and  philosophic  investigation  which 
tends  to-day  to  overthrow  them,  one  after  another." 
"Religion  was  at  first  only  a  crude  science,  but  has  fin- 
ished by  becoming  the  enemy  of  science."  [Ibid.  p.  353.) 
"We  had  rather  see  truth  in  all  her  purity  than  in  parti- 
colored vestments;  to  clothe  her  is  to  degrade  her." 
(Ibid.  p.  153.)  "An  opinion  which  makes  itself  divine 
is  an  opinion  which  condemns  itself."  [Ibid.  p.  226.) 
"Toleration  is  a  sign  of  enfeeblement  of  faith;  a  relig- 
ion which  comprehends  another  is  a  dying  one."  (Ibid. 
p.  1  12.)  "  Liberal  Christians  suppress  what  is  properly 
called  religion  in  order  to  replace  it  with  religious  mor- 
ality." "  They  treat  with  Jehovah  as  with  an  equal,  and 
speak  to  him,  as  Matthew  Arnold  does,  somewhat  thus: 
•Art  thou  a  person  ?  I  do  not  know.  Hast  thou  had 
prophets  and  a  Messiah?  I  don't  believe  it.  Art  thou 
watching  over  me  particularly  and  working  miracles? 
I  deny  it.  But  there  is  one  thing,  and  only  one,  which 
I  do  believe  in,  my  morality.  If  thou  art  willing  to 
guarantee  that  and  put  the  reality  into  harmony  with 
my  ideal,  we  will  make  an  alliance  together.  If  I  can 
affirm  my  own  existence  as  a  moral  being,  I  will  affirm 
thine  into  the  bargain.'"  (Ibid. pp.  142, 143.)  "Science 
does  not  show  us  a  universe  working  spontaneously  to 
realize  what  we  call  good;  it  is  we  who  must  bend  the 
world  to  our  will  in  order  to  realize  this;  we  must 
enslave  those  gods  whom  we  began  by  worshiping; 
the  kingdom  of  God  must  give  place  to  the  kingdom  of 
man."      (Ibid.  p.  335.) 

Thus  M.  Guyau  keeps  the  most  advanced  forms  of 
religion  in  full  view,  as  he  argues  in  his  latest  and  ablest 
book,  V  Irreligion  de  PAvenir,  that  the  future  triumph 
of  irreligion  is  not  only  certain  but  desirable.  He  points 
to  such  facts  as  that  all   the  churches,  synagogues,  etc., 


of  Paris  could  not  contain  a  tenth  part  of  the  popula- 
tion, and  are  never  more  than  half  full,  and  quotes 
M.  Renan's  words,  in  conversation,  thus:  "Oh  yes, 
irreligion  is  the  end  toward  which  we  march.  After 
all,  why  should  not  mankind  dispense  with  dogmas? 
Speculation  will  replace  religion.  Already,  among  the 
most  advanced  nations,  dogmas  disintegrate;  an  inner 
working  breaks  and  scatters  these  incrustations  of 
thought.  Most  of  us  in  France  are  already  irreligious; 
the  man  of  the  people  believes  scarcely  more  than  the 
scientist.  In  Germany,  too,  the  decomposition  of  dog- 
mas is  already  far  advanced.  In  England  it  has  only 
begun;  but  it  goes  on  quickly.  Christianity  has  free 
thought  for  its  natural  result.  So  has  Buddhism.  The 
time  may  be  long,  but  religion  is  passing  away,  and  we 
can  already  imagine  an  age  when  there  will  be  none  for 
Europe.  If  the  Turks  will  not  follow  us,  we  can  do  with- 
out them."  (IJ  Irreligion,  pp.  321,  322.)  M.  Guyau, 
in  what  is  perhaps  his  best  chapter,  points  out  the  ten- 
dency of  religious  education  to  enfeeble  thought  and 
excite  the  feelings  excessively,  as  proof  that  children  will 
be  better  off  without  it,  and  that  no  father  ought  to  keep 
even  hisdoubts  and  negations  to  himself.  To  tell  children 
that  their  father  and  mother  think  differently,  and  that 
each  has  reasons  for  it4  is  to  teach  them  the  precious 
lesson  of  tolerance.  (Pp.  22S,  240,  241,  245.)  Woman 
will  cease  to  be  more  devout  than  man  as  larger  fields 
of  activity  open  to  her  intellect  in  the  improvement  of 
her  education.  Restitution  of  her  political  rights  is 
already  demanded,  and  may  possibly  come  as  a  result  of 
her  religious  emancipation.  "  At  all  events  her  emanci- 
pation as  a  citizen  is  only  a  question  of  time."  (  P.  251.) 
An  interesting  instance  is  added  of  the  conversion  of  a 
Roman  Catholic  by  her  husband,  who  first  persuaded 
her,  as  an  aid  to  his  studies,  to  write  out  an  abstract  of 
Renan's  Life  of  fesus  for  him,  and  then  advised  her  to 
read  the  Bible  from  the  beginning.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment she  soon  threw  down  in  disgust;  and  even  in  the 
New  she  found  so  many  contradictions,  superstitions 
and  immoralities  that,  to  use  her  own  words,  "  Hence- 
forth my  beliefs  existed  no  more;  I  was  betrayed  by 
my  God!"  (Pp.  262-265.)  The  place  left  vacant  by 
Christianity  is  not  likely  to  be  filled  either  by  the  trans- 
cendentalism derived,  through  Emerson  and  Parker, 
from  Kant  and  Schelling,  or  by  the  Cosmic  religion 
produced  by  Spencer'sphilosophy  of  evolution,  and  repre- 
sented by  Messrs.  Fiske,  Potter  and  Savage.  All  these 
pretended  religions  are  only  shadows  of  speculations — 
mere  philosophies,  and  sometimes  false  ones;  and  we 
may  speak  of  most  of  them  as  Mark  Pattison  does, 
when  he  says  he  saw  in  the  Positivist  chapel  "three 
persons  and  no  God."  No  idea  of  the  infinite  can 
become  a  basis  for  religion  until  it  is  personified. 
Spencer  affirms  too  much  about  his  "  unknowable,"  and 
pantheism  is  likely  to  end  in  pessimism."      (Pp.  15,313* 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


521 


334,  402.)  In  the  final  form  of  the  religious  sentiment 
there  can  be  no  unity,  but  the  greatest  diversity.  What- 
ever good  has  been  done  by  the  churches  will  be  kept 
up  by  new  associations  for  intellectual,  philanthropic 
and  xsthetic  ends;  and  a  particularly  good  example 
may  be  found  in  the  Ethical  Culture  Societv  of  Felix 
Adler.  (P.  316.)  The  system  of  thought  which  is 
likelv  to  reign  supreme  is  monism.  This  is  the  end  to 
which  all  our  theories  tend.  This  hypothesis  unites  all 
the  most  certain  data  of  science  and  recognizes  the 
homogeneity  of  all  beings,  the  identity  of  nature.  It  is 
not  mystical  or  transcendental,  but  naturalistic.  Instead 
of  resolving  matter  into  spirit,  or  spirit  into  matter,  we 
accept  both  as  reunited  in  the  synthesis,  life;  and  thus 
we  maintain  the  balance  between  the  mental  and 
material  sides  of  existence.     (Pp.  436,  437-) 

(TO    BE  CONCLUDED   IN'   NEXT  ISSUE.) 


DOUBT. 

BY  GEORGE  E.  MONTGOMERY  IN  AMERICAN  MAGAZINE 

Doubt  is  the  restless  pinion  of  the  mind, 

And  wings  the  soul  to  action;  we  are  prone 

To  hold  things  sacred  which  are  least  divined, 
To  sleep  away  our  summers  with  the  drone, 

To  value  wisdom  that  is  dumb  and  blind. 

But  doubt  makes  thinkers,  dreamers,  soldiers,  men; 
Looks  forward,  never  backward;  shows  the  face 

Of  falsehood  in  the  untrue  gods;  and  when, 
Like  one  too  little  reverenced  in  his  time — 
One  in  his  deeper  sense  of  life  sublime — 

It  reasons  light  from  darkness,  we  perceive 

That  men  may  learn  by  doubting  to  believe. 


RESPONSUM  NATURAE. 

BY     A.    C.    BOWES. 

"If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again?" 
My  child,  if  many  weary  days 
I  need  thee  in  my  vast  domain 
To  fashion,  reconstruct,  upraise, 
Thy  being  perfecting  the  chain 
Of  being,  thou  must  live  again. 

But  if  thy  work  is  done,  why  grieves 
Thy  spirit?  for  my  forest  deep, 
With  all  its  murmuring  tuneful  leaves, 
Shall  chant  in  music  tender,  sweet 
The  peace  of  thine  eternal  sleep. 

To  us  the  value  of  the  Ethical  Culture  movement  con- 
sists in  this:  that  it  emphasizes  that  on  which  all  the 
sects  and  "the  outside  world"  are  substantially  agreed, 
while  it  teaches  none  of  the  theological  dogmas  in  regard 
to  which  these  sects  differ,  and  which  for  large  numbers 
of  the  best  minds  have  no  interest  whatever.  For  this 
reason  Ethical  Culture  societies  should  receive  encourage- 
ment and  support  from  all  truly  unsectarian  liberal  men 
and  women. 


The  Open  Court. 

A.    FORTNICHTLVJOURNAL. 

Published   every  other   Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  (Nixor 
Buildingi,  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  I'.  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA   A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  c  f  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  denned, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  ad.ance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  "three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  1!.  F. 
Underwood,  Treasurer,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  111.,  to  whom 
should  be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders 


THURSDAY,  OCTOBER  27,  1S87. 

MONUMENTS. 

Whenever  a  man  of  any  note  or  prominence  dies, 
the  people  who  were  especially  interested  in  him,  anxious 
to  give  expression  to  that  interest,  generally  think  first 
of  all  of  erecting  a  monument  to  commemorate 
his  memory  and  his  virtues,  and  they  bestir  themselves 
in  the  first  excitement  of  regret  at  his  loss  to  secure 
funds  from  his  admirers  for  that  purpose.  Often  the 
effort  is  partially  unsuccessful,  and  the  proposed  monu- 
ment fails  to  be  erected  from  lack  of  the  amount  neces- 
sary for  its  completion.  The  world  is  so  full  of  men 
eagerly  scrambling  for  its  few  places  of  prominence  that, 
long  before  such  monuments  can  he  raised,  new  favor- 
ites in  the  same  line  have  taken  their  places  and  made 
the  memory  of  the  dead  hero  of  very  little  interest  to 
those  once  so  eager  to  praise  and  honor  him. 

But,  nevertheless,  a  great  deal  of  money  seems  to  us 
absolutely  wasted  in  this  direction — money  which  could 
be  put  to  much  better  use  in  more  worthy  perpetuation 
of  the  lives  of  good  or  honored  men  and  women  than 


522 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


in  these  cumbrous  structures  of  stone,  marble,  etc.,  which 
by  right  belong  to  the  less  civilized  ages  in  which  they 
originated,  and  where  they  really  served  a  useful  and 
necessary  purpose  in  recording  events  in  history  of  which 
there  was  no  other  record  possible  at  the  time.  But 
they  are  none  the  less  relics  of  barbarism  which,  in  these 
days,  when  the  printers'  and  engravers'  art  makes  care- 
ful record  of  every  life,  deed,  and  event  worthy  of  note, 
are  no  longer  needed,  and  the  building  of  them 
should  cease,  thus  marking  our  advance  in  civilization. 
For,  indeed,  they  do  not  now  serve  the  purpose  for 
which  at  first  they  were  intended.  We  are  no  longer 
sure,  in  beholding  the  most  magnificent  monument, 
whether  it  is  raised  by  admiring  multitudes  to  honor 
deeds  of  valor  or  a  noble  life,  or  by  some  wealthy 
nobody  in  commemoration  of  his  own  vanity.  Our  cem- 
eteries are  filled  with  the  most  beautiful  works  of  art) 
the  finest  monuments,  in  memory  of  merely  rich  people 
whose  lives  were  purposeless  and  whose  memories  are 
not  even  kept  alive  by  such  means,  since  there  is  such  a 
surfeit  of  them.  Within  a  week  or  two  one  of  the 
Chicago  dailies,  describing  the  monuments  in  one  of  this 
city's  finest  cemeteries,  gave  an  engraving  of  the  cost- 
liest and  most  beautiful  monument  erected  therein,  which 
was  raised  to  the  memory  of  a  wealthy  provision  dealer 
whose  name  (not  having  traded  with  him)  was  wholly 
unfamiliar  to  us.  There  can  then  no  longer  be  any 
great  honor  shown  to  a  man's  merits  by  such  commem- 
oration. But  shall  merit  and  worth  then  go  unrecog- 
nized? Shall  a  man,  in  his  desire  to  be  remembered 
after  death,  find  no  sure  method  of  perpetuating  his 
memory  to  honor  his  descendants  by  the  luster  of  his 
worthy  life  and  deeds? 

With  already  so  many  true  monuments,  or  remind- 
ers of  the  lives  of  noble  men  and  women  who  have 
passed  away  from  our  sight,  as  we  have,  it  is  but  a  poor 
imagination  which  can  think  of  no  other  method  to 
make  record  of  such  lives  than  by  gravings  on  stone 
marble  or  bronze.  What  monument,  however  costly, 
could  so  well  recall  the  memory  of  James  Lewis  Smith- 
son  as  the  Smithsonian  Institute  which  he  founded? 
Stephen  Girard  would  have  been  long  since  forgotten 
but  for  the  Girard  College;  thousands  every  year  bless 
the  memory  of  Peter  Cooper,  whose  not  naturally  hand- 
some face  we  have  seen  radiant  with  pleasure  and  beau- 
tiful with  kindness  on  the  "reception  nights "  held  in 
his  munificent  and  sensible  gift  to  struggling  men  and 
women,  "Cooper  Institute;"  James  Lick,  odd, eccentric 
and  independent  as  he  was,  would  already  have  become 
less  than  a  name,  though  it  is  but  a  few  years  since  he 
died,  were  it  not  for  his  beneficent  gifts,  of  which  the 
Lick  Observatory  alone  is  sufficient  to  immortalize  him; 
John  Harvard  would  never  have  been  heard  of  to-day 
had  he  taken  the  whole  sum  given  to  found  Harvard 
College    and    built    himself   therewith    a   monument    of 


granite.  A  modest  New  England  girl  of  quiet  tastes 
and  fond  of  literature,  named  Sophia  Smith,  would 
never  have  been  heard  of  outside  of  the  little  village 
where  she  lived  and  died,  in  spite  of  the  fact  of  her 
inheriting  a  fortune,  if  she  had  not  wisely  endowed 
Smith  College  for  the  higher  education  of  women  with 
that  fortune;  and  the  Lilly  Hall  of  Science  attached  to 
that  college  will  keep  forever  green  the  memory  of 
Alfred  Theodore  Lilly  when  his  kindly  face  shall  have 
passed  away  from  the  memory  of  living  women.  So, 
too,  will  the  name  of  Mary  Lyon  be  ever  remembered 
in  the  history  of  woman's  progress  in  education;  the 
Order  of  the  Red  Cross  will  continue  its  beneficent 
work  long  after  Clara  Barton  shall  have  "  passed  beyond 
the  bounds  of  time,"  and  her  name  will  be  forever 
embalmed  in  its  archives.  No  marble  monument  could 
ever  be  so  dear  to  the  soul  of  Horace  Greeley  as  the 
words  which  to-day  head  the  editorial  pages  of  the  New 
York  l^ribunc :  "Founded  by  Horace  Greeley";  and 
the  soul  of  the  elder  Bennett  still  "goes  marching  on" 
through  the  columns  of  the  New  York  Herald  of  to-day, 
though  he  has  long  since  joined  "the  innumerable 
throng."  And  these  are  but  a  few  instances  of  the 
thousands  of  such  immortal  monuments  which  men  and 
women  have  raised  to  their  own  memory;  and  through 
their  wisely  directed  efforts  or  beneficent  use  of  money 
such  monuments,  of  less  or  greater  magnificence,  it  is 
possible  for  every  man  and  woman  to  raise  for  themselves, 
so  that  being  dead  they  may  yet  speak.  The  benevo- 
lent deed,  the  charitable  act,  the  inspiring  word,  the  lov- 
ing look,  the  wise  planning  will  keep  your  memory 
green  and  your  name  unforgotten  in  the  hearts  of  as 
many  as  profited  through  them.  A.  T.  Stewart  was  a 
few  vears  ago  a  name  of  power.  He,  as  a  living  man, 
was  a  powerful  factor  in  society  because  of  his  wealth 
and  financial  ability,  but  his  thought  was  ever  of  him- 
self, not  of  others,  and  he  died  without  putting  into 
motion  any  influence  in  behalf  of  humanity;  his  vast 
wealth  has  been  of  little  use  save  to  keep  lawyers 
employed  in  one  way  or  another  since  his  death.  Bit 
by  bit  all  that  owed  its  being  to  him  has  been  disinte- 
grated— the  great  possibilities  his  wealth  offered  to  him 
of  building  a  monument  which  would  commemorate 
him,  wherever  his  bod}'  might  be  hid  away,  he  never 
accepted.  In  a  very  few  years,  in  face  of  fortunes 
even  more  colossal  than  his  own,  his  name  will  be 
forgotten  and  will  carry  no  meaning  to  a  younger  gen- 
eration. 

If  we  would,  as  a  people,  honor  after  death  any 
brave  or  good  man's  memory,  we  can  build  such  helpful 
institutions  as  they  would  have  been  glad  to  found  or 
aid  had  they  the  means,  and  call  them  by  the  names  we 
wish  to  engrave  in  the  minds  of  those  who  might  other- 
wise forget  the  virtues  which  they  embodied. 

We  enforce  and  close   our  plea  for  the  abolishment 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


523 


of  the  uncivilized  monuments  of  to-day  by  the  words  of 
a  poet  unknown  to  us: 

The  modest,  humble  and  obscure, 

Living  unnoticed  and  unknown, 
May  raise  a  shaft  that  will  endure 

Longer  than  pyramids  of  stone. 

The  carven  statue  turns  to  dust. 

And  marble  obelisks  decay, 
But  deeds  of  pity,  faith  and  trust, 

No  storms  of  fate  can  sweep  away. 

Their  base  stands  on  the  rock  of  right, 

Their  apex  reaches  to  the  skies ; 
They  glow  with  the  increasing  light 

Of  all  the  circling  centuries.  s.  a.  u. 


VOLAPUK,  THE  UNIVERSAL   LANGUAGE. 

Leibnitz  devoted  much  time  to  the  construction  of 
his  Specicuse  Generate,  which  fell  flat.  Labbe  invented 
a  philosophical  language,  and  1663  Kircher  published  his 
Polygraphia.  In  166S  the  Royal  Society  sanctioned 
John  Wilkins'  Philosophical  Language  by  publication 
in  London. 

Most  inventors  of  this  kind  attempted  the  ideographic 
— to  have  signs  represent  ideas.  We  have  this  is  math- 
ematics in  the  plus  and  minus  signs,  but  practically  this 
is  reverting  to  hieroglyphics. 

Johann  Martin  Schleyer  seems  to  have  solved  the 
problem,  for  in  1S7S  he  arranged  the  most  simple  artifi- 
cial language  and  so  rapidlv  has  it  been  recognized  as  of 
practical  use  that  in  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa  one  million 
persons  are  said  to  use  it  in  their  intercourse. 

The  alphabet  employed  is  the  Roman  with  some  of 
the  German  dotted  letters  added.  Volapiik  is  formed 
on  the  general  model  of  Aryan  tongues  in  its  signs  rep- 
resenting letters  and  words,  the  root  words  being  taken 
from  living  languages,  mainly  Indo-Germanic  and 
Romance. 

In  making  the  vocabulary  English  afforded  the 
largest  number  of  words;  Latin,  German,  French  and 
Spanish  next,  in  the  order  named. 

The  simple  Anglo-Saxon  roots  abound  in  English 
and  their  brevity  caused  their  adoption.  The  numerals 
are  1  bal,  2  tel,  3  kil,  4  fol,  5  lul,  6  mal,  7  vel,  8  jol,  9 
ziil,  10  bals,  20  ters,  100  turn,  1,000  mil,  million  balion; 
11  would  be  balsebal,  the  letter  e  meaning  and.  So  21 
would  he  telsebal. 

There  is  but  one  declension.  S  added  to  any  word 
forms  the  plural  which  is  never  formed  in  any  other  way. 
The  first  three  vowels  added  to  any  noun  form  the 
genitive,  dative  and  accusative. 

Thus    Vol,         Norn.         World. 

Vola,        Gen.  Of  the  World. 

Vole,        Dat.  To  the  World. 

Volt,         Ace.  The  or  a  World. 

Worlds  would  be  vols.  Every  noun  is  declined  in  the 
same  way.     The  verbs  are  all  regular  and  there  is  but 


one  conjugation.  The  tenses  are  denoted  by  the  letters 
a  e  i  o  u  placed  before  the  verbs;  the  letter  p  preceding 
these  denote  the  passive  voice.  The  personal  pronouns 
are  06  I,  ol  thou,  otn  he,  <?/~she,  os  it,  on  they. 

The  verb  Lof,  to  love,  would  be  conjugated  thus: 

Lofob,  I  love.  Lofobs,  we  love. 

Lofol,  thou  lovest.  Lofols,  ye  love. 

Lo/'om,  he  loves.  Lofoms,  they  (on)  love. 

Lofof,  she  loves.  Lofofs,  they  (f)  love. 

Imperfect,  <iliifob,  I  loved. 

Perfect,       elofob,  I  have  loved. 

Pluperfect,  iliifob,  1  had  loved. 

Future,         oliifob,  I  will  love. 

Future  perfect,  ulofob,  I  will  have  loved. 

Palofob  is  I  am  loved,  pelofob  I  have  been  loved, 
and  so  on. 

Negatives  are  no.  Adjectives  are  formed  by  adding 
ik  to  the  noun:  gud  is  the  good  and  gudik  good,  com- 
pared thus:  gudik  gudihum,  gudihum.  Adverbs  are 
made  by  adding  o  to  the  adjective:  gudiko  is  well. 

So  much  is  made  of  one  stem  or  root  that  there  is 
little  to  memorize  after  learning  the  system. 

Max  Miiller  is  quoted  as  saying:  "The  universal 
language  of  Professor  Schleyer  is  well  known  to  me.  I 
thoroughly  agree  with  the  principles  upon  which  it  is 
based." 

Savants,  travelers  and  merchants  will  have  the  great- 
est use  for  Volapiik.  There  are  eight  hundred  lan- 
guages to-day,  forty  or  fifty  of  which  are  spoken  by 
civilized  people  who  are  fast  being  united  in  interest  by 
railroads,  telegraphs  and  steamboats.  It  takes  years  to 
learn  three  or  four  Romance  or  Germanic  tongues  and 
much  longer  to  learn  a  single  Hindoo  or  Semitic  dialect. 
Turkish,  Japanese  and  Chinese  are  still  more  difficult. 
The  principles  of  Volapiik  can  be  learned  in  a  few  min- 
utes and  a  month's  study  makes  one  a  fluent  writer  and 
speaker.  There  are  already  a  dozen  periodicals  pub- 
lished in  Volapiik,  the  commercial  journals  being  the 
most  favored.  Soon  medical  and  scientific  works  will 
be  worded  in  the  new  language  with  an  ever  increasing 
number  of  cosmopolitan  readers.  Discoveries  that  have 
lain  dormant  for  years  because  in  inaccessible  languages 
will  be  widely  announced.  A  German  poem  "The 
Eye     of     the     Child,    has     been     thus     translated     into 

Volapiik: 

Log  Cii.a. 

O  log  cila,  mag  nifala! 
Logob  velik  stalis  olik 
No  peglumol  fa  deb  sina. 
Litos  se  ol  jin  lanelik. 

As  pronounced  in   English  spelling  the  verse  would 

sound  somewhat  as  follows: 

O  logue  chelah  margue  neyfalah! 

Logobue  velique  stalees  olique 

No  paygloomwail  fah  daib  senah, 

Leetos  say  ole  sheen  lanelique. 
The  accent  is  on  the  last  syllable  in  every  word. 


;2  + 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  language  is  being  taught  in  Chicago  by  Pro- 
fessor Henry  Cohn,  and  the  literature,  grammars,  etc., 
are  imported  by  E.  Steiger  &  Co.,  of  New  York. 

Not  only  will  travel  and  business  be  facilitated  by  its 
use,  but  political  and  religious  intriguery  and  hatred, 
fostered  by  Eastern  political  chiefs,  will  be  rendered  less 
effective.  Diplomatic  relations  will  not,  as  in  the  case 
of  treaties,  be  capable  of  two  or  more  constructions,  as 
Volapiik  is  free  from  ambiguity.  In  common  with 
everything  scientific  it  advocates  "Menede  bal,pi/ki bal :" 
One  mankind,  one  language. 


THE  DANGEROUS  CLASSES. 
Some  weeks  ago  a  pamphlet  which  has  attracted 
some  attention  appeared  in  London  entitled  Who  Arc 
Our  Dangerous  Classes?  The  writer  after  descrihiug 
the  different  classes  of  people  found  in  a  great  city,  and 
the  motives  which  govern  them,  puts  them  all  in  two 
great  divisions — those  who  desire  to  better  their  posi- 
tion in  life  and  those  who  are  satisfied  as  they  are.  In 
the  former  class,  of  course,  are  included  all  wage  workers, 
and  in  the  second,  all  who  have  inherited  fortunes,  who 
have  landed  estates  or  have  retired  on  a  competency. 

Restlessness  [says  the  writer  of  the  pamphlet]  is  but  another 
name  for  ambition,  and  this  is  what  actuates  the  working  class  of 
society-  They  desire  to  improve  their  condition,  to  advance  with 
their  times,  and  to  have  some  hand  in  the  administration  of  the 
government  under  which  they  live.  Opposed  to  this  restless 
ambition  of  the  progressive  class  is  the  sluggish  contentment  of 
the  self  satisfied  class  who  desire  no  change  in  the  well-worn 
machinery  of  society.  Thev  have  enough  ;  the  world  in  its  present 
state  is  good  enough  for  them;  they  can  live  well  and  happily. 
What  matters  it  to  them  who  may  die  of  want?  They  protest 
against  any  change  and  prefer  to  keep  on  in  the  same  old  ruts 
that  society  has  run  in  for  the  last  century.  They  do  not  seem  to 
be  aware  that  cities  are  larger  and  wants  more  numerous  and 
varied  now  than  a  hundred  years  ago. 

The  author  goes  on  to  say  that  the  "self-satisfied 
class "  really  constitute  the  dangerous  class  of  society, 
because,  being  well  off  they  see  no  reason  for  change, 
and  therefore  oppose  every  progressive  movement  and 
cling  to  old  forms.  He  denounces  this  lethargy  and 
declares  that  the  so-called  lower  classes  are  waking  up 
to  the  knowledge  of  higher  and  better  things,  and  that 
the  time  has  come  when  they  must  obtain  their  rights; 
that  the  upper  classes,  who  are  really  the  dangerous 
classes,  must  come  out  of  their  dormancy  and  assist  in 
the  inevitable  revolution  of  old  ideas,  or  else  they  "must 
stand  from  under,  for  the  people  propose  now  to  demand 
as  rights  what  once  they  were  wont  to  ask  as  gracious 
privileges."  There  is  much  in  this  pamphlet  that  is  true, 
especially  in  regard  to  England,  where  there  is  a  vast 
amount  of  entailed  wealth  in  the  hands  of  men  who 
never  earned  it,  and  by  whom  it  is  used  in  many  cases 
only  for  their  own  selfish  pleasure.  It  is  so  common  for 
these  men  to  defend  everything  that  is  "  established," 
and    to   oppose   every  measure  offered    to   improve   the 


condition  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  that  it  is  not  strange 
this  socialistic  writer  includes  them  among  the  dan- 
gerous classes.  We  have  seen  the  pamphlet  referred  to 
by  some  American  papers  as  though  the  statements 
quoted  above  were  true  even  of  this  country. 

A  very  proper  and  important  question  in  this  con- 
nection is,  What  are  the  rights  of  the  "lower  classes?" 
Certainly  among  them  is  the  right  by  industry,  economy 
and  education  to  improve  their  condition,  to  raise  them- 
selves to  positions  among  the  so-called  higher  classes. 
Having  done  this  must  they  at  once  be  considered  as 
belonging  to  the  "dangerous  classes?"  Must  they  sur- 
render their  property  or  other  advantages  gained  by 
application  and  self-denial  to  those  who,  while  deploring 
their  condition  make  no  effort  to  better  it?  Can  there 
be  progress  without  a  guarantee  of  the  undisturbed  pos- 
session of  the  fruits  of  honest  industry  and  frugality  ? 
A  right  to  equality  of  opportunity  all  men  can  justly 
demand,  but  it  will  not  do  for  the  unsuccessful  to  de- 
mand as  a  right  that  they  be  made  equal  sharers  in  the 
advantages  of  other  men's  efforts.  Those  who  have 
been  successful  should  not,  and  in  this  country  generally 
are  not  indifferent  to  the  condition  of  those  who,  from 
whatever  causes,  have  been  unable  to  raise  themselves 
from  extreme  poverty;  but  the  men  who  have  failed  in 
life  have  no  right  to  denounce  those  who  by  honorable 
methods  have  acquired  wealth,  or  to  find  fault  with  a 
competitive  system  which  is  absolutely  essential  to  civili- 
zation and  progress.  Relief  of  distress  is  a  duty,  and 
for  this  provision  has  to  be  made  at  the  expense  of 
society,  or  of  humane  associations  and  individuals;  but 
the  most  radical  and  far-reaching  measures  for  the  help 
of  those  who  cannot  manage  to  live  in  comfort  and 
decency  without  assistance,  are  those  which  develop  and 
stimulate  whatever  of  independence,  self-respect  and 
self-reliance  they  possess,  and  tend  to  make  them  hope- 
ful and  self-supporting. 

In  this  country  the  dangerous  classes  are  the  ignor- 
ant, the  idle  and  vicious,  who  with  a  desire  for  the  com- 
forts and  luxuries  of  life,  have  an  aversion  to  work,  by 
which  alone  they  can  be  obtained,  and  whose  inclinations 
put  them  in  sympathy  with  every  movement  designed 
to  produce  a  conflict  between  employers  and  the  em- 
ployed, together  with  the  men  who  dishonestly  use 
public  positions  of  honor  and  trust  in  their  own  inter- 
ests and  in  the  interests  of  corporations  and  combina- 
tions, thereby  corrupting  the  legislation  of  the  country 
and  defeating  the  will  of  the  people,  making  elections 
by  ballot  a  farce,  and  popular  government  a  mockery. 


The  National  Press,  100  Mount  Road,  Madras, 
India,  has  published  a  pamphlet,  metaphysical  in  char- 
acter, entitled  Absolute  Monism ;  or  Mind  is  Matter  and 
Matter  is  Mind. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5 -'5 


In  Massachusetts,  where  the  Irish  and  Canadian 
Roman  Catholics  make  up  a  considerable  part  of  the 
population,  there  is  a  steady  increase  in  the  number  of 
Roman  Catholic  parochial  schools,  and  in  some  com- 
munities thev  have  greatly  depleted  the  public  schools. 
Particularly  is  this  the  case  in  Maiden,  where  in  one 
ward,  the  parochial  school  grew  too  large  for  its  build- 
ing and  applied  for  some  of  the  unoccupied  rooms  in  the 
public  school  building.  In  the  Northwest  the  Roman 
Catholics  are  making  determined  war  upon  the  public 
school  system,  and  in  isolated  cases  with  some  success. 
In  Barton,  Wis.,  last  year,  they  were  able  to  carry  a 
resolution  at  the  annual  meeting  that  no  public  school 
should  be  maintained  during  the  vear,  and  none  was 
held.  This  vear,  taking  advantage  of  the  law  giving 
women  the  right  to  vote  at  school  elections,  they  brought 
out  all  their  women,  and  in  spite  of  opposition  carried 
the  same  resolution  again.  At  Melrose,  Minn.,  a  move- 
ment was  led  by  the  Catholic  priests  to  shorten  the 
the  school  year  of  the  public  schools  in  order  to  compel 
children  to  attend  the  parochial  school.  "  Throughout 
Stearns  Countv,  Minn.,"  says  an  exchange,  "  the  Roman 
catechism  is  said  to  be  taught  openly  in  the  public 
schools,  and  either  opening  or  the  closing  hours  of  the 
session  are  devoted  to  religious  instruction  given  by  the 
priests,  all  this  being  in  direct  violation  of  the  State 
Constitution,  and  especially  of  an  amendment  adopted 
in  1S77  to  meet  this  very  condition."  The  evidences  of 
a  carefully  planned  assault  upon  our  public  school  sys- 
tem are  so  clear  that  its  friends  are  beginning  to  consider 
how  best  to  meet  this  assault. 

A  writer  in  the  Epoch  (C.  Rergersberg),  says  that 
the  Oriental  question  cannot  be  solved  peaceably  owing 
to  the  many  conflicting  interests  which  can  be  settled 
only  by  the  sword.  "  If  a  general  war  breaks  out  now," 
he  says  "  the  probable  constellation  is  Germany,  Aus- 
tria, Italy  and  possibly  England,  against  Russia,  France 
and  perhaps  Turkey,  odd  as  the  last-named  power  may 
sound  in  this  union."  In  spite  of  her  2,000,000  soldiers 
on  paper,  he  believes  Russia  in  consequence  of  her  cor 
rupt  military  administration  and  incomplete  railway  and 
transfer  system,  is  unable  to  concentrate  half  a  million 
men  on  an)-  one  given  point  of  her  frontier.  Against 
her  detached  army  corps  and  flying  brigades  there  will 
be  nearly  a  million  Austrians,  Hungarians  and  Rouma- 
nians in  the  South.  Germany  must  be  prepared  to  fight 
with  France.  If  the  Italian  alliance  holds  good  Italy 
will  send  some  400,000  men  into  Southern  France,  and 
thus  absorb  about  the  same  number  of  the  French  army 
which,  in  the  North,  will  have  to  face  about  a  million 
Germans.  Germany  will  have  about  half  a  million 
against  Russia.  This  writer  is  of  the  opinion  that  Bis- 
marck has  grave  political  and  diplomatic  reasons  for 
unwonted     leniencv     toward    his    turbulent    neighbors. 


The  Crown  Prince  is  neither  a  statesman  nor  a  military 
genius,  his  battles  having  been  won  by  his  chief  of  staff. 
Gen.  Blumenthal ;  but  the  Crown  Princess  Victoria  is 
talented  and  ambitious  and  has  the  will  to  be  the  power 
behind  the  throne.  She  is  an  antagonist  of  B  smarck, 
and  her  hobby  is  parliamentary  government  in  Germany. 
But  the  scheme  of  the  Crown  Princess,  if  carried  out, 
would  be  disastrous  to  the  young  Empire,  which  must 
remain  an  essentially  military  power.  Her  son  William, 
with  whom  in  matters  of  government  she  has  no  influ- 
ence, is  a  statesman  and  a  soldier,  and  has  many  notions 
in  common  with  the  Emperor  with  whom  he  is  a  great 
favorite,  and  is  a  great  admirer  of  Bismarck.  As  the 
Crown  Prince  is  suffering  from  what  may  prove  to  be 
an  incurable  disease,  indications  point  to  the  descent  of 
the  Imperial  Crown  from  William  I.  to  William  II., 
provided  the  present  Emperor  lives  a  few  years  longer. 
"  We  therefore,"  says  the  writer  from  whose  article  we 
have  condensed  the  above,  "  need  not  look  further  for 
reasons  why  Bismarck  does  not  wish  to  expose  the 
Emperor,  so  precious  to  the  Empire  (which  is,  so  to  say, 
his  own  creation),  to  the  excitement  and  fatigue  of  a 
war  from  which  the  old  soldier  certainly  would  not  stay 
away." 

Rev.  Dr.  Bartol,  always  brilliant  but  rather  erratic, 
has  been  somewhat  under  the  influence  of  the  mind-cure 
craze,  and  last  week  he  made  a  little  speech,  according 
to  announcement,  at  a  convention  of  the  "Christian 
Scientists"  held  in  Boston.  But  he  was  evidently  not 
in  a  mood  to  give  the  craze  much  aid  or  comfort.  He 
spoke  as  follows: 

I  believe  jour  school  is  extravagant  and  apt  to  be  exclusive. 
Then  there  arc  some  things  that  you  cannot  do.  I  was  riding  in 
the  cars  the  other  day  and  a  cinder  got  into  my  eve.  I  tried  your 
cure  but  it  was  not  successful,  and  I  had  to  go  to  an  oculist  to  get  it 
out.  Now,  I  believe  that  you  can  take  the  beam  out  of  my  eye,  but 
the  cinder  is  too  much  for  you.  When  you  can  take  the  cinder 
out  of  my  eye  or  set  a  broken  limb,  I  can  believe  thoroughly  in 
your  cure,  and  not  till  then.  Let  us  be  consistent,  let  us  be  honest. 
I  believe  somewhat  in  faith-cure,  but  I  do  not  think  I  have  ever 
heard  from  any  platform  or  read  in  any  magazine  a  justification 
or  proof  of  it.  I  believe  a  little  in  faith-cure,  but  I  do  not  believe 
it  can  remove  the  germs  of  typhoid  fever.  So  you  see  I  am  not 
on  the  fence — I  am  on  both  sides  of  it. 

Some  one  rose  in  the  back  of  the  hall  at  the  close  of  Dr.  Bar- 
tors  address  and  said  he  would  like  to  ask  a  question.  Permission 
being  given,  he  called  out:  "Is  it  possible  to  successfully  face 
both  ways?" 

Dr.  Bartol  immediately  raised  a  laugh  by  answering:  "I  can 
look  all  around." 

One  of  the  most  affecting  epitaphs  with  which  the 
editor  has  come  in  contact  is  one  engraved  on  a  stone 
which  stands  in  a  small  private  burial  ground  in  a  New 
Hampshire  village.  Beneath  lie  the  remains  of  a  young 
man  who  literally  wore  himself  to  death  by  study  and 
by   a  bitter  fight  for  tolerance  and  what  he  believed  to 


526 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


be  the  truths  of  religion  in  the  midst  of  a  community 
hard  headed,  intolerant,  and  not  at  all  of  his  own  way 
of  thinking.  A  few  days  before  his  death  the  young 
man  sent  to  a  college  friend  in  a  neighboring  State  the 
couplet  which  he  had  written  for  his  own  tombstone, 
and  requesting  him  to  see  that  it  was  inscribed  thereon. 
The  villagers  so  strongly  objected  —  this  was  two  score 
years  ago  —  to  the  burial  of  the  remains  of  one  they 
regarded  as  an  atheist  in  the  village  graveyard,  that  the 
grave  was  made  in  a  thicket  of  spruces  belonging  to  the 
dead  man's  paternal  estate,  and  without  name  or  date 
the  stone  bears  the  words: 

"As  a  defender  of  the  truth  I  fought, 
The  truth  is  still  the  truth  though  I  am  naught." 

—  Boston  Courier. 

Dr.  W.  T.  Barnard,  approvingly  quotes  Mr.  Wm. 
Mather,  an  English  observer  of  American  schools, 
who  says,  "with  an  income  of  $225,000  a  year,  it  will 
appear  possible  for  a  large  amount  of  work  to  be  done 
by  this  [the  Johns  Hopkins]  University  among  the  peo- 
ple of  the  city,  without  in  any  degree  diminishing  the 
higher  class  of  instruction  in  the  advanced  stages  of  liter- 
ary and  scientific  study."  We  would  regard  a  division  of 
the  fund  for  such  purposes  as  wrong.  The  Johns 
Hopkins  is  the  only  school  in  the  Union  that  furnishes 
adequate  instruction  in  the  higher  departments  of  sci- 
ence, and  it  would  be  sending  a  man  on  a  boy's  errand 
to  convert  it  into  a  manual  training  school.  Its  pupils 
will  learn  to  instruct  in  practical  branches,  and  if  the 
Johns  Hopkins  is  let  alone,  hundreds  of  technological 
schools  will  proceed  from  it. 

Sa\s   ThcXation: 

The  fall  in  the  Boersein  Berlin,  in  consequence  of  the  renewed 
unfavorable  accounts  of  the  condition  of  the  Crown  Prince's 
throat,  is  a  natural  consequence  of  the  fact  that  his  eldest  son,  and 
the  next  heir  to  the  imperial  throne  in  case  of  his  death,  is  a  young 
man  of  the  military  type,  who  has  little  sympathy  with  or  com- 
prehension of  constitutional  liberty  or  the  parliamentary  system, 
being  in  all  these  respects  a  great  contrast  to  his  father.  The 
patience  of  the  German  Liberals  under  the  slights  put  upon  them 
by  Bismarck  has  been  due,  in  some  degree,  to  the  knowledge  that 
a  regime  more  favorable  to  them  would  come  in  with  the  death  ot 
the  old  Emperor  and  the  accession  of  his  son,  who  is  a  man  of 
peace  and  imbued  with  constitutional  ideas,  and  has  but  little 
sympathy  with  Bismarck's  high-handed  ways.  If,  however,  the 
crown  were  now  to  pass  again  to  a  mere  soldier,  a  long  period  of 
trouble  at  home  and  abroad  might  be  opened  up.  But  it  has  to  be 
borne  in  mind  that  even  young  soldiers  are  apt  to  be  sobered  by 
the  cares  of  state  and  the  difficulty,  even  on  the  throne,  of  having 
one's  own  way, 

#  #  * 

Mr.  W.  M.  Salter  spoke  last  Sunday  at  the  Grand 
Opera  House,  this  city,  on  the  crime  and  punishment  of 
the  seven  condemned  anarchists.  He  claimed  that  only 
three  of  the  men  had  been  proven  accessories  before  the 
fact  of    the   murder  of    the   policeman   Degan  —  Fngel, 


Fischer  and  Lingg.  These  he  thought  the  State  should 
imprison  for  life.  The  other  four,  Spies,  Schwab, 
Fielden  and  Parsons,  he  believed,  after  examining  all 
the  evidence,  not  guilty  of  the  crime  for  which  they  have- 
been  condemned.  They  were  guilty  of  sedition  and 
were  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  against  the  State.  This 
was  their  offense  and  for  this  they  should  be  imprisoned 
for  a  term  of  years.  On  another  page  mav  be  found 
Mr.  Salter's  address  in  full,  printed  from  his  manuscript. 
*  *  * 

Referring  to  the  recent  action  of  the  American 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  at  their  Springfield  meeting, 
the  Boston  Herald  says: 

All  important  is  it,  therefore,  for  the  vounger,  more  enlight- 
ened and  humaner  members  of  the  orthodox  Congregational 
body  to  make  their  point-blank  appeal  to  their  congregations  as 
to  whether  the  possession  of  a  broad  and  infinite  spirit  of  tender- 
ness and  redeeming  mercy  ought  really  to  prove  an  insuperable 
religious  barrier  toward  any  hope  of  usefulness  among  the  heathen. 
The  more  such  ministers  are  excluded  from  the  foreign  field,  the 
hotter  will  grow  the  righteous  indignation  of  their  admirers  at 
home.  In  truth,  the  world  is  growing  very  sick  of  theological 
inhumanity.  A  new  current  has  set  in  through  the  sympathy  of 
nations  with  one  another — sympathy  in  their  mutual  institutions, 
literatures,  philosophies  and  religions — which  is  bearing  all  reflect- 
ing minds  along  with  it  toward  another  and  a  better  future.  No 
American  board  of  foreign  missions,  however  conservative  and 
fossilized,  can  stav  this  tendency. 


Harriet  Martineau,  in  her  Notes  on  America^  thus 
wrote  of  the  prosecution  of  Abner  Kneeland  for  blas- 
phemy, which  occurred   in  1S35: 

One  clear  consequence  of  my  conversation  and  experience 
together  was  that  the  next  prosecution  for  blasphemy  in  Massa- 
chusetts was  the  last.  An  old  man,  nearly  seventy,  was  impris- 
oned in  a  grated  dungeon  for  having  printed  that  he  believed  the 
God  of  the  Universalists  to  be  a  "chimera  of  the  imagination." 
Some  who  had  listened  to  my  assertions  of  the  rights  of  thought 
and  speech  drew  up  a  memorial  to  the  governor  of  the  S'ate  for 
a  pardon  for  old  Abner  Kneeland,  stating  their  ground  with  great 
breadth  and  clearness,  while  disclaiming  any  kind  of  sympathy 
with  the  views  and  the  spirit  of  the  victim.  The  prime  mover 
being  a  well-known  religious  man,  and  Dr.  Charming  being  will- 
ing to  put  his  name  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  requisitionists,  the 
principle  of  their  remonstrance  stood  out  brightly  and  unmistak- 
ably. The  religious  corporations  opposed  the  petitioners  with  all 
their  efforts,  and  the  newspapers  threw  dirt  at  them  with  extraor- 
dinary vigor,  so  that  the  governor  did  not  grant  their  request. 
But  when  old  Abner  Kneeland  came  out  of  his  prison  everybody 
knew  that  the  ancient  phase  of  societ3'  had  passed  away,  and  that 
there  would    never  again   be    a    prosecution    for    blasphemy    in 

Massachusetts." 

*  *  * 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  deface  Voltaire's  statue 
at  Besancon  by  vandals  in  the  employ,  it  is  believed,  of 
the  clerical  partv.  Placards  are  posted  blackening  Vol- 
taire's memory  and  consigning  his  adherents  and 
admirers  to  eternal  fire.  Police  are  obliged  to  guard  the 
statue  every   night. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


527 


THE  RELATION  OF  MIND  TO  MATTER. 


BY     PROF.     E.    D.    COPE. 


As  the  object  of  The  Open  Couht  is  stated  to  be 
on  it  title-page  "  The  Work  of  Establishing  Ethics  and 
Religion  upon  a  Scientific  Basis,"  the  discussion  of  the 
relation  of  mind  to  matter  falls  clearly  within  its  scope. 
The  evidence  for  theism  or  for  atheism  is  to  be  obtained 
from  this  inquiry,  and  the  nature  of  evil  receives  its 
explanation  from  the  facts  of  this  relation.  Assump- 
tions as  to  this  relation  lie  at  the  basis  of  all  theologies 
and  anti-theologies,  and  the  fundamental  propositions  of 
human  belief  are  to  be  refuted  or  established  by  the 
research.  The  discovery  of  these  relations  constitutes 
the  highest  goal  of  scientific  investigation,  so  that 
theology  is  seen  to  be  entirely  dependent  on  the  scien- 
tific method.  But  the  progress  of  science  is  necessarily 
so  slow  that  men  in  their  natural  impatience  for  a  fin- 
ished rule  of  life,  or  for  a  finished  philosophy,  have 
always  affirmed  or  denied  more  than  actual  knowledge 
has  warranted.  Has  a  century  of  scientific  activity  done 
anything  to  supply  this  aching  void  of  the  human  mind 
and  heart?  I  think  it  has  done  something,  although 
not  a  great  deal.  And  with  our  usual  impatience  we 
again  build  bevond  the  foundation  thus  acquired,  super- 
structures which  the  further  progress  of  science  will 
sustain  or  refute. 

The  proposition  that  the  mind  of  men  and  animals 
is  the  essential  and  effective  director  of  their  designed 
movements  seems  to  be  one  of  those  fundamental  facts 
of  observation  for  which  proof  is  no  more  necessary 
than  for  the  opinion  that  fire  is  hot  and  that  ice  is  cold. 
The  only  person  who  denies  its  truth,  with  whom  I 
have  had  the  pleasure  of  an  acquaintance,  is  Dr.  Edmund 
Montgomery.  To  him  the  person  who  adopts  .this 
view,  without  other  than  the  evidence  of  our  senses,  is 
begging  the  question.  I  had  hoped  and  anticipated  that 
this  gentleman,  in  opposing  this  opinion  and  its  conse- 
quences, would  have  brought  forward  some  convincing 
evidence  from  scientific  sources  to  show  that  it  fs  an 
error;  that  he  would  have  substituted  for  it  some 
hypothesis  which  is  sustained  by  the  latest  scientific 
research — say,  for  instance,  a  statement  of  his  doctrine 
of  "  specific  energies."  But  this  he  has  not  done,  but 
instead  thereof  presents  certain  logical  considerations, 
which,  while  of  importance,  are  altogether  of  the 
a  priori  class  of  arguments,  and  do  not  touch  on  scientific 
questions  at  all.  They  deal  with  that  aspect  of  the  sub- 
ject which  is  most  remote  from  the  scientific  base-line, 
which  is  yet  in  the  field  of  hypothesis,  as  I  have  taken 
pains  to  state  in  my  reply  to  him.  And  they  do  not  in 
the  least  invalidate  the  scientific  basis  of  theism,  which 
rests  on  the  now  known  influence  of  mind  on  the  char- 
acter of  organic  evolution. 

Until    Dr.   Montgomery    produces    evidence   to    the 


contrary  I  will  re-affirm  this  fundamental  fact  of  evolu- 
tion. The  structure  of  organic  beings  has  been  pro- 
duced by  the  interaction  of  their  bodies  in  whole  or  in 
part  with  the  environment.  This  interaction  means,  in 
large  part,  motion,  and  that  motion  has  been  determined 
by  the  conscious  state  of  the  organism.  Therefore  con- 
sciousness pro  tanto  is  the  cause  of  the  evolution  of 
organic  types.  Many  apparent  exceptions  to  this  prop- 
osition may  be  readily  adduced,  as  in  the  case  of  plants, 
and  of  the  reflex  acts  of  animals,  unconscious  cerebra- 
tion, etc.;  but  these,  when  investigated,  lead  back  to 
the  same  source,  consciousness,  so  far  as  evidence  of 
design  in  structure  may  be  detected.  Something  has 
been  due  to  a  contractility,  which  is  a  physical  character 
of  some  kind  of  protoplasm;  but  without  conscious 
direction  this  contractility  counts  for  little  in  evolution. 
But  it  is  argued  by  some  that  the  supposition  that  the 
appearance  of  design  in  the  structure  of  organism  is 
deceptive,  and  is  only  the  expression  of  an  accidental 
adaptation  which  alone  among  countless  failures  has 
survived.  This  is  incredible  for  three  reasons:  first,  it 
is  contrary  to  the  law  of  chance  that  the  nice  adapta- 
tions which  we  observe  should  be  accidentally  created; 
second,  the  variations  which  have  appeared,  whether 
many  or  few,  must  have  had  a  physical  cause,  which  is 
ignored  in  the  most  unscientific  way  by  this  school,  of 
which  Mr.  G.  J.  Romanes  is  chief;  third,  it  leaves  abso- 
lute!}' no  use  for  conscious  direction  of  energy;  and  I 
may  add,  fourth,  it  is  entirely  contrary  to  the  evidence 
of  paleontological  science.  And  I  must  repeat  here  that 
the  evidence  as  to  the  nature  of  creation  must  be  chiefly 
sought  in  the  modern  science  of  evolution,  and  is  not 
likely  to  be  discovered  by  the  student  of  the  functioning 
of  organic  or  inorganic  machinery.  In  functioning  we 
have  principally  destruction-  "dissipation  of  energy 
and  integration  of  matter."  In  evolution  we  have  com- 
plication of  matter  through  the  profitable  direction  of 
energy.  My  friend,  Dr.  Clevenger,  for  instance,  views 
the  subject  from  the  standpoint  of  physiology,  or  the 
functioning  of  the  animal  organism;  and  in  spite  of  his 
learning  in  purely  mental  science  he  has  not  gotten  hold 
of  the  idea  so  clearly  taught  by  the  science  of  evolution. 
To  repeat  once  more  what  this  idea  is,  I  state  the  fol- 
lowing proposition,  which  I  am  at  present  engaged  in 
sustaining  by  abundant  facts: 

Hie  successive  modifications  of  structure  which  con- 
stitute the  evolution  of  animals  arc  the  mechanical 
effects  of  their  movements,  direct  and  indirect. 

As  these  movements  are  determined  by  conscious- 
ness, it  is  evident  that  the  building  of  the  machines  thus 
effected  is  a  process  quite  the  opposite  of  the  destruction 
or  wearing  out  which  goes  on  at  the  same  time.  It  is 
also  evident  that  these  propositions  apply  to  all  forms  of 
life. 

The    possibility     of     this  control   of  mind  over   the 


528 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


matter  of  which  it  is  a  property,  offers  a  logical  diffi- 
cult)' to  Dr.  Montgomery.  He  finds  it  difficult  to  con- 
ceive of  a  property  controlling  that  of  which  it  is  a 
property.  But  this  is  matter  of  words  only.  The 
assertion  that  matter  is  the  physicial  basis  of  mind,  states 
the  same  thing  in  substance,  but  in  a  form  of  expression 
which  may  serve  to  remove  the  objection  raised  by  the 
converse  statement. 

In  this  connection  Dr.  Clevenger's  position  is  also 
of  fundamental  importance.*  It  is:  "I.  Hunger  is 
chemical  affinity,  the  desire  inherent  in  atoms  for  one 
another."  Here  we  have  the  identification  of  conscious- 
ness (mind)  with  energy,  an  error  more  frequent  and 
more  plausible  than  the  identification  of  mind  with  mat- 
ter, but  not  less  inexact.  While  energy  is  as  necessary  to 
mind  as  is  matter,  they  cannot  be  rationally  confounded. 
The  reason  why  is  simply,  that  energy  does  not  feel, 
remember  and  reason.  In  any  rational  classification,  a 
division  of  the  properties  of  matter  into  those  that  feel, 
remember  and  reason,  and  those  that  do  not,  is  funda- 
mental and  necessary.  Hunger  is  the  conscious  product 
of  the  kinetic  or  unsatisfied  state  of  some  kind  of  energy, 
but  it  is  not  that  energy  itself  any  more  than  violin  music- 
is  a  violin,  or  that  a  voice  is  a  man.  So  with  all  phe- 
nomena of  consciousness.  They  may  be  produced  by 
some  condition  of  energy,  but  they  are  not  that  energy 
itself.  But  I  am  at  once  asked  whether  from  a  scientific 
standpoint  this  is  not  a  question  of  words?  It  is  not,  but 
is  of  fundamental  significance  for  two  reasons.  First, 
the  consciousness  so  produced  does  iny  turn  direct 
energy,  a  fact  admitted  by  Dr.  Clevenger;  second,  Me 
correlation  between  mind  and  matter  is  one  of  quantity 
only,  and  not  of  quality.  Who  can  say  that  the  mental 
decision  to  use  the  right  hand  causes  a  greater  expendi- 
ture of  energy  than  the  decision  to  use  the  left  hand? 
Who  can  say  that  a  correct  logical  process  costs  more 
energy  than  an  incorrect  one?  Who  can  believe  that 
more  energy  is  expended  in  liking  than  in  disliking,  or 
in  deciding  to  worship  God  rather  than  Baal?  Which 
consumes  more  energy,  devotion  to  a  false  ideal  or  devo- 
tion to  a  true  ideal? 

It  may  be  doubted,  by  the  way,  whether  the  unsatis- 
fied energy  of  hunger  is  chemical.  So  far  as  the  sensa- 
tion resides  in  the  digestive  system  this  may  be  true,  but 
the  hunger  that  is  expressed  by  unsatisfied  tissues,  is  the 
desire  of  a  chemical  substance  for  more  of  its  own  kind, 
and  this  can  hardly  be  called  chemical  without  a  strain 
of  the  proper  meaning  of  the  word.  It  is  probably 
another  species  of  energy. 

Dr.  Clevenger  gives  the  conditions  of  consciousness 
clearly  and  concisely  in  two  of  his  paragraphs,  but  in 
the  inverted   order  of  cause  and   effect.];     "The  end  of 

*  I  1 1 1    Open  Court,  1*^7.  No.  16,  p.  43T. 
t  Ibid  ,  18S7,  No.  T4,  p.  3So,  p:ir.  10. 
X  Ibid.,  1SS7,  No.  14,  p.  ,}cq,  p;ir.  5,  i>. 


consciousness  is  automatism,  just  as  less  friction  is  evi- 
dent in  the  more  complete  adaptation  of  means  to  ends." 
*  #  *  u  Consciousness  is  evident  in  existence,  as  any 
other  property  of  matter,  and  as  resistance  becomes  less, 
it  disappears."  Truly  a  remarkable  species  of  "  energy  I" 
As  a  general  rule  we  find  that  energy  has  a  history  pre- 
cisely the  opposite.  As  resistance  becomes  less  it  does 
not  tend  to  disappear!  but  to  continue;  and  it  is  a  funda- 
mental assumption  of  physical  science  that  in  a  perfect 
vacuum,  and  without  friction,  motion  would  be  eternal. 
But  curiously  enough,  consciousness  pursues  a  directly 
opposite  course;  truly  does  Dr.  Clevenger  say,  it  in- 
creases with  resistance,  and  disappears  with  the  disap- 
pearance of  opposition.  Let  us  reverse  the  statement  so 
as  to  harmonize  it  with  this  evident  fact.  The  essential 
condition  of  consciousness  is  the  absence  of  completed 
organization /  its  necessary  condition  is  one  of  ?netabol- 
ism  off  matter  ("(7  constant  becoming"  Heraclitus),  and 
when  organization  is  effected  and  opposition  or  "fric- 
tion'" caused  by  its  movement  of  matter  disappearsr 
consciousness  disappears  also.  This  is  the  well-known 
law  of  automatism,  and  it  contains  within  itself  the 
demonstration  that  mind  is  not  a  species  of  energ\ ,  but 
something  of  distinct  and  even  opposite  attributes. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  consider  Dr.  Montgomery's 
logical  objections  to  the  proposition  that  mind  can  con- 
trol matter.  He  justly  regards  this  proposition  as  funda- 
mental, and  does  me  the  honor  to  say  that  if  it  be  granted 
the  system  which  I  have  presented  must  be  adopted,, 
since  it  is  logically  consistent.  And  here  let  me  express 
my  cordial  admiration  for  the  honesty  of  the  attitude  of 
Dr.  Montgomery  in  not  taking  refuge  in  the  clouds  of 
dust  so  easily  raised  by  the  idealist  and  by  the  hopeless 
species  of  agnostic,  who  are  practically  one  in  their 
opposition  to  the  idea  of  a  possible  scientific  theology. 
The  idealist  necessarily  is  a  "solipsist,"  and  is  condemned 
to  find  within  himself  the  universe  and  God;  so  he 
needs  no  further  information,  and  in  view  of  that  fact  he 
may,  as  Mr.  F.  E.  Abbot  expresses  it,  proceed  comfort- 
ably to  "  take  a  nap."  Yet  the  possible  existence  of 
some  1,000,000,000  other  universes  and  Gods  on  this, 
planet  alone,  might  be  expected  at  least  to  make  his 
dreams  uneasy.  So,  also,  the  agnostic,  who  not  only 
does  not  know,  but  who  believes  in  nothing  but  the 
"unknowable."  This  is  not  the  original  Huxleyan 
agnostic,  who  appears  to  have  some  hopes  that  the 
progress  of  science  has  something  in  store  for  the 
knowledge  of  mind  in  the  large  sense;  but  the  gladi- 
ator of  the  verbal  arena,  who  takes  a  position  which 
he  thinks  impregnable,  by  denying  the  existence  of 
everything  with  which  human  knowledge  concerns  it- 
self. 

Since  writing  the  above  I  have  read  the  third  part 
of  Dr.  Montgomery's  article  in  The  Open  Court, 
"Are  We  Products  of  Mind?"  and  find  that  I  was  too 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


529 


fast  in  believing  that  he  did  not  adopt  the  idealistic  posi- 
tion. It  is  useless  to  discuss  any  scientific  question  with 
an  idealist,  for  there  lies  at  the  basis  of  that  position  an 
essential  non  sequitur.  Because  all  that  we  know  of 
the  universe  is  a  complex  of  sensations,  it  does  not  follow 
that  there  is  no  material  universe!  And  Dr.  Mont- 
gomery evidently  holds  that  there  is  an  objective  reality, 
for  with  true  idealistic  inconsistency  he  remarks  (p.  4S1), 
"My  biological  knowledge,  both  physiological  and 
pathological,  has  rendered  it  indeed  utterly  impossible 
for  me  to  imagine  any  kind  of  consciousness  detached 
from  vital  organization!  "  And  the  doctor  is  evidently 
a  full  believer  in  physiological  materialism,  as  he  is  in 
metaphysical  idealism.  To  reconcile  these  radically 
inconsistent  positions  is  to  the  Doctor  the  "puzzle  of 
puzzles,"  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  he  finds 
it  so.  I  do  not  claim  to  have  solved  it,  but  I  say  that 
the  solution  will  be  found  in  the  extension  of  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution,  which  constitutes  a  science  newer 
than  either  metaphysics  or  physiology,  and  more  preg- 
nant with  light  than  either  of  them.  In  this  connection 
I  quote  the  prophetic  language  of  Mr.  Francis  Elling- 
wood  Abbot  in  his  Scientific  Theism  (p.  200):  "The 
dualistic  and  teleological  philosophy  of  Paley  belongs 
indeed  to  the  past;  the  mechanical  and  monistic  phi- 
losophy of  Spencer  and  Haeckel  belongs  to  the  present, 
but  is  rapidly  moving  into  the  past;  the  teleological  and 
monistic  philosophy  of  the  scientific  method  and  the 
organic  theory  of  evolution  belongs  to  the  future,  and 
will  soon  be  here.  But  apparently  neither  Haeckel  nor 
Spencer"(and  I  may  add,  nor  Montgomery)  "ever  dreamed 
of  that."  The  idealistic  position  gives  the  rein  to 
thought  uncontrolled  by  fact,  and  is  the  parent  of  all 
the  crudities  and  absurdities  of  the  prevalent  theologies. 
Idealism  is  also  the  stronghold  of  all  negations,  and  of 
permanent  skepticism.  It  is  the  enemy  of  science,  for 
if  the  idealistic  position  be  true,  science  is  but  an  aimless 
amusement.  Materialistic  psychology  is  on  the  other 
hand  the  grave  of  human  hope,  since  if  its  positions  be 
true,  the  past,  present  and  future  of  mind  is  wrapped  up 
in  organized  protoplasm,  and  it  is  not  worth  while  to 
inquire  further.  A  brace  of  bad  masters  of  the  human 
mind,  which  evolution  will  one  day  reduce  to  the  posi- 
tion of  good  servants. 

To  the  entire  failure  to  understand  my  position  and 
that  of  the  "teleological  and  monistic  philosophy,"  must 
I  ascribe  the  closing  paragraph  of  the  article  No.  III. 
above  referred  to.  Dr.  Montgomery  ascribes  to  me  the 
following  views,  which  I  have  especially  warned  my 
readers  from  inferring,  and  which  cannot  be  logically 
inferred  from  my  premises:  "In  this  case  the  definite 
conscious  forecast,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  organic 
instrument  to  be  used,  of  the  medium  in  which  it  is  to 
be  used,  and  of  the  aim  to  be  accomplished,  would  have 
to  belong   to   the  performing  unspecialized    will-power, 


which  would  then  evidently  be  an  omniscient,  transcend- 
ent power  using  us  organic  individuals  as  mere  passive 
tools  for  its  own  aims."  According  to  the  doctrine  of 
evolution,  the  forecast  extends  no  further  than  the  les- 
sons of  experience,  derived  from  primitive  motion  and 
memory.  The  organic  instrument  does  not  exist  until 
it  has  been  created  by  movements  directed  by  the  same 
experience.  The  knowledge  of  the  medium  ami  of  the 
aim  arises  like  the  forecast,  and  antecedently.  Finally  the 
will-power  is  the  intelligent  response  to  stimulus,  which 
is  the  subjective  ego  of  the  action,  so  that  it  is  not  cor- 
rect to  say  that  it  is  a  "transcendent  power  using  us," 
for  it  is  "us,"  of  which  our  body  is  the  executive 
machine. 

In  this  discussion  I  have  but  one  object,  and  that  is 
to  ascertain  so  far  as  may  be,  what  is  logically  possible 
under  the  true  doctrine  that  "The  mode  of  motion 
(energy)  of  matter  is  *  *  *  primitively  conditioned 
by  consciousness,  but  ceases  to  be  so  conditioned  when 
it  reaches  a  certain  degree  of  automatism."*  With  "  the 
unthinkable  dogma  of  [first]  creation"  (Haeckel),  I  have 
nothing  to  do.  So  I  cannot  discuss  the  question  of"  the 
first  start  to  this  evolutional  process"  to  which  Dr. 
Montgomery  refers,  for  I  know  nothing  about  it. 
My  information  is,  of  course,  confined  to  beings  com- 
posed of  protoplasm,  and  although  I  infer  the  existence 
of  consciousness  in  variousphysical  bases  distinct  from  that 
substance,  in  other  parts  of  the  universe,  for  reasons 
already  gnen,  I  do  not  know  of  the  internal  economy  of 
such  beings,  nor  of  the  constitution  of  their  molecule. 
Whether  they  display  greater  or  less  chemical  or  organic 
specialization  than  human  beings  I  cannot  tell !  Specula- 
tion even  as  to  these  questions  is  without  permanent  value, 
in  the  total  absence  of  material  facts.  Dr.  Montgomery 
appears  to  have  supposed  that  some  of  my  remarks  have 
had  reference  to  such  existences,  when  in  reality  I  have 
had  in  view  only  the  inhabitants  of  earth.  The  primi- 
tive undeveloped  will  is,  of  course,  that  of  the  lowest 
protoplasmic  beings  who  display  it,  and  it  is  by  no  means 
to  be  inferred  that  the  will  of  beings  of  other,  even  if 
more  primitive  physical  bases,  is  of  the  same  grade.  I  have, 
moreover,  not  expressed  the  opinion  which  Dr.  Mont- 
gomery ascribes  to  me,  "  that  all  forms  of  matter  have 
originated  in  the  running  down  from  the  primitive  mat- 
ter, that  all  forms  of  consciousness  have  originated  in  the 
process  of  running  down  from  the  primitive  conscious- 
ness," without  having  at  the  same  time  defined  the 
proposition  and  given  its  limitations  in  the  clearest  man- 
ner. If  we  mean  by  the  origin  here  referred  to,  the 
origin  of  the  organization  of  protoplasmic  matter  and  its 
consciousness,  the  process  of  evolution  of  living  matter 
and    consciousness  is  distinctly  upward   and   not  down- 


*  The  Open  Court,  1SS7,  No.  13,  p.  35s,  <•/  stq.  Dr.  Montgomery  has  also 
misunderstood  my  reference  to  "  energy  as  :t  concept  distinct  from  matter."  I 
did  not  accuse  him  of  holding  that  opinion,  although  I  hold  it  myself. 


53° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


ward,  as  is  well  known.  But  that  almost  every  stage 
displays  its  examples  of  degenerate  or  exhausted  prod- 
ucts as  well,  is  also  well  known  to  the  evolutionist. 
And  if  we  suppose  consciousness  and  its  conditioned 
control  over  matter  to  have  been  primitive,  we  can  see 
what  a  large  part  of  the  creation  consists  of  such  degen- 
erate or  automatic  products.  These  will,  nevertheless, 
when  compared,  display  an  advancing  scale  of  evolution 
dependent  on  the  successive  stages  at  which  they  origi- 
nated. But  wherever  consciousness  persists,  with  mem- 
ory, mental  evolution  is  assured. 

If,  however,  I  am  asked  to  discuss  any  "origin" 
prior  to  protoplasmic  life,  I  cannot  go  further  than  to 
repeat  the  proposition,  "8.  The  phylogeny  of  proto- 
plasm requires  a  parent  substance."  In  fact  the  objec- 
tions of  Dr.  Montgomery's  last  article  are  entirely  due 
to  his  persistent  assumption  that  I  hold  that  the  phe- 
nomena of  protoplasm  are  to  be  the  measure  and  balance 
for  our  estimate  of  the  phenomena  of  other  physical 
bases.  Moreover  I  cannot  concern  myself  with  the 
problem  of  what  the  primitive  mind  may  have  had  in 
view  in  the  working  up  of  refractory  types  of  matter 
into  conscious  or  living  organisms.  I  have  only  to 
deal  with  the  physical  and  mental  possibilities  of  the 
case,  and  I  am  sure  that  further  reflection  will  show 
Dr.  Montgomery  that  one  may  believe  that  mind  has 
some  control  of  the  movements  of  matter,  and  yet  not 
get  into  the  cul  dc  sac  which  he  depicts.  And  the 
rcductio  ad  absurdum  which  he  obtains  is  derived  from 
premises  of  his  own  imagining,  and  not  of  mine. 

The  conception  of  Deity  as  a  conscious  physical  basis 
is  the  only  one  which  can  be  in  accord  with  scientific 
realism.  It  is  subject  conditioned  by  object,  and  object 
conditioned  by  subject.  The  idea  is  anthropomorphic,* 
but  it  is  not  unthinkable.  The  idealistic  deity  of  some 
monists  is  a  generalization  of  the  human  mind,  based  on 
the  phenomena  of  nature  which  are  selected  according 
to  the  preferences  of  the  thinker.  Since  the  old  realism, 
which  made  mental  abstractions  realities  of  the  universe, 
is  dead  and  buried,  such  a  deity  is  not  a  person.  Now 
an  "impersonal  deity"  is  as  much  a  contradiction  in 
terms  as  "unconscious  consciousness;"  and  those  who 
substitute  their  own  thoughts  for  a  supreme  person,  are 
not  theists,  unless,  indeed,  such  thinker  considers  himself 
to  be  the  deity. 


"  The  uses  of  mediocrity  are  for  everyday  life,  but 
the  uses  of  genius  amidst  a  thousand  mistakes  which 
mediocrity  never  commits,  are  to  suggest  and  perpetuate 
ideas  which  raise  the  standard  of  the  mediocre  to  a  nobler 
level.  There  would  be  far  fewer  good  men  of  sense  if 
there  were  no  erring  dreamers  of  genius." — Buliver. 


*  An  excellent  discussion  of  the  nature  of  Deity  is  to  be  found  in  a  lecture 
of  Professor  Du  Bois  Raymond  before  the  Association  of  Physicians  and  Nat- 
uralists of  Germany.     See  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Mav,  1S73. 


WHAT  SHALL  BE  DONE  WITH  THE  ANARCHISTS? 

A    LECTURE    BEFORE    THE    SOCIETY     FOR      ETHICAL    CULTURE    OF    CHICAGO,    IN- 
GRAND    OPERA    HOUSE,    SUNDAY,    OCTOBER    23. 

BY    WILLIAM    M.   SALTER* 

There  is  no  more  sacred  thought  than  that  of  justice.  With 
the  sense  of  its  august  nature  I  do  not  wonder  that  men  have 
committed  its  execution  to  the  supreme  powers  that  rule  the 
world.  We  believe,  however,  that  justice  is  the  task  of  man ; 
that  the  supreme  powers  have  intrusted  it  to  him ;  that  a  portion 
of  invisible  sanctity  attaches  to  the  office  of  the  magistrate  and 
the  judge.  The  divine  institution  in  the  world  is  not  the  Church, 
but  civil  society ;  hence  no  apology  is  needed  when  real  religion 
(which  is  nothing  but  the  sense  of  justice)  mingles  in  civil 
affairs.  If  the  churches  that  look  for  justice  and  judgment  from 
another  power  and  in  another  world  have  no  need  to  trouble 
themselves  about  earthly  courts  of  justice,  not  so  with  us.  If  we 
do  not  continually  speak,  it  is  because  we  assume  that  justice  is 
being  continually  done,  and  our  duty  lies  only  in  supporting  and 
encouraging  those  through  whose  hands  it  is  administered  and 
executed.  But  our  courts  are  not  infallible,  nor  does  a  divinity 
hedge  and  attend  them  in  such  a  sense  that  their  every  verdict 
must  be  submissively  received.  Occasions  may  arise — at  rare 
intervals,  we  must  presume,  at  least  in  modern  democratic 
societies — when  justice  is  not  done.  My  friends,  there  are  grave 
doubts  in  many  minds  whether  such  an  occasion  has  not  recently 
arisen  in  our  midst.  No  man  who  honors  the  law  and  loves  his 
country  can,  without  some  trepidation  publicly  question  the 
righteousness  of  a  judicial  verdict,  rendered  after  a  long  trial  and 
re-affirmed  by  a  higher  court.  We  must  presume  that  as  a  rule 
justice  is  done  in  our  courts,  else  anarchy  is  near  to  being  justi- 
fied. It  is  with  a  full  sense  of  my  responsibility,  and  of  the  mis- 
interpretation to  which  I  render  myself  liable,  that  I  speak  on  the 
question  I  have  announced  for  to-day:  What  shall  be  done  with 
the  anarchists? 

Let  no  one  expect  from  me  a  sensational  treatment  of  this 
theme.  I  am  not  here  to  appeal  to  any  one's  passions  or  preju- 
dices, or  even  sympathies.  My  thought  is  justice.  Justice 
requires  before  all  things  a  cool  and  dispassionate  mind.  In  such 
a  spirit,  with  such  an  aim  at  least,  I  have  for  days  and  weeks 
studied  this  question.  It  is  largely  a  question  of  facts,  of  dry 
facts,  if  you  will.  The  discussion  of  them  may  be  tedious  to 
some.  Very  well,  I  am  here  before  all  to  speak  to  those  who 
want  to  know  what  the  facts  really  are. 

I  shall  make  my  remarks  under  three  heads:  First,  are  the 
seven  men  now  in  the  county  jail  guilty  of  the  crime  with  which 
thev  yvere  charged ?  Second,  if  not,  of  what  are  they  guilty? 
Third,  what  should  be  their  punishment? 

First,  are  thev  guilty  of  the  crime  charged  against  them?  My 
hearers  will  certainly  pardon  my  familiarity  in  the  use  of  names 
for  the  sake  of  clearness  and  brevity — on  this  occasion — a  famil- 
iarity which  under  other  circumstances  would  be  quite  out  of 
place.  The  crime  was  that  of  the  murder  of  the  policeman 
Mathi.is  T.  Degan.  It  is  "conceded,"  to  use  the  language  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  that  no  one  of  the  seven  men  threw 
the  bomb  with  his  own  hands;  they  are  charged  with  being 
accessories,  in  the  technical  language  of  the  law,  before  the  fact. 
An  accessory  of  a  crime  is  one  who  stands  by  and  aids  or  abets 
or  assists,  or  who,  if  not  present,  has  yet  advised  and  encouraged 
its  perpetration,  and  by  the  law — and  it  is  surely  a  just  law — such 
an  accessory  is  as  guilty  as  if  he  were  the  actual  perpetrator. 
What  is  the  proof  that  the  seven  men  were  accessories  in  this  case? 

There  is  no  doubt  that  a  conspiracy  was  formed  Monday 
night — the  night  before  the  massacre — to  resist  the  police  in  case 
the    striking    workingmen   of  that    excited   time    were    attacked. 

*  My  authorities  in  preparing  this  lecture  were  the  respective  Briefs  ot 
the  prosecution  and  the  defense,  presented  to  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court  last 
spring;  also  a  special  Brief  by  Leonard  Swett. 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


m 


u 


There  is  no  doubt  tliat  Engel  and  Fischer — two  of  the  seven 
men — were  leaders  in  thai  conspiracy;  nor  any  doubt  worth  con- 
sidering that  Lingg — another — was  acquainted  with  its  designs. 
Lingg,  with  others,  was  manufacturing  bombs  much  of  the  next 
day;  he  chided  his  assistants  for  working  so  slowly;  he  said  they 
were  for  use  that  night.  There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt,  tak- 
ing into  account  that  dynamite  bombs  were  the  trusted  weapons 
of  warfare  to  this  particular  class  of  workingmen,  and  further  the 
special  evidence  produced  at  the  trial,  that  these  particular  bombs 
were  made — thirty  to  fifty  of  them  were  made — to  serve  the 
purposes  of  the  Monday  night  conspiracy.  Plans  were  also 
made  Monday  night  for  the  Haymarket  meeting  the  following 
night.  There  is  no  evidence  that  a  conflict  was  specially  expected 
at  the  Haymarket.  That  contingency  was  in  mind,  but  the  plan 
was  simply  that  the  conspirators  should  come  to  the  assistance  of 
workingmen,  whenever  they  should  be  interfered  with.  That 
(Monday)  afternoon  several  workingmen  were  reported  to  have 
been  killed  by  the  police  near  McCormick's  factory ;  a  circular 
calling  on  workingmen  in  passionate  terms  to  arm  themselves 
and  avenge  the  death  of  their  brothers  was  distributed  at  the 
Monday  night  meeting  and  doubtless  tended  to  heighten  the 
angry  feelings  of  those  present;  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  an 
offensive  attack  on  the  police  was  planned  for — the  evidence  is 
simply  that  the  conspirators  were  to  be  ready  to  resist  any  attack 
of  the  police.  The  Haymarket  meeting  took  place  as  planned  for 
on  the  following  night.  Its  purpose  was  to  denounce  the  police 
for  shooting  down  workingmen  the  day  before.  A  handbill  had 
been  widely  circulated  (written  by  Fischer)  calling  on  working- 
men  to  arm  themselves  and  appear  in  full  force.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  had  the  policemen  appeared  in  the  early  part  of 
the  evening  and  attempted  to  disperse  the  meeting,  there  would 
have  been  a  slaughter  in  their  ranks  far  more  fearful  than  that 
which  actually  took  place  later — fearful  and  ghastly  as  that  was. 
But  the  meeting,  according  to  the  testimony  of  a  Tribune  reporter, 
who  was  there  all  the  time,  was  a  peaceable  and  quiet  one  for  an 
outdoor  meeting.  The  Mayor  was  present  so  as  to  personally 
disperse  it  in  case  it  assumed  a  dangerous  tendency,  but  left  it  late 
in  the  evening,  stepping  into  the  neighboring  police  station  on  his 
way  home  to  say  to  Captain  Bonfield  that  nothing  had  occurred 
or  looked  likely  to  occur  that  required  interference,  to  which 
Bonfield  replied  that  he  had  reached  the  same  conclusion  from 
reports  already  brought  fo  him.  But  for  the  violent  harangue 
of  Fielden,  who  spoke  after  the  Mayor  had  gone,  the  police  would 
probably  never  have  descended  on  the  scene,  and  the  bomb 
would  not  have  been  thrown.  And  by  that  time  the  leaders  of  the 
conspiracy  had  left  the  meeting,  the  gathering  had  dwindled  to  a 
third  or  a  quarter  of  its  original  size,  a  threatening  cloud  had 
caused  a  motion  to  be  made  to  adjourn  to  an  adjacent  hall — and  if 
Fielden  had  allowed  himself  to  be  interrupted  in  this  way,  it  is 
likely  that  the  meeting  would  have  closed  without  any  incident 
whatever.  As  it  was,  Fielden  protested  in  answer  to  the  summons 
of  the  police  to  disperse,  "we  are  peaceable;"  but  to  no  purpose, 
as  in  a  trice  the  infernal  missile  went  flying  through  the  air. 

Who  were  the  accessories  to  this  crime?  For  the  thrower  of 
the  bomb  is  unknown.  There  can  be  no  doubt  considering  all  the 
evidence,  that  the  bomb  was  one  of  those  made  by  Lingg,  and 
that,  according  to  his  own  statement,  it  was  made  for  service 
("fodder,"  as  he  expressed  it)  against  the  capitalist  and  police.  He 
may  not  have  known  it  was  to  be  used  at  the  Haymarket;  but 
he  made  it  for  service,  immediate  service,  he  made  it  in  further- 
ance of  the  purposes  of  the  conspiracy  which  met  Monday  night. 
If  any  one  is  guilty  as  an  accessory,  plainly  he  is.  Fischer  was 
drinking  beer  in  a  neighboring  saloon  when  the  bomb  was  thrown 
and  Engel  was  regaling  himself  in  the  same  way  at  home.  Both 
had  left  the  meeting,  apparently  anticipating  no  trouble.  It  is 
possible  that  neither  of  them   knows  -who  threw  the  bomb,  that 


both  of  them  regretted  the  throwing  as  a  foolish  thing,  when  they 
beard  of  it,  though  we  have  evidence  only  that  one  did  ;  but  that 
it  was  thrown  by  a  member  of  the  conspiracy  of  which  they  were 
leaders,  there  can  be  scarcely  any  doubt,  certainly  no  reasonable 
doubt,  and  that  as  leaders  they  are  responsible  for  the  act  of  their 
fellow-conspirator,  done  at  their  instigation,  though  not  at  just  the 
time  and  place  which  they  might  have  chosen,  there  can  be  no  rea- 
sonble  doubt  either.  Fischer  had  called  on  workingmen  to  come 
to  the  Haymarket  meeting  armed — and  "  armed "  meant  in  the 
circle  to  which  he  belonged,  as  much  armed  with  dynamite  as 
with  revolvers — he  had  objected  to  another  proposed  place  ot 
meeting  for  Tuesday  night,  that  it  was  "a  mouse-trap,"  which 
could  mean  nothing  if  violent  resistance  was  not  contemplated  as 
a  possible  contingency  ;  it  was  he  who  caused  the  word  Ruhe  to  be 
placed  in  the  Arbeit er-Zcitnng  Tuesday  afternoon,  which  was  a 
signal  to  the  conspirators,  agreed  upon  at  the  Monday  night 
meeting,  and  which  summoned  them  to  assemble  and  arm  them- 
selves; and  he  was  himself  found  the  next  day  with  a  loaded 
revolver  and  ten  cartridges,  a  file,  and  a  fuse  or  fulminating  cap 
on  his  person — and  the  use  of  the  cap  in  connection  with  dyna- 
mite bombs  he  confessed  to  have  learned  from  reading  Most's 
book  on  the  Science  of  War.  The  other  leader,  Engel,  had  given  a 
detailed  description  to  workingmen  on  the  North  Side  only  a  few 
months  previous  as  to  how  bombs  were  made  and  recommended 
to  all  those  who  could  not  buy  revolvers  to  buy  dynamite;  in  his 
speech  in  court,  he  allowed  that  he  had  said  in  workingmen's 
meetings  that  if  every  workingman  had  a  bomb  in  his  pocket, 
there  would  soon  be  an  end  of  capitalistic  rule;  and  he  it  was  who 
proposed  the  plan  to  the  Monday  night  meeting  of  throwing 
bombs  into  the  police-stations  and  shooting  down  the  policemen 
as  they  came  out,  so  as  to  prevent  their  going  to  wherever  the 
conflict  might  be  between  other  policemen  and  strikers,  which  was 
contemplated  as  a  practical  certainty  in  the  near  future  and  to 
meet  which  the  conspiracy  was  formed.  This  plan  was  not  car- 
ried into  effect,  probably  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  police  inter- 
fered with  the  Haymarket  meeting  so  late  at  night  and  after  all 
apprehension  of  trouble  had  gone  from  the  minds  of  the  conspira- 
tors, and,  probably  too,  because  after  all  the  conspiracy  was  a 
half-and-half  affair.  But  the  conflict  that  was  to  precipitate  all  this 
terrible  tumult  and  bloodshed  did  take  place;  and  there  can  be 
scarcely  a  doubt  that  it  took  place  owing  to  the  incitement  and 
instigation  of  the  two  leaders  I  have  named.  Engel  and 
Fischer  and  Lingg  are  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt,  accessories  to 
the  Haymarket  crime.  It  is  perfect  folly  to  urge  that  the  police 
had  no  right  to  disperse  the  Haymarket  meeting;  even  if  it  had  no 
right,  no  one  in  the  crowd  had  a  right  to  respond  with  the  mur- 
derous weapon,  so  long  as  no  violence  was  used  against  the  crowd 
— the  remedy  for  the  offenses  of  the  civil  authorities  as  for  other 
offenses  lies  in  the  courts.  Further,  it  is  quite  evident  that  the 
class  of  people  to  whom  the  conspirators  belonged  regard  almost 
any  hindrance  to  their  actions  by  the  authorities  as  an  invasion  of 
their  rights;  even  if  striking  workingmen  are  employing  violence 
against  those  who  take  their  places,  they  allow  no  right  of  the 
police  to  step  in  and  restrain  their  violence  and  preserve  peace — 
that  they  call,  forsooth,  taking  the  side  of  the  employer  against 
the  strikers,  a  most  arrant  bit  of  nonsense !  The  rage  that  inspired 
the  notorious  "Revenge"  circular  to  which  I  have  referred  was 
all  excited  because  the  police  interfered  to  protect  peaceable,  inof- 
fensive workingmen  who  had  taken  the  place  of  strikers  at  McCor- 
mick's factory  against  a  lot  of  ruffians  who  attacked  them  with 
bricks  and  stones  and  sticks;  interfered  and  in  the  m£lee  fired  at 
some;  such  rage  I  call  arrant  humbuggery  and  the  now  notorious 
circular  was  nothing  but  blatant  bombast  and  was  itself  a  con- 
fession of  sympathy  with  crime. 

I  have  spoken  of  three  of  the  seven  condemned  men.     What 
shall  be  said  of  the  remainder?     Clear   and   positive  evidence  of 


532 


THB    OPEN    COURT. 


connection  with  the  Monday  night  conspiracy,  to  my  mind,  here 
entirely  fails.  There  is  no  claim  that  any  of  them — Spies, 
Schwab,  Parsons  or  Fielden — were  at  the  Monday  night  meeting, 
nor  at  a  meeting  on  the  previous  day  when  the  conspiracy  was 
first  hatched.  Spies  wrote  the  "Revenge"  circular  which  was 
read  at  the  Monday  night  meeting,  but  there  is  no  claim  that  it 
was  read  with  his  knowledge.  Spies  wrote  the  word  Rulie  for  the 
printers  of  the  Arbeiter  Zeitung,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  he 
knew  its  special  import,  and  when  he  learned  it  he  told  his  adver- 
tising agent  to  go  and  tell  the  armed  men  that  the  word  was  put 
in  by  mistake.  Spies  w-as  invited  Tuesday  morning  by  Fischer  to 
speak  at  the  Haymarket  meeting,  but  noticing  that  the  hand-bill 
calling  for  the  meeting  contained  the  words  "  Workingmen,  arm 
yourselves  and  appear  in  full  force,"  he  said  to  Fischer  that  those 
words  "  must  be  struck  out  or  he  would  not  attend  the  meeting 
or  speak  there."  Spies  spoke  at  the  Haymarket  meeting,  but 
Mayor  Harrison  and  the  Tribune  reporter  heard  him  and  they 
made  the  testimony  that  I  have  already  given.  Two  witnesses 
were  produced  against  Spies,  whose  testimony,  if  it  were  credi- 
ble, would  convict  him,  beyond  a  peradventure,  of  a  direct  com- 
plicity in  the  plot  —  Thompson  and  Gilmer.  But  of  Thompson's 
testimoy,  the  Supreme  Court  says  there  is  much  that  tends  to 
confirm  him  and  much  that  tends  to  contradict  him;  and  though 
on  the  whole  the  court  is  inclined  to  credit  his  testimony,  I  see 
not  how  any  unprejudiced  person  could  say  that  it  convicts  Spies 
beyond  all  reasonable  doubt.  Gilmer  is  proved  to  have  been  a 
lying  person  by  his  first  statement  as  a  witness;  he  is  contradicted 
by  fifteen  witnesses  and  is  unsupported  by  any  witness  in  the 
record,  and  though  the  Supreme  Court  is  again  inclined  to  give 
credence,  it  admits  that  the  evidence  as  to  his  trustworthiness  is 
"very  conflicting"  and  refuses  "to  pass  any  opinion  upon  it," 
saying  in  so  many  words  that  "  there  is  evidence  enough  in  the 
record  to  sustain  the  finding  of  the  jury  independently  of  the 
testimony  given  by  Thompson  and  Gilmer."  (Of  other  evidence, 
I  may  say  by  the  way,  there  is  none  implicating  Spies  directly 
in  the  throwing  of  the  bomb,  besides  what  I  have  already  men- 
tioned; the  entirely  different  sort  of  evidence  against  Spies,  on 
which  the  court  mainly  relies,  I  shall  speak  of  later).  Of  Schwab, 
Spies's  assistant  on  the  Arbeiter-Zeitung,  there  is  no  evidence 
whatever  of  his  connection  with  the  plot  save  that  afforded  by  the 
doubtful  testimony  of  Thompson,  to  which  I  have  just  alluded. 
Schwab  was  present  at  the  Haymarket  for  only  a  short  .time  early 
in  the  evening  and  went  oft"  to  address  a  workingmen's  meeting 
at  Deering's  factory  on  the  North  Side.  Parsons  was  in  Cincin- 
nati when  the  conspiracy  was  formed,  he  only  returned  to 
Chicago  on  Tuesday  morning;  he  called  a  meeting,  and  attended 
it  that  evening,  of  what  was  known  as  the  "American  Group," 
at  the  Arbeiter-Zeitung  office,  and  at  the  time  of  going  to  it,  did 
not  know  that  any  meeting  was  to  be  held  at  the  Haymarket  at 
all.  During  the  session  of  the  American  Group,  however,  which 
discussed  the  organization  of  the  sewing  women  of  Chicago  with 
reference  to  the  eight-hour  movement,  the  advertising  agent  of 
the  Arbeiter-Zeitung  called  and  said  that  speakers  were  wanted  at 
the  Haymarket  meeting.  When  the  group  adjourned,  about  nine 
o'clock,  he  with  almost  all  the  others  present  —  fifteen  were  there 
-  -went  over  to  the  Haymarket,  and  he  took  his  wife  and  children 
with  him.  Mayor  Harrison  heard  Parsons'  speech  nearly  to  the 
close,  and  testified  as  I  have  above  explained.  He  doubtless  heard 
some  one  cry  out  when  Parsons  mentioned  Jay  Gould,  "Hang 
him ! "  and  Parsons  reply,  "  No,  that  it  was  not  a  conflict  between 
individuals,  but  for  a  change  of  system;"  and  he  probably  heard 
Parsons'  exclamation,  on  which  so  much  stress  has  been  laid, 
"To  arms!  To  arms!" — though  neither  he  nor  the  police  took 
alarm  at  this  utterance,  and  it  is  almost  incredible  that  Parsons 
should  have  brought  his  wife  and  children  to  the  meeting,  if  he 
had  expected  bombs  were  to  be  thrown  there.     Fielden's  speech 


brought  out  the  police;  it  contained  violent  and  inflamatory 
appeals;  the  police  were  surely  justified  in  putting  an  end  to  such 
a  speech  and  dispersing  the  crowd;  but  there  is  no  evidence  that 
Fielden  expected  violence  that  night,  or  planned  for  it,  or  had  any 
knowledge  of  the  Monday  night  conspiracy;  he  had  been  going 
about  his  business  during  the  day,  hauling  stones  to  one  of  the 
parks,  and  had  an  appointment  to  speak  elsewhere  that  night  and 
would  never  have  been  at  the  Haymarket  meeting,  had  he  not 
been  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Group  I  have  referred  to 
early  in  the  evening,  and  been  urged  there  to  go  over  to  the  Hay- 
market. Certain  policemen  testify  that  Fielden  made  threats  as 
they  approached,  and  fired  shots  after  the  bomb  was  thrown ;  but 
Capt.  Bonfield  and  Capt.  Ward,  who  were  ahead  of  their  com- 
panies and  nearer  to  Fielden  than  those  who  testified,  did  not  hear 
the  threats,  nor  did  several  reporters  who  were  very  near  Fielden ; 
further,  seven  witnesses  who  were  immediately  about  Fielden  and 
watching  him,  saw  no  movement  indicating  shooting,  and  Fielden 
swears  he  had  no  revolver  and  never  carried  one  in  his  life.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  some  one  made  the  threats  which  the  policemen 
heard,  namely,  "  Here  come  the  bloodhounds  of  the  police!  Men, 
do  your  duty  and  I  will  do  mine!  "  It  would  be  natural  that  the 
bomb  thrower  should  say  that  himself.  And  it  is  significant, 
when  one  scans  the  testimonies  of  the  seven  policemen,  that  only 
one  says  distinctly  it  was  Fielden,  that  another  says,  some  one 
looking  like  Fielden,  that  three  others  say  "  some  one"  or  "  some- 
body," that  still  another  says  he  heard  the  remark,  but  does  not 
know  who  made  it,  and  as  matter  of  fact  he  was  at  the  time  on 
the  Randolph  street  horse  car  tracks,  one  hundred  feet  away. 
And  as  to  the  shooting,  Fielden  says  that  the  policemen  who 
testified  against  him  in  the  trial,  made  no  mention  of  the  fact  at 
the  coroner's  inquest  held  the  next  day  after  the  massacre,  though 
he  was  present  at  that  time  and  the  facts  must  have  been  fresh  in 
their  minds.  Fielden  offered  to  swear  to  this,  but  the  court 
excluded  his  offer  as  it  did  so  many  other  testimonies  that  would 
have  tended  to  clear  up  matters  in  favor  of  the  accused  men. 

As  the  conclusion  of  this  part  of  my  subject,  I  say  that  the 
evidence  for  the  guilt  of  Spies,  Schwab,  Parsons  and  Fielden  is 
not  such  as  to  convince  any  fair-minded,  unprejudiced  man 
beyond  reasonable  doubt.  It  would  not  be  enough  if  there  were 
a  balance  of  probability  against  them;  not  only  must  we  not — to 
quote  memorable  words  used  in  this  trial — guess  away  the  lives 
and  liberties  of  our  citizens,  but  the  guilt  of  accused  persons 
must  be  established  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt.  The  evidence  I 
have  already  considered  against  these  four  is  not  only  insufficient, 
it  positively  breaks  down  when  submitted — I  will  not  say  to  close 
and  carefully,  but  simply — to  fairly  intelligent  and  honest  scrutiny. 
If  one  wants  to  believe  it,  one  can  of  course  find  reasons  for  doing 
so;  but  if  one  wants  simply  the  truth,  the  truth  entirely  irrespect- 
ive of  what  one  wishes  to  believe,  and  would  like  to  see  estab- 
lished, it  is  scarcely  conceivable  to  me  how  he  should  do  so. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  do  not  say  because  the  four 
men  I  have  mentioned  are  not  guilty,  they  are  therefore  guiltless 
of  any  connection  whatever  with  the  Haymarket  crime.  They  are 
simply  not  guilty  of  the  crime  ■with  -which  they  were  charged.  They 
were  not  accessories,  in  any  hitherto  recognized  sense  of  that  term, 
to  the  murder  of  Degan.  But  I  do  not  absolve  them  of  all  connec- 
tion with  that  crime, — and  now  I  wish  to  point  out  what  that  con- 
nection was ;  and  so  I  take  up  my  second  question,  //'  not  guilty 
of  the  crime  with  which  they  were  charged,  of  what  are  they  guilty  ? 

For  clearness'  sake  I  will  make  my  answer  at  the  outset. 
They  are  guilty  of  sedition,  of  stirring  up  insurrection;  they  were 
all  members  of  a  criminal  conspiracy  against  the  State.  There  is 
no  blinking  of  this  fact.  While  holding  that  Spies,  Schwab, 
Parsons  and  Fielden  are  not  guilty  of  this  particular  crime,  I 
cannot  refuse  to  admit  that  they  were  preparing  for  an  infinitely 
greater  crime — greater,  that  is,  in  amount,  not  in  essence.     They 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


533 


had  no  less  an  aim  than  to  put  down  in  this  country  all  laws  and 
all  force  that  protect  what  is  ordinarily  known  as  private  property. 
It  was  not  so  much  the  revolution  of  the  State  as  its  abolition 
that  they  looked  forward  to,  for  there  should  be  nothing  like  what 
we  call  the  State  in  the  future.  This  is  the  meaning  of  their 
doctrine,  anarchy — no  State,  and  why  they  call  themselves 
anarchists.  These  men  not  only  agitated  such  ideas;  they  urged 
workingmen  to  organize  on  the  basis  of  them.  Workingmen  did 
organize — organized  in  other  cities  besides  Chicago,  and  these 
men  were  the  leaders  of  the  organization  here.  The  organiza- 
tions were  called  "  groups,"  and  inside  each  group,  or  most  of 
them,  there  were  armed  sections — men  who  met  at  regular  or 
irregular  intervals  and  trained  in  the  use  of  arms;  and  the  arms 
included  rifles  and  dynamite  bombs.  The  forty  to  eighty  men 
who  formed  the  Monday  night  conspiracy  were  members  of  these 
armed  sections.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  Monday  night 
conspiracy  was  the  legitimate  outcome  of  the  more  general  con- 
spiracy, which  was  known  to  the  public  as  the  International 
Arbeiter  (or  Workingmen's)  Association.  The  leaders  of  whom  I 
am  now  speaking  urged  men  to  join  these  armed  sections  and 
themselves  belonged  to  them,  and  the  purpose  of  the  sections 
was  nothing  else  than  to  prepare  for  such  uprisings  as  the  Mon- 
day night  conspiracy  actually  planned  for.  More  than  a  year 
before  the  fatal  Tuesday,  Spies  explained  in  a  private  interview 
the  purposes  of  the  International  Association :  that  the  final  aim 
was  the  re-organization  of  society  on  a  more  equitable  basis,  so 
that  the  laboring  man  might  have  a  fairer  share  of  the  prod- 
ucts of  his  labor;  that  it  was  not  hoped  to  accomplish  this  by 
legislation  or  the  ballot-box;  that  force  and  arms  were  the  only 
way;  that  there  were  armed  forces  in  all  the  commercial  centers 
of  the  country,  and  a  sufficient  number  in  Chicago — about  3,000 — 
to  take  the  city;  that  they  had  superior  means  of  warfare;  that 
once  in  possession  of  the  city  they  could  keep  in  possession  by 
the  accession  to  their  ranks  of  laboring  men;  that  a  time  when 
many  men  were  out  of  employment,  by  reason  of  strikes  and  lock- 
outs would  be  taken;  that  such  a  time  might  come  when  work- 
ingmen attempted  to  introduce  the  eight- hour  system;  that  blood- 
shed might  be  involved,  as  frequently  in  the  case  of  revolutions; 
that  those  who  engaged  in  the  uprising  would  be  liable  to  punish- 
ment if  they  failed,  but  if  successful  it  would  be  a  revolution,  and 
they  would  have  to  take  their  chances. 

The  platform  of  the  International  Association,  published  time 
and  again  in  the  local  organ,  the  Arbeiter  Zcitung,  contains  the 
statement  that  as  in  former  times  no  privileged  class  ever  relin- 
quished its  tyranny,  no  more  can  we  take  it  for  granted  that  the 
capitalists  of  the  present  day  will  forego  their  privileges  and  their 
authority  without  compulsion;  that  efforts  through  legislation  are 
useless  since  the  property-owning  class  control  legislation;  that 
only  one  remedy  is  left — force;  that  the  way  which  workingmen 
must  take  is  agitation  with  a  view  to  organization,  organization 
with  a  view  to  rebellion.  This  is  all  treasonable  to  the  State  on 
the  face  of  it.  It  is  repugnant  to  quote  the  words  of  these  four 
men  as  to  the  means  by  which  they  hoped  to  attain  their  ends. 
But  in  justice  it  must  be  done.  All  are  equally  guilty  in  this 
regard.  A  successful  movement  must  be  a  revolutionary  one, 
once  said  Spies;  don't  let  us  forget  the  more  forcible  argument  of 
all — the  gun  and  dynamite.  Spies  wrote  in  his  paper,  the  very  day 
of  the  Haymarket  massacre,  with  reference  to  the  McCormick  riot, 
that  if  the  workingmen  had  been  provided  with  weapons  and  one 
single  dynamite  bomb,  not  one  of  the  murderous  police  would 
have  escaped  his  well-merited  fate.  Schwab  but  a  week  before 
had  said:  "For  every  workingman  who  has  died  through 
the  pistol  of  a  deputy  sheriff,  let  ten  of  the  executioners  fall ! 
Arm  yourselves!  "  Parsons  had  said  a  year  before,  "  Wo  to  the 
police  or  the  militia  whom  they  send  against  us!  "  and  again,  "  If 
we  would  achieve  our  liberation   from   economic  bondage,  every 


man  must  lay  by  a  part  of  his  wages  and  buv  a  revolver,  a  rifle, 
and  learn  how  to  make  and  use  dynamite."  He  glorified  the  use 
of  dynamite  in  a  fantastic  and  crazy  manner  in  his  final  speech  to 
the  court.  Fielden  admitted  a  few  months  before,  that  they  had 
lots  of  explosives  and  dynamite  in  their  possession,  and  would 
not  hesitate  to  use  them  when  the  proper  time  came.  One  can 
scarcely  repeat  or  hear  such  words  without  shuddering  and  without 
an  outburst  of  indignation  against  those  who  had  the  barbarity  to 
first  use  them. 

Do  I  hear  some  one  say,  ah,  but  you  are  giving  away  your  case? 
Friends,  1  have  no  case.  I  am  not  here  to  make  a  plea  on  one  side 
or  the  other,  tor  the  anarchists  any  more  than  for  the  State.  I 
am  here  as  coolly  and  quietly  as  I  may  to  ask,  What  are  the  facts 
and  what  is  justice?  The  things  that  I  have  just  stated  are  the 
facts  against  the  four  men ;  the  things  I  stated  at  the  outset  were 
the  facts  in  their  favor.  Are  the  two  sets  of  facts,  so  different  on 
the  face,  in  harmony?  I  believe  they  are.  I  cannot  discover  a 
thing  against  these  four  men  that  goes  beyond  seditious  and 
treasonable  language,  and  membership,  or  rather,  leadership  in  a 
diabolical  conspiracy  against  the  present  order  of  society.  This 
is  crime  enough.  It  is  crime  enough  to  outlaw  them  or  banish 
them  or — if  you  will — imprison  them  for  life,  or  even  han»  them 
though  I  should  not  will  the  like.  But  it  is  not  the  crime  with 
which  they  were  charged;  it  is  not  the  crime  of  being  accessories 
to  the  murder  of  Degan.  There  is  this  kernel  of  truth  in 
the  claim  of  anarchistic  sympathizers,  that  the  anarchists  were 
tried  for  murder  and  are  to 'be  hanged  for  anarchy.  They  were 
charged  with  complicity  in  a  definite  act;  four  of  them  were  vir- 
tually condemned  because  they  were  leaders  in  a  workingmens' 
association  in  the  bosom  of  which  and  in  harmony  with  the  gen- 
eral purposes  of  which  the  plot  to  accomplish  that  act  was  formed. 
It  is  a  matter  of  the  record  that  the  conspiracy  which  the  prose- 
cution sought  to  establish  at  the  outset  was  that  formed  at  the 
Monday  night  meeting,  and  that  only  when  the  complicity  in  the 
same  of  Spies,  Schwab,  Parsons  and  Fielden  could  not  be  so  con- 
vincingly made  out  as  was  desired,  did  the  prosecution  take  advan- 
tage of  certain  rulings  of  the  court  and  endeavor  to  show — and 
there  was  no  trouble  in  showing  it — that  these  four  men  were  lead- 
ers in  a  plan  for  revolutionizing  society,  and  hence  were  respon- 
sible for  the  death  of  Degan,  which  occurred  as  a  result  and  in  fur- 
therance of  that  plan.  The  prosecuting  attorney  refused  to  indict 
these  men  with  treason;  and  yet  they  were  virtually  condemned 
for  being  partners  in  a  treasonable  conspiracy.  I  sav  virtually; 
but  not  in  form,  for  the  prosecution  and  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State  in  reviewing  the  case,  think  it  necessary  in  form  to  con- 
nect all  seven  men  alike  with  the  Monday  night  conspiracy.  All 
the  doubtful  evidence  to  that  effect  to  which  I  have  referred  in 
the  first  part  of  my  address,  and  which  can  scarcely  be  credited  at 
all  by  a  serious  and  dispassionate  man,  is  vamped  up — if  I  may 
be  pardoned  the  expression — both  by  the  prosecution  and  the 
Supreme  Court,  as  more  or  less  valid  proof  against  the  condemned 
men.  It  is  doubtful  if  they  would  dareto  urge  or  confirm  a  verdict 
without  that  prop;  and  yet  that  prop,  in  the  case  of  four  men,  is 
rotten.  It  is  both  sound  ethicsand  sound  law  that  accused  persons 
should  know  for  what  they  are  to  be  tried ;  and  that  men  ought 
not  to  be  charged  with  one  crime  and  then  punished  for  another. 
I  grant  the  condemned  men  were  not  tried  for  anarchy,  for 
their  opinions  merely;  they  were  tried  for  treasonable  conspiracy. 
I  grant  the  Monday  night  conspiracy  was  an  outcome  of  the  more 
general  conspiracy,  a  legitimate  outcome;  still  the  two  were  differ- 
ent things  and  all  of  those  who  entered  into  the  first  did  not  enter 
the  second — and  yet  those  who  did  not  enter  are  treated  as  if 
they  were  participants  in  it;  they  are  to  be  hanged  for  something 
they  never  did,  nor  expected  nor  plotted — neither  aided  nor  abet- 
ted, neither  advised  nor  encouraged,  to  use  all  the  technical  terms 
of  the  law.     An  incident  in  the  history  of  our  State   Legislature 


534 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


last  winter  throws  light  upon  this  matter.  A  bill  was  intro- 
duced to  define,  as  oneof  our  city  papers  said,  '■'■■with  greater  clearness 
and  precision,"  the  crime  of  unlawful  conspiracy.  It  provided 
that  any  person  who  should  by  speaking  or  writing  incite  local 
revolution  or  the  overthrow  or  destruction  of  the  existing  order  of 
societv,  should  be  deemed  guilty  of  conspiracy,  and  if  (and  this  is 
the  significant  part)  as  a  result  of  such  speeches  or  writings,  human 
life  is  taken  or  person  or  property  is  injured,  the  person  so  speak- 
ing and  writing  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  having  conspired  with 
the  person  who  actually  committed  the  act  and  be  treated  as  a 
principal  in  the  perpetration  of  the  crime.*  No  other  relation 
than  that  of  result  between  the  act  and  the  words  or  writings  is 
necessary,  entirely  irrespective  of  whether  that  result  was  intended 
or  anywise  expected  or  not.  Under  this  statute — which  was. 
passed,  I  believe — the  seven  anarchists  would  be  guilty  of  the 
murder  of  Degan;  any  number  of  other  anarchists  would  be 
equally  guilty;  in  a  crime  of  this  sort,  indeed,  it  would  be  hard  to 
limit  the  guilt.  But  this  law  was  not  in  existence  when  the 
murder  of  Degan  took  place.  It  w'as  without  doubt  contrived 
to  meet  such  cases  in  the  future.  The  fact  that  it  was  made 
a  law  is  proof  that  no  legal  provision  parallel  to  it  existed 
before.  Under  the  laws  of  the  State  then  existing,  I  venture 
to  say  that  four  out  of  the  seven  men  could  not  have  been 
sentenced  as  they  were  by  a  dispassionate  jury  and  judge.  I  am 
loath  to  make  such  a  statement  as  that.  I  trust  I  am  not  without 
due  respect  for  those  who  are  my  betters  in  wisdom  and  virtue- 
I  honor  those  who  are  in  authority,  because  they  are  in  authority. 
I  would  not  say  a  word  to  make  others  think  lightly  of  them. 
And  yet,  though  I  love  my  country  and  its  guardians  and  gov- 
ernors, I  love  justice  more;  I  could  not  be  an  ethical  teacher  and 
stand  on  this  platform  to-day  did  I  not  recognize  a  higher  law 
than  that  which  may  be  laid  down  by  magistrates  and  courts. 
Under  all  ordinary  circumstances  I  believe  our  laws  and  our  judi- 
cial decisions  are  conceived  in  justice;  but  who  shall  say  that 
gusts  of  passion  may  not  sometimes  sweep  legislators  and  juries 
and  judges  away?  Who  shall  say  that  even  the  majority  may 
not  go  wrong  and  public  opinion  itself  cease  to  be  the  voice  of  the 
invisible  right?  Yet,  if  we  cannot  say  this,  how  do  we  know  but 
what  jury  and  judge  and  public  opinion  may  possibly  have  gone 
wrong  in  this  special  instance?  For  my  own  part  I  should  be  a 
coward  if  I  did  not  speak  as  I  do  to-day,  for  I  should  know  that  a 
public  wrong  was  about  to  be  committed  and  I  did  not  dare 
to  protest  against  it.  Let  me  be  misjudged  of  men,  if  need  be, 
but  let  me  stand  clear  before  my  own  conscience. 

A  few  words  in  closing  on  my  last  point.  What  should  be 
I  he  punishment  of  these  men?  As  to  this  matter  I  speak  with 
the  least  assurance.  I  am  sure  only  of  two  things — that  Spies, 
Schwab,  Parsons  and  Fielden  should  not  be  punished  as  equally 
guilty  with  Engel  and  Fischer  and  Lingg,  and  that  they  deserve 
to  be  punished  for  all  that.  The  appeal  of  Parsons  for  liberty  or 
death  is  pure  bathos,  and  is  in  keeping  with  the  theatrical  charac- 
ter of  the  man.  He  is  responsible,  every  one  of  the  four  men  in 
whose  behalf  I  have  made  exceptions,  is  responsible,  gravely 
responsible,  for  that  ghastly  massacre  of  the  fourth  of  May. 
They  were  not  exercising  their  inalienable  right  of  free  speech 
when  they  counseled  the  use  of  dynamite  against  the  offi- 
cials of  the  State,  no  matter  how  general  was  their  language; 
they  should  have  been  hindered  from  such  treasonous  speech  long 
ago;  their  international  groups  should  not  have  been  allowed  in 
the  past,  their  treasonous  newspaper  organ  should  not  have  been 
allowed;  their  mouths  of  every  description  should  have  been 
literally  shut,  and  similar  mouths  should  be  shut  in  the  future. 
But  it  is  folly,  it  is  almost  a  breach  of  good  faith,  for  the  authorities 
to  hang  men   now  for  utterances  and  doings  that  were  known 

*  I  follow  here  Leonard  Swett's  Brief  (p.  66).  Mr.  Swett  quotes  from  the 
Chicago  Tribune. 


and  tolerated  for  months  and  years  in  the  past.  The  Arbeiter 
Zeitung  publication  company  was  even  incorporated  by  the  State; 
why  was  the  charter  not  revoked,  if  in  the  judgment  of  the  State 
its  treasonable  utterances  were  crimes?  It  should  have  been,  but 
by  the  very  allowing  of  a  thing,  the  State  may  give  it  a  certain 
sanction.  Let  the  men  be  imprisoned  for  a  term  of  years, — to 
hang  them  would  be  a  public  crime;  it  would  go  down  to  history 
as  such,  I  haven't  the  shadow  of  a  doubt. 

As  to  the  three  men  who  are  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt 
guilty  of  complicity  in  the  Haymarket  crime,  it  is  more  difficult 
to  speak.  Crimes  against  the  State  are  in  one  sense  the  most 
deadly  crimes,  and  in  another  sense  they  are  the  crimes  to  be  con- 
sidered with  the  greatest  magnanimity.  Even  these  three  men 
were  not  murderers  in  the  common  sense  of  that  word;  they 
were  men  who  had  earned  an  honest  living,  who  had  not  even 
been  suspected  of  the  smallest  crime  before.  A  political  crime 
belongs  to  a  totally  different  category  from  ordinary  crime. 
There  was  a  cry  to  hang  Jeff  Davis  after  the  war;  he  was 
surely  a  monstrous  political  criminal.  But  we  should  not  now 
regard  it  as  a  particularly  noble  thing  if  he  had  been  hanged, 
once  the  war  was  over — to  say  nothing  of  the  ministers  of 
his  cabinet  and  generals  of  his  army.  The  policemen  are 
justified  in  shooting  down  all  those  who  offer  violent  resist- 
ance to  their  authority,  when  legitimately  exercised;  but 
when  the  melee  is  over  it  may  be  wise  and  may  be  unwise  to 
execute  the  leaders  of  the  revolt.  I  do  not  take  up  the  question 
of  capital  punishment;  I  think  it  is  the  poorest  time  in  many 
years  to  discuss  that  question.  To  admit  the  guilt  of  all  these 
men  in  its  extremest  form  and  yet  argue  for  the  commutation  of 
their  sentence  on  the  ground  of  the  general  wickedness  of  capital 
punishment  seems  to  me  a  piece  of  sentimentalism.  If  these 
men,  any  or  all,  deserve  the  extremest  penalty  of  the  law,  I  for 
one  would  say,  let  justice  have  its  way.  A  common  murderer,  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  say,  deserves  hanging.  But  it  is  because  these 
three  men  are  not  common  murderers  that  I  question  whether 
they  deserve  that  fate.  Their  offense  is  against  the  State  and  the 
officers  of  the  State.  The  question  is,  is  not  the  State  big 
enough,  strong  enough  to  be  able  to  afford  to  be  magnanimous, 
and  to  say  to  them:  "Your  mouths  shall  be  closed,  and  you 
shall  never  be  free  to  plot  again  against  the  public  peace,  but  the 
boon  of  life  shall  not  be  taken  from  you."  It  is  a  saying  from 
the  lips  of  so  eminent  a  statesman  as  Burke,  that  magnanimity  is 
not  seldom  the  truest  wisdom,  and  that  a  great  State  and  little 
minds  go  ill  together.  The  words  have  a  special  interest  to  us, 
for  they  were  uttered  with  reference  to  the  American  colonies. 

Anarchy  is  a  disease.  You  cannot  stamp  it  out — though  all 
these  men  were  hanged  and  one  hundred  more  besides,  aye,  and 
every  man  or  woman  that  has  belonged  to  the  different  groups 
in  this  city,  you  would  not  rid  the  body  politic  of  its  presence; 
like  a  ghastly  cancer,  it  would  appear  again  in  time.  It  has 
to  be  cured.  Shut  it  up,  yes;  but  cure  at  the  same  time. 
If  you  do  not,  you  but  drive  it  below  the  surface  of  society, 
and  in  time  it  will  rumble  and  shake  and  burst  forth 
with  volcanic  force  and  reduce  our  State,  our  very  civil- 
ization to  ruins.  May  such  a  day'  never  come!  I  believe 
it  never  will  come.  But  if  it  should,  you  and  I,  our  judges 
and  our  juries  and  our  legislators,  our  churches  and  our  wealthy 
classes,  and  all  who  might  do  justice  and  yet  do  not,  will  be 
responsible.  O,  my  friends,  my  countrymen,  what  a  trust  have 
we!  Our  fathers  who  laid  the  foundations  of  our  government  in 
freedom  never  dreamed  that  in  the  very  name  of  freedom  anarchy 

would  raise  its  horrid  head  and  dare  to  assail  it.     Let  us  remem- 

» 
ber  their  toils  and  their  courage  and  take  heart.     Let  us  pledge  to 

our  country  a  new  devotion.  Let  us  resolve  in  the  spirit  of  the 
immortal  Lincoln — who  belongs  more  particulary  to  this  com- 
monwealth and  whose  statue  now  crowns  the  entrance  to  one  ot 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


535 


our  parks  -that  this  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for 
the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth. 

"  Thou,  too,  sail  on,  O  Ship  of  State! 

Sail  on,  O  Union,  strong  and  great! 

Humanity  with  all  its  fears, 

With  all  the  hopes  of  future  years, 

Is  hanging  breathless  on  thy  fate! 

We  know  what  Master  laid  thy  keel, 

What  workmen  wrought  thy  ribs  of  steel, 

Who  made  each  mast  and  sail  and  rope, 

What  anvils  rang,  what  hammers  beat, 

In  what  a  forge  and  what  a  heat 

Were  shaped  the  anchors  of  thy  hope! 

Fear  not  each  sudden  sound  and  shock, 

'  Tis  of  the  wave  and  not  the  rock ; 

'Tis  but  the  flapping  of  the  sail, 

And  not  a  rent  made  by  the  gale! 

In  spite  of  rock  and  tempest's  roar, 

In  spite  of  false  lights  on  the  shore, 

Sail  on,  nor  fear  to  trust  the  sea ! 

Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  are  all  with  thee, 

Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  our  prayers,  our  tears, 

Our  faith  triumphant  o'er  our  fears, 

Are  all  with  thee — are  all  with  thee!" 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

A   LETTER   FROM    LONDON. 

To  the  Editors:  London,  August  31,  18S7. 

I  have  been  quite  oblivious  during  the  past  weeks  of  the  prom- 
ise I  made,  in  part  at  least,  before  leaving  America,  that  I  would 
give  for  The  Open  Court  something  of  my  impressions  and 
experiences  in  this  old  world,  yet  to  me  new  world,  of  travel  and 
temporary  sojourn.  The  current  of  life  has  flowed  swiftly  with 
us  since  we  came  to  these  shores;  in  such  rapid  succession  have 
the  objects  thrust  themselves  upon  us,  that  I  have  felt  almost 
unqualified  to  state  an  impression,  a  conviction,  or  an  idea,  suffi- 
ciently matured  or  worthy  to  deserve  to  be  laid  before  the  eye  of 
anybody.  And  yet  in  some  ways  the  new  is  ever  old,  the  things 
that  come  under  the  eye,  the  old  and  familiar  acquaintances 
though  in  new  faces,  and  only  illustrating  and  confirming  the  per- 
ceptions and  conclusions  long  ago  deliberately  reached,  and  inten- 
sified and  strengthened  in  the  growing  years.  It  is  the  same 
world,  the  same  men,  much  the  same  life,  under  modified  features 
and  in  differing  climes. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  the  feeling  of  one  who  for  the 
first  time,  though  it  may  be  late  in  life,  visits  the  ancestral  seats, 
and  looks  upon  lands  which  he  had  long  heard  of,  read  of,  and 
painted  fondly  in  fancy's  dream.  It  is  like  the  experience  of 
love,  I  take  it,  which  coming  oftenest  in  youth,  changes  for  its 
subject,  during  these  moments,  the  whole  world,  transfiguring  all 
of  life,  pouring  the  soft  glow  of  a  new  affection  upon  every  thing 
the  universe  holds,  glorifying,  transforming  all,  but  once  known, 
can  never  be  repeated,  can  never  come  a  second  time  in  its  full- 
ness with  any  individual.  It  is  a  delight  for  any  one  to  look  for 
the  first  time  upon  forefathers'  land,  to  realize  that  here  is  the  rock 
whence  he  was  hewn,  here  is  the  soil  on  which  the  rugged,  brave 
ancestors  were  grown,  here  with  whatever  differences  that  dis- 
tinguish and  mark  national  type  in  feature,  accent,  habitude,  aie 
our  own  near  of  kin,  our  own  cousins,  whom  we  are  drawn  to  greet 
and  love.  This  feeling  comes  once,  and  I  think  though  it  may 
be  kept  well  alive  as  a  steady,  glowing  flame,  it  cannot  with  any- 
second,  third  or  other  visit,  ever  come  in  its  first  freshness  and 
power  again. 


Such  delight,  such  thrill  was  mine  when  first  I  viewed  the 
chalk  cliffs  and  the  green  hills  of  Old  England,  as  I  looked  upon 
the  people,  and  heard  the  accents  of  the  old  familiar  tongue — we 
had  been  for  a  time  upon  the  Continent  before  entering  England 
— ours,  and  yet  in  some  ways  not  ours,  differenced  from  our  Ameri- 
can speech  by  peculiarities  palpable  to  the  ear,  yet  difficult  to 
describe.  Such  also  as  I  looked  upon  the  garden-tilled  lands  and 
luxuriant  groves  and  forests  of  France,  the  varied  glories  of  the 
magnificent  landscape,  as  I  entered  the  towns  and  peered  into  the 
faces  of  this  vivacious,  bright,  mercurial  people,  and  caught  the 
musical  accents  of  their  fluent  speech;  for  both  these  lands — the 
scenes  in  by -gone  days  of  such  internecine  feuds  and  struggles  of 
two  kindred  peoples  who,  '  separated  by  a  narrow  frith,'  had  been 
made  enemies,  when  'otherwise  like  kindred  drops  they  might  have 
mingled  into  one' — weie  on  the  paternal  and  maternal  sides 
respectively,  ancestral  lands  to  me. 

I  would  like  to  speak — perhaps  I  may  sometime — of  the  price- 
less treasures  of  the  Louvre,  where  I  spent  all  the  hours  I  could 
command  during  our  brief  stay  in  Paris;  of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes, 
with  its  extensive  collections  in  natural  history,  and  particularly 
comparative  anatomy  and  anthropology,  the  largest,  richest,  most 
instructive,  that  my  eyes  have  ever  beheld,  all  the  races  of  men 
on  the  face  of  the  globe  there  represented  and  shown  almost  in 
life  before  you,  besides  valuable  remains  in  skulls  or  skeletons 
and  numerous  finds  in  implements,  etc.,  of  various  prehistoric 
races;  the  wealth  of  the  British  Museum,  with  its  library  approach- 
ing nearlv  1,500,000  of  books,  where  the  scholar  can  find  the  vol- 
ume he  wants  upon  any  subject,  provided  it  may  be  had  anywhere 
in  the  world,  and  can  if  his  time  will  permit,  revel  in  the  study, 
the  enjoyment  of  unending  riches  of  knowledge.  Besides  this  the 
British  Museum  possesses,  as  does  the  Louvre  also,  extensive  col- 
lections of  antiquities,  Greek,  Roman,  Etruscan,  Assyrian,  Egyp- 
tian, etc.  The  collection  of  Egyptian  antiquities  in  the  Louvre 
is  pronounced  the  richest  in  Europe,  nothing  in  the  world  to 
rival  it,  save  that  in  Boulaq,  in  Egypt.  Here  the  student  of  the 
religious  history  of  mankind  will  find  much  that  is  instructive 
and  deeply  suggestive,  pouring  important  light  upon  questions 
long  debated,  never  yet  fully  answered,  touching  the  early  beliefs, 
the  tvpe  and  quality  of  the  conceptions  among  the  ancient  races. 
Surelv,  the  great  French  and  English  nations  have  not  lived  in 
vain  to  have  gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  earth  such  treasures, 
and  to  hold  them  now  open,  free  for  the  inspection,  the  study  of 
all,  at  the  sole  price  of  coming  hither  to  see  them.  The  mainte- 
nance of  these  arrangements,  keeping  the  galleries  open  for  the 
service  of  the  public,  is  attended  with  considerable  expense,  this 
borne  in  both  instances  by  the  respective  governments.  For  ages 
to  come,  we  in  America  can  have  nothing  comparable  to  these 
riches. 

It  seems  an  unfortunate  time  for  finding  certain  names  in 
science  and  letters,  that  one  would  most  like  to  meet,  at  home.  It 
is  the  period  of  the  vacation,  and  many  are  away.  Huxley  and 
Tvndall  are  both  in  Switzerland  for  several  weeks'  sojourn.  Pro- 
fessor Max  Miiller  and  Dr.  E.  B.  Tylor,  both  resident  at  Oxford, 
whom  I  had  hoped  to  see  and  if  possible  to  hear,  are  also  absent. 
The  former,  a  lady  friend  of  mine  recently  called  upon.  She  found 
him  accessible  and  cordial.  He  expressed  a  friendly  interest  in 
America,  notes  with  all  good  wishes  the  advancement  in  thought 
and  knowledge  steadily  being  made  among  us,  and  has  contem- 
plated visiting  our  country,  as  he  has  been  repeatedly  and  pressingly 
urged  to  do,  but  doubts  now  that  he  may.  How  many  with  glad 
ears  and  rejoicing,  hungering  eyes  would  greet  this  renowned 
scholar  and  eloquent,  inspiring  teacherl  Might  he  but  reconsider 
his  decision  and  consent  to  come.  Dr.  Tylor  is  a  man  of  such  pro- 
found attainment  and  eminent  service  in  the  sphere  of  anthro- 
pology, shedding  light,  unequaled  elsewhere  so  far  as  I  know,  upon 
the  earlv  condition  and  the  slow,  steady  growth  of  mankind  along 


5.36 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  several  planes  of  ascent,  that  I  feel  it  a  real  deprivation  finally 
to  have  failed  to  see  him. 

The  Parliament  is  still  in  session,  and  twice  have  I  been 
admitted  to  the  gallery  of  the  House  of  Commons,  once  also  to 
the  House  of  Lords.  The  burning  Irish  question  is  there  perpet- 
ually present,  and  the  proceedings  were  at  times  very  animated, 
almost  stormy.  Obviously  the  irrepressible  conflict,  witnessed  in 
one  form  or  another  through  all  history  and  not  unfamiliar  among 
ourselves,  was  in  this  Chamber.  On  one  side  the  representatives 
of  established  usage,  vested  rights,  accustomed  to  the  exercise  of 
power  and  the  exactions  which  power  makes  easy,  and  seeming 
to  belong  without  doubt  or  question  to  their  class,  tenacious,  wary, 
trained  and  strong,  unwilling,  as  all  such  are,  to  surrender  aught 
of  their  ancient  privilege ;  and  on  the  other  hand  those  who  are  of 
and  those  who  stand  for  the  oppressed  classes,  and  here  for  the 
multitudes  of  Irish  tenants,  who  for  years  and  generations  have 
been  plucked  and  plundered  by  the  relentless  landlordism  which 
has  ruled  on  that  unhappy  island, — the  whole  business  now  come 
to  such  a  pass  that  the  Tory  government  must  make  some  recog- 
nition and  devise  some  partial  measure  of  relief. 

Into  the  Irish  question  I  cannot  enter.  It  has  its  compli- 
cations, is  at  present  very  mixed,  and  the  Liberals  are  sharplv 
divided  and  antagonized  among  themselves.  Suffice  it  to  sav,  I 
heard  Gladstone  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  greatly  enjoved, 
though  the  speech  was  brief,  this  "old  man  eloquent,"  both  for 
the  cause  he  was  pleading,  and  for  the  clear  cut  argument,  the 
incisive  force  of  his  speech.  Tyndall,  in  an  article  published 
recently  in  the  Times,  pronounces  him  "  a  hoary  rhetorician." 
He  seemed  to  me  much  more,  quite  other  than  that.  I  think  he 
represents  the  claim  that  has  truth  at  bottom  and  will  win. 
England  shall  yet  see  it,  and  honor  the  swift  perception  and  the 
courage  shown  in  this  eve  of  life  by  her  illustrious  son. 

Twice  have  I  heard  Rev.  Stopford  Brooke,  who  is  now- 
preaching  in  an  independent  Chapel,  his  own,  I  am  told ;  and  once, 
standing  in  a  great  crowd  that  filled  all  the  aisles,  have  I  heard 
Archdeacon  Farrar.  Brooke,  by  his  deep  regard  for  conscience, 
leaving  the  Episcopal  Church  when  he  could  no  longer  believ- 
ingly  and  sincerely  read  the  liturgy  and  perform  the  observances, 
I  have  always  felt  deserved  to  be  held  in  high  honor  by  all.  The 
fame  of  his  eloquence  too,  placing  him  when  he  was  in  the 
Church,  as  after  Stanley  the  foremost  of  the  English  divines,  was 
widely  known,  and  had  reached  us  in  America.  I  was  therefore 
greatly  desirous  to  see,  to  hear  him.  The  discourses  were  manly, 
frank  and  practical,  and  had  for  the  hearer  deeplv  important 
translations  out  of  the  ancient  into  the  modern.  He  seems  eman- 
cipated from  much  that  belongs  to  the  dogmatic  theology,  but  I 
was  utterly  unable  to  marry  the  fact  of  the  apparent  freedom  of 
the  preacher  as  seen  in  his  pulpit,  with  the  long  and  very  formal, 
tedious,  introductory  service  with  the  choir  of  surpliced  boys, 
the  chants,  readings,  responses,  etc.,  with  frequent  repetition  of 
phrases  familiar  enough  in  orthodox  belief,  not  omitting  the 
genuflexions  withal, — that  came  before  he  entered  the  pulpit.  I 
thought  of  what  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage  a  few  years  ago  wrote  of  the 
Unitarian  denomination ;  he  spoke  of  it  as  bearing  still  certain 
"rudiments "  upon  it,  and  I  concluded  that  here  also  we  have 
some  traces  of  a  former  stage  of  theological  existence  not  yet  cast 
out  by  action  of  the  perfect  law  of  liberty.  Canon  Farrar  on  that 
Sunday  morning  at  St.  Margaret's  emphasized  character^  and  set 
the  injunction  home  in  most  forcible  way  upon  his  hearers,  repre- 
sentatives as  he  recognized,  and  standard-bearers  of  the  fashiona- 
ble, orthodox  religion  of  our  time,  standing  before  society  much 
in  the  same  position  as  did  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  whom  Jesus 
so  pointedly  rebuked  and  condemned.  It  sounded  queer  to  hear 
such  things  in  Westminster,  but  nowhere,  perhaps,  could  they  be 
given  more  fittingly  and  usefully. 

Quite  lately  our  little  party  went  over  to  the  great  tabernacle 
to   hear    Spurgeon.     The    church   is   immense,  has  two  tiers  of 


lleries  reaching  all  round  the  room,  and  the  seating  capacity  is 
stated  as  5,000.  Nearly  every  seat  was  occupied ;  I  saw  a  few  only 
vacant  in  the  topmost  gallery.  Many  sat  on  steps  in  the  aisles. 
Spurgeon  fills  with  his  voice  this  large  space,  all  can  hear  distinctly 
and  all  appeared  interested  to  the  end.  His  subject  was  the 
restoration  of  sight  to  the  blind  man,  recorded  in  John.  He 
described  the  process  minutely  and  quite  dramatically,  owned  that 
the  method  was  "  eccentric,"  but  then  it  was  Jesus'  way,  and  there 
was,  there  could  be  none  comparable  to  that.  "  There  is  no  per- 
fume made  of  the  rarest  spices  that  can  equal  the  saliva  of  this 
divine  master."  "  Only  the  Christ  possessed  the  spittle.  Is  there 
anything  like  it?  A  little  clay  mingled  with  spittle,  when  Christ 
uses  it,  is  adequate." 

The  presentation  was  very  realistic,  and  the  preacher  made  the 
application  then  and  there  as  you  would  readily  know.  Jesus  was 
present,  walking  up  and  down  these  aisles,  seeking  the  blind,  and 
anxious  to  heal  them. 

"You  have  to  believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  you  shall 
see." 

"  Go  wash,  not  pray  about  it,  not  send  your  wife.  Up  with 
you  man,  up  with  you.  Waters  of  Siloam  will  not  come  to 
you." 

"  Don't  quarrel  with  your  bread  and  butter.  Good  advice  to 
laborers.     Don't  quarrel  with  salvation." 

Now  and  then  some  shrewd,  dry  remark  or  jet  of  quiet  humor 
interspersed  in  the  discourse  would  produce  a  marked  sensation, 
flowing,  rippling  through  the  house,  while  his  disparagement  and 
decrial  of  culture,  his  manifest  dislike  and  aversion  to  the  meth- 
ods of  careful  study  and  thought,  his  evidently  favorite  gibe  at  the 
"  twenty  genuflexions,  and  each  one  difficult" — strange  conjunc- 
tion of  things  so  far  foreign  from  each  other,  not  to  say  opposite- - 
obviously  took  well  with  the  audience  he  was  addressing.  I  sup- 
pose the  discourse  as  a  whole  was  a  good  sample  of  the  style  we 
know  as  the  Moody-Sankey  sort  in  America.  It  is  to  be  said, 
however,  that  the  subject  was  well  elaborated  from  his  point  of 
view,  there  was  a  consecutive  order,  natural,  clear  and  well 
adapted  to  draw  and  to  hold  the  hearer. 

Spurgeon's  appearance  was  that  of  an  earnest  man,  and  I 
could  not  but  feel  as  I  was  listening,  that  it  is  all  the  more  tragic 
that  the  preacher  as  well  as  the  hearer,  the  performer  as  well  as 
his  subjects,  seems  fully  to  believe  in  the  wretched  incantation 
and  solemn  spell-working  with  which  this  business  of  religion  has 
been  brought  into  unhallowed  union.  What  must  one  think  of 
Christianitv  or  of  Jesus,  if  what  we  heard  and  saw  represents 
them  as  they  were  1,800  years  ago? 

That  great  audience  of  4,000  people,  perhaps  considerably 
more,  were  to  all  appearance  from  the  plain  and  working  classes, 
generally  doubtless  unlettered,  but  earnest,  reverent,  desirous  to 
find  something  to  rest  upon,  and  readv  to  believe  that  here  it  was 
to  hand.  What  an  opportunity  I  thought,  for  a  man  who  had 
light,  wisdom,  and  speech  from  on  high,  had  he  been  in  that  pul- 
pit, to  rouse,  waken  and  inspire  these  latent,  stirring,  yet  dim  and 
unopened  sensibilities,  to  tell  them  what  they  had  come  there  for, 
and  how,  where  they  should  find  it.  But  the  multitude  as  they 
interpreted  the  errand  that  brought  them,  came  to  hear  the  Gos- 
pel a  la  Spurgeon,  and  had  there  been  the  other  and  the  higher 
word  waiting  for  them,  this  audience  would  not  have  been  there. 

I  think  it  is  Tyndall  who  says  somewhere  that  the  emotions 
of  man  are  older  than  his  understanding,  and  that  a  sentiment  of 
such  depth  evidently  as  the  religious,  is  not  soon  to  pass  away. 
This  last  was  testified  to  by  what  I  saw  in  that  tabernacle.  The 
profoundness  and  transcendent  strength  of  this  consciousness  out 
of  which  what  we  call  religion  grows,  cannot  be  overestimated. 
It  must  last  as  thought,  as  concrete  expression  as  well,  while  the 
human  race  endures.  But  plainly  long  ages  must  pass  ere  the 
sentiment  shall  have  been  married  and  co-ordinated  with  intelli- 
gence and  the  reverence  of  the  mind,  all  the  stirrings  of   emotion 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


537 


and   the  ejaculations,  the   longings  of  worship,  shall    fasten   and 
rest  purely  on  the  objects  of  reason. 

Charles  D.  B.  Mills. 


THE    WORD    SPECIES. 

To  the  Editors:  Fond  du  Lac,  Wisconsin. 

With  all  due  deference  to  Prof.  Max  Miiller,  I  cannot  see 
wherein  we  would  gain  were  the  word  species  expunged  from  our 
language.  Eleven  years  ago  Huxley  wrote  a  very  exhaustive 
article  on  this  same  subject,  entitled,  "What  Are  Species?"  and, 
with  that  clearness  which  makes  those  who  are  not  professed 
scientists  so  largely  his  debtors,  explains  therein  the  difference 
between  the  terms  "genus"  and  "species,"  he  says: 

"The  individual  object  alone  exists  in  nature;  but,  when  indi- 
vidual objects  are  compared,  it  is  found  that  many  agree  in  all 
those  characters  which,  for  the  particular  purpose  of  the  classifier, 
are  regarded  as  important,  while  they  differ  only  in  those  which 
are  unimportant;  and  those  which  thus  agree  constitute  a  species, 
the  definition  of  which  is  a  statement  of  the  common  characters 
of  the  individuals  which  compose  the  species. 

"Again,  when  the  species  thus  established  are  compared,  cer- 
tain of  them  are  found  to  agree  with  one  another  and  to  differ 
from  all  the  rest  in  some  one  or  more  peculiarities.  They  thus 
form  a  group  which,  logically,  is  merely  a  species  of  a  higher 
order,  while  technically  it  is  termed  a  'genus.'  And,  by  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  same  process,  genera  are  grouped  into  families, 
families  into  orders,  and  so  on.  Each  of  the  groups  thus  named 
is  in  a  logical  sense  a  genus,  of  which  the  next  lower  groups  con- 
stitute the  species." 

The  writer  then  goes  on  to  quote  from  Linnaeus  and  Cuvier, 
and  finally  shows  how  the  doctrine  of  evolution  confirms  us  in 
the  use  of  the  word  species  as  distinct  from  "genus,"  since  that 
doctrine  proves  that  "selective  breeding  is  competent  to  convert 
permanent  races" — genus,  therefore — "into  physiologically  dis- 
tinct species." 

What  Prof.  Max  Miiller  means  by  saying  that  "  Darwin  is 
evidently  under  the  sway  of  the  old  definition  that  all  species 
were  produced  by  special  acts  of  creation  "  I  am  at  a  loss  to  under- 
stand. On  this  point  the  author  of  the  Origin  of  Species  is  most 
clear.  He  says:  "  I  believe  that  animals  have  descended  from  at 
most  only  four  or  five  progenitors."  {Origin  of  Species,  first  edi- 
tion, p.  484.) 

And  again :  "  I  view  all  beings,  not  as  special  creations,  but  as 
the  lineal  descendants  of  some  few  beings  which  lived  long  before 
the  first  bed  of  the  Silurian  system  was  deposited."  (Origin  of 
Species,  pp.  4SS,  489.) 

Huxley  goes  even  further  and  bows  to  Haeckel's  view  of  the 
case,  tracing  all  life  to  its  protoplasmic  root,  "  sodden  in  the  mud 
of  the  seas  which  existed  before  the  oldest  of  the  fossiliferous 
rocks  were  deposited." 

To  men  holding  these  views  the  term  "  species  "  is  a  necessity, 
and  I  can  only  attribute  Prof.  Max  Miiller's  objection  to  the  term 
to  his  German  love  for  compound  words.  Why  "class"  and 
"  sub-class,"  when  one  word  embraces  the  whole?  All  can  appre- 
ciate the  causes  which  led  scientists  to  adopt  the  term  survival  of 
the  fittest,  for  natural  selection,  since,  as  Dr.  Draper  has  pointed 
out,  "Nature  never  selects.  Nature  simply  obeys  laws;"  but  the 
objection  to  the  term  species  seems  to  me  as  ill-founded  as  the 
objections  to  the  term  biology.  The  objectors  in  this  case  had 
the  good  grace  to  suggest  another  name:  "  zootocology ; "  but 
Prof.  Max  Miiller  offers  no  term  which  shall  replace  the  word  so 
long  in  use,  and  which  has  been  employed  by  those  in  authority 
ever  since  the  dawn  of  modern  biology  a  hundred  years  ago.  It 
seems  to  me  that  any  changes  as  to  terms  already  accepted  are 
undesirable  and  extremely  puzzling  to  the  .many  who  have  to 
work  out  their  own  educational  salvation. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  as  dogmatic  as  "  Humpty-Dumpty "  in 


Alice  in  Wonderland,  who  says:  "When  I  make  use  of  a  word  It 
means  just  what  I  choose  it  to  mean;"  but  it  does  seem  reason- 
able to  adhere  to  a  word  which  has  been  so  long  accepted  as  being 
upon  the  whole  comprehensive. 

I  remain,  dear  sir,  yours  truly, 

Elissa  M.  Moore. 


WORDS  AND  THOUGHTS. 

To  the  Editors  : 

The  accidental  relations  of  words  and  thoughts  are  sometimes 
very  curious.  Thus  an  office-boy  who  has  been  copying  with  a 
type-writer,  has  unconsciously  amended  the  line  in  which  Laertes 
announces  that  his  sister  is  to  be  "  a  ministering  angel,"  so  as  to 
make  it  read  "  miniature  angel,"  which  would  be  exactly  Ophelia's 
size.     He  has  also  rewritten  a  line  in  "  Timon  of  Athens  "  thus : 

"  Religious  canons,  civil  laws  are  crust." 

The  last  word  in  standard  editions  is  "cruel;"  but  it  would 
be  in  harmony  with  the  most  advanced  ideas  of  sociology  to  say 
that  law  and  religion  are  the  crust  which  gives  form  to  the  social 
loaf.  The  problem  of  ages  has  been  how  to  develop  ourselves 
out  of  mere  crude  dough,  without  getting  our  crust  baked  too 
hard.  Only  two  hundred  years  ago,  the  loaf  was  pretty  much  all 
crust.  F. 


Concord,  Mass.,  Oct.  18,  1SS7. 
I  attended  the  Middlesex  County  Convention  of  Woman 
Suffragists  in  the  Concord  Town  Hall  yesterday.  There  was  a 
large  attendance  of  delegates,  mostly  ladies  from  adjoining  towns. 
Among  the  speakers  in  the  afternoon  were  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone, 
Mrs.  Walton,  Miss  Cora  Scott  Pond,  Revs.  J.  S.  Bush  and  F.  W. 
Holland.  I  took  the  opportunity  of  bringing  what  has  been 
already  sent  you  as  a  new  argument.  In  the  evening  a  crowded 
audience  listened  with  delight  to  Mrs.  Livermore  and  Colonel 
Higginson.  A  very  gratifying  desire  was  shown  by  the  people 
of  Concord  generally  to  make  the  day  pleasant  for  visitors.  My 
own  conviction  is  that  there  is  more  life  and  hope  in  the  move- 
ment than  I  have  realized,  as  well  as  more  justice.  The  argu- 
ments of  Colonel  Higginson  and  Mrs.  Walton  were  particularly 
strong  as  showing  how  much  women  need  to  have  representatives 
of  their  own.  F.  M.  H. 


BOOK   REVIEWS. 


A  Memoir  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  By  James  Elliot 
Cabot.  Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co., 
1SS7;  two  volumes,  pp.  809.  Price,  $3.50. 
Mr.  Cabot  in  these  volumes  has  well  fulfilled  the  trust  reposed 
in  him  by  Emerson  and  family  as  the  one  man  among  his  many 
life-long  friends  best  fitted  to  become  his  literary  executor  and 
biographer.  Although  in  the  long  life  of  one  so  well  and  widely 
known  as  Emerson  there  could  be  little  to  relate  that  was  abso- 
lutely new  in  his  life  history  with  which  to  surprise  and  startle 
the  public  (as  in  the  case  of  the  Carlyle  memoirs),  yet  our 
glimpses  of  the  Concord  sage  had  hitherto  been  of  a  fragmentary 
sort — side  views  or  studies  of  his  character  from  certain  points  of 
view — but  in  this  work  we  have  an  orderly  presentation  of  his 
life  in  its  entirety.  Mr.  Cabot  shows  us  not  only  the  preacher, 
poet  and  prophet,  but  the  schoolboy,  student,  son,  brother,  lover, 
husband,  father  and  friend — the  whole  man  Emerson — and  a  very 
noble  and  satisfactory  portrait  it  is;  the  portait  of  an  earnest, 
sincere,  generous,  modest  philosopher,  loyal  to  his  convictions, 
charitable  in  his  judgments,  nobly  wise  in  thought  and  expres- 
sion, calmly  self-reliant  yet  as  ready  to  perceive  weaknesses  in 
his  own  nature  as  in  that  of  others,  and  far  more  ready  to  confess 
them.  He  was  not  ever  a  consciously  great  man.  In  a  letter 
written  to  Rev.  Henry  Ware,  in  1S3S,  he  touches  the  key-note  to 
his  character  thus:  "  It  strikes  me  very  oddly  that  good  and  wise 


53« 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


men  at  Cambridge  and  Boston  should  think  of  raising  me  into  an 
object  of  criticism.  I  have  always  been,  from  my  very  incapacity 
of  methodical  writing,  'a  chartered  libertine,'  free  to  worship 
and  free  to  rail ;  lucky  when  I  could  make  myself  understood,  but 
never  esteemed  near  enough  to  the  institutions  and  mind  of 
society  to  deserve  the  notice  of  the  masters  of  literature  and 
religion.  I  have  appreciated  fully  the  advantage  of  my  position; 
for  I  well  know  that  there  is  no  scholar  less  willing  or  less  able  to 
be  a  polemic.  *  *  *  I  shall  go  on  just  as  before,  seeing  what- 
ever I  can,  and  telling  what  I  see;  and,  I  suppose,  with  the  same 
fortune  that  has  hitherto  attended  me — the  joy  of  finding  that  my 
abler  and  better  brothers,  who  work  with  the  sympathy  of  society, 
loving  and  beloved,  do  now  and  then  unexpectedly  confirm  my 
perceptions,  and  find  my  nonsense  is  only  their  own  thought  in 
motley." 

Although  having  access  to  Emerson's  voluminous  corre- 
spondence and  the  diary  kept  by  him  for  a  great  part  of  his  life, 
Mr.  Cabot  has  used  rare  discretion  in  the  use  of  these  materials, 
and,  perhaps  mindful  of  the  severe  criticisms  bestowed  upon 
Froude  for  his  free  use  of  such  private  sources  of  information, 
has  been  verv  careful  in  his  extracts  from  them,  yet  not  so  much 
so  as  to  prevent  our  gaining  a  true  insight  into  the  real  character 
of  the  man  in  his  most  intimate  relationships.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  in  this  connection  that  Ralph  Waldo  was  not  at  first  by  his 
family,  nor  .ever  by  himself,  considered  tlie  Emerson  of  the 
Emersons.  His  brilliant  brother  Edward  Emerson,  who  went 
insane  through  overwork  of  brain  at  an  early  age,  and  his  brother 
Charles,  whom  he  loved  dearly  and  called  "my  friend,  my  orna- 
ment, my  joy  and  pride,"  and  who  died  of  quick  consumption, 
were  both  thought  to  be  his  superiors  in  genius,  and  lie  always 
rated  them  as  such.  His  friendships,  though  not  passionate,  were 
many  and  warm.  Singularly  enough  for  a  man  of  such  placid 
nature  and  strong  convictions,  a  number  of  women  were  among 
his  most  cherished  friends.  Elizabeth  Hoar  (the  affianced  of  his 
brother  Charles),  Margaret  Fuller,  Mrs.  Sarah  Alden  Ripley, 
his  Aunt  Mary  Moody  Emerson  and  Miss  Elizabeth  Peabody 
were  among  these. 

There  is  so  much  that  is  quotable  in  these  volumes  that  it  is 
difficult  to  refrain  from  giving  extracts,  and,  though  space  will 
not  in  this  short  notice  permit,  we  have  marked  much  for  future 
reference.  In  view  of  the  general  opinion  as  regards  Carlyle's 
groutiness  it  is  refreshing  to  read  Emerson's  statement  after  his 
first  meeting  with  the  Carlyles  at  Craigenputtock :  "Truth  and 
peace  and  faith  dwell  with  them  and  beautify  them.  I  never  saw 
more  amiableness  than  is  in  his  countenance ;  "  and  again  :  "  But 
Carlvle — Carlyle  is  so  amiable  that  I  love  him."  Another  strik- 
ing point  in  his  friendships  was  his  great  and  continued  admira- 
tion of  A.  B.  Alcott,  of  whom  he  says :  "  He  has  more  of  the 
godlike  than  any  man  I  have  ever  seen,  and  his  presence  rebukes 
and  threatens  and  raises.  He  is  a  teacher.  If  he  cannot  make 
intelligent  men  feel  the  presence  of  a  superior  nature,  the  worse 
lor  them;  I  can  never  doubt  him."  He  writes  in  his  diary  of 
him:  "Yesterday  Alcott  left  us,  after  a  three  days'  visit.  The 
most  extraordinary  man  and  the  highest  genius  of  his  time.  He 
ought  to  go  publishing  through  the  land  his  gospel  like  them  of 
old  time.  Wonderful  is  the  steadiness  of  his  vision.  The  scope 
and  steadiness  of  his  eye  at  once  rebuke  all  before  it,  and  we  little 
men  creep  about  ashamed." 

Mr.  Cabot  seems  more  than  most  biographers  thoroughly 
appreciative  of  Emerson's  character,  and  without  much  attempt 
at  explanation  or  criticism  on  his  own  part  lets  extracts  from 
Emerson's  own  letters  and  diary  portray  the  grow-th  of  his  deeper 
religious  feeling  and  of  his  intellectual  convictions,  which  as  soon 
as  he  defined  to  himself  he  conscientiously  expressed.  In  183S 
he  already  writes  in  his  diary :  "  What  shall  I  answer  to  these 
friendly  youths  who  ask  of  me  an  account  of  theism,  and  think  the 
views   I    have  expressed  of  God  desolating  and  ghastly?     I  say 


that  I  cannot  find,  as  I  explore  my  own  consciousness,  any  truth 
in  saying  that  God  is  a  person,  but  the  reverse.  I  feel  that  there 
is  some  profanation  in  saying  he  is  personal.  To  represent  him 
as  an  individual  is  to  shut  him  out  of  my  consciousness.  He  is 
then  but  a  great  man,  such  as  the  crowd  worships.  *  *  *  I 
deny  personality  to  God  because  it  is  too  little,  not  too  much. 
Life — personal  life — is  faint  and  cold  to  the  energy  of  God.  For 
Reason,  and  Love,  and  Beauty,  or  that  which  is  all  of  these — it  is 
the  life  of  Life,  the  reason  of  Reason,  the  love  of  Love." 

It  is  characteristic  of  Emerson's  doubt  and  distrust  of  himself 
that  of  the  one  hundred  and  seventy-three  sermons  which  he 
wrote  during  his  ministerial  experience  only  two  were  ever 
allowed  to  get  into  print;  but  the  fact  that  he  never  felt  quite  at 
home  in  the  pulpit  may  account  for  this.  These  two  volumes 
are  nicely  bound  and  printed,  a  fact  which  "goes  without  saving" 
when  the  name  of  the  publishing  firm  of  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 
is  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  work. 


Love    and    Theology.     A   novel.      By  Celia  Parker    Woolley. 

Boston:  Ticknor  and  Company,  1SS7;  pp.439. 

Mrs.  Woolley  recognizes  in  the  title  of  her  unique  story  the 
fact  that  theology  has  more  frequently  proved  a  disturbing  factor 
in  love  affairs  than  is  generally  acknowledged,  and  the  apparent 
aim  of  the  work  (for  this  is  "a  story  with  a  moral" — nav  several 
morals)  is  to  point  out  how  in  the  present  transitional  stage  of 
religious  beliefs  among  many  classes  of  believers,  "unity  in 
diversity "  may  be  attained  without  sacrifice  of  conscientious 
theological  scruples  on  either  side,  and  without  necessarily 
wrecking  life's  happiness  because  of  them,  and  this  mainly 
through  cultivation  of  the  spirit  of  respect  as  well  as  of  charity 
for  the  religious  faith  and  intellectual  convictions  of  others. 

We  have  four  pair  of  lovers  in  this  novel,  an  assortment 
sufficient  to  give  free  scope  to  the  outworking  of  our  author's 
idea.  There  is  one  pair  who  never  weds.  A  man  well  worth 
loving  who,  understanding  all  that  might  come  of  the  hereditary 
insanity  and  idiocy  with  which  his  familv  were  afflicted,  noblv 
surrenders  to  the  welfare  of  the  race  all  his  hopes  of  love's  com- 
panionship and  inspiration,  devoting  his  life  to  the  help  of  the  inno- 
cent ones  brought  into  the  world  thus  doomed;  and  the  strong- 
minded  woman  who  loves  him  well  enough  to  renounce  him, 
recognizing  the  righteousness  of  his  decision,  yet  for  his  sake 
leading  a  single,  though  not  solitary  or  bemoaning  life,  but  active 
in  all  reform  and  interested  to  teach  the  world  that  higher  knowl- 
edge which  forgets  selfish,  in  universal,  good.  Another  couple 
is  of  a  more  modernly  fashionable  type.  A  wealthy,  cultured 
handsome,  graceful  woman  with  a  mind  of  her  own,  liberal  ideas, 
interested  in  all  the  reforms  of  the  day,  woman  suffrage  included 
— a  student  of  Herbert  Spencer's  works;  and  a  young,  fine-look- 
ing, broad-minded  Episcopal  clergyman.  Then  there  is  the 
pretty,  serious,  earnest  daughter  of  a  radical  freethinker,  a  girl 
whose  inherited  tenderness  reverts  to  ancestors  more  devout  and 
remote  than  her  good-naturedly  skeptical  father,  and  her  lover,  a 
practical,  common-place,  but  true-hearted  man  of  the  world,  who 
had  given  religion  of  any  sort  but  slight  attention,  though 
touched  with  the  general  spirit  of  skepticism.  But  the  real  hero 
and  heroine  of  the  story,  whose  love  and  theology  we  are  most 
urgently  called  upon  to  consider,  are  two  persons  of  much  more 
widely  divergent  views  than  any  of  these.  One  the  daughter  of 
a  New  England  deacon,  with  the  inherited  religious  narrowness 
of  many  sternly  orthodox  ancestors  born  in  her  nature;  one 
whom  the  ever  increasing  waves  of  liberal  religious  thought  had 
never  reached,  whose  very  conscience  was  built  up  on  creed  and 
dogma,  and  her  ardent  young  lover,  to  whom  she  had  become 
betrothed  while  he  was  studying  for  the  ministry,  but  whose 
studies  taking  a  wider  range  than  usual  had  finally  included  the 
preachings  of  Theodore  Parker,  a  result  of  which  was  his  con- 
scientious decision  that  he  could  not  with  his  wider  views  become 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5.39 


a  preacher  of  an  outgrown  religion.  When  he  half  fearfully  ex- 
plains this  to  his  affianced  her  whole  being  rises  in  protest,  and 
finding  him  firm  in  his  determination,  her  own  remorseless  con- 
scientiousness causes  her  to  break  their  engagement,  though 
acknowledging  that  she  loves  him  with  her  whole  heart.  Thence- 
forward ensues  a  long  wearisome  struggle  of  love  agains*.  the- 
ology, in  which,  of  course,  love  ultimately  triumphs,  but  only  in 
the  face  of  threatened  death  to  the  beloved.  We  think  it  an 
artistic  touch  in  the  writer  of  this  strongly-wrought  story  that 
the  girl  does  not  even  after  marriage  become  a  convert  to  her 
husband's  faith,  only  learns  to  respect  it  and  him,  and  the  con- 
cessions to  individual  opinion  are  mutual  and  sincere.  This  is 
the  lesson  of  the  story.  The  author  says,  "  In  this  generous  strife 
of  loving  hearts  to  set  the  other  before  self,  and  pay  respect  to 
the  sincerity  of  the  belief  that  differs  from  our  own,  we  get  nearer 
the  heart  of  goodness  than  in  any  other  way." 

Though  the  story  is  told  in  a  serious  way  worthy  of  its  pur- 
pose there  is  no  lack  of  incident,  of  bright  talk,  of  descriptive 
touches,  and  bits  of  fun,  to  lure  the  mere  story-lover  on  to  read 
to  the  end;  the  moral  is  conveyed,  but  not  preached.  The  book 
is  prettily  bound,  printed  in  excellent  clear  type  and  will  make 
the  right  sort  of  lover's  gift  in  all  cases  where  theology  ventures 
to  infringe  upon  the  divine  rights  of  love. 

A    Collection    of    Letters    of     Thackeray.       1S47-1S55. 

With  Portraits  and  Reproductions  of  Letters  and  Drawings. 

New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,   1887;    pp.  1S9.     Price, 

$2.50.     For  sale  by  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago. 

These  letters,  written  by  W.  M.  Thackeray  to  his  old  college 
friend,  William  H.  Brookfield,  and  his  wife,  Jane  Octavia  Brook- 
field,  have  already  appeared  in  serial  form  in  Scri&ner's  Magazine, 
and  from  them  we  have  given  occasional  extracts,  and  the  temp- 
tation to  quote  further  from  them  in  their  new  form  is  very  great; 
but  that  pleasure  we  must  in  this  notice  forego.  To  the  lovers  of 
Thackeray's  writings  it  has  been  a  source  of  regret  that  by  the 
novelist's  own  special  request,  made  to  his  family  and  friends,  no 
memoir  of  him  has  been  written,  and  the  widespread  desire 
among  his  admirers  to  know  more  of  Thackeray  the  man,  has 
been  hitherto  disappointed.  To  gratify  in  a  measure  this  wish, 
as  well  as  to  do  honor  to  her  dead  friend,  is  Mrs.  Brookfield's  aim 
in  giving  to  the  public  this  collection.  In  regard  to  their  publica- 
tion his  daughter,  Mrs.  Anne  Thackeray  Ritchie,  writes  to  Mrs. 
Brookfield  thus:  "I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that  you  have  made  a 
satisfactory  arrangement  for  publishing  your  selection  from  my 
father's  letters.  I  am,  of  course,  unable  myself  by  his  expressed 
wish  to  do  anything  of  the  sort.  *  *  *  I  have  often  felt  sorry 
to  think  that  no  one  should  ever  know  more  of  him.  You  know 
better  than  any  one  what  we  should  like  said  or  unsaid,  and  what  he 
would  have  wished ;  so  that  I  am  very  glad  to  think  you  have  under- 
taken the  work."  The  letters  show  the  man  to  be  much  more 
amiable  than  the  novelist.  They  are  as  delightful  reading  as  any 
book  he  ever  wrote.  They  begin  at  a  time  when  he  was  first 
called  upon  to  bear  the  heavy  burden  of  home  sorrow,  which  he 
bore  for  so  many  years  uncomplainingly — the  loss  of  reason 
in  one  he  often  tenderly  refers  to  in  these  letters  as  "  my  poor 
little  wife,"  soon  after  the  birth  of  their  youngest  daughter.  But 
the  letters  themselves  are  brimful  of  good-natured  fun,  satire  and 
tender  feeling.  He  seems  to  have  entertained  for  Mr.  Brookfield, 
and  more  especially  for  his  wife,  a  very  cordial  and  trustful 
friendship,  and  he  writes  frankly  of  all  the  things  which  interest 
him,  of  his  home,  his  children — to  whom  he  appears  devotedly 
attached,  a  playfellow  as  well  as  father — and  the  various  public 
successes  and  annoyances  he  encountered.  His  wit  and  fancy 
find  free  play  in  these  private  letters  to  trusted  friends,  and  he 
breaks  off  in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  to  make  some  comical 
drawing  suggested  by  something  he  has  seen  or  written.     There 


are  about  thirty  fac  similes  of  these  drawings  given  in  the  vol- 
ume, together  with  several  good  but  differing  portraits  of  Thack- 
eray.    The  book  is  in  quarto  form  and  beautifully  bound. 

Evolution  and  Christianity.     A  Study.     By  y.  C.  F.  Grata- 

bine.     Chicago:     Charles  II.  Kerr&  Co.,  175  Dearborn  street; 

PP-  75- 

The  author's  object  in  this  little  work  is  to  show  that  the 
natural  order  is  an  expression  and  manifestation  of  the  will  of 
God;  that  evolution  is  a  fact  in  this  order;  that  "revelation  is  but 
another  name  for  evolution,"  and  that  Jesus  and  Christianity, 
when  stripped  of  all  that  is  fabulous  and  false,  are  in  no  way 
opposed  to  but  in  harmony  with  and  illustrative  of  the  law 
of  natural  growth. 

We  quite  agree  with  Mr.  Grumbine  that  Christianity  has  had 
a  natural  origin  and  development;  and  without  doubt  the  reasons 
for  its  persistence  in  its  many  forms,  even  the  lowest  and  most 
grotesque,  have  been  in  the  conditions  amidst  which  it  has  flour- 
ished and  in  its  adaptedness  to  meet  certain  wants;  but  we  do  not 
believe  that  it  can  be  divested  of  all  its  fabulous  and  miraculous 
features  and  still  properly  be  regarded  as  a  great  religious  system 
and  entitled  to  be  called  Christianity. 

Our  author  while  trying  to  apply  evolution  to  the  religious 
life  of  man  seems  to  think  that  before  and  back  of  evolution  was 
some  direct  creative  impulse.  "  It  is  not  for  us  to  decide,"  he 
says,  "how  quickly  or  how  perfectly  God  could  make  any  type  of 
life,  nor  whether  he  would  or  could  violate  the  very  laws  which 
condition  the  regularity,  order  and  stability  of  the  universe." 
(P.  49.)  "  Each  organism  is  a  thought  of  God,  projected  in  time 
and  space.  Yet  it  is  a  thought  of  God  premeditated  in  the  first 
creation  out  of  which  come  universal  existence."     (P.  55.) 

The  least  satisfactory  part  of  the  book  is  that  wnich  refers  to 
the  relation  of  evolution  to  immortality — "  this  postulate  which 
Christianity  so  ardently  and  essentially  sets  forth."  Mr.  Grum- 
bine says  that  spirit  must  be  accounted  for  as  well  as  mechanical 
force  or  lifeless  matter.  This  remark  is  followed  by  some  pas- 
sages on  the  consolation  afforded  by  belief  in  immortality.  We 
are  next  told  "  we  must  account  for  all  life  or  grant  a  peculiar 
constituent  to  life  in  the  form  of  man,  or  there  will  be  a  sad 
break  in  the  chain  of  facts,"  etc.,  and  that  "  Christianity  will  have 
no  interpretation,  meaning  and  authority  in  consciousness,  and 
will  prove  to  be  but  a  will-o'-the-wisp  of  the  mind,"  etc.  Our 
author  thinks  "  that  life  in  every  organized  form  may  have  two 
bearings — one  in  material,  the  other  in  immaterial  existence." 
He  hesitates  to  affirm  "whether  the  vegetable,  or  animal  king- 
doms will  be  deprived  of  a  future  life."  The  essential  importance 
in  such  a  discussion  of  the  questions  how  that  which  has  been 
formed  can  escape  decay,  how  that  which  has  come  by  evolution 
can  be  exempt  forever  from  dissolution,  how  consciousness,  when 
admitted  to  be  the  product  of  evolution,  can  persist  amid  condi- 
tions superior  to  the  law  of  change  to  which  it  has  always  been 
subject,  and  how  this  view  of  personal  persistence  can  derive 
support  from  what  we  know  under  the  name  of  evolution — the 
importance  of  these  questions  in  the  consideration  of  the  subject, 
seems  not  to  have  occurred  to  our  author.  But  the  little  volume 
contains  many  good  thoughts,  which  are  presented  in  an  earnest 
and  candid  spirit. 

Crimes  of  Christianity.     By  G.  W.  Foote  and  J.  M.  Wheeler. 

London :     Progressive  Publishing  Company,  28  Stonecutter 

Street,  E.  C,  18S8;  Vol.  I.  pp.  215. 

This  volume  is  a  condensed  account  of  the  mistakes,  follies 
and  crimes  of  the  Christian  Church  from  the  time  it  was  founded 
to  the  end  of  the  Crusades.  The  acts  of  Constantine,  the  perse- 
cution and  murder  of  Hypatia  and  other  unbelievers  and  heretics, 
the  evils  of  monkery,  the  forgeries  perpetrated  by  ecclesiastics, 


54° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  crimes  of  the  popes,  the  persecution  of  the  Jews  and  the  hor- 
rors and  deplorable  results  of  the  Crusades,  are  presented  in  a  con- 
cise and  impressive  manner.  The  authors  claim  that  "the  tri- 
umph of  Christianity  was  the  triumph  of  barbarism,"  and  this 
they  try  to  prove  by  narrating  many  of  the  crimes  and  cruelties 
which  marked  the  history  of  the  Church  during  the  period  treated, 
while  carefully  omitting  all  reference  to  the  brighter  side  and 
nobler  aspects  of  that  history.  Gibbon,  Milman,  Giesler,  New- 
man (J.  H.),  Lecky,  Mosheim,  Hallam,  Jortin,  Carlyle  and  other 
eminent  authors  are  cited,  and  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to 
verify  the  quotations,  they  are  given  accurately;  at  the  same 
time,  as  given  they  often  convey  an  impression  quite  different 
from  that  produced  by  the  writings  from  which  they  are  taken 
The  method  is  identical  with  that  of  many  works  written  in 
defense  of  Christianity.  It  does  not  give  a  fair,  impartial  view  of 
Christianity  in  its  influence  on  the  world;  but  it  may  be  read 
with  profit  by  those  who  are  acquainted  only  with  those  treatises 
on  Christianity  which  aim  to  prove  its  divinity  by  referring  to  all 
its  good  precepts  and  to  all  the  bright  spots  in  the  civilization  of 
Christendom,  and  presenting  in  contrast  thereto  all  the  evils  of 
Paganism  and  the  mistakes  and  follies  of  "  infidels."  For  the 
unpartizan,  scientific  mind  that  views  Christianity  as  a  system  of 
thought  which  has  its  place  in  the  evolutionary  order,  the  work 
has  value  only  as  one  of  the  indications  and  products  of  a  transi- 
tional stage  of  thought.  Messrs.  Foote  and  Wheeler  have  the 
ability  and  education,  if  they  could  but  emancipate  themselves 
from  the  method  and  influence  of  the  theology  they  so  rabidly 
oppose,  to  write  a  much  better  book  in  regard  to  the  influences 
of  Christianity,  than  the  one  here  noticed. 


The  Earth  in  Space.  A  Manual  of  Astronomical  Geogra- 
phy. By  Ed-card  P.  Jackson,  A.M.,  Instructor  in  Physical 
Science  in  the  Boston  Latin  School.  Boston:  D.  C.  Heath 
&  Co.,  18S7;  pp.  73. 

This  little  manual,  an  abbreviated  and  simplified  version  of  a 
mathematical  geography  issued  some  years  ago,  was  prepared  in 
compliance  with  the  request  of  the  late  Miss  Lucretia  Crocker,  a 
supervisor  of  the  Boston  public  schools.  It  is  designed  for  gram- 
mar schools  and  for  high  and  normal  schools;  but  it  may  be 
profitably  studied  by  any  one  who  is  unacquainted  with  and 
desires  instruction  in  the  most  practical  of  all  the  departments  of 
astronomy. 

Random  Recollections.  By  Henry  B.  Stanton.  New  York: 
Harper  &  Brothers,  Franklin  Square,  1S87;  pp.  298. 
This  handsome  volume  contains  many  interesting  reminis- 
cences of  its  author,  the  late  Henry  B.  Stanton.  It  gives  a  sketch 
of  his  life  from  his  birth  in  1S05,  with  recollections  of  individuals 
and  incidents  to  the  last  years  of  his  life,  during  which  he  came  in 
contact  with  many  eminent  men  and  women,  and  was  in  positions 
to  learn  much  in  regard  to  personal  characters,  and  the  political, 
religious  and  social  movements  of  his  time.  Among  the  themes 
of  Mr.  Stanton's  "random"  notes  are  the  following:  "The  Bom- 
bardment of  Stonington,"  "  Perry's  Victory  on  Lake  Erie,"  "  Lor- 
enzo Dow,"  "Connecticut  Calvinism,"  "  Nathan  Daboll,  the 
Arithmetician,"  "George  D.  Prentice,"  "Henry  Clay,"  "Tam- 
many Hall,"  "The  Anti-Masonic  Excitement,"  "Thurlow  Weed," 
"  Edmund  Kean,"  ■'  Garrett  Smith  and  Frances  Wright,"  "  De 
Witt  Clinton  and  Van  Buren,"  "  Millard  Fillmore,  Seward  and 
Silas  Wright,"  "  The  Wilmot  Proviso  and  Charles  G.Finney," 
"Lyman  Beecher  and  James  G.  Birney,"  "John  Neal,  the  Poet," 
"John  Quincy  Adams,"  "Graham,  the  Dietatic  Reformer,"  "The 
Abolitionists,"  "The  World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention  in  En- 
gland," "Wellington  on  the  Irish  Question,"  "Macaulay  and 
Gladstone,"  "  The  Chartists,"  "  O'Connell,"  "  Webster,"  "  Choate," 
"'Mad'  Anthony  Wayne,"  "Cass,"  "  Buchannan,"  "  Marcy," 
"Douglass,"  "Greeley  and  Conkling,"  "Lincoln  and  Corwin," 


"Gen.  Butler,"  "  Cameron,  Chase  and  Blair,"  "American  Jour- 
nalism and  the  Daily  Papers,"  "Religious  Newspapers,"  etc. 
In  the  la^t  chapter,  the  author  says:  "As  I  turn  my  eye  back 
over  the  fourscore  years  covered  by  this  narrative,  I  am  deeply 
impressed  with  the  sad  thought  that  nearly  all  the  persons  of 
whom  I  have  written  are  in  the  spirit-land,  and  that  some  of  the 
more  distinguished  have  entered  its  portals  since  the  first  edition 
of  this  work  was  issued."  We  have  seldom  read  a  more  interest- 
ing book  than  Random  Recollections. 


The  Clerical  Combination  to  Influence  Civil  Legisla- 
tion on  Marriage  and  Divorce.  By  Richard  Brodhead, 
D.D.,  LL.D.  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  1S87;  pp.  32. 
Dr.  Westerbrook  has  brought  together  in  a  condensed  form 
many  useful  facts,  historical  and  legal,  accompanied  with  judi- 
cious comments  and  suggestions  in  regard  to  marriage  and 
divorce.  He  views  with  suspicion  the  movement  of  ecclesiastics 
ex  officio  to  dictate  civil  legislation  on  domestic  relations.  The 
falsity  of  the  claim  that  monogamic  marriage  is  of  Christian  ori- 
gin, and  that  the  clergy  are  its  divinely  commissioned  ministers  is 
pointedly  indicated,  and  the  position  defended  that  the  State 
should  recognize  marriage  as  a  civil  contract  only.  "  Let  the 
civil  contract,"  he  says,  "be  first  ratified  by  a  civil  officer,  and 
then  hand  the  contractors  over  to  the  clergy  if  they  so  desire." 
This  is  undoubtedly  the  correct  view,  and  the  only  one  consistent 
with  the  total  separation  of  Church  and  State.  Marriage  can  be 
justly  treated  by  the  State  only  as  a  civil  contract,  and  the  recog- 
nition of  its  ratification  by  ecclesiastics,  be  they  Christian,  Mo- 
hammedan or  Mormon,  is  contrary  to  the  principles  of  secular 
government.  Our  author  says  "  Free  and-easy  divorce  should 
not  be  made  possible  by  law,  nor  should  the  foundation  of  mar- 
riage or  the  sacredness  of  the  family  and  the  home  be  under- 
mined. The  extremes  of  dogmatism  and  fanaticism  should  be  . 
avoided,  and  the  law  of  social  science  and  public  policy  should 
be  carefully  considered." 

Poems.      Bv    James    I'i/a   Blake.      Chicago:   C.   H.   Kerr  &  Co. 

Boston:   Geo.  H.  Ellis,  1SS7;  pp.  1S7.     Price,  $1.00 
Essays.     By  J.   V.Blake.     Chicago:  C  H.  Kerr  &  Co.     Boston: 
Geo.  H.  Ellis;  pp.  212.     Price,  $1.00. 

Mr.  Blake's  modeslly  named  book  of  "  Poems"  contains 
about  one  hundred  bits  of  verse,  the  two  longest,  which  open  and 
close  the  collection,  being  entitled  "  Wild  Rice"  and  "John 
Atheling  "  Of  the  shorter  poems  we  like  best  "  Everlasting," 
"The  Bishop's  Eyes,"  "Jesus,"  "Amoris  Avaritia,"  "Actum  Est" 
and  '.'  N'Importe."  Mr.  Blake's  idea  of  poetry  is  expressed  in 
the  following  lines: 

"  Simply  to  see  things  as  they  are,  this,  this 
Is  poetry;  for  beauty,  power  and  bliss 
Cannot  consist  with  what  is  not.     Thus  he 
Who  sees  the  truth,  liveth  with  poetry, 
And  singeth  when  he  tells  what  he  doth  see." 

Many  of  the  poems  are  pleasant  lover's  verse. 

The  Essays  are  thirty  in  number,  and  treat  in  Mr.  Blake's 
happy  way  of  such  subjects  as  "Immortal  Life,"  "Death,"  "Con- 
science," "Heroism,"  "  Individuality,"  "Common  Sense,"  "Gov- 
ernment" and  kindred  every  day  topics  which  are  looked  at  from 
a  generally  optimistic  point  of  view. 


The  Christmas  number  of  Wide- Awake  is  to  have  articles 
from  Edmund  C.  Steadman,  Andrew  Lang,  II.  Rider  Haggard, 
Sidney  Luska  and  others  as  noted.  It  will  be  a  grand  Christmas 
present  for  any  young  person.  The  October  number,  with  its 
usual  number  of  fine  illustrations,  has  contributions  from  Mrs.  A. 
D.  T.  Whitney,  Edwin  Arnold,  Louise  Quincy  and  others. 
Charles  Egbert  Craddock's  story  of  "  Keedon  Bluffs  "  is  concluded 
in  a  satisfactory  way. 


The  Open  Court 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Establishing  Ethics  and  Religion  Upon  a  Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  20. 


CHICAGO,  NOVEMBER  10,  1887. 


I  Three  Dollars  per  Year 
I  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


FROM  DESPOTISM  TO  REPUBLICANISM   IN 
RELIGION. 

KY   JOHN    BURROUGHS. 

The  most  advanced  religious  thought  I  have  lately 
met  with,  that  seems  at  all  in  line  with  the  old  theology 
is  in  a  book  of  Elisha  Mulford,  "  The  Republic  of  God." 
I  say  "  in  line  with  the  old  theology, "  but  far  bevond 
and  above  its  interpretation  of  religious  dogma  and  doc- 
trines. 

The  author's  confession  of  faith  does  not  seem  to 
differ  materially  from  that  of  the  evangelical  churches, 
but  he  gives  it  some  inner  transcendental  or  highly  spirit- 
ual meaning.  Indeed,  it  is  not  always  easy  to  get  at  his 
meaning:  at  times  he  speaks  as  if  veiled,  or  as  if  hidden 
from  us  by  a  screen  like  the  oracles  of  old.  The  fact  that 
Mulford  was  very  hard  of  hearing,  seems  to  be  implied 
in  his  writings. 

There  is  often  an  obscurity,  a  vagueness,  a  far-away 
dreaminess  and  irrelevancy,  that  is  like  the  monologue  of 
one  talking  to  himself  and  not  hearing  his  own  words. 
But  there  are  many  intelligible  passages,  though  these  are 
generally  preluded  by,  and  rounded  up  with,  that  which 
is  unintelligible.  Thus,  when  speaking  of  the  Redemp- 
tion of  the  World,  and  affirming  that  the  death  of  Christ 
did  not  take  away  the  wrath  of  God  against  sin,  he  says: 
"  it  were  woe  if  the  wrath  of  God  was  averted  from  sin. 
It  were  woe  to  men  and  nations  if  there  were  no  judg- 
ment, in  which  the  consequences  of  evil  courses  were 
manifested,"  he  speaks  to  the  universal  reason  and  con- 
science; but  when  he  follows  with  the  statement  that: 
"  The  Christ  redeems  the  world  from  sin  and  from  the 
consequences  of  sin-"  he  speaks  only  to  some  theologi- 
cal conception  or  conviction  that  has  no  relation  to  the 
rest  of  our  knowledge,  and  that  only  a  few  men  possess. 

Mulford's  book,  as  a  whole,  seems  to  be  a  considera- 
tion, or  celebration  of  the  ethical  process  of  life  and  his- 
tory, as  opposed  to  the  physical  process,  of  that  which  is 
internal  or  spiritual;  and  which  therefore  knows  neither 
time  nor  place,  as  opposed  to  that  which  is  external  and 
limited,  and  therefore  transient.  In  other  words,  what  he 
conceives  to  be  the  true  inwardness  of  Christianity. 
The  sentence  in  the  teachings  of  Christ,  which  has 
been  a  stumbling  block  to  the  old  external  religions, 
which  had  their  attention  fixed  upon  some  distant  and 
future  good,  namely,  that  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
within  you"  seems  to  be  the  central  thought  of  his  teach- 


ings. If  I  apprehend  him  rightly,  he  teaches  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  that  the  spiritual  or  eternal  life, 
is  here  and  now,  within  reach  of  every  man;  that 
the  judgment,  and  the  resurrection,  and  the  eternal 
condemnation  are  here,  and  are  not  remote  events  or 
conditions,  adjourned  to  some  other  sphere  or  time. 
This  view  of  them,  which  is  the  view  of  the  prevailing 
theology,  inherited  from  paganism,  makes  these  things 
very  external  to  us;  and  therefore  subject  to 
chance  and  to  limitations.  This  agrees  with  what 
the  poet  says,  that  "  there  is  no  more  heaven  and 
no  more  hell  than  there  is  now";  and  with  what 
every  man  of  science  must  have  felt,  that  man 
can  be  no  nearer  God,  and  all  divine  things, 
than  he  is  here  and  now.  Christ  announced  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand;  and  that  he  was  the  re- 
surrection and  the  life.  The  eternal  life,  is  to  live  in  the 
eternal  order,  as  Arnold  puts  it,  and  eternal  death  is  to 
live  in  contradiction  of  that  order.  To  pass  from  the 
one  to  the  other,  is  to  pass  from  the  life  of  the  flesh,  to 
the  life  of  the  spirit.  The  punishment  of  sin  is  eternal, 
in  the  sense  that  the  principle  violated  is  eternal,  and 
changes  not.  "  But  to  identify  this  with  an  irrevocable 
doom,  is  to  set  a  definite  limit  to  the  divine  redemption, 
and  to  its  perfect  realization.  It  brings  a  section  of  the 
human  race  into  an  ultimate  condition  of  fate,  and  not 
of  freedom.  The  spiritual  law  is  eternal,  but  not  the  ne- 
cessary continuance  in  sin  of  one  child  of  earth  and 
time.  "  The  eternal  life,  therefore,  is  the  right  life,  or 
righteousness;  and  the  eternal  death  is  the  wrong  life 
or  sin.  The  reconciliation  of  the  world  with  God  is 
not  the  reconciliation  of  opposite  forces,  because  this 
would  imply  a  dualism,  as  in  the  current  theology; 
but  Mulford  denies  all  dualism:  "it  is  not  the  reconcilia- 
tion of  the  hoi)-  and  the  profane,  the  wicked  and  the 
righteous,  the  forces  which  are  of  the  world,  and  the 
forces  which  are  of  God, — it  is  the  reconciliation  of  the 
world  unto  God.  The  finite  is  transmuted  into  the  in- 
finite, the  earthly  is  lifted  unto  the  heavenly."  The 
kingdom  of  heaven,  Mulford  teaches,  is  the  assertion 
and  the  recognition  of  the  presence  of  spiritual  forces. 
"  This  kingdom  has  come,  and  it  may  be  always  com- 
ing; it  is  in  the  realization  of  righteousness  in  the  life 
of  humanity.  It  has  come  and  it  is,  therefore,  no  va- 
cant dream;  it  is  always  coming,  and  it  is  therefore  to  be 
striven  for,  with  the  energy  and  the  endeavor  of  men." 


542 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Mulford  points  out,  how  the  pagan  conception  of  heav- 
en, as  of  some  blessed  abode  far  away,  and  inaccessible, 
still  prevails  and  moulds  and  colors  our  religious  thought. 
"  The  heavens  are  still  far  above  us,  above  this  spot 
which  men  call  earth,  and  are  carried  on  and  away  be- 
fore us;  they  are  still  an  Elysian  view;  the  happy  fields 
are  located  in  the  future,  and  the  religious  imagination 
invests  them  with  images  of  delight;  they  are  held  as 
some  enchantment,  to  body  forth  some  ecstatic  dream. 
The  infinite  spiritual  depths  and  heights,  are  not  real  for 
humanity.  .  .  .  This  pagan  conception  avoids  the  words 
of  the  Christ,  Behold  the  Kingdom  of  God  is 
•within  von.  It  says  that  it  is  not  within  you!"  Accord- 
ing to  his  view  "  The  representation  of  heaven,  was  an 
unreality  while  still  "it  was  invested  with  the  attractions 
of  that  which  the  eye  had  seen,  and  the  ear  had  heard; 
and  it  had  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive." 
The  forms  and  conceptions  of  ancient  religions,  still  de- 
termine our  thought.  "  They  rule  us  from  their  buried 
urns.  The  gods  of  those  imaginative  forms,  whether 
dark  and  cruel,  or  light  and  beautiful  with  the  changing 
forms  of  life,  have  vanished,  and  the  temples  and  shrines 
are  sought  no  longer  by  men,  but  the  religious  concep- 
tions and  images  still  control  us;  they  do  but  slowly 
fade.  "  Thus  the  popular  conception  of  God  is  essen- 
tially pagan;  "He  becomes  himself  a  Baal,  a  Moloch,  or 
a  .Siva;  he  is  pacified  by  the  suffering  and  death  of  his 
children;  his  presence  is  in  a  temple;  his  appearing  is 
through  the  doors  of  a  shrine;  his  revelation  is  the  sacred 
books;  his  coming  again  is  an  event  of  historical  circum- 
stance in  the  formal  process  of  history." 

Our  conception  of  the  judgment,  also,  as  a  high 
court  or  tribunal  where  man  shall  be  judged  as  in  an 
earthly  court,  is  pagan,  and  has  no  warrant  in  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Christ.  "The  judgment  of  the  world  is 
constant;  it  is  continuous."  "The  Christ  says  this  is 
the  judgment,  that  light  has  come  into  the  ■world,  and 
men  loved  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their 
deeds  were  evil. "  "  This  judgment  is  in  the  hour  that 
cometh  and  now  is,  but  it  is  not  limited  to  the  present, 
and  it  does  not  detach  the  future  from  the  present." 
By  removing  this  judgment  afar  off  to  some  distant 
time  and  place,  men  grow  indifferent  to  it.  "  It  is  an 
event  for  which  time  may  bring  evasions.  "  "  But  when 
this  judgment  is  apprehended  in  its  real  and  spiritual 
import,  as  near  and  at  the  very  door,  as  the  judgment 
of  truth,  then  the  conscience  cannot  be  set  at  rest  by 
theories  or  dreams,  nor  by  the  undefined  anticipations 
of  evasion  or  delay.  "  At  the  same  time,  this  view  is 
for  humanity  only  in  its  higher  developments;  judg- 
ment as  the  present  and  persistent  voice  of  truth  and 
conscience,  "  the  still  small  voice,  "  can  have  little  terror 
for  the  mass  of  mankind.  Something  more  drastic  is 
needed  and  this  is  supplied  by  the  "  law  of  reversals  and 
reprisals  "  of  the   old    theology.      In  the  same  way,  the 


coming  of  Christ  is  a  daily  and  hourly  event  in  the  pro- 
gress of  humanity.  Now  is  the  day  of  salvation.  "  The 
coming  may  be  in  the  passing  away  of  that  which  is  old; 
in  the  doom  of  some  inhuman  system,  as  that  of  slavery, 
which  has  bound  up  with  destruction  the  life  of  the 
family  and  the  nation  "  as  in  our  late  war,  when  Christ 
did  indeed  come  as  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  with 
the  besom  of  destruction.  "  The  coming  of  the  Son  of 
Man   is  thus   always  at  hand ;  it  is  a  constant    motive  to 

duty It  does  not  adjourn  the  thoughts   of  man  to 

some  remote  date,  some  distant  season,  in  which  one  shall 
come  in  the  guise  of  a  king,  in  certain  external  relations, 
to  judge  and  rule  the  earth."  Such  a  conception  is 
pagan,  and  its  prevalence  in  the  religious  thought  of  our 
day,  only  shows  how  paganish  we  still  are.  The  com- 
ing of  Christ  is  in  the  appearance  of  every  fine  and 
brave  religious  soul  that  rebukes  the  sin  and  folly  of  the 
world  and  awakens  a  higher  ideal  within  us.  He  has 
always  come  and  is  always  coming,  and  was,  indeed 
from  the  foundations  of  the  world.  He  is  the  spirit  of 
truth  and  of  righteousness  in  every  age  and  clime. 

By  this  view  of  the  matter,  Mulford  gets  rid  of  some 
grave  difficulties  in  the  New  Testament.  Still,  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  the  disciples  of  Christ  were  to  the 
last,  more  or  less  dominated  by  the  pagan  conception  ot 
the  second  coming  of  their  Master  in  their  own  day,  in 
an  external,  visible  form,  and  in  great  power  and 
glory,  as  a  king  or  conquering   hero  comes. 

Mulford  also  gets  over  some  grave  difficulties  by 
taking  Christianity  out  of  the  systems  of  religion  that 
have,  at  different  times,  borne  sway  in  the  world,  and 
declaring  that  it  is  not  a  religion  but  a  revelation. 
The  old  religions  were  superstitions,  and  have,  at  times, 
appeared  as  a  thing  of  good  and  again  of  evil.  Relig- 
ion "  has  given  the  motive  to  some  of  the  noblest, 
and  again  to  some  of  the  darkest  pages  of  history." 
"  It  has  been  the  ally  of  rapine,  the  defense  of  crime, 
the  cry  of  war."  But  Christianity  is  not  a  religion, 
though  all  these  things  have  pertained  to  it.  Why 
it  is  not  safe  to  consider  it  merely  a  religion  is  this: 
we  should  then  be  obliged  to  "  admit  that  it  was  rela- 
tive, and  might  be  at  some  date  displaced  by  some  form 
of  religion  yet  more  worthy  of  better  adaptation,"  as 
other  religions  have  been.  As  soon  as  we  admit  Chris- 
tianity to  be  one  of  the  many  forms  of  the  religions  of 
the  world,  one  step  in  the  religious  history  of  mankind, 
we  place  it  among  things  that  are  perishable  and  tem- 
porary. The  natural  philosopher  may  so  regard  it,  but 
Mulford  attempts  to  take  it  out  of  this  category  entire- 
ly. "It  cannot  be  brought  within  the  scope  or  province 
of  any  definition  of  religion  that  has  a  justification  in 
history.  It  is  not  the  product  of  any  distinctive  reli- 
gious progress;  or,  further,  it  has  not  its  origin  in  any 
system  of  speculation,  nor  in  the  reflective  order  of 
thought."     "  It  is  not  within  the  process  of  the  history 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


54.1 


of  religions.  It  is  not  to  he  brought  as  one  stage  into 
the  development,  or  as  one  subject  in  the  comparative 
study  of  religions.  It  is  not  related  to  them  as  one  in- 
dividual form  to  another,  nor  as  the  individual  to  the 
universal."  "  If  it  be  assumed  that  it  is  strictly  a  religion, 
it  is  not  clear  in  its  relation  to  philosophy.  For  philoso- 
phy will  still  maintain  its  claim  to  hold  it  in  subjection 
to  its  canons,  to  determine  its  position  in  relation  to 
the  continuous  progress  of  speculative  thought,  and  will 
still  seek  for  a  real  and  substantial  truth ! 

"  The  Old  Testament  is  not  primarily  the  record  of 
a  religion,  or  of  a  system  or  science  of  religion."  "  It 
averts  the  attention  from  a  further  world,  without  affir- 
mation and  without  denial  in  regard  to  it,  and  is  intent 
upon  the  eternal  and  infinite  presence  dwelling  in  the 
here  and  now."  "The  writings  of  the  New  Testament, 
as  we  pass  again  to  their  contents,  have  not  a  religion, 
nor  the  institution,  nor  the  revelation  of  a  religion,  for 
their  subject.  It  is  the  revelation  of  the  Christ  in  man 
and  the  infinite  and  eternal  life  of  man.  In  these 
writings  the  very  word  religion  does  not  appear." 

"  The  Christ  institutes  no  cultus  of  worship  and 
prescribes  no  system  of  dogma.  There  is  no  suggestion 
of  form  of  worship  or  formula  of  doctrine.  The  bless- 
ing which  he  gives  is  of  those  who  act  and  suffer  in  the 
life  of  humanity.  It  is  of  the  gentle,  of  those  who 
mourn,  of  those  who  suffer  persecution  for  righteousness, 
of  those  who  hunger  after  righteousness."  "  The  Christ 
had  at  no  time  an  identity,  even  the  most  remote,  with 
any  of  the  great  sects  or  societies  which  represented  and 
embraced  the  distinctive  religious  life  of  his  age.  He 
had  no  connection  with  the  Scribe,  or  the  Saducee,  or  the 
Pharisee."  The  strongest  contrast  was  seen  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  Pharisee.  The  Pharisee  was  not  a  man  of 
mere  pretense;  he  was  the  type  of  strictly  religious  man, 
but  one  who  cared  more  for  religion  than  for  humanity, 
like  the  typical  religious  man  of  our  own  day.  The 
Christ  did  not  appear  as  a  priest  or  an  ascetic,  he  came 
eating  and  drinking,  he  went  among  men,  he  was  a 
man  of  the  world.  "  The  reproach  brought  against 
him  by  the  religious  sects  and  societies  of  his  age  was,  he 
eats -uith  publicans  and  sinners ;  behold  the  friend  of 
publicans  and  sinners?  To  the  stickler  for  religious 
forms  he  said  "  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not 
man  for  the  Sabbath,"  and  to  the  chief  priests  of  the 
religion  of  his  times  he  said,  "  the  publicans  and  the 
harlots  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  before 
you." 

Christianity,  then,  in  this  latest  interpretation  of  it, 
is  the  revelation  of  the  divine  in  humanity,  the  oneness  of 
man  with  God,  "  the  life  that  is  here  and  now  in  the  life 
of  the  spirit  but  the  life  that  is  infinite,  the  life  that  is 
eternal."  Christ  destroyed  the  temple;  he  was  the 
avowed  enemy  of  religion  as  a  form.  "The  worship 
henceforth     was    to    be   that   in    which    none    need   to 


journey  far,  nor  to  go  on  pilgrimages  to  distant  shrines 
or  cities  to  enter  the  doors  of  a  temple." 

To  people  without  imagination  or  vision,  who  expect 
the  spirit  life,  the  eternal  life,  to  he  but  another  and 
better  form  of  our  present  concrete  life,  far  removed 
from  this  and  to  be  reached  through  the  valley  and  the 
shadow,  who  cannot  conceive  of  God  as  here  and  now, 
and  immortality  as  here  and  now  in  the  right  conduct  ot 
our  lives,  these  teachings  of  Mulford  will  seem  like 
mocking  them  with  shadows.  To  the  mass  of  men, 
religious  concerns  are  but  another  field  for  the  exercise 
of  their  worldliness,  their  prudence  in  looking  out  for 
number  one;  they  are  as  careful  and  diligent  in  laying  up 
treasures  in  heaven  as  they  are  in  laying  them  up  in 
the  savings  bank,  and  there  is  as  much  of  the  spirit 
of  worldliness  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other.  It  is  a  good 
investment ;  it  is  the  thing  for  a  prudent  man  to  do. 
Indeed,  most  of  the  religious  appeals  to  the  masses 
distinctly  strike  this  note,  "  Mend  your  ways  or  you  will 
miss  a  good  time  to-morrow."  This  is  the  pagan  note, 
the  heathenism  of  religion,  and  those  who  share  it  will 
not  find  much  satisfaction  in  "  The  Republic  of  God."  It 
is  a  book  for  persons  of  feeling  and  imagination,  for 
those  who  are  already  living  the  life  of  the  spirit,  who 
really  know  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within. 

There  is  not  much  in  Dr.  Mulford's  teachings  that 
runs  counter  to  the  rest  of  our  knowledge.  The  excep- 
tional light  in  which  he  views  the  person  and  character 
of  Jesus,  and  their  relation  to  mankind,  may  seem 
unscientific  and  not  in  keeping  with  the  rest  of  his 
views.  Also  his  conception  of  God  as  a  person,  but 
exempt  from  the  limitations  of  time  and  space,  omnipo- 
tent and  omniscient,  is  a  hard  saying  to  a  logical  mind. 
But  for  the  rest,  there  is  not  much  in  the  way. 

Has  not  our  science  taught  us  that  these  ways  are  the 
eternal  wavs,  that  the  heavens  are  no  more  yonder  than 
here,  that  this  earth  is  a  star  in  the  sky  with  the  rest; 
that  beauty,  and  truth,  and  goodness  are  not  exter- 
nalities, but  qualities  of  the  spirit,  that  the  things  that  are 
seen  are  temporal,  but  that  the  things  that  are  not  seen 
are  eternal  ? 


PERSONA. 

BY    PROF.  F.  MAX     MILLER. 

Part  II. 

But  while  in  these  cases  persona  is  used  in  the 
sense  of  the  mask  worn,  we  find  it  in  others  expressing 
the  real  character  represented  by  the  actor  on  the  stage. 
When  we  now  read  of  Dramatis  Personam,  we  no 
longer  think  of  masks,  but  of  the  real  characters  ap- 
pearing in  a  play.  After  all,  an  actor,  wearing  the 
mask  of  a  king,  was  for  the  time  being  a  king,  and 
thus  persona  came  to  mean  the  very  opposite  of 
mask,  namely  a  man's  real  nature  and  character.  Thus 
Cicero,   for   instance,   writes   to   Caesar   that    his   nature 


544 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


and  person,  or  what  would  now  be  called  his  character, 
might  fit  him  for  a  certain  work: — Et  ad  earn  rationem 
.  .  .  existimabam  satis  aptam  esse  et  nataram  ct  per- 
sonam  meant,  characterem  dicere  hodie  solemits. 
Nay,  what  is  still  more  curious,  persona  slowly 
assumes  the  meaning  of  a  great  personage,  or  of  a 
person  of  rank,  and,  in  the  end,  of  rank  itself,  as  when 
Cicero  (de  Fin.  I.  2)  says: — Genus  hoc  scribendi,  etsi 
sit  elegans,  persona  tamen  et  dignitatis  esse  negant, 
'Though  this  kind  of  writing  be  elegant,  they  deny  that 
it  is  weighty  and  dignified.' 

This  sense  of  persona  prevailed  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  continues,  as  we  shall  see,  to  the  present  day. 
A  man  magnae  persona  means  in  medireval  Latin 
a  man  of  great  dignity.  We  read  of  viri  nobiles  et  per- 
sonalis also  of  mercatores  personati,  always  in  the  sense 
of  eminent  and  respected.  In  ecclesiastical  language 
persona  soon  took  a  technical  meaning.  Personatus 
meant  not  only  dignitas  in  general,  but  it  was  used  of 
those  who  held  a  living  or  several  livings,  but  com- 
mitted the  actual  cure  of  souls  to  a  vicar.  Personae 
maxime  ii  qui  beneficia  sen  ecclcsiac  per  vicarios 
deserviri  curant ;  'Persons  are  chiefly  those  who  let 
their  benefices  and  churches  be  served  by  others.' 
These  so-called  personae  held  very  high  rank,  Habctit 
dignitatem  cum  prerogativa  in  chore  et  capitulo.  A 
Canonicus,  we  read  in  a  charter  (anno  1227,  torn.  2, 
Hist.  Eccl.  Mell.  p.  120),  uon  habebit  in  choro  nostros 
staulum  in  ordine  persouarum,  sed  habebit  prinium 
staulum  in  ordine  sacerdotum ;  'A  canon  shall  not  have 
in  our  choir  a  stall  in  the  row  of  the  personae,  but  shall 
have  the  first  stall  in  the  row  of  the  priests.'  No  doubt, 
this  led  to  many  abuses.  We  read  of  a  nepos,  a  word 
of  peculiar  meaning,  which  still  lives  in  our  own  word 
nepotism,  who  turpi  commercio  in  diversis  ecclcsiis 
adeptus  est  personatus,  'who  by  dishonourable  means 
has  obtained  personatus  in  different  churches.'  As  early 
as  1222,  in  a  council  held  at  Oxford,  the  question  had  to 
be  discussed,  utrum  vicarius  oncra  ecclesiac  subirc 
debeat  an  persona,  'whether  a  vicar  should  fulfil  the 
duties  of  the  church  or  a  persona!1  From  this  persona 
comes,  no  doubt,  the  modern  name  of  parson,  and  it  is 
strange  that  so  learned  a  man  as  Blackstone  should  not 
have  known  this.  For  though  he  knows  that  parson 
is  derived  from  persona,  he  thinks  that  he  was  called  so 
because  the  church,  which  is  an  invisible  body,  was 
represented  by  his  person. 

Blackstone,  as  a  lawer,  was  evidently  thinking  of 
another  technical  meaning  which  persona  had  assumed 
from  a  very  early  time.  Omnc  Jus,  we  read  in  Paul. 
Dig.  lib.  i,  lit.  5,  leg.  1,  quo  utimur  vel  ad  pcrsonas 
pcrtinet,  vel  ad  res,  vel  ad  actioncs.  Anybody  who 
had  rights  was  in  legal  language  a  person,  and  slaves 
were  said  to  have  no  person  by  law;  nam  servi per- 
sonam legibus  non  habent  (apud  Senat.  lib.  6,  Epist.  8), 


where  persona  may  be  really  translated  by  right. 
This  is  still  more  clearly  seen  in  such  phrases  as  habere 
potestatem  et  personam  emendi  et  vendendi,  to  possess 
the  power  and  right  of  buying  and  selling.  In  this 
sense,  no  doubt,  the  parson  may  be  said  to  be  the 
persona  of  his  church,  but  this  was  not,  as  we  saw,  the 
historical  origin  of  the  ecclesiastical  persona,  as  opposed 
to  vicarius. 

Lastly  persona  came  to  mean  what  we  call  a  person, 
an  individual.  We  read  in  mediaeval  writers  of  universi 
persotiae  qui  capti  sunt  utraque  parte,  all  the  persons 
who  were  taken  on  either  side;  and  what  is  curious, 
this  use  of  persona  as  a  masculine  continues  even  in 
modern  French,  where,  under  certain  circumstances,  we 
may  treat  pcrsonnc  as  a  masculine. 

But  even  here  the  biography  of  persona  is  by  no 
means  ended.  At  one  time  the  fate  of  Christianity 
seemed  to  depend  on  the  right  meaning  of  the  word 
vpnaurrnv  or  persona.  Without  entering  here  into  all 
the  intricacies  of  the  theological  controversy,  we  can 
easily  see  that  nothing  was  more  natural  to  a  Christian 
who  spoke  and  thought  in  Greek  than  to  apply  to  the 
three  manifestations  of  the  Godhead  the  name  of 
prosopa,  or  masks.  In  doing  this  the  earlier  writers 
were  quite  conscious  of  the  metaphorical  meaning  of  the 
word.  Thus,  in  the  third  century  Clement  (Pro- 
trepticus,  x.  110,  S6  P.)  speaks  of  Christ  as  assuming 
the  human  mask  (to  avQpiimv  -poeu-tlov  )  and  acting  the 
drama  of  human  salvation  (™  aoriipior  6pa/m  -y?  ai'dpimourrot: 
i-tHpirt-o).  A  very  similar  expression  is  found  in 
Clement's  Stromata,  vii.   n   (313,    S.),  where  we  read 

uftefKputr  Toirrr  VTroKpiv6fi£VO£  to  ftphpa  rov  fliov  nxf-p  av  6  fiebc 
ir/iMiaaaBat  -apnoxn:  'Blamelessly  acting  whatever  drama 
of  life  God  gave  him  to  act.'  It  would  have 
been  impossible  to  find  a  better  metaphor  for  what 
these  early  Christian  philosophers  wished  to  express, 
namely  that  the  substance  of  the  Godhead  was  one, 
but  that  it  had  manifested  itself  to  us  under  three 
aspects,  or,  as  it  were,  under  three  masks,  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  form  of  thought 
would  have  satisfied  the  simplest  peasant  and  the  most 
hair-spliting  philosopher,  so  long  as  they  were  content 
to  see  through  the  glass  of  metaphor  darkly.  But  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Churches  spoke  two  different 
languages,  and  the  Greek  word  prosopou  always 
differed  somewhat  from  the  Latin  word  persona,  by 
which  it  was  translated.  J^rosopon  retained  more  or 
less  the  meaning  of  the  mask,  persona  added  to  it  the 
meaning  of  the  wearer  ot  the  mask.  Persona  connoted 
what  stood  behind  the  mask,  the  hypostasis;  prosopon 
did  not  always. 

Hence  the  Greek  ecclesiastics  were  afraid  of  -zpoau- 
770/'  or  mask.  They  thought  it  might  seem  to  favor 
too  much  the  opinion  of  Sabellius,  who  maintained  that 
there  was  one  imooTaac,  substance,  in  the  Godhead,  and 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


545 


that  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost  were  but  three 
■jrp6aw-u,  or  bvdfia-a,  names,  or  hipysuu,  manifestations. 
But  tliev  were  equally  afraid  that  if  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost  were  represented  as  too  distinct  from  each 
other,  there  was  danger  of  Arianism,  and  that  instead 
of  three  irpdouTra  they  would  have  three  oveltu.  They 
therefore  took  refuge  in  saying  that  there  was  in  the 
Godhead  one  ovaia,  essence,  but  three  tmoariactc,  sub- 
stances. Unfortunately  the  distinction  between  oivia, 
essentia,  and  imoaraaig,  substantia,  was  not  one  sanct- 
ioned by  philosophers  at  large,  and  even  the  earlier 
Christian  writers  had  used  ovaia  and  vTrdar&ci;  as  synony- 
mous. Those  therefore  who  laid  the  greater  stress  on 
the  unity  of  the  Godhead  remonstrated  against  the 
admission  of  three  Inrdoraoeis  which,  in  spite  of  all  dec- 
larations to  the  contrary,  seemed  to  them  the  same  as 
maim.  It  was  all  very  well  to  say,  as  Basilius  did,  that 
i,voia,  essence,  differed  from  viroaraatg,  substance,  as  the 
general  from  the  singular,  as  for  instance  'animal' 
differs  from  '  this  man.'  This  did  not  satisfy  either  the 
philosophical  or  the  theological  conscience  of  honest 
thinkers,  more  particularly  of  those  who  had  accustomed 
themselves  to  the  use  of  the  word  persona  in  Latin. 

There  is  a  most  touching  letter  of  St.  Jerome's  to 
Pope  Damasus*.  He  had  been  a  follower  of  Origen, 
and  though  he  brought  himself  to  speak  of  tres  personae, 
his  conscience  revolted  against  the  new  formula,  tres 
hypostases,  which  to  his  mind  conveyed  the  meaning  of 
three  substances.  "Which  apostle,"  he  says,  "has  ever 
uttered  this?  What  new  Paul,  or  teacher  of  the 
Gentiles,  taught  it?  I  ask,  What  can  be  under- 
stood by  those  hypostases':  They  answer,  Three 
subsisting  persons.  We  answer  that  we  hold  that 
faith.  But  they  are  not  satisfied  with  what 
we  mean,  they  insist  on  our  using  the  very  word, 
because  some  kind  of  poison  is  supposed  to  be  hidden  in 
the  very  syllables.  We  cry  out  that  if  any  one  does 
not  confess  the  three  hypostases  as  three  enhypostata, 
that  is,  as  three  subsisting  personae,  let  him  be  anathema. 
But  because  we  do  not  learn  the  (new)  words,  we  are 
judged  heretical.  Surely,  if  any  one  who  takes  hypos- 
tasis for  ovaia  (substance)  says  that  there  is  not  one  ovaia 
in  the  three  personae,  he  is  a  stranger  to  Christ.  .  .  . 
Decide,  I  adjure  you,  if  you  like,  and  I  shall  not  be 
afraid  to  say  three  hypostases.  If  you  command  it,  let 
there  be  a  new  confession  after  that  of  Nicaea,  and  let 
us  orthodox  Christians  declare  our  faith  in  similar  words 
with  the  Arians!  The  whole  school  of  secular  knowl- 
edge recognises  hypostasis  as  nothing  else  but  ovaia 
And  will  any  one,  I  ask,  proclaim  with  his  sacrilegious 
mouth  three  substances?  There  is  one  only  nature  of 
God  which  exists  truly  ....  God  alone  who  is  eternal, 
that  is,  who  has  no  beginning,  has  really  the  name  of 
substance.  .  .  .  And  because  that  nature  alone  is  per- 
fect, and  there  subsists  but  one    Godhead    in    three  per- 


sons, which  exists  really  and  is  one  nature  only,  there- 
fore whosoever  says  that  there  are  three,  namely  three 
substances,  i.  e.  ovaiai,  dares  really,  under  the  cloak  of 
piety,  to  assert  that  there  are  three  natures.  .  .  .  Let  us, 
please,  hear  no  more  of  three  hypostases,  hut  let  us 
retain  the  one." 

In  spite  of  these  remonstrances,  however,  St.  Jerome 
had  to  yield.  He  had  to  use  the  new  word  viroaraait 
substantia,  instead  of  persona,  whether  he  could  connect 
a  new  meaning  with  it  or  not.  The  Christian  Fathers 
ought  to  have  been  most  grateful  for  finding  in  their 
language  such  a  word  and  such  a  metaphor  as  irp6mmov 
or  persona,  which  could  be  honestlv  applied  to  express 
what  they  meant  by  the  three  manifestations  of  the 
Godhead.  But  when  that  metaphor  was  dropt,  and 
people  were  asked  to  predicate  three  Inrooraaeig  or  sub- 
stances of  one  ovaia  or  essence,  they  could  hardly  help 
either  drifting  into  some  kind  of  Arianism,  or  using 
words  devoid  of  all  meaning,  f 

Even  here  the  biography  of  persona  is  not  yet  con- 
cluded. Still  greater  issues  sprang  from  that  word,  and 
they  continue  to  agitate  the  minds  of  the  most  serious 
thinkers  of  our  own  age.  Our  forefathers  delighted  in 
fathoming,  as  they  thought,  the  true  nature  of  the  God- 
head. There  was  no  divine  abyss  into  which  they 
hesitated  to  plunge,  no  mystery  into  which  they  thought 
they  could  not  throw  the  plummet  of  their  language. 
We  have  grown  somewhat  wiser,  perhaps  more  reverent. 
But  our  philosophers  have  thrown  themselves  with  all 
the  greater  zest  upon  a  new  problem,  namely  the  ex- 
ploration of  the  mystery  of  human  nature.  And  here 
also  the  only  diving  apparatus  which  was  at  hand  for 
their  hazardous  enterprise  was  language,  and  again  the 
old  word  persona  had  to  be  put  under  requisition.  We 
are  told  that  what  distinguishes  us  from  all  other  living 
beings  is  that  we  are  personal  beings.  We  are  per- 
sons, responsible  persons,  and  our  very  being,  our  life 
and  immortality,  are  represented  as  depending  on  our 
personality.  But  if  we  ask  what  this  personality  means, 
and  why  we  are  called  personae,  the  answers  are  very 
ambiguous.  Does  our  personality  consist  in  our  being 
English  or  German,  in  our  being  young  or  old,  male  or 
female,  wise  or  foolish?  And  if  not,  what  remains 
when  all  these  distinctions  vanish?  Is  there  a  higher 
Ego  of  which  our  human  ego  is  but  the  shadow  ?  From 
most  philosophers  we  get  but  uncertain  and  evasive 
answers  to  these  questions,  and  perhaps  even  here,  in 
the  darkest  passages  of  psychological  and  metaphysical 
inquiry,  a  true  knowledge  of  language  may  prove  our 
best  guide. 

Let  us  remember  that  persona  had  two  meanings, 
that  it  meant   originally   a  mask,  but  that  it  soon    came 

♦Vallarsi's  edition  of  St.  Jerome,  in  Mipne's  '  Patrologia  Latina,'  vol.  xxii., 
Epist.  xv.  23. 

fSee  Hagenbach,  '  Lehrbueh  Uer  Dogmengeschi  hte  '  (Leipzig,  1S67),  pp. 
1S7-221. 


546 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


to  be  used  as  the  name  of  the  wearer  of  the  mask. 
Knowing  how  many  ambiguities  of  thought  arose 
from  this,  we  have  a  right  to  ask:  Does  our  personality 
consist  in  the  persona  we  are  wearing,  in  our  body,  our 
senses,  our  language  and  our  reason,  our  thoughts,  or 
does  our  true  personality  lie  somewhere  else  ?  It  may 
be  that  at  times  we  so  forget  ourselves,  our  true  Self,  as 
to  imagine  that  we  are  Romeo  and  Juliet,  King  Lear, 
or  Prince  Hamlet.  Nor  can  we  doubt  that  we  are 
responsible  each  for  his  own  dramatis  persona,  that  we 
are  hissed  or  applauded,  punished  or  rewarded,  accord- 
ing as  we  act  the  part  allotted  to  us  in  this  earthly 
drama,  badly  or  well.  But  the  time  comes  when  we 
awake,  when  we  feel  that  not  only  our  flesh  and  our 
blood,  but  all  that  we  have  been  able  to  feel,  to  think 
and  to  say,  was  outside  our  true  self;  that  we  were 
witnesses,  not  actors;  and  that  before  we  can  go  home, 
we  must  take  off  our  masks,  standing  like  strangers  on  a 
strange  stage,  and  wondering  how  for  so  long  a  time 
we  did  not  perceive  even  within  ourselves  the  simple 
distinction  between  persona  and  persona,  between  the 
mask  and  the  wearer. 

There  is  a  Sankrit  verse  which  an  Indian  friend  of 
mine,  a  famous  Minister  of  State,  sent  me  when  retiring 
from  the  world  to  spend  his  last  years  in  contemplation 
of  the  highest  problems: 

No     deho     nendrivfi/n     ksharam     atiiapala///     no    mano     naiva 

btiddhi/;, 
Piano    naivaham   asmity   akhila^arfam   idaw   vastiu^ata/«  kathaw 

syam : 
Naha/w    kdme    na   daran    gr/hasutastyanakshetravittadi   duram, 
S.lkshi  /i'itpratygfitmfi  nikhilanagadadhish///3nabhuta//  sivoham. 

'  I  am  not  this  body,  not  the  senses,  nor  this  perishable,  fickle 
mind,  not  even  the  understanding;  I  am  not  indeed  this  breath; 
how  should  I  be  this  entirely  dull  matter?  I  do  not  desire,  no, 
not  a  wife,  far  less  houses,  sons,  friends,  land  and  wealth.  I  am 
the  witness  only,  the  perceiving  inner  self,  the  support  of  the 
whole  world,  and  blessed.' 


CHATS  WITH  A  CHIMPANZEE. 

BY'    MONCURE    D.  CONWAY. 
Part    I'll  I,  and  last. 

Late  in  the  soft  night  I  sat  at  my  window  in  Benares 
looking  up  to  the  constellations,  and  on  the  domes  and 
towers  with  which  earth  answered  the  constellations. 
Benares  never  sleeps;  equally,  it  never  awakens;  the 
pilgrims  round  their  camp-fires  come  nearer  to  reality  in 
their  night  dreams  than  their  day — mares,  shall  I  say? 
But  through  the  night  the  Holy  City  is  restless,  the 
phantasmal  figures  moving  in  the  distance  seemed  like 
children  left  out  of  doors,  lost,  unable  to  find  repose; 
and  the  warm  wind  in  the  holy-figs  was  as  the  sigh  of 
the  earth,  saying:  "  My  poor  children,  I  love  you,  my 
heart  bleeds  for  you,  but,  prisoned  in  my  zenana  of 
ignorance,  I  cannot  help  you,  and  must  leave  you  to 
petition  some  more  fortunate  world  to  adopt  you."     The 


splendor  of  a  great  moonrise  shone  on  the  Ganges,  cov- 
ering that  slumberous  stream  with  golden  glamour.  As 
I  gazed  on  the  moonrise,  through  vista  of  a  forked  tree 
near  my  window,  a  shadowy  head  slowly  rose  against 
the  brightness;  even  as  I  was  rubbing  my  eyes  to  look 
again  a  voice  said — Come!  It  was  low,  but  I  knew  itr 
and  softly  made  my  way  out  to  meet  my  Chimpanzee. 
He  had  descended  from  the  tree,  and  now  whispered 
words  that  troubled  me.  Our  more  recent  interviews 
must  have  been  partly  overheard  by  the  priests;  these 
could  not,  of  course,  comprehend  our  talk,  but  the  bare 
idea  of  an  intelligent  god  filled  them  with  alarm.  "  The 
step  from  deity  to  demon  is  easily  taken,"  said  my  friend, 
"  and  I  have  probably  taken  it  in  ceasing  to  be  dumb. 
After  you  left  me  I  saw  a  priest  slip  out  from  behind  a 
wall  near  us,  his  face  ghastly  with  alarm.  For  the  rest 
of  the  day  I  was  watched.  It  became  certain  to  me  that 
you  would  be  forbidden  entrance  again,  but  I  was 
anxious  to  communicate  with  you, — it  is  pretty  surely 
for  the  last  time, — so  I  climbed  out  and  came  to  vour 
window.     Hist  !" 

"  I  heard  nothing." 

"  I  am  fearsome.     Let  us  go  to  the  Deer  Forest." 

We  were  in  that  suburb  to  which  English  residence* 
bring  quietude  at  night.  Passing  through  some  silent 
streets,  not  yet  flared  on  by  the  rising  moon,  we  noise- 
lessly sped  out  of  the  city  and  reached  the  lonely  road 
leading  to  the  ancient  pile  which  consecrates  the  Deer 
Forest,  where  Buddha  opened  his  mission, —  spot  sacred 
to  the  Buddhist,  as  to  the  Christian  that  Mount  where 
"the  Sermon"  was  delivered.  Near  the  mysterious 
old  tower  was  a  tent  put  up  by  an  English  architect  en- 
gaged in  repairing  the  ruin;  I  had  taken  to  that  archi- 
tect a  note  of  introduction  some  days  before,  and,  when 
we  now  reached  the  place,  proposed  that  we  should 
enter  the  tent  for  conversation,  for  I  saw  that  my  friend 
suspected  that  we  were  followed.  "Let  us  enter,  if  you 
feel  free  to  do  so,"  he  said,  "  for  no  Hindu  will  venture 
into  an  English  precinct."  We  were  soon  comfortably 
seated  in  the  tent  which  bore  witness  to  Europe's  homage 
to  the  "  Light  of  Asia"  (it  is  only  Buddhist  temples 
which  England  repairs  and  cherishes),  and  my  friend 
spread  before  him  some  inscribed  palm-leaves. 

"I  promised  to  repeat  to  you  a  discourse  by  Buddha," 
he  said,  "  and  it  is  to  fulfill  the  promise  that  I  have  dis- 
regarded the  danger  surrounding  me." 

"  I  am  sorry  you  have  done  so,  eager  as  I  am  to 
learn  the  discourse.  Nothing  could  grieve  me  more 
than  that  any  harm  should  befall  you,  and  I  am  very- 
grateful — " 

"  Nay,  do  not  thank  me  too  much;  for  I  have  con- 
sidered also  the  race  to  which  you  belong;  I  have 
weighed  the  probable  danger  to  myself  against  the 
probable  benefit  to  many,  which  your  knowledge  of  this 
discourse  may   convey.     But  no  time   must   be  lost  in 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


547 


what  is  pretty  surely  our  last  interview.     Do  you  know 
anything  of  Ambapali  ?" 

"The  courtezan  who  sat  at  Buddha's  feet  ?" 

"  The  same.     Tell  me  what   you    have   read   of  her 
so  that  I  need  not  repeat  it." 

"  The  ancient  tale  in  the  Suttas  impressed  me  years 
ago  by  its  correspondence  with  one  in  the  legend  of 
Jesus,  at  whose  feet  a  courtezan,  called  the  Magdalen, 
sat.  My  remembrance  is  that  Buddha,  now  a  Lord 
honored  bv  the  great,  when  travelling  with  friends 
toward  Benares,  came  to  a  mango-grove,  at  centre  of 
which  was  a  beautiful  mansion,  whose  occupants  were 
absent.  The  owner  of  the  abode  and  the  mango-grove, 
was  a  courtezan  known  as  Ambapali,  '  the  mango 
girl.'  She,  hearing  that  the  Lord  was  discoursing  in 
her  grove,  journeyed  in  her  chariot  to  the  place,  and 
listened  to  his  teachings.  When  Buddha  was  silent  she 
approached,  and,  her  name  and  vocation  being  known, 
asked  him  if  he  with  his  disciples  would  eat  food  in  her 
house  the  next  day.  When  it  was  known  in  that  region, 
Vesali,  that  the  Lord  had  accepted  the  courtezan's  invi- 
tation, the  Princes  of  that  country  came  to  her  and  said, 
'  Yield  to  us  the  honor  of  giving  this  feast  to  the  Lord 
for  a  hundred  thousand  pieces  of  gold.'  Ambapali  re- 
plied, '  Should  you  offer  the  whole  land  of  Vesali,  I 
would  not  give  up  the  honor  of  presenting  this  feast  to 
my  Lord.'  '  The  mango-girl  has  outdone  us,'  said  the 
Princes.  On  the  following  day,  after  Buddha  with  his 
disciples  had  eaten  the  feast  she  had  prepared,  sweet  rice 
and  cakes,  Ambapali  entered  and  taking  a  low  stool  sat 
at  the  teacher's  side,  and  listened  to  his  discourse.  But  a 
few  sentences  of  the  discourse  are  given  in  the  Sutta,  but 
I  remember  that  in  them  was  no  reproof  of  the  mango- 
girl,  nor  even  a  distant  allusion  to  her  mode  of  life.  It 
is  recorded,  however,  that  Ambapali  presented  her 
beautiful  abode  and  the  mango-grove  to  the  teacher  as 
a  home  for  his  brotherhood.". 

"  Fairly  remembered,"  said  my  friend.  "  But  Buddha 
did  not  travel  to  the  mango-grove  with  disciples;  he 
came  alone.'  Ambapali  was  descended  from  the  per- 
fect race  of  which  1  have  spoken;  in  her  survived  their 
beauty  and  genius.  This  lady,  while  the  favorite  of 
princes,  used  the  wealth  so  obtained  in  collecting  in  her 
neighborhood  the  scattered  remnants  of  the  grand  race, 
in  whom  some  strain  of  their  original  dignity  survived, 
hoping  to  form  again  the  social  germ  for  the  re-evolution 
of  that  race.  Her  abode,  which,  in  the  outside  world, 
bore  evil  fame,  was,  in  reality,  consecrated  by  councils 
devoted  to  the  development  of  a  higher  race.  It  was 
these,  ancestors  of  us  now  worshiped  in  the  Monkey 
Temple,  that  Buddha  found  in  the  mango-grove,  where 
he  had  paused  for  rest  on  his  weary  foot-journey  through 
Vesali  to  Benares.  Some  others  were  present  at  the 
discourse  you  have  read  in  the  Sutta;  but  when  these 
were  gone  Ambapali  secured  a  more  intimate  interview 


for  her  noble  co-descendents,  and  it  is  this,  not  to  be 
found  elsewhere,  which  I  now  entrust  to  you,  as  record- 
ed by  my  ancestor  there  present." 

BUDDHA,  AMBAPALI,  AND   THE   SORROWFUL  ONES. 

Avibapali.  Lord!  thou  art  brave  and  gracious  to 
enter  the  abode  and  cat  the  rice  and  salt  of  a  courtezan. 

Buddha.  Lady,  I  am  not  thy  judge.  From  those 
who  come  to  me  I  turn  not  away.  I  do  not  condemn 
thee.  If  any  one  move  in  a  way  of  error, — I  say  not 
thine  is  such — the  penalty  is  always  tenfold  their  desert, 
and  I  would  take  from  rather  than  add  to  it. 

Ambapdli.  I  do  not  justify,  neither  do  I  condemn 
myself.  I  love  man,  though  unwilling  to  be  thrall  ox 
any  :  the  sacramental  licentiousness  spawning  pauperism, 
the  priestly  cant  consecrating  such  abominations  as  the 
forced  marriage  of  little  children,  the  zenana  whose 
wretchedness  makes  the  suttee-flame  cooling  to  woman's 
heart — these  have  determined  my  life.  Let  this  my 
abode  be  judged  beside  its  alternative,  the  zenana,  the 
wives'  prison.  Let  its  owner  be  called  libertine,  but  a 
principled  libertine.  And  yet,  Lord,  this  is  not  the 
happiness  I  dream. 

Buddha.  Dream  your  dream,  Ambapali,  till  it 
turn  the  obtrusive  world  to  a  phantasmagoria,  and  itself 
become  the  reality.  Could  we  by  any  art  turn  the 
angry  flood  of  life  to  the  white  foam  of  a  happy  dream, 
then  crystallize  that  shining  essence  in  ideal  shapes,  even 
if  they  swiftly  melt  away  they  leave  us  a  permanent 
pedestal  above  the  dark  tides  of  necessity.  All  men  are 
seeking  to  realize  their  happier  dreams,  but  in  ways  that 
end  in  realizing  their  nightmares.  The  diamond  eyes 
of  the  child  lose  their  pure  ray  in  the  competition  for 
wealth.  The  tender  breast  loses  its  peace,  the  health}' 
cheek  its  beauty,  in  struggling  for  the  covering  of  neck- 
lace and  cloth  of  gold.  The  tine  unconscious  art  of  a 
million  ages  has  surrounded  us  with  human  forms,  which 
through  our  individual  art  may  become  the  transparen- 
cies of  things  fairer  than  themselves — things  which 
remain  when  the  forms  pass  away.  Men  seek  victory, 
caring  not  that  to  others  their  victory  is  defeat.  They 
seek  gold,  forgetting  that  their  neighbor's  lot  must  sink 
as  their  own  rises.  But  the  failure  of  one  rises  round 
the  success  of  another,  and  so  the  dream  is  found,  when 
realized,  to  be  a  horror. 

Ambapali.  How  then,  my  Lord,  can  we  realize 
our  dream? 

Buddha.  We  cannot  realize  it  in  what  is  commonly 
called  realization:  we  cannot  buy  and  sell  our  visions, 
and  turn  them  into  palaces  or  things  sought  by  ambi- 
tion and  selfishness.  But  if,  knowing  that  this  hungry 
menagerie  of  powers  in  us  rend  and  destroy  the  very 
beauty  which  fascinates  them,  we  bring  to  the  pursuit 
our  finer  genius,  our  distinctive  humanity,  we  gain  the 
soul  of  that  beauty.  The  child  nurses  a  tin}'  painted 
puppet  till  it  feels  the  maternal  thrill.  A  living  babe 
could  do  nothing  sweeter,  while  its  reality  is  tragical. 
The  little  mother  never  suffers  the  pain  of  parting  with 
her  wooden  babe.  Ah,  we  must  become  children,  Amba- 
pali !  We  must  dwell  in  an  enchanted  land,  and  bring 
to  its  every  flower  the  flower  of  the  mind;  such  flowers 
neither  pluck  nor  bruise,  but  fructify  each  other;  the 
wayfarer  in  a  desert  moves  amid  bloom  and  fruitage  ot 
paradise  if  his  senses  have  been  beguiled  from  the  world 
of  objects  to  the  artistic  creation  within. 

Ambapdli.     Is  this  your  full  dream,  my  Lord  ? 


543 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Buddha.  Nay,  I  will  speak  a  new  thought  rising 
like  a  star  before  me.  All  that  I  have  said  but  describes 
a  certain  refuge  I  have  found  from  the  torment  of  seeing 
a  world  tossed  amid  elements  and  forces  blind  and  irre- 
sistable.  Instead  of  going  farther  and  farther  into  those 
crushing  coils  whose  action  is  unconscious,  I  entreat  men 
to  extricate  themselves,  so  far  as  is  possible,  by  not  re- 
producing themselves,  or  multiplying  their  ties  to  things 
so  swiftly  passing ;  but  to  love  the  permanent  ideal — 
man,  not  men;  woman,  not  women;  the  divine,  not 
gods, — to  conceive  and  even  enjoy  these  by  sensations 
not  confused  with  their  particular  or  individual  causes. 
The  enlightened  lover  would  love  the  perfect  man,  the 
perfect  woman,  of  whom  any  individual  may  be  a  sym- 
bol—  in  his  unbroken  dream.  The  joy  is  in  loving. 
The  living  symbol  does  not  decay  or  die  with  any  indi- 
vidual. The  passion  for  persons,  whether  husband, 
wife,  or  child,  which  makes  beings  unjust,  selfish,  jeal- 
ous,— this  annualized  passion  must  pass  away  by  human- 
ization,  before  the  race  can  be  happy.  But  what 
is  this  I  say  ?  It  is  but  the  thought  of  a  thought.  My 
light  goes  no  farther.  What  form  in  society,  in  govern- 
ment, this  my  principle  would  assume  I  know  not,  more 
than  I  know  what  will  be  the  blossom  and  fruit  of  a 
seed  that  never  yet  broke  shell.  I  now  depart,  Amba- 
pali,  and  pass  on,  sowing  among  others  this  seed  which 
has  borne  an  inner  flower  and  healing  fruit  for  me,  in 
the  belief  that  here  or  there  some  company  will  pres- 
ently nurture  and  mature  it  to  larger  result.  I  have 
done. 

Ambapdli.  My  Lord,  it  shall  be  here,  so  far  as 
your  servant  can  effect  that.  This  mansion,  this  mango- 
orove,  and  all  my  wealth  I  here  present  to  as  many  of 
these  my  brothers  and  sisters  as  are  prepared  to  study 
your  teachings  and  follow  them  in  practice. 

"  So  ended  the  conversation  of  Buddha  and  the 
courtezan,  thenceforth  a  fair  mother  of  spirits  in  the 
Mano-o  Grove,  taming  all  passions,  till  lambs  feared  not 
lions.  Then  and  there  was  formed  the  fraternity  out  of 
which  were  developed  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  our 
Monkey  Temple.  When  the  Brahmans  demanded  of 
those,  our  progenitors,  service  in  their  temples  and 
affairs,  some  refused  and  were  slain,  but  the  wiser, 
remaining  silent,  were  accounted  dumb;  there  was  a 
survival  of  the  silent,  and  articulate  speech  was  lost. 
There  was  also  a  survival  of  those  whose  hair  grew 
thickest,  as  we  must  not  compete  for  clothing.  As  our 
food  must  be  obtained  without  painful  wandering  into 
the  world,  or  mixing  in  the  frauds  of  trade,  there  was 
an  evolution  of  climbers  who  could  bring  food  from 
trees.  As  the  males  did  not  fight  for  brides,  the  big- 
gest were  not  superior  and  larger  size  was  not  a 
masculine  inheritance.  Our  time  is  short;  my  sentences 
sum  centuries.  For  some  generations  the  sexes  had 
their  separate  groves  by  day.  When  beauty,  veiled  by 
darkness,  had  so  ceased  to  be  of  utility,  it  ceased  to  be 
selected;  with  it  passed  away  the  intensifications  of 
individual  passion;  jealousy,  subjugation  of  one  sex  to 
another,  egotism,  passed  away.  Our  race  became  ugly 
and  good-natured.  But  the  ugliness  was  only  a  veil 
over  a  beauty  inly  seen.     To  each   lover    the   invisible- 


visible  mate  combined  all  perfections;  insomuch  that 
beside  the  vision  the  fairest  of  the  world's  beauties  had 
been  hideous.  The  faults  and  failures  and  meannesses 
which  once  disenchanted  the  bride  and  bridegroom,  could 
not  mar  these  symbolized  idols.  No  one  lost  his  bride 
while  any  woman  lived;  none  his  child  while  any  child 
lived.  Gradually  consciousness  grew  faint,  for  it  is 
largely  dependent  on  the  egotism  which  merges  the 
world  into  one's  self-interest.  Our  fathers  have  trans- 
mitted that  their  last  consciousness  was  of  sinking  to 
slumber,  as  if  in  some  secret  grotto,  where  their  fancies 
became  fairies,  attending  their  wants,  surrounding  them 
with  all  loveliness,  and  promising  them  that  in  some  far 
off  time  they  should  awaken  into  the  upper  world  and 
find  it  peopled  and  adorned  as  in  their  visions.  But  this 
loss  of  consciousness  did  not  bless  all;  a  small  but  ever 
decreasing  number  preserved  memory,  and  handed 
down  the  tradition  of  these  steps,  whereby  the  perfect 
race  retreated  into  anthropoid  form  to  escape  conscious- 
ness of  inner  degradation.  Finally,  but  one — myself — 
was  left  to  be  heir  of  this  history,  and  of  these  scriptures. 
Despite  my  efforts  I  have  not  yet  seen  my  anthropoid 
form  as  a  retreat  of  perennial  sleepers,  and  the  priests  as 
fairies,  therefore  I  am  not  as  happy  as  the  others,  but  I 
shall  take  care  to  have  no  heir.  Therefore  I  entrust 
these  palm-leaves,  these  scriptures,  this  tradition  to  you; 
and  I  do  so  because  rumors  from  your  far  world  have 
raised  the  hope  that — hist!" 

We  heard,  indeed,  furtive  footsteps  near  the  tent. 
The  Chimpanzee  started  away,  and,  casting  on  me  a 
kindly  glance — pathetic  in  my  memory — softly  crept 
out  beneath  a  remote  part  of  the  tent's  canvas.  I  listen- 
ed, and  presently  heard  hurrying  footsteps, — then  some- 
thing like  a  gentle  moan.  Leaving  the  tent  quickly  I 
walked  around  the  ancient  Buddhist  tower  but  saw 
nothing.  The  great  golden  moon  illumined  the  Deer 
Forest,  but  revealed  no  for,m.  As  I  gazed  on  the  full 
orb  there  appeared  plainly  the  hare  into  which  the 
Blessed  One  is  said  to  have  changed  himself  that  he 
might  be  eaten  by  a  starving  pilgrim;  but  presently  the 
lunar  face  and  figure  seemed  to  change  to  my  beloved 
Chimpanzee,  and  I  shuddered  at  the  thought  that  harm 
might  befall  him  through  his  service  to  me.  I  hurried 
on  to  the  Monkey  Temple.  It  was  two  hours  past 
midnight,  but  there  were  torches  blazing  through  open- 
work  of  the  walls  which  made  me  quicken  speed. 

I  was  too  late.  I  drew  near  cautiously  and  beheld 
my  dear  Sage  prostrate,  surrounded  by  six  Brahmans  of 
highest  order;  one  of  these  was  just  withdrawing  from 
the  victim's  lips  a  golden  bowl.  The  men  had  terror  in 
their  faces  as  they  looked  on  the  form  before  them. 
They  did  not  see  me,  but  the  Chimpanzee  did,  and  with 
a  gesture  warned  me  not  to  approach.  "  There  is  danger 
near  you,"  he  said,  "do  not  venture.  Not  one  here 
but  you  can  understand  a  word  of  the  language  in  which 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


549 


I  am  speaking;  but  they  know  it  is  language;  the 
miracle  has  changed  me  from  god  to  devil.  In  their 
terror,  lest  I  work  evil  among  my  fellows,  they  have 
given  me  poison.  You  cannot  help  me;  therefore  softly 
conceal  yourself,  listening  to  my  last  words,  directed  to 
these  amazed  priests,  but  meant  for  you.  I  see  that  you 
grieve,  but  let  it  not  be  so.  It  is  well  enough  that  I 
now  die,  for  this  surviving  consciousness  isolates  me 
from  my  race,  and  the  human  superstition  afflicts  me,  so 
that  I  cannot  enjoy  my  godhood.  I  have  wished  to 
bequeath  to  mankind  the  history  you  have  heard,  and 
now  pass  cheerfully  into  the  Nirvana  of  non-existence. 
Yet  with  what  voice  is  left  me  I  will  indicate  what  I 
was  about  to  say,  as  my  last  word,  in  the  tent.  Although 
I  feel  that  a  fictitious  and  chaotic  moral  universe  into 
which  the  perfect  race  was  dragged  by  superstition  and 
oppression  made  their  reversion  in  outer  form  an  inward 
advance,  this  is  not  the  ideal  way.  There  are  rumors 
that,  in  some  far  new  world,  men  are  transforming  these 
phantasms  called  gods  into  human  providences,  their 
ceremonies  into  services  to  man,  and  by  Art,  the  true 
Savior,  gradually  humanizing  the  hard  inorganic  earth 
itself.  If  the  tidings  be  true,  that  were  to  bring  back  to 
the  East,  in  beneficent  incarnation,  the  innumerable 
divinities  exiled  hence  for  their  excellence,  restoring 
them  in  perfected  form  to  supersede  and  clear  away 
these  elemental  phantoms  to  whom  priestcraft  gives  a 
ghoul-like  actuality.  For  always  the  Stone-age  gods 
hold  the  land  in  mortgage,  and  can  banish  any  young 
deity  who  shows  a  variation  from  the  stony  standard. 
All  the  westward  migrations  have  been  of  pilgrims 
bearing  some  fairer,  tenderer  god  or  godddess  to  an 
unmortgaged  land,  where  they  might  worship  such.  By 
such  devotion  deities  may  be  gradually  conceived  and 
born  of  humanity;  and  shall  we  not  hope,  that  they  can 
redeem  their  ancestral  lands  from  Stone-age  phantasms? 
Of  such  tendencies  in  the  West  we  have  heard.  Should 
you  repair  to  that  far  land,  say  unto  those  liberators  of 
humanity  that,  when  they  shall  themselves  be  perfectly 
free,  they  will  make  real  in  the  earth  that  beauty  and 
joy  which  Buddha  and  Zoroaster,  and  other  orient  seers, 
could  know  onlv  in  dreams  and  visions.  For  the  present 
there  do,  indeed,  appear  here  from  your  far  region 
ignorant  and  foolish  preachers,  but  perhaps  it  is  because 
they  can  find  no  hearers  at  home ;  relieved  of  such  stupid 
elements,  your  country  can  better  develop  freedom  and 
knowledge.  When  they  have  fully  learned  that  this 
earth  is  man's  and  the  fullness  thereof,  that  instead  of 
gods  creating  the  world,  the  world  must  create  gods, — 
then  there  will  be  gods,  and  they  will  surround  the 
planet  with  a  tender  providence.  Their  awakening 
power  will  pass  round  the  earth;  in  supernatural  splen- 
dor, in  this  temple,  in  these  anthropoid  forms,  in  human 
forms  whose  reversion  is  mental  and  moral,  shall  the 
sleeping  Beauty  of  Humanity  be  found,  thorn-hedged, 


and   at   the  kiss  of  incarnate   Light  come   forth   to  find 
earth  her  palace  and  her  home. 

MONOPOLY  ON   STRIKE. 

BY    WHEELBARROW. 

I  see  by  the  papers  that  the  retail  coal  dealers  have 
struck.  These  down-trodden  and  afflicted  fellow-citi- 
zens demand  a  raise  of  fifty  cents  a  ton  on  coal, 
from  the  first  day  of  November,  1SS7,  and,  what  is  more 
to  the  purpose,  they  are  going  to  have  it.  With  pious 
gratitude  they  see  the  merciful  Indian  Summer  fade 
away,  and  they  hail  with  hymns  of  gladness  the  snow 
clouds  coming  in  the  North.  A  week  ago  they  met  at 
the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel,  and  sang  the  doxology  of  the 
coal  monopoly,  "  O,  ye  frost  and  cold,  O,  ye  ice  and 
snow,  Bless  ye  the  Lord :  praise  him  and  magnify  him 
far  ever."  Praise  -him  and  magnify  him,  an  extra  fifty 
cents  a  ton. 

It  was  further  resolved  at  said  meeting  that  any  re- 
tail coal  dealer,  wicked  and  depraved  enough  to  sell  coal 
at  a  fair  profit  after  November  1st,  should  be  boycotted 
by  the  association,  and  his  business  destroyed.  A  com- 
munication was  read  from  the  agents  of  the  coal  mon- 
opoly, and  wholesale  dealers,  to  the  effect  that  they 
would  do  the  boycotting;  that  they  would  not  sell  coal 
to  any  abandoned  profligate  retailer  who  should  refuse 
to  join  the  strikers,  or  who  should  decline  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  icebergs  created  by  an  all-wise  Providence 
for  the  benefit  of  coal  merchants.  I  am  writing  this  a 
few  days  before  the  first  of  November,  but  I  write  in 
the  confident  assurance  that  the  strike  will  be  successful, 
and  that  from  that  day  foward  I  must  pay  an  extra  fifty 
cents  a  ton  for  coal.  The  strikes  of  capital  and  mon- 
opoly never  fail;  the  strikes  of  labor  seldom  succeed. 

It  is  not  at  all  certain  that  this  will  be  the  last  strike 
of  the  coal  dealers  this  winter.  It  is  highly  probable, 
indeed,  that  they  will  strike  for  another  fifty  cents  a  ton 
by  the  1st  of  December.  It  depends  on  the  weather. 
All  through  November  they  will  watch  with  greedy 
eyes  the  beaver  and  the  squirrel.  If  the  beaver  builds 
his  house  with  extra  care,  and  makes  a  thicker  wall  than 
usual,  or  if  the  chipmunk  lavs  in  an  extra  store  of  nuts, 
the  coal  men  will  decide  that  the  winter  will  be  "hard,''' 
and  they  will  sanctify  the  augury  by  another  tax  on  coal. 
Fifty  cents  a  ton  on  coal  isn't  much  when  you  look  at  it 
as  a  mere  question  of  arithmetic,  a  sum  in  simple  addi- 
tion; but  when  you  measure  it  by  a  poor  man's  wages, 
and  realize  that  it  means  a  half  a  day's  work  for  him,  it 
rises  to  the  dignity  of  algebra,  and  if  you  reflect  that  it 
includes  the  warning  of  a  corresponding  extortion  upon 
all  other  necessaries,  it  becomes  a  headaching,  heartach- 
ing  problem  of  economical  trigonometry  that  baffles 
Benjamin  Franklin. 

It  makes  the  pews  laugh  at  the  pulpit,  and  the  pul- 
pit laugh  at  the  pews  as  the  coal  dealer's  prayers  go  up 
to  heaven,  asking  for  an  early  winter  and  a  late  spring. 


55° 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


For  instance,  I  see  by  last  Sunday's  paper  that  the  lum- 
ber dealers  had  a  meeting  the  day  before,  and  resolved  to 
strike  for  an  extra  $2  per  thousand  feet.  Their  strike 
will  be  successful,  too,  because  they  have  the  capital  to 
make  it  win.  As  I  have  no  money  either  to  build  houses 
or  to  buy  them,  it  looks  as  if  the  strike  of  the  lumber 
dealers  is  nothing  to  me.  My  neighbor's  affairs  can 
regulate  themselves;  it  is  enough  for  me  to  mind  my  own 
business.  I  used  to  practice  that  philosophy,  but  I  think 
it  cramps  the  liberal  soul,  and  shuts  the  generous  hand. 
I  have  joined  the  other  church,  and  I  now  believe  that 
my  neighbor's  affairs  are  also  mine,  and  that  I  have  an 
interest  in  everything  that  happens  in  this  world. 

I  have  an  interest  in  the  strike  of  the  lumber  dealers, 
because  I  know  it  will  be  followed  by  a  strike  of  the 
nail  dealers,  and  the  brick  dealers,  and  the  glass  dealers, 
and  the  dealers  in  putty.  Dear  material  means  less 
building,  and  that  means  less  demand  for  workmen,  and 
less  wages  for  the  mechanic  and  the  laborer.  This 
strike  attacks  me  front  and  rear,  because  although  I  may 
not  feel  the  added  price  of  lumber  so  directly  as  I  feel 
the  extra  price  of  coal,  vet  it  hits  me  indirectly  in  the 
rent  I  pay  for  the  house  that  gives  me  shelter  from  the 
storm.  I  cannot  escape  it  any  easier  than  I  can  escape 
the  changes  of  temperature  that  follow  the  procession 
of  the  sun. 

It  does  not  equalize  conditions  to  tell  me  that  I  have 
the  privilege  to  strike  for  higher  wages.  When  the 
wild  geese  are  flying  south  what  chance  have  I  to  striker 
"  The  stars  in  their  courses  fight  against  Sisera."  The 
weather  itself  forbids  me  to  strike,  and  I  shall  be  thank- 
ful if  my  employer  does  not  strike  against  me.  What 
good  is  my  old  shovel  to  attack  monopoly  intrenched  in 
the  Capitol?  Early  in  the  war,  I  was  part  of  a  small 
force  guarding  a  railroad  bridge  in  Missouri.  Sudden- 
ly we  were  attacked  by  a  superior  force  of  the  enemy, 
who  opened  fire  upon  us  with  a  four  gun  battery.  We 
had  no  artillery,  so  our  Colonel  telegraphed  to  the 
general  for  instructions,  stating  that  the  enemy's  battery 
was  dropping  shot  and  shell  among  his  men,  and  that 
he  had  nothing  with  which  to  reply.  Instantly  the 
answer  came  back,  "  Take  the  battery."  This  was 
excellent  advice  providing  the  battery  would  consent  to 
be  captured.  So,  when  Capitol  strikes  for  higher 
prices,  the  advice  to  Labor  to  make  a  counter  strike  for 
higher  wages,  is  merely  an  order  to  "  take  the  battery." 
The  odds  against  us  are  too  great,  and  the  battery  refuses 
to  be  taken. 

The  other  day  I  read,  with  much  pleasure,  that  the 
output  of  coal  for  this  year  was  greater  than  last  year 
by  about  three  million  tons.  Left  to  the  natural  laws  of 
trade  and  production  this  would  give  us  cheaper  coal 
this  winter,  and  that  was  the  reason  I  rejoiced.  The 
coal  dealers,  in  order  to  protect  themselves  against  the 
calamity  of  this  abundant  output,  conspire  to  withold   it 


from  the  poor  poor,  and  taking  the  coal  owners  into  the 
plot,  they  actually  increased  the  price  of  coal  when  they 
ought  to  lower  it,  and  lay  an  extra  tax  of  eight  percent, 
on  every  bushel  of  coal  that  the  workingman  must  buy. 

The  rich  man  has  already  discounted  the  extortion. 
He  has  laid  in  his  winter's  supply  at  the  summer  prices, 
but  the  poor  man  is  not  able  to  do  that;  he  must  buy 
his  coal  from  week  to  week  as  he  buys  his  bread. 

As  for  me,  it  is  only  by  force  of  the  co-operative 
principle  that  I  am  able  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of  coal  at 
all.  My  sons  and  I  throw  our  wages  all  in  together, 
and  one  fire  warms  us  all.  Otherwise  I  must  give  up 
either  coal  or  bread.  I  shudder  as  I  think  of  the  long 
winter  impending  over  homes  poorer  than  mine.  I 
heard  a  lecture  once  on  chemistry,  and  the  lecturer  said 
that  coal  was  carbon  sent  here  from  the  sun,  that  it  was 
nothing  else  than  the  sun's  rays  transformed  by  natural 
chemistry  into  trees,  and  these  again  by  decomposition 
converted  into  coal.  He  said  that  in  this  way  the  rays 
of  the  sun,  shed  upon  the  earth  millions  of  years  ago, 
were  concentrated  and  embalmed,  to  be  liberated  by 
combustion  into  flame  and  heat,  millions  of  years  after- 
wards, for  the  use  and  benefit  of  man.  He  said  that  not 
a  ray  of  sunshine  that  fell  upon  the  earth  was  wasted, 
but  that  nature  had  provided  for  the  saving  of  it  all. 
The  strike  of  the  coal  dealers  to  keep  the  dead  rays  of 
the  sun  out  of  the  poor  man's  home,  only  proves  that 
they  would  monopolize  and  tax  the  living  sunshine  if 
they  could.  They  would  sell  the  air  we  breathe,  the 
green  upon  the  grass,  the  perfume  of  the  flowers,  and 
the  songs  of  the  birds;  but  let  us  rejoice  that  they  are 
not  able  to  do  that  yet.  As  the  swart  blacksmith, 
Ebenezer  Elliott,  used  to  sing  at  his  anvil,  so  I  sing  at 
my  wheelbarrow, 

Beneath  the  might  of  wicked  men 
The  poor  man's  worth  is  dying, 
But  thanks  to  God,  in  spite  of  them, 
The  lark  still  warbles  Hying. 

The  unbelievers  tell  us  there  is  no  place  of  future 
punishment,  but  I  cannot  agree  to  that.  There  must 
be  a  place  "  beyond  Jordan  "  where  fuel  is  cheap,  where 
sulphur  can  be  had  for  nothing,  and  where  coal  dealers 
who  strike  against  the  poor  will  be  kept  warm  for  ever. 
Else  there  would  be  a  gap  in  the  moral  universe  where 
a  big  chunk  of  justice  had  been  knocked  out. 


THE   MERIT  AND  VICE  OF  SYMPATHY. 

BY    CELIA    PARKER    WOOLLEY. 

Sympathy  is  a  merit  or  a  vice,  according  to  its  effects 
and  the  cause  exciting  it.  It  is  so  often  followed  by  evil 
results  rather  than  good,  its  effect  being  to  weaken  in- 
stead of  strengthen  the  will,  to  enfeeble  rather  than 
arouse  a  losing  self-respect,  that  we  may  justly  decline 
to  pronounce  it  always  a  virtue.  The  sympathy  that 
springs  from  the  sentiment  of  justice,  finding  its  motive 
in  a  sincere  desire  to  remedy  some  existing  evil,  is  a  real 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


551 


and  needed  force  in  the  world,  as  much  as  electricity  or 
steam;  but  the  sympathy  that  takes  the  form  of  extreme 
compassion,  unenlightened  by  the  instinct  of  helpfulness, 
does  little  but  injury  to  the  one  receiving  and  the  one 
extending  it. 

There  was  numbered,  once,  among  the  professional 
beggars  of  this  city  a  well-known  character,  whose 
peculiar  form  of  appeal  to  the  sympathies  of 
the  community,  made  her  universally  dreaded  and 
disliked.  She  had  a  badly  crippled  wrist,  which, 
.  by  some  dexterous  twist  of  the  muscles,  she 
was  able  to  display  in  all  its  mangled  ugliness, 
producing  a  feeling  of  sickening  disgust  in  the 
beholder,  which,  even  more  than  the  emotion  of  pity, 
also  aroused,  prompted  him  to  place  a  coin  in  the  out- 
stretched hand  and  free  himself  from  the  unpleasant 
sight.  This  woman  throve,  it  was  said,  on  the  shame- 
less exposure  of  this  deformity,  as  we  know  others,  like 
her,  make  capital  of  their  misfortunes,  andare  able  to 
earn  a  comfortable  sustenance  by  the  public  display 
made  of  a  legless  body  crawling  about  the  streets,  or 
some  other  unsightly  distortion.  More  intelligent  ideas 
respecting  the  use  and  meaning  of  charity,  are  doing 
away  with  these  public  outrages;  but  those  who  make 
such  bold  and  open  demands  upon  our  sympathies  are 
not  confined  to  the  mendicant  class.  There  are  many  peo- 
ple, comfortably  clad  and  housed,  and  within  the  range 
of  our  social  acquaintance,  whose  chief  trait  is  a  nerve- 
less inefficiency,  which  is  constantly  exacting  gratuitous 
services  from  others,  and  posing  itself  in  some  attitude 
of  helpless  weakness  and  misfortune.  I  sympathize 
with  the  remark  I  once  heard  from  Mr.  Powell,  to  the 
effect  that  it  is  easier  to  dispose  of  the  tramps,  dressed 
in  rags,  who  come  to  the  back  door  to  beg  his  substance 
than  of  those  dressed  in  silk  and  broadcloth  who  come 
through  the  front  entrance  to  waste  his  time  and  patience. 
It  has  become  a  settled  maxim  among  the  workers  in 
public  charity  that  the  most  deserving  objects  of  their 
labors  are  those  who  never  ask  for  help,  and  the  same 
principle  holds  good  in  the  alleviation  of  moral  maladies. 
The  man  or  woman  of  uncertain  will  and  hesitating 
conviction,  swayed  here  and  there  by  every  breeze  of 
opinion,  and  constantly  seeking  the  support  of  some 
more  self-reliant  mind  is  the  moral  counterpart  of  the 
practised  beggar  who  makes  daily  round  among  a  circle 
of  easy-minded  benefactors  for  his  board  and  lodging. 
Unhappiness  is  naturally  expansive,  and  we  should  be 
patient  with  the  fact  that  the  unfortunate  need  our  help 
more  than  the  fortunate,  and  that  sorrow  is  less  self- 
dependent  than  joy;  still  I  think  it  may  be  laid  down  as 
a  principle,  admitting  but  few  exceptions,  that  the  soul 
reduced  to  its  last  depths  of  suffering,  temptation  or  des- 
pair, is  best  left  to  itself  awhile.  Jesus  bade  his  disciples 
sleep,  and  departed  to  pass  the  hours  of  Gethsemane 
alone,  with  no  eye  to   watch  the    mortal    agony   which 


preceded  his  supreme  resolve.  Man  is  his  own  best 
helper,  and  he  who  acts  on  a  contrary  assumption  neither 
deserves  nor  will  profit  by  the  aid  derived  from  others. 
This  is  true  not  only  in  the  work  of  public  benevolence 
but  in  our  private  relations  with  friend  and  family.  It 
is  also  true  with  regard  to  the  relation  we  sustain  to  our- 
selves— the  care  ami  culture  of  the  soul.  For  there  i.s 
such  a  thing  as  sympathizing  too  much  with  one's  self. 
"  The  worst  of  superstitions  is  to  think  one's  own  most 
bearable,"  said  Lessing.  So,  too,  the  worst  effect  of 
suffering,  no  matter  how  real  it  be,  is  that  which  springs, 
from  the  belief  that  no  one's  else  was  ever  so  great. 
The  egotism  of  the  unhappy  is  greater  than  that  of  the 
happy,  and  often  more  injurious  in  its  effects.  A  just 
realization  of  sorrow,  as  well  as  its  highest  benefit,  is 
reached  when  we  have  learned  to  bear  it  alone, 
silently  accepting  it  as  part  of  the  common  heritage 
of  life  and  human  experience.  We  ease  the  conscience 
too  readily  with  our  swift  and  numerous  excuses.  The 
apology  contains  a  covert  appeal  to  the  injured  person's 
sympathy,  and  lightens  the  load  of  guilt  by  com- 
pelling another  to  bear  it  with  us.  This  is  not  to  say 
that  the  apology  has  not  its  uses,  but  only  to  caution 
against  the  apologizing  habit,  which  is  employed  as  a 
kind  of  moral  salve  to  heal  our  wounded  self-love,  remov- 
ing our  own  consciousness  of  error  rather  than  its  effects. 
As  it  is  with  excuse-making,  so  it  is  with  the  habit 
of  continually  seeking  the  advice  and  approval  of  others. 
Often  the  greatest  mistake  we  can  commit  is  to  seek  that 
counsel  of  another,  which  a  little  honest  and  hard  think- 
ing would  readily  procure  for  ourselves.  The  weakness 
that  leads  to  many  of  the  so-called  "  confidences  "  be- 
tween friends  and  acquaintance,  is  something  we  have 
all  had  to  blush  for.  The  true  friend  is  he  who  never 
urges  such  confidences,  but  rather  ignores  our  need  of 
them,  helping  us  to  be  strong  in  ourselves.  Howells,  a 
writer  who  owns  a  deeper  moral  purpose  than  many 
give  him  credit  for,  has  admirably  illustrated  this  point 
in  his  story  of  "  A  Modern  Instance."  Ben  Halleck,  a 
young  man  of  stainless  soul  and  the  highest  ideals,  de- 
rived from  a  rigid  Puritan  ancestry,  finds  himself  caught 
in  the  meshes  of  an  unholy  passion.  Writhing  in  shame 
and  misery  he  seeks  his  friend  Atherton.  The  latter, 
though  he  thoroughly  understands  the  condition  of 
affairs,  and  is  deeply  moved  and  concerned  for  his  friend, 
declines  to  be  made  a  confidant  of,  not  to  spare  himself,  but 
as  a  heroic  means  to  save  Halleck.  To  the  reproachful 
remark,  "You  don't  ask  me  what  my  trouble  really  is," 
Atherton  makes  reply,  "I  think  you  had  better  not  tell  me 
your  trouble.  ...  I  doubt  if  it  would  help  you  to  tell 
it.  I've  too  much  respect  for  your  good  sense  to  sup- 
pose it's  an  unreality  ;  and  I  suspect  that  confession  would 
only  weaken  you  ...  If  you're  battling  with  some 
temptation,  our  self-betrayal,  you  must  make  the  fight 
alone.     You  would  only  turn  to  an  ally  to  be  flattered 


552 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


into  the  disbelief  of  your  danger  or  your  culpability." 
The  moral  effect  of  open  repentance  and  confession  may 
be  noted  in  the  scenes  of  the  revival-room  and  the  exper- 
ience of  those  occupying  the  "  anxious  seat."  Repent- 
ance has  become  as  easy  as  the  upward  swing  of  the  pen- 
dulum, and  as  sure  to  be  followed  by  the  downward 
movement  of  a  relaxed  will  and  conscience.  "Nothing 
go^d  is  to  be  expected  of  those  who  acknowledge  their 
faults,  repent  and  then  sin  again,"  says  Balzac.  "The 
truly  great  acknowledge  their  faults  to  no  one,  but  they 
punish  themselves  accordingly."  Goethe  is  credited  with 
words  of  similar  import,  "Every  man  must  be  his  own 
counsellor;  the  man  who  desires  to  be  rid  of  an  evil 
knows  what  he  wants." 

Self-helpfulness  is  the  great  fundamental  virtue  which 
each  of  us  should  set  ourselves  steadily  to  cultivate  in 
others.  Sympathy,  the  power  to  enter  into  others'  joys 
and  sorrows,  is  one  of  the  finest  graces  of  character,  a 
divine  feeling  which  ennobles  life  more  than  any  other; 
but  let  us  avoid  the  cultivation  of  the  weak,  drivelling 
sentiment  which  often  passes  by  that  name,  mindful  that 
the  office  of  friendship,  and  of  every  human  relation,  is 
like  the  physician's,  which  is  neither  to  palliate  nor 
soothe  the  sufferings  of  his  patients,  but  to  cure  them. 


IDEALISM  AND    PHYSICAL  SCIENCE. 
BY    VV.    M.    SALTER. 

A  leading  scientific  authority  in  England,  Prof. 
Balfour  Stewart,  brings  forward  a  difficulty  in  the  way 
of  accepting  idealism  that  any  defender  of  the  theory 
must  honestly  meet.  Idealism  means  that  the  physical 
world  is  reducible  to  sensations  and  exists  only  in  a 
sentient  subject.  So  long,  then,  as  this  planet  has  had 
sentient  life  on  its  surface,  the  world  has  had  a  real 
existence.  But  what  shall  we  say  to  the  time  before 
there  was  any  sentient  existence,  when  not  only  our 
earth,  but  all  the  other  members  of  the  solar  system, 
were  but  a  fiery  mist,  a  nebula,  when  living  beings  of 
every  sort,  (unless  we  hold  with  Haeckel,  that  all  matter 
is  "  beseelt")  were  impossible?  This  time  is  far  remote 
and  may  be  without  any  practical  interest  to  us;  but  a 
philosophical  theory  must  be  equal  to  all  the  facts,  the 
near  and  the  far,  and  to  the  mind  the  remotest  conceiv- 
able past  is  as  real  as  the  present.  Prof.  Stewart 
raised  this  difficulty  a  few  years  ago  in  the  Contcmpor- 
ary  Review.  "It  is  difficult  to  see,"  he  said,  "how  the 
idealist  can  regard  this  [pre-sentientj  state  of  things  as  a 
universe  at  all."  And  further,  which  is  the  same  diffi- 
culty in  another  form,  "What  idea,"  he  asks,  "can  the 
idealist  entertain  regarding  the  matter  which  we  suppose 
to  exist  in  the  central  regions  of  the  sun  or  of  the  earth 
where  there  is  no  intelligent  being  to  be  directly 
impressed  with  its  presence?"  Must  idealism  run  out 
into  the  absurdity  that  the  primitive  fiery  mist  did  not 
exist  and  that  the  centers  of  the  sun  and  the  earth  are  a 


fiction?  So  the  indignant  defenders  of  what  is  some- 
times called  "scientific"  philosophy,  assert — as  for 
example,  that  penetrating  and  vigorous  thinker,  Dr. 
Francis  E.  Abbot.  Realism  is  the  only  philosophy 
that  is  consistent  with  physical  science,  it  is  claimed. 

But  the  difficulty  which  Prof.  Stewart  raises,  is,  I 
am  persuaded,  not  insuperable.  What  is  the  heat  of  a 
fire  on  a  man's  own  hearth,  when  he  is  out  of  the  room 
and  there  is  perchance  not  a  fly  or  a  mosquito,  or  living 
creature  of  any  sort  remaining?  If  anything  is  plainly 
a  sensation,  it  is  heat.  But  what  is  the  heat,  when  no 
one  feels  it?  Plainly  it  has  a  possibility  of  existence, 
rather  than  a  real  existence.  A  man  may  know  that 
for  a  certain  length  of  time  he  will  experience  heat, 
whenever  he  goes  into  his  room.  During  that  length 
of  time  he  pictures  the  warmth  and  the  glow  as  there, 
though  he  does  not  feel  them  and  may  be  numb  with 
cold.  He  pictures  rightly,  for  should  he  go  into  the 
room  during  that  time,  he  would  experience  the  heat. 
It  is  not  a  false  or  an  illusory,  but  a  true  picture;  the 
heat  is  there  as  a  possibility  all  the  time.  Now,  without 
any  effort  we  can  conceive  of  a  room  with  a  fire  in  it, 
which  we  do  not  enter  at  all,  and  no  one  enters,  and  no 
one,  so  securely  is  it  barred,  could  enter.  The  heat 
would,  neverthelesss  be  a  possibility  in  it  all  the  same. 
I  have  looked  into  Mr.  Hegeler's  gigantic  furnaces  down 
in  La  Salle;  or  rather,  there  were  depths  in  them  that  I 
could  not  look  into;  nothing  could  live  there — yet  there 
was  heat  in  those  central  depths,  or  (more  strictly 
speaking)  such  possibilities  of  heat,  that,  if  the  Hiberni- 
cism  may  be  pardoned,  it  would  be  impossible  to  endure 
them.* 

Now,  as  an  idealist  I  believe  in  the  heat  of 
the  central  regions  of  the  sun,  or  of  the  earth,  in 
just  the  same;  way  that  I  believe  in  the  heat  of 
the  impassably-barred  room  and  that  of  the 
depths  of  Mr.  Hegeler's  furnaces.  The  heat  at  the 
center  of  the  earth  is  a  real  possibility;  anyone  could 
experience  it,  if  he  could  only  get  there  and  stay  there 
alive.  It  has  not  one  thing  in  common  with  unreality  or 
illusion.  And  yet  it  is  real  only  as  a  possibility,  not  as 
anybody's  actual  experience. 

And  now  for  the  next  step.  As  I  believe  in  the 
possibility  of  sensations  that  I  do  not  have  and,  practi- 
cally speaking,  cannot  have,  because  I  cannot  make  the 
necessary  transit  in  space,  so  I  believe  in  the  possibility 
of  sensations  that  I  do  not  and  cannot  have,  because 
my  existence  does  not  go  back  far  enough  in  time,  and 
nobody's  does.  If  I  or  anybody  had  lived  on  the  pre- 
sentment globe,  we  should  have  seen  and  experienced  just 
what  science  tells  us  existed.  If  we  could  have  lived  in 
the  fiery  mist  or  nebula,  before  there  was  any  globe  at 
all,  we  should  have  known  by  experience  what  we  can 

*  The  apparent  contradiction  here  is  one  of  language,  not  of  thought.  The 
"possibilities  "  are  possibilities  to  the  mind;  the  word  "impossible"  means,  in  the 
connection,  impossible  to  the  body. 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


553 


only  know  now  by  speculation  or  conjecture.  "Science," 
so  far  as  anybody  calls  it  trustworthy  in  its  reports, 
gives  us  not  a  false  or  illusory,  but  a  true  picture;  it  tells 
us  what  would  have  been  our  actual  experience,  could 
we  have  lived  at  the  time  referred  to.  The  heat  and 
color  and  motion,  and  whatever  other  qualities  may  be 
ascribed  to  the  primitive  nebula  were  real;  that  is,  they 
were  real  (and  not  imaginary)  possibilities;  and  they 
would  have  been  real,  in  the  other  sense,  if  anybody 
had  been,  so  to  speak,  on  the  scene.  The  past  history 
of  the  universe  is  just  as  much  a  fixed  matter  and  just 
as  truly  an  object  of  exact  study  to  the  idealist  as  to  the 
most  dogmatic  realist;  for  it  means  what  he  or  anyone 
like  him  might  have  seen  and  heard  and  felt  and 
handled — and  the  possibilities  of  such  experiences  he 
knows  are  not  in  the  slightest  degree  determined  by 
himself.  As  he  looks  out  on  the  sky  now,  he  cannot 
determine  whether  it  shall  be  red  or  yellow  or  blue; 
what  he  can  experience  is  determined  by  something  or 
somebody  else  than  himself.  So  he  has  no  doubt  it 
would  have  been  years  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
years  ago.  The  sky  and  the  earth  and  the  whole 
aspect  and  order  of  the  world,  though  all  are  his  experi- 
ence, are  an  experience  he  cannot  help  having,  that  is 
given  to  him,  and  that  save  in  details  he  cannot  change. 
The  past  he  cannot  change  at  all.  The  possibilities  of 
experience  there  are  absolutely  fixed. 

The  same  observations  apply  to  the  infinitessimal 
elements  of  the  world.  Whether  we  consider  molecules 
as  hypothetical  entities,  or,  in  Sir  William  Thomson's 
words,  "  pieces  of  matter  of  measurable  dimension,  with 
shape,  motion,  and  laws  of  action,  intelligible  subjects  of 
scientific  investigation,"  the  idealistic  theory  adds  not  to 
nor  subtracts  one  particle  from  their  reality.  They 
are  real,  to  the  idealist,  as  possibilities  of  experience; 
it  may  be  that  with  our  present  powers  of  sensation,  we 
cannot  experience  them,  but  if  these  powers  were 
indefinitely  refined  and  heightened  we  might.  It  may 
be  that  now  we  can  only  construct  the  molecules  and 
atoms  in  thought  and  cannot  observe  them;  but  we  are 
persuaded  that  if  we  could  observe  them  (i.  e.,  if  th*ey 
could  be  converted  into  actual  sensations)  we  should 
find  them  to  be  just  what  we  had  imagined  them  to  be. 

Neither  extensively  in  space  or  time,  nor  intensively 
as  we  try  to  penetrate  to  the  elements  of  matter,  does 
idealism  fail  to  be  entirely  consistent  with  physical 
science.  If  science  is  synonymous  with  experience  or 
possible  experience,  idealism  might  more  truly  than 
realism  claim  to  be  the  much  vaunted  "scientific" 
philosophy.  Where  are  examples  of  finer,  more  pains- 
taking, more  microscopic  investigation  than  those 
afforded  by  the  labors  of  a  Huxley  and  a  Helm- 
holtz?  Yet  these  men  know  that  they  are  studying 
their  sensations  (actual  or  possible)  and  nothing  outside 
of  them. 


MONISTIC      MENTAL     SCIENCE. 

THE   MECHANISM  OF   THE    MIND. 

BY  S.  V.  CLEVENGER,  M.  D. 

The  single-celled  organism  is  a  wandering  nomad, 
but  when  several  cells  cohere,  for  a  common  life  purpose, 
the  condition  is  that  of  a  savage  mob,  until  special  abili- 
ties develope  in  the  separate  cells;  then  the  tribal  condi- 
tion arises.  If  these  cells  are  not  properly  related  to 
one  another,  and  food  is  unequally  distributed,  causing 
many  to  perish  while  the  few  are  surfeited,  the  animal 
represents  an  absolute  monarchy.  When  an  advance  is 
made  and  the  needs  of  the  multitude  are  better  supplied, 
the  condition  resembles  that  of  a  limited  monarchy.  I 
maintain  (notwithstanding  Haeckel's  different  view,) 
that  the  republic  is  typified  by  a  healthy  homo  sapiens, — 
worthy  of  that  specific  title,  composed  of  cells,  altruisti- 
cally, though  mechanically,  grouped  into  organs,  no  one 
of  which  cells  or  organs  demands  or  receives  more  than 
sufficient  to  serve  the  good  of  all.  A  diseased  state 
would  result  otherwise,  and  if  the  surplus  be  among 
intestinal  organs  then  the  government  is  for  politicians 
and  privileged  classes. 

The  ideal  man  may  no  more  exist  than  does  the 
ideal  republic;  but  theoretically  the  brain  rules  the  body 
in  the  interests  and  by  the  consent  of  all  the  bodily 
units.  If  a  specially  favored  controlling  power  arises  in 
such  a  government  and  the  muscles  or  the  alimentary 
tract  gain  control  we  have  the  military  or  the  mercan- 
tile, the  pugnacious  or  gluttonous  dominance.  The 
evolution  of  nations,  societies,  species  or  individuals  pro- 
ceed over  identical  paths :  The  lowest  animal  is  a  de- 
fenseless absorber  of  food ;  a  few  steps  higher  in  the 
zoological  series  there  is  ferocity;  higher  still,  cunning. 
The  human  infant  passes  through  the  stages  of  milk 
imbibing,  savagery,  barbarism,  to  more  thoughtful  man- 
hood. Nations  reach  civilization  by  developing  indus- 
trialism which  binds  together  workers  intelligently  and 
considerately.  When  militancy  prevails  development  is 
arrested,  the  country  is  a  lubberly  school-boy  with  a 
chip  on  his  shoulder.  The  wise  adult  has  outgrown  his 
childish  greed  and  bellicosity,  no  longer  lies,  steals  or 
wastes  time  in  buffoonery.  He  thinks.  But,  to  think  he 
must  have  the  apparatus  for  thinking.  Printing,  teleg- 
raphy and  rapid  transit  bring  the  individuals  of  a  people 
into  sensible  cooperation  and  the  silly  sword,  gun  and 
clownish  uniform  finds  less  favor.  The  physical  basis 
of  intelligence  is  proclaimed  by  two  facts: 

1.  The  nervous  system  relates  the  body  cells  to- 
gether in  the  interests  of  all  the  cells  oj  the  body. 

2.  The  brain  relates  the  nervous  system  more  com- 
plexly to  the  same  end. 

A  direct  ethical  inference  is,  then,  that  charity,  for- 
giveness, considerateness,  justice,  etc.,  are  expediency 
outgrowths  and  that  humanity  is  but  a  form  of  wisdom. 
I  would  like  to  take  my  readers  over  the  studies   I  have 


554 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


found  so  fascinating :  Embryology,  neurology  and  other 
branches  of  biology ;  but  must  resist  the  temptation  to 
ramble  over  this  naturalists'  paradise  and  keep  within 
the  hedgerows  of  our  text.  We  have  not  the  time  to 
follow  out  the  development  of  the  nerves  that  ascend  the 
spinal  cord  to  the  head,  the  passage  of  touch  nerves  into 
those  for  special  sense  with  end  organs  such  as  the  eye, 
ear  and  nose;  the  accumulation  of  "commissures"  or 
connecting  strands  of  nerves  in  the  brain.  You  will  find 
those  matters  fairly  treated  by  Wundt,  Spencer,  Bain 
and  the  modern  physiologists  generallv. 

Elongated,  headless  animals,  through  locomotion  be- 
coming easiest  with  one  end  first,  gave  rise  to  animals 
with  heads,  as  the  eel,  because  the  head  end  encountering 
soonest  the  changes  in  the  environment,  differentiation 
would  be  most  likely  to  proceed  at  the  head.  The 
special  senses  grouped  themselves  here  instead  of  being 
scattered  as  they  are  in  lower  forms  of  life.  Motions 
becoming  oftenest  regulated  from  the  head  a  longitudinal 
series  of  nerves  sprang  up  which  afterwards  became  the 
lateral  nerve  columns  of  the  cord,  these  relate  the  other 
segments  of  the  body  with  the  special  sense  organs  and 
by  enabling  the  body  to  be  controlled  mainly  through 
higher  differentiated  senses  a  decided  advance  is  made 
in  the  organism  evolution. 

The  highest  animals  have  the  most  complex  nervous 
systems;  doubt,  hesitation,  thought  or  reason,  essentially 
the  same  process,  exercise  nerve  centers  that  are  more 
nearly  the  protoplasmic  state,  such  as  the  neuroglia; 
greater  heat  is  evolved,  more  blood  is  consumed  and  the 
effort  is  attended  by  consciousness*.  The  spinal  cord 
gray  matter  undergoes  this  vibratory  transfer  and  so 
animals  without  heads  may  think,  but  when  the  tracts 
are  built  up  so  as  to  make  motions  instinctive,  such  as 
tossing  off  a  fly  from  the  hand,  consciousness  need  not 
be  involved;  the  automatic  apparatus  works  reflexly, 
with  less  friction,  less  heat,  less  blood  consumption,  and 
with  but  feeble  sensation  evolution. 

In  learning  to  play  upon  the  piano  the  higher  senses, 
with  touch,  are  brought  into  use;  the  routes  through 
the  brain  and  cord  to  correlate  the  finger  movements 
are  being  established  with  difficulty.  When  the  piece 
is  learned  it  may  be  played  in  the  dark'  with  but  the 
finger  touch  sense  to  guide.  A  revolution  has  been 
effected  in  the  arrangement  of  the  nerve  strands  in  the 
brain  and  adjustment  of  muscles  in  the  arm  and  fingers 
has  also  occurred.  Reason  was  involved  at  the  outset. 
Instinct  was  the  outcome  and  where  certain  invariable 
causes  produce  in  any  animal  invariable  effects,  brain 
shapes  may  be  thus  built  up  and  transmitted  to  progeny  : 
inherited;  and  as  soon  as  the  structural  form  of  brain  is 
developed  the  animal  will  do  what  its  mechanism  has 
been  constructed  to  do,  the  chicken  will  peck  as  soon  as 


*Pro[.  Herzen,  Journal  of  Mtntal  Sciw,  London,  April,  1884:    "The  intensity  of 
consoiouineis   •  in  direct  ratio  to  the  intensity  of  functional  disintegration." 


it  escapes  from  its  shell.  Dispositions  and  traits  are 
thus  transmitted  with  the  "intuitions,"  superstitions, 
dexterities  and  stupidities. 

We  do  but  think  what  our  molecular  make  up  per- 
mits us  to  do  and  think,  and  that  make-up  is  the  product 
of  our  environment. 

Assume  that  the  nerves  all  over  the  body  are  in  a 
state  of  chemical  agitation  represented  by  100,000,000 
vibrations  per  second,  io1  becomes  the  normal  for 
nerve  activity,  departures  from  which  constitute  sensa- 
tion. Lowering  of  this  normal  produces  numbness, 
irregularity,  pain.  If  from  50  to  1,400  interruptions 
occur  the  feeling  of  touch  is  experienced;  45  to  40,000 
constitute  hearing;  much  more  rapid  interferences  in- 
duce sight  sensations.  Most  of  these  impressions  pro- 
duce quivers  diffused  through  the  gray  neuroglia  of  the 
cord  and  brain,  but  when  recurrences  arrange  the  minute 
molecules  of  that  sensitive  gray  substance  into  little 
lines,  paths,  tracts,  fibrils,  fasciculi,  plexuses,  memory  is 
evoked;  the  impression  is  recorded,  and  each  such 
impression  produces  in  the  brain  a  corresponding  altera- 
tion constant  for  the  same  cause. 

In  the  back  part  of  the  brain,  where  sight  impres- 
sions are  recorded,  a  peculiar  eight-layered  arrangement 
of  cells  and  fibrils  is  found;  where  hearing  memories 
are  stored  up,  at  the  side  of  the  brain,  other  distributions 
occur.  I  am,  for  brevity  sake,  reduced  to  the  necessity 
of  using  coarse  similes  where  precise  details  can  be 
given,  and  experience  all  the  disgust  of  the  engineer 
who  is  obliged  to  forego  technicalities  and  explain  that 
his  complicated  machine  acts  by  the  piston  pushing 
certain  rods  and  wheels,  when  dozens  of  delicate  princi- 
ples must  be  unmentioned. 

These  stored-up  recorded  impressions  are  more  com- 
plexly united  through  nerve  tracts  that  grow  more  and 
more  intricate  as  intelligence  increases. 

Roughly,  then,  suppose  all  the  gas  and  water  pipes, 
sewers,  mains,  conduits  or  other  things  in  a  city,  that 
permit  water  to  flow  through  them,  were  connected. 
A  certain  pressure  of  water  constantly  trickling  through 
the  smaller  tubes  and  rushing  along  the  larger  would 
represent  the  normal  nerve  flow.  Interruptions  in  dif- 
ferent degrees  and  for  different  lengths  of  time  may  be 
likened  to  what  occurs  when  a  touch,  sound,  sight,  taste 
or  smell  is  experienced.  If  there  occur  impediments 
en  route,  and  at  first  it  is  uncertain  which  route  the 
water  will  take,  there  is  hesitation,  which  is  reason, 
doubt,  thought.  The  facile  passage  of  the  current  is 
instinct,  the  route  overcome. 

Dropping  the  comparison,  a  thought  works  in  the 
brain  slowly  or  swiftly  by  a  succession  of  molecular 
oscillations,  and  taking  a  brain  region  as  a  cube  with 
one  side  divided  into  areas-  figured  from  1  to  100,  an- 
other side  lettered  from  A  to  Z,  the  remaining  side 
similarly   lettered   a    to   z,  then   one  thought    would   be 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


555 


expressed  by  the  flashing  of  atoms  along'  the  irregular 
route  7,  L,  n,  75,.  and  another  R.  10,  K.  x.,  and  so  on. 
Miscroscopical  anatomists  have  mapped  out  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  these  routes.  The  orderly  mechanism 
of  the  brain  is  being  revealed,  its  laws  are  being  un- 
folded patiently,  toilsomely,  quietly,  by  skillful,  learned 
students,  most  of  whom  are  steeped  in  bitter  poverty; 
who  seek  no  notoriety,  receive  no  assistance,  whose 
writings  are  read  by  the  appreciative  few;  their  contri- 
butions swell  the  sum  of  human  knowledge,  and  with 
knowing  that  the  world  is  better  off  for  their  having 
lived  they  must  be  satisfied,  as  sole  recompense. 


SOME     RELATIONS     OF    SCIENCE    TO    MORALITY 
AND     PROGRESS. 

BY    G.    GORE,    LL.D.,    F.R.S. 
Part  III.— Concluded. 

A  moderate  rate  of  progress  is  desirable. 

It  would  probably  be  more  injurious  than  beneficial 
if  new  knowledge  was  discovered  very  rapidly;  inven- 
tions and  improvements  would  then  succeed  each  other 
quicker  than  we  would  be  able  to  adapt  ourselves  to 
them.  It  would  harass  mankind  and  disturb  men's 
beliefs  faster  than  the  new  truths  could  be  assimilated. 
Ideas  which  have  been  strongly  impressed  upon  the 
brain  are  almost  indelible,  and  it  is  a  painful  process  to 
alter  one's  old  opinions,  whether  the  new  ones  are  more 
truthful  or  not.  All  men,  even  the  most  learned,  are 
necessarily  more  or  less  ignorant,  and  entertain  in  differ- 
ent degrees  untruthful  ideas.  Many  persons  prefer  to 
believe,  not  what  is  true,  but  what  they  wish  to  be  so; 
many  minds  also  are  not  sufficiently  strong  to  bear 
unwelcome  truths.  The  common  readiness  to  believe 
flattering  ideas  arises  from  human  weakness.  False 
beliefs  are  inseparable  from  limited  brains  and  finite 
knowledge. 

To  believe  that  which  is  untrue  usually  leads  to 
wrong  conduct;  nevertheless,  false  beliefs  often  afford 
very  great  consolation,  and  it  would  be  cruel  to  sud- 
denly force,  without  sufficient  justification,  more  truth- 
ful doctrines  upon  persons  whose  minds  are  unable  to 
receive  them ;  mankind  would  resist  it.  The  ideas  of  a 
devil  and  of  eternal  punishment  were  useful  in  their 
time.  Our  feeble  minds  often  require  strong  stimulants; 
without  the  extra  stimulus  of  exaggerated  expectations 
and  the  hope  of  unreasonable  rewards,  men  would  often 
deviate  from  the  path  of  duty ;  they  would  also  fail  in 
their  occupations  and  neglect  to  attempt  great  objects. 
The  man  who  exalts  his  calling  is  frequently  the  one 
who  succeeds  in  it.  Much  good  has  also  been  done  by 
persons  acting  under  the  influence  of  Utopian  ideas. 
Some  of  the  earliest  facts  in  chemistry  were  discovered 
by  men  who  were  stimulated  by  the  hope  of  finding  the 
"elixir  of  life,"  the  "philosopher's  stone,"  etc.  As 
there   is  a  limit  to  the  power  of  our  brains  to  receive 


newj  impressions  and  to  obliterate  old  ones,  before  a 
new  generation  can  establish  new  ideas  the  previous 
/generation,  with  its  old  impressions,  must  die  out,  and 
thus  the  rate  of  intellectual  and  moral  advance  is  depend- 
ent upon  scientific  conditions;  viz.  the  properties  of  our 
brains  and  the  duration  of  human  life.  Fixity  of  cerebral 
impressions  is  thus  largely  the  cause  of  the  stability  of 
error  and  ignorance,  and  helps  to  moderate  the  speed  of 
progress. 

Science  encourages  general  truthfulness. 

One  of  the  greatest  moral  qualities  is  truthfulness, 
and  this  is  highly  necessary  to  correct  conduct.  In 
order  to  acquire  this  virtue  there  is  probably  no  course 
of  discipline  equal  to  that  of  original  experimental 
research.  In  such  occupation  the  mind  must  be  imbued 
with  correct  views  and  be  free  from  bias,  and  if  the 
investigator  is  not  very  truthful  the  results  he  obtains 
will  disagree  with  each  other,  and  he  will  not  succeed 
in  discovering  new  knowledge.  Ignorance  and  untruth- 
fulness are  closely  associated;  without  intelligence  a 
high  degree  of  truthfulness  is  hardly  possible,  and  sci- 
ence by  diffusing  accuracy  is  highly  conducive  to  moral- 
ity. In  dogmatic  subjects  untruths  may  be  told  with 
impunity,  because  they  cannot  be  disproved,  but  in  sci- 
entific ones  proper  and  sufficient  evidence  must  be 
adduced. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  ministers  of  religion  will  exten- 
sively study  the  essential  relations  of  the  great  laws  and 
phenomena  of  science  to  morality  and  righteousness, 
with  the  object  of  permanently  reconciling  science  and 
religion.  It  is  only  through  insufficiency  of  proper 
investigation  that  the  matter  is  so  little  understood. 
Many  books  have  been  written  on  the  subject  by  devout 
persons,  but  they  appear  to  have  been  usually  composed 
by  those  having  insufficient  acquaintance  with  the  chief 
principles  of  science;  without  a  knowledge  of  those 
principles  we  cannot  arrive  at  the  foundation  of  things. 
A  complete  scientific  system  of  morality  remains  to  be 
written. 

The  rate  of  advance  in  civilization  is  afxed  one. 

It  is  almost  as  impossible  to  live  greatly  in  advance 
of  one's  time  as  very  much  behind  it.  The  rate  of 
human  progress  is  probably  as  fixed  and  invariable  a 
quantity  and  governed  by  as  immutable  laws  as  that  of 
the  motion  of  the  earth  in  its  orbit,  and  the  man  who 
attempts  to  move  either  very  much  faster  or  slower  than 
the  mass  of  mankind  has  to  succumb  to  it.  As  an  angel 
would  not  be  permitted  by  men  to  live  among  them, 
because  his  actions  would  be  misconstrued,  so  an  advanced 
scientific  philosopher  is  barely  allowed  to  exist  in  the 
midst  of  an  ordinary  community. 

Difficulties  of  the  pioneers  of  new  knowledge. 

The  man  who  devotes  himself  very  largely  to  original 
philosophical  experiments  and  research  is  one  who  lives 
somewhat  in  advance  of  his  time,  and  is  largely  misun- 


556 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


derstood  and  victimized  by  his  fellows.  By  many  pro- 
fessedly good  persons  he  is  considered  an  atheist,  whereas 
the  practical  disbelievers  in  divine  truth  are  those  who 
neglect  to  study  the  sacred  laws  by  which  infinite  power 
and  goodness  regulates  the  universe  and  themselves. 
By  some  exponents  ot  science,  less  devoted  to  research 
and  more  to  the  pursuit  of  money  than  himself,  he  is 
misrepresented  as  a  sponger  and  scientific  mendicant  and 
as  having  his  sustenance  and  expenses  provided  for  him 
by  others,  while  the  actual  fact  is  that  all  the  researches 
he  makes,  whether  with  aid  or  without  it,  are  made  at  a 
considerable  pecuniary  loss  to  himself,  which  has  to  be 
made  up  from  his  own  resources.  Some  other  expos- 
itors of  science,  either  through  less  experience  in  original 
work  or  through  fixity  of  ideas  produced  by  long  con- 
tinued teaching,  are  unable  to  accept  his  discoveries  if 
they  happen  to  only  appear  to  conflict  with  orthodox 
science,  and  thus  become  his  most  influential  opponents. 
A  research  made  by  a  deity  would  probably  be  rejected 
as  utterly  false  by  all  existing  teachers  of  science.  Pure 
traders  in  scientific  knowledge  detract  from  his  reputa- 
tion by  misrepresenting  his  labors  as  non-practical,  and 
the  mass  of  the  community  can  scarcely  at  all  under- 
stand him.  Manufacturers,  traders,  inventors,  science 
lecturers,  scientific  experts  and  others  take  the  knowl- 
edge he  discovers,  use  it  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
money,  influence,  etc.,  and  there  being  no  law  to  compel 
them,  neglect  with  impunity  to  make  him  compensa- 
tion. While,  also,  his  labors  reflect  honor  and  indirectly 
confer  other  advantages  upon  his  fellow  citizens,  muni- 
cipal and  other  public  bodies  treat  him  as  an  unknown 
person,  and  neglect  to  give  him  professional  employ- 
ment. By  thus  injuring  his  moral  character,  represent- 
ing him  as  an  impostor,  condemning  his  discoveries  as 
untrue  and  withholding  from  him  remunerative  employ- 
ment and  payment  for  his  labors,  etc.,  his  fellow-men 
diminish  his  usefulness  to  mankind,  and  unless  he  has 
private  means  of  his  own,  cut  short  his  existence,  or,  as 
in  the  case  of  Priestley,  compel  him  to  leave  his  country. 
In  olden  times  his  difficulties  were  even  greater.  As 
nearly  all  these  effects  arise  from  human  imperfections 
and  deficiency  of  knowledge  the  question  how  to  do 
justice  to  the  scientific  discoverer  is  a  difficult  problem, 
and  can  only  be  satisfactorily  settled  when  men  are 
more  enlightened.  Meanwhile,  "the  ills  which  can't  be 
cured  must  be  endured." 

Present  imperfect  state  of  morality. 

The  age  of  physical  spoliation  is  passing  away,  but 
that  of  mental  dishonesty  continues.  In  olden  times 
wealth  was  frequently  obtained  by  violence,  strong 
men  took  by  physical  force  the  material  property  of  the 
weak;  evidence  of  this  still  exists  in  the  ruined  feudal 
castles  dotted  all  over  the  land;  these  were  the  strong- 
holds of  robbers;  might  was  treated  as  right,  and  the 
justification  for  violence  was  necessity. 


A  similar  imperfect  state  of  morality  still  remains  with 
regard  to  new  scientific  knowledge,  every  one  appropri- 
ates it,  but  scarcely  any  one  gives  any  recompense  to  its 
originators,  and  this  circumstance  is  the  less  noticed 
because  such  knowledge  is  not  a  tangible  or  salable  com- 
modity. There  is  much  legal  protection  for  traders,  a  little 
for  inventors,  but  none  for  discoverers;  and  it  would  be 
useless  to  patent  unsalable  knowledge,  however  intrin- 
sically valuable  it  may  be.  Might  is  thus  treated  as 
right,  and  the  discoverer  is  a  legally  defenseless  person. 

The  maxim  constantly  acted  upon  by  the  ordinary 
tradesman  is  "to  buy  in  the  cheapest  and  sell  in  the 
dearest  market,"  or,  in  other  words,  to  get  the  most  he 
can,  and  give  the  least  possible  in  return ;  and  all  legally 
defenseless  property  is  treated  by  him  as  a  fair  object  of 
gain.  The  pure  trader  in  scientific  knowledge  also 
appears  to  act  upon  a  similar  rule.  Comparatively  few 
men  will  pay  in  cases  where  there  is  only  a  moral  and 
no  legal  obligation  to  do  so;  but  notwithstanding  this, 
the  English  nation  is  at  least  as  honest  as  any  other; 
trading  in  knowledge  also  is  a  justifiable  occupation, 
and  some  of  the  most  eminent  discoverers  have  engaged 
in  it  whether  it  diminished  their  usefulness  to  mankind 
or  not. 

New  scientific  knowledge  must  be  free. 

The  plea  for  this  very  general  spoliation  of  scientific 
investigators  is  compulsion,  and  this  defense  is  a  true 
one;  throughout  nature,  less  important  interests  are 
compelled  to  yield  to  those  more  important,  the  few 
must  yield  to  the  many,  and  the  interests  of  discoverers 
will  be  sacrificed  to  those  of  mankind  in  general  until 
remedies  are  applied.  Life  must  be  maintained;  knowl- 
edge is  indispensable  to  our  existence,  second  only  in 
degree  of  urgency  to  physical  food ;  without  the  neces- 
sary knowledge,  inventions  and  improvements  for  pub- 
lic benefit  could  not  be  made,  and  incomes  could  not  be 
obtained;  in  consequence  also  of  fierce  competition  and 
the  urgent  necessity  to  get  money,  each  manufacturer 
and  tradesman  is  stimulated  to  use  every  available 
means  of  success.  The  free  taking  of  new  knowledge, 
therefore,  is  highly  desirable  for  the  public  good,  and 
the  real  objection  is  not  to  the  free  use  of  the  discoverers' 
property,  but  to  the  withholding  from  him  compensa- 
tion. Even  when  we  have  done  our  best  to  remedy 
this  pecuniary  injustice  to  investigators,  there  will 
always  remain  pioneers  of  truth,  whose  researches  the 
mass  of  mankind  will  be  unable  to  justly  appreciate. 

Suggestions  for  improvement. 

When  manufacturers  or  traders  derive  large  incomes 
by  means  of  applied  science  they  rarely  render  any 
equivalent  to  original  research.  Who  ever  heard  of  a 
manure  manufacturer,  a  nickel  smelter,  a  petroleum  dis- 
tiller, an  electroplater,  an  India  rubber  worker,  an  elec- 
tric telegraph  manufacturer,  a  phosphorus  maker,  an 
electric  copper  refiner,  a  calico  printer  or  bleacher  giving 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


557 


even  a  single  thousand  pounds  to  original  experimental 
research?  Such  an  event  has  probably  never  happened 
in  any  country,  notwithstanding  that  numerous  large  for- 
tunes have  been  realized  in  those  occupations,  and  the 
occupations  themselves  would  never  have  existed  but  for 
such  research.  In  this  way  patriotism  has  been  forgot- 
ten, national  welfare  and  justice  have  been  largely  sacri- 
ficed to  individual  advantage,  and  a  most  fundamental 
source  of  the  prosperity  of  nations  has  been  crippled. 
For  instance,  a  man  gains  £300,000  by  the  manufacture 
of  vulcanized  India  rubber,  and  bequeaths  nothing  to 
promote  scientific  discovery,  which  largelv  enabled  him 
to  gain  his  riches.  Similar  examples  exist  in  all  direc- 
tions. Immense  sums  are  bequeathed,  largelv  to  per- 
petuate error,  but  little  to  discover  truth.  A  professor- 
ship of  original  scientific  research  has  never  vet  been 
endowed  in  any  college  in  any  country.  These  remarks 
are  made  as  suggestions  for  improvements. 

Prospect  of  greater  national  happiness. 

Nearly  every  man  seeks  to  obtain  as  much  money  as 
possible,  often  regardless  of  injury  to  his  nation,  and  not 
infrequently  with  the  ultimate  effect  of  diminishing  his 
own  happiness.  In  many  cases  the  man  who  pursues 
money  becomes  at  length  a  mere  machine  for  getting  it, 
and  shortens  his  life  in  the  process.  In  many  cases 
money  has  been  obtained  too  easily,  and  the  sons  of  the 
wealthy  have  not  been  properly  disciplined.  Wealth 
has  accumulated  and  men  have  decayed.  The  pursuit  of 
wealth,  however,  has  now  become  less  successful ;  we 
can  no  longer  so  readily  obtain  it  without  making  equiv- 
alent sacrifice.  Success  of  another  kind  is  now  approach- 
ing. All  our  material  wants  are  becoming  satisfied; — by 
means  of  the  telegraph,  steam  locomotion  and  freezing- 
machines  all  the  chief  articles  of  food  are  imported 
cheaply;  by  means  of  scientific  discoveries  and  the  inven- 
tions founded  upon  them  nearly  all  manufactured  arti- 
cles commonly  required  are  made  in  great  quantities,  and 
are  also  che^ip.  When  these  more  pressing  material 
wants  are  sufficiently  provided  for  men  will  more  readily 
seek  the  purer  happiness  derivable  from  knowledge. 
In  fact,  the  era  of  knowledge  has  already  commenced. 
As  civilized  nations  have  benefited  materially  by  the 
industrial  pursuit  of  money,  in"  the  application  of  coal 
and  steam  to  manufacturing  purposes,  may  they  also 
now  secure  the  unlimited  mental,  moral  and  physical 
happiness  obtainable  by  means  of  new  knowledge. 


THE   MYSTERY   OF   GRAVITY. 

BY    GEORGE    STEARNS. 

It  is  notorious  that  the  word  "attraction"  is  generally 
so  employed  in  the  literature  of  science  as  to  purport 
the  physical  cause  of  gravity.  Yet  no  expositor  of 
physics  has  attempted  to  demonstrate  that  part  of  the 
theory    which    this    item    of    its    terminology    denotes; 


unless  privately,  to  be  convinced  of  its  falsity.  On 
what  principle,  then,  has  the  deceptive  vogue  obtained? 
Can  the  agents  of  this  apparent  dissimulation  render  a 
better  reason  therefor  than  that  assigned  by  its  original 
exemplifier  (Newton),  who  adopted  a  misnomer  of  his 
own  thought,  and  tolerated  the  "  notion  of  attraction " 
merely  as  "a  convenient  means  of  regarding  the  sub- 
ject?" Here  is  the  sole  gist  of  their  exculpation.  But 
even  this  plausible  excuse  is  inadequate;  since  the  word 
gravitation  expresses  all  that  is  phenomenally  known 
of  the  subject,  whereas  the  word  "attraction"  signifies 
fictitiously  more  than  is  known,  or  rather  what  is  known 
to  be  false.  All  know  that  matter  gravitates,  but  why 
it  gravitates  is  an  open  question  which  the  talk  of 
attraction  insidiously  and  mischievously  forecloses. 

However,  Newton's  patronage  of  that  provisional 
appellation  was  ingenuous  and  discriminate;  which  is 
hardly  putative  of  his  nominal  disciples,  the  majority  of 
whom  have  thus  far  conserved  the  hasty  designation  ot 
his  thought  without  ever  mentioning  his  later  protest 
against  its  unqualified  application.  This  protest  is  still 
extant  as  an  item  of  correspondence,  wherein  he  wrote 
very  earnestly :  "  You  sometimes  speak  of  gravity  as 
essential  and  inherent  to  matter.  Pray,  do  not  ascribe 
that  notion  to  me,  for  the  cause  of  gravity  is  what  I  do 
not  pretend  to  know."  But  that  prayer  has  been  very 
generally  ignored,  or  else  viciously  unheeded.  Theo- 
rists, ostensibly  Newtonian,  seem  to  have  conspired  ever 
since  the  demise  of  Newton,  which  occurred  160  years 
ago,  to  embezzle  the  influence  of  his  name  in  support  of 
the  very  "notion  "  which  he  so  strenuously  renounced. 
In  fact,  of  all  the  reputed  votaries  of  physical  science, 
so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  less  than  half  a  dozen 
have  made  good  their  claim  to  exemption  from  the  fore- 
going indictment.  These  are  well-known  exponents  of 
science  proper,  whose  professional  careers  have  been 
fairly  signalized  by  success.  It  is  proper  to  say,  how- 
ever, that  in  relation  to  the  rationale  of  gravity,  they 
have  declared  themselves  purely  agnostic,  in  the  vein  of 
Newton's  protest  cited  above;  and  this  fact  is  what  sub- 
stantiates their  claim  to  be  respected  as  the  genuine 
advocates  and  expositors  of  his  superb  discovery,  which 
the  loose  talk  of  his  would-be  disciples  about  "  the  New- 
tonian theory  of  gravity"  tends  only  to  obscure.  It 
was  not  that — the  principle  according  to  which  gravity 
obtains — but  the  law  of  gravitation,  the  gist  of  which 
was  yet  to  be  conceived;  and  if  in  formulating  this  law 
he  employed  the  word  attraction,  he  soon  detected  his 
error  and  did  what  he  could  to  cancel  it. 

It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer  has  deliberately  and  unequivocally  classed  him- 
self with  the  few  eminent  scientists  who  side  with 
Newton  in  repudiating  "the  notion  of  attraction"  as 
identified  with  gravity.  In  Vol.  II.  p.  409,  Principles 
of  Psychology,  this  remark  occurs: 


55§ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


"  Mr.  Mill  says  that  Newton  held  an  etherial  me- 
dium to  be  a  necessary  implication  of  observed  facts; 
but  that  it  is  not  now  held  to  be  a  necessary  implication. 
I  do  not  think,  however,  that  scientific  men 'have  at 
last  learnt  to  conceive  the  sun  attracting  the  earth  with- 
out any  intervening  fluid;'  any  more  than  they  have 
learnt  to  '  conceive  the  sun  illuminating  the  earth  with- 
out some  such  medium.'  The  most  that  can  be  said  is 
that  they  have  given  up  attempting  to  conceive  how 
gravitation  results.  If,  however,  an  astronomer  avowed 
that  he  could  conceive  gravitative  force  as  exercised 
through  space  absolutely  void,  my  private  opinion 
would  be  that  he  mistook  the  nature  of  conception." 

"  Would  gravitation  have  any  existence  if  there 
were  but  one  particle  in  the  universe,  or  does  it  sud- 
denly come  into  existence  when  a  second  particle  ap- 
pears? Is  it  an  attribute  of  matter,  or  is  it  due  to  some- 
thing between  the  particles  of   matter?" 

These  two  double  questions  are  taken  from  an  article 
in  Chambers's  Encyclopedia  (supposed  to  have  been 
written  by  Balfour  Stewart).  They  are  consistent  with 
no  implicit  faith  in  "the  notion  of  attraction;"  and  the 
latter  of  the  two  implies  an  inkling  of  the  pertinent 
truth,  which  Dr.  Grove  also  insinuates  in  a  single 
instance  in  his  essay  on  "  The  Correlation  of  Physical 
Forces,"  thus : 

"  Would  two  bodies  gravitate  toward  each  other  in 
empty  space,  if  space  can  be  empty?  The  notion  that 
they  would  is  founded  on  the  theory  of  attraction,  which 
Newton  himself  repudiated,  further  than  as  a  convenient 
means  of  regarding  the  subject." 

The  implied  inference  from  ipse  dixit  which  this 
quotation  involves  is  somewhat  equivocal;  for  what  is 
here  called  a  "theory"  Newton  called  a  "notion"  and 
treated  as  a  figment.  Dr.  Grove  was  in  a  quandary, 
which  a  slightly  different  view  of  the  subject,  such  as 
Dr.  Faraday  excogitated,  might  have  prevented.  In  an 
essay  of  the  latter  on  "  The  Conservation  of  Force,"  as 
if  responding  to  both  parties  cited  above,  this  eminent 
physicist  remarked: 

"  For  my  own  part,  many  considerations  urge  my 
mind  toward  the  idea  of  a  cause  of  gravity  which  is  not 
resident  in  the  particles  of  matter  merely,  but  constantly 
in  them  and  in  all  space." 

To  say  that  was  almost  to  hit  the  nail  on  its  head. 
Nevertheless,  the  same  thinker  wrote  afterward: 

"As  to  the  gravitating  force,  I  do  not  presume  to 
say  that  I  have  the  least  idea  what  occurs  in  two  parti- 
cles when  their  power  of  mutually  approaching  each 
other  is  changed  by  their  being  placed  at  different  dis- 
tances; but  I  have  a  strong  conviction,  through  the 
influence  on  my  mind  of  the  doctrine  of  conservation, 
that  there  is  a  change;  and  that  the  phenomena  resulting 
from  the  change  will  probably  appear  some  day  as  the 
result  of  careful  research." 


The  drift  of  Faraday's  argument  is,  that  the  mask 
of  gravity  by  the  notion  of  physical  attraction  conflicts 
with  the  cosmic  dynamic  principle  whereof  gravity  is  a 
species;  that  thus  self- impugned,  the  conceit  of  attrac- 
tion is  exploded.    He  maintains  the  deductive  judgment — 

"That  there  should  be  a  power  of  gravitation  exist- 
ing by  itself,  having  no  relation  to  the  other  natural 
powers  and  no  respect  to  the  law  of  the  conservation  of 
force,  is  as  little  likely  as  that  there  should  be  a  principle 
of  levity  as  well  as  of  gravity.  *  *  *  So  we  must 
strive  to  learn  more  of  this  outstanding  power,  and 
endeavor  to  avoid  any  definition  of  it  which  is  incompati- 
ble with  the  principle  of  force  generally,  for  all  the 
phenomena  of  nature  lead  us  to  believe  that  the  great 
and  governing  law  is  one.  I  would  much  rather  incline 
to  believe  that  bodies  affecting  each  other  by  gravitation 
act  by  lines  of  force  of  definite  amount,  or  by  an  ether 
pervading  all  space,  then  admit  that  the  conservation 
of  force  could  be  dispensed  with." 

The  phrase  "by  an  ether  pervading  all  space,"  which 
I  have  italicized  as  significant,  but  which  he  wrote  with 
indifference,  suggests  the  rare  possibility  of  hitting  the 
nail  on  its  head  without  knowing  it.  But  I  must  say 
that  Faraday  was  the  most  expectant  of  all  his  com- 
peers in  the  line  of  inquiry  here  treated  of. 

Some  three  years  ago  I  cut  from  a  newspaper  the 
subjoined  bit  of  a  reported  lecture  by  Prof.  C.  A. 
Young,  the  reputable  occupant  of  the  astronomic  chair 
in  Princeton  College. 

"  Do  not  understand  me  at  all  as  saying  that  there  is 
no  mystery  about  the  planets'  motions.  There  is  just 
the  one  single  mystery — gravitation — and  it  is  a  very 
profound  one.  How  it  is  that  an  atom  of  matter  can 
attract  another  atom,  no  matter  how  great  the  disturb- 
ance, no  matter  what  intervening  substance  there  may 
be;  how  it  will  act  upon  it,  or  at  least  behave  as  if  it 
acted  upon,  it  I  do  not  know,  I  cannot  tell.  Whether 
they  are  pztshed  together  by  means  of  an  intervening 
ether,  or  what  is  the  action,  I  cannot  understand." 

Another  instance  of  blurting  the  truth  unawares,  as 
denoted  by  1113'  italics.  Such  an  avowal  as  overlays  this 
seemingly  unpurposed  suggestion  is  commendable  for 
the  frankness  and  fidelity  to  conviction  by  which  it 
must  have  been  prompted ;  and  if  not  so  appreciable  as 
an  announcement  of  successful  research,  its  compensa- 
tion is  assured  by  its  incitement  to  docility  of  aspiration, 
which  it  is  wise  to  cherish  and  every  functionary  of 
popular  education  should  cultivate  as  an  essential  con- 
duit of  intelligence.  If  all  the  reputed  spokesmen  of 
science  proper  would  act  their  special  parts  as  well  as 
did  Professor  Young  in  the  instance  adverted  to,  by 
telling  the  credulous  world  precisely  what  they  knozv, 
beyond  which  they  merely  guess,  as  to  the  physical 
cause  of  gravity,  I  fancy  the  tables  would  be  turned, 
and  that  the  list  of  scientists  who  side  with   Newton   in 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


559 


rejecting  the  surreptitious  "notion"  as  unscientific  would 
shortly  outnumber  its  half-earnest  supporters. 

But  the  issue  of  such  an  ordeal  would  not  be  final. 
The  negative  truth  here  sought  is  brought  to  light  by  a 
process  of  reasoning  from  other  data.  I  have  cited  sev- 
eral documentary  affirmations  of  personal  conviction  that 
the  conceit  of  physical  attraction  is 'inexplicable.  And  to 
this  testimony  of  five  unimpeachable  witnesses  there  is 
positively  no  counteracting  evidence.  For  I  dare  say 
if  all  the  nominal  abettors  of  the  said  vulgar  notion 
were  summoned  to  this  court  of  negative  inquest,  their 
undisputed  depositions  would  verge  to  a  tall}'  with  that 
of  the  younger  Herschel,  who  in  all  his  writings 
adverted  to  gravitation  only  as  "  that  mystery  of  mys- 
teries." How  differs  the  mysterious  from  the  inexplic- 
able? Yet  Sir  John  constantly  plied  the  policy  of  sup- 
posititious explication,  practically  blind  to  the  fact  that 
the  mystery  of  gravity  is  only  aggravated  by  misconceit 
of  its  process.  So,  too,  even  Newton  seems  never  to 
have  asked  himself  why  it  should  be  more  "convenient" 
I  to  regard  a  subject  in  the  fictitious  light  of  unwarrant- 
able assumption  than  in  the  apprehended  murk  of  mys- 
tery. Yet  his  virtual  reply  to  all  the  foregoing  queries 
of  his  aptest  disciples,  shows  that  he  came  nearer  than 
any  of  them  to  comprehending  the  principle  of  their 
common  seeking.  I  am  indebted  to  Faraday  for  the 
following  citation  from  Newton's  third  letter  to  Bentley, 
wherein  Sir  Isaac  abjured  the  figment  of  material  attrac- 
tion which  some  of  his  contemporaries  too  willingly 
imputed  to  him.  There  is  no  mistaking  the  import  of 
his  labored  expression  in  these  two  sentences: 

"  That  gravity  should  be  innate,  inherent  and  essen 
tial  to  matter,  so  that  one  body  may  act  upon  another 
at  a  distance,  through  a  vacuum,  without  the  mediation 
of  anything  else  by  and  through  which  their  action  and 
force  may  be  conveyed  from  one  to  another,  is  to  me  so 
great  an  absurdity,  that  I  believe  no  man  who  has  in  philo- 
sophical matters  a  competent  faculty  of  thinking,  can 
ever  fall  into  it.  Gravity  must  be  caused  by  an  agent, 
acting  constantly  according  to  certain  laws;  but  whether 
this  agent  be  material  or  immaterial,  I  have  left  to  the 
consideration  of  my  readers." 

"  There  you  have  it  plain  and  flat."  Newton  saw 
that  the  notion  of  physical  attraction  is  absurd.  He  did 
not  reject  it  for  being  inexplicable,  but  because  he  dis- 
cerned in  it  the  lineaments  of  impossibility;  for  what- 
ever is  absurd  is  impossible.  According  to  his  view  of 
the  matter,  bodies  fall  when  unsupported,  not  because 
the  earth  pulls  them  down,  but  in  effect  of  being  pushed 
downward  by  an  invisible  and  to  him  unknown  agency, 
the  substantive  nature  and  modus  agcndioi  which  nothing 
but  his  supposititious  theory  of  light  prevented  him 
from  conceiving.  But  since  Newton's  day  an  important 
discovery  has  been  made  through  which  the  fact  of 
gravitation  may  be  rationally  accounted  for.     This  item 


of  phvsical  science  pertains  to  "the  luminiferous  ether," 
whose  ascertained  dynamic  properties  verify  its  fit- 
ness to  serve  as  the  secondary  cause  of  gravity. 


SONNET. 

BY    GOWAN    LEA. 

THE    FIRST    SNOW. 

The  harvest  now  is  o'er;  the  fields  are  bare; 

And  yonder  is  the  ploughman  on  the  hill; 

The  water  freezes  in  the  purling  rill; 
Bleak  desolation  meets  me  everywhere. 
Grey  threatening  sky;  a  frost)-  atmosphere; 

The  haws  o'er-ripe  are  falling  from  the  trees; 

A  fairy  snow-flake  floating  on  the  breeze, 
Announces  that  the  winter-king  is  near. 
The  withered  leaves  are  moaning  as  I  go, 

A  requiem  for  the  sweet  season  dead; 
Each  little  flower  is  hiding  from  the  snow, 

And  happy,  happy  swallows — all  are  fled. 
My  spirit  turns  away :   with  other  eyes, 
I  still  can  see  the  blue — the  summer  skies. 


"Discussion  is  the  bulwark  of  truth." — Morrell. 

"  Hollow  trees  are  always  the  stiffest." — Magoon. 

"  Earnest  men  are  too  few  in  the  world." — Dxcight. 

"All  noble-minded  men  are  inclined  to  sadness." — 
Aristotle. 

"The  Lord  never  gave  mouths  without  bread  to 
put  in  them." 

"The  spade  digs  a  deeper  hole  than  the  lightning." 
— Horace  Mann. 

"  I  will  oblige  my  daughters  to  marry  for  love." — 
J\Iadaiue  de  Star/. 

"  The  greatest  homage  we  can  pay  to  truth  is  to 
use  it." — Emerson. 

The  mother  of  John  Wesley  tried  to  console  a  poor 
widow  with  the  saw: 

"Leave  the  world  better  for  your  having  lived  in 
it." — Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  Tramp  upon  your  feelings  when  principle  is  at 
takes."—/?r.  S.  J.   Wilson. 

"  Do  not  mistake  freedom  from  thinking  for  free 
thinking."—/)/-.  J/.    W.  Jacobus. 

"  Aweel,"  returned  she,  "but  he  gives  the  mouths  to 
the  poor  and  the  bread  to  the  rich." 

"Happiness  is  the  congruity  between  a  creature's 
nature  and  its  circumstances." — Bishop  Butler. 

"  We  have  no  reason  to  fear  that  the  poor  and  unfort- 
unate will  ever  receive  too  much  attention." — Mrs.  E. 
C.  Stanton. 

"  It  is  remarkable  with  what  Christian  resignation 
and  fortitude  we  can  bear  the  sufferings  of  other  folks." 
— Dean  Swift. 


560 


THB    OPEN    COURT. 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal. 


Published   every  other   Thursday  at    169   to    175  La  Salle  Street  (Nixor 
Buildingi,  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  F.  UNDERWOOD, 

EditCr  and  Manager. 


SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  thi  rewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  cf  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
:n  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open'  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  humanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
prohlems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind. 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B,  F 
Underwood,  Treasurer,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  111.,  to  whom 
should  be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 


THURSDAY,  NOVEMBER   to,   18S7. 


RELIGION   UPON   A   SCIENTIFIC  BASIS. 

Our  able  and  always  instructive  Unitarian  contempo- 
rary, the  Christian  Register,  after  quoting  from  Col.  T. 
W.  Higginson's  article,  which  lately  appeared  in  The 
Open  Court,  says:  "Mr.  Adleris  as  positive  as  Col. 
Higginson  in  seeing  the  inability  of  science  to  take  the 
place  of  those  supreme  ethical  motives  which  lie  at  the 
very  heart  of  religion." 

We  are  not  aware  that  anybody  expects  "  science  to 
take  the  place  of  those  supreme  ethical  motives  which 
lie  at  the  very  heart  of  religion."  But  are  not  these 
ethical  motives  a  part  of  the  natural  order?  Are  they 
not  related  to  the  past  and  the  present  ?  Do  they  not 
reveal  themselves  in  character  and  conduct?  Are  they 
not  within  the  region  of  law  and  causation?  And  can 
they  not,  therefore,  be  studied,  and  knowledge  of  them 
be  included  in  a  scientific  conception  of  religion?  Un- 
less volition  is  lawless,  it  can  be  made  a  subject  of  ra- 
tional study;  unless  it  is  supernatural,  forming  no  part 
of  the   sequent   order   of  phenomena,   it   belongs   to  the 


domain  of  science,  and  "those  supreme  ethical  motives 
pamphlet,  entitled  "Souvenir — 15th  Annual  Conven- 
which  lie  at  the  very  heart  of  religion  "  are  part  of  the 
data  to  be  carefully  considered  in  a  scientific  study  of 
religion. 

When  we  speak  of  religion  on  a  scientific  basis,  we 
mean  a  conception  of  religion  that  will  stand  the  test  of 
science,  that  accords  with  all  the  facts  of  religious  his- 
tory and  religious  experience,  and  that  is  in  harmony 
with  all  demonstrable  knowledge.  All  phenomena  are 
related,  and  all  the  sciences  are  but  portions  of  one 
science — the  science  of  the  universe.  Religious  thought, 
motive  and  practice  belong  to  the  phenomena  of  human 
life,  and  must  be  included  in  the  sciences  of  anthropol- 
ogy. A  scientific  study  of  religion  is  one  which  takes 
into  consideration  all  systems  of  religion,  their  special 
and  general  features,  their  ethical  and  nonethical  charac- 
teristics; a  scientific  conception  of  religion  can  have  no 
other  basis  than  knowledge  of  all  obtainable  facts  in 
regard  to  religious  thought,  feeling  and  action. 

We  are  aware  that  there  are  those  who  say  with 
Schleirmacher :  "Religion  belongs  neither  to  the  do- 
main of  science  nor  morals,  is  essentially  neither  knowl- 
edge nor  conduct,  but  emotion  only,  specific  in  its  nature 
and  inherent  in  the  immediate  consciousness  of  each  in- 
dividual man."  Religion  primarily,  is,  no  doubt,  emo- 
tion, but  out  of  this  which  is  fundamental  in  religion 
have  grown  vast  systems  of  thought  mixtures  of  truth 
and  error,  and  complex  forms  of  worship,  more  or  less 
irrational.  Reflective  thought,  through  countless  ages, 
exciting  a  multitude  of  emotions  and  adding  vastly  to 
the  wealth  of  man's  emotional  nature,  has  added  to  the 
complexity  of  the  religious  sentiment,  and  infused  into 
it  elements  derived  from  intellectual  and  moral  exper- 
ience; so  that  in  the  enlightened  mind,  with  the  primary 
religious  feeling,  is  intimately  associated  and  interwoven, 
much  which  belongs  to  the  latest  acquired  and  the  best 
part  of  human  nature.  And  this  religion  with  many  to- 
day means  the  essential  elements  of  ethics,  with  ethical 
motives  supreme. 

All  these  facts,  and  a  multitude  of  others,  in  regard  to 
the  development  of  the  religious  sentiment,  as  well  as  of 
religious  dogmas,  must  be  considered  in  a  scientific  study 
of  religion.  Regarded  as  emotion  merely,  religion  is  a 
proper  subject  for  stud}'  by  the  scientific  method.  It  is 
only  by  giving  to  science  a  verv  narrow  definition,  one 
wholly  unwarranted,  that  emotional  experience  can  be 
excluded  from  its  domain.  Science  is  classified  knowl- 
edge; knowledge  of  many  facts  grouped  and  arranged, 
so  as  to  form  a  basis  for  induction  and  data  for  rational 
conclusions,  and  to  reveal  relations  and  principles,  to 
which  the  facts  viewed  separately  give  no  clue. 


"  Thought  is   the  property   of  those   only  who  can 
entertain  it." — R.    W.  Emerson. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5«i 


ASSOCIATIONS   FOR   THE  ADVANCEMENT  OF 
WOMEN. 

We  are  in  receipt  of  an  artistically  gotten  up 
tion  of  the  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Women,  Invited  and  Entertained  by  Sorosis,  October 
26th,  27th  and  2Sth,  1SS7,"  which  contains  a  short  sketch 
of  the  history  of  Sorosis  and  its  offspring — the  "Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Women,"  or  "  Women's 
Congress." 

The  meeting  just  held  in  New  York, — the  second 
held  in  that  city — was  one  of  the  most  successful,  Julia 
Ward  Howe,  presiding,  and  the  receptions  given  to  the 
Congress  by  the  Sorosis  Club  and  by  Madam  Demorest 
were  delightful  in  many  ways,  and  especially  as  indica- 
tive of  the  admiration  women  can  feel  for  one  another. 
One  excellent  point  in  the  work  of  this  Association  is 
touched  upon  by  a  colored  member,  who  reports  the 
meetings  for  the  Conservator,  the  organ  of  the  colored 
people  of  this  city:  "The  statistics  relating  to  clubs,  to 
literary,  scientific  and  practical  methods  for  women 
help  included  every  species  of  work  and  every  device 
for  the  welfare  of  humanity,  without  race  or  sex 
discrimination,  as  fearlessly  asserted  and  approbated 
and  were  the  words  of  forceful  import  that  com- 
mended themselves  to  the  colored  women  members 
of  the  congress." 

Margaret  Fuller,  in  1S39,  began  her  "  Conversa- 
tions "  in  Boston,  the  motive  of  which  she  explains  in  a 
letter  to  her  friend,  Mrs.  Ripley,  in  these  words: 
"  The  advantages  of  a  weekly  meeting  for  conversation 
might  be  great  enough  to  repay  attendance  if  they  con- 
sisted only  in  supplying  a  point  of  union  to  well-educated 
and  thinking  women,  in  a  city  which,  with  great  pre- 
tensions to  mental  refinement,  boasts  nothing  of  the 
kind;  and  where  I  have  heard  many  of  mature  age 
wish  for  some  such  place  of  stimulus  and  cheer;  and 
those  younger  for  a  place  where  they  could  state  their 
doubts  and  difficulties  with  a  hope  of  gaining  aid  from 
the  experience  or  aspirations  of  others."  These  "  Con- 
versations "  were  continued  for  five  winters,  and  were 
devoted  to  the  study  of  the  best  French,  German, 
Italian,  and  English  literature,  and  mythology,  the  fine 
arts,  ethics  and  education.  These  "Conversations" 
were  then  the  result  of  a  demand  on  the  part  of  women 
for  exchange  of  thought,  and  a  longing  for  wider 
knowledge. 

But  it  is  not  quite  twenty  years  ago  that  the  organi- 
zation of  women  into  clubs  (as  exclusive  of  men  as 
hitherto  male  clubs  had  been  of  women )  began  in  this 
country.  The  agitation  of  the  Woman's  Suffrage 
question  had  doubtless  been  one  of  the  primal  causes 
which  made  such  organizations  necessary  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  sex.  In  the  pamphlet  before  us  "Sorosis"  is 
claimed  as  the  "  first  regularly  organized  Women's  Club 
in  America,"  but  the  movement  was  almost   simultane- 


ous with  that  of  the  organization  of  the  "  New  England 
Woman's  Club,"  which  ante-dated  that  of  Sorosis 
nearly  two  months.  That  club  was  organized  on  the 
16th  of  Februarv,  1S68,  and  "  Sorosis"  on  the  13th  of 
April  of  the  same  year.  The  A.  A.  \V.,  or  Woman's 
Congress,  which  meets  annually  in  a  sort  of  Missionarv- 
of-Culture  way,  in  some  one  of  the  leading  cities  of  the 
United  States,  was  an  outcome  of  Sorosis,  which,  in  1873, 
with  the  design  to  bring  together  in  this  way  the  repre- 
sentative women  of  the  country,  sent  circulars  of  invita- 
tion to  join  such  a  congress  to  three  hundred  women  in 
all  parts  of  the  United  States,  "  that  unitedly  they  might 
take  into  careful  consideration  the  many  important  ques- 
tions that  affect  the  life  and  happiness  of  women." 
The  meetings  of  the  Congress  have  so  far  been  held  in 
the  cities  of  New  York,  N.  Y.,  Chicago,  111.,  Syracuse, 
X.Y.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  Providence, 
R.  I.,  Madison,  Wis.,  Boston,  Mass.,  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
Portland,  Me.,  Baltimore,  Md.,  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  and 
Louisville,  Kentucky. 

The  influence  toward  the  advancement  of  women 
which  this  Congress,  tho'  meeting  but  once  a  year,  has 
exerted  may  be  inferred,  not  only  from  the  constantly 
increasing  formation  •  of  Women's  Clubs  all  over  the 
country,  but  from  the  high  tone  and  wide  scope  of  the 
papers  read  and  subjects  discussed  at  the  Congress. 

In  addition  to  many  essays  on  the  matters  heretofore 
considered  asspecially  belonging  to  "woman's sphere," — 
those,  for  example,  pertaining  to  home,  society,  dress, 
mission  and  church  work,  education  and  charity — there 
has  been,  since  the  organization  of  this  Association,  such 
and  kindred  topics  treated  as  "  Co-education  of  the 
Sexes,"  "  The  Higher  Education  of  Woman,"  "  Wo- 
man in  the  Church  and  in  the  Pulpit,"  "The  Medical 
Education  of  Women,"  "  Women  in  the  Legal  Pro- 
fession," "  Women's  Need  of  Business  Education," 
'  Women  in  the  Laboratory,"  "  Women's  place  in 
Government,"  "  Women  in  Journalism,"  "  Political 
Education  of  Women,"  "  Women  and  Land,"  "  The 
Comparative  Longevity  of  the  Sexes,"  "  The  Bramo- 
Somaj  Movement  in  Relation  to  Women,"  "  Educa- 
tion in  Industrial  Art,"  "What  Practical  Science  is 
open  for  Women,"  "Need  of  Women  Physicians  for 
the  Insane,"  "What  is  Money  ?"  "Political  Economy," 
"Organization  as  Related  to  Civilization,"  "  Our 
Museums  and  our  Investigators,"  "Cooperation," 
"Zoology,"  "Botany,"  "Bee  Culture,"  "The  Physical 
Basis  of  the  Mind,"  "  The  Chinese  Question,"  "Hered- 
ity," "  Labor  and  Capital,"  "Saturn,"  "Education  and 
Training  of  Indian  Women,"  "A  Study  of  Hegel," 
"The  Unity  of  Science,"  and  "Marriage  and  Divorce." 

Since  the  establishment  of  Sorosis  and  the  New- 
England  Woman's  Club,  and  more  particularly  since 
the  meetings  of  the  Woman's  Congress  have  been 
held,  a  new  impetus,  altogether   unknown   before   has 


562 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


been  given  to  the  organization  of  women  for  the  pur- 
poses of  higher  culture  and  the  advance  of  their  sex. 
Women  everywhere  begin  to  recognize  what  men  long 
ago  understood,  the  fact  that  unitedly  they  can  accom- 
complish  a  hundred-fold  more  than  when  working, 
however  earnestly,  alone.  In  all  these  clubs  which  are 
not  only  established  in  the  leading  cities,  but  in  many 
smaller  towns,  the  leading  questions  of  the  day,  evo- 
lution, sociology,  labor  and  capital,  the  sciences,  educa- 
tional topics,  as  well  as  the  highest  philosophy  and 
literature,  are  discussed  in  a  thoughtful  comprehensive 
manner,  held  a  few  decades  since  to  be  impossible 
among  women;  and  women  are  finding  a  keen  delight 
in  studies  hitherto  denied  to  them.  The  most  stupid 
among  such  club  members  cannot  fail  to  have  her  mind 
broadened,  her  knowledge  increased,  and  her  enthusiasm 
enkindled  by  listening  to  the  discussion  of  such  subjects, 
even  if  she  take  no  active  part;  and  the  advance  in 
knowledge  of  each  woman  means  a  distinct  ratio  of 
advance  in  the  race. 

As  adjuncts  of  these  clubs,  classes  are  formed  for  the 
stud}*  of  certain  writers  or  subjects,  as  of  architec- 
ture, politics,  political  economy,  literature  and  science — 
and  from  them  emanate  working  associations  for  edu- 
cational, reformatory,  charitable  and  philanthropic  insti- 
tutions. So  we  should  hail  with  delight  these  associa- 
tions for  the  advancement  of  women,  for  such  every 
phase  of  these  women  clubs  may  be  called ;  and  let  us 
also  hope  for  the  day  when,  through  these,  male  clubs 
may  take  a  higher  aim  than  mere  social  refreshment, 
and  then  men's  and  women's  clubs  may  become  amal- 
gamated into  associations  for  the  advancement  of  hu- 
manity, s.  a.  u. 

The  International  Congress  of  Freethinkers,  at 
London,  decided  on  September  10,  by  a  vote  of  twenty- 
eight  to  four,  in  conformity  with  the  opinion  of  Dr. 
L.  Buchner,  that  the  attitude  of  secular  instruction 
towards  religion  should  not  be  hostile,  but  neutral,  a 
conclusion  which  agrees  perfectly  with  the  method 
adopted  in  the  Open  Court,  of  displacing  error  by 
teaching  positive  truth.  At  the  closing  session,  on  Sep- 
tember 12,  the  Congress  adopted  a  resolution  urging 
freethinkers  to  take  an  active  interest  in  all  political, 
industrial  and  commercial  questions,  but  not  to  let  them- 
selves be  identified  as  a  body  with  any  socialistic  or 
anti-socialistic  theory. 

*  *  # 

The  Albany  Law  Journal  reprints  our  editorial  on 
"Anarchy  and  the  Anarchists,"  and  calls  it  "a  very  mod- 
erate article,  well  and  discreetly  written,"  but  it  seems 
to  have  had  but  little  or  no  effect  on  our  legal  contem- 
porary, who  thinks  hanging  is  "  the  best  use  to  make  of 
such  assassins  and  dastards."  But  the  Legal  Adviser 
of  this  city,  has  sounder  and  more  humane  views  on  this 
subject.     We  agree  with  it  when  it  says: 


This  is  not  alone  a  question  of  clemency;  it  is  a  question  ot 
public  interest.  It  is  demanded  by  men  of  sensational  minds 
prone  to  fear,  that  these  seven  men  be  executed  and  their  lives 
terminated,  lest  serious  consequences  of  riot  and  bloodshed  may 
follow,  which  would  be  subdued  from  the  example  of  their  exe- 
cution. To  this  it  is  answered,  that  such  men  entirely  mistake 
the  philosophy  of  the  human  mind.  These  men  are  convicted 
on  the  testimony  which  is  disputed  vigorously  by  multitudes  of 
men;  if,  therefore,  their  sentence  is  commuted,  it  will  be  viewed 
by  the  public  generally,  including  those  who  might  otherwise 
act  differently,  as  an  act  of  clemency  which  will  be  everywhere 
respected,  and  do  more  to  quiet  the  fear  expressed  than  any  other 
mode  that  could  be  pursued. 

*  *  * 

F.  M.  H.  writes: 

The  fact  that  Matthew  Arnold's  real  excellence  is  that  of  a 
poet,  not  a  theologian,  has  just  been  presented  to  a  literary  club, 
which  meets  near  Boston,  in  a  very  able  essay  by  Mr.  G.  Brad- 
ford, Jr.,  a  young  man  of  great  promise,  who  remarks  that  the 
intellect  of  the  author  of  Literature  and  Dogma  "  has  forced  him 
to  reject  what  he  considers  an  illusion,  but  his  poet's  imagination 
longs  passionately  for  the  sweet  dream  of  the  past."  "  Besides,  if 
one  talks  of  science,  is  it  scientific  to  speak  of  the  Eternal  Power 
which  makes  for  righteousness?  Mr.  Arnold  affirms  it,  but  I  do 
not  know  that  it  is  affirmed  by  any  one  else.  On  the  contrary,  I 
do  not  see  how,  from  a  rationalistic  point  of  view,  this  assumption 
is  any  more  warranted  than  a  hundred  others." 

*  #  # 

The  orthodox  ministers  are  about  as  unanimous 
against  commutation  before  death,  as  they  are  against 
probation  after  death.  At  a  meeting  of  Methodist  min- 
isters at  Cleveland  last  Monday,  twenty-nine  being  pres- 
ent, a  resolution  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  twenty-eight 
to  one,  to  send  a  letter  to  Governor  Oglesby,  urging 
him  to  show  no  mercy  to  the  condemned  anarchists,  but 
to  permit  them  to  be  hanged  according  to  sentence. 

*  *  * 

At  a  Catholic  congress  recently  held  at  Lie'ge,  in 
Belgium,  the  various  proposed  solutions  of  the  labor 
problem,  cooperation,  socialism,  nationalization  of  land, 
etc.,  were  condemned.  The  Bishop  of  Lie^ge  offered  as 
the  true  solution  the  revival  of  the  old  trade  guilds, 
which,  he  said,  should  be  placed  under  the  guardianship 
of  Christian  lay  employers  and  of  the  clergy,  with  each 
trade  or  calling,  under  the  protection  of  a  saint;  and  all 
engaged  in  it,  employers  and  employes,  formed  into  a 
brotherhood  to  celebrate  the  saint's  fete,  and  taking  part 
in  religious  processions,  as  well  as  to  render  mutual 
help.  Certainly  this  scheme  is  as  impracticable  as  any 
of  those  criticised  at  the  congress,  and  it  is  not  likely  to 
receive  any  attention  from  the  working  classes. 

*  *  * 

The  average  number  of  visitors  at  the  Museum  of 
Fine  Arts  in  Boston  during  1SS6  was  1,455  on  Sundays, 
and  S7S  on  Saturdays.  Admission  on  both  these  days 
is  free;  but  the  time  the  library  is  open  is  twice  as  long 
on  Saturday  as  on  Sunday.  The  average  number  of 
paying  visitors  on  other  days  is  sixty-five. 


THE    OP-EN    COURT. 


5<>3 


At  Miner's  theatre,  New  York,  recently,  there  was 
a  debate  between  Henry  George  and  Mr.  Shevitch  on 
a  "land  tax."  Inside  the  building  were  3,000  working- 
men  and  as  many  outside,  the  auditorium  not  being 
large  enough  to  hold  them.  The  discussion  is  described 
as  "hot  and  exiting,"  and  the  "reds"  and  the  "blues" 
claimed  the  victory  for  their  respective  champions.  The 
New  York  Herald  says,  that  ideas  were  thrown  among 
the  audience  "by  the  handful,"  and  adds:  "The  work- 
ingmen  have  their  thinking  caps  on,  and  by-and-by  they 
will  straighten  out  whatever  is  crooked  by  helping  to 
repeal  bad  laws  and  to  make  good  ones.  Society  needs 
to  be  improved,  and  that  immense  crowd  got  hold  of  the 
best  way  to  accomplish  it  when  they  preferred  a  dis- 
cussion to  a  bludgeon." 

*  *         * 

Said  Rev.  David  Utter,  in  his  sermon  at  Kansas  City  at  the 
recent  installation  of  Rev.  J.  E.  Roberts: 

Ethics  is  not  the  root  from  which  this  church,  from  which  the  Christian 
religion  grew.  That  root  is  faith  in  God.  And  if  any  of  you  should  hear  at  any 
time  in  the  future  some  one  talking  about  an  ethical  basis  for  the  Unitarian 
church,  count  him  as  a  dreamer,  one  who  is  blind  to  the  consequences  of  his 
pretty,  airy  theories.  We  believe  in  a  real  church,  and  a  living  real  religion, 
and  the  root  of  the  whole  mitter  is  not  morality,  but  is  faith  in  God. 

This  is  well  said,  strongly  said.  But  it  is  truth,  and  needs  to 
be  said  not  in  one  pulpit  only,  but  in  hundreds,  if  Unitarianism 
in  the  West  is  not  to  be  lost  in  ethicalism.  And  it  must  not  only 
be  said  but  acted  upon. — The  Unitarian. 

"An  ethical  basis  for  the  Unitarian  Church"  is  much 
better  than  a  theological  basis;  and  if  Unitarianism  shall 
never  be  lost  in  anything  worse  than  "  ethicalism,"  its 
best  elements  are  sure  to  be  preserved,  for  "  those  su- 
preme ethical  motives  which,"  says  the  Christian 
Register  "lie  at  the  very   heart  of  religion,"  will  still 

remain. 

*  *  * 

Commenting  on  the  popular  fallacy,  expressed  in 
the  words,  "Labor  creates  all  Wealth,"  the  Chicago 
Tribune  sensibly  observes: 

If  the  term  "labor"  be  applied  so  as  to  include  all  kinds  of 
human  effort,  and  especially  the  work  of  the  mind,  there  could  be 
no  question  as  to  the  propriety  of  the  axiom  cited.  In  practice 
just  the  reverse  is  true.  The  "labor"  which  is  alleged  to  be  the 
creator  of  wealth  and  the  cause  of  progress  is  that  of  the  muscles, 
not  of  the  creative  brain.  No  allowance  is  made  for  the  brain 
sweat  of  inventors  and  discoverers;  no  place  is  reserved  in  the 
calculation  for  such  labor-saving  and  wealth-producing  triumphs 
as  the  application  of  improved  steam  power,  the  harnessing  of 
electricity,  the  invention  and  perfection  of  railroads  and  trains,  or 
of  agricultural  implements  that  increase  and  cheapen  food,  and 
the  developement  of  countless  mechanical  devices  which  have 
changed  the  face  of  civilization  in  the  last  half-century.  Did 
Watt,  Stephenson,  Arkwright,  Howe,  Fulton,  Whitney,  McCor- 
mick,  Bessemer,  Morse  and  Edison  do  nothing  to  create  capital 
or  wealth?  What  comparison  can  be  made  betweed  Whitney  and 
the  toiling  blacks  as  producers  of  wealth?  In  a  period  of  twenty, 
seven  years  following  Whitney's  discovery  the  production  ot 
cotton  in  the  United  States  advanced  from  138,000  pounds  per 
annum  to  127,860,000,  or  an  increase  of  nearly  a  thousandfold! 
Such  was  the  astounding  result  following  the  application  of  brain 
power  to  an  industry  previously  worked  by  slight-skilled  physical 
labor.  Pages  could  be  filled  with  the  enumeration  of  brain 
triumphs  only  a  few  degrees  less  significant. 


I  was  not  altogether  satisfied  with  the  manner  in  which  the 
trial  of  the  Anarchists  was  conducted.  It  took  place  at  a  time  of 
great  public  excitement,  when  it  was  about  impossible  that  they 
•  should  have  a  fair  and  impartial  trial.  A  terrible  crime  had  been 
committed  which  was  attributed  to  the  Anarchists,  and  in  some 
respects  the  trial  had  the  appearance  of  a  trial  of  an  organization 
known  as  Anarchists,  rather  than  of  persons  indicted  for  the 
murder  of  Degan.  Several  of  the  condemned  were  not  at  the 
meeting  where  the  bomb  was  thrown,  and  none  of  them,  as  I 
understand,  was  directly  connected  with  its  throwing.  The  con- 
demned claim,  however  erroneously,  to  be  the  advocates  of 
a  principle,  and  to  execute  them  would,  in  my  judgment,  be  bad 
policy.  It  will  be  claimed  for  them  that  they  were  executed  as 
martyrs  to  a  cause,  while  if  put  in  prison  they  will  soon 
be  forgotten.  Lyman  Trumbull. 


Those  advocates  of  equal  rights  and  equal  opportu 
nities  for  women,  who  seek  to  identify  their  cause  with 
the  Christian  theology,  overlook  the  fact  that  Christian- 
ity is  an  Orientalism,  that  only  where  it  has  been  modi- 
fied by  Roman  and  Germanic  influences,  and  by  modern 
extra-Christian  and  anti-Christian  thought,  do  its  repre- 
sentatives regard  woman's  position  other  than  one  of 
subserviency  and  subordination,  and  that  where  it  exists 
even  in  this  modified  form,  every  effort  made  to  improve 
the  condition  of  woman  is  constantly  opposed  by  appeals 
to  the  Bible.  During  the  decay  of  ancient  institutions, 
Christianity  put  itself  in  opposition  to  a  strong  tendency 
of  the  times  by  emphasizing  the  duty  of  chastity  and 
marital  fidelity;  but  its  teachings  in  regard  to  woman 
caused  her  to  be  regarded  as  impure,  and  led  to  an 
unhealthy  asceticism,  which  proclaimed  war  upon  nature, 
and  produced  a  revulsion  toward  its  opposite  extreme, 
while  the  independence  and  intellectual  culture  of 
woman  were  discouraged,  and  for  centuries  she  ceased 
to  figure  in  history  except  as  a  devotee.  It  is  as  true  of 
the  advancement  of  woman  as  of  progress  in  general, 
that  during  the  past  three  hundred  years,  as  Lecky 
says:  "the  deadence  of  theological  influence  has  been 
one  of  the  most  invariable  signs  and  measures  of  our 
progress."  Some,  recognizing  this  fact,  make  a  dis- 
tinction between  Pauline  Christianity  and  the  moral 
precepts  of  Christ;  but  the  influence  of  a  system  must 
be  judged  not  so  much  by  its  precepts  of  virtue  as  by  its 
doctrines,  which  have  been  widely  accepted,  ami  have 
been  favorable  or  otherwise  to  the  practice  of  these 
precepts.  That  Christianity,  like  the  older  religions, 
has  been  necessary  to  the  attainment  of  the  present  social 
condition,  such  as  it  is,  and  that  it  has  met  certain  wants 
and  contributed  some  elements  to  human  progress,  is  as 
true  as  that,  in  other  respects,  it  has  been  reactionary  and 
has  retarded  progress.  Christianity  would  long  since 
have  become  extinct  in  every  enlightened,  progressive 
country  but  for  modifications  in  the  popular  mind  and  in 
practical  life,  making  it  agree  largely  with  the  require- 
ments of  science  and  industry.  If  we  should  ascribe  all 
the  art,  literature,  science,  virtue,  and  freedom  in  ancient 


564 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Rome  to  the  pagan  religion,  we  would  not  be  more 
unreasonable  than  are  those  who,  whenever  they  speak 
of  anything  worthy  in  our  modern  civilization,  ascribe  it 
to  the  influence  of  the  Bible  and  Christianity. 


All  personal  letters  for  the  editors  of  this  journal 
should  be  addressed  to  their  residence,  86  Page  Street, 
Chicago. 


RELATIVITY 


We  cannot  perhaps,  within  the  limits  of  an  editorial  article, 
more  clearly  show  the  essential  meaning  of  the  indisputable  doc- 
trine of  the  "relativity  of  knowledge"  than  by  grouping  together 
a  few  facts  in  regard  to  the  psychology  of  the  senses. 

Aerial  vibrations  communicated  to  the  acoustic  nerve  give 
rise  to  the  sensation  known  as  sound.  Without  a  nerve  of  hearing 
there  can  be  no  sound ;  for,  whether  it  be  the  tempest's  roar,  or  the 
serpent's  hiss,  or  the  voice  of  human  sympathy  and  love,  sound 
is  a  sensible  phenomenon,  and  not  something  external  to  the 
hearer.  Color  is  also  a  subjective  affection ;  and  particular  colors 
depend  on  the  particular  velocities  of  the  waves  of  attenuated 
matter  gathered  together  by  the  optical  apparatus  of  the  eye,  and 
which  impinge  upo»  the  retina,  affecting  the  optic  nerve  and 
giving  rise  to  what  appear  objectively  as  colors, — blue,  green, 
violet,  etc., — but  which  are  known  to  be  sensations,  or  conscious 
states.  This  is  as  true  of  the  "rosy  cheek,"  the  "ruby  lip,"  and 
the  "  lovelit  eye,"  as  it  is  of  the  blue  sky  above  us  or  the  brown 
earth  beneath  our  feet.  In  some  persons,  vibrations  as  different 
in  velocity  as  those  which§  commonly  cause  redness  and  green- 
ness awaken  identical  sensations.  Luminousness  is  a  sensation 
produced  by  the  action  of  waves  of  ether  upon  the  retina  and 
fibres  of.the  optic  nerve.  This  sensation  may  also  be  produced  by 
a  blow  or  by  electricity,  which,  singularly  enough,  while  it  causes 
luminous  phenomena  in  the  eye,  brought  in  contact  with  other 
parts,  gives  rise  to  quite  different  sensations, — sounds  in  the  ear, 
taste  in  the  mouth,  ticklings  in  the  tactile  nerves.  That  tastes 
and  odors  are  not  intrinsic  in  things  with  which  we  associate 
them  is  very  evident.  The  sweetness  of  sugar  and  the  fragrance 
of  the  rose  are  sensations  in  us  caused  by  these  objects,  the  one 
appreciated  by  the  sense  of  taste,  the  other  by  the  sense  of  smell. 
Heat,  too  is  a  sensation,  and  is  conceivable  objectively  only  as  a 
mode  of  motion. 

Another  quality  which  we  ascribe  to  things  is  hardness.  But 
hardness  cannot  be  intelligently  conceived,  except  as  a  feeling. 
When  we  say  that  a  stone  is  hard,  we  mean  that,  if  we  press 
against  it,  we  experience  a  sensation  of  touch,  a  feeling  of  resis- 
tance, which  is  designated  by  the  word  "  hardness."  To  illustrate 
that  both  hardness  and  form  belong  to  the  groups  of  our  con- 
sciousness which  we  call  sensation  of  sight  and  touch,  Huxley 
observes:  "If  the  surface  of  the  cornea  were  cylindrical,  we 
should  have  a  very  different  notion  of  a  round  body  from  that 
which  possess  now;  and,  if  the  strength  of  the  fabric  and  the 
force  of  the  mucsles  of  the  body  were  increased  a  hundred  fold, 
our  marble  would  seem  to  be  as  soft  as  a  pellet  of  bread  crumbs." 
What  we  call  penetrability  is  the  consciousness  of  extension  and 
the  consciousness  of  resistence  constantly  accompanying  one  an- 
other. What  we  call  extension  is  a  consciousness  of  relation  be- 
tween two  or  more  states  produced  through  the  sense  of  sight  or 
the  sense  of  touch.  Even  the  conception  of  vibrations  among 
particles  of  matter,  mentioned  above  as  objective  factors  in  the 
production  of  sound  and  color,  is  but  inferences  from  states  ot 
consciousne^s  caused  in  us  by  vibrations  which  have  been  apprec- 


iated by  the  optic  or  tactile  nerves;  in  other  words,  by  subjective 
experiences  produced  in  us  by  some  unknown  cause. 

Thus,  what  are  popularly  believed  to  be  qualities  and  states 
of  matter — sound,  color,  odor,  taste,  hardness,  extension  and 
motion — are  names  for  different  ways  in  which  our  consciousness 
is  affected;  and,  were  we  destitute  of  hearing,  sight,  smell,  taste 
and  touch,  the  supposed  qualities  of  matter  would  not,  so  far  as 
we  can  know  or  conceive,  have  any  existence  whatever,  for,  by 
psychological  analysis,  they  are  reducible  to  states  of  con- 
sciousness. 

As  to  Space  and  Time,  whether  we  regard  them  with  Kant  as 
forms  of  sensibility,  belonging  to  the  subject  and  not  to  the  object, 
or  adopt  Spencer's  theory,  that  Space  is  the  abstractof  all  relations 
of  position  among  co-existent  states  of  consciousness  or  the  blank 
form  of  all  these  relations,  and  that  Time  is  the  abstract 
of  all  relations  of  position  among  successive  states  of  con- 
sciousness or  the  blank  form  in  which  they  are  presented 
and  represented,  and  that  both  classes  of  relations  are 
predetermined  in  the  individual,  so  far  as  the  inherited  organi- 
zation is  developed,  when  it  comes  into  activity,  while  both 
have  been  developed  in  the  race,  and  are  resolvable  into  re- 
lation co-existent  and  sequent  between  subject  and  object  as  dis 
closed  bv  the  act  of  touch, — whichever  of  these  theories  we  adopt 
or  whatever  theory  be  affirmed,  still  we  know  Space  and  Time 
only  as  subjective  forms  of  states,  not  as  external  realities.  Both 
Space  relations  and  Time  relations  vary  with  structural  organiz- 
ation, position,  vital  activity,  mental  development  and  condition. 
How  great  in  childhood  seemed  the  height  and  mass  of  buildings 
which  now  seem  small  or  of  but  moderate  size!  How  long  the  days 
seemed -when  we  were  young;  how  short  now!  How  rapidly  time 
passes  in  agreeable  company,  how  slowly  in  waiting  for  a  delayed 
train!  That  there  is  equality  or  likeness  between  our  different 
estimated  lengths  of  distance  or  duration, — but  so  many  variations 
of  subjective  relations, — and  any  nexus  of  external  things,  there  is 
no  reason  to  believe. 

But  does  not  the  mind  possess  a  synthetic  power  by  which  it 
can  put  together  the  materials  furnished  by  the  senses,  and  thus 
enable  us  to  realize  or  understand  the  objective  world  as  it  actually 
exists?  Is  there  not  in  the  mind  a  faculty  of  "intellectual  intu- 
ition," or  a  "  perceptive  understanding,"  by  which  we  can  discover 
relations  as  they  are  beyond  consciousness?  If  we  do  not  know 
the  nature  of  noumenal  existence,  how  can  we  know  anything 
about  its  relations?  The  great  Kant  dw-elt  upon  this  subject  for 
years;  and,  although  he  believed  in  an  existence  transcending 
sense  and  understanding,  the  conclusion  of  his  years  of  laborious 
thought  was  that  we  can  only  put  together  the  materials  furnished 
by  the  senses,  and  that  we  can  know  nothing  of  the  world  as  it 
exists,  unmodified  by  and  independently  of  consciousness.  To  the 
same  conclusion,  after  years  of  profound  thought,  came  Herbert 
Spencer. 

Although  there  seems  to  be  almost  a  complete  unanimity 
among  the  great  thinkers  of  the  world  that  we  can  form  no 
conception  of  the  objective  world  apart  from  the  condition  im- 
posed upon  it  by  our  intelligence,  and  that  changes  of  conscious- 
ness are  the  materials  out  of  which  our  knowledge  is  entirely 
built,  let  no  one  hastily  conclude  that  there  is  anything  in  this 
position  inimical  to,  or  inconsistent  with  what  is  called  "objective 
science."  Prof.  Huxley,  one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the  greatest,  ol 
living  scientists,  and  a  philosophic  thinker  of  no  mean  ability, 
pursuing  the  "scientific  method"  with  which  he  is  supposed  to  be 
well  acquainted,  comes  to  the  conclusion  "  that  all  the  pheno- 
mena are,  in  their  ultimate  analysis,  known  to  us  only  as  facts  of 
of  consciousness."  George  Henry  Lewes,  eminent  as  a  physiolo- 
gist and  psychologist,  as  well  as  a  remarkably  acute  metaphysical 
thinker,  versed  in  all  systems  of  thought,  declares  in  his  Problems 
of  Life  and  Mind:     "  Whether  we  affirm  the  objective  existence  of 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


S6« 


something  distinct  from  the  affection  of  consciousness,  or  affirm 
that  this  object  is  simply  a  reflection  from  consciousness,  in  either 
case  we  declare  that  the  objective  world  is  to  each  man  the  sum 
of  his  visionary  experience, — an  existence  bounded  on  all  sides  by 
what  he  feels  and  thinks, — a  form  shaped  by  the  reaction  of  his 
organism.  The  world  is  the  sum  total  of  phenomena,  and  phenom- 
ena are  affections  of  consciousness  with  externa/  signs"  (Vol.  i.,  p. 
183.)  Dr.  Maudsley,  the  distinguished  physiologist  who  is  no  more 
than  Spencer  or  Lewes  a  subjectivist  or  idealist, — who,  indeed,  is 
commonly  regarded  as  a  materialist, — says:  "After  all,  the  world 
which  we  apprehend  when  we  are  awake  may  have  as  little  re- 
semblance or  relation  to  the  external  world,  of  which  we  can  have 
no  manner  of  apprehension  through  our  senses,  as  the  dream 
world  has  to  the  world  with  which  our  senses  make  us  acquainted ; 
nay,  perhaps  less,  since  there  is  some  resemblance  in  the  latter 
case,  and  there  may  be  none  whatever  in  the  former.  .  .  The 
external  world  as  it  is  in  itself,  may  not  be  in  the  least  what  we 
conceive  it  through  our  forms  of  perception  and  modes  of  thought 
No  prior  experience  of  it  has  ever  been  so  much  as  possible;  and 
therefore,  the  analogy  of  the  dreamer  is  altogether  defective  in 
that  respect."     (Body  and  U'iil,  p.  51.) 

This  is  the  position  of  nearly  all  the  great  representatives  of 
science,  including  the  original  investigators, — Huxley,  Tyndall 
Montgomery,  Lewes,  Proctor,  Romanes,  el  id  oinne  genus.  To  a 
young  man  who  asked  him  if  idealism  was  not  the  "  very  negation 
of  science,"  one  of  the  most  ingenious  and  acute  thinkers  this 
country  has  produced — Chauncey  Wright — wrote :  "  By  objective 
science,  I  understand  the  science  of  the  objects  of  knowledge  as 
contradistinguished  from  the  processes  and  faculties  of  knowing- 
Does  idealism  deny  that  there  are  such  objects?  Is  not  the  doc- 
trine a  definition  of  the  nature  of  the  objects  rather  than  a  denial 
of  their  existence?  There  is  nothing  in  positive  science,  or  the 
study  of  phenomena  and  their  laws,  which  idealism  conflicts  with. 
Astronomy  is  just  as  real  a  science,  as  true  an  account  of  pheno- 
mena and  their  laws,- -if  phenomena  are  only  mental  states, — as 
on  the  other  theory."  B.  F.  Underwood.  (Reprinted  from  The 
Index  of  February  25th,  18S6,  by  request.) 


DIFFUSION   OF   INDUSTRIES. 

BY   F.   B.  TAYLOR. 

The  enactment  of  the  Inter-State  Commerce  Law  has  awak- 
ened in  the  smaller  towns,  at  least  in  the  West,  the  hope  of 
securing  a  much  larger  proportion  of  manufacturing  and  whole 
sale  trade  than  they  have  heretofore  enjoyed.  It  is  argued  by  the 
local  press  that  the  abolition  of  discrimination  in  freight  rates  will 
enable  the  small  manufacturer  to  compete  with  the  large,  by 
giving  him  the  trade  adjacent  to  his  little  factory.  The  Long  and 
Short  Haul  Clause  is  expected  to  restore  something  of  the  natural 
advantage  belonging  to  proximity  of  producer  and  consumer. 
This  belief  has  gone  beyond  mere  words.  It  has  found  expression 
in  many  localities  in  both  private  and  public  movements  for  the 
establishment  of  new  manufacturies. 

Whatever  may  be  the  ultimate  practical  effect  of  the  new- 
law,  it  is  now  undoubtedly  expected  to  diffuse  and  in  a  measure 
equalize  industries  as  between  different  sections,  and  especially  as 
between  city  and  country.  And  this  very  expectation  will  tend 
to  produce  the  desired  result.  Like  the  stability  of  a  currency 
the  movement  of  business  is  much  a  matter  of  confidence;  and 
individual  confidence  is  largely  a  result  of  public  sentiment.  I' 
it  be  generally  believed  that  the  making  and  selling  of  goods  may 
be  as  profitably  carried  on  in  a  town  or  small  city  as  in  the  great 
business  center,  factories  and  wholesale  houses  will  speedily  be 
established  there;  and  once  established  their  patronage  of  the 
railroad  and  demands  upon  it  will  tend  to  the  supremacy  of  the 
idea  under  which  they  come  into  existence.  Unless  the  Inter- 
state  Commerce   Law  shall  be  repealed  or  nullified   in   practice 


(neither  of  which  events  is  probable)  it   must  exert  some  force 
indirect  if  nothing  more,  toward  spreading  out  industries. 

A  different  cause  has  acted  even  more  powerfully  in  industrial 
centers  toward  the  same  result.  The  protracted  and  unprece- 
dented labor  troubles  of  the  past  two  years  have  created  a  general 
sentiment  there  in  favor  of  separating  laborers  as  much  as  po^i- 
ble,  and  removing  them  as  far  as  convenient  from  the  disturbing 
influence  of  extreme  social  agitators  so  abundant  in  large  cities. 
Nor  is  sentiment  alone  the  result  in  this  case.  Some  large 
employers  have  actually  commenced  the  work  of  establishing 
branches  of  their  industries  in  the  smaller  towns  and  cities  with 
a  view  to  ultimately  reducing  the  parent  plant  to  more  wieldv 
proportions;  and  many  others  are  seriously  considering  a  similar 
movement.  They  have  become  disheartened  by  the  difficulties  of 
managing  their  hands  as  regiments  in  the  great  organized  array 
of  laborers  quartered  in  large  cities,  and  propose  dividing  them 
into  comparative^'  small  squads  separated  by  long  distances  and 
surrounded  by  new  and  healthier  influences.  This  idea  is  quite  as 
acceptable  to  many  of  the  employed  as  to  the  employers.  I  have 
frequently  met  in  the  country  intelligent  mechanics  who  had 
actually  fled  from  cities  to  escape  the  tyranny  of  labor  unions, 
leaving  family  and  all  behind,  in  search  of  work  in  a  place  too 
small  and  remote  for  the  organization  to  reach.  They  prefer 
lower  wages  and  greater  freedom. 

The  idea  of  the  diffusion  of  industries  is  thus  brought  into 
prominence  from  opposite  directions.  Is  it  an  accidental  and 
momentary  elevation,  destined  to  subside  into  the  current  that  has 
carried  all  manufacturing  and  commerce  to  the  cities;  or  does  it 
indicate  a  permanent  stoppage  or  reversal  of  that  flow? 

It  seems  to  be  a  law  of  progress  in  any  art  or  invention  that 
it  first  moves  away  from  nature;  but  that  either  in  its  greatest  per- 
fection returns  most  nearly  to  the  natural  type.  In  natural  methods 
of  transportation  cost  varies  as  distance  modified  by  few  and  con- 
stant natural  conditions.  The  natural  order  was  to  limit  trans- 
portation to  the  lowest  point.  The  spontaneous  form  of  manu- 
facture was  handicraft.  The  shop  in  the  hamlet  or  by  the 
roadside  was  the  original  of  our  present  mammoth  factory. 
Goods  were  consumed,  if  not  by  the  identical  persons  who 
wrought  them,  at  least  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  their 
manufacture. 

When  the  artificial  took  the  place  of  the  natural  in  industry 
this  order  was  reversed,  both  as  to  production  and  transportation- 
Distance  as  a  factor  in  freight  charges  was  almost  annihilated  bv 
the  railroads,  and  in  innumerable  instances  actually  changed  from 
a  plus  to  a  minus  quantity.  The  multiplication  of  machinery  has 
well-nigh  eliminated  the  human  element  from  manufacture.  It 
began,  by  absorbing  the  many  shops  into  the  few  factories,  the 
work  of  industrial  centralization  so  thoroughly  completed  by  a 
transportation  system  managed  on  principles  the  reverse  of 
natural. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  modern  industrial  system  has  reached 
that  degree  of  perfection  when  it  must  return  more  nearly  to  the 
natural  type.  Cheap  and  rapid  loading,  unloading,  stopping,  start- 
ing and  switching  constitute  a  higher  order  of  railroad  operation 
than  long-distance  hauling  of  unbroken  bulk  and  trains.  The 
machinery  and  management  that  enable  comparatively  few-  men 
and  small  capital  to  produce  goods  as  cheaply  as  larger  numbers 
and  greater  investments  are  the  latest  development  of  manufact- 
ure. Progress  is  in  the  direction  of  simplicity.  Public  feeling 
is  for  equality  of  localities  in  industrial  opportunities  so  tar  as 
these  are  controlled  by  artificial  agencies.  If  I  mistake  not,  an 
industrial  democracy  is  arising  whose  mission  it  shall  be  to  suc- 
cessfully combat  the  centralization  of  work  and  wealth  in  a  few- 
great  cities.  The  people  having  taken  the  first  and  most  difficult 
step  toward  the  regulation  of  commerce,  will  not  move  backward 
or  stand  still.     Having  elevated  the  question  of  the  equal  indus- 


;<><> 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


trial  rights  of  localities  to  the  plane  of  public  policy,  they  will 
continue  to  discuss  it  intelligently  and  act  upon   it   patriotically. 

Once  freed  from  the  entanglements  of  private  speculation,  no 
proposition  is  more  readily  susceptible  of  proof  than  that  all 
legislation  on  economic  subjects  should  be  directed  toward  the 
diffusion  of  industries  as  evenly  as  may  be  over  the  entire  coun- 
try. It  is  self-evident  that  the  nearer  different  classes  of  producers, 
<?ach  of  which  is  consumer  for  all,  can  be  brought  together,  the 
cheaper  they  can  supply  each  other's  wants.  Transportation  is 
purely  an  expense  item,  and  should  be  held  down  to  the  lowest 
ligure.  Uncontrolled,  the  policy  of  modern  transportation  com- 
panies has  been  the  exact  opposite  of  this.  They  have  employed 
much  of  their  energy  hauling  coals  to  New  Castle,  in  order  to 
haul  them  back  again  at  double  cost  to  the  consumer  and  profit  to 
themselves. 

It  is  perhaps  not  well  enough  understood  in  all  parts  of  the 
Union  that  the  enormous  industrial  centers  which  have  sprung  up 
with  such  marvelous  rapidity  in  the  West  are  the  children  of  rail- 
road favoritism.  To  one  who  has  stood  during  the  last  dozen 
years  in  the  center  of  a  circle  whose  circumference  passes  through 
Chicago,  Minneapolis,  Omaha  and  Kansas  City,  and  watched 
prosperity  take  its  westward  way,  with  the  course  of  empire, 
from  the  fertile  fields  of  Illinois  and  Iowa,  there  comes  a  realizing 
sense  of  the  effects  of  discrimination  in  freight  rates.  The  main 
force  of  railroads  has  been  exerted  centripetally,  carrying  in  to  the 
favored  centers  the  wealth  and  work  of  the  whole  land. 

Government  has  laid  its  hand  upon  the  throttle  lever  of  this 
mighty  discrimination  engine.  Suppose  it  should  put  out  another 
hand  and  reverse  its  action !  Would  not  the  wealth,  the  business, 
the  population  be  carried  back  to  the  towns  and  rural  districts? 
Railroads  under  uncontrolled  corporate  management  have  been 
used  to  build  great  cities  and  favor  localities.  Could  they  not 
under  governmental  regulation  be  made  to  undo  in  a  degree  their 
own  work,  and  establish  industrial  republicanism  instead  of  aris- 
tocracy? If  discrimination  in  favor  of  particular  points  and  of 
the  long  haul  has  created  a  few  abnormal  trade  centers,  would  not 
exact  justice  between  localities  and  pro  rata  rates  for  all  distances 
build  up  a  multitude  of  small  ones?  Such  a  readjustment  of 
industrial  conditions  would  not  greatly  decrease  the  aggregate  of 
transportation,  because  it  would  greatly  increase  the  volume  of 
local  traffic.  It  would  simply  stop  the  waste  of  double  transpor- 
tation, and  a  fair  division  of  the  saving  with  the  consumer  would 
compensate  the  roads  for  their  loss.  They  would  certainly  be 
willing  to  do  less  work  for  the  same  net  profit. 

There  is  no  probability  of  less  disturbance  in  labor  districts, 
There  will  always  be  the  same  motive  as  now  on  that  account  for 
the  breaking  up  of  overgrown  factories  into  smaller,  and  scatter- 
ing them  throughout  the  land.  There  will  be  no  loss  of  power 
by  the  division  of  factories.  The  advantages  of  large  factories  have 
not  been  in  manufacture  proper,  but  in  transportation  favoritism, 
direct  or  indirect.  They  are  commercial,  not  mechanical.  Most 
of  them  will  disappear  with  the  coming  revolution  in  transporta- 
tion. The  legitimate  advantages  in  buying  and  selling  which  are 
left  to  large  institutions  will  be  more  than  offset  by  the  cheaper 
sustenence,  the  greater  contentment  and  thrift  of  the  workers  in 
small  factories. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


CATHOLICISM    AND    DEMOCRACY    IN    FRANCE. 
To  the  Editor;.:  Paris,  October. 

Ever  since  the  French  Revolution  there  has  been  a  deadly 
struggle  going  on  in  this  country  between  Church  and  State,  and 
never  was  the  battle  fiercer  than  at  the  present  moment.  Every 
year  the   Republic  is  becoming  more  solidly   established  and   is 


consequently  dealing  harder  blows,  which  the  irate  Church  returns 
but  with  the  feeble  force  of  a  retreating  adversary.  The  only 
danger  is  lest  the  victorious  republicans  follow  up  their  successes 
with  too  much  impetuosity  and  lay  themselves  open  to  a  sudden 
attack.  Their  foe  is  wily.  The  moderate  republicans  perceive 
this  peril  and  are  ever  striving  to  restrain  their  more  impatient 
allies  on  the  Extreme  Left. 

M.  Edmond  de  Pressense,  Protestant  clergyman  and  French 
Senator,  has  just  printed  in  the  Revue  Blcuc  a  very  able  article 
where  he  points  out  the  course  that  the  Center  should  follow  in 
this  encounter  with  the  church  militant.  We  could  not  have  a 
better  guide  in  our  examination  of  this  important  phase  of  this 
"  irrepressible  conflict." 

M.  de  Pressense'  combats  the  policy  of  M.  Cldmenceau  and 
his  followers,  who  would  cut  down  the  ecclesiastic  appropriations 
each  year  when  the  budget  comes  up  for  discussion.  Nothing  so 
irritates  a  man  as  tampering  with  his  money  matters;  and  in  this 
particular  the  clergy  do  not  differ  from  more  mundane  mortals. 
Many  a  priest  who  would  otherwise  have  remained  neutral,  at 
least,  has  taken  up  arms  against  the  Republic  because  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies  has  lessened  his  modest  stipend.  Why  make  a 
bitter  enemy  of  a  poor  country  cure  in  order  that  the  State  may 
save  a  hundred  francs  or  so?  M.  de  Pressense  asks  very  sensibly. 

The  republicans  are  treading  on  not  less  delicate  ground  when 
they  touch  the  question  of  the  catechism  in  the  public  schools. 
That  the  number  of  reactionary  deputies  was  doubled  at  the 
autumnal  elections  of  1S85  was  mainly  due  to  the  new  republican 
Education  Bill,  which  excludes  religious  instruction  from  the 
primary  schools.  M.  de  Pressense  would  have  preferred  the  Bel- 
gian system,  where  the  catechism  is  taught  in  the  schoolroom, 
but  after  the  regular  hours  and  on  the  special  request  of  the 
parents  of  each  child.  M.  de  Pressense  also  regrets  that  the  new 
law  substituted  for  religious  instruction  a  secular  system  of  morals. 
He  declares  with  good  reason  that  the  State  should  teach  in  its 
schools  general  morality  but  not  a  fixed  and  precise  system,  as  is 
now  the  case,  expounded  in  regular  text-books  and  at  regular 
hours.  This  placing  "civic  morality"  on  the  same  plane  with 
geography  and  arithmetic  is  very  French  but  not  very  practical 
— not  apt  to  meet  with  unanimous  favor  in  a  nation  where  Cath- 
olics, Protestants  and  Jews  enjoy  equal  rights  and  cling  with 
peculiar  persistency  to  their  respective  creeds. 

A  serious  evil  has  sprung  from  this  "new  departure"  in 
schoolroom  morals — an  evil  that  might  have  been  forseen,  espe- 
cially in  the  France  of  to-day.  Extreme  freethinkers  in  their 
efforts  to  drive  the  Catholic  religion  from  the  primary  schools 
have  set  up  a  silly  religion  of  their  own.  In  their  attack  on  big 
otry  they  have  become  bigots  themselves.  French  publishers 
have  been  doing  a  driving  business  of  late  years  in  printing  text- 
books on  "  civic  morality,"  and  several  individuals  have  become 
famous,  and  even  notorious,  in  this  department  of  authorship. 
The  late  Paul  Bert  never  wrote  a  book  that  occasioned  so  much 
comment  as  his  little  volume  of  civic  morality  intended  for  use 
in  the  primary  schools,  and  if  M.  Gabriel  Compayre,  the  rising 
and  talented  deputy,  becomes  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  as 
he  very  probably  will  in  a  few  years,  his  elevation  will  be  due  in 
no  small  measure  to  the  commotion  created  by  a  volume  some- 
what similar  to  that  of  Paul  Bert. 

Another  curious  feature  of  this  "  laicisation  "  of  the  French 
schools  is  the  attempt  by  some  of  the  radical  municipalities  to 
introduce  expurgated  editions  of  the  French  classics.  There  are 
foolish  freethinking  writers  of  school-books  who  have  taken  up 
La  Fontaine  and  other  authors  on  which  young  minds  are  fed, 
and  gone  carefully  over  the  text,  suppressing  the  word  "God" 
and  all  other  expressions  of  a  religious  or  spiritual  nature.  But 
this  is  not  the  worst  of  it.  These  Parisian  anti-Christs  have  not 
only   expunged   but   interpolated,   so   that   quotations  familiar  to 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


567 


generations  of  Frenchmen  are  changed  in  a  way  that  must  grate 
on  the  ear  of  even  the  most  tire-eating  freethinkers.  The  Church, 
of  course,  makes  the  most  of  this  puerile  proceeding,  and  that 
M.de  Pressense  and  his  friends  should  be  ashamed  of  their  repub- 
lican brothers  is  quite  pardonable  under  the  circumstances. 

There  is  growing  reason  to  fear  that  the  republicans  may  arm 
the  Church  with  another  weapon.  In  the  new  Armv  Bill  which 
has  already  passed  the  Chamber  and  will  come  up  before  the  Sen- 
ate this  autumn,  is  a  clause  requiring  theological  students  to  serve 
in  the  army  just  like  all  the  other  young  men  of  France.  Think 
of  a  future  priest  being  forced  into  the  unholy  precincts  of  a  mili- 
tary barracks!  If  this  clause  should  be  concurred  in  by  the  Sen- 
ate and  become  law,  the  republican  party  will  have  given  the 
Church  another  ground  for  complaint.  But  M.  de  Pressense 
<loes  not  think  that  the  Senate  will  follow  the  lead  of  the  Chamber 
in  this  impolitic  course,  and  his  opinion  should  carry  weight,  for 
he  is  an  influential  member  of  the  Upper  House.  As  friends  of 
the  French  Republic,  let  us  hope  that  Senator  de  Pressense"  s 
opinion  will  prove  to  be  correct. 

M.de  Pressense  closes  his  article  with  these  words:  "How 
can  we  put  a  period  to  these  conflicts  without  sacrificing  any  of 
the  progress  already  made?  My  answer  is,  by  having  recourse 
once  more  to  the  grand  and  immortal  principle  of  the  Revolution, 
the  secularization  of  the  State,  which  idea  should  be  kept  clearly 
before  the  nation's  mind,  and  applied  honestly  and  magnani 
mously.  The  best  manner  in  which  to  bring  about  in  the  future 
the  complete  triumph  of  this  principle  is  to  respect  it  to-day.  In 
any  case,  the  consolidation  of  the  Third  Republic  depends  upon 
our  observing  this  rule  of  conduct." 

Such  are  the  difficulties  of  the  present  situation  in  France. 
And  what  is  to  be  the  outcome?  Will  the  Church  accept  democ- 
racy, or,  like  the  Pope  and  King  Humbert,  will  the  Vatican 
refuse  to  come  to  an  accommodation  with  the  Quirinal — will 
Church  and  State  remain  implacable  enemies  to  the  end? 

It  is  not  very  difficult  to  answer  this  question.  The  Catholic 
Church  never  "bites  its  own  nose  off."  It  will  fight  as  long  as 
there  is  a  shadow  of  a  hope  of  victory,  and  then  will  shake  hands 
with  the  enemy,  seemingly  bury  the  hatchet,  and  begin  to  try  and 
obtain  by  peaceful  and  insidious  means  what  it  could  not  secure 
by  open  warfare.  There  are  signs  here  in  France  that  lead  one 
to  believe  that  in  the  near  future  French  ultramontanism  may 
make  this  new  tack. 

Pere  Hyacinthe  and  hisGallican  idea  are  doing  a  little  some- 
thing to  help  on  this  change  by  showing  good  Catholics  that  their 
souls  can  be  saved  without  clinging  to  the  Pope  and  his  anti-repub- 
lican hierarchy.  But  the  moderate  Catholics,  both  laymen  and 
ecclesiastics,  within  the  Church  are  doing  even  more.  The  sig- 
nificant article  of  M.  de  Vogue  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  for 
lune  15  shows  that  many  of  the  more  thoughtful  of  the  faithful 
are  growing  weary  of  this  Achilles-under-his-tent  policy,  and  are 
beginning  to  advocate  the  accepting  of  things  as  they  are.  M.  de 
Vogue  even  predicts  that  an  American  will  some  day  sit  in  the 
chair  of  St.  Peter,  and  he  boldly  declares  that  he  should  be  pleased 
to  see  European  Catholicism  Americanized.  Then,  certain 
French  Bishops  have  also  given  out  that  if  they  "could"  they 
would  come  over  to  the  Republic.  And  lastly,  the  two  wings  of 
the  republican  party  are  of  course  doing  what  they  can  to  educate 
public  sentiment  in  this  same  direction.  The  Radicals,  Ingersoll- 
like,  are  laughing  the  Church  down,  while  the  Moderates  are 
bringing  over  the  timid  while  quietly  clipping  the  wings  of  the 
priesthood  by  means  of  restrictive  laws  added  to  the  statute-books 
every  year. 

So  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  Gallican  movement,  the  liberal 
Catholics  and  the  republicans  will  eventually  force  ultramon- 
tanism to  the  wall.  But  don't  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  then 
and   there  the  Church  will   surrender.     Far  from  it.     It  may  lay- 


down  its  arms  but  will  surely  cling  to  its  principles,  and  will  begin 
to  do  in  France  what  its  allies  are  doing  in  America.  It  will 
accept  the  inevitable.  It  will  become  republican.  But  it  will  not 
cease  to  cling  to  the  old  tenets.  It  will  do  more — it  will  strive  to 
get  possession  of  the  Republic  and,  in  the  end,  will  once  more 
control  the  destinies  of  France.  This  is  what  Catholicism  is  aim- 
ing at  in  the  United  States,  and  this  is  what  it  will  endeavor  to 
accomplish  in  France  when  the  Church  finally  goes  over  to 
democracy.  thf.odorf.  stanton. 


ECONOMIC   THEOLOGY,  HENRY  GEORGE  AND  THE 
SCHOOL  GIRL. 

To  the  Editors : 

Our  truly  loyal  knight  was  killing  the  dragon  landlordrv  the 
other  day  at  the  Packard  Institute,  N.  Y.,  when  to  his  assertion 
that  all  land  was  God-given  for  the  benefit  of  all  mankind;  one 
of  the  girls  who  did  not  fancy,  I  suppose,  so  many  gardeners  in 
her  garden,  objected  that  the  Dutch,  without  being  quite  divine, 
had  made  the  mud  cake  called  Holland,  and  asked  "  if  after  fight- 
ing out  the  Ocean  and  the  Spaniard,  they  could  not  show  an 
exclusive  title  of  creative  labor  to  their  soil?  " 

"  Yes,  my  brave  girl,  and  Dutch  dirt  is  much  in  the  same 
case  with  the  rest  for  the  clod-hopper,  only  a  little  more  so.  I 
didn't  fish  my  mountain  farm  out  of  the  frog  pond,  but  there 
isn't  a  foot  of  it  in  culture,  that  I  have  not  made  over  several 
times,  taking  out  Nature  and  putting  in  Art,  grubbing  roots  and 
killing  weeds,  and  seasoning  with  manures.  Then  the  ditching, 
and  the  terracing,  the  fencing  to  keep  beasts  out,  and  the  houses 
to  keep  people  in." 

Labor,  with  the  observing  eye  and  judgment,  makes  about  all 
there  is  to  rent  about  land.  Of  sites,  there  is  to  pick  and  choose, 
but  why  should  good  judgment  be  taxed  any  more  than  labor? 
Some  creative  geniuses,  however,  are  not  content  with  making 
soil  fit  for  crops;  they  make  a  God  first,  then  they  make  him  make 
the  land  and  give  it  away  to  everybody  except  anybody  in  par- 
ticular. Is  not  this  good  bait  to  catch  tax  payers?  Henry 
George's  God  hates  landlords  —  homeopathically.  He  made  all 
the  land  except  Holland,  and  a  few  plantations  back  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi levees  and  sich,  and  gave  it  all  to  everybody  that  was 
nobody,  and  then  he  went  to  sleep  and  landlords  stole  it.  Now 
he  wakes  up  and  calls  to  his  faithful  servant  George:  Gird  up  thy 
loins  with  a  majority  vote,  take  up  thy  tax  and  rout  them  land- 
lords. 

"  Why  don't  Mr.  O'Brien  want  him  to  help  the  Irish  tenants?" 

"  Well,  you  see,  they  are  so  ignorant,  they  can't  see  the  beauty 
of  paying  their  rent  to  a  national  tax  collector  instead  of  to  a 
private  landlord." 

"  But  why  must  they  pay  anybody,  for  what  God  gave  every- 
body ?  " 

"  Because  everybody  that  happens  to  be  in  the  majority, 
according  to  the  way  they  fix  the  ballot  boxes,  has  the  God-given 
right  to  make  everybody  pay.  Only  to  get  payment,  they  must 
make  a  government  in  the  image  of  God,  and  a  sheriff  in  the 
image  of  government.  When  the  sheriff  is  paid,  government 
receives,  and  God  comes  into  his  own  again  by  the  interest  on  the 
land  that  he  loaned.  That  is  God's  way  of  giving.  The  land 
being  common,  is  the  property  of  government.  It  is  taxed,  and 
labor  pays  for,  as  well  as  by  all  the  good  work  done  upon  it 
Otherwise  there  would  remain  a  margin  for  sub-letting,  and  it  is 
necessary  above  all  things,  to  starve  out  the  landlords.  1  here- 
fore  'land  must  be  taxed  up  to  its  full  value,'  skimming  all  the 
cream  of  profit  down  to  the  whey  of  '  the  poorest  land  in  use,'  or 
that  will  keep  a  man  and  mule  in  harness.  So  when  government 
is  landlord  all  the  others  have  to  be  tenants  —  all  except  the  office- 


5  68 


THE    OREN    COURT. 


holders  and  the  bondholders,  and  some  pet  railroad  piceuvres*  that 
are  a  little  of  both.  Those  impious  Irish  tenants  claim  that  the 
difference  of  the  farms  they  till,  above  the  '  poorest  land  in  use,' 
is  in  the  labor  their  forefathers  have  put  in  them.  They  don't 
understand  that  the  dead  are  alive  in  that  humanity  which  is 
government,  the  image  and  minister  of  God.  They  only  see 
that  they  will  still  be  paying  rent,  after  the  land  is  restored  to  the 
nation.  Yes,  but  '  not  on  the  improvements,'  saith  the  Lord  by 
the  mouth  of  his  prophet.  You  may  evict  a  thousand  tenant 
families,  and  then  hire  a  hundred  single  men  to  cultivate  with 
steam  or  dynamo-machinery,  untaxed,  making  full  as  big  a  crop 
as  the  thousand  with  their  mules,  and  pocket  the  difference  in 
costs,  because  improvements  and  labor  are  sacred  from  taxation* 
With  such  profits  by  the  labors  of  your  hirelings,  you  may  buy 
ships  and  freight  them  with  foreign  silks  and  wines;  not  a  cent  o' 
tax  on  these;  trade  is  free,  the  land  alone  bears  every  burden, 
Or  you  may  put  your  profits  out  at  interest  and  enjoy  the  leisures 
of  a  millionaire,  with  a  good  conscience,  knowing  that  'wages 
rise  with  interest.' " 

"  But  how  about  my  barn,  my  log  cabin,  my  fences,  and  my 
work  within  the  womb  of  the  soil?  I  cannot  sell  or  rent  them 
apart  from  the  land,  and  without  them  the  land  is  worth  nothing. 
Will  the  tax  assessor  take  my  estimate  of  their  costs  and  deduct 
it  from  what  I  owe  to  government?" 

"  Try  him.  There  is  room  here  for  a  good  deal  of  algebra 
and  aimiabilitv.  Remember  that  the  tax  assessor  is  a  priest  o' 
the  only  true  and  universal  landlord,  whom  the  pious  may  pro- 
pitiate with  pie  crust." 

But  we  often  read  of  ground  lots  selling  at  hundreds  of  dollars 
the  foot.  There  must  be  some  way  then  of  getting  at  their  value 
apart  from  the  buildings?" 

"Yes,  this  is  the  easier  in  cities  where  any  kind  of  labor  may 
be  hired  at  any  time  and  to  any  amount,  for  putting  up  improve- 
ments, and  the  demands  for  room  in  eligible  sites  are  strong  and 
many.  Site,  in  cities,  is  a  far  more  important  factor  of  land 
values  than  in  the  country,  and  the  '  unearned  increment '  is  much 
larger  in  proportion  to  the  whole  value.  This  may  afford  then  a 
plausible  basis  for  municipal  taxation,  which  is  a  very  different 
affair  from  taxes  by  the  general  government  on  agricultural  land 
Such  as  lies  contiguous  to  cities,  shares  this  facility  of  appraise- 
ment more  or  less,  and  in  a  secondary  degree,  lands  contiguous  to 
railroads  or  navigable  waters.  The  bulk  of  soil  under  culture 
owes  its  value  more  to  the  improvements  by  its  occupant,  and 
less  to  the  influence  of  civic  aggregation.  Edgeworth. 


IS  WOMAN   WOMAN'S   WORST   ENEMY? 

To  the  Editors: 

The  statement  that  women  are  severer  upon  the  faults  of  their 
own  sex  than  men  are,  is  all  very  well  as  far  as  it  goes.  But  it  is 
only  a  half-truth,  and  like  all  other  half-truths,  misleads  rather 
from  what  it  omits  or  suppresses  than  from  what  it  actually 
prefers.  Supplying  the  omission,  it  should  read  thus:  "Other 
things  being  equal,  women  are  less  generous  to  the  faults  of  their 
own  sex  than  men  are;  vice  versa,  men  are  less  generous  to  the 
faults  of  their  sex  than  women  are;"  all  of  which  is  only  another 
way  of  saying  that  the  law  of  repulsion  between  similars,  and  of 
attraction  between  dissimilars,  or  as  science  calls  it,  the  law  of 
opposites,  which  prevails  throughout  nature — animate  and  in- 
mate— obtains  also  among  human  beings.  But  in  the  complicated 
conditions  of  society  where  things   are   never  equal,   but  exceed- 


*  This  name,  more  picturesque  than  octopus,  and  which  Hugo  lias  found 
tor  the  sea  monster  in  his  Tra-.ailLitrs  <*V  la  Afer,  fitly  expresses  the  chain  of 
alternate  sections,  which  the  policy  of  our  government,  in  creating  corporate 
landed  monopolies,  has  granted  to  so  many  railroads,  regardless  even  of  their 
fulfilment  of  contracts,  and  which  combined  with  freight  charges,  as  in  Cali- 
fornia, reduce  the  whole  farming  population  to  serfdom,  squeezing  the  country 
.is  within  the  coils  of  a  boa  constrictor  or  a  piccuvre. 


It  would  be  interesting,  and  perhaps  instructive,  to  show  that 
much  of  the  discussion  on  vital  questions  of  the  hour, 
is  vitiated  and  so  made  comparatively  worthless  bv  the  subtle 
influence  of  this  all-prevading  law — that  men  and  women  equallv 
sincere  and  equally  earnest  in  the  pursuit  of  the  truth  are  kept 
apart  solely  by  their  different  points  of  observation  of  the  same 
fact.  But  an  adequate  treatment  would  transcend  the  limits  of 
the  present  paper,  even  if  it  were  entirely  relevant,  which  it  is 
not. 

The  statement  in  question  taken  as  a  psychological  fact  more 
or  less  imperfectly  put,  need  convey  no  reproach  if  none  were 
intended.  But  the  sting  of  it — that  which  brings  the  hot  blood 
of  indignation  to  the  cheek  of  every  honorable  woman  whenever 
and  wherever  she  hears  it  uttered — is  the  underlying  imputation 
of  narrowness,  of  bigotry,  of  all  uncharitableness  as  evinced  in 
the  treatment  of  her  sisters  whom  she  does  know.  How  then 
can  sheevienas  per  to  those  loftier  heights  of  judicial  dignity  and 
honor  which  overlook  the  nations  which  she  does  not  know  ! 

It  will  serve  our  present  purpose  to  consider  the  offenses 
against  society  under  two  heads.  First,  those  that  effect  all 
classes  equally,  and  secondly,  those  that  bear  upon  different 
classes  unequally.  Of  the  first  class  theft  and  homic  de  are  con- 
spicuous examples.  They  are,  for  the  mo6t  part,  single-handed 
attacks  upon  the  life  and  property  of  the  individual,  the  most 
directly  subversive  of  the  purposes  for  which  governments  are 
instituted,  and  for  this  reason  the  simplest  and  most  easily  dealt 
with.  Inasmuch  as  women  thieves  and  women  murderers  have 
always  been  disposed  of  under  a  strictly  masculine  regime,  it 
goes  without  saying  that  these  are  not  the  offenses  which  come 
under  the  special  censorship  of  her  own  sex.  It  is  the  second 
class  of  offenses — those  that  bear  heavily  upon  one  class  and 
lightly  upon  the  other — that  elicit  condemnation  trom  one  part 
of  the  community  and  evoke  sympathy  from  another  part,  which 
constitute  the  chief  problem  of  modern  jurisprudence  and  furnish 
food  for  the  moralist,  since  the  cry  of  protest  against  any  par- 
ticular evil  is  sure  to  emanate  from  that  class  who,  either  in 
reality  or  imagination,  suffer  from  its  existence,  obviously  the 
offenses  which  all  women  most  heartily  condemn  will  be  those 
from  which  they  suffer  the  deepest  injury.  As  a  rule,  the 
vices  of  one  sex  militate  against  the  power  and  happiness  of  the 
other.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  the  minor  ones.  From 
time  immemorial  in  the  absence  of  more  exigent  matter,  woman's 
follies  have  been  the  favorite  theme  of  both  pulpit  and  press,  for 
the  obvious  reason  that  men  are  the  victims  of  those  follies. 

Her  idleness,  her  selfishness,  her  duplicity  in  small  matters 
offend  his  moral  sense.  Her  love  of  dress,  her  extravagance 
prey  upon  his  purse.  Her  high  hats  obstruct  his  view  at  the 
opera.  Her  lack  of  housekeeping  qualities,  her  neglect  of  her 
children  imperil  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  his  family,  and  so 
on  indefinitely.  The  masculine  vices  which  disturb  the  peace  of 
women  readily  come  to  mind.  The  inordinate  use  of  tobacco, 
intoxicants,  the  spendthrift  habits  of  the  gaming  table  and  the 
club  room  are  some  of  them. 

There  is  one  crime  and  only  one  in  the  entire  catalogue  of 
sins,  grave  or  otherwise,  with  which  women  are  chargeable  that 
is  responsible  for  the  attitude  of  women  towards  her  own  sex.  I 
need  hardly  say  it  is  the  crime  of  unchastity.  The  unchaste 
woman  is  the  foe  of  all  womanhood.  Her  shadow  on  the  thresh- 
old sends  a  chill  of  terror  to  the  heart  of  every  true  wife  and 
mother  for  the  safety  of  her  most  cherished  idols,  namely,  the 
honor  of  husband  and  sons.  The  sisterly  sympathy  which  the 
spectacle  of  human  degradation  under  other  circumstances  might 
elicit  is  choked  out  by  this  all-absorbing  terror.  The  unfairness 
of  selecting  this  as  the  type  of  the  relation  which  exists  between 
woman  and  woman  is  the  more  manifest  when,  as  before  stated, 
it  can  be  shown  under  similar  circumstances  men  act  in  just  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


569 


inglv  unequal,  where  the  intelligence  and  the  reason  largely 
dominate  the  animal  instincts,  where  a  great  variety  of  controll- 
ing influences  are  continually  disturbing  the  normal  relations  of 
men  and  women  in  society,  this  law  of  the  sexes  is  of  little 
practical  interest,  save  as  accounting  for  some  seemingly  anomal- 
ous phases  of  human  character. 

same  way.  For  example;  the  smooth  Benedict,  who  with  evil 
intent  invades  the  domestic  fireside  where  wife  and  daughters 
reign  supreme,  meets  with  no  gentle  reception  from  husband, 
father  or  brother.  His  presence  is  the  signal  for  such  an  out- 
break of  passion  as  out-Herods  all  the  animosities  between  men. 
And  yet  man  is  not  the  enemy  of  man,  but  his  best  and  truest 
friend,  as  woman  is  of  woman. 

There  is  an  abundance  of  testimony,  if  testimony  were  still 
wanting,  to  prove  that  women  are  not  the  enemies,  but  the 
natural  guardians  of  their  more  unfortunate  sisters.  Until 
recently  all  our  public  institutions,  both  penal  and  curative,  were 
under  the  sole  administration  of  men.  The  harsh  measures  then 
often  employed  to  impose  restraint  and  secure  order  appealed  to 
the  humane  sentiments  of  enlightened  men  and  women  all  over 
the  land.  Legislatures  were  importuned  where  legislation  was 
necessary,  and  now  we  have  in  nearly,  if  not  quite  all,  the  institu- 
tions of  our  country,  women  installed  as  associate  superintendents 
wherever  women  are  among  the  inmates.  Even  in  this  city, 
while  I  now  write,  a  matron  has  been  appointed  for  our  police 
station;  steps  not  likely  to  be  taken  if  there  were  the  slightest 
apprehensions  in  the  public  mind  that  women  could  not  be 
entrusted  to  the  tender  mercies  of  her  own  kind. 

Every  woman  is  to  everv  other  a  second  self  in  whom  she 
sees,  as  in  a  mirror,  the  reflection  of  her  own  weakness  as  well  as 
strength.  So  is  man  to  man.  Hence,  the  right  of  trial  by  a 
jury  of  one's  own  peers,  at  once  the  pride  and  bulwark  of  free 
institutions, — a  right  that  what  calls  itself  the  freest  and  fairest 
government  under  the  light  of  the  sun  still  denies  to  one-half  its 
citizens. 

Woman's  greatest  wrong  is  her  anomalous  position  in  a 
country  of  the  people,  for  the  people  and  by  the  people.  Her 
worst  enemies  are  those  children  of  ignorance  whose  faces  are 
always  set  to  the  past;  who  dread  nothing  so  much  as  a  change 
from  what  has  been;  into  whose  dull  lives  an  idea  seldom  comes, 
save  when  some  time-worn  error  which,  like  a  worm-eaten  pillar, 
they  fondly  imagine  supports  the  sky  topples  in  ruins  at  their  feet. 
Rochester,  N.  Y.  II.  B.  Clark. 


SUCCESS  TO   THE   RADICAL  METHOD. 

To  the  Editors: 

This  title  is  suggested  by  an  article  in  the  Open  Court  of 
July  7th,  headed,  "Failure  of  the  Radical  Method,"  some  parts  of 
which  were  well  replied  to  in  the  issue  of  August  iSth.  The  Rev- 
erend writer  comforts  himself  with  the  reflection  that  the  condition 
of  the  Free  Religious  Association  implies  an  abandonment  of 
aggressive  effort  against  orthodox  Christianity  and  a  disposition 
to  affiliate  with  organized  religion.  Even  if  this  were  the  case  it 
would  supply  no  warrant  for  the  implication — "Failure  of  the 
Radical  Method," — as  any  cessation  of  activity  on  the  part  of  the 
Association  may  fairly  be  attributed  to  the  success  of  the  liberal 
movement  in  which  it  has  been  a  factor,  and  which  has  now  be- 
come so  broad  and  far-reaching  that  the  wilderness  in  which  the 
voice  sounded  is  now  blossoming  with  the  roses  of  Rationalism. 
One  indication  of  this  is  the  fact  that  one  who  prefixes  the  title 
Reverend  to  his  name  can  write  so  much  in  accord  with  the 
views  of  the  Association.  So  many  are  doing  the  work,  of  which 
the  Free  Religious  Association  was  a  pioneer,  that  its  distinct 
existence  does  not  appear  to  be  necessary  to  insure  progress.  But 
this  progress,  and  all  progress,  is  due  to  the  radical  method  of 
going    to  the  root  of  evils  and  thoroughly  exposing  the  funda- 


mental cause  of  what  is  false  and  injurious.  It  is  the  a«itator, 
who,  though  "nothing  more  than  a  unit,"  gives  the  impetus  to 
effective  organization,  which,  though  it  may  not  accomplish  the 
full  aim  of  the  agitator,  secures  an  advance  in  the  desired  direction. 
Progress  ever  requires  pioneers  in  advance,  who  shall  disturb 
the  equanimity  of  those  who,  having  once  settled  on  a  frontier, 
deem  further  advance  unnecessary  and  a  reflection  upon  their 
own  position.  In  the  realm  of  thought  this  is  made  apparent, 
and  we  find  that  those  who  have  made  an  advance  are  disposed 
to  resent  any  insinuation  that  there  are  desirable  fields  beyond 
their  mental  habitation.  One  of  the  oldest  liberal  agitators  in 
America  states  that  his  fiercest  opposition  has  come  from  those 
who  were  nearest  to  him  in  opinion,  but  a  little  behind  him. 
Self-conceit  resents  the  imputation  that  one  who  has  made  great 
progress  at  heavy  cost  has  not  reached  the  ultimate  goal.  Thus 
we  often  find  the  severest  attacks  upon  agnostics  proceeding  from 
broad  church  ministers. 

If  it  is  true  that  the  need  for  the  special  effort  of  the  F.  R.  A. 
in  its  chosen  sphere  has  ceased  to  be  urgent,  the  question  arises : 
should  it  rest  in  affiliation  with  the  organized  religion  that  has 
approached  so  nearly  to  its  outposts,  or  should  it  move  on  and 
stimulate  a  further  advance?  The  answer  depends  upon  whether 
an  advance  is  possible  and  desirable. 

The  liberal  religious  movement  in  America  began  with  an 
attack  upon  the  divinity  of  Jesus.  The  establishment  of  New- 
England  Unitarianism  and  a  far-reaching  modification  of 
"orthodoxy"  was  the  result.  The  next  advance  was  upon  the  in- 
spiration and  authority  of  the  Bible.  "  Parkerism"  and  Western 
Unitarianism  have  vindicated  the  effort.  Another  step  begins  to 
press  its  claims.  It  calls  for  the  abolition  of  the  worship  of  God. 
It  is  the  legitimate  sequence  to  the  preceding  steps.  Will  the 
Free  Religious  Association  rest  content  with  the  progress  to  this 
point,  or  will  it  change  its  name  to  one  in  accord  with  the  idea  ot 
a  progressive  association  and  espouse  the  radical  cry  that  the 
worship  of  God  shall  be  changed  into  the  service  of  Man? 
Many  are  convinced  that  attention  to  God  involves 
neglect  of  man  ;  that  immorality  is  fostered  by  satisfying  the 
conscience  with  the  worship  of  God;  that  the  God  idea  is  the 
foundation  of  tyranny.  "God's  word"  teaches  fear  God,  honor 
the  king,  respect  the  priest,  obey  masters,  obey  husbands.  King, 
priest,  master  and  husband  oppress  humanity  in  the  name  of  God; 
and  man  will  never  be  truly  free  till  he  is  free  from  God.  The 
admission  that  there  is  a  superior  being,  to  whom  man  owes 
allegiance  furnishes  an  excuse  for  the  tyranny  of  those  who  claim 
to  be  his  vicegerents.  When  God  is  dethroned  and  the  good  of 
man,  of  which,  after  all,  God  has  only  been  intended  to  be  the 
personification,  is  made  the  supreme  concern,  then  the  next  im- 
pending radical  victory  will  have  been  won.  The  agitation  will 
be  unpopular,  but  its  method  is  the  true  road  to  success. 

Robert  C.  Adams. 


THE  "MISCONCEPTION   OF   IDEALISM.'' 

To  tin-  Editors: 

Does  not  the  eternal  antinomy  enter  into  the  question  ol 
idealism,  as  into  all  ultimate  questions  of  metaphysics?  I  con- 
ceive that  for  most  of  us  the  matter  stands  as  it  did  with 
Coleridge  {Biografhia  Literaria  p.  95,  Bohn  ed.): 

"  I  began  then  to  ask  myself  what  proof  I  had  of  the  outward 
existence  of  anything?  Of  this  sheet  of  paper,  for  instance,  as  a 
thing  in  itself,  separate  from  the  phenomenon  or  image  in  my 
perception.  I  saw,  that  in  the  nature  of  things,  such  proof  is 
impossible;  and  that  of  all  modes  of  being  that  are  not  objects  of 
the  senses,  the  existence  is  assured  by  a  logical  necessity,  arising 
from  the  constitution  of  the  mind  itself,  by  the  absence  of  all 
motive  to  doubt  it,  not  from  an  absolute  contradiction  in  the  sup- 
position of  the  contrary."  F.  I.  Carpenter. 


57° 


THE    OPBN    COURT. 


BOOK    REVIEWS. 


The  Making  of  the  Great  West.  By  Sentinel  Adams  Drake. 
New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1SS7;  pp.  339.  Price 
$1.75.  For  sale  by  A.  C.  Mc  Clurg  &  Co.,  Chicago. 
This  is  the  second  volume  of  a  series  of  three,  which  the 
author  hopes  "  will  present  something  like  a  national  portrait  of 
the  American  people."  The  first  volume  being  entitled  "The 
Making  of  New  England,"  the  third  proposes  to  treat  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  central  portion  of  the  Union.  The  present  volume 
extends  in  time  from  1512  to  I8S3  and  is  grouped  into  three  periods 
respectively,  entitled  "Three  Rival  Civilizations,"  the  Spanish, 
French  and  English,  showing  the  part  each  of  these  Nations  took 
in  "The  Making  of  the  Great  West."  "  Birth  of  the  American 
Idea,"  and  "Gold  in  California,  and  What  it  Led  to,"  There  are 
about  150  illustrations  in  the  book,  14  of  which  are  maps,  and 
among  them  are  portraits  of  Queen  Isabella  of  Spain,  De  Soto, 
Louis  XIV.  of  France,  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England,  Bienville, 
Champlain,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  John  Brown,  Sam  Houston, 
Chevalier  De  La  Salle  and  others.  This  historical  series  is  in- 
tended to  meet  the  need  for  brief,  compact,  and  handy  manuals 
of  the  beginning  of  this  country,  and  the  volume  before  us  is 
of  special  interest  to  the  people  of  the  great  West. 


White  Cockades.  An  Incident  of  the  "  Forty  Five."  By 
Ed-ward  Irenteus  Stevenson.  New  York  :  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons.,  1887;  pp.  216.     Price  $1.00. 

This  stirringly  told  story  deals  with  the  fortunes  of  Prince 
Charles  "The  Pretender"  in  a  possible  adventure  in  the  Scottish 
Highlands,  while  in  hiding  after  the  disastrous  battle  of  Culloden 
in  1746.  The  story  is  one  of  daring  bravery,  hair-breadth  escape 
and  youthful  loyalty,  and  though,  unlike  most  tales  of  the  kind, 
there  is  no  kind  of  love-making  from  begining  to  end,  yet  it  holds 
the  reader's  attention  closely  by  its  thrilling  situations,  cleverly 
described  from  the  opening  pages. 


Social  Equilibriums,  and  Other  Problems,  Ethical  and 
Religious.  By  George  Batchelor.  Boston:  George  H. 
Ellis,  141  Franklin  St.,   18S7;  pp.  286. 

These  Essays  relate  to  the  many  new  questions  of  social  and 
religious  organization  which  have  been  forced  upon  the  modern 
mind  by  scientific  discovery  and  economical  progress.  They  do 
not  attempt  to  offer  a  panacea  for  the  many  evils  of  social  life, 
but  simply  to  describe  and  discuss  some  of  the  causes  of  social 
unrest  and  religious  disintegration  They  are  hopeful,  positive  and 
constructive.  Among  the  most  interesting  of  the  fifteen  chapters 
mostly  sermons  and  essays  by  a  Unitarian  Clergyman,  we  count 
those  entitled  "Free  Thought,"  "Heredity  and  Education," 
"Heredity  and  Tradition  in  Morals,"  "The  Natural  Meaning  of 
the  Word  '  Ought,'  "  "  Questions  and  a  Correspondence,"  and 
the  two  concluding  chapters  on  the  origin  of  Unltarianism  in 
Salem,  Mass.  The  author's  standpoint  is  outlined  in  the  following 
sentence  from  the  preface,  "The  writings  of  Darwin  and  Spencer 
have  had  great  influence  in  shaping  the  thought  of  this  generation, 
they  have  been  invaluable,  but  they  have  settled  nothing,  they 
have  however  given  direction  to  progress,  and  helping  many  who, 
like  the  writer,  do  not  accept  their  ethical  conclusions." 

What  and  Where  is  God?  By  H.  B.  Philbrook,  Editor  Pro- 
blems of  Nature.  Chicago :  Philbrook  &  Dean,  1 82  Dearborn 
St.,  pp.  480. 

This  is  quite  the  most  original  book  that  has  appeared  in  a  long 
time.  The  author  apparently  "calls  no  man  Master,"  in  his 
methods  of  reasoning;  and  his  so-called  "scientific"  deductions 


are  as  surprising  as  they  are  unique.  The  grand  oracular  manner 
in  which  he  gives  forth  his  startling  dicta  on  the  questions  of  thc- 
day,  proves  conclusively  his  own  faith  in  their  truth.  Everything 
on  this  planet  he  explains  in  a  manner,  which  a  glance  through 
the  book  will  assure  the  reader,  he  is  not  indebted  for  to  any  pre- 
vious thinker.  The  first  twenty  pages  of  the  book  give  a  summary 
of  its  "Contents."  Mr.  Philbrook  answers  his  own  query  as  to 
"  What  is  God  "  in  the  following  lucid  way,  "  The  commencement 
by  a  Creator  was  only  a  current  of  the  affair  that  performs  the 
work  of  Creation,  only  a  mere  current  of  electricity  was  the  orig- 
in of  God.  All  that  gave  this  Being  existence,  and  power  and  in  - 
telligence,  was  a  current  of  this  all-competent  affair."  The  author's 
style  is  as  original  as  his  philosophy.  We  give  a  specimen  of  both 
in  these  sentences:  "A  still  more  astonishing  fact  in  connection 
with  the  current  of  a  person's  organization,  is  the  prevention  ot 
the  will  of  the  brain  with  a  will  of  the  Almighty  that  is  coming 
into  the  nose,  and  passing  around  the  system  and  out  the  pores, 
and  back  to  the  nose  again."  "  In  the  darkness  of  night  a  whisper 
is  heard,  Who  gave  Man  and  Animals  a  chance  to  sleep  by  put- 
ting out  a  disturbing  light  at  an  hour  of  fatigue? "  A  portrait  oS 
the  author  adorns  the  first  page,  and  the  book  is  handsomely  bound. 


"The  Popular  Science  Monthly"  for  November  opens  with 
the  fifth  paper  of  the  Hon.  David  A.  Wells's  series  on  "The  Eco 
nomic  Distubances  since  1S73."  In  "  Agassiz  and  Evolution," 
Professor  Joseph  Le  Conte  gives  to  Professor  Agassiz  the  credit 
of  having  laid  the  basis  on  which  the  doctrine  of  evolution  has 
been  built,  although  he  himself  erected  no  structure  of  the  kind 
upon  it.  Dr.  Theodore  Eimer  exposes  the  evil  of  too  exclusive 
devotion  to  minute  special  researches,  which  is  the  growing  fault 
of  some  of  the  science  of  the  day.  Professor  John  S.  Newberry 
writes,  concerning  the  "  Food  and  Fiber  Plants  of  the  North 
American  Indians."  In  a  very  catholic  address  on  "Science  and 
Revelation,"  Professor  G.  G.  Stokes,  President  of  the  Victoria 
Institute  and  of  the  Royal  Society,  vindicates  scientific  investiga- 
tors against  the  too  easily  made  charge  of  wishing  to  discredit 
religious  doctrines.  Mr.  Garrett  P.  Serviss  describes  "The  Star- 
of  Autumn."  The  history,  uses,  and  fashions  of  "The  Wedding- 
Ring"  are  described  in  a  article  by  D.  R.  McAnally  Professor 
Atwater  has  an  article  on  "The  Chemistry  of  'Oyster-Fatten- 
ing.'" Professor  Morse's  address  before  the  American  Associa 
tion  on  "What  American  Zoologists  have  done  for  Evolution" 
is  continued.  Mr.  F.  A.  Fernald  gives  a  review  of  Geikie's  treatise 
"On  the  Teaching  of  Geography."  Mr.  H.  Brooke  Davis  make- 
a  strong  plea  for  the  institution  of"  A  Kitchen  College,"  wheie 
housekeeping  arts  shall  be  adequately  taught  and  the  knowledge 
of  them  made  desirable.  A  portrait  and  biographical  sketch  are 
given  of  Professor  Chester  S.  Lyman,  of  Yale  College.  "A 
Further  Advance  "  of  Roman  Catholic  thought  in  the  direction 
in  which  science  has  led  is  discussed  in  the  "Editor's  Table."  In 
the  same  department  the  physiological  doctrines  taught  by  the 
temperance  people  are  criticized  from  the  scientific  point  of  view. 

New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  Fifty  cents  a  number,  $5  a 
year.  

An  enterprising  and  ambitious  piece  of  work  by  a  provincial 
newspaper  is  the  "Quarter-Centennial"  issue  of  the  Hampshire 
County  Journal,  published  by  Charles  F.  Warner,  at  Northamp- 
ton, Mass.,  for  October,  1S87.  It  contains  66  pages,  quarto  size,  ot 
reading  matter,  illustrations  and  ads.  The  reading  matter  con- 
tains a  large  amount  of  history  and  biography,  which  has  even 
more  than  a  local  interest,  though  pertaining  to  Hampshire 
Countv  matters.  Among  the  photograph  pictures  of  interest,  we 
find  portraits  and  sketches  of  A.  T.  Lilly,  donor  of  the  Lilly  Hall 
of  Science  to  Smith  College,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Powell  Bond,  Dr. 
Earle,  of  the  Northampton  Insane  Asylum,  George  W.  Cable, 
Miss  Harriet  B.  Rogers,  teacher  of  articulation  to  deaf  mutes,  Seth. 


The  Open  Court, 

A.  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the  Work  of  Establishing  Ethics  and  Religion   Upon  a  Scientific  Basis. 


Vol.  I.     No.  21. 


CHICAGO,  NOVEMBER  24,  1887. 


I  Three  Dollars  per  Year 
I  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


RELIGIOUS   VALUE  OF   SCIENTIFIC    STUDIES. 

BY  LEWIS  G.  JANES. 

"  True  science  and  true  religion,"  says  Professor 
Huxley,  "are  twin  sisters,  and  the  separation  of  either 
from  the  other  is  sure  to  prove  the  death  of  both. 
Science  prospers  exactly  in  proportion  as  it  is  religious, 
and  religion  nourishes  in  exact  proportion  to  the  scien- 
tific depth  and  firmness  of  its  basis.  The  great  deeds  of 
philosophers  have  been  less  the  fruit  of  their  intellect, 
than  of  the  direction  of  that  intellect  by  an  earnestly  re- 
ligious tone  of  mind.  Truth  has  yielded  itself  rather  to 
their  love,  their  patience,  their  single-heartedness,  their 
self-denial,  than  to  their  logical  acumen." 

Granting  that  religion  may  be  established  upon  a 
scientific  basis,  it  is  evident,  I  think,  that  the  study  of 
science  should  constitute  an  important  element  in  our 
liberal  systems  of  religious  education.  We  hear  much 
in  these  latter  days  about  the  conflict  between  science 
and  religion;  but  to  those  who  think  freely  and  deeply, 
I  am  convinced  that  there  can  be  no  such  conflict.  For 
religion  based  upon  science  is  necessarily  in  harmonv 
with  the  method  and  procedure  of  science;  while  science 
is,  as  I  believe,  essentially  religious  in  its  very  nature. 
The  attitude  of  the  scientific  student,  humble,  patient, 
repressing  his  prepossessions,  standing  in  reverent  sub- 
mission before  the  most  insignificant  fact,  is  infinitely 
more  religious  than  that  of  the  dogmatic  theologian, 
proud  in  his  conceit  of  an  infallible  revelation  of  truth. 
"  One  of  the  most  important  duties  of  a  religious  teacher," 
said  an  able  and  successful  clergyman  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  to  me  a  short  time  since,  "is  the  inculcation  of 
a  wise  agnosticism."  This  is  a  part  of  the  office  and 
mission  of  science  in  our  curriculum.  Science  alone  can 
give  us  true  conceptions  of  ourselves,  and  of  the  universe 
in  so  far  as  it  is  revealed  to  us — of  our  relations  to  the 
world  around  us,  and  to  that  Infinite  Power  beyond  all 
seeing  on  which  all  things  visible  depend.  Science 
alone  can  save  us  from  the  conceit  of  the  metaphysician 
and  theological  gnostic,  by  demonstrating  the  limitations 
of  the  human  intelligence,  and  its  insignificance  in  the 
presence  of  the  Unsearchable  Reality.  "The  secret 
things  belong  to  the  Lord ;  those  that  are  revealed,  to 
us  and  to  our  children."  Into  this  ancient  scripture  it  puts 
new  and  sublime  meaning.  All  that  we  see  and  know, 
the  world  and  all  things  therein,  the  glorious  canopy  of 


the  sky,  the  heavenly  hosts,  the  mind  and  character  of 
man, — these,  indeed,  constitute  a  revelation  of  the  Infi- 
nite Power — the  Absolute  Reality;  but  how  little  is  all 
that  which  is  seen  and  known  to  that  unseen  Universe 
which  we  can  never  know  in  its  essential  nature  and 
completeness,  unless  we,  too,  became  gods,  and  infinitely 
transcend  the  present  limitations  of  our  knowing  facul- 
ties. "So  far  from  science  being  irreligious,"  says  Spen- 
cer, "  it  is  the  neglect  of  science  which  is  irreligious 
*  *  [Science]  is  religious,  inasmuch  as  it  generates  a 
profound  respect  for,  and  implicit  faith  in,  those  uniform 
laws  which  underlie  all  things."  Teaching  us  that  this 
is  indeed  a  Universe — that  all  things  are  turned  into 
One, — that  the  Power  behind,  or,  more  properly  ?'«, 
phenomena  is  orderly  and  consistent  in  its  manifestations, 
science  lays  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  a  rational 
faith,  based  upon  a  monistic  philosophy  and  of  a  trust 
which  is  truly  religious. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  facts  of  its  past  his- 
tory, the  religion  of  the  future,  based  upon  science,  can 
no  longer  be  divorced  from  ethics;  and  science  gains 
additional  religious  value  from  its  profound  ethical  sig- 
nificance. It  alone  can  illustrate  the  essential  unity  of 
that  orderly  sequence  of  phenomena  which  we  subjec- 
tively perceive  as  natural  law  in  the  material  and  in 
the  moral  universe.  It  alone  can  demonstrate  that  the 
moral  law,  like  the  laws  of  nature,  is  inherent  and  self- 
executing;  that  the  results  of  wrong-doing  are  inevita- 
ble, while  at  the  same  time  it  affirms  and  illustrates  the 
possibility  of  moral  growth,  and  of  the  indefinite  better- 
ment and  expansion  of  man's  ethical  and  intellectual 
nature.  The  apostle  of  science*  is  the  true  priest  in  the 
temple  of  rational  religion.  "By  asserting  the  eternal 
principles  of  things,  and  the  necessity  of  conforming  to 
them,"  says  Mr.  Spencer,  "  he  proves  himself  to  be 
essentially  religious." 

The  teaching  of  the  natural  sciences  in  their 
elementary  aspects,  almost  wholly  neglected,  as  it 
is,  in  our  common  schools,  should  be  a  part  of  the  cur- 
riculum of  our  Sunday-schools  and  schools  of  ethical 
culture.  There  are  few  children  who  will  not  readily 
become  deeply  interested  in  the  elementary  study  of 
botany,  geology,  or  natural  history,  or  physiology ;  and 
these  studies  may  be  so  presented  that  the  result  will  be 
not  merely  an  accumulation  of  dry    facts   in   the    child's 


57^ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


mind,  but  the  attention  may  be  drawn  to  the  higher 
aspects  of  the  subject — to  the  everywhere  dominant 
principle  of  law,  order,  and  beauty,  on  which  the  foun- 
dations of  natural  religion  are  established.  This  element- 
ary teaching  should  usually  be  oral.  Books  should  be 
little  used.  Object-teaching,  and  practical  experiment 
with  mineral,  botanical,  or  zoological  specimens,  should 
be  adopted  whenever  practicable. 

The  child  will  thus  be  led  naturally  to  perceive  and 
appreciate  the  wonderful  beauty  of  the  world  in  which 
he  lives,  the  integrity  and  perfection  of  the  laws  of 
nature,  the  identity  of  that  which  we  call  law  in  the  phy- 
sical universe  around  us,  and  in  the  moral  universe 
within  us.  He  will  learn  to  think  deeply  and  reverently 
concerning  the  "  mystery  of  matter," — that  objective 
reality  which  appeals  to  us  everywhere  in  our  sensible 
contact  with  the  world,  but  which,  in  its  ultimate  analy- 
sis, buttresses  always  upon  the  Unseen,  defying  sensible 
examination.  Thus  thoughtfully  investigating,  without 
any  dogmatic  instruction,  he  can  hardly  fail  to  recog- 
nize with  reverent  emotion  the  unity  of  the  Power  on 
which  all  things  depend — the  Power  which  makes  for 
beauty  and  order  and  righteousness  in  the  world,  whose 
workings,  though  inexorable,  are  beneficent, — are  bene- 
ficent, indeed,  because  they  are  inexorable.  The  pain, 
the  suffering,  the  physical  imperfection  and  moral  evil  in 
the  world,  he  will  come  to  apprehend  as  the  indispen- 
sable accompaniments  of  that  divinely  natural  order, 
which  on  the  obverse  side  appears  as  the  Eternal  Truth- 
fulness of  Nature,  the  exercise  of  which  he  would  not  in- 
terfere with  if  he  could. 

As  the  child-mind  becomes  more  mature,  especially 
will  the  perception  of  the  law  of  the  correlation  and  con- 
servation of  forces,  and  of  evolution  as  a  universal  charac- 
teristic of  the  creative  processes  of  nature,  suggest  that 
"all-pervading  unity,"  efficient  competency,  and  benefi- 
cent tendency  of  the  life  and  power  in  and  behind 
visible  phenomena,  which  nourish  and  satisfy  the  re- 
ligious nature.  The  study  of  science  is  important,  not 
only  for  the  actual  content  of  information  and  religious 
suggestion  which  it  supplies  to  the  mind,  hut  also  be- 
cause it  reveals  the  only  safe  and  sure  method  whereby 
truth  can  be  attained  in  any  department  of  thought  and 
investigation.  It  renders  the  mind  humble,  patient,  free 
from  the  conceit  of  the  metaphysical  theologian.  The 
scientific  study  of  religion  itself  will  thus  naturally  super- 
sede the  catechisms  and  dogmatic  instruction  of  the  pul- 
pit and  Sunday  School ;  the  good  which  is  in  the  ethnic 
religions  and  the  various  Christian  sects  will  be  sought 
and  recognized,  while  the  evil  and  superstition  which 
have  accompanied  all  the  historical  manifestations  of  the 
religious  sentiment  will  be  as  frankly  admitted  and  re- 
buked when  it  presents  itself  in  Old  or  New  Testament 
phrase,  as  when  it  appears  in  the  guise  of  Paganism! 
Mohammedanism,    Mormonism,  or  Buddhism.      Thus 


freely  and  rationally  used,  the  Sacred  Scriptures  of  the 
world  will  be  found  to  be  a  nobler  storehouse  of  ethical 
precept  and  lofty  personal  example,  which  the  religion 
of  the  future  can  by  no  means  afford  to  undervalue  or 
neglect. 

The  introduction  of  scientific  methods  into  the  study 
of  religion,  necessarily  involves  the  complete  renuncia- 
tion of  all  duplicity  and  lack  of  sincerity  in  our  dealings 
with  our  children.  Children  are  ready,  almost  intuitive, 
readers  of  character,  and  nothing  will  so  certainly  and 
instantly  discredit  the  work  of  a  teacher,  as  the  percep- 
tion of  a  lack  of  that  absolute  frankness  and  truthfulness 
which  should  be  the  eternal  foundation  of  the  relation- 
ship between  teacher  and  pupil.  Much  of  ignorance, 
much  of  incompetence,  in  other  respects,  may  be  for- 
given; but  woe  unto  that  teacher  of  religion  who  per- 
mits his  pupil  to  see  that  he  withholds  aught  of  his  full 
and  free  conviction — that  the  honest  belief  of  his  heart 
is  in  any  least  degree  different  from  his  spoken  word. 
The  teacher  should  never  pretend  to  a  knowledge 
which  he  does  not  possess.  He  should  never  fear,  upon 
occasion,  to  say  "I  do  not  know,"  in  answer  to  an  earnest 
query.  If  he  doubts,  he  should  not  fear  to  expiess  his 
doubt. 

"There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds. 

Doubt  and  faith  are  two  sides  of  the  same  shield, 
whose  substance  and  strength  is  the  eternal  truth.  Doubt 
of  the  poor,  the  false,  the  insufficient,  in  prevalent  creeds, 
is  essential  to  faith  in  the  richer,  truer,  completed  state- 
ment of  the  more  rational  conviction.  Doubt  of  miracle, 
is  faith  in  the  eternal  order  of  Nature.  Doubt  of  author- 
itative dogma,  is  faith  in  the  method  and  results  of 
scientific  research.  There  is  no  scepticism  so  absolute, 
or  so  fatal  to  moral  and  intellectual  integrity,  as  the 
craven  fear  which  questions  the  policy  of  the  frankest 
and  most  outspoken  statement  of  that  which  is  by  heart 
and  mind  confessed  as  truth.  The  teacher  of  science 
never  doubts  this  assertion;  the  teacher  of  religion  often 
does,  apparently,  even  though  he  call  himself  a  Relig- 
ious Liberal.  Let  him  learn  from  the  apostle  of  science. 
Let  him  introduce  the  scientific  method  into  his  teaching. 
So  doing,  he  shall  lead  the  world  out  of  error  and  super- 
stition into  the  wealth  and  beauty  and  satisfaction  of 
the  Truth. 


THE  DEATH   PENALTY. 

IiY  A.  M.  GKIFFEN. 

Punishment  as  an  element  per  se  should  form  no 
part  of  the  animus,  or  motive,  of  the  criminal  law;  and 
it  should  be  clearly  understood  that  society  in  resorting 
to  compulsory  measures  in  dealing  with  its  criminals  is 
only  acting  for  the  protection  of  its  members;  that  it 
aims  to  secure  that  protection,  first,  by  sequestration  of 
the  criminal,  and,  secondly,  by  adaptation  of  its  methods 


THE    OR  EN    COURT 


573 


and  forms  of  procedure  to  those  educational,  moral  and 
religious  agencies  whose  object  is  the  betterment  of 
mankind. 

.  Moral  guilt  as  such  should  be  no  concern  of  the 
criminal  statute.  The  man  should  be  judged  solely  by 
the  effects  of  his  acts  upon  society.  Punishment  of 
moral  guilt  is  the  prerogative  of  the  conscience  of  the 
individual.      It  is,  however, 

"  Because  the  edge  of  conscience  becomes  blunted,  and  the 
pain  it  inflicts  ceases  to  be  sharp  enough,  the  interests  of  society 
are  compromised  in  such  a  manner  that  external  and  material 
pain  must  be  added  by  human  law  to  the  purely  internal  and 
spiritual  pain  which  follows  wrong-doing.  The  external  law  and 
punishment,  must,  however,  be  modeled  on  the  internal  law  and 
punishment.  The  voice  of  the  judge  without  should  correspond 
to  what  would  be  the  voice  of  the  judge  within,  were  it  allowed  to 
be  clearlv  heard.  Otherwise  penal  law  must  be  the  expression  of 
arbitrariness  or  vengeance.  But  since  penal  law  should  thus  as 
far  as  possible  be  the  representative  of  conscience,  it  should  have 
the  same  ends — the  amendment  of  the  offender  and  the  protection 
of  society.  The  amendment  of  the  offender  is  to  be  kept  in  view 
as  long  as  it  can  be  hoped  for;  but  although  this  may  be  hopeless 
society  is  entitled  to  inflict  suffering  on  criminals  as  far  but  not 
farther  than  may  be  required  for  its  self  protection."  * 

Punishment  which  is  visited  "for  example's  sake"  is 
vicarious,  unjustifiable  in  itself  and  by  results,  and  when 
carried  to  an  appreciable  extent,  is  simply  gratuitous 
cruelty.  -J- 

In  the  states  of  Rhode  Island,  Michigan  and  Wis- 
consin, where  capital  punishment  was  abolished  from 
twenty-five  to  thirty-five  years  ago,  human  life  is  as 
secure  as  in  other  states  of  the  Union,  and  much  more 
so  than  in  some  states  where  the  death  penalty  is  in  force. 

In  Switzerland,  that  model  and  most  peaceful  repub- 
lic of  the  old  world,  capital  punishment  from  1879  to 
the  present  has  existed  as  a  legal  enactment  in  but  eight 
of  the  twenty-five  cantons;  and  in  Belgium,  Prussia, 
Bavaria,  Denmark  and  Sweden,  though  not  abolished 
by  law,  its  enforcement  has  practically  ceased.  So,  in 
France,  where  in  one  year  there  were  one  hundred  and 
twenty  six  convictions  formurder  and  but  four  execu- 
tions, and  in  Italy,  where  a  similiar  proportion  of  execu- 
tions to  convictions  is  found,  the  same  evidence  of  the 
decadence  of  this  mistaken  policy  is  afforded.  Likewise 
in  Austria,  capital  punishments  have  for  man)-  years  been 
exceedingly  rare.  In  the  Kingdom  of  Netherlands  the 
death  penalty  was  abolished  in  the  year  1870,  and  in 
18S1,  when  an  effort  was  made  by  a  minority  of  the 
Chamber  to  re-enact  the  penalty,  the  Minister  of  Justice 
stated  that  "the  convictions  for  crime  which  merited 
death,  according  to  the  law  in  force  up  to  that  time,  in 
the  ten  years  immediately  following  the  abolition  of  capi- 
tal punishment,  were  fifty-seven  in  number,  while  the 
number  of  those  condemned  to  death  in  the  ten  years 
immediately  preceding  was  eighty-two."  J 

*  Prof.  Fraser's  Vico,  Blackwood's  Philosophical  Classics,  p.  159. 
f  Cf.  "Remarks  on  Criminal  Law,"  by  Thos.  Jevons,  1S3J,  pp.  19,  ■]!. 
%  Appletons'  Annual  Cyc,  iSSl,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  627. 


That  punishment  in  itself  is  but  a  negative  agent  in 
the  civilizing  process  of  humanity  is  a  proposition  that 
will  hardly  be  questioned;  but  that  excessive  punishment 
for  any  class  of  crime  is  a  positive  agent  of  demoraliz- 
ation and  crime  itself  is  conclusively  demonstrated  by 
the  events  of  history.  Take,  for  example,  the  sanguin- 
ary laws  of  England.  Says  the  Morning  Herald,  pub- 
lished in  April,  1830: 

•Tf  the  dreadful  punishment  of  death  could  repress  a  crime, 
how  effectually  ought  forgery  to  be  repressed!  What  hecatomb-, 
of  human  victims  have  been  offered  up  upon  the  scaffold  to  what 
is  called  the  'commercial  interests,'  or  rather  to  the  great  idol  of 
mammon!  *  *  *  And  yet  all  this  waste  of  life — all 

this  work  of  extermination,  does  not  prevent  in  any  degree  the 
perpetual  recurrence  of  the  crime  and  the  perpetual  exhibition  of 
similar  acts  of  human  sacrifice."  * 

If,  then,  exemplary  punishment,  which  theoretically 
is  intended  solely  for  the  protection  of  society,  is  not 
justified  by  results,  under  what  conception  of  justice  is 
such  punishment  permissible?  It  will  hardly  be  said 
that  justice  in  the  abstract  contemplates  that  the  life 
of  one  man  who  has  demonstrated  by  an  overt  act 
that  he  is  bad,  shall  be  destroyed  that  other  men  presum- 
ably bad  at  heart  may  be  deterred  from  crime  which  it 
is  not  certain  they  ever  will  commit.  If  it  be  the  object 
of  the  penal  law  to  frighten  men  into  the  suppression  of 
their  criminal  instincts, — and  when  capital  punishment  is 
prescribed  as  a  menace,  such  only  can  be  the  object, — then 
ought  we  to  turn  back  the  pages  of  history  and  inaugu- 
rate anew  the  terrors  of  the  wheel,  the  rack,  the  thumb- 
screw and  other  instruments  of  torture,  that  the  example 
may  indeed  be  a  lesson  and  a  warning  to  all.  Says 
Rev.  Mr.  Brayton: 

"True  iustice  has  wider  sweep  than  our  wisdom  or  our  pas- 
sions. Its  demands  are  not  answered  when  we  have  struck  the 
retaliatory  blow.  It  heeds  not  the  timidity  of  our  selfish  fear,  nor 
the  clamor  of  our  revengeful  cry.  It  comprehends  the  welfare  of 
the  criminal  as  well,  and  is  in  its  quality  the  clear  intermingling 
of  all  the  holy  attributes  of  God.  True  justice  drives  no  man  to 
hopeless  doom, — it  is  not  satisfied  with  penalty — it  does  not 
smother  penitence — its  demand  is  righteous;  and  by  all  its  penalties 
and  pains  it  unbars  the  way  and  impels  and  leads  the  penitents  to 
return.  When  our  humanity,  in  its  too  slow  evolution  from 
barbarism,  shall  attain  to  this  pure  ideal  of  justice  it  will  no  longer 
be  satisfied  with  the  brutal  clamor  of  blood  for  blood."  j- 

The  fact  that  executions  in  many  of  the  states  of  our 
Union  arc  had  in  "private" — that  is,  with  but  few  per- 
sons in  witness, — is  a  virtual  concession  that  their  effect 
upon  the  general  public  is  detrimental  to  the  public  good, 
and  that  as  an  example  they  are  of  no  value  in  the  pre- 
vention of  crime.  If,  however,  the  example  were  not 
pernicious,  or  productive  rather  than  preventive  of  crime, 
a  full  and  complete  knowledge  of  details  would  seem  to 
be  the  best  possible  means  of  impressing  the  mind  with 
the  lesson  sought  to   be  conveyed,  and   certainly  those 


*"The  Punishment  of  Death.  A  Selection  of  Articles  from  the  Morning; 
Herald,"  London,  1836,  Vol.  I.,  p.  23. 

t  See  Sermon  delivered  at  Auburn,  N.  V.,  August  30,  1SS5,  and  published 
in  The  Morning  Dispatch,  of  Auburn,  Aug.  31,  1SS5. 


57  + 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


needing  the  lesson  most  ought,  properly,  to  he  permitted 
to  reccie  it  in  its  most  effective  form. 

The  supposition  that  capital  punishment  deters  men 
from  homicidal  crime  is  apparently  founded  upon  a  mis- 
conception of  human  nature.  It  falsely  assumes  that 
when  men  are  swayed  and  governed  by  strong  impulse 
and  passion  they  are  still  capable  of  calmly  balancing 
cause  and  effect  and  by  logical  process  reaching  as  sound 
conclusions  as  when  under  the  stimulus  of  the  milder  im- 
pulses of  human  nature.  It  takes  no  account  of  the  most 
patent  of  mental  facts — that  the  undeveloped  intellect  is 
of  all  intellects  the  most  egotistic;  that  all  premeditative 
criminals,  when  contemplating  the  commission  of  crime, 
delude  themselves  with  the  idea  that  they  are  so  shrewd 
as  to  escape  detection,  and  hence  believe  that  what  may 
have  befallen  a  comrade  in  crime  would  not  have  hap- 
pened to  themselves  because  of  their  superior  cunning  and 
ability.  It  also  mistakes  true  premises  in  assuming  that 
the  criminal  mind  is  capable  of  appreciating  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  moral  quality  of  the  motive  involved  in 
the  killing  of  a  man  by  process  of  law,  and  that  of 
a  motive  which  prompts  a  murder  committed  by  an 
individual.  It  again  falsely  assumes  that  in  all  men 
the  fear  of  death  is  the  most  powerful  of  incentives, 
whereas  it  is  well  known  that  the  thought  of  death  has 
little  or  no  influence  upon  the  mind  of  a  person  in 
robust  health  unless  death  itself  be  immediately  appre- 
hended. 

"The  well-established  fact,"  says  Mr.  Bovee,  "that 
there  are  at  least  seven  suicides  to  one  homicide,  attests 
the  truthfulness  of  the  proposition,  that  life  is  oftentimes 
a  burden."  And  the  same  author  quotes  Jeremy  Ben- 
tham  as  saying: 

"  Such  is  the  situation  of  a  majority  of  malefactors,  that  their 
existence  is  only  a  melancholy  combination  of  all  kinds  of  wretch, 
edness.  In  all  such  cases,  then,  the  dread  of  death  has  been  inef- 
fectual." * 

Thus,  when  Swedenborg  declares  that  "  evil  punishes 
itself,"  and  Emerson  that  "crime  and  punishment  grow 
out  of  one  stem,"  do  they  utter  truth  of  solemn  import 
to  all  transgressors  of  the  moral  law. 

What,  then,  is  the  positive  lesson  which  the  civic  law 
teaches  by  its  destruction  of  human  life?  Is  it  of  the 
sanctity  and  inviolability  of  that  life?  No,  for  the  act 
itself  is  a  direct  contradiction  of  the  idea.  What  would 
be  said  of  that  parent  who  should  tell  his  child  it  is 
wrong  to  eat  of  certain  forbidden  fruit,  and  then  proceed 
to  illustrate  the  teaching  by  partaking  of  the  fruit  him- 
self? If  the  law  itself  sets  the  example  of  destruction, 
albeit  for  good  and  sufficient  reasons,  must  that  not  be  the 
example  which  individuals,  for  reasons,  sufficient  unto 
themselves,  will  most  likely  imitate?    Says  Mr.  Bray  ton: 

"  A  Paris  executioner,  during  his  term  of  office  hung  twenty 
murderers,  who,  as  he  said,  had  been  constant  attendants  at  his 
gibbetting   matinees.     Rev.   Mr.   Roberts  of  England    conversed 


'  "  Reasons  for  Abolishing;  Capital  Punishment,"  1S73,  pp.  134,  137. 


with  one  hundred  and   sixty   seven  convicts   under   sentence  of 
death,  all  of  whom  but  three  had  witnessed  executions." 

Mr.  William  Tallack,  secretary  of  the  Howard 
Association,  relates  that — 

"  It  has  often  been  noticed  that  executions  have  been  imme- 
diately followed  by  an  unusual  'crop'  of  murders.  For  example, 
in  1S70,  shortly  alter  the  execution  of  Tropmann  at  Paris  for  a 
peculiarly  atrocious  murder,  several  similar  cases  of  wholesale 
slaughter  occurred,  including  the  seven-fold  murder  at  Uxbridge. 
Similarly,  in  1S67,  the  execution  of  three  Fenians  at  Manchester 
*  *  *  was  followed  within  three  "weeks  by  the  abominable 
Fenian  explosion  at  Clerkenwell,  which  sacrificed  many  lives."  * 

"  When  men  were  hung  up  by  the  dozens  for  forging  one- 
pound  Bank  of  England  notes,  the  crime  did  not  diminish — it  in- 
creased;— though  many  were  cut  off  at  Old  Bailey  Sessions,  many 
escaped  all  punishment,  through  the  humane  repugnance  of  juries 
to  send  them  in  shoals  to  the  scaffold."  "f 

The  criminal  in  intent,  witnessing  the  destruction  of 
human  life  by  society  for  self-protection,  believes  that 
he  too  may  kill  his  enemies;  moreover,  the  act  is  one 
which  meets  the  sanction  of  his  moral  nature,  it  is  in 
perfect  accord  with  the  activities  of  his  mind,  and  hence 
he  is  unable  to  appreciate  its  force  as  a  menace  instituted 
for  his  particular  benefit.      Said  Arcbishop  Whately: 

"  The  spectacle  of  a  public  execution  strikes  terror,  I  apprehend, 
into  few,  except  those  who  are  not  of  a  character  to  commit 
heinous  offenses.  It  creates,  in  most  minds,  a  feeling  of  sympathy 
with  the  culprit;  *  *  *  and  a  feeling  not  merely  of 
pity,  but  rather  of  admiration  and  emulation  is  excited  in  some  by 
that  kind  of  triumphant  penitence  which  is  displayed  by  many ; 
and  in  some,  again,  by  the  unbending  hardihood  exhibited  by 
others.  The  idea  of  a  public  death  by  the  hand  of  the  executioner, 
is  shocking  in  the  way  of  disgrace,  to  those  chiefly  who  are  of  a 
different  description  from  such  as  need  to  be  deterred  from  crime 
by  the  apprehension  of  capital  punishment."  J 

"  He  who  goes  no  further  than  bare  justice  stops  at  the 
beginning  of  virtue." 

Says  Jeremy  Taylor: 

"No  obligation  to  justice  does  force  a  man  to  be  cruel,  or  to 
use  the  sharpest  sentence.  A  just  man  does  justice  to  every  man 
and  to  everything;  and  then,  if  he  also  be  wise,  he  knows  there  is  a 
debt  of  mercy  and  compassion  due  to  the  infirmities  of  man's  na- 
ture; and  that  is  to  be  paid;  and  he  that  is  cruel  and  ungentle  to  a 
sinning  ptrson,  and  does  the  worst  to  him,  dies  in  his  debt  and  is 
unjust." 

The  death  penalty  is,  by  some,  sought  to  be  justified 
upon  the  ground  that  it  fulfills  the  idea  of  retributive 
justice,  which  again  is  thought  to  be  justifiable  on  relig- 
ious grounds.  Retribution  signifies  "to  pay  back,"  "to 
return  in  equal  measure" — not  good  for  evil,  but  evil  for 
evil.  But  to  attempt  to  carry  out  the  so-called  retribu- 
tive justice  by  legal  enactments,  is  to  attempt  the  vindi- 
cation of  a  metaphysical  dogma  in  which  society,  as  such, 
can  have  no  possible  interest.  Society  has  no  concern 
for  the  vindication  of  abstract  principles.  It  has  only  to 
busy  itself  with  the  moral,  intellectual  and  social  hap- 
piness of  its  members. 

If  such  were  the  constitution  of  things  that  the 
broken  law  of  justice  might  only  be  mended  or  satisfied 

*  "  Humanity  and  Humanitarianism?"  1S71,  p.  28. 

t  "  The  Punishment  of  Death,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  56. 

%  "  Thoughts  on  Secondary  Punishments,"  1S32,  p.  45. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


575 


by  the  death  of  the  murderer,  he  would  sooner  or  later 
fall  a  victim  to  the  destroying  vengeance  of  his  own 
conscience.  But  not  so.  The  principle  of  true  justice, 
playing  its  part  in  the  divine  economy  of  being,  sets  in 
motion  the  keen  blade  of  conscience  to  the  end,  and  the 
sole  end,  that  the  offender  may  have  wrought  within 
him  such  a  change  as  shall  place  him  upon  that  higher 
and  truer  plane  of  moral  life  where  he  cannot,  because 
he  would  not,  do  wrong  to  any  man. 

In  accordance  with  the  Greek  idea  of  "  fate,"- 

"  A  crime  committed  by  an  individual  is  to  be  viewed  as  an  outrage 
upon  himself,  and  the  doom  which  threatens  him  in  consequence, 
is  not  a  mere  punishment  inflicted  by  a  foreign  hand,  but  the  counter- 
part of  his  own  deed.  In  slaying  his  victim,  the  murderer  thinks  he 
has  removed  an  enemy,  and  enlarged  his  own  life;  but  really  it  is 
one  life  that  is  in  him  and  his  victim,  and  in  striking  at  another 
he  has  struck  at  himself.  What  threatens  him,  therefore,  as  his 
fate,  is  just  his  own  life  made  by  his  deed  into  a  stranger  and  an 
enemy.  This  he  cannot  slay.  It  is  immortal  and  rises  from  its  grave 
as  an  awful  spectre — a  Clytemnesira  which  arouses  the  Eumen- 
ides  against  him;  a  Banquo's  ghost  'which  is  not  annihilated  by 
death,  but  the  moment  after  takes  its  seat  at  the  banquet,  not  as 
a  sharer  of  the  meal,  but  as  an  evil  spirit  for  Macbeth." 

"Just  this  however,  that  the  penalty  is  not  externally  imposed 
by  law,  but  is  simply  the  fate  of  the  criminal,  the  recoil  ot  his  deed 
upon  himself,  makes  atonement  possible.  The  guilty  conscience  of 
the  criminal  is  his  recognition  that  his  own  life  is  in  that  which  he 
has  tried  to  destroy,  and  hence  it  must  pass  into  a  longing  regret 
for  that  which  he  has  thus  lost.  The  criminal,  therefore,  feels  an 
awe  before  the  fate  that  weighs  upon  him,  which  is  quite  differ- 
ent from  the  fear  of  punishment;  for  the  fear  of  punishment  is  the 
fear  of  something  foreign  to  him,  and  the  prayers  that  would 
avert  it  are  slavish.  His  fear  of  fate,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  ter- 
ror before  himself,  a  consciousness  of  the  agony  of  divided  life, 
and  his  prayers  to  it  are  not  supplications  to  a  master, 
but  rather  the  begining  of  a  return  to  the  estranged  self.  Hence, 
in  this  recognition  of  that  which  is  lost  as  life,  and  as  his  own  life, 
lie6  the  possibility  of  the  complete  recovery  of  it.  It  is  the  begin- 
ning of  that  love  in  which  life  is  restored  to  itself,  and  fate  is 
reconciled — in  which 'the  stings  of  conscience  are  blunted,  and 
the  evil  spirit  is  expelled  from  the  deed.'"  * 

If  a  penalty  be  just,  it  is  an  act  of  justice  to  enforce 
it;  not  only  so,  but  if  it  be  necessary  for  the  protection 
and  safe-keeping  of  society,  its  enforcement  becomes 
most  honorable,  praiseworthy  and  benevolent,  and  those 
engaged  therein  should  receive  the  honorable  and  grate- 
ful recognition  of  all  men.  But  what  of  this  wretched 
law  of  capital  punishment?  The  act  of  taking  human 
life,  even  under  the  sanction  of  law,  is  so  despicable  in 
itself  that  the  hand  that  performs  the  deed  instinctively 
shuns  the  light  of  day  and  the  gaze  of  men.  So  has  it 
ever  been. 

"  The  notion  that  there  is  something  impure  and  defiling 
even  in  a  just  execution,  is  one  which  may  be  traced  through 
many  ages;  and  executioners,  as  the  ministers  of  the  law,  have 
been  from  very  ancient  times  regarded  as  unholy.  In  both 
Greece  and  Rome,  the  law  compelled  them  to  live  outside  the 
walls,  and  at  Rhodes  they  were  never  permitted  even  to  enter  the 
city."  f 


Such  a  feeling  is  but  the  spontaneous  protest  of  hu- 
manity itself  against  a  ruthless  invasion  of  its  own 
sanctity. 

Capital  punishment  is  the  last  vestige  of/e.v  taliom's, 
whose  evil  spirit  ruled  a  barbarous  past.  The  doctrine 
of  an  eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  flagellation  and 
all  forms  of  torture,  has  been  weighed  in  the  balance  of 
experience  and  been  found  wanting.  "  Blood  for  blood," 
"a  life  for  a  life,"  smacks  of  the  same  brutal  and  revolt- 
ing savagery;  it  finds  its  origin  and  sustenance  in  the 
passion  of  revenge;  and  the  law  of  civilization  having, 
for  politic  and  humanitarian  reasons,  discarded  the  other 
forms  of  the  barbaric  law,  this  likewise,  and  for  the  same 
reasons,  should  be  laid  aside  for  a  more  just  and  humane 
system  which  shall  not  despair  of  the  ultimate  reclama- 
tion of  the  most  depraved  and  wicked  of  human  beings. 


*  Hegel  in  Blackwood's  Philosophical  Classics,  p.  27. 
f  Lecky's  European  Morals,  1S77,  Vol.  II.,  p.  39. 


THE  FUTURE  OF  LABOR. 

BY    CAPT.    ROBERT    C.    ADAMS. 

The  invention  of  machinery  has  had  a  vast  influence 
upon  the  employment  of  human  labor.  Its  first  effect 
was  to  substitute  the  unskilled  for  the  skilled  laborer, 
whose  work  was  performed  by  the  machine.  As 
invention  proceeded,  it  was  found  that  the  cheaper 
labor  of  women  could  replace  that  of  men,  and  as 
greater  efficiency  is  attained  it  is  found  that  children 
can  perform  the  needed  labor,  and  both  men  and 
women  are  superseded.  A  further  change  is  already 
suggested  to  us  in  the  employment  of  animals.  We 
hear  of  horses  and  dogs  being  trained  to  perform  routine 
work,  and  stories  are  told  of  the  employment  of  chim- 
panzees in  the  simpler  forms  of  farm  work,  both  in 
Africa  and  in  the  United  States.  As  machinery  ap- 
proaches perfection  it  is  not  improbable  that  animals  may 
replace  the  children  in  the  performance  of  some  of  the 
automatic  motions  that  alone  are  needed  to  aid  the  ma- 
chine, and  thus  the  sphere  of  human  labor  may  be  still 
further  restricted. 

The  great  distress  that  is  caused  by  these  changes 
during  the  periods  when  adaptation  to  the  new  condi- 
tions is  being  accomplished  by  the  painful  process  of 
natural  selection  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  may  lead 
us  to  ask  what  will  be  the  solution  of  the  question  as  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  increasing  number  of  the  unem- 
ployed in  the  fully  populated  countt'ies.  The  solution 
is  less  difficult  in  the  newer  countries,  as  the  opportunity 
for  the  employment  of  the  primitive  forms  of  labor  in 
agriculture  and  construction  is  more  extended  there, 
although  the  completion  of  machinery  is  already  seri- 
ously threatening  man  in  those  spheres. 

Some  already  apparent  solutions  of  the  difficulty 
may  be  noticed. 

The  great  increase  of  machinery  calls  for  the  em- 
ployment of  more  people  in  the  higher  capacities  of 
designing,  managing  and  distributing,  and    thus    stimu- 


576 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


lates  the  education  of  the  unskilled  laborer  toward  a  fit- 
ness for  such  employments.  The  greater  cheapness  of 
machine  products  vastly  increases  consumption,  and  so 
adds  to  the  openings  in  these  higher  occupations.  The 
power  to  supply  demand  readily  tends  also  to  the  short- 
ening of  the  hours  of  labor,  thus  lessening  daily  toil  and 
in  some  cases  increasing  the  number  of  workers.  Thus, 
part  of  the  difficulty  is  overcome  by  the  increased  de- 
mand for  workers  in  new  or  enlarged  departments,  as 
has  been  shown  by  those  writers  who  have  treated  the 
subject  of  "labor-making  machinery." 

But  it  is  questionable  whether  under  the  present 
system  of  employment  the  steadily  decreasing  demands 
for  ordinary  labor  can  be  met  by  the  opening  of  en- 
larged spheres  for  work  in  other  directions,  as  the  in- 
ventor is  constantly  invading  all  but  the  most  subtile 
intellectual  field>  of  effort.  The  compositor  is  threatened 
with  discharge  by  the  machine  type-setter;  the  aman- 
uensis may  soon  be  replaced  by  the  phonograph;  the 
laborer  is  being  supplemented  by  the  steam  dredge,  der- 
rick and  hod-lifter;  the  messenger  is  outraced  by  the 
telephone;  a  thousand  girls  were  lately  discharged  from 
the  London  book-binderies  by  the  introduction  of  one 
machine,  and  so  on,  in  every  sphere  of  work,  invention 
is  making  the  demand  for  human  labor  less.  What  is 
to  be  done  with  the  unemployed?  How  can  they  escape 
the  alternatives  of  starvation  or  pauperism  ?  The  only 
answer  is,  Find  them  employment  that  will  secure  the 
means  of  support.  But  how  can  this  be  done  when 
there  is  no  demand  for  extra  labor?  Before  replying, 
let  us  ask,  why  is  there  no  demand?  Are  all  the  wants 
of  mankind  satisfied?  Are  machines  and  lands  produc- 
ing all  that  the  world  desires  to  consume?  No,  every- 
where is  unsatisfied  longing  and  a  demand  for  labor 
that,  if  answered,  would  not  leave  an  idle  person  in  the 
world.  The  reason  why  the  demand  is  not  answered  is 
because  the  opportunities  for  labor  are  controlled  by  in- 
dividuals who  will  not  permit  them  to  be  used  except 
for  their  own  private  profit.  There  is  the  cause;  and 
the  remedy  lies  in  giving  free  opportunity  for  men  to 
labor  for  their  own  full  benefit.  This  can  be  done  when 
the  people  collectively  produce  all  things  for  their  own 
use,  and  there  is  no  longer  production  for  individual 
gain.  Then,  each  worker  for  the  community  will  re- 
ceive all  that  he  needs,  and  if  the  needs  of  all  are  to  be 
supplied,  there  will  never  be  an  excess  of  workers,  for 
human  need  is  insatiable  and  increases  up  to  the  limit  of 
opportunity. 

If  every  person  should  work,  and  the  demand  for  sup- 
plies was  not  stimulated  by  vanity  and  vice,  a  few  hours 
of  daily  labor  would  suffice  to  provide  sustenance  and 
comfort  for  all,  each  worker  would  be  considered  to  have 
earned  the  right  to  receive  all  that  was  needed  for  con- 
sumption and  use,  and  all  who  were  unable  to  work 
would    have   their   wants   freely   supplied.     This  is   the 


ideal  condition  of  society  that  may  be  forecast  as  exist- 
ing in  the  distant  future.  But  though  impracticable  now, 
there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  recognized  as  the 
desired  end,  and  measures  be  adopted  that  would  lead  in 
that  direction. 

Some  such  practical  measures  are  the  following: 

Let  no  person  anxious  to  work  be  unable  to  find  an 
opportunity  to  do  so.  If  private  occupations  are  filled,  let 
the  municipality  furnish  employment  that  shall  supply 
public  needs. 

Shorten  the  hours  of  labor  as  much  as  competition 
with  the  producers  in  other  regions  will  permit,  thus 
increasing  the  number  of  workers  and  affording  leisure 
for  culture  of  body  and  mind. 

Let  the  community  take  over  those  industries  that 
are  poorly  conducted  for  private  gain,  enlarging  their 
operations  by  giving  cheaper  and  better  service.  If  gas 
was  furnished  at  cost,  every  house  might  have  it;  if 
street-car  travel  could  be  more  cheaply  and  extensively 
provided,  multitudes  would  ride;  if  telegraphing  and 
telephoning  were  made  as  cheap  as  the  postal  service,  a 
corresponding  increase  in  use  would  occur;  if  railroads 
and  steamboats  were  run  by  the  people  for  the  people, 
travel  and  freighting  would  grow  enormously;  if  the 
production  and  distribution  of  clothing  and  food  staples 
were  controlled  by  the  community,  the  greater  cheap- 
ness would  add  vastly  to  consumption.  So  in  all 
branches  of  industry  ;  increase  and  cheapen  the  supply, 
and  enlarged  consumption  will  call  for  more  workers, 
and  thus  the  inroads  of  machinery  may  be  met. 

How  long  will  the  people  consent  to  pay  high  prices 
for  poor  services,  in  order  that  dividends  may  be  paid 
upon  watered  stocks  and  extravagant  outlays  ?  It  will 
be  only  until  they  are  sufficiently  educated  to  perceive 
the  remedy'  for  the  ills  they  bear  so  patiently  and  need- 
lessly. The  remedy  is — do  things  for  the  people's  bene- 
fit, not  for  investors'  profit. 

Such  a  change  in  society  may  be  called  a  millennial 
dream,  and  too  far  from  realization  to  be  worth  consider- 
ation. But  the  change  can  be  made  in .  a  generation 
Enforce  free,  secular  education  and  adopt  the  principle 
of  replacing  private  competition  and  monopoly  for  gain 
by  collective  co-operation  for  use,  and  thirty  years  would 
see  society  reformed. 

Many  signs  show  that  this  era  is  rapidly  approaching, 
and  none  is  more  significant  then  the  much  abhorred 
growth  of  monopoly.  The  concentration  and  combina- 
tion of  industries  now  being  promoted  by  rings,  trusts 
and  stock  companies,  though  prompted  by  selfish  greed, 
are  really  preparing  the  way  for  the  assumption  of  these 
enterprises  by  the  community  as  soon  as  the  people  see 
the  opportunity  for  carrying  them  on  for  their  own 
benefit,  as  they  now  do  the  postal  service.  The  able 
men,  who  for  their  own  gain,  are  now  uniting,  harmon- 
izing and  economizing  the  great  enterprises,  are  uncon- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


577 


sciously  preparing  them  for  operation  bv  the  com- 
munitv.  When  they  fully  prove  that  an  entire  industry 
of  a  country  can  he  operated  successfully  under  a  central 
management,  they  have  shown  that  its  nationalization  is 
practicable. 

To  repeat  and  condense  the  ideas  here  expressed,  it 
may  be  said : 

The  cause  of  poverty  is  the  lack  of  remunerative 
employment. 

The  reason  for  scarcity  of  employment  is  that  desir- 
able work  is  not  undertaken  unless  it  will  yield  a  profit 
to  those  who  control  the  means  for  its  performance, — 
the  money,  land,  buildings  or  instruments  needed  for 
production. 

The  way  to  increase  employment  is  to  have  all 
needed  things  produced  for  use  and  not  for  gain. 

The  way  to  secure  production  for  use  is  for  the  peo- 
ple, combined  nationally  or  muncipally,  to  take  control 
of  all  enterprises  employing  labor.  As  they  have  already 
done  with  the  post-office,  they  should  do  with  water 
and  fuel  supplies,  gas,  telegraphs,  railroads,  factories,  and" 
in  time,  as  fitness  indicates,  with  all  industries. 

Employment  for  all  may  be  secured  by  shortening 
the  hours  of  labor  and  increasing  production. 

All  who  work  should  receive  the  means  of  a  com- 
fortable support. 

Education,  and  the  inculcation  of  the  substitution  of 
universal  co-operation  in  the  place  of  individual  competi- 
tion for  gain,  will  prepare  men  to  make  use  of  the 
opportunities  for  the  change  now  being  prepared  by 
the  combination  of  industries. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  HUMANITY. 

BY    WILLfAM    CHATTERTOX    COUPLAND. 

There  is  not  a  little  to  be  said  for  what  may  be  called 
the  Non- regulative  Educational  Principle,  or  the  method 
of  allowing  the  growing  mind  to  seek  its  own  element, 
and  to  take  its  own  direction,  the  more  experienced  and 
enlightened  only  interfering  with  their  admonitions  and 
wise  words,  when  poison  simulates  wholesome  food  or  a 
hasty  step  would  conduct  to  inevitable  ruin.  Certain  at 
last  it  is,  that  much  precious  time  is  wasted  in  most  lives 
in  trying  to  assimilate  alleged  good  things  for  which 
there  is  no  proper  faculty,  and  in  endeavoring  to  walk 
according  to  the  rigid  pattern  of  some  approved  posture- 
master. 

The  function  of  the  pedagogue  is  indeed  much 
narrower  than  professional  vanity  would  have  it  sup- 
posed, and  the  utility  of  express  didactics  in  regard  to 
conduct  must  be  amazingly  small  if  one  reflect  for  a 
moment  on  the  hebdomadal  ethical  seed  that  is  so  gen- 
erously scattered,  and  consider  how  little  of  it  takes  root 
and  can  be  said  to  pay  its  cost. 

"Let  us  not  teach  and  preach  so  much,"  the  poet's 
very  sensible  monition,   might  with  advantage  be  nailed 


on  many  a  pretentious  edifice  and  engraved  on  not  a 
few  well-meaning  but  too  zealous  hearts.  The  lessons 
which  need  no  repetition,  or  the  homilies  which  most 
bite  into  the  soul,  are  nut  sit  down  in  any  school-book, 
and  come  from  the  "golden  mouth"  of  no  licensed  orator. 
"The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  *  *  *  and 
so  is  everyone  that  is  horn  of  the  spirit  "'  is  an  aphorism 
of  wider  application  than  its  enunciator  intended,  and 
even  in  these  days  of  scientific  prying  has  not  quite  lost 
significance.  Drill  and  cram  may  lead  hosts  to  victory 
and  win  a  high  pi. ice  in  college-rolls,  but  the  man  — 
the  individual  man — gains  his  discipline  in  the  collision 
of  influences  too  subtle  for  pre-arrangement — the 
illumination  that  truly  enlightens  is  attained  without 
expenditure  of  midnight  oil. 

In  short,  the  two  virtues  that  we  are  in  danger  of 
losing  in  a  competitive  and  hurried  epoch  are  the  virtues 
of  genuine  thought  and  of  patient  mastery  of  principles 
before  proceeding  to  practice.  We  stock  our  heads  with 
scraps  of  information  and  imagine  we  know ;  we  are  so 
eager  to  "be  up  and  doing  "  that  we  reck  little  whether 
we  are  sowing  tares  or  useful  grain.  The  average 
Englishman  or  American  hardly  believes  in  anything 
but  a  life  of  bustle, — he  must  endow  this  hospital,  agitate 
for  that  charity-bill,  clamor  for  the  latest  device  of  some 
goverment  official  whose  heart  is  sounder  than  his  head 
— anything,  in  short,  but  sit  still  patiently,  trace  evils  to 
their  sources,  and  then  apply  the  axe  to  the  root  of  the 
tree,  thereby  saving  the  waste  of  energy  which  might 
have  dealt  a  final  blow  at  a  giant  wrong. 

No  less  mistaken  is  the  belief  that  second-hand 
knowledge  can  dispense  with  independent  thinking. 
What  we  call  truths  are  not  truths  for  us  till  we  discover 
them.  How  often  do  we  realize  the  experience  of  re- 
peating some  stock  phrase  till  it  is  known  by  rote,  and 
then  one  day,  when  some  simple  question  is  put  in  refer- 
ence to  it,  or  a  definition  of  its  terms  be  required,  we  find 
to  our  astonishment  that  we  have  merely  been  carrying 
about  with  us  a  piece  of  verbal  lumber — that  it  never  has 
been  knowledge  to  us,  although  it  might  have  been 
knowledge,  and  important  knowledge  too,  to  some  long- 
forgotten  student.  On  the  other  hand,  seemingly  dead 
knowledge  may  all  at  once  quicken  into  life  through 
strange  influences  which  we  cannot  analyze, and  what  we 
had  hitherto  regarded  as  a  conjurer's  empty  verbiage 
suddenly  appears  to  contain  a  spell  that  might  move  a 
world. 

'•Old  things  need  not  be  therefore  fine, 
O  brother  men,  nor  yet  the  new," 

chants  the  sagacious  Clough — and  for  this  reason,  that 
new  and  old  have  reference  really  to  the  chronology  of 
each  several  learner,  and  what  to  you  may  be  traditional 
doctrine  to  me  may  be  original  discovery. 

There  is  a  small   word,    the  significance  of  which  is 
supposed  to  be  patent  to   the   meanest  intelligence,  and 


57S 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  possession  of  what  it  is  supposed  to  stand  for  is 
taken  as  the  peculiar  work  of  a  sane  mind.  That  word 
is  real.  Is  it  not  an  almost  hourly  question — "Is  this 
object  real?'1''  What  are  we  not  all  aiming  at  but  to 
grasp  the  real?  And  what  greater  slur  can  we  cast 
upon  a  fellow- man  than  to  aver  that  his  life  is  spent 
among  things  that  are  not  real, — in  all  the  applications 
taking  it  for  granted  that  we  ourselves  and  everybody 
else  know  so  well  what  we  were  talking  about  that  it 
hardly  ever  occurs  to  us  to  give  the  matter  a  moment's 
thought.  And  yet  there  is  no  term  in  the  vocabulary 
of  mankind  that  has  had  a  more  curious  fate,  being  a 
very  Proteus  for  the  forms  it  has  taken  to  the  reflective 
consciousness;  so  much  so  indeed  that  it  has  been  made 
to  stand  upon  its  head  as  it  were,  and  signifies  to  this 
eminent  thinker  the  precise  contrary  it  imports  to  that 
one,  so  that  the  reproach  of  one  age  or  school  has  been  the 
glory  of  another.  And  this,  notwithstanding  complete 
unanimity  as  to  what  the  word  is  wanted  for — the  feel- 
ing that  prompts  to  the  verbal  sign  is  identical  at  what- 
ever stage  ofintellectu.il  culture  the  mind  has  arrived, — 
but  what  is  the  thought  that  is  sought  to  be  fixed  once 
for  all  by  this  general  term  is  the  subtile  entity  that  is 
always  eluding  our  embrace. 

Shall  we  cut  short  at  once  the  discussion,  and  say 
the  matter  is  of  private  interpretation,  and  as  we  do  not 
insist  upon  all  the  world  having  the  same  dreams,  so  a 
man's  waking  creed — that  which  must  underlie  his 
rational  practice — is  also  private  and  individual,  and  pro- 
vided he  has  the  courage  of  his  opinions  he  is  no  object 
for  criticism,  still  less  a  subject  f<>r  conversion?  To 
which  the  answer  merely  is  simply,  that  the  idea  we  are 
in  quest  of  is  precisely  that  which  we  wish  most  thor- 
oughly to  distinguish  from  "  dreams.  "  In  fact,  the  dream 
is  just  the  not-real,  and  to  throw  the  two  into  the  same 
cate«or\  is  to  reduce  us  to  the  incoherence  of  idiotcy. 
It  is  precisely  what  we  want  to  be  saved  from,  that  dream- 
life.  It  plays  a  part  in  the  sum  total  of  experience, 
but  a  very  subordinate  part,  and  a  part  that  we  do  not 
care  to  dwell  upon,  the  mass  of  mankind  having  always 
rt  garded  him  who  takes  too  much  account  of  his  "dreams' 
somewhat  as  the  opium-eattr,  who  loses  moral  fibre  in 
proportion  as  he  partakes  of  the  fatal  thug.  I  fancy 
there  is  no  getting  quit  of  this  trouhlesome  question  in 
that  fashion — the  an^el  must  he  wrestled  with  until  he 
gives  his  hlessing — he  will  not  melt  out  of  our  sight  like 
a  spectral  illusion  by  a  mere  turning  aside  of  the  eye. 

There  are  people,  who,  when  a  topic  of  this  sort  is 
broached,  are  apt  to  b  initated  and  to  ex  laim  that  life 
is  too  brief  for  such  inquiries;  that  there  is  quite  enough 
to  ojcupy  the  intellect  in  the  field  of  palpable  observation; 
that  to  deal  with  facts  and  the  relative  of  facts  (positive 
science)  is  the  task  of  man  so  far  as  he  chooses  to  be 
theoretical  at  all,  and  that  metaphysics  are  waste  of 
energy.      Glib  words — words  that    have   a   ring  of  self- 


sufficiency  about  them  that  is  highly  composing  logically, 
especially  in  a  busy  age,  but,  for  all  that,  slightly  hollow 
as  a  little  steady  scrutiny  quickly  shows. 

For  that  are  these  facts  to  which  we  are  to  confine 
ourselves?  Are  they  not  the  same  mysteries  which 
baffled  us  before?  If  Reality  be  obscure,  every  Fact 
cannot  be  plain.  Or  is  it  intended  by  the  substitution  of 
terms  to  emphasize  a  protest  that  man's  concern  is  only 
with  that  which  is  derivative  and  secondary,  not  funda- 
mental and  ultimate — with  events  in  time  and  objects  in 
space,  with  flesh  and  blood,  properties  and  attributes,  not 
with  soul  and  the  substantial  ?  If  such  be  the  intention,  the 
word  Fact  at  least  must  be  dropped  out  of  the  discussion, 
for  no  reading  of  Fact  yet  given  can  make  it  coincident 
with  the  Seeming;  and  this  "seeming"  if  inserted  into 
the  fervid  exhortation  to  the  lover  of  common-sense 
will  be  the  rose  that  does  not  smell  as  sweet. 

To  be  plain — there  is  a  superstition  of  Modern 
Belief  that  is  beginning  to  impair  the  blessings  of 
Scientific  Progress — a  superstition  that,  like  older 
superstitions,  may  one  day  be  a  formidable  foe  to  the  free 
future  race — the  finality-spirit  that  ever  shows  itself  when 
a  new  intellectual  system  attains  to  power.  What  the 
stereotyped  dogmas  have  been  to  the  Church,  attempts 
to  close  the  book  of  developments  at  a  certain  chapter, 
because  its  readers  were  too  blind  to  see  anything  but 
blank  pages  beyond,  such  a  baneful  agency  may  become 
an  impirical  creed  that  refuses  to  sound  depths  that  are 
assumed  to  be  vacant  of  life  because  the  latest  explorer 
has  had  no  instrument  fine  enough  to  detect  its  presence. 

Coherence  and  system  are  excellent  things,  hut  they 
may  be  purchased  at  too  high  a  rate.  All  men  would 
welcome  a  neat  and  rounded-off  theory  of  the  world,  an 
all  sufficing  creed  that  could  stand  battering  in  detail 
without  losing  its  essential  completeness,  a  doctrine  so 
satisfactory  that  we  could  lay  down  on  our  beds  and  be 
certain  that  to-morrow's  sun  would  smile  on  no  prophet 
born  in  a  manger  who  might  displace  our  spiritual 
centre  and  establish  a  new  order  of  convictions  that 
would  disarrange  customary  values  and  confuse  our  gold 
with  dross. 

Is  it  apostacy  from  genuine  free-thought  to  cry  "  No 
finality,  even  though  the  finality  be  that  of  a  methodized 
common-sense?"  Rational  the  creed  of  the  future  will 
be  inevitably,  but  what  is  the  test  of  rationality?  A 
creed  wholly  without  fiction  or  myth;  but  where  is  our 
scientific  puritan  who  has  renounced  for  ever  all 
mythology?  A  creed  whose  God  is  a  Real  Being,  and 
whose  Law  of  Duty  is  obligatory  because  its  function 
can  be  felt  and  seen  ;  but  is  there  no  infusion  of  the  Ideal 
in  every  conception  of  the  Real,  and  where  is  the 
sanction  that  can  say  arrest  the  suicide's  arm? 

I  consider  it  no  mark  of  Progress  to  narrow  the 
range  of  human  speculation.  It  is  a  mark  of  progress 
not  to  confuse  distinct  provinces  of  knowledge,  to  require 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


579 


a  critique  of  the  faculty  of  knowledge  itself, to  scrutinize 
every  claimant  for  a  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  genuinely 
Real;  but  it  is  no  mark  of  Progress,  no  sign  of  better 
self-knowledge  to  close  the  eves  that  are  shamming 
with  the  Infinite,  to  refuse  a  hearing  to  certain  questions 
because  every  answer  must  be  clothed  in  the  form  ot  a 
finite  consciousness,  to  silence  every  striving  that 
threatens  to  disturb  the  harmony  of  a  superficial 
existence  for  the  reason  that  similar  emotions  have  been 
accountable  for  some  strange  vagaries  before  now. 

To  my  groping  vision,  endeavoring  to  read  the  signs 
of  the  times,  the  Intellectual  Creed  now  demanded  is  the 
marriage  of  Transcendentalism  and  Positive  Knowledge. 
The  higher  minds  of  an  older  time,  trying  to  steady 
themselves  in  a  world  that  was  ever  changing,  that  never 
remained  for  one  moment  the  same,  rushed  to  the  con- 
clusion that  only  where  change  was  not,  could  True 
Being  be;  that  Reality  was  out  of  all  experience — was 
supernatural.  Had  there  been  no  race  to  rear,  no  land 
to  till,  no  cities  to  build,  such  a  creed  of  pure  Intellect- 
ualism  might  have  won  acceptance.  It  gained  adherents, 
and  still  continues  to  flourish  where  the  clanking  forge 
is  unheard,  in  the  serenity  of  the  cloister  where  common 
thoughts  are  profane — not  where  merchants  congregate 
but  where  the  secular  thought  for  the  time  is  ignored, 
and  the  only  speech  is  that  of  the  hjmn  and  the  prayer. 
Anything  but  strange  is  it  therefore,  that  as  the  energies 
are  diverted  into  channels  altogether  alien  from  the 
occupations  of  the  Church,  as  attention  is  claimed  by 
objects  of  sense,  as  men  come  to  find  an  unsuspected 
order  in  the  mutations  of  the  supposed  inert  physical 
world,  that  they  shall  see  only  emptiness  where  their 
fathers  alone  saw  palaces,  and  that  the  Real  should 
become  synonymous  with  the  Concrete,  the  Apparent, 
the  Ever-moving.  If  the  Christian  Church  essayed  to 
methodize  Trancendentalism, disparaged  the  terrestial  life 
as  but  a  flitting  of  shadows,  a  sort  of  drudge's  doom  that 
would  be  speedily  exchanged  for  a  courtly  career,  the 
Humanitarian  creed  exalts  the  earth-life,  and  permptorily 
forbids  its  members  to  indulge  imagination  where  sense 
furnishes  no  clue.  So  persuaded  of  its  truth  is  this  way  of 
thinking  that  it  sees  the  essence  of  the  old  creed  in  its 
newer  system,  and  declares  that  the  God  which  the 
ecstatic  Fathers  ignorantly  worshipped  was  its  own 
finite  Deity  in  disguise,  that  man  can  and  must  adore 
man,  and  that  we  are  at  once  our  own  creators  and 
destroyers! 

No  such  painful  identification  of  contradictories  is, 
however,  plausible.  Nothing  is  ever  gained  by  attempts 
to  slur  fundamental  differences;  and  between  the 
Transcendentalist  conception  of  a  princely  and  spaceless 
realm  inhabited  by  pure  spirit,  and  a  world  that  is  only 
made  of  human  consciousness  there  is  no  point  of  contact. 
The  Hagiolatry  of  the  Mediaeval  Church  was  a  lapse 
from    the  purity   the  old   religion,   which  finds  its  true 


expression  in  the  Spiritualism  of  John  —  and  an  litre 
Supreme  that  dies  without  Resurrection  is  hardly  the 
S>u  of  God  who  dwells  forever  at  the  right  hand  oi  the 
Father. 

Is  then  the  solution  of  the  problem  to  b-  found  in 
the  shearing  away  of  the  transcendental  elem  nts  ol  the 
older  creeds  and  the  attempted  co-ordination  of  the 
present  results  of  finite  knowledge?  Is  a  creed  that  we 
can  look  all  round,  that  has  no  intractable  remainder,  to 
satisfy  the  coming  Age?  What  answer  do  s  experience 
give?  Are  the  old  blessings  deserted?  Is  the  decay  of 
Theology  in  direct  ratio  to  the  spread  of  Science?  is  the 
longing  to  peer  behind  the  veil  dying  of  lack  of 
satisfaction?  Or  are  not  the  facts  just  the  other  way i 
Is  not  Science  itself  coming  to  raise  its  own  altar  to  an 
Unknown  Power?  Is  not  an  Unseen  Universe-  the 
universe  that  still  holds  the  lives  of  myraids?  In  the 
light  of  day  ghosts  do  not  appear — in  a  world  when-  all 
is  Natural  there  should  be  noroom  tor  owe.  Yet,  voices 
are  still  subdued  in  the  Chamber  of  Death,  and  there 
are  organ-tones  that  stir  strange  depths  which  no  social 
experience  ever  reaches.  To  describe  these  and  the  like 
as  "Survivals"  is  not  to  explain  Survivals  of  what? 
Survivals  of  primitive  tendencies  that  have  never  been 
wanting  to  the  race — tendencies  to  see  the  Infinite 
enshrouding  tue  Finite,  yearnings  to  tike  the  wings  of 
morning  and  soar  far  above  the  clatter  of  the  terrestial 
home  and  its  ever-renewed  disappointmen  s. 

Now,  suppose  we  cancel  the  denials  of  both  Old  and 
New  Catholic — affirm  with  the  one  that  we  are  children 
of  Caste  and  Heirs  of  Terrestial  Ages,  having  no  power 
of  love  but  for  our  kith  and  kin,  and  counting  it  a  duty 
and  an  act  of  gratitude,  however  paradoxical,  to  spend 
and  be  spent  for  our  descendants,  to  whom  we  are  nothing 
— yet  declare  with  the  other  that  that  which  we 
essentially  are  can  fit  into  no  temporal  framework,  even 
though  it  be  measured  by  processions  of  centuries,  from 
the  first  gibbering  ape  to  the  last  angel-biowed  man, — 
supposing,  1  say,  we  make  so  bold  as  to  affirm  that  the 
fusion  of  the  Permanent  and  Transient  is  alone  woithy 
to  be  called  Positive  Philosophy  and  Positive  Religion, 
shall  we  he  looking  back  to  abandoned  positions  and 
attempting  a  compromise  that  is  factitious  and  uncalled 
for?  I  answer  No,  neither  the  one  nor  t1  e  other.  The 
position  has  not  been  maint  lined,  and  theieforec  nnot 
be  abandoned;  and  so  far  from  being  a  welding  together 
of  heterogeneous  materials  it  is  a  spontaneous  fusion  of 
elements  that  have  ever  been  present  in  human  aspiration 
and  desire.  And  as  to  its  being  uncall'd  for,  it  is,  I 
believe,  the  one  thing  wanting  to  the  world's  intellectual 
contentment. 

You  cannot  conjure  the  ghost  out  of  youi  haunted 
chamber  by  merely  leiterating  "  There  is  nothing  there." 
Every  unwilling  inmate  testifies  by  his  v;>gue  present- 
ment  that    he   is   nigh    an    unseen   presence.     And   vou 


58o 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


cannot  confine  your  thinking  in  a  strait  waistcoat, 
although  you  may  label  it  "dangerous,"  and,  even 
less  politely,  "  idiotic  and  unmeaning."  And  why 
attempt  these  feats?  Why  confine  us  in  cages  when  we 
pant  for  unlimited  room?  To  produce  happy  families 
by  bringing  our  fellow-beings  so  close  that  we  cannot 
breathe  any  atmosphere  but  that  of  human  breath? 
Such  trials  as  have  been  made  on  small  scales  do  not 
augur  well  for  larger  experiments.  In  affairs  of  life  it 
is  mischievous  to  lose  sense  of  proportion ;  and  to 
exaggerate  Humanity  till  it  occupies  the  Universe,  is 
certainly  to  cutdo  the  Idolatries  against  which  the 
world's  prophet-sentinels  have  never  ceased  to  warn. 

On  the  other  hand,  no  one  who  has  at  all  caught  the 
modern  spirit,  who  has  followed  the  life  of  recent  science, 
can  kneel  again  at  the  old  altars  and  help  to  swell  the 
chorus  of  other- world  believers.  How  can  we  possibly 
repeat  prayers  that  are  strewn  with  demonstrable 
fictions,  listen  to  sermons  that  suppose  the  world  to  have 
stood  intellectually  still  for  nearly  twenty  centuries?  I 
am  not  a  just-baptized  Jew,  and  do  not  feel  edified  by 
being  informed  that  I  have  been,  or  must  be,  washed  in 
the  blood  of  the  Lamb;  and  highly  as  I  venerate  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  I  cannot  honestly  say  that  his 
letters  appeal  to  me,  a  citizen  of  modern  London,  with 
the  forcibleness  and  convincingness  they  doubtless 
possessed  for  the  men  of  ancient  Corinth  and  Galatia. 
While  the  Church's  Bible  is  not  big  enough,  and  its 
psalmody  too  monotonous,  its  liturgy  is,  alas!  a  bar  to  all 
communion,  proceeding  on  assumed  relations  of  Creature 
and  Creator  that  employed  the  ingenuity  of  many  a 
devotee  to  reconcile  with  every-day  assumptions.  Can 
the  Church  widen  its  doors  and  prune  its  ritual  so  as  to 
admit  the  pantheist  and  the  materialist?  And  yet  a 
Church  that  Is  incompetent  to  that  cannot  henceforward 
be  a  National  Church.  There  is  a  crass  dualism  in  its 
Theology,  that  revolts  him  to  whom  it  is  axiomatic  that 
God  must  be  One  with  His  World — there  is  an  assumed 
independence  of  this  rational  nature  that  flouts  the 
plainest  feelings  of  the  biologist. 

The  Creed  of  Humanity  that  is  to  support  the 
Religion  of  Humanity,  must  be  a  statement  of  the  whole 
fundamental  truth  that  is  implicit  in  the  thinking  of 
Humanity.  There  will  be  nothing  optional  in  its 
articles,  lor  they  sign  themselves, — they  are  the  inde- 
structible shadows  of  our  own  personality.  The  partial 
dogmas  that  have  divided  the  world  will  contribute  their 
qui  ta  to  the  Universal  Faith,  and  Materialist,  Idealist, 
Theist,  all  present  an  offering  that  we  cannot  safely 
ignore. 

When  the  Materialist  says  that  all  the  forms  of 
vegetable  and  animal  life,  even  including  man,  are 
transitory  shapings  of  a  Reality  that  is  itself  indestruct- 
ible, homogeneous,  and  insentient,  he  proclaims  a  truth 
the   certainty    of    which    is    derived    from   no   induction. 


When  the  Idealist  says  Phenomena  are  mental 
Phenomena,  and  that  we  can  no  more  affirm  an  Unknow- 
able than  the  bird  can  fly  in  a  perfect  vacuum — that 
there  can  never  be  substance  without  attribute — he  too 
is  proclaiming  a  truth  that  is  drawn  from  the  very 
texture  of  our  mind.  And  when  the  Theist  says  the 
forms  of  Time  are  but  the  expressions  of  One  Eternal 
Order,  a  completed  harmony  that  only  appears  capricious 
and  chaotic  to  an  intelligence  that  picks  it  out  bit  by  bit, 
he  too  confesses  a  truth  which  the  religious  consciousness 
of  mankind  is  ever  struggling  to  confess  in  its  various 
tribal  adorations  of  "Jehovah,  Jove,  or  Lord,"  in  its 
admission  of  an  Ultimate  Unknowable  Power,  even  in 
its  worship  of  Humanity. 

Our  childhood's  dreams  are  not  dispelled,  our 
youthful  hopes  still  remain  to  us, — this  world  is  not  a 
world  of  7?ierc  change,  the  Soul's  Immortality  is  not  a 
fiction,  and  the  trust  in  an  unbroken  and  ever-present 
rule  stands  firmer  than  ever.  We  may  be  assured  that 
whatever  we  can  do  without  in  our  thought  is  no 
essential  of  our  creed,  but  whatever  returns  upon  our 
hands,  and  cannot  be  dismissed  by  an  effort  of  will,  is  a 
portion  of  necessary  truth. 

Although  I  cannot  repeat  the  formularies  of  my 
brother  in  his  admired  cathedral,  I  can  watch  his  devo- 
tion with  respectful  sympathy,  and  also  without  any 
longing  to  be  kneeling  beside  him  once  again  and  lisping 
the  old  prayers  as  when  a  boy.  I,  too,  bend  the  knee, 
although  he  does  not  see  me;  my  prayer,  too,  might  be 
heard  if  he  could  comprehend  its  dialect;  but,  though 
parted  by  such  distances  of  expression  that  we  can  no 
more  commune  than  two  children  of  the  same  parents 
who  have  been  reared  in  diverse  climes  and  among  men 
of  alien  race,  we  }  et  are  nearer  than  we  are  apt  to 
suppose,  and  might  be  nearer  still  if  our  faith  were  really 
stronger. 

The  reasons  why  different  sects  are  so  very  slow  in 
composing  their  differences  is,  in  a  great  degree,  to  be 
traced  to  a  baseless  fear  that  knowledge  and  criticism 
will  rob  them  of  their  priceless  possessions — their  hopes 
and  trusts.  When  the  critic  of  past  beliefs  points  out 
how  much  in  the  systems  of  former  times  is  a  compound 
of  fraud  and  delusion;  when  the  scientific  lecturer,  after 
carefully  sorting  his  facts,  goes  on  to  show  that  the  skies 
are  brainless,  and  so  there  can  be  no  Supreme  Intelligence 
that  nothing  but  an  unreasoning  affection  testifies  to  a 
consciousness  beyond  the  grave, — we  shudder  as  if  our 
dearest  friend  had  been  torn  ruthlessly  from  our  side 
and  as  if  a  pall  had  descended  upon  a  corpse  like  Nature. 
Be  it  noted,  however,  that  the  understanding  is  powerless 
to  destroy  what  the  understanding  is  powerless  to  create. 
If  the  Understanding  has  begotten  Theism,  the  Under- 
standing can  destroy  Theism;  if  the  Understanding  has 
persuaded  you   that  there  is  a    future  life,  the   Under- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


581 


standing,  with  some  acuter  syllogism,  can  rob  juu  of  the 
precious  fable. 

Did  ever  any  man  believe  in  the  constancy  of  Nature 
because  he  could  prove  it?  Assuredly  not,  because  that 
would  need  omniscience.  It  is  a  postulate  which  renders 
possible  every  step  we  take. 

But  observe,  there  is  no  justification  for  believing 
anything  that  is  not  a  practical  necessity.  There  is  a 
justification  for  assuming  that  the  world,  as  perceived  by 
us,  is  a  mere  phantasmagoria;  there  is  no  justification, 
nay,  there  is  nonsense  in  believing  that  the  percipient 
element  in  us  is  phantasmagoric  too.  /am  not  an  object, 
I  am  not  a  thing  among  many  things;  you  cannot  put 
me  in  a  grave,  and  see  me  crumble  into  dust!  Only  the 
mythologizing  propensity  at  once  begins  to  operate 
on  these  rarefied  materials,  and  gets  farther  and  farther 
from  the  purity  of  the  necessary  postulates  of  Existence, 
till  it  comes  to  translate  its  dogma  of  the  Immortality  of 
the  Soul  into  a  conscious  continuation  of  the  fellow-man 
who  lately  walked  and  dwelt  beside  us.  That  the  Soul 
which  is  Eternal  and  Immortal  is  the  soul  that  was 
never  born,  is  the  /  Am  that  is  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting — the  soul  that  said  "  I  and  my  Father  are 
One." 

From  such  transcendental  heights  I  hear  the  reader 
recall  me  to  the  common  things  of  earth ;  and  I  willingly 
come,  as  these  are  things  almost  too  great  for  lonely 
whispers;  but  my  point  in  this  paper  is  to  make  plain 
that  the  foundation  for  a  world-religion  must  be  as  wide 
and  deep  as  the  implicit   consciousness   of  human  mind 

It  may  be  said,  doubtless,  by  some but  we  can  get  on 

very  well  without  these  mystic  assumptions;  we  prefer 
the  Agnostic  attitude,  which  is  content  with  every-day 
Knowledge,  with  that  intellectual  outfit  that  is  sufficient 
for  leading  a  decent  and  comfortable  life.  And  an 
Agnosticism  which  acts  up  to  its  professions  is  worth 
indefinitely  more  than  nine-tenths  of  the  Gnosticism 
the  blatant  orthodoxy,  that  is  posted  up  in  all  celestia, 
and  infernal  news.  But  while  Agnosticism  may  be 
well,  there  is  perchance  something  better.  Man,  the 
Aspiring  Man,  the  heir  of  a  grand  Evolution — Man,  who 
gazes  into  the  face  of  Nature,  not  with  stupid  wonder, 
as  at  a  piece  of  incomprehensible  mechanism,  but  as  a 
critic  who  stands  before  an  equal  or  even  superior — Man 
cannot  long  resign  himself  to  self-effacement,  but  will 
claim  his  full  birthright,   and  will  know  as  he  is  known. 

And  one  last  powerful  reason  to  recommend  the 
theological  position  I  have  been  advocating:  It  purges 
Duty  of  everything  arbitrary,  by  providing  for  it  a 
foundation  too  stable  to  be  ever  moved.  When  we  come 
to  see  that  our  relations  extend  into  the  infinite;  that 
what  we  do  is  of  moment  not  to  this  hour  or  that;  that 
the  conscious  self  is  but  the  representative  of  a  Self  that 
knows  no  limit  of  time  and  space, — we  then  see  that  to 
be  faithless  to   the   principles   of  this  broadest  Education 


of  justice  is  not  to  desert  this  or  that  party  of  the 
hour,  but  to  be  recreant  to  a  solemn  trust.  The  Positive 
System  of  Auguste  Comte,  for  which  I  have  a  high 
regard,  deepens  the  sense  of  responsibility  in  a  way  that 
no  previous  Creed  has  done,  by  making  us  trustees  for 
the  human  race  considered  as  an  organic  whole.  I  only 
invite  it  to  ascend  one  step  higher — to  recognize  the 
relation  of  each  single  member,  not  only  to  his  kind  and 
to  the  tiny  sphere  of  which  he  is  a  denizen,  but  to  the 
whole  universe  of  conscious  perception,  to  the  Fountain 
of  Vitality  that  flowed  before  Humanity  was  born,  and 
that  will  continue  to  flow  when  Humanity's  death-hour 
has  long  been  past. 


NEW    VIEWS    OF    RELIGION    AND    ETHICS. 

(Concluded.) 

BY    F.    M.    HOLLAND. 

The  idea  of  life  which  supplies  M.  Gii)au  with  a 
system  of  philosophy  destined,  ultimately,  to  take  the  place 
of  all  the  religions,  leads,  he  thinks,  to  a  better  theory  of 
ethics  than  utilitarianism,  which  has  proved  itself  unable 
to  state  the  chief  end  of  man  in  the  form  of  a  sufficient 
basis  for  moral  obligation.  Mill  seems  to  him  vision- 
ary; the  representation  made  by  that  Spinoza  of  Pos- 
tivism,  Herbert  Spencer,  of  disinterestedness  as  instinc- 
tive, errs  in  enthroning  instinct  above  the  will;  while  all 
attempts  to  exchange  individual  happiness  for  universal 
happiness,  as  the  real  aim  of  men,  involve  inconsistencies 
and  illusions.  The  only  practical  view  appears  to  be 
the  very  limited  one  which  is  stated  thus:  "  The  moral- 
ity founded  upon  actual  facts  alone  is  the  science  whose 
subject  is  every  means  of  preserving  and  increasing 
material  or  intellectual  life."  "Thus  the  laws  of  moral- 
ity are  identical  with  those  of  life,  and  are,  in  their  most 
general  statements,  the  same  for  all  living  creatures." 
"  A  positive  morality  can  differ  but  little  from  an  en- 
larged hygiene."  "  Increasing  the  intensity  of  life 
means  increasing  the  reign  of  activity  in  all  its  forms,  to 
the  degree  compatible  with  the  reparation  of  vital  forces." 
"The  highest  intensity  of  life  must  be  accompanied  by 
its  greatest  possible  expansion."  "  Life  can  maintain  it- 
self only  by  diffusing  itself.  "  "  The  most  perfect  or- 
ganism is  the  most  sociable;  and  the  ideal  of  individual 
life  is  universal  life."  "  Scientific  ethics  can  issue  to  the 
individual  only  this  commandment:  'Develop  thy  life 
in  every  direction;  become  as  rich  as  possible  in  exten- 
sion of  energy,  as  well  as  intensity;  and  therefore  make 
thyself  the  most  sociable  of  beings.'"  "  When  our  ex- 
pansive force  becomes  conscious  of  its  own  power,  it 
takes  the  name  of  duty."  "Action  is  the  moral  ideal ;  and 
idleness  is  the  worst  of  all  vices."  (Esy/u'ssc,  pp.  11, 
72,  i&\  25,  205,  24Q.) 

These  are  all  the  statements  of  any  importance  made 
by  M.  Guyau  of  his  own  theory;  for  most  of  the  book 
which  sets  it  forth   is  occupied  with   criticism   of  oppo- 


582 


THE    OPEN    COU  RT 


nents.  This  is  rendered  necessary  by  his  failure,  as  is  con- 
fessed in  his  title,  Esquisse  if  line  Morale  sans  Obliga- 
tion nc  Sanction,  either  to  furnish  any  satisfactory  basis 
of  moral  obligation,  or  to  recognize  any  legitimate  mo- 
tives to  virtue,  except  desire  of  activity  and  of  develop- 
ment. Valuable  as  this  emotion  is,  when  properly  sup- 
plemented and  regulated  by  other  well-known  sanctions 
to  virtue  of  greater  force  and  higher  quality,  it  is  defec- 
tive in  many  ways.  It  has  little  power  over  old  or  even 
middle-aged  people,  especially  those  who,  like  M.  Giiyau, 
have  no' faith  in  immortality.  There  arc  many  savage 
tribes,  and  some  classes  of  civilized  society,  whose  mem- 
bers show  scarcely  any  love  of  activity  for  its  own  sake, 
and  no  desire  for  development.  The  book  would  not 
have  much  effect  on  the  Turk,  who  cannot  see  why 
European  ladies  and  gentlemen  dance  themselves  instead 
of  telling  their  servants  to;  or  on  the  Buddhist,  who  re- 
gards action  as  evil,  and  hopes  only  to  sink  into  Nirvana. 
The  belief  that  heaven  is  perfect  rest  has  too  much  cur- 
rency, even  among  Christians,  to  allow  us  to  feel  much 
confidence  in  desire  to  enlarge  and  intensify  life  as  a  mo- 
tive to  goodness.  Even  those  who  feel  it  most  keenly, 
namely  young  and  healthy  people,  eager  in  the  pursuit 
of  pleasure  or  of  success  in  business,  art,  literature,  or 
politics,  do  not  usually  show  themselves  so  sympathetic 
with  suffering,  so  considerate  of  others'  rights,  and  so 
firm  against  all  temptations  to  self-indulgence,  as  proves 
that  they  can  safely  dispense  with  all  the  other  moral 
sanctions.  So  narrow  a  foundation  is  scarcely  sufficient 
for  self-culture,  and  supplies  no  room  for  justice  or  pur- 
ity. The  safety  of  society  demands  such  recognition  of 
others'  rights,  and  such  control  of  our  own  passions,  as 
must  be  inspired  by  very  different  motives  from  desire  to 
make  life  large,  active,  and  intense.  M.  Guyau  says  him- 
self that  the  drunkard  has  such  intensity  in  his  pleasure 
as  is  not  possessed  by  sober  people.  La  Morale  Ang- 
lo isc,  p.  206'. 

Intensity  almost  always  means  excess;  and  all  excess 
is  unhealthy  and  vicious.  Life  needs  to  be  regulated  as 
as  well  as  stimulated,  and  to  be  directed  by  much  higher 
considerations  than  mere  regard  for  its  own  intensity  and 
size.  Two  lives  might  be  precisely  similar  in  these  re- 
pects,  and  yet  differ  immeasurably  in  moral  purity, 
wealth  and  grandeur.  M.  Guyau,  with  thpt  honesty  to 
himself  and  his  readers  which  characterizes  all  his  work, 
and  which  can  scarcely  be  praised  too  highly,  closes  his 
presentation  of  his  theory  by  frankly  comparing  it  to  a 
ship  without  a  rudder.  Rut  this  is  precisely  what  a  sys- 
tem of  ethics  ought  to  give;  and  the  defect  is  fatal.  If 
we  could  suppose,  with  him,  that  all  other  teachers  are 
liable  to  the  same  objection,  our  duty  would  be  to  try  and 
discover  some  new  system  so  much  better  than  any 
which  has  been  taught  by  him,  or  any  one  else,  as  to  be 
reallv  capable  of  guiding  us  aright.  Most  readers  will, 
however,  feel  themselves   justified  by  his  admission  that 


he  cannot  give  what  they  need,  in  continuing  to  hold  the 
system  of  morality  which  has  satisfied  them  hitherto,  and 
trying  to  make  the  best  of  it.  Some,  at  least,  will  agree 
with  me  that  he  does  not  appreciate  the  truth  and  value 
of  utilitarianism,  as  presented  in  a  book,  of  which  he 
speaks  too  briefly,  The  Emotions  and  the  Will,  by 
Alexander  Bain.  This  system  which  is  essentially  Dar- 
win's, may  also  be  found  in  Leslie  Stephens'  Science  of 
Ethics.  Its  fundamental  positions  are  as  follows:  We 
cannot  live  without  the  aid  of  society;  and  society  can 
exist  only  in  conformity  with  certain  conditions,  among 
which  is  observance  of  the  laws  of  justice,  benevolence, 
self-culture  and  self-control.  These  moral  laws  are  con- 
ditions of  social  welfare,  which  thus  becomes  the  moral 
standard.  Actions  by  which  the  community  flourishes 
are  right;  and  those  detrimental  to  general  prosperity  are 
wrong.  Our  relations  with  other  members  of  society 
make  us  willing  to  comply  with  the  conditions  of  social 
welfare.  This  willingness  is  increased  bv  our  disinter- 
ested sympathy  with  our  neighbors,  by  the  force  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  by  the  vigor  with  which  the  laws  of  the  land 
punish  dishonesty  and  other  conduct  flagrantly  injurious 
to  the  safety  and  prosperity  of  society,  and  by  our  know- 
ledge that  enlightened  self-interest  favors  observance  of 
the  moral  law.  The  action  of  these  influences  in  the  past 
has  created  that  sense  of  obligation,  irrespective  of  per- 
sonal advantage  which  we  call  conscience,  and  the  pres- 
ent power  of  these  influences  in  favor  of  virtue  is  strong 
enough  to  make  them  very  precious  as  moral  sanctions. 
Thus  the  conflict  between  the  claims  of  individual  and 
universal  happiness  is  closed  by  subordinating  both  to 
the  higher  standard  of  social  welfare,  which  last  has  the 
further  advantage  of  being  no  question  of  feeling  but  a 
definite  matter  of  fact.  The  moral  laws  needed  for  re- 
gulating and  directing  individual  life,  are  given  by  thus 
subjecting  it  to  the  conditions  of  harmony  with  social 
life.  This  system  is  in  such  full  accord  with  the  most 
advanced  teachings  of  science,  that  it  can  hold  its  own 
against  all  attack;  and  it  is  likely  to  gain  immensely  from 
such  ingenious,  scholarly,  impartial  and,  in  every  re- 
spect, noble  criticisms  as  have  been  published  by  M. 
Guvau. 


THE   SECULARIZATION   OF   RELIGION. 

Part  I. 

11 Y  M.  c.  o'byrne. 

"  God  is  a  blank  sheet  upon  which  nothing  is  found 
but  what  we  have  ourselves  written."  In  this  almost 
Protagorean  dictum,  Martin  Luther  seems  to  have  an- 
ticipated Kant's  affirmation — "  It  is  reflecting  Reason 
which  brought  Design  into  the  world,  and  which  ad- 
mires a  wonder  created  by  itself."  The  master  key  to 
all  mysteries  is  ready  to  our  hand  in  the  thesis  of  Prota- 
goras,* the  never-to-be   confuted  proposition  which   we 

*Vide  Encv.  Britain,  Sth  <sd.,  sub-Jocc  "Protagoras,"  and  Lewi's'  "  History 
of  Philosophy— The  Sophists." 


THE    OPEN    COtl  RT. 


583 


find  in  the  "  Thesetetus  "  of  Plato,  who  was  the  avowed 
opponent  of  the  great  ':  Sophist."  In  reply  to  These- 
tetus,  Socrates  says:  "At  any  rate  thou  riskest  the  ar- 
gument not  badly,  it  has  been  said  concerning  knowl- 
edge, indeed  Protagoras  said  it;  but  some  express  the 
same  another  way.  For  he  affirms  man  to  be  the 
measure  [//frpoi^  measure  standard^  of  all  things, — of 
those  existing,  that  they  are;  of  those  not  existing,  that 
they  are  not." 

In  a  paper  like  The  Open  Court,  designed  to  pro- 
mote religious,  scientific,  and  philosophic  innovation,  it 
is  surely  appropriate  for  us  to  attempt  to  discover  an 
eirenicon  between  the  two  contending  schools  of  the- 
ologv  and  science,  and  to  reconcile  these  if  possible. 
Such  an  eirenicon  can  be  found  in  Antosisni;  *  and  now 
that  the  Kantian  Revival  has  been  followed  by  an  awak- 
ened interest  in  the  works  of  Bishop  Berkeley,  it  seems 
to  me  that  both  reason  and  emotion  may  he  mutually 
satisfied  by  the  recognition  of  our  virtual  identity  with 
the  universe  and  of  the  simple  yet  magnificent  truth 
that  our  creation  of  all  ideas  really  makes  us  one  with 
all  thoughts  and  objects  of  thoughts,  including  the  ex- 
ternal universe  and  its  hypothetical  Nous  or  Proedros. 
With  respect  to  this  confessedly  desirable  reconciliation 
of  religion  and  science  we  may  say,  as  Kant  says  of  the 
possibility  of  synthetic  judgments  a  priori :  "  The  only 
way  this  can  be  done  is  to  recognize  from  the  first  that 
thought  and  things  are  not  diverse  or  dualistic.  The 
one  does  not  exist  apart  from  the  other.  Objects  are  not 
passively  apprehended  by  the  mind,  as  something  dis- 
tinct from  it,  but  are  actively  constructed  by  it.  Intelli- 
gence is  present  from  the  first  in  this  creation.  Apart 
from  mind  they  are  nothing,  or,  at  least,  nothing  to  us, 
or,  at  most,  merely  from  less  materials,  supplied  to  the 
senses."  Spinoza's  advice  to  his  hostess,  not  to  change 
or  seek  for  another  religion,  but  to  add  to  her  piety  "  the 
tranquil  virtues  of  domestic  life,"  was  doubtless  suggested 
by  the  philosopher's  conviction  that  these  same  tranquil 
virtues  would  inevitably  be  imperiled  were  the  founda- 
tion upon  which  thev  rested  shaken  or  removed.  Ex- 
perience and  observation  assure  us  that  with  regard  to 
mere  negation  we  must  say,  Ex  niliilo  nihil  fit,  and  even 
Christianity  as  formulated  by  the  Church  of  Rome  is 
better  both  for  the  individual  and  for  society  than  a  con- 
dition of  mental  and  moral  chaos  and  anarchy  which 
leaves  the  victim  to  drift  a  derelict  on  the  wide  ocean  of 
uncertainty,  sooner  or  later  to  founder  in  the  vortex  of 
those  licentious  indulgences  which,  unrestrained,  would 
first  deprave  and  then  annihilate  domestic  life.  It  is 
surely  easy  to  provide  a  succedaneum  for  aught  that  we 
may  eliminate,  as,  for  example,  when  we  substitute  for 
the  trinal-unity  of  imagination  and  phantasy  the  real 
trinity  of  Man,  Gcd,  and  the  World — "  ct  ta»icn  non 


♦The  term  selected  by  "Julian,"  an  eminent   English  scholar  and  man  of 
lettcis,  whose  reasons  for  crvptonymv  I  have  no  right  to  question. 


trcs,  sed  units  "* — a  clear  corollary  from  the  acknowl- 
edged fact  the  mind  can  never  soar  beyond  or  outside  of 
itself,  and  that  therefore  man  is  wholly  and  solely  the 
"measure  of  all  things,"  the  maker  and  originator  of  all 
the  gods  of  the  Pantheon  and  of  all  the  demons  of  the 
Miltonic  Pandemonium. 

In  order  to  secularize  religion  it  is  necessary  that  we 
rationalize  it;  by  which  I  mean,  first,  that  we  clearly 
demonstrate  that  every  claim  advanced  by  and  for  the 
founders  of  supernatural  religions  can  be  legitimately 
made  by  each  one  of  us  for  ourselves,  and,  secondly, 
that  we  show  that  in  the  ultimate  analysis  all  things 
whatever,  whether  gods  or  revelation  of  gods,  are  sub- 
jective things  (thinks),  cerebal  creations — centric  or  ex- 
centric — and  that  we  may  and  do  assert  and  claim  on 
behalf  of  the  perceptive  and  abstract  and  formative 
powers  of  our  own  minds  all  that  the  very  highest  form 
of  supernatural  religion  can  possiblv  ascribe  to  its  di- 
vinity. It  is  impossible  for  man  to  know  anything  apart 
from  himself,  just  as  Kepler,  in  the  "  Supplement  to 
Yitellio,"  found  it  utterly  beyond  his  power  to  explain 
why  it  is  that  we  do  not — as  according  to  Optics  we 
ought  to — behold  things  inverted  or  upside  down. 
Whether  subjective  or  objective,  at  bottom  everything 
is  cerebral,  the  resultant  of  our  generative  Egoity — that 
is  to  say,  the  ideas  which  Berkeley  rightly  claimed  to 
have  "  shown  to  exist  only  in  the  mind  that  perceives 
them"-  are  products  of  cerebration  existing  only  as  such 
because  of  the  existence  of  the  properly  organized 
human  brain,  their  material  source  and  fountain.  For 
us  they  have  no  noumenal  existence,  since,  until  we  can 
detach  ourselves  from  ourselves — until,  as  it  were,  we 
can  retain  our  powers  of  ideation  and  perception,  even 
though  some  vivisector  should  cut  slices  away  from  the 
hemispherical  ganglia  of  the  encephalon — we  cannot 
possibly  consider  anything  as  being  purely  objective  to 
us.  In  this  process  of  rationalizing  religion  we  must  not 
be  impatient  or  discouraged  because  we  find  our  labor 
attended  by  no  apparent  immediate  results.  In  due  time 
these  will  be  manifested,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that 
in  endeavoring  to  place  religion  on  a  rational  basis,  we  are 
engaged  in  a  work  commensurate  in  magnitude  to  the 
founding  of  Christianity  or  to  the  effectuating  of  the 
Protestant  Reformation. 

The  present  age — like  all  ages  of  marked  intellectual 
activity — is    remarkable    for   its  excesses.     On  the   one 

♦Autosisin,  or  Hylo-Idealism,  inasmuch  as  it  traces  to.  and  virtually  iden 
tirics  with,  a  material  organ — the  brain — all  consciousness,  may  be  said  really  to 
rationalize  the  hypostases  both  of  the  Athan  isian  and  Alexandrian  trinity.  The 
T/teos  of  the  former,  and  the  Nous  of  the  latter  are  nothing  more  than  abstrac- 
tions created  by  the  human  brain.  As  ideas,  they  are  equally  real  with  man 
and  the  world,  but  in  no  sense  can  thev  transcend  their  maker.  If  man  can 
think  nothing  higher  than  himself,  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  rise  to  the  vera 
idea  of  a  man-transcending  Godhead.  Any  and  every  idea  he  can  form  of 
such  must  be  simply  a  human,  an  anthropoid,  or  anthropomorphic  one,  an 
egoistic  projection  of  himself,  varying  as  his  own  mind  grows,  matures,  and 
declines.  Such  an  idea  must  be  an  eidolon,  not  a  vera  effigies  of  ineffable 
splendor  which  would  surely  blast  our  mental  vision  as  the  appearance  of  Ju- 
piter blasted  Semele. 


5*4 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


hand  we  find  culture,  refinement,  and  hard-heartedness; 
on  the  other,  the  toiling  millions  and  their  hapless  misery 
loom  up  terribly  lurid  in  the  light  of  the  luxury  of  the 
cultured  few.  History  tells  us  that  all  such  former  high- 
civilizations  have  been  subverted  and  overthrown  pre- 
cisely at  the  epochs  when  the  votaries  of  science,  art,  and 
"culture"  were  lulled  in  the  pleasing  dreams  of  indefi- 
nite progress.  Then  came  the  cataclysm,  and  for  a  time, 
where  formerly  existed  the  civilization,  there  was  almost 
a  tabula  rasa,  the  so-called  progress  having  been  entirely 
swamped  and  brought  to  naught.  While  we  do  not 
question  the  value,  whether  for  good  or  for  evil,  of  all 
our  mechanical  triumphs, — the  application  of  steam,  elec- 
tricity, etc., — we  must  surely  doubt  whether  all  this  ac- 
quired power  over  nature  has  been  accompanied  by  such 
a  corresponding  advance  in  clear  reason  as  is  requisite 
to  preserve  the  necessary  equilibrium.  Already  we  hear 
the  suggestive  muttering  of  the  millions,  the  warning 
rumbling  which  precedes  the  dread  upheaval.  Shall  we 
cherish  a  delusion?  Shall  we  continue  to  regard  that 
as  peace  where  there  is  no  peace?  Shall  we  persist  in 
futilely  raising  up  dykes  and  barriers  of  statutes  and  or- 
dinances which  merely  serve  to  swell  the  volume  of  pent 
up  discontent?  If,  as  Sthenelos  said  to  Agamemnon, 
we  may  "  boast  to  be  the  superiors  of  our  fathers,"  we 
ought  assuredly  to  be  able  to  correct  abuses,  to  remove 
anomalies,  and  to  liberate  society  from  all  the  evils  which 
now  constitute  its  opprobrium  and  reproach — and  for 
which  we  cannot  fairly  blame  either  one  particular  class 
or  one  particular  caste  of  our  fellow- men — without 
having  recourse  fb  the  purgative  methods  of  old  time, 
without  the  dread  arbitrament  of  fire  and  sword.  If 
religion  has  any  real  raison  d'  etrc,  any  practical  value, 
it  must  be  in  the  direction  of  binding  together  that 
which  without  religion  would  be  disintegrated. 

The  readers  of  this  paper  have  recently  been  told  that 
the  basis  of  religion  depends  upon  the  final  settlement  of 
the  relationship  between  mind  and  body  and  between 
mind  and  nature  in  general.  I  say  to  nature,  rather 
than  to  "physical  nature,"  because  the  latter  phrase  is 
somewhat  tautological.  Speaking  for  myself  alone,  I 
am  quite  willing  to  make  this  the  basis  of  religion — in- 
deed, I  can  discern  no  other  alternative  open  to  me  as  a 
rational  being.  In  making  this  acknowledgment  I  do 
not  mean  that  we  are  bound  over,  as  Lewes  writes,  to 
"  the  reproduction  of  all  the  questions  which  agitated  the 
Greeks,"  for  in  that  case  we  should  probably  fall  into 
"a  similar  course  of  development"  and  be  "left  in  this 
nineteenth  century  precisely  at  the  same  point  at  which 
we  were  in  the  fifth."*  In  our  age  it  is  assuredly  pos- 
sible for  us  "to  build  on  a  firm  scientific  foundation,"-]- 
rather  than  on  blind  surmises.  The  latter,  albeit  sup- 
ported  by   great   names,   would    but  serve   as   so    many 


♦Lewes,  "History  of  Philosophy,"  Vol.  IV.,  Conclusion. 
fOPEN  Coirt,  Vol.  I.,  Xo.  i6,  p.  424. 


will-o'-the-wisps;  we  must  trust  to  our  own  reason,  be 
the  result  what  it  may,  rather  than  to  authority.  Indeed, 
we  may  well  begin  by  asking  if  the  "  authorities "  ot 
to-day  are  any  greater  than  Hegel,  Fichte,  or  Schelling 
— yet  where  is  their  philosophy  now?  There  is,  I  be- 
lieve, in  the  churchyard  at  Ragatz,  Switzerland,  where 
he  died — having  gone  thither  to  drink  the  "  indifferent  " 
waters  of  Bad  Pfeffer — a  monument  to  Schelling, 
erected  by  his  pupil,  the  King  of  Bavaria.  On  this 
monument  Schelling  is  called  "  der  grosste  Dcnker 
Deutschlands;" '*  but  where  is  his  denken  now?  May 
we  not  find  the  answer  in  Schopenhauer  and  in  the  fact 
— as  I  have  been  given  to  understand — of  the  complete 
neglect,  and  indeed  contempt,  with  which  contemporary 
Germany  now  treats  her  "  greatest  thinker?  " 

The  rationalization  of  religion  is  in  no  degree 
dependent  upon  our  first  explaining  the  "nature  of 
life."  This  but  few  among  us  would  either  pretend  or 
care  to  do  if  we  desire  to  escape  being  beguiled  into 
metaphysical  and  eschatological  labyrinths  which  have 
for  thousands  of  years,  as  Lewes  so  clearly  shows,  led  to 
no  practical  result  except  to  make  those  who  wander 
therein  utterly  unfit  to  render  mankind  any  real  service. 
Such  "  thinkers  ""are  only  frightful  examples,  buoys  to 
indicate  the  position  of  quicksands  fatal  to  reason  and 
common-sense. 

"Mad  Mathesis  alone  was  unconfin'd, 
Too  mad  for  mere  material  chains  to  bind ; 
Now  on  pure  Space  fixed  her  ecstatic  stare, 
Now  running  round  the  circle  finds  it  square." 

Assuming  that  the  majority  of  the  readers  of  this 
paper  are  prepared  to  identify  irrational  religion  with 
the  current  form  of  supernaturalism,  I  may  fairly  pre- 
sume that  they  are  willing  to  avail  themselves  of  the  best 
means  of  converting  what  is  confessedly  irrational  into  a 
rational  religious  system.  Let  us  suppose  that  some  one 
contributor  honestly  believes  himself  to  be  in  possession 
of  the  most  perfect  and  complete  medium  for  overthrow- 
ing this  current  supernaturalism :  would  it  not,  in  such  a 
case,  be  most  unwise  on  our  part  if  we  were  to  shirk 
coming  to  close  quarters  with  this  great  truth  if  we  felt 
that,  besides  annihilating  superstition  in  religion,  it  would 
also  consign  the  most  sacred  faiths  and  philosophical 
dogmas,  all  metaphysics  and  ideology  of  every  kind,  into 
the  limbo  of  exploded  fallacies?  Such  a  perfect  and 
complete  medium  I  find  comprehended  in  one  estab- 
lished experimental  fact — namely,  that  if  we  cut  slices 
from  the  hemispherical  ganglia  of  the  brain  we  neither 
cause  pain,  convulsions,  nor  impaired  vital  functions  of 
any  kind,  but  we  merely  render  our  victim  stupid  or,  in 
other  words,  deprive  him  of  mentality.  Does  not  this 
make  the  inference  logically  imperative  that  as  muscle 
is  the  seat  of  muscular  motion,  the  vesiculo-neurine  of 
the  brain  is  also  that  of  cogitation ;  and  is  not  this  a  com- 

*"The  greatest  thinker  of  Germany." 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


58S 


plete,  positive,  and  physical  substantiation  of  the  position 
of  those  who  maintain  that  mind  (consciousness)  is  brain 
function  and  nothing  more?  I  say  "  nothing  more,"  be- 
cause surely  logic  forbids  us  to  assume  two  reasons  for 
phenomena  when  one  reason  is  found  amply  sufficient. 
What  other  reason  can  we  want,  when  we  bear  in  mind 
that  at  bottom  we  can  explain  nothing,  and  that  we  are 
in  respect  to  other  organs  and  their  functions  precisely 
in  the  same  situation  as  we  are  to  the  brain,  which  is 
homologous  with  them:  The  established  data  of 
physics,  such  as  the  facts  of  gravity,  anti-phlogosis,  and 
the  absence  of  any  immaterial  factor  in  animal  function, 
cannot  now  be  denied.  Each  of  these  is  capable  of  being 
converted  into  a  principle  which  I  regard  as  being  utterly, 
absolutely,  fatal  to  every  form  whatever  of  immaterial- 
ism  or  supernaturalism. 

Of  course,  we  are  perfectly  justified  in  demanding  of 
the  Immaterialist  or  Animist  that  he  should  bear  in  mind 
all  that  his  position  involves.  Upon  him  lies  the  burden 
of  proving  the  existence  of  anything  but  matter;  and 
failing  to  do  this,  how  can  he  fairly  blame  those  who 
reiterate  the  old  axiom,  That  the  same  relation  or  consid- 
eration (ratio)  exists  between  the  non-appearing  and  the 
non-existing?  I  know  that  the  Materialist  is  often 
stigmatized  as  crude  and  immodest,  but  the  really  immod- 
est man  is  he  who,  like  the  cobbler,  goes  ultra  crcpi- 
dam,  and  endeavors  to  build  up  a  reputation  for  wisdom 
on  the  unverifiable  fictions  of  his  own  imagination.  All 
such  visionaries  may  be  clever  enough  to  be  mystics, 
but  to  the  eye  of  sober  reason  they  are  less  enlightened 
than  the  simple  matter-of-fact  savage  must  have  been 
before  the  medicine-men — the  visionaries — of  his  tribe 
began  to  "see  God  in  clouds  and  hear  him  in  the  wind." 
And  this,  I  take  it,  is  the  position  of  the  native  Austral- 
ians, since  I  have  it  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Gideon  Lang 
that  these  simple,  unimaginative  beings,  after  the  Chris- 
tian missionaries  have  been  instructing  them  on  the  soul- 
doctrine,  generally  retire  to  ridicule  the  notion  of  seeing 
without  eyes,  moving  without  limbs,  and  living  without 
the  totality  of  the  other  organs. 

The  irrational  hypothesis  of  a  vital  principle  under- 
lies Christianity,  and  therefore  its  removal  is  the  first 
necessity  of  all  who  would  care  to  preserve  nil  that  is 
good  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  and  his  disciples.  Unques- 
tionably, from  my  own  standpoint,  he  who  insisted 
that  "the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  us" — and  if  Prota- 
goras had  sought  to  found  a  religion  he  could  have 
uttered  no  more  all-embracing  a  truth  than  this — deserves 
to  be  regarded  and  loved  as  one  of  earth's  greatest  ethi- 
cal teachers,  since  his  lofty  altruism  was  directed  toward 
the  realization  of  that  "kingdom"  among  men.  With 
respect  to  the  "  man  of  Nazareth,"  however,  it  is  not  at 
all  difficult  for  us  to  rationalize  the  religion  he  inculcated, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  account  for  the  exaggerated 
claims   he  advanced    in   the  direction   of  sonship  to  and 


equality  with  God.  For  the  present,  it  is  enough  for 
us  to  notice  that  neither  in  the  Old  nor  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament can  we  find  the  philosophic  doctrine  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  propounded.  Instead  of  this,  we 
find  a  much  more  coarse,  and,  as  science  assures  us,  a 
really  absurd  doctrine — a  belief  not  even  as  lofty  as  that 
of  the  Fetichist,  who  credits  his  fetich  with  a  certain 
immaterial  principle — of  the  actual  resurrection  of  the 
bod)  that  died  and  decayed.  In  this  respect  the  New 
Testament  is  precisely  on  a  level  with  the  Old,  as  any 
one  will  recognize  who  compares  the  narrative  of  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  with  his  stigmata  of  nail-marks, 
etc.,  and  its  accompaniment — ghastly,  were  it  not  ridicu- 
lous— of  the  buried  "saints"  arising  from  their  graves 
and  appearing  unto  many,  with  the  older  story  of  the 
dead  Moabite  reviving  and  standing  on  his  feet  when 
his  body  had  been  deposited  upon  the  bones  of  Elisha. 
There  is  no  "  lofty  "  philosophy  in  this — nothing  indeed 
but  a  lower  form  of  the  vulgar  concrete  Roman  super- 
stition of  the  prodigies  which  preceded  the  death  of 
Julius  Caesar,  when 

"  ghosts  did  shriek  and  squeal  about  the  streets." 
Modern  Christianity  is  something  very  different  from 
that  of  its  founder  and  his  apostles,  being  indeed — as 
Draper  clearly  shows — mainly  Alexandrian  neo-Pla- 
tonism,  metamorphosed  and  blundered  by  nescient  emo- 
tionalists. 

THE  SHAKESPEARE-BACON   CONTROVERSY. 

BY   B.    w.    BALL. 

Milton,  the  supreme  poet  of  the  next  literary  age, 
which  followed  that  of  Shakespeare,  was  ten  years  old 
at  the  time  of  his  death.  Thus  he  had  been  a  conscious 
or  unconscious  contemporary  of  Shakespeare  in  his  boy- 
hood, and  later  along  a  spectator  of  his  dramas. 

"Then  to  the  well-trod  stage  anon. 
If  Jonson's  learned  sock  be  on, 
Or  sweetest  Shakespeare,  Fancy's  child 

Warbles  his  native  uoodnotes  wild." 

When  he  was  twentv-four  years  old,  Milton  voiced 
his  admiration  of  the  Swan  of  Avon  in  some  fine  com- 
memorative lines,  which  show  him  to  have  been  as  much 
a  votarist  of  his  genius  as  has  been  any  Shakespeare-ola- 
trist  of  later  times,  and  Milton  was,  in  point  of  place  and 
time,  in  a  condition  to  know  the  exact  truth  about 
Shakespeare — to-wit:  That  he  was  the  matchless  author 
of  the  matchless  works  which  will  be  forever  current 
under  his  name. 

"Dear  son  of  memory,  great  heir  of  France, 
*  *  *  *  * 

Thou,  in  our  wonder  and  astonishment. 
Hast  built  thyself  a  life-long  monument. 
lor  whilst  to  the  shame  of  slow-endeavoring  art 
Thy  easv  numbers  flow,  and  that  each  heart 
Hath,  from  the  leaves  of  thy  unvalued  book, 
Those  Delphic  lines  with  deep  impression  took, 
Then  thou,  our  fancy  of  itself  bereaving, 
Dost  make  us  marble  with  too  much  conceiving." 


5S6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Then  again,  Ben  Jonson,  who  was  ten  years  Shake- 
speare's junior,  and  his  fellow  dramatist,  and  frequent 
boon  companion  at  that  famous  haunt  of  contemporary 
wits  and  poets,  the  Mermaid  Tavern,  attests  the  un- 
equalled facility  and  fluency  of  Shakespeare's  genius.  "I 
loved  the  man,"  says  Jonson,  "and  do  honor  his  memory 
on  this  side  idolatry  as  much  as  any.  He  was  indeed 
honest,  and  of  an  open  and  free  nature;  had  an  excellent 
phantasy,  brave  notions,  and  gentle  expressions,  wherein 
he  flowed  with  that  facility  that  sometimes  it  was  neces- 
sarv  he  should  be  stopped.  Sitfflaminandus  era/,  as 
Augustus  said  to  Haterius.  "Jonson  had  felt  Shake- 
speare's power  face  to  face  with  him  in  many  a  sympo- 
siac,  amicable  encounter  of  wits  on  many  a  controverted 
theme  in  the  freedom  of  unrestrained  social  intercourse  at 
the  Mermaid  Tavern,  aforesaid."  Fuller  says  that  "many 
were  the  wit-combats  betwixt  Shakespeare  and  Ben  Jon- 
son; which  two  I  behold  like  a  Spanish  great  galleon  and 
an  English  man-of-war;  Master  Jonson,  like  the  former, 
built  far  higher  in  learning,  solid  but  slow  in  perform- 
ance, while  the  English  man-of-war,  lesser  in  bulk 
but  lighter  in  sailing,  could  turn  with  all  tides,  tack 
about  and  take  advantage  of  all  winds  by  the  quick- 
ness of  his  wit  and  invention."  Doubtless,  when  Shake- 
speare was  fairly  roused  by  his  "dogmatic,  aggressive 
controversial,  blustering  and  rude  antagonist"  (Jonson 
had  been  a  bricklayer  and  soldier  in  the  Low  Countries, 
and  had  killed  his  man  in  a  duel),  Jonson,  finding  him- 
self terribly  overmatched  in  brain-power  and  power  of 
expression,  would  try  to  stop  his  opponent  by  sheer  bel- 
lowing. But  jealous,  conceited,  and  conscious  though  he 
must  have  been  of  his  own  inferiority  to  his  great  friend 
and  contemporary,  Jonson,  in  his  cool  moments,  had  the 
nobleness  deliberately  to  declare  his  almost 'idolatry  of 
Shakespeare's  genius;  and  Jonson,  whatever  he  might 
have  been  as  a  dramatist,  was  certainly  a  lyric  poet  of 
genius,  and  therefore  fully  qualified  to  appreciate  genius 
in  another. 

Thus  we  have  contemporary  and  adequate  testi- 
mony as  to  Shakespeare's  ability  to  produce  the  dramas 
which  are  ascribed  to  his  authorship.  Further,  Jonson  was 
a  friend  of  Bacon,  and  yet  he  did  not  leave  the  least  inti- 
mation that  he  suspected  him  of  having  been  the  author 
of  his  friend   Shakespeare's  dramatic  works. 

There  is  really  no  call  for  a  serious  refutation  of  the 
cranky  Delia  Bacon-Holmes-Ignatius  Donnelly  theory. 
It  is  a  pure  assumption,  without  anything  to  rest  upon, 
except  the  seeming  improbability  of  a  youth  born  and 
bred  in  an  English  country  village  of  the  feudal  period 
suddenly  blossoming  into  the  unparalleled  world-poet 
whom  we  know.  The  transcendent  brain  of  Shakespeare 
and  the  miracle  of  his  marvelous  literary  achievements 
are  easily  accounted  for.  Given  the  mechanical  brains  of 
a  Watt,  Fulton  and  Stevenson  combined,  devising  and 
inventing  under  the  most  adverse  circumstances,  and  you 


have  for  outcome  the  miracle  of  current  steam-travel  by 
land  and  sea.  So  the  mind  of  Shakespeare,  in  full  activ- 
ity for  two  decades,  could  easily  produce  his  works  in 
spite  of  the  narrow  circumstances  and  unpropitious 
environment  of  his  youth.  Once  fairly  admitted  to  the 
great  world  and  centre  of  the  civilization  of  his  country, 
that  mind  would  equip  itself  for  its  task  with  inconceiv- 
able rapidity,  laying  all  the  domain  of  knowledge  of  his 
age  under  contribution.  For  in  him,  as  his  dramas 
everywdiere  make  manifest,  there  was  an  almost  supra- 
mortal  vigor  of  conception  and  expression,  both  of  which 
where  inborn  in  the  man,  and  could  not  have  been 
acquired  by  any  amount  of  study  or  "slow-endeavoring 
art." 

Shelley,  in  his  "  Defence  of  Poetry,"  insists,  that 
Bacon  was  a  poet,  and  instances  his  "  Essav  on  Death," 
"Filum  Labyrinthi,"  in  proof  of  his  assertion.  He  says, 
"Bacon's  language  has  a  sweet  and  majestic  rhythm, 
which  satisfies  the  sense,  no  less  than  the  almost  super- 
human wisdom  of  his  philosophy  satisfies  the  intellect." 
But  in  the  same  essay  Shelley  also  ranks  the  historian  Lew 
as  a  poet;  and  Plato,  and  others  not  commonly  regarded 
as  poets,  he  puts  in  the  same  category.  Undoubtedly 
Bacon,  like  Plato,  was  an  idealist  respiring  the  air  of  the 
realm  of  ideal  truth  and  beauty,  and  Levy,  in  the  milky 
richness  of  his  narrative,  abounds  in  poetic  passages;  but 
they  were  not  poets  in  the  sense  in  which  Homer, 
Sophokles,  Virgil,  Shakespeare  and  Milton  are.  If 
we  compare  Bacon's  "Essav  on  Death"  with  Hamlet's 
soliloquy  on  the  same  subject,.we  shall  see  the  difference 
between  a  philosophic  thinker  and  a  great  poet  who 
could  designate  the  hereafter  as 

"  The  undiscovered  country  from  whose  bourne 
No  traveller  returns," 

in  contrast  with  "the  bright  and  breathing  world"  of 
conscious  existence  and  sensible  realities,  which  we 
know. 

The  utterances  of  Shakespeare  are  not  to  be  mis- 
taken. They  have  a  ring  and  significance  of  their  own, 
which  made  them  at  once  proverbial  and  of  universal  cur- 
rency. They  seem  to  be  voices  of  the  Nature  of  Things, 
of  which  the  mind  of  .Shakespeare  was  the  interpreter. 

If  we  were  to  liken  Bacon  to  any  great  man  of antiquitv 
it  would  be  to  Cicero.  Cicero  was,  like  Bacon,  a  great 
philosophic  essayist,  and  his  miscellanies  are  as  readable 
to-day  as  are  Bacon's.  He  also,  like  Bacon,  figured  con- 
spicuously in  the  sphere  of  public  life  of  politics  and 
statesmanship.  Furthermore,  unlike  Bacon,  he  at- 
tempted to  write  in  verse.  There  was  a  great  poet, 
who  was  a  contemporary  of  Cicero,  of  whom  there  is  a 
more  meagre  tradition  than  there  is  of  Shakespeare. 
Why  not  attribute  the  great  poem  of  Lucretius,  "Con- 
cerning the  Nature  of  Things,"  to  Cicero?  Because,  with 
all  his  learning,  rhetoric,  eloquence,  philosophic  knowl- 
edge, and  literary  ability  as  a  prose-writer,  Cicero,  could 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


5*7 


no  more  have  written  the  above  poem,  with  its  frequent 
glow  of  genuine  poetic  inspiration,  than  Bacon  could 
have  written  "  Lear"  or  "  Hamlet."  There  was  Bacon, 
the  author  of '-The  Philosophy  of  Fruit,"  and  the  essay- 
ist pregnant  with  thought,  and  then  there  was  the 
sordid,  earthly,  unprincipled  Bacon — 

"The  greatest,  wisest,  meanest  of  mankind" — 
who,  in  the  language  of  Macaulay,  "was  ready  to  stoop 
to  everything, and  to  endure  every  thing,to  acquire  wealth, 
precedence,  titles,  patronage,  the  mace,  the  seals,  the 
coronet,  large  houses,  fair  gardens,  rich  manors,  massy 
services  of  plate,  gay  hangings." 

Shakespeare  was  by  no  means  immaculate,  but  his 
sins  were  venial  compared  with  the  crimes  of  Bacon. 
One  thing  Shakespeare  demonstrated:  that  the  loftiest 
genius  is  consistent  with  prudence.  For  he  was  prudent, 
poet  though  he  was,  and  retired  on  a  compentency,  and 
was  able  to  entertain  his  old  poetic  comrades  hospitably 
at  his  residence  in  Stratford-on-Avon;  indeed  it  is  said 
that  "the  fever  of  which  he  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-two, 
was  contracted  in  consequence  of  too  free  hospitalities 
exercised  in  honor  of  his  fellow-poets,  Ben  [orison  and 
Drayton  (author  of  the  Polyolbion),  during  a  visit 
which  they  paid  him  at  his  house  in  Stratford  ";  so  says 
an  admirable  review-article  on  Ben  Jonsun,  which 
appeared  more  than  thirty  years  agt>. 

If  Bacon  was  unique  in  his  way,  much  more  so  was 
Shakespeare.  He  was  as  exceptional  a  personality  in  the 
domain  of  thought  and  imagination, as  was  Julius  Cassar 
in  that  of  action.  He  cannot  be  confounded  with  any 
other  historic  character,  and  no  one  but  himself  could 
have  produced  his  works. 


ARE  WE  PRODUCTS   OF   MIND  ? 

BV  EDMUND  MONTGOMERY,   Mil. 
Part    V. 

ORGANIC   LIFE    DEVELOPS   BEYOND  CONSCIOUSNESS. 

We  have  found  that  neither  mental  volition  nor  any 
other  mental  state  can  possibly  be  the  builder  of  our  bod- 
ily frame  or  the  director  of  its  purposive  movements. 
Let  us  recapitulate: 

Mind  or  consciousness  cannot  control  matter  because 
outside  the  medium  of  individual  consciousness  there  does 
not  exist  anything  resembling  the  matter  and  motion  we 
are  so  intimately  acquainted  with.  The  tridimensional, 
hard,  colored,  sounding,  scented,  heated  matter — fancied 
by  Professor  Cope  and  others,  to  subsist  outside  conscious- 
ness and  believed  by  them  to  be  directed  and  organized 
by  such  consciousness — is,  indeed,  through  and  through,  a 
fictitious  entity,  consisting  of  nothing  but  a  set  of  our 
own  percepts  illusively  projected  into  non-mental  exis- 
tence. 1  he  surmised  controlling  process,  if  here  at  all 
occurring,  would  have  to  take  place  in  regions  wholly 
ideal,  where  a  peculiar  complex  of  conscious  states  called 
will,  must  then  be   imagined  as  exerting   a   controlling 


influence  over  the  peculiar  complex  of  conscious  percepts, 
called  matter  and  motion.  If  such  were  the  case,  it 
would  be  simply  one  phase  of  our  consciousness  controll- 
ing another  phase,  but  never  in  this  world  could  so 
visionary  and  ephemeral  a  performance  give  rise  to  the 
permanent  bodily  organization  we  undeniably  possess. 

The  illusion  of  mentally  impelled  voluntary  move- 
ment arises  from  our  having  merely  an  inner  or  ideal 
consciousness  of  the  central  process;  while,  on  the  con- 
trary, its  peripheral  outcome,  the  actual  movement,  is 
perceived  as  physical,  sense-stimulating  occurrence.  We 
become  only  ideally  aware  of  the  predetermining  moment 
of  the  performance,  but  actually  witness  with  our  very 
eyes  the  final  bodily  execution.  We  are  thus  naturally 
under  the  impression  as  if  a  free-floating  conscious  state 
of  our's  had  originated  the  movement  which  is  seen  to 
follow  it.  And  the  contrast  between  these  two  modes  of 
apprehension  of  the  two  parts  of  one  and  the  same  con- 
tinuous organic  process  becomes  all  the  more  striking 
when  we  consider  that  the  motor  outcome,  i.  e.,  the 
movement  of  features  and  limbs,  can  be  perceived  bv  any 
number  of  observers,  while  the  ideal  forecast  is  realized 
solely  by  the  subject  whose  organism  is  thus  function- 
ing. But,  on  the  other  hand,  outside  observers  are 
in  a  position  to  become  awaie,  that  the  ideal  forecast 
is  dependent  on  the  same  organic  function  which  in  the 
brain  is  initiating  also  the  motor  outcome;  while  the 
subject  in  whom  such  organic  function  is  taking  place 
remains  wholly  unconscious  of  the  same. 

Mind  or  consciousness  cannot  control  bodily  organiz- 
ation for  the  further  reason,  that  all  the  modes  of  mind 
or  consciousness  we  are  acquainted  with,  volitional  as  well 
as  receptive,  are  found  to  be  themselves  strictly  dependent 
on  bodily  organization;  higher  modes  being  dependent 
on  higher  organization.  Consequentlv  we  have  no  right 
to  assume  any  kind  of  mind  or  consciousness,  much  less 
a  highest  kind  of  mind  or  consciousness,  to  be  subsisting 
independently  of  all  organization,  and  to  be  moreover 
originating  the  very  matrix  from  which  in  real  experi- 
ence all  mind  or  consciousness  is  obviously  emanating. 

We  may  be  quite  certain,  then,  that  the  percepts, 
through  which  we  consciously  realize  the  existence, 
characteristics  and  activities  of  the  perceptible  organism, 
do  not,  in  reality,  constitute  the  same.  But  we  may  be 
no  less  certain  that  the  organism  has  a  veritable  non- 
mental  being  of  its  own.  We  may,  with  confidence  and 
legitimately,  infer  that  it  subsists  in  all  reality,  outside  our 
consciousness,  as  a  most  specifically  endowed  and  peculi- 
arly functioning  existent. 

Still  it  cannot  be  denied  that  this  unhesitating 
conviction  of  the  extra-conscious  existence  of  things  is 
only  an  intuitive  inference  based  on  our  compelled  or 
stimulated  percepts,  and  therefore  not  so  immediately 
certain  as  the  existence  of  these  percepts  themselves. 
Whatever  reality  is  having  its  being  beyond  the  mental 


588 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


states  immediately  -present  in  our  individual  consciousness 
has  to  be  thus  inferentially  constructed.  But  though  it 
is  only  through  immediate  states  of  our  consciousness  that 
we  can  realize  it,  we  are  convinced  that  it  does  not,  itself, 
consist  of  such  mere  casual  and  ceaselessly  changing 
mental  modes  as  make  up  our  conscious  realization  of  it. 
From  this  inferential  mode  of  realizing  the  existence  of 
extra-conscious  things  it  follows  that  we  cannot  possibly 
avoid  calling  in  some  "theory  of  cognition,"  in  order  to 
explain  the  relation  actually  obtaining  between  their  non- 
mental  nature  and  our  own  ever-lapsing,  ever- reconsti- 
tuted consciousness  of  them.  And  it  is  clear  that  the 
relation  of  our  organism  and  its  vital  activity,  to  the  mere 
conscious  representation  we  mentally  frame  of  it,  requires 
for  its  explanation  the  aid  of  a  theory  of  cognition,  just 
as  essentially  as  the  relation  obtaining  between  any  othei 
extra-conscious  existent  and  its  conscious  realization. 

No  school  of  philosophy  can  escape  such  an  appeal 
to  a  reality  beyond  individual  consciousness.  Tran- 
scendental Idealism — the  philosophy  taught  at  present  in 
most  of  our  universities — assumes,  for  instance,  as  its 
fundamental  doctrine,  that  the  reality  which  we  recognize 
in  an  inadequate  manner  through  individual  conscious- 
ness is  actually  existing  in  full  perfection  as  content  of 
an  universal  consciousness.  In  keeping  with  this  view 
our  body  and  its  vital  functions,  which  are  quite  as  much 
as  other  objective  existents  subsisting  beyond  our  per- 
ception of  them,  would  be  likewise  forming  part  of  this 
universal  consciousness;  while  our  mental  states  are  cer- 
tainly forming  part  of  our  own  individual  consciousness 
Our  body  would  exist  in  the  Supreme  Being;  our 
consciousness  in  ourselves.  This  is  one  of  the  many 
absurdities  to  which  Transcendental  Idealism  necessarily 
leads. 

Professor  Cope  tries  to  escape  the  appeal  to  a  theory 
of  cognition  by  postulating  at  once  the  objective  exis- 
tence of  mind  and  of  matter.  This  is  an  easy  and  popular 
manner  of  accounting  not  only  for  the  stuff  of  which 
things  consist,  but  also  for  the  presence  of  that  marvellous 
inner  awareness  known  to  us  only  as  our  own  individual 
consciousness,  and  analogically  inferred  to  be  present 
also  in  beings  like  ourselves.  We  have,  however,  suffic- 
iently seen  that  the  existence  of  mind  is  subjectively 
realized  through  immediate  introspection;  while  the  ex- 
istence of  non-mental  objects,  revealed  to  us  as  material 
in  perceptual  observation,  is  inferred  only.  Professor 
Cope's  realistic  assertion  implies,  then,  likewise  the 
assumption  of  a  reality  beyond  individual  consciousness, 
which  reality  he  chooses  to  call  "  matter."  But  allowing 
this  unconscious  neglect  of  the  "problem  of  cognition" 
to  pass  for  the  present,  his  fundamental  proposition 
framed  to  operate  regardless  of  it,  leads  at  once  to  the 
land  of  airy  nothings.  He  makes  his  "conscious 
energy"  change  the  motion  of  the  very  matter  of  which 
it  is  said  to  be  a  property;  for   he    believes    the   specific 


molecular  commotion  which  constitutes  the  initial 
stimulus  to  voluntary  movements,  to  be  directed  by 
consciousness.  This,  indeed,  is  the  gist  of  his  whole 
theory.  According  to  it,  progressive  evolution  is  origin- 
ated in  this  manner  only,  though  afterwards  it  is  "  autom- 
atically" or  unconsciously  maintained.  Now,  such  mat- 
ter-coeicing  process,  whereby  the  functioning  material 
is  forced  by  consciousness  to  move  contrary  to  mechan- 
ical laws,  could  evidently  take  place  only  where 
consciousness  itself  is  present;  namely  in  the  same  matter 
of  which  it  is  believed  to  be  a  property.  And  as  the 
matter  of  our  present  physical  science  is  only  a  passive 
vehicle  of  motion,  and  consciousness  is  not  held  by 
Professor  Cope  to  be  acting  directly  on  such  passive 
matter,  but  indirectly  by  being  a  property  of  its 
energy  or  motion,  we  have  to  fancy  an  unsub- 
stantial something  called  consciousness  seizing 
hold  of  that  unsubstantial  something  called  motion, 
and  "  saturating  it  with  intelligence  "  by  design- 
edly deflecting  it  from  its  mechanically  prescribed 
direction.  Spontaneously-acting  mind  would  be  here 
at  strife  with  abstract  mechanical  motion ; —  a  phantasmal 
set  of  evanescent  phenomena  influencing  one  another 
regardless  of  the  matrix  in  which  they  inhere,  and  which 
from  moment  to  moment  is  sustaining  their  existence 
with  all  its  peuliarities.  Into  so  abstruse  a  region  of 
chimerical  doings  one  finds  one's-self  landed  by  slighting 
the  "problem  of  cognition." 

Professor  Cope  frankly  confesses  that  in  his  fund- 
amental "thesis  is  involved  the  realistic  doctrine,  that  mind 
is  a  property  of  some  kind  of  matter,  as  odor  and  color 
are  properties  of  the  rose."  This  little  nutshell  of  a 
sentence  contains  so  snugly  and  conspicuously  condensed 
his  main  batch  of  philosophical  misconceptions,  that  its 
candid  examination  may  perhaps,  after  all,  convert  our 
keen  and  clear-sighted  scientist,  who  is  eager  not  only 
for  strictly  physical,  but  also  for  philosophical  insight. 
And  the  same  examination  may  help  us  also  to  catch 
some  further  glimpses  of  the  true  relation  of  consciousness 
to  so-called  voluntary  movements. 

However  much  Professor  Cope  may  despise  the 
"  problem  of  cognition,"  even  as  a  physiologist  he  can- 
not well  ignore  the  fact  that  "  odor  and  color  "  are,  as 
such,  sensations  of  the  observer;  namely,  definite  kinds 
of  conscious  states  aroused  in  him  through  stimulation  of 
his  organs  of  smell  and  sight  by  something  which  he 
calls  a  rose,  and  believes  to  be  subsisting  as  a  non-mental 
existent  independently  of  his  perception  of  it.  Being 
undoubtedly  aware  of  this  interpretation  of  sense- 
perception,  now  almost  universally  accepted  by  scientists, 
his  asserted  "  realism  "  can  consist  only  in  the  assumption 
that  "odor  and  color"  exist  not  merely  as  sensations  in 
the  observer,  but  also  as  "  properties  of  the  rose";  and 
in  the  further  assumption  that  these  two  sets  of  existents, 
the  mental  states  in  the  observer  and  the  properties  in 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


589 


the  observed  object,  are  of  an  identical  nature.  For,  how 
otherwise  could  odors  and  colors,  which  we  certainly 
experience  as  as  our  individual  sensations,  he  also,  as 
such,  properties  of  the  external  object?  It  is  quite  evident 
that,  if  the  properties  of  external  objects  are  identical 
in  kind  with  our  mental  states,  then  external  objects 
must  be  constituted  in  a  like  manner;  which  means  that 
thej-  must  be  made  of  the  same  stuff  as  our  mental  states. 
From  this  it  inevitably  follows  that  consciousness  and 
the  external  existents,  or  mind  and  being,  must,  after 
all,  be  identical.  And  Professor  Cope,  despite  all 
protestations  to  the  contrary,  turns  out — by  force  of  this 
one  realistic  supposition  alone — to  be  an  outright 
Idealist. 

Thus  ominous  is  the  neglect  of  the  "  problem  of 
cognition."  Hut  however  radically  in  error  regarding 
this  point,  it  is  another  misconception  that  most  concerns 
us  in  our  discussion  about  the  relation  of  mind  to  organ- 
ization. This  misconception  is  contained  in  the  assertion 
that  "  mind  is  the  property  of  some  kind  of  matter" 
in  the  same  manner  "as  odor  and  color  are  properties  of 
the  rose." 

We  have  already  clearly  recognized  that  we  call 
physical  phenomena  such  phenomena  as  are  perceptible 
to  us,  and  odors  and  colors  being  perceived  through  sense- 
stimulation  belong  to  this  perceptible  order.  It  is 
sensible  experience  and  observation  which  manifest 
them  to  us.  Sensible  experience  and  observation 
manifest,  in  the  same  way,  the  entire  organism  and  all  its 
ph  vsiological  properties,  but  the  mind  of  an  organism 
is  not  thus  perceptible;  it  does  not  become  manifest  to  us 
by  being  sensibly  realized  as  odors  and  colors  are. 
Therefore  it  is  not — as  Professor  Cope  maintains — "the 
property  of  some  kind  of  matter  as  odor  and  color  are 
properties  of  the  rose." 

The  distinction  here  brought  out  between  the  percept- 
ible and  the  imperceptible  order  is,  indeed,  the  most 
radical  of  all  distinctions  in  nature.  As  soon  as  its  import 
will  have  become  fully  realized,  spiritualistic  philosophies, 
now  holding  sway  in  high  places,  will  dissolve  like  idle 
dreams. 

When  we  desire  to  know  something  about  mind,  not 
only  indirectly  through  physical  signs,  but  through  direct 
experience,  we  have  to  assume  the  introspective  attitude. 
We  can  learn  nothing  concerning  its  real  nature  through 
sensible  observation.  We  cannot  touch,  see,  hear,  taste 
or  smell  a  feeling,  sensation,  percept  or  thought.  To 
know  what  these  are  we  have  to  question  our  inner 
experience,  and  no  other  observers  can  possibly  corrob- 
orate this  same  inner  experience  of  our's  in  the  way  they 
are  able  to  corroborate  some  physical  experience  which 
is  equally  perceptible  to  them  all;  they  cannot  touch, 
see,  hear,  taste  or  smell  any  mental  state  of  our's,  as 
they  can  see  the  color  and  smell  the  odor  of  a  rose. 
Mental    or    conscious    states    are    exclusively    an    inner 


awareness  ot  the  indh  idual  being  who  is  experiencing 
them  and  are  wholly  imperceptible  to  any  other  being. 
They  have  no  power  of  their  own  to  affect  the  sensibility 
of  an  observer,  much  less  to  produce  any  kind  ot  effect 
in  senseless  existents. 

This  plain  consideration  is  fatal  to  all  speculations, 
which  Attribute  efficient  power  to  anything  of  the 
nature  of  mind.  Mental  states  are  revealing  glimpses, 
ami  not  themselves  creative  efficiencies. 

A  dense  cloud  is  mounting,  clear-cut  and  leaden, 
above  the  horizon  into  the  serene  blue  sky  ;  but  ever  and 
anon,  its  cold  grey  mass  seems  illuminated  through  and 
through  by  sudden  flashes  of  lightning;  and  then  the 
world  around  reverberates  the  thunder  of  its  voice. 
Here,  surely,  we  have  plenty  of  physical  forces  at  plaj  ; 
condensation,  cohesion,  elect!  icity,  light,  mechanical 
concussion;  all  affecting  our  sensibility;  all  scientifically 
conceived  as  modes  of  matter  and  motion.  Rut  in  all 
this  physical  world  there  is  nothing  in  the  remotest 
degree  akin  to  mind.  It  is  here,  as  it  would  be  with  the 
brain,  if  its  intense  molecular  commotion  happened  to  be 
unaccompanied  by  consciousness.  Only  in  case  the 
cloud  itself  were  experiencing  conscious  states  corres- 
ponding to  its  physical  activity,  would  there  be  some- 
thing present  akin  to  mind  or  consciousness;  and  such 
consciousness  would  obviously  have  no  power  whatever 
of  affecting  either  the  sensibility  of  an  observer,  or  the 
nature  of  any  other  existent.  It  would  be  only  a  force- 
less inner  awareness;  though  at  the  same  time  the  light- 
ning might  cleave  the  oaks  and  the  thunder  strike  terror 
in  the  heart  of  men  and  beasts. 

To  harmonize  these  two  essentially  different  orders: 
the  objective  physical  or  perceptible  and  the  subjective, 
mental  or  imperceptible,  every  school  of  philosophy, 
even  that  of  pure  solipsism,  has — as  already  stated — to 
venture  some  kind  of  realistic  assumption,  to  postulate 
some  kind  of  reality  beyond  the  immediately  experienced 
conscious  states. 

Now,  the  realistic  assumption,  which  the  philosophy 
of  organization  here  makes,  is  indeed  the  simplest  pos- 
sible, and  is  in  full  agreement  with  given  facts.  It  sup- 
poses that  there  subsist  in  nature  non- mental  existents 
possessing  the  power  of  specifically  affecting  our  individ- 
ual sensibility,  and  of  manifesting  their  special  character- 
istics by  means  of  the  different  conscious  states  they 
arouse  in  us.  And  it  supposes  further,  that  certain 
definite  kinds  of  non-mental  existents,  which  we  perceive 
as  animal  organism — besides  being  in  possession  of  the 
general  power  of  making  their  specific  physical  proper- 
ties known  by  arousing  definite  perceptions  in  us-  have 
moreover,  peculiar  organs,  perceptible  to  an  observer  as 
nerve-centres,  whose functional activity,  while  perceived 
by  the  observer  as  nothing  but  molecular  motion,  is  simul- 
taneously producing  the  conscious  states  experienced  by 
the  observed  organism. 


59° 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


In  further  elucidation  of  this  position,  into  which  I 
find  myself  forced  by  using;  "  observed  phenomena  as 
foundation  materials,"  I  will  venture  a  few  more  remarks. 
These  will,  I  hope,  disclose  the  super-conscious  origin  and 
transcendent  wealth  of  vital  organization; — treasures  of 
content  and  marvels  of  efficiency  most  inadequately 
revealed  to  objective  observation  as  nothing'  but  art 
unintelligible  commotion  of  extended  particles. 

Mr.  Ivan  Panin  commenced  a  course  of  lectures 
in  Boston,  on  November  16th,  on  Russian  litera- 
ture. The  lecturer  admitted  the  work  of  his  com- 
patriots lacks  originality,  especially  in  its  forms,  which 
have  been  borrowed  from  Western  nations.  Among  its 
peculiar  advantages  are  its  intensity,  as  strongly  marked 
now,  when  Russia  produces  scarcely  anything  but 
novels,  as  in  the  exclusively  lyrical  period  from  1S00  to 
1 83=5,  and  its  temperance,  or  union  of  moderation  with 
modesty.  These  traits  were  shown  by  reading  Tur- 
genef's  account  of  the  suicide  in  Back  Woods,  and 
Tolstoi's  description  of  the  storm  in  Childhood,  Boy- 
hood, and  Youth,  and  were  ascribed  in  great  part  to  the 
fact,  that  Russian  authors  do  not  write  for  money,  but 
allow  themselves  ample  leisure  to  produce  masterpieces. 
Another  of  their  excellences  is  earnestness,  a  quality  in 
which  American  literature  is  likely  to  improve  greatly, 
Mr.  Panin  thinks,  inconsequence  of  the  increasing  circu- 
lation in  this  country  of  Russian  novels.  Pushkin  and 
Gogol  are  next  to  be  taken  up,  and  the  subjects  for 
December  will  be  Turgenef  (on  the  7th),  Tolstoi,  the 
writer  (the  14th),  and  Tolstoi,  the   preacher   (the  21st). 

TWO   PREACHERS. 

UV  MRS.  SARA  A.   UNDERWOOD. 

Two  preachers  touched  my  soul  one  night; 

Both  woke  within  me  earnest  thought, — 
One  charmed  by  Fancy's  airy  flight; 

One  bitter  anguish  wrought. 

The  first,  'neath  frescoed  fretted  roof, 
With  flowers  making  sweet  the  air, 

On  ornate  dais  stood  aloof, 
An  uttered  praiseful  prayer; 

He  thanked  his  God,  in  mankind's  name, 
For  light,  for  life,  for  home,  and  friends, 

For  all  that  through  our  sensuous  frame 
A  thrill  of  gladness  sends; 

And  then  he  spoke,  in  choicest  phrase, 
Of  fruitful  earth  and  glorious  heaven, 

Of  love  that  guardeth  all  our  ways, 
Of  pardon  freely  given. 

And  listening  in  a  cushioned  pew, 
Wrapped  in  a  dreamful,  hazy  mist, 

On  music,  lights,  and  warmth,  I  grew 
A  sudden  optimist. 


Wealth,  beauty,  grace,  and  culture  rare, 
Proud  faces  fashioned  fair  by  fate, 

Filled  up  the  pews — no  hint  was  there 
Of  misery,  want,  or  hate; 

The  world  was  fair — and  God  did  reign! 

So  ran  my  musings  glad  and  sweet, 
As  at  the  organ's  grand  refrain 

We  surged  into  the  street. 

Into  the  street!  'Twas  there  I  found 
The  preacher  who  spoke  words  of  woe; 

The  stars  shone  fierce  above — around 
All  things  were  draped  in  snow! 

And  bitter  was  the  north  wind's  rage, 
Yet  thin-clad  forms  went  hurrying  on  — 

Forms  bent  with  toil,  disease,  and  age, 
From  whom  all  jov  seemed  gone; 

And  baby  voices  begged  for  bread, 

And  voices  rude  made  night  more  drear 

With  oaths  enforcing  words  of  dread; 
I  wondered — was  God  near? 

And  maddened  men  went  reeling  by 

To  homes  where  wives,  with  inward  moan, 

Hushed  childhood's  quick,  impatient  cry 
And  hunger's  fretful  tone; 

And  by  the  street-lamp's  flickering  glare 
I  glimpses  caught  of  faces  bold — 

Girl-faces,  whose  defiant  stare 
Their  dismal  story  told. 

From  sights  and  sounds  like  these — not  creeds- 
Did  this  strange  preacher  preach  to  me; 

His  sermon  was  on  human  needs; 
His  name — Humanity. 

And  this  the  moral  that  he  drew: 

That  man  for  men,  in  larger  sense, 

Become — what  Heaven  fails  to  do — 
A  loving  Providence. 

—  The  Index. 


"Thought  refuses  to  be  stationary,  institutions 
refuse  to  change  and  war  is  the  consequence." —  E.  L. 
}  on  mans. 

"  To  be  fossilized  is  to  be  stagnant,  unprogressive, 
dead.  It  is  only  liquid  currents  of  thought  that  move 
men  and  the  world." —  Wendell  Phillips. 

"  In  proportion  as  nations  get  more  corrupt,  more 
disgrace  will  attach  to  poverty  and  more  respect  to 
wealth." —  Colton. 

"  Let  us  never  forget  that  the  present  century  has  just 
as  good  a  right  to  its  forms  of  thought  as  former  centu- 
ries had  to  theirs."-  Professor  Tyndall. 

"Plate   sin    with  gold,   and  the   strong  lance  of  Justice  hurtless 

breaks 
Arm  it  in  rags,  a  pigmy's  straw  doth  pierce  it." — Shakespeare. 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


59 l 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal. 

Published  every  other  Thursday  at    169  to   175  La  Salle  Street  iNixor 
Building',  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


B.  !•".  UNDERWOOD, 

Editor  and  Manager. 


SARA   A.   UNDERWOOD, 

Associate  Editor. 


The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  is  to  continue 
the  work  of  The  Index,  that  is,  to  establish  religion  on  the 
basis  of  Science  and  in  connection  therewith  it  will  present  the 
Monistic  philosophy.  The  founder  ci  this  journal  believes  this 
will  furnish  to  others  what  it  has  to  him,  a  religion  which 
embraces  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  the  religion  that  was  taught 
in  childhood  to  them  and  him. 

Editorially,  Monism  and  Agnosticism,  so  variously  defined, 
will  be  treated  not  as  antagonistic  systems,  but  as  positive  and 
negative  aspects  of  the  one  and  only  rational  scientific  philosophy, 
which,  the  editors  hold,  includes  elements  of  truth  common  to 
all  religions,  without  implying  either  the  validity  of  theological 
assumption,  or  any  limitations  of  possible  knowledge,  except  such 
as  the  conditions  of  human  thought  impose. 

The  Open  Court,  while  advocating  morals  and  rational 
religious  thought  on  the  firm  basis  of  Science,  will  aim  to  substi- 
tute for  unquestioning  credulity  intelligent  inquiry,  for  blind  faith 
rational  religious  views,  for  unreasoning  bigotry  a  liberal  spirit, 
tor  sectarianism  a  broad  and  generous  huinanitarianism.  With 
this  end  in  view,  this  journal  will  submit  all  opinion  to  the  crucial 
test  of  reason,  encouraging  the  independent  discussion  by  able 
thinkers  of  the  great  moral,  religious,  social  and  philosophical 
problems  which  are  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  minds 
and  upon  the  solution  of  which  depend  largely  the  highest  inter- 
ests of  mankind 

While  Contributors  are  expected  to  express  freely  their  own 
views,  the  Editors  are  responsible  only  for  editorial  matter. 

Terms  of  subscription  three  dollars  per  year  in  advance, 
postpaid  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  and  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  to  foreign  countries  comprised  in  the  postal  union. 

All  communications  intended  for  and  all  business  letters 
relating  to  The  Open  Court  should  be  addressed  to  B.  F 
Underwood,  Treasurer,  P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  111.,  to  whom 
should  be  made  payable  checks,  postal  orders  and  express  orders. 


THURSDAY,  NOVEMBER  24,   1887. 

THE  EDITORS'  FAREWELL  TO  THE  READERS  OF 
THE  OPEN  COURT. 

When  the  editors  of  The  Open  Court  came  West, 
early  in  the  present  year,  to  establish  and  conduct 
this  journal,  the}'  entered  upon  a  work  which  they 
then  hoped  would  continue  many  years.  Some 
months  previously,  B.  F.  Underwood  had  notified  the 
trustees  of  The  Index,  of  which  he  had  been  manager 
and  co-editor  five  years,  of  his  intention  to  resign 
that  position  at  the  end  of  the  year  to  take  charge 
of  the  new  journalistic  enterprise.  Subsequently  the 
trustees  voted  to  discontinue  The  Index,  and  among 
the  considerations  which  led  to  the  decision  was  the 
belief  that  the  new  paper,  under  the  management 
announced,  would  "  continue  the  work  of  The  Index," 
and  be  not  an  unworthy  successor  of  that  paper. 

Mr.  Hegeler  had  long  entertained  the  thought, 
and  had  often  mentioned  to  B.  F,  Underwood,  his 


purpose  of  founding  a  liberal  journal  in  the  West,  and 
had  repeatedly  expressed  the  desire  that  he  should 
have  charge  of  it.  No  reasons  were  seen  why  such 
a  journal  rightly  managed,  should  fail  of  success,  and 
it  was  hoped  that  Tin-:  Open  Court  would  not  only 
soon  be  recognized  as  a  journal  of  high  character  and 
earnest  purpose,  but  that  it  would  in  a  few  years  be 
put  upon  a  strong  financial  basis. 

Now,  when  the  work  is  but  just  begun,  only  a 
few  months  from  the  date  of  the  first  number,  the 
editors  have  to  announce  that  this  work,  so  far  as 
their  connection  with  the  paper  is  concerned,  is  at 
an  end.  This  is  the  last  number  of  The  Open  Court 
that  will  be  issued  under  the  present  business  and 
editorial  management. 

A  detailed  statement  of  the  facts  and  circumstances 
which  have  rendered  this  announcement  necessary, 
cannot  and  need  not  here  be  made.  It  is  sufficient, 
perhaps,  to  say  that  the  immediate  cause  of  the 
editors'  resignation  is  Mr.  Hegeler's  expressed  desire 
and  purpose  to  make  a  place  on  The  Open  Court  for 
Dr.  Paul  Carus,  who  never  had,  it  should  here  lie- 
said,  any  editorial  connection  with  the  paper,  who 
newer  wrote  a  line  for  it  except  as  a  contributor  and 
as  Mr.  Hegeler's  secretary,  and  who  was  unknown 
to  Mr.  Hegeler  when  his  contract  with  the  editors 
was  made.  To  the  request  that  Dr.  Carus  be  accepted 
as  an  associate  editor,  the  present  editors,  for  good 
and  sufficient  reasons,  have  unhesitatingly  refused  to 
accede,  and  although  always  willing  to  make  conces- 
sions when  required  in  the  interests  of  the  paper,  a 
point  is  now  reached  where  they  feel  compelled  by 
self-respect  to  sever  all  relations  with  this  journal 
rather  than  yield  to  Mr.  I  legeler's  latest  requirement. 
At  the  same  time  the  editors  acquit  the  proprietor 
of  the  paper  of  an)-  intentional  injustice  in  this 
matter,  and  appreciate  his  high  purpose  in  founding 
and  sustaining  The  Open  Court.  May  its  future 
fulfil  his  highest  expectations. 

It  is  with  deep  regret  that  the  editors  now 
abruptly  bid  farewell  to  the  contributors,  to  whom  the 
paper  is  indebted  for  almost  all  that  has  made  it 
valuable,  and  the  readers  of  The. Open  Court,  among 
whom  they  count  man;-  personal  friends,  and  many 
who,  though  known  only  as  subscribers  to  The  Index 
and  Open  Court,  have  come  to  seem,  from  years  of 
familiarity  with  their  names  on  the  subscription  list 


592 


THE    OPEN    COURT, 


of  both  papers,  like  old  friends,  as  indeed  they  are. 
To  these  the  editors  have  for  years  addressed  them- 
selves, conscious  of  a  kindly,  sympathetic,  and 
indulgent  hearing-,  and  from  them  they  now  part  with 
sad  reluctance,  and  with  regret  from  the  new  group 
of  friendly  rentiers  won  through  the  columns  of  this 
paper  and  with  whom  a  longer  acquaintance  was 
expected. 


ANNUAL    CONVENTION    OF    THE    UNION    OF    THE 
ETHICAL  CULTURE    SOCIETIES. 

The  first  annual  convention  of  the  union  of  the 
Societies  for  Ethical  Culture  was  held  in  Chicago  on 
the  iSth,  19th  and  20th.  Delegates  from  the  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  Ethical  Societies 
were  present,  and  among  them  sat  a  representative 
of  the  London  Ethical  Society,  and  others  not 
members  of  the  Union,  specially  invited  because 
of  their  interest  in  the  movement.  Among  those 
who  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  proceedings  were 
Prof.  Felix  Adler,  Dr.  Stanton  Cort,  and  Alfred 
Jaretzki,  of  New  York,  W.  M.  Salter,  Judge  Henry 
Booth,  W.  R.  Manierre,  Otis  B.  Favor,  H.  De  Rood, 
Dr.  N.  D.  Morey,  and  Joseph  Errant,  of  Chicago; 
S.  B.  Weston,  Dr.  Emily  White,  Dr.  C.  N.  Pierce  and 
Miss  Charlotte  Porter,  of  Philadelphia;  W.  L.  Shel- 
don and  Dr.  Charles  Stevens,  of  St.  Louis;  Mrs. 
McCullom,  London,  Eng.;  and  Mr.  Macomber,  of 
Toledo. 

1  he  special  objects  of  this  Union  are  to  strengthen 
the  bond  of  fellowship  among  the  Societies  for  Ethi- 
cal Culture  and  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  those 
outside  who  are  in  sympathy  with  the  movement,  to 
create  a  fund  for  the  establishment  of  an  institution 
in  which  philosophy  and  religion  shall  be  expounded 
from  the  different  standpoints  with  perfect  freedom, 
and  "from  which  incidentally  shall  go  forth  the  ethi- 
cal teachers  of  the  future";  to  publish  and  spread 
suitable  literature,  and  to  further  such  objects  as  may 
commend  themselves  from  time  to  time  to  the  Socie- 
ties. 

The  report  of  the  committee  on  the  extension  of 
the  Ethical  Culture  movement,  read  by  Prof.  Adler 
and  adopted  by  the  Union,  recommended  that  local 
committees  be  appointed  by  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee in  communities  in  which  no  Societies  exist, 
but  where  there  arc  persons  desirous  of  being  con- 
nected with  the  Union,  and  that  these  local  com- 
mittees be  empowered  to  enrol  applicants  of  good 
character  as  mcmbe'rs-at-large.  Whenever  a  group 
of  twenty  persons  shall  exist  in  any  one  locality 
duly  enrolled,  they  shall  have  the  right  to  send  a 
delegate  to  the  annual  conventions,  as  shall  also 
scattered    -roups  of  less    than    twenty    in    different 


localities,  meeting  at  some  central  point,  when  the 
aggregate  of  their  numbers  shall  be  twenty  or  over. 
The  desire  is  to  connect  with  the  work  groups  in 
different  parts  of  the  country,  who  are  in  accord  with 
the  Societies  and  are  now  debarred  from  forming  new 
societies  by  the  smallness  of  their  numbers.  Such 
groups,  composed  of  men  and  women  of  superior 
intelligence  and  character,  now  exist  in  Baltimore, 
Washington,  Toledo,  Cincinnati,  San  Francis:o  and 
many  other  places.  The  contributions  of  members- 
at-large,  the  report  says,  shall  be  voluntary  so  far  as 
the  amount  is  concerned,  one-third  of  the  contribu- 
tions to  go  to  the  Union  and  two-thirds  for  a  college 
fund.  The  report  recommends  that  steps  be  taken 
to  establish  such  a  college  as  soon  as  an  annual  in- 
come of  $6,000  is  raised  from  subscriptions.  The 
report  of  the  committee  on  publication,  which  was 
also  adopted,  recommends  a  publication  to  be  issued 
quarterly,  and  to  contain  one  or  more  lectures,  reports 
of  the  work  being  done  by  the  Societies,  items  of 
interest  to  the  members,  etc. 

At  the  last  session  of  the  convention,  held  Sun- 
da)'  morning,  earnest  and  eloquent  addresses  were 
given  before  a  large  audience  by  Professor  Adler,  Mr. 
Salter,  Dr.  Emily  White,  Mrs.  McCullom,  of  Lon- 
don, and  others.  The  convention,  was  one  of  great 
importance  to  the  movement  in  the  interests  of  which 
it  was  called,  and  the  measures  and  methods  agreed 
upon  can  hardly  fail  to  augment  its  strength  and 
extend  its  influence  and  usefulness. 


THE  SHARKY   POLITICIAN. 

Monstrosities  are  beings  in  states  of  arrested  develop- 
ment, as  the  idiot  is  the  monkey  semblance  of  man.  One 
may  have  every  external  appearance  of  being  human,  and 
yet  may  be  mentally  arrested  in  the  eel-like,  shark-like, 
or  ape-like  stage.  We  experience  involuntary  repug- 
nance of  the  slippery  sneak,  and  feel  a  heart-glow  in  the 
presence  of  the  "  god-like,"  frank,  hearty  chap  who 
despises  deceitfulness. 

In  this  our  age  and  country  there  survives  a  remnant 
of  the  shark  ancestry,  in  the  guise  of  men  who  are  as  cer- 
tainly doomed  to  extinction  as  the  age  and  country  are 
advancing  to  understand  and  destroy  them.  The  shark 
figures  in  churches  and  socially  as  the  sleek,  watchful, 
wilv,  hypocrite,  loud  in  cant  and  deep  in  schemes. 
Wealth  and  beauty  are  his  prey.  As  a  physician,  he  is 
a  great  stickler  for  medical  ethics,  while  managing 
secretly  to  violate  its  spirit;  as  a  lawyer  he  bribes  juries, 
corrupts  judges,  suborns  perjurers;  but  nowhere  is  he  so 
much  at  home  as  in  practical  politics.  He  exists  in  this 
field  in  many  tvpes.  He  may  be  vulgar  or  polite,  igno- 
rant or  educated.  He  may  brawl,  gamble,  steal,  and  be 
guilt}'  of  grades  of  crime,  from  "  eating  with  his  knife"  to 
murder,  or  be   Chesterfleldian,  and    have  done    nothing 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


593 


worse  than  foreclosing'  a  mortgage  upon  a  widow's 
home.  The  child  and  the  multitude  judge  by  externals; 
so  the  sleek  air  and  garb  of  respectability  tell  more  upon 
the  Carlylean  populace  than  straightforwardness  and  the 
indifference  to  appearances  of  the  one  who  is  conscious 
of  his  rectitude. 

In  the  early  days  of  Christianity,  when  it  was  worth 
a  man's  life  to  avow  his  convictions,  the  sycophant  was 
the  adviser  of  those  who  hunted  these  religionists  down. 
When  the  faith  grew  in  power,  the  Christian  hypocrite 
developed,  and  he  has  been  the  loudest  in  his  denuncia- 
tions of  atheists  and  agnostics.  With  the  wane  of 
churchly  power  it  is  sad  to  think  that  this  creature  will 
crop  out  in  all  kinds  of  societies,  and  retard  progress  by 
expounding  principles  of  which  he  has  but  faint  concep- 
tion, and  for  which  he  cares  less.  But  his  best  oppor- 
tunity is  in  politics,  his  environment  proper,  where  his 
traits  find  fullest  scope  for  development.  Scientific  pur- 
suits tend  to  repress  sharkiness,  because  in  the  study  of 
nature's  laws,  even  superficially,  there  must  be  some 
devotion  to  truth,  but  in  political  life  the  lie  serves 
often  the  shark's  purpose  better  than  the  truth.  The 
subterfuges,  combinations,  treacheries  of  political  life  are 
beyond  computation  or  the  comprehension  of  the 
uninitiated.  The  ramifying  degradation,  insecurity,  and 
pollution  are  likewise  incredible.  With  "  boodlerism  "  as 
the  aim  the  result  of  its  success  is  the  prostitution  of  all 
public  institutions,  education  and  charities.  The  sick 
and  insane  are  robbed,  frozen,  starved  and  murdered; 
the  schools  are  controlled  by  ignorance,  while  tax  col- 
lections are  lavished  upon  vice. 

If  there  is  a  crime-class  whose  operations  are  more 
hurtful  than  another,  it  is  the  element  that  too  often  con- 
trols elections  and  municipal  offices. 

One  of  the  most  transparent  and  yet  successful  of  the 
politician's  methods  is  afforded  by  the  pretext.  If  he  have 
a  hated  rival  to  remove,  or  a  vengeance  to  wreak,  our 
shark  bides  his  time,  and  accomplishes  his  end  effect- 
ually by  a  show  of  magnanimity  for  personal  grievances, 
but  righteous  indignation  for  some  trivial  or  trumped-up 
dereliction. 

The  "shark  "  cannot  experience  self-respect;  he  can- 
not know  the  calm  of  self-approbation.  Given  up  to 
lying  and  schemes,  his  mental  apparatus  must  degener- 
ate, and  his  progeny  will  inevitably  undergo  retrograde 
development.  Truth  only  is  the  foundation  for  brain 
building,  and  habitual  lying  must  work  destruction  to 
mentality.  • 


With  the  beginning  of  the  printers'  strike  in  this 
city  on  November  i,  every  printer  who  had  been 
working  on  this  paper  left.  Even  the  proof-reader 
was  seen  no  more.  The  firm  that  prints  The  Open 
Court  experienced  great  difficulty  of  course  in  filling 
the  places  of  the  strikers,  a  fact  which  is  here  stated 


only  in  explanation  of  the  mistakes  in  the  last  issue, 
most  of  which  were  made  after  the  revised  proofs 
had  left  our  hands.  Although  it  has  been  impossible 
to  get  proofs  of  contributions  printed  this  week  to 
the  writers  in  time  for  their  revision,  it  is  believed 
that  the)-  will  not  have  reason  to  find  fault  with  the 
only  proof-reading  of  which  circumstances  have 
admitted.  Our  printers  assure  us  that  there  will  be 
no  more  delay  or  trouble,  so  far  as  The  Open  Couri 
is  concerned,  from  the  strike. 

A  number  of  readers  having  made  inquiries  in  regard 
to  Dr.  Clevenger,  whose  series  of  articles  on  "  Monistic 
Mental  Science"  (which  he  claims  to  be  but  a  rough 
sketch  of  the  subject)  was  concluded  in  the  last  number 
or  The  Open  Court,  a  little  notice  of  the  author  is 
proper. 

In  Afipletoiis'  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography 
a  column  is  devoted  to  the  Doctor  and  his  father, 
who  was  a  famous  American  sculptor.  Dr.  Cleven- 
ger confines  his  practice  to  the  treatment  of  mental 
and  nervous  diseases,  and  holds  numerous  positions 
of  honor  in  hospitals  and  scientific  societies.  He  is 
a  well  known  medico-legal  expert  in  his  specialty. 
Recently  he  was  summoned  to  a  Wisconsin  court 
and  the  county  medical  society  turned  out  in  force 
to  do  him  honor — physicians  of  all  schools  came  to  the 
court-room  to  hear  his  testimony — which  included  lono- 
dissertations  upon  various  forms  of  insanity — and  they 
publicly  declared  the  Doctor  to  be  a  master  of  his  sub- 
ject. His  writings  are  very  numerous,  those  of  former 
years  being  upon  mathematical  and  astronomical  sub- 
jects, as  he  was  employed  by  the  Government  in  survey- 
ing and  meteorological  work.  In  the  U.  S.  Eneineer 
Corps  he  was  thrown  much  with  army  surgeons,  for 
whom  he  has  a  high  regard,  and  they  induced  him  to 
devote  himself  to  medicine.  His  philosophical  bent  led 
him  to  the  most  difficult  branch,  and  he  has  consistently 
pursued  studies  that  bear  upon  ailments  of  the  mind  and 
nerves,  through  great  difficulties  and  many  sacrifices. 
While  residing  at  an  insane  asylum  as  pathologist,  he 
found  his  studies  distracted  by  the  appeals  to  his  sympa- 
thies the  harsh  treatment  of  the  inmates  occasioned,  and 
published  an  appeal  to  the  citizens  to  take  the  manage- 
ment from  the  "gamblers  and  thieves"  who  controlled 
the  place.  A  bullet-shot  into  his  room  was  about  the 
only  answer  he  received;  but  a  few  years  after,  "investi- 
gations "  corroborated  the  Doctors'  exposure.  The 
work  one  does  for  reform  is  seldom  rewarded  by  ade- 
quate results.  His  contributions  to  knowledge  are 
mainly  in  the  jfonrnat  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Dis- 
ease published  in  New  York,  and  scientific  journals 
of  that  class.  It  is  seldom  that  he  attempts  popular 
essays,  and,  owing  to  his  refusal  to  cater  to  prejudice  or 
ignorance,  he  has  resisted  the  allurements  of  mere  popu- 


59-1 


THK    OPEN    COURT 


larity.  His  lectures  on  "  Art  Anatomy,"  made  several 
years  ago  at  the  Chicago  Art  Institute  (soon  to  appear 
in  book  form),  were  enthusiastically  received,  for  he  con- 
vinced his  audiences  of  the  importance  of  realizing  the 
the  influence  of  Darwin  and  Spencer  in  Art  as  well  as 
in  Science. 

We  had  hoped  to  have  for  this  number  some  word 
from  Mr.  Hegeler  to  present  with  our  valedictory  ;  but 
none  has  been  received  beyond  a  request  to  hand  the 
manuscripts  on  hand  to  Dr.  Cams,  who  "  leaves  for 
Chicago  to-day,''  the  letter  says  "  to  make  preparations 
for  taking  charge  of  the  paper."  As  late  as  Monday, 
this  week,  we  were  in  uncertainty  as  to  whether  our 
connection  with  The  Open  Court  would  extend 
beyond  the  present  number.  We  arc  not  authorized  to 
make  any  statement  in  regard  to  the  future  of  the  paper, 
and  have  no  knowledge  of  Mr.  Hegeler's  plans.  It 
will  be  best  from  this  date  to  make  alll  checks,  etc.,  for 
The  Open  Court  payable  to  the  order  of  The  Open 
Court  Publishing  Company,  to  which  all  letters  for 
the  paper  should  be  addressed.  All  letters  and  papers 
for  B.  F.  Underwood  and  Sara  A.  Underwood  should 
be  sent  to  their  residence,  86  Page  street,  Chicago. 

*  #  * 

In  our  quotation  from  Carpenter's  Physiology,  to 
the  effect  that  there  is  no  difference  between  secre- 
tion and  excretion,  except  in  the  "diverse  destina- 
tions, of  the  separated  matter,"  the  printer  substituted 
the  word  "distinctions"  for  destinations.  Mr.  Wake- 
man,  of  the  Freethinkers'  Magazine,  stumbles  over 
that  typographical  error  and  shouts,  "  There  it  is  in 
a  nut  shell!  These  'diverse  distinctions'  exactly 
distinguish  alcohol  as  an  excretion!  "  Mr.  Wakeman 
is  too  hysterical  to  write  with  scientific  accuracy  on 
this  subject. 

#  #         * 

Professor  Max  Muller's  lectures  on  "The 
Science  of  Thought,"  which  appeared  in  this  journal, 
will  soon  be  issued  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing- 
Company  in  a  handsome  volume,  which  will  contain 
also  an  introduction  by  the  author  and  an  interesting 
appendix.     The  "  strike"  has  delayed  this  work. 


Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  leaves  Paris  to  spend  the 
winter  in  England  with  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Stanton  Blatch.  Mrs. 
Stanton  is,  as  she  says,  in  the  sunset  of  life;  but  it  is  a  bright  and 
genial  sunset,  and  her  face,  with  its  halo  of  silver  hair  and  its 
kindly  smile,  tells  the  story  of  a  life  of  lofty  purpose.  As  the 
"  war-horse  of  woman's  rights,  she  ought  to  be  strong-minded 
and  disagreeable,  but  she  isn't,  and  I  have  met,"  says  a  writer  in 
the  Paris  Herald,  "hundreds  of  women  who  did  not  believe  in 
woman's  suffrage  who  were  not  half  so  gentle  and  interesting." 

We  quote  the  above  from  the  Home  Journal,  New 
York.     A   letter  received  bv   us   from   Mrs.  Stanton, 


since  her  return  to  England,  says  :  "  The  heated  dis- 
cussions, dividing  parties,  churches,  families,  on  this 
[the  Irish]  question,  remind  one  of  the  old  days  of 
slaver}-  in  our  own  country.  It  must  end  in  justice 
to  Ireland,  but  men  are  so  blind  that  they  will  resist 
it  as  long  as  they  dare,  thinking  that  by  some  hocus- 
pocus  measures  they  can  circumvent  eternal  law, 
though  all  history  proves  the  contrary." 


A  CLERGYMAN  is  in  jail  in  Boston  for  preaching  on 
"  the  Common  "  in  violation  of  an  ordinance  prohibiting 
public  speaking  on  those  grounds.  He  was  arrested 
only  after  repeated  and  persistent  violations  of  the  ordi- 
nance, and  he  can  have  his  liberty  at  any  time  if  he 
promises  not  to  commit  the  offence  again.  He  refuses 
to  make  any  such  promise,  and  is  sustained  in  his  course 
by  many  brother  clergvmen,  among  whom  is  Joseph 
Cook,  who  eulogizes  the  offender  as  "  a  man  of  supreme 
consciousness  and  decisive  strength."  Yet,  these  very 
men  who  advise  against  the  enforcement  of  and  defend 
the  violation  of  an  ordinance  which  is  the  will  of  the 
majority  of  the  people  of  Boston,  formulated  by  their 
chosen  representatives  for  the  protection  of  public  prop- 
erty, and  which  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  has 
pronounced  constitutional'  and  valid,  are  of  all  men  the 
most  severe  in  denouncing  law-breakers,  to  the  com- 
mutation of  whose  sentences  in  this  world  they  are  op- 
posed,and  for  whom  they  believe  there  is  no  probation  "in 
the  world  to  come."  These  public  teachers  are  evidently 
more  under  the  influence  of  prejudice  and  passion  than 
of  principle. 

*  *  * 

The  Society  for  Ethical  Culture,  of  Philadelphia, 
has  a  hundred  and  eighteen  members,  of  whom  fifty-two 
joined  during  the  last  year.  Mr.  Weston  and  bis  sup- 
porters are  doing  good  work,  which  should  be  encour- 
aged and  strengthened  by  all  earnest  liberals  of  the 
Quaker  City. 

In  the  notice  of  "The  Combination  to  Influence 
Civil  Legislation  on  Marriage  and  Divorce,"  page 
540  of  The  Open  Court,  No.  19,  the  name  Richard 
Brodhead  Westbrook,  should  be  substituted  for  Rich- 
ard Brodhead. 

*  *         * 

B.  F.  Underwood  is  open  to  applications  for 
lectures  during  the  coming  winter.  For  subjects, 
terms,  etc.,  address  him  at  86  Page  street,  Chicago. 

Lawrence  Barrett  says: 

Because  Shakespeare  could  not  spell,  and  misspelled  even  his 
own  name,  amounted  to  nothing.  Nobody  could  spell  in  those 
days.  Raleigh  spelled  his  name  Rairley  and  Rowley.  They 
went  by  the  sound  of  words. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


595 


VARIED   LIFE  IN   OTHER  WORLDS. 
BY    RICHARD    A.    rum   TOR. 

The  theory  of  evolution,  as  developed  recently  in 
reference  to  all  the  various  forms  of  life  peopling  this 
earth,  compels  the  students  of  science  who  accepts  it- 
compels,  we  may  fairly  say,  every  student  of  science  with 
competent  power  of  thinking — to  modify  his  views  on 
a  number  of  subjects  of  philosophic  inquiry  which  are 
not  strictly  speaking  scientific.  Among  these  the  ques- 
tion of  life  in  other  worlds  must  be  mentioned,  though, 
strangely  enough,  few  who  have  dealt  with  it  since  the 
theory  of  the  biological  evolution  was  first  established  on 
scientific  grounds,  have  taken  this  fact  into  account. 
The  subject  of  life  in  other  worlds  is  made  at  once  more 
interesting,  and  better  worth  considering  in  its  semi- 
scientific  aspect  by  our  changed  position  in  regard  to  the 
subject  of  life  in  this  world  of  ours:  the  extension  of  our 
ideas  in  regard  to  life  as  distributed  throughout  space,  is 
made  more  reasonable  (though  it  can  never  be  based  on 
the  acqusition  of  actual  tacts)  by  the  extension  of  our 
knowledge  in  regard  to  life  as  distributed  throughout 
time.  It  is  not  so  much  that  we  find  our  former  notions 
had  been  incorrect,  as  that  we  perceive  thev  had 
been  incomplete.  We  had  imagined,  even  in  our  most 
advanced  former  ideas  about  life  in  other  worlds,  a  uni- 
formity such  as  nature  nowhere  presents.  We  had 
tacitly  assumed  that  all  things  were  made  on  one  pattern 
throughout  space,  till  we  were  reminded  lay  studying  the 
records  of  our  earth's  remote  past  that  throughout  time 
there  has  been  ever  present  an  amazing  variety — nay, 
that  there  has  been  an  ever-varying  variety. 

Let  us  inquire  how  the  views  which  men  had  been  led 
to  form  about  life  in  other  worlds  had  developed  out  of 
the  one  general  opinion  that  there  is  but  one  world; 
and,  having  done  this,  let  us  see  how  those  views  must 
be  widened  and  enlarged  to  correspond  with  the  mar- 
vellous widening  of  our  knowledge,  and  the  yet  more 
marvellous  widening  of  our  conceptions  which  recent 
vears  have  brought  about. 

In  old  times,  men  looked  around  them  on  this  earth, 
recognizing  it  as  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  universe 
itself — the  sun,  the  moon,  the  moving  and  the  fixed  stars 
being  but  fittings  and  adornments  especially  constructed 
for  the  benefit  of  its  inhabitants,  while  other  celestial 
appearances,  as  comets,  meteors,  and  so  forth,  were 
special  means  of  communication  between  the  powers 
ruling  in  heaven,  and  the  creatures  living  in  the  one  sole 
world  for  which  all  thing  had  been  made. 

It  was  not  till  the  Copernican  theory  had  been 
fairly  established  that  men  began  to  conceive  the  thought 
that  there  may  be  other  worlds  than  ours.  One  would 
have  thought  that  the  moment  Copernicus  had  shown 
our  sun  to  be  the  ruler  over  a  family  of  orbs,  whereof 
our  earth  is  but  one,  the  thought  would  at  once  have 
suggested  itself,  that  as  the  only  one  of  those  orbs  we  can 


examine  is  an  inhabited  world,  the  others  probably  arc- 
so  too.  But  the  growth  of  new  ideas  in  such  matters  is 
slow,  and  it  was  not  till  the  lime  of  Huyghens  that  the 
doctrine  was  first  fairly  started  which  presents  the  other 
members  of  the  sun's  family  as  probably  suns.  More 
than  a  century  passed  before  the  idea  grew  to  its  full 
development  which  has  its  germ  really  in  the  works  of 
Copernicus: 

"  We  find  in  my  new  theory  what  can  be  discerned 
in  no  other  scheme — an  admirable  symmetry  of  the  uni- 
verse, an  harmonious  disposition  of  the  orbits.  For  who 
could  assign  to  the  lamp  of  this  beautiful  temple  a  better 
position  than  the  centre,  whence  alone  it  can  illuminate  all 
parts  at  once?  Here  the  sun,  as  from  a  kingly  throne, 
sways  the  family  of  orbs  which  circle  around  him." 

This  idea,  scarcely  changed  in  form,  though  many  new 
details  were  introduced  from  the  time  of  Christian  Huy- 
ghens till  the  day  when  Dr.  Whewell,  then  Master  of 
Trinity,  who  had  already  produced,  as  one  of  the  Bridge- 
water  Treatises,  an  interesting  contribution  to  the  litera- 
ture of  "  Life  in  Other  Worlds,"  startled  many  thinking 
men  by  the  anonymous  publication  of  his  strangely- 
named  "  Plurality  of  Worlds,"  the  real  object  of  which 
was  to  show  that  our  earth  is  the  only  member  of  the 
solar  system  which  can  possibly  be  the  abode  of  life,  or 
at  any  rate  of  the  higher  forms  of  life.  Sir  David 
Brewster  was  moved  to  write,  in  reply,  his  "More 
Worlds  than  One,"  in  which  he  defended  the  doctrine 
of  life  in  other  worlds,  then  not  quite  two  centuries  old, 
as  "  the  creed  of  the  philosopher  and  the  hope  of  the 
Christian."  The  controversy  between  these  two  dis- 
tinguished men,  unequal  though  it  was  (for  Whewell 
was  far  better  versed  in  the  matters  chiefly  dealt  with 
than  Brewster),  and  bearing  though  it  did  on  a  subject  not 
strictly  scientific,  led  to  much  really  valuable  scientific 
thought.  If  nothing  else  had  been  evolved  by  it  than  the 
first  clear  and  definite  suggestion  (  made  by  Whewell ) 
that  the  theory  of  our  galaxy  and  of  external  galaxies, 
advanced  by  William  Herschel,  supported  by  Humboldt, 
and  Arago,  and  a  host  of  others,  and  even  to  this  day 
lingering  in  our  books  of  astronomy,  cannot  possibly  be 
correct,  the  disputants,  eminent  though  they  were  in 
their  several  lines  of  work  and  valuable  as  their  time 
was  to  the  scientific  world,  would  not  have  wasted  time 
over  the  unscientific  subject  about  which  they  had  been 
in  controversy. 

At  the  close  of  the  controversy  between  Whewell 
and  Brewster,  it  seemed  as  though  choice  only  remained 
between  two  ideas.  Whewell's  new  view,  really  the 
belief  which  had  prevailed  for  thousands  of  years  and  to 
the  seventeenth  century,  that  our  earth  is  the  only 
inhabited  world;  and  the  modern  doctrine  that  every 
planet  in  the  solar  system,  and  all  the  planets  in  systems 
attending  on  each  one  of  all  the  millions  of  suns  peopling 
space    in    the   abode   of  life,  each    sun    nourishing     life 


596 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


each  moon  helping  to  make  life  comfortable  on  the 
world  upon  which  it  attends.  It  was  thus  the  matter 
presented  itself  to  me  when,  in  the  years  1867-1869,  I 
dealt,  in  various  essays,  and  in  1S70  in  a  book,  with  this 
fascinating  subject, —  a  subject  which,  though  not  scien- 
tific itself,  has  ever  been  pregnant  with  scientific  sugges- 
tion. 

But  as  I  studied  it, — then  without  the  aid  of  that 
theory  of  biological  evolution,  whose  bearing  on  the 
subject  I  am  now  proposing  to  consider — I  began  to  see 
that  analogy  and  direct  evidence  alike  suggest  a  theory 
of  much  greater  interest  than  either  of  the  others,  as  well 
as  much  more  probable.  I  saw  that  time  as  well  as 
space  must  be  taken  into  account.  If  this  orb  in  one 
part  of  space  is  inhabited,  and  also  perhaps  that  other  orb 
in  some  remote  part  of  space,  but  not  the  intervening 
space  between  the  two,  must  we  not  see  at  least  the 
probability  that  in  like  manner  one  particular  time  may 
be  a  season  of  life  for  one  world,  and  some  far  remote 
time  the  season  of  life  for  another. 

This  idea  grew  as  I  gathered  the  evidence  more 
fully  together,  and  examined  it  more  carefully,  until  at 
length  I  was  able  to  adopt  a  definite  method  of  classify- 
ing worlds  into  those  which  are  in  the  stages  of  prepara- 
tion in  the  support  of  life,  those  which  are  in  mid-life, 
and  those  which  are  in  the  stages  of  decay  and  even  of 
death.  Without  regarding  the  size  of  a  planet  as  afford- 
ing a  definite  indication  of  the  stage  of  life  it  has  prob- 
ably reached — for  science  knows  nothing  as  yet,  though 
it  has  guessed  much,  about  the  probable  order  in  which 
the  several  planets  began  their  orb  life — I  yet  adopted 
as  a  sound  general  principle  the  belief  that  the  larger 
planets  are  younger  than  the  smaller.  It  may  be  shown 
that  the  stages  of  the  lives  of  the  giant  planets  Saturn 
and  Jupiter  would  probably  be  five  or  six  times  as  long 
as  the  corresponding  stages  of  the  life  of  our  earth. 
Substituting  for  the  many  millions  of  years  which  our 
earth  has  endured  (her  own  record  tells  us  this)  five  or 
six  times  as  many  millions  of  years,  we  see  that  even 
though  Jupiter  or  Saturn  had  begun  their  careers  as 
planets  several  millions  of  years  earlier  than  the  earth 
that  start  would  long  since  have  been  much  more  than 
covered  by  the  earth  with  her  five-fold  or  six-fold  rate 
of  progress  through  the  stages  of  planetary  life,  and  the 
giants  would  be  now  much  younger  than  the  earth.  In 
like  manner,  even  if  our  moon  had  started  her  independ- 
ent orb-life  several  millions  of  years  later  than  the  earth, 
yet,  with  her  much  smaller  mass,  our  companion  world 
would  have  lived  so  much  more  quickly  that  she  would 
have  been  old  when  the  earth  was  still  young,  and 
would  have  reached  the  stage  of  death  millions  of  years 
before  the  earth  had  reached  her  present  condition  of 
middle  life. 

I  was  thus  able  to  classify  the  members  of  the  solar 
system  into  the  representatives  of  five  distinct  stages  of 


rob  life,  one,  or  at  the  utmost  two  only,  of  which  could 
be  regarded  as  suited  for  the  support  of  forms  of  animal 
or  vegetable  existence.  These  were, — first,  the  glowing 
vaporous  stage,  of  which  our  sun  is  the  only  example, 
the  fiery  stage,  of  which  the  giant  planets  Jupiter  and 
Saturn  are  representatives;  the  time  of  mid-life,  repre- 
sented by  our  earth  and  probably  by  Venus;  old  age, 
represented  by  Mars  and  Mercury ;  and  death,  of  which 
the  moon  is  the  only  known  example,  though  probably 
among  the  moons  of  the  giant  planets  and  among  the 
asteroids  there  may  be  other  instances. 

It  was  natural  to  extend  the  analogy  from  world-life 
to  sun-life.  If  there  are  young-  and  old  and  middle  aged 
worlds,  so  also  there  must  probably  be  young  and  old 
and  middle-aged  suns.  If  the  larger  worlds  have  longer 
stages  of  world-life  than  the  smaller,  and  are  therefore 
probably  the  younger,  having  passed  through  relatively 
much  smaller  portions  of  their  much  longer  lives,  so  also 
it  would  seem  that  the  larger  suns  would  be  generally 
much  younger  (in  development)  than  the  smaller.  Nor 
is  evidence  wanting,  little  though  we  know  of  the  real 
sizes  of  the  stars,  to  show  that  this  is  actually  the  case. 

The  stars  or  suns  have  been  classified  by  means  of 
the  spectroscope  into  four  orders,  which  may  justly  be 
regarded  as  representing  four  distinct  periods  of  sun-life. 
There  are  those  which  shine  with  a  steely  white  lustre, 
like  Sirius,  Vega,  Altair,  and  others,  whose  spectra  indi- 
cate an  even  intenser  splendor  than  that  of  our  sun's  sur- 
face, and  a  far  extending  outer  region  of  hydrogen  as  chief 
among  the  elements  able  to  absorb  much  of  those  sunB' 
light  on  its  way  outwards  into  space.  The  suns  of  this 
order,  among  which  one-half  of  the  six  hundred  exam- 
ined by  Secchi  were  classed,  include  a  few  like  Sirius 
and  Vega,  which  are  undoubtedly  much  larger  than  our 
sun,  and  almost  certainly  much  more  massive.  We  may 
fairly  infer,  though  we  know  not  the  real  distances  of 
the  remaining  stars  of  this  order,  that  they  are  all  of  the 
same  giant  class  as  Sirius,  which  emits  two  hundred 
times  as  much  light  as  the  sun,  so  that  assuming  his 
intrinsic  lustre  to  be  twice  as  great  as  the  sun's,  he  has  a 
surface  one  hundred  times  as  great,  which  would  imply  a 
diameter  ten  times,  and  a  volume  no  less  than  one  thou- 
sand times  as  great.  In  fact,  we  find  reason  to  think  that 
these  giant,  and  therefore  youthful,  suns  exceed  our 
sun,  and  his  real  fellows  among  the  stars,  in  about  the 
same  degree  that  the  sun  exceeds  the  giant  planets,  or 
that  these  exceed  our  earth  and  her  fellow  planets  of 
what  is  called  the  terrestrial  order. 

Then  next,  we  have  stars  of  a  yellowish  white  color, 
which  are  shown  by  the  spectroscope  to  be  closely  akin 
to  our  own  sun  in  condition.  Such  are  Capella  and  Aide- 
varan,  suns  probably  akin  also  to  our  sun  in  size.  Of 
the  six  hundred  stars  examined  by  Secchi  with  the 
spectroscope,  about  one-fourth  were  of  this  second  class. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


597 


Thirdly,  we  have  stars  of  mostly  of  yellowish- orange 
tint,  which  are  shown  by  the  spectroscope  to  be  sur- 
rounded by  atmospheres  powerfully  absorptive,  and 
therefore  relatively  cool.  Such  are  Procyon,  Arcturus, 
Antares,  and  others  among  the  somewhat  ruddy  stars. 
We  may  safely  infer  that  they  are  farther  advanced  in 
sun  life  than  the  sun  which  rules  our  own  earth  and  her 
fellow  worlds. 

Tnen,  fourthly,  we  have  stars  showing  much  deeper 
tints, — strong  red,  garnet,  purple,  blue  and  green — 
which  under  spectroscopic  examination  show  such  evi- 
dence of  absorptive  atmospheres  as  to  indicate  a  yet 
more  advanced  age  than  the  third  class,  if  we  may  not 
regard  them  as  actually  decrepit. 

The  final  stage  of  the  caieer  of  a  sun — namely,  the 
stage  of  death — could  not  be  recognized  in  the  same  way 
as  the  four  stages  of  actual  life.     For  the  death  of  a  sun 
comes  only   when  the  sun  is  absolutely  dark;  and  to  a 
dark  orb  the  spectroscopic  method,   which  depends  on 
the    analysis    of   light,    cannot    possibly    be    applicable. 
But  yet  we   have  clear  evidence  (if  such  a  term  is  not 
self- contradictory )   of  the  existence  of  dark   suns  in  the 
galaxy.     An  orb  does  not  cease  to  exert  the  attractive 
powers  due  to  its  mass  when  it  ceases  to  be  truly  a  sun, 
in  being  a  source  of  light  and  heat,  and  with  them  life, 
to    dependent    worlds.      Its    perturbing    action   may   be 
recognized  indirectly  by  means  of  light-messages,  if  the 
orbs   which   it  disturbs  be  themselves  luminous.     And 
astronomers,  in  point  of  fact,  more  than  suspect,  if  even 
they  may  not  be  said   to  have   absolutely  demonstratt  d, 
the  existence  of  dark  suns  by  the  perturbations  which 
suns  still  full  of  their  primeval  lustre  have  been  observed 
to  undergo.     It  may  be  said  that  the  regular  changes  in 
the    lustre    of   that    strange    sun    Algol,    the    Winking 
Demon  Star  of  Arabian  astronomers,  attesting  as  they  do 
the  existence  of  an  opaque  attendant  nearly  as  large  as 
that  sun  itself,  demonstrate  the  existence  of  at  least  one 
dark  sun,  in  a  different  way,  but  still  by  the  teachings  of 
light- messages.     Nay,  for  my  own  part,  I  recognise  the 
giant  planets  in  the  solar  system   as  dark  suns:  young 
as  worlds,  they  are  old,  if    not  dead,  as  suns — actually 
dead  if  darkness  means  death,  though  they   may   be  so 
hot  that  they  may  still  possess  some  degree  of  life-nour- 
ishing power  for  the  satellite  worlds  attending  on  them. 
Thus  far  I  had  advanced  in  dealing  with  the  subject 
«f   life   in   other   worlds,    and  life-supporting  power   in 
other  suns,  as  early  as,  1S75,  within  six  years  of  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  thought  that  the  life-bearing  stage  of  a 
planet's  career  is  but  a  portion  of  the  planet's  life-history. 
During  those  six    years,    but    with    growing   clearness, 
thoughts  of  the  probably  limitless  variety  existing  among 
worlds  and  suns  had  presented  themselves.     But   I   had 
Hot   definitely    considered    such    ideas — still    less    had    I 
dwelt  upon  them. 


But  of  late  the  conviction   has  been  forced  upon   me 
that  until  these  considerations  have  been  duly  taken  into 
account,  no  just  ideas  respecting  other  worlds  and   other 
suns  can  possibly  be  formed.     It  is  not   merely   in  the 
philosophic  study  of  a  problem  not  strictly  scientific, but 
in  the  strictly  scientific  inquiry   into  the  probable  struc- 
ture   of  the    universe,   that    such   considerations  present 
themselves,  and  call  for  discussion  in  the  strictly  manner. 
When  we  are  dealing  with  the    probability   of  life  in 
other  worlds,  indeed,  we  cannot  push  to  its  full  limits  the 
argument  from  analogy  (which   is,  in  fact,  all  we  have 
for  our  guidance),  without  coming  upon   the  considera- 
tion that  the  whole  life-history  of  one  planet  may  in  any 
given  case,  and  must  in  an  immense  number  of  cases,  be 
as  utterly   unlike  the   life-history  of  another  planet,  as 
the  history  of  one  planet  is  unlike  the  history  of  another 
belonging  to  a  different  class.      The  two  planets  doubt- 
less each   pass  through  the  glowing  vaporous  stage,  the 
fiery  era,  the  life-bearing  period   and   the  stages  of  old 
age,  decay,  and  death,  just   as  an  oak  and  a  poplar  (not 
to  take  a  wider  range  of  variety)  pass  severally  through 
the  successive  stages  of  tree-life  seen  in  the  seedling,  the 
sapling,  the   full   grown   tree,  the  tree  grown  old  and 
withered,  and  the  dead  stump.      In   this  respect  all  orbs 
may  be  said  to  be  alike.      But  in  the  details  of  the  sev- 
eral stages  of  planet  life  there  may  be  as  great  a  variety 
as  in  the  details  of  the  stages  of  planet  life, — nay,  must 
there  not  in   all   probability  be  a   much  greater  range  of 
variety  among  planets  than  among  plants?     A  man  who 
pictures  the  conditions  of  life,  for  example,  on  Jupiter  or  on 
the  moon,  during  the  periods  when  one  planet  will  here- 
after be  and  the  moon  formerly  was,  a  fit  abode  for  liv- 
ing creatures,  to  be  the  same  as  the  present  condition  of 
our  own  earth,  would  probably  be  as  far  wrong  (merely 
viewing  the  question   from   the  standpoint  of   analogy) 
as  an  insect  would  be  who,  having  concluded  that  the  trees 
in  the  forest  bad  all,  like  his  own  elm  home,  their  stages 
of    tree-life,  should    conclude  that  a   sapling  oak  would 
grow  to  be  an  elm,   and   that  the   withered  stump  of  a 
poplar  represented  what  had  been  an  elm  at  some  remote 
epoch  in  the  history  of  the  forest. 

When  we  turn  from  the  mere  suggestions  of  analogy, 
which,  though  they  may  be  trustworthy  in  a  general 
way,  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  of  scientific  weight 
in  regard  to  detad,  and  consider  the  probable  life- 
histories  of  planets,  differing  in  size  certainly,  and 
probably  also  in  structure,  we  are  forced  to  precisely  the 
same  conclusion  to  which  we  had  been  led  by  analogy. 
It  is  manifest  that  even  if  two  planets  unequal  in 
size  are  nevertheless  formed  of  exactly  the  same  materials 
similarly  proportioned,  the  physical  features  of  the 
two  planets  at  corresponding  stages  of  the  career  of 
each  must  be  altogether  unlike.  Consider,  for  example, 
our  earth  and  the  moon,  taking  the  stage  of  life  through 
which  our  earth  is   passing  now  and  through  which  the 


598 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


moon  passed  millions  of  years  since.  If  the  moon  then 
had  as  much  water  and  as  much  air,  compared  with  her 
mass,  as  the  earth  has  now,  then  she  had  one  eighty- first 
part  of  the  earth's  allowance  of  each  of  these  important 
planetary  appurtenances.  As  the  water  and  air  ot  the 
moon  would  he  distributed  over  a  surface  which  is 
between  one-thirteenth  and  one-fourteenth  of  the  earth's, 
it  is  clear  that  there  would  be  but  one-sixth  as  much  of 
either  to  each  square  mile  of  surface  on  the  moon  as  there 
is  on  the  earth.  And  the  actual  density  of  the  air  would 
be  reduced  in  even  a  greater  degree;  for,  under  the 
smaller  power  of  lunar  gravity — one-sixth  only  of 
terrestrial  gravity — the  smaller  quantity  of  air  over  each 
square  mile  would  press  downwards  with  only  one- 
thirty-sixth  of  the  pressure  of  our  air  at  the  sea-level,  and 
the  density  of  the  lunar  air  would  be  less  in  this 
important  degree. 

All  those  wearing  forces,  then,  which    air  and  water 
exert  on  the  earth  now,  and   have  exerted  during  many 
millions  of  past   years — forces    by  which  not  only  the 
present  aspect  of  the   earth,   but   her  aspect  during  the 
whole  time  over  which  geology   extends  its  survey,  has 
been  determined — were   altogether  insignificant  on    the 
moon    during   the    corresponding    portion    of   her    life- 
history.     Not  only  were  the  tools  with  which  the  moon's 
face  was  fashioned  much  weaker,  but  they  were  used  by 
a  much  weaker  hand, — namely,  by  lunar  gravity,  having 
but  one-sixth   the  strength  of  gravity   as  exerted  by  the 
earth.     Adding    to     this    the    consideration     that    these 
weaker  and    less    effectively    used    forces   continued    in 
action  for  a  much  shorter  period  of  time,  we  see  that  the 
moon's  aspect  throughout   the    whole  duration    of  that 
part    of    her  planet   life  which   corresponded    with    the 
earth's  life-bearing  stage   must    have  been  utterly  unlike 
that  presented  by  our  earth.      But  we  have  seen  that  her 
physical  condition   must  also    have   been   very    different 
from  our  earth's,  even   if  her  aspect  had  been   the   same 
and   her  structure  identical.     The  conditions  of  life,  both 
animal  and  vegetable,  on  the   moon's  surface,  and  in  her 
air  and  within   her  seas,  must  have  been   utterly  unlike 
those  now  prevailing  on  the  earth,  and  also  unlike  those 
which  have  prevailed  or  will  prevail  during  all  portions 
past  and  present  of  the  earth's  life-bearing  career.    All  this 
we  recognise,  be  it  noticed,  even   on  the  most  favorable 
assumptions    with    regard    to    possible    resemblance    in 
original  condition  and  structure;  but  since  the  effects  of 
the  great  diversity  of  mass  must  have  been  fully  as  great 
in  every   st  ige  of  the  primeval  progress    of  each    planet, 
while  the  glowing  vaporous  and  fiery  stages  lasted  much 
longer,  and   were   probably  far    more  decisive    as  to  the 
future  ch  iracteristics  of  the  forming  planets  than  the  life- 
bearing  stage,  we   see  that   in   all    probability   even  the 
resemblance  of  structure   which  we   imagined    must   be 
given  up,  and   still    more   marked  divergencies  admitted 


in  all   the   circumstances  determining  the  characteristics 
of  life  upon  the  earth  and  moon  respectively. 

In  comparing  any  other  planet  with  the  earth,  we 
not  only  have  considerations  such  as  these  to  take  into 
account,  but  also  those  others  which  have  long  been 
recognised  (i hough  their  full  significance  is  only  now 
beginning  to  be  realized),  which  depend  on  differences 
in  the  lengths  of  the  various  planets'  days  and 
years,  the  different  amounts  of  light  and  heat  planets 
receive  from  the  sun,  and  other  peculiarities  which  must 
importantly  affect  the  development  of  animal  and 
vegetable  life.  The  life-history  of  a  planet  like  Mars 
or  Mercury,  for  example,  must  differ  in  marked  decree 
from  that  of  our  own  earth;  but  even  were  the  stages  of 
life  the  same  on  either  planet  as  on  the  earth,  the  much 
smaller  amount  of  heat  received  by  Mars,  and  the  much 
greater  amount  received  by  Mercury,  must  produce 
important  differences  in  the'  conditions  under  which  life 
would  exist  on  the  surface  of  either  planet,  as  compared 
with  the  conditions  (luring  corresponding  stages  of  the 
life-history  of  our  earth.  It  is  barely  possible,  though 
exceedingly  unlikely,  that  peculiarities  in  the  atmospheres 
of  planets  nearer  to  or  farther  from  the  sun  than  the 
earth  may  tend  to  temper,  in  one  case,  the  excessive  heat 
of  the  sun,  and  in  the  other  to  augment  the  effects  ot  the 
smaller  amount  of  heat  he  supplies.  But  even  if  this 
were  the  case — even  if  we  were  justified  in  thus 
imagining  peculiarities  of  which  our  earth,  the  only 
planet  we  can  study,  affords  no  evidence — these  very 
peculiarities  would  result  in  different  conditions  of  life, 
and  lead  to  ihe  very  conclusion  to  which  we  should  be 
guided  by  considering  the  m  >re  probable  peculiarities 
resulting  from  difference  of  distance  from  the  sun. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  conditions  under  which  life 
wou'd  exist  in  two  planets,  whether  unequal  in  mass 
and  unlike  in  physical  structure,  or  traveling  at  different 
distances  from  the  sun,  or  differing  in  all  respects  from 
each  other,  would  be  unlike.  Of  old,  this  consideration, 
when  it  was  noticed  at  all,  led  only  to  the  inquiry 
whether  such  creatures  as  exist  on  the  earth  could  exist 
on  other  worlds,  in  what  respects  they  might  need 
protection  against  undue  heat  or  cold  or  great  changes 
of  temperature,  and  in  what  degree  they  might  thrive 
under  conditions  differing  more  or  less  markedly  from 
those  which  prevail  on  the  earth.  Dr.  Whewell  went 
further  than  others  in  considering  the  effects  of  such 
varieties  of  condition  when,  in  dealing  with  the  giant 
planets,  he  discussed  the  probable  results  of  their  great 
distance  from  the  sun  and  their  difference  of  mean 
specific  gravity.  I  differ  toto  cixlo  from  Dr.  Whewell 
in  regard  to  all  the  points  of  detail  mentioned  in  the 
followii'gp  issage — and  indeed  my  views  as  to  the  intense 
heat  still  pervading  the  masses  of  the  giant  planets,  have 
long  snee  displaced  those  which  Dr.  Whewell  here 
advances;    but  the    general    idea    running  through    the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


599 


passage,  the  idea — namely,  that  where  the  cbnditions 
differ  the  features  of  life  must  differ  also — is  altogether 
sound,  and  the  liveliness  of  imagination  shown 
throughout  the  passage  is  much  to  he  commended  : 

"Taking  into  account  the  circumstances  of  Jupiter's  state; 
his  probably  bottomless  waters;  his  light  (if  any)  solid  materials; 
the  strong  hand  with  which  gravity  presses  down  such  materials 
as  there  are;  the  small  amount  of  light  and  heat  which  reaches 
him,  at  five  times  the  earth's  distance  from  the  sun ;  what  kind  of 
inhabitants  shall  we  be  led  to  assign  to  him?  Can  they  have 
skeletons  where  no  substance  so  dense  as  bone  is  found,  at  least 
in  large  masses?  It  would  seem  not  probable.  And  it  would 
seem  they  must  be  dwellers  in  the  waters,  for  against  the  existence 
there  of  solid  land  we  have  much  evidence.  Thev  must,  with 
so  little  of  light  and  heat,  have  a  low  degree  of  vitality.  They 
must  then,  it  would  seem,  be  cartilaginous  and  glutinous  (query: 
gelatinous?)  masses;  peopling  'he  waters  with  minute  forms; 
perhaps  also  with  larger  monsters;  for  the  weight  of  a  bulky 
creature,  floating  in  the  fluid  would  be  much  more  easily  sustained 
than  on  solid  ground.  If  we  are  resolved  to  have  such  a 
population,  and  that  they  shall  live  by  food,  we  must  suppose  that 
the  waters  contain  at  least  so  much  solid  matter  as  is  requisite  for 
the  sustenance  of  the  lower  classes;  for  the  higher  classes  of 
animals  will  probably  find  their  food  in  consuming  the  lower. 
I  do  not  know  whether  the  advocates  of  peopled  worlds  will  think 
such  a  population  as  this  worth  contending  for,  but  I  think  the 
only  doubt  can  be  between  such  a  popu  ation  and  none.  If 
Jupiter  be  a  mere  mass  of  water,  with  perhaps  a  few  cinders  [!] 
at  the  centre,  and  an  envelope  of  clouds  arou'  d  it,  it  seems 
very  probable  that  he  may  not  be  the  seat  of  life  at  all.  But  il 
life  be  there,  it  does  not  seem  in  any  way  likely  that  the  living 
things  can  be  anything  higher  in  the  scale  of  being  than  such 
boneless,  watery,  pulpy  creatures  as  I  have  imagined." 

Underlying  all  this  there  is  the  idea  of  the  special 
creation  of  creatures  to  correspond  in  nature  with  the 
conditions  under  which  thev  would  have  to  live.  The 
modern  view  according  to  which  the  various  species  and 
varieties  of  animal  and  vegetahle  life,  as  it  were,  adapt 
themselves  to  their  environment,  enables  us  not  only  to 
reason  more  confidently  as  to  the  difference  of  life-forms  in 
planets  unlike  our  own,  but  also  as  to  the  difference  in  the 
whole  process  of  life  development  in  such  worlds  as  com- 
pared with  ours.  Knowing  that  so  far  back  as  we  can  trace 
the  existence  of  life  upon  this  earth,  from  the  primary 
age  onward,  through  the  secondary,  tertiary,  and  recent 
ages  to  our  own  time,  thioughout  many  millions  of 
years,  there  have  been  multitudinous  de\elopments  of 
animal  and  vegetable  life  in  all  directions,  wherein  the 
tree  of  life  could  spread  its  infinitely  varied  branches, 
we  can  see  that  in  a  planet  where  from  the  very 
beginning  of  life,  through  the  whole  life- bearing  stagr, 
the  conditions  were  dissimilar,  the  whole  tree  of  life 
must  have  been  unlike.  Our  biologists  are  beginning 
to  recognize  how  this  antl  that  species  or  variety  owed 
its  very  existence  to  the  character  of  the  environments; 
antl  astronomy  shows  surely  that  all  the  conditions 
which  the  biologist  recognizes  a  decisive  in  the  develop- 
ment of  animal  and  vegetahle  life  on  the  earth  must  be 
quite  diff  rent  in  other  planets:  thus  then  it  is  absolutely 
certain  that  if  the  theory  of  biological  evolution  is  sound 


(which  no  one  now  doubts  whose  opinion  is  of  weight), 
all  the  forms  of  life  in  other  worlds  must  be  unlike  those 
existing  on  our  earth. 

We  may  not  be  quite  so  certain,  though  it  appears 
altogether  probable,  that  the  forms  of  life  in  worlds 
whose  life  stages  were  much  shorter  than  those  of  our 
earth,  must  have  been  inferior  to  the  most  advanced  of 
those  which  have  developed  here.  For  it  seems 
conceivable,  however  unlikely,  that  in  a  planet  having 
shorter  life  periods,  the  conditions  might  have  been  such 
as  to  favor  the  rapid  development  of  the  higher  forms 
of  life.  We  have  reason  to  believe,  indeed,  that  on  the 
earth  races  have  remained  little  unchanged  sometimes 
for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years,  and  have  then 
undergone  rapid  changes  in  response  to  marked  changes 
in  the  conditions  under  which  they  have  subsisted. 
Doubtless  the  progress  of  development  might  be  more 
rapid  in  a  planet  whose  life  stages  were  comparatively 
short,  than  it  has  been  upon  our  earth.  Yet  time  must 
be  an  important  factor  in  the  development  of  life, 
regarded  as  a  whole,  upon  a  planet.  And  we  must 
regard  it  as  at  the  least  highly  probable  that  on  Mars, 
on  Mercury,  and  in  the  moon,  few  of  the  higher  forms 
of  life  were  (or  have  been)  developed,'  those  forms  being 
also  entirely  unlike  the  higher  life  forms  on  our  earth. 
As  for  the  development  of  a  creature  akin  to  man,  when 
we  consider  the  exceedingly  definite  nature  of  the 
course  along  which  evolution  proceeded  in  developing 
man,  the  multitudinous  conditions  on  which  his  develop- 
ment as  the  creature  he  is  depended,  and  the  enormous 
length  of  time  required  to  produce  him  from  among  all  the 
numerous  races  developed  upon  the  earth,  we  perceive 
the  utter  unlikelihood  that  any  creatures  resembling  him 
exist  on  any  other  world  in  the  universe.  There  may 
well  be — nay,  we  might  almost  say  there  certainly  must 
be — creatures  resembling  man  in  intelligence  in  other 
worlds  than  ours,  but  it  would  be  absurd  to  assume,  and 
unsafe  even  to  imagine,  that  such  creatures  would  have 
the  form  and  appearance  of  the  human  race  on  earth. 
It  must  also  be  regarded  as  improbable  that  in  worlds 
like  Mars,  Mercury,  and  the  moon,  having  much  shorter 
lives  than  our  earth,  creatures  possessing  intelligence 
such  as  man  has,  and  still  more  unlikely  that  creatures 
like  the  civilized  man  of  our  own  time  (in  which  I  include 
the  last  six  thousiind  years  at  least)  have  ever  existed  on 
those  short-lived  worlds.  When  we  consider  how 
many  millions  of  years  our  earth  continued  as  an  abode 
of  millions  of  millions  of  living  creatures  ere  yet  even 
the  lowest  types  of  human  life  were  developed,  and 
during  how  many  tens  of  thousands  of  years  millions  of 
human  beings  existed  before  thinking,  reasoning, 
philosophic  man  was  developed  upon  this  earth,  we  see 
that  Nature  which  is  thus  prodigal  in  regard  to  time  may 
well  be  prodigal  also  in  regard  to  space,  and  leave  many 
worlds  in  a  solar  system,   as  well  as  long-time  intervals 


6oo 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


in   the  history   of  any  given   world,    unadorned   by  the 
presence  of  reasoning,  philosophic  beings. 

The  same  thought  seems  to  me  to  be  suggested  when 
we  look  forwards  to  the  probable  future  of  our  earth's 
history.  The  civilized  man  is  vigorously  preparing  a 
rapid  close  to  his  own  existence.  The  period  during 
which  the  materials  of  civilization  (as  it  now  exists  at 
any  rate)  can  endure  at  the  present  rate  of  their 
consumption,  is  a  period  which  can  be  but  as  a  second  in 
the  earth's  future  history.  Within  a  few  hundreds  of 
years  (or  a  few  thousands  at  the  outside)  the  earth- 
stores  on  which  civilization  is  draining  so  lavishly,  and 
with  evergrowing  activity,  must  be  absolutely  exhausted, 
and  man  will  be  left  to  depend,  like  other  animals,  on  the 
earth's  annual  produce — on  herincome,  her  capital  being 
exhausted.  That  under  such  conditions  man  will  retain 
his  present  position  must  be  regarded  as  unlikely,  to  say 
the  least.  It  would  seem  that  whether  we  look 
backwards  or  forwards,  we  must  recognize  the  existence 
of  that  special  development  of  terrestial  life — civilized 
man — as  limited  within  a  few  thousands  of  years,  as 
lasting  in  fact  but  for  a  time  which  compared  with  the 
duration  of  life  upon  this  earth  is  as  a  few  minutes 
compared  with  lifetime. 


THE   AIM   OF  THE   ETHICAL  MOVEMENT. 

BY   PROF.   FELIX   ADLER. 

Report  of  an  address  given  before  the  Convention  of  the  Union  of  the 

Societies  for  Ethical  Culture  in  Chicago,  Sunday,  Nov.  so,  1*97.* 

It  lias  fallen  to  my  lot  to  close  the  exercises  of  convention 
Sunday.  What  subject,  under  such  circumstances,  can  be  more 
appropriate  than  to  consider  the  real  underlying  aim  of  our  work? 
And  1  propose,  in  the  brief  time  which  I  shall  occupy,  to  con- 
sider a  number  of  questions  which  naturally  arise  in  the  mind 
when  the  aim  of  the  ethical  movement  is  stated,  and  to  give  brief 
replies  to  those  questions.  The  first  question  of  this  kind  that 
naturally  arises  is  this:  Is  a  society  for  ethical  culture  a  re- 
ligious society  ?  I  think  we  ought  to  face  that  question  frankly 
and  fairly.  It  is  evident  that  we  have  among  our  members  not  a 
few  persons  who  do  not  in  the  least  care  for  religion ;  who  protest 
against  religious  belief  in  any  shape.  We  have,  on  the  other 
hand,  persons  who  are  deeply  and  fervently  religious.  I  think  I 
may  say  that  all  the  lecturers  of  the  society  thus  far  are  religious 
men.  But  is  the  society  for  ethical  culture,  as  such,  religious? 
The  word  "religion"  has  always  implied  a  theory  of  a  universe, 
and  of  man's  relation  to  the  universe.  If  we  take  the  word  in 
this  its  natural  meaning,  I  think  I  must  sav  for  myself  It  would 
be  unfair  to  call  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  a  religious 
society,  because  we  do  not  oblige  our  members  to  an  acceptance 
of  any  theory  of  a  universe,  or  of  man's  relations  to  a  universe. 
We  ask  no  questions  concerning  the  belief  of  our  members. 
We  have  no  creed  which  they  need  to  subscribe  to  before  being 
admitted,  nor  any  outside  creed  adopted  or  accepted  by  the 
society.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  sense  in  which  I  believe  we 
would  all  agree  that  our  societies  are  religious  societies.  In  this 
sense  they  are  religious,  in  that  we  believe  that  the  work  in  which 
we  are  engaged  gives  us,  and  would  give  to  others,  if  they  would 
only  join,  the  same  satisfaction  that  religious  belief  and  forms 
and  ceremonies  give  to  those  who  are  in  the  churches.     We  feel, 


*  Not  revised  by  tlie  Professor  Adler. 


as  a  matter  of  principle,  that  we  do  not  need  to  insist  upon  it  as  a 
matter  of  doctrine;  we  feel,  as  a  matter  of  principle,  that  the  per- 
formance of  duty  and  all  that  implies  is  an  inspiration — a  religious 
inspiration,  a  deep,  warm,  fervent  inspiration ;  that  it  does  for  us 
what  religious  doctrine  does  for  the  old-time  believers.  It  gives 
us  an  aim  in  life.  It  answers  to  us  the  question:  Is  lite  worth 
living? 

And  why  is  it  worth  living?  To  perform  our  duty.  Lite  is 
worth  living  because  we  have  duties  to  perform.  It  is  worth  liv- 
ing for  no  other  reason.  This  work  in  which  we  are  engaged 
thus  sets  a  purpose  in  our  life.  It  inspires  us  in  times  when  we 
are  active  and  able  to  meet  our  responsibilities;  and  it  gives  us 
comfort  and  consolation  in  times  of  affliction.  No  one  has  yet 
adequately  spoken  upon  this  thing.  No  one  has  yet  adequately 
declared  what  wealth  of  comfort  there  is  in  the  idea  of  duty.  It 
is  in  the  nature  of  every  affliction  to  open  to  us  larger  duties,  more 
difficult  and  finer  duties,  than  have  been  imposed  upon  us  before. 
In  the  performance  of  these  larger  duties  which  affliction  unfolds 
to  us  lies  our  consolation.  They  give  us  strength.  They  educate 
us.  They  lift  us  up.  They  spiritualize  us.  We  can  claim,  then, 
that  our  societies  are  religious  societies  in  the  sense  that  they 
give  us  the  same  satisfaction  as  is  given  to  those  within  the 
churches. 

The  next  question  is,  taking  the  word  religion  in  the  way  I 
have  used  it,  Are  our  societies  anti-religious?  By  no  means  are 
they  that.  There  is  only  one  point  in  which  we  come  into  col- 
lision with  the  teachings  of  the  current  religious  systems.  All 
the  positive  religions  desire,  as  they  tell  us,  is  to  elevate  the  moral 
life  of  the  members  of  the  churches  and  the  community.  So  far 
as  that  aim  goes  there  seems  to  be  no  difference  between  us.  But 
mark  the  great  difference  in  the  method.  They  all  say,  "We 
want  to  lead  men  to  do  what  is  right" ;  but  they  add,  "  No  man  can 
do  what  is  right  unless  he  first  accepts  certain  doctrines."  There 
are  certain  conditions  which  must  be  fulfilled  before  men  can  pro- 
ceed to  lead  a  moral  life.  For  instance,  you  can  not  be  virtuous, 
do  what  is  good,  be  moral,  unless  you  first  believe  in  God.  There- 
fore, you  must  lay  the  whole  emphasis  of  your  teaching  on  belief 
in  God,  or  belief  in  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments. 
Before  these  conditions  are  fulfilled,  before  these  beliefs  have 
been  followed  up,  it  is  hopeless  to  expect  of  men  that  they  can  be 
moral.  Now,  here  we  differ  from  the  churches;  and  this  point 
over  which  we  dispute  is  a  most  important  point  of  departure. 
The  important  point  of  departure  is  this:  They  think  it  is  neces- 
sary to  reach  the  conscience  indirectly.  We  believe  it  is  possible 
to  reach  the  conscience  directly.  We  say  that  whether  a  man  be- 
lieves or  not  is  immaterial  so  far  as  right  action  is  concerned.  We 
believe  it  is  only  necessary  to  hold  the  rule  of  right-doing  before 
a  man,  and  that  if  it  is  really  right  he  will  accept  it,  whether  he 
believes  the  theory  of  it  or  not.  The  appeal  to  conscience  is 
direct,  and  the  response  of  conscience  is  immediate.  Now,  this  is 
the  chief  point  to  which  I  would  call  the  attention  of  my  hearers. 
It  is  the  radical  point  from  which  we  depart  from  the  churches. 
The  effect  has  been,  as  shown  by  history,  that  this  assumption 
that  there  are  certain  preliminaries  which  must  be  fulfilled  ha6 
led  men  to  give  their  chief  time  and  attention  to  these  prelimi- 
naries; and  in  the  attempt  to  build  up  these  indispensable  condi- 
tions to  the  moral  life,  strange  to  say,  the  religious  world  has 
ignored  the  first  principles  of  morality.  You  know  what  re- 
ligious historv  ttlls  us  on  this  subject;  that  it  has  initiated  cruel 
wars,  that  it  has  been  the  cause  of  murder,  and  has  given  use  to 
inhuman  and  unnatural  forms  of  punishment  and  torture,  and 
given  thousands  and  thousand  of  human  beings  to  the  flames,  all 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  in  their  minds  those  indispensable 
conditions  which  are  the  requisites,  they  say,  to  a  moral  life,  a 
virtuous  life.  And  even  yet  is  this  so.  Million^  and  millions  of 
dollars  are  being  spent  to-day  in  the   sending  out  of  missionaries 


THE    OREN    COURT 


OOI 


to  the  heathen — -not  to  cultivate,  not  to  civilize  them,  not  to  plant 
schools — though  that  is  done  incidentally — but  for  the  main  pur- 
pose of  inculcating  beliefs  without  which,  it  is  believed,  a  virtu- 
ous life  is  impossible.  Other  millions  are  spent  in  erecting 
churches  and  chapels  for  the  purpose  of  teaching,  not  that  which 
is  good  in  itself — for  no  man  claims  that  a  belief  in  hell  is  good  in 
itself — but  that  which  is  supposed  to  be  necessary  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  ulterior  object.  I  have  read,  in  a  story  of  one  of 
the  loveliest  of  the  saints.  Princess  Elizabeth,  of  Hungary,  how 
the  Princess,  as  she  looked  up  to  the  figure  of  Christ  on  the  cross 
and  saw  the  agony  in  his  face,  quiet  mechanically  took  off'  the 
golden  crown  from  her  own  head  and  put  it  away  from  her,  and 
how,  when  her  attendants,  in  astonishment,  asked  her  "What  are 
you  doing?"  she  answered:  "This  golden  crown  of  mine  mocks 
the  crown  of  thorns."  The  Episcopal  bishop  of  New  York  asks 
for  millions  of  dollars  to  build  a  magnificent  sanctuary  while 
there  are  thousands  in  New  York  suffering  from  grinding  pov- 
erty, from  hunger,  from  crime,  and  almost  homeless,  and  all  these 
millions  he  wanted  to  spend  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  these 
indispensible  conditions  —  those  beliefs  without  which  moral 
action  is  impossi  ble,  instead  of  spending  at  once  these  millions  in 
feeding  the  hungry,  clothing  the  bare,  giving  decent  homes  to 
those  who  are  without  shelter,  banishing  ignorance,  and  doing 
away  with  vice.  The  roundabout  method  of  the  Christian  church 
has  born  evil  fruit.  The  way  you  seek  good  is  false.  By  teach- 
ing that  belief  is  necessary  you  are  putting  obstacles  between  man 
and  right  action.  We  say  that  the  direct  appeal  is  necessary. 
Call  upon  men  to  do  the  right.  Make  it  plain  to  their  minds 
what  right  is,  without  any  of  your  beliefs,  without  any  of  your 
conditions.  Men  will  respond  to  your  appeals  and  follow  the 
line  of  conduct  you  propose.  This  is  the  essential  point  of 
departure  of  the  ethical  societies  from  the  ethical  teachers  of 
the  church. 

The  third  question  which  I  would  ask — and  it  is  the  last — is 
this:  Are  we  not  in  danger  of  falling  into  an  external  view  of 
morality  if  we  insist  on  right  action  only?  I  answer  that  no  act 
is  right  unless  the  motive  that  leads  to  it  is  right.  We  do  not 
claim  to  lay  down  a  law  as  to  what  is  the  right  motive.  We  only 
ask  every  man  and  woman  to  act  from  what  they  believe  to  be 
the  right  motive,  but  we  will  not  attempt  to  force  them  to  accept 
any  particular  motive  as  the  right  one.  There  are  a  great  manv 
different  philosophical  systems  and  theories  contending  together 
as  to  what  the  right  motive  is.  The  utilitarian  tells  us  that  the 
motive  must  be  measured  by  the  usetulness  of  the  object  sought. 
The  materialist  says  that  obedience  to  natural  law  is  alone  the 
right  motive.  And  so  on  with  the  others.  Now,  then,  I  confess 
that  there  appears,  at  first  sight,  great  danger  that  we  may  lose 
our  sense  of  union  —  that  we  may  lose  our  sense  of  solidarity  in 
this  movement  if  we  commence  by  disputing  on  theological 
sects.  The  arguments  of  the  natural  sects  are  no  more  sweet  to 
me  than  those  of  the  theological  sects.  There  is  no  philosophi- 
cal view  on  which  the  ethical  movement  stands.  It  does  not 
stand  on  the  Spencerian  nor  the  Pantheistic  system,  nor  the 
material.  The  ethical  movement  simply  says:  Do  the  right 
from  what  you  believe  to  be  the  right  motive.  The  movement 
is  unpledged  and  tree,  and  will  so  remain.  I  trust,  as  long 
as  it  exists.  There  is  but  one  thing,  one  plank,  in  our  plat- 
form— practical  righteousness;  and  that  is  the  text  to  which  the 
different  theories  will  be  finally  brought.  So  I  say  to  the  philo- 
sophical theorist  that  that  theory  which  produces  the  best  re- 
sults, that  theory  which  evolves  the  finest  types  of  character, 
that  theory  which  gives  us  the  noblest  and  most  exalted  standards 
of  character,  that  theory  which  shall  be  most  triumphantly 
proved  by  its  fruits,  will  have  the  victory.  By  their  fruits  shall 
they  be  judged.     Not  in  the  closet  of  the  thinker,  but  in  the  open 


mart  of  lite,  where  temptations  beset  us,  there  shall  philosophic* 
meet  and  contend,  and  there  shall  they  be  judged. 

Yes,  I  think  we  are  on  absolutely  safe  ground  in  saying  that 
our  single  plank  is  practical  right-living,  right  conduct,  practical 
righteousness.  And  what  does  that  mean?  Does  that  onlr 
mean  goody-goody  talk?  Does  it  mean  only  obeying  the 
decalogue— not  killing  our  neighbors  ami  not  breaking  any  of 
those  more  obvious  rules  of  conduct?  No,  my  friends.  Practical 
righteousness  means  depths  beyond  depths  of  hope;  glory  bevond 
glory  of  human  grandeur  and  worth.  It  will  mean,  in  times  to 
come,  a  new  state  founded  on  justice,  a  new  organization  of 
society  in  which  the  few  shall  not  strive  lor  wealth  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  toil  and.  the  misery  of  the  manv,  but  in  which  all 
shall  be  able  to  lead  a  whole  human  life.  It  will  mean,  in  the 
time  to  come,  a  new  law  of  purity  in  the  relations  between  the 
sexes,  a  law  of  purity  not  only  outside  of  marriage,  but  a  new 
law  of  purity  within  marriage;  a  fairer  interpretation  of  the  duties 
which  the  husband  owes  to  the  wife  and  which  the  wife  owes  to 
the  husband;  a  new  conception  of  the  dignity  and  worth  of 
womanhood.  It  means — it  will  mean  in  the  time  to  come — a  new 
reverence  for  childhood,  a  new  education;  and  it  will  mean,  also, 
in  the  time  to  come,  a  new  conscience,  headed  from  the  deep 
springs  of  ethical  truth,  and  a  new  heart  lifted  above  the  petty 
themes  to  which  the  degeneracy  of  the  times  has  led  us  to  descend 
— lifted  so  as  to  enable  it  to  express  the  noblest  and  the  loftiest 
aspirations  of  the  human  soul.  That  is  what  we  mean  by  practi- 
cal righte  msness.  That  is  the  work,  members  of  the  societies  for 
ethical  culture,  in  which  we  are  engaged.  Who  shall  say  that  it 
is  not  a  large  and  inspiring  work — that  it  lacks  in  divine  impulses 
— that  it  has  no  power  to  stir  and  exalt?  Let  us  pledge  ourselves 
anew  as  we  have  met  here  to-day  in  this  great  city  of  the  West. 
Let  us  pledge  our  allegiance  to  it  anew.  Let  us  pledge  ourselves 
to  be  true  to  it,  and  it  will  make  us  true.  Let  us  elevate  its  in- 
terests high  above  all  sordid  interests.  Let  us  consecrate  to  it 
our  life  and  our  strength;  and  in  its  name  and  for  its  purposes  let 
us  stand  together  as  one  band  of  brothers,  united  in  our  true  and 
holy  cause. 

THE   AMERICAN   ETHICAL  SOCIETIES. 

Mrs.  McCullom,  a  member  of  the  London  Ethical  Society, 
at  the  concluding  session  of  the  Convention  of  the  Union  of 
Ethical  Societies,  held  in  this  city,  said  last  Sunday: 

"I  am  sure  that  many  English  people  would  join  me  in  saving 
that  we  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  American  Ethical  Societies 
for  so  clearly  showing  us  how  to  organize  the  work  and  express 
the  faith  in  which  we  are  vitally  interested.  In  England  where 
speech  on  religious  matters  is  far  less  free  than  it  is  here,  and 
where  custom  is  iar  more  tyrannical,  that  faith  is  held  bv  many 
quietly  and  silently,  not  without  suffering,  for  it  is  a  hard  thing 
for  scattered  individuals,  without  any  organization,  to  cut  them- 
selves from  the  religious  sympathies  which  count  for  so  much  in 
everyday  life.  To  these  believers  in  ethics  the  news  of  the 
American  Ethical  Societies  comes  like  a  veritable  gospel,  and 
their  feeling  was  well  expressed  by  one  who  attended  an  ethical 
lecture  in  London,  and  said  she  felt  as  though  she  had  stepped 
out  from  a  fog  on  to  a  breezy  common. 

"The  London  Ethical  Society  was  formed  about  a  vear  ago, 
but  has  done  little.  Most  of  the  members  have  long  been  en- 
gaged in  teaching,  in  working  for  the  C.  O.  A.  the  C.  II.  F.  and 
similar  organizations,  so  that  their  hands  are  already  full.  They 
have  therefore  confined  themselves,  so  far  as  the  societv  is  con- 
cerned, to  giving  Sunday  evening  lectures  at  the  east  end  of  Lon- 
don; discussion  is  allowed  after  the  lecture  and  interesting  ques- 
tions are  sometimes  asked.  I  am  sure  that  if  the  Ethical  move- 
ment in  this  country  were  more  widely  known  and  more  accurately 
understood  in  Great  Britain,  it  would  win  many  adherents  among 


6(32 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


those  whose  motto  is  "Reason  and  Freedom  be  our  watchword," 
and  who  therefore  cannot  work  happily  under  the  clerical  man- 
agement that  controls  so  many  of  our  philanthropic  efforts. 
Progress  among  us  is  greatly  retarded  by  the  action  of  those — ■ 
and  thev  are  many — who  go  to  church  for  form's  sake  or  to  avoid 
comment.  They  select,  perhaps,  the  most  liberal  church  they 
can  find,  thev  repeat  there  words  they  do  not  really  believe,  they 
subscribe  to  church  funds,  and  then  think  they  have  done  their 
duty.  You,  in  America,  are  plainly  showing  us  that  they  are 
wrong,  that  honesty  demands  that  we  should  not  endorse  the 
public  expression  of  opinions  we  think  misleading,  that  we  should 
clear  our  minds  from  confession,  that,  in  fact,  as  one  of  your  lec- 
turers put  it,  'It  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to  be  reasonable.'  And 
this  dutv  is  especially  imperative  for  women  also,  for  if  we  are  to 
pass  on  any  truths  effectively  to  the  next  generation,  we  must 
understand  it  clearly  ourselves.  We  must  not  believe, 
merely  because  we  wish  to  believe,  or  say  that  the  happiness 
of  life  depends  on  the  nobility  of  some  cherished  notion; 
that  is  the  language  of  moral  cowards.  We  are  here  in 
circumstances  and  with  limitations  that  are  not  of  our 
making  or  choosing,  and  the  great  questions  for  us  are,  what  can 
we  believe  truly,  and  how  can  we  act  worthily.  If  facts  are  ha  rd 
we  must  summon  more  courage  to  face  them,  remembering  thatj 
if  we  shirk  them,  it  is  our  children  that  will  pay  the  penalty;  that 
if  we  accustom  ourselves  to  mental  narcotics  we  shall  hardly  be 
able  lo  teach  our  boys  to  be  good  moral  citizens. 

"I  trust  that  in  the  near  future  an  increasing  number  of 
women,  both  here  and  in  England,  will  realize  that  clear  thinking 
brings  peace  and  joy,  and  that  the  work  of  the  Ethical  Societies 
can  fully  satisfy  any  religious  demand  that  it  based  on  reason. 
It  is  as  true  now  as  in  the  days  of  the  Roman  poet  that 

"Heaven  lies  about  us,  and  we  do  its  will 

Not  uninspired  though  all  the  shrines  be  still. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

THIRD  CONGRESS  OF  THE  GERMAN  SOCIAL  DEMO- 
CRATS. 

To  tlte  Editors: 

On  October  2d,  at  Bruggen,  near  St.  Gall,  in  Switzerland, 
was  opened  the  third  congress  that  has  been  held  by  the  social 
democrats  of  Germany  since  the  promulgation  of  the  anti-socialist 
law  in  1878.  The  congress  held  in  Copenhagen,  four  and  a  half 
years  ago,  had  been  of  extraordinary  importance,  as  was  shown  by 
the  result  of  the  elections  in  the  year  following,  and  by  the  ever- 
increasing  severity  of  the  repression  on  the  part  of  the  govern- 
ment. The  law  was  even  more  rigorously  applied  and  more 
arbitrarily  interpreted  than  before;  the  right  of  free  speech  was 
restricted  or  abolished;  the  clubs  of  the  socialists  were  dissolved, 
their  meetings  prohibited  and  their  journals  suppressed.  District 
after  district  was  placed  under  the  state  of  siege,  and  all  the 
avowed  members  and  prominent  leaders  of  the  party  were  ruth- 
lesslv  persecuted,  imprisoned  or  expelled.  However  pressingly, 
therefore,  the  need  of  another  congress  had  made  itself  felt,  a 
change  of  tactics  had  become  imperative  in  the  face  of  these  per- 
secutions, and,  since  it  was  impossible  to  convene  a  congress  in 
the  fatherland,  it  was  resolved  to  accept  the  hospitality  offered  by 
a  neighbor  country.  Private  invitations  were  issued,  the  circum- 
stances of  time  and  place  were  kept  a  secret  from  the  government, 
and  a  congress  was  organized  to  be  held  in  Switzerland.  So  that 
when,  on  the  first  Sunday  in  October,  from  all  quarters  of  the 
German  Empire  flocked  the  representatives  of  the  party,  none  of 
the  constituted  authorities  either  in  or  out  of  Berlin  had  an  ink- 
ling of  the  thing,  while  all  the  necessary  arrangements  for  the 
reception  and  comfortable  quartering  of  the  delegates  had  been 
most  admirably  made. 


From  all  parts  of  Germany,  with  the  solitary  exception  of  the 
Northeastern  districts,  in  which  the  party  is  comparatively  weak, 
owing  to  the  agricultural  population  and  the  undeveloped  state  of 
industry,  delegates  had  congregated.  The  number  ot  delegates 
present  amounted  to  eighty,  an  aggregate  never  attained  by  any 
previous  congress,  and  a  fresh  proof  of  the  vitality  ol  the  move- 
ment and  of  the  devotion  and  fearlessness  of  its  members,  seeing 
to  what  consequences  the  men  taking  part  in  the  congress  expose 
themselves. 

At  a  preliminary  meeting,  the  customary  greetings  and 
introductions  having  been  gone  through  with,  it  was  decided  that 
the  proceedings  should  commence  on  the  morning  of  the  next 
day  with  the  election  of  a  president.  Ex-deputy  Auer,  who  spoke 
in  the  name  of  the  conveners  of  the  congress,  opened  the  first 
daj''s  sitting.  Ignatz  Auer,  a  harness-maker  by  trade,  is  a  tall, 
middle-aged  man  with  a  red  beard.  Elected  in  1S77,  he  has  taken 
an  active  part  in  the  movement,  both  in  and  out  of  Parliament. 
In  1880  he  pronounced  a  three  hours'  speech  against  the  state  of 
siege  in  Berlin  and  the  abuses  of  arbitrary  power  under  it;  in 
18S1  he  was  expelled  from  Berlin  and  subsequently  from  Ham- 
burgh. 

Deputies  Singer  and  Hasenclever  were  elected  presidents. 
Singer  is  a  prosperous  manufacturer  and  a  Jew.  He  is  a  wealthy 
man  and  a  most  generous  one;  chief  founder  of  the  Refuge  for 
the  Homeless,  an  institution  supported  by  private  contributions; 
when,  after  the  proclamation  of  the  state  of  siege  in  Berlin, 
large  numbers  of  socialists  were  forcibly  expelled,  he  contributed 
5,000  marks  in  aid  of  their  families.  Both  he  and  Hasenclever  are 
prominent  members  of  the  party,  the  latter  a  tanner  by  trade, 
elected  for  Berlin  and  Breslau;  was  a  friend  and  disciple  of  the 
great  German  agitator,  Ferdinand  Lassalle,  and  president  of  the 
Workingmen's  Association  founded  by  the  same. 

Bebel  was  the  first  to  speak.  August  Bebel,  perhaps  the  most 
popular  of  all  the  socialist  leaders,  is  a  man  of  about  forty-six; 
delicate  in  appearance  and  unassuming  in  manners,  he  has  a  fine 
and  open  countenance,  with  brown  hair  and  beard;  he  is  a  very 
fine  orator,  persuasive  in  argument  and  unrivalled  as  a  debater. 
He  has  suffered  imprisonment  for  many  years,  and  has  only  just 
regained  his  liberty  in  time  to  put  in  an  appearance  at  the  congress. 
Bebel  said,  that  if  the  material  condition  of  the  party  could  be 
taken  as  a  standard  measure  of  its  moral  and  political  power,  it 
was  high.  Repression  and  persecution  had  been  powerless  to 
injure  it:  quite  the  other  way,  in  proportion  as  the  violence  of 
the  government  had  increased,  the  ardor  and  spirit  of  sacrifice  of 
the  socialists  had  been  stimulated,  and  he  was  happy  to  be  able  to 
affirm  that,  financially  speaking,  their  position  was  a  most  satis- 
factory one.  In  the  course  of  his  speech  Bebel  explained  that 
the  total  income,  by  voluntary  contributions  from  the  German 
members  of  the  party  had  amounted,  from  1SS3  to  1SS7,  to  the 
sum  of  135  748  marks,  and  to  the  sum  of  208,655  marks  when 
including  the  contributions  from  comrades  abroad  and  a  deposit 
in  the  bank.  Before  concluding,  the  speaker  desired  to  call 
attention  to  the  admirable  spirit  and  fortitude  shown  by  the  men 
in  the  districts  under  the  state  of  siege,  and  further  desired  to 
thank  the  German  comrades  in  the  United  States  and  Switzer- 
land for  the  very  material  help  afforded  by  them.  The  members 
of  the  congress  express  their  grateful  recognition  of  this  act  of 
solidarity  by  spontaneously  rising  from  their  seats. 

Present  at  the  congress:  after  having  obtained  permission  to 
attend,  were  many  Swiss  notabilities:  Dr.  Victor  Adler,  from 
Vienna,  editor  of  the  excellent  journal:  Die  Glcick-Hcit  (Equality), 
Frau  Guillaume  Schack,  and  Ernest  Belfort  Bax,  from  London. 
Frau  Schack  is  a  middle-aged  lady  of  noble  family.  She  is  of  a 
philanthropic  turn  of  mind  and  an  ardent  convert  to  socialism. 
Belfort  Bax  is  a  distinguished  English  socialist;  a  tall  and  thin 
young  man  with  a  slight  stoop,   very  dark  eyes  and  expressive 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


603 


features.  He  is  one  of  the  founders  of  the  London  Socialist 
League,  and  has  been,  with  William  Morris,  co-editor  of  the 
Commonweal.     He  is  a  brilliant  essayist  and  an  excellent  scholar. 

After  much  and  thorough-going  discussion,  a  series  of  reso- 
lutions were  put  to  the  vote,  and  for  the  most  part  unanimously 
carried.  It  was  resolved  that  the  line  of  conduct  hitherto  followed 
by  the  socialist  deputies  in  the  Reichstag  he  maintained;  that  all 
indirect  contributions  be  condemned  together  with  the  monopoli- 
zation aimed  at,  on  purely  fiscal  grounds,  of  all  general  and 
indispensable  articles  of  consumption;  that  the  tendency  shown 
by  the  refusal  to  tax  brandy  and  sugar,  and  the  proposal  to 
increase  the  duties  on  corn,  be  denounced  as  benefiting  the 
land-owners  to  the  detriment  of  the  lack-land  classes.  Respect- 
ing the  so-called  governmental  social  reforms,  Auer  declares  that 
he  recognizes  in  the  rejection  of  the  law  proposed  by  the  social 
democrats  for  the  protection  of  the  workers,  a  conclusive  proof 
that  the  governing  classes  in  Germany  are  wanting  in  the  will  to 
do  anything  toward  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the  working 
class. 

It  was  further  resolved  that  u  only  such  candidates  be  sup- 
ported as  shall  accept  our  platform  and  openly  declare  themselves 
social  democrats."  And  that  an  "  international  congress  be 
called  for  1SS8,  in  view  of  a  common  action  in  furtherance  of  an 
international  law  for  the  protection  of  workmen." 

An  important  resolution  was  passed,  to  define  the  position  of 
the  Social  Democrats  to  the  Anarchists.  The  resolution  was  de- 
fended by  Wilhelm  Liel  Knecht,  a  veteran  of  the  party  and  one 
of  its  chief  leaders.  Liel  Knecht  is  a  man  of  remarkable  ability, 
and.of  extraordinary  firmness  of  character.  As  early  as  1S4S  he 
took  part  in  the  rising  of  Baden,  and  ever  since  he  has  been  an 
indefatigable  worker  in  the  service  of  the  movement,  fighting  for 
it  alike  in  the  Reichstag  as  an  orator  and  in  the  press  as  editor  of 
the  official  organs  of  the  party.  In  accordance  with  the  expressed 
wish  of  the  Congress,  his  speech  on  Anarchy  is  to  be  published  in 
pamphlet  form.  The  resolution  declares  that  the  Anarchist 
theory,  inasmuch  as  it  aims  at  absolute  individual  autonomy,  is 
anti-socialistic,  nothing  better  than  a  one-sided  development  of 
middle-class  liberalism,  although  in  its  criticism  of  the  existing 
social  system  it  starts  from  the  socialist  standpoint.  Above  all  it 
is  incompatible  with  the  socialist  demand  for  the  socialization  of 
the  means  of  production  and  the  social  regulation  of  production 
and  results,  unless  production  is  to  be  reduced  to  the  dwarfish 
standard  of  the  small  artisan,  in  insoluble  contraditions.  The 
cultus,  on  the  part  of  the  Anarchists,  of  a  policy  of  force,  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  other,  is  based  on  a  gross  misconception  of  the 
idle  of  force  in  the  history  of  peoples.  Force  is  quite  as  much  a 
reactionary  as  a  revolutionary  factor — nay  it  has  oftener  acted  as 
the  former.  While  condemning  all  individual  acts  of  violence, 
we  make  the  representatives  of  reaction  answerable  for  the  same. 
There  exists  no  Anarchist  party  in  Germany,  but  there  are 
" agents  provocateurs  in  the  pay  of  the  reactionists,  who  use 
them  against  the  working-class." 

A  commission  of  three  members  was  appointed  and  charged 
with  revising  and  slightly  modifying  the  present  programme  of 
the  party.  An  adopted  amendment  proposes  to  substitute  for  the 
principle  of  co-operation  the  demand  for  the  expropriation  of  the 
land  and  the  means  of  production.  Lastly,  it  was  resolved  that 
all  differences  arising  between  members  of  the  party  be  settled 
not  through  the  medium  of  the  press  but  by  arbitration. 

Addresses  and  letters  of  congratulation  had  been  received  from 
the  Socialists  of  all  countries;  and  in  conclusion,  President  Singer 
gave  expression  to  the  thanks  of  the  party  for  the  hospitality  given 
them  in  Switzerland.  He  pointed  to  the  fact  that  the  natives  who 
had  attended  the  sittings,  had  manifested  their  surprise  that  con- 
gresses, such  as  the  one  just  held,  should  be  prohibited  in  Ger- 
many, considering  the  orderly  and  business-like  character  of  the 


proceedings.  Amidst  most  enthusiastic  cheering  and  applause 
the  St.  Gall  Congress,  one  of  the  most  successful  ever  held,  came 
to  a  close  after  a  four  days'  duration. 

A  characteristic  feature  of  the  Congress  has  been  that  all  the 
resolutions  have  been  voted  unanimously  or  bv  an  overwhelming 
majority,  a  proof  that  whatever  individual  differences  of  opinion 
may  obtain  on  miner  points,  members  and  leaders  of  the  partv  are 
at  one  as  to  the  fundamental  principles  involved.  Another 
notable  fact  it  is  that  a  very  marked  tendency  has  been  shown 
throughout  in  favor  of  the  extreme  left  of  the  socialist  fraction  in 
the  Reichstag,  of  those  members  who  repudiate  all  compromise 
and  openly  take  their  stand  on  the  platform  of  Social  Democracy. 
A  final  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  the  successful  course  and 
character  of  the  St.  Gall  Congress  is  that  all  the  forms  of  persecu- 
tion successively  tried  by  Bismarck  and  the  powers  that  be  in 
Germany  have  definitively  been  found  wanting.  Coercion  laws 
have  proved  powerless;  all  the  pains  and  penalties  of  the  penal 
code  so  arbitrarily  and  mercilessly  inflicted  have  not  helped  the 
imperial  government  and  have  not  hurt  Social  Democracy. 
Certain  it  is,  to  cite  the  Paris  Temps,  that,  "all  these  measures  ot 
repression  point  equally  to  the  ardor  of  the  government  to  fight 
socialism,  and  to  the  growing  success  of  this  dangerous  doctrine.  " 

Paris,  November.  LAl'RA  LAFARGUE. 


THE  STUDY  OF  HUMAN   SUFFERING. 
To  the  Editors: 

The  interesting  truths  which  you  point  out  in  a  current  edi- 
torial on  the  subject  of  pleasure  and  pain  are  so  common  y  ovei- 
looked  that  I  must  thank  you  for  continuing  in  this  way  a  topic 
which  I  had  partly  treated  in  my  essay  on  "The  Mystery  of  Pain 
in  a  New  Light."  As  you  suggest,  the  happy  half  of  the  world, 
even  at  present,  knows  but  little  of  the  suffering  half.  The  great 
trouble  is,  while  keeping  one's  good  intention  apparent,  and  with- 
out deserving  the  charge  of  cynicism,  to  make  the  happy  half  of 
the  world  realize  this  fact,  to  show  it  that  the  very  circumstance 
of  being  comfortably  fed  and  warmed  and  settled  in  life  largely 
incapacitates  it  for  really  feeling  what  extreme  pain  is.  The 
lawyer  who,  on  taking  up  the  newspaper  after  his  cup  of  coffee 
and  morning  drive  and  walk  in  the  flower-garden,  finds  himself 
led  by  the  account  of  some  dreadful  casualty  to  reflect  on  the  suf- 
fering in  the  world,  and  who  reassures  himself,  after  awhile,  by 
the  thought  that  it  is  no  use  worrying  about  such  things — that 
they  will  all  be  explained  sometime,  and  that  it  is  enough  for 
him  to  be  a  good  lawyer  and  make  his  family  as  happy  as  possi- 
ble, hardly  realizes  how  much  his  cup  of  coffee  and  his  drive  and 
his  flower-garden  have  contributed  to  the  logic  of  this  conclusion. 
He  is  more  apt  to  think  this  conclusion  due  to  the  good  sense 
and  reasoning  power  and  blurt"  energy  which  he  is  conscious  of 
possessing,  and  to  attribute  a  contrary  conclusion  to  a  want  of 
these  traits. 

This  sort  of  constitutional  obtuseness  which  actually  thinks 
itself  meritorious  is  very  difficult  to  encounter,  and  those  who 
undertake  the  task  may  easily  doubt  their  power  to  make  any 
general  impression.  In  our  own  homes,  when  suffering  prevails 
we  feel  called  upon  to  put  all  other  interests  aside,  but  in  the 
larger  world  it  will  probable  be  a  very  long  time  before  people 
feel  impelled  to  pause  in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  at  one  place  be- 
cause it  is  a  world  of  sadness  somewhere  else. 

The  point  I  would  like  to  bring  out  is  not  at  all  the  failure  of 
generosity  in  the  well-disposed;  certainly,  at  the  present  time,  no 
one  can  question  the  prevalence  of  much  helpful  charity.  My 
object  is  to  indicate  not  a  want  of  feeling  but  a  want  of  perception. 
In  so  far  as  suffering  is  discerned  it  receives  consideration,  but 
there  are  certain  causes  in  the  happily-circumstanced  which  pre- 
vent a  discernment  at  all  proportionate  to  the  reality.     The  warm 


604 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


atmosphere  that  surrounds  the  mind  of  every  man  comfortably 
situated  in  life  is  a  natural  barrier  against  any  wide  and  penetrat- 
ing realization  of  the  pain  far  spread  over  the  surface  of  the 
globe,  and  which  is  an  integral  part  of  the  fate  of  man.  It  pro- 
duces an  inclination,  this  warm  atmosphere,  to  shut  out  unpleas- 
ant reflections,  just  as  one  hastens  to  close  a  door  that  admits  a 
cold  draft  to  a  comfortabl'e  room.  The  fact  is  within  the  self- 
observation  of  us  all.  We,  willingly  give  to  pity  and  to  charity, 
but  bevond  that  we  will  not  go;  our  mental  happiness  must  be 
kept  intact — ihe  room  warm.  We  will  not  bare  our  minds  to  the 
harsh  reality  of  a  world  of  pain,  though  sometimes,  here  and 
there,  a  figure  may  be  seen  ready  for  the  encounter,  generally, 
when  the  question  presses,  men  simply  avoid  the  problem  of  suf- 
fering. It  may  be  better  to  defer  explanations,  their  avoiding 
minds  urge;  one  cannot  settle  everything  at  once,  and  perhaps 
these  doubts  come  from  the  devil;  one  should  trust  more;  indeed 
it  will  help  people  most  to  think  man's  destiny  blissful,  whatever 
the  truth,  and  if  one  does  recognize  the  truth  no  good  is  done ; 
perhaps  after  all  the  situation  is  exaggerated ;  philosophy,  too,  has 
answered  these  questions,  and,  even  without  philosophy,  one  may 
well  doubt  whether  a  world  so  beautiful  can  harbor  a  sinister 
meaning;  the  manlier  way  is  to  trust  the  beauty  of  sunsets,  the 
exaltation  of  music,  and  the  exquisite  inspirations  of  the  human 
mind,  and  wait  for  another  world  to  show  that  everything  in  this 
one  is  for  the  best. 

These  are  the  thoughts  the  avoiding  mind  urges,  and  that 
they  are  simply  self-excusing  thoughts  is  revealed  by  the  absence 
of  any  anxiety  to  examine  their  contraries.  It  is  never  asked 
whether  deferring  explanations  may  not  be  dangerous;  whether 
the  situation  may  not  be  underestimated;  whether  the  devil  does 
not  tempt  to  too  much  trust;  whether  the  solutions  of  philosophy 
are  any  thing  but  glosses;  whether  the  beauty  of  the  world  can 
prevent  its  famines;  whether  the  manlier  part,  notwithstanding 
our  exquisite  inspirations,  is  not  to  face  the  truth  about  things. 
These  questions  are  never  asked,  and  yet  the  thoughts  which 
prompt  them  are  more  unselfish  than  the  others,  which  are  often 
mere  paltry,  self-excusing  thoughts,  intended  to  keep  our  foolish 
minds  happy. 

The  reason  for  discussing  this  subject  must  be  evident  to  all. 
Only  when  the  suffering  in  the  world  is  recognized  for  what  it  is, 
can  an  adequate  beginning  be  made  in  treatment.  When  pleas- 
ant, ^elf-excusing  views  are  put  aside,  a  hundred  serious  minds 
will  be  given  to  the  problem  which  now  consider  it  but  casually, 
as  on  a  ship  that  is  finally  known  to  leak  all  hands  go  to  the 
pumps. 

To  me,  indeed,  it  seems  a  point  of  honor  that  every  intel- 
lectual worker  should  give  of  his  ability  to  this  work,  and  this  is 
almost  the  only  ethical  lesson  my  mind  discerns  in  the  much- 
talked-of  theory  of  evolution.  Though  theological  evolutionists 
do  not  allude  to  the  fact,  it  remains  true  that  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  is  the  most  brutal  method  the  mind  can  imagine  for 
advancing  a  race  of  living  beings,  as  it  is  also,  and  by  a  strange, 
unnoticed  coincidence,  absolutely  the  only  method  that  can  be  con- 
ceived to  have  arisen  in  chance  without  a  guiding  hand,  did  one 
care  to  entertain  that  view.  According  to  this  theory,  which  is 
undoubtedly  true,  a  happy  life  at  the  present  time  owes  its  ex- 
istence and  its  happiness  to  a  process  involving  the  painful  failure 
of  countless  innocent  lives,  born  less  fit  for  the  struggle  than  their 
contemporaries.  Does  not  the  acceptance  of  a  happy  life  on  such 
conditions  involve  a  point  of  honor?  I  think  there  are  many,  and 
that  there  will  be  more,  who  need  not  ask  that  question  of  them- 
selves twice  to  find  an  answer.  And  with  this  question  and  this 
answer  the  real  study  of  human  suffering  begins. 

Xenos  Clark. 


"  Beware  of  desperate  steps — the  darkest  day, 
Live  till  to-morrow,  will  have  passed  away." — Cotvj>er. 


IDEALISM   AND   REALISM. 

To  the  Editors : 

Will  you  tolerate  a  suggestion  or  two,  rather  in  the  spirit  of 
inquiry  than  otherwise,  anent  the  issue  between  Idealism  and 
Realism? 

It  appears  to  me  that  much  difficulty  arises  from  a  failure  te 
exactly  apprehend  our  own  and  others'  meanings  in  the  use  of 
several  terms  constantly  employed  in  the  treatment  of  the  sub- 
ject. There  is  a  further  difficulty  that  these  terms  are  used  with 
several  more  or  less  different  meanings,  often  during  one  judg- 
ment or  inference  as  well  as  in  the  expression  thereof.  Thus  we 
allow  the  boundary  line  between  the  /  and  not  /  to  be  drawn, 
now'  here,  now  there,  and  often  all  at  once,  as  it  were,  and  unper- 
ceived;  so,  also,  with  the  boundary  line  between  those  states 
of  consciousness  we  term  Knowledge  and  Belief. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  frequent  affirmation,  "  We  know  and 
can  know  nothing  save  the  affections  of  our  own  consciousness.' 
Here  we  distinguish  between  the  Ego  and  consciousness,  and  put 
this  the  object  of  that.  But  it  ought  to  be  put  thus:  Present  con- 
sciousness is  alone  knowledge.  For  even  ihe  present  memory 
of  any  past  mental  experience  implies  a  belief  in  the  true  corres- 
pondence of  the  present  with  the  past  presentation.  The  present 
remembrance  is  known  immediately  the  past  experience  is  made 
present  immediately.  Now,  if  the  notion  of  knowledge  is  thus 
restricted,  Idealism  is  driven  to  a  vanishing  point,  for  present  con- 
sciousness is  simply  momentary.  Or,  if  Idealism  repudiates  the 
the  restrictions,  where  can  it  take  a  stand  without  incorporating 
belief  as  an  essential  constituent  of  knowledge?  This  is  to  me  an 
important  point  that  I  am  very  solicitous  to  be  enlightened  upon, 
if  any  solution  exists.  For,  granting  that  Knowledge  have  any 
constituent  of  Belief,  I  see  there  no  boundary  within  which  we 
can  enclose  the  notion  of  Knowledge  save  such  a  one  as  wrill  in- 
clude all  that  body  of  beliefs  which  prove  impregnable  to  doubt, 
— by  ivhich  I  mean  not  to  include  suppostitious  doubt,  but  doubt 
really  felt.  Of  course,  Subjective  Knowledge  would  differ  from 
Objective  Knowledge  as  to  its  mode  of  derivation,  but  not  in  its 
essential  nature.  Realism  would  stand  established  if  Knowledge 
were  defined,  as  above  suggested. 

Perhaps,  however,  I  only  show  my  superficiality  of  informa- 
tion and  reflection. 

I  may  add  that,  as  I  conceive  them,  the  issue  of  Idealism  vs. 

Realism  is  quite  a  different  one  from   that  between  Idealism  and 

Materialism. 

Francis  C.  Russell. 

BOOK    REVIEWS. 

Pine  and  Palm.     A  Novel  by  Moncure  D.  Conivay.     New  York  ; 

Henry   Holt  &  Co.,   18S7.     (Leisure  Hour    Series),    pp.  348. 

Price  $1.00 

The  reader  who  has  been  accustomed  to  M.  D.  Conway's 
more  serious  writings  does  not  take  it  as  at  all  out  of  place  to  find 
him  in  the  role  of  novelists;  the  pretty  touches  of  fancy,  the  vivid 
bits  of  word  painting,  the  bright  flow  of  wit,  the  subtle  hints  of 
unwritten  romance  contained  in  his  moral  teachings,  seem  to 
have  prepared  us  for  his  "  first  appearance ''  as  story-teller.  The 
book,  which  deals  in  a  conciliatory  spirit  with  the  differences 
between  the  North  and  South,  comes  at  an  opportune  time  when 
efforts  are  being  made  in  many  directions  by  statesmen,  essayists, 
novelists,  and  others  to  close  up  the  last  gap  in  the  "  bloody 
chasm,"  which  nearly  separated  the  Union,  and  to  weld  together 
in  brotherly  love  the  States  once  "  dissevered,  belligerent,  and 
drenched  in  fraternal  blood."  "  Pine  and  Palm,"  however,  seems 
properly  to  belong  to  an  earlier  date  of  such  peace-making,  and 
strikes  us   as  having  been  written  in  ante-bellum   times,  as  it  deals 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


605 


with  the  issues  then  before  the  public.  The  tone,  too,  of  the 
story  is  that  of  a  younger  writer  than  the  M.  D.  Conway  of  to-day, 
who  would  no",  we  surmise,  be  able  to  conceive  of  two  such 
superlatively  virtuous,  amiable  and  noble  representatives  of  the 
North  and  South  as  the  Damon  and  Pythias  of  this  story — Went- 
worth  and  Stirling,  two  model  Harvard  students.  Mr.  Conway's 
own  experience  as  a  Virginian,  a  Harvard  graduate,  and  an  anti- 
slavery  man  previous  to  our  civil  war,  helps  to  make  very 
realistic  many  descriptions  of  thrilling  episodes  common  at  that 
period,  in  which  Stephen  Foster,  Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison,  Wendell 
Phillips,  Capt.  John  Brown  and  others  play  appropriate  parts,  in 
the  serio-comedy  of  negro  camp  meetings  and  of  anti-slavery 
mee'ings,  and  the  tragic  scenes  of  slave-rescues  North,  the  slave- 
marts  South,  in  the  early  history  of  "bleeding  Kansas"  and  the 
thrilling  drama  enacted  at  Harper's  Ferry.  In  one  of  his  South- 
ern heroines,  the  lovely  Gisela,  we  are  forcibly  reminded  of  the 
romantically  true  story  of  those  brave  Southern  workers  for 
freedom,  Sarah  and  Angelina  Grimke\ 

At  no  point  does  Mr.  Conway's  story  drag,  even  though  he 
gives  us,  in  its  course,  sketches  of  several  sermons,  anti-slavery 
lectures,  and  transcendental  talk.  His  heroes  and  heroines, 
though  rather  impossible  creations  from  a  commonplace  point  of 
view,  are  yet  very  interesting,  and  ideally  satisfactory,  while  the 
story  ends,  as  stories  ought  to,  with  the  good  duly  rewarded  and 
happy,  and  the  rather  weak  villains  either  repentant  or  punished 
in  a  mild  and  tender-hearted  sort  of  way.  Mr.  Conway's 
kindly  treatment  of  the  "  bad 'uns  "  of  his  story  is  perhaps  a 
tribute  to  the  tender-heartedness  of  the  one  to  whom  the  volume  is 
dedicated — his  wife;  and  we  like  him  all  the  better  for  such  treat- 
ment and  for — his  dedication. 


Recollections  of  a  Minister  to  France,  1S69 — 1877.  By 
E.  B.  Washburne,  LL.  D.  With  Illustrations.  New  York: 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1SS7.  Two  vols.  Price  $8.  For 
sale  by  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago. 

Two  very  handsomely  bound  and  printed  volumes  of  some 
700  pages  are  these  before  us,  containing  a  record  of  the  thrilling 
experiences  of  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne  during  a  stirring  period  of 
French  history,  while  acting  as  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minis- 
ter Plenipotentiary  from  the  United  States  to  France  from  1S69 
to  1S77,  a  period  embracing  two  of  the  most  interesting  events  in 
the  later  history  of  that  country — the  Siege  of  Paris  and  the  rise 
and  fall  of  the  commune.  It  is  with  these  events  that  Mr.  Wash- 
burne's  book  principally  deals,  although  he  describes,  with  less 
particularity,  many  other  interesting  but  less  historic  matters 
pertaining  to  his  eight  and  a  half  years'  sojourn  in  France.  He 
writes:  "  While  all  the  other  diplomats  of  the  first-class  powers 
left  Paris  at  the  breaking-out  of  the  insurrection,  I  deemed  it  my 
duty  to  remain,  as  I  had  not  only  the  interest  of  our  country  but 
the  interests  of  the  Germans  to  look  after."  As  the  representa- 
tive of  a  friendly  neutral  and  powerful  nation,  Mr.  Washburne 
had  been  asked  to  protect  the  interests  of  the  Germans  in  Paris 
during  the  war  between  the  French  and  Prussians,  a  position  he 
found  more  onerous  than  he  had  expected,  but  which  he  filled  to 
the  utmost  of  his  ability,  though  he  says,  "  I  had  but  a  faint  idea 
of  what  the  undertaking  was  going  to  involve,  for  I  had  not  sup- 
posed it  possible  that  I  should  be  charged  with  the  care  and  with 
the  superintendence  of  more  than  thirty  thousand  people  expelled 
from  their  homes  on  so  short  a  notice.  *  *  *  The  legation 
began  to  be  crowded  from  day  to  day  by  persons  desiring  pro- 
tection, advice,  information  and  assistance."  Thus  it  happened 
that  he  was  brought  into  intimate  connection  with  the  leaders  of 
all  sorts,  and  a  participant  in  many  of  the  events  of  that  time.  So 
his  book  becomes  an  important  addition  to  history,  since  he  wrote 
from  personal  knowledge  and  recollection.  It  is  written  in  a 
simple,  plain,  but  graphic  style,  which  presents  to  the  reader  a 
lively  and  interesting  panorama  of  a  dangerous  episode. 


It  adds  a  melancholy  interest  to  this  work  that  the  death  of 
its  author  was  almost  simultaneous  with  its  issuance  from  the 
press. 

A  very  fine  portrait  of  Mr.  Washburne  graces  the  front  page 
of  the  first  volume,  while  the  work  is  enriched  by  many  pictures 
of  the  leading  spirits  of  those  days,  such  as  M.  Thiers,  Gambetta, 
Empress  Eugenie,  Emperor  William,  Jules  Favre,  Marshal 
Bazaine,  and  others;  and  spirited  illustrations  of  the  most  stirring 
events  of  that  revolutionary  period  are  given. 


TIie  Shakespearean  Drama.     A   Commentary  by    Denton  y. 
Snider.     The  Tragedies.   Boston:  Ticknor  &  Co.,  18S7,  pp.  41S. 

In  the  midst  of  the  Shakespeare-Bacon-Donnelly  sensation, 
Professor  Snider's  book  appears  very  opportunely. 

In  the  preface  he  queries:  "What  difference  does  it  make  in 
the  judgment  of  Shakespeare's  work  whether  he  was  a  Catholic 
or  Protestant?  Whether,  indeed  he  was  called  Shakespeare,  or 
by  some  other  name?  His  book  remains  the  same,  and  must  be 
judged  as  it  is;  any  argument  to  the  contrary  implies  that  our 
view  of  Shakespeare  is  to  be  determined  by  our  view  of  some- 
thing else,  or  of  somebody  else." 

The  raison  d'etre  of  Mr.  Snider's  contribution  to  the  Shakes- 
pearean literature  is,  in  his  own  words,  "to  show  each  drama  as  a 
whole,  in  its  thought,  organization,  and  characters;  then  to  group 
cognate  dramas  into  a  higher  Whole  by  their  common  fundamen- 
tal principles;  at  last  to  behold  all  the  dramas  of  the  past  as  one 
Whole — in  fine,  to  sum  up  Shakespeare.  Such  a  plan,  if  success- 
ful, will  unfold  the  inner  meaning  as  well  as  the  outward  struc- 
ture of  the  Shakespearean  drama."  The  author  well  says:  "There 
can  be  no  doubt  in  the  statement  that  the  unique  and  all-sur- 
passing greatness  of  Shakespeare  lies  in  his  comprehension  of 
the  ethical  order  of  the  world.  *  *  *  Men  see  in  him  their 
highest  selves,  and  hence  take  him  as  their  greatest  exponent." 
Why  Shakespeare's  dramas  have  been  thought  most  worthy  of 
this  writer's  attention  is  thus  explained:  "The  drama  represents 
man  in  action.  It  exhibits  him  in  the  infinite  web  of  his  com- 
plications, with  influences  passing  out  from  him,  and  coming  back 
to  him,  and  thereby  portrays  in  the  shortest  space,  and  in  the 
most  striking  manner,  the  relative  worth  of  human  deeds.  Nor 
does  it  rest  content  with  the  mere  external  doings  of  man;  on  the 
contrary,  it  penetrates  his  innermost  nature,  and  probes  the  pro- 
foundest  depths  of  his  spiritual  being.  For  it  unfolds  motives, 
ends,  convictions;  and  in  fact,  these  internal  elements  constitute 
its  most  important  feature." 

Mr.  Snider,  in  this  work,  further  confines  himself  to  a  con- 
sideration of  the  trtigic  dramas  of  Shakespeare,  impelled  thereto 
by  his  belief  that  "a  tragedy  is  not  produced  merely  by  an  indis- 
crimate  slaughter  of  the  characters  at  the  end  of  the  play.  There 
must  be  something  within  the  individual  which  brings  him  to 
destruction  ;  there  must  be  a  principle  which  fills  his  breast  and 
drives  him  forward  to  his  fate;  his  death  is  to  spring  from  his 
deed."  The  tragedies  analyzed  thus  are  "Timon  of  Athens," 
"Romeo  and  Juliet,"  "Othello,"  King  Lear,"  "Macbeth,"  and 
"Hamlet." 

The  style  of  this  work  is  pleasing,  the  commentator's  own 
thought  elevating;  and  the  volume,  solid  and  handsome  in  its 
make-up,  will  be  found  a  valuable  help  in  the  study  of  Shakes- 
peare. 

The  Right  of  Property  and  the  Ownership  of  Land.  By 
If.  T.  Harris.  (Reprint  from  the  Journal  of  Social  Science.) 
Cupples,  Hurd  &  Co.,  94  Boylston  Street,  Boston.  Price  25 
cents;  pp.  40. 

Henry  George's  famous  theory  is  compared  in  this  pamphlet 
with  actual  facts  from  the  best  sources,  by  an  impartial  scholar, 
accustomed  to  philosophical  reasoning.     Dr.  Harris  proves,  from 


6o6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


the  last  national  census  and  other  standard  authorities,  that  the 
average  amount  of  rent  paid  by  each  individual  in  the  United 
States  for  land  without  buildings,  at  six  per  cent,  on  assessed 
valuation,  would  be,  if  we  were  all  tenants,  only  "eight  dollars 
apiece  per  year,  or  2  1-5  cents  per  day."  Even  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  rents  average  only  2^  cents  daily  for  each  inhab- 
itant; and  there  the  assessed  value  of  land  scarcely  doubled 
between  1S01  and  1882,  while  that  of  houses  increased  more  than 
sevenfold.  In  other  words,  the  alleged  grievance  of  payment  of 
rent  for  land  to  individual  owners  is  a  mere  drop  in  the  bucket. 
The  common  saying,  that  "The  rich  are  growing  richer  and 
fewer,  while  the  poor  are  growing  poorer  and  more  numerous,"  is 
next  proved,  not  only  from  British  but  from  American  statistics, 
to  be  dangerously  false;  though  Dr.  Harris  does  not  consider  the 
reasons  for  believing  that  an  exception  to  the  general  improve- 
ment of  the  condition  of  the  working  classes  has  recently  been 
made  in  the  United  States  by  the  excessive  increase  of  our  tariff. 
Neither  does  he  remember  how  much  of  the  prosperity  of  skilled 
laborers  in  England,  since  1840,  has  been  due  to  free  trade,  or  he 
would  not  repeat  Carlyle's  slander  of  political  economy  as  "  the 
dismal  science,"  and  bestow  such  undeserved  blame  on  Adam 
Smith,  Ricardo  and  Malthus.  These  defects  are  slight,  however, 
compared  with  the  merit  either  of  the  arguments  already  referred 
to,  or  of  those  showing  that  factory  hands  are  much  better  paid  in 
comparison  with  other  laborers,  especially  those  on  farms,  than  is 
generally  supposed;  that  if  Henry  George's  plans  were  set  in 
operation,  farmers  would  be  crushed,  while  all  who  live  in  cheap 
houses  would  be  taxed  too  heavily;  and  that  "  History  looks  upon 
the  invention  of  private  property  in  land  as  one  of  the  mightiest 
steps  towards  human  progress." 


The  Revue  lie  Belgique  for  October  opens  with  a  full  account 
of  the  Dutch  poet  Vondel,  who  vindicated  the  memory  of  Barne- 
veldt,  and  furnished  to  Milton  that  conception  of  Satan  which  is 
the  grandest  feature  of  Paradise  Lost.  Another  interesting 
article  tells  how  a  young  Frenchman  named  Fabre  gave  himself 
up,  in  1756,  to  be  sent  to  the  galleys  in  place  of  his  aged  father, 
who  had  been  arrested  for  the  crime  of  hearing  a  Protestant 
preach.  While  toiling  among  convicts,  in  hardships  which  were 
embittered  by  remorse  for  falsehoods  which  he  had  told  in  order 
to  save  other  Huguenots  from  persecution,  he  was  asked  by  his 
betrothed,  whether  she  ought  to  listen  to  a  rich  man  who  sought 
her  hand  with  the  approbation  of  her  family,  then  oppressed  by 
poverty.  He  was  disinterested  enough  to  advise  her  to  marry; 
but  her  heart  revolted  at  the  last  moment,  and  she  remained  true 
to  her  lover,  who  married  her  on  his  receiving  pardon  after  eight 
years  of  penal  labor.  We  are  also  furnished  with  the  plot  of  a 
drama  which  was  founded  on  these  facts,  and  did  much  to  swell 
that  tide  of  popular  feeling  which  finally  brought  toleration  to 
French  Protestants  two  hundred  years  ago,  thanks  above  all 
other  men  to  Voltaire. 


The  Art  Amateur  for  November  is  more  remarkable  for  the 
variety  and  richness  of  its  illustrations  than  for  its  reading 
matter.  The  print  in  oil  colors  represents  a  fine  bunch  of  purple 
grapes  with  stem  and  leaves.  It  is  very  strong  and  effective  in 
color,  and  where  the  natural  object  cannot  be  procured  (which  is 
always  much  better)  gives  good  material  for  a  study  of  this  most 
valuable  example  of  light  and  shadow.  A  design  for  tapestry 
painting,  "The  Sportsman,"  by  R.  Arthurs,  is  in  a  bold,  vigorous 
style,  well  adapted  to  the  subject  and  the  purpose  for  which  it  is 
intended.  The  most  popular  illustrations  are,  however,  the 
numerous  sketches  of  cats  and  kittens,  which  will  delight  all 
lovers  of  these  household  pets.  Pleasant  stories  are  told  oi 
Landseers'  method  of  studying  these  animals,  which 
are    very    difficult     to       portray     well.     The     Breton    peasant 


by  Jules  Bretonne,  is  earnest  and  simple,  and  is  a  good 
specimen  of  this  popular  painter's  style.  A  Flemish  maiden  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  is  in  quite  the  opposite  style,  but  is  very 
quaint  and  pleasing.  There  are  many  minor  studies  and  designs 
which  are  very  attractive.  We  turn  with  interest  to  the  article 
called  "Art  Amateur  for  iSSS,"  to  see  what  good  things  are 
promised  for  the  coming  year,  and  find  a  rich  feast  is  to  be  set 
before  the  subscribers  to  this  popular  art  journal.  With  each 
number  there  will  be  a  color  study  of  landscape,  flower,  or  figure. 
Victor  Dargon's  flower  studies  will  be  continued,  the  flowers 
being  appropriate  to  the  months  in  which  they  are  published; 
this  will  give  the  student  an  opportunity  to  compare  them  with 
the  natural  flowers.  Special  attention  will  be  given  to  china 
painting,  with  practical  instruction  and  designs.  Ellen  Welby's 
designs  and  Edith  Scannell's  sketches  of  children  in  outline,  will 
be  continued.  Furniture  Decoration,  Wood  Carving,  Church 
Needlework,  Tapestry  Painting,  and  Photography  will  have  their 
appropriate  place.  Mrs.  T.  M.  Wheeler  will  contribute  a  series 
of  talks  on  "  Embroidery  in  America."  The  literary  department 
will  contain  art  notes  and  hints,  criticisms  of  books  and  paint- 
ings, and  biographies  of  American  and  foreign  artists.  The 
monthly  visits  of  this  bright  periodical  are  sufficient  to  keep  the 
amateur  au  courant  with  what  is  going  on  in  the  world  of  art, 
and  to  refresh  and  help  the  student  with  suggestion  and 
information. 


The  first  number  of  the  American  Journal  of  Psychology, 
edited  by  G.  Stanley  Hall,  Professor  of  Psychology  and 
Pedagogics  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  has  appeared,  and  is  to 
be  published  quarterly  by  N.  Murray,  Baltimore.  The  editor 
announces  that  it  is  his  object  to  record  the  psychological  work 
of  a  scientific  character  as  distinct  from  a  speculative  character. 
The  vast  progress  made  in  this  department  of  late  years  is  little 
realized,  and  the  field  for  such  a  journal  is,  we  believe,  very  large. 
The  journal  will  have  three  departments  :  Original  contributions 
of  a  scientific  character,  digests  and  reviews,  and  notes,  news,  brie 
mentions,  etc.  Controversy  will  be  excluded  as  far  as  possible. 
We  doubt  if  it  is  possible  to  debar  speculation  from  such  a 
magazine,  and  the  first  article  on  "  Normal  Knee  Jerk,"  by 
Lombard,  discusses  causes  which  are  to  some  extent  speculative. 
The  numerous  tables  reminds  one  of  the  Smithsonian  publications. 
There  is  a  golden  mean  in  such  matters  which  it  is  very  difficult 
for  publishers  to  strike.  We  hail  this  great  work  as  the  beginning 
ofanewera  in  American  psychology.  It  reflects  largely  what 
has  been  piled  up  (in  psychological  inquiry  into  the  mind)  in 
Germany  during  the  last  twenty  years.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  immense  amount  of  work  that  has  been  done  in  German, 
French  and  Italian  laboratories  will  find  proper  recognition. 


The  Freidenker- Almanack  for  188S  is  rich,  not  only  in  astron- 
omical and  chronological  information,  but  in  proverbs  and  other 
brief  quotations,  as  well  as  in  original  articles.  There  are  no  less 
than  twenty-one  poems,  besides  the  ten  little  gems  by  Hermann 
Schuricht,  called  "  Shooting-Stars."  Among  the  other  poets  are 
Otto  Soubron  and  Hugo  Andriessen,  to  the  last  of  whom  we  also 
owe  a  very  interesting  account  of  Francesca  da  Rimini.  Paul 
Carus  explains  "The  meaning  of  Monism."  Aristotle's  doctrine 
of  Substance  is  set  forth  by  Robert  Nix.  The  labor  question  is 
brought  forward  in  "They  Will  not  Learn  Anything,"  by  Maximil- 
ian Grossman,  and  in  "Socialism  and  Individualism,"  by  J.  Lucas. 
We  have  also  part  of  an  address  on  "Prejudice"  by  Edward 
Schroeter;  a  satire  on  conservative  apathy,  entitled  "Nothing 
New,"  by  Friedrich  Schiinemann  Pott;  and  an  instructive  sketch 
on  the  history  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  its 
principal  amendments,  by  C.  Hermann  Boppe. 


The  Open  Court 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Conciliating  Religion   with   Science. 


Vol.  I.     No.  22. 


CHICAGO,  DECEMBER  22,  18S7. 


I  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
)  Single  Copies,  15  els. 


THE    FOOL    IN     THE    DRAMA.* 

BY    FRANZ    HELBIG. 

As  in  life,  so  also  on  the  stage,  which  purports  to  be 
a  mirror  of  life,  we  frequently  find  seriousness  and  jest, 
wisdom  and  folly, side  by  side  and  mutually  offsetting  each 
other.  The  drama  had  scarcely  extricated  itself  from 
its  first  beginnings,  when  the  fool  appeared  on  the  stage. 
Folly  has  its  part  in  Life  as  well  as  in  Art.  Exposed 
foolishness  is  the  best  friend  of  reason,  for  it  guards  man 
against  falling  into  folly. 

Although  Gottsched,  in  1737,  induced  Caroline  Neu- 
berin  to  banish  the  merry-maker  of  the  German  plav, 
the  "  Hans  Wurst,"  from  the  stage  in  a  solemn  auto-da- 
fe,  folly  crept  in  again  in  all  manner  of  disguises.  This  old 
German  "  Hans  Wurst,"  the  personified  condensation  of 
folly,  was  far  more  than  a  mere  merry-maker.  He  was, 
so  to  speak,  the  suppressed  popular  sentiment,  as  Robert 
Prutz  remarks  in  his  lectures  on  the  history  of  the  Ger- 
man drama.  "  The  people  could  not  place  an  independ- 
ent drama  in  opposition  to,  or  even  in  competition 
with,  the  drama  of  the  clergy,  the  schoolmen,  and  the 
courts;  so  it  created  a  dramatic  representative,  it  origi- 
nated a  mask  behind  which  the  popular  sentiment,  after 
it  had  been  driven  from  every  other  position,  took  ref- 
uge as  behind  a  last  secure  intrenchment.  It  is  the 
intellectual  weapon  of  wit  to  which  he  who  cannot  van- 
quish his  powerful  adversary  with  real  weapons  gladly 
resorts.  Thus  the  merry  figure  of  the  German  "  Hans 
Wurst  "  may  be  regarded  as  the  personification  of  popu- 
lar wit. 

Not  only  Germany,  but  also  other  literary  nations, 
experienced  a  similar  necessity  of  incarnating  the  wit  in 
which  the  oppressed  spirit  found  relief,  in  some  particu- 
lar character.  And  it  is  remarkable  that  all  these 
national  fools  derived  their  names  from  the  favorite 
dishes  of  the  various  nations.  As  the  German  "  Brat- 
wurst "  (sausage)  was  godfather  at  the  christening  of 
the  German  "  Hans  Wurst,"  so  in  the  Netherlands  he 
was  called"  Pickle-herring"  and  "  Stockfish"  (codfish); 
in  France,  "Jean  Pottage  "  (soup);  in  Italy,  "  Signor 
Maccaroni";  and  in  England,  "Jack  Pudding." 


•Translated  from  the  German  in    Wtsterman's  Monatshefte  for  August, 


There  is  a  deep  significance  in  this  designation.  It 
is  a  protest  of  the  confirmed  realism  of  the  common 
people  against  the  idealism  of  the  educated  classes, 
against  the  foreign  learned  culture  and  the  excessively 
refined  manners  of  the  higher  ranks.  As  Robert 
Prutz  very  correctly  says,  "These  comic  masks  invariably 
come  into  existence  when  the  popular  sentiment  has 
suffered  a  great  rupture,  a  sudden  dissension;  when,  in  a 
word,  the  people  feels  itself  estranged  of  its  own  accord, 
— when  it  finds  itself  face  to  face  with  a  government,  a 
culture,  a  literature,  in  which  it  has  no  part,  which  it 
neither  knows  nor  understands,  by  which,  on  the  con- 
trary, it  feels  itself  grieved  and  oppressed  as  by  some 
externally  imposed  foreign  object.  The  people  re- 
placed this  unreal,  visionary  world  by  the  real  world,  in 
which,  above  all,  something  good  to  eat  can  be  found. 
They  contrasted  a  substantial  reality  with  the  incom- 
prehensible. 

In  ancient  times,  there  was  a  much  greater  fusion 
between  idealism  and  realism;  consequently,  the  ancient 
drama  did  not  know  this  universal  typical  fool  of  the 
modern  world.  The  merry  personages  of  the  old  Greek 
and  Roman  drama  are  not  professional  fools,  but  indivi- 
dual concrete  comic  characters.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
German  "Hans  Wurst"  has  a  definite  typical  character, 
which  he  retains  in  all  the  various  guises  in  which  he 
appears.  He  is  the  spice  of  all  dramatic  food.  Even 
the  most  serious  and  most  bloody  tragedy  could  not  dis- 
pense with  him;  his  nauseating,  cynical  wit  and  merry 
capers  incessantly  interrupted  the  majestic  progress  of 
the  main  action.  Lie  appears  as  a  braggart  of  the  first 
water,  who  constantly  vaunts  his  courage;  but  he  shows 
it  only  where  he  knows  no  danger  to  exist.  No  matter  how 
willing  he  may  be  to  give  occasion  for  a  quarrel  or  a 
fight,  if  the  affair  becomes  too  serious  he  very  seasonably 
takes  to  his  heels.  And  so  the  fool  goes  through  life 
unscathed,  while  his  master,  who  far  surpasses  him  in 
mind  and  culture,  succumbs  to  its  trials.  By  his  predi- 
lection for  good  meals  and  high  fees  he  parodies  his 
master's  ideal  endeavors,  and  by  his  chronic  appetite  he 
interrupts  the  sublime  course  of  the  former's  thought. 
If  he  could  only  have  his  sausage,  the  old  "Hans  Wurst" 
was  indifferent  to  everything  else.     To  him,  eating  and 


6o8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


drinking  are  the  essentials,  because  they  hold  body  and 
soul  together. 

To  the  average  man,  everything  intangible  remains 
incomprehensible.  Our  "Hans  Wurst"  deems  himself 
happy  for  not  having  studied ;  because,  if  he  had,  he 
could  no  longer  be  merry.  He  supplies  by  a  peculiar 
natural  cunning  what  he  lacks  in  culture  and  knowledge. 
Nor  does  he  at  times  hesitate  to  further  his  object  by  pre- 
varication and  deception.  He  is  married,  but  his  wed- 
lock is  nothing  but  an  endless  round  of  drubbings  and 
scoldings;  at  the  same  time  he  always  is  the  henpecked 
victim  of  his  chiding  better-half.  He  is  very  good-natured, 
and  if  necessary  has  a  heart  full  of  compassion ;  then,  like  a 
genuine  humorist,  he  laughs  through  his  tears.  And 
thus  it  frequently  happens  that  he  lectures  his  master  on 
account  of  his  bad  behavior. 

In  this  character-study  we  evidently  encounter 
elements  of  the  national  character.  In  its  "Hans  Wurst," 
the  people  apparently  saw  its  own  beloved  Ego.  In 
those  times  the  great  lords  retained  paid  fools,  whose 
duty  it  was,  from  time  to  time,  to  tell  them  the  truth 
and  to  ridicule  them  so  as  to  guard  them  against  folly. 
The  nobles  and  the  rich  could  indulge  in  such  a  luxury; 
but  for  the  poor  people  it  was  much  too  expensive.  So 
they  went  to  the  theatre,  there  to  meet  folly  face  to  face. 
Thus  the  German  "  Hans  Wurst  "  was  the  fool  for  all — 
the  people's  fool. 

When  "  Hans  Wurst  "  was  banished  from  Germany, 
the  people»very  unwillingly  took  leave  of  their  beloved 
fool.  Nor  was  it  its  own  initiative,  but  the  influence  of 
the  schoolmen,  represented  by  Gottsched,  that  brought 
on  the  judgment  prepared  for  him  by  Caroline  Neuberin. 
For  the  latter  the  result  was  fatal;  her  performances 
were  no  longer  attended,  and  she  suffered  severe  financial 
embarassment.  Nevertheless,  the  good  "Hans  Wurst" 
had  outlived  himself.  The  generalization  of  culture, 
and  the  regeneration  of  aesthetic  feeling  arising  there- 
from, fettered  him  in  his  grave.  After  having  vanished 
from  the  stage  he  flourished  only  in  the  puppet  show, 
where,  even  at  the  present  day,  he  delights  the  hearts 
of  our  children.  On  the  living  stage  he  appears  only  in 
the  form  of  "  Leporello." 

The  "Hans  Wurst"  comedy  continued  longest  as  an 
independent  comedy,  which  had  gradually  diverged 
from  the  serious  drama,  in  the  Vienna  theatres;  here, 
late  in  the  eighteenth  century,  Stranitzky,  Prehauser, 
and  his  successor,  Herr  von  Kurz  (called  Bernardon), 
were  famous  impersonators  of  this  role. 

Subsequently,  however,  the  representation  of  folly 
was  not  concentrated  in  a  single  person,  but  it  was 
individualized  in  the  most  manifold  ramifications. 

This  had  partially  taken  place  already  in  Shakespeare. 
The  great  master  of  individualizing  characteristics  was 
averse  to  concentrating  all  humor  in  a  single  personage. 
In  his  plays  we  find  nothing  of  the  real  typical    "  Hans 


Wurst,"  with  his  red  jacket  and  yellow  trunk-hose.  He 
rather  clothed  his  "  Hans  Wurst"  in  doublet  and  boots, 
and  called  him  Sir  John  Falstaff. 

Sir  John  has  a  great  family  resemblance  to  the 
German  popular  fool.  Only  the  character  is  exag- 
gerated so  as  to  be  grotesque,  and  broadened  by  truly 
genial  traits.  Sir  John,  also,  is  impelled  by  the  lowest 
instincts, — feasting  and  carousing  are  his  favorite  achieve- 
ments. In  spite  of  his  age  and  his  immense  paunch,  he 
is  as  faint-hearted  and  timid  as  a  child;  nevertheless  he 
abuses  the  others  by  calling  them  arrant  cowards.  Thus 
he  vaunts  heroic  deeds  which  he  has  never  committed, 
and  which  in  his  bragging  mouth  grow  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  those  who  believe  them.  He,  the  worst 
moralist,  lectures  Prince  Henry,  and  offers  himself  as  a 
mirror  of  the  noblest  virtue.  When  the  Lord  Chief- 
Justice  reproaches  him  for  having  misled  the  young 
Prince,  he  asserts  that  it  is  himself  who  has  been  misled. 
The  lie  is  his  element,  in  which  he  is  as  much  at  home 
as  a  fish  in  water.  He  has  notched  his  sword  with  his 
dagger  to  prove  that  he  had  fought  valiantly.  To 
escape  being  stabbed  in  the  combat,  he  lies  down  on  the 
ground  in  the  very  beginning  of  it,  and  pretends  to  be 
dead.  To  obtain  the  credit  of  Mistress  Quickly,  he 
gives  her  to  understand  that  he  has  lost  a  seal-ring 
worth  forty  mark;  but  the  ring  was  only  copper  and 
scarcely  worth  eight  pence.  When  he  is  convicted  of 
lying,  he  gets  out  of  his  dilemma  by  a  jest  or  another 
lie.  When  Prince  Henry  reproves  him  for  his  coward- 
ice, he  answers:  "Instinct  is  a  great  matter;  I  was  now 
a  coward  on  instinct."  When  the  Prince,  his  protector, 
has  become  King,  and  contemptuously  discards  the 
white-haired  fool  and  jester,  "  so  surfeit-swelled,  so  old 
and  so  profane,"  and  banishes  him  from  his  company, 
the  lying  hero  loses  his  footing,  and  the  entire  fraudulent 
existence  collapses.  It  is  true,  he  endeavors  to  pursuade 
Shallow,  to  whom  he  has  vouchsafed  his  most  gracious 
protection,  that  the  King  must  seem  thus  to  the  world; 
that  what  he  had  heard  was  but  a  color.  But  already 
he  perceives  that  his  lie  is  no  longer  believed.  "  A 
color  that  I  fear  you  will  die  in,  Sir  John,"  answers 
Shallow.  To  which  Falstaff  simply  replies:  "Fear  no 
colors;  go  with  me  to  dinner."  Thus  with  the  lie,  his 
wit,  on  which  it  depended,  also  failed  him.  "Hence- 
forth he  renounces  both  sack  and  women."  He  even 
entertains  holy  thoughts,  something  like  a  fear  of  the 
fires  of  Hell.  The  greatest  of  lying  fools  now  becomes 
tedious  and  prosaic. 

Shakespeare  also  introduces  that  variety  of  retained 
professional  fools  who  make  their  living  by  it,  and  who 
appear  in  the  company  of  his  great  heroes.  At  bottom, 
these  fools,  although  so  designated,  are  anything  but 
fools;  they  are,  on  the  contrary,  very  clever  fellows  who 
make  it  their  business  to  expose  the  folly  of  the  wise. 
Their   actions    and    their    character    cannot    be   better 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Cog 


described    than    in   the   words   of   Viola    in    "  Twelfth 
Night,"  where  she  says  of  Olivia's  clown — 

"  This  fellow  is  wise  enough  to  play  the  fool; 
And  to  do  that  well  craves  a  kind  of  wit : 
He  must  observe  their  mood  on  whom  he  jests, 
The  quality  of  persons,  and  the  time, 
And,  like  the  haggard,  check  at  every  feather 
That  comes  before  his  eye.     This  is  a  practice 
As  full  of  labor  as  a  wise  man's  art : 
For  folly  that  he  wisely  shows  is  fit; 
But  wise  men,  folly-fall'n,  quite  taint  their  wit." 

These  so-called  fools  carry  on  a  merry  game  of 
banter  and  repartee.  They  are  sophists  and  word-cor- 
rupters.  "  I  am  indeed  not  her  fool,  but  her  corrupter 
of  words,"  says  Olivia's  clown.  In  "  All's  Well  that 
Ends  Well,"  the  clown  to  the  Countess  Roussilon 
declares  himself  capable  of  giving  her  an  answer  fit  for 
all  questions,  and  answers  her  repeatedly  with  an  "  O 
Lord,  sir!"  Again,  Olivia's  clown  proves  to  her  that 
she  is  a  fool  for  mourning  for  her  brother.  "  I  think  his 
soul  is  in  hell,  Madonna,"  says  the  fool  drily.  "  I  know 
his  soul  is  in  heaven,  fool,"  angrily  replies  the  countess. 
"  The  more  fool,  Madonna,  to  mourn  for  your  brother's 
soul  being  in  heaven,"  concludes  the  fool.  Malvolio  in 
"  Twelfth  Night,"  is  therefore  not  unjustified  in  calling 
"  these  wise  men,  that  crow  so  at  these  set  kind  of  fools, 
no  better  than  the  fool's  zanies." 

The  most  prominent  figure  in  this  chorus  of  fools  is 
the  fool  of  King  Lear.  With  terrible  iron}'  he  chastises 
the  King  for  his  folly  in  rendering  himself  poor  and 
subject  to  the  mercy  of  his  daughters.  With  inexorable 
bitterness  he  comments  upon  the  incongruity  of  these 
actions.  "  Sirrah,  you  were  best  take  my  cox-comb," 
he  tauntingly  says;  and  when  the  King  wanders  about 
poor  and  forsaken,  he  increases  this  taunt  to  the  ut- 
most: "  Thou  art  an  O  without  a  figure:  I  am  better 
than  thou  art  now.  I  am  a  fool,  thou  art  nothing." 
The  terrible  weight  of  the  fool's  logic  contributes 
not  a  little  toward  the  King's  madness;  and  the  scene 
in  which  the  poet  has  the  three  fools  meet  on  the 
heath  is  one  of  the  utmost  pathos:  King  Lear,  who 
has  actually  gone  mad,  the  real  fool; — Edgar,  Glouces- 
ter's son,  who  assumes  madness,  the  feigned  fool;  and 
the  titular  fool,  who  practises  folly  as  a  profession,  and 
who  of  all  three  speaks  and  acts  most  rationally.   . 

The  Shakespearean  fool  attained  his  highest  develop- 
ment in  the  character  of  Goethe's  Mephistopheles.  He 
also,  according  to  Faust,  is  "  a  liar  and  a  sophist."  He 
also  comments  upon  the  endeavors  and  actions  of  his 
lord  and  master,  who  has  been  possessed  by  conceit  and 
a  desire  for  wisdom.  The  ironic,  sarcastic  manner  of 
this  comment,  not  only  toward  Faust,  but  also  toward 
others, — for  instance,  the  pupil,  the  students  in  Auer- 
bach's  cellar,  Madam  Martha — is  quite  in  the  vein  of  the 
Shakespearean  fool.  These  also  display  somewhat  of 
"the  Spirit  that  Denies."     Thus,  he  mocks  the  remorse- 


ful and  tortured  Faust:  "Already  we  are  at  the  end  of 
our  knowledge  where  you  poor  mortals  lose  your 
senses." 

In  the  old  farces  and  carnival  plays,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Devil  always  appears  as  the  deceived  and 
deluded  fool,  as  the  "  aper  of  God,"  as  the  stupid  devil 
who  generally  at  the  last  moment  is  defrauded  of  the 
hoped-for  prize  by  man's  cunning.  Goethe,  evidently 
imitating  this  mediaeval  conception,  has  Mephistophele  ; 
succumb  to  a  similar  fate  in  the  denouement  of  his 
superb  poem.  He  who  has  so  long  fooled  Faust  and 
the  world,  is  now  in  his  turn  fooled  by  heaven,  which 
takes  advantage  of  his  being  enamoured  of  the  beautiful 
angel,  to  capture  Faust's  soul,  the  pledge  of  his  wager. 
{To  be  continued?) 


THE      SPECIFIC      ENERGIES      OF      THE     NERVOUS 
SYSTEM.* 


BY      DR.       EWAID      HERING. 


Johannes  M tiller,  the  greatest  physiologist  of  our 
century,  in  his  dissertations  on  the  senses,  established  a 
theory  which  is  well  known  as  "the  theory  of  the  spe- 
cific energies  of  the  sensory  nerves. "  I  cannot  here 
recapitulate  his  doctrine  in  his  own  perspicuous  ex- 
pressions, which  are  so  worded  as  to  be  intelligible  only 
to  a  specialist.  But  a  few  sentences  will  suffice  to  ex- 
plain the  quintessence  of  his  theory  to  any  one  whose 
occupation  prevents  him  from  bestowing  more  than  that 
kindly  interest  upon  physiology  which  this  most  fasci- 
nating science  awakens  in  the  mind  of  every  educated 
man. 

From  the  eye  and  from  the  ear,  from  the  mucous 
membranes  of  the  organs  of  taste  and  of  smell,  and  from 
the  skin  of  the  whole  body — viz.  the  organ  of  touch  and 
temperature — proceed  thousands  of  most  delicate  nerve 
fibres.  Gradually  uniting,  they  coalesce  into  steadily 
enlarging  bundles,  which  either  lead  directly  to  the  brain, 
or  are  indirectly  connected  with  it  by  the  spinal  cord. 
Through  these  nerve  fibres  the  sensory  organs  com- 
municate with  the  brain,  that  most  wonderful  living 
structure  which  is  both  the  origin  and  the  product  of 
our  consciousness. 

When  a  vibration  of  ether  irritates  the  nervous  mem- 
brane of  our  eye  (the  retina),  a  process  ensues,  the  real 
nature  of  which  we  do  not  yet  understand.  We  only 
know    that    the  irritation    is  at  once  transmitted  to  the 


*  Prof.  Ewald  Hering  delivered  his  lecture  on  "The  Specific  Energies  of 
the  Nervous  System"  on  some  festival  occasion.  It  was  published  in  the 
Lotos,  and  he  sent  a  copy  of  it  with  corrections  in  his  own  hand,  to  Mr.  Hegeler, 
in  order  to  have  it  translated  and  published  in  The  Oten  Court. 

The  essay  enlarges  and  justifies  Johannes  Muiler's  theory  of  the  specific 
energies  of  nerves.  Professor  Hering  makes  a  broader  application  of  this  theory, 
by  showing;  that  it  is  a  special  and  physiological  aspect  of  a  general  biolo  ic.il 
law,  and  he  justifies  it  by  thus  basing  it  on  the  broader  foundation  of  a  more 
general  truth.  Professor  Hering  intended  the  essay  to  be  intelligible  to  the 
educated  public  at  large,  and  couched  his  ideas,  so  far  as  was  possible,  in 
popular  language. 

The  importance  of  the  subject  need  not  be  commented  upon. 

Editor. 


6io 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


fibres  of  the  optic  nerve,  and  in  its  further  progress  acts 
upon  those  cerebral  parts  into  which  the  optic  nerve 
enters.  As  the  life  of  these  brain  structures  is  in  close 
connection  with  our  consciousness,  it  happens  that  when 
a  ray  of  light  enters  the  eye,  it  causes  an  irritation  of 
the  nervous  fibres  and  of  the  cerebral  cells;  and  thus  we 
become  conscious  of  the  sensations  of  light  and  of  color. 

If,  now,  these  same  rays,  which,  when  entering  the 
eye,  produced  the  sensation  of  light,  fall  upon  the  skin  of 
the  hand,  and  there  irritate  the  delicate  rootlets  of  the  sen- 
sory nerves,  this  irritation  is  transmitted  through  the 
nerves  and  the  spinal  cord  to  the  brain,  and,  instead  of 
light  we  are  conscious  of  warmth.  How  is  it  that  the 
identical  external  agent  in  one  case  produces  light,  and 
in  the  other  warmth  ? 

Moreover,  the  sensation  of  light  can  be  produced  in 
a  perfectly  dark  room  by  irritating  the  nerves  of  the  eye 
by  an  electric  current;  and  if  we  pass  the  electric  cur- 
rent through  the  auditory  nerve,  we  hear  sounds  and 
noises,  though  the  deepest  silence  surround  us.  If  we 
apply  the  "current  to  the  nerves  of  the  skin,  we  experi- 
ence the  sensation  of  heat  or  cold,  although  not  in  con- 
tact with  any  cold  or  warm  object.  And  if,  by  the  very 
same  current,  we  excite  the  nerves  of  the  tongue,  gusta- 
tory sensations  are  produced.  Accordingly,  the  nervous 
apparatus  of  each  sensory  organ  responds  to  the  same 
irritation  with  different  sensations.  And  again  we  ask: 
How  does  precisely  the  same  cause  produce  such  a 
variety  of  effects? 

Even  by  the  aid  of  a  microscope  the  anatomist  has 
not  been  able  to  discover  any  essential  difference  between 
the  various  sensory  nerves.  For  instance,  that  part  of 
the  brain  which  produces  the  visual  sensations  does  not, 
in  its  ultimate  structure,  vary  noticeably  from  those 
cerebral  regions  which  produce  sensations  of  sound  or 
temperature.  But  (and  this  is  the  answer  to  the  problem 
in  question)  this  sameness  of  form  is  not  accompanied 
by  a  sameness  of  nature.  The  diverse  structures  of  the 
nervous  system,  the  nerve  cells  and  the  nerve  fibres,  are 
internally  different  in  spite  of  all  external  similarity,  and 
the  diversity  of  the  sensations  produced  is  a  manifesta- 
tion of  such  difference. 

It  is  the  nature  of  the  nervous  substance  in  the  visual 
organ  to  produce  sensations  of  light,  and  only  such.  It 
is  the  bell  which  sounds,  and  not  its  tongue;  and  simi- 
larly it  is  not  the  vibration  of  ether,  but  the  nerve,  that 
produces  light.  No  matter  whether  it  be  a  ray  of  light, 
— whether  it  be  pressure  or  a  blow  upon  the  eye,  an 
electric  current,  or  any  irritation  whatever, — that  affects 
the  nervous  apparatus,  it  invariably  manifests  itself  as 
light  or  color.  In  the  same  way,  we  become  conscious 
of  the  irritations  of  the  auditory  organ  in  the  form  of 
sound  or  noise,  no  matter  what  their  cause,  which  may 
be  aerial  vibrations  or  any  morbid  irritation  of  the  inner 
ear,  or  an  orgasm  of  the  blood. 


Johannes  Muller  named  the  inherent  function  of 
certain  nerves  to  communicate  certain  sensations,  which 
could  not  be  produced  otherwise,  to  our  consciousness, 
the  "specific  energy  "  of  those  nerves.  More  than  half 
a  century  has  elapsed  since  this  great  physiologist  devel- 
oped his  theory  in  grand  and  magnificent  proportions; 
and  thus,  in  scientific  terms,  he  formulated  an  idea,  the 
original  germ  of  which  lies  buried  in  the  distant  past  as 
far  back  as  Aristotle.  Johannes  Midler's  doctrines  were 
re-echoed  in  innumerable  writings,  but  it  cannot  be  said 
that  the  seed  he  sowed  fell  upon  fertile  soil,  or  that  it 
was  developed  in  any  essential  feature.  A  few  par- 
tially successful  attempts  were  made  to  promote  Muller's 
theory  of  the  sensations  of  color  and  of  sound;  but,  aside 
from  that,  his  doctrine  bore  little  fruit.  On  the  contrary 
it  was  suppressed,  even  by  Johannes  Muller's  own 
disciples.  It  again  became  customary  to  regard  all 
nerve  fibres  as  having  essentially  the  same  nature,  and  to 
suppose  that  the  same  kind  of  irritation  is  transmitted  in 
all  fibres  of  the  various  nerves.  The  question  as  to  why 
the  nerves  of  the  different  sensory  organs  produce  such 
various  sensations  was  either  entirely  abandoned,  or  it  was 
deemed  sufficient  to  say  that  the  cause  should  be  sought 
in  the  brain,  although  the  same  causes  which  were  sup- 
posed to  prove  that  all  nerve  fibres  are  of  the  same 
nature,  would  hold  good  also  in  the  case  of  the  cerebral 
cells  and  fibres.  Even  in  some  of  the  numerous  writ- 
ings of  the  present  day,  we  meet  with  authors  who, 
confounding  philosophy  and  physiology,  declare  that 
the  theory  of  the  specific  energies  is  one  of  the  great 
aberrations  of  physiology. 

In  consideration  of  this  fact,  permit  me,  as  an 
enthusiastic  follower,  although  no  personal  disciple,  of  the 
great  scientist,  to  disclose  and  reveal  the  deep  significance 
of  the  great  master's  doctrine,  and  to  show  that  it  is  the 
application  of  a  principle  which  has  been  or  surely  will 
be  accepted  in  other  provinces  of  biology.- 

The  animal  kingdom  comprises  an  inexhaustible 
multiplicity  of  form,  and  to  a  layman  who  is  not  initiated 
into  the  science  of  biology  it  seems  almost  incredible 
that  all  these  creatures,  so  manifoldly  differing  in  their 
forms  and  habits,  should,  as  germs  in  the  first  stage  of 
their  development,  be  so  homomorphous!  As  a  rule, 
even  the  most  experienced  eye,  with  the  assistance  of 
every  means  of  scientific  analysis,  would  not  be  able  to 
recognize  in  a  germ  the  animal  into  which  it  is  going  to 
develop.  The  fish  as  well  as  the  bird,  and  the  insect  as 
well  as  man,  so  far  as  we  can  judge  according  to  external 
appearance,  all  begin  their  lives  as  most  simple  and 
microscopically  small,  spheroidal  structures.  Nor  does 
this  uniformity  exist  only  for  the  eye;  for  chemical 
analysis  resolves  them  all  into  the  same  ultimate 
elements. 

We  ask  how  is  it  possible  that  totally  different  forms 
can  develop  from  apparently  like  germs,  and  the  answer 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


611 


is,  that  this  resemblance  of  the  germs  is  merely  external. 
By  the  aid  of  even  the  most  powerful  microscopes,  we 
barely  discern  only  the  roughest  outlines  of  their 
structures. 

In  the  heavens,  whole  systems  of  suns  appear  only 
as  nebulae,  which  even  the  most  powerful  telescopes 
cannot  resolve  into  their  single  stars.  As  observation  is 
impossible,  we  can  only  surmise  their  structure.  Simi- 
larly the  ultimate  and  most  delicate  frameworks  in  the 
architecture  of  the  living  substance  of  germs  is  with- 
drawn from  the  observation  of  even  the  most  minute 
research.  Could  we  approach  nearer  and  nearer  to  one 
of  these  nebula;,  one  star  after  the  other  would  emerge 
from  the  apparently  homogeneous  mass;  we  would  see 
planets  revolving  around  their  suns,  and  satellites  about 
the  planets.  Thus,  if  with  our  corporeal  or  intellectual 
eye  we  could  penetrate  into  the  minutest  internal 
structure  of  the  substance  of  germs — if  we  could  compre- 
hend the  arrangement  and  motion  of  the  molecules  and 
atoms — we  would  discover  that  the  living  germ  substance 
of  each  animal  species  has  its  specific  properties,  and  the 
substance  of  each  single  germ  has  its  individual  proper- 
ties on  account  of  which,  in  a  further  evolution,  a  special 
and  peculiar  type  must  mechanically  develop. 

Whether  these  internal  variations  of  the  germs  are 
chemical  or  physical,  is,  at  present,  immaterial;  for  the 
physical  properties  of  a  substance  are  conditioned  by 
cheir  chemical  qualities,  and  when  we  inquire  into  the 
molecular  and  atomic  structure  of  a  substance,  the  divid- 
ing line  between  the  domains  of  chemistry  and  physics 
disappears  entirely.  We  cannot,  in  the  immediate  future, 
however,  hope  to  find  a  chemical  formula  for  the  indi- 
vidual germ  substances.  To  reveal  the  delicate  secret  of 
living  matter  by  the  comparatively  crude  methods  of 
chemistry,  would  be  like  trying  to  explain  the  mechan- 
ism of  a  watch  by  melting  it  in  a  crucible,  and  examining 
the  molten  mass  with  regard  to  its  ingredients. 

As  we  can  not  at  present  solve  the  problem  of 
internal  variation  of  the  externally  similar  germ 
substances,  we  must  be  satisfied  with  the  statement  that 
the  germs  of  each  animal  species  possess  an  inherent 
and  innate  faculty — viz.,  a  specific  energy,  which  directs 
its  developments  in  a  manner  characteristic  to  this 
animal  and  to  no  other.  Again,  each  single  germ 
possesses  an  individual  energy  which,  in  addition  to  the 
normal  features  of  its  species,  secures  an  individual 
character  to  its  future  development. 

Let  us  now  approach  our  problem  from  another  side. 
When  the  naked  eye  is  not  able  to  discern  the  more 
minute  organization  and  delicate  structure  of  an 
organism,  the  anatomist  employs  the  microscope,  and 
a  new  world  of  discernible  facts  is  revealed  to  him. 
The  apparently  homogeneous  form  dissolves  into 
innumerable  distinct  structures;  millions  of  the  minutest 
separately-existing  being-,  different  in  shape  and  internal 


structure,  compose  a  systematically  arranged  aggregate, 
thus  forming  the  diverse  organs;  and  these  beings,  in 
spite  of  the  complicated  interdependence,  lead  quite 
separate  lives,  for  each  single  being  is  an  animated 
centre  of  activity.  The  human  body  does  not  receive 
the  impulse  of  life  like  a  machine  from  one  point,  but 
each  single  atom  of  the  different  organs  bears  its 
vitalizing  power  in  itself.  The  current  of  life  does  not 
emanate  from  one  special  part  of  the  body,  but  all  its 
minutest  parts  are  themselves  sources  of  life.  The 
architecture  of  the  human  body  which  consists  of  these 
elementary  organisms,  or  cells,  as  they  are  called,  has 
often  been  explained.  The  harmonious  interaction  and  the 
division  of  labor  among  these  innumerable  particles  has 
been  compared  to  the  judiciously  adapted  co-operation  of 
the  individual  members  in  a  well  regulated  community. 
As  in  such  a  community,  so  also  in  the  human  organism,  a 
special  kind  of  work  is  consigned  to  each  group  of 
individuals;  and,  according  to  the  various  functions,  the 
elementary  organisms  are  differently  formed;  but  those 
elements  which  possess  the  properly  so-called  vital  power, 
in  every  respect  exhibit  the  most  striking  resemblance, 
although  it  may  be  hidden  by  and  interwoven  with  vari- 
ous less  important  solid  or  fluid  ingredients. 

In  all  living  cells  and  fibres  of  the  various  organs  we 
always  encounter  the  same  colorless,  almost  fluid,  soft, 
easily  changeable  substance  in  the  shape  of  most  delicate 
threads,  nets  or  drops.  It  is  the  properly  vital  element  of 
the  cell.  There  the  enigma  of  life  lies  buried,  for  it  is 
the  moving  and  creating  power  in  the  elementary  organ- 
ism. It  produces  the  contraction  of  muscular  fibres,  and 
transmits  the  irritation  in  the  nerve  fibre;//  builds  up  the 
solid  and  strong  mass  of  the  supporting  bone,  and  the 
tough  fibre  of  the  tendon.  7/  shapes  the  feathers  of  the 
bird,  the  scales  of  the  fish  and  horns  of  the  stag. 

Yet,  it  is  everywhere  apparently  the  same,  and  if  it 
is  isolated  from  its  proper  sphere  and  surroundings,  and 
considered  by  itself,  the  most  experienced  eye  cannot 
tell  which  of  the  different  functions  was  performed  by  it. 

Again  we  ask,  how  is  it  possible  that  apparently 
equal  causes  produce  such  different  effects.  And  here 
no  one  will  doubt  that  in  spite  of  external  similarity  the 
living  substance  in  the  cells  of  the  individual  organs  is 
internally  different ;  and  a  difference  of  function  neces- 
sarily results  from  this  difference  of  internal  structure. 
It  is  an  innate  function.  The  specific  energy  of  the  living 
substance  in  the  liver  produces  bile  as  the  specific  energy 
of  the  root  of  a  hair  builds  up  the  horny  mass  of  hair. 

All  the  innumerable  elementary  beings  or  cells  of  an 
organism  are  the  offspring  of  one  single  germ  cell  in 
which  the  development  commenced.  Bv  division  the 
first  cell  was  split  in  two.  Although  both  were  inti- 
mately connected  with  each  other,  they  were  neverthe- 
less to  a  certain  extent  independent  cell'.  These 
two     cells    divided    again,    and     formed      other      cells, 


6l2 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


and  so  on.  Thus  by  a  constantly  renewed  formation 
of  more  living  substance  the  number  of  the  elemen- 
tary structures  increases  in  an  almost  inexhaustible 
multiplicity.  But  in  the  progress  of  multiplication  also 
form  and  arrangement  of  the  cells  are  changed.  They 
separate  into  divers  homogeneous  groups,  each  of  which 
differs  from  the  others  in  character  in  so  far  as  it  per- 
forms a  special  function.  The  living  substance  is  specialized 
in  the  process  of  development  according  to  its  function 
and  destination.  All  the  united  different  specific  ener- 
gies which  later  on  will  develop  to  full  life  separately 
in  its  descendants,  lie  concealed,  although  only  potentially, 
in  the  substance  of  a  germ. 

In  the  light  of  these  considerations  the  diversity  of 
function  in  the  nervous  substance  can  no  longer  surprise 
us.  Its  external  similarity  prevents  us  from  considering 
it  as  internally  different,  and  from  claiming  for  it  specific 
energies  according  to  the  doctrine  of  Johannes  Muller. 
(To  be  concluded!) 


FOLK-LORE   STUDIES. 


BY    I  .  J.    VAXCE. 
/. 

In  a  gossipy  sketch  of  "Washington  Irving  at  Home," 
in  the  May  Century,  Mr.  Clarence  Bull  notes  that 
Irving  has  been  rightly  called  the  last  of  the  my- 
thologists.  Thus,  to  show  how  even  educated  people 
regarded  the  inimitable  "  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow," 
and  the  happy  stories  of  Diedrich  Knickerbocker,  Mr. 
Bull  quotes  the  criticism  of  a  well-known  scholar  of 
Dutch  ancestry,  who  thought  perhaps  that  he  was 
passing  an  awful  sentence  on  the  genial  author  of  the 
Sketch  Book,  when  he  said  that  it  was  painful  to  see  a 
mind  like  Irving's  "  wasting  the  riches  of  its  fancy  on 
an  ungrateful  theme."  Would  that  Irving  had  squand- 
ered a  still  larger  portion  of  his  mental  endowment  and 
inheritance  on  this  ungrateful  theme, — on  this  Folk-Lore ! 
The  truth  is,  that  Irving  was  the  last  of  the  mytholo- 
gists  because  mythology  at  that  time  did  not  pay;  it 
was  an  ungrateful  theme  because  it  found  no  appreciative 
audience  or  readers. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  this  attitude  toward 
the  rich  stores  of  a  people's  legends  and  romances  has 
quite  disappeared.  Indeed,  some  enthusiastic  students 
have  not  hesitated  to  argue  that  the  Folk-Lore  of  a  people 
is  of  more  importance  in  the  history  of  progress — Cul- 
ture-History, as  the  Germans  well  term  it — than  the 
Court  or  Epsom.  At  all  events,  the  legendary  lore  and 
popular  tales,  which  still  survive  among  our  simple- 
minded  folk,  are  to-day  the  most  striking  witnesses  of 
the  evolution  of  culture  from  those  low  grades  of  human 
thought  and  feeling  that  characterize  primitive  and 
uncivilized  communities. 

Now,  about  the  time  that  Washington  Irving  was 
wasting  so   much   time  with  the  simple  legends  of  the 


Dutch  along  the  Hudson,  a  German  scholar,  Jacob  Grimm 
by  name,  was  wasting  many  valuable  years  in  collecting 
childish  legends  and  popular  tales  so  dearly  treasured  by 
rude  and  uncultivated  German  peasants.  From  that 
day  until  this,  the  by-ways  and  hedges  of  all  Europe 
have  been  more  or  less  ransacked  by  keen-eyed  and 
inquiring  disciples  of  Grimm,  eagerly  taking  down  the 
marvelous  stories  as  they  fell  from  the  lips  of  the 
peasantry.  What  was  thus  taken  down,  not  only  found 
its  way  in  print,  but  found  thousands  of  readers.  And 
now  the  lettered  were  willing  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  the 
unlettered.  Folk-Lore  societies  were  quickly  established 
for  the  purpose  of  collecting  and  preserving  these  fanci- 
ful legends,  and  its  members  are  now  numbered  by  the 
hundreds.  But  above  all,  when  scholars  came  to  put  the 
popular  stories  from  all  over  the  globe  side  by  side,  a 
most  astonishing  similarity  was  at  once  observed.  It 
seemed  impossible  that  the  Hindus  and  Germans,  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  should  have  borrowed  their  tradi- 
tionary lore  after  they  had  separated  and  settled  thou- 
sands of  miles  apart.  There  was — there  could  be — but 
one  obvious  explanation,  and  that  was,  of  course,  that  the 
framework  of  the  story  or  legend  came  from  a  common 
source.  Thus  a  new  science  was  born,  and  christened 
Comparative  Mythology.  Together  with  comparative 
philology,  it  established  the  kinship  of  that  branch  of 
the  human  race  known  as  Aryan. 

The  question  now  is,  what  have  our  American  students 
of  Folk-Lore  done  toward  contributing  their  share  to  the 
History  of  Culture?  The  answer  is  brief,  but  unsatis- 
factory: With  the  exception  of  some  Indian  legends 
(often  colored  by  the  poetical  white  man), and  a  few  negro 
tales,  our  scholars  have  done  very  little  toward  gathering 
materials  for  the  comparative  study  of  Folk-Lore.  The 
result  is,  that  our  students  of  Folk-Lore  have  been  obliged 
to  seek  foreign  fields.  Thus,  Professor  John  Fiske,  in 
his  "  Myths  and  Myth-makers,"  and  Professor  Crane,  of 
Cornell,  in  his  "  Italian  Popular  Tales,"  have  shown  us 
what  American  students  could  do,  if  only  the  materials 
for  American  Folk- Lore  studies  were  forthcoming. 

Confining,  then,  the  subject  to  America,  it  may  be 
asked,  where  shall  we  look  for  the  materials  of  such  a 
study  ? — that  is  to  say :  Where  are  we  able  to  find  in 
this  country  those  items  of  superstition  or  traditionary 
lore  which  make  up  the  body  of  a  people's  Folk-Lore? 
Obviously,  there  are  two  or  three  classes  of  native 
Americans  among  whom  we  may  look  for  striking  cases 
of  intellectual  survival.  In  the  first  place,  the  North 
American  Indians  have  furnished  more  or  less  of  a 
great  mass  of  popular  legends,  and  the  student  must 
learn  to  distinguish  between  what  is  true  and  what  is 
false.  Then,  the  Southern  negroes,  as  recent  study 
leads  us  to  believe,  will  ako  contribute  their  full  share 
of  stories  to  the  comparative  student  of  Folk-Lore.  Then, 
again,  there  are  one  or  two  other  sources,  such  as  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


613 


superstitions  current  among  the  French  Canadians,  and 
the  fables  such  as  the  late  Professor  Hartt  and  Mr. 
Smith  have  collected  among  the  Indian  tribes  on  the 
Amazon.  There  may  be  still  other  sources,  but  they 
need  1  ot  be  enumerated  at  this  time. 

Without  going  further,  therefore,  we  believe  that 
the  popular  traditions  or  legends  of  Indians,  Negroes, 
and  Canadians  alone  form  rich  stores  for  the  student  of 
American  Folk-Lore.  All  the  conditions  necessary  for  the 
development  of  Folk-Lore  are  found  among  the  above- 
named  folk.  These  conditions  may  be  broadly  divided 
into  two  classes:  (1)  Those  which  are  due  to  physical 
phenomena  or  causes,  and  (2)  those  which  spring  from 
ignorance,  and  thus  lead  men  to  explain  natural  causes 
by  supernatural  agencies. 

Thus,  under  the  first  condition  we  ha'/e  all  those  popu- 
lar tales  or  traditions  which  embody  usually  the  sum 
total  of  a  rude  or  primitive  folk's  knowledge  of  the  out- 
ward world.  There  is  hardly  an  object,  animate  or 
inanimate,  which  is  not  used  or  made  to  play  a  part  in 
these  popular  stories.  Under  what  Mr.  Buckle  has 
called  the  "  Aspects  of  Nature,"  the  Piimitive  Aryans 
had  a  crowd  of  myths  which  were  not  a  whit  different 
from  our  modern  popular  tales.  The  difference  between 
Folk-Lore  and  Mythology  is  simply  one  of  degree,  not 
of  kind.  As  the  Rev.  »Sir  George  Cox  well  says, 
"Folk-Lore,  in  short,  is  perpetually  running  into  myth- 
ology."—  {Introduction  to  Mythology,  etc.,  p.  v.) 

Under  the  second  condition  we  have  a  host  of  popu- 
lar stories  which  are  due  to  popular  ignorance.  So  long 
as  natural  laws  remain  unknown,  anything  like  a  rational 
explanation  of  strange  and  wonderful  phenomena  will  be 
wholly  out  of  the  question.  "  People  perfectly  ignorant 
of  physical  laws,"  says  Mr.  Buckle,  "  will  refer  to  super- 
natural causes  all  the  phenomena,  by  which  they  are  sur- 
rounded."— (History  of  Civilization,  vol.  1,  p.  265.) 

Although,  happily,  under  the  influence  of  physical 
science  and  education,  many  of  the  irrational  supersti- 
tions of  the  past  have  vanished,  never  to  bother  us  more, 
yet  many  items  of  superstition  still  linger  on  in  remote 
districts,  and  these  the  student  of  Folk-Lore  must  indus- 
triously track  out  and  jealously  preserve.  As  we  have 
said,  there  are  still  rich  stores  of  popular  tales,  survivals 
of  which  may  still  be  found  among  the  Indians,  the 
Negroes,  and  the  Canadians.  Fortunately,  many  of 
these  traditions  have  already  been  gathered,  but  they 
have,  so  far,  been  turned  to  but  little  account. 

We  shall  briefly  try  to  point  out  the  uses  to  which 
the  mass  of  material  thus  gathered  might  be  put;  for, 
as  Mr.  E.  B.  Tylor  argues,  the  use  of  Folk-Lore  de- 
pends mainly  on  the  answering  of  the  following  ques 
tion:  "  When  similiar  arts,  beliefs,  or  legends  are  found 
in  several  distant  regions,  among  peoples  not  known 
to  be  of  the  same  stock,  how  is  this  similarity  to  be 
accounted  for?" 


//. 

In  attempting  to  account  for  similar  beliefs  or  legends 
found  current  among  distant  peoples  not  known  to  be 
related,  the  student  of  Folk-Lore  is  very  apt  to  be  led 
into  a  labyrinth  of  inconsistencies.  He  will  perhaps  run 
across  similarities  so  striking,  so  ingenious,  or  so  circum- 
stantial, that  straightway  he  concludes  that  there  is  some 
historical  connection  or  relation  between  the  folk  among 
whom  such  similarities  are  found  prevailing.  He  draws 
conclusions  which,  though  acute  and  suggestive,  are  not 
warranted  by  sound  methods  of  interpretation  and  of  com- 
parative Folk-Lore. 

There  are  two  methods  of  studying  American  Folk- 
Lore.  One  considers  its  origin,  and  the  other  is  strictly 
a  work  of  comparison  and  analysis.  The  first  method 
is  manifestly  important  in  establishing  the  kinship  of 
distant  peoples;  the  second  shows  the  individuality  of 
each  cultus  and  the  workings  of  the  primitive  mind 
either  under  similar  or  dissimilar  conditions.  Hence, 
the  question,  how  American  Folk-Lore  was  manufac- 
tured is,  in  our  present  brief  survey,  less  pertinent  than 
the  inquiry  as  to  how  it  compares  with  that  of  the  rest 
of  the  world.  We  must,  in  a  measure,  classify  the 
crowd  of  folk-tales  which  have  come  up  independently 
and  those  which  may  have  a  common  origin. 

Major  J.  W.  Powell,  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  in 
his  Third  Report  (LXVI.)  has  very  well  pointed  out 
that,  independent  similarities  may  be  (  1)  entirely  adven- 
titious or  (2)  may  be  due  to  concausation.  That  simi- 
larities of  a  common  origin  may  be  due  (1)  to  cognation 
and  (2)  to  acculturation — that  is,  to  imitation.  An 
example  or  two  may  perhaps  show  the  above  distinctions 
in  a  clearer  light. 

The  resemblances  between  the  stories  relating  to 
different  natural  phenomena,  for  example,  are  not 
evidences  that  such  stories  have  come  from  a  common 
source.  Some  North  American  Indian  tribes  believe 
that  the  winds  are  the  breathings  of  mythic  animals. 
This  story  is  found  scattered  all  over  the  world.  Other 
Indian  tribes  have  legends  about  a  gigantic  bird,  the 
flapping  of  whose  wings  causes  thunder.  This  legend, 
found  among  the  Tlinkit  and  Innuit  tribes  of  Alaska,  in 
the  New  World,  was  also  current  among  several  people 
of  the  Old  World.  Manifestly,  the  presumption  is  that 
such  tales  are  independent,  and  are  due  to  concausation. 

Again,  very  many  savage  tribes  have  explanations  of 
the  rain  surprisingly  similar  even  in  minute  details. 
Thus,  in  the  falling  rain,  both  the  Greek  and  the  Savage 
saw  the  dropping  tears  shed  by  a  tender-hearted  deity, 
while  the  electric  flash,  like  the  eyes  of  a  Homeric  hero, 
to  them  sent  forth  the  dreadful  lightnings  of  an  angry 
God.  Ellis  in  his  Polynesian  Researches  noted  the  same 
tale  among  the  Tabitians,  who  say: 

"Thickly  fall  the  small  rain  on  the  face  of  the  sea. 
They  are  not  drops  of  rain,  but  they  are  tears  of  Oro." 


614 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


The  plain  truth  is,  that  such  lore  is  concausedy  and 
has  been  developed  independently. 

A  comparison  of  a  few  well-known  American 
legends  with  their  analogues  in  the  Old  World  may  also 
serve  to  strengthen  the  above  argument  in  another  way 
I  venture  to  think  that  we  shall  find  that  popular  stories 
are  more  widely  diffused  than  most  persons  are  inclined 
to  believe. 

We  may  take  the  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow.  Who 
will  forget  the  school-master,  Icabod  Crane!  How 
many  of  us  smile  at  the  fearful  race  between  Icabod  and 
the  headless  horseman !  How  vivid  the  scene  where 
Icabod  gallops  over  the  bridge  of  the  Pocantico,  scared 
out  of  his  wits,  and  the  horseman  clattering  just  at  his 
heels!  This  story  has  become  part  and  parcel  of  our 
native  lore.  But  the  frame-work  of  the  story  is 
found  in  the  German  tale  of  the  peasants  pursued  by  the 
Wild  Huntsman, — our  Heme  the  Hunter.  The  materials 
of  course  are  used  differently;  in  one  case  the  scenery 
and  local  coloring  belong  to  the  Catskill  Mountains» 
and  in  the  other,  the  descriptions  and  events  are  all 
applicable  to  the  Hartz  Mountains.  In  the  German 
tale  the  Heljiiger  (hell-hunter)  hunts  in  the  clouds  all 
the  year  round  except  the  twelve  nights  between 
Christmas  and  Twelfth-night.  During  this  time  he 
hunts  on  earth,  and  woe  to  anyone  who  meets  him  in 
the  woods  or  leaves  his  door  open  during  the  night  for 
the  huntsman's  dogs  to  run  in!  That  unfortunate  person 
will  meet  with  great  trouble. 

We  may  take  next,  the  familiar  legend  of  Rip  Van 
Winkle.  There  has  .been  a  persistent  effort  on  the  part 
of  some  students  to  make  this  out  a  sun  myth;  others, 
misled  by  Washington  Irving's  note  to  the  tale  that  it 
was  "suggested  by  a  little  German  superstition  about 
the  Emperor  Frederick  Rothbart  and  the  Kyff- 
hauser  Mountain;"  others,  as  a  well-known  English 
author,  have  regarded  the  legend  as  a  purely  autochtho- 
nous myth.  Indeed,  the  simple  and  very  charming  way 
in  which  Irving  has  tolci  about  Rip's  sleep  is  apt  to 
throw  one  off  of  the  right  scent.  Witness,  when  Rip 
woke  up,  "he  looked  around,  but  he  could  see  nothing 
but  a  crow  winging  its  solitary  flight  across  the  moun- 
tain." Now,  it  is  this  home- like  and  artistic  touch  that 
gives  the  legend  its  verisimilitude,  and  its  native  flavor. 

Perhaps  nearest  allied  to  the  Catskill  legend  is  the  Ger- 
man story  of  Peter  Klaus,  a  goat-herd.  One  day  Peter 
was  accosted  by  a  stranger,  who  beckoned  him  to  come 
along.  He  was  in  this  way  led  to  a  deep  dell,  where  he 
found  twelve  courtly  knights  playing  at  skittles.  Not 
a  word  was  uttered,  though  a  can  of  wine  was  offered 
to  Klaus,  who  drank  his  fill.  Thereupon  he  fell  into  a 
deep  sleep,  and  when  he  awoke  he  found  himself  where 
his  goats  were  accustomed  to  feed,  but  rubbing  his  eyes 
again  and  again  he  failed  to  see  them.  On  descending 
to  the  place  where  the  village  lay,  he   found  everything 


changed ;  his  old  friends  were  dead ;  his  old  acquaintances 
had  disappeared,  while  he  himself  was  alone  and  totally 
forgotten.  In  truth  he  had  been  asleep  for  twenty 
years. 

In  the  Scotch  story  of  Tom-na-Hurich — the  Hill  of 
the  Fairies — we  have  another  version  of  the  Catskill 
Mountain  legend.  It  is  the  story  of  the  two  fiddlers  of 
Strathspey.  The  two  fiddlers,  one  Christmas  season,  ar- 
rived at  Inverness,  and  there  sought  to  hire  out  to  such 
as  would  need  their  services.  Shortly  after  their  ar- 
rival a  gray-haired  old  man  called  upon  them,  and 
offered  them  a  good  sum  of  money  if  they  would  play 
for  him  just  out  of  the  town.  They  readily  agreed,  and 
followed  him  to  what  looked  like  a  shed,  and  they 
noticed  that  they  went  through  a  long  vestibule  which 
led  into  the  hill.  They  played  all  through  the  long 
night,  and  saw  such  dancing  as  they  had  never  before  or 
since  in  their  lives.  In  the  wee  sma'  hours  of  the  morn- 
ing they  were  dismissed  with  additional  pay.  Again 
they  noticed,  as  they  took  their  leave,  that  they  went  out 
of  the  hill.  The  sleepy  fiddlers  soon  made  their  way  to 
town,  onlv  to  find  everything  and  everybody  changed; 
the  houses  and  streets  had  a  strange  look;  while  the 
towns-people  had  no  recollection  of  their  Christmas 
visit.  At  last  one  man  said :  "You  are  the  two  men  who 
lodged  with  my  grandfather,  and  whom  Thomas  the 
Rimer  decoyed  into  the  Tom-na  Hurich.  Your 
friends  were  greatly  alarmed  at  the  time;  but  that  is  a 
hundred  years  ago."  The  story  ends  rather  peculiarly. 
The  fiddlers  went  to  church  that  day,  and  when  the  first 
words  of  Bible  were  read,  they  vanished  into  thin  dust. 

We  may  take,  further,  the  story  of  the  Rabbi  Honi, 
or  Chone  Hamagel.  The  main  incidents  of  this  story 
are  given  with  some  detail  in  the  Talmud.  According 
to  this  version  the  Rabbi  was  a  kind  of  misanthrope  and 
skeptic  combined.  He  would  take  long  walks  by 
himself,  and  argue  and  re-argue  to  great  problems  of 
existence.  "What  is  life?  What  is  life?"  he  would 
ask  time  and  time  again.  "It  is  like  a  fleeting  shadow," 
— and  that  is  all  the  conclusion  he  could  come  to.  One 
day  he  saw  an  old  gray-haired  man  planting  the  St. 
John's  bread,  or  carob-tree.  The  Rabbi  Honi  gently 
hinted  to  the  old  man  that  it  was  folly  for  him  to  waste 
his  short  time  and  energy  in  planting  a  tree  whose  fruit 
would  only  come  in  seventy  years.  "  Dost  thou  hope 
to  live  so  long?  "  Said  the  old  man:  "  I  plant  this  tree 
not  for  myself.  In  my  youth  I  gathered  fruit  from  the 
trees  planted  by  my  grandfathers;  now  would  I  provide 
for  the  happiness  of  my  descendants."  Thus  a  new 
train  of  thought  quickly  arose  in  Honi's  mind;  thus  a 
new  set  of  questions  sprang  up  to  perplex  him.  He 
could  not  satisfy  his  own  doubts.  Wearied  by  his 
walk  and  troubled  by  his  thoughts,  the  Rabbi  falls 
into  a  quiet  sleep  on  a  little  hill  of  ground.  He 
sleeps  on    and   on — for   seventy  years.      He  wakes  up; 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


615 


he  rubs  his  eyes;  he  gets  up  and  wends  his  way  home- 
ward. On  his  way  he  sees  a  great  carob-tree  flourishing 
where  yesterday  he  saw  the  old  man  planting  a  slender 
twig.  He  asks  a  boy,  "  Who  planted  this  tree?"  and  is 
told  that  it  was  planted  by  his  grandfather.  Then  Honi 
knew  that  he  had  slept  seventy  years.  When  he  comes 
to  his  native  city,  behold !  the  streets,  the  houses,  the 
people,  are  all  strange.  Even  his  own  relatives  have 
forgotten  him;  but  they  listen  to  his  wondrous  tale,  and 
give  him  a  home.  The  legend  is  manifestly  fitted  to  the 
Semitic  cast  of  mind,  and  its  motif  betrays  the  workings 
of  a  deeply  religious  sentiment. 

The  story  of  Frederich  dcr  Rothbart,  alluded  to  by 
Irving,  has  very  little  in  common  with  the  Rip  Van 
Winkle  legend.  The  Emperor  sleeps  under  the 
Rabensping  (Raven's  Hill)  with  his  armored  knights 
around  him,  and  ready  to  come  forth  at  Germany's  hour 
of  need.  The  legend  runs  that  a  shepherd  by  accident 
came  upon  the  scene,  and  woke  the  Emperor  from  his 
long  slumber.  "Are  the  ravens  still  flying  round  the 
hill?"  Frederich  inquired.  "Yes."  "Then  I  must  sleep 
another  hundred  years." 

I  venture  to  think  that  the  Catskill  legend  of  Rip 
Van  Winkle,  together  with  its  different  analogues  in  the 
Old  World,  are  only  variants  of  two  or  three  very  strik- 
ing incidents.  These  incidents  are:  (1)  the  delusion  or 
enticement;  (2)  the  retreat  to  a  hill;  (3)  the  long  sleep. 

In  regard  to  the  first,  we  see  that  Rip  Van  Winkle 
was  deluded  by  the  love  of  whiskey,  Peter  Klaus  by  the 
love  of  wine,  and  the  two  fiddlers  of  Strathspey  were 
enticed  by  their  love  of  money.  In  the  Talmud  version 
the  Rabbi  read  that, 

"  When  the  Lord  turned  again  the  captivity  of  Zion, 
We  were  then  like  men  that  dream." 

Thus,  from  this  the  Rabbi  becomes  the  dupe  of  his 
"all-subtilizing  intellect." 

In  another  large  class  of  stories  we  have  an  account  of 
men  who  are  enticed  by  the  love  of  beauty.  Wagner's 
well-known  opera  of  Tannhaiiser  is  founded  on  this 
version  of  the  legend.  In  the  case  of  Tannhaiiser  the 
Queen  entices  him  into  the  Horselberg,  and  there  keeps 
him,  a  not  unwilling  captive.  Unfortunately  with  the 
native  tale  there  has  been  mixed  a  good  deal  of  Chris- 
tian sentiment  and  rubbish.  Again,  it  is  the  Faery 
Queen  that  entices  Thomas  the  Rhymer  into  the  Ercil- 
doune.  At  the  end  of  seven  years  he  is  allowed  to 
return  to  the  earth,  on  the  agreement  that  he  will  go 
back  whenever  a  summons  should  come.  One  day  a 
hart  and  a  hind  were  seen  moving  up  the  street,  and 
Thomas,  who  followed  them  into  the  woods  and  up  to 
the  down,  was  never  seen  afterward. 

In  these  two  tales  we  have  a  hill,  berg,  or  down,  into 
which  men  are  enticed.  In  each  the  framework  of  the 
legend  is  quite  similar;  the  materials,  however,  are 
quite  dissimilar.     It  should  be  observed,  that,   in  some 


versions  of  the  main  legend,  the  long  sleep  is  a  more 
important  incident  than  anything  else.  We  have  the 
story  of  the  Cretan  Epimenides,  who,  tending  his  flock, 
fell  asleep  in  a  cave  and  did  not  wake  for  half  a  cen- 
tury. We  have  again  the  mystic  number  Seven  in 
connection  with  long  sleep,  —as  in  the  different  versions 
of  the  Seven  Sages  of  Hellas  and  the  Seven  Sleepers  of 
Ephesus.  In  the  latter  the  tradition  also  goes  that  St. 
John  was  not  dead,  but  only  sleeping  till  the  great 
consummation  of  the  world  should  come. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  show  further  that  the  American 
story  is  only  a  common  form,  a  legend  diffused  through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  Europe.  These  tales  of 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  of  the  two  fiddlers  of  Strathspey,  of 
Peter  Claus,  of  the  Rabbi  Chone    Hamagel  are   simply 

myths — 

"  Or  such  refraction  of  events, 
As  often  rises  ere  they  rise." 

As  a  study  of  comparative  Folk-Lore,  the  above 
sketch  brings  out  pretty  plainly  one  or  two  things.  It 
shows,  first  of  all,  that  there  is  a  good  deal  of  human 
nature  in  men  wherever  we  find  them.  It  shows,  also, 
that  we  mortals  are  "all  in  a  tale."  From  the  stupid 
Peter  Klaus  and  the  hen-pecked  Rip  Van  Winkle  to 
the  school-master  Icabod  Crane  and  the  subtile  Rabbi 
Honi,  we  all  share  coincident  beliefs  or  delusions. 

{To  be  concluded.) 
TO  ARMS. 

BY    WHEELBARROW. 

I  have  just  been  reading  the  proceedings  of  "  The 
Trade  and  Labor  Assembly,"  and  also  the  resolutions  of 
"  The  Cigar  Maker's  Progressive  Union."  Both 
gatherings  demand  social  and  economic  changes  of  great 
importance,  but  the  Cigar  Makers'  arc  the  more  "  pro- 
gressive "  of  the  two.  They  have  reached  the 
end  of  rational  argument,  and  propose  to  fight. 
Their  program  was  contained  in  a  "  circular," 
the  first  demand  of  which  was  "  Destruction  of 
the  existing  class  rule  by  energetic,  relentless,  revolu- 
tionary, and  international  action."  They  also  adopted 
some  resolutions,  the  chief  of  which  was  "  that 
the  only  means  through  which  our  aims,  the  emancipa- 
tion of  all  mankind,  can  be  accomplished,  is  open  rebel- 
lion of  the  despoiled  of  all  nations  against  the  existing 
social,  economic,  and  political  institutions."  Those 
resolutions  have  a  flavor  of  Barnaby  Rudge.  They 
resemble  the  crimson  doctrines  proclaimed  by  the 
London  apprentices,  led  by  that  "  relentless  "  warrior  of 
the  thin  legs  and  the  wooden  sword,  Captain  Sim. 
Tappertit.  Still,  for  all  that,  their  language  is  plain, 
and  they  express  a  bold  purpose.  A  hater  of  "  class 
rule"  all  my  life,  I  am  willing  to  fight  for  its  destruc- 
tion.    Where  is  the  recruiting  office? 

Although   I   am    not   certain    that   a   "class    rule"   of 
"  Progressive  Cigar  Makers  "  would  be  any  better  than 


6i6 


THK    OPEN    COURT 


the  ''class  rule"  we  are  living  under  now,  and  although 
there  is  no   close   affinity    between  shoveling  coal  and 
making  cigars,  still,  I  am  willing  to  stand  by  the  Cigar 
Makers   as  brother    constituents  in    the    great   confra- 
ternity   of    labor.     Unlike    most    occupations    toward 
each  other,  there  happens  to  be  no  reciprocity  of  bene- 
fits  between  the  Cigar  Makers  and   me.     The  favors 
conferred  are  all  from  them  to  me,  and  none  from  me  to 
them.     They  are  compelled  to  burn  coal,  and  thus  give 
me  employment,  but  I  am  not  compelled  to  burn  cigars. 
I  cannot  help  their  trade  to  the  amount  of  five  cents  a 
year.     I  cannot  afford  to  smoke  cigars.     I  have  to  be 
contented    with    a   pipe   of    tobacco,   and  think'  myself 
lucky   to   get  that.     My  son,  however,  the  short-hand 
writer  that  I  spoke   of,  gets  twice  as  much  wages  for 
scribbling  curious  pot-hooks  and  hieroglyphics  as  I  ever 
got  for  shoveling  coal,  and  he  can  afford  to  smoke  cigars. 
I  think  he  smokes  more  of  them  than  is  good  for  him,  but 
that's  his  own  affair,  not  mine.     If  I  had  his  wealth  I 
should   probably  smoke  cigars  as  he  does.     Whether  I 
smoke  their  cigars  or  not  makes  no  difference;  I  am  as 
ready  to  fight  for  the  rights  of  Cigar  Makers  as  for  my 
own;  but,  although  I  have  sought  diligently  for  it,  I  have 
thus  far  been  unable  to  find  the  recruiting  office.     Where 
can  1  find  the  headquarters  of  Captain  Sim.  Tappertit? 
Brothers,  unless  we  are  ready  to  open  the  recruiting 
office  let  us  not  talk  about  fighting.     By  doing  so  we 
expose  our   own   weakness.      We   bring   derision    upon 
ourselves  and   contempt  upon  our  cause:     That  is  not 
the  worst  of  it;  we  undervalue  the  moral  forces  which 
we  hold  in  our  own  hands.     We  depreciate  the  strength 
we   have  by  appealing  to  a  strength    which  we    have 
not.     It  may  be  rash  and  foolish  to  fight  even  for  liberty, 
but    it    is  brave.     To   talk    fight    without   intending   it 
is  equally  rash  and  foolish,  but  not  brave.     It  is  neither 
wise   nor   patriotic   to  persuade  the  working  men  that 
their  moral  resources  are  all  exhausted,  and  that  there  is 
no  reform  power  in  the  ballot,  in  the  press,  and  in  public 
opinion.     The  statement  is  not  true;  and  the  men  who 
make  it  present   to   us   a  dilemma  of  double    despair. 
Without    arms,  discipline,   leaders,  or  even   a    plan    of 
battle,  fighting  is  clearly  hopeless.     If  the  ballotis  impo- 
tent also,  then  we  must  fall  back  for  comfort  on  bom- 
bast and  beer.     We  can  fill  ourselves  with  nectar  of  the 
gods  at  five  cents  a  glass,  and   boast  of  our  intention  at 
some   future   time   to  paint  the  universe   red.      It    is  all 
very  fine  to  pass  a  string  of  resolutions,  to   "  sound  the 
tocsin,"   whatever  that  is,   and  summon   us  to  the  fray, 
but  the  resolutors  will  not   lead  us.      They  pretend   that 
they    can    no   more   set    a    squadron    in    the    field   than 
Michael  Cassio.      They  invite  us  to  go  ahead  and  do  the 
fighting.      If  we  win,  and  accomplish  the  "  relentless  " 
revolution,  they  promise  to  step  up   and    accept  all  the 
offices  under  the    new    government.     This  division  of 
labor  is  not   fair. 


Suppose  that  we  do  possess  power  enough  to  overturn 
one  government,  have  we  sufficient  wisdom  to  form 
another  and  a  better  one?  I  have  serious  doubts  about 
that.  1  think  we  have  a  great  deal  to  unlearn  before 
we  shall  be  competent  to  establish  and  conduct  a  just 
government.  I  fear  that  even  the  "  Progressive  Cigar 
Makers"  are  scarcely  equal  to  the  task.  At  the  great 
Labor  picnic  I  saw  them  with  "  relentless  "  fury  destroy 
the  stock  in  trade  of  a  merchant  on  the  ground.  His 
offense  was,  that  he  had  some  cigars  in  stock  which  had 
been  made  by  Cigar  Makers  who  were  not  "  Progres- 
sive." For  this,  his  property  was  destroyed  and  his  life 
placed  in  jeopardy.  Men,  who  value  liberty  only  so  far 
as  it  gives  them  freedom  to  oppress  their  fellow-men, 
talk  of  building  a  new  civilization  on  the  ruins  of  the 
American  political  and  social  system. 

For  instance,  in  the  "circular"  referred  to  above,  I 
find  a  demand  of  "equal  rights  for  all  without  distinc- 
tion to  sex  or  race, "  and  I  also  read  that  the  very  meet- 
ing that  adopted  it  "protested  against  the  employment 
of  women. "  What  sort  of  "equal  rights"  will  be  estab- 
lished by  a  party  which  refuses  to  women  the  equal 
right  with  men  to  earn  an  honest  living?  The  Trade 
and  Labor  Assembly  also  appointed  a  committee,  which 
made  a  report  complaining  of  many  wrongs  which  la- 
bor suffers  in  the  City  of  Chicago,  and  among  them  this: 
"  Female  labor  is  being  largely  used  to  replace  male  la- 
bor in  skilled  occupations,  such  as  telegraphing,  book- 
keeping, etc. "  The  radical  mistake  of  the  labor  re- 
formers is  the  delusion  that  all  persons  who  work  at  the 
same  trade  are  enemies,  snatching  bread  from  one 
another.  I  used  to  think  that  way,  but  now  I  believe 
that  the  reverse  of  it  is  the  true  doctrine.  I  believe 
now  that  everybody  should  work,  that  the  more  work- 
ers the  more  product,  and  consequently  the  more  com- 
forts of  life  for  us  all. 

The  equal  right  of  women  to  work  at  "  skilled  la- 
bor" is  evidence  that  we  are  emerging  from  that  social 
barbarism  which  consigned  one  part  of  them  to  the 
bondage  of  the  kitchen,  another  to  the  insip;d  languor  of 
the  drawing  room,  and  another  to  a  dependence  on 
man's  wickedness,  so  pitiful  and  so  sad  that  we  fear  to 
look  upon  it  lest  it  show  us  the  reflection  of  our  own 
guilt,  and  make  our  consciences  rebel  within  us  at  the 
savagery  of  man.  "  Skilled  labor"  is  one  of  the  blessed 
agencies  that  shall  redeem  women  from  poverty,  from 
wash-tub  slavery,  and  from  sin.  It  may  be  said  that  I 
can  talk  this  way  because  women  don't  compete  with 
me  at  shoveling  coal  or  carrying  the  hod.  That's  true; 
but  I  would  talk  the  same  way  if  I  were  a  skilled 
mechanic.  If  I  were  a  telegrapher  or  a  book-keeper,  I 
would  hold  myself  unmanly  to  whine  and  whimper 
should  a  woman  come  along  and  compete  with  me  at 
the  trade.  Throw  open  to  women  all  the  trades,  all  the 
offices,   and   all  the  professions,  and  make  her  independ- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


6r 


ent.  I  have  another  theory  also,  and  it  is  this:  That  the 
elevation  of  woman  can  never  degrade  man  nor  her 
prosperity  injure  him. 

There  are  some  things  that  we  feel  to  be  wrong, 
although  we  may  not  have  sufficient  ability  to  demon- 
strate their  injustice.  The  principle  of  excluding  per 
sons  from  learning  or  exercising  trades  I  am  confident 
is  not  sound,  although  I  may  not  be  able  to  tell  why.  I 
feel  it  because  I  have  suffered  from  it.  I  told,  in  a  for- 
mer article,  how  my  four  sons  were  forbidden  to 
learn  any  trade  in  this  land  where  they  were  born, 
which  their  forefathers  fought  to  establish,  and  which 
their  father  fought  to  re-establish.  They  were  forbid- 
den ,  to  learn  by  the  laws  of  the  trades.  I  feel  that  the 
exclusion  was  unjust,  and  that  the  principle  of  it  is 
wrong.  My  daughter  learned  a  trade  in  spite  of  the 
doctrine,  and  it  is  now  proposed  that  she  shall  not  exer- 
cise it.  She  is  a  book-keeper.  She  is  competent,  has  a 
good  situation,  and,  although  not  yet  seventeen  years  old, 
she  feels  absolutely  independent.  A  lot  of  social  re- 
formers get  themselves  together  in  a  beer  saloon,  and 
"  resoloot  "  that  she  ought  not  to  be  guilty  of  earning 
her  living  at  "skilled  labor,"  on  the  ground  that  she 
works  for  less  wages  than  a  man  would  work.  How 
do  they  know?  And  whose  business  is  it  but  her  own? 
The  fact  is  that  she  is  getting  higher  wages  than  some 
masculine  book-keepers  get,  although  less  than  some 
others.  That  isn't  all ;  there  are  plenty  of  young  men 
in  town  who  would  gladly  take  her  situation  at  less 
wages  if  they  could  get  it.  There  are  hundreds  of 
"  males  "  who  would  readily  work  at  her  desk  for  ten 
dollars  a  month  less  than  she  receives.  The  people  who 
are  so  sensitive  about  "competition  "  are  quite  willing 
that  she  shall  compete  with. some  poor  girl  as  house- 
maid, or  cook  in  the  kitchen,  but  they  are  not  willing 
that  she  shall  "  compete  "  with  a  man  at  a  desk.  The 
most  curious  thing  about  it  all  to  me  is,  that  those 
"  reformers  "  who  make  this  fussy  war  on  women  have 
the  nerve  to  talk  about  fighting  men. 


ARE  WE   PRODUCTS   OF  MIND? 

BY  EDMUND  MONTGOMERY,  M.  D. 

(Conclusion.) 

A  definite  molecular  motion  of  the  brain  substance  is 
all  we  can  ever  hope  of  directly  becoming  aware  of, 
while  observing  a  brain  in  functional  activity.  This 
our  visual  awareness  would  consist  of  nothing  but  a 
definitely  extended  and  peculiarly  colored  space  per- 
ception, whose  constituent  elements  were  undergoing 
intricate  changes  of  position.  Such  a  colored  percept, 
in  a  state  of  minute  commotion,  is  indeed  the  utmost 
that  our  sight  could  possibly  reveal  of  the  wondrous 
functional  activity  emanating  from  the  supreme  organ 
of  animal  life.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  our  objective  obser- 
vation is  incapable  of  disclosing  anything  more  than  per- 


ceptual matter  in  motion.  All  the  rest  is  and  must  ever 
remain  inferential. 

Our  philosophical  task  is  to  render  such  inference  as 
consistent  as  possible  with  the  totality  of  observed  phe- 
nomena. And  this  task  devolves  upon  us  because 
scientific  experience  of  every  kind  has  taught  us  that  all 
parts  of  the  universe  are  interdependently  connected  by 
definite  and  natural  links.  An  organism  is  not  in 
reality  the  self-rounded  and  occluded  entity  which  to 
immediate  perception  it  appears  to  be.  All  its  peculiar- 
ities have  reference  to  relations  which  it  bears  to  its  sur- 
roundings. Science  renders  in  fact  more  and  more 
obvious,  that  it  has  been  built  up,  out  and  out,  through 
interaction  with  this  its  natural  medium. 

The  question  then  is:  What  can  we  legitimately 
conclude  concerning  the  nature  of  the  brain  and  of  its 
functional  activity,  beyond  what  may  be  immediately 
seen  "or  otherwise  perceived  by  us? 

We  may  first  of  all  be  certain  that  the  organ — which 
to  our  perception  seems  made  up  of  nothing  but  definitely 
disposed  filaments,  cel'ls  and  homogeneous  substance, 
and  the  function  of  which  seems  to  our  visual  observa- 
tion to  consist  of  nothing  but  a  peculiar  molecular  stir, — 
that  this  organ,  apparently  consisting  of  nothing  but 
grouped  particles  of  matter,  is  in  its  own  intimate  nature 
possessed  of  an  inconceivably  complex  and  replete  con- 
stitution, the  significance  of  whose  intrinsic  activities 
could  not  in  the  remotest  degree  be  conjectured  through 
objective  observation,  even  if  we  came  fully  to  under- 
stand the  specific  laws  which  govern  the  path  of  the 
moving  molecules.  There  is  a  wealth  of  efficiency 
organically  locked  up  in  what  perceptually  appears  to 
us  as  brain-substance,  which  is  only  superficially  and 
vicariously  disclosing  itself  to  an  outside  observer  in  the 
form  of  symbolical  signs  consisting  of  nothing  but  per- 
ceptual motions. 

How  otherwise  than  endowed  with  transcendent 
riches  could  the  organ  be,  which  in  its  essence  is  the 
embodiment  and  sum  total  of  all  the  main  results  of 
endless  vital  elaboration  ?  We  are  indulging  in  no 
vague  conjectures  when  we  are  allowing  ourselves  to 
believe  in  the  profound,  super-sensible  import  of  brain- 
substance.  Researches  in  comparative  anatomy  and 
embryology  unmistakably  indicate,  that  the  brain  has  to 
be  looked  upon  as  a  synthetical  product  of  vital  activity. 
Its  specific  constitution  has  evidently  resulted  from  the 
structural  organization  of  variously  blended  influences, 
emanating  chiefly  from  the  surface  of  contact  with  the 
medium.  This  surface,  in  the  course  of  organic  evolu- 
tion, has  become  differentiated  into  areas  variously  re- 
sponsive to  sundry  specific  modes  of  outside  stimulation. 
Thus  the  areas  of  sight  and  hearing  have  been  differ- 
entiated from  that  of  touch,  each  of  them  corresponding 
to  a  specific  mode  of  outside  stimulation.  And  these 
different  sensory  areas   have    themselves    again    become 


6i8 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


more  and  more  specialized  into  diversely  sensitive  points, 
as  is  strikingly  manifest  in  the  skin  in  the  organ  of 
Corti,  and  in  the  retina. 

The  brain  has  moreover  been  developed  into  a  cen- 
tralizing and  synthetical  sphere  of  organic  efficiencies  by 
the  structural  fixation  of  definite  modes  and  paths  of 
connection,  gradually  establishing  themselves  between 
the  various  stages  of  centrally  combined  sensory  in- 
fluences and  the  motor  side  of  the  organism — between 
the  ingoing  and  the  outgoing  efficiencies  of  organic  life. 
We  must  remember,  that  these  developmental  connec- 
tions and  combinations  have  all  originated  and  been 
wrought  in  closest  proximity  to  one  another  within  the 
same  central  nerve-substance.  Thev  are  in  verity  in- 
timately related  ami  interdependent  organic  processes. 
We,  in  whom  they  occur,  become  aware  of  them  only 
when  they  are  structurally  established;  realizing  them 
either  introspectively  as  complex  facts  of  consciousness, 
or  objectively  through  our  senses  as  distant  and  trans- 
muted motor  outcomes. 

Sensory  and  motor  efficiencies  are  certainly  not  dis- 
tinguished from  each  other  in  the  central  organ,  as  they 
are  usually  taken  to  be  by  outside  observers,  who  per- 
ceive only  the  motor  outcomes  and  infer  therefrom  cen- 
tral activities,  which  they  at  once  invest  in  imagination 
with  the  character  of  mind,  that  these  vital  occurrences 
do  not  really  possess  as  perceptible  organic  processes. 
Could  the  observer  exactly  perceive  what  is  going  on 
in  the  central  substance,  he  would  see  nothing  there  but 
a  molecular  commotion,  and  could  not  possibly  dis- 
tinguish which  part  of  this  activity  had  a  sensorial  or 
conscious  and  which  a  motor  or  unconscious  significance. 
Indeed,  it  is  obvious,  that  the  motor  character  of  such 
centrally  started  activity  is  not  acquired  until  the  mole- 
cular commotion  reaches  the  specific  motor  organs. 
Many  phenomena,  and  notably  those  of  so-called  "  mind- 
reading,"  render  it  highly  probable  that  the  sensorial 
and  the  motor  effects — the  conscious  and  the  unconscious 
outcome  of  the  organic  process — originate  in  one  and 
the  same  substance;  the  former  of  these  effective  out- 
comes being  the  inner  awareness  of  the  same  activity, 
which,  propagated  to  the  muscles,  discloses  itself  as  a 
motor  performance  of  so  definite  a  character  that  the 
concomitant  conscious  state  may  be  conjectured  by  it. 

Surely  it  is  here  the  organic  constitution  of  the 
functioning  substance,  which  determines  the  strict  corres- 
pondence obtaining  between  a  definite  conscious  state 
and  a  definite  motor  outcome; — not  a  free-floating  con- 
scious state  which  sets  going  a  definite  molecular  stir  in 
the  brain-substance  so  that  certain  muscular  fibres  may 
be  moved  in  a  consciously  designed  manner. 

I  repeat  again  most  emphatically :  Mind  or  con- 
sciousness is  only  the  inner  awareness  of  certain  high- 
wrought  organic  activities,  which  activities  are  rendered 
possible  solely  by  structurally   established  synthetical 


results.  We  may  be  sure,  that,  whenever  manifold  in- 
fluences reach  the  central  substance,  their  combined  im- 
port becomes  structurally  realized  in  its  intimate  con- 
stitution. 

In  this  connection  it  is  a  highly  significant  em- 
bryological  fact,  that  in  reproductive  evolution  the  brain 
is  developed  from  the  ectodermic  layer,  or  sphere  of  out- 
side relations,  chiefly  as  an  outgrowth  of  ,the  sensory 
surface.  The  organ,  then,  which  is  perceptively  re- 
vealed to  us  as  a  brain,  is  really  the  structurally  estab- 
lished synthesis  of  sensori-motor  efficiencies,  and  this 
could  not  possibly  be  the  case,  unless  such  synthetized 
efficiencies  were  realized  in  the  intimate  constitution  of 
the  substance  embodying  them. 

Consciousness  is  no  synthetical  chemist,  much  less 
the  creator  of  the  wondrous  specific  affinities,  which 
render  such  consummate  chemical  synthesis  possible  as 
constitutes  brain-substance.  Consciousness  is  evidently 
impotent  to  bring  about  any  kind  of  structural  synthesis. 
The  building  up  of  higher  and  higher  living  substance 
has  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  creative  process,  occurring 
during  interaction  of  the  organism  with  its  medium,  and 
accruing  to  it  as  a  cosmic  gift  beyond  all  interference  on 
the  part  of  consciousness. 

Through  most  gradual  structural  elaboration  the 
living  substance  got  at  last  to  respond  specifically  and 
adequately  to  the  multifold  incitements  of  the  outside 
world.  The  full  and  wide-reaching  attunement  of  vital 
reaction  to  external  influences — strikingly  manifest  in 
highly  developed  organisms — rests  entirely  on  such  pre- 
established  structural  correspondence.  Each  definite 
complex  of  outside  efficiencies,  each  perceptible  existent, 
strikes  on  the  surface  of  the  developed  organism  attuned 
chords,  which  in  the  central  nerve-substance  bring  into 
functional  pla)'  its  appropriate  and  pre-organized  counter- 
part or  neural  cast. 

The  inner  awareness  that  accompanies  this  organic 
process  is  conciousness.  Keeping  exact  pace  with  the 
organic  development  and  specialization  of  the  living 
substance,  the  originally  dim  and  uniform  sensibility  of 
the  organic  individual  became  concurrently  developed 
and  specialized  into  corresponding  modes  of  concious 
representation,  until  with  us,  through  inner  illumination 
during  the  functional  stir,  this  now  subtly  prepared 
sensibility  succeeds  in  picturing  minutely  and  distinctly, 
as  vital  counterpart,  the  outside  influences  affecting  our 
senses. 

The  simultaneous  living  preservation  of  all  the 
gradually  accumulated  organic  casts,  thus  wrought  into 
the  living  substance  by  the  external  power-complexes 
that  time  after  time  have  stimulated  the  organic  indi- 
vidual, enables  it  thereafter  to  represent  to  itself  the 
many  forms  and  relations  of  the  outside  world,  even 
when  not  in  the  least  directly  affected  by  them.  Being 
thus     capable     of  considerately    representing     in    ideal 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


OK) 


presence  the  conflicting  and  concording  influences  of 
many  absent  contingencies,  it  develops  the  faculty  of 
foresight  by  which  it  liberates  itself  more  and  more 
effectively  from  the  exclusive  tyranny  of  immediately 
compelling  sense-impiessions,  and  human  beings  by 
force  of  the  system  of  abstract  motor  expressions,  called 
language,  gain  at  last  the  power  of  handling  the  entire 
wealth  of  their  otherwise  scattered  experience  as  a 
consistent  body  of  knowledge. 

Organized  correspondences  to  a  wide  range  of 
possible  and  successive  external  influences,  having  thus 
become  established  as  a  simultaneous  possession  within 
the  living  individual,  by  means  of  the  preservation  of 
results  gained  through  gradual  vital  elaboration,  it  is 
evident,  that  the  motor  bearings  and  expressions  of  these 
same  relations  to  the  outside  world  have  likewise  become 
gradually  established  by  the  same  process  of  vital  elabo- 
ration. The  execution  of  new  variations  of  movement 
can  be  effected  only  where  the  organic  region  of  its  ideal 
forecast  is  already  so  far  organically  prepared  as  to  be 
capable  of  energizing  during  functional  activity  the 
corresponding  motor  outcomes.  This  may  take  place 
with  considerable  difficult v  at  first,  but  could  never  take 
place  at  all  where  the  structural  possibility  underlying 
the  action  is  not  pre-established  in  the  acting  substance. 
New  specializations  and  combinations  of  motor  outcomes 
have  thus  accompanied  step  by  step,  as  complemental 
part  of  the  same  organic  achievement,  the  specializations 
arid  combinations  of  sensory  functions.  Indeed  we  find 
the  sensorial  figurations  of  our  relations  to  the  outside 
world  so  intimately  intertwined  with  their  motor  expres- 
sion that  the  one  cannot  be  functionally  stimulated  with- 
out the  other,  at  the  same  time  emerging  into  actuality. 
This  occurs  even  when  the  stimulus  is  artificially 
applied,  as  strikingly  manifest  in  the  case  where  an 
experimentally  assumed  motor  attitude,  expressive  of 
some  emotion,  is  followed  by  the  corresponding  emotion 
itself. 

This  close  organic  interdependence  of  sensorial 
meaning  and  motor  expression  is  furthermore  most 
subtly  and  conclusively  displayed  in  the  instance  of 
language,  where  the  motor  mark  and  its  mental  signifi- 
cance are  so  intimately  blended,  that  the  thesis,  "  No 
thought  without  language,"  can  be  legitimately 
defended.  Indeed  we  are  cjuite  incapable  of  grasping 
or  of  apprehending  outside  existence,  or  of  conceiving 
its  relations  to  our  ownself,  unless  our  mental  representa- 
tion of  such  existent  and  its  relations  succeed  in  express- 
ing itself  through  appropriate  motor  outcomes.  It  is  only 
through  appropriate  motor  outcomes  of  correctly  estab- 
lished organic — and  therewith  also  mental — correspond- 
ences, that  we  are  effec  ively  brought  into  intercom- 
munication with  the  out-ide  wor'd. 

Even  "  attention"  and  determinate  spice,  these  two 
great   puzzles  of  intiospectve   psychology,  are — objec- 


tively speaking — both  specific  motor  accompaniments  of 
specific  sensory  functions.  Attention  is  motor  tenison 
of  the  region  attending;  such  tension  being  widely 
diffused  during  anticipation  in  keeping  with  the  reach  of 
ideal  forecast,  or  only  centrally  initiated  in  case  of  more 
inner  or  ideal  contemplation,  but  readily  narrowed  or 
peripherically  irradiated  in  correspondence  to  actual 
sensory  stimulation,  or  in  more  vivid  and  communicative 
expression.  And  it  is  with  help  of  adjusted  motor 
activity  of  the  eyes  and  limbs  that  definite  spatial  rela- 
tions are  apprehended.  We  are  fundamentally  and 
essentially  sensori  motor  beings. 

Activity  in  nature,  of  whatever  kind,  discloses  itself 
to  direct  observation  solelv  in  a  vicarious  way  through 
perceptual  signs.  Our  senses  cannot  reveal  to  us  what 
such  activity  may  be  in  its  own  intimate  nature,  and 
whether  or  not  it  signifies  something  inwardly  to  the 
acting  existent  itself.  Could  we,  for  example,  in  our 
visual  percept  of  an  object  realize  the  vibrating  motion 
which  we  infer  as  actually  present  in  its  heated  state — a 
state  otherwise  consciously  realized  by  us  through  our 
skin  as  a  peculiar,  well-known  sensation — even  then  we 
would  not  in  the  least  know  the  intimate  nature  of  the 
activity  which  was  thus  affecting  our  various  modes  of 
sensibility.  For  the  perceived  vibration  would  be  a 
mental  phenomenon  within  our  own  self,  and  the  non- 
mental  activity  in  the  perceived  existent  could  conse- 
quently nowise  resemble  it.  Nor  would  we  at  all  know 
whether  or  not  such  activity  had  self-significance  for  the 
heated  object. 

With  whatever  inner  awareness  inorganic  existents 
may  be  endowed,  we  are  not  in  a  position  to  form 
well-grounded  analogical  conclusions  concerning  its 
characteristics.  But  with  reeard  to  organic  individuals 
— especially  such  as  possess  nerve-centres — an  observer 
is  indeed  in  a  position  to  know  vastly  more  than  is 
revealed  to  him  through  mere  perceptual  motions.  The 
wealth  of  conscious  experience  accompanying  in  the 
observed  being  the  organic  nerve-function — a  function 
perceptible  as  nothing  but  molecular  motion — this  con- 
scious wealth  he  is  capable  of  realizing  through  analogy 
with  his  own  conscious  experience.  Thus  only  through 
connaturalness  of  organization  or  similarity  of  bodilv 
constitution  are  we  empowered  to  understand  the  other- 
wise impenetrable  inner  meaning  of  those  at  least  of 
nature's  outward  doings  that  occur  in  beings  nearest 
related  to  ourselves. 

This  figure,  formed  of  variegated  patches,  now  arising 
before  me  as  conscious  percept  of  mine,  and  aroused  in 
my  field  of  vision  by  no  other  means  than  subtle  touches 
of  an  etherial  medium,  signifies  in  all  reality  the  veri- 
table presence  of  a  genuine  human  fellow-creature — not 
in  any  way  a  phenomenal  and  ephemeral  mode  of  some 
unknowable  absolute,  but,  in  abiding  existence,  itself  a 
substantial    incorporation    of  nature's    highest    achieve- 


620 


THB    OPEN    COURT. 


ments,  endowed  with  the  same  world-containing  depth 
of  being  as  levealed  to  myself  in  the  transcendent  bod- 
ings  of  my  own  inner  life. 

And  those  slight  variations  of  mimetic  expression, 
those  explanatory  gestures  and  vocal  signs  of  communi- 
cation, in  themselves  only  perceptual  motions  of  that 
same  variegated  spectre  in  my  field  of  vision,  are  never- 
theless wondrously  intelligible  to  me,  their  inmost 
intention  being  strangely  manifest  to  my  awakened 
intuition  through  the  sympathetic  magic  of  connatural 
relationship  and  its  inwrought  wealth  of  conscious 
experience. 

After  the  many  considerations  here  brought  forward 
it  can  remain  hardly  doubtful,  that  all  the  manifest 
endowments  of  the  individual  who  thus  perceptually 
appears  to  us  as  a  most  minutely  organized  bodily  pres- 
ence, and  whose  wealth  of  inner  nature  is  sympathetic- 
ally intelligible  through  affinity  of  constitution — it  can 
remain  hardly  doubtful  that  these  his  manifold  endow- 
ments are  one  and  all  actually  and  naturally  inwoven  in 
his  own  living  frame; — that  the  same  creature  who 
makes  his  presence  perceptually  known  to  us,  is  also  he 
who  perceives,  thinks,  and  gives  motor  expression  and 
actuality  to  his  intentions  concerning  the  sensible  world. 

We  know  for  certain  that  the  veritable  being  of  an 
organic  individual  cannot  possibly  be  of  mental  con- 
sistency; for  whatever  partakes  of  the  nature  of  mind, 
besides  being  in  its  very  essence  fitful  and  evanescent,  is 
utterly  powerless  to  affect  the  senses  of  an  observer  so 
as  to  compel  any  perceptible  revelation  of  itself. 

We  know  further  that  the  non-mental  organic 
existent  which  actually  does  affect  our  senses,  compelling 
its  perceptual  or  bodily  revelation,  cannot  itself  in  any 
way  resemble  this  his  mere  conscious  representation  in 
the  observer. 

When  we  bear  in  mind  these  two  incontestable  and 
cardinal  truths,  we  surely  must  come  to  the  conclusion, 
that  a  being  radically  differing  in  its  own  intimate  con- 
stitution from  its  mere  perceptual  appearance  in  our 
consciousness, — a  being  in  fact  quite  impenetrable  to 
objective  observation  as  regards  its  wealth  of  inwrought 
efficiencies  that  such  a  being,  in  all  reality  endowed 
with  super-sensible  powers,  is  having  as  functional 
affection  of  its  own,  that  wondrous  inner  awareness 
which  goes  by  the  name  of  consciousness  and  which  is 
only  sympathetically  apprehended. 

During  functional  inactivity  of  the  central  nerve- 
substance  the  organic  individual  has  no  conscious  states 
or  inner  awareness,  though  to  an  observer  the  central 
nerve-substance  remains  all  the  while  visible.  Now,  as 
soon  as  functional  activity  sets  in,  preceptible  to  an 
observer  only  as  a  molecular  stir  of  that  same  brain- 
substance  which  had  remained  all  the  while  visible,  as 
soon  as  such  organic  function  sets  in  or  is  set  going,  the 
observed  individual  experiences  corresponding  conscious 


states.  It  is,  consequently,  altogether  legitimate  to  con- 
clude that  consciousness  is  an  outcome  of  the  functional 
activity  of  the  organism. 

Mind  is  a  product  of  vital  organization.  * 

TRANSLATION   FROM  LENAU. 

UY        *       *       * 

Dwell  on  me,  O,  eye  of  darkness 
Sweet  unfathomable  night. 

With  thy  spell  of  gloomy  magic 
Exercise  thy  fullest  might. 

In  thy  veil  of  melancholy  " 
Shroud  the  world  out  of  my  sight: 

And  above  my  fate  forever 
Hover  blissful  holy  night. 


POETS   ON   PARENTS  AND  CHILDREN. 
The  poor  wren, 
The  most  diminutive  of  birds,  will  fight, 
Her  young  ones  in  her  nest,  against  the  owl. 

— Shakespeare. 
His  cares  are  eased  with  intervals  of  bliss: 
His  little  children,  climbing  for  a  kiss, 
Welcome  their  father's  late  return  at  night. 

— Dryden. 
But  does  not  nature  for  the  child  prepare 
The  parent's  love,  the  tender  nurse's  care  ? 
Who,  for  their  own  forgetful,  seek  his  good, 
Infold   his  limbs  in  bands,  and  fill  his  veins  with  food. 

— Sir  R.  Blackmore. 
How  sharper  than  a  serpent's  tooth  it  is 

To  have  a  thankless  child. 

— Shakespeare. 
Fathers  that  wear  rags 

Do  make  their  children  blind; 
But  fathers  that  bear  bags, 
Shall  see  their  children  kind. 

— Shakespeare. 
Of  all  the  joys  that  brighten  suffering  earth, 
What  joy  is  welcomed  like  a  new-born  child? 

— Mrs.  Norton. 
Children  blessings  seem,  but  torments  are: 
When  young,  our  folly,  and  when  old,  our  fear. 

— Otway  :  Don  Carlos. 


*  If,  as  maintained  by  Professor  Cope  in  No.  19  of  The  Open  Court,  "  the 
proposition  that  the  mind  of  man  and  animals  is  the  essential  and  effective 
director  of  their  designed  movements  "  is  indeed  "one  of  those  fundamental 
facts  of  observation  for  which  no  proof  is  necessary,"  then,  not  only 
has  this  entire  discussion  of  mine  been  absurdly  unprofitable,  but  all  our 
philosophy  since  Descartes  has  amounted  to  nothing  but  idle  talk.  For  it  was 
exact'y  the  impossibility  of  conceiving  any  natural  intercommunication  between 
mind  and  body  that  gave  rise  to  all  the  principal  philosophical  svslems  of  the 
seventeenth  century  (Descartes,  Genliux,  Melebranche,  Spinoza,  Leibnitz, 
etc.),  and  the  general  relation  of  the  world  in  consciousness  to  a  world  outside 
of  consciousness  has  ever  constituted  the  main  problem  of  philosophy  from  the 
dawn  of  speculation  up  to  this  present  hour.  Professor  Cope  is  quite  at 
liberty  to  shun  philosophical  speculation  and  to  stick  exclusively  to  objective 
observation,  but  then  he  must  refrain  from  arguing  about  facts  of  conscious- 
ness and  their  relation  to  our  bodily  organization;  for  it  is  absolutely  certain 
that  facts  of  consciousness  are  not  in  any  way  objectively  observable. 


THE:    OPEN    COURT. 


63  1 


The  Open  Court. 

A.  Fortnightly  Journali, 


Published  every  other  Thursday  at  169  to  175  La  Salle  Street,  (Nixon 
Building),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 

EDWARD  C.  HEGELER,        -  President. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS, 


Editor  and  Manager. 


This  Journal  is  devoted  to  the  work  of  conciliat 
inff  Religion  with  Science.    The  founder  and  editor 
have  found  this  conciliation  in  Monism,  to  present 
and  defend  which  will  be  the  main  object  of  THE 
OPES  COURT. 

Terms  of  subscription,    including   postage,    three    dollars   per 
year  in  advance. 

All  communications  and  business  letters  should  be  addressed  to 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company, 

P.  O.  Drawer  F,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

THURSDAY,  DECEMBER  22,   1887. 

TO  THE  READERS  OF  THE  OPEN  COURT. 

In  number  21  of  this  journal  Mr.  B.  F.  Under- 
wood published  my  acceptance  of  his  and  Mrs. 
Underwood's  resignation  as  editors  of  The  Open 
Court.  The  publication  is  made  in  a  manner  intend- 
ing to  convey  to  the  readers  that  he  and  Mrs.  Under- 
wood  have  been  wronged  by  me.  Mr.  Underwood 
says,  in  particular,  "...  the  immediate  cause  of  the 
editors'  resignation  is  Mr.  Hegeler's  expressed  desire 
to  make  a  place  on  The  Open  Court  for  Dr.  Paul 
Carus,  who  never  had,  it  should  here  be  said,  any 
editorial  connection  with  the  paper,  who  never  wrote 
a  line  for  it  except  as  a  contributor  and  as  Mr.  Heg- 
eler's secretary,  and  who  was  unknown  to  Mr.  Hegeler 
when  his  contract  with  the  editors  was  made.  To 
the  request  that  Dr.  Carus  be  accepted  as  an  editor, 
the  present  editors,  for  good  and  sufficient  reasons, 
have  unhesitatingly  refused  to  accede,  and  although 
always  willing  to  make  concessions  when  required  in 
the  interest  of  the  paper,  a  point  is  now  reached 
where  they  feel  compelled  by  self-respect  to  sever 
all  relations  with  this  journal  rather  than  yield  to 
Mr.  Hegeler's  latest  requirements." 

I  now  lay  before  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court 
my  correspondence  with  Mr.  Underwood  leading  to 
his  engagement  and  resignation,  so  far  as  it  has  ref- 
erence to  the  questions  brought  before  the  public  by 
Mr.  Underwood,  and  statements  of  what  took  place 
at  personal  meetings  in  regard  to  this.    Also  a  transla- 


tion of  those  parts  of  my  correspondence  with  Dr. 
Carus  leading  to  his  engagement. 

Mr.  Underwood's  words,  to  make  a  place  on  The 
Open  Court  for  Dr.  Paul  Carus,  refers  to  the  fact  that 
Dr.  Carus  is  bethrothed  to  my  daughter.  Mr.  Under- 
wood has  expressed  this  more  fully  in  his  letter  of 
resignation  hereafter  published. 

I  will  here  state  that  soon  after  the  publication 
of  the  first  number  of  The  Open  Court,  when  Dr. 
Carus  first  came  from  New  York,  and  before  he  had 
ever  seen  me  or  any  one  of  my  family,  Mr.  Under- 
wood was  already  informed  by  him  that  he,  Dr. 
Carus,  expected  to  have  an  official  connection  with 
The  Open  Court.  This  Mr.  Underwood  wished  to 
have  delayed,  and  I  then  did  not  insist  upon  Dr. 
Carus  having  an  editorial  position  on  the  paper. 

To  form  an  opinion  whether  or  not  Mr.  Under- 
wood has  taken  a  correct  view  of  the  motives  of  my 
actions,  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court  will  have  to 
take  the  trouble  of  going  through  the  correspond- 
ence and  memoranda. 

Those  readers  who  have  not  the  time  to  go 
through  the  whole  correspondence,  will  find  in  a  con- 
densed form  the  substance  of  my  transactions  with 
Mr.  Underwood  in  the  memorandum  of  the  meeting 
last  September,  when  all  differences  were  discussed. 

The  nature  of  Mr.  Underwood's  letter  of  resigna- 
tion, together  with  my  desire  to  fulfill  completely  my 
contract  with  him,  have  caused  me  to  let  Mr.  Under- 
wood publish  the  last  number  of  his  editorship  with- 
out any  comments  or  interference  on  my  part. 
Neither  have  I  received  from  Mr.  Underwood  any 
suggestion  in  this  regard  beyond  the  general  one  in 
his  letter  of  resignation  of  October  28th. 

If  Mr.  Underwood  should  notice  any  omissions 
which  he  thinks  should  not  have  been  made  from 
the  correspondence  or  memoranda  of  the  meetings 
they  shall  be  supplemented  on  his  application. 

From  the  time  of  the  meeting  at  La  Salle  in 
September  to  my  final  acceptance  of  Mr.  Under- 
wood's resignation,  I  have  been  contemplating  what 
in  a  business  way  my  obligations  to  the  late  editors 
were  under  the  circumstances.  The  paper,  as  con- 
ducted by  Mr.  L'nderwood,  was  costing  me  fully  $500 
per  number  in  addition  to  the  subscriptions  received. 
A   question    to  me  was    whether  it  was  my  duty  t« 


6i: 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


continue  the  paper  under  Mr.  Underwood  without 
change  to  the  close  of  the  year,  especially  as  he  be- 
lieved that  the  bulk  of  subscriptions  would  come  in 
during  the  fall  and  winter  months.  But  as  the  num- 
ber of  subscribers  was  much  less  than  Mr.  Underwood 
had  expected  and  did  not  increase  in  the  fall 
months,  and  having  paid  for  the  paper  over  sixteen 
thousand  dollars  until  December  1st,  considerably 
beyond  Mr.  Underwood's  expectations,  I  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  I  had  done  my  share  in  giving 
Mr.  Underwood  an  opportunity  in  the  direction  of 
reaching  a  business  success.  I  submit  the  evidence 
without  argument  to  the  readers  of  The  Open 
Court. 


CORRESPONDENCE      AND      STATEMENTS,      MADE 
FROM  MEMORY,  CONTAINING  THE  SUBSTANCE 
OF  WHAT  WAS   SPOKEN  AT  MEETINGS  RE- 
LATING TO  MR.  UNDERWOOD'S  ENGAGE- 
MENT AND   RESIGNATION. 

Boston,  June  22,  1886. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir — You  may  know  that  The  Index  irom 
the  time  it  was  founded,  has  been  compelled  to 
depend  partly  upon  financial  aid  from  generous 
friends  interested  in  the  paper.  To  carry  The  Index 
through  to  Jannary  1,  1887,  nearly  a  thousand  dollars 
will  be  required,  in  addition  to  the  estimated  receipts 
from  subscriptions,  etc.,  and  my  colleague,  Mr.  f,  and 
myself,  are  authorized  and  requested  by  the  trustees 
to  address  such  persons  as  we  may  think  interested 
in  the  paper  and  able  and  disposed  to  help  make  up 
the  deficiency  of  the  present  year.  Should  you 
decide  to  favor  the  paper  with  a  donation,  it  would 
be  greatly  appreciated  by  us,  and  by  none  more  than 
myself,  who,  with  the  business  management  of  the 
paper  in  my  hands,  have  the  past  year  devoted  a 
good  part  of  my  time,  energy  and  ingenuity,  to 
keeping  down  expenses  and  arranging  the  business 
so  as  to  make  two  ends  meet,  where  the  time  should 
have  been  given  to  the  editorial  department. 

Sincerely  yours, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 

La  Salle,  111.,  July  7,  1886. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.: 

Dear  Sir — I  duly  received  your  favor  of  the  22nd 
ult.  .  .  .  Could  you  make  it  possible  to  meet  me  in 
New  York's  neighborhood,  the  forepart  of  next  week  ? 
Should  like  to  have  a  thorough  talk  with  you — if 
we  cannot  start  a  paper  in  Chicago,  .  .  .  Perhaps 
you  can  drop  me  a  message,  stating  your  possibili- 
ties,  Friday  evening,  to  Hoboken. 


How  much  you   expect   me  to   contribute  to   The 
Index,  you  can  then  also  tell  me. 

Yours,  truly, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

Boston,  July  9,  1886. 
Dear  Mr.  Hegeler — I  have   just  received  your 
letter,  written  at  La  Salle  the  7th.    I  should  be  pleas- 
ed to  meet  you,  and  since    you  suggest    it,  to  talk 
over  the  advisability  of  starting  a  paper  in  Chicago. 

Very  truly, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 

At  the  meeting  then  arranged  to  take  place  at 
Manhattan  Beach,  Sunday,  July  12th,  I  thoroughly 
explained  to  Mr.  Underwood  that  I  wished  to  start  a 
Monistic  paper  and  gave  him  my  views  in  detail,  as 
they  have  since  been  expressed  in  my  articles,  "The 
Basis  of  Ethics,"  and  "  The  Soul,"  which  have  appear- 
ed in  The  Open  Court.  I  also  explained  to  Mr. 
Underwood  that  I  consider  the  Agnostic  ideas  of 
Spencer,  and  others,  harmful  to  progress.  These 
views  seemed  plausible  to  Mr.  Underwood,  who  took 
the  position  that  they  were  rational  and  sound.  Mr. 
Underwood  informed  me  that  arrangements  were 
pending  with  ...  to   move   The  Index  to  New  York. 

Boston,  July  22,  1886. 

Dear  Mr.  Hegeler — I  have  had  a  talk  with  my 
associate  editor,  Mr.  f,  repeating  substantially  the  con- 
versation which  you  and  I  had  in  regard  to  a  paper 
in  Chicago.  At  present  the  understanding  with  Mr. 
*  *  *  is,  that  if  he  can  arrange  to  take  The  Index  and 
continue  it  in  New  York,  the  transfer  shall  be  made  in 

January.       But, it   is    by    no    means    certain 

that  the  arrangements  will  be  effected.  But  little 
has  been  done  as  yet,  so  far  as  we  know.  In  case 
that  the  New  York  scheme  shall  fail,  some  arrange- 
ment for  the  transfer  of  the  paper  to  Chicago,  and 
for  making  it  the  nucleus  of  what  we  talked  of,  is 
possible;  but  I  think  there  would  be  some  objection 
on  the  part  of  the  present  trustees,  to  having  it  go  so 
far  from  Boston  as  Chicago,  and  to  having  it  pass 
from  the  hands  of  the  trustees  and  become  an 
individual  concern. 

So,  if  the  Chicago  enterprise  is  to  be  carried  out, 
it  will  be  just  as  well  at  present  not  to  count  upon 
The  Index.  If  circumstances  should,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  new  publication,  lead  the  present 
trustees  to  make  a  proposition  in  behalf  of  the 
Chicago  project,  well  and  good.  It  might  be  started 
independently  and  Mr.  f  agrees  with  me  there  would 
be  many  advantages  in  that.  Mr.  f  and  I  talked 
over  the  fact  that  many  of  the  The  Index  readers 
would  give  their  support  to  the  new  paper  should  I 
become  identified  with  it,  and  we  queried  how  far 
this  micht    diminish    the    desire    of   the    New  York 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


parties  to  accept  the  paper,  under  the  circumstances. 
As  the  Chicago  enterprise  is  at  present  but  an  idea, 
of  course  nothing  will  be  said  about  it  here,  beyond 
the  conversations  between  Mr.  f  and  myself.  The 
relations  between  us  have  always  been  of  the  most 
friendly  and  cordial  nature,  although  we  have  not 
always  entirely  agreed  in  our  views.  But  the  busi- 
ness management  of  the  paper  has  been  entirely  in 
my  hands,  and  editorially  each  has  expressed  his 
own  views,  without  consulting  the  other,  over  his 
own  name  or  initials.  In  the  five  years  we  have  been 
associated,  there  has  never  been  the  slightest  jar,  nor 
any  question  which  we  have  not  mutually  settled 
satisfactorily  to  both. 

And  any  arrangement  I  may  be  a  party  to  in 
regard  to  a  new  paper,  will,  while  I  am  on  The  Index, 
be  made  with  Mr.  f  's  full  knowledge,  and  in  a  way 
that  shall  preclude  the  possibility  of  any  misunder- 
standing or  ground  in  the  future  for  complaint. 

This  much  I  have  thought  it  best  to  write  you 
now.  More  at  another  time.  I  have  sent  you  a  few 
of  our  Liberal  papers  that  you  might  look  through 
them  and  see  the  kind  of  papers  that  are  published 
in  the  interests  of  Liberalism. 

Truly  yours, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 

La  Salle,  Aug.  7,  1886. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq., 

My  Dear  Sir — I  duly  received  your  favor  of  the 
22nd  ult.  ...  I  will  repeat  to-day,  that  my  desire 
to  start  the  paper  in  Chicago  is  no  new  one.  .  . 
I  broached  the  idea  to  you,  I  think,  before  you  took 
hold  of  The  Index — though  it  was  very  indefinite 
then,  perhaps  not  even  pronounced.  I  pronounced 
definitely  then  that  I  wished  to  draw  you  here  for 
local  work. 

The  idea  before  me  now  is,  that  you  and  Mrs. 
Underwood  move  into  my  former  home,  north  of  my 
present  one,  this  Fall,  and  that  we  try  to  start  a 
fortnightly  or  monthly  in  Chicago  from  here.  If  it 
appears  necessary,  you  to  move  to  Chicago.  Of 
.course,  if  we  should  move  The  Index  to  Chicago,  you 
may  have  to  move  there  at  once.  That  the  paper 
be  an  independent,  individual  enterprise,  I  think- 
most  desirable.  I  believe  that  we  would  well  agree 
together.  The  paper  should  have  definitely  and 
energetically  outspoken  views,  and  if  we  both  find 
them  sound,  they  will  make  the  paper  a  success  too. 
.  .  .  Yours  truly, 

Edward  C.  Hegei.er. 

Boston,  Sept.  9,  1886. 
Dear  Mr.  Hegeler — I  have,    since  the    receipt   of 
your  last   letter,  been  awaiting  the  development  of 
events   which    should   determine   the   future  of   The 


Index,  that  I  might  write  you  something  definitely. 
Thus  far,  I  have  learned  nothing  in  regard  to  the 
New  York  parties.  I  am  doubtful  whether  any  steps 
have  been  taken  likely  to  result  in  the  success  of  the 
new  enterprise. 

In  that  case,  the  Association  (F.  R.  A.),  may 
decide  to  continue  The  Index  for  another  year  on  its 
present  basis,  as  my  reports  during  the  summer 
months  have  been  more  favorable  financially  than 
was  anticipated.  If  this  decision  is  made  I  will,  with- 
out doubt,  be  requested  to  continue  in  charge  of  the 
paper  as  hitherto.  There  are  many  tilings  that 
attach  me  to  The  Index,  and  to  Boston;  my  relations 
are,  without  exception,  pleasant,  even  cordial,  with 

the    trustees    and    with At  the  same  time, 

I  like  the  West;  and  if  I  can  enlarge  my  use- 
fulness and  do  a  better  work  for  liberal  thought 
in  Chicago,  on  a  paper  such  as  we  have  talked  of,  I 
shall  not  hesitate  to  make  the  attempt.  In  that  case  I 
will,  if  The  Index  is  continued  in  this  city,  have  to 
tender  my  resignation,  or  decline  re-election  as  busi- 
ness manager  and  co-editor,  at  the  end  of  the  pres- 
ent year.  If  our  talked-of  Chicago  enterprise  is 
started,  and  the  Index  trustees  can  be  induced  to  let 
us  have  the  paper  as  a  nucleus  of  our  proposed 
journal — in  case  *  *  *  fails  in  his  efforts — I  shall  be 
glad;  but  knowing  the  wish  of  ....  to  have  The 
Index  in  the  hands  of  a  board  of  trustees,  in  which  the 
Free  Religious  Association  shall  be  represented,  I 
am  not  hopeful  as  to  this  point,  and  do  not  count 
upon  such  a  transfer.  In  some  respects,  as  I  wrote 
you,  I  believe  it  would  be  an  advantage  to  have  The 
Index;   in  some  other  respects  it  would  hamper  us. 

I  do  not  know  whether  you  still  intend  to  come 
East  this  fall.  If  you  do,  it  is  best  that  we  shall  have 
another  interview,  and  that  we  definitely  decide  as  to 
what  is  best  to  be  done.  You  have  the  capital,  and 
of  course  you  will  consider — probably  have  already 
considered — the  financial  aspects  of  the  enterprise.  It 
is  not  probable  that  the  receipts  will,  the  first  year, 
anywhere  near  equal  the  expenses.  All  that  I  can 
promise  and  guarantee  is  that  if  I  join  you  in  the  pro- 
posed enterprise,  I  will  do  the  best  I  can  to  make  it 
a  success.  1  came  upon  The  Index  with  no  expe- 
rience as  editor  of  a  paper,  and  no  knowledge  of  the 
business  management  of  a  paper.  The  Index  was 
running  down  rapidly,  and  I  succeeded  in  turning  the 
tide.  I  have  kept  the  paper  up  for  five  years.  In 
this  time  I  have  learned  much,  and  all  this  gives  me 
a  confidence  which  I  should  not  otherwise  feel;  and 
still  I  regard  the  difficulties  of  sustaining  a  radical, 
independent  journal,  as  by  no  means  small.  Your 
own  practical  talent  and  business  sagacity  would  be 
perhaps  more  valuable  than  my  experience  in  journal- 
ism;   both  would  be  of  account.     There  are  features 


624 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


of  The  Index  of  course,  that  would  not  appear  in  the 
new  journal.  The  Index,  when  I  assumed  charge  of 
it,  was  the  organ  of  an  association,  and  its  chief  con- 
stituency was  composed  of  a  class  but  little  advanced 
beyond  the  radical  wing  of  Unitarianism.  I  have 
been  obliged  to  adapt  the  paper  to  some  extent, 
to  this  class.  It  has  been  therefore  less  scientific 
and  less  a  representative  of  modern  scientific  thought 
than  it  would  have  been  had  the  paper  been  exclu- 
sively under  my  control  without  any  of  the  inherited 
characteristics,  and  quasi-theological  surroundings. 
There  are  some  points  in  your  letter  we  can  con- 
sider when  we  meet  again,  or  if  you  do  not  come 
East  this  season,  we  can  agree  upon  by  correspond- 
ence. Where  I  shall  live  is  not  a  matter  of  much 
importance,  perhaps.  But  the  paper  should  be  pub- 
lished in  Chicago,  that  it  may  have  at  the  start  a 
metropolitan  appearance  and  promise.  Mrs.  Under- 
wood's ....  help — as  on  The  Index,  when  she  has 
been  able  to  contribute — would  be  of  much  advantage, 
as  she  has  abilities  which  supplement  mine  in  edito- 
rial work.  Much  of  the  best  work  on  The  Index  has 
been  from  her  pen. 

If  the  new  paper  is  started  it  should  be,  I  suppose, 
with  the  beginning  of  1887.  My  contract  will  keep 
me  here  till  then.  However,  I  could  have  all  the 
contributors  secured,  and  every  thing  ready  so  that 
the  first  number  could  be  issued  early  in  January.  As 
for  that  matter,  it  could  be  in  readiness  to  be  printed 
as  soon  as  my  name  should  be  dropped  from  The 
Index.  I  suppose  the  next  trustee  meeting  of  The 
Index  will  be  early  in  October;  and  by  that  time,  you 
and  I  should  have  arrived  at  an  understanding  suf- 
ficiently definite  to  enable  me  to  determine  what  it 
is  best  to  do.  If  you  shall  think  it  best  to  defer  for 
a  while  the  enterprise  of  a  "  new  paper,"  it  will  be 
all  right,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned;  on  the  other 
hand,  if  you  have  fully  made  up  your  mind  to  go  into 
the  undertaking,  and  the  arrangements  can  be  made 
to  begin  in  January,  it  will  be  best  to  agree  upon 
details  as  soon  as  practicable,  and  to  take  advantage 
of  all  favorable  circumstances  between  now  and  that 
time.  There  will  be  no  difficulty  in  getting  first-class 
contributors  at  moderate  cost,  but  we  should  decide 
as  to  what  is  needed,  and  give  writers  time  to  pre- 
pare the  articles. 

I  shalbbe  glad  to  hear  from  you  at  your  conven- 
ience. I  have  delayed  writing  you  too  long  this 
time,  but  during  the  summer  months  I  have  thought 
it  best  to  think  over  the  subject,  and  to  observe  what 
projects  and  possibilities  existed,  before  communi- 
cating further  with  you.  I  am  sorry  that  nothing  has 
occurred  to  enable  me  to  write  more  definitely  about 
The  Index.  Cordially  yours, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 


La  Salle,  Sept.  19,  1886. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass: 

My  Dear  Sir — Your  favor  of  the  9th  inst.  came 
duly  to  hand.  I  am  glad  to  learn  that  your  inclina- 
tion to  take  hold  of  the  Chicago  monthly  has  pro- 
gressed. I  have  carefully  read  your  letter,  which 
well  informs  me  of  the  present  aspect  of  affairs. 

The  next  thing  now  to  be  definitely  arranged  will 
be  the  financial  basis  of  the  enterprise.  How  much 
capital  have  I  definitely  to  agree  to  give  to  it?  How 
much  thereof  will  have  to  be  put  in  in  the  first  year, 
and  can  what  is  to  be  given  thereafter,  be  on  the  con- 
dition, that  towards  the  close  of  the  first  year  the 
enterprise  gives  a  reasonable  promise  of  success? 

What  contracts  do  you  and  Mrs.  Underwood  have 
to  ask  for  your  personal  work  at  the  enterprise? 

The  programme  of  the  paper  we  should  be  per- 
fectly clear  about.  To  me  it  is  an  earnest  effort  to 
give  to  the  world  a  philosophy  in  harmony  with  all 
facts  (a  monistic  philosophy)  which  will  gradually 
become  a  new  religion  to  it,  as  it  has  to  me. 

To  make  you  nearer  acquainted  with  my  views,  I 
send  you  for  inspection  the  records  of  my  discussions 
with  Mr.  *  *  last  winter,  as  unfinished  as  they  are 
yet,  at  least. 

I  hope  we  can  be  together  with  you  and  Mrs. 
Underwood  for  a  few  days,  either  at  Newport  or  at 
Boston,  and  if  you  will  take  the  trouble  to  make 
yourself  acquainted  with  the  writings  and  note  your 

objections,  discuss  them 

Yours  truly, 

Edward  C  Hegeler. 
Boston,  Sept.  28,  1886. 

Dear  Mr.  Hegeler — I  have  read  the  records  of 
your  discussions  with  Mr.  *  *  with  much  interest,  and 
portions  with  entire  approval.  There  are  some  re- 
marks which,  as  I  read  them,  I  found  it  necessary  to 
qualify,  or  to  supplement  with  additional  thought 
before  they  seemed  quite  satisfactory  to  me,  I  will 
not  attempt  to  specify  here.  In  your  naturalistic, 
monistic  view  of  the  universe,  comprehensively 
speaking,  I  fully  concur;  with  your  terminology  I  am 
not  always  satisfied,  as  I  am  not  with  my  own;  as  I 
am  not,  indeed,  with  any  that  I  know.  With  your 
views  of  morality,  as  far  as  they  are  developed,  and 
with  your  optimistic,  or  rather  melioristic  spirit,  I 
am  in  full  sympathy.  I  see  more  good  than  evil  in 
nature;  and  man  appears  as  a  factor  in  promoting 
the  former  and  lessening  the  latter;  so  that,  he  who 
continues  to  work  for  human  elevation  has  no  grounds 
for  pessimism  and  no  occasion  for  misanthrophy. 
Nature  is  the  "All  in  all,"  and  we,  her  highest 
products — known  to  us — can  by  our  efforts  increase 
what  to  us  is  relatively  "  good,"  and  lessen  what  is 
relatively  "evil."     I  will,  at  my  earliest  convenience, 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


625 


give  you  my  creed,  or  a  concise  statement  of  the 
best  philosophical  and  ethical  conclusions  to  which 
I  have  been  able  to  come. 

I  think  if  your  discussion  is  to  be  published,  that 
it  should  first  be  carefully  revised.  Subjects  were 
introduced  sometimes  in  a  way  that  broke  the  con- 
tinuity of  thought,  and  caused  to  be  dropped  often  a 
line  of  thought  at  the  point  of  greatest  interest,  to 
me,  at  least.  In  verbal  discussion  this  is  very  liable 
to  occur;  but  it  can  be  remedied  afterwards. 

Upon  reflection  you  might  see  the  advantage  of 
presenting  your  thought  in  essay  form  rather  than  as 
a  discussion,  which  appearing  as  an  oral  debate  on 
philosophical  subjects  would  by  its  form  repel,  I 
think,  more  than  it  would  attract.  All  you  have  ad- 
vanced could,  without  great  difficulty,  be  systematized 
and  put  in  a  literary  dress  that  would  greatly  improve 
it,  and  secure  for  it  a  class  of  readers  that  would 
hardly  look  at  a  verbal  debate  on  such  subjects. 
However,  this  is  but  a  suggestion,  made  in  accordance 
with  your  request,  that  I  offer  any  remarks  that 
occur.     More,  when  I  see  you,  as  to  this. 

Enclosed  herewith  is  an  estimate  of  the  cost  of 
publishing  a  monthly  magazine  of  size  and  quality 
which  I  think  would  satisfy  you  and  would  prove 
probably  the  most  desirable. 

The  cost  would  not,  with  judicious  management, 
exceed  the  figures  I  give.  I  would  also  like  to  have 
the  privilege  of  doing  some  lecturing,  when  I  can  do 
so  without  neglecting  the  journal.  I  should  make 
my  lecturing  everywhere  a  means  of  advertising  and 
pushing  the  circulation  of  the  publication,  as  I  did  in 
case  of  The  Index  when  I  was  lecturing  two,  three 
and  five  years  ago. 

Another  idea  I  have  worth  considering.  A  maga- 
zine must  be  more  or  less  heavy  and  grows  into  cir- 
culation slowly;  and  with  it,  it  will  be  difficult  to 
reach  the  masses  of  Liberals.  I  have  thought  it 
would  help  to  have  a  weekly  flyer — a  little  paper  of 
two  sheets,  four  pages,  of  the  size  of  Index  pages, 
to  be  made  up  of  paragraphs  and  short  letter  ex- 
tracts, etc.,  relating  to  scientific,  social,  religious  and 
industrial  matters,  one  page  to  be  devoted  to  adver- 
tising and  setting  forth  the  claims  of  the  magazine; 
the  little  weekly  to  have  the  same  name  with  the 
monthly.  Thus,  if  the  magazine  should  be  called, 
"  The  Index  Magazine,"  have  the  weekly  named  "  The 
Index  Flyer,"  perhaps.  The  paper  would  enable  us,  by 
keeping  our  hands  on  the  pulse  of  the  Liberal  move- 
ment, and  by  independent,  vigorous  and  impersonal 
criticism,  by  suggestions  and  propositions,  to  infuse  a 
wholesome  influence  into  the  active  Liberalism  of  the 
country,  and  to  rescue  it  from  the  anarchial  and 
chaotic  condition  which,  with  so  many  writers,  seems 
to  be  thought  synonymous  with  free-thought.  I  believe 


the  largest  estimate  I  have  given,  88,425,  can  be 
made,  by  economy  and  good  management,  to  cover 
the  additional  expense  of  such  a  paper,  or  nearly  so, 
and  it  would  bring  in  money.  Please  consider  this. 
If  this  enterprise  is  to  be  inaugurated,  I  want  to  see 
it  made  a  success — financially,  of  course,  as  well  as 
morally — and  I  believe  it  can  be;  but  after  consider- 
ing all  the  circumstances,  the  encouragements  and 
hinderances  alike,  you  must  render  the  final  decision. 

I  have  given  you  an  estimate  of  the  money  to  be 
paid  out.  From  this  the  amount  of  the  receipts  will 
be  deducted;  and  how  much  they  will  be  can  only  be 
conjectured.  If  the  weekly  is  published  it  can  be 
put  at  Si. 00  per  year,  and  the  monthly  at  S3.00. 

Very  truly  yours, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 

P.  S. —  The  name  of  the  journal  is  important.  It 
should  be  one  somehow  suggestive  of  the  general 
thought  and  purpose  of  the  publication,  and  one,  the 
meaning  of  which  will  be  readily  understood.  About 
all  the  names  that  one  can  think  of  in  the  English  lan- 
guage have  already  been  used,  and  most  of  them  are 
now  in  use.  I  am  not  satisfied  with  any  that  has  yet 
come  to  my  mind. 

Do  you  not  think  your  name  should  appear  as 
publisher  of  the  magazine,  or  as  publisher  and 
co-editor  also?  It  would  be  quite  satisfactory  to 
me.  Perhaps  Mrs.  Underwood's  name  might,  to 
advantage,  appear  as  associate  editor,  as  it  should 
have  appeared  in  The  Index. 

The  contributions,  I  think,  should  commence  on 
the  first  page,  and  the  editorials,  book  reviews,  etc., 
appear  in  the  latter  part In  such  a  publica- 
tion there  must  be  more  or  less  diversity  of  thought; 
but  we  could  select  writers  and  indicate  subjects  that 
would  secure  a  general  unity  in  carrying  out  our 
project  of  advancing  a  scientific  and  naturalistic 
philosophy  in  distinction  to  theological  and  specu- 
lative philosophy. 

I  have  learned  by  letter  that  Mr.  *  has  not 
thought  best  to  start  a  paper  at  present;  and  that  *  *  * 
will  take  hold  of  it,  is  yet  doubtful.  I  wrote  Mr.  f 
the  other  day,  that  if  the  New  York  project  failed, 
and  the  trustees  wished  to  entertain  a  proposition 
from  you  in  regard  to  a  transfer  of  the  paper  to  Chi- 
cago, I  thought  something  satisfactory  could  be 
done.  No  response  has  yet  been  made  to  my  letter. 
The  trustees  met  last  week,  but  adjourned  to  hear 
further  from  certain  sources,  and  will  meet  again 
next  week. 

I  shall  await  an  answer  to  this  letter  from  you, 
and  if  you  decide  to  start  the  publication,  with  me 
as  manager,  and  under  the  editorship  of  myself  and 
Mrs.  Underwood — and  yourself  as  co-editor,  if  you 
choose — I  shall  at  once  address  a  letter  to  T/ie  Index 


626 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


trustees,  notifying  them  that  my  connection  with 
The  Index  will  terminate  at  the  end  of  the  present 
year.  Meanwhile,  I  will  at  once  proceed  to  make 
arrangements  for  the  first  number  of  the  new  journal 
to  appear  early  in  January;  that  is,  if  the  decision 
to  commence  the  publication  is  definitely  and  posi- 
tively made. 

If  any  of  my  conditions  or  suggestions  are 
thought  objectionable  for  any  reason,  and  you  have 
others  to  name,  I  shall,  of  course,  be  glad  to  receive 
them.  B.  F.  U. 

At  the  meeting  in  Boston  in  October,  1886,  the 
records  of  my  discussions  with  *  *  were  taken  up 
for  discussion.  Mr.  Underwood  stated  that  they 
were  not  in  a  form  suited  for  publication.  The  fol- 
lowing agreement  was  made  and  signed.  Mr.  Under- 
wood explaining  that  it  was  necessary  that  he  be 
untrammeled  in  the  management  of  the  paper,  and 
that  he  possess  independent  control: 

Boston,  Oct.  8,  1886. 

"  The  understanding  between  E.  C.  Hegeler  and 
B.  F.  Underwood  is  as  follows:  A  liberal  publication 
is  to  be  started  in  Chicago  early  in  1887,  to  be  the 
property  of  E.  C.  Hegeler,  and  under  the  business 
and  editorial  management  of  B.  F.  Underwood,  sub- 
ject to  such  conditions  as  the  two  shall  mutually 
agree  upon;  that  in  consideration  of  B.  F.  Under- 
wood's agreement  to  resign  his  position  as  manager 
and  editor  of  The  Index,  to  take  effect  January  1, 
1887,  he  shall  be  guaranteed  a  salary  of  Si, 800  per 
year  for  his  services,  the  time  not  to  be  less  than  one 
year,  assisted  by  Mrs.  Underwood  from  the  time  of 
the  beginning  of  the  work  on  or  for  the  Chicago 
enterprise." 

Mr.  Underwood  further  said  that  he  would  do  his 
best  to  present  my  views,  and  made  no  opposition 
to  them,  as  he  had  also  not  done  at  Manhattan 
Beach.  I  am  convinced  that  I  also  mentioned  to 
him  that  I  wished  the  name  of  the  new  journal  to  be 
"The  Monist,"  as  that  was  the  name  I  had  long 
intended  for  the  journal  I  had  expected  to  found. 

Boston,  Nov.  3rd,  1886. 
Mr.  E.  C.  Hegeler: 

My  Dear  Sir — The  New  York  movement  to  start 
a  paper,  to  be  under  the  direction  of  trustees,  and  to 
be  edited  by  Mr.  *  *  *  has  collapsed.  I  have  of 
course,  been  doing  what  I  legitimately  could  fairly 
and  justly  to  get  The  Index  list  for  our  new  journal. 

At  the  meeting  of  The  Index  trustees  held  on 
Monday  last,  the  discontinuance  of  The  Index  at  the 
end  of  the  present  year  was  definitely  agreed  upon, 
and  the  paper  herewith  enclosed  will  show  you  what 
action  was  taken.  The  discontinuance  is  a  certainty. 
The  business  has  been  managed,  since  the  beginning 


of  the  present  financial  year  (from  July,  1886),  with 
rigid  economy,  and  the  receipts  with  some  three 
hundred  dollars  donations,  have  been  sufficient  to 
meet  expenses.  The  indebtedness  of  The  Index  be- 
yond the  amount  on  hand  at  this  date  is  but  a  trifle 
indeed;  I  am  not  sure  but  that  there  is  a  balance  of 
a  few  dollars  in  favor  of  the  paper. 

I  state  these  facts  that  you  may  understand  the 
situation,  for  I  wish  to  know  from  you  whether  I 
shall  say  to  the  trustees  that  you  will  accept  their 
proposition.  The  advantage  is  in  having  the  first 
year — the  trying  time  for  all  newspapers — a  list  of 
first-class  subscribers;  men  who  will  be  known  in  a 
business  way,  to  the  new  journal,  and  many  of  whom, 
by  being  continued  as  subscribers  will  feel  an  inter- 
est in  thenew  enterprise  asa  continuation  of  theiryears 
of  connection  with  the  editor  and  contributors.  It 
is  desirable  that  an  announcement,  already  long  de- 
ferred, be  made  if  possible  in  the  next  Index. 

My  own  opinion  is  that  the  value  of  the  list  will 
be  great,  and  the  proposed  announcement  will  give 
the  new  journal,  before  it  starts,  the  moral  approval 
and  support  of  The  Index — whose  successor  in  a 
certain  way,  as  a  high  class  exponent  of  liberal 
thought,  it  will  be.  I  have  been  unusually  occupied 
since  I  saw  you  last,  but  have  been  through  your  manu- 
script and  made  some  notes.  I  will  have  it  ready  to 
return  to  you  by  next  Monday  sure. 

Very  truly  yours, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 

Boston,  Nov.  iSth,  1886. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq: 

My  Dear  Sir—  ....  At  the  F.  R.  Festival 
in  this  city  last  evening  there  was  frequent  mention 
of  the  Chicago  enterprise,  and  much  interest  and  en- 
thusiasm shown  in  regard  to  it But  now    the 

inquiry  of  all  who  write  or  speak  about  the  paper  is, 
"What  will  be  its  name?"  If  we  can  decide  upon 
that,  so  as  to  have  it  in  the  announcement  of  the  ar- 
rangement which  has  been  made,  it  will  be  to  the 
advantage  of  the  paper.  People  generally  can  be 
satisfied  with  nothing  until  a  name  has  been  given  to 
it.  Many  names  have  been  suggested,  Mr.  *  *  * 
suggests  "Horizon,"  other  names  that  have  been  sug- 
gested or  that  have  occurred  to  us  are  "Dawn,"  "The 
Radical,"  "Reasoner,"  "The  Reasoner  and  Critic," 
"The  Sounding  Lead,"  "The  Meliorist,"  "The  Tribu- 
nal," "  The  Contemporary."  Butthe  one  which  seems 
the  most  suggestive  and  appropriate  to  us,  and  to  those 
with  whom  we  have  talked,  who  are  interested  in  the 
enterprise  is  the  following:  The  Open  Court.  It 
indicates  that  the  court  is  open  for  evidence,  and  the 
discussion  of  the  evidence.  The  name  is  new,  never 
having  been,  so  far  as  I  know,  given  to  any  publication; 
and  it  is  about  the  only  good  name,  the    only    name 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


627 


that  is  easily  understood;  that  is  suggestive  and 
dignified,  and  at  the  same  time  popular,  that  we 
have  been  able  to  think  of.  What  do  you  think  of  it? 
You  must  excuse  the  delay  in  returning  your 
manuscript.  The  extra  amount  of  work,  incident  to 
closing  up  The  Index  affairs,  involving  double  the 
usual  correspondence,  has  left  me  no  leisure  to  at- 
tend to  anything  else.  The  manuscript  has  been 
lying  on  my  table,  needing  a  few  more  comments, 
for  a  week,  and  every  day  I  have  thought  I  would 
get  at  it.  Yours  truly, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 

La  Salle,  Dec.  3,  1886. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Boston  Mass.: 

Dear  Sir — I  have  given  much  time  to  work  out  a 
letter  to  you  suitable  to  be  published  in  regard  to 
"The  Monist."  This  is  the  name  to  which  I 
adhere,  after  going  carefully  over  the  field  again. 
You  may  say  that  we  intend  to  be  an  "  open  court" 
for  religious  ideas.  And  the  first  case  before  the 
court  is  to  be  the  "  Monistic  Idea  "  vs.  the  "  Agnostic 
Idea."  f  is  at  copying  for  you  part  of  the  pro- 
jected letter,  for  your  inspection  only,  and  if  you 
answer  me  at  once,  I  may  yet  get  the  answer  before 
I  am  through  with  the  letter,  which  I  hope  to  have 
in  your  hands  a  week  from  to-day.  With  compli- 
ments to  Mrs.  Underwood.     Yours  truly, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

B.    F.  UNDERWOOD,    ESQ.:  (The  abort  mentioned  copy.) 

Dear  Sir — By  your  letter  of  November  18,  I  learn 
that  the  time  has  come  when  we  have  to  publish  the 
name  and  the  programme  of  the  new  magazine  we 
are  about  to  found,  and  I  here  give  you  the  conclu- 
sions I  have  come  to: 

I  adhere  to  the  name,  "  The  Monist,"  as  that  con- 
veys most  truly  the  leading  idea  I  have  in  regard 
to  this  undertaking.  The  name,  "The  Monist,"  con- 
veys the  idea  given  in  the  New  Testament  in  the 
passage,  "  For  in  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being,"  when  the  meaning  of  the  word  Him  or 
God,  which  is  that  of  a  person  or  individual,  that  is 
a  limited  being  is  enlarged  in  accord  with  our  pres- 
ent knowledge  to  that  of  the  continuous  "  All,"  which 
includes  everything,  also  ourselves.  This  idea  drives 
me  to  action,  giving  me  that  satisfaction  which  the 
religion  taught  me  in  my  childhood,  gave  to  me 
then,  and  is  the  definite  outcome  of  the  long  contin- 
ued struggle  in  me  between  my  early  religion  and 
science  and  experience. 

You  suggest  the  name,  The  Open  Court,  and 
convey  by  these  words  the  view  I  had  in  regard  to 
this  magazine,  that  while  it  shall  have  a  definite 
opinion  on  religious  subjects,  it  shall  not  only  be  open 
to  opposing  views,  but  especially  invite  them.     Let 


the  title  be  "The  Monist,"  an  open  court  for  those 
religious  ideas  that  affect  the  building  up  of  religion 
on  the  basis  of  science. 

Boston,  Dec.  6th,  1886. 
E.  C.  Hegeler.  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir — In  the  last  Index  you  will  see  Mr. 
f's  announcement,  a  statement  by  me  in  regard  to  the 
new  journal,  and  Unity's  Prospectus.  I  felt  the  im- 
portance of  saying  something  definite.  Whatever 
modifications  may  have  to  be  made  can  be  announced 
either  in  the  last  number  of  The  Index  or  in  the  first 
number  of  the  new  journal.  What  I  have  done  has 
been  with  the  approval  and  advice  of  ...  .  and 
other  good  friends  of  the  Chicago  enterprise,  who 
have  concurred  in  the  conviction,  that  if  anything 
at  all  was  to  be  said  about  the  new  paper,  it  would 
be  not  less  definite  than  the  statement  I  have  made, 
and  that  any  change  in  the  plan  could  be  duly  an- 
nounced without  involving  any  breach  of  faith. 

Truly  yours,  B.  F.  Underwood. 

La  Salle,  Dec.  7,  1886. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass.: 

My  Dear  Sir — The  Index  of  December  2d,  reached 
here  last  night.  It  was  not  quite  unexpected  to  me 
that  it  would  bring  a  preliminary  announcement  of 
the  proposed  new  publication,  as  circumstances  com- 
pelled you  to  act.  My  letter  of  December  3,  giving 
you  my  conclusion  in  respect  to  the  name,  and  the 
outlines  of  what  was  my  desire  to  be  the  programme 
of  the  publication,  will  have  reached  you  since.  The 
main  contents  are  that  I  adhere  to  the  name,  "The 
Monist."  That  conveys  most  truly  the  leading  idea 
I  have  in  this  undertaking.  It  is  the  idea  given  in 
the  New  Testament  in  the  passage:  "  For  in  Him 
we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being,"  where  the 
meaning  of  the  word  "  Him,"  or  "God,"  which  is  that 
of  a  person  or  individual  being,  that  is,  a  limited 
being,  is  enlarged,  accords  with  our  present 
knowledge  as  to  that  of  the  continuous  "All,"  which 
includes  everything,  also  ourselves. 

This  idea  joined  with  ideas  on  immortality,  of 
which  those  of  Gustav  Freytag,  which  I  commu- 
nicated to  you  a  few  years  ago,  form  a  principal 
part,  give  a  solid  basis  to  ethics;  I  think  entirely 
that  which  Herbert  Spencer  shows  us.  What  origin- 
ally might  have  been  called  a  philosophy  has  gradu- 
ally become  a  religion  to  me,  in  its  practical  test  in 
real  life. 

What  leads  me  in  this  undertaking  is  not  so  much 
a  sense  of  liberality,  as  a  desire  to  communicate  my 
ideas  to  others,  to  see  them  further  developed,  and 
also  to  have  them  contested.  I  feel  they  will  be 
strengthened  by  contest,  and  look  forward  to  it  with 
pleasure. 


628 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


I  will  state  here  that  I  conclude  from  my  reading, 
which  is  largely  in  German,  that  the  ideas  I  put 
forward  here,  or  similar  ones,  are  already  held  by 
many.  I  wish  the  journal  to  be  a  mediator  between 
the  strictly  Scientific  and  the  progressively 
inclined  world.  The  special  feature  must  be  to 
obtain  the  opinions  and  criticisms  of  the  ablest  men 
in  the  various  departments  of  Science,  on  the  opin- 
ions advanced  by  the  journal,  as  to  what  is  estab- 
lished by  Science,  and  also  in  regard  to  speculations 
that  are  presented  by  the  journal,  if  and  then,  how, 
they  are  in  conflict  with  established  facts.  The 
character  of  the  journal  must  be  such  as  to  win  the 
confidence  of  these  specialists,  and  no  effort  or 
money  be  spared  to  secure  their  co-operation. 

You  have  suggested  to  me  in  your  letter  of 
November  18,  to  name  the  intended  publication 
The  Open  Court,  and  not  hearing  from  me,  have 
preliminarily  published  that  as  its  probable  name. 
You  convey  by  these  words  the  view  I  had  in  regard 
to  the  journal,  that  while  it  shall  have  a  definite 
opinion  on  religious  subjects,  it  shall  not  only  be 
open  to  opposing  views,  but  especially  invite  them. 
I  wrote  you  on  December  3,  that  while  adhering  to 
the  name,  "The  Monist,"  I  desired  it  to  be  an  "  Open 
Court,"  and  that  the  first  case  before  it  be  that  of 
"The  Monist  vs.  the  Agnostic." 

On  reading  the  announcement  in  The  Index  last 
night,  I  struck,  however,  on  a  name  which,  while 
conveying  my  views,  will,  I  think,  be  satisfactory  to 
you,  and  those  who  will  contribute,  and  to  many  of 
the  readers  of  The  Index,  namely,  "The  Monist's 
Open  Court."  Let  us  take  that.  Let  us  hold  on  to 
the  plan  to  make  the  journal  a  monthly.  It  is  to 
deal  with  difficult  subjects,  and  time  for  considering 
them  will  be  desirable  for  both  editors  and  readers. 
Let  the  price  be  three  dollars  per  year. 

I  write  this  letter  to  you  for  publication  in  The 
Index,  and  therefore,  while  I  did  not  wish  my  name 
mentioned  in  connection  with  laudatory  preliminary 
notices  of  the  intended  undertaking,  I  gladly  affix  it 
to  a  definite  announcement  of  the  same,  accompa- 
nied by  a  declaration  of  principles. 

With  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Underwood  and  your- 
self, I  remain,     Yours  truly,  Edward  C.  Hegeler. 
44  Boylston  St.,  Boston,  Dec.  7th,  18S6. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir — Yours,  enclosing  the  first  part  of  a 
letter  .  .  .  submitted  to  me  for  inspection,  and  re- 
marks, reached  me  yesterday  afternoon,  while  I  was 
having  a  conference  with  Mr.  f.  I  give  up  every- 
thing else  now  that  I  may  answer  you  at  once.  I 
have  pondered  what  you  have  written  carefully,  and 
write  you  with  the  same  frankness  with  which  you 
have  kindly  communicated  your  views  to  me. 


I  hope  we  shall  be  able  to  unite  on  a  suitable 
name  for  the  journal.  "The  Open  Court"  (first 
thought  of  by  Mrs.  Underwood)  seemed  to  me  a  very 
fortunate  name;  it  is  praised  by  those  who  have  heard 
or  read  it,  so  far  as  they  have  written  us,  but  there 
may  be  a  better  name;  but  I  do  not  think  the  name 
you  have  suggested  is  what  is  needed. 

Permit  me  to  mention  some  of  the  objections 
which  occur  to  me,  to  the  name  "  Monist  "  for  the  new 
journal. 

1.  The  words  Monist  and  Monism  are  unknown 
to  the  mass  of  readers,  and  would  convey  to  them 
no  idea  whatever.  The  words  have  not  yet  appeared, 
I  think,  in  our  dictionaries,  except  in  some  of  the 
latest  editions. 

The  object  of  language  is  not  to  conceal,  but  to 
communicate  thought,  and  for  this  reason,  as  Aris- 
totle said,  one  who  would  be  a  wise  teacher,  though 
he  has  the  thoughts  of  a  philosopher,  should  use  the 
language  of  the  people.  In  a  philosophical  treatise, 
the  words  Monist,  Monistic  and  Monism  are  allow- 
able, although  even  there  they  would,  for  the  majority 
of  readers,  require  a  note  defining  them;  but  the 
name  Monist  for  a  journal  would  defeat  the  very 
object  of  a  name,  which  is  to  convey  to  those  to 
whom  it  looks  for  patronage  some  idea  of  its  char- 
acter and  aims. 

2.  While  to  general  readers  Monist  would  be  a 
meaningless  word — which  the  unfriendly  religious, 
or  mirth-loving  secular  editors  would  be  pretty  sure 
to  change  to  Moonist — to  the  few  thinkers  acquainted 
with  the  word  it  simply  implies  a  philosophical  theory 
in  distinction  to  the  conception  of  Dualism.  Now  a 
liberal  journal  cannot  wisely,  in  my  opinion,  be 
pledged  by  its  name  to  a  particular  speculative 
theory,  much  less  should  the  views  of  the  editors  be 
thus  labeled  in  advance.  Let  Monism  be  presented 
and  defended  (and  criticized  of  course),  but  let  the 
readers  judge  as  to  the  result  of  the  discussion,  and 
draw  their  own  conclusion,  based  upon  the  merits  of 
the  arguments,  pro  and  con,  instead  of  having  a  pre- 
judgment implied  in  the  name  of  the  journal. 

3.  Monist  and  Monism  are  words,  the  precise 
philosophical  meaning  of  which  has  not  become  so' 
well  established  as  to  have  the  same  connotation  for 
all  thinkers  who  use  them.  You,  I  notice,  make 
Monism  the  antithesis  of  Agnosticism.  Now  ob- 
serve what  Haeckel  says:  "  I  believe  that  my  monis- 
tic convictions  agree  in  all  essential  points  with  that 
natural  philosophy  which  in  England  is  represented 
by  Agnosticism."  (1884).  I  could  easily  show  you 
by  quotations  from  their  writings  that  Spencer, 
Huxley,  and  Tyndall,  all  avowed  agnostics,  are  also 
Monistic  thinkers.  And  Buechner,  who  resolves 
everything  into  matter,  is  not  more  monistic  than  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


629 


idealists  who  reduce  everything  to  ideas.  I  who  am 
an  agnostic  in  the  sense  in  which  Huxley  (who  first 
brought  the  word  into  use)  employs  it,  and  in  the 
sense  in  which  Spencer  applies  it  to  himself,  am  also 
in  full  intellectual  sympathy  with  the  monistic  phi- 
losophy, which  endeavors  "to  derive,"  as  Strauss 
says,  "the  totality  of  phenomena  from  a  single  prin- 
ciple— to  construct  the  universe  and  life  from  the 
same  block."  I  believe  that  all  phenomena,  dis- 
tinguished as  mental  and  material,  have  a  common 
basis,  in  the  ultimate  nature  of  things.  But  when  I 
say  that  I  do  not  know  what  this  ultimate  nature  is, 
I  am  in  the  company  with  Spencer  and  Huxley,  with 
Haeckel  and  Buechner,  even,  as  well  as  with  Kant. 

There  will  be  sufficient  opportunity  for  the  exposi- 
tion of  Monistic  thought  in  the  columns  of  the  new 
journal,  but  let  us  not  narrow  it  at  the  outset  by  giving 
it  a  name  which  stands  for  only  a  school  or  class  of 
thinkers,  and  which  would  rather  repel  many  able  and 
earnest  thinkers,  with  their  adherents.  Let  the  name 
be  comprehensive  enough  to  include  in  its  scope  the 
consideration  of  every  school  and  system  of  philoso- 
phy, and  then  we  can  present  our  own  views  and  rely 
upon  the  force  of  our  arguments  and  the  strength  of 
our  positions  to  win  attention  and  gain  assent. 

The  expression,  "  a  religious  magazine,"  is  so 
common,  and  the  usual  meaning  of  the  word  religious 
is  so  strongly  fixed  in  the  popular  mind,  that  it  would 
not,  I  think,  give  a  correct  conception  of  the  charac- 
ter and  purpose  of  the  publication.  My  friends  and 
opponents  would  be  surprised  to  see  my  name  as 
editor  of  a  journal  called  "  a  religious  magazine." 
When  liberal  thinkers  speak  in  defense  of  religion, 
they  find  it  necessary  to  use  some  qualifying  words, 
— such  as  the  "  Religion  of  Reason  and  Humanity  " — 
to  distinguish  it  from  what  is  popularly  regarded  as 
religion,  viz.:  Theological  belief  and  a  system  of 
worship. 

But  further;  since  the  new  journal  should  be  de- 
voted to  the  consideration,  not  only  of  religion,  but 
of  all  those  philosophical  ethical  and  social  questions 
which  are  of  current  interest  and  importance,  it  does 
not  seem  to  me  wise  to  use  the  word  religious  in  the 
way  suggested. 

You  observe  that  the  first  case  before  the  Court  is  to 
be  the  "  Monistic  Idea"  versus  the  "Agnostic  Idea." 
Of  course  this  statement  is  based  on  the  conviction 
that  the  two  conceptions  are  antagonistic,  wherein  you 
differ  with  Haeckel,  Spencer  and  the  other  thinkers. 
I  suppose  you  mean  that  in  the  first  number  of  the 
journal,  you  wish  to  present  your  views  on  this  sub- 
ject. That  is  all  right;  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  assist 
you  the  best  I  can,  to  present  your  thought  to  ad- 
vantage. Your  articles  will — if  I  understand  your 
wish — appear  over  your  own  name,  or  any  pseudonym 


you  may  decide  upon.  But  there  are  to  be  other 
articles  by  contributors,  and  a  certain  amount  of 
editorial  matter;  and  both  should  be  of  a  character 
to  attract  attention  to  the  new  journal,  and  to  secure 
for  it  recognition  and  influence.  Mere  philosophical 
discussion — in  which  personally  I  feel  a  deep  interest 
—I  know  to  my  sorrow,  has  attractions  for  but  a 
comparatively  few;  and  any  publication  which  makes 
it  the  main  thing,  is  sure  to  fail  pecuniarily,  and  to  be 
limited  to  but  a  few  readers.  Even  the  famous 
Loudon  Quarterly,  JJiud— the  ablest  philosophical 
publication  in  the  world,  and  established  several 
years  ago — is  a  continual  expense  to  the  proprietors. 
A  liberal  journal,  to  be  a  success,  must  take  up  and 
discuss  from  an  advanced  point  of  view,  all  the  great 
questions  of  the  day. 

And  I  am  now  led  to  another  point  of  great  in- 
terest to  me.  The  work  of  editing  and  conducting  a 
first  class  journal  is  a  very  complex  work,  requiring 
not  only  an  aptitude  for  writing  on  many  subjects, 
not  only  tact  and  judgment,  but  that  knowledge  of 
detail  which  experience  alone  can  give.  The  selec- 
tion of  contributions,  giving  the  right  prominence 
and  proportion  to  the  different  departments,  secur- 
ing a  unit)'  of  plan  (amid  more  or  less  diversity  of 
thought),  in  order  to  give  symmetry  and  complete- 
ness to  the  result  of  many  thinkers'  efforts,  all  this 
requires  a  certain  knowledge,  which  only  one  ex- 
perienced in  journalism  can  fully  appreciate.  It  is 
therefore  of  the  first  importance  that  in  editing  a 
journal  an  editor  be  unhampered.  Suggestions  and 
advice  are  always  welcomed  by  a  reasonable  man; 
but  in  conducting  a  journal  there  must  be,  to  secure 
excellence  and  success,  the  editorial  authority  to 
manage  the  journal,  according  to  the  best  editorial 
judgment. 

In  the  new  enterprise  you  will  have  at  stake  a 
certain  amount  of  money.  I  shall  have  at  stake 
whatever  reputation  I  have  gained.  If  the  paper 
disappoints  reasonable  expectations,  or  fails  under 
my  management,  the  result  will  be  bad  for  me.  You 
will  be  unaffected  by  it,  except  pecuniarily;  for  it 
will  be  known  you  entrusted  the  management  to 
another  person.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  I  should 
wish  to  do  my  best  to  make  the  journal  a  great  suc- 
cess; and  to  do  this,  I  deem  it  important  that  /have 
the  authority  to  go  ahead  unfalteringly,  and  that  in 
the  editorial  work  I  shall  have  unhampered  control. 
With  the  understanding,  especially  mentioned  by  us 
in  our  conversation  in  this  city,  that  you  shall  express 
your  views  fully  in  the  journal.  I  hope  you  will  see  the 
■  mportance  of  authorizing  me— as  is  indeed  implied  in 


6.3° 


THE    OPKN    COURT. 


our  agreement — to  assume  the  uncontrolled  manage- 
ment of  the  publication,  with,  of  course,  all  the  ad- 
vice and  assistance  you  can  render,  if  so  disposed. 
If,  at  the  end  of  the  year  you  shall  he.  dissatisfied  with 
my  methods  or  work,  it  will  be  within  your  power 
and  wholly  your  right  to  try  some  other  man. 

This  is  the  only  condition  on  which  a  man  who 
knows  anything  about  journalism,  and  who  has  con- 
victions of  his  own,  would  desire  or  agree  to  edit  a 
journal  in  which  his  name  was  to  appear  as  editor. 
If  this  condition  is  not  entirely  satisfactory  to  you, 
please  say  so  frankly.  Neither  of  us  wish  to  be  con- 
nected with  a  journal  without  the  fullest  understand- 
ing on  this  point. 

I  am  deeply  interested  in  this  project;  have  writ- 
ten far  and  wide  in  preparation  for  it;  have  secured  an 
unrivalled  corps  of  contributors;  have  asked  some  to 
have  articles  ready  for  the  first  number;  have  col- 
lected thousands  of  names,  and  have  everything  in 
readiness  to  send  out  circulars  and  trust  nothing 
will  prevent  the  realization  of  our  wishes  and  hopes; 
but  the  condition  I  mention  is  so  absolutely  import- 
ant to  the  success  of  the  undertaking,  and  to  my 
going  into  the  work  with  spirit  and  confidence,  that 
I  have  thought  it  best  to  write  thus  fully  and  frankly. 
The  arrangements  with  The  Index  you  know  of.  But 
for  the  Chicago  project,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  an 
attempt  would  be  made  to  continue  the  paper  in  this 
city;  but  now  the  general  feeling  is  one  of  confidence 
that  the  Chicaeo  journal  will,  in  a  large  measure, 
supply  the  place  of  The  Index,  and  the  disposition  is 
to  sustain  the  former.  All  the  requests  for  transfer 
thus  far,  have  named  The  Open  Court  as  the  journal 
of  their  choice.  But  if  the  condition  I  have  named 
is  contrary  to  your  understanding,  or  if  there  is  any- 
thing in  what  I  have  written  likely  or  liable  to  inter- 
fere with  the  arrangement  made  with  The  Index 
trustees,  do  not  hesitate  or  delay  to  send  me  a  tele- 
gram at  once;  for  a  change  of  programme  would  have 
to  be  made  at  once,  and  should  be  announced  in  the 
next  issue  of  the  journal. 

I  will  only  add  that  in  my  opinion  the  journal 
the  most  likely  to  succeed  at  this  time  is  a  weekly; 
but  that  if  it  cannot  be  a  weekly,  the  next  best  is  a 
fortnightly.  For  a  monthly  I  see  small  chance  of 
success,  and  I  have  conferred  with  many  clear-headed 
journalists  on  the  subject. 

I  remain  very  truly  yours, 

B.  F.  Uxderwood. 

Boston,  Dec,  6,  1886. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir — The  enclosed  letter  came  to  me 
Saturday  last.  .  .  The  same  statements  come  to  me 
from    other    sources — direct   from    Chicago,    one   of 


them.     I   send   a  copy  of  my   hastily  written  reply 
to  the  enclosed  letter.     I  am  not  able  to  speak  defin- 
itely about  the  alleged  negotiations,  but  I  should  like 
to  be  authorized  to  deny,  as  stated  in  this  letter. 
Very  truly  yours, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 

The  enclosed  letter  contained  the  following 
passage: 

Dec.  3,  1886. 

"Dear  Mr.  Underwood: — My  remark  was  the 
mere  echo  of  one  made  to  me  by  Mr.  *  *  *  *  While  I 
cannot  profess  to  quote  Mr.  ****'$  words,  their  sub- 
stance as  I  gathered  it,  was  to  this  effect:  That  he 
hoped  you  would  find  the  full  liberty  and  independ- 
ence in  your  new  relation  that  you  were  expecting. 
To  my  inquiry,  why  you  should  not,  he  replied  that 
the  gentleman  who  was  to  furnish  the  money  was  an 
extreme  radical,  and  very  fond  of  having  his  own 
way;  that  he  had  been  in  negotiation  with  two  other 
gentlemen  besides  (and  I  suppose  before)  yourself, 
who  insisted  on  the  most  absolute  guarantee  in 
writing,  of  their  exclusive  control  of  the  proposed 
paper — and  they  could  not  obtain  satisfactory  terms. 
He  hoped  you  had  everything  settled  and  in  writing." 

Boston,  Dec.  4,  1886. 
Dear  Sir — Accept  thanks  for  your  kind  letter,  but 
I  think  Mr.  ...  is  mistaken  in  what  he  states.  He 
evidently  attaches  to  some  remarks  he  has  heard 
undue  importance.  I  have  known  for  some  years 
the  gentleman  who  will  be  the  proprietor  of  the  new 
journal;  and  although  tenacious  of  his  own  views,  I 
have  never  found  him  without  proper  respect  for  the 
convictions  of  others.  I  know  not  what  have  been 
his  negotiations  with  others,  but  certainly  the  under- 
standing between  him  and  myself  is,  that  I  shall  have 
the  business  and  editorial  management  of  the  new 
paper.  He  will  doubtless  wish  to  express  his  own 
views,  but  this  he  will  do  as  an  individual.  He  is 
too  reasonable  a  man  to  wish  me,  on  account  of 
his  ownership  of  the  journal,  to  surrender  my  inde- 
pendence in  the  management  of  the  enterprise. 
That  is  something  which  no  position  or  salary  could 
tempt  me  to  do. 

Yours  truly, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 

La  Salle,  Dec.  10,  1886. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass.: 

My  Dear  Sir — Your  two  letters  of  December  6th 
arrived  last  evening  only.  Your  letter  of  December 
7th  arrived  this  morning.  I  have  only  a  few  minutes 
time  now  to  answer  and  will  use  this  to  say,  that  I 
have  not  been  negotiating  about  the  starting  of  the 
Chicago  paper,  except  with  Mr whereof  I  be- 
lieve to  have   fully  informed  you,  this   is  now  nearly 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


631 


two  years  ago.  Mr.  .  .  .  never  asked  me  about  such 
a  written  guarantee,  whereof  your  friend  writes,  hut 
after  he  was  here  in  La  Salle  with  me  some  time,  de- 
clared that  he  was  convinced  he  could  not  edit  a  paper 
satisfactory  to  me.  He  had  shown  to  me  certain 
contributions  sent  him  for  the  same, — the  one  a  very 
humorous  article  on  the  Easter  services  in  the  various 
Chicago  churches  from  the  "Catholic"  to  "Swing's" 
— and  Swing  was  hardest  dealt  with,  which  I  told 
him  were  against  my  views  in  regard    to  the   paper. 

With  Mr.  *  *  I  talked  on  the  paper  in  a  general 
way  last  winter, — but  do  not,  and  did  not  deem  him 
suitable  for  the  management  of  it,— though  I  believe 
he  will  make  a  very  able,  bright  contributor.  I  have 
told  you  of  this  before. 

Regarding  your  independence  in  the  editorship 
and  management  of  the  paper, — I  would  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  you  if  you  did  not  show  the  full  man- 
hood which  you  express  in  your  letter  to  your  friend. 

For  anything  what  you  write,  I  will,  however,  be 
held  as  much  responsible  as  yourself;  even  if  I 
contribute  the  money  only  for  the  publication.  I 
have  to  close  now,  expressing  my  fullest  confidence 
in  your  fairness. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Edward  C.  Hegelek. 

La  Salle,  Dec.  nth,  1886. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass.: 

My  Dear  Sir — I  wrote  you  yesterday  hurriedly, 
closing  "For  anything  what  you  write  I  will  however 
be  held  as  much  responsible  as  yourself,  even  if  I 
contribute  the  money  only  for  the  publication." 
Since  writing  the  above  I  have  telegraphed  you  last 
night,  "Expect  publication  of  my  letter  and  your 
answer  thereto  in  next  Index  and  earlier  by  mail. 
Will  agree  to  fortnightly." 

I  mean  here  my  letter  of  December  7th  which 
perhaps  has  reached  you  this  morning  only, — and 
that  it  is  satisfactory  to  me,  and  that  I  expect  you 
will  add  an  answer  at  once  to  my  letter — and  mail 
me  a  copy  thereof  at  once,  so  that  I  can  send  an  an- 
swer to  the  expected  one  of  yours  for  the  following 
Index.  Last  evening  I  then  have  thoroughly  read 
your  letter  of  December  7th  and  made  pencil  notes 
thereto. 

I  expected  to  write  some  longer  this  morning 
than  I  shall  be  able.  I  will  refer  only  to  some  per- 
sonal points.  You  say:  "Much  less  should  the 
views  of  the  editors  be  thus  labeled  in  advance." 

1.  By  the  words,  "The  Monist's  Open  Court," 
only  the  person  who  supports  the  paper  is   intended 


to  be  labeled.  It  should  be  specially  stated  at  the 
head  of  the  paper  that  the  editors  are  "  Agnostics.  " 
If  the  Monist  entrusts  his  case  so  far  to  the  Agnostic 
— this  certainly  implies  great  faith  in  his  fairnesss. 

2.  Am  willing  to  wait  with  the  words,  "  RELIGIOUS 
magazine."  .... 

3.  Practically  you  will  have  to  begin  as  a  con- 
tinuation of  T/ie  Index — but  give  preference  to  such 
topics  that  together  with  other  topics  will  in  time 
make  clear  the  Monistic  Idea. 

4.  To  your  remarks,    "  You  will  be  unaffected  by 

it,     except    pecuniarily "      Much    more   than 

that;  in  what  you  say  about  my  being  affected,  you 
are  quite  mistaken.     My  manhood  even  is  at  stake. 

5.  I  get  along  best  with  independent  men  who  are  not 
afraid  of  responsibility.  Expect  you  will  not  dis- 
agreeably notice  any  restraint  from  me. 

6.  You  spoke  of  my  being  editor  with  you  even 
— what  I  declined.  The  real  position  is  that  of  a 
partnership  where  one  is  usually  the  silent  partner,  and 
does  not  unnecessarily  annoy  the  other.  Such 
mutual  restraint  as  that  implies,  is  the  real  relation. 

7.  A  telegram  in  answer  to  last  part  of  your  letter 
would  only  produce  confusion,  and  so  I  have  sent 
none — taking  upon  me  the  responsibility  that  in  the 
real  substance  there  is  no  fatal  difference  of  opinion. 
I  look  for  your  letter  with  great  interest  in  answer  to 
mine  of  December  7th — the  one  to  be  published. 

Sincerely  Yours, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

Boston,  Dec.  1 1,  1886. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir — Your  letter  of  the  7th  came  yester- 
day, and  two  telegrams  to-day.  I  send  you  a  line  to 
say  that  if  the  new  journal  is  to  be  started  with  you 
as  proprietor  and  myself  as  editor,  we  ought  by  all 
means  to  avoid  going  into  a  discussion  before  the 
public,  in  regard  to  details  on  which  we  are  not  yet 
fully  agreed,  in  advance  of  the  first  issue  of  the 
paper.  It  will  make  a  bad  impression  and  weaken 
confidence  in  the  permanence  of  our  relation,  and 
the  success  of  the  enterprise.  What  you  desire 
to  say  could,  it  seems  to  me,  be  presented  without 
alluding  to  points  as  yet  undecided. 

The  statement  in  The  Index  under  the  title  of  a 
"  New  Journal,  "  is,  of  course,  preliminary,  and  pro- 
visional. That  is  not  to  go  into  the  new  paper;  and 
as  to  the  list  of  contributors,  it  was  made  with 
especial  reference  to  Index  readers;  the  design  being 
to  carry  as  many  with  us  as  we  fairly  could.  From 
these  writers,  who  have  all  promised  to  write  if 
desired,  we  can  select  such  as  we  prefer,  and  add  any 
other  names  that  will  strengthen  the  new  enterprise, 
as  we  may  come  to  see  the  needs  of  the  paper. 


632 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


It  has,  since  I  last  wrote  you,  occurred  to  me  that 
perhaps  you  will  be  satisfied  to  have  the  word  Monist 
omitted  from  the  name,  on  condition  that  a  notice 
is  kept  standing  as  a  part  of  the  prospectus  (or  else- 
where) something  like  the  one  I  enclose*  herewith. 
That  would  define  your  position  comprehensively, 
and  make  readers  interested  in  the  expositions 
of  your  thought  which  you  will  present,  and 
would  leave  the  editors  uncommitted  and  free  to 
define  their  position  in  their  own  terms.  Does  it  not 
strike  you  as  more  favorably  than  "A  Monist's  Open 
Court?"  We  never  apply  a  name  in  the  possessive 
case  to  a  court,  unless,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  we  say 
a  judge's  court,  (as  Judge  Gray's  Court, — the  court 
over  which  he  presides  and  decides  as  a  judge). 

I  have  already  informed  you  that  the  grounds  of 
my  objection  are  not  my  own  opinions  as  to  Monism 
( for  I  am  as  strongly  monistic  as  you  can  be).  But 
the  grounds  are,  1st: — The  name  is  not  understood, 
save  by  a  very  few,  and  as  the  name  of  the  paper 
would  be  an  almost  insurmountable  obstacle  to  suc- 
cess from  the  beginning,  2d: — It  would  repel  many 
who  understand  it  from  the  paper,  because  of  the 
committal  implied,  to  a  particular  philosophical  sect 
or  school,  in  advance.  Many  of  the  writers  and  sup- 
porters of  The  Index,  (who  are  ready  to  hear  all  that 
can  be  said  in  favor  of  Monism)  would  feel  no  interest 
in  the  paper 

I  hope  I  don't  seem  unreasonable  to  you.  I  only 
regret  I  cannot  now  have  an  hour's  talk  with 
you — so  many  things  are  there  to  consider  which 
cannot  be  written.  If  you  could  view  the  situation, 
as  it  is  known  to  Mr.  f  and  myself,  you  would  see 
the  importance  of  what   I  write,  as  you  cannot  now. 

Yesterday  I  sent  you  a  list  of  names,  thinking 
possibly  some  of  them  might  strike  you  favorably. 
I  am  not  tenacious  of  Open  Court,  by  any  means, 
and  would  agree  to  any  other  which  would  be  under- 
stood and  indicate  or  suggest  comprehensively  the 
scope  and  spirit  of  the  journal. 

Very  truly  yours,  B.   F.  Underwood. 

Boston,  Dec.  12,  1886. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir — I  sent  you  a  proposition  last  even- 
ing that  a  sentence  defining  your  position  as  a 
Monist  be  incorporated  into  the  prospectus  of  the 
new  journal,  or  at  any  rate,  be  kept  as  a  standing 
notice.  On  this  condition  I  believe  you  will  consent 
to  omit  it  from  the  name  of  the  paper. 

I  have  read  your  letter  carefully.  If  you  shall 
agree  to  compromise  on  the  basis  I  have  suggested, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  modify  some  expressions  in 
your  letter.  The  modifications  I  have  made,  and 
have   added   for  your  consideration  [in  accordance 

*  Substance  of  this  enclosure  is  repeated  in  Mr.  U.'s  letter  of  December  16. 


with  letter  sent  yesterday]  an  additional  sentence, 
which  you  will  see  enclosed  in  brackets.  If  the  let- 
ter, as  copied  and  slightly  modified,  can  be  made  a 
basis  of  agreement,  it  will  need  no  reply  and  no  criti- 
cism from  me  in  The  I?idex ;  but  can  appear  as  an 
additional  part  of  the  announcement,  from  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  new  journal. 

As  I  wrote  you,  the  paper,  {The  Index,)  is  made  up 
and  goes  to  press  Tuesdays.  But  this  week  I  shall 
hold  it  back  till  Wednesday,  or  until  I  get  a  dispatch 
from  you.  Shall  I  publish  the  letter  from  you  as  here- 
with enclosed?  If  any  part  is  objectionable,  indi- 
cate it 

If  you  insist  upon  it,  your  letter  shall  be  published 
verbatim,  but  first  let  us  see  if  we  cannot  agree  sub- 
stantially, so  as  to  avoid  anything  in  The  Index  sug- 
gestive of  controversy  between  us,  as  to  the  new 
journal. 

I  am  glad  you  agree  to  a  fortnightly.  A  monthly 
would  mean  less  work,  but  it  would  not,  I  fear,  be 
possible  to  make  it  a  success.  In  this  all  journalists 
I  have  talked  with  concur. 

In  haste,  but  truly  yours, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 


La  Salle,  Dec.  13,  li 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass.: 

My  Dear  Sir — My  last  is  dated  December  11. 
After  mailing  it,  I  telegraphed  you: 

My  letter,  expected  to  be  published,  is  dated 
December  7.  My  answer  to  your  letter  of  Decem- 
ber 7,  not  adapted  for  telegraphing,  mailed  partly 
yesterday,  partly  to-day. 

In  answer  to  yours  of  the  7th,  I  wish  to  add  yet, 
that  in  regard  to  Index  trustees — if  any  of  the  sub- 
scribers who  have  paid  The  Index  in  advance  should 
wish  their  money  returned  in  consequence  of  disa- 
greement with  my  standpoint,  that  I  shall  not  hesi- 
tate with  repaying  their  unexpired  subscriptions. 

In  regard  to  our  contract,  which  was  at  that  time 
understood  primarily,  I  think  by  both  of  us  as  a  con- 
tract for  a  definite  salary,  I  wish  to  state  yet  that 
by  any  action  of  yours  that  you  may  deem  to  be 
your  duty  to  yourself  in  this  enterprise,  I  shall  not 
be  released  from  my  financial  obligation  specified  in 
said  contract. 

As  it  was  the  programme  up  to  the  time  that  the 
arrangement  was  made  with  the  Index  trustees,  that 
you  would  first  come  to  La  Salle  and  study  through 
with  me  in  detail  the  matters  touched  in  my  manu- 
script,  whereupon  we  would   go  at  the  programme 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


633 


and  commencement  of  the  journal,  I  took  no  steps 
to    re-rent    my   former    house,   thinking    you   might 

want  to  occupy  it  some  time 

Sincerely  yours, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

Boston,  Dec.  16,  18S6. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir — I  have  already  communicated  to 
you  some  of    my  objections  to  the  word  Monist,  as 

the   name  of  the  new  journal As  an  "  Open 

Court  "  for  the  introduction  and  orderly  discussion  of 
evidence,  it  should  not  have,  even  in  the  way  you 
suggest — "The  Monist's  Open  Court" — the  stamp 
of  a  philosophical  creed  or  theory.  In  fact,  I  think 
that  name  more  objectionable  than  simply  The 
Monist. 

Assuming  that  you  do  not  desire  to  commit  the 
publication  to  Monism  in  advance,  I  suggest  that 
"  Monist  "  be  omitted  from  the  name,  and  that  in  the 
prospectus,  or  in  a  standing  notice,  something  like 
this  be  stated:  "The  proprietor  of  this  journal, 
whose  philosophy  and  religion  are  fitly  expressed  by 
the  word  "  Monist,  "  will  present  his  views  over  his 
own  name  or  initials,  leaving  the  editors  free  and 
independent  in  all  that  pertains  to  their  department.  " 
By  this  arrangement  your  personal  convictions  will 
appear,  so  far  as  the  name  "Monist"  can  disclose 
them,  and  the  paper  can  still  be,  as  our  contract  says, 
"  under  the  business  and  editorial  management"  of 
myself,  assisted  by  Mrs.  Underwood 

You  state  your  leading  ideas  intended  to  be  con- 
veyed by  The  Monist,  refer  to  your  idea,  on  immor- 
tality, you  desire  to  communicate  your  ideas  to  others 
and  to  have  them  contested,  and  to  obtain  the 
opinions  and  criticisms  of  the  ablest  scientific  men 
on  the  views  advanced.  So  far  good.  This  you 
give  as  the  "declaration  of  principles."  The  pre- 
sentation and  discussion  of  your  own  thought  will, 
of  course,  be  of  prime  importance  to  you,  and  I 
doubt  not  of  interest  to  many  readers,  but  there  are 
other  than  purely  philosophical  and  theoretical  ques- 
tions which  must  receive  prominence  in  a  journal 
that  is  to  obtain  readers  and  exert  an  influence 
to-day, — social,  industrial,  educational  and  religious 
questions  now  occupying  the  mind  of  our  ablest  and 
most  earnest  thinkers.  I  presume  that  the  consider- 
ation of  these  live  questions  is  embraced  in  your  idea 
of  the  aim  and  scope  of  the  new  journal. 

You  have  read  my  statement  printed  in  the  last 
two  issues  of  The  Index.  If  it  is  unsatisfactory  to 
you,  will  you  please  return  the  enclosed  copy  with 
such  modifications,  by  omission  or  addition,  as  you 
think  are  needed.  We  should  come  to  an  agreement 
sufficient    to  admit    of  a  definite  statement,    if  any 


substantial  changes  are  to  be  made,  before   The  Indi  1 

is  discontinued 

Sincerely  yours, 

B.  E.  Underwood. 

Boston,  Dec.  16,  1886. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

My  Dear  Sir — Since  you  did  not  consent  to 
making  your  statement  for  The  Index  in  a  way  to 
obviate  the  necessity  of  discussion  in  regard  to  our 
project  in  The  Index,  I  had  your  letter  set  up  as  fast 
as  I  could,  and  wrote  the  reply  that  I  sent  you  this 
morning  (with  proof  of  your  letter) 

I  repeat  substantially  only  what  I  wrote  you  some 
days  ago,  more  at  length.  I  do  not  see  any  reason  for 
discussing  details  of  the  Chicago  project  before  the 
public,  when  it  is  we  who  must  decide  and  agree;  but 
I  long  ago  learned  to  respect  the  wisdom  of  others, 
when  I  could  not  concur  in  their  wisdom  nor  con- 
vince them  of  the  wisdom  of  my  own. 

I  note  all  you  have  written,  which  I  have  read 
attentively,  and  am  prevented  writing  you  at  length 
in  reply,  only  from  utter  inability. 

I  do  not  really  think  that  my  liberty  or  independ- 
ence would  suffer  in  my  relation  with  you,  and  I 
offer  no  objection  to  the  relation  as  you  state  it  (in 
one  of  your  letters  of  recent  date).  I  think  we  may 
safely  leave  this  matter  to  be  tested   by  experience. 

If  it  is  thought  best,  instead  of  having  my  letter 
sent  you  to-day,  follow  yours,  I  shall  be  content  to 
print  your  letter  in  next  issue  without  any  formal 
reply,  but  with  simply  a  brief  paragraph,  stating 
where  we  differ,  and  how  we  agree. 

We  are  now  nearing  the  end  of  the  career 
of  The  Index.  Nearly  all — all  but  two,  I  think — who 
have  requested  transfers  of  their  subscriptions,  have 
asked  to  be  transferred  to  The  Open  Court;  many 
who  have  settled,  wish  to  take  the  new  paper,  and  a 
number  have  paid  in  advance.  The  new  journal 
will  have  a  fine  list  to  begin  with — a  list  which 
includes  many  cultivated  men  and  women.  Hundreds 
of  letters  in  regard  to  it  have  been  received,  and  I 
think  the  prospect  is  most  auspicious.  This  oppor- 
tunity to  start  a  new  journal  is  one  not  likely  to 
come  again,  and  I  hope  nothing  will  occur  to  mar 
the  prospect.  I  have  my  ideas  of  what  is  best,  like 
yourself,  but  I  am  willing  to  yield  on  any  point, 
which  I  do  not  regard  as  vital  to  the  success  of  the 
undertaking.  It  has  gone  out  that  there  is  to  be  a 
new  journal  at  Chicago;  it  has  been  widely  adver- 
tised; money  is  being  received  for  it;  and  if  the 
enterprise  is  to  be  started,  this  is  the  opportunity. 
The  nearer  what  we  decide  upon  comes  to  satisfying 
us  both,  will,  of  course,  be  the  best. 

Truly  yours, 

B.  E.  Underwood. 


634 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Boston,  Dec.  17,  1886. 

My  Dear  Sir — While  I  feel  hopeful  that  your  next 
letter  will  show  sufficient  agreement  between  us  as 
to  the  projected  new  journal,  to  insure  its  certainty, 
the  situation  compels  me  to  keep  in  mind  the  possi- 
bility of  its  failure  by  reason  of  my  inability  to 
comply  with  all  your  conditions.  If,  after  receiving 
your  final  statement,  I  shall  decide  that  your  con- 
ception of  a  first-class  journal  and  mine  are  near 
enough  alike  to  make  a  beginning  possible,  I  will 
telegraph  you  accordingly.  If  your  final  letter  is 
such  that  I  cannot  accede  to  your  requirements, 
I  shall  notify  The  Index  trustees  at  once,  and 
announce  in  the  next  Index  the  failure  of  the 
project.  Your  letter  of  the  7th,  and  your  reply  to 
mine,  to  be  received,  which  accompanied  proof  to 
you,  shall  be  printed  in  the  same  number.  If  I  shall 
be  compelled  by  my  own  ideas  of  what  is  right  and 
reasonable  in  the  premises,  to  decide  adversely,  it 
will  be  on  grounds  of  such  radical  difference,  that 
it  will  be  useless  to  have  any  further  correspondence 
or  negotiations  in  regard  to  a  new  journal.  I  assume 
that  your  letter  will  be  final,  as  a  statement  of  what 
the  journal  must,  and  must  not  be. 

There  will  be  still  one  number  more  of  The 
Index  after  the  next  issue;  in  that  only  shall  we  have 
a  chance  to  make  any  further  announcement  as  to 
the  change.  In  the  contingency  here  supposed, 
our  failure  to  agree  will  not,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
in  any  way  interrupt  our  pleasant  friendly  relations. 
You  have  a  right  to  start  suck  a  journal  as  von  prefer;  if 
I  cannot  agree  to  edit  such  a  journal  as  you  desire,  it 
is  my  right  to  decline.  My  deepest  regret,  as  to 
what  has  been  done,  will  be  over  the  announcement, 
and  the  influence  this  project  has  had  deciding  the 
action  taken  in  regard  to  The  Index.  —As  for  our 
written  contract  ....  that  need  cause  no  trouble 
in  the  event  of  the  failure  of  the  project.  My  own 
plans  would  have  to  be  made  anew,  and  possibly  an 
effort  might  be  made  to  revive  The  Index.  All  this 
would  be  uncertain.  The  trustees  have  made  no 
provision  for  a  possible  failure. 

Although  I  am  providing  for  a  contingency,  I 
sincerely  hope  and  believe  that  we  shall  come  to  an 
understanding,  and  that  the  new  journal  will  be 
established,  and  prove  a  great  intellectual  and  moral 
influence  in  this  country.     Yours  truly, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 

La  Salle,  Dec.  20,  1886. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass.: 

My  Dear  Sir — I  telegraph  you  this  morning,  viz: 
"I  cannot  mail  answer  to  your  letter  of  December 
16,*  for  next  Index.  Your  standpi  >int  is  satisfactory 
to  me."      I   hope  to  mail  my  answer  in  two   or  three 

*  Meaning  Mr.  Underwood's  first  letter  of  that  dato. 


days.  The  important  point  will  be:  That  I  accede  to 
the  name,  The  Open  Court,  and  further,  that  in  the 
declaration  of  principles,  or  rather,  the  programme, 
my  position  be  definitely  stated, — stating,  in  a  few 
words,  my  purposes  as  they  are  known  to  you  from 
the  beginning  of  our  negotiations.  Your  letters 
of  the  17th  inst.  have  also  come  this  morning. 
Sincerely  yours, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

La  Salle,  III.,  Dec.  24,  1886. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass.: 

My  Dear  Sir — I  have  carefully  considered  your 
remarks  in  your  letter  of  Dec.  16,  and  have  conclud- 
ed to  adopt  for  the  new  journal  the  name  you  gave 
it  preliminarily,  namely:  The  Open  Court.  The 
programme  I  request  you  to  modify  by  inserting, 
"  The  leading  object  of  The  Open  Court  will  be  to 
continue  the  work  of  The  Index, —  that  is,  to  establish 
religion  on  the  basis  of  science,  and  in  connection 
therewith  it  will  endeavor  to  present  the  Monistic 
philosophy.  The  founder  of  the  journal  believes 
this  will  furnish  to  others,  as  it  has  done  to  him,  a 
religion  that  replaces  that  which  we  were  taught  in  our 
childhood.  Besides  this,  I  accept  your  announce- 
ment as  published  in  The  Index  for  the  programme 
of  The  Open  Court." 

I  also  adopt  your  suggestion  of  a  standing  notice 
at  the  head  of  the  journal,  "While  the  proprietor  of 
this  journal  desires  to  spread  by  it  the  Monistic 
philosophy  and  the  religion  it  brings  with  it,  the 
editors  are  free  and  independent  in  all  that  pertains 
to  their  department,  the  proprietor  reserving  the 
right  to  express,  over  his  own  name,  any  difference 
of  opinions  from  those  expressed  by  the  editors,  and 
also  to  present,  or  have  presented,  his  views  over  his 
own  name." 

In  my  letter  of  the  7th  I  say,  that  while  adhering 
to  the  name,  "TheMonist,"  I  desired  it  to  be  an 
"Open  Court"  and  that  the  first  case  before  it  be 
"The  Monist  vs.  the  Agnostic."  My  first  thought 
as  to  this  was  that  the  Monistic  idea  should  not 
be  excluded  from  having  to  submit  to  trial,  but  the 
contrary  thereof.  The  further  thought  came  with  it, 
that  the  difference  now  existing  between  Monists 
and  Agnostics  was  of  primary  importance  to  be 
cleared  away.  This  difference  is  splitting  the 
Liberal  camp.  The  utterance  of  Haeckel  in  refer- 
ence to  English  Agnosticism,  which  you  quote,  I 
think  does  not  apply  to  Herbert  Spencer's  theory  of 
the  Unknowable.  The  new  journal  should  endeavor 
to  ascertain  this. 

While  the  name  proposed  by  me,  "The  Monist's 
Open  Court,"  was,  in  the  first  place,  suggested  by 
the  idea  of  a  compromise,  upon  further  reflection  I 
would  say  that  such  name  would  make  the  Monists 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


635 


responsible  for  the  justice  meted  out  in  The  Open 
Court,  as  there  is  always  some  power  behind  a  court 
whose  honor  is  at  stake.  In  Prussia  judgments  are 
pronounced  as  follows:  "  In  the  name  of  the  King 
it  is  adjudged,  etc."  Here,  in  Illinois,  the  people  of 
the  State  are  understood  to  be  those  whose  honor  is 
pledged  for  the  justice  meted  out  in  our  courts. 
With  the  name,  The  Open  Court,  as  it  is  now 
adopted,  and  with  our  explanations,  both  Monists 
and  Agnostics  would  have  a  right  to  feel  aggrieved 
if  justice  should  not  be  meted  out  in  The  Open 
Court. 

I  omitted  to  mention  in  my  letter  of  Dec.  7,  that 
what  I  presented  for  a  programme  was  meant  to  be 
supplemental  to  the  programme  published  by  you. 

Upon  your  suggestion  I  have  agreed  to  a  fort- 
nightly. I  think  the  price  should  remain  three 
dollars  per  year;  single  numbers,  fifteen  cents.  Let 
me  say,  as  it  is  possible  that  many  who  subscribed  to 
the  new  journal,  or  changed  to  it  from  The  Index, 
may  not  be  satisfied  with  the  change  in  the  pro- 
gramme, that  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  return,  if  they 
desire,  any  advance  subscription  money  they  may 
have  paid  either  as  new  subscribers  or  to  The  Index. 
Sincerely  Yours, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 
La  Salle,  III.,  Dec.  24,  1SS6. 
B,.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass: 

My  Dear  Sir — In  answer  to  your  private  letter  of 
December  16th  I  send  the  following  explanation  and 
reply.  It  is  my  opinion  that  we  should  stand  quite 
open  before  the  public,  our  ideas  in  regard  to  the 
journal,  our  mutual  relation,  where  we  agree  and 
how  we  differ;  our  independence  of  each  other  should 
be  known.  As  I  said  in  my  telegram,  "  nothing  will 
demonstrate  your  independence  better."  And  so  it 
will  mine.  The  fears  of  some  of  your  friends  have 
caused  you  uneasiness;  this  should  remove  them. 

I  want  the  readers  to  understand  from  the  outset 
that  it  is  not  liberality  on  my  part  that  leads  me  into 
this  undertaking,  but  that  a  definite  idea  drives  me 
to  it.  I  devote  the  capital  and  personal  efforts  which 
I  give  to  the  service  of  my  leading  idea.  This  decla- 
ration is  due  to.  the  subscribers  as  also  to  myself.  If 
I  do  not  insist  upon  the  name  "  The  Monist,  "  I  want 
it  definitely  understood  that  also  this  I  do  in  the 
service  of  my  leading  idea. 

In  the  announcement  of  the  new  journal  it  is  said 
"  whose  name  by  his  request  is  for  the  present  with- 
held. "  This  remark  surprised  me,  as  I  had  never 
thought  of  not  giving  my  name  openly  at  the  public 
announcement  of  the  journal.  I  feel  thereby  in  the 
position  as  if  not  daring  to  stand  up  for  my  convic- 
tions. For  this  reason  alone  I  want  this  misunder- 
standing explained  in   The   Index,    even  if  I  have  to 


ask  that  a  supplemental  number    be   issued    for  that 
purpose  alone. 

The  business  part  of  the  announcement  I  request 
to  read  as  follows:  The  first  number  of  a  new  radi- 
cal journal  to  be  established  in  Chicago,  will  be  issued 
early  in  1S87,  just  as  soon  as  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments can  be  completed.  The  new  journal,  the 
name  of  which  will  be  "  The  Open  Court "  will  be 
under  the  management  of  B.  F.  Underwood,  with 
Mrs.  Sara  A.  Underwood  as  associate  editor.  The 
proprietor  will  be  Edward  C.  Hegeler,  of  La  Salle, 
111.,  or  a  publishing  company  he  may  organize. 

The  latter  part  of  your  letter,  commencing  with 
the  words,  "  By  this  arrangement  your  connection 
will  appear,  etc.,  "  to  the  close,  I  presume  you  will 
omit  from  publication,  as,  1st.  What  you  quote  from 
our  contract  should  read,  "  To  be  the  property  of  E. 
C.  Hegeler,  and  under  the  business  and  editorial 
management  of  B.  F.  Underwood,  subject  to  such 
conditions  as  the  two  shall  mutually  agree  upon.  " 
2d.  The  paragraph  you  commence,  "You  state  that 
your  leading  idea  intended  to  be  conveyed  by  the 
Monist,  etc,"  shows  an  incomplete  understanding  at 
the  beginning.  I  also  did  not  mean  that  the  journal 
should  be  limited  to  discussing  my  ideas.  Probably 
that  will  fill  but  a  small  part  of  the  space.  3d.  Why 
the  closing  paragraph  should  be  omitted,  I  have  ex- 
pressed at  the  beginning  of  this  letter. 

I  call  attention  here  to  my  changing  the  word, 
"principle"  to  "standpoint,"  as  this  is  the  right 
word  for  what  I  meant  to  express.  With  kind  re- 
gards. Yours  Truly, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

Boston,  Dec.  23,  1886. 
My  Dear  Sir — Your  telegram  and  letter  of  the 
20th  duly  received,  the  latter  just  as  the  Index  was 
going  to  press.  I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to 
telegraph  you,  for  your  generous  letter  leaves 
nothing,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  in  the  way  of  inaugurat- 
ing the  Chicago  enterprise.  Your  letter  of  the  7th, 
with  mine  in  reply,  will  appear  this  week,  with  an 
extract  from  your  letter  of  the  20th,  and  a  statement 
that  another  communication  will  appear  from  you 
in  the  next  issue.  B.  F.  Underwood. 


In  February,  1S87,  before  the  publication  of  the 
first  number  of  The  Open  Court,  Air.  Underwood 
presented  to  me  a  proof  of  the  standing  notice  there- 
for, without  embracing  therein  the  definite  state- 
ment of  my  views  as  had  been  agreed  upon  by  letter, 
and  also  had  been  published  in  The  Index  upon  my 
repeated  request,  but  instead  gave  what  appeared  to 
me  an  unclear  combination  of  his  and  my  published 
statements  of  the  particular  aim  of  the  new  paper. 

Mr.  Underwood  also  presented  a  proof  of  the  first 


636 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


page  of  the  journal,  opening  the  paper  with  small 
editorial  notes  as  in  the  Index,  instead  of  prominent 
contributions,  as  had  been  my  repeatedly  expressed 
wish,  and  also  had  been  agreed  to  by  him  in  his  let- 
ter of  September  28,  1886. 

Desiring  to  avoid  a  rupture,  I  asked  Mr.  Whipple, 
who  has  for  years  been  my  attorney  in  patent  mat- 
ters, and  whom  I  know  to  be  a  clear  and  cool-headed 
man,  to  be  present  at  a  meeting  between  Mr.  Under- 
wood and  myself.  At  this  meeting  I  insisted  upon 
my  Monistic  standing-notice,  as  contained  in  my 
letter  published  in  the  Index,  telling  Mr.  Under- 
wood that  he  might  follow  it  with  a  statement  of  his 
own  as  he  might  see  fit 'to  make  it,  he  alone  to  be 
responsible  for  that.  This  resulted  in  the  standing 
notice  as  given  at  the  head  of  the  editorial  column 
of  The  Open  Court  in  all  the  numbers  prior  to  the 
present  one. 


THE  MEETING   IN   SEPTEMBER,    1887. 

When  Mr.  Underwood  was  present  at  La  Salle  in 
September  last,  the  agnostic  character  of  the  paper, 
which  was  against  my  intentions,  was  explained  to 
Mr.  Underwood.  I  called  his  special  attention  to 
Mrs.  Underwood's  lately  published  editorial  poem 
"I  do  not  know"  expressing  my  sympathy  there- 
with so  far  as  a  religious  feeling  is  shown  therein 
and  an  upright  confession  made  that  the  writer  did 
not  know  to  answer  the  particular  questions  of  re- 
ligion [which  Monism  does].  ( I  had  reference  to  my 
often  expressed  declaration  that  I  hold  this  making 
of  the  "What  I  do  not  know  " — that  is  the  feature  of 
the  not  knowing  this  "what" — the  final  object  of  re- 
ligious emotion  as  detrimental  to  the  progress  of 
knowledge  and  injurious  to  mankind  in  general. 
That  I  wanted  to  eradicate  this  idea,  I  had  prom- 
inently pointed  out  to  Mr.  Underwood  from  the  be- 
ginning of  our  negotiations.) 

I  repeated  to  Mr.  Underwood  what  I  had  told 
him  before:  It  had  become  clear  to  me  that 
Agnosticism  was  a  transitional  standpoint  to  Monism 
of  those  who,  having  found  the  teachings  of  old 
theologies  untenable,  had  not  yet  worked  through  to 
the  clear  and  definite  view  of  Monism. 

It  was  pointed  out  to  Mr,  Underwood  that  in 
order  to  satisfy  the  readers  a  journal  must  editorially 
define  its  position  concerning  the  subjects  brought 
forward  by  the  contributors. 

It  was  further  mentioned  that  the  paper  had  not 
found  the  expected  support.  I  stated  to  Mr.  Under- 
wood that  I  contemplated  Dr.  Cams'  appointment 
as  associate  editor  of  the  paper,  together  with  Mrs. 
Underwood  (meant  of  course  subject  to  my  contract 
with  them  in  regard  to  time);  that  Dr.  Carus'  work- 
was  to  me  the  most  important  part  of  the  paper,   as 


being  in  harmony  with  my  views.  I  could  not  ex- 
pect him  to  do  this  work  further  on  without  proper 
recognition  and  standing  on  the  paper,  and  that 
such  standing  was  necessary  for  him  for  the  corres- 
pondence with  European  writers  and  savants,  whose 
contributions  I  especially  desired  for  the  paper,  (  as 
already  expressed  in  my  letter  published  in  the 
Index. ) 

Dr.  Carus  had  been  engaged  by  me  for  the  special 
purpose  of  presenting  my  views  in  the  paper,  which 
was  my  reserved  right  as  specified  in  the  Index, 
"  to  present  or  have  presented  my  views  over  my  own 
name."  If  it  has  not  been  added  to  every  contribu- 
tion that  its  publication  was  made  at  my  demand, 
this  has  been  meant  as  an  act  of  courtesy  to  Mr. 
Underwood  and  also  Dr.  Carus. 

Upon  mentioning  my  desire  that  a  position  as 
associate  editor  be  given  to  Dr.  Carus,  Mr.  Under- 
wood, with  suppressed  excitement  stated,  that  could 
never  be.  In  a  later  conversation  it  appeared  that 
his  feeling  against  Dr.  Carus  arose  from  the  latter's 
article,  "  Monism,  Dualism  and  Agnosticism,"  which 
was  published  in  Number  8,  of  The  Open  Court. 
I  informed  Mr.  Underwood  that  Dr.  Carus'  article, 
though  written  by  him  independently,  expressed  my 
opinion.  It  was  intended  as  an  explanation  in  refer- 
ence to  a  statement  Mr.  Underwood  had  addressed 
to  the  Boston  Investigator  (in  answer  to  a  challenge ), 
defining  the  nature  of  Monism  and  Agnosticism  which 
was  not  satisfactory  to  me.  I  told  Mr.  Underwood 
that  I  had  partly  prepared  a  short  article  myself  in 
answer  to  his  statement,  but  did  not  send  it,  thinking 
the  one  coming  from  Dr.  Carus  more  courteous  to 
Mr.  Underwood.  I  explained  to  Mr.  Underwood 
that  his  definition  "Agnosticism  stands  for  what  I  do 
not  know  in  regard  to  the  ultimate  source  of  phe- 
nomena" was  dualistic.  A  source  implied  two 
things:  The  earth  with  an  orifice  or  opening,  the 
one,  (the  Creator),  and  the  water  (the  created)  the 
other.  This  explanation  did  not  satisfy  Mr.  Under- 
wood. He  said,  as  I  understood  him,  in  reference  to 
Dr.  Cams'  contribution:  "  If  I  want  to  insult  a  man, 
I  do  it  direct."  I  think  I  then  called  Mr.  Under- 
wood's attention  to  the  statement  in  my  letter  to  the 
Index :  "  Let  the  first  case  before  The  Open  Court 
be  that  of  the  Monist  versus  the  Agnostic.  .  . 
The  difference  between  Monists  and  Agnostics  is  of 
primary  importance  to  be  cleared  away." 

I  also  communicated  to  Mr.  Underwood  that  Dr. 
Carus  had  requested  me  to  take  into  consideration 
a  plan  of  his  going  to  Germany  for  becoming  profess- 
or at  a  university  there.  In  this,  he  thought,  he 
would  have  no  difficulty,  and  he  had  taken  some  pre- 
liminary steps  for  his  habilitation.  This  would  give 
him,  he  suggested   to  me,  a  more  effectual  standing 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


637 


in  case  I  should  wish  him  to  assist  in  founding  a  col- 
lege for  philosophy  and  scientific  religion  in  Amer- 
ica, an  idea  which  I  had  often  expressed.  However, 
I  objeeted  to  his  leaving  his  work  at  The  Open 
Court,  where  he  in  particular  represented  the  views 
which  I  intended  to  bring  out  by  the  journal. 

Mr.  Underwood  stated  that  it  would  be  impossi- 
ble for  him  to  work  together  with  Dr.  Carus,  as  he, 
himself,  was  a  combative  man  who  held  to  his  opin- 
ions, and  so  was  Dr.  Carus;  so  that  he  had  better 
withdraw.  My  idea  had  been  that  Mr.  Under- 
wood and  Dr.  Carus  should  jointly  arrange  the 
contents  of  the  paper,  and  that  at  points  where  they 
disagreed  we  would  discuss  the  differences  in  a  meet- 
ing, when  the  decision  would  have  fallen  upon  me. 
Both,  I  thought,  in  this  way  would  have  found  leis- 
ure for  lecturing.  Mr.  Underwood  declining  this, 
I  proposed  an  arrangement  that  Mr.  Underwood 
should  manage  the  paper  as  heretofore,  but  that  he 
first  present  the  proposed  contents  of  the  next  issue 
to  me  and  Dr.  Carus  for  discussion  in  a  meeting 
at  La  Salle  and  hear  our  opinions  thereon,  while 
Chicago  remain  the   place    of    publication. 

Mr.  Underwood  accepted  this. 

Chicago,  Oct.  14,  1887. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

Dear  Sir —  .  .  .  Last  June  I  asked  you  to  return 
to  me  the  copy  of  legal  transcript  and  form  of  our 
contract  which  Mr.  .  .  .  sent  me,  and  which  I 
loaned  you  the  da}'  I  received  it.  You  stated  you 
would  have  a  search  for  it  made.  If  you  have  found 
it,  will  you  please  send  it  to  me,  and  if  you  have  not 
been  able  to  find  it,  will  you  please  send  me  a  copy 
of  the  one  which  Mr.  .  .  .  mailed  to  you  at  La  Salle 
the  same  time  he  mailed  mine. 

Very  truly  yours,  B.  F.  Underwood. 

La  Salle,  Oct.  15,  1887. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.: 

Dear  Sir — I  have  not  put  any  value  on  the  paper 
drawn  up  by  Mr.  ...  as  it  was  incorrect  and  incom- 
plete on  the  essential  points,  that  is,  those  beyond  the 
money  consideration,  though  through  no  fault  of  Mr. 
.  .  .  's.  I  recollect  that  when  you  handed  me  your 
copy,  that  I  mentioned  this,  in  substance  at  least. 

I  now  have  examined  the  file  of  our  correspond- 
ence and  find  that  you  asked  for  the  above  in  yours 
of  June  30,  when  I  sent  you  the  copy  of  our  contract, 
for  which  you  also  then  asked.  The  later  sending 
of  this  form  drawn  up  by  Mr.  .  .  .  has  been  over- 
looked by  me.  Our  contract  of  October  last,  supple- 
mented by  the  letters  published  in  The  Index,  is  the 
real  substance  of  our  agreement.  In  our  meeting  with 
Mr.  Whipple  this  was  made  fully  clear  to  you  in  addi- 
tion; so  much  so,  that  in  Mr.  Whipple's  memoranda 
which  are  in  my  possession,  there  is  no  note  of 


final  conclusion  even.    We  proceeded  in  the  meeting 
to  important,  practical  business — acting  under  the 
contract  and  the  agreement  in  the  published  letters. 
Respectfully  yours,  Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

Chicago,  Oct.  18,  1887. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

Dear  Sir — In  reply  to  your  letter  of  the  18th,  I 
have  to  say  that  I  quite  agree  with  you  as  to  the 
defectiveness  of  Mr.  .  .  .  's  memorandum  of  agree- 
ment, owing  to  errors  and  omissions.  As  I  have 
already  told  you,  I  had  but  glanced  at  the  document 
when  I  handed  it  to  you  a  few  minutes  after  receiv- 
ing it,  some  months  ago,  and  doubt  as  to  its  state- 
ments has  made  me  the  more  curious  to  see  it. 

If  you  expressed  dissatisfaction  with  it  at  the 
time,  or  made  any  comments  on  it  after  reading  it,  I 
certainly  failed  to  understand  your  remarks,  for  from 
that  time  I  have  wondered  as  to  your  opinion  of  the 
document.  But  this  point  is  unimportant.  We  are 
agreed  as  to  the  incompleteness  of  the  paper,  not  to 
mention  here  other  errors. 

My  understanding  has  been  that  our  agreement 
gives  you  the  right  to  express  your  views,  or  to  have 
them  expressed  for  you,  over  your  own  name,  and 
the  right  to  protest  against,  or  criticise  anything  pub- 
lished in  the  paper;  the  protest  or  criticism  to  be 
presented  when  so  desired  by  you,  on  the  first  page; 
and  that  these  reserved  rights  are  the  only  limits  to 
my  independence  and  freedom  in  the  editorial  con- 
duct of  the  paper.  These  conditions  from  the  first 
have  been  entirely  satisfactory  to  me.  I  have  always 
been  as  ready  to  make  room  for  your  thought  as  you 
have  been  to  present  it.  If  on  this  point  you  ever 
think  you  have  the  slighest  reason  for  dissatisfaction, 
I  hope  you  will  at  once  make  it  known  to  me.  I  only 
ask  when  you  have  long  papers  to  present,  that  you 
will  notify  me  as  far  ahead  as  you  conveniently  can, 
that  I  may  include  their  insertion  in  my  plans  as  edi- 
tor, and  not  be  compelled  to  break  up  the  plan  of 
any  given  number,  by  putting  aside  articles  in  type, 
designed  to  appear  with  others,  to  give  symmetry, 
proportion  and  completeness  to  the  paper.  I  wish 
as  editor  to  be  (as  far  as  my  position  will  admit  of 
it)  as  generous  and  obliging  as  you  areas  proprietor. 
If,  at  any  time,  a  misunderstanding  arises  between 
us,  you  will  find  me,  I  believe,  in  trying  to  remove 
it,  as  regardful  of  your  rights  and  feelings  as  I  am  of 
my  own.  I  remain  truly  yours, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 
As  near  as  I  recollect,  when  soon  after  the  meet- 
ing in  September  I  met  Mr.  Underwood  in  Chicago 
he  pointed  out  to  me  obstacles  to  his  coming  to 
La  Salle  for  a  meeting  at  that  time.  Then  I  asked 
him  to  send  to  La  Salle  the  manuscripts  on  hand. 
On  October  17th,  a  number  of  manuscripts  were 


638 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


received  from  Mr.  Underwood.     They  were  returned 
with  the  following  letter: 

La  Salle,  Oct.  22,  1887. 
B.  F.  Underwood  Esq.,  Chicago: 

Dear  Sir — The  whole  M.  S.  articles  sent  by  you 
on  the  17th  inst.,  were  retured  by  U.  S.  Express  yes- 
terday afternoon.  Dr.  Carus  examined  them  all,  my 
daughter  about  a  dozen.  I  enclose  a  copy  of  Dr. 
Carus'  opinion  thereof  given  to  me  upon  my  express 
desire.  Yours  truly, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

The  report  contained  only  businesslike  remarks 
("available,"  "not  available,"  "subject  not  suited 
for  The  Open  Court,"  etc).,  in  reference  to  the  MS'S 
— such  as  Mr.  Underwood  would  have  heard,  if  he 
had  come  to  La  Salle  for  a  meeting. 

Chicago,  Oct.  28,  1887. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq: 

Dear  Sir — When  in  Boston,  a  year  ago  this 
month,  we  signed  an  agreement,  in  accordance  with 
which  I  subsequently  came  West  to  take  charge  of  the 
new  journalistic  enterprise,  I  hoped  that  my  connec- 
tion with  The  Open  Court  would  last  some  years. 
But  during  the  past  few  months,  and  especially 
since  the  last  conversations  I  had  with  you  at  your 
home,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  present  manage- 
ment of  the  paper  is  not  likely  to  last  long.  Dr.  Carus 
from  the  time  he  came  West,  has  wished  to  have  an 
editorial  position  on  The  Open  Court.  This  is  now, 
as  you  told  me,  desired  by  you,  and  I  judge  from 
your  remarks,  by  your  daughter  Mary,  and  perhaps 
by  your  entire  family. 

In  view  of  Dr.  Carus'  present  and  prospective  re- 
lation to  you  and  your  family,  it  is  entirely  natural 
that  you  should  wish  to  give  him  such  a  position  as 
The  Open  Court  affords;  and  since  you  own  the 
paper,  its  continuance  beyond  a  few  months,  at  least, 
except  on  condition  that  he  have  an  editorial  position, 
is  extremely  improbable.  But  the  condition  is  one 
to  which,  as  I  said  to  you  with  equal  frankness  and 
kindness,  we  can  never  agree  so  long  as  our  relation 
to  the  paper  continues. 

Since  our  connection  with  The  Open  Court  is  evi- 
dently of  short  duration,  and  since  I  am  dependent 
upon  my  earnings,  I  must  in  justice  to  myself  and  those 
dependent  upon  me,  look  beyond  my  present  posi- 
tion; and  that  I  may  do  this,  and  remove  all  obstacles 
which  the  present  management  offers,  to  any  plans 
that  you  and  Dr.  Carus  may  have,  both  Mrs.  Under- 
wood and  I  hereby  tender  our  resignation,  to  take 
effect  at  the  end  of  the  present  financial  year  of  the 
journal,  or  as  much  sooner  as  may  be  necessary,  to 
enable  you  to  make  the  changes  desired,  after  receiv- 
ing this  letter. 


We  wish  however  our  present  connection  with  The 
Open  Court  to  continue  long  enough  to  admit,  jn  the 
last  number  issued  under  the  present  management, 
of  a  proper  statement  announcing  our  retirement,  the 
statement  to  be  such  as  you  and  we  may  mutually 
agree  upon. 

This  letter  I  assure  you  is  written  in  no  pique, 
and  in  no  unfriendly  spirit;  but  with  a  knowledge 
that  certain  facts  have  to  be  faced,  yet  at  the  same 
time  with  warm  friendship  for  you  and  your  family, 
which  is  sincerely  felt  by  both  Mrs.  Underwood  and 
myself.  Truly  yours, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 
La  Salle,  111.,  Nov.  7th,  1887. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Chicago: 

My  Dear  Sir — I  should  not  delay  any  longer  giv- 
ing some  answer  to  your  favor  of  the  28th  ult.,  in 
duty  to  you;  though  I  can  make  it  but  quite  short 
now.  The  Anarchist  question  has  occupied  much  of 
my  attention,  and  the  trial  of  my  late  gardener  com- 
mences to-daj'. 

I  have  partially  prepared  a  longer  letter  to  you — 
the  outcome  of  which  is,  that  I  have  with  regret  to 
accept  your  and  Mrs.  Underwood's  resignation,  as- 
suring you  of  my  sincere  interest  in  your  further  work. 

I  will  endeavor  to  free  you  from  your  work  before 
the  close  of  the  year — I  had  thought  that  it  might 
be  possible  that  the  number  after  the  next  one  could 
be  made  the  closing  number  of  the  present  adminis- 
tration of  the  paper,  but  on  account  of  the  gardener's 
trial  I  cannot  say  if  Dr.  Carus  and  I  will  be  able  to 
give  time  to  the  paper  so  soon.  Of  course  your 
salary  is  to  continue  under  all  circumstances  to  the 
close  of  the  year,  leaving  it  to  you  how  much  help  you 
will  give  me  and  Dr.  Carus.  With  kind  regards  to 
you  and  Mrs.  Underwood,     Yours  truly, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 
Telegrams  : 

Chicago,  III.,  Nov.  19th,  1887. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  La  Salle: 

Is  the  present  management  to  continue  beyond 
number  21  ?  B.  F.  Underwood. 

La  Salle,  Nov.  19th,  1887. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Chicago: 

I  was  expecting  and  still  desire  to  hear  your 
wishes  in  the  matter.  E.  C.  Hegeler. 

Chicago,  Nov.  19th,  1887. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  La  Salle: 

Ready  to  be  relieved  after  number  21.  Can't  get 
that  out  till  late  next  week  on  account  of  strike. 

B.  F.  Underwood. 
La  Salle,  111.,  Nov.  19th,  1887. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Chicago: 

Message  received.  You  may  close  with  number 
21.  E.  C.  Hegeler. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


639 


Chicago,  Nov.  22,  1887. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.: 

Dear  Sir — In  reply  to  my  letter  of  October  28, 
tendering  my  resignation  with  that  of  Mrs.  Under- 
wood's— for  the  reason  that  we  were  unwilling  to 
accede  to  your  proposition  that  Dr.  Paul  Carus  be 
made  associate  editor — you  wrote  under  date  of 
November  17 (Here  follows  copy  of  my  let- 
ter, except  passage  relating  to  salary.) 

Since  your  letter  left  me  in  uncertainty  as  to  wheth- 
er you  would  close  the  present  management  with  the 
number  after  the  next,  i.  e.,  with  No.  21.  I  naturally 
expect  to  hear  more  definitely  from  you  in  a  few- 
days.  Having  received  no  more  definite  word  from 
you,  last  Saturday  I  telegraphed  you,  asking  whether 
the  present  management  was  to  continue  after  No. 
21.  You  replied,  forgetting  perhaps,  that  it  was  I 
who  had  been  left  in  uncertainty,  and  who  was  wait- 
ing to  hear  from  you.  "I  was  expecting  and  still 
desire  to  hear  your  wishes  in  the  matter." 

I  sent  you  a  telegram  in  reply,  saying  that  I  was 
ready  to  be  relieved  after  No.  21,  but  that  the  print- 
ers' strike  would  prevent  the  issue  of  that  number 
till  the  latter  part  of  the  next  week. 

These  facts  I  here  state  that  you  may  see  there 
was  no  neglect  on  my  part  in  not  writing  you  again 
about  this  matter,  when  I  had  not  heard  further 
from  you. 

If  you  have  decided  that  No.  21  can,  conven- 
iently to  yourself,  be  made  the  closing  number  of 
the  present  administration  of  the  paper,  I  will 
arrange  accordingly.  I  shall  be  just  as  well  satisfied 
with  this  as  to  have  the  change  a  fortnight  later;  at 
the  same  time  recognizing  my  obligation,  and  assur- 
ing you  of  my  willingness,  if  desired,  to  conduct  the 
journal  faithfully,  according  to  contract  to  the  time 
for  which  I  am  to  receive  salary. 

....  If  desired,  I  can  send  you  all  the  manu- 
scripts on  hand,  and  you  can  send  your  copy  direct  to 
.  the  printers,  if  you  choose,  and  I  will  gather  up  the 
threads  of  the  business  so  that  I  shall  be  able  to 
turn  over  to  you  that  department  at  the  same  time, 
or  which  will  be  better,  probably,  the  first  of  the 
month — December  1.  Yours  truly, 

B.  F.  Underwood. 

CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    DR.    CARUS. 
(  Translation.') 

La  Salle,  Jan.  21st,  1887. 
Dr.  Paul  Carus,  New  York.: 

Dear  Sir — By  the  kind  sending  of  your  poems 
through  our  mutual  friend,  Mr.  Underwood,  you  have 
given  me  much  pleasure.  The  poems  have  brought 
you  much  nearer  to  me.  After  I  had  already  known 
you  through  your  treatise  "Monism  and  Meliorism,"  to 
receive  poems  from  you  was  quite  unexpected  by  me. 


1  should  like  much  to  have  you  nearer  La  Salle, 
in  order  to  have  your  help  and  advice  in  the  work 
on  the  new  journal,  and  I  have  been  thinking  if 
not  a  suitable  position  could  be  found  for  you  in  this 
vicinity.  I  must  also  mention  that  recently  Mr. 
Salter  spoke  of  you  as  qualified  to  bring  my  religious- 
philosophical  ideas  into  shape  for  publication. 

I  do  not  know  how  you  are  situated  at  present; 
philosophical  occupation  alone  would  probably  not 
fill  your  time  satisfactorily;  perhaps  you  would  take 
charge  of  the  education  of  older  children.  If  so, 
there  would  be  an  opportunity  for  this  here.  You 
could  also  take  charge  of  the  correspondence  with 
German  scholars  and  writers  which  I  shall  wish  to 
lead  in  the  interest  of  the  new  journal.  Also  the 
translation  of  German  articles  into  English  would 
give  occupation. 

.Again,  many  thanks  for  your  poems,  also  for  your 
treatise  "  Monism  and  Meliorism  "  which  struck  me 
very  sympathetically,  though  I  as  a  realist  am  but 
little  acquainted  with  philosophic  terms.  I  shall  be 
glad  to  hear  from  you  soon. 

Yours  respectfully, 

Edward.  C.  Hegeler. 

New  York,  Jan.  24,  1887. 
E.  C.  Hegeler,  Esq.,  La  Salle,  Illinois: 

Dear  Sir — Your  favor  of  January  21,  has  just  been 
received.  In  reply  to  it  I  would  say  that  I  am  at 
present  co-editor  of  Zickel's Novellen-schatz  and Famil- 
ien  blatter.   .  .  . 

In  my  present  occupation  I  have  had  occasion  to 
observe  that  the  German  periodicals  contain 
immense  treasures  which  are  almost  inaccessible  to 
American  readers.  The  large  publishing  houses  in 
New  York  very  freely-  appropriate  much  that 
appears  in  the  English  magazines — literary,  as  well 
as  scientific.  But  as  a  rule  they  pay  little  attention 
to  the  French  and  German  periodicals,  because,  on 
the  one  hand,  it  involves  the  labor  and  expense  of 
having  articles  translated  into  English,  and  on  the 
other  hand,  scientific  interests  are  too  limited  to 
insure  great  pecuinary  results. 

It  was  my  intention  to  establish  a  periodical  to  be 
called  the  "  Transatlantic  Review,"  which  should 
contain  a  summary  of  the  intellectual  activity  of 
Central  Europe.  I  had  already  planned  all  details. 
Only  the  essential  feature,—  a  publisher  with  the 
necessary  capital,  was  lacking.  When  I  consider 
that  you  are  establishing  a  periodical  which  is  to  bear 
a  decidedly  scientific  stamp,  and  which  is  to  be 
devoted  to  the  discussion  of  the  subjects  of  highest 
import  to  mankind,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  might 
combine  our  plans,  and  that  you  could  assign  to  me 
a  certain  space  of  The  Open  Court,  to  be  called  the 
Transatlantic  Review.     This  should  contain  a   sum- 


b^9 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


mary  of  the  most  important  recent  European 
publications,  of  inventions,  discoveries,  etc.;  and  in 
addition,  a  thorough  review  of  the  most  prominent 
popular  scientific  journals  of  Europe,  so  that  the 
reader  might  be  spared  a  perusal  of  the  original  and 
still  be  thoroughly  posted  as  regards  current 
thought;  and,  finally,  a  translation  of  one  or  two 
articles  of  especial  value  and  deserving  general 
attention. 

Of  course,  this  plan  could  be  modified  according 
to  necessity.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that,  on  the 
whole,  Mr.  Underwood'will  approve  of  it.  .  .  . 

With  such  a  department  as  a  Transatlantic 
Review,  The  Open  Court,  which,  according  to  your 
plan,  is  to  serve  as  a  medium  for  the  exchange  of 
philosophical  ideas  in  America,  would  also  be  the 
means  of  communicating  information  concerning  the 
scientific  work  of  Europe,  and  might  thus  form  an 
important  link  between  the  Old  and  the  New 
worlds. 

If  I  interpret  your  letter  correctly,  it  contains  an 
offer  of  a  combined  position,— partly  as  teacher,  and 
partly  as  co-editor  of  The  Open  Court,  and  corres- 
pondent in  scientific  matters.  I  would  be  very  glad 
to  have  you  make  me  a  definite  proposition.  .  .  . 

With  kind  regards  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Underwood, 
I  am.  Yours,  very  respectfully, 

Paul  Carus. 

La  Salle,  Jan.  31,  1887. 
Dr.  Paul  Carus,  New  York: 

Dear  Sir— Your  favor  of  January  24,  reached  me 
on  my  return  to  La  Salle.  What  you  write  has  my 
full  interest.  To  what  you  say  in  particular  regard- 
ing The  Open  Court,  I  have  to  answer  that  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Underwood  are  independent  editors  and  man- 
agers of  the  same,  though  subject  to  such  conditions 
as  may  be  hereafter  mutually  agreed  upon;  still  I 
wish  to  make  the  path  of  the  editors  as  smooth  as 
possible. 

*  *  *  But  what  you  wish  to  carry  into  effect,  the 
transplanting  of  European  (especially  German) 
thought  to  America,  is  what  I  particularly  desire. 
Very  respectfully  yours, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 


#  #  *  * 


I  herewith  close  the*  evidence  on  my  part — Dr. 
Carus  has  assumad  the  Editorship  of  The  Open 
Court.  Our  aim  is  stated  at  the  head  of  the  Edi- 
torial department.  Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

GUSTAV  FREYTAG. 
In  No.  1  of  this  journal  I  informed  our  readers  that 
I  consider    as  Gustav    Freytag's  life-work    the  presen- 
tation of  his  definite  view  of  immortality  as  expressed  in 
the  works  of  this  leading  author. 


In  No.  15  of  this  journal,  1  gave  more  explicitly  my 
view  of  the  nature  of  our  soul  combining  the  ideas  of 
Freytag  with  those  of  Hering,  Ribot  and  Noire.  I 
added  that  living  substance  is  able  to  reproduce  speech 
mechanically  in  a  similar  way  as  the  phonograph  of 
Thomas  Edison.  It  was  a  special  satisfaction  to  me  to 
find  my  position  so  much  strengthened  by  Max  Midler's 
lecture,  "  The  Identity  of  Language  and  Thought." 

The  present  number  of  our  journal  contains  the  first 
part  of  a  careful  translation  of  that  novel  by  Gustav 
Freytag,  in  which  he  most  clearly  describes  the  immor- 
tality of  our  soul  in  human  posterity. 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 


EDITORIAL    NOTES. 


THE    LOST    MANUSCRIPT. 

Since  the  founding  of  The  Open  Court  Mr.  Hegeler 
has  fostered  the  idea  of  presenting  to  our  readers  Gustav 
Freytag's  novel,  "  The  Lost  Manuscript. "  The  Open 
Court  was  not  founded  for  the  publication  of  novels; 
its  immediate  purpose  is  much  more  serious  than  to 
entertain  with  charming  fiction.  Gustav  Freytag's 
"Lost  Manuscript, "  however,  is  a  novel  that  in  many 
respects  answers  the  purpose  of  The  Open  Court. 
Freytag  has  acquired  a  deep  insight  into  the  human  soul, 
and  he  presents  to  his  readers  the  modern  psychology  in 
the  form  of  light  novels. 

The  monistic  conception  of  the  soul,  was  never  pre- 
sented in  a  clearer  and  more  popular  manner  than  here. 
Whole  volumes  of  psychological  research  are  sometimes 
contained  in  a  few  pages. 

To  the  reader,  the  acquaintance  with  a  character 
like  that  of  Professor  Werner,  is  like  the  acquaintance 
of  a  true,  high-minded  man  whose  conversation  and 
mere  idle  talk  frequently  are  more  instructive  than 
hundreds  of  books. 

In  his  Memoirs  Freytag  says,  "  Although  our  judg- 
ment is  at  best  but  imperfect,  we  are  accustomed  to 
observe  and  to  estimate  how  life  moulds  the  character  of 
a  man  and  how  it  develops  his  talents.  But  it  is  much 
more  difficult  to  understand  the  assistance  and  the  limi- 
tations which  a  living  man  has  received  from  his  parents 
and  ancestors;  for  the  threads  which  connect  his  life  and 
existence  with  the  souls  of  past  generations,  are  not 
always  visible;  and  even  where  they  can  be  traced,  their 
strength  cannot  always  be  determined.  But  it  is  note- 
worthy that  the  power  of  their  influence  is  not  equally 
strong  in  every  life, — sometimes  it  is  formidable  and 
overwhelming.  It  is  fortunate  that  what  we  have 
inherited  from  a  distant  past,  and  what  we  have  ourselves 
acquired,  cannot  always  be  distinguished  by  every  ob- 
server. Our  lives  would  be  filled  with  anguish  and  care  if 
we,  as  the  descendents  of  former  generations,  were  obliged 
constantly  to  take  their  blessing  and  their  curse  into  con- 
sideration.    On  the  other  hand,  it  is  pleasant  to  remem- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


t>4  i 


ber  that  many  successes  of  our  lives  became  possible 
only  through  the  qualities  we  inherited  from  our  parents, 
and  also  through  still  older  heirlooms  which  a  more 
remote  generation  had  prepared  for  us. " 

The  grand  connection,  which  links  the  individual 
soul  of  a  man  to  the  souls  of  others — to  the  present  as 
well  as  to  past  and  future  generations,  has  been  depicted 
magnificently  in  "  The  Lost  Manuscript.  "  The  grandeur 
of  the  monistic  view,  and  the  religious  depth  of  monistic 
psychology,  become  apparent  even  to  those  who  have 
not  yet  or  who  have  only  imperfectly  grasped  the  truth 
of  Monism. 

The  novel  has  not  yet  been  presented  to  English 
readers,  except  in  an  inadequate  translation  by  Mrs. 
Malcolm,  often  so  literal  as  not  to  convey  the  meaning 
of  the  original.  After  a  careful  revision,  and  after  a 
comparison  with  the  original,  especially  of  those  parts 
which  are  of  deeper  and  philosophical  import,  her  trans- 
lation has  been  used,  so  far  as  it  was  acceptable. 


IT  THINKS. 

We  call  the  attention  of  our  readers  to  an  odd  but 
nevertheless  very  true  dictum  of  Lichtenberg  which  is 
quoted  by  Prof.  Preyer  in  his  Natur-wissenschaftliche 
Thatsachen  unci  Probleme. 

"  We  become  conscious  of  certain  concepts  or  ideas 
which  do  not  depend  upon  us,  and  of  other  ideas  which 
as  we  suppose  do  depend  upon  us.  But  where  is  the 
limit  between  the  former  and  the  latter?  We  are  aware 
of  nothing  but  the  existence  of  our  sensations,  percep- 
tions .and  ideas.  We  should  say  '  It  thinks'  just  as  well 
as  we  say  '  It  lightens,'  '  or  '  It  rains. '  In  saying  cogito, 
the  philosopher  goes  too  far,  if  he  translates  it  '/  think.'" 

The  idea  contained  in  this  short  passage  must  be 
digested,  before  we  can  hope  to  understand  the  process 
of  thinking,  for  it  is  indeed  the  leading  principle  of 
modern  psychology.  Modern  psychology  looks  upon 
consciousness  not  as  a  cause,  but  as  an  effect  of  many 
causes.  Consciousness  appears  to  be  a  simple  and  ele- 
mentary fact,  but  it  is  a  very  intricate  and  complex 
phenomenon,  the  ultimate  constituents  of  which  are  our 
sensations.  And  even  these  sensations  are  not  simple; 
they  also  in  their  turn  are  the  effects  of  a  wonderful 
complication  of  innumerable  causes. 

We  imagine  we  think.  But  thoughts  arise  in  us 
according  to  irrefragable  laws.  We  do  not  produce 
ideas,  but  ideas  produced  in  the  cerebral  processes  of  a 
brain  become  conscious,  and  thus  they  produce  us.    v.  c. 

TRIBUTES. 

BY    LEE    FAIRCHILD. 
BROWNING. 

That  Browning  has,  I  must  confess, 

A  depth  and  magnitude; 
But  legs  would  be  his  fame,  I  guegs, 

If  he  were  understood. 


LOWELL. 

A  touch — how  delicate  is  his! 

His  humor  so  refined 
Its  finer  shadings  those  shall  miss 
Who,  seeing,  yet  are  blind. 

POE. 

What  pathos  and  sublimity; 

What  mystic  woe  and  pain ; 
What  hopes  forlorn  and  misery 

Make  up  thy  sad  refrain! 

LONGFELLOW    AND    WHITTIEK. 

They  gather,  in  their  simple  songs, 

Many  a  common  prize 
Unhidden  from  the  thoughtful  throngs; 

In  this  their  greatness  lies. 


THE  CAT. 


KRL'MMACHEH. 


One  day  two  learned  men,  who  had  studied  nature 
all  their  lives,  and  who  had  spent  every  day  examining 
animals  of  all  kinds,  and  knew  how  to  talk  about  each 
one,  sat  together  discussing  beasts  and  worms,  fishes  and 
birds,  and  all  species  of  plants  and  trees,  from  the  cedar  of 
Lebanon  to  the  hyssop  that  grows  on  the  wall.  Both 
were  pleased,  and  complimented  each  other. 

At  length,  they  began  to  talk  about  the  characteris- 
tics and  habits  of  cats.  Then  they  disagreed,  and  a  lively 
dispute  ensued.  For  one  of  them  said:  "The  cat  is  the 
most  malicious  and  noisome  animal,  false  and  mischiev- 
ous, a  tiger  in  disposition  as  well  as  in  appearance, 
though  fortunately  not  in  size  and  strength,  for  which 
last-named  fact  we  cannot  thank  and  praise  Heaven 
enough." 

But  the  other  said:  "  The  cat  may  be  compared  to 
the  lion;  for,  besides  resembling  him  in  appearance,  she 
is  like  him  noble  and  generous;  she  is  cleanly  and  gentle, 
and  therefore  naturally  at  enmity  with  the  dirty  and 
intrusive  dog.  In  short,  she  is  the  most  useful  animal,  for 
which  man   cannot  thank  and  praise  Heaven  enough." 

Then  the  other  flew  into  a  passion,  for  he  was  fond 
of  dogs  and  referred  to  the  dogs  of  Ulysses,  Tobit  and 
Frederick  the  Great. 

But  the  other  confuted  his  argument  by  alluding  to 
the  cats  of  Leibnitz,  the  great  Philosopher,  who  had  done 
so  much  to  enlighten  the  world  and  to  exalt  others  in 
wisdom  and  knowledge. 

Without  coming  to  any  agreement,  they  parted  at 
enmity  with  each  other.  The  one  went  home  to  his 
aviary;  for  he  kept  living  birds,  some  of  which  the  cats 
had  eaten.  The  other  went  to  his  museum  of  stuffed 
birds  and  animals,  which,  to  his  great  vexation,  the  mice 
were  destroying.  Such  are  the  judgmantg  of  pasaioa 
and  egotism. 


fM; 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


THE     EDUCATION    OF  PARENTS   BY    THEIR    CHIL- 
DREN.* 
BY    CARUS   STERNE. 

Bret  Harte,  one  of  the  profoundest  psychologists 
among  modern  soul-painters,  relates  ih  his  realistic  man- 
ner, in  the  little  tragic  idyl  entitled  "  The  Luck  of 
Roaring  Camp,"  how  the  birth  and  early  rearing  of 
an  orphaned  infant  suddenly  converts  a  set  of  row- 
dies and  criminals  into  most  tender  and  solicitous  adop- 
tive fathers.  These  men,  who  have  been  ostracised  by 
the  community,  and  who  revel  in  gambling,  rioting  and 
ruffianism,  such  as  can  only  be  found  in  such  a  God- 
forsaken mining  camp,  now  harbor  only  the  one  thought 
of  insuring  the  happiness  of  their  "  Luck  "  (thus  they 
have  significantly  christened  their  little  legacy)  by  the 
toil  of  their  hands. 

Not  quite  so  forcibly,  but  in  the  same  genial  manner, 
the  American  poet  has  illustrated  the  paradox  "  How 
the  old  are  educated  by  the  young,"  in  several  chapters 
of  his  novel  Gabriel  Conroy.  By  his  love  for  children, 
the  hero  of  this  book  is  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice;  and  again  Surgeon,  Duchesne  cures  an  unmar- 
ried actor,  whose  nervous  system  has  been  prostrated  by 
his  arduous  profession,  by  his  intercourse  with  children. 

"  I  haven't  seen  you  stop  and  talk  to  a  child  for  a 
month,"  says  this  practical  physician  to  the  professional 
actor,  Jack  Hamlin.  "  I've  a  devilish  good  mind  to  send 
you  to  a  foundling  hospital,  for  the  good  of  the  babies 
and  yourself.  Find  out  some  poor  ranchero  with  a 
dozen  children,  and  teach  'em  singing.  Come!  Do  as 
I  say,  and  I'll  stop  that  weariness,  dissipate  that  giddi- 
ness, get  rid  of  that  pain,  lower  that  pulse,  and  put  you 
back  where  you  were." 

These  views  of  a  great  soul  interpreter  give  me 
courage  to  express  an  opinion  which  I  have  always 
entertained,  —  namely,  that  every  child  requites  much 
of  the  love  bestowed  upon  it  by  the  parents,  by  making 
them  better  and  more  perfect  beings  than  they  were 
before  its  advent  into  the  family.  In  fact,  the  highest 
polish,  the  finishing  touches  of  education,  are  given  peo- 
ple neither  by  home,  school,  nor  church,  but  113-  their 
own  children.  .Should  they  be  so  unfortunate  as  not  to 
have  any,  they  will  experience  difficulties  in  replacing 
this  lacking  factor  in  the  education  of  their  affections. 

Let  us  take,  for  example,  a  young  man  who  has 
enjoyed  excellent  home-training  and  all  the  advantages 
of  a  school  and  university  education.  He  enters  upon 
life,  and,  as  the  poets  say,  nothing  but  the  influence  of 
love  is  lacking  to  perfect  him.  At  the  peril  of  exposing 
myself  to  the  charge  of  heresy  in  poetical  matters,  I 
would  say,  that,  according  to  my  observation,  success  in 
love-affairs,  far  from  perfecting,  induces  wantonness, 
vulgarity,  and  even  indifference  and  insensibility  to  the 
sufferings    arising     therefrom.      For,    considering    our 

*  Translated  from  a  volume  of  essays.  Die  Krone  der  Sdwpfung,  by  Carus 


social  conditions,  is  the  universal  practice  of  trifling 
with  the  affections  of  innocent  maidens,  in  which  the 
vipers  of  our  civilization,  the  libertines,  daily  indulge,  not 
to  be  denounced  as  the  acme  of  wickedness  ?  These 
young  men  are  so  refined  and  so  tender-hearted  as  to 
avoid  crushing  a  worm ;  vet,  under  the  mask  of  love  and 
affection,  they  do  not  scruple  to  render  one  of  their 
fellow-beings  miserable  for  life.  In  eighty  cases  out  ois 
a  hundred  they  do  not  even  feel  themselves  obliged  to 
repair  the  injury. 

Evidently  sexual  love,  per  se,  does  not  exercise  an 
ennobling  influence  on  the  mind ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
hardens  the  disposition,  engenders  cruelty,  and  begets  a 
desire  for  destruction,  as  others  besides  the  so-called  Don 
Juans  have  already  demonstrated.  Only  when  a  firm 
union,  demanding  reciprocal  surrender  and  self-sacrifice, 
results  from  sexual  love  is  it  likely  to  be  productive  of 
good.  Even  then  this  bond  is  scarcely  assured, unless  off- 
spring furnish  a  living  security.  In  childless  wedlock  the 
enthusiasm  of  self-sacrifice  does  not  always  last.  But  no 
sooner  do  the  mediators  appear  on  the  scene  than  liber- 
tines become  men  in  a  nobler  sense,  who  detest  the 
evils  of  celibacy,  and  who  will  not  be  apt  to  palliate  the 
wrongs  of  which  they  themselves  have  been  guilty. 

Wherein  does  the  wonderful  power  of  an  infant  lie? 
Plainly  more  in  its  weakness  and  helplessness  than  in  its 
appearance,  which  more  often  resembles  a  boiled  lobster 
than  a  human  being.  The  physical  necessity  of  lidding 
herself  of  the  excess  of  nutriment  may  contribute  much 
toward  making  the  little  consumer  a  welcome  guest  to 
the  mother.  At  all  events,  the  parents  are  fascinated 
more  by  the  anticipation  of  future  happiness  than  by 
any  personal  charms  of  the  little  stranger.  Beasts  of 
prey  not  infrequently  devour  their  first  litter,  but  scarcely 
from  love.  When,  however,  these  little  beings  have 
outgrown  their  first  helpless  state  and  give  the  first 
signs  of  awakening  intelligence — when  the  first  smiles 
have  been  half  forced  from  them — they  display  an 
amiabilitv  and  charming  playfulness  which  quite  fascin- 
ate their  parents.  The  delighted  mother  can  now  practi- 
cally apply  to  the  living  toy  all  the  knowledge  derived 
from  her  girlish  experiences  with  her  dolls.  This  is  the 
beo-inning  of  a  life  of  the  most  unselfish  devotion.  The 
father  (who  does  not  stand  in  such  close  relations  to  the 
child)  is  unconsciously  drawn  into  this  magic  circle  by 
his  instincts  as  well  as  by  other  circumstances.  Chiefly 
it  is  the  halo  surrounding  the  young  mother,  the  indes- 
cribable expression  of  blissful  exhaustion.  Rubens,  in 
the  cycle  of  pictures  illustrating  the  life  ol  Maria  de' 
Medicis,  and  also  Jordan,  in  a  genre  picture  of  the 
Zuyder  Zee,  have  given  to  this  the  most  perfect  artistic 
expression.  It  is  this  condition  which  produces  that 
mental  attitude  by  which  the  baby,  from  being  his 
father's  rival,  becomes  his  tyrant  and  absolute  master  of 
the  household. 


THE    ORKN    COURT 


643 


Herewith  begins  the  religious  education  of  mankind, 
which  is  far  more  effective  than  that  imparted  by  the 
catechism  and  the  pulpit.  Out  of  this  parental  and  filial 
love  there  develops,  even  in  immature  minds,  a  universal 
love  for  humanity.  The  infant  becomes  the  Saviour — 
the  earthly  father  becomes  the  prototype  of  the  all-wise, 
all-bountiful  Father  in   heaven. 

The  early  endeavor  to  elevate  the  mother  into  the 
realm  of  the  divine  is  a  deeply-felt  and  psychologically 
well-justified  factor  in  the  development  of  Christian 
dogma.  It  was  thus  that  the  mother  with  the  infant  on  her 
lap  was  made  the  chief  picture  at  the  shrines.  The  "  Holy 
Family,"  so  typically  portrayed  by  Raphael,  wins  all 
hearts,  even  at  this  day,  in  Protestant  countries,  as  was 
very  plainly  demonstrated  at  an  art  exhibition  in  Berlin 
during  the  last  decade.  Knaus,  whose  genius  was  a 
happy  combination  of  Correggio  and  Murillo,  with  a 
sprinkling  of  Rembrandt,  exhibited  a  Madonna 
surrounded  by  the  forms  of  winged  and  wingless  chil- 
dren, which  deservedly  delighted  also  those  who  only 
have  sentiment  instead  of  artistic  taste.  Beyond  doubt, 
the  "Holy  Family"  deserves  the  place  of  honor  at  the 
altar,  for  it  justly  makes  the  nursery  the  sanctuary  which 
produces  and  constantly  feeds  the  pure  flame  of  love  of 
man  and  of  God. 

Almost  all  the  religious  doctrines  which  add  to  our 
happiness — or,  rather,  which  support  us  in  misfortune 
— the  belief  in  immortality,  in  resurrection  and  a  re-union 
after  death,  have  their  origin  in  family  life,  and  the 
family  has  its  origin  in  offspring. 

These  reflections  conclusively  prove  the  great 
advance  made  in  civilization  by  monogamy.  For  it  per- 
mits the  male  sex  to  share  the  ennobling  influence  exerted 
by  the  education  of  children.  Society  is  therefore  fully 
justified  in  antagonizing  the  doctrine  of  so-called  free- 
love,  which  has  found  such  enthusiastic  disciples  in  the 
United  States. 

The  blessings  of  monogamy  are  so  great  that  I 
should  not  question  the  propriety  of  legislation  for 
imposing  a  special  tax  upon  bachelordom,  such  as  some 
of  the  Roman  emperors  formerly  levied  upon  obesity. 

What  place,  it  may  be  asked,  have  these  sentimental 
considerations  in  the  writings  of  an  advocate  of  the  Dar- 
winian theory?  Perhaps  more  than  is  at  first  apparent. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  animal  egotism  in  man  which 
threatens  to  overstep  all  bounds,  exhibits  a  certain  centri- 
fugal tendency,  and  that  this  tendency  would  increase 
infinitely,  were  it  not  for  a  counteracting  centripetal 
force,  which  awakens  man  to  the  necessity  of  voluntarily 
adjusting  himself  to  his  environment.  In  all  viviparus 
and  oviparus  animals  we  see  examples  of  this  ennobling 
intercourse  with  their  young.  For  instance,  the  domes- 
tic cat,  usually  decried  on  account  of  its  egoism,  when 
suckling  her  own  litter  will  frequently  also  nurse  the 
young  of  other  animals,  such  as  foxes,  rabbits,  hares,  and 


even  young  rats  and  mice,  which  at  other  times  she  so 
relentlessly  pursues.  When  suckling  its  young,  that 
most  ferocious  beast  of  prey,  the  tigress,  is  transformed 
into  a  harmless,  playful  creature,  capable  of  the  utmost 
self-sacrifice.  To  be  sure,  there  is  nothing  more  droll 
than  young  animals  of  all  kinds.  The  cunning  pranks 
of  young  animals  make  even  the  most  hideous  ones  ap- 
pear fascinating  to  us. 

And,  in  spite  of  whatever  antipathy  we  may  usually 
harbor  toward  them,  the  mothers  also  win  our  admira- 
tion, when  we  become  witnesses  of  their  self-sacrifice. 
We  see  the  mothers  tear  hairs  and  feathers  out  of  their 
breast  in  order  to  prepare  soft  and  warm  beds  for  their 
young.  The  viviparus  scorpion,  which  surely  is  not 
credited  with  any  very  tender  impulses,  according  to 
some  accounts,  permits  its  numerous  young  ones  to  drain 
it  of  its  vital  humors;  and  it  visibly  decreases  in  size  in 
the  midst  of  its  rapidly  growing  progeny.  Likewise, 
the  pelican,  which  was  supposed  to  feed  its  young  with 
its  heart's  blood,  was  selected  as  the  symbol  of  Divine 
Love.  We  cannot  but  find  it  natural  that  female  beasts 
of  prey  should  courageously  defend  their  young,  even 
against  attacks  of  the  males;  on  the  other  hand,  we  can- 
not but  be  astonished  at  the  heroism  displayed  by  shy 
and  domestic  animals  in  the  protection  of  their  young. 
As  soon  as  the  danger  has  been  averted,  the  heroic 
mother  is  again  a  child  among  children  — she  plays  with 
them  just  as  one  plays  with  dolls.  And  so  a  child  is  the 
toy  of  toys  that  softens  the  most  callous  hearts  and 
makes  children  of  old  people  who  already  stand  on  the 

brink  of  eternity. 

(To  be  concluded.) 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


TRADE-UNIONS    AND    MONOPOLY. 

To  the  Editor  : 

I  regard  The  Open  Court  as  the  best  philosophical  journal 
in  America,  but  would  be  better  pleased  (as,  I  presume,  the  major- 
ity of  vour  readers  would  also)  to  see  more  discussion  of  social 
and  economic  problems  in  its  columns.  "  Wheelbarrow's "  arti- 
cles are  pleasing,  but,  I  fear,  sadly  wanting  in  many  instances  of 
seeing  things  in  the  light  they  present  themselves  to  me. 

He  condemns  trade-unions  because  they  monopolize  the 
trades  and  restrict  apprenticeship.  I  grant  this;  but  in  the  pres- 
ent social  condition  there  is  no  other  way  in  which  competition 
can  be  restricted.  It  is,  at  its  best,  purely  and  simply  monopoly. 
Where  there  is  no  attempt  at  social  regulation,  the  only  natural 
remedy  tor  monopoly  is  counter-monopoly  and  cooperation. 
When  skilled  workmen  combine  to  prevent  competition,  it  is 
merely  "  a  typical  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  intelligence 
ever  seeks  the  protection  of  its  own  interests  regardless  of  the 
interests  of  others."  There  is  no  use  in  bewailing  the  "beneficent 
law  of  mutual  assistance  "  when  we  consider  that  all  men  will 
"  under  all  circumstances  seek  their;  greatest  gain,"  and  to  do 
this  they  must  pool  their  interests  the  same  as  monopolists.  To 
all  men  the  more  wages  they  secure  for  their  labor  means  more 
enjoyment,  more  happiness.  And  the  inequality  of  the  distribu- 
tion of  wealth  will  be  so  until  the  intelligence  of  the  producer  is 


&44 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


equal  to  that  of  the  non-producer,  or  until  the  altruistic  functions 
have  become  so  enlarged  as  to  make  the  amount  of  pain  in  6eeing 
our  fellows  in  distress  greater  than  the  amount  of  pleasure  derived 
from  articles  of  enjoyment  they  have  created,  and  which  have 
been  secured  by  mental  aggrandizement. 

"Wheelbarrow"  says:  "The  companies  monopolize  the 
profit  of  telegraphing;  the  operators  monopolize  the  art."  Monop- 
olizing the  art  is  only  a  means  employed  by  intelligent  workmen 
to  create  an  artificial  adjustment  of  natural  tendencies.  The  fun- 
damental principle  is  to  force  from  the  employer  a  greater  wage 
than  if  the  workmen  worked  in  severalty  and  competition  reduced 
wages  to  the  lowest  point  that  workmen  would  consent  to  live  on. 

Skilled  workmen  are,  for  the  most  part,  relatively  more 
intelligent  than  unskilled  workmen;  and  it  is  from  this  fact  that 
they  suppress  competition.  Competition  is  the  enemy  of  cooper- 
ation, and  always  will  be;  and  it  is  on  that  ground  that  trade- 
unions  restrict  apprentices.  But  there  is  not  always  an  unreason- 
able restriction.  The  most  conservative  and  intelligent  trade 
organization  in  America  is  the  International  Typographical  Union 
and  it  restricts  apprentices  to  one  to  every  five  journevmen 
This  is  not  an  unreasonable  restriction. 

As  to  the  "dignity  of  labor,"  that  is  simply  a  matter  of  inteL 
ligence,  and  will  be  60  "as  long  as  capital  and  labor  remain  the 
respective  symbols  of  intelligence  and  ignorance."  The  whole 
foundation  of  the  inequality  of  the  distribution  of  wealth  is  merelv 
one  of  relative  ignorance  and  relative  intelligence.  This  is  caused 
by  the  inequality  of  the  distribution  of  knowledge.  "  Wheelbar- 
row "  says,  truly,  "  we  must  all  work  together  ";  but  how?  This 
is  the  rub.  It  is  the  distinction  between  science  and  art.  We  all 
understand  that  it  is  to  the  interest  of  producers  to  combine.  We 
have  that  knowledge;  but  do  we  know  how  to  apply  that  knowl- 
edge? We  must  have  a  knowledge  of  -vays  as  well  as  things 
Lester  F.  Ward  says:  "To  do  depends  upon  knowing,  but  in  order 
to  do  men  must  know  how." 

The  capitalists  have  been  eminently  successful  in  receiving  a 
greater  proportion  of  wealth  than  they  are  justly  entitled  to,  because 
they  knew  how.  The  capitalists  have  bent  the  inferior  intelligence 
of  the  laborer-service  because  they  are  more  intelligent,  not  because 
they  have  a  greater  intellectual  capacity.  This  is  the  greatest  evil 
under  which  society  labors.  "This  is  because  it  places  it  in  the 
power  of  a  small  number,"  says  Lester  F.  Ward,  "having  no 
greater  intellectual  capacity,  and  no  natural  right  or  title,  to  seek 
their  happiness  at  the  expense  of  a  large  number.  The  large 
number,  deprived  of  the  means  of  intelligence,  though  born  with  a 
capacity  for  it,  are  really  compelled  by  the  small  number,  through 
the  exercise  of  a  superior  intelligence,  to  serve  them  Without  com- 
pensation."— {Dynamic  Sociology,  Vol.  II.,  p.  602.)  This  is  the 
ultimate  analysis  of  the  unequal  distribution  of  wealth.  For  it  is 
not  the  idler  but  the  toiler,  the  real  producer  of  wealth,  who  has 
none;  while  the  man  who  has  wealth  is  often  the  man  of  leisure 
— enjoying  wealth  he  never  toiled  to  create.  The  toiler  occupies 
his  position  in  consequence  of  his  relative  intelligence,  while  the 
idler  occupies  his  in  consequence  of  his  relative  intelligence. 
When  we  consider  this,  we  can  conceive  the  scope  of  that  great 
truth — "  Knowledge  is  power."  "  To  prevent  inequality  of  advan- 
tages there  must  be  equality  of  power,  equality  of  knowledge." 

Of  the  thousand  arts  and  subtle  ways  used  by  capitalists,  the 
most  subtle  is  the  art  of  making  acts  appear  bad  and  criminal 
when  done  by  the  laboring  class,  and  proper  when  done  by  the 
employing  class.  They  obscure  their  identity  by  different  names 
and  make  them  appear  different  things.  To  illustrate,  let  us  take 
the.  case  of  cooperation.  Mr.  Ward  says:  "  Owing  to  the  inherent 
character  of  the  social  forces  as  exemplified  throughout  the  work- 
ings of  nature  and  of  human  nature,  one  of  the  means  of  increas- 
ing power  to  secure  desired  ends  *  *  *  was  the  union  of 
many   individuals   for  the   joint    accomplishment   of  a   common 


object,  which  intelligence  taught  them  could  not  be  accomplished 
by  action  in  severalty." — (Dynamic  Sociology,  Vol.  II.,  p.  603.) 
This  the  basi6  of  society,  government,  trade-unions,  and  of  all  the 
great  industrial  and  commercial  enterprises  of  the  world.  It  is  a 
true  principle,  as  in  no  other  way  could  any  great  results  be 
achieved.  The  consequence  has  been  that  the  intelligent  class 
cooperate,  and  by  means  of  cooperation  become  capitalists  and 
employers;  while  the  ignorant  class  work  individually  and  inde- 
pendent, and  have  been  and  are  compelled  to  turn  over  to  the 
capitalists  the  greater  part  of  the  value  they  have  created  without 
an  equivalent. 

In  modern  times  capitalists  maintain  their  hold  upon  the 
fruits  of  the  toilers'  labor  by  preventing  them  from  knowing  their 
own  interests.  This  is  chiefly  done  by  establishing  influential 
organs  and  moulding  public  opinion.  The  laboring  classes  have 
few  avenues  of  communication,  and  perhaps  cannot  use  them. 
Those  of  the  laboring  classes  who  can  read  at  all  read  the  organs 
of  the  capitalists,  and  not  being  sufficiently  intelligent  to  penetrate 
their  sophisms,  they  hear  only  one  side  of  the  question,  and  gen- 
erally acquiesce  in  the  views  of  capitalistic  organs.  So  much  has 
this  perversion  been  carried  on  in  this  century  that  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson said,  in  1S07:  "  Nothing  can  now  be  believed  which  is  seen 
in  a  newspaper.  Truth  itself  becomes  suspicious  by  being  put  in 
that  polluted  vehicle.  *  *  *  The  man  who  never  looks  into  a 
newspaper  is  better  informed  than  he  who  reads  them." 

Cooperation  on  the  part  of  capitalists  does  not  go  by  that 
name;  it  is  simply  recognized  as  the  only  way  to  do  business. 
Any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  laboring  classes,  however,  to 
cooperate  is  called  a  crime  against  society!  As  our  government 
and  society  cooperate  on  the  same  basis  as  monopolists,  and  care 
not  for  other  governments  or  other  lower  societies,  on  the  basis 
that  it  is  a  monopoly,  "  Wheelbarrow"  might  try  to  abolish  them. 
We  must  expect  selfishness,  and  not  much  altruism,  in  the  eco- 
nomic and  social  spheres.  But  that  selfishness  which  can  see  its 
own  interests  by  superior  intelligence,  and  seeks  to  unite  together 
all  who  labor  for  its  own  interests,  is  a  great  blessing  to  the  com- 
munity. For  every  toiler  to  see  his  own  interests  we  must  have 
universal  education.     Education  is  the  salvation  of  society. 

Harry  C.  Long. 

REPLY   BY  WHEELBARROW. 
To  the  Editor:  Chicago,  Dec.  9,  1887. 

Appreciating  your  kindness  in  submitting  Mr.  Long's  criti- 
cism to  me  for  any  remarks  upon  it  that  I  might  care  to  make,  I 
will  notice  a  few  points  in  his  argument.  Much  of  what  he  says 
must  go  unanswered,  because  it  is  too  intricate,  involved,  and 
metaphysical  for  me.  It  is,  no  doubt,  all  right  enough  according 
to  the  principles  of  Dynamic  Sociology,  but  as  I  have  not  the 
least  idea  what  Dynamic  Sociology  is,  I  can  only  reply  to  so  much 
of  Mr.  Long's  criticism  as  is  within  my  sphere  of  knowledge. 
Mr.  Long  says,  "  Wheelbarrow's  articles  are  pleasing,  but  I  fear 
sadly  wanting,  in  many  instances,  of  seeing  things  in  the  light  they 
present  themselves  to  me."  There  is  a  modest  self-denial  in  that 
"  fear "  which  reminds  me  of  an  old  friend,  who,  whenever  he 
dissented  in  conversation,  used  to  say  to  the  other  man,  "  Now, 
there's  where  you  and  I  differ,  which,  '  I  fear,'  puts  you  prima 
facie  in  the  wrong." 

Mr.  Long  defends  the  monopoly  features  of  the  trades  unions, 
and  the  rules  by  which  they  limit  the  number  of  apprentices  in 
the  various  trades.  According  to  him  the  ethics  of  trades  unions 
is  pure  selfishness  and  the  right  of  tyranny;  the  duty  of  the 
"skilled  "  to  prohibit  learning.  According  to  him  the  golden  rule 
is,  "  Do  others,  for  they  would  do  you."  Here  is  a  curious  distor- 
tion of  moral  doctrine:  "When  skilled  workmen  combine  to  pre- 
vent competition,  it  is  merely  a  typical  illustration  of  the  manner 
in  which  intelligence  ever  seeks  the  protection  of  its  own  interests 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


6.4  s 


regardless  of  the  interests  of  others."  This  is  so  obviously  incor- 
rect that  at  first  I  thought  "intelligence"  was  a  misprint  for 
"  ignorance,"  but  on  reading  further  I  found  that  it  was  not.  True, 
there  is  a  grade  of  intelligence  allied  to  animal  cunning  which 
does  "seek  the  protection  of  its  own  interests  regardless  of  the 
interests  of  others,"  but  this  is  not  the  intelligence  of  civilized  man. 
Mr.  Long  confesses  that  trades  unions  restrict  apprentices, 
but,  he  says,  "there  is  not  always  an  unreasonable  restriction. 
The  most  conservative  and  intelligent  trade  organization  in  Amer- 
ica is  the  International  Typographical  Union,  and  it  restricts 
apprentices  to  one  to  every  five  journeymen.  This  is  not  an 
unreasonable  restriction."  A  little  moral  intelligence  would  show 
the  International  Typographical  Union  that  any  restriction  what- 
ever is  not  only  unreasonable  but  barbarous.  The  Typographical 
Union  has  no  more  right  to  withhold  from  any  boy  the  art  of  earn- 
ing bread  than  it  has  to  cut  off  his  finger  and  thus  disable  him 
from  setting  type.  If  that  is  the  most  intelligent  trade  organiza- 
tion in  America,  what  must  the  others  be? 

When  the  bookkeepers  form  themselves  into  a  "  union,"  they 
will  require  that  only  one  boy  to  five  bookkeepers  shall  be  allowed 
to  learn  arithmetic.  Their  restriction  will  be  quite  as  "  intelli- 
gent" as  that  of  the  Typographical  Union.  It  will  not  be  any 
more  "  unreasonable."  I  have  said  before,  and  I  repeat  it  here, 
that  the  men  who  would  enslave  others  easily  become  slaves.  This 
has  been  demonstrated  in  Chicago  within  the  present  week,  and, 
curiously  too,  by  the  Typographical  Union.  The  working  print- 
ers "  struck,"  and  the  masters  combined  against  them.  After 
being  "  out  "  some  time  the  printers  yielded,  and  offered  to  go 
back  to  work,  but  the  masters  refused  to  take  them  back  unless 
they  "signed  the  document,"  the  "iron-clad"  surrender  of  their 
freedom.  In  imposing  this  condition  the  masters  subjected  theii 
workmen  to  a  shocking  degradation.  Their  act  was  an  act  of  des- 
potism only  equalled  by  that  other  intolerance  which  forbids  an 
honest  boy  to  learn  an  honest  trade.  The  masters  offer  as  an  excuse 
for  their  tyranny  that  they  must  either  subjugate  their  workmen 
or  be  subjugated  by  them.  A  very  small  allowance  of  "intelli- 
gence "  would  show  both  parties  that  this  alternative  is  not  nec- 
essary. But  it  must  be  that  kind  of  intelligence  which  knows 
justice  when  it  sees  it,  and  which  amounts  to  a  moral  perception 
strong  enough  to  see  that  freedom  to  oppress  others  is  not  liberty. 
The  rest  of  Mr.  Long's  criticism  appears  to  be  aimed  at  some- 
thing up  in  the  air,  with  which  I  have  nothing  to  do.  It  is  some 
thing  "  on  the  wing,"  for  the  aim  is  wandering  and  unsteady.  It 
may  be  Dynamic  Sociology  of  the  most  orthodox  quality,  foi 
aught  I  know,  but  the  argument  is  difficult  and  obscure;  while  some 
of  the  sentences  appear  to  be  destitute  of  meaning,  so  that  I  can- 
not tell  whether  I  agree  with  the  writer  or  not;  especially  as  they 
seem  to  have  but  a  "relative"  reference  to  anything  I  wrote.  For 
example,  this:  "  As  to  the  'dignity  of  labor,'  that  is  simply  a 
matter  of  intelligence,  and  will  be  so  as  long  as  capital  and  labor 
remain  the  respective  symbols  of  intelligence  and  ignorance.  The 
whole  foundation  of  the  inequality  of  the  distribution  of  wealth 
is  merely  one  of  relative  ignorance  and  relative  intelligence. 
This  is  caused  by  the  inequality  of  the  distribution  o(  knowledge." 
That  reads  like  a  rhetorical  involution  from  the  ponderous  wis- 
dom of  Jack  Bunsby.  Whether  it  means  anything  or  not,  it  ha< 
no  application  to  the  argument,  and  therefore  I  am  not  called 
upon  to  answer  it.  Yours, 

Wheelbarrow. 


BOOK    REVIEWS. 


On  parent  knees,  a  naked  new-born  child, 
Weeping  thou  sat'st,  while  all  around  thee  smiled ; 
So  live,  that,  sinking  in  thy  last  long  sleep, 
Calm  thou  mav'st  .smile,  while  all  around  thee  weep. 

^Sir  Jones:  from  thf -Persian. 


Our  Heredity  from  God.— E.  P.  Powell.     D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
New  York. 

Mr.  Powell's  book  is  attracting  wide  and  deserved  attention 
and  is  destined,  we  think,  to  make  a  place  for  itself  next  in  rank 
to  the  works  of  John  Fiske,  as  a  popular,  but  careful  and  intelli 
gent    exposition    of  the  evolution  philosophy.     It    is,   however, 
something  more  than  a  summary  of  Spencer;  in  fact  is  not  a  sum- 
mary at  all,  but  rather  the  original  and  patiently  wrought   result 
of  a  mind  working  in  the  field  of  scientific  philosophy,  but  work- 
ing always  after  its  own  individual  methods,  with  perfect  fearless- 
ness,  and  a  frank  determination  to  accept  nothing  but  the    truth. 
This  mental  independence  is  observed  on  every  page,    and  occa- 
sionally over-reaches  itself,   as  a  man  bent  on  preserving  a  per- 
fectly erect  position,  will  sometimes   tip  a  little  backwards.     Mr. 
Powell    is    a  convert  from   evangelical  Christianity    to    scientific 
rationalism.     His  passage  from  one  to  the  other  was  a  painful  one 
and  signs  of  mental  conflict  appear  throughout  his  book,  especially 
n  the  emphatic— sometimes  impatient — opposition  which  he  shows, 
towards  the  older  forms  of  faith,  and  which  has  led  some  of  the 
critics,  we  think  not  unjustly,  to  accuse  him  of  whipping   a  man 
of  straw.    With  exception  of  this  not-very-important  criticism,  we 
have  only  words  of  praise  and  welcome  for  Mr.  Powell's  book.    It 
is  a  work  which  will  serve  the  needs  both  of  the  advanced  student 
in  evolution  and  the  beginner.     The  first  will  find  in  it  a  clear  and 
succinct  review  of  principles  he  is  already  familiar  with,  together 
with  an  admirable  summing  up  of  the  ethical  and  religious  aspects 
of  the   questions  dealt    with,  while  the  younger  student  will    be 
equally  profited  by  the  general  scheme  of  the  book,  which  aims  to 
present  the  reader  with  a  clear  outline  of  the  leading  principles  of 
the  Synthetic  philosophy.     The  book  speaks  for  itself  in  the  table 
of  contents.     It  is  divided  into  three   parts.     The   first   sums    up 
"the  leading  arguments  in  favor  of  evolution,   as   accounting    for 
structural  variety  and  explaining   the  actual    condition   of  living 
creatures."     This  part  consists  of  eight  -lectures  on  such  topics  as 
"The  Unity  of  Nature,"  with  three   lectures  following,  dealing 
with  the  arguments  from  geography,  geology  and  anatomy.— One 
of  the  most  interesting  of  the  succeeding  chapters  in  this  portion 
of  the  book  is  that  on  "The  Power  of  Mimicry."     Speaking  of  the 
power  of  some  of  the  lower  forms  of  life  to  defend  themselves 
against  harmful  attack  by  assuming  a  likeness  to  their  surround- 
ings which   enables  them  to   escape   observation,   as   the  plum 
curculio  rolls  itself  up  into  the  shape  of  a  dry  bud  and  falls   to  the 
ground.     Mr.  Powell  says  that  "Nature   is   charged   everywhere 
with  the  idea  of  escape  and  self-preservation,"— and  man's  desire 
for  salvation  is  an  instinct  fairly  inherited  from  life's  lowest  forms- 
"Among  lower  creatures,  those  that  least  assimilate  to   environ- 
ments are  destroyed— but  with  moral  beings  the   assimilation  re- 
quired is  that  of  character.     He  is  most  safe  who  becomes   most 
like  the  Supreme  Good."     In  the  concluding  chapter  of  Part  I,  on 
"Degeneration"  we  are  shown  how  evolution  is   "a   struggle  that 
in  many   cases   involves    failure,  in    some,    success;  but    in  long 
reaches  of   time   establishes  a  steadily   increasing  increment   of 
sjain."     Part  II  is  employed  in  showing  "the  commonality  of  life 
Detween  all    creatures,"     and    Part    III  follows  evolution  after 
man  is  reached,  tracing  the  "rise  of  intelligence  and  morals  out  of 
and  above  all  preceding  development,  until   we  reach  the   great 
questions  of  God  and  immortality."     Mr.  Powell  is  a  believer   in 
both,  though  in  respect   to  the  first  his  views  partake  of  a   fine 
abstract  theism  which  prefers  to  dissociate  itself  from  all    formal 
religious   exercise.     Mr.    Powell  bases   his  belief  in    continued 
existence  after  death  on  the  principle  that  with  the  appearance  of 
man  a  new  factor  is  introduced  into  evolution.     The   creation    of 
man  was  not  an  accidental  circumstance,  but  stands  rather  as  the 
crowning   moral  event  in   the   universe.     His  annihilation    would 


646 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


render  the  entire  system  of  things  meaningless,  and  a  cruel  satire. 
Mr.  Powell  deprecates  as  much  as  anyone  the  false  ideas  of 
human  profit  and  recompense  attaching  to  the  old  idea  of  immor- 
tality, which  has  done  more  harm  than  good  ;  yet  having  become 
a  part  of  the  world's  "moral  causation,"  man  has  demonstrated  his 
right  to  final  preservation.  "If  man  has  attained  a  possible 
eternal  ought  toward  God,  has  not  God  the  same  ought  in  his 
relation  toman?"  Space  does  not  permit  us  to  give  Mr.  Powell's 
argument  in  its  full  force  and  meaning,  but  enough  has  been 
given  to  indicate  its  general  nature  and  direction.  To  us  it  is  at 
once  the  most  striking  and  persuasive  presentation  of  the  question 
we  have  ever  read ;  and  the  chapter  which  deals  with  this  difficult 
but  enticing  subject,  full  of  snares  and  pitfalls  to  the  unwary,  is  a 
fitting  conclusion  to  a  work,  strong,  healthful,  and  inspiring 
throughout.  c.  p.  w. 

The  Ethical  Import   of   Darwinism.  By   y.    G.    Schurman, 

Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Cornell  University. 

As  is  so  frequently  the  case,  the  adherents  of  a  new  theory 
endeavor  to  give  it  the  very  broadest  application,  until  it  almost 
vanishes  in  a  misty  universality.  A  similar  fate  has  befallen  the 
doctrine  of  evolution,  which  now  is,  as  our  author  says,  "a  mixture 
of  science  and  speculation,  ot  fact  and  fancy." 

In  this  exceedingly  interesting  and  readable  book,  Professor 
Schurman  endeavors  to  distinguish  between  science  and  specula- 
tion in  the  application  of  Darwinism  to  morals.  In  the  first 
chapter  an  attempt  is  made  to  determine  under  what  conditions 
alone  ethics  can  become  a  science.  The  second  chapter  is  devoted 
to  an  exposition  of  the  Darwinian  theory  and  the  general  doctrine 
of  evolution.  Then  follow  chapters  on  the  ethical  bearing  of 
Darwinism.  In  the  rest  of  the  book  the  conclusion  is  reached 
that  a  scientific  study  of  ethics  can  be  constructed  only  by  adopting 
the  historical  method. 

This  book,  written  in  such  a  delightful  and  admirably  clear  style 
is  the  very  best  proof  of  Professor  Schurman's  belief  "  that  there 
is  no  theory,  or  criticism,  or  system  (not  even  Kant's  or  Hegel's) 
that  cannot  be  clearly  expressed  in  a  language  which  in  Locke's 
hands  was  strong  and  homely,  in  Berkeley's  rich  and  subtle,  in 
Hume's  easy,  graceful,  and  finished,  and  in  all  three  alike  plain, 
transparent,  and  unmistakable." 


The  Revue  de  Belgique  for  November  contains,  besides  other 
valuable  articles,  an  interesting  essay,  "  Monsieur  Moi,"  translated 
from  the  Italian  by  Salvatore  Farina.  Another  essav,  which 
merited  more  attention  than  we  could  devote  to  it,  is  the  one  by 
Aug.  Gitte^e,  entitled  "  La  Rime  d'Enfant."  It  seems  to  be  full  of 
fine  thought  and  pretty  examples  of  the  poetry  of  the  nursery; 
those  in  the  Flemish  and  Walloon  dialects  have  an  additional 
philological  value. 

Seldom  has  a  magazine  met  with  such  immediate  and  pro- 
nounced success  as  Scribner's,  which  has  just  completed  its  first 
year.  The  illustrations  have  steadily  improved,  and  the  publishers 
promise  that  during  iSSS  they  will  be  better  than  ever.  The 
series  of  papers  which  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  will  contribute 
during  the  coming  year  will,  no  doubt,  do  much  toward  increasing 
the  circulation  of  this  already  very  popular  magazine. 

The  Century  Magazine  for  December  prints  how  a  very 
timely  article  "The  Sea  of  Galilee,"  by  Edward  L.  Wilson.  The 
chapter  in  the  Lincoln  biography  by  Nicola)'  and  Hay  treats  of 
Lincoln's  Inauguration.  Those  readers  who  take  an  intelligent 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  Russia  will  be  pleased  with  George  Ken- 
nan's  essav,  Prison  Life  of  the  Russian  Revolutionists. 


In  this  wild  world  the  fondest  and  the  best 
Are  the  most  tried,  most  troubled  and  distressed. 

— Crabbe. 


THE  LOST  MANUSCRIPT. 

BY  C.USTAV  FREYTAO. 

CHAPTER  I. 

A    DISCOVERY. 

In  the  outskirts  of  a  German  university  town  loom 
up  in  the  evening  dusk  two  stately  houses,  in  which 
dwell  two  landlords  who  are  tax-payers  and  active 
workers.  At  night  they  cover  with  warm  blankets; 
they  are  worthy  men,  but  have  their  whims;  and  they 
estimate  the  value  of  the  moon  exactly  in  proportion 
to  the  amount  of  gas  saved  by  her  light. 

A  lamp,  placed  close  to  the  window,  shines  from 
one  of  the  upper  rooms  in  the  house  on  the  left  hand. 
Here  lives  Professor  Felix  Werner,  a  learned  philolo- 
gist, still  a  young  man  who  has  already  earned  a  reputa- 
tion. He  sits  at  his  study  table  and  examines  old,  faded 
manuscripts — an  attractive  looking  man  of  medium  size, 
with  dark,  curly  hair  falling  over  a  massive  head;  there 
is  nothing  paltry  about  him.  Clear,  honest  eyes  shine 
from  under  the  dark  eyebrows;  the  nose  is  slightly 
arched;  the  muscles  of  the  mouth  are  strongly  devel- 
oped, as  may  be  expected  of  the  popular  teacher  of  young 
students.  Just  now  a  soft  smile  spreads  over  it,  and  his 
cheeks  redden  either  from  his  work  or  from  inward 
emotion. 

The  Professor  suddenly  left  his  work  and  paced 
restlessly  up  and  down  his  room.  He  then  approached 
a  window  which  looked  out  on  the  neighboring  house, 
placed  two  large  books  on  the  window  sill,  laid  a  small 
one  upon  them,  and  thus  produced  a  figure  which  resem- 
bled a  Greek  rr,  and  which,  from  the  light  shining  behind 
became  visible  to  the  eye  in  the  house  opposite.  After 
he  had  arranged  this  signal,  he  hastened  back  to  the 
table  and  again  bent  over  his  book. 

The  servant  entered  gently  to  remove  the  supper, 
which  had  been  placed  on  a  side  table.  Finding  the 
food  untouched,  he  looked  with  displeasure  at  the  Pro- 
fessor, and  for  a  long  while  remained  standing  behind  the 
vacant  chair.  At  length,  assuming  a  military  attitude, 
he  said,  "  Professor,  you  have  forgotten  your  supper." 

"  Clear  the  table,  Gabriel,"  said  the  Professor. 

Gabriel  showed  no  disposition  to  move.  "  Pro- 
fessor, you  should  at  least  eat  a  bit  of  cold  meat.  Noth- 
ing can  come  of  nothing,"  he  added,  kindly. 

"  It  is  not  right  that  you  should  come  in  and  dis- 
turb me." 

Gabriel  took  the  plate  and  carried  it  to  his  master. 
"  Pray,  Professor,  take  at  least  a  few  mouthfuls." 

"  Give  it  to  me  then,"  said  he,  and  began  to  eat. 

Gabriel  made  use  of  the  time  during  which  his 
master  unavoidably  paused  in  his  intellectual  occupation, 
to  make  a  respectful  admonition.  "  My  late  Captain 
thought  much  of  a  good  supper." 

"  But  now  you  have  changed  into  the  civil  service," 
answered  the  Professor,  laughing. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


647 


"  It  is  not  right,"  continued  Gabriel,  pertinaciously, 
"that  I  should  eat  the  roast  that  I  bring  for  you." 

"I  hope  you  are  now  satisfied,"  answered  the  Pro- 
fessor, pushing  the  plate  back  to  him. 

Gabriel  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  V'ou  have  at  least 
done  your  best.     The  Doctor  was  not  at  home." 

"  So  I  perceive.  See  to  it  that  the  front-door 
remains  open." 

Gabriel  turned  about  and  went  away  with- the  plate. 

The  scholar  was  again  alone.  The  golden  light  of 
the  lamp  fell  on  his  countenance  and  on  the  books 
which  lay  around  him;  the  white  pages  rustled  under 
his  hand ;  and  his  features  worked  with  strong  excite- 
ment. 

There  was  a  knock  at  the  door;  the  expected  visitor 
entered. 

"Good  evening,  Fritz,"  said  the  Professor  to  his 
visitor;   "sit  in  my  chair,  and  look  here." 

The  guest,  a  man  of  slender  form,  with  delicate 
features,  and  wearing  spectacles,  obeying,  seated  himself, 
and  seized  a  little  book  which  lay  in  the  middle  of  a 
number  of  open  volumes  of  every  age  and  size.  With 
the  eye  of  a  connoisseur  he  examined  first  the  cover — 
discolored  parchment,  upon  which  was  written  old 
church  hymns  with  the  accompanying  music.  He  cast 
a  searching  glance  on  the  inside  of  the  binding,  and 
inspected  the  strips  of  parchment  by  which  the  poorly- 
preserved  back  of  the  book  was  joined  to  the  cover.  He 
then  examined  the  first  page  of  the  contents,  on  which, 
in  faded  characters,  was  written,  "  The  Life  of  the  Holy 
Hildegard."  "The  handwriting  is  that  of  a  writer  of 
the  fifteenth  century,"  he  exclaimed,  and  looked  inquir- 
ingly at  his  friend. 

"  It  is  not  on  that  account  that  I  show  you  the  old 
book.  Look  further.  The  Life  is  followed  by  prayers, 
a  number  of  recipes  and  household  regulations,  written 
in  various  hands,  even  before  the  time  of  Luther.  I 
had  bought  this  manuscript  for  you,  thinking  you  might 
perhaps  find  material  for  your  legends  and  popular 
superstitions.  But  on  looking  through  it,  I  met  with 
the  following  passage  on  one  of  the  last  pages,  and  I 
cannot  yet  part  with  the  book.  It  seems  that  the  book 
has  been  used  in  a  monastery  by  many  generations  to 
note  down  memoranda,  for  on  this  page  there  is  a  cata- 
logue of  all  the  church  treasures  of  the  Monastery  Ros- 
sau.  It  was  a  poverty-stricken  monastery ;  the  inven- 
tory is  either  small  or  incomplete.  It  was  made  by  an 
ignorant  monk,  and,  as  the  writing  testifies,  about  the 
year  1500.  See,  here  are  entered  church  utensils  and 
a  few  ecclesiastical  dresses;  and  further  on  some  theo- 
logical manuscripts  of  the  monastery,  of  no  importance 
to  us,  but  amongst  them  the  following  title:  ' Das  alt 
ungehiir  fuoch  von  ussfahrt  des  sioigers.7" 

The  Doctor  examined  the  words  with  curiosity. 
"  That  sounds  like  the  title  of  a  tale  of  chivalry.     And 


what  do  the  words  themselves  mean?  'The  old, 
immense  book  of  the  exit  or  departure  of  the  sioiger? 
Does  sicigcr  here  mean  son-in-law  or  a  tacit  man?" 

"  Let  us  try  to  solve  the  riddle,"  continued  the  Pro- 
fessor, with  sparkling  eyes,  pointing  with  his  finger  to 
the  same  page.  "A  later  hand  has  added  in  Latin, 
'  This  book  is  Latin,  almost  illegible;  it  begins  with  the 
words  lacrimas  ct  stgna,  and  ends  with  the  words — here 
concludes  the  history — adorum — thirtieth  book.'  Now 
guess." 

The  Doctor  looked  at  the  excited  features  of  his 
friend.  "  Do  not  keep  me  in  suspense.  The  first  words 
sound  very  promising,  but  they  are  not  a  title;  some 
pages  in  the  beginning  may  be  deficient." 

"Just  so,"  answered  the  Professor,  with  satisfaction. 
"  We  may  assume  that  one  or  two  pages  are  missing. 
In  the  fifth  chapter  of  the  Annals  Tacitus  there  are 
the  words  lacrimas  ct  signal 

The  Doctor  sprang  up,  and  a  flush  of  joy  overspread 
his  face. 

"  Sit  down,"  continued  the  Professor,  forcing  his 
friend  back  into  the  chair.  "  The  old  title  of  the  Annals 
of  Tacitus,  when  translated,  appears  literally  '  Tacitus, 
beginning  with  the  death  of  the  divine  Augustus.' 
Well,  an  ignorant  monk  deciphered  perhaps  the  first 
Latin  words  of  the  title,  '  Taciti  ab  excessit,"1  and  endeav- 
ored to  translate  it  into  German ;  he  was  pleased  to 
know  that  tacitus  meant  schzvcigsam  (silent),  but  had 
never  heard  of  the  Roman  historian,  and  rendered  it  in 
these  words,  literally,  as  '  From  the  exit  of  the  tacit 
man.'  " 

"Excellent!"  exclaimed  the  Doctor.  "And  the 
monk,  delighted  with  the  successful  translation,  wrote 
the  title  on  the  manuscript?  Glorious!  the  manuscript 
was  a  Tacitus." 

"  Hear  further,"  proceeded  the  Professor.  "  In  the 
third  and  fourth  century  A.  D.,  both  the  great  works  of 
Tacitus,  the  'Annals'  and  'History,'  were  united  in  a 
collection  under  the  title,  '  Thirty  Books  of  History.' 
For  this  we  have  other  ancient  testimony.     Look  here!" 

The  Professor  found  well-known  passages,  and 
placed  them  before  his  friend.  "  And,  again,  at  the 
end  of  the  manuscript  record  there  were  these  words: 
'  Here  ends  the  Thirtieth  Book  of  the  History.'  There 
remains,  therefore,  no  doubt  that  this  manuscript  was  a 
Tacitus.  And  looking  at  the  thing  as  a  whole,  the 
following  appears  to  have  been  the  case:  At  the  time 
of  the  Reformation  there  was  a  manuscript  of  Tacitus 
in  the  Monastery  of  Rossau,  the  beginning  of  which 
was  missing.  It  was  old  and  injured  by  time,  and  almost 
illegible  to  the  eyes  of  the  monks." 

"There  must  have  been  something  peculiar  attaching 
to  the  book,"  interrupted  the  Doctor,  "for  the  monk 
designates  it  by  the  expression,  lUngcheucr^  which 
conveys  the  meaning  of  extraordinary." 


*64S 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


"  It  is  true,"  agreed  the  Professor.  "  We  may  assume 
that  some  monastic  tradition  which  has  attached  to  the 
book,  or  an  old  prohibition  to  read  it,  or,  more  probably, 
the  unusual  aspect  of  its  cover,  or  its  size,  has  given  rise 
to  this  expression.  The  manuscript  contains  both  the 
historical  works  of  Tacitus,  the  books  of  which  were 
numbered  continuously.  And  we,"  he  added,  in  his 
excitement  throwing  the  book  which  he  held  in  his  hand 
on  the  table,  "we  no  longer  possess  this  manuscript. 
Neither  of  the  historical  works  of  the  great  Roman 
have  been  preserved  in  its  entirety ;  for  the  sum  of  all  the 
gaps  would  fully  equal  one-half  of  what  has  come  down 
to  us." 

The  Professor's  friend  paced  the  room  hurriedly. 
"  This  is  one  of  the  discoveries  that  quicken  the  bjood  in 
one's  veins.  Gone  and  lost  forever  !  It  is  exasperating 
to  think  how  nearly  such  a  precious  treasure  of  antiquity 
was  preserved  to  us.  It  has  escaped  fire,  devastation, 
and  the  perils  of  cruel  war;  it  was  still  in  existence  when 
the  dawn  of  a  new  civilization  burst  upon  us,  happily 
concealed  and  unheeded,  in  the  German  monastery,  not 
many  miles  from  the  great  high  road  along  which  the 
humanitarians  wandered,  with  visions  of  Roman  glory 
in  their  minds,  seeking  after  every  relic  of  the 
Roman  time.  Universities  flourished  in  the  immediate 
vicinity;  and  how  easily  could  one  of  the  friars  of 
Rossau  have  informed  the  students  of  their  treasure.  It 
seems  incomprehensible  that  not  one  of  the  many 
scholars  of  the  country  should  have  obtained  information 
concerning  the  book,  and  pointed  out  to  the  monks  the 
value  of  such  a  monument.  But,  instead  of  this,  it  is 
possible  that  some  contemporary  of  Erasmus  and 
Melanchthon,  some  poor  monk,  sold  the  manuscript  to 
a  book-binder,  and  strips  of  it  may  still  adhere  to  some 
old  book-cover.  But,  even  in  this  case,  the  discovery  is 
important.  Evidently  this  little  book  has  procured  a 
painful  pleasure  for  you." 

The  Professor  clasped  the  hand  of  his  friend,  and 
each  looked  into  the  honest  countenance  of  the  other. 
"  Let  us  assume,"  concluded  the  Doctor,  sorrowfully, 
"that  the  old  hereditary  enemy  of  preserved  treasures, 
fire,  had  consumed  the  manuscript — is  it  not  childish 
that  we  should  feel  the  loss  as  if  it  had  occurred  to-day  ?  " 

"  Who  tells  us  that  the  manuscript  is  irretrievably 
lost?"  rejoined  the  Professor,  with  suppressed  emotion. 
"  Once  more  consult  the  book;  it  can  tell  us  also  of  the 
fate  of  the  manuscript." 

The  Doctor  rushed  to  the  table,  and  seized  the  little 
book  of  the  Holy  Hildegard. 

"Here,  after  the  catalogue,"  said  the  Professor,  show- 
ing him  the  last  page  of  the  book,  "there  is  still  more." 

The  Doctor  fixed  his  eyes  on  the  page.  Latin 
characters  without  meaning  or  break  were  written  in 
seven  successive  lines;  under  them  was  a  name — F. 
Tobias  Bachhuber. 


"  Compare  these  letters  with  the  Latin  annotation 
under  the  the  title  of  the  mysterious  manuscript.  It  is 
undoubtedly  the  same  hand,  firm  characters  of  the 
seventeenth  century;    compare  the  's,'  '  r,'  and  'f.'" 

"  It  is  the  same  hand!"  exclaimed  the  Doctor  with 
satisfaction. 

"  The  letters  without  sense  are  a  cypher,  such  as  was 
used  in  the  seventeenth  century.  In  that  case  it  is  easily 
solved;  each  letter  is  exchanged  with  the  one  that 
follows.  On  this  bit  of  paper  I  have  put  together  the 
Latin  words.  The  translation  is,  'On  the  approach  of 
the  ferocious  Swedes,  in  order  to  withdraw  the  treasures 
of  our  monastery  from  the  search  of  these  roaring  devils,  I 
have  deposited  them  all  in  a  dry,  hollow  place  in  the  house 
at  Bielstein.'  The  day  Quasimodogeniti  37 — that  is  on 
the  19th  April,  1637.  What  do  you  say  now,  Fritz?  It 
appears  from  this  that  in  the  time  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War  the  manuscript  had  not  been  burned,  for  Frater 
Tobias  Bachhuber — blest  be  his  memory! — had  at  that 
time  vouchsafed  to  look  upon  it  with  some  consideration, 
and  as  in  the  record  he  had  favored  it  with  an  especial 
remark,  he  probably  did  not  leave  it  behind  in  his  flight. 
The  mysterious  manuscript  was  thus  in  the  Monastery 
>_f  Rossau  till  1637,  an^  tne  friar)  m  tne  April  of  that 
.ear,  concealed  it  and  other  goods  from  the  Swedes  in  a 
i.cllow  and  dry  spot  in  Castle  Bielstein." 

"  Now  the  matter  becomes  serious!"  cried  the  Doctor. 

"  Yes,  it  is  serious,  my  friend ;  it  is  not  impossible  that 
the  manuscript  may  still  lie  concealed  somewhere." 

"  And  Castle  Bielstein?  " 

"  Lies  near  the  little  town  of  Rossau.  The  monastery 
was  in  needy  circumstances,  and  under  ecclesiastical 
protection  till  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  In  1637  the  town 
and  monastery  were  ravaged  by  the  Swedes;  the  last 
monks  disappeared  and  the  monastery  was  never  again 
re-established.  That  is  all  I  have  been  able  to  learn  up 
to  this  time;  for  anything  further  I  request  your  help." 

"  The  next  question  will  be  whether  the  castle 
outlasted  the  war,"  answered  the  Doctor,  "  and  what  has 
become  of  it  now.  It  will  be  more  difficult  to  ascertain 
where  Brother  Tobias  Bachhuber  ended  his  days,  and 
most  difficult  of  all  to  discover  through  what  hands 
his  little  book  has  reached  us." 

"  I  obtained  the  book  from  an  antiquary  here;  it  was 
a  new  acquisition,  and  not  yet  entered  in  his  catalogue. 
To-morrow  I  will  obtain  any  further  information  which 
the  book- seller  may  be  able  to  give.  It  will,  perhaps,  be 
worth  while  to  investigate  further,"  he  continued,  more 
coolly,  endeavoring  to  restrain  his  intense  excitement  by 
a  little  rational  reflection.  "  More  than  two  centuries 
have  elapsed  since  that  cypher  was  written  by  the  friar; 
during  that  period  the  destructive  powers  were  not  less 
active  than  formerly.  Just  think  of  the  war  and 
devastation  of  the  years  when  the  charter  was  destroyed. 
And  so  we  have  gained  nothing." 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


649 


"  And  yet  the  probability  that  the  manuscript  is 
preserved  to  the  present  day  increases  with  every 
century,"  interposed  the  Doctor;  "for  the  number  of 
men  who  would  value  such  a  discovery  has  increased  so 
much  since  that  war,  that  destruction  from  rude 
ignorance  has  become  almost  incredible." 

"  We  must  not  trust  too  much  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  present  day,"  said  the  Professor;  "but  if  it  weie  so," 
he  continued,  his  eyes  flashing,  "  if  the  imperial  history 
of  the  first  century,  as  written  by  Tacitus,  were  restored 
by  a  propitious  fate,  it  would  be  a  gift  so  great  that  the 
thought  of  the  possibility  of  it  might  well,  like  Roman 
wine,  intoxicate  an  honest  man." 

"  Invaluable,"  assented  the  Doctor,  "  for  our 
knowledge  of  the  language,  for  a  hundred  particulars 
of  Roman  history." 

"For  the  most  ancient  history  of  Germany!" 
exclaimed  the  Professor. 

Both  traversed  the  room  with  rapid  steps,  shook 
hands,  and  looked  at  each  other  joyfully. 

"  And  if  a  fortunate  accident  should  put  us  on  the 
track  of  this  manuscript,"  began  Fritz,  "  if  through  you 
it  should  be  restored  to  the  light  of  day,  you,  my  friend) 
you  are  best  fitted  to  edit  it.  The  thought  that  you 
would  experience  such  a  pleasure,  and  that  a  work  of 
such  renown  would  fall  to  your  lot,  makes  me  happier 
than  I  can  say." 

"  If  we  can  find  the  manuscript,"  answered  the 
Professor,  "  we  must  edit  it  together." 

"Together?"  exclaimed  Fritz,  with  surprise. 

"Yes,  together,"  said  the  professor,  with  decision; 
"  it  would  make  your  ability  widely  known." 

Fritz  drew  back.  "  How  can  you  think  that  I  can 
be  so  presumptuous?" 

"  Do  not  contradict  me,"  exclaimed  the  Professor, 
"you  are  perfectly  fit  for  it." 

"That  I  am  not,"  answered  Fritz,  firmly;  "  and  I 
am  too  proud  to  undertake  anything  for  which  I  should 
have  to  thank  your  kindness  more  than  my  own  powers." 

"That  is  undue  modesty,"  again  exclaimed  the 
Professor. 

"I  shall  never  do  it,"  answered  Fritz.  "I  could  not 
for  one  moment  think  of  adorning  myself  before  the 
public  with  borrowed  plumage." 

"I  know  better  than  you,"  said  the  Professor, 
indignantly,  "  what  you  are  able  to  do,  and  what  is  to 
your  advantage." 

"  At  all  events,  I  would  never  agree,  that  you  should 
have  the  lion's  share  of  the  labor  and  secretly  be  deprived 
of  the  reward.  Not  my  modesty,  but  my  self-respect 
forbids  this.  And  this  feeling  you  ought  to  respect," 
concluded  Fritz,  with  great  energy. 

"Now,"  returned  the  Professor,  restraining  his 
excited  feelings,  "  we  are  behaving  like  the  man  who 
bought  a  house  and  field   with  the  money   procured  by 


the   sale  of   a  calf  which  was  not  yet   born.     Be  calm, 
Fritz;  neither  I  nor  you  will  edit  the  manuscript." 

"  And  we  shall  never  know  how  the  Roman 
Emperor  treated  the  ill-fated  Thusnelda  and  Thum- 
elicus!"  said   Fritz,  sympathizingly  to  his  friend. 

"But  it  is  not  the  absence  of  such  particulars,"  said 
the  Professor,  "  that  makes  the  loss  of  the  manuscript  so 
greatly  felt,  for  the  main  facts  may  be  obtained  from 
other  sources.  The  most  important  point  will  always  be, 
that  Tacitus  was  the  first,  and  in  many  respects  is  the 
only,  historian  who  has  portrayed  the  most  striking  and 
gloomy  phases  of  human  nature.  His  works  that  are 
extant  are  two  historical  tragedies,  scenes  in  the  Julian 
and  Flavian  imperial  houses — fearful  pictures  of  the 
enormous  change  which,  in  the  course  of  a  century,  took 
place  in  the  greatest  city  of  antiquity,  in  the  character  of 
its  emperors  and  the  souls  of  their  subjects — the  history 
of  tyrinnical  rule,  which  exterminated  a  noble  race, 
destroyed  a  high  and  rich  civilization,  and  degraded,  with 
few  exceptions,  even  the  rulers  themselves.  We  have, 
even  up  to  the  present  day,  scarcely  another  work  whose 
author  looks  so  searchingly  into  the  souls  of  a  whole 
succession  of  princes,  and  which  describes  so  acutely  and 
accurately  the  ruin  which  was  wrought  in  different  na- 
tures by  the  fiendish  and  distempered  minds  of  the  kings." 

"  It  always  makes  me  angry,"  said  the  Doctor,  "when 
I  hear  him  reproached  as  having  for  the  most  part  written 
only  imperial  and  court  history.  Who  can  expect  grapes 
from  a  cypress,  and  satisfactory  enjoyment  in  the  grand 
public  life  of  a  man  who,  during  a  great  portion  of  his 
manhood,  daily  saw  before  his  eves  the  dagger  and 
poison-cup  of  a  mad  despot?" 

"Yes,"  agreed  the  Professor,  "Tacitus  belonged  to 
the  aristocracy.  Who  could  write  the  history  of  the 
Roman  princes,  but  one  of  their  own  circle?  The 
blackest  crimes  were  concealed  behind  the  stone  walls  of 
the  palace;  rumor,  the  low  murmur  of  the  antechamber, 
the  lurking  look  of  concealed  hatred,  were  often  the  only 
sources  of  the  historian." 

"  All  that  remains  for  us  to  do  is  discreetly  to  accept 
the  judgment  of  the  man  who  has  delivered  to  us 
information  concerning  this  strange  condition  of  things. 
Moreover,  whoever  studies  the  fragments  of  Tacitus  that 
have  been  preserved,  impartially  and  intelligently,  will 
honor  and  admire  his  profound  insight  into  the  utmost 
depths  of  the  Roman  character.  It  is  an  experienced 
statesman  of  a  powerful  and  truthful  mind  relating 
the  secret  history  of  his  time  so  clearly  that  we 
understand  the  men  and  all  their  doings  as  if  we  our- 
selves had  the  opportunity  of  reading  their  hearts.  He 
who  can  do  this  for  later  centuries  is  not  only  a  great 
historian  but  a  most  invaluable  man.  And  for  such  I 
always  felt  a  deep,  heartfelt  reverence,  and  I  consider  it 
the  duty  of  a  true  critic  to  clear  such  a  character  from 
the  attacks  of  petty  minds." 


65o 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


"Hardly  one  of  his  contemporaries,"  said  the  Doc- 
tor, "has  felt  the  poverty  of  the  culture  of  his  own  time 
as  deeply  as  himself." 

"Yes,"  rejoined  the  Professor,  "he  was  a  genuine 
man,  so  far  as  was  possible  in  his  time;  and  that  is,  after 
all,  the  main  point.  For  what  we  must  demand,  is  not 
the  amount  of  knowledge  for  which  we  have  to  thank 
a  great  man,  but  his  own  personality,  which,  through 
what  he  has  produced  for  us,  becomes  a  portion 
of  ourselves.  Thus  the  spirit  of  Aristotle  is  some- 
thing different  to  us  than  the  substance  of  his  teaching. 
For  us  Sophocles  signifies  much  more  than  seven  trage- 
dies. His  manner  of  thinking  and  feeling,  his  percep- 
tion of  the  beautiful  and  the  good,  ought  to  become  part 
of  our  life.  Only  in  this  way  does  the  study  of  the 
past  healthily  influence  our  actions  and  our  aspirations. 
In  this  sense  the  sad  and  sorrowful  soul  of  Tacitus  is  far 
more  to  me  than  his  delineation  of  the  Emperor's  mad- 
ness. And  you  see,  Fritz,  it  is  on  this  account  that 
your  Sanscrit  and  Indian  languages  are  not  satisfactory 
to  me — the  men  are  wanting  in  them." 

"  It  is,  at  least,  difficult  for  us  to  recognize  them," 
answered  his  friend.  "  But  one  who,  like  you,  explains 
Homer's  epics  to  students,  should  not  undervalue  the 
charm  that  lies  in  sounding  the  mysterious  depths  of 
human  activity,  when  a  youthful  nation  conceals  from 
our  view  the  work  of  the  individual  man,  and  when  the 
people  itself  comes  before  us  in  poetry,  traditions,  and 
law,  assuming  the  shape  of  a  living  individuality." 

"  He  who  only  engages  in  such  researches," 
answered  the  Professor,  eagerly,  "  soon  becomes  fan- 
tastic and  visionary.  The  study  of  such  ancient  times 
acts  like  opium,  and  he  who  lingers  all  his  life  in  such 
studies  will  hardly  escape  vagaries." 

Fritz  rose.  "  That  is  our  old  quarrel.  I  know  you 
do  not  wish  to  speak  harshly  to  me,  but  I  feel  that  you 
intend  this  for  me." 

"And  am  I  wrong?"  continued  the  Professor.  "I 
undoubtedly  have  a  respect  for  every  intellectual  work, 
but  I  desire  for  my  friend  that  which  will  be  most  bene- 
ficial to  him.  Your  investigations  into  Indian  and  Ger- 
man mythology  entice  you  from  one  problem  to  another; 
youthful  energies  should  not  linger  in  the  endless 
domain  of  indistinct  contemplations  and  unreal  shadows. 
Come  to  a  decision  for  other  reasons  also.  It  does  not 
behoove  you  to  be  merely  a  private  student;  such  a  life  is 
too  easy  for  you;  you  need  the  outward  pressure  of 
definite  duties.  You  have  many  of  the  qualities  requi- 
site for  a  professor.  Do  not  remain  in  your  parents' 
house;    you  must  become  a  university  lecturer." 

A  heightened  color  spread  slowly  over  the  face  of 
his  friend.  "Enough,"  he  exclaimed,  vexed;  "if  I 
have  thought  too  little  of  my  future,  you  should  not 
reproach  me  for  it.  It  has  perhaps  been  too  great  a 
pleasure  to  me  to  be  your  companion   and  the  confidant 


of  your  successful  labors.  I  also,  from  my  intercourse 
with  you,  have  enjoyed  that  pleasure  which  an  intel- 
lectual man  bestows  upon  all  who  participate  in  his 
creations.     Good  night." 

The  Professor  approached  him,  and  seizing  both 
his  hands,  exclaimed,  "  Stay !      Are  you  angry  with  me  ?  " 

"No,"  answered  Fritz,  "but  I  am  going;"  and  he 
closed  the  door  gently. 

The  Professor  paced  up  and  down  excitedly, 
reproaching  himself  for  his  vehemence.  At  length  he 
violently  threw  the  books  which  had  served  as  a  signal 
back  on  the  shelf,  and  again  seated  himself  at  his  desk. 

Gabriel  lighted  the  Doctor  down  the  stairs,  opened 
the  door,  and  shook  his  head  when  he  heard  his  "good 
night"  answered  curtly.  He  extinguished  the  light  and 
listened  at  his  master's  door.  When  he  heard  the  Pro- 
fessor's steps,  he  determined  to  refresh  himself  by  the 
mild  evening  air,  and  descended  into  the  little  garden. 
There  he  met  Herr  Hummel,  who  was  walking  under 
the  Professor's  windows.  Herr  Hummel  was  a  broad- 
shouldered  man,  with  a  large  head  and  determined  face, 
wealthy  and  well-preserved,  of  honest  and  old  Franco- 
nian  type.  He  smoked  a  thick-headed  long  pipe,  on 
which  was  a  row  of  small  knobs. 

"  A  fine  evening,  Gabriel,"  began  Herr  Hummel, 
"a  good  season ;  what  a  harvest  we  shall  have!"  He 
nudged  the  servant.  "Has  anything  happened  up  there? 
The  window  is  open,"  he  concluded  significantly,  and 
disapprovingly  shook  his  head. 

"  He  has  closed  the  window  again,"  answered 
Gabriel,  evasively.  "  The  bats  and  the  moths  become 
troublesome,  and  when  he  argues  with  the  Doctor  they 
both  grow  so  loud  that  people  in  the  street  stop  and 
listen." 

"  Circumspection  is  always  wise,"  said  Herr  Hum- 
mel;  "  but  what  was  the  matter?  The  Doctor  is  the 
son  of  the  man  over  yonder,  and  you  know  my  opinion 
of  them,  Gabriel — I  do  not  trust  them.  I  do  not  wish 
to  injure  any  one,  but  I  have  my  views  concerning 
them." 

"  What  it  was  about,"  answered  Gabriel,  "  I  did  not 
hear;  but  I  can  tell  you  this  much,  it  was  concerning 
the  ancient  Romans.  Look  you,  Herr  Hummel,  if  the 
old  Romans  were  among  us,  much  would  be  different. 
They  were  daredevils  who  knew  how  to  forage;  they 
knew  how  to  carry  on  war;  they  conquered  every- 
where." 

"  You  speak  like  an  incendiary,"  said  Herr  Hum- 
mel, with  displeasure. 

"  Yes,  that  is  the  way  they  did,"  answered  Gabriel, 
complacently.  "  They  were  a  selfish  people,  and  knew 
how  to  look  out  for  their  own  interests.  But  what 
is  most  wonderful  is  the  number  of  books  these  Romans 
wrote  for  all  that,  large  and  small — many  also  in  folio. 
When  I  dust  the  library  there  is  no  end  to  the  Romans 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


651 


of  all  sizes,  and  some  are  books  thicker  than  the  Bible, 
only  they  are  all  difficult  to  read ;  but  one  who  knows 
the  language  may  learn  much." 

"  The  Romans  are  an  extinct  people,"  replied  Herr 
Hummel.  "  When  they  disappeared,  the  Germans 
came.  The  Romans  could  never  exist  with  us.  The 
only  thing  that  can  help  us  is  the  Hanse.  That  is 
the  thing  to  look  to.  Powerful  at  sea,  Gabriel,"  he 
exclaimed,  taking  hold  of  his  coat  by  a  button,  "  the 
cities  must  form  alliances,  invest  money,  build  ships,  and 
hoist  flags;  our  trade  and  credit  are  established,  and  men 
are  not  wanting." 

"  And  would  you  venture  on  the  mighty  ocean  in 
that  row-boat?"  asked  Gabriel,  pointing  to  a  little  boat 
which  lay  in  the  rear  of  the  garden  tilted  over  on  two 
planks.     "  Shall  I  go  to  sea  with  the  Professor?  " 

"  That  is  not  the  question,"  answered  Herr  Hummel; 
"let  the  young  people  go  first — they  are  useless.  Many 
could  do  better  than  stav  at  home  with  their  parents. 
Why  should  not  the  Doctor  up  there  serve  his  country 
in  the  capacity  of  a  sailor? " 

"  What  do  you  mean,  Herr  Hummel  ?  "  cried  Gabriel, 
startled ;   "  the  young  gentleman  is  near-sighted." 

"  That's  nothing,"  muttered  Herr  Hummel,  "  for 
they  have  telescopes  at  sea,  and  for  aught  I  care  he  may 
become  a  captain.  I  am  not  the  man  to  wish  evil  to  my 
neighbor." 

"  He  is  a  man  of  learning,"  replied  Gabriel,  "  and 
this  class  is  also  necessary.  I  can  assure  you,  Herr  Hum- 
mel, I  have  meditated  much  upon  the  character  of  the 
learned.  I  know  my  Professor  accurately,  and  some- 
thing of  the  Doctor,  and  I  must  say  there  is  something 
in  it — there  is  much  in  it.  Sometimes  I  am  not  so  sure 
of  it.  When  the  tailor  brings  the  Professor  home  a 
new  coat  he  does  not  remark  what  everybody  else  sees, 
whether  the  coat  fits  him  or  wrinkles.  If  he  takes  it 
into  his  head  to  buy  a  load  of  wood  which  has  very 
likely  been  stolen,  from  a  peasant,  he  pays  more  in  my 
absence  than  any  one  else  would.  And  when  he  grows 
angry  and  excited  about  matters  that  you  and  I  would 
discuss  very  calmly,  I  must  say  I  have  my  doubts.  But 
when  I  see  how  he  acts  at  other  times — how  kind  and 
merciful  he  is,  even  to  the  flies  that  buzz  about  his  nose, 
taking  them  out  of  his  coffee-cup  with  a  spoon  and  set- 
ting them  on  the  window-sill — how  he  wishes  well  to 
all  the  world  and  begrudges  himself  everything — how 
he  sits  reading  and  writing  till  late  at  night — when  I 
see  all  this,  I  must  say  his  life  affects  me  powerfully. 
And  I  tell  you  I  will  not  allow  anyone  to  underrate 
our  men  of  learning.  They  are  different  from  us;  they 
do  not  understand  what  we  do,  nor  do  we  understand 
what  they  do." 

"Yet  we  also  have  our  culture,"  replied  Herr  Hum- 
mel. "  Gabriel,  you  have  spoken  like  an  honorable 
man,  but  I  will  confide   this   to  you — that  a  man  may 


have  great  knowledge,  and  yet  be  a  very  hard-hearted 
individual,  who  loans  his  money  on  usurious  interest 
and  deprives  his  friends  of  the  honor  due  them.  Therefore 
I  think  the  main  point  is  to  have  order  and  boundaries, 
anil  to  leave  something  to  one's  descendants.  Regu- 
larity here,"  he  pointed  to  his  breast,  "and  a  boundary 
there,"  pointing  to  his  fence,  "  that  one  may  be  sure 
as  to  what  belongs  to  one's  self  and  what  to  another, 
and  a  secure  property  for  one's  children  on  which  they 
may  settle  themselves.  That  is  what  I  understand  as 
the  life  of  man." 

The  landlord  locked  the  gate  of  the  fence  and  the 
door  of  the  house.  Gabriel  also  sought  his  bed,  but  the 
lamp  in  the  Professor's  study  burned  late  into  the  night, 
and  its  rays  intermingled  on  the  window-sill  with  the 
pale  moonshine.  At  length  the  learned  man's  light 
was  extinguished,  and  the  room  left  empty ;  outside, 
small  clouds  coursed  over  the  disc  of  the  moon,  and 
flickering  lights  reigned  paramount  in  the  room,  over 
the  writing-table,  over  the  works  of  the  old  Romans, 
and  over  the  little  book  of  the  defunct   Brother  Tobias. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    HOSTILE    NEIGHBORS. 

We  are  led  to  believe  that  in  future  times  there  will 
be  nothing  but  love  and  happiness;  and  men  will  go 
about  with  palm  branches  in  their  hands  to  chase  away 
the  last  of  those  birds  of  night,  hatred  and  malice.  In 
such  a  chase  we  would  probably  find  the  last  nest  of 
these  monsters  hanging  between  the  walls  of  two 
neighboring  houses.  For  they  have  nestled  between 
neighbor  and  neighbor  ever  since  the  rain  trickled  from 
the  roof  of  one  house  into  the  court  of  the  other;  ever 
since  the  rays  of  the  sun  were  kept  away  from  one  house 
by  the  wall  of  the  other;  ever  since  the  children  thrust 
their  hands  through  the  hedge  to  steal  berries;  ever 
since  the  master  of  the  house  has  been  inclined  to  con- 
sider himself  better  than  his  fellow-men.  There  are  in 
our  days  few  houses  in  the  county  between  which  so 
much  ill-will  and  hostile  criticism  exist  as  between  the 
two  houses  in  the  great  park  of  the  town. 

Many  will  remember  the  time  when  the  houses  ot 
the  town  did  not  extend  to  the  wooded  valley.  Then 
there  were  only  a  few  small  houses  along  the  lanes; 
behind  lay  a  waste  place  where  Frau  Knips,  the  wash- 
woman, dried  the  shirts,  and  her  two  naughty  boys 
threw  the  wooden  clothes-pins  at  each  other.  There 
Herr  Hummel  had  bought  a  dry  spot,  quite  at  the  end 
of  the  street,  and  had  built  his  pretty  house  of  two- 
stories,  with  stone  steps  and  iron  railing,  and  behind,  a 
simple  workshop  for  his  trade;  for  he  was  a  hatter,  and 
carried  on  the  business  very  extensively.  When  he 
went  out  of  his  house  and  surveyed  the  reliefs  on  the 
roof  and  the  plaster  arabesques  under  the  windows,  he 
congratulated  himself  on  being  surrounded  by  light  and 


652 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


air  and  free  nature,  and  felt  that  he  was  the  foremost 
pillar  of  civilization  in  the  primeval  forest. 

Then  he  experienced  what  often  happens  to  disturb 
the  peace  of  pioneers  of  the  wilderness — his  example 
was  imitated.  On  a  dark  morning  in  March,  a  wagon, 
loaded  with  old  planks,  came  to  the  drying-ground  which 
was  opposite  his  house.  A  fence  was  soon  built,  and 
laborers  with  shovels  and  wheelbarrows  began  to  dig 
up  the  ground.  This  was  a  hard  blow  for  Herr  Hum- 
mel. But  his  suffering  became  greater  when,  walking 
angrily  across  the  street  and  inquiring  the  name  of  the 
man  who  was  causing  such  injury  to  the  light  and  repu- 
tation of  his  house,  he  learned  that  his  future  neighbor 
was  to  be  a  manufacturer  by  the  name  of  Hahn.  That 
it  should  of  all  men  in  the  world  be  he,  was  the  greatest 
vexation  fate  could  inflict  upon  him.  Hahn  was  respect- 
able; there  was  nothing  to  be  said  against  his  family; 
but  he  was  Hummel's  natural  opponent,  for  the  busi- 
ness of  the  new  settler  was  also  in  hats,  although  straw 
hats.  The  manufacture  of  this  light  trash  was  never 
considered  as  dignified,  manly  work;  it  was  not  a  guild 
handicraft;  it  had  no  right  to  make  apprentices  freemen; 
it  was  formerly  carried  on  only  by  Italian  peasants;  "it 
has  only  lately,  like  other  bad  customs,  spread  through 
the  world  as  a  novelty ;  it  is,  in  fact,  not  a  business — 
the  plait-straw  is  bought  and  sewed  together  by  young 
girls  who  are  engaged  by  the  week.  And  there  is  an 
old  enmity  between  the  felt  hat  and  straw  hat.  The 

felt  hat  is  an  historical  power  consecrated  through  thou- 
sands of  years — it  only  tolerates  the  cap  as  an  ordinary 
contrivance  for  work-days.  Now  the  straw  hat  raises 
its  pretensions  against  prescribed  right,  and  insolently 
lays  claim  to  half  of  the  year.  And  since  then  appro- 
bation fluctates  between  these  two  attributes  of  the 
human  race.  When  the  unstable  minds  of  mortals 
wavered  toward  the  straw,  the  most  beautiful  felt,  vel- 
veteen, silk,  and  pasteboard  were  left  unnoticed  and  eaten 
by  moths.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the  inclinations  of 
men  turned  to  the  felt,  every  human  being — women, 
children,  and  nurses — wore  men's  small  hats;  then  the 
condition  of  the  straw  was  lamentable — no  heart  beat  for 
it,  and  the  mouse  nestled  in  its  most  beautiful  plaits. 

This  was  a  strong  ground  for  indignation  to  Herr 
Hummel,  but  worse  was  to  come.  He  saw  the  daily 
growth  of  the  hostile  house;  he  watched  the  scaffolding, 
the  rising  walls,  the  ornaments  of  the  cornice,  and  the 
rows  of  windows — it  was  two  windows  larger  than  his 
house.  The  ground  floor  rose,  then  a  second  floor,  and 
at  last  a  third.  All  the  work-rooms  of  the  straw  hat 
maufacturer  were  attached  to  the  dwelling.  The  house 
of  Herr  Hummel  had  sunk  into  insignificance.  He  then 
went  to  his  lawyer  and  demanded  vengeance  on  account 
of  the  light  being  obscured  and  the  view  spoiled;  the 
man  of  law  naturally  shrugged  his  shoulders.  The 
privilege  of  building  houses  was  one  of  the  fundamental 


rights  of  man ;  it  was  the  common  German  custom  to 
live  in  houses,  and  it  was  obviously  hopeless  to  propose 
that  Hahn  should  only  erect  on  his  piece  of  ground  a 
canvas  tent.  Thus  there  was  absolutely  nothing  to  do> 
but  to  submit  patiently,  and  Herr  Hummel  might  have 
known  that  himself. 

Years  had  passed  away.  At  the  same  hour  the  light 
of  the  sun  gilds  both  houses;  there  they  stand  stately 
and  inhabited,  both  occupied  by  men  who  daily  pass 
each  other.  At  the  same  hour  the  letter-carrier  enters 
both  houses,  the  pigeons  fly  from  one  roof  to  the  other, 
and  the  sparrows  hop  around  on  the  gutters  of  both  in 
the  most  cordial  relations.  About  one  house  there  is  some- 
times a  little  smell  of  sulphur,  and  about  the  other  of 
singed  hair;  but  the  same  summer  wind  wafts  from  the 
wood,  through  the  doors  of  both  dwellings,  the  scent  of 
the  pine  trees  and  the  perfumes  of  the  lime  flowers. 
And  yet  the  intense  aversion  of  the  inhabitants  has  not 
diminished.  The  house  of  Hahn  objects  to  singed  hair, 
and  the  family  of  Hummel  cough  indignantly  in  their 
garden  whenever  they  suspect  sulphur  in  the  oxygen  of 
the  air. 

It  is  true  that  decorous  behavior  to  the  neighborhood 
was  not  quite  ignored;  even  though  the  felt  was 
inclined  to  be  quarrelsome,  the  straw  was  more  pliant, 
and  showed  itself  yielding  in  many  cases.  Both  men 
were  acquainted  with  a  family  in  which  they  occasion- 
ally met,  nay,  both  had  once  been  godfathers  to  the 
same  child,  and  care  had  been  taken  that  one  should  not 
give  a  smaller  christening  gift  than  the  other.  This 
unavoidable  acquaintance  necessitated  formal  greetings 
whenever  they  could  not  avoid  meeting  each  other.  But 
there  it  ended.  Betwixt  the  shopmen  who  cleaned  the 
straw  hats  with  sulphur,  and  the  workmen  who  pre- 
sided over  the  hareskins,  there  existed  an  intense  hatred. 
And  the  people  who  dwelt  in  the  nearest  houses  in  the 
street  knew  this,  and  did  their  best  to  maintain  the 
existing  relation.  But,  in  fact,  the  character  of  both 
would  scarcely  harmonize.  Their  dialect  was  different, 
their  education  had  been  different,  the  favorite  dishes 
and  the  domestic  arrangements  that  were  approved  by 
one  displeased  the  other.  Hummel  was  of  North  Ger- 
man lineage;  Hahn  had  come  hither  from  a  small  town 
in  the  neighborhood. 

When  Herr  Hummel  spoke  of  his  neighbor  Hahn, 
he  called  him  a  man  of  straw  and  a  fantastical  fellow. 
Herr  Hahn  was  a  thoughtful  man,  quiet  and  industrious 
in  his  business,  but  in  his  hours  of  recreation  he  devoted 
himself  to  some  peculiar  fancies.  These  were  undoubt- 
edly intended  to  make  a  favorable  impression  on  the 
people  who  passed  by  the  two  houses  on  their  way  to 
the  meadow  and  the  woods.  In  his  little  garden  he 
had  collected  most  of  the  contrivances  of  modern  land- 
scape gardening.  Between  the  three  elder  bushes  there 
rose  up  a  rock  built  of  tufa,  with  a  small,  steep  path  to- 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


653 


the  top.  The  expedition  up  to  the  summit  could  be 
ventured  upon  without  an  Alpine  staff  by  strong  mount- 
ain climbers  only,  and  even  they  would  be  in  danger  of 
foiling  on  their  noses  on  the  jagged  tufa.  The  follow- 
ing year,  near  the  railing,  poles  were  erected  at  short 
intervals,  round  which  climbed  creepers,  and  between 
each  pole  hung  a  colored  glass  lamp.  When  the  row 
of  lamps  was  lighted  up  on  festive  evenings  they  threw 
a  magic  splendor  on  the  straw  hats  which  were  placed 
under  the  elder  bushes,  and  which  challenged  the  judg- 
ment of  the  passers-by.  The  following  year  the  glass 
lamps  were  superseded  by  Chinese  lanterns.  Again,  the 
next  year  the  garden  bore  a  classical  aspect,  for  a  white 
statue  of  a  muse,  surrounded  by  ivy  and  blooming  wall- 
flowers, shone  forth  far  into  the  wood. 

In  contradistinction  to  such  novelties  Herr  Hummel 
remained  firm  to  his  preference  for  water.  In  the  rear 
of  his  house  a  small  canal  flowed  to  the  town.  Every 
year  his  boat  was  painted  the  same  green,  and  in  his 
leisure  hours  he  loved  to  go  alone  in  his  boat  and  to  row 
from  the  houses  to  the  park.  He  took  his  rod  in  his 
hand,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  pleasure  of  catching 
gudgeons,  minnows,  and  other  small  fish. 

Doubtless  the  Hummel  family  were  more  aristocratic, 
— that  is,  more  determined,  more  out  of  the  common,  and 
more  difficult  to  deal  with.  Of  all  the  housewives  of 
the  street,  Frau  Hummel  made  the  greatest  pretensions 
by  her  silk  dresses  and  gold  watch  and  chain.  She  was 
a  little  lady  with  blonde  curls,  still  very  pretty;  she  had 
a  seat  at  the  theatre,  was  accomplished  and  kind-hearted, 
and  very  irascible.  She  looked  as  if  she  did  not  concern 
herself  about  anything,  but  she  knew  everything  that 
happened  in  the  street.  Her  husband  was  the  only  one 
who,  at  times,  was  beyond  her  control.  Yet,  although 
Herr  Hummel  was  tyrannical  to  all  the  world,  he  some- 
times showed  his  wife  great  consideration.  When  she 
was  too  much  for  him  in  the  house,  he  quietly  went  into 
the  garden,  and  if  she  followed  him  there,  he  ensconced 
himself  in  the  factory  behind  a  bulwark  of  felt. 

But  also  Frau  Hummel  was  subject  to  a  higher 
power,  and  this  power  was  exercised  by  her  little 
daughter,  Laura.  This  was  the  only  surviving  one  of 
several  children,  and  all  the  tenderness  and  affection  of 
the  mother  were  lavished  upon  her.  And  she  was  a 
splendid  little  girl;  the  whole  town  knew  her  ever  since 
she  wore  her  first  red  shoes;  she  was  often  detained 
when  in  the  arms  of  her  nurse,  and  had  many  presents 
given  her.  She  grew  up  a  merry,  plump  little  maiden, 
with  two  large  blue  eyes  and  round  cheeks,  with  dark, 
curly  hair,  and  an  arch  countenance.  When  the  little, 
rosy  daughter  of  Hummel  walked  along  the  streets,  her 
hands  in  the  pockets  of  her  apron,  she  was  the  delight 
of  the  whole  neighborhood.  Sprightly  and  decided,  she 
knew  how  to  behave  toward  all,  and  was  never 
backward    in    offering    her  little    mouth   to    be  kissed. 


She  would  give  the  woodcutter  at  the  door  her  but- 
tered roll,  and  join  him  in  drinking  the  thin  coffee 
out  of  his  cup;  she  accompanied  the  letter-carrier  all 
along  the  street,  and  her  greatest  pleasure  was  to  run 
with  him  up  the  steps,  to  ring  and  deliver  his  letters^ 
she  even  once  slipped  out  of  the  room  late  in  the  even- 
ing, and  placed  herself  by  the  watchman,  on  a  corner- 
stone, and  held  his  great  horn  in  impatient  expectation 
of  the  striking  of  the  hour  at  which  it  was  to  be  sounded. 
Frau  Hummel  lived  in  unceasing  anxiety  lest  her 
daughter  should  be  stolen;  for,  more  than  once  she  had 
disappeared  for  many  hours;  she  had  gone  with  chil- 
dren, who  were  strangers,  to  their  homes,  and  hail  played 
with  them — she  was  the  patroness  of  many  of  the  little 
urchins  in  the  street,  knew  how  to  make  them  respect 
her,  gave  them  pennies,  and  received  as  tokens  of  esteem 
dolls  and  little  chimneysweeps,  which  were  composed  of 
dried  plums  and  little  wooden  sticks.  She  was  a  kind- 
hearted  child  that  rather  laughed  than  wept,  and  her 
merry  face  contributed  more  toward  making  the  house 
of  Herr  Hummel  a  pleasant  abode,  than  the  ivy  screen 
of  the  mistress  of  the  house,  or  the  massive  bust  of  Herr 
Hummel  himself,  which  looked  down  stubbornly  on 
Laura's  doll-house. 

"The  child  is  becoming  unbearable,"  exclaimed 
Frau  Hummel,  angrily  dragging  in  the  troubled  Laura  by 
the  hand.  "  She  is  running  about  the  streets  all  day 
long.  Just  now  when  I  came  from  market  she 
was  sitting  near  the  bridge,  on  the  chair  of  the  fruit- 
woman,  selling  onions  for  her.  Everyone  was  gather- 
ing around  her,  and  I  had  to  fetch  my  child  out  of  the 
crowd." 

"  The  little  monkey  will  do  well,"  answered  Herr 
Hummel,  laughing;  "why  will  you  not  let  her  enjoy 
her  childhood?" 

"  She  must  give  up  this  low  company.  She  lacks  all 
sense  of  refinement;  she  hardly  knows  her  alphabet,  and 
she  has  no  taste  for  reading.  It  is  time,  too,  that  she 
should  begin  the  French  vocabulary.  Little  Betty,  the 
councillor's  daughter,  is  not  older,  and  she  knows  how 
to  call  her  mother  chere  ?nere,  in  such  a  pretty  manner." 

"  The  French  are  a  polite  people,"  answered  Herr 
Hummel.  "  If  you  are  so  anxious  to  train  your  daughter 
for  market,  the  Turkish  language  would  be  better  than 
the  French.  The  Turk  pays  money  if  you  dispose  of 
your  child  to  him;  the  others  wish  to  have  something 
into  the  bargain." 

"  Do  not  speak  so  inconsiderately,  Henry !"  exclaimed 
the  wife. 

"  Be  off  with  you  with  your  cursed  vocabularies,  else 
I  promise  you  I  will  teach  the  child  all  the  French 
phrases  I  know;  they  are  not  many,  but  they  are  strong. 
Baisez-moi,  Madame  Hummel!'"  Saying  this,  he  left 
the  room  with  an  air  of  defiance. 

The  result,  however,   of  this  consultation   was  that 


654 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Laura  went  to  school.  It  was  very  difficult  for  her  to 
listen  and  be  silent,  and  for  a  long  time  her  progress  was 
not  satisfactory.  But  at  last  her  little  soul  was  fired  with 
ambition;  she  climbed  the  lower  steps  of  learning  with 
Friiulein  Johanne,  and  then  she  was  promoted  to  the 
renowned  Institute  of  Fraulein  Jeannette,  where  the 
daughters  of  families  of  pretension  received  education 
in  higher  branches.  There  she  learned  the  tributaries  of 
the  Amazon,  and  much  Egyptian  history;  she  could 
touch  the  cover  of  the  electrophorus,  speak  of  the 
weather  in  French,  and  read  English  so  ingeniously 
that  even  true-born  Britons  were  obliged  to  acknowl- 
edge that  a  new  language  had  been  discovered;  lastly, 
she  was  accomplished  in  all  the  elegancies  of  German 
composition.  She  wrote  small  treatises  on  the  differ- 
ence between  waking  and  sleeping,  on  the  feelings  of 
the  famed  Cornelia,  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  on  the  ter- 
rors of  a  shipwreck,  and  of  the  desert  island  on  which 
she  had  been  saved.  Finally,  she  gained  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  composition  of  strophes  and  sonnets.  It 
soon  became  clear  that  Laura's  strong  point  was  Ger- 
man, not  French;  her  style  was  the  delight  of  the  Insti- 
tute; nay,  she  began  to  write  poems  in  honor  of  her 
teachers  and  favorite  companions,  in  which  she  very 
happily  imitated  the  difficult  rhymes  of  the  great 
Schiller's  "  Song  of  the  Bell."  She  was  now  eighteen, 
a  pretty,  rosy,  young  lady,  still  plump  and  merry,  still 
the  ruling  power  of  the  house,  and  still  loved  by  all  the 
people  on  the  street. 

The  mother,  proud  of  the  accomplishments  of  her 
daughter,  after  her  confirmation,  prepared  an  upper 
room  for  her,  looking  out  upon  the  trees  of  the  park ; 
and  Laura  fitted  up  her  little  home  like  a  fairy  castle, 
with  an  ivy  screen,  a  little  flower-table,  and  a  beautiful 
ink-stand  of  china  on  which  shepherds  and  shepherdesses 
were  sitting  side  by  side.  There  she  passed  her  pleas- 
antest    hours    with    her   pen    and  paper,   writing  her 

memoirs  in  secret. 

( To  be  continued?) 


POETS  ON   FOOLS. 
No  creature  smarts  so  little  as  a  fool. 

— Pope.     Epistle  to  Dr.  Arbuthnos. 
Men  may  live  fools,  but  fools  they  cannot  die! 

— Young.     Night  Thoughts. 
Fools  grant  whate'er  ambition  craves, 

And  men,  once  ignorant,  are  slaves. 

— Pope. 

The  fellow's  wise  enough  to  play  the  fool; 
And  to  do  that  well  craves  a  kind  of  wit. 

— Shakespeare. 
'Tis  an  old  maxim  in  the  schools, 
That  vanity's    the  food  of  fools; 

Yet  now  and  then  your  men  of  wit 
Will  condescend  to  take  a  bit. 

—Swift. 


TRANSLATION  FROM   HEINE. 

[Reprinted  with  a  few  slight  alterations  from   The  Southern  Collegian.} 

Du  bist  wie  eine  Bliime. 
So  sweet,  so  fair,  so  pure,  love, 

Like  a  flower,  my  darling,  thou  art. 
As  I  gaze  on  thee  a  feeling 

Of  sadness  steals  into  my  heart. 

My  hand  would  I  lay  on  thy  forehead, 
As  gently  I  breathe  forth  a  prayer, 

That  God  may  thus  e'er  preserve  thee 
So  pure,  so  sweet,  so  fair. 


POETS  ON    HAPPINESS. 

What  things  so  good  which  not  some  harm  may  bring? 
E'en  to  be  happy  is  a  dangerous  thing. 

— Earl  of  Herling.     Darius. 
The  gods  in  bounty  work  up  storms  about  us 
That  give  mankind  occasion  to  exert 
Their  hidden  strength  and  throw  out  into   practice 
Virtues  which  shun  the  day. 

— Addison. 
Some  souls  we  see 

Grow  hard  and  stiffen  with 

Adversity. 

— Dryden. 

Happiness  courts  thee  in  her  best  array; 
But  like  a  misbehaved  and  sullen  wench 
Thou  pout'st  upon  thy  fortune  and  thy  love : 
Take  heed,  take  heed!  for  such  die  miserable. 

— Shakespeare. 

Happiness,  object  of  that  waking  dream 

Which  we  call  life,  mistaking ;  fugitive  theme 
Of  my  pursuing  verse,  ideal  shade, 

National  good,  by  fancy  only  made. 

— Prior. 
By  adversity  are  wrought 
The  greatest  works  of  admiration, 
And  all  the  fair  examples  of  renown 
Out  of  distress  and  misery  are  grown. 

— Daniel.     On  the  Earl  of  Southampton. 


We  have  received  from  Boston  the  prospectus 
of  The  Writers  Literary  Bureau,  which  offers  itself 
as  a  medium  between  authors  and  publishers.  The 
plan  of  the  managers  is  to  read  manuscripts,  and 
then  to  suggest  to  the  authors  the  periodicals  that 
would  be  most  likely  to  accept  them.  We  have  no 
doubt  that  this  institute  will  be  found  useful  by 
many. 

The  Open  Court  is  in  communication  with  some 
and  will  at  once  put  itself  in  communication  with  other, 
prominent  French  and  German  thinkers,  such  as 
Wundt,  Preyer,  Hering,  Noire,  Steinthal,  Carus  Sterne, 
Geiger,  Haeckel,  Carl  Vogt,  Btichner,  Binet,  Ribot,  etc., 
in  order  to  obtain  their  sanction  to  publish  translations 
of  some  of  their  writings  in  its  columns. 


The  Open  Court 


A  Fortnightly  Journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Conciliating  Religion  with   Science. 


Vol.  I.     No.  23. 


CHICAGO,  JANUARY  5,   1888. 


(  Three  Dollars  per  Year 
I  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


EVOLUTION  AND   IDEALISM. 
BY    E.    D.   COPE. 

The  doctrine  of  idealism  is  naturally  attractive  to 
the  minds  that  believe  in  mind.  To  feel  that  mind  is 
all  in  all,  and  is  not  bound  to  "  low  material  things,"  is 
as  agreeable  to  the  metaphysician  as  it  is  to  the  seeker 
for  immortality.  Moreover,  the  doctrine  seems  to  have 
a  certain  support  from  the  scientific  side.  We  know 
that  our  knowledge  of  what  one  vulgarly  supposed  to 
be  the  properties  of  matter,  is  not  derived  from  a  single 
sense,  and  we  readily  understand  that  those  properties 
would  appear  to  be  greatly  modified,  were  the  number 
of  our  senses  reduced  or  increased.  Moreover,  we 
know  from  experience  of  the  abnormal  or  diseased 
states,  both  of  ourselves  and  of  other  men,  that  the 
appearances  of  the  objective  world  may  be  wonderfully 
modified  by  changes  in  ourselves.  The  hallucinations 
of  delirium  and  other  forms  of  mental  disorder,  are  mat- 
ter of  every-day  knowledge;  and  the  illusions  that  may 
deceive  even  the  healthy  mind  are  equally  well  known. 
The  question  between  the  realist  and  the  idealist  is, 
what  do  these  facts  prove? 

They  certainly  do  not  prove  that  a  universe  which 
presents  in  its  parts,  and  therefore  in  its  entirety, 
the  two  properties  of  extension  and  resistance,  has  no 
existence.  They  certainly  do  prove  that  our  knowledge 
of  such  universe  and  of  its  parts  is  imperfect.  It  is  to 
remedy  this  imperfection,  and  to  enlarge  our  knowledge 
that  many  men  spend  much  labor  and  time.  And  the 
knowledge  thus  acquired  and  exactly  systematized,  is 
called  science.  The  pursuit  of  science  postulates  the 
existence  of  that  which  it  pursues,  not  as  states  of  con- 
sciousness, but  as  objective  realities.  There  are  reasons 
for  the  soundness  of  this  view,  which  I  propose  briefly 
to  enumerate. 

If  a  given  supposed  object  be  in  reality  a  purely 
mental  state  on  the  part  of  the  subject,  a  rational  cause 
for  the  production  of  that  state  is  wanting.  But  letting 
this  difficulty  pass  for  the  time,  and  letting  it  be  sup- 
posed that  there  is  some  apparent  undefined  cause  for 
such  state  existent  when  the  subject  is  present  to  it,  if 
the  phenomenon  be  only  a  mental  state,  so  soon  as  the 
subject  mind  betakes  itself  to  some  other  locality,  the 
supposed  cause  must  cease  to  exist  to  that  person  or 
subject.  To  a  second  person  or  subject  who  may 
remain  behind  the  first,  the   cause  of  the  mental   state 


does  still  exist.  On  the  departure  of  the  second  person, 
it  ceases  to  exist  for  him,  but  continues  for  the  third 
person,  and  so  on.  In  the  presence  of  these  facts,  con- 
sistency requires  one  of  two  conclusions,  on  the  part  of 
the  idealist;  either  he  must  deny  the  validity  of  the 
mental  states  of  other  men,  or  he  must  believe  in  the 
Hegelian  aphorism,  "  Existence  and  non-existence  are 
identical."  Some  idealists  adopt  the  one,  and  others  the 
other  of  these  two  horns  of  the  dilemma. 

But  the  difficulty  is  immensely  increased  when  we 
contemplate  the  mental  lives  of  the  lower  animals,  with 
their  varied  sense  organs  and  media  of  contact  with  the 
so-called  material  world.  We  can  readily  imagine  the 
limitations  under  which  many  of  them  exist  through 
their  structural  deficiencies;  but  we  cannot  so  well 
imagine,  though  we  are  compelled  to  believe  in  the 
wonderful  acuteness  of  the  perception,  and  the  to  us 
incomprehensible  peculiarity  of  sensation,  produced  by 
the  various  special  organs  of  sense  with  which  many  of 
them  are  furnished.  Think  of  the  tactile  sensibility  to 
slight  movements  of  the  water  possessed  by  the  blind- 
fish  of  the  Mammoth  Cave.  Think  of  the  sense  im- 
pressions of  which  we  know  nothing  conveyed  by  the 
antenna?  of  insects.  Think  especially  of  the  "  other 
world  than  ours,"  in  which  many  of  the  Mammalia 
live,  in  consequence  of  the  high  development  of  the 
olfactory  sense.  We  can  easily  perceive  the  result  of 
the  idealistic  reasoning  on  the  part  of  the  inferior  ani- 
mals, were  they  capable  of  it.  To  many  of  them  man- 
kind would  not  exist;  to  others  the  sun  would  be  a  fic- 
tion. Those  to  whom  low  tones  are  imperceptible, 
would  deny  the  existence  of  the  only  vibrations  that 
some  other  species  is  adapted  to  hear. 

The  idealistic  position  which  denies  the  existence  of 
matter,  results  from  a  process  of  cancellation  of  the 
objective  universe  bit  by  bit.  One  animal  after  another, 
and  one  sense  after  another,  are  proven  fallible,  and  so 
the  entire  objective  superstructure  disappears.  The 
realist,  on  the  other  hand,  adds  together  all  the  phenom- 
ena derived  from  all  the  senses  of  all  conscious  beings, 
thus  getting  a  positive  result,  where  the  idealist  gets  a 
negative  one.  Which  is  the  more  rational  of  the  two 
methods?  The  actual  result  to  thought  is,  that  we  learn 
the  insufficiency  of  each  and  every  sense,  but  not  its 
impotency.  We  are  instructed  that  our  true  policy  is 
to  use  our  senses  to  the  best  purpose,  and  to  add  to  their 


6s6 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


number,  so  that  the  defect  of  our  knowledge  may  be 
remedied,  and  our  mental  vision  enlarged  more  and 
more.     And  this  is  the  mission  of  science. 

But  all  knowledge,  we  are  told,  is  relative,  and  that 
of  the  absolute  reality  we  can  learn  nothing.  This  doc- 
trine does  not  necessarily  involve  idealism,  but  it  is  nec- 
essarily held  by  consistent  idealists.  One  can  believe 
in  a  material  universe  and  still  hold  that  we  do  not 
know  it  absolutely  or  even  truly.  And  as  "  we  are  all 
poor  creatures,"  many  of  us  are  prone  to  repeat  "  great 
is  the  doctrine"  of  the  Relativity  of  Knowledge!  And 
the  scientist  echoes,  but  in  a  different  spirit,  great  is  the 
doctrine  of  the  Relativity  of  Knowledge;  yea,  great  is 
our  Ignorance!  Great  is  our  ignorance  indeed,  but  not 
"great  is  Ignorance!"  The  scientist  does  not  worship 
ignorance;  he  worships  knowledge,  and  his  occupation 
is  to  increase  knowledge.  To  the  responsive  intellect 
and  enterprising  spirit,  the  knowledge  of  our  ignorance 
is  the  stimulus  to  unceasing  labor.  To  men  of  a  more 
lymphatic  temperament  the  knowledge  of  ignorance 
seems  to  paralyze  their  lives.  But  science  has  done 
much  towards  elucidating  the  order  of  the  universe,  and 
will  do  more. 

Evolution  gives  the  coup  de  grace  to  idealism  of 
the  consistent  type.  In  the  gradual  unfolding  of 
organic  life  it  sees  the  two  universal  facts,  subject 
and  object.  It  sees  them  interact  and  influence  each 
other.  Under  the  influence  of  active,  conscious  lifg 
thousands  of  tons  of  substances  are  transported  from 
place  to  place  and  metamorphosed  in  the  process. 
Under  the  influence  of  life,  from  which  consciousness 
may  or  may  not  be  absent,  thousands  of  tons  of  matter 
have  been  made  into  soil,  rocks,  and  living  tissue.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  objective  environment  has  con- 
strained all  living  things  into  rigid  modes,  and  has 
extinguished  millions.  In  the  midst  of  all  this  turmoil, 
consciousness  has  picked  and  wound  its  way,  ever  gain- 
ing in  strength  and  skill,  till  now  we  behold  man.  Of 
all  animals,  man  controls  his  environment  most  com- 
pletely. He  begins  by  making  his  own  heat  and 
light;  he  makes  his  food  to  grow,  and  his  skin  is  partly 
his  own  manufacture.  He  does  this,  and  very  much 
more,  with  infinite  pains  and  toil,  and  yet  some  individ- 
uals of  his  species  actually  deny  the  existence  of  this 
environment,  which  has  compelled  him  to  be  what  he  is! 

It  is  equally  competent  for  the  materialist  to  deny 
the  existence  of  mind,  as  for  the  idealist  to  deny  the  ex- 
istence of  matter.  The  materialist,  beholding  the  imper- 
fection of  the  senses  may  pronounce  them  to  be,  one  by 
one,  incompetent  witnesses,  and  declare  them  to  be  illu- 
sions. The  mind,  which  is  the  product  of  these  impres- 
sions, immediate  or  remembered,  falls  with  them;  it  is 
also  an  illusion.  But  the  fact  is,  both  exist,  object  and 
subject,  matter  and  mind.  And  since  matter  cannot 
study  mind,  mind  must  study   matter,    and  by   so  doing 


grow  to  more  absolute  knowledge  and  greater  control  of 
its  physical  basis,  and  therefore  of  itself. 

It  can  now  be  seen  why  the  study  of  the  "problem 
of  cognition  "  has  little  interest  to  progressive  science. 
Its  result  is  an  expression  of  our  ignorance  in  philosoph- 
ical form,  a  proposition  which  the  scientist  is  not  dis- 
posed to  deny.  But  when  he  asks  the  philosopher 
''  what  do  you  propose  to  do  about  it?"  and  gets  the 
same  old  story  reiterated  from  the  old  scholastics  to  the 
latest  relativist,  he  turns  from  such  blind  guides  to  his 
own,  and  to  nature's  laboratories,  and  goes  to  work. 
And  the  theologian  applauds  the  philosopher,  and  says 
of  the  scientist  in  his  prayers,  "  I  thank  Thee  that  I  am 
not  as  this  section-cutter,  this  bug-hunter,  nor  even  as 
this  bone  sharp."  But  the  scientist  knows  that  he  holds 
the  key  of  the  situation,  and  he  lets  the  philosopher  and 
the  theologian  rejoice  themselves,  each  in  his  appropri- 
ate department  of  Swedenborg's  heaven.  The  field  of 
Idealism  has  been  well  worked  out,  and  we  of  this  age 
should  thank  the  mighty  men  of  the  past  for  having 
done  it  for  us.  We  can  now  go  on  with  an  easier  mind 
in  a  more  profitable  pursuit. 

Doctor  Montgomery's  last  article  in  Number  21  of 
The  Open  Court,  states  at  once  the  strength  and 
weakness  of  idealism.  Its  principal  weakness  is  that  it 
is  unable  to  stand  alone  without  a  good  strong  realistic 
prop  somewhere  behind.  Thus  the  Doctor  says  (p. 
5S7):  "The  tri-dimensional,  hard,  colored,  sounding, 
scented,  heated  matter — fancied  by  Professor  Cope  and 
others  to  subsist  outside  consciousness,  and  believed  by 
them  to  be  directed  and  organized  by  such  conscious- 
ness— is,  indeed,  through  and  through,  a  fictitious  entity, 
consisting  of  nothing  but  a  set  of  pur  own  percepts  illusive- 
ly projected  into  non-mental  existence."  This  looks  like 
pure  idealism,  but  he  lets  in  a  "  non-mental  existence." 
Now  what  is  this?  On  page  589  (bottom)  he  says: 
"  Now  the  realistic  assumption  which  the  philosophy  of 
organization  here  makes,  is,  indeed,  the  simplest  possible, 
and  is  in  full  agreement  with  given  facts.  It  supposes 
that  there  subsist  in  nature  non-mental  existents  pos- 
sessing the  power  of  specifically  affecting  our  individ- 
ual sensibility,  and  of  manifesting  their  special  charac- 
teristics by  means  of  the  different  conscious  states  they 
arouse  in  us."  This  is  a  little  more  definite,  and  the 
Doctor  even  calls  it  by  its  right  name,  a  "  realistic  as- 
sumption." This  is  quite  to  my  liking,  but  I  cannot 
perceive  how  such  "  non-mental  existent"  can  have 
less  than  three  dimensions  and  still  exist.  And  in  order 
to  prove  to  me  that  mind  or  consciousness  has  no  control 
over  this  tri-dimensional  "  non-mental  existent,"  Dr. 
Montgomery  must  go  into  further  particulars.  He 
must  prove  to  me  that  an  animal  does  not  eat  or  drink 
because  it  feels  hungry  or  thirsty;  does  not  seek  shelter 
on  account  of  weather  or  temperature;  expresses  noth- 
ing in  its   voice    of   pain,   desire   or   pleasure;    that   the 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


657 


horse  does  not  run  because   he   is   whipped,  or  the  bird 
build  because  it  feels  the  necessity  of  laying,  etc.,  etc. 

I  must  here  protest  against  the  misinterpretation  of 
an  expression  contained  in  one  of  my  earlier  articles, 
which  was  not  sufficiently  guarded,  it  is  true,  to  pre- 
clude such  misconstruction.  It  is  possible  to  say  cor- 
rectly that  "  mind  is  a  property  of  matter,  as  color  and 
odor  are  properties  of  the  rose,"  without  meaning  to  say 
that  the  two  properties  are  such  in  the  same  manner,  as  is 
inferred  by  my  critic  (p.  5S9).  My  article  in  Number 
19  of  The  Open  Court  is  sufficiently  clear  as  to  what 
I  understand  by  mind  as  a  property  of  matter,  so  that  it  is 
unnecessary  to  go  into  a  fuller  explanation.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  the  conscious  and  the  unconscious  properties  of 
matter  cannot  be  confounded  by  any  rational  thinker,  and 
that  such  confusion  is  entirely  foreign  to  my  thoughts. 
More  than  one-third  of  Dr.  Montgomery's  article  num- 
ber 5  is  thus  irrelevant.  In  the  other  two-thirds  I  fail, 
as  yet,  to  find  a  definite  theory  which  shall  explain  the 
apparent  facts  of  designed  movements  of  animals  differ- 
ently from  that  which  is  held  both  by  physiological 
science  and  by  popular  belief.  That  is,  that  the  design 
in  them  is  the  direct  result  of  a  limited  control  which 
conscious  states  have,  or  did  once  have,  over  the  energy 
and  the  matter  concerned  in  producing  them. 


THE    FOOL    IN     THE    DRAMA. 

BY    FRANZ    HELBIG. 
( Continued ) 

If  we  regard  folly  from  a  pathological  point  of  view, 
it  is  again  Shakespeare  who  has  contributed  the  most 
remarkable  specimens  of  this  class  to  the  stage — fore- 
most among  them  the   tragi-comic  figure  of  King  Lear. 

After  abdicating  and  despite  the  warning  of  his 
friends,  dividing  his  realm  during  his  life-time,  he  still 
retains  the  old  habit  of  ruling.  He  cannot  part  with  it; 
and  now  he  realizes  that  he  has  suddenly  become  a 
"  naught  "  as  the  Fool  bluntly  tells  him. 

He  is  deprived  of  his  retinue;  the  attendants  of  his 
daughters  mock  and  scorn  him;  his  own  faithful  servants 
are  thrown  into  prison. — All  this  induces  the  loss  of  his 
reason.  His  past  greatness  is  now  replaced  by  an  im- 
aginary one.  He  still  fancies  himself  to  be  what  he 
was,  but  no  longer  is.  He  is  conscious  of  the  approach 
of  madness  and  endeavors  to  prevent  it — but  in  vain. 
His  power  to  resist  the  dreaded  evil  grows  weaker  and 
weaker;  and  when  he  sees  his  own  fate  in  the  feigned 
madness  of  Edgar,  who  has  also  been  driven  from  his 
home  by  the  intrigues  of  his  bastard-brother,  his  mad- 
ness assumes  the  form  of  what  is  generally  called  para- 
noia. The  King  is  now  transformed  into  the  fool,  who 
walks  across  the  barren  heath,  a  wreath  of  straw  replac- 
ing his  crown ;  in  his  hand  a  staff  instead  of  his  scepter — 
and  at  his  side  his  own  jester  as  his  confidential  counselor 
and  minister,  and  yet  in  his  own  estimation  "every  inch 
a  king." 


Similarly  the  insanity  of  Ophelia  and  the  somnam- 
bulism of  Lady  Macbeth  are  pathologically  quite  true. 
The  sensitive  spirit  of  the  former  is  crushed  by  the 
terribly  sad  complication  of  circumstances.  The  latter  il- 
lustrates the  melancholv  truth:  How  much  easier  it  is  to 
commit  crime  than  to  bear  the  consequences. 

The  hallucinations  of  Macbeth  and  of  Richard  III, 
hardly  come  within  the  scope  of  this  subject,  but  the 
frenzy  of  unfounded  jealousy,  as  portrayed  in  Othello  and 
King  Leontes,  most  certainly  does.  In  the  case  of  the 
latter  two,  reason  and  judgment  are  destroyed  by  their 
enslavement  to  this  most  terrible  of  all  passions.  This 
passion,  so  tragically  portrayed  by  Shakespeare,  was 
afterwards  facetiously  treated  on  the  comic  stage. 

Shylock,  the  Jew  must  be  included  among  the 
Shakespearean  fools,  for  essentially  he  is  not  a  tragic 
but  a  grotesque  figure.  His  folly  consists  in  the  fact, 
that  he  does  not  immediately  recognize  the  invalidity  of 
his  bond,  which  grants  him  "  an  equal  pound  of  fair 
flesh"  from  the  body  of  his  debtor, — but  allows  himself  to 
be  outwitted  by  a  woman;  and  thus  he  is  made  an  object 
of  ridicule  rather  than  of  pity.  His  defeat  evokes  only 
delight  and  derision.  Throughout  the  entire  play,  the 
comic  element  predominates;  as,  for  instance,  in  the 
casket-scene, — in  Jessica's  merry  nocturnal  elopement, — 
in  the  goings-on  at  the  carnival — in  Portia's  successful 
disguise,  and  in  the  sportive  banter  in  the  fifth  act. 

The  steward  Malvolio  in  "  Twelfth  Night "  is  an- 
other of  the  fools,  who  is  himself  fooled. — A  letter 
written  by  the  mischievous  Maria,  makes  him  imagine 
Olivia  in  love  with  him,  and  causes  him  to  betray  his 
dormant  proclivity  for  foil)'.  In  accordance  with  the 
instructions  in  the  letter,  he  puts  on  yellow  stockings, 
cross-garters  his  legs,  and  is  "surly  with  the  servants." 
This  extraordinary  behavior  earns  for  him  the  reputation 
of  genuine  madness,  and  the  poor  rogue  is  locked  up. 

These  two  characters  introduce  to  us  that  class  of  fools, 
who  are  such  neither  by  profession,  nor  in  a  purely 
pathological  sense,  but  who  have,  as  it  were,  a  tendency 
to  folly. — They  are  the  weak,  impressionable  people 
whose  foolishness  becomes  apparent  only  when  a  certain 
chord  in  their  being  is  struck  and  made  to  vibrate.  They 
are  of  the  kind  we  are  apt  to  call  addle-pated. 

This  type  of  fool  is  numerously  represented  on  the 
stage,  as  is  forcibly  illustrated  in  an  old  carnival-play  by 
Hans  Sachs.  In  this  play,  entitled  "The  Excision  of 
Fools,"  a  physician  and  his  assistant  appear,  to  cure  a 
man  of  the  stomach-ache.  The  doctor  tells  the  sick 
man  that  his  body  is  infested  by  fools,  and  that  they 
must  be  cut  out,  if  he  wishes  to  recover;  and  thereupon 
he  begins  to  pull  out  one  fool  after  another.  The  first  that 
his  tongs  seize,  is  the  fool  of  pride,  the  second  is  the 
"four-cornered"  fool  of  avarice;  then  come  the  fools  of 
envy,  lust  and  intemperance.  Whenever  the  poor  in- 
valid imagines  that  all  the  fools   are   gone,   still  another 


658 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


makes  his  appearance;  and  when  at  last  he  deems  himself 
entirely  cured  of  his  sufferings,  the  doctor  discovers  a 
whole  nest  of  folly  filled   with 

"  Fools  of  all-known  types  and  fashions, 
Pettifoggers  and  magicians, 
Alchemists  and  financiers, 
Grumblers,  scoffers  full  of  jeers; 
Adepts  in  the  art  of  lies, 
Blackmailers  and  butterflies; 
Knaves  and  humbugs,  flatterers  sweet, 
Churls  and  boors  he  too  did  meet; 
Mischief-makers  and  yarn  spinners, 
Ingrates,  dolts  and  other  sinners; 
Ever-changing  fools  of  fashion, 
They,  whose  worries  are  their  passion  ; 
Borrowers  who  never  pay  ; 
Jealous  husbands  hard  to  stay," — etc. 

We  shall  now  introduce  a  few  groups  which  show 
how  manifold  and  varied  are  the  phases  of  our  subject. 
In  connection  with  Malvolio,  we  first  of  all  meet  that 
class  of  old,  amorous  fops,  whose  folly  consists  in  their 
anxiety  to  conceal  their  age  by  artificial  means. 

Kotzebue's  Count  Klingsberg  is  eminently  one  of 
this  category.  The  sight  of  a  woman  is  sufficient  to 
make  him  lose  his  head.  Aside  from  this  he  is  gentle  and 
kind-hearted,  and  thinks  tenderly  of  his  dead  wife. 
Nor  is  he  careless  of  matters  of  etiquette.  But  his 
amorous  infatuation  makes  of  him  the  fop,  who  tries  to 
appear  young,  despite  his  white  hair.  It  gets  him  into 
one  scrape  after  another.  The  pheasant  which  is 
ordered  for  his  mistress,  is  eaten  by  his  son.  In  order 
not  to  compromise  himself,  he  must  give  his  sister  the 
shawl  intended  for  her  pretty  maid ;  at  a  rendezvous, 
instead  of  the  young  lady  he  expects  to  meet,  he  finds 
his  own  elderly  sister.  "  Well,  I'd  like  to  find 
a  bigger  fool  than  I  am,"  he  exclaims  after  this. 
"  I  see  Klingsberg  has  outlived  himself;  there  is 
nothing  left  him  except  his  old  sister."  With  this 
avowal  he  abjures  folly  forevermore. 

In  this  species  of  fool  we  may  also  include  all  those 
in  whom  some  quality,  in  itself  laudable,  has  been  so  ex- 
aggerated as  to  become  ungovernable;  as  when  a  man, 
from  being  economical,  grows  miserly,  or  when  a 
father's  love  becomes  a  blind  worship. 

Moliere  in  his  Harpagon  gives  us  an  excellent  ex- 
ample of  the  former.  This  fool  of  avarice  has  but  one 
thought,  one  aim  in  life :  The  safe-keeping  and  accumula- 
tion of  his  hoard.  Men  and  things  alike  have  no  interest  for 
him  save  when  they  serve  this  end.  The  anxiety  about 
his  money  makes  him  distrustful ;  he  imagines  every  one  a 
thief  or  a  rogue  who  has  designs  upon  it.  He  carefully 
secretes  it,  and  pretends  to  be  poor.  When,  despite  his 
precautions,  his  hidden  treasure  is  stolen,  he  becomes 
perfectly  frantic.  "  I  am  undone,  and  of  no  more  use  in 
the  world!  I  am  dead,  I  am  buried!  Will  no  one  call 
me  back  to  life  and  give  me  my  precious  money !"  he 
exclaims  in  a  paroxysm  of  despair;  and  when  thereupon, 


he  is  offered  the  alternative  of  choosing  between  his 
wealth  and  his  fair  young  bride,  he  unhesitatingly  gives 
up  the  latter.  The  folly  in  Harpagon  lies  in  his  de- 
lusion that  the  money  in  itself  is  valuable,  whereas  it 
only  becomes  truly  so,  when  brought  into  use.  To  the 
sensible  man  it  is  a  source  of  pleasure  and  earthly 
happiness,  but  to  the  fool  it  causes  only  privation, 
trouble  and  anxiety. 

L'Arronge  has  created  some  excellent  specimens  of 
this  type  of  fool — one  of  them  being  the  shoe-maker 
Weicheltin  "  My  Leopold."  His  love  for  his  son  is  so 
great  as  to  merge  into  foil)'.  It  entirely  unbalances 
him  and  so  clouds  his  judgment,  that  he  can  no  longer 
distinguish  right  from  wrong,  the  true  from  the  false. 
He  becomes  rough,  hard  and  unjust  until  finally  misery 
and  misfortune  cure  him,  and  re-establish  his  mental 
equilibrium.  His  very  counterpart  is  found  in  old  Vosz, 
in  the  "  Compagnon."  His  love  for  his- daughter  actually 
makes  him  jealous  of  his  son-in-law;  but  he  is  cured  of 
his  folly  by  a  woman's  common  sense. 

Another  class  of  fools  now  appears  on  the  scene. 
These  may  be  termed  the  fools  of  rank  and  vocation. 
The  consciousness  of  their  exalted  position  has  become 
such  as  to  make  them  unsympathetic  and  unappreciative 
of  all  else.  The  saying:  To  whom  God  gives  a  voca- 
tion, to  him  he  also  gives  common  sense — is  disproved 
by  them.  Their  office  and  the  rank  it  entails  have  in 
their  cases  deprived  them  of  common  sense. 

These  fools  of  rank  and  vocation  find  a  striking 
representative  in  Schiller's  Herr  von  Kalb.  He  has 
become  so  vainglorious  of  his  important  position,  that 
he  can  be  rational  only  when  at  times  he  chances  to 
forget  himself.  The  most  tragic  event  of  his  life  is  that, 
at  a  court  ball,  some  twenty-one  years  ago,  Herr  von 
Bock  snatched  from  him  the  garter  which  the  Countess 
Amelia  had  lost.  Despite  his  "  ounce  of  brains  "  he  is 
quite  governed  by  the  consciousness  of  his  importance, 
which,  however,  is  not  strong  enough  to  be  proof  against 
Ferdinand's  revolver.  A  similar  character,  in  the  lower 
grades  of  life,  is  found  in  Lortzing's  "  Czar  und  Zim- 
mermann  "  in  the  Mayor  of  Sardaam.  In  him,  too,  the 
exaggerated  importance  of  his  office,  and  the  folly,  which 
deems  itself  wisdom,  are  personified.  It  requires  but 
the  glamour  of  office  to  cause  all  the  hidden  folly  of 
such  a  man  to  blossom  forth.  The  mayor,  bloated  by 
the  importance  of  his  office,  imagines  himself  a  "second 
Solomon,"  whose  judgment  is  never  at  fault ;  neverthe- 
less, despite  his  cleverness,  he  always  contrives  to  get 
hold  of  the  wrong  Czar.  In  him  conceit  is  mingled 
with  cunning,  and  self-importance  with  servile  fear;  these, 
with  his  snobbish  good-nature  and  absurd  severity,  make 
him  a  most  amusingly  grotesque  representative  of  the 
race  of  fools. 

The  merchant,  Timotheus  Bloom,  in  Toepfer's 
"Rosenmiiller  und  Finke,"  is  another  one    of  this  class. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


659 


To  be  a  merchant  is  his  one  ideal;  all  else  he  deems  un- 
worthy of  his  consideration.  His  thoughts  are  devoted 
to  business  speculations — gain  is  his  one  aim  in  life;  he 
thinks  in  figures,  and  estimates  everything  according  to 
its  pecuniary  value.  His  whole  life  is  a  succession  of 
business  calculations;  his  son's  happiness  is  to  him  merely 
an  example  in  addition;  his  sympathy  increases  or  dimin- 
ishes in  proportion  to  the  dowry.  Anyone  who  chances 
to  touch  the  mainspring  of  his  thoughts  and  gives  him 
the  prospect  of  profit  and  gain  has  won  his  friendship. 
Upon  such  occasions  the  merchant  will  be  moved  even 
to  kisses  and  embraces.  Anyone  who  proves  himself 
Bloom's  equal  or  superior  in  business  knowledge  and  tal- 
ent, elicits  his  warmest  regard.  In  everything  else  busi- 
ness goes  before  other  considerations.  He  must  read  his 
letter  from  Manchester  before  seeing  his  son,  who  has 
been  absent  three  years.  He  disowns  his  brother  because 
instead  of  becoming  a  merchant,  he  turns  soldier — a  pro- 
fession which  is  not  lucrative,  and  therefore  unworthy 
of  his  consideration.  He  is  punished  for  his  folly  in  find- 
ing that  whereas  his  brother's  son  has  become  a  mer- 
chant, his  own  son  has  secretly  joined  the  arm}-.  Thus 
things  turn  out  exactly  contrary  to  his  expectations,  and 
frustrate  all  his  fool's  wisdom. 

These  fools  of  vocation  are  so  absorbed  in  their  oc- 
cupation, that  they  neglect  all  practical  intercourse  with 
the  outside  world ;  as  is  illustrated  in  Kotzebue's  all-wise 
Peregrinus,  who,  though  versed  in  all  the  languages 
and  sciences,  is  quite  lost  when  in  the  company  of  others; 
or  Benedix's  Professor  Lambert  in  "The  Wedding 
Tour,"  who  consults  the  classics  as  to  the  treatment  of  his 
young  wife. 

{To  be  concluded.) 
THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM  AND  THE  CHURCH. 

BY    MORRISON    I.    SWIFT. 

It  is  the  work  of  a  wise  man  to  discern  the  true 
issues  of  his  own  day.  The  firm  acceptance  of  those 
issues  in  word  and  deed  is  the  token  of  a  great  and 
courageous  man. 

A  memorable  century  is  fast  slipping  away  from  us. 
So  vast  have  been  the  achievements  of  human  energy,  so 
fair  the  victories  of  right  and  truth  in  the  world,  that 
it  requires  poise  of  mind  and  strength  of  will  to  restrain 
our  assent  to  the  engaging  fallacy  that  the  severest 
struggles  are  over.  And  yet  these  conquests  have  done 
nothing  less  than  prepare  for  us  a  severer  problem  than 
any  that  our  century  has  yet  faced,  and  one  which  the 
future  will  probably  rank  among  the  greatest  of  all 
centuries. 

The  great  struggle  of  mankind  has  been  to  attain 
freedom  for.  the  development  of  the  human  personality. 
The  Protestant  reformers  saw  that  this  was  impossible 
without  liberty  of  the  individual  conscience ;  those  who  won 
for  every  man  equality  before  the  law  felt  the  same  fact; 
when  blood  was  shed  on  our  soil  for  the  slave,  it  was  but 


the  extension  of  the  idea  of  freedom  to  all  races.  These 
movements  began  as  new  insights.  Another  perception 
is  now  making  its  way  in  the  world.  It  is  becoming 
known  that  the  power  to  acquire  a  fair  degree  of  material 
well-being  by  honest  exertion  is  essential  to  the  possession 
of  true  freedom  ;  that  men  whose  daily  bread  is 
precarious,  whose  entire  energies  must  be  devoted  to 
obtaining  it,  and  who  know  that  their  success  in  barely 
living  depends  not  upon  their  own  action,  but  on  the 
action  and  often  the  arbitrary  will  of  others,  cannot 
properly  be  called  free. 

The  industrial  organization  of  the  society  in  which 
we  live  has  brought  the  masses  of  mankind  to  this 
condition. 

It  is  this  fact  which  defines  the  issue  that  we  must 
meet.  How  shall  opportunity  for  the  development  of 
manhood  be  secured  for  all  men?  How  shall  we 
establish  such  fair  distribution  of  the  products  of  human 
industry  that  superabundance  and  luxury  will  not  exist 
while  there  are  deprivation  and  ignorance  undermining 
the  physical,  mental  and  moral  health  of  individual  and 
society,  by  their  side  in  the  world? 

Has  the  Church  any  especial  relation  to  this  problem? 
It  has,  because  in  its  true  nature  the  problem  is  throughout 
moral,  and  the  Church  is  of  all  organizations  the  one 
whose  express  mission  is  the  development  of  a 
progressive  morality.  All  of  those  principles  for  the 
improvement  of  the  moral  nature  of  man  which  are 
embodied  in  Christianity  are  so  involved  in  this  present 
issue  that  it  is  not  going  too  far  to  call  it  the  question  of 
all  questions  for  the  Church  of  our  time. 

Let  us  therefore  inquire  if  the  life  and  teachings  of 
the  founder  of  the  Church  indicate  for  us  the  solution 
of  this  difficult  question. 

History  has  been  a  growth,  and  great  ideas  and 
principles  have  not  been  suddenly  born  into  the  world. 
The  way  was  prepared  for  Jesus.  But  this  fact 
distinguished  him:  He  placed  himself  at  the  summit  of 
the  pyramid  of  moral  ideas  of  his  time  and  accepted  no 
compromises.  He  listened  to  the  inward  voice,  and 
followed  it  with  perfect  fidelity.  He  was  absolute  with 
morality.  Conscious  of  the  past,  he  could  therefore 
declare  and  exemplify  a  morality  superior  to  it.  Hence 
if  we  find  Cicero  expressing  his  disdain  for  artizans  and 
asking  "What  can  be  more  stupid  than  to  respect  the 
crowd  of  those  whom  one  despises  individually  ?"* —if 
the  prevalent  temper  of  the  ancient  world  was  to  regard 
poverty  as  a  disgrace,  and  to  hold  the  poor  man  '  to  be 
incapable  of  wisdom  and  honesty;'  if  it  was  useless  for 
him  to  swear  by  the  Gods,  since  men  were  always 
inclined  to  think  him  a  liar  and  a  perjurer,!  we  see 
Christ  honoring  poverty  and  living  in  it  himself,  founding 
the    hopes   of   his    new    Kingdom    upon    the    poor  and 

•Professor  C.  Schmidt's  "  The  Social  Results  of  Early  Christianity,"  p.  65. 
fThe  same,  p.  67. 


66o 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


despised,  choosing  laborers  for  disciples  and  sending  them 
forth  to  convert  the  world  with  '  neither  gold  nor  silver 
nor  brass' in  their  purses.*  Aristotle  said,  "There  are 
labours  with  which  a  freeman  cannot  be  occupied  without 
degrading  himself.  Such  are  those  which  particularly 
require  bodily  strength;  but  for  these  labours  nature  has 
created  a  special  class  of  men.  These  special  beings  are 
those  whom  we  subjugate,  in  order  that  they  may  take 
bodily  labor  in  our  stead,  under  the  names  of  slaves  or 
mercenaries."f  Christ,  on  the  other  hand,  made  service 
supreme  in  the  order  which  he  disclosed.  His  words 
were, "  Whosoever  will  be  great  among  you,  let  him  be 
your  minister;  and  whosoever  will  be  chief  among  you, 
let  him  be  your  servant;"*  and  he  washed  the  feet  of  his 
disciples  to  prove  that  this  teaching  was  no  dainty  figure 
of  speech,  but  a  recognition  of  the  equal  value  of  all 
service.  Carrying  these  profounder  insights  of  Jesus 
into  practical  affairs,  St.  Paul  affirms  that  '  if  a  man  will 
not  work  neither  shall  he  eat.' 

In  a  word,  the  spirit  of  the  ancient  world  was  that 
a  gifted  and  fortunate  few,  a  select  brotherhood, 
comprised  the  worth  of  the  race.  Jesus  consented  to  no 
limitation,  but  declared  the  equality  and  brotherhood  of 
all  men  before  God;  his  actions  and  words  were  inspired 
by  that  central  sentiment,  the  universal  brotherhood  of 
man. 

These  facts  supply  us  with  the  needed  data  for.  light 
in  the  present  social  emergency.  The  spirit  of  Christianity 
requires  the  fullest  actualization  of  that  universal 
brotherhood  of  man  in  the  world.  It  requires  us  to 
labor  to  bring  the  actions  and  institutions  of  men  into 
conformity  with  the  laws  of  moral  conduct  which  would 
flow  from  the  conception  of  men  as  brothers.  The 
kingdom  of  heaven  so  often  spoken  of  by  Christ,  was 
not  meant  for  a  myth  for  human  society. 

The  world  has  made  great  strides  toward  the 
realization  of  these  ideas  since  Jesus  impressed  them 
with  his  authority.  As  one  obstacle  after  another  has 
been  realized  by  those  who  would  see  society  ordered 
according  to  the  principles  of  righteousness  and  love, 
they  have  gathered  their  powers  and  broken  through  it 
for  the  unceasing  onward  march.  The  great  barrier 
to-day,  which  since  the  time  of  Christ  has  been 
recognized  by  occasional  seers,  but  which  the  best  moral 
forces  of  the  world  have  never  until  now  been  prepared 
to  face,  is  that  raised  up  by  the  traditional  usages  and 
long-accepted  ideas  about  property  and  its  rights,  about 
the  privileges  of  individuals  regarding  its  acquisition  and 
disposition.  The  social  facts  and  phenomena  occasioned 
and  sanctioned  by  these  ideas  stand  squarely  and  firmly 
in  the  way  of  the  realization  of  the  Christian  idea  in  the 
world.     If  they  cannot  be  altered,  the  advance  of  Chris- 


*Matt.  x,  9. 

f"  The  Social  Results  of  E;tr]y  Christianity,"  p.  64. 

fMatt  xx,  26,  27. 


tianity  must  cease,  and  the  triumph  of  lower  principles 
must  be  acknowledged. 

With  the  problem  now  clearly  in  mind, — the  recon- 
struction of  the  industrial  relations  of  men  upon 
moral  principles — and  recognizing  this  as  the  trans- 
cendent concern  of  the  Church  at  this  period  of 
the  development  of  Christianity,  since  the  progress 
of  Christian  principles  demands,  and  depends  upon,  its 
achievement,  a  third  inquiry  presents  itself.  What  is 
the  possibility  of  the  Christian  Church;  what  can  it 
accomplish?  In  this  country  where  the  Church  has  the 
sincere  allegiance  of  so  large  a  portion  of  the  people, 
where  its  influence  and  authority  are  therefore  great, 
where  it  represents  a  large  proportion  of  the  specially 
organized  moral  forces  of  the  land,  where  finally,  its 
material  resources  are  almost  unlimited  and  the  money 
power  of  the  country  is  its  friend  and  supporter,  it 
would  be  possible  for  the  Church  to  bring  about  the 
reform  that  is  needed  with  little  difficulty,  if  it  seri- 
ously desired  to  do  so.  Many  have  observed  this,  and 
have  waited  expectantly  for  the  reform  to  come.  Many, 
also,  have  lost  their  sympathy  with  the  Church  because 
it  has  postponed  earnest  investigation  and  action  so 
long. 

It  must  he  confessed  that  the  Church  is  not  aroused 
to  the  weightiness  of  this  subject.  The  ministers  who 
have  given  it  thought  and  place  in  their  round  of  duties 
are  the  exceptions.  What  I  would  say  in  this  connection 
is,  that  all  delay  of  this  nature  is  diminishing  the  power 
of  the  Church  to  do  effectual  service  when  it  shall  at 
length  undertake  it.  This  is  because  confidence  once 
lost  is  difficult  to  restore,  and  people  alienated  do  not 
often  or  easily  return  to  their  old  attachments.  If  the 
Church  seems  apathetic  to  their  needs  in  a  time  of 
ferment  and  transition  like  the  present,  the  masses  may 
come  to  regard  the  Church  as  an  enemy  instead  of  as  a 
friend. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  practicable  and  effective 
course  is  not  difficult  to  point  out.  It  but  remains  for 
the  clergy  to  seize  the  opportunity  presented  to  them, 
and  to  bend  their  whole  energy  to  awaken  the  slumbering 
moral  consciousness  of  the  people  to  whom  they  preach 
upon  this  vital  topic.  Some  will  say  that  this  is  a  very 
easy  thing  to  suggest,  but  a  very  hard  thing  to  get  done. 
"  For,"  they  urge,  "  the  clergy  as  well  as  the  laity  are 
anxious  to  let  this  perplexing  question  alone  as  long  as 
they  can." 

Let  us  not,  in  this  study  of  the  situation,  recoil  from 
whatever  is  true.  Dr.  Felix  Adler  has  made  some 
observations  in  his  address  on  "Reforms  Needed  in 
the  Pulpit,"  which  deserve  the  reflection  of  those  who 
would  see  the  pulpit  radiating  its  rightful  influence. 
"When  one  remembers  the  power  wielded  by  the  great 
preachers  in  former  ages,"  he  says,  "  one  cannot  help 
reflecting   how   much  the    influence  of    the    pulpit    has 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


66 1 


declined  at  the  present  day."  And,  seeking  for  the 
causes  of  this  decline,  he  continues,  "  The  chief  reason, 
as  I  think,  is  that  the  interest  of  mankind  in  purely 
doctrinal  questions  has  diminished,  and  that  the  clergy 
have  not  had  the  courage  or  the  moral  backbone  to  identify 
themselves  with  the  great  moral  issues  of  the  time,  to 

interpret  the   larger  moral  needs  of  our  age 

And  while  at  present,  many  of  our  pulpit  teachers  are 
rendering  valuable  auxiliary  services  in  the  various 
minor  moral  movements,  yet  it  is  a  fact  that  nowhere 
have  they  taken  the  grand  initiation;  nowhere  does  the 
pulpit  lead  the  larger  moral  movements  of  the  age."  I 
have  undertaken  above  to  define  the  greatest  moral 
movement  of  our  age,  and  it  is  unnecessary  to  dwell 
further  upon  the  small  participation  of  the  pulpit,  as  yet, 
in  it. 

Now,  no  one,  I  think,  will  quarrel  with  me  if  I  say 
that  the  first  requisite  of  all  influence  is  the  plain 
courageous  utterance  of  conviction.  On  this  question  of 
the  laboring  classes  and  povertv,  however,  it  is  not 
improbable  that  many  are  without  very  clear  convictions. 
But  certainly  there  are  none  who  can  deny  the  gravity 
of  the  subject  itself.  I  see  no  escape  from  the  conclusion, 
then,  that  it  should  be  investigated  with  such  faithful 
attentiveness  as  is  requisite  to  the  formation  of  a  wise 
judgment. 

Nothing  could  be  worse  for  the  influence  of  the 
pulpit  than  the  habit  into  which  many  preachers 
have  fallen  of  sermonizing  in  defense  of  Christianity,  and 
grounding  their  defense  of  it  upon  deeds  it  has  performed 
in  the  past.  Is  this  intended  as  an  apology  for  present 
inactivity?  But  the  present  calls  for  actions  prompted 
by  an  insight  and  wisdom  and  moral  earnestness  which 
few  occasions  in  history  have  more  greatly  needed,  and 
were  the  record  of  the  Church  immeasurably  better  than 
it  is,  it  could  not  now  afford  to  do  less  than  to  add 
strenuous  deeds  to  its  history.  The  best  defense  against 
present  criticism  is,  -surely,  not  to  be  amenable  to 
present  criticism. 

It  is  said  by  some  that  the  pulpit  will  not  go  much 
beyond  those  who  maintain  it.  This  is  to  acknowledge 
that  the  opinions  of  the  clergy  are  to-day  bought  and 
paid  for,  just  as  lawyers  are  hired  and  legislators  sent  to 
uphold  the  ideas  of  their  constituency.  If  this  be  so,  let 
the  clergy  make  haste  to  relinquish  their  claim  to  moral 
leadership.  Let  them  consciously  adjust  themselves  to  the 
unspeakably  inferior  office  of  providing  intellectual  and 
emotional  luxury  to  those  who  can  pay  best. 

And  when  we  hear  of  preachers  of  Christ  who  will 
recruit  the  ministry  by  proving  to  young  men  that  there 
is  as  much  money  in  the  business  as  in  another,  we  half 
suspect  that  it  is  coming  to  this.  When  we  see  pastors 
of  city  flocks  maintaining  costly  establishments  for  ren- 
dezvous— wealthy  parishioners,  over  the  seething  masses 
in  hunger  and  ignorance,  which  in  the  words  of  Carlyle 


are  fast  bringing  society  toward  the  melting  pot,  doubt 
concerning  the  moral  stamina  of  our  present  moral  leaders 
arises  in  us.  For  we  remember  that  Jesus  had  not  where 
to  lay  his  head,  that  his  whole  life  work  was  done  among 
the  poor  ami  outcast,  where  no  depths  were  such  that 
he  would  not  descend  into  them;  that  instead  of  making 
himself  a  comfortable  home  among  the  cultivated  classes, 
and  having  the  rich  as  patrons  and  contributors  in  his 
cause,  and  going  no  faster  nor  farther  than  the  wise  and 
well-to-do  and  conservative  upholders  of  the  social  fabric 
of  his  time  could  approve,  he  kept  himself  safely  un- 
encumbered by  these  brakes  and  weights,  and  carried  the 
whole  energy  of  his  nature  to  the  work  of  lifting  the 
degraded  and  lowly  in  society,  which  morality  and 
godliness  said  ought  to  be  done.  It  was  this  that  gave 
irresistibleness  and  permanence  to  every  act  of  his.  He 
did  not  coquet  with  duty.  He  was  not  seeing  that  his 
own  interests  would  not  suffer  before  he  expressed  him- 
self. The  sum  of  it  all  was  that  every  interest,  material 
prosperity,  friendship,  position,  life  even,  must  then  and 
in  alj  subsequent  times  upon  the  earth  be  brought  into 
whole  and  absolute  accord  with  the  highest  moral 
standards.  The  person  who  suggests  this  in  society 
today  is  considered  a  dreamer.  And  because  indus- 
trialism and  wealth  have  grown  so  strong  the  clergy 
have  well-nigh  ceased  to  suggest  it,  and  perhaps  to 
believe  it.  Hence  people  dare  say  that  the  ministers 
are  not  much  beyond  those  who  support  them. 

And  yet,  there  is  the  example  of  Jesus.  The  thought 
of  him  and  his  disciples  living  in  luxury  in  the  world 
that  he  was  born  into  is  inconceivable;  the  thought  of 
their  living  in  luxury  in  such  a  world  as  ours  is  to-day,  is 
none  the  less  repugnant  to  our  sense  of  their  grandeur. 
But  what  of  his  present  disciples  in  the  modern  pulpit 
and  pew!  Have  eternal  principles  altered  in  these 
days?  Is  the  obligation  to  raise  up  the  poor  and  fallen 
any  less  imperative  now  than  once  before?  No,  but  we 
have  taught  ourselves  to  think  so,  and  hence  from  our 
easy  chairs  we  can  proclaim  ourselves  the  followers  of 
Jesus  though  misery  and  misery-caused  sin  fill  and 
blacken  the  earth. 

There  was  in  olden  times,  and  is  in  these  latter  days, 
but  one  course  to  followers  of  Christ.  It  is  to  do  as 
he  did  and  taught — to  spend  one's  resources,  whether 
energy  or  material  means,  in  lifting  down-fallen  hu- 
manity. 

And,  in  spite  of  indications  to  the  contrary,  is  there 
not  a  slumbering  lion  in  the  Christian  ministry,  which 
will  ere  long  awaken  and  put  forth  its  formidable  powers 
for  the  poor  and  oppressed?  Mighty  and  irresistible 
would  be  the  influence  of  unflinching  moral  utterance 
from  the  Christian  pulpit  of  this  land.  The  friends  of 
Christian  principles  and  of  humanity  await  the  vindication 
by  the  Christian  ministry  of  its  ancient  and  exalted  pre- 
rogative to  exert  this  influence. 


662 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


FOLK-LORE  STUDIES. 

BY  L.  J.  VANCE. 

III. 

We  may  take  next,  for  the  purposes  of  comparison, 
that  class  of  popular  tales  so  familiarly  known  as 
Animal  Fables.  These  mythical  tales  are  diffused 
all  over  the  world.  They  are  not  the  peculiar  possession 
of  the  children  of  the  Aryan  family.  They  constitute  a 
great  part  of  the  lore  of  non-Aryan  nations  or  tribes. 
They  are  to-day  as  popular  among  the  Indians  of  North 
and  South  America,  the  Southern  negroes,  the  Hotten- 
tots, and  the  Polynesians,  as  ever  they  were  among  the 
German  and  Hindu  peasants.  But  above  all,  these  ani- 
mal stories  have  many  strong  points  in  common.  How 
shall  we  account  for  such  similarities?  How  comes  it 
that  they  are  so  widely  diffused  all  over  the  world?  In 
truth,  these  are  vexed  questions  at  present  often  warmly 
argued  between  what  I  may  call  the  'historical,'  and 
the  'anthropological '  students  of  comparative  folk-lore. 

The  historical  argument  was  early  and  most  forcibly 
developed  by  Max  Muller.  According  to  his  theory 
the  myth  was  at  first  a  name  or  saying  about  some 
natural  phenomena,  as  the  sun  or  moon ;  but  that,  after 
their  separation  the  Hindus,  Greeks,  Romans,  and  Ger- 
mans applied  these  same  names  orsayingsto  other  natural 
objects  and  animals — to  birds  and  beasts.  Thus,  these 
wonderful  changes  and  these  wonderful  tales  are  due  to 
what  Muller  calls  "  a  disease  of  language." 

This  argument  has  been  reinforced  and  supplemented 
more  particularly,  by  the  writings  of  the  Rev.  Sir 
George  W.  Cox.  According  to  Sir  George  this  class  of 
popular  tales  are  due  not  to  defective  etymologies,  but  to 
defective  memories.  He  also  agrees  with  Muller  in 
regarding  the  myth  as  an  allegorical  representation  of 
physical  phenomena,  originating  with  the  Aryan  tribes 
in  their  home  in  Central  Asia.  He  urjres  that  so  Ions 
as  our  forefathers  remained  in  their  original  home,  they 
all  would  attach  the  same  meaning  to  all  the  words  in 
current  use;  but  after  their  dispersion  when  the  Greek, 
the  Roman,  and  the  German  had  either  partially  or 
wholly  forgotten  what  their  ancestors  in  Central  Asia  had 
meant  by  such  words  as  Erinys  and  Hermes,  the  growth 
of  tales  which  regarded  such  names  as  persons  or  beings 
with  human  desires  and  human  feelings  would  soon  fol- 
low as  a  matter  of  course.  Both  Max  Muller  and  Sir 
George  Cox  deny  that  the  similarities  between  the 
German  marchcn  and  Greek  or  Hindu  fables  could  be 
ascribed  to  conscious  borrowing.  Both  agree  that  the 
tales  could  have  been  so  widely  diffused  only  from 
Hindu  to  German  before  or  at  the  time  of  their  separa- 
tion in  Asia. 

The  anthropological  argument  ascribes  these  tales  to 
the  ideas,  beliefs,  or  delusions  of  primitive  peoples.  The 
students  who  urge  this  view  hold  that  they  are  not 
allegorical,   nor  are  these  stories  nature  myths  except 


when  they  express  natural  or  physical  phenomena. 
They,  therefore,  think  that  the  class  of  popular  tales 
is  so  widely  diffused  over  the  world,  because  primitive 
peoples  are  so  widely  scattered  over  the  earth's  surface. 
They  further  think  that  the  stories  are  more  or  less 
similar  because  the  primitive  mind  is  more  or  less  strik- 
ingly similar. 

This  argument  is  strongly  reinforced  by  the  studies 
of  the  late  J  F.  McLennan,  and  by  the  researches  of  our 
own  lamented  Lewis  H.  Morgan.  Both  of  these  students 
have  shown  that  all  savage  peoples  have  passed  through 
what  may  be  called  the  "  Totem  "  stage  of  culture.  Thus 
Totemism  is  now  the  accepted  name  for  the  custom  by 
which  a  body  of  kinsmen  or  kinswomen  claims  to  be 
descended  from  some  animal,  bird,  or  other  living  object. 
This  object  (usually  some  animal)  is  believed  to  be  re- 
lated to  kinsmen  bearing  its  name;  it  is  reverenced  by 
them  as  their  powerful  protector;  aye,  it  is  even  wor- 
shipped in  a  religious  way  by  the  kindred  or  clan  having 
it  for  a  totem. 

Thus,  I  am  persuaded  animal  fables  are  most  strik- 
ing witnesses  of  the  evolution  of  human  culture  from 
those  low  forms  of  thought  and  beliefs  that  characterize 
the  totem  stage.  Bearing  in  mind  the  savage  ideas 
about  animals,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  growth  of  tales 
which  spoke  of  them — of  bears  and  beavers — as  beings 
with  human  feelings,  would  be  inevitable.  Now,  the 
childish  account  of  the  animals;  the  kinship  they  bear  to 
men;  the  way  they  assume  human  forms;  the  manner 
in  which  they  act  like  human  beings;  indeed,  the  animal 
intelligence  shown,  which  to  the  savage  seems  human, 
— all  this  is  woven  into  a  great  body  of  story  lore.  The 
greater  part  of  this  lore  is  made  up  of  the  magic,  tragic, 
or  comic  doings  and  sayings  of  the  animals.  Thus,  the 
bear,  the  fox,  or  the  rabbit  behave  quite  like  divine 
beings,  and  accomplish  the  most  magical  tasks.  They 
love  as  men  love,  and  (by  some  confusion  of  thought  in 
the  primitive  mind)  they  win  for  themselves  mortal 
wives.  They  fight  as  men  fight;  in  one  case  we  have 
Iroquois'  story  of  '  The  Wild  Cat  and  the  Rabbit,'  in 
which  the  latter  is  the  poor  victim,  while  in  the  other 
case,  we  have  "Uncle  Remus'"  story  of  'The  Awful 
fate  of  Mr.  Wolf  in  which  Brer  Rabbit  comes  off  victori- 
ous. I  need  only  notice  the  harmless  tricks  and  pranks 
which  Grimm  has  made  so  familiar  to  us  under  the  name 
of  Reynard  the  Fox.  Then,  again,  the  keen-eyed 
savage  notices  certain  peculiartics  about  the  different . 
animals,  as  their  size,  their  form,  their  colorings,  etc. 
Consequently  we  have  a  number  of  stories  telling  us 
'Why  the  Crow  is  Black;'  'Hnv  the  Bear  lost  his 
Tail;'  and  'Why  the  Chipmunk  has  a  Black  Stripe  on 
his  Back.' 

But  to  conclude:  I  regard  these  animal  stories  rather 
as  striking  instances  of  what  we  call  intellectual 
"survival"  than  as  examples  of  either  false  etymologies 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


663 


or  "defective  "  memories.  Manifestly,  Sir  George  Cox 
and  Max  Miiller  fail  to  account  for  some  of  the  most  patent 
facts  of  human  culture.  They  do  not  even  show  that  the 
myth  was  at  first  complete  and  perfect  among  the  primi- 
tive Aryans,  nor  do  they  furnish  proof  of  the  transfor- 
mation of  a  nature  myth  into  an  animal  fable.  But 
above  all,  they  do  not  explain  how  it  is  that  these  same 
tales  found  their  way  among  non- Aryan  peoples,  and 
become  household  tales  among  the  rude  tribes  all  over 
the  world.  I  venture  to  think  that  the  simple,  pointed 
stories  of  Leland's  "  Algonquin  Legends,"  for  example, 
are  full}'  as  clever  as  the  animal  stories  of  Europe,  which 
have  often  come  to  us  interpolated  with  modern  beliefs, 
— or  rather  unbeliefs. 

But  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  anthropological 
arguments  are  entirely  adequate  to  explain  all  the  im- 
portant facts  in  this  class  of  folk-lore.  On  the  whole,  it 
does  not  seem  an  unreasonable,  or  even  an  over-confident 
argument,  that  regards  animal  fables  found  all  over  the 
world  as  "  the  like  working  of  men's  minds  under  like 
conditions."  A  strictly  fair  comparison  of  American 
animal  stories  or  fables  with  similar  fables  in  the  Old 
World  would  bring  out  in  a  clearer  light  the  point  I 
make,  namely — that  these  fables  or  stories  are  most  often 
a  separate  invention.  An  example  will  make  my 
meaning  plain. 

In  the  late  Mrs.  E.  A.  Smith's  collection  of  Iroquois 
myths  for  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  will  be  found  the 
story  of  '  How  the  Bear  lost  his  Tail.'  The  Fox  meets 
a  Bear  one  day  who  was  anxious  to  obtain  some  fish. 
"  Well,"  said  the  Fox,  "down  at  the  river  you  will  find 
an  air-hole  in  the  ice;  just  put  your  tail  down  in  to  it  as  I 
did,  and  you  can  draw  out  all  the  fish  you  want."  The 
Bear  follows  the  directions  carefully,  but,  the  themome- 
ter  being  down  to  zero,  or  below,  his  tail  is  frozen  off. 
The  story  ends  with  a  mock  duel  between  the  infuriated 
Bear  and  the  cunning  Fox. 

Now,  in  Joel  Chandler  Harris'  celebrated  stories  of 
"  Uncle  Remus,"  will  be  found  an  account  of  '  How  Mr. 
Rabbit  lost  his  Fine  Bushy  Tail.'  In  this  case  Mr. 
Rabbit  is  duped  by  the  Fox,  in  the  very  same  way  that 
the  Bear  was  victimized.  Mr.  Rabbits  drops  his  fine, 
long  bush}-  tail  in  the  cold  stream,  where  it  soon  freezes 
fast,  and  he  is  compelled  to  leave  it  in  order  to  get  away. 

There  are  several  European  equivalents  of  this  story. 
In  his  "  Popular  Tales  from  the  Norse,"  Dr.  Dasent  has 
compared  the  Norse  story  of  the  Bear,  who,  being  in- 
duced by  the  Fox  to  fish  through  the  ice,  till  his  tail  is 
frozen  fast,  pulls  it  off  in  order  to  get  away,  with  the 
story  from  Bornu  of  the  Hyaena,  who  is  told  by  the 
Weasel  to  put  his  tail  in  the  hole,  but  the  Weasel  ties  a 
stick  to  it,  and  the  Hyaena  likewise,  in  his  haste  to  get 
away,  pulls  till  his  tail  comes  off.  Both  of  these  stories, 
with  due  regard  for  local  coloring,  attempt  to  account 
tor  the  tailless  condition  of  the  Bear  and  of  the  Hyaena. 


In  the  West  Highland  tale,  given  by  Mr.  Campbell, 

the  Fox  shows  the  Wolf  the  moon  on  the  ice,  and  tells 
him  it  is  cheese,  which  the  Wolf  must  hide  with  his 
tail,  while  he  goes  off  to  see  whether  the  farmer  is  asleep. 
Instead  of  that  the  Fox  wakes  up  the  fanner,  and  in 
order  to  get  away,  the  Wolf  must  leave  his  tail  fast  in 
the  ice.  Both  in  this  story  and  in  Grimm's  well-known 
story,  the  episode  lacks  most  of  its  point  by  attributing 
the  losing  of  the  tail  to  such  an  animal  as  the  Wolf. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  all  these  different 
stories  are  variants  of  the  medieval  story  in  the  "  Roman 
de  Renart."  Now  the  question  is,  did  the  North 
American  Indian  get  the  story  from  the  Norseman,  or 
did  the  Southern  negro  take  his  version  from  the 
German?  Certainly  not,  although  the  frame- work  of 
the  story  is  the  same  in  each.  Was  it  necessary  for  the 
Indian,  the  Negro,  the  Celt,  to  get  the  German  or  me- 
dieval explanation  of  why  the  Bear  or  the  Rabbit  had 
stumpy-tails.  Certainly  not;  although  the  medieval 
account  is  indeed  very  plausible.  These  stories  were 
invented  before  Uncle  Remus  was  "bred  en  bawn." 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  a  number  of  American 
folk  tales  have  either  been  modified  or  borrowed  from 
Old  World  sources.  Thus,  Mr.  E.  B.  Tylor  gives 
eight  American  tales  which  he  regards  as  "indications 
of  a  deep-rooted  connexion"  between  Noith  America 
and  the  Old  World.  (The  Early  History  of  Man- 
kind, p.  340.)  These  eight  tales  are  :  The  World-Tortoise, 
The  Man  Swallowed  by  the  Fish,  The  Sun  Catcher, 
The  Ascent  of  Heaven  by  the  Tree,  The  Bridge  of  the 
Dead,  The  Fountain  of  Youth,  The  Tail-fisher,  and  The 
Diable  B  >itcux.  Space  forbids  an  examination  of  these 
stories  and  their  analogues  in  the  Old  World.  Some  of 
the  versions  are  quite  similar,  I  admit;  others  have  only 
a  casual  likeness;  others,  again,  are  alike  because  they 
grexv  up  under  like  conditions. 

But  I  think  that  much,  or  even  most,  of  the  planta- 
tion folk-lore — foi  the  collection  of  which  students  are 
so  greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  Harris — can  be  best  explained 
by  the  theory  of  conscious  borrowing.  Any  one  who 
has  read  Dr.  Bleek's  "Reynard  the  Fox  in  South 
Africa,"  will  be  puzzled  to  decide  whether  the  Hottentot 
stories  are  indigenous,  or  were  transmitted  by  the  Dutch. 
But  the  reader  of  Harris's  "Uncle  Remus,"  will  not  be 
puzzled  to  decide  whether  the  stories  are  original  with 
the  Southern  slaves,  or  were  carried  by  them  from  their 
homes  in  Africa.  The  plantation-folk  tales  were  largely 
brought  to  the  United  States.  One  or  two  writers  have 
traced  some  of  our  Southern  animal  fables  to  their 
mediaeval  or  classical  variants — a  fact  that  may  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  different  European  stories,  and  story 
books  (La  Fontaine's  Fables,  perhaps)  doubtless  at  the 
master's  house  on  the  plantation.  We  have  good  rea- 
sons for  believing  that  the  negroes  heard  versions  of  La 
Fontaine's   Fables    and   after  telling   and   re-telling,  the 


66+ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


stories  were  added  to,  or  changed  here  and  there,  to  su^t 
the  purposes  of  the  narrator. 

Very  surprising,  at  first  was  the  remarkable  similarity 
noticed  between  these  negro  stories  and  the  stories  of 
a  tribe  of  South  American  Indians.  This  branch  of 
comparative  folk-lore  was  very  early  treated  by  Prof.  T. 
F.  Crane,  of  Cornell.*  During  his  geological  explora- 
tions in  Brazil  the  late  Prof.  C.  F.  Hartt  collected  a 
small  number  of  stories  which  he  heard  at  Santarem,  on 
the  Amazons.  Later,  Mr.  Herbert  Smith,  in  his 
"Brazil,  the  Amazons,  and  the  Coast,"  likewise  collected 
a  number  of  animal  fables,  and  called  attention  to  their 
analogues  elsewhere.  Still  later,  Mr.  Harris  was  forci- 
bly struck  by  the  resemblances  between  his  own  collec- 
tion of  stories  and  Mr.  Smith's  collection.  There  could 
he  no  mistake;  the  tales  were  clearly  related.  Prof. 
Crane's  conclusion  is  summed  up  as  follows:  "That 
the  negroes  of  the  United  States  obtained  these  stories 
from  South  American  Indians  is  an  hypothesis  no  one 
would  think  of  maintaining;  but  that  the  Indians  heard 
these  stories  from  the  African  slaves  in  Brazil,  and  that  the 
....  latter  brought  these  stories  with  them  from  Africa 
is,  we  think,  the  explanation  of  the  resemblances  we  have 
noted."  We  regret  that  we  can  not  give,  at  this  time, 
the  very  interesting  parallels  between  the  stories  com- 
mon to  Hartt,  Smith,  and  '  Uncle  Remus,'  upon  which 
Prof.  Crane  bases  his  reasonable  conclusion.  And  now, 
our  remarks,  already  too  long,  must  be  brought  to  a  close. 
Before  doing  so  I  wish  to  bring  two  points  home  to  the 
mind  of  every  reader  of  these  rather  sketchy  papers. 

The  first  point  is  that  the  work  of  the  careful  student 
of  folk-lore  is  primarily  one  of  comparison — analysis.  He 
must  first  of  all  be  well  equipped  in  order  to  follow  the 
conditions  imposed  by  the  science  of  comparative  my- 
thology— the  science  which  compares  the  stories,  the 
same  as  comparative  philology  compares  the  speech  of 
tribes  or  peoples.  He  must  also  have  the  true  literary 
flair,  or  scent.  Hence  the  folk-lore  student  should 
possess — to  borrow  an  ingenious  phrase  from  Balzac — 
the  legs  of  a  deer  and  the  patience  of  a  Jew.  He  should 
l>e  able  to  follow  unweariedly  as  Dr.  Bleek  has  done,  the 
tracks  of  Reynard  the  Fox  in  South  Africa.  He  should 
not  lose  all  patience,  if  after  all  he  finds  that,  instead  of 
Reynard  the  Fox,  he  lias  been  following  a  winding  trail 
after  an  anise-seed  bag. 

My  second  point  is,  that  every  reader  should  (and 
can)  be  a  folk-lorist,  so  to  speak.  There  are  few  locali- 
ties in  the  United  States  that  do_jiot  have  some  peculiar 
item  of  superstition,  or  legendary  lore.  All  these  items 
of  low  civilization  in  the  midst  of  our  so-called  "high" 
civilization  should  be  industriously  gathered  and  pre- 
served. Dr.  George  E.  Ellis  recently  submitted  a  pro- 
posal to  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  for  the 
formation  of  a  folk-lore  society,  and  for  the  establishing 

*Prof.   Crane's  article    maybe   found    in  Pop.   Science  Monthly,  for  1SS1. 


of  a  journal  to  publish  the  remains  of  American  folk-lore. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  many  of  our  students  will  co-op- 
erate in  this  work,  by  collecting  the  legends  and  super- 
stitions they  may  happen  to  come  across.  Truly  the 
student  who  will  do  for  American  folk-stories  what 
Jacob  Grimm,  for  example,  did  for  German  Mahrchen, 
will  surely  meet  with  deserved  reward. 


THE      SPECIFIC      ENERGIES      OF      THE     NERVOUS 
SYSTEM. 

BY    DR.     EWALD    HERING. 

( Conclusion. ) 

The  specific  energies  of  the  living  substance  in  the 
different  organs  are  characterized  by  their  chemical  or 
physical  functions;  while  in  the  present  state  of  science 
the  energies  of  the  nervous  substance  can  be  recognized, 
only  by  the  different  sensations  which  they  produce  in 
our  consciousness.  Our  sensations  as  well  as  all  the 
phenomena  of  consciousness  are  the  psychological 
expressions  of  physiological  processes  or  the  irritations 
of  our  nerves, — especially  of  our  brain.  Vice  versa  these 
irritations  are  the  material  expression  of  the  processes  in 
our  soul. 

The  soul  does  not  stir,  unless  the  brain  moves 
simultaneously.  Whenever  the  same  sensation  or  the 
same  thought  recurs,  a  certain  physical  process  which 
belongs  to  this  special  sensation  or  thought  is  repeated; 
for  both  are  inseparably  connected.  They  are  con- 
ditioned by  and  productive  of  each  other.  Accordingly 
from  the  course  of  our  sensations  we  can  draw  inferences 
concerning  the  simultaneous  and  corresponding  course  of 
processes  in  the  brain.  The  resolution  of  our  sensations 
into  their  various  elements  is  at  the  same  time  an  analysis 
of  the  involved  interactions  of  the  various  elementary 
cerebral  functions  or  irritations. 

For  instance,  let  us  suppose  that  the  great  variety  of 
the  sensations  of  light  and  color  can  be  reduced  to  a  few 
simple  or  elementary  sensations,  to  those  of  the  principal 
colors,  which  by  combining  in  different  proportions 
can  produce  innumerable  different  sensations.  This  fact, 
if  proven,  would  justify  the  conclusion  that  different 
kinds  of  elementary  irritations  can  take  place  also  in  the 
nervous  substance  of  the  visual  organ.  Each  of  them 
corresponds  to  one  of  the  elementary  sensations,  and  the 
elementary  irritations  can  be  arranged  in  a  manner 
analogous  to  that  of  the  elementary  sensations.  Or 
similarly,  if  we  succeed  in  reducing  all  the  many  and 
various  gustatory  sensations  to  a  few  simple  sensations, 
we  may  again  justly  infer  that  a  corresponding  number 
of  elemental}'  irritations  can  be  produced  in  the  nerve 
substance  of  the  tongue. 

Consequently  the  analysis  of  our  sensations  leads  us 
to  recognize  the  fact  that  what  Johannes  Muller  sum- 
marily called  the  specific  energy  of  a  sensory  nerve  may 
be  resolved  into  a  certain  number  of  elementary  irrita- 
tions.    But  we   need   not  assume  that  a   distinct  nerve 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


665 


element  is  a  medium  for  each  simple  irritation. 
The  same  nerve  cell  can  produce  the  sensation  of  heat  or 
of  cold  according  to  the  direction  in  which  its  specific 
energy  is  irritated.  The  same  fiber  of  the  visual  organ 
can  be  irritated  in  different  ways  and  thus  convey  cor- 
respondingly different  sensations  of  color. 

Each  single  kind  of  irritation,  therefore,  does  not 
necessarily  correspond  to  one  and  the  same  nervous 
substance.  The  specific  energy  of  a  certain  nerve- 
element  is  not  merely  a  simple  property,  it  is  not  a 
faculty  which  causes  only  one  kind  of  function,  it  is  a 
multiform  potency. 

The  power  of  specializing  and  individualizing  its 
functions  is  an  inborn  quality  of  living  substance,  and 
bears  the  richest  and  most  wonderful  fruit  in  the  nervous 
system.  In  this  respect  the  nervous  system  far  surpasses 
all  other  organs. 

One  fiber  of  a  muscle  performs  the  same  function  as 
all  its  other  fibers,  and  even  the  fibers  of  different 
muscles  possess  essentially  the  very  same  energy.  One 
liver  cell  works  as  all  the  other  liver  cells  do,  and 
it  cannot  work  otherwise.  The  intensity  of  a  function 
may  be  different  in  the  different  fibers  or  cells  of  such  an 
organ,  but  the  kind  of  function  is  common  to  all. 

Not  so  in  the  nervous  system.  The  various  energies 
in  the  various  groups  of  the  nervous  elements  are  innate. 
By  an  innate  faculty  the  optic  nerve  of  the  new-born 
babe  responds  to  the  ray  of  light  which  enters  the  eye  with 
a  sensation  of  light,  and  the  nerve  of  the  skin  responds 
to  an  increase  of  temperature  with  a  sensation  of  warmth. 

The  specific  energy  of  almost  all  other  organs  is 
definitely  fixed  at  the  time  of  birth  and  will  change  in 
the  further  development  of  life  in  degree  only, — but 
never  in  character. 

The  muscle  fiber  of  a  babe  conti  acts  in  the  same  way, 
and  thus  exhibits  the  same  energy,  as  does  the  muscle 
fiber  of  an  adult  person.  The  liver  cell  of  an  old  man 
produces  bile  just  as  does  the  liver  cell  of  a  child.  The 
muscle  as  well  as  the  liver  grows  with  the  entire  man, 
but  the  fibers  and  cells  added  can  always  perform  only 
one  and  the  same  function.  Some  fibers  and  cells 
perish  in  the  course  of  life,  but  those  which  take  their 
place  merely  perform  the  functions  of  the  replaced 
fibers  and  cells. 

Thus  the  innate  energy  of  almost  all  organs  remains 
unchanged  throughout  life.  The  individual  small 
cell  organisms  of  which  the  organs  consist  come  and  go, 
one  generation  follows  another,  in  some  organs  more 
rapidly  and  in  others  more  slowly.  The  living  substance 
of  each  single  element  is  consumed  and  then  replaced 
by  nutrition,  but  their  faculty  and  activity  always 
remain  the  same.  In  the  nervous  system  all  this  is  very 
different.  Although,  as  a  rule,  the  innate  energies  of 
many  regions,  especially  in  the  peripheral  nervous  sys- 
tem, remain  unchanged  throughout  life,  there  is  in  the 


nei  vous  system  of  a  new-born  babe  some  living  substance 
which  is  ready  to  be  moulded  for  the  performance  of 
this  or  that  function  and  for  the  development  of  this 
or  that  individual  energy. 

Above  all,  the  brain  of  a  new-born  babe  is  not  a 
completed  structure.  It  grows  and  develops;  and  if  the 
externally  visible  growth  has  reached  its  limits,  the 
internal  process  of  formation  continues.  Up  to  the  moment 
of  birth  the  nervous  system  with  the  brain  is  developed 
according  to  its  own  inner  law.  Until  then,  neither 
light  nor  sound  nor  any  other  sensory  irritation  has 
affected  the  nerves  and  the  brain  has  been  asleep.  After 
birth  thousands  of  new  incitations  at  once  intrude  from 
the  external  world  upon  the  nervous  system.  The 
eye  is  opened  to  the  vibrations  of  ether  and  sound  waves 
obtrude  upon  the  ear,  pressure  and  impact,  cold  and 
warmth  affect  the  skin — thus  placing  the  brain  which 
heretofore  was  left  to  itself,  under  the  influence  and 
discipline  of  the  external  world. 

Before  birth  the  chemical  processes  of  the  nervous 
system,  its  change  of  matter  and  its  growth,  depended 
upon  internal  conditions  of  life.  After  birth  the  incita- 
tions of  the  external  world  excite  the  brain  and  produce 
a  more  vigorous  exchange  of  matter  for  further  develop- 
ment and  increase  of  the  living  substance.  The  further 
development,  the  inner  formation  and  cultivation  hence- 
forth depend  upon  occurrences  in  the  external  world 
which  the  brain  experiences. 

All  living  substance,  especially  nerve  matter,  has 
the  peculiarity  that  every  irritation  produced  in  a  limited 
region  at  once  spreads  to  the  adjoining  parts.  It  con- 
tinues spreading  as  long  as  it  meets  with  any  substance 
which  is  capable  of  being  similarly  irritated  and  which, 
so  to  speak,  responds  to  such  irritation. 

The  specific  irritation  awakened  in  the  sensory 
nerves  by  external  causes,  is  thus  transmitted  to  the  virgin 
parts  of  the  brain.  Here  in  the  most  youthful  and  most 
docile  living  substance,  the  irritation  terminates,  and  here 
every  kind  of  irritation  finds  its  echo.  For  this  substance 
which  possesses  no  innate  and  definitely  specialized 
energy,  has  not  yet  through  the  frequent  repetition 
of  a  certain  kind  of  irritation  lost  the  susceptibility  for 
all  other  irritations. 

If  the  virgin  substance  of  the  brain  is  excited  and 
internally  agitated  by  an  irritation  which  has  been  trans- 
mitted through  the  nerve  fibers  of  the  sensory  organs, 
an  increased  ability  to  reproduce  the  same  kind  of  irrita- 
tion is  acquired  by  a  permanent  change  of  its  internal 
structure.  If  the  sensory  nerve  again  transmits  the 
same  irritation,  the  cerebral  substance  responds  to  it  more 
easily.  The  oftener  it  is  repeated,  the  stronger  will  grow 
the  inclination  to  reproduce  just  this  kind  of  irritation. 
Through  frequent  repetition,  one  particular  kind  of  func- 
tion becomes,  as  it  were,  the  second  nature  of  a  single  cere- 
bral cell,  i.e.  the  cell  acquires  this  special  ability  or  energy. 


666 


THE    OPBN    COURT 


In  this  way  the  individual  energies  of  the  cerebral  cells 
and  fibers  are  developed  by  education  on  the  basis  of  the 
inherited  dispositions.  Also  the  additional  energy  which 
the  cells  acquire  during  life,  is  transmitted  by  inheritance 
upon  the  new  formed  cells  which  are  generated  by  parti- 
tion. These  new  cells  can  in  their  turn  develop,  evolve 
or   modify  the  inherited  energy. 

The  anatomical  arrangement  of  the  brain  is  such  as 
to  place  (single)  parts  of  the  so-called  gray  substance 
into  a  particularly  intimate  relation  with  special  sensory 
nerves.  The  irritation  of  a  sensory  nerve  fiber  will 
necessarily  seize  upon  and  affect  those  cerebral  cells  first 
which  are  in  closest  connection  with  it.  But  each 
cerebral  cell  is  connected  with  other  cerebral  cells  by  a 
net-work  of  most  delicate  nerve  fibers. 

The  irritation  which  enters  from  the  sensory  nerve 
fiber  into  the  gray  substance,  can  advance  (through  those 
cerebral  elements  which  are  excited  first)  in  all  direc- 
tions farther  and  farther  into  the  labyrinth  of  the  cere- 
bral cells  and  fibers  until  at  last  it  dies  out  and  ceases 
sooner  or  later,  or  in  exchange,  calls  forth  new  irritations 
which  starting  from  the  brain  return  to  the  peripheral 
nervous  system. 

Every  cerebral  element  is  subject  to  the  educating 
influence  of  those  sensory  nerve  fibers  with  which  it  is 
anatomically  connected  and  whose  energies  are  most 
closely  related  to  it.  But  these  single  cerebral  elements 
can  receive  irritations,  although  in  a  weaker  degree,  also 
from  the  adjoining  fibers  of  the  same  sensory  nerve  and 
even  from  those  nerve  fibers  which  enter  the  gray  sub- 
stance in  more  remote  parts  and  which  originate  in  other 
sensory  organs. 

In  this  way  the  cerebral  substance  is  constantly  per- 
meated with  many  diverse  irritations,  which  crowd  upon 
it  from  all  the  sensory  regions.  The  cerebral  cell  will 
be  particularly  educated  for  the  qualities  of  these  irrita- 
tions. According  to  the  opportunity  of  easily  and  repeat- 
edly receiving  irritation  from  this  or  that  sensory  organ 
and  from  such  or  such  a  sensory  nerve  fiber.  It  will  ac- 
quire the  faculty  of  reproducing  them  vigorously,  as 
often  as  an  incitation,  be  it  ever  so  weak,  is  offered. 

Consequently  every  single  cerebral  element  in  the 
course  of  its  development  and  under  the  influence  of 
sensory  experience  attains  an  individual  character.  And 
it  may  be  asserted  that  not  even  two  of  the  innumerable 
cerebral  cells  are  alike  in  kind  and  degree  of  individual 
energy.  If  one  cerebral  cell  is  destroyed  there  would  of 
course  be  many  others  which  possess  in  all  essential  points 
the  same  energy,  and  can  by  their  functions  compensate 
its  loss,  but  no  other  cerebral  element  could  do  exactly 
the  same  work  with  exactly  the  same  individual  ability, 
with  the  same  ease  and  exactness,  as  no  man  can,  in  all 
respects,  entirely  replace  another  man. 

Experience  and  practice  rest  upon  this  specialisation 
and   individualization   of   the   functions   in  the   different 


cerebral  elements,  and  the  energies  of  the  nervous  sub- 
stance which  are  developed  in  the  course  of  our  life  are 
the  organic  expression  of  our  individual  memory. 

The  nervous  system,  and  above  all  the  brain,  is  the 
grand  instrumentarium  of  consciousness.  Each  single 
cerebral  element  is  a  particular  tool.  Consciousness 
may  be  likened  to  workingmen  whose  tools  gradually 
become  so  numerous,  so  various  and  so  specialized  that 
he  has  for  every  detail  of  his  work  a  tool  which  is 
specially  adapted  to  perform  just  this  kind  of  work 
most  easily  and  accurately.  If  he  loses  one  of  his  tools,  he 
still  possesses  a  thousand  other  tools  to  do  the  same  work 
although  with  more  difficulty  and  loss  of  time.  Should 
he  lose  these  thousands  also,  he  might  retain  hundreds, 
with  which  he  can  possibly  do  his  work  still,  but  the  diffi- 
culty increases.  He  must  have  lost  a  very  large  number 
of  his  tools  if  certain  actions  became  absolutely  impossible. 

The  knowledge  of  the  tools  alone  does  not  suffice  to 
ascertain  what  work  is  performed  by  the  tools.  The 
anatomist  therefore  will  never  understand  the  labyrinth' 
of  cerebral  cells  and  fibers  and  the  physiologist  will 
never  comprehend  the  thousand-fold  intertwined  actions 
of  its  irritations,  unless  they  succeed  in  resolving  the 
phenomena  of  consciousness  into  their  elements  in  order 
to  obtain  from  the  kind  and  strength,  from  the  progres- 
sion and  connection  of  our  perceptions,  sensations  and 
conceptions,  a  clear  idea  about  the  kind  and  progression 
of  the  material  processes  in  the  brain.  Without  this  clue 
the  brain  will  always  be  like  a  closed  book  to  us. 

We  can  also  compare  the  brain  to  a  book.  A  book 
is  anatomically  a  number  of  rectangular  white  leaves 
bound  on  one  side  and  marked  on  their  pages  with 
numerous  black  spots  of  different  form  and  size.  Under 
a  microscope  the  leaves  will  be  seen  to  consist  of  delicate 
fibers,  and  the  black  spots  of  minute  black  granules.  A 
chemical  analysis  will  show  that  the  leaves  are  cellulose, 
the  spots  carbon  and  a  resinous  oil.  If  all  this  has  been 
investigated  and  ascertained  with  the  utmost  accuracy, 
we  do  not  know,  in  the  least,  why  the  black  spots  are 
arranged  just  in  this  and  in  no  other  way,  why  some 
spots  are  large  and  others  small,  why  some  occur  fre- 
quently others  rarely,  why  the  single  leaves  follow  one 
another  in  this  and  in  no  other  order,  and  altogether  what 
the  whole  book  really  means. 

Whoever  wishes  to  know  what  the  book  signifies 
must  know  what  is  the  function  of  the  specific  energy 
of  each  single  letter  and  of  the  individual  energy  of  each 
single  word — in  short  he  must  know  how  to  read. 

Nothing  can  be  fully  explained  by  a  simile,  and  it  is 
perhaps  dangerous  to  attempt  to  adorn  the  dry  language 
of  science  with  allegories. 

But  let  a  scientist  wear  his  working  apparel  while 
plowing  the  field  of  his  science;  and  when,  on  a  festive 
occasion  he  offers  the  fruits  of  his  labor  to  others,  he 
should  be  welcome  in  a  festive  garment. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


667 


The  Open  Court. 

A  Fortnightly  Journal, 


Published  every  other  Thursday   at  169  to  175  La  Salle  Street,  (Nixon 
Building'),  corner  Monroe  Street,  by 

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EDWARD  C.  HEGELER,        -  President. 


DR.  PAUL  CARUS, 


Editor  and  Manager. 


This  Journal  is  iterated  to  the  work  of  conciliat- 
ing Religion  with  Science.  The  founder  and  editor 
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and  defend  which  will  he  the  main  object  of  THE 
OPEN  COURT. 

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THURSDAY,  JANUARY  5,   188S. 


THE  UNKNOWABLE. 

The  most  modern  specter  that  is  haunting  the 
realms  of  philosophy  goes  under  the  odd  name  of 
the  Unknowable.  Ghosts  and  goblins  are  done  away  with 
by  science,  but,  in  spite  of  that,  superstition  returns  and 
assumes  a  vaguer  and  more  indistinct  form  in  the  idea  of 
an  indefinite  and  undefinable  something  which  is  sup- 
posed to  be  an  inscrutable  mystery.  Some  people  fear 
it  as  a  hidden  power, — some  reverence  it  as  the  embodi- 
ment of  perfection, — some  love  it  as  a  fit  object  of  their 
unaccountable  longings, — and  almost  all  who  in  their 
fantastical  visions  imagine  to  conceive  it,  bow  down 
and  worship  it.  It  is  the  Baal  of  modern  philosophy, 
and  even  the  idoloclasts  of  the  nineteenth  century  have 
not  freed  themselves  from  this  fetich.  While  denounc- 
ing supernaturalism  in  the  religious  creeds  of  to-day, 
they  preach  the  supernaturalism  of  a  mystic  Unknowable 
which  lies  beyond  human  experience,  and  do  not  seem 
to  be  aware  of  their  inconsistency. 

The  unknown  is  by  no  means  the  unknowable,  for 
our  ignorance  in  some  subject  does  not  justify  the 
dogmatic  assertion,  that  it  can  not  be  known  at  all. 

The  belief  in  the  Unknowable  is  the  significant  fea- 
ture of  agnosticism^  and  agnosticism  is  just  as  much 
dualistic  as  is  supernaturalism.  It  separates  the  world 
into  two  distinct  existences, — the  natural  and  knowable 
world, — and  the  unknowable  or  mysterious  realm  which 
either  lies  beyond  or  is  interwoven  with  nature  so  as  to 
infect  Nature  herself  and  render  her  plainest  and  most 
lucid  phenomena  unintellegible  and  enigmatic. 

The  realm  of  this  mysterious  Unknowable  is  gener- 
ally supposed  to  be  the  province  of  religion,  and  this 
error  naturally  prompts  people  to  declare  that  religion 
cann'ot  have  a  scientific  basis.     The  object  of  religion, 


they  assert  lies  beyond  human  cognition  and  experi- 
ence:   otherwise,  they  say,  religion  could  not  exist. 

The  Unknowable  is  like  the  fog  which,  as  the 
Anglo-Saxon  saga  relates,  was  rising  in  the  shape  of 
the  giant  Giendel  from  the  fens  and  marshes  in  Jutland, 
and  daunted  the  //alls  of  men.  "A  Beowolf  is  wanted 
to  slay  this  ogre;  and  Beowolf  represents  the  wholesome 
light  and  warmth  of  the  sun.  Before  the  rays  of  truth 
which  science  pours  forth,  the  foggy  monster  of  the 
Unknowable  gradually  disappears  and  reveals  to  the 
human  eye  reality  as  it  is. 

The  father  of  agnosticism  is  not  so  much  Herbert 
Spencer  as  Kant,  who  divided  the  world  in  tilings  as 
they  appear  to  us  and  things  as  they  are  in  themselves. 
The  former  are  mere  phenomena  or  states  of  conscious- 
ness in  our  minds,  while  the  latter  he  supposed  to  be 
inaccessible  to  cognition. 

Now,  idealism  is  quite  correct  in  so  far  as  things 
themselves  do  not  enter  our  brain.  It  is  undeniable  that 
our  cognition  consists  in  images,  and  even  the  most 
scientific  and  philosophic  conceptions  of  the  world  are 
constructed  of  images  of  things.  If  these  images  and 
the  ideas  abstracted  from  them  agree  with  and  conform 
to  the  things  which  they  represent,  they  are  true;  other- 
wise, they  are  erroneous.  Cognition  means  nothing 
more  or  less  than  the  correct  representation  of  things  in 
psychic  images  and  ideas,  and  things  are  knowable 
because  they  can  be  mirrored  in  the  brains  of  reasonable 
beings. 

Kant  proved  that  all  knowledge  is  relative;  absolute 
cognition  does  not  exist.  This  is  irrefutably  true,  for 
cognition  pre-supposes  a  relation  between  a  cognizing 
subject  and  a  cognized  object.  This  relation  is  the  es- 
sential feature  and  conditio  sine  qua  no>i  of  cognition.  Ac- 
cordingly Kant  proved  that  absolute  cognition  is  im- 
possible. So  far  he  is  right ;  but  when,  for  the  protec- 
tion of  old  theologies,  he  says  "  I  must  abolish  knowledge 
to  make  room  for  belief,"  he  goes  too  far.  A  thing 
which  is  impossible  does  not  exist,  and  the  Kantian  things 
in  themselves  (absolute  things),  which  as  such  are  be- 
yond our  ken,  do  not  exist  either. 

The  existence  of  a  thing  implies  the  manifestation  of 
its  existence.  It  exists  only  in  so  far  as  it  manifests  itself. 
Absolute  existence  which  is  not  manifested  in  some  way 
means  non-existence,  it  is  a  contradictio  in  adjecto  and  a 
chimerical  impossibility.  And  this,  I  believe,  is  the  solu- 
tion of  Hegel's  dictum,  as  quoted  by  Prof.  Cope  in  his 
essay  Evolution  and  Idealism,  "Existence  and  non-ex- 
istence are  identical."  This  is  true  if  Hegel  refers  to  an 
absolute  existence  or  an  existence  in  or  by  itself. 

The  world,  however,  does  not  consist  of  things 
recognizable — and  of  fog  around  them.  Natural  phenom- 
ena are  not  effects  of  transcendent  causes  from  trans- 
mundane  sources.  Nature  is  one  throughout,  and 
natural  phenomena  are   linked  together  by    causation. 


668 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


Causality,  the  law  of  causation,  is  not  a  capricious 
ukase  of  a  mysterious  power;  fundamentally  it  is  the 
same  as  the  logical  rule  of  indentity  or  the  arithmetical 
formula  "  once  one  is  one."  Causality  is  the  law  of 
identity  in  change;  which  means  that  wherever  any 
change  takes  place  the  elementary  particles  of  matter 
remain  the  same — their  form  only  is  changed  hy  some 
transposition  of  their  parts. 

It  is  universally  accepted  that  all  phenomena  of  Na- 
ture occur  according  to  the  law  of  cause  and  effect.  And 
this  irrefragable  causality  is  the  reason  why  Nature  is  in- 
telligible throughout.  Scientific  research  is  nothing  but 
the  tracing  of  effects  to  their  causes.  There  are  many 
problems  which  have  not  yet  been  investigated,  and 
there  are  innumerable  things  we  do  not  yet  know  of, 
but  there  are  no  phenomena  in  the  world  which  per  se 
are  unintelligible.  The  vastness  and  grandeur  of  the 
world  are  so  great  that  the  province  of  science  is  un- 
limited, and  that  after  each  discovery  new  problems 
will  constantly  present  themselves  to  keep  the  inquiring 
scientist  busy;  but  there  is  no  phenomenon  which  can  in 
itself  be  declared  unknowable.  Nature  is  knowable  and 
Nature's  essence  is  intelligibility;  there  is  no  transmun- 
dane  or  supernatural  existence  beyond  Nature. 

The  doctrine  is  often  repeated,  that  man  has  a  hanker- 
ing after  the  Unknowable.  Some  scientists  suppose  it  to 
be  a  characteristic  feature  of  man.  Max  Muller,  in  his 
answer  to  Darwin,  says  incidentally  with  regard  to  this 
longing  for  the  mysterious,  "  Cela  me  passe''' ;  and  there 
may  be  found  more  men  of  his  stamp  who  agree  with 
Max  Muller  on  this  point.  Science,  to  be  sure,  rests  on 
the  supposition  that  all  phenomena  and  all  things  are 
cognizable. 

The  agnostic's  usual  objection  to  discarding  the  Un- 
knowable is  that "  No  one  can  explain  what  matter  is  ;  we 
know  what  metal  is  and  what  wood  is,  but  the  ultimate 
principle  of  metal  and  of  wood,  matter  itself,  is  unknow- 
able." 

This  objection  shows  how  dualistic  agnosticism  is. 
The  agnostic,  or  he  who  proposes  such  objection,  con- 
ceives wood,  on  the  one  hand,  as  a  knowable  thing  hav- 
ing properties  which  can  be  recognized  by  experiment; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  beyond  or  behind  or  within  this 
knowable  thing,  he  supposes,  an  unknowable  essence 
exists  which  we  call  matter.  And  this  unknowable 
matter  is  the  cause  of  the  knowable  which,  in  this  parti- 
cular case,  appears  to  be  wood  or  metal. 

The  word  "matter"  is  a  generalization  which  is  ab- 
stracted from  all  the  many  different  matters.  Wood  as 
well  as  metal  is  matter,  both  have  the  properties  of 
matter  in  common,  and  each  have  in  addition  some 
special  characteristic  qualities.  Iron  again  has  all  pro- 
perties of  metal  and  some  other  special  ones  besides. 
But  matter  is  not  a  thing  in  itself  which  exists  behind  or 
beyond  the  real  existences.     It  is  a   chiffrc,   or   symbol, 


devised  for  economizing  our  thought,  and  we  cannot 
expect  more  of  such  an  abstract  concept  than  the  fulfil- 
ment of  its  purpose.  Matter  is  a  generalization,  but  there 
is  no  mystery  about  it. 

The  same  holds  good  with  all  other  generalizations 
which  become  mysterious  only  when,  hy  some  miscon- 
ception, they  are  supposed  to  be  real  things  beside  or 
beyond  or  within  the  things  from  which  they  are 
abstracted. 

Another  objection  of  the  agnostic  is  the  "unintelligi- 
bility  of  the  Infinite";  and  the  Infinite  (which  then  is 
spelt  with  a  capital  I)  is  declared  to  be  the  object  of 
religious  worship.  Even  Prof.  Max  Muller  joins  (or  at 
least  seems  to  join)  the  agnostic  in  his  definition  of  re- 
ligion. However,  the  Infinite  is  as  little  mysterious  as 
abstractions.  It  is  as  plain  as  any  arithmetical  calcula- 
tion. When  I  count,  I  may  count  up  to  a  hundred  or  to 
a  thousand  or  to  a  million,  or  to  whatever  number  I  please. 
If  I  do  not  stop  for  other  reasons,  I  may  count  on  without 
stopping — in  a  word,  into  infinity.  The  Infinite  accord- 
ingly is  a  mathematical  chiffre  denoting  a  process  with- 
out limits.  The  mathematician  employs  the  chiffre,  and 
there  is  no  mystery  about  it. 

If  the  Infinite  is  not  a  thing  to  be  worshiped,  but  a 
mathematical  or  arithemetical  process,  we  can  produce 
an  infinitude  wherever  we  can  apply  such  an  infinite 
process.  If  we  soar  into  the  heavens  and  let  our 
thoughts  wander  into  cosmic  space,  we  may  proceed 
from  star  to  star  in  the  milky  way,  and  beyond  we  shall 
perhaps  reach  other  milky  ways.  If  we  still  proceed,  we 
may  wander  in  empty  space  into  infinitude.  If  these 
wanderings  were  possible  we  need  stop  as  little  as  in 
counting. 

A  drop  of  mercury  can  just  as  well  be  used  as  an 
instance  of  infinitude  as  the  universe.  It  can  be  divided 
into  two  halves,  and  each  half  is  again  divisible.  It  is 
divisible  ad  infinitum  because  the  division  is  a  process 
which  may  be  carried  on  as  long  as  one  pleases.  The 
infinitely  small  is  no  more  a  thing  in  itself  than  the 
infinitely  great,  and  there  is  no  more  mystery  in  the  one 
than  in  the  other. 

The  Unknowable  is  a  dogma  in  the  negative  creed  of 
agnosticism,  and  the  agnostic  clings  to  it  as  if  it  were 
sacred.  He  argues,  it  must  exist,  because  man  cannot 
grasp  the  entirety  of  nature — because  man  cannot  com- 
prehend the  ultimate  principle  or  raison  d'etre  of 
phenomena.  The  world, — the  whole  universe,  as  well  as 
the  details  of  nature — are  so  wonderful  and  so  mys- 
teriously marvelous  that  we  cannot  but  believe  in  the 
Unknowable,  and  the  very  existence  of  the  world  is 
incomprehensible. 

The  ultimate  raisons  d'etre  of  mathematics  are  the 
most  simple  and  self-evident  axioms,  and  it  is  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  ultimate  raison  d'etre  of  natural  pheno- 
mena is  just   as  simple  and  self-evident.     It   is  true  that 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


669 


the  world,  as  a  whole  and  in  its  several  phenomena, 
is  most  wonderful,  and  wherever  we  inquire  into 
Nature,  Nature  is  grand  and  sublime.  But  there  is 
no  mystery  about  it — no  unknowahility.  Nature  is 
essentially  knowable,  and  beyond  Nature  is  empty  non- 
existence. 

As  to  existence  in  general,  it  is  &facl  which  is  by  no 
means  unknowable.  "  But  its  cause  is  unknowable," 
the  agnostic  says.  Tbis  would  be  true  if  the  dualistic 
view  were  correct  But  as  matters  are,  the  question  as 
to  what  is  the  cause  of  the  world  is  unjustifiable.  The 
world  is  not  an  effect  of  an  unknown  and  transcendent 
cause.  The  world  is  a  reality — it  is  the  sum  of  all  exist- 
ence; and  our  idea  of  the  world  as  a  whole  is  the  most 
general  and  comprehensive  abstraction  of  this  reality. 
The  dualistic  theologian  whose  God  is  a  supernatural  and 
transmundane  being,  says,  God  is  the  cause  of  the  world. 
If  this  argumentation  were  allowable  we  must  further 
ask,  What  is  the  cause  of  God?  But  the  question  itself, 
as  to  the  cause  of  existence  in  general,  is  not  admissible; 
for  the  law  of  causation  is  applicable  to  all  phenomena 
of  Nature,  but  not  to  the  existence  of  Nature,  which 
must  be  accepted  as  a  fact. 

The  Unknowable  must  be  considered  as  a  personifi- 
cation, or  at  least  substantiation,  of  an  abstract  idea. 
Goethe  says,  somewhere,  "Man  rarely  realizes  how 
anthropomorphic  he  is." 

The  belief  in  the  unknowable  is  perhaps  in  the 
psychical  development  of  man,  as  Auguste  Compte  says, 
the  natural  intermediate  stage  between  the  standpoint  of 
old  theological  views  and  scientific  positivism.*  The 
surest  way  out  of  the  maze  of  the  agnostic  unknowable, 
is  to  define  first  what  is  knowable  before  making  state- 
ments about  the  unknowable.  If  we  do  so  we  shall  find 
that  Faust's  complaint  is  not  true  when  he  says: 
"That  which  one  does  not  know,  one  needs  to  use; 

And  what  one  knows,  one  uses  never." 

Nature  with  all  her  rich  and  wonderful,  works  lies 
within  the  sphere  of  the  Knowable  and  those  questions 
as  to  the  cause  of  existence  at  large  (transcendent 
topics  as  Kant  styles  them)  which  by  their  very  nature 
admit  of  no  answer,  are — as  explained  above — not  justi- 
fied. 

The  human  soul  was,  by  a  dualistic  misinterpreta- 
tion, supposed  to  be  supernatural,  because  the  human 
mind  soared  far  above  all  other  natural  existences. 
But,  the  human  soul,  although  it  surpasses  the  nature  01 

*  I  had  myself  to  overcome  the  metaphysicism,  aslhad  previously  to  over- 
come the  supernaturalistic  views  ot  my  childhood.  Careful  readers  of  my 
pamphlet  Monism  and  Meliorism  will  find  that  where  I  speak  of  the  limit  of  our 
cognition  I  do  not  mean  that  there  is  something  Unknowable  beyond  that  limit. 
The  limits  of  cognition  are  subjective  not  objective.  The  essential  feature  ot 
explaining  natural  phenomena  is  to  classify  one  special  case  under  a  general 
law  which  embodies  its  reason,  or  its  gronnd,  or  its  principle  of  explanation. 
By  ascending  from  special  reasons  to  more  general  reasons  we  must  at  least 
come  to  the  universal  reason,  which  whatever  is  may  be,  is  the  ultimate  princi- 
ple of  explanation.  This  ultimate  principle  or  raison  d'etre  is  the  natural  limit 
of  our  reasoning,  for  it  would  be  absurd  to  ask  for  a  more  general  principle 
than  the  universal  principle. 


animal  existence,  remains  Nature — it  is  onlyNature  of  a 
higher  kind. 

Nature,  it  is  true,  is  wonderful;  but  what  is  most 
wonderful  it  is  that  the  most  intricate  and  complicated 
phenomena  of  Nature  are  marvelously  simple  in  their  ulti- 
mate elementary  causes.  The  problems  of  the  world  are 
innumerable,  the  range  of  inquiry  is  infinite,  and  all 
problems  as  to  the  causes  of  natural  phenomena  are 
solvable,  for,  throughout,  Nature  is  intelligible. 


CHRISTMAS  GIFTS. 

The  holiday  season  with  its  Christmas  tree,  Christ- 
mas gifts  and  New  Years  wishes  is  passed  and  we  have 
returned  to  our  usual  occupations.  A  joyous  reflection 
is  still  lingering  over  the  remembrance  of  these  days  of 
merry  family  life  and  love  of  mankind,  for  the  gifts  of 
the  Christmas  table  are  with  us  and  remind  us  of  their 
beloved  givers.  How  poor  are  those  who  are  devoid  of 
these  joys  which  giving  and  receiving  affords.  A 
picture  in  Puck  shows  us  Santa  Clans  turning  his 
back  to  the  circles  of  the  rich  where  he  finds  such 
plenty  as  to  render  him  with  his  gifts  superfluous. 
The  lesson  taught  in  this  picture  is  that  the  poor  in  love 
and  in  the  enjoyment  of  love  are,  as  a  rule,  the  rich, — 
while  the  poor  are  often  blessed  with  an  immeasurable 
wealth  of  this  festive  happiness.  It  is  the  same  lesson 
taught  by  Christ  when  he  said:  "It  is  easier  for  a 
camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  than  for  a  rich 
man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God."  And  may  we 
add:     "  For  a  rich  man  to  have  a  merry  Christmas?" 

Is  it  his  riches  which  prevent  him  from  enjoying 
the  giving  and  receiving  of  gifts  of  love?  Oh  no,  on 
the  contrary  thev  enable  him  to  enjoy  the  greater  joy  of 
giving  more  liberally  than  his  poorer  fellow  man  can  do. 
If  a  man  is  deprived  of  his  merry  Christmas,  although 
he  is  not  in  needy  circumstances,  it  is  he  himself  who 
has  robbed  himself  of  it, — it  is  his  own  stolid  heart  which 
debars  him  from  the  warmth  which,  during  this  festive 
time  more  than  usually,  pervades  all  mankind. 

There  is  a  charm  in  a  Christmas  gift  which  is 
imparted  only  to  those  who  are  fit  to  receive  it.  Some- 
thing of  the  giver  attaches  to  every  gift,  something  of 
his  sympathy,  love  or  friendship,  and  this  difficult  to 
define  but  very  definite  something  gives  to  the  gift  its 
real  value.  The  value  of  the  gift  in  money  is  its  market 
value.  The  real  value  lies  concealed  in  the  sentiments 
of  the  donor  and  receiver ;  it  contains  part  of  the  donor's 
soul  which  is  transmitted  to  the  receiver.  But  this 
sentiment  must  be  reciprocated  in  order  to  be  transmitted. 
The  donor  and  receiver  must  be  in  a  sympathetic  com- 
munion of  some  kind.  There  must  be  some  relation  or 
connection,  and  it  is  the  revealing  and  acknowledge- 
ment of  this  connection,  of  which  the  transfer  of  a  gift  is 
a  symbol.  Christmas  is  the  festival  of  family  life  and  of 
universal  love  of  humanity.      It  preaches  the  unity  of 


670 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


the  human  race,  the  unity  of  all  intellectual  and  spiritual 
life  in  the  world. 

This  is  the  source  of  the  right  enjoyment  of  Christmas 
gifts  and  wherever  it  is  lacking,  Santa  Claus  turns  his 
back,  in  spite  of  rich  gifts  or  the  exchange  of  precious 
presents.  But  wherever  it  obtains,  people  feel  rich  and 
are  rich  because  of  this  immeasurable  wealth  of  love  and 
good  will,  which  are  a  treasure  where  neither  moth  nor 
rust  doth  corrupt,  and  where  thieves  do  not  break  through 
and  steal. 

It  is  this  wealth  which  gives  to  the  widow's  mite  its 
value,  it  is  the  essential  and  indispensable  life-blood  in 
everything  that  is  truly  humane  or  great,  and  it  is  also 
the  quintessence  of  the  religious  sentiment. 

SURSUM . 

BY    *    *    * 

Onward  our  march  must  be, 

Faithful  and  true! 

Nobler  humanity  will   us  imbue. 
No  pain  nor  trouble  shun, 
Sternly  our  duty  done, 

Faithful  and  true! 

Let  us  by  mental  power 

Passions  control. 

Patiently  elevate  the  human  soul. 
Though  our  paths  thorny  be, 
Let  us  with  honesty 

Strive  for  our  goal. 

Progress  and  laboring 
Never  must   tire. 
"  One  with  the  Cosmos,"  be  that  our  desire ! 
Strong  our  alliance  be, 
Onward  with  constancy 
Nobly  aspire. 

THE    EDUCATION    OF    PARENTS    BY    THEIR    CHIL- 
DREN. 

BY  CARTS  STERNE. 
( Conclusion.) 

In  the  animal  kingdom  the  father  does  not  get  the 
benefit  of  the  ennobling  influence  of  the  rearing  of  the 
young  wherever  he  does  not  participate  in  it;  and  as  a 
rule  he  does  not. 

But,  generally  speaking,  this  loss  is  not  great;  for  if 
the  refining  power,  which  the  rearing  of  the  young 
exerts,  leaves  any  appreciable  effects  in  the  female,  the 
same  is  transmitted  to  her  male  offspring,  making  them 
sharers  in  its  wholesome  influence. 

Elsewhere  we  have  seen  that  the  systematic  care  of 
the  young  develops  most  favorably  in  the  case  of  birds 
and  mammals.  The  earliest  birds,  like  the  reptiles, 
probably  left  their  eggs  to  be  hatched   by  the  sun ;  for 


even  now,   birds  of  the   lower  species  require  the  aid  of 
solar  or  terrestrial  heat  when  hatching  their  eggs. 

Sitting  on  their  eggs  is  now  the  general  practice  of 
birds;  but  there  is  a  noticeable  distinction  between  the 
higher  and  the  lower  species,  the  young  of  the  latter 
leaving  the  nest  and  becoming  independent  very  early, 
while  those  of  the  former  must  be  fed  and  cared  for  in 
the  nest  for  weeks. 

This  care,  necessitated  by  the  helplessness  of  the 
little  ones,  is  undoubtedly  the  cause  of  the  numerous 
instances  of  kindness  and  charity  towards  the  young  of 
other  birds. 

Singing  birds  possess  a  perfect  passion  for  self- 
sacrifice,  and  it  has  been  observed  that  they  have  repeat- 
edly adopted  and  reared  orphaned  birdlings.  As  is  well 
known,  some  feathered  tramps  regularly  take  advantage 
of  this  trait  of  the  kind-hearted  singing  birds  in  the  most 
shameless  manner. 

Birds  have  also  been  seen  to  feed  their  blind  com- 
panions, and  do  innumerable  things  for  which  men 
expect  to  be  rewarded  on  earth  and  in  heaven. 

I  do  not  think  that  similar  acts  are  seen  among  lower 
species  of  animals  unaccustomed  to  care  for  their  young. 
The  conflict  with  egotism  here  begins,  ending  in  self- 
sacrifice  and  self-denial,  which  has  been  pronounced  the 
greatest  victory. 

The  result  of  this  conflict  becomes  more  apparent  in 
mammals,  where  a  closer  relation  exists  between  mother 
and  child,  and  finally  reaches  a  point  of  extravagance 
which  is  almost  absurd.  The  child  is  part  of  its  mother, 
not  only  in  a  physical,  but  also  in  a  spiritual  sense,  and 
it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  affection  of  the  mother  is 
all  the  greater  where  much  anxiety  has  been  involved 
in  the  rearing  of  the  child. 

The  lower  animals  are  all  self-taught,  and  only  those 
that  live  in  communities,  such  as  the  termites,  ants,  bees, 
etc.,  perhaps  attend  to  the  training  of  their  young. 

A  self-taught  creature  can  rarely  accomplish  as  much 
as  one  that  has  had  careful  instruction — a  fact  daily 
demonstrated  by  birds  that  have  been  taught  by  their 
own  kind  or  by  human  beings. 

In  my  opinion,  the  systematic  instruction  of  the  young 
in  mammals,  partly  accounts  for  the  really  marvellous 
growth  of  the  brain  in  this  class  of  animals.  Observe  a 
cat  train  her  young;  note  how  systematically  she  pro- 
ceeds from  play  to  work,  from  the  easy  to  the  more 
difficult.  While  nursing  some  of  her  litter,  she  uses  her 
tail  to  teach  the  others  to  observe  and  hold  something 
animate.  Then  she  catches  animals  to  instruct  the  little 
ones  in  the  rudiments  of  the  chase,  and  finally  shows 
them  how  to  catch  birds  and  mice. 

But — I  cannot  but  repeat — not  only  do  the  young 
learn  from  the  mother,  but  she,  in  turn,  learns  to  renounce 
the  empty  vanities  of  life  for  their  sake,  and  pursue 
more  satisfactory  pleasures.     The  extent   of  the  effects 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


671 


of  this  may  be  seen  in  the  characteristics  of  animals  of 
all  the  higher  types. 

For  example,  let  us  take  the  elephant.  Not  to  serve 
as  food  for  man,  but  merely  for  the  sake  of  its  tusks,  of 
which  innumerable  knick-knacks  are  made,  this  noble 
animal  appears  destined  to  speedy  extinction.  To  secure 
it  with  ease,  the  bushes  in  which  it  hides  are  set  on  fire. 
Surrounded  by  flames,  exposed  to  certain  destruction,  it 
gives  affecting  proofs  of  heroism.  Regardless  of  the 
intense  heat  scorching  its  hide,  it  fills  its  trunk  with 
water,  as  Schweinfurth  tells  us,  and  spurts  it  over  its 
offspring,  in  order  to  save  it  at  least  from  destruction. 

I  wish  that  this  story  were  repeated  in  every 
school,  so  that  at  least  a  portion  of  the  future  generation 
might  be  induced  to  abandon  the  fashion  of  using 
the  various  toys  and  other  articles  made  of  ivory. 

In  this  instance  we  clearly  perceive  how  the  love  for 
its  offspring  develops  the  ingenuity  of  the  animal.  In  the 
moment  of  unforeseen  peril  it  applies  the  means  of  cool- 
ing, which,  in  the  heat  of  the  African  desert  it  has  discov- 
ered to  be  effective.  It  betrays  a  higher  impulse,  which, 
without  this  incentive,  could  not,  and  would  not  exist. 

I  hold  that  the  altruistic  impulses,  which  we  observe 
in  animals  living  in  communities,  are  the  result  of  their 
earliest  training,  just  as,  in  the  case  of  human  beings,  a 
man  is  first  initiated  into  the  higher  religion  of  active 
humanity,  in  the  nursery. 

Undoubtedly  much  of  this  feeling  has  already 
become  part  of  human  nature,  as  may  be  seen  in  the 
instinctive  altruistic  impulses,  and  the  disposition  to 
render  assistance  to  others,  as  when,  for  instance,  one 
who  cannot  swim  plunges  into  the  water  to  rescue  a 
drowning  man. 

The  above-described  moderator  of  animal  egotism 
may  be  said  to  prove  its  highest  efficacy,  when  parents 
attempt  by  force  to  instill  into  their  children,  what  the 
nursery  and  the  school  of  life  are  wont  to  teach, — the 
control  of  natural  impulses. 

Generally  the  punishment  of  the  little  ones  causes 
gi  eater  suffering  to  the  parents  than  to  the  children. 
The  former  must  carry  on  that  hardest  of  battles  with 
their  own  affections,  unless  anger  and  indignation  come 
to  their  aid.  The  essentially  moral  significance  of  these 
actions  was  sincerely  appreciated  by  the  great  lover  of 
humanity,  who  applied  this  means  of  education  even  to 
the  highest  ideal,  God,  and  exclaimed:  "For  whom 
the  Lord  loveth,  he  chasteneth." 

It  seems  to  me  that  psychologists  have  never  duly 
recognized  the  importance  of  family  life,  as  the  fountain- 
head  of  the  highest  and  noblest  impulses. 

This  little  sketch  will  have  accomplished  its  purpose, 
if  it  establishes  the  belief  that  love  is  fundamentally  a 
natural  phenomenon,  which  in  all  its  forms  of  evolution, 
even  to  the  veneration  of  the  "  Woman  Soul,"  has  the 
strong  roots  of  its   power  in  family  life. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE    POSSIBILITIES  OF    MAL  OBSERVATION   AND 
LAPSE   OF   MEMORY,   AS   VIEWED   BY 
RICHARD  HODGSON,  LL.  D.* 
To  the  Editor: 

Having  just  finished  reading  the  proceedings  of  the  .Society 
for  Psychical  Research  (London,  England,  May  No.,  1SS7J,  and 
being  especially  interested  in  the  one  hundred  and  thirteen  pages 
by  Richard  Hodgson,  LL.  D.,  on  "The  Possibilities  of  Mal- 
Observation  and  Lapse  of  Memory,"  I  cannot  forbear  jotting 
down  a  few  facts  arising  "  from  a  practical  point  of  view,"  as 
given  by  this  distinguished  critical  scientist  and  investigator,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  readers  of  The  Open  Court. 

Dr.  Hodgson  states  in  his  Introduction,  that  up  to  ten  vears 
ago,  when  he  attended  his  first  seance,  he  had  regarded  the 
opinions  of  Professor  Wallace  on  Spiritualism  as  mainly  correct; 
that  "  in  every  case  the  investigators  have  either  retired  baffled 
or  become  converts";  "  but  hitherto"  (the  Doctor  continues), 
"the  physical  phenomena  which  I  have  witnessed  were  clearlv 
ascertained  by  my  friends  and  myself  to  be  fraudulent,  or  they 
were  in  conclusive  and  accompanied  by  circumstances  which 
strongly  suggested  trickery."  Notwithstanding,  Dr.  Hodgson 
adds:  "Three  years  ago  I  was  still  under  the  impression  that  a 
large  mass  of  reliable  testimony  existed."  But  he  further  states, 
"  I  have  long  since  concluded  that  I  estimated  this  testimony  too 
highly."  In  the  meantime  he  visited  India  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
vestigating the  Theosophical  phenomena  of  Madame  Blavatsky. 
Here  he  compared  the  testimony  of  many  bona  fide  witnesses 
to  events  belonging  to  the  class  of  conjuring  performances.  The 
different  accounts  which  he  heard  from  eye-witnesses  of  the 
tricks  of  the  Hindoo  jugglers  surprised  him.  He  saw  many 
of  these  performances  himself,  and  learned  secretly  from 
the  jugglers  themselves,  how  they  were  done.  This  en- 
abled him  to  detect  more  easily  jugglery  in  Spiritualism.  In 
England,  a  man  by  the  name  of  William  Eglinton  had  dumb- 
founded all  beholders  with  his  slate  performances,  materaliza- 
tions,  and  consoling  test-messages.  Dr.  Hodgson  believed  that 
the  witnesses  were  deceived  by  mal-observation,  lapse  of  memory, 
misdirection  of  attention  and  misdescription,  and  that  Eglinton's 
phenomena  were  all  due  to  conjurers'  tricks.  With  the  advantage 
of  the  experience  gained  from  the  Hindoo  jugglers  he  was  pre- 
pared to  compare  actual  occurrences  with  "  the  misdescriptions 
given  by  intelligent  spectators  who  were  unaware  of  the  modus 
operandi  of  the  tricks."  lie  found  with  the  misdescriptions  of 
honest  intelligent  witnesses  "  the  phenomena  were  perfectly 
explicable  by  conjuring.  But  the  most  eminent  defenders  of 
mediumistic  phenomena  refused  to  admit  their  validity  or  signifi- 
cance," adds  Dr.  Hodgson.  "They  would  not  beliveve  that  mal- 
observation,  treachery  of  memory,  misdirection  of  the  attention, 
and  misdescription  could  lead  so  far  astray  the  honest  intelligent 
witness,  and  that  he  could  be  deceived  by  a  conjurer's  tricks,  and 
mistake  the  same  for  evidences  of  the  presence  of  spirits  and 
their  operations." 

This  being  so,  a  Mr.  S.  J.  Davey  {alias,  Mr.  David  Clifford) 
attempted  all  the  feats  of  the  medium  Eglinton,  and  how  wonder- 
fully he  succeeded  is  described  in  some  one  hundred  pages.  He 
was  supposed  to  have  been  a  genuine  medium,  except  by  the  few 
who  were  in  the  secret;  though,  like  John  W.  Truesdell-,  of  our 
country,  of  Bottom  Facts  notoriety,  he  did  not  affirm  it  to  be 
spirits  or  receive  compensation,  but  finally  declared  he  did  it  all  by 
conjuring.  As  in  Mr.  Truesdell's  case,  he  was  not  believed  by 
the  Spiritualists. 

*  Dr.  Hodgson  is'  secretary  of  the  American  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
Boston,  Massachusetts,  and  is  credited  with  having  exposed  Madame 
Blavatsky,  of  Theosophical  fame. 


672 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


In  Dr.  Hodgson's  article  in  the  May  number  of  the  Psychical 
Research,  he  fully  demonstrates  his  affirmations  of  mal-observation 
by  the  reports  of  honest  intelligent  witnesses,  who,  although 
present  at  the  same  sittings,  vary  so  widely  in  their  descriptions 
of  the  same  proceedings  that  it  amazes  the  reader.  Furthermore, 
Mr.  Davey  utterly  denies  the  reports  of  his  friends  who  assert 
that  they  never  take  their  eyes  from  the  medium  or  the  slate,  or 
that  the  slate  never  leaves  their  hand  or  sight,  or  is  hidden  away 
under  their  coats;  while  Mr.  Davey  assures  them  their  attention 
was  misled  just  long  enough — perhaps  thirty  seconds — for  him 
to  do  what  he  desired  in  order  to  enable  him  to  perform  the  jug- 
glery. What  renders  this  all  the  more  interesting  and  satisfac- 
tory is,  Dr.  Hodgson  and  others  in  the  secret,  witness  the  whole 
operation,  and  know  that  Mr.  Davey's  affirmations  are  correct; 
the  same  as  I  was  privileged  in  thecase  of  Mr.  Truesdell,  and  saw 
him  perform  the  -wonders  himself]  and  know  he  tells  the  truth  when 
he  declares  "  /  know  I  do  it  myself.'" 

What  then  becomes  of  Mr.  Eglinton's  claim  to  spirit  aid  and 
power  when  Mr.  Davey  performs  the  same  feats  by  jugglery? 
And  what  becomes  of  Mr.  Wallace's  boast  that  "The  physical  phe- 
nomena of  Spiritualism  have  all,  or  nearly  all,  been  before  the 
world  for  twenty  years ;  the  theories  and  explanations  of  reviewers 
and  critics  do  not  touch  them,  or  in  any  way  satisfy  any  sane 
man  who  has  repeatedly  witnessed  them;  they  have  been  tested 
and  examined  by  skeptics  of  every  grade  of  incredulity,  men  in 
every  way  qualified  to  detect  imposture  or  to  discover  natural 
causes — trained  physicists,  medical  men,  lawyers,  and  men  of  busi- 
ness— but  in  every  case  the  investigators  have  either  retired 
baffled,  or  become  converts."  Now,  Dr.  Hodgson  has  shown 
that  these  men  were  not  "qualified to  detect  imposture,"  by  prov- 
ing the  imposture  himself;  that  the  jugglery  was  as  far  beyond 
their  perception  as  is  the  ordinary  juggler's  performances  beyond 
the  ken  of  the  crowds  who  gaze  at  them;  that  these  "qualified 
men"  were  not  able,  through  mal-observation,  lapse  of  memory, 
and  misdirection  of  attention,  to  even  describe  the  occurrences  of 
a  sitting  accurately,  when  they  themselves  were  the  chief  partici- 
pants, and  cautioned  constantly  to  watch  every  movement  lest 
they  be  imposed  upon  by  trickery. 

I  cannot  forbear  quoting  from  a  review  of  the  May  number  of 
the  above  proceedings  "  By  a  Firm  Believer,"  published  in  the 
Pall  Mall  Gazette  (London,  September  6,  18S7):  "  The  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  has  been  at  it  again.  *  *  *  When 
Mdme.  Blavatsky  came,  a  few  years  ago,  with  her  bright  army  of 
gurus,  theosophists,  and  chelas,  to  rescue  us  from  the  sordid  reali- 
ties of  nineteenth  century  materialism,  we  were  pleased,  stimu- 
lated, interested,  and  morally  regenerated.  Nobody  asked  the 
Pyschical  Society  to  interfere.  But  they  did;  and  spoiled  the  fun, 
too,  in  no  time.  Actually  sent  a  man  named  Hodgson — a  man 
who  called  himself  a  gentleman — who  reckoned  up  Mdme.  Bla- 
vatsky as  if  he  were  a  detective  and  she  a  common  card-cutter  and 
fortune-teller.  He  found  out  a  lot  of  things  which  he  might  as 
well  have  kept  to  himself;  and  the  end  was  that  Mdme.  Blavatsky 
was  exposed  by  the  very  Society  that  might  have  been  expected 
to  shield  her. 

"  But  one  favorite  of  the  unseen  world  was  left  to  us.  If  we 
wanted  a  message  from  a  deceased  relative,  or  a  hint,  written  by 
shadowy  hands,  as  to  the  final  mystery  of  existence,  we  could  still 
buy  a  three-penny  slate;  bring  it  to  William  Eglinton,  and  there 
we  were.  You  might  wash  that  slate,  and  tie  it  up,  and  screw  it 
down,  and  never  take  your  one  eye  off  it  and  your  other  off  William 
Eglinton;  you  might  grab  it  tight  with  your  right  hand  and  him 
with  your  left;  you  might  keep  your  questions  un uttered  in  the 
most  secret  recesses  of  your  soul — yet  when  you  untied  and 
unscrewed  the  slate  you  would  find  your  answer,  or  your  loved  and 
lost  one's  message,  written  there  in  her  own  writing  and  in  anv 
colored  chalk  you  liked  to  name.     *     *     * 


"  Nobody  would  believe  the  mean  thing  the  Psychical  went 
and  did  under  these  circumstances.  Hodgson  was  in  it, of  course; 
but  they  got  another  man,  named  Davey,  who,  no  doubt,  dropped 
the  suffix  Jones  in  order  to  hide  the  real  nature  of  his  powers.  He 
started  slate-writing  under  the  name  of  Clifford.  *  *  * 
Seconded  from  below,  Davey  set  to  work  to  do  everything  Mr, 
Eglinton  had  done.  He  did  not  get  the  beautiful  consoling 
messages,  *  *  *  but,  of  course,  he  got  the  writing  in  the 
colored  chalks  on  the  washed,  tied,  screwed,  jealously-watched 
slates,  and  all  the  merely  extraordinary  stuff,  such  as  answering 
hidden  questions,  quoting  lines  from  books  that  had  been 
secretly  selected  from  the  shelves  by  the  sitters,  and  other 
things  which  are  on  the  face  of  them  utterly  impossible  except 
by  supernatural  aid.  And  now  he  has  the  audacity  to  turn 
round  and  declare  that  he  is  only  a  conjurer,  and  that  therefore 
poor  Mr.  Eglinton  may  l>e  a  conjurer  too!  *  *  *  The  inference 
is  obvious.  The  evidence  for  Mr.  Davey's  miracles  is  as  striking 
as  that  for  Mr.  Eglinton's.  But  Mr.  Davey's  miracles  were 
conjurer's  tricks.  Ergo,  Mr.  Eglinton's  may  also  be  conjuring 
tricks.  This  may  be  convincing  to  materialists,  who  deem  that 
anything  is  more  probable  than  that  Mr.  Davey  should  be  in 
league  with  the  Powers  of  Darkness.  But  to  us  who  already 
know  that  Mr.  Eglinton  is  in  league  with  the  Powers  of  Light, 
such  an  unholy  compact  is  far  more  credible  than  that  a  number 
of  respectable  ladies  and  gentlemen  should,  even  at  the  instigation 
of  the  man  who  blasted  the  career  of  Mdme.  Blavatsky,  bear  false 
testimony.     *     *     * 

"  They  shall  not  take  our  Eglinton  from  us  as  they  took  our 
Blavatsky." 

Here  follows  a  review  of  Mr.  Morell  Theobald's  book  of  three 
hundred  pages,  in  which  he  "  gives  example  after  example  of  the 
intimate  and  familiar  intercourse  which  he  has  enjoyed  for  years 
with  the  guardian  spirits  of  his  hearth."  One  of  these  "  examples" 
which  "  A  Firm  Believer "  fancies  "  might  touch  even  Mr. 
Hodgson,  so  unforced  is  its  simple  domestic  pathos,"  must 
suffice. 

"  After  breakfast,  while  M.  was  in  another  room,  she  heard 
the  knife  machine  going  in  the  kitchen,  where  no  one  was,  for 
the  boy  who  cleans  the  knives  was  out;  and  on  my  daughter 
going  in  she  found  all  the  knives  which  we  used  for  breakfast 
cleaned  and  put  on  the  table.  In  the  afternoon,  the  kettle  was 
again  filled  by  our  little  invisible  friends  and  put  to  boil;  and 
while  both  were  sitting  in  the  room,  the  teapot  was  half  filled 
with  boiling  water  and  the  tea  made."  We  leave  to  the  reader 
to  decide  between  the  probabilities  of  the  above  statement  com- 
pared with  the  probabilities  of  Dr.  Hodgson's  theory  of  Mal- 
Observation    and     Lapse   of  Memory — or,  possibly,    a   delusion 

bordering  on  the  very  verge  of  insanity. 

Ella  E.  Gibson. 


To  the  Editors : 

Dear  Sirs  : — I  have  read  with  much  interest  articles  in  The 
Open  Court,  from  time  to  time,  and  though  sometimes  finding 
occasion  to  differ  from  the  conclusions  reached,  I  have  been  glad 
to  note  the  general  tone  of  fairness  pervading  the  whole.  Ac- 
cordingly, as  on  page  594  of  their  present  volume,  your  reference 
to  "  A  Clergyman  in  Jail  in  Boston,"  shows  that  the  writer  is  not 
in  possession  of  the  full  facts  on  the  subject,  I  wish  you  would 
call  the  attention  of  your  readers  to  one  or  two  facts  in  regard 
to  the  imprisonment  of  Mr.  Davis. 

The  fact  is  that  Mr.  Davis,  before  attempting  to  preach,  ap- 
plied to  the  police  commissioners  and  inquired  "  if  policemen 
would  be  instructed  to  break  up  or  interfere  with  preaching  ser- 
vices conducted  on  the  'common'  and  other  public  grounds  of 
the  city,  provided  such  meetings  did  not  obstruct  public  travel 
or  cause  a  breach  of  the  peace."  The  commissioners  replied  "Oh 
no,  we  should  never  do  that,"  and  Mr.  Davis  held  his  meetings. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


673 


The  ordinance  under  which  he  was  arrested  was  one  which  had 
fallen  into  disuse — like  the  law  against  smoking  on  Boston  streets. 
Its  avowed  purpose  was  to  regulate  preaching,  but  the  present 
committee  on  the  common  used  it  to  prohibit  all  preaching — re- 
fusing permits  to  many  reputable  citizens.  Mr.  Davis  did  not 
proceed  in  a  spirit  of  defiance,  but  believing  that  under  the  State 
and  National  constitution  he  had  a  right  to  express  himself  upon 
the  "  Common,"  desired  to  make  a  test  case  and  obtain  an  author- 
itative decision.  Many  good  citizens — other  than  church  mem- 
bers— agree  with  him.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  has 
decided  in  favor  of  the  ordinance,  but  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Michigan  in  a  similar  case  has  decided  against  the  constitution- 
ality of  the  ordinance.  It  is  a  case  for  honest  difference  of  opin- 
ion, and  we  hope  to  have  the  matter  carried  up  higher.  In  the 
mean  time  it  is  only  fair  to  ask  that  those  who  have  only  a 
partial  knowledge  of  the  facts  should  suspend  their  judgment  in 
the  matter.  Our  Boston  city  government  has  been  wonderfully 
vigorous  in  prosecuting  the  offences  of  the  preachers,  and  shame- 
fully derelict  in  prosecuting  far  more  serious  violations  of  law.  Will 
you  not  again  call  attention  to  this  matter  in  The  Open  Court, 
and  a  little  more  charitably  ? 

Sincerely  yours  in  the  search  for  truth, 

H.  B.  Hastings, 
13  George  street,  Chelsea,  Mass. 


145  Lilac  St.,  Providence,  R.  I.,  Oct.  6,  1SS7. 
To  Editor  of  Open  Court : 

In  your  journal  of  August,  1SS7,  I  find  an  article  from  the 
pen  of  Ella  E.  Gibson  from  which  I  copy  the  following:  "This 
commission,  'The  Seybert, '  has  so  well  done  its  work,  even  in  its 
preliminary  report,  that  it  would  seem  as  if  an  unprejudiced  per- 
son need  only  to  read  this  book  to  be  convinced  that  all  the  so- 
called  spirit  manifestations  can  be  produced  by  individuals  now- 
living." 

Again  I  quote  from  same  article:  "  But  I  will  not  detain  the 
readers  of  Open  Court  with  my  remarks,  but  refer  them  to  the 
book  itself,  only  promising  that  if  they  will  read  it  carefully  and 
without  prejudice,  they  will  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the 
believers  in  spiritualism,  who  have  been  converted  to  its  theories 
by  any  of  the  so-called  mediums  exposed  by  this  commission,  will 
feel  that  they  have  been  most  egregiously  humbugged." 

I,  as  one  of  the  class  of  spiritualists  included  in  the  so-called 
humbugged,  shall  esteem  it  a  favor  if  you  will  give  the  following 
facts  a  space  in  your  journal : 

In  my  early  investigation  of  spiritualism,  I  with  my  wife 
attended  a  spiritual  seance  in  Birmingham,  England,  "seeking  for 
truth. "  A  young  lady  "  a  stranger "  also  an  investigator, 
remarked  to  my  wife  that  she  earnestly  desired  to  know  if 
spiritualism  was  true.  Nothing  of  importance  occurred  at  our 
first  attendance ;  two  weeks  later  we  again  attended,  and  to  our 
surprise  the  young  lady  before  named  was  placed  amongst  the 
other  mediums  present.  Shortly  she  arose,  being  in  deep  trance 
and  standing  before  me  a  few  seconds  without  uttering  a  word — 
then  putting  out  her  hand  I  took  hold  of  it,  and  immediately  the 
control  through  her  said  :  "Ben,  my  boy,  do  you  recognize  me?" 
and  puling  me  from  my  seat  placed  my  right  hand  upon  her  left 
arm,  "the  medium's,"  and  said,  "Ben,  my  boy,  there  is  no  broken 
limbs  in  heaven;  I  have  both  arms  there."  The  medium's  arm  was 
icy  cold  ;  I  did  not  like  the  touch,  and  withdrew  my  hand,  immedi- 
ately. She  again  placed  my  hand  upon  the  arm,  which  felt  quite 
warm,  and  natural  as  ever,  then  said,  "by  embracing  this  glorious 
truth,  my  boy,  you  have  given  your  Father  much  joy  in  his 
heavenly  home."      Much  more  was  said  also. 

My  father  had  lost  his  left  arm,  but  I  did  not  know  he 
had  broken  it,  which  puzzled  me; but  relating  the  circumstance  to 
my  oldest  sister  she  told  me  that  he  fell  and  broke  it.   "This  could 


not  be  mind-reading"  and  I  would  ask,  was  that  being  egregiously 
humbugged?     "I  think  not." 

About  20  years  ago  we  had  in  our  family  a  niece  of  my  wife, 
that  was  with  us  from  five  years  old  until  she  married.  She 
became  a  medium  for  physical  manifestations,  and  at  eleven 
years  of  age,  a  table  five  feet  by  two  and-a-half  feet,  with  the  tips 
of  her  fingers  upon  it,  would  raise  upon  two  legs  and  wriggling 
until  it  reached  the  lounge  would  then  rest  its  end  on  the  lounge 
and  rear  up  against  the  wall  of  room. — She  would  also  under  con- 
trol write  long  messages — talking  to  my  wife  at  same  time,  and 
would  describe  spirits  present  and  give  names  correctly. — She 
would  read  the  characteristics  of  people  correctly,  even  strangers 
from  letters  placed  to  her  forehead. 

"  At  1 1  years  was  she  a  humbug  ?" 

I  am  now  living  in  the  family  of  another  niece.  She  has  two 
children  mediums,  a  girl  of  nine  years  and  boy  of  ten  years;  both 
see  spirits  and  describe  them  correctly.  They  also  hear  the  spirits 
talk,  and  tell  me  what  they  say  at  times — (are  they  also  humbug- 
ging me?)  "  Let  Ella  E.  Gibson  answer,"  and  honestly  and 
thoroughly  investigate  before  she  attempts  to  pass  judgment  upon 
a  subject  of  which  she  is  evidently  totally  ignorant.  In  30  years 
of  experience  in  spiritualism  I  have  received  evidence  enough  of 
its  truth  to  fill  a  dozen  of  your  journals. 

Yours  for  truth, 

Benj'n.  Cross. 

BOOK    REVIEWS. 

First  Steps  in  Geometry.  Easy  Lessons  in  the  Differ- 
ential Calculus.  By  Richard  A.  Proctor.  London: 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.     1887. 

The  author  of  these  two  little  books — the  well-known  astron- 
omer and  popular  writer,  Richard  A.  Proctor — has  in  these  mathe- 
matical text  books  again  shown  his  ability  of  presenting  difficult 
subjects  in  a  palatable  and  easily  comprehended  manner.  We  let 
the  author  speak  for  himself,  lie  says  in  the  preface  to  his  First 
Geometry: 

"The  object  I  have  had  in  view  in  preparing  this  little  work 
has  been  to  remove  for  young  students  in  geometry  the  dif- 
ficulties which  I  remember  encountering  when  a  beginner  myself. 
Teachers  and  books  explained  then,  as  now,  how  certain  problems 
are  to  be  solved,  but  they  did  not  show  how  the  student  was  to 
seek  for  solutions  for  himself.  They  strove  to  impart  readiness 
in  following  demonstrations  rather  than  facility  in  obtaining 
solutions.  My  method  of  showing  here  why  such  and  such  paths 
should  be  tried,  even  though  some  may  have  to  be  given  up,  in 
searching  for  the  solution  of  problems,  will,  I  believe,  do  more  to 
teach  the  voting  student  how  to  work  out  solutions  for  himself 
than  any  number  of  solutions  given  him  for  reading." 

Similarly  he  declares  in  his  Easy  Lessons  in  the  Differential 
Calculus:  "I  first  took  interest  in  algebra  when  I  found  that 
problems  in  Single  and  Double  Position  could  be  solved  much 
more  readily  by  algebra  than  by  the  rather  absurd  rules  given  for 
such  problems  in  books  on  arithmetic.  In  like  manner,  I  could 
find  no  interest  in  the  Differential  Calculus  till,  after  wading 
through  two  hundred  pages  of  matter  having  no  apparent  use  (and 
for  the  most  part  really  useless),  I  found  the  calculus  available 
for  the  ready  solution  of  problems  in  Maxima  and  Minima.  This 
little  work  has  been  planned  with  direct  reference  to  my  own 
experience  at  school  and  college.  The  usual  method  of  teaching 
the  Differential  and  Integral  Calculus  seems  to  be  almost  as 
absurd  (quite  as  absurd  it  could  scarcely  be)  as  the  plan  by  which 
children,  instead  of  being  taught  how  to  speak — whether  their 
own  language  or  another — are  made  to  learn  by  rote  rules  relating 
to  the  philosophy  of  language  such  as  not  one  grammarian  in  ten 
thousand  ever  thinks  about  in  after  life." 


674 


THK    OPEN    COURT. 


Poems.  By  David Ativood  Wasson.  Boston:  Lee  &  Shepard,  iSSS. 
This  handsome  little  volume  is  edited  by  Mrs.  E.  D.  Cheney, 
and  contains  three  long  poems  with  many  short  ones,  among 
which  are  twenty-seven  sonnets.  One  of  the  finest  of  these  last 
is  addressed  to  Charles  Sumner,  and  begins  thus: 

"Thou  and  the  stars,  our  summer  still  shine  on! 
No  dark  will  dim,  no  spending  waste,  thy  ray  ; 

And  we  as  soon  could  doubt  the  milky  way, 
Whether  enduring  be  its  silver  zone, 
As  question  of  Ihy  truth." 

In  another  fine  passage,  the  poet  tells  those  who  love  him  best: 
"  But  aught  of  inward  faith  must  I  forego, 
Or  miss  one  drop  from  Truth's  baptismal  hand, 

Think  poorer  thoughts,  pray  cheaper  prayers,  and  grow 
Less  worthy  trust  to  meet  your  heart's  demand? 
Farewell!     Your  wish  I  for  your  sake  deny; 
Rebel  to  love  in  truth  to  love  am  I." 

This  heroic  self-respect  gives  a  peculiar  charm  to  all  Mr. 
Wasson  says  about  religion,  for  instance  in  these  lines  from  the 
opening  poem  "Orpheus": 

"  Vet  wherefore  cry 
To  Heaven?     'Tis  the  trick  of  craven  souls 
To  vex  the  gods  with  importunity, 
Entreating  boons  the  base  petitioner 
But  from  himself  should  seek.      The  gods  love  them 
That  even  against  the  gods,  should  there  be  need, 
Dare  stand  erect  and  to  themselves  be  just." 
Such  quotations  say  more  for  the  author  than  any  comment. 
His   many  friends    will  be  glad  to   find   here  printed  for  the  first 
time,   "the  poem  which  he    hoped  would   express  to   others  the 
height  and  depth  of  his  thought."     It  is  published  unfinished,  as 
he  left  it,  and  under  the  title,   given  by   Mrs  Cheney,    but  in  his 
own   words,    "  The   Babes   of    God."     The    creation     of  man    is 
represented  as  commencing  with  the  birth    in  heaven  of  child- 
like souls  free  from  sin   or    error,  and    perfectly  contented,  until 
they  begin  to  feel  the  need  of  expansion  into  fuller  and  deeper  life. 
This  new  desire  makes   them    ask  their  Father's   leave  to  depart 
out  of  celestial  bliss  and  brightness,  in  search  of  trials,  labor,  and 
pain;  which   they  meet  heaped  up  into  a  black  cloud   over  their 
path.     Unfortunately,  we  have   to  leave    them    plunging  bravelv 
into  the  darkness.     But  other  poems   do   full  justice  to   the  real 
brightness  of  our  earthly  home,    which  nowhere    appears  sunnier 
than   in    "AIT  Well,"  which,  as  Mrs.   Cheney  justly  says,    "is  a 
classic,  and  stands  unrivaled  in  American  poetry  for   its  exquisite 
beaut\ ,  its  far-reaching  spiritual  insight,   its  depth  of  faith,  its  joy 
of  hope." 

It  has  also  the  great  charm  of  being  much  more  musical  than 
most  ot  its  companions,  which  are  on  the  whole   rather  too  much 
weighed  down  by  gravity  of  theme  and  solemnity  of  tone  to  have 
much   chance  of  popularity.     Thoughtful  readers  will   find  much 
to  value;  though  they  may  regret  the  preservation  of  some  hasty- 
utterances  of  indignation,  like  the  sonnet  "To  Irish-born    Amer- 
icans."    What   is  most  to   be   regretted,    however,    is    that    Mr. 
Wasson  did  not  more  frequently  content   himself  with  giving  us 
such  beautiful  pictures,  and  in  such  musical  words,  as  these: 
"  And  golden  the  buttercup  blooms  by  the  way 
A  song  of  the  joyous  ground; 
While  the  melody  rained  from  yonder  spray 
Is  a  blossom  in  fields  of  sound." 
"  Rills,  in  melody  running 
Silver  the  solar  ray, 
Age,  its  gray  life  sunning, 
Purls  of  the  balm\  day; 
Youths,  on  the  river  rowing, 

Path  it  with  fading  foam; 
Maids  on  the  tide  are  strowing 
Leaves,  that,  adrift,  become 
Barques  of  the  fine  romances 

Writ  in  their  dreamful  eyes, 
Barques  for  their  fairy  fancies, 

Freighted  with  sweet  surmise." 

F.  M.  H. 


Poems  and  Translations.  By  Mary  Morgan  (Gowan  Lea). 
Montreal:  J.  Theo.  Robinson,  18S7. 
The  authors  of  these  poems  which  are  now  collected  in  a 
handsome  and  elegantly  bound  volume,  is  well  known  to  the 
readers  of  The  Open  Court,  who  will  remember  having  often 
seen  verses  from  her  pen,  full  of  thought  and  poetry,  in  its 
columns.  Her  nom  dc  plume,  Gowan,  is  Scotch,  and  means  in 
English,  as  she  tells  us  in  one  ol  her  poems,  a  wild  daisy,  the 
poet's  flower.  As  a  motto  she  selected  a  tew  verses  by  the  philoso- 
pher Fichte: 

"  Das  ewig  Eine 
Lebt  mir  im  Leben,  sieht  in  meinem  Sehen. 
Nichts  ist  denn  Gott;  und  Gott  ist  nichts  denn  Leben,  etc. 

For  those  who  are  not  familiar  with  her  style,  we  select  a  few 
poems  which  pleased  us  most. 

To  Nature. 
Nature,  I  would  be  thy  child, 
Sit  and  worship  at  thy  feet; 
Read  the  truth  upon  thy  face, 

Wait  upon  thine  accent  sweet: 
I  would  put  my  hand  in  thine, 

Bow  my  head  upon  thy  knee, 
Live  upon  thy  love  alone, 

Fearless,  trusting  all  to  thee. 

Life's  Purpose. 
"  Life's  purpose  is  accomplished  !"  exclaimed  one, 
As  with  a  sigh,  that  was  not  all  of  pain 
Nor  yet  of  pleasure  all,  he  turned  again, 
Repeating,  "  what  Iaimcd  to  do  is  done  !" 
Then  came  another  voice :     "  Your  course  is  run ! 
Tie  longed-for  goal  no  sooner  we  attain, 
Then  we  descry  that  fairer  heights  remain, 
And  find  at  last  our  work  is  but  begun. 
"The  call  becomes, '  So  much  remains  to  do!' 
Our  feet  have  traveled  but  a  little  way; 
And  we  have  lagged  perhaps,  and  blundered  too, 
And  wish  we  could  forget — thankful  that  day 
Is  still  before  us— that  the  flush  of  red 
Is  not  the  evening  glow,  but  dawn  instead." 

From  the  translations  we   select  a  poem     of   F.   Halm:    "  My 
Heart,  I  Wish  to  ask  Thee." 

My  heart,  I  wish  to  ask  thee, 

What  then  is  love,  O  say? 
"  Two  souls  with  one  thought  only, 
Two  hearts  tuned  to  one  lav!  " 
And  say,  whence  comethlove  then? 

"  We  know  not  of  the  where!  " 
And  say  how  goeth  love  then? 

"  What  goes  was  never  there!" 
And  tell  me,  what  is  pure  love? 

"  For  self  it  hath  no  will!" 
And  when  is  love  the  deepest? 

"When  it  is  calm  and  still !  " 
And  when  is  love  the  richest? 
"That  is  it  when  it  gives  !" 

And  O,  how  talkest  love,  then? 

"  Itdost  not  talk— it  lives!" 


True  happiness  (if  understood) 
Consists  alone  in  doing  good. 

— SOMERVILLE. 

Ignorant  of  happiness,  and  blind  to  ruin, 
Plow  oft  are  our  petitions  our  undoing. 


No  man  is  blest  by  accident  or  guess; 
True  wisdom  is  the  price  of  happiness. 

When  the  father  is  too  fondly  kind, 

Such  seed  he  sows,  such  harvest  shall  he  find. 


-Harte. 


— Young. 


-Dryden. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


675 


THE   LOST  MANUSCRIPT. 

BY    GUSTAV    FREYTAG. 

CHAPTER  II. 
{Concluded). 

She  also  partook  of  the  aversion  of  her  parents  for 
the  neighboring  family.  Even  as  a  little  child  she  had 
passed  poutingly  before  the  door  of  that  house;  never 
had  her  foot  crossed  its  threshold,  and  when  good 
Mrs.  Hahn  once  asked  her  to  shake  hands,  it  was  long 
before  she  could  make  up  her  mind  to  take  her  hand 
out  of  her  apron  pocket.  Of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
neighboring  house  the  one  most  annoying  to  her  was 
young  Fritz  Hahn.  She  seldom  associated  with  him, 
but  unfortunately  she  was  always  in  some  embarrass- 
ment which  enabled  Fritz  Hahn  to  act  the  part  ot  her 
protector.  Before  she  went  to  school,  the  eldest  son  of 
Frau  Knips,  already  quite  a  big  fellow,  who  painted 
fine  pictures  and  birthday  cards,  and  sold  them  to  peo- 
ple in  the  neighborhood,  wished  to  compel  her  to  give 
the  money  she  held  in  her  hand  for  a  devil's  head  which 
he  had  painted,  and  which  no  one  in  the  street  would 
have;  he  treated  her  so  roughly  and  so  ill,  that  contrary 
to  her  wont,  she  became  frightened  and  gave  him  her 
groschens,  and  weeping,  held  the  horrible  picture  in  her 
hand.  Fritz  Hahn  happened  to  come  that  way,  in- 
quired what  had  taken  place,  and  when  she  complained 
to  him  of  Knips'  violent  conduct,  he  grew  so  indignant 
that  she  became  frightened  about  him.  He  set  upon  the 
lad,  who  was  his  school-fellow  and  in  a  class  above 
him,  and  began  to  thrash  him  on  the  spot,  while  the 
younger  Knips  looked  on  laughing,  with  his  hands  in 
his  pocket.  Fritz  pushed  the  naughty  boy  against  the 
wall  and  compelled  him  to  give  up  the  money  and  take 
back  his  devil.  But  this  meeting  did  not  help  to  make 
her  like  Fritz  any  the  better.  She  could  not  bear  him, 
because  already  as  an  undergraduate  he  wore  spectacles, 
and  always  looked  so  serious.  And  when  she  came 
from  school,  and  he  went  with  his  portfolio  to  the 
lecture,  she  always  endeavored  to  avoid  him. 

On  another  occasion  they  happened  to  meet.  She 
was  among  the  first  girls  in  the  Institute ;  the  oldest 
Knips  was  already  magister,  and  the  younger  appren- 
tice in  her  father's  business,  and  Fritz  Hahn  had  just 
become  a  doctor.  She  had  rowed  herself  between  the 
trees  in  the  park  till  the  boat  struck  a  snag  and  her  oar 
fell  into  the  water.  As  she  was  bending  down  to  re- 
cover it,  she  also  lost  her  hat  and  parasol.  Laura,  in  her 
embarrassment,  looked  to  the  shore  for  help.  Again  it 
so  happened  that  Fritz  Hahn  was  passing,  lost  in  thought. 
He  heard  the  faint  cry  which  had  escaped  her, 
jumped  into  the  muddy  water,  fished  up  the  hat  and 
parasol,  and  drew  the  boat  to  the  shore.  Here  he  of- 
fered Laura  his  hand  and  helped  her  on  to  dry  ground. 
Laura  undoubtedly  owed  him  thanks,  and  he  had  also 
treated  her  with  respect  and  called  her  Miss.     But  then 


he  looked  very  ridiculous,  he  bowed  so  awkardly,  and 
he  stared  ather  sofixedly  through  his  glasses.  And  when 
she  afterwards  learned  that  he  had  caught  a  terrible 
cold  from  his  jump  into  the  swamp,  she  became  indig- 
nant, both  at  herself  and  at  him,  because  she  had  screamed 
when  there  was  no  danger,  and  he  had  rushed  to 
her  aid  with  such  useless  chivalry.  She  could  have 
helped  herself,  and  now  the  Hahns  would  think  she 
owed  them  no  end  of  thanks. 

On  this  point  she  might  have  been  at  ease,  for  Fritz 
had  quietly  changed  his  clothes  and  dried  them  in  his 
room. 

But  indeed  it  was  quite  natural  that  the  two  hostile 
children  should  avoid  each  other,  for  Fritz  was  of  quite 
a  different  nature.  He  also  was  an  only  child,  and  had 
been  brought  up  tenderly  by  a  kind-hearted  father  and 
a  too  anxious  mother.  He  was,  from  his  earliest  child- 
hood, quiet  and  self-possessed,  unassuming  and  studi- 
ous. In  his  home  he  had  created  for  himself  a  little 
world  of  his  own  where  he  indulged  in  out-of-the-way 
studies.  Whilst  around  him  was  the  merry  hum  of  life, 
he  pored  over  Sanscrit  characters,  and  investigated  the 
relations  between  the  wild  spirits  that  hovered  over  the 
Teutoburger  battle,  and  the  gods  of  the  Veda,  who 
floated  over  palm-woods  and  bamboos  in  the  hot  valley 
of  the  Ganges.  He  also  was  the  pride  and  joy  of  his 
family;  his  mother  never  failed  to  bring  him  his  cup  of 
coffee  every  morning;  then  she  seated  herself  opposite 
him  with  her  bunch  of  keys,  and  looked  silently  at  him 
while  he  ate  his  breakfast,  scolded  him  gently  for 
working  so  late  into  the  previous  night,  and  told  him 
that  she  could  not  sleep  quietly  till  she  heard  him  push 
back  his  chair  and  place  his  boots  before  the  door  to  be 
cleaned.  After  breakfast,  Fritz  went  to  his  father  to  bid 
him  good  morning,  and  he  knew  that  it  gave  his  father 
pleasure  when  he  walked  with  him  for  a  few  minutes 
in  the  garden,  observing  the  growth  of  his  favorite  flowers, 
and  when,  above  all,  he  approved  of  his  garden  projects. 
This  was  the  onlv  point  on  which  Herr  Hahn  was 
sometimes  at  variance  with  his  son;  and,  as  he  could 
not  refute  his  son's  arguments,  nor  restrain  his  own 
strong  aesthetic  inclinations,  he  took  steps  which  are 
often  resorted  to  by  greater  politicians — he  secretly  pre- 
pared his  projects,  and  surprised  him  with  the  execu- 
tion of  them. 

Amidst  this  tranquil  life,  intercourse  with  the  Profes- 
sor was  the  greatest  pleasure  of  the  day  to  our  young 
scholar;  it  elevated  him  and  made  him  happy.  He 
had,  while  yet  a  student,  heard  the  first  course  of  lect- 
ures given  by  Felix  Werner  at  the  University.  A 
friendship  had  gradually  arisen,  such  as  is  perhaps  only 
possible  among  highly  cultivated,  sound  men  of  learn- 
ing. Fritz  became  the  devoted  confidant  of  the  inex- 
haustible activity  of  his  friend.  Every  investigation  of 
the  Professor,   with  its  results,  was  imparted  to   him, 


676 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


even  to  the  most  minute  details,  and  the  pleasure 
of  every  new  discovery  was  shared  by  the  neighbors. 
Thus  the  best  portion  of  their  life  was  passed  together. 
Fritz,  indeed,  as  the  younger,  was  more  a  receiver  than 
giver;  but  it  was  just  this  that  made  the  relation  so  firm 
and  deep.  This  intercourse  was  not  without  occasional 
differences,  as  is  natural  to  scholars;  for  both  were 
hasty  in  judgment;  both  were  very  exacting  in  the  re- 
quirements which  they  made  on  themselves  and  others, 
and  both  were  easily  excited.  But  such  differences  were 
soon  settled,  and  only  served  to  increase  the  loving  con- 
sideration with  which  they  treated  each  other. 

Through  this  friendship  the  bitter  relations  between 
the  two  houses  were  somewhat  mitigated.  Even  Hen- 
Hummel  could  not  help  showing  some  respect  for  the 
Doctor,  as  his  highly-honored  tenant  paid  such  striking 
marks  of  distinction  to  the  son  of  the  enemy.  For  Herr 
Ilummel's  respect  for  his  tenant  was  unbounded.  He 
heard  that  the  Professor  was  quite  celebrated  in  his 
specialty,  and  he  was  inclined  to  value  earthly  fame 
when,  as  in  this  case,  there  was  profit  in  it.  Besides,  the 
Professor  was  a  most  excellent  tenant.  He  never 
protested  against  any  rule  which  Herr  Hummel,  as 
chief  magistrate  of  the  house,  prescribed.  He  had 
once  asked  the  advice  of  Herr  Hummel  concern- 
ing the  investment  of  some  capital.  He  possessed 
neither  dog  nor  cat,  gave  no  parties,  and  did  not 
sing  with  his  window  open,  nor  play  bravura  pieces 
on  the  piano.  But  the  main  point  was,  that  he  showed 
to  Frau  Hummel  and  Laura,  whenever  he  met  them,  the 
most  chivalrous  politeness,  which  well  became  the  learned 
gentleman.  Frau  Hummel  was  enchanted  with  her 
tenant;  and  Hummel  deemed  it  expedient  not  to  men- 
tion his  intention  of  raising  the  rent  to  his  family,  be- 
cause he  foresaw  a  general  remonstrance  from  the  ladies. 

Now  the  hobgoblin  who  ran  to  and  fro  between 
both  houses,  throwing  stones  in  the  way,  and  making 
sport  of  the  men,  had  tried  also  to  excite  these  two 
noble  souls  against  each  other.  But  his  attempt  was  a 
miserable  failure;  these  worthy  men  were  not  disposed 
to  dance  to  his  discordant  pipes. 

Early  the  following  morning,  Gabriel  took  a  letter 
from  his  master  to  the  Doctor.  As  he  passed  the  hos- 
tile threshold,  Dorchen,  the  servant  of  the  Hahn  family, 
hastily  came  toward  him  with  a  letter  from  her  young 
master  to  the  Professor.  The  messengers  exchanged 
letters,  and  the  two  friends  read  them  at  the  same 
moment. 

The  Profess   r  wrote:  — 

"  My  dear  friend — Do  not  be  angry  with  me  be- 
cause f  have  again  been  vehement;  the  cause  of  it  was 
as  absurd  as  possible.  I  must  honestly  tell  you  that  what 
put  me  out  was  your  having  so  unconditionally  refused 
to  edit  with  me  a  Latin  author.  For  the  possibility  of 
finding  the  lost    manuscript,   which    we  in   our  pleasant 


dreams  assumed  for  some  minutes,  was  the  more  entic- 
ing to  me,  because  it  opened  a  prospect  of  an  employ- 
ment in  common  to  us  both.  And  if  I  wish  to  draw 
you  within  the  narrow  circle  of  my  studies,  you  may 
take  for  granted  that  it  is  not  only  from  personal  feel- 
ing, but  far  more  from  the  wish  of  my  heart  to  avail 
myself  of  your  ability  for  the  branch  of  learning"  to 
which  I  confine  myself." 

Fritz,  on  the  other  hand,  wrote: — 

"  My  very  dear  friend — I  feel  most  painfully  that 
my  irritability  yesterday  spoilt  for  us  both  a  charming 
evening.  But  do  not  think  that  I  mean  to  dispute  your 
right  to  represent  to  me  the  prolixity  and  want  of  sys- 
tem in  my  labors.  It  was  just  because  what  you  said 
touched  a  cord,  the  secret  dissonance  of  which  I  have 
myself  sometimes  felt,  that  I  for  a  moment  lost  my 
equanimity.  You  are  certainly  right  in  much  that  you 
said,  only  I  beg  you  to  believe  that  my  refusal  to  under- 
take a  great  work  in  conjunction  with  you  was  neither 
selfishness  nor  want  of  friendship.  I  am  convinced  that 
I  ought  not  to  abandon  the  work  I  have  undertaken, 
even  though  too  extensive  for  my  powers;  least  of  all 
exchange  it  for  a  new  circle  of  interests,  in  which  my 
deficient  knowledge  would  be  a  burden  to  you." 

After  the  reception  of  these  letters  both  were  some- 
what more  at  ease.  But  certain  expressions  in  them 
made  some  further  explanation  necessary  to  both,  so 
they  set  to  work  and  wrote  again  to  each  other,  shortly 
and  pithily,  as  became  thoughtful  men.  The  Professor 
answered:  "I  thank  you  from  my  heart,  my  dear 
Fritz,  for  your  letter;  but  I  must  repeat  that  you  al- 
ways estimate  your  own  worth  too  low,  and  this  is  all 
that  I  can  reproach  you  with." 

Fritz  replied:  "  How  deeply  I  do  feel  touched  by 
your  friendship  at  this  moment.  This  only  will  I  say, 
that  among  the  many  things  I  have  to  learn  from  you, 
there  is  nothing  I  need  more  than  your  modesty;  and 
when  you  speak  of  your  knowledge,  so  comprehensive 
and  fertile  in  results,  as  being  limited,  be  not  angry  if  I 
strive  after  the  same  modesty  with  regard  to  my  work." 

After  sending  his  letter,  the  Professor,  still  disqui- 
eted, went  to  his  lecture,  and  was  conscious  that  his 
mind  wandered  during  his  discourse.  Fritz  hastened 
to  the  library,  and  diligently  collected  all  the  references 
which  he  could  find  respecting  the  Castle  of  Bielstein. 
At  midday,  on  their  return  home,  each  of  them  read 
the  second  letter  of  his  friend;  then  the  Professor  fre- 
quently looked  at  the  clock,  and  when  it  struck  three  he 
hastily  put  on  his  hat  and  went  with  great  strides  across 
the  street  to  the  hostile  house.  As  he  laid  hold  of  the 
door-knob  of  the  Doctor's  room,  he  felt  a  counter  press- 
ure from  within.  Pushing  the  door  open,  he  found 
Fritz  standing  before  him,  also  with  his  hat  on,  intend 
ingto  visit  him.  Without  saying  a  word  the  two  friends 
embraced  each  other. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


677 


"  I  bring  you  good  tidings  from  the  antiquary," 
began  the  Professor. 

"  And  I  of  the  old  castle,"  exclaimed  Fritz. 

"Listen,"  said  the  Professor.  "The  antiquary 
bought  the  monk's  book  of  a  retail  dealer  who  travels 
about  the  country  collecting  curiosities  and  old  books. 
The  man  was  brought  into  my  presence;  he  had  himself 
bought  the  little  book  in  the  town  of  Rossau,  at  an  auc- 
tion of  the  effects  of  a  cloth-maker,  together  with  an  old 
cupboard  and  some  carved  stools.  It  is  at  least  possible 
that  the  remarks  in  cipher  at  the  end,  which  evade  un- 
practised eyes,  may  never,  after  the  death  of  the 
friar,  have  excited  observation  nor  caused  investigation. 
Perhaps  there  ma)'  still  be  preserved  in  some  church 
record  at  Rossau  an  account  of  the  life  and  death  of  the 
monk  Tobias  Bachhuber." 

"  Well,  then,"  assented  Fritz,  much  pleased,  "  a 
community  of  his  confession  still  exists.  But  Castle 
Bielstein  lies  at  the  distance  of  half  an  hour  from  the 
town  of  Rossau,  on  a  woody  height — see,  here  is  the 
map.  It  formerly  belonged  to  a  sovereign,  but  in  the 
last  century  it  passed  into  private  hands;  the  buildings, 
however,  remain.  It  is  represented  in  this  map  as  an 
old  castle,  at  present  the  residence  of  a  yeoman.  My 
father  also  knows  about  the  house;  he  has  seen  it  from 
the  high  road  on  his  journeys,  and  describes  it  as  a  long 
extent  of  building,  with  balconies  and  a  high  roof." 

"  The  threads  interweave  themselves  into  a  good 
web,"  said  the  Professor,  complacently. 

"  Stop  a  moment,"  cried  the  Doctor,  eagerly.  "  The 
traditions  of  this  province  have  been  collected  by  one  of 
our  friends.  The  man  is  trustworthv.  Let  us  see 
whether  he  has  recorded  any  reminiscences  of  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Rossau."  He  hastily  opened  and  looked 
into  a   book,  and  then  gazed  speechless  at  his  friend. 

The  Professor  seized  the  volume  and  read  this  short 
notice:  "  It  is  said  that  in  the  olden  times  the  monks  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Bielstein  walled  up  a  great  treas- 
ure in  the  castle." 

Again  did  a  vision  of  the  old,  mysterious  manuscript 
arise  before  the  eyes  of  the  friends  so  distinctly  that  it 
might  be  seized.. 

"  It  is  certainly  not  impossible  that  the  manuscript 
may  yet  lie  concealed,"  remarked  the  Professor,  at  last, 
with  assumed  composure.  "Examples  of  similar  dis- 
coveries are  not  lacking.  It  is  not  long  since  that  a 
ceiling  of  a  room  in  the  old  house  of  the  proprietor  of 
my  home  was  broken  through;  it  was  a  double  ceiling, 
and  the  empty  space  contained  a  number  of  records  and 
papers  concerning  the  rights  of  possession,  and  some  old 
jewels.  The  treasure  had  been  concealed  in  the  time  of 
the  great  war,  and  no  one  for  a  century  had  heeded  the 
lowly  ceiling  of  the  little  room." 

"Naturally,"  exclaimed  Fritz,  rubbing  his  hands, 
"  also  within   the  facing  of  the  old  chimneys  there  are 


sometimes  empty  spaces.  A  brother  of  my  mother's 
found,  on  rebuilding  his  house,  in  such  a  place  a  pot  full 
of  coins."  He  drew  out  his  purse.  "  Here  is  one  of 
them,  a  beautiful  Swedish  thaler;  my  uncle  gave  it  to 
me  at  the  confirmation  as  a  luck-penny,  and  I  have  car- 
ried it  in  my  purse  every  since.  I  have  often  struggled 
against  the  temptation  to  give  it  away." 

The  Professor  closely  examined  the  head  of  Gusta- 
vus  Adolphus,  as  if  he  had  been  a  neighbor  of  the  con- 
cealed Tacitus,  and  would  convey  information  concern- 
ing the  lost  book  in  its  inscription.  "  It  is  true,"  he 
said,  reflectively,  "  if  the  house  is  on  a  height,  even  the 
cellars  may  be  dry." 

"  Undoubtedly,"  answered  the  Doctor.  "  Frequently 
the  thick  walls  were  double,  and  the  intervening  space 
was  filled  with  rubbish.  In  such  a  case  it  would  be 
easy,  through  a  small  opening,  to  make  a  hollow  space 
in  the  inside  of  the  wall." 

"  But  now,"  began  the  Professor,  rising,  "  the  ques- 
tion arises,  what  are  we  to  do?  For  the  knowledge  of 
such  a  thing,  whether  it  be  of  great  or  little  import- 
ance, imposes  upon  the  investigator  the  duty  of  doing 
all  that  is  possible  to  promote  the  discoverv.  And  this 
dutv  we  must  fulfill  promptly  and  completely." 

"  If  you  impart  this  record  to  the  public,  you  will 
allow  the  prospect  of  discovering  the  manuscript  to  pass 
out  of  your  own  hands." 

"  In  this  business,  every  personal  consideration  must 
be  dismissed,"  said  the  Professor,  decisivelv. 

"  And  if  you  now  make  known  the  cloister  record 
you  have  found,"  continued  the  Doctor,  "  who  can 
answer  for  it,  that  the  nimble  activity  of  some  antiquary, 
or  some  foreigner,  may  not  prevent  all  further  investi- 
gations? In  such  a  case  the  treasuie,  even  if  found, 
would  be  lost,  not  only  to  you,  but  also  to  our  country 
and  to  science." 

"That,  at  least,  must  not  be,"  cried  the  Professor. 

"  And  besides,  even  if  you  apply  to  the  government  of 
the  province,  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  they  will  render 
you  any  assistance,"  replied  the  Doctor,  triumphantly. 

"  I  do  not  think  of  committing  the  matter  to  strang- 
ers and  officials,"  answered  the  Professor.  "  We  have 
some  one  in  the  neighborhood  whose  good  fortune  and 
acuteness  in  tracing  out  rarities  is  wonderful.  I  have  a 
mind  to  tell  Magister  Knips  of  the  manuscript;  he  may 
lay  aside  his  proof  sheets  for  some  days,  travel  for  us  to 
Rossau,  and  there  examine  the  ground." 

The  Doctor  jumped  up.  "  That  shall  never  happen. 
Knips  is  not  the  man  to  trust  with  such  a  secret." 

"  I  have  always  found  him  trustworthy,"  replied  the 
Professor.  "  He  is  wonderfully  skillful  and  well- 
informed." 

"  To  me  it  would  appear  a  desecration  of  this  fine 
discovery,  to  employ  such  a  man,"  answered  Fritz,  "and 
I  would  never  consent  to  it." 


678 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


"  In  that  case,"  cried  the  Professor,  "I  have  made 
up  my  mind.  The  vacation  is  at  hand;  I  will  go  my- 
self to  the  old  house.  And  as  you,  my  friend,  wish  to 
travel  for  some  days, you  must  accompany  me;  we  will 
travel  together.     Here  is  my   hand  on  it." 

"  With  all  my  heart,"  cried  the  Doctor,  clasping  his 
friend's  hand.  "  We  will  penetrate  into  the  castle,  and 
summon  the  spirits  which  hover  over  the  treasure." 

"  We  will  first  come  to  an  understanding  with  the 
owner  of  the  house.  We  shall  then  see  what  is  to  be 
done.      Meanwhile  let  us  keep  the  affair  secret." 

"  That  is  right,"  assented  Flitz;  and  the  friends  de- 
scended, well  satisfied,  into  the  garden  of  Herr  Hahn, 
and,  reposing  beneath  the  white  muse,  they  consulted 
on  the  opening  of  the  campaign. 

The  imagination  of  the  learned  man  was  fast  pent 
up  by  his  methodical  train  of  thought;  but  in  the  depths 
of  his  soul  there  was  a  rich  and  abundant  stream  from 
the  secret  source  of  all  beauty  and  energy.  Now  a  hole 
had  been  torn  in  the  dam,  and  the  flood  poured  itself 
joyfully  over  the  seed.  Ever  did  the  wish  for  the  mys- 
terious manuscript  return  to  him.  He  saw  before  him 
the  opening  in  the  wall,  and  the  first  glimmer  of  light 
falling  on  the  grey  books  in  the  hollow;  he  saw  the 
treasure  in  his  hands  as  he  drew  it  out,  and  would  not 
part  with  it  till  he  had  deciphered  the  illegible  pages. 
Blessed  spirit  of  Brother  Tobias  Bachhuber!  if  thou 
shouldst  spend  any  of  thy  holiday-time  in  heaven  in 
coming  back  to  our  poor  earth,  and  if  then  at  night  thou 
glidest  through  the  rooms  of  the  old  castle,  guarding  thy 
treasure  and  scaring  inquisitive  meddlers,  oh!  nod  kindly 
to  the  man  who  now  approaches  to  bear  thy  secret  to 
the  light  of  day,  for  truly  he  seeks  not  honor  nor  gain 
for  himself,  but  he  conjures  you,  in  the  name  of  all  that 
is  good,  to  assist  an  honest  man. 


CHAPTER  ///. 
a  pool's  errand. 

Whoever  on  a  certain  sunny  harvest  morning  in 
August  had  looked  down  from  a  height  in  the  direction 
of  Rossau,  would  have  observed  something  moving 
along  the  road  between  the  meadows  which  extended 
to  the  gates  of  the  city.  On  closer  observation  the 
travelers  might  be  perceived,  one  taller  than  the  other, 
both  wearing  light  summer  dresses,  the  freshness  of 
which  had  been  sullied  by  the  stormy  rain  of  the  last 
few  days.  They  had  both  leather  traveling  pouches, 
which  hung  by  straps  from  their  shoulders;  the  taller 
one  wore  a  broad-brimmed  felt  hat,  the  shorter  one  a 
straw  hat. 

The  travelers  were  evidently  strangers,  for  they 
stopped  sometimes  to  observe  and  enjoy  the  view  of  the 
valley  and  hills,  which  is  seldom  the  case  with  those 
born  in  the  country.  The  district  had  not  yet  been 
discovered   by    pleasure-seekers;   there   were  no  smooth 


paths  in  thr  woods  for  the  thin  boots  of  the  citizens; 
even  the  carriage-road  was  not  a  work  of  art,  the  water 
lay  in  the  tracks  made  by  the  wheels;  the  sheep-bells 
and  the  ax  of  the  wood-cutter  only  were  heard  by  the 
dwellers  of  the  neighborhood,  who  were  working  in  the 
fields  or  passing  on  their  way  to  business.  And  yet 
the  country  was  not  without  charm ;  the  outlines  of  the 
woody  hills  waved  in  bold  lines,  a  stone  quarry  might  be 
seen  between  the  fields  in  the  plain,  or  the  head  of  a 
rock  jutted  out  from  amongst  the  trees.  From  the  hills 
in  the  horizon  a  small  brook  wound  its  course  to  the 
distant  river,  bordered  by  strips  of  meadows,  behind 
which  the  arable  land  ran  up  to  the  woody  heights. 
The  lovely  landscape  looked  bright  in  the  morning 
sunshine. 

In  the  low  country  in  front  of  the  travelers  rose  to 
view,  surrounded  by  hills,  the  place  called  Rossau,  a 
little  country  town  with  two  massive  church  towers  and 
dark-tiled  roofs  which  projected  above  the  walls  of  the 
town  like  the  backs  of  a  herd  of  cattle  which  had 
crowded  together  for  protection  against  a  flock  of 
wolves. 

The  strangers  looked  from  the  height  with  warm 
interest  on  the  chimneys  and  towers  behind  the  old  dis- 
colored and  patched  walls  which  lay  before  them.  In 
that  place  had  once  been  preserved  a  treasure,  which,  if 
found  again,  would  interest  the  whole  civilized  world 
and  excite  hundreds  to  intellectual  labor.  The  land- 
scape looked  exactly  like  other  German  landscapes,  and 
the  town  was  exactly  like  other  little  German  towns; 
and  yet  there  was  an  attraction  in  the  place  which 
inspired  a  joyful  hope  in  the  travelers.  Was  it  the  bulb- 
like ornament  that  crowned  the  stout  old  tower?  or  was 
it  the  arch  of  the  gate  which  just  veiled  from  the  trav- 
elers in  alluring  darkness  the  entrance  to  the  town?  or 
the  stillness  of  the  empty  valley,  in  which  the  place  lay 
without  suburbs  and  outhouses,  as  the  towns  are  por- 
trayed on  old  maps?  or  the  herds  of  cattle  which  went 
out  of  the  gate  into  the  open  space,  and  bounded  mer- 
rily on  the  pasture  ground  ?  or  was  it  perhaps  the  keen 
morning  air  which  blew  over  the  temples  of  the  wan- 
derers? Both  felt  that  something  remarkable  and  prom- 
ising hovered  over  the  valley  in  which,  as  searchers  of 
the  past,  they  were  entering. 

The  travelers  passed  by  the  pasture  ground;  the 
herdsmen  looked  with  indifference  at  the  strangers;  but 
the  cows  placed  themselves  by  the  edge  of  the  ditch  and 
stared,  while  the  young  ones  of  the  herd  bellowed  at 
them  inquiringly.  They  went  through  the  dark  arch 
of  the  gate  and  looked  curiously  along  the  streets.  It 
was  a  poor  little  town,  the  main  street  alone  was  paved, 
and  that  badly.  Not  far  from  the  gate  the  sloping  beam 
of  a  well  projected  high  in  the  air,  and  from  it  hung  a 
long  pole  with  a  pitcher.  Few  people  were  to  be  seen, 
those  who  were  not  working  in  the  houses  were  occu- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


679 


pied  in  the  field;  for  the  straws  which  stuck  in  the 
stone  crevices  of  the  arch  of  the  gate  showed  that  har- 
vest wagons  were  carrying  the  fruits  of  the  fields  to  the 
farm-yards  of  the  citizens.  Near  many  of  the  houses 
there  were  open  wooden  doors,  through  which  one 
could  look  into  the  yard  and  barns,  and  over  the  dung 
heap  on  which  small  fowls  were  pecking.  The  last 
century  had  altered  the  place  as  little  as  possible,  and 
the  low  houses  still  stood  with  their  gables  to  the  street; 
instead  of  the  coat  of  arms,  there  projected  into  the 
street  the  sign  of  the  artizan,  carved  in  tin  or  wood,  and 
painted — such  as  a  large  wooden  boot;  a  griffin,  which 
held  enormous  shears  in  its  hand;  or  a  rampant  lion, 
that  offered  a  bretzel ;  or,  as  the  most  beautiful  master- 
piece of  all,  a  regular  hexagon  of  colored  glass  panes. 

"  Much  has  been  retained  here,"  said  the  Professor. 

The  friends  came  to  the  market-place,  an  irregular 
space,  the  little  houses  of  which  were  adorned  with  bright 
paint.  There  on  an  insignificant  building  prominently 
stood  a  red  dragon  with  a  curled  tail,  carved  out  of  a 
board,  and  supported  in  the  air  on  an  iron  pole.  Upon 
it  was  painted,  in  ill-formed  letters,  "  The  Dragon  Inn." 

"  See,"  said  Fritz,  pointing  to  the  dragon,  "  the  fancy 
of  the  artist  has  carved  him  with  a  pike's  head  and  thick 
teeth.  The  dragon  is  the  oldest  treasure  preserver  of 
our  legends.  It  is  remarkable  how  firmly  the  recollec- 
tion of  this  legendary  animal  everywhere  clings  to  the 
people.  Probably  this  sign-board  originates  from  some 
tradition  of  the  place." 

They  ascended  the  white  stone  steps  into  the  house, 
utterly  unconscious  that  they  had  long  been  watched  by 
sharp  eyes.  A  citizen,  who  was  taking  his  morning 
draught,  exclaimed  to  the  stout  host,  "  Who  can  these  be? 
They  do  not  look  like  commercial  travelers;  perhaps 
one  of  them  is  the  new  pastor  from  Kirchdorfe." 

"  No  pastor  looks  like  that,"  said  the  inn-keeper, 
decidedly,  who  knew  men  better;  "they  are  strangers 
on  foot,  no  carriage  and  no  luggage." 

The  strangers  entered,  placed  themselves  at  a  red 
painted  table,  and  ordered  breakfast.  "  A  beautiful 
country,  mine  host,"  began  the  Professor;  "  fine  trees 
in  the  wood." 

"  Trees  enough,"  answered  the  host. 

"  The  neighborhood  appears  wealthy,"  continued 
the  Professor. 

"  People  complain  that  thev  do  not  earn  enough," 
replied  the  other. 

"  How  many  clergy  have  you  in  the  place?" 

"  Two,"  said  the  host,  more  politely.  "  But  the  old 
pastor  is  dead;    meanwhile,  there  is  a  candidate  here." 

"  Is  the  other  pastor  at  home?" 

"  I  do  not  know,"  said  the  landlord. 

"  Have  you  a  court  of  justice  here?" 

"  A  magistrate  of  the  place;  he  is  now  at  the  office 
— court  is  in  session  to-day." 


"  Was  there  not  in  former  times  a  monastery  in  the 
city?  "  said  the  Doctor,  taking  up  the  examination. 

The  citizen  and  the  landlord  looked  at  each  other. 
"  That  is  long  since,"  replied  the  master  of  the  inn. 

"  Does  not  the  Castle  of  Bielstein  lie  in  the  neighbor- 
hood here?"  inquired   Fritz. 

Again  the  citizen  and  the  landlord  looked  signifi- 
cantly at  each  other. 

"  It  lies  somewhere  here  in  the  neighborhood," 
answered  the  landlord,  with  reserve. 

"  How  long  does  it  take  to  go  to  the  castle?"  asked 
the  Professor,  irritated  by  the  short  answers  of  the  man. 

"Do  you  wish  to  go  there?"  inquired  the  landlord. 
"  Do  you  know  the  owner?" 

"  No,"  answered  the   Professor. 

"  Have  you  any  business  with  him  ?" 

"  That  is  our  affair,"  answered  the  Professor, shortly. 

"  The  road  goes  through  the  wood,  and  takes  half 
an  hour — you  cannot  miss  it;"  and  the  landlord  abruptly 
closed  the  conversation  and  left  the  room.  The  citizen 
followed  him. 

"  We  have  not  learnt  much,"  said  the  Doctor,  laugh- 
ing. "  I  hope  the  pastor  and  magistrate  will  be  more 
communicative." 

"  We  will  go  direct  to  the  place,"  said  the  Professor, 
with  decision. 

Meanwhile  the  landlord  and  the  citizen  consulted 
together.  "  Whatever  the  strangers  may  be,"  repeated 
the  citizen,  "  they  are  not  ecclesiastics,  and  they  did  not 
seem  to  care  for  the  magistrate.  Did  you  remark  how 
they  inquired  about  the  monastery  and  the  castle?" 
The  landlord  nodded.  "  I  will  tell  you  my  suspicion," 
continued  the  citizen,  eagerly;  "they  have  not  come  here 
for  nothing;  they  seek  something." 

"  What  can  they  be  looking  for?"  asked  the  land- 
lord, pondering. 

"They  are  disguised  Jesuits;  that's  what  they  look 
like  to  me." 

"  Now,  if  they  wish  to  engage  in  a  quarrel  with  the 
people  on  the  manor,  they  are  strong  enough  to  hold 
their  own." 

"  I  have  to  see  the  Inspector  on  business;  I  will  give 
him  a  hint." 

"  Do  not  meddle  with  what  does  not  concern  you," 
said  the  landlord,  warningly.  But  the  citizen  only  held 
the  boots  he  carried  under  his  arm  tighter,  and  drove 
round  the  corner. 

Our  two  friends  left,  disgusted  with  the  lack  of 
courtesy  they  encountered  at  the  Dragon.  They  in- 
quired the  way  to  the  castle  of  an  old  woman  at  the 
opposite  gate  of  the  city.  Behind  the  town  the  path 
rose  from  the  gravel  bed  of  the  brook  to  the  woody 
height.  They  entered  a  clearing  of  underbrush,  from 
which,  here  and  there,  rose  up  high  oaks.  The  rain  of 
the  last  evening  still  hung  in  drops  on   the  leaves — the 


68o 


THE    OREN    COURT. 


deep  green  of  summer  glistened  in  the  sun's  rays — the 
song  of  birds  and  the  tapping  of  the  woodpecker  above 
broke  the  stillness. 

,"  This  puts  one  in  another  frame  of  mind,"  ex- 
claimed the  Doctor,  cheerfully. 

"  It  requires  very  little  to  call  forth  new  melodies  in 
a  well-strung  heart,  if  fate  has  not  played  on  it  with  too 
rough  a  hand.  The  bark  of  a  few  trees  covered  with 
hoary  moss,  a  handful  of  blossoms  on  the  turf,  and  a 
few  notes  from  the  throats  of  birds,  are  sufficient,"  re- 
plied the  philosophic  Professor.  "Hark!  that  is  no 
greeting  of  nature  to  the  wanderer,"  added  he,  listening 
attentively,  as  the  sound  of  distant  voices  chanting  a 
choral  fell  softly  on  his  ear.  The  sound  appeared  to 
come  from  above  the  trees. 

"  Let  us  go  higher  up,"  exclaimed  the  Doctor,  "  to 
the  mysterious  place  where  old  church-hymns  murmur 
through  the  oaks." 

They  ascended  the  hill  some  hundred  steps,  and 
found  themselves  on  an  open  terrace,  one  side  of  which 
was  surrounded  by  trees.  In  the  clearing  stood  a  small 
wooden  church  with  a  churchyard  behind  it;  on  a  mossy 
block  of  rock  rose  a  long  old  building,  the  roof  of 
which  was  broken  by  many  pointed  gables. 

"  That  is  in  good  keeping,"  exclaimed  the  Professor, 
looking  curiously  over  the  little  church  up  to  the  castle. 

A  funeral  chant  was  heard  more  clearly  from  the 
church.  "  Let  us  go  in,"  said  the  Doctor,  pointing  to 
the  open  door. 

"  To  my  mind  it  is  more  seemly  to  remain  without," 
answered  the  Professor;  "  it  goes  against  me  to  intrude 
either  on  the  pleasures  or  sorrows  of  strangers.  The 
hymn  is  finished;  now  comes  the  pastor's  little  dis- 
course." 

Fritz  meanwhile  had  climbed  the  low  stone  wall  and 
was  examining  the  church.  "  Look  at  the  massive 
buttresses.  It  is  the  remains  of  an  old  building;  they 
have  repaired  it  with  pine  wood;  the  tower  and  roof 
are  black  with  age;  it  would  be  worth  our  while  to  see 
the  inside." 

The  Professor  held  in  his  hand  the  long  shoot  of  a 
bramble  bush  which  hung  over  the  wall,  looking  with 
admiration  at  its  white  blossoms,  and  at  the  green  and 
brown  berries  which  grew  in  thick  clusters.  The  sound 
of  a  man's  voice  fell  indistinctly  on  his  ear,  and  he  bent 
his  head  involuntarily  to  catch  the  words. 

"  Let  us  hear,"  he  said  at  last,  and  entered  the 
churchyard  with  his  friend.  They  took  off  their  hats 
and  quietly  opened  the  church  door.  It  was  a  very 
small  hall;  the  bricks  of  the  old  choir  had  been  white- 
washed; the  chancel,  a  gallery,  and  a  few  benches  were 
of  brown  firwood.  Before  the  altar  lay  open  a  child's 
coffin,  the  form  within  was  covered  with  flowers,  beside 
it  stood  some  country  people  in  simple  attire;  on  the 
steps  of  the  altar  was  an  aged   clergyman  with  white 


hair  and  a  kind  face;  and  at  the  head  of  the  coffin  the 
wife  of  a  laborer,  mother  of  the  little  one,  sobbing. 
Near  her  stood  a  fine  female  figure  in  burgher's  dress; 
she  had  taken  off  her  hat,  held  her  hands  folded,  and 
looked  down  on  the  child  lying  among  the  flowers. 
Thus  she  stood,  motionless;  the  sun  fell  obliquely  on 
the  waving  hair  and  regular  features  of  the  young  face. 
But  more  captivating  than  the  tall  figure  and  beautiful 
head  was  the  expression  of  deep  devotion  which  per- 
vaded her  whole  countenance.  The  Professor  involun- 
tarily seized  hold  of  his  friend's  arm  to  detain  him.  The 
clergyman  made  his  concluding  prayer;  the  stately 
maiden  inclined  her  head  lower,  then  bent  down  once 
more  to  the  little  one,  and  wound  her  arm  round  the 
mother,  who  leant  weeping  on  her  comforter.  Thus  she 
stood,  speaking  gently  to  the  mother,  while  tears  rolled 
down  from  her  eyes.  How  spirit-like  sounded  the  mur- 
murs of  that  rich  voice  in  the  ear  of  her  friend.  Then 
the  men  lifted  the  coffin  from  the  ground  and  followed 
the  clergyman,  who  led  the  way  to  the  churchyard. 
Behind  the  coffin  went  the  mother,  her  head  still  on  the 
shoulder  of  "her  supporter.  The  maiden  passed  by  the 
strangers,  gazing  before  her  with  an  inspired  look, 
whispering  in  her  companion's  ear  words  from  the 
Bible :  "  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken 
away.  Let  little  children  come  unto  me."  Her  gentle 
accents  were  heard  even  by  the  friends.  The  mother 
hung  broken-hearted  on  the  arm  of  the  stranger,  and  as 
if  borne  along  by  the  gentle  tones,  tottered  to  the 
grave.  Reverently  did  the  friends  follow  the  procession. 
The  coffin  was  lowered  into  the  grave,  the  clergyman 
pronounced  the  blessing,  and  each  one  present  threw 
three  handfuls  of  earth  on  the  departed  one.  Then  the 
country  people  separated,  leaving  a  free  passage  for  the 
mother  and  her  companion.  The  latter  gave  her  hand 
to  the  clergyman,  and  then  conducted  the  mother 
slowly  across  the  churchyard  to  the  road  which  led  to 
the  castle. 

The  friends  followed  at  some  distance,  without  look- 
ing at  each  other.  The  Professor  passed  his  hand  over 
his  eyes.  "  These  things  are  always  very  touching," 
he  said,  sorrowfully. 

"  As  she  stood  at  the  altar,"  exclaimed  the  Doctor, 
"  she  seemed  like  a  prophetess  of  the  olden  time,  with  an 
oaken  crown  on  her  head.  She  drew  the  poor  woman  on 
by  her  gentle  accents.  Certainly  the  words  were  from 
our  noble  Bible;  but  now  I  understand  the  significant 
meaning  in  ancient  times  of  the  word  whisper,  to  which 
a  magic  power  was  ascribed.  She  took  possession  of 
the  mourner  body  and  soul,  and  her  voice  sank  deep 
into  my  heart  also.     What  was  she,  maiden  or  wife?" 

"She  is  a  maiden,"  answered  the  Professor,  im- 
pressively. "  .She  dwells  in  the  castle,  and  we  shall 
meet  her  there.  Let  her  go  on,  and  we  will  wait  at  the 
foot  of  the  rock." 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


68 1 


They  sat  some  time  on  a  projecting  stone.  The 
Professor  never  seemed  weary  of  contemplating  a  tuft 
of  moss;  he  brushed  it  with  his  hand,  laying  it  now  on 
one  side,  now  on  the  other.  At  last  he  arose  quickly. 
"  Whatever  may  come  of  it,  let  us  go  on." 

They  ascended  the  hill  some  hundred  steps.  The 
landscape  before  them  suddenly  changed.  On  one  side 
lay  the  castle  with  a  walled  gateway  and  a  courtyard,  in 
which  stood  large  farm  buildings;  before  them,  a  wide 
plain  of  arable  land  sloped  down  from  the  height  into  a 
rich  valley.  The  lonely  woodland  landscape  had  dis- 
appeared ;  around  the  wanderers  was  the  active  stir  of 
daily  life;  the  wind  waved  through  the  sea  of  corn, 
harvest  wagons  were  passing  up  the  roads  through  the 
fields,  the  whip  cracked  and  the  sheaves  were  swung  by 
strong  arms  over  the  rails  of  the  wagons. 

"Hello!  what  are  you  looking  for  here?"  asked  a 
deep  bass  voice  behind  the  strangers,  in  a  commanding 
tone.  The  friends  turned  quickly.  Before  the  farm- 
yard gate  stood  a  powerful,  broad-shouldered  man, 
with  closely-cut  hair,  and  a  very  energetic  expression  in 
his  sunburnt  face;  behind  him  stood  farming  officials 
and  laborers,  stretching  their  heads  out  with  curiosity 
through  the  gate,  and  a  large  dog  ran  barking  toward 
the  strangers.  "  Back,  Nero,"  called  the  proprietor, 
and  whistled  to  the  dog,  at  the  same  time  looking  with 
a  cold,  searching  look  at  the  strangers. 

"Have  I  the  honor  of  addressing  the  proprietor  of 
the  place?"  inquired  the  Professor. 

"  I  am  that  person,  and  who  are  you?"  asked  the 
proprietor  in  return. 

The  Professor  gave  their  names,  and  that  of  the 
place  from  which  thev  came.  The  host  approached  and 
examined  them  both  from  head  to  foot. 

"No  Jesuits  dwell  there,"  he  said;  "but  if  you  come 
here  to  find  some  hidden  treasure,  your  journey  is  use- 
less; you  will  find  nothing." 

The  friends  looked  at  each  other ;  they  were  near 
the  house  but  far  from  the  goal. 

"  You  make  us  feel,"  answered  the  Professor,  "  that 
we  have  approached  your  dwelling  without  an  intro- 
duction. Although  you  have  already  made  a  guess  as  to 
the  object  of  our  journey,  yet  I  beg  of  you  to  permit  us 
to  make  an  explanation  before  fewer  witnesses." 

The  dignified  demeanor  of  the  Professor  did  not 
fail  to  have  an  effect.  "  If  you  really  have  business 
with  me,  it  would  be  better  certainly  to  settle  it  in  the 
house.  Follow  me,  gentlemen."  He  lifted  his  cap  a 
little,  pointed  with  his  hand  to  the  gate,  and  went  ahead. 
"  Nero,  you  brute,  can't  you  be  quiet?" 

The  Professor  and  the  Doctor  followed,  and  the  farm 
officials  and  laborers  and  the  growling  dog  closed  in  be- 
hind. Thus  the  strangers  were  conducted  in  a  not  very 
cordial  manner  to  the  house.  In  spite  of  their  un- 
pleasant position,  they  looked  with  curiosity  at  the  great 


farmyard,  the  work  going  on  in  the  barns,  and  a  flock  of 
large  geese  which,  disturbed  by  the  party,  waddled 
cackling  across  the  road.  Then  their  eyes  fell  upon  the 
dwelling  itself,  the  broad  stone  steps  with  benches  on 
both  sides,  the  vaulted  door,  and  the  moulded  escutcheon 
on  the  keystone.  They  entered  a  roomy  hall,  the  pro- 
prietor hung  up  his  cap,  laid  hold  with  strong  hand  of 
the  latch  of  the  sitting-room  door,  and  again  made  a 
movement  of  the  hand,  which  was  intended  to  be  polite 
and  to  invite  the  strangers  to  enter.  "  Now  that  we  are 
alone,"  he  began,  "how  can  I  serve  you?  You  have 
already  been  announced  to  me  as  two  treasure-seekers. 
If  you  are  that,  I  must  plainly  begin  by  telling  you  that 
I  will  not  encourage  such  follies.  Otherwise,  I  am  glad 
to  see  you." 

"But  we  are  not  treasure -seekers,"  rejoined  the  Pro- 
fessor; "  and  as  we  have  kept  the  object  of  our  journey 
a  secret  everywhere,  we  do  not  understand  how  you 
could  hear  so  erroneous  a  report  concerning  the  occasion 
of  our  coming." 

"  The  shoemaker  of  my  steward  brought  him  the 
intelligence  together  with  a  pair  of  mended  hoots;  he 
saw  you  at  the  tavern  in  the  town,  and  grew  suspicious 
because  of  your  questions." 

"  He  has  exercised  more  ingenuity  than  was  called 
for  by  our  harmless  questions,"  answered  the  Professor. 
"  And  yet  he  was  not  altogether  wrong." 

"  Then  there  is  something  in  it,"  interrupted  the 
proprietor,  gloomily;  "in  that  case  I  must  beg  you, 
gentlemen,  not  to  trouble  yourselves  or  me  further.  I 
have  no  time  for  such  nonsense." 

"  First  of  all,  have  the  goodness  to  hear  us  before  so 
curtly  withdrawing  your  hospitality,"  replied  the  Pro- 
fessor, calmly.  "  We  have  come  with  no  other  aim 
than  to  impart  to  you  something  concerning  the  im- 
portance of  which  you  may  yourself  decide.  And  not 
only  we,  but  others,  might  reproach  you  if  you  refused 
our  request  without  taking  it  into  consideration.  The 
matter  concerns  you  more  than  us." 

"  Of  course,"  said  the  host,  "we  are  acquainted  with 
this  style  of  speech." 

"  Not  quite,"  continued  the  Professor;  "there  is  a 
difference  according  to  who  uses  it,  and  to  what 
purpose." 

"  Well,  then,  in  the  devil's  name,  speak,  but  be 
clear,"  exclaimed  the  proprietor,  impatiently. 

"  Not  till  you  have  shown  yourself  ready,"  contin- 
ued the  Professor,  "to  pay  the  attention  the  importance 
of  the  subject  deserves.  A  short  explanation  will  be 
necessary,  and  you  have  not  even  invited  us  to  sit 
down." 

"  Be  seated,"  replied  the  proprietor,  and  offered 
chairs. 

The  Professor  began:  "A  short  time  ago,  among 
other  written  records   of  the   monks   of   Rossau,  I  acci- 


682 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


dentally  found  some  observations  in  a  manuscript  which 
may  be  of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  branch  of 
learning  to  which  I  devote  myself." 

"And  what  is  your  branch  of  learning?"  inter- 
rupted the  host,  unmoved. 

"  I  am  a  philologist." 

"  That  means  one  who  studies  ancient  languages?" 
asked  the  proprietor. 

"  It  is  so,"  continued  the  Professor.  "  It  is  stated  by 
a  monk,  in  the  volume  I  have  mentioned,  that  about  the 
year  1500  there  existed  in  the  monastery  a  valuable 
manuscript,  containing  a  history  by  the  Roman,  Tac- 
itus. The  work  of  the  renowned  historian  is  only  very 
imperfectly  preserved  to  us  in  some  other  well-known 
manuscripts. 

A  second  notice  from  the  same  book,  in  April,  1637, 
mentions  that  at  that  time  the  last  monk  of  the  monas- 
tery, in  the  troublous  war  time,  had  concealed  from  the 
Swedes  the  church  treasures  and  manuscripts  in  a  hollow, 
dry  place  extant  in  the  monastery,  contained  his  complete 
works  in  the  house  of  Bielstein.  These  are  the  words  I 
have  found ;  I  have  nothing  further  to  impart  to  you.  We 
have  no  doubt  of  the  genuineness  of  both  notices.  I 
have  brought  with  me  an  abstract  of  the  pas; ages  con- 
cerning it,  and  I  am  ready  to  submit  the  original  to 
your  inspection,  or  that  of  any  competent  judge  whom 
you  may  choose.  I  will  only  add  now  that  both  T  and 
my  friend  know  well  how  unsatisfactory  is  the  commu- 
nication we  make  to  you,  and  how  uncertain  is  the  pros- 
pect that  after  two  centuries  any  of  the  buried  posses- 
sions of  the  monastery  should  be  forthcoming.  And  yet 
we  have  made  use  of  a  vacation  to  impart  to  you  this 
discovery,  even  at  the  probable  risk  of  a  fruitless  search. 
But  we  felt  ourselves  bound  in  duty  to  make  this 
journey,  not  especially  on  your  account — although  this 
manuscript,  if  found,  would  be  of  great  value  to  you — 
but  principally  in  the  interest  of  science,  for  in  that  point 
of  view  such  a  discovery  would  be  invaluable." 

The  proprietor  had  listened  attentively,  but  he  left 
untouched  the  paper  which  the  Professor  had  laid  on 
the  table  before  him.  Now  he  began:  "  I  see  that  you 
do  not  mean  to  deceive  me,  and  that  you  tell  me  the  whole 
truth  with  the  best  intentions.  I  understand  your 
explanation.  Your  Latin  I  cannot  read;  but  that  is  not 
necessary,  for,  concerning  this  matter,  I  believe  you. 
But,"  he  continued,  laughing,  "there  is  one  thing  which 
the  learned  gentlemen  living  so  far  away  do  not  know, 
and  that  is,  that  this  house  has  the  misfortune  to  be  con- 
sidered throughout  the  whole  country  as  a  place  in 
which  the  old  monks  have  concealed  treasures." 

"  That  was  not,  of  course,  unknown  to  us,"  rejoined 
the  Doctor,  "and  it  would  not  diminish  the  significance 
of  these  written  records." 

"Then  you  were  greatly  in  error.  It  is  surely  clear 
that  such  a  report,  which  has  been  believed  in  a  country 


through  many  generations,  has  meanwhile  stirred  up 
persons  who  are  superstitious  and  greedy  of  gain,  to 
discover  these  supposed  treasures.  How  can  you  imag- 
ine that  you  are  the  first  to  conceive  the  thought  of 
making  a  search?  This  is  an  old,  strong-built  house, 
but  it  would  be  stronger  still  if  it  did  not  show  traces 
from  cellar  to  roof  that  in  former  times  holes  have  been 
made  and  the  damage  left  unrepaired.  Only  a  few 
years  ago  I  had,  at  much  cost  and  trouble,  to  place  new 
beams  into  the  roof,  because  roof  and  ceiling  were  sink- 
ing, and  it  appeared,  on  examination,  that  unscrupulous 
men  had  sawed  off  a  piece  of  the  rafter,  in  order  to 
grope  into  a  corner  of  the  roof.  And  I  tell  you  frankly, 
that  if  I  have  met  with  anything  disagreeable  from  the 
old  house,  in  which  for  twenty  years  I  have  experienced 
happiness  and  misfortune,  it  has  been  from  this  trouble- 
some report.  Even  now  an  investigation  is  being  carried 
on  in  the  town  respecting  a  treasure-seeker,  who  has 
deceived  credulous  people  in  giving  out  that  he  could 
conjure  up  treasures  from  this  hill.  His  accomplices  are 
still  being  tracked.  You  may  ascribe  it  to  your  ques- 
tions in  the  town,  that  the  people  there,  who  are  much 
excited  because  of  the  deception,  have  taken  you  to  be 
assistants  of  the  impostor.  My  rough  greeting  was  also 
owing  to  this.     I  must  make  my  excuses  to  you  for  it." 

"Then  you  will  not  agree,"  asked  the  Professor, 
dissatisfied,  "  to  make  use  of  our  communication  for 
further  researches?  " 

"No,"  replied  the  proprietor,  "  I  will  not  make  such 
a  fool  of  myself .  If  your  book  mentions  nothing  more 
than  what  you  have  told  me,  this  account  is  of  little  use. 
If  the  monks  have  concealed  anything  here,  it  is  a 
hundred  to  one  that  they  have  taken  it  away  again  in 
quieter  times.  And  even  if,  contrary  to  all  probability, 
the  concealed  objects  should  remain  in  their  place — as 
since  then  some  hundred  years  have  passed — other  hun- 
gry people  would  long  ago  have  disinterred  them. 
These  are,  forgive  me,  nursery  stories,  only  fit  for  spin- 
ning rooms.  I  have  a  great  aversion  to  all  these  notions 
that  necessitate  pulling  down  the  walls.  The  husband- 
man should  dig  in  his  fields  and  not  in  his  house;  his 
treasures  lie  under  God's  sun." 

{To  be  continued.} 


If  we  see  right  we  see  our  woes, 

Then  what  avails  it  to  have  eyes? 
From  ignorance  our  comfort  flows. 

The  only  wretched  are  the  wise.     — Prior. 
The  sweetest  bird  builds  near  the  ground; 

The  loveliest  flower  springs  low; 
And  we  must  stoop  for  happiness, 

If  we  its  worth  would  know.  — Swain. 

How  sad  a  sight  is  human  happiness 
To  those  whose  thoughts  can  pierce  beyond  an  hour, 

— Young.     Night  Thoughts. 


The  Open  Court 

A  Fortnightly  journal, 

Devoted  to  the   Work  of  Conciliating  Religion  with   Science. 


Vol.  I.     No.  24. 


CHICAGO,  JANUARY  19,   188S. 


I  Three  Dollars  per  Year. 
I  Single  Copies,  15  cts. 


THE    PROCESS   OF  PROGRESS 

UY    RUDOLF    WEVLER. 

"  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled; 
Neither  be  ye  afraid." — Jesus. 

"  There  is  no  death.  What  seems  so  is  transition." 

— Longfellow. 
"  'Tis  better  to  have  loved  and  lost, 
Than  never  to  have  loved  at  all." — Tennyson. 

"  Loving  friend  be  wise,  and  dry  straightway  every  weeping 
eye." — Ed-win  Arnold. 

When  Christ  was  about  to  die,  when  he  was  led  to  the  cross, 
"  there  followed  him  a  great  company  of  people  and  of  women, 
which  bewailed  and  bemoaned  him.  But  Jesus  said:  Daughters 
of  Jerusalem  !  -.reef  not  for  me  (who  am  going  to  die)  but  weep  for 
yourselves  and  for  your  children"  (who  are  going  to  live). — Luke 
xxiii.  27,  28. 

Who  comes  there?  Who  walks  there  slowly,  so 
slowly;  bleak,  black,  dreadful;  white,  pale,  dark? — 
he  approaches  from  afar.  *  *  *  Is  it  he,  whom  man 
with  awe  looks  upon;  whom  we  all  dread,  shrink 
from;  is  it  he?  Is  it  Death?  coming  nearer,  ever 
nearer  us.  Where  does  he  come  from?  Comes  he 
from  the  skies,  from  heaven?  Or  has  he,  as  we  are 
told,  his  abode  in  hell?  Is  it  Satan's  messenger,  as 
told  in  Holy  Writ — or  is  it  a  relief  sent  to  us  from 
God?  Is  death  a  punish  incut  lor  uncommitted,  inher- 
ited sin;  or  is  it  a  redeemer  from  this  life's  toils,  woes, 
strifes  and  troubles?  Is  it  a  ship  sent  by  a  heavenly 
King  to  carry  us  across  that  shoreless  ocean,  which 
no  living  being  (save  three?)  yet  crossed  alive;  or  is 
it  an  opium-vessel,  bringing  us  eternal  sleep,  eternal 
rest,  eternal  peace?  Is  it  the  passage  from  the  ma- 
terial to  the  spiritual,  or  is  it  only  a  changing  of  ma- 
terials, or  rather,  the  same  material,  only  assuming 
another  form  ?  Briefly, — are  we  going  to  live  after  7ce 
are  dead,  or  shall  we  then  cease  to  live,  forever? 

O,  this  great  mystery  !  this  insolvable  problem, 
this  impenetrable  darkness.  Who  will  lift  the  thick 
veil,  and  permit  us  a  glimpse,  one  passing  glimpse, 
into  those  mysterious  realms !  Who  will  drop  one 
sparkle  of  light  into  that  eternal  darkness,  to  favor 
us  with  one  glance  into  it !  Who  can  tell  or  explain 
any  of  those  questions  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  all 
mankind,  regardless  of  beliefs,  creeds,  superstitions 
or  religions !  Who  will,  who  can  do  it?  Nobody! 
—no  one  can  boast  of  any  knowledge  respecting  this 
matter. 


But,  this  being  at  least  my  opinion,  then,  what 
more  proper  than  that  I  should  stop  right  here  and 
beware  of  any  speculations  or  assertions  on  my  part. 
If  I  nevertheless  go  on  to  state  my  private  views  on 
the  subject,  I  do  it  only  by  way  of  confessing  my 
creed,  for  the  special  benefit  of,  may  be,  nobody,  or 
perchance,  a  great  many,  who  by  reading  my  confes- 
sion may  be  awakened  from  their  lethargy,  throw 
off  all  shackles  of  superstition,  all  fright  for  a  "  future 
judgment,"  for  hell,  Satan,  devil  or  Beelzebub. — And 
with  no  fear  in  their  hearts,  no  tear  in  their  eyes,  but 
also  without  any  false  hopes,  without  any  delusions  of 
paradise,  of  "  golden  cities,"  of  "  happy  hunting 
grounds"  or  any  other  myths,  they  will  expect  that 
great  change,  called  death,  or,  as  I  styled  it  at  the 
head  of  this  article, 

THE  PROCESS  OF  PROGRESS. 

Now  in  the  last  lines  my  confession  is  made,  ex- 
plicitly, unequivocally.  We  do  by  no  means  at  that 
moment  when  people  say  we  are  dead  and  dig  a 
grave  to  put  our  remains  in,  die  then  for  the  first  time 
in  our  life.  *  *  *  Neither  do  we  then  die  for  the 
last  time.  With  our  birth  our  death  begins  also.  When 
we  say,  we  had  lived  a  day,  we  might  as  well  say,  we 
had  died  that  day,  not  merely  indirectly,  because  we 
have  come  one  day  nearer  death,  but  also  directly. 
We  can  never  live  that  day  again,  never!  A  change 
took  place  in  our  nature,  in  our  form,  though  it  be  a 
very  subtle  change,  unperceivable  to  our  coarse,  un- 
skilled eye;  and  that  change  made  the  "I"  of  yes- 
terday entirely  disappear,  and  now  I  am  not  the  I 
of  yesterday  any  more,  and  never  will  be  that  again. 
I  am  changed  now.  This  mystery  people  call  growth. 
I  call  it — the  process  of  progress. 

I  said  we  do  not  perceive  the  growing  of  a  per- 
son every  day;  yet  we  do  notice  it  always  at  longer 
intervals,  when  the  person  becomes  so  entirely 
changed,  that  we  cannot  help  noticing  it.  We  notice 
it  when  the  babe  becomes  a  little  boy  or  girl;  when 
the  child  is  transformed  into  a  youth,  the  boy  into  a 
young  man,  the  girl  into  a  young  woman;  then  again, 
when  these  all  at  once,  as  it  were,  before  our  eyes, 
are  metamorphosed  into  man  and  woman  (see  I.  Cor. 
xiii.  11);  and  finally,  when  the  man  becomes  an  old 
man,  and  the  woman  becomes  an  old  woman,  we  no- 
tice it  again.     The  full  grown  man  often  bears  less 


6S+ 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


resemblance  to  himself  as  a  child  than  he  does  to 
his  parents  or  even  more  distant  relatives.  And  so 
we  die  every  day,  every  hour,  every  moment.  And, 
like  the  chameleon,  we  change  our  appearances,  our 
external  form  every  day  ( not  to  mention  the  far 
deeper  changes  of  the  inner  man,  in  belief,  in  thought 
and  in  his  views  of  life).  But  nevertheless  we  still 
exist.  So  also  when  that  greatest  change  of  all  comes 
upon  us,  when  the  entire  dissolution  of  the  atoms  of 
which  we  are  composed  takes  place,  we  change  our 
form  in  a  more  radical  way  than  ever  before  (  see 
I.  Cor.  xv.  57)  to  progress  into  new  life,  into  new 
existence.  But  not,  as  the  orthodox  dogmatist  tells 
us,  into  the  bosom  of  the  "  Land  of  God,"  nor  as  the 
Spiritualist  would  make  us  believe,  to  roam  about 
restlessly  in  infinite  realms,  realms  unknown  to  any- 
body. Neither  of  these,  I  think,  approaches  the 
truth.  No,  I  feel  more  comfort  in  thinking  that  there 
is  peace  in  store  for  me  as  an  individuality  when  I 
shall  lose  all  identity,  and  "rest,  sweet  rest,"  will  finally 
be  my  portion,  after  all  the  toil  and  turmoil  and  pain 
and  struggle  in  this  life.  It  is  a  comfortable,  and, 
methinks,  also  very  reasonable  belief,  this  of  mine, 
at  the  same  time  knowing  very  well  that  my  atoms 
will  again  and  again  assume  all  kinds  of  forms,  until 
some  day  they  might  again,  in  nature's  skillful  labora- 
tory, evolve  into  and  resume  the  form  of  a  man  like 
me,  perhaps,  but  it  will  not  be  /. 

After  these  considerations,  how  baseless,  if  not 
ridiculous,  does  it  appear  to  see  people  bemoan  their 
dead  on  the  one  hand  and  rejoice,  on  the  other,  when 
their  babe  becomes  a  boy  and  this — a  man  and  so  on! 
If  there  be  any  reason  to  deplore  the  changes  to 
which  we  are  subject,  then  we  must  reasonably  be 
crying  all  our  lifetime,  lamenting  ourselves  as  well 
as  our  families  and  surroundings.  But  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  there  is  no  reason  whatever  to  regret  either 
of  the  changes,  whether  the  small  unapparent  or  the 
greatest  of  all.  For  is  it  not  exactly  the  same  in  all 
nature?  Do  we  not  seethe  same  process  of  progress 
going  on  in  all  the  departments  of  the  universe?  Do 
we  not  daily  see  the  ebb  and  flow  on  the  sea-coast, 
—and  yet  we  know  quite  well  that  the  self-same  drops 
or  waves  do  never  reach  the  coast  twice?  Is  it  not 
this  process  that  we  call  sunrise  and  sunset?  Are 
not  the  four  different  seasons  or  periods  of  the  year 
indicating  just  the  same  process  of  progress?  The 
year  1887  is  not  by  any  means  the  year  1886;  the  lat- 
ter will  never  return  again  into  existence.  But  it  was 
the  cause,  the  origin,  it  gave  birth  to  the  year  1887. 
Without  the  year  1886  having  existed  ami  ex- 
pired there  could  be  no  room  for  the  year  1887. 
Therefore  there  should  be  no  crying  at  either  of 
these  changes,  not  only  because  it  is  of  no  avail  to 
ail)-   one,  but  also  because   it  is  very  unreasonable. 


For  death  is  not  a  loss,  it  is  not  a  punishment,  it  is 
not  a  disadvantage,  not  a  bereavement:  it  is,  on  the 
contrary,  the  process  of  progress.  Wherefore  I  can 
more  sincerely,  more  reasonably,  more  consistently 
than  many  of  his  disciples  and  followers,  exclaim 
with  Paul: 

"  O  death!   where  is  thy  sting; 
O  grave!  where  is  thy  victor}'!" — /.  Cor.  xv.JJ. 

LANGUAGE. 

BY    E.    P.    POWELL. 
Part  I. 

I.     ORIGIN    OF    LANGUAGE. 

It  is  impossible  to  comprehend  language  from 
.my  other  standpoint  than  evolution.  It  is  an  incom- 
prehensible mystery,  incapable  of  self-origination, 
and  equally  impossible  as  an  imposed  supernatural 
gift,  but  as  a  development  of  primal  sentience,  it  is 
not  only  comprehensible,  but  necessary.  It  is  agreed 
by  all  biological  science  that  primal  sensation  mani- 
fests itself  at  its  first  appearance  as  hunger.  Hunger 
is  capable  of  immediate  differentiation  into  like  and 
dislike;  satisfaction  and  non-satisfaction — the  posi- 
tive and  negative  of  sentience.  You  can  reduce 
sentience  to  no  lower  terms  than  where  you  find  it 
expressing  the  desire  to  eat  and  grow.  Now,  if  you 
will  trace  life  through  its  manifold  and  almost  infi- 
nite variations  up  to  man,  it  has  everywhere  this  com- 
mon basis  of  sentience  expressing  itself  as  hunger; 
and  hunger  is  either  satisfied  or  not  satisfied.  In 
higher  life  physical  hunger  becomes  psychical  hun- 
ger. The  moner  hungers  for  protoplasm;  man  hun- 
gers, or  may  hunger  for  rightness.  This  satisfaction 
and  non-satisfaction  has  its  expression  in  sensation. 
It  is  not  impossible  for  us  to  know  by  the  motion  of 
the  rhizopod  whether  it  is  satisfied  or  not.  It  makes 
its  feelings  known.  Whether  another  rhizopod  com- 
prehends this  expression  of  feeling"  or  not  is  not  so 
apparent.  But  in  the  arthropods  and  much  lower 
down  it  is  certain  that  there  is  a  power  of  mutual 
apprehending.  This  makes  it  probable  that  no  life- 
form  exists  without  giving  and  receiving  sympathy. 
All  creatures  apparently,  and  most  creatures  cer- 
tainly, communicate. 

This  condition  of  sentience,  and  mutual  relation- 
ship of  apprehension,  must  affect  and  control  largely 
the  method  of  evolution.  Organic  evolution  invari- 
ably obeys  purposive  evolution.  The  purpose  here 
is  to  satisfy  hunger;  and  to  express  the  purpose, 
either  as  a  desire  or  as  a  gratification.  Evolution, 
taking  up  this  aim  or  purpose,  must  ultimate  in  a 
growing  power  of  life-creatures  to  express  desire 
satisfied,  or  desire  not  satisfied — like  and  dislike — 
approval  and  disapproval.  In  other  words,  organic 
development  is  necessitated  in  the  direction  of 
organic  power  to  express ■-  to  speak. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


6S5 


II.     ORGANS    OF    LANGUAGE. 

The  protoplasmic  cell  is  not  a  sphere  but  an  ovoid, 
with  two  distinctive  poles — and  is  already  an  indi- 
vidual. Its  food  is  taken  at  one  pole;  the  chemical 
disintegration  goes  on  in  a  cycle;  the  waste  is  ex- 
creted at  the  other  pole.  A  spherical  cell  would  fail 
to  express  life.  Equally  exposed  to  chemical  attack 
from  environments  it  could  form  no  cyclic  flow,  and 
is  destroyed.  The  ovoid,  however,  represents  at  one 
pole  the  summit  of  dynamical  action,  and  there  you 
have  the  germ  of  the  future  head  (  see  Montgomery  ). 
Nature  does  not  construct  a  head  at  a  late  date  in 
evolution;  but  the  dynamic  action  that  impinges  on 
the  most  exposed  pole  is  already  constructing  a 
head  in  the  moner.  The  ovoid  moner  is  already  in 
every  sense  an  individual.  It  not  only  eats  and 
digests,  that  is,  has  a  chemical  decomposition  antag- 
onized and  counterbalanced  by  a  vital  reconstructive 
process,  but  it  has  a  dominant  point  that  controls  its 
functional  activity. 

The  dominant  point  involves  its  chemical  and 
vital  opposite.  The  two  poles  are  the  important 
points  of  the  life  cycle.  The  domination  carries 
naturally  to  the  one  the  accretions  of  vital  power. 
The  differentiations  that  constitute  the  future  head 
are  differences  of  domination.  The  spinal  processes 
are  rather  an  extension  downward  of  domination. 
The  tail  of  the  bird  and  of  animals  divides  the  func- 
tion of  language  with  the  head.  The  reproductive 
function  naturally  is  not  differenced  to  an}-  specific 
locality,  but  is  on  the  lip  of  a  spider  and  elsewhere 
on  other  creatures,  but  as  a  rule  tends  to  association 
with  the  excreting  organs.  The  creatures  that  do 
not  learn  to  vocalize  with  the  tongue  do  so  with  the 
tail.  The  language  of  the  tail  is  as  complete  in  the 
dog  or  bird  as  the  language  of  the  tongue.  The  tail 
is  aborted  only  in  the  highest  forms  of  life  when  its 
possible  functions  have  been  drafted  off  to  the  hand 
and  the  tongue.  Watch  the  tail  of  the  feline  tribe  in 
its  power  to  tell  joy,  peace,  anger,  apprehension, 
pleasure.  My  horse  has  learned  to  respond  to  a  tap 
of  the  whip  with  a  responsive  stroke  of  her  tail 
instead  of  quickening  her  pace.  A  cow  must 
express  herself  either  with  the  tail  or  the  hoof;  that 
is,  if  she  is  not  somewhat  inclined  to  an  occasional 
stroke  of  her  tail,  she  is  sure  to  be  a  kicker.  The 
robin's  chirp  and  tail  go  together.  As  a  mere  brush 
for  flies  the  cow's  tail  is  a  great  failure.  If  you  will 
watch  a  horse  you  will  see  that  she  lashes  her  tail  at 
a*  fly  quite  out  of  reach,  and  a  cow's  tail  is  aimed 
without  the  least  consideration  of  the  location  of  the 
fly.  Plainly,  the  chief  function  of  the  tail  is  not  a 
whip,  but  to  express  irritation  or  pleasure.  The 
emotion  of  animals  grieves  and  lashes  fury,  or 
gently  tells  joy    with    the    tail.      It    is  above   all   an 


instrument  of  language.  Following  the  suggestion 
of  Montgomery  we  find  the  functioning  that  is  finally 
so  overwhelmingly  gathered  and  concentered  in  the 
oral  extremity,  is  largely  aboral  until  we  reach  man. 
Language  in  the  ophidian  is  in  its  rattles,  located  in 
the  aboral  end.  This  is  evidently  its  method  of 
warning  its  foes.  It  is  the  language  of  the  serpent. 
The  emotional  life  of  man,  if  too  intense  at  the 
cerebral  point,  is  sure  to  react  to  the  sexual  passion. 
Dr.  Brinton,  in  his  remarkable  book  on  The  Re- 
ligions Sentiment  says:  "The  intimate  and  strange 
relation  between  sensuality  and  religion  so  often 
commented  upon,  is  a  consequence  of  physiological 
connections."  "  The  patient  who  is  melancholy  from 
disorders  of  the  generative  organs,  is  forsaken  of 
God  in  his  own  judgment.  His  afflictions  have  a 
religious  color."  "Stimulate  the  religious  sentiment 
and  you  arouse  the  passion  of  love."  Religious 
phrensy,  as  well  as  religious  spite,  has  been  owing  to 
this  close  association  of  the  moral  cerebral  and  the 
sexual  aboral.  We  never  quite  are  able  to  dissociate 
the  uplook  from  the  downlook  -especially  in  the 
language  of  emotional  life. 

In  fine,  we  find  the  oral  and  aboral  ends  of  the 
cell  functionally  extending  to  the  complex  forms  of 
higher  life.  Language  is  not  differentiated  to  our 
end  of  the  organic  creature  until  man  is  reached; 
and  in  man  our  emotions  express  themselves  still 
aborally.  Language  begins  at  the  outset  of  living 
creatures.  As  the  organism  becomes  complex,  and 
the  nervous  system  drafts  off  and  directs  life-energy, 
language  is  functional  at  each  end  of  the  creature. 
The  poles  of  the  cell  become  the  head  and  the  tail, 
the  prime  function  of  both  being  language.  Desire 
or  hunger  multiplies  its  methods  of  expression — 
satisfaction  does  the  same.  The  whole  body,  like 
the  whole  cell,  expresses  pleasure  or  disappoint- 
ment; but  mainly  language  is  at  the  extremities. 
The  dog's  tail  is  as  articulate  as  his  tongue,  and  the 
two  ends  twist  together  in  his  joy.  When  the  head 
finally  dominates  wholly,  the  tail  is  aborted;  the 
head  concentering  in  itself  all  language.  That  is,  the 
tail  and  head  are  prolongations  of  the  poles  of  the 
cell,  and  have  a  common  function  in  unequal  degrees. 

To  what  then  arc  we  driven  but  this,  that  language 
is  a  natural  endowment  of  life,  and  as  such  it  must 
be  in  some  way  the  endowment  of  all  forms  of  life. 
Life  is  emotional,  and  as  such  expresses  and  com- 
municates its  feelings.  And  this  was  so  before  there 
were  specific  organs  of  speech  developed.  ( )rgan- 
ism  has  ever  been  an  after-thought — function  has 
ever  preceded  form.  We  do  not  sec  because  we 
have  eyes,  but  we  have  eyes  because  sight  was 
involved  in  general  sentience.  So  men  do  not  talk 
because    they    have    organs    of  speech,  but  because 


686 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


they  had  the  endowment  of  communicativeness, 
which,  moving  ever  in  the  direction  of  or- 
ganic expression,  developed  speech  organs.  All 
nature  strives  and  longs  to  express  itself.  There  is 
always  a  tendency  to  better  methods  of  speech;  this 
tendency  leads  always  to  better  organs  of  speech. 
The  dog,  when  wild,  has  no  bark,  but  a  savage  cry; 
when  domesticated,  a  new  range  of  relations  rouses 
in  him  new  emotions  and  develops  new  powers.  The 
poor  fellow  at  times  becomes  almost  articulate  in  joys 
and  love,  and  more  so  in  his  griefs. 

III.     ARTICULATE    SPEECH. 

It  seems  pretty  surely  demonstrable  that  the 
earlier  races  of  human  beings  could  not  have  had 
articulate  speech  beyond  cries,  ejaculations  and 
musical  intonations.  History,  as  a  record,  does  not 
run  back  of  8,000  or  10,000  years.  I  mean  that  we 
cannot,  apart  from  geology  and  paleontology,  reach 
any  more  remote  knowledge  of  man  and  his  doings. 
The  known  linguistic  stocks  we  cannot  carry  back 
nearly  as  far;  but  somewhere  five  or  six  thousand 
years  ago  they  are  lost  in  an  abyss.  All  that  we  can 
be  assured  of  is  that  the  language  power  of  animals 
was  an  instinct  of  primitive  man.  He  used  animal 
language  instinctively;  but  an  instinct  in  forming 
always  establishes  a  tendency.  The  tendency  was  to 
increase  methods  of  communication.  The  effort  to 
communicate  must  have  slowly  but  surely  modified 
the  organs  of  speech.  For  proof  of  this  potency  in 
all  evolution  I  refer  you  to  Prof.  Cope's  Origin  of 
the  Fittest,  Part  III.  This  modification  of  organic 
structure  certainly  eventuated  in  a  peculiar  tubercle; 
and  in  an  enlarged  brain,  correlative  thereto.  M. 
Mortillet  says  that  the  evidence  is  complete  that  the 
man  of  the  River  Drift  Era  did  not  possess  organic 
power  to  articulate;  and  it  is  clearly  evident  also 
that  the  man  of  the  New  Stone  Era  did  become  pos- 
sessed of  such  power.  The  jawbone  of  the  older 
race  was  hollow  at  a  certain  point  as  in  monkeys. 
The  jawbone  of  later  races,  and  of  man  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  possesses  in  place  of  that  hollow  an  excres- 
cence called  the  genial  tubercle.  Dr.  Brown  adds 
that  the  lower  frontal  or  third  convolution  of  the 
brain  is  the  seat  of  the  language  directive  and  con- 
ceptive  faculty.  This  convolution  in  the  earlier 
races  was  undeveloped.  The  Cave  Man  who  fol- 
lowed the  River  Drift  Man  possessed  both  the 
frontal  convolution  and  the  genial  tubercle.  It  is 
not  at  all  certain  when  the  Cave  Man  began  his 
career,  but  the  language  power  could  have  had  but 
slow  development  for  many  thousands  of  years.  If 
we  allow  his  origin  to  have  been  fifteen  or  twenty 
thousand  years  ago,  or  even  longer,  we  shall  yet 
reach  the  Iberian  race  of  eight  or  ten  thousand  years 
ago  with  a  very  meager  vocabulary.     But  the  tend- 


ency is  thus  established  to  talk, — to  form  language. 
It  is  clear  that  no  power  in  man's  possession  com- 
pares with  this.  Language  is,  as  a  brain  tool,  more 
important  than  the  bronze  and  iron  tools  for  his 
hands.  Whatever  great  devlopment  anywhere  takes 
place  must  be  in  conjunction  with  growth  of  lan- 
guage. The  people  of  any  section  that  possess  a 
genius  for  language-making,  rush  necessarily  out  on 
the  line  of  a  dialect  which,  in  those  days,  would  orig- 
inate an  entirely  new  language.  Nowadays  a  dia- 
lect is  so  charged  with  the  mother  tongue  that  it  can 
never  be  more  than  a  dialect;  but  at  that  period  in 
language-making  it  is  conceivable  that  a  specially 
forceful  movement  would  establish  the  dialect  as  a 
new  language.  So  we  can  conceive  the  Aryan,  the 
Semitic  and  the  Turanian  languages  to  have  moved 
out  diversely  at  a  very  early  period  of  language-mak- 
ing, having  so  little  of  the  common  that  that  little 
became  in  time  almost  indistinguishable;  but  it  is 
that  insignificant  germ  that  to-day  is  distinguishable 
by  philologists.  Precisely,  as  out  of  the  anthropoid 
man  came  off  diverse  races  of  men,  so  out  of  the 
anthropoidal  language  moved  diverging  and  ever- 
enriching  languages.  No  divergence  could  take 
place  to-day  without  carrying  with  it  a  vast  treasure 
from  its  original  source  and  home.  It  is  clear  that 
such  would  not  then  have  been  the  case.  The  pro- 
pulsion that  gave  them  at  last  the  power  to  be  men 
and  begin  the  wonderful  career  of  reasoners,  laying 
up  in  language  and  by  means  of  language  all  their 
mental  and  moral  accumulations,  and  so  assuring 
a  future  by  securing  a  past, — this  language  propulsion 
at  the  same  moment  divided  them  into  distinct  races 
destined  to  travel  diverse  lines  of  historic  evolution. 
What  conclusion  then  do  we  necessarily  reach? 
P^vidently  this,  that  the  animal  instinct  to  communi- 
cate by  sign  and  sound  was  inherited  by  primitive 
man,  and  with  it  a  propensity  to  increased  invention. 
This,  in  time,  modified  structure,  so  that  articulation 
became  possible.  By  infinitely  minute  increase  of 
use  and  consequent  organic  change,  articulation 
became  the  one  power  that  lifted  man  above  the 
brute.  To-day  language-making  is  an  instinct  of  all 
civilized  races.  Our  English  language  is  rich  almost 
to  the  extent  of  100,000  words;  and  is  rapidly  grow- 
ing— each  word  a  power  in  evolution.  The  alphabet 
is  the  child  of  thousands  of  years  of  effort  at  sys- 
tematized language.  It  is  not  more  than  four  or  five 
thousand  years  since  speech  thus  crystalized.  Print- 
ing is  not  yet  half  a  thousand  years  old.  We  can 
scarcely  conceive  the  slowness  of  language-making 
before  these  inventions. 

The  language-making  instinct  has  now  over- 
grown the  mere  instinct  to  communicate  which  was 
inherited  from  animals.     Children  not  seldom  create 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


685 


a  new  language.  I  have  known  one  such  case  where 
a  brother  and  sister,  twins,  I  believe,  for  many  years 
communicated  volubly  in  words  wholly  of  their  own 
invention.  It  was  a  spontaneity,  and  it  was  with 
great  difficulty  that  they  were  compelled  to  use  our 
English  words. 

THE    HAND    AND    THE    BRAIX. 

In  making  man  nature  had  three  structural 
changes  to  accomplish.  1.  To  free  the  fore  limbs 
and  make  of  them  pliable  tool-makers.  2.  To  cre- 
ate a  frontal  and  directive  rational  brain.  3.  To 
create  the  genial  tubercle  adapting  the  throat  to 
articulation.  These  changes  were  accomplished; 
but  being  done  they  involved  far  more  than  direct 
results.  The  hand  and  the  brain  are  curiously  allied, 
and  complementary  education  is  just  awakening  to 
the  fact  that  an  educated  brain  is  not  an  educated 
man.  The  hand  also  must  be  taught  skill.  The  fate 
of  brain  and  hand  must  be  identical.  The  hand 
became  free  at  about  the  same  time  as  the 
brain  became  frontal  and  supreme.  Sharing  other 
endowments  with  the  brain,  the  hand  also  shows 
language.  It  talks.  Language  in  man  is  oral,  man- 
ual and  artificial.  This  association  of  the  front 
limbs  with  the  frontal  brain  is  what  might  be 
expected.  The  hands  and  brain  have  remarkably 
kept  pace.  The  monkey's  skill  with  his  paws  is 
about  on  a  par  with  his  brain  power.  So  it  came 
about  in  the  progress  of  events  that  language  divided 
itself  between  gesture  and  vocalization — motion  and 
sound.  We  inherit  both  considerably  developed  by 
the  animal  world.  Gestures  naturally  passed  into 
signs  or  formal  methods  of  conveying  thought  by 
the  hands;  vocalization  passed  into  picture  language 
and  alphabetic  language.  All  growth  in  language 
has  been  an  increase  of  the  power  to  use  artifice. 
Gesture-language  is  at  its  best  in  savage  life;  vocali- 
zation has  no  line  of  development.  All  progress 
has  been,  and  must  be,  in  artificial  communication. 


THE    FOOL    IN    THE    DRAMA. 

BY     FRANZ     HELBIG. 

Part  HI. — Conclusion. 

The  conceit  bred  by  social  rank  has  furnished  the 
stage  with  a  large  number  of  characters.  They  are 
the  innumerable  titled  snobs,  male  and  female,  in 
whose  estimation  any  one  without  a  title  is  a  "  no- 
body." They  are  as  narrow  as  they  are  conceited. 
At  the  present  day  the  title  must  share  its  honors 
with  the  moneyed  aristocracy.  Of  the  latter  type, 
Benedix  gives  us  an  excellent  example  in  his  Zart- 
liche  Verwandte 

Anatol  Schumrich  has  the  good  fortune  to  be  the 
son  of  the  richest  man  in  town.  This  fact,  in  reliev- 
ing him  of  all  anxiety  and  necessity  for  thought  and 
action,  insures  his  follv.     He  makes  no  effort  what- 


soever, but  trusts  entirely  to  the  power  and  charm  of 
his  wealth.  He  has  a  distaste  for  study  and  knows 
only  one  thing;  that,  being  so  rich,  he  need  not  know 
anything.  When  his  father  sends  him  abroad  to  be 
educated  he  learns  just  enough  to  make  a  fool  of 
himself,  when  he  returns.  He  sees  it,  too,  but  that 
does  not  trouble  him.  Then  his  father  sends  him 
away  to  find  a  wife-  In  spite  of  his  money,  he  gets 
nothing  but  mittens,  but  he  _'oes  not  mind,  for  he  is 
still  the  son  of  the  richest  people  in  town;  this 
is,  after  all,  the  principal  thing  and  the  young  ladies 
are  very  foolish  not  to  consider  it. 

.Another  class  of  fools  now  claims  our  attention: 
those  who  would  be  and  would  appear  more  than 
the>-  are;  who  continually  strive  to  get  beyond  their 
sphere.  In  this  category  we  may  place  the  would- 
be  politician  in  the  coined)'  by  the  Danish  poet,  Hol- 
berg.  He  neglects  his  lucrative  business  of  pewterer, 
for  politics,  leads  political  clubs  and  flatters  himself 
that  he  is  destined  one  day  to  become  a  great  poli- 
tician. When  he  is  made  to  believe  that  he  has  been 
elected  mayor,  he  discovers  his  utter  inability  to 
cope  with  the  duties  of  his  office  and  is  finally  very 
glad  to  return  to  his  business. 

Among  fools  of  this  kind  we  must  also  include 
the  driver  Subowsky,  in  Doctor  Klaus,  who  im- 
agines he  has  learnt  the  art  of  medicine  from  his 
master;  furthermore,  all  the  emancipated  women  that 
abound  in  the  comedies  of  from  1840-50,  Moliere's 
blue-stockings  and  their  sisters  in  Benedix'  comedies. 

The  kind  of  fools  we  now  come  to  are  the  most 
pitiable  of  all.  The  others  unconsciously  wear  the 
cap  and  bells,  but  these  are  fully  aware  of  their  con- 
dition, but  cannot  help  themselves.  They  are  the 
fools  in  spite  of  themselves.  Foremost  among  them  we 
notice  a  youth,  pale,  dream}-,  melancholy.  It  is 
Hamlet,  who  assumes  madness  to  aid  him  in  solving 
the  problem  of  his  life.  In  his  wake  follow  all  those 
who  are  compelled  to  act  a  part  which  was  merely 
affected  or  assumed  in  jest;  as,  for  instance,  the  poor 
cobler  in  the  Venuunclienen  Prinzen,  or  the  theatre- 
director  Ouabbe  in  Schweitzer's  Countess  Helen, 
who  finds  himself  compelled  to  act  the  role  of  count, 
which  he  had  assumed  in  jest.  This  peculiar  phase 
of  folly  may  reach  such  proportions  that  the  victim 
becomes  uncertain  of  his  identity  and  actually  be- 
lieves himself  to  be  some  one  else;  as  in  the  case  of 
the  unfortunate  Meister  Andrea  in  Emanuel  Geibel's 
corned}-.  His  friends  try  to  convince  him  that  he  is 
not  the  carpenter  Andrea,  but  the  orchestra-leader 
Mattheo;  and  he  finally  believes  it  himself  and  tries 
to  appear  and  act  like  Mattheo. 

Related  to  the  last-named  class  are  the  hypo- 
chondriacs, so  well  pictured  by  Moliere,  and  also  by 
Moser  in  his  excellent  farce  A  Sick  Family. 


688 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


We  nowjcome  upon  a  regular  quartette  of  loll)-; 
the  despondent  mien  and  heavy,  dull,  far-away  ex- 
pression give  a  certain  similarity  of  character  to  the 
four.  They  are  the  victims  of  what  the  Germans  call 
"  Weltschmerz,"  a  species  of  mental  disease  very  prev- 
alent in  Europe  between  1840  and  1850.  The  quar- 
tette is  interesting  enough  to  warrant  individual  in- 
spection. The  first  is  of  distinguished  aristocratic 
appearance;  his  hair,  grown  somewhat  thin,  is  care- 
fully arranged;  his  dress  is  fashionable,  but  not 
dudish;  his  white,  taper  fingers  are  adorned  with 
diamonds;  in  his  hand  is  a  whip; — it  is  Count  Walde- 
mar  in  Gustav  Freytag's  play. 

The  second,  in  the  uniform  of  a  French  general, 
is  of  equally  striking  presence.  In  his  right  hand  he 
carries  a  book;  the  left  rests  on  his  richly  gilded 
dress-sword — it  is  the  royal  lieutenant,  Count  Thorane. 

The  third  is  Lord  Rochester  in  The  Orphan  of 
Lowood  a  tall,  somewhat  bent  figure,  with  a  pale, 
thin  face  and  a  high,  white  forehead.  He  wears  a  red 
fez  and  a  beautifully  wrought  India  dressing-gown. 
He  limps  painfully;  the  expression  in  his  eyes  speaks 
of  deep  melancholy  and  yet  of  dauntless  energy. 

The  fourth,  with  unkempt  hair,  slouching  gait  and 
neglected  garments,  presents  a  marked  contrast  to 
the  others.  A  sarcastic  smile  plays  about  his  lips 
and  his  expression  is  one  of  mockery  and  cynicism. 
This  is  Narciss,  the  hero  of  Brachvogel's  play  of  the 
same  name. 

Their  folly  is  all  of  a  similar  character.  Count 
Waldemar  is  thoroughly  blase,  and  this  fact  originates 
a  melancholy  discontent,  which  vents  itself  in  acts  of 
whimsical  folly,  until  he  is  finally  restored  by  the 
influence  of  a  good  common-sense  woman. 

Count  Thorane,  too,  is  a  victim  of  despondency 
and  melancholy,  caused  by  a  woman,  who  has  be- 
trayed his  noble  heart.  He  grows  nervous  and  ex- 
citable. The  most  trifling  things,  such  as  the  blue 
color  of  a  painted  sky,  or  an  innocent  little  poem 
like  Goethe's  "  Kleine  Blumen,  kleine  Blatter"  move 
him  to  tears;  yet  he  is  a  soldier,  undaunted  in  the 
midst  of  battle.  This  incongruity  destroys  the  equi- 
poise of  his  nature. 

The  case  of  Narciss  is  a  similar  one.  The  base 
deceit  of  a  woman  robs  him  of  his  peace  of  mind  and 
of  his  normal  power  of  thought  and  action.  In  him, 
too,  the  miseries  of  life  have  engendered  incongrui- 
ties, that  result  in  irrationality  and  folly.  On  the  one 
hand  he  is  a  cynic,  who  despises  the  whole  world,  has 
no  faith  in  man  and  deems  a  good  digestion  the  only 
true  happiness  in  life;  on  the  other  hand  he  is  a  sensi- 
tive, enthusiastic  lover,  who  longs  for  his  lost,  faith- 
less wife,  and  has  but  the  one  wish,  to  behold  her, 
his  lost  Eden,  again.  The  incongruous  combination 
of  cynicism  and  dreamy  enthusiasm,  of  idealism  and 


materialism,  of  earth  and  heaven  in  his  soul,  as  it 
were,  render  him  a  helpless,  unstable  creature,  a  very 
fool.  His  philosophical  effusions  are  but  the  result 
of  his  despairing  moods,  and  generally  contain  a  sug- 
gestion of  irony — for,  at  bottom  he  does  not  mean 
what  he  says.  His  simulated  hilarity  is  in  reality 
full  of  spleen  and  bitterness.  Could  he  but  find  his 
beloved  wife,  all  these  hallucinations  of  his  brain 
would  vanish.  He  does  finally  see  her,  but  as  the 
mistress  of  the  king;  before  making  this  discovery 
he  is  himself  again  for  the  moment, — the  normal 
man, — but  now  his  reason  entirely  deserts  him,  wild 
ungoverned  thoughts  obtain  dominion,  and  he  ex- 
pires in  a  fit  of  insanity. 

The  last  of  the  quartette,  Lord  Rochester,  pos- 
sesses a  kind  and  gentle  disposition,  which  impels 
him  to  acts  of  the  noblest  humanity,  such  as  the  care 
of  an  unworthy  woman,  who  deeply  wronged  him 
and  his  brother,  and  that  of  her  illegitimate  child. 
This  circumstance  renders  him  cynical,  hard  and 
contemptuous  of  the  world,  particularly  of  woman. 
He,  too,  belongs  to  the  melancholy  class,  and  the 
conflict  between  his  real  and  his  assumed  nature  pro- 
duces mental  disease — a  species  of  folly. 

These  four  characters  were  probably  the  products 
of  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  it  may  be  said  that  every 
epoch  has  its  peculiar  fool.  The  fool  of  the  present 
day  is  the  parvenu,  to  be  seen  on  the  stage  in  every 
phase.  Observe  him,  as  represented  in  Pohl's  farce 
Honest  Work,  the  well-known  Schultze  of  the  aris- 
tocracy; of  large  proportions,  well-fed;  a  double 
chin  with  a  red  silk  scarf  beneath  it;  a  light  felt  hat 
on  his  head,  and  a  heavy  watch-chain  well  in  view. 
Through  his  grocery  and  the  tenfold  increase  in 
value  of  his  property,  he  has  rapidly  become  wealthy. 
He  now  strives  to  imitate  the  higher  and  cultured 
classes,  without  considering  that  to  do  this  success- 
fully requires  education  and  refinement,  which  all 
his  money  cannot  secure  him.  His  hitherto  natural 
manners  give  place  to  affectation.  He  has  brilliant 
receptions,  at  which  the  conversation  is  generally 
limited  to  the  weather;  he  gives  grand  dinners,  at 
which  his  guests  are  well  fed;  he  has  musical  even- 
ings, without  knowing  anything  of  music;  he  tries  to 
imitate  the  speech  of  the  educated,  and  talks  non- 
sense. The  elements  at  variance  in  his  nature  render 
him  a  fool. 

The  counselor  in  Lindau's  Mary  and  Magdalen 
is  a  parvenu  of  more  refined  description,  who,  despite 
his  high  position,  cannot  hide  his  folly. 

Moliere  already  introduced  this  species  in  his 
character  Jourdain,  who,  having  been  titled  when 
well  on  in  life,  engages  dancing  masters,  fencing 
masters  and  composers  in  order  to  acquire  their 
arts. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


689 


The  fools  of  the  stage  are  still  in  existence,  albeit 
the  original  "  Hanswurst"  is  dead;  and  they  are  in 
place  there,  for  folly  is  needed  to  preserve  sense  and 
wisdom.  Folly  paves  the  way  for  wisdom.  The 
object  of  the  stage  should  be  to  present  a  mirror  of 
life,  gazing  into  which  man  may  see  himself  and  be 
warned  against  his  passions  and  his  follies.  There- 
fore the  stage  will  ever  continue  to  be  enriched  by 
suggestions  from  life,  for  folly  will  never  cease. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  ECONOMICS. 

BY  GEO.   M.  GOULD. 

Part  I. 

[Extracts  from  an   essay  read  before   the  Society  for   Ethical  Culture,   ot 
Philadelphia,  February  6,  1S87.] 

A  cool  student  and  one  deeply  learned  in  the 
history  of  the  precious  metals  states  it  as  a  fact  that 
every  dollar  of  gold  drawn  from  the  earth  has  cost 
two.  From  this  statement  we  see  that  the  cost  of  a 
thing  is  something  different  from  the  nature  of  gold 
itself.  M.  Del  Mar  apparently  estimates  the  value 
of  gold  in  other  than  terms  of  gold.  It  seems  like 
a  reductio  ad  absurdum  to  say  that  every  dollar  has 
cost  two  dollars.  It  is,  of  course,  evident  that  he 
means  to  estimate  the  value  of  gold  in  terms  of 
labor  and  suffering.  And  viewed  in  this  light  it  is 
probably  too  low  an  estimate.  If  the  same  lives  and 
labor  had  been  spent  in  raising  wheat  that  have 
been  wrecked  in  gold  mining  the  value  of  the  result 
would  certainly  be  worth  many  times  that  of  the 
world's  gold,  which  is  calculated  to  be  about  thirty- 
five  hundred  million  of  dollars,  and  which  would  not 
fill  a  room  one-half  the  size  of  this  one.  We  find  in 
medicine  that  therapeutic  agents  have  what  is  called 
their  essential  principles,  that  is,  a  few  grains  of 
vital  and  peculiar  essence  are  scattered  through 
pounds  or  masses  of  a  neutral  and  disused  menstruum, 
and  on  these  subtle  molecules  depends  all  the 
efficacy  of  the  drug.  Now,  when  we  come  to 
analyze  gold  psychologically  and  extract  from  it  its 
essential  principle,  we  shall  find  in  the  chemistry  of 
life's  fearful  crucible  that  its  spirit  is  nothing  else 
than  the  Spirit  of  Man  himself. 

We,  who  are  not  misers,  know  that  a  dollar  per  se 
has  no  significance;  it  is  only  as  representative  that 
it  gains  meaning  and  power.  When  we  go  into 
market  to  buy  something  with  it,  if  we  examine  our- 
selves carefully  we  shall  find,  so  far  as  we  the  own- 
ers are  concerned,  that  we  have  obtained  it  in  one 
of  three  ways:  we  have  either  had  it  presented  to 
us  by  some  one  else,  father,  husband  or  friend;  or 
we  have  stolen  it,  cheated  some  one  else  out  of  it; 
or  we  have  earned  it.  Doubtless  the  money  most  of 
us  have  now  in  bank  or  in  pocket  is  the  child  by  a 
combination  in  varying  proportions  of  all  three 
parentages.     Few   of  our  dollars    could    show  their 


family-tree  with  perfect  pride.  The  bar-sinister  is 
usually  not  far  back.  If,  now,  our  money  has  been 
given  to  us  or  we  have  otherwise  gotten  it  without 
earning  it,  it  follows  by  strict  necessity  that  some 
one  else  has  earned  it.  If  in  its  last  analysis  money 
is  but  the  representative  of  value,  some  one  must 
create  the  value  in  order  to  become  the  owner  of  its 
title  deeds.  What  it  is  to  create  the  value,  we  learn 
when  we  go  to  work  to  earn  the  money  with  which 
we  would  go  to  market.  To  earn  it,  I  say,  not  get 
it;  for,  in  the  complexity  and  injustice  of  our  semi- 
civilization,  earning  and  getting  possession  of  it  are 
two  very  different  matters.  If  you  earn  it  you  have 
rendered  for  it  a  service  that  was  worth  a  dollar  to 
some  one  else.  In  rendering  this  service  you  have 
given  either  your  labor,  your  ingenuity  or  your 
thought,  your  suffering,  love  or  learning — in  a  word, 
your  life!  And  this  is  the  final  analysis  of  all  money 
and  all  values  rateable  in  money.  Every  dollar  is 
but  the  concrete  representation  of  human  effort  and 
thought,  and  everything  called  wealth  is  the  product 
of  the  work,  the  heart-throbs  and  mental  powers  of 
human  beings.  Money,  in  its  last  analysis,  is  the 
tally  stick  of  muscle  contractions,  of  heart  beats,  of 
lives  worn  out.  Sometime  ago  it  was  the  fashion  of 
certain  dainty  dames  to  go  to  the  slaughter-houses 
and  drink  the  blood  gushing  hot  from  the  freshlv 
cut  arteries  of  dying  cattle.  Blood  not  only  sym- 
bolizes, but  is  the  life,  and  so  in  eating  the  flesh  or 
solid  blood,  or  in  drinking  the  liquid  blood,  we  de- 
vour the  life  of  the  animal.  In  exactly  the  same 
sense  when  we  use  for  our  own  need  or  gratification 
the  valuables  wrought  by  others,  we  are  taking 
from  them  (justifiably  or  not,  matters  not  here) 
their  very  life.  Their  life  was  more  or  less  consumed 
in  producing  them  and  the  things — bread,  houses, 
railroads — have  value  only  as  these  men  have  put 
their  life  into  them,  thereby  making  them  wealth  or 
valuables.  The  creation  of  our  financial  and  in- 
dustrial system  has  served  to  impersonalize  the  ser- 
vice, to  generalize  the  life,  and  we  think  only  of 
the  thing  we  are  buying  and  forget  the  history  of 
the  thing;  we  think  of  the  concrete  object  and  not 
of  the  invisible  essence,  human  life,  which  alone 
made  the  thing  real  and  of  interest.  From  every- 
thing purchasable  with  money  the  dead  eyes  of  the 
human  souls  who  fashioned  it  look  out  with  signifi- 
cant demand.  With  every  board  or  brick  that 
shelters  us,  with  every  woven  thread  that  covers  us, 
with  every  morsel  of  food  we  eat  or  pleasure  we  en- 
joy, the  shadow)-  ghost  of  humanity  calls  out  to  us, 
"Take,  eat;  this  is  my  bod)'.  Drink  ye  all  of  this 
my  blood  which  is  shed  for  the  many." 

The  great  danger  we  run  in   regard  to  this  con- 
ception of  the  matter  is  that  habit  shall  harden  us  into 


690 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


an  indifference  and  merely  external  assent  to  it,  or 
that  we  shall  look  upon  it  only  as  a  metaphor  or  illus- 
trative example,  whilst  all  the  time  it  is  the  most 
real  and  absolutely  exact  statement  of  the  fact. 
Vicarious  suffering  and  vicarious  death  are  old  theo- 
logical doctrines,  and  have  been  sniffed  at  by  the 
young  colts  of  a  shallow-pated  atheism,  but  every 
act  of  social  life  and  existence  is  shot  through  and 
through,  and  again  through  with  it.  Our  life  is  but 
the  surface  embroidery  worked  upon  the  strong 
warp  and  woof  of  other  men's  services,  and  dead 
men's  deeds.  We  have  taken  of  the  life  of  every 
brave  soldier  of  history  who  fought  for  the  right  and 
liberty  we  enjoy;  we  have  taken  of  the  life  of  every 
student  and  investigator  who  wore  out  life  and  mind 
for  us;  of  every  legislator  and  judge  who  by  his  own 
self-renunciation  kept  pure  for  us  the  ideas  and 
practice  of  justice.  In  the  smallest  details  of  life 
the  law  is  also  absolute;  the  coal  we  warm  ourselves 
with  is  ours  because  men  parted  with  some  of  their 
life — perhaps  their  whole  life — to  dig  it  for  us;  a 
spiritual  eye  can  see  the  bones  of  smothered  and 
buried  miners  glowing  deep  among  the  burning  coals 
of  our  hearth-fires. 

We  all  know  how  the  most  trivial  article  we  use 
is  serviceable  to  us  only  by  and  because  of  the  death 
of  the  plant  or  animal  whence  we  derived  it;  ever}' 
element  of  the  food  we  eat,  except  perhaps  salt  and 
water,  is  a  wrench  and  robber)-  of  the  same  from 
what  may  be  called  nature's  intention.  Grain  and 
plant,  fruit  and  animal,  must  die  to  give  us  our  life. 
It  is  precisely  as  true  that  every  purchasable  thing, 
from  a  cracker  to  a  railroad,  bears  to  us  a  value  ex- 
actly proportional  to  the  human  life  spent  in  its  pro- 
duction and  which  alone  gives  it  its  value  and 
expense.  In  the  cumulation  of  this  service  it  is 
easily  seen  men's  lives  are  wholly  spent  and  incor- 
porated just  as  absolutely  as  if  the  heart's  blood  had 
been  drunk  at  a  slaughter-pen.  How  many  are  the 
lives  of  his  fellow-men  eaten  and  wasted  by  a  spend- 
thrift and  gluttonous  debauchee!  Therefore,  the  pur- 
chased thing  we  use  or  waste  is  really  a  palimpsest; 
we  think  it  a  book,  a  railroad  ride,  clothes  or  a  house: 
these,  however,  are  but  the  crude  pictures  of  a 
coarse  and  late  handwriting.  Beneath  them,  and  all 
through  them,  a  discerning  eye  catches  the  gleam  of 
a  subtle  and  half-hidden  chirography,  the  pale  letters 
of  long  dead  authors  who  perished  in  writing  these 
and  such  as  these. 

It  is  not  hard  for  an  imaginative  and  sympathetic 
mind  to  see  in  this  way  how  true  it  is  that  all  our 
purchased  enjoyments  and  benefits  are  rooted  in  the 
rich  soil  fertilized  by  the  services  of  the  dead  whose 
lives  have  been  thus  given,  willingly  or  unwillingly, 
to  create  the   rich  compost   whence  grows  the  full- 


blossoming  plant  of  modern  civilization, — that  plant 
of  basil  which  proverbially  flourishes  best  on  dead- 
men's  brains. 

What  is  the  net  result  of  most  lives?  A  carpen- 
ter has  built  a  hundred  houses  for  others  to  live  in; 
a  laborer  has  shoveled  a  few  million  shovelfuls  of 
earth  for  others  to  ride  over  in  parlor  cars  that 
thousands  of  men  have  constructed;  an  author  has 
written  a  book  or  two  for  others  to  read;  an  inven- 
tor's brain  is  worn  out  devising  an  ingenious  machine 
for  others  to  use  when  he  is  dead;  a  clerk  has  meas- 
ured cloth  for  years  for  others  to  wear, — and  so  on 
through  the  list.  Catharine  of  Russia  once  made  a 
journey  through  her  land  to  see  with  her  own  eyes 
the  glory  of  her  government  and  the  blessings 
to  the  people  of  her  reign.  The  people  were  as 
racked  with  want  and  woe  as  Russian  serfs  alone  can 
be,  but  on  every  hand,  skillfully  prepared  by  her 
ministers  in  advance  were  the  signs  of  plenty  and 
prosperity.  The  slaves  were  driven  to  the  roadside 
in  gala-dress;  improvised  houses  of  pasteboard  were 
erected;  mills  with  bags  of  sand  in  front  of  their 
doors,  arose  as  the  triumphal  procession  passed, 
flinsrinsr  silver  coins  at  random  among  the  mob.  The 
next  day  tinsel,  and  sham,  and  delusion  had  disap- 
peared like  a  theatrical  show  or  a  fanciful  dream. 
To  one  calmly  viewing  the  mutations  of  human 
affairs  this  might  seem  an  apt  example  of  what 
happens  with  the  products  of  humanity's  laborious 
exertions:  that  they  flash  into  light  before  the  eyes 
of  the  queenly  Present  to  vanish  as  suddenly  in 
destruction  and  forgetfulness,  whilst  the  monotonous 
groan  of  the  laborer  goes  on  forever.  But  it  is  not 
wholly  so.  Whether  the  toilers  of  the  da)'  that  is 
past  have  done  their  work  well  or  ill,  their  lives  have 
passed  from  them,  and,  stroke  by  stroke,  day  by 
day,  heart-throb  by  heart-throb,  thought  by  thought 
have  passed  into  the  thing  they  have  done.  These 
men  are  entombed  in  their  handiwork,  as,  in  the 
mediaeval  story  the  skillful  mechanic  was  maliciously 
crushed  by  the  torture  engine  and  buried  in  the  in- 
fernal dungeon  he  had  himself  constructed  for  his 
tyrant-master. 

If  we  now  fully  and  vividly  realize  that  every 
dollar  and  dollar's  worth  of  valuable  things  is  ser- 
viceable and  good  because  the  life  of  man  is  mater- 
ialized in  them,  because  man's  life  has  been  withdrawn 
from  him  and  deposited  in  the  things  he  has  created, 
we  may  turn  to  consider  a  moment  the  uses  and 
abuses  made  of  these  products. 

When  we  do  so  we  are  met  by  the  cynic,  and  the 
voice  of  the  stung  conscience  sneering  at  us  that 
suffering  and  unjust  usage  of  men's  lives  has  always 
been,  and  will  always  be;  that  Malthus  found  out 
what  sort  of  a  Providence  rules  the  destinies  of  men 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


691 


and  that  the  mass  of  men  must  in  the  nature  of 
things  toil  for  the  idle  few.  There  is  a  vital  dis- 
tinction to  be  noted  here,  and  Lammenais  expressed 
it  when  he  wrote  that  "  though  labor  and  suffering 
are  everywhere,  some  labors  are  sterile  whilst  some 
are  fecund ;  some  sufferings  infamous,  some  glorious." 
No  wise  mind  looking  out  over  the  wastes  of  human 
history  and  into  the  construction  of  the  physical 
universe  hopes  to  extinguish  the  manifold  evils  and 
imperfections  of  our  planetary  life.  All  that  can 
reasonably  be  hoped  for  is  that  justice  should  rule 
our  ways  and  days,  that  unnecessary  misery  shall  not 
be  poured  on  men,  that  we  shall  all  be  sharers  of  one 
another's  burdens,  and  that  greed  and  wrong  shall 
not  lay  its  woeful  burdens  on  innocent  shoulders. 
These  are  simply  the  plainest  demands  of  justice, 
and  we  who  pretend  to  be  students  and  lovers  of 
ethics,  must  work  to  bring  these  ethical  ideas  be- 
fore men's  minds  and  plant  them  in  our  social  life. 
But  we  cannot  move  a  step  in  this  work  without 
stumbling  upon  the  great  economical  wrong  which 
blackens  all  history  and  befouls  every  modern 
social  fact,  the  wrong  that  is  old  as  humanity  and 
wide  as  the  world;  the  wrong  that  religion  has  arisen 
to  overcome,  that  law  and  civil  polity  seek  in  vain 
to  grasp  and  subdue,  the  wrong  that  seems  to  be  the 
soul  of  our  souls  that  tricks  our  better  nature  and 
almost  makes  us  hate  ourselves  that  we  cannot  avoid 
its  subtle  tyrrany — the  wrong  of  slavery.  We  are 
natural  slaveholders;  we  would  get  another's  bread 
without  giving  him  equal  service,  we  wish  another's 
life  without  giving  our  own.  All  govenment  and  all 
social  life  prior  to  the  breaking  up  of  the  Roman 
Empire  was  founded  upon  slavery.  A  man  could  buy 
conquered  soldiers  by  the  hundreds  or  thousands  on 
a  Roman  battle-field  for  the  price  of  a  dog,  and  the 
uses  made  of  them  are  known  by  every  one  who  has 
glanced  through  the  execrable  records  of  Roman 
history.  Mediaeval  feudalism  was  a  change  of  name 
without  much  change  in  nature.  Everywhere  we 
find  the  essence  of  the  relation  held  firm;  every- 
where power  held  over  men's  bodies  and  minds  for 
selfish  uses.  None  but  the  interested,  those  willfully 
deceiving  or  willfully  self-deceived  can  pretend  that 
modern  industrialism  or  commercialism  is  much  else 
than  another  disguise.  The  old  Proteus  has  slipped 
the  leashes  of  our  crude  nomenclature  but  under  a 
new  name  he  holds  the  knout  of  his  sovereignty 
over  men's  backs  with  as  firm  a  fist  as  ever.  The 
aged  Villeroi  held  the  child  Louis  XV.  before  the 
crowded  masses  below  the  palace  window  and  said  to 
him,  "  Behold,  Sire,  all  this  folk  belongs  to  you." 
When  a  dying  man  hands  his  children  1 50  millions  of 
dollars  does  he  not  even  more  absolutely  than  any 
dying  king  hand    them    the   labor,   the    bodies,    the 


minds,  the  lives  of  many  thousands  of  people?  If  it 
were  not  so  the  millions  of  dollars  would  be  of  no 
more  value  than  so  many  sea-shore  pebbles.  The 
market  value  of  1,300,000  slaves  held  to-day  in 
Brazil  is  estimated  at  S436  per  head.  At  this  rate, 
you  see,  our  richest  capitalist  could  have  gone  to 
Brazil  and  bought  outright  some  300,000  people. 
Suppose  he  had  done  so,  you  perceive  at  once  that 
to  preserve  his  property  he  would  have  to  feed, 
clothe  and  care  for  it  whether  he  could  keep  it  at 
work  or  not,  whether  he  could  sell  the  products  of 
its  labor  at  a  profit  or  not.  Modern  industrialism 
has  found  a  far  better  method  of  slave-owning  than 
this:  it  borrows  the  public  slaves  whenever  it  can 
make  money  out  of  them  and  the  day  it  finds  the 
loan  unprofitable  it  discharges  them  and  sends  them 
back  to  the  public  (which  means  to  nobody  or  to  the 
devil,  as  you  will )  with  the  kindly  remark,  "  The 
Public  be  damned!" — and  the  public  obeys  to  the 
letter.  Malthus  and  natural  selection  and  Provi- 
dence and  the  public  are  trusted  to  supply  "  hands" 
again  whenever  desired. 

One  is  reminded  of  the  cunning  Sphex,  the  wasp- 
like creature  that  gathers  worms  and  creeping  things 
about  the  clay  cells  of  its  larvae,  all  stung  so  accu- 
rately that  they  are  preserved  in  life,  but  otherwise 
powerless  to  move,  till  fresh  meat  is  wanted  for  the 
grub's  dinner.  Malthus  &  Company  never  fail  to 
supply  the  market-basket  of  our  human  Sphexes, 
and  you  see  the  financial  wisdom  of  having  all  the 
advantages  of  slave-holding  without  the  disadvan- 
tage of  responsibility  for  the  slave's  welfare.  The 
capitalist's  exegesis  of  Malthus  is  quite  as  accurate 
as  that  of  any  professor  of  political  economy. 
There  is  no  need  of  going  to  Brazil;  the  Brazilian 
were  wiser  to  come  here  where  the  average  wages  of 
an  American  freeman  reaches  the  enormous  figure 
of  S365  a  year — one  dollar  (and  many  dolors)  a  day, 
as  if  planned  by  Malthus'  partner  to  save  fractions. 
If  this  amount  seem  rather  high  a  move  might  be 
made  to  England  where  S300  would  be  all  required; 
or  to  Ireland  where  Si 25  would  suffice  to  buy  a  man 
for  a  year,  or  even  to  India  where  $5  or  Sio  is  all 
that  is  asked. 

According  to  the  tables  of  the  life-assurance 
statisticians,  a  healthy  young  man  of  twenty  will,  on 
the  average,  live  about  forty  years.  His  average 
wage  is,  as  we  have  seen,  S365  a  year;  this  last  sum 
therefore  multiplied  by  forty  gives  the  market  price 
of  a  man's  life.  This  is  Si 4,600.  Now,  this  is  no 
allegory  or  play  of  fancy,  but  the  baldest  and  bitter- 
est reality  of  every-day  life.  For  less  than  Si  5,000 
one  may  have  the  products  of  a  life  of  labor  for  one's 
use  or  wasting, — one  may  go  into  the  market  at  any 
time  and  buy  any  number  of  such  lives.     In  Mexico 


692 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


there  is  a  species  of  ants  that  sets  apart  some  of  its 
individuals  to  serve  as  store-houses  of  honey  for  the 
rest  of  the  community.  Their  abdomens  become  so 
enormously  distended  that  they  must  to  their 
humorous  and  hungry  fellows  become  a  butt  of 
ridicule  as  well  as  one  of  honey.  In  the  human 
ant-hill,  the  opulent  idler  who,  as  that  noble  philoso- 
pher Hans  Breitmann  says,  "only  lifes  to  joy  him- 
self," seems  another  such  a  honey  barrel  who  has 
craw  led  into  a  corner  behind  a  breastworks  of  cus- 
tom and  law  and  when  his  neighbors  who  have  con- 
tributed all  his  honey  come  asking  a  share,  he  snaps 
his  fingers  at  them  and  asks  what  they  are  go- 
ing to  do  about  it.  I  read  in  the  newspapers  of  a 
rich  heir  spending  half  a  million  dollars  for  a 
pleasure  boat.  A  schoolboy  example  in  division 
shows  that  to  build  this  toy  for  a  summer's  picnic 
cost  the  life-long  labor  of  thirty-five  men  for  forty 
years, — that  is,  the  lives,  actually  and  literally,  of 
these  men.  Where  is  the  equivalence  of  service 
rendered  in  return?  An  ignorant  jockey  rides  a 
horse  exceptionally  well  and  Christian  nobles  and 
peers  give  him  a  million  or  two  dollars  for  doing  it, 
whilst  at  the  same  time,  as  we  shall  see,  they  give 
two  girls,  for  making  match-boxes  a  choice  between 
starvation  or  disgrace.  Have  such  things  no  ethical 
significance?  Likewise,  when  an  idle  spendthrift  or 
fashionable  woman  wastefully  spends  $15,000  the 
life  of  a  man  is  just  as  really  sacrificed  as  if  this 
civilized  cannibal  had  been  an  African  one.  Society 
invests  several  thousand  in  producing  an  able-bodied 
individual  of  twenty.  Malthus  &  Company  at 
once  set  him  at  work  at  a  forty  years'  job,  fashioning 
objects  desired  by  the  whim  of  his  master  or  mistress. 
The  woman  trigs  herself  out  with  jewels,  menage, 
dress  and  aestheticism,  the  man  with  race-horse, 
club  and  cantatrice.  I  contend  that  the  ethical  sig- 
nificance of  the  lives  of  the  two  cannibals,  the  phys- 
ical African  and  the  Nineteenth  Century  roue,  is  the 
same.  The  product  of  the  laborer's  life  is  as  wan- 
tonly wasted  in  the  one  case  as  the  other.  Ethically 
considered,  you  might  just  as  well  kill  and  eat  a' 
man  as  to  squander  the  products  of  his  life's  labors 
in  a  night's  finery  and  debauch.  When,  by  the  ex- 
quisite iniquity  of  your  protective  tariff,  one  man 
makes  $30,000  every  week,  he  thereby  calls  on  soci- 
ety for  the  lives  of  two  men.  If  this  person  should 
burn  up  $30,000  worth  of  his  houses  each  week  the 
annihilation  would  be  apparent.  If  he  hire  hun- 
dreds to  wait  upon  him  and  feed  his  idle  fancies 
he  is  still  a  cannibal.  If  he  put  the  money  away 
in  a  bank  for  his  children,  is  he  aught  else  than  a 
human  Sphex,  storing  food  for  his  larvae  to  fatten 
upon  or  squander,  if,  as  is  probable,  they  turn  out 
squanderers. 


The  disturbing  circumstance  about  slavery  is  the 
fact  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  love  of  justice  in 
the  hearts  of  many  people  and  that  these  demand  a 
day  of  reckoning;  and  that  day  of  reckoning  is  gen- 
erally expensive.  Such  an  expense  came  to  France 
in  1793,  such  another  came  to  us  about  twenty  years 
ago.  It  cost  the  Northern  people  one-sixth  of  a 
life,  and  $700  a  head  to  free  4,000,000  slaves;  this 
leaves  out  the  interest  and  the  incalculable  ex- 
pense. Is  it  exaggeration  to  estimate  the  cost  of 
each  slave  freed  at  that  time  as  at  least  several  thou- 
sands of  dollars?  Would  it  not  have  been  cheaper 
to  have  begun  with  ethics  instead  of  ending  with  it? 
But  if  you  ask  this  question  of  the  absentee  Irish 
landlord  or  of  the  typical  millionaire  of  any  country, 
he  would  be  quite  as  impervious  to  the  reasoning  as 
his  Southern  brother  ia  i860.  The  answer  to  that 
imperviousness  is  the  hoarse,  sullen  roar,  the  mis- 
taken energy,  the  portentous  gathering  of  forces 
which  can  leave  only  ruin  and  disaster  in  their  path. 

( To  be  continued.) 


The  more  one  judges  the  less  one  loves. — Balzac. 

I  can  promise  to  be  sincere,  but  I  cannot  promise  to 
be  impartial. —  Goethe. 

'Tis  with  our  judgments  as  our  watches — none  go 
just  alike,  yet  each  believes  his  own. — Pope. 

How  little  do  they  see  what  is,  who  frame  their 
hasty  judgment  upon  that  which  seems! — Southey. 

Wise  sayings  often  fall  on  barren  ground;  but  a 
kind  word  is  never  thrown  away. — Arthur  Helps. 

The  discovery  of  what  is  true  and  the  practice  of 
that  which  is  good  are  the  two  most  important  objects 
of  philosophy. —  Voltaire. 

Mystery  is  the  antagonist  of  truth.  It  is  a  fog  ot 
human  invention,  that  obscures  truth,  and  represents  it 
in  distortion. —  Thomas  Paine. 

One  principal  point  of  good  breeding  is  to  suit  our 
behavior  to  the  three  several  degrees  of  men, — our  supe- 
riors, our  equals,  and  those  below  us. — Swift. 

The  sophist  contents  himself  with  appearances,  the 
dialectician  with  proofs;  the  philosopher  seeks  to  know 
through  examination  and  evidence. —  Joubert. 

Oppose  kindness  to  perverseness.  The  heavy  sword 
will  not  cut  soft  silk;  by  using  sweet  words  and  gentle- 
ness you  may  lead  an  elephant  with  a  hair. — Saadi. 

There  is  no  knowledge  for  which  so  great  a  price  is 
paid  as  a  knowledge  of  the  world ;  and  no  one  ever  be- 
came an  adept  in  it  except  at  the  expense  of  a  hardened 
or  a  wounded  heart. — Lady  Blessington. 

Let  a  man  take  time  enough  for  the  most  trivial 
deed,  though  it  be  but  the  paring  of  his  nails.  The 
buds  swell  imperceptibly,  without  hurry  or  confusion, 
— as  if  the  short  spring  days  were  an  eternity. —  Thoreau. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


693 


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THURSDAY,  JANUARY  19,   1888. 


SUPPLEMENT    TO    THE    STATEMENTS    RELATING 
TO  THE  RESIGNATION  OF  THE  LATE  EDITORS. 

One  of  my  published  letters  addressed  to  Mr.  13.  F. 
Underwood,  dated  December  10,  1SS6,  mentioning  re- 
negotiations with  Mr.  George  Schumm,  is  misconstrued 
by  the  latter  as  an  intention  of  mine  to  mislead  the 
public  in  regard  to  my  desire  not  to  offend  Roman 
Catholics.  So  I  hereby  state  that  my  intention  is  that 
The  Open  Court  shall  treat  the  Roman  Catholic* 
with  as  much  consideration  and  due  regard  as  the 
Protestant,  the  progressive  Churchman  and  the  Free- 
thinker. Mr.  Schumm's  misapprehension  is  apparently 
caused  partly  by  a  defective  punctuation,  and  partly  by 
the  omisson  of  a  passage  having  no  reference  to  the 
object  for  which  the  coriespondence  is  published.  I 
learned  lately  that  where  Professor  Swing  is  mentioned, 
the  name  of  Dr.  Thomas,  another  progressive  clergy- 
man of  Chicago,  should  appear.  My  mistake  resulted 
from  the  similar  treatment  which  Professor  Swing  re- 
peatedly received  in  Mr.  Schumm's  paper,  7 he  Radical 
Review.  In  justice  to  Mr.  Schumm  and  the  writer  of 
the  article  referred  to,  I  will  state  that  the  same  besides 
being  humorous,  was  serious  at  the  same  time.  My 
letter  concerning  Mr.  Schumm  so  far  as  it  comes  into 
question,  is  here  republished  with  all  the  defects  of  the 
original  as  the  appear  in  the  press  copy : 

La  Salle,  Dec.  10,  1886. 
B.  F.  Underwood,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass: 

My  Dear  Sir — Your  two  letters  of  December  6th  arrived  last 
evening  only.  Your  letter  of  December  7th  arrived  this  morn- 
ing. I  have  only  a  few  minutes  time  now  to  answer  and  will 
use  this  to  say  that  I  have  not  been  negotiating  about  the  start- 
ing of  the  Chicago  paper,   except   with    Mr.   Schumm,  whereof  I 

*  Attention  is  called  to  the  concluding  paragraph  of  Carus  Sterne's  essay, 
at  the  foot  of  the  first  column,  p.  671  in  No.  23  ot  The  Open  Cocrt. 


believe  to  have  fully  informed  von.  This  is  now  nearly  two  years 
ago.  Mr.  Schumm  never  asked  me  about  Mich  a  written  guar- 
antee, whereof  your  friend  writes,  but  after  he  was  here  in 
La  Salle  witli  me  some  time,  declared  that  he  was  convinced  he 
could  not  edit  a  paper  satisfactory  to  me.  He  had  shown  tome 
certain  contributions  sent  him  for  the  same — the  one  a  very 
humorous  article  on  the  Easter  services  in  the  various  Chicago 
churches  from  the  "Catholic" — to  "Swing's" — and  Swing  was 
hardest  dealt  with,  which  I  told  him  were  against  my  views  in 
regard  to  the  paper.     Possibly  the  writer  of  them   is  the  informer 

of  your  friend,  though  that  may  be  an  error 

The  passage  referring  to  my  disagreement  with  Mr. 
Schumm  on  account  of  the  contributions  was  retained 
in  the  publication  of  the  letter  to  show  that  it  was  on 
both  sides  a  matter  of  principle.  The  final  part  of  the 
sentence  "which  I  told  him  zverc  against  my  views," 
refers  to  and  can  only  refer.to  the  words  "  He  had  shown 
to  me  certain  contributions  sent  him  for  the  same." 

Mr.  B.  F.  Underwood  has  not  availed  himself  of  my 
invitation  "  If  Mr.  Underwood  should  notice  any  omis- 
sions, which  he  thinks  should  not  have  been  made  from 
the  corresponence  or  memoranda  of  the  meetings  they 
shall  be  supplemented  on  his  application,"  but  gives  his 
reasons  for  resigning  in  a  pamphlet  whereof  he  sent 
me  a  cop}-. 

In  a  postal  card  to  The  Open  Court  he  also  re- 
quests to  announce  in  the  next  issue  that  his  address  is 
86   South   Page  street,  Chicago. 

I  have  read  the  pamphlet  and  find  that  I  have  to 
make  the  following  correction  in  my  statement  of  the 
September  meeting  (made  from  memory).  I  said:  "  In 
a  later  conversation  it  appeared  that  his  feelings  against 
Dr.  Carus  arose  from  the  latter's  article  "  Monism, 
Dualism  and  Agnosticism,"  ....  He  said,  as  I  under- 
stood him,  in  reference  to  Dr.  Carus  contribution,  "  If  I 
want  to  insult  a  man  I  do  it  direct." 

Mr.  Underwood  states  that  this  remark  did  not  refer 
to  the  above  but  had  reference  to  his  (Mr.  Underwood's) 
action  in  regard  to  Dr.  Carus'  article  on  the  "  Xenions." 
Upon  inquiry  from  the  gentleman  who  was  present,  I 
learn  that  in  this  particular  Mr.  Underwood  is  right. 

Mr.  Underwood,  however,  in  a  much  stronger  form, 
himself  gives  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Carus,  of  December  23 
(latter  part  of  page  34  in  his  pamphlet),  the  evidence  of 
the  fact  which  was  to  be  proven  by  my  quotation. 

Page    8,    line    11,   in    Mr.    Underwood's    pamphlet 
induces  me  to  publish  in  full  a   translation  of  my  letter 
leading  to  Dr.  Carus'  engagement: 
Dr.  Paul  Carcs,  New  York:  La  Salle,  Jan.  31,  1S87. 

Dear  Sir — Your  favor  of  January  24  reached  me  on  my  return 
to  La  Salle.  What  you  write  has  my  full  interest.  To  what  you 
say  in  particular  regarding  The  Open  Col  rt,  I  have  to  answer 
that  Mr.  and  Mr*.  Underwood  are  independent  editors  and  man- 
agers of  the  same,  though  subject  to  such  conditions  as  may  be 
hereafter  mutually  agreed  upon;  still  I  wish  to  make  the  path  of 
the  editors  as  smooth  as  possibc. 

But  what  you  wish  to  carry  into  effect,  the  transplanting  of 
European  (especially  German)  thought  to  America,  is  what  I  par- 


694 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


ticularly  desire.  You  will  see  in  the  first  number  of  The  Open 
Court  what  was  produced  in  my  realistic  brain  by  my  teachers, 
mostly  Germans,  especially  Gustav  Freitag  in  his  Lost  Manu- 
script, together  with  my  old  friend  Professor  Bayrhoffer,  also  in- 
directly by  Kant  through  Felix  Adler,  Salter  and  an  article  in  the 
Gegenitiart  (by  Noire");  also  by  Herbert  Spencer,  Darwin  and 
Haeckel.  I  now  bring  these  ideas  before  the  American  public. 
We  incorporate  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company,  whose 
publications  will  perhaps  not  be  limited  to  The  Open  Court. 

Now  devoting  my  means  and  also  my  personal  activity  to  an 
undertaking  which  is  of  public  interest,  I  desire  at  the  same  time 
to  give  to  my  children,  as  well  as  to  others  in  my  immediate  en- 
vironment an  opportunity  for  a  broader  knowledge.  I  believe  to 
attain  this  by  bringing  you  here. 

Reflecting  upon  a  definite  proposition  I  think  of  my  contract 
with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Underwood.  I  accepted  Mr.  Underwood's 
proposition  which  was  ior  his  and  his  wife's  work  $i, 800  per  year 
Hereby  he  reserved  his  right  of  lecturing  occasionally.  At  his 
request  the  contract  was  made  for  one  year.  This  suggests  to 
me  to  propose  for  you  a  salary  of  $1,200  annually. 

I  read  part  of  Zickel's  journals,  which  you  sent  me,  with 
pleasure. 

In  the  hope  of  hearing  from  you  soon,  I  remain 
Very  respectfully  yours, 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 
One  of  my    motives    why    I    did    not   publish  Mrs. 
Underwood's  letter  with  the  other  correspondence  was 
that  I  wished  to  avoid  injuring  her. 

The  notice  on  The  Open  Court  in  The  Chicago 
Graphic,  of  which  Mr.  Underwood  speaks  in  his 
pamphlet,  was  written  on  the  request  of  its  owner  and 
editor,  with  Dr.  Carus'  knowledge,  by  a  gentleman  who 
had  seen  an  advance  copy  of  The  Open  Court,  except 
the  editorial  part  containing  my  correspondence  with 
Mr.  Underwood.     The  notice  reads: 

Dr.  Paul  Carus  was  born  and  educated  in  Germany.  He  is  the 
son  of  a  high  dignitary  of  the  church  of  Prussia,  and  studied  in 
the  classics  and  philosophy  at  the  University  of  Strasburg  and 
Tubingen.  He  was  appointed  professor  at  the  Royal  Corps  of 
Cadets  in  Dresden ;  but  after  a  few  years  resigned  his  position  on 
account  of  his  liberal  views  which  conflict  with  those  of  the 
authorities.  Dr.  Carus  came  to  this  country  where  he  has  been 
engaged  in  literary  work  and  in  teaching  in  Boston  and  New 
York.  Besides  other  pamphlets  he  wrote  a  philosophical  treatise 
entitled  Monism  and  Meliorism,  published  by  W.  C.  Christern, 
New  Yoik,  1885.  This  clear  and  forcible  essay  attracted  Mr. 
Hegeler's  attention  to  the  ability  of  the  German  scholar.  Mr. 
Hegeler  had  just  started  The  Open  Court,  a  journal  of  popular 
science  for  the  diffusion  of  his  ideas  and  philosophical  views,  which 
he  thinks  are  best  represented  in  the  philosophy  of  Monism. 
Accordingly  he  invited  Dr.  Carus  to  come  West  to  assist  him  in 
expounding  Monistic  philosophy.  Dr.  Carus  accepted,  and,  when 
two  or  three  weeks  ago,  Mr.  Underwood  resigned  his  position,  was 
appointed  editor  of  The  Open  Court  by  Mr.  Hegeler.  The 
first  number  under  the  new  management  has  just  appeared,  and 
proves  itself  in  every  respect  equal  to  its  predecessors.  Its  con- 
tents are  more  popular,  and  besides  the  usual  contributions,  there 
are  choice  translations  from  prominent  German  authors. 

This  statement  of  Dr.  Carus'  previous  career*  I  know 
to  be  a  modest  one.  Dr.  Carus  was  induced  by  the 
editor  of  The  Graphic  to  give  his  photograph  and  infor- 

*  Mr.  Hegeler,  at  the  last  moment,  requests  the  publication  of  a  document 
which,  on  account  of  lack  of  space  here,  will  be  found  on  page  70s. 


mation  through  the  latter's  statement  that  he  had  also 
published  a  notice  with  the  pictures  of  the  late  editors 
in  his  journal  (July  23,  1SS7). 

The  pamphlet  of  the  late  editors  is  evidently  written 
under  great  excitement,  and  I  believe  that  the  authors 
thereof  will  sooner  or  later  repent  having  written  it. 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 


MONISM  AND  RELIGION. 
Monism  does  not  represent,  as  has  been  claimed,  a 
sect  or  school  of  philosophy.  Its  principle  is  the  basis 
and  very  core  of  science.  According  to  Monism  all  that 
exists,  ourselves  included,  is  one  great, continuous,  immeas- 
urable whole,  and  all  its  laws  must  agree  with  each 
other.  Where  they  differ  from  each  other  they  do  so 
only  by  a  difference  of  circumstances.  They  never  can 
conflict  with  each  other,  and  wherever  it  appears  to  us 
that  they  do,  we  may  rest  assured  that  ive  are  in  error, 
for  nature  is  one  and  does  not  contradict  herself.  Accord- 
ingly if  a  philosophical  view  or  conception  is  proved  to 
be  dualistic,  this  is  in  itself  a  deduct io  ad  absitrdum. 

What  Kant  said  about  his  criticism  can  also  truly  be 
said  of  Monism :  "The  danger  is  not  that  of  being 
refuted  but  of  being  misunderstood." 

This  of  course  does  not  mean  that  everything  which 
is  claimed  to  be  Monism  is  true  Monism.  There  is  ' 
scarcely  any  philosophy  which  does  not  pretend  to  be 
monistic,  but  all  who  pretend  to  be  Monists  are  not 
really  such.  Their  theories  are  often  impracticable  or 
one-sided,  and  in  such  cases  do  not  explain  all  natural 
phenomena,  but  only  a  smaller  or  greater  part.  There 
is  no  better  proof  for  the  correctness  of  a  philosophic 
view  than  that  it  harmonizes  with  all  facts. 

One  of  the  most  essential  features  of  the  human  race 
is  its  religious  aspiration.  Religion  is  found  among  all 
races,  among  civilized  nations  as  well  as  among  savage 
tribes.  This  is  an  ethnological  fact  which  is  only 
strengthened  by  the  contradiction  of  those  who  claim  to 
be  without  religion.  Their  irreligion  is  only  due  to 
their  dissatisfaction  with  the  present  forms  of  religion 
and  to  an  attempt  to  establish  a  new  religion  of  their 
own,  for  which  perhaps  they  have  not  as  yet  been  able 
to  discover  a  solid  basis. 

Man  is  a  being  endowed  with  speech,  therefore  he 
is,  as  Noire  and  Professor  Max  Miiller  declare,  a  rea- 
soning being.  A  being  which  has  acquired  reason 
must  become  aware  of  its  connection  with  and  of  its 
relation  to  nature.  No  individual  is  a  separate  entity; 
it  is  dependent  upon  its  surroundings  and  is  the  result  of 
a  long  process  of  evolution.  Man  thus  becomes  con- 
scious of  his  relation  to  his  ancestors,  his  fellow-beings, 
to  nature,  and  finally  to  the  All — of  which  he  is  and 
begins  to  feel  himself  a  part.  This  being  aware  of  his 
relation  to  the  All,  his  feeling  himself  a  part  of  the  All, 
is     religion.       Accordingly,     a     speaking    animal    must 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


695 


become  a  religious  being,  and  instead  of  wondering  at 
the  fact  that  all  nations  possess  a  religion  of  some  kind, 
we  should  be  astonished  if  there  were  any  beings 
endowed  with  the  gift  of  speech  without  religion. 

Religion  implies  ethics;  for  ethics,  in  a  word,  is  the 
adjustment  of  our  lives  and  actions  in  accordance  with 
the  laws  of  the  All. 

It  has  often  been  stated  that  religion  and  ethics  are 
in  conflict  with  nature  and  also  with  natural  science,  as 
nature  is  ruled  by  the  "  must "  and  ethics  teaches  the 
"  ought."  Any  religion  or  any  science  which  teaches 
this,  is  dualistic,  for  although  we  may  interpret  nature 
wrongly,  and  although  we  may  also  teach  unnatural 
ethics,  nature  and  ethics  cannot  be  at  variance.  Wher- 
ever they  seem  to  collide  with  each  other  our  ideas 
about  ethics  or  about  nature  are  wrong.  Ethics  being 
based  upon  the  correct  understanding  of  our  relation  to 
the  All,  is  the  noblest  result  of  natural  life ;  it  is,  so  far  as 
we  have  progressed,  the  best,  the  highest  and  grandest, 
the  summiim  bonum  we  have.  And  our  remaining  in 
the  right  relation  to  the  All  is  the  very  condition  of  our 
further  existence  and  continuance  after  death  in  the  lives 
of  those  who  will  be  as  much  ourselves  as  we  to-day  are 
the  sum  total  of  our  ancestors. 

From  the  standpoint  of  Monism  religion  cannot  be 
in  conflict  with  science,  and  only  a  narrow  or  wrong 
conception  of  science  or  of  religion  can  maintain  that 
there  is  eternal  enmity  between  both. 

The  progress  of  science,  it  has  often  been  supposed, 
is  dangerous  to  religion.  If  the  discovering  and  the  re- 
vealing of  truth  is  science,  this  cannot  be  true  except  for 
those  religions  which  are  false.  But  in  such  cases  the 
revealing  of  truth  will  not  be  dangerous  but  wholesome 
to  religion;  i.  e.  true  religion.  It  will  only  destroy  what 
is  false  and  thus  purify  our  religious  ideals. 

Our  relation  to  the  All  is  no  obscure  and  unknow- 
able province  of  our  emotional  aspirations.  It  is  plainly 
recognizable  and  should  be  made  the  object  of  our  in 
vestigations.  There  is  no  merit  in  vague  imaginings 
and  indistinct  feelings.  Clear  thought,  an  honest  will 
and  straightforward  actions  agree  well,  and  from  the 
standpoint  of  Monism  must  be  in  perfect  harmony. 

It  is  a  common  mistake  of  the  savage — as  is  seen  in 
those  religions  which  are  generally  called  pagan — to 
make  the  unknown,  because  it  is  unknown,  the  ob- 
ject of  our  religious  emotion.  Only  a  savage  can  bow 
down  to  worship  the  thunder  because  he  does  not  un- 
derstand its  nature.  The  maturer  mind  will  seek  for 
the  causes  of  natural  phenomena  and,  without  worship- 
ing natural  powers,  will  remain  conscious  of  his  relation 
to  nature  as  well  as  to  the  All  at  large  and  act  in  harmony 
with  them ;  i.  e.  he  will  remain  religious  and  act  ethically. 
To  be  religious  we  need  not  believe  in  miracles,  we 
need  not  be  idolators,  nor  need  we  imagine  that  there  is 
a   supernatural    realm    behind    or   beyond    nature.     All 


these  are  features  of  paganism.  Any  religion  which  is 
true  religion  is  free  of  such  crude  fancies.  True  religion, 
so  far  as  it  it  free  of  superstition  or  supernaturalism,  is 
monistic  and  the  proper  ethics  is  the  actualization  of 
Monism  in  our  lives.  p.  c. 


ETHOS  ANTHROPOI   DAIMON. 

It  is  a  good  sign  of  our  time  that  Mr.  Peabody's 
calendar  is  seen  almost  everywhere.  It  decorates  the 
drawing-room  of  many  fashionable  houses,  and  is  an 
ornament  of  editorial  and  other  offices.  The  tendency 
of  the  calendar  is  so  much  in  harmony  with  the  princi- 
ples of  The  Open  Court  that  we  cannot  but  call  atten- 
tion to  the  deep  significance  of  its  inscription,  which  is 
worth  while  having  before  one's  eyes  every  day  in  the 
year.  11602  'ANOPttrmi  AAIMHN  is  almost  untranslatable 
into  English.  The  translation  '  character  is  man's  des- 
tiny' although  quite  correct,  does  not  exhaust  its  mean- 
ing. 'HiJof  means,  like  the  German  Sitte,  custom  or 
habit  or  character.  But  it  conveys  more  than  custom ; 
it  means  the  habits  of  man  so  far  as  they  produce  civiliza- 
tion and  make  him  humane.  It  includes  his  morals.  In 
this  sense  Schiller  says: 

"  Unci  allein  durch  seine  Sitte 
Kann  er  (tier  Mensck)  frei  unci  machtig  sein." 

From  Wot;  is  derived  the  English  word  Ethics,  which 
has  acquired  the  narrower  meaning  of  iftoq  in  the  sense 
of  moral  behavior.  This  ')'*»?,  our  Greek  inscription  tells 
us,  is  to  man  his  dahnon ;  viz,  his  God,  his  deity,  his  con- 
science or  guidance.  p.  c. 

FROM   METAPHYSICISM  TO   POSITIVISM. 

I  am  charged  with  a  change  of  opinion  by  the  late 
editor,  who  states  in  a  letter  published  in  his  pamphlet: 
"In  your  pamphlet  you  had  spoken  of '  the  limits  at 
which  our  knowledge  comes  to  a  stand  and  where  the 
province  of  the  unknowable  commences.'"  This  is 
quoted  as  if  it  were  a  proof  of  my  former  agnosticism. 
The  passage  in  my  Monism  and  Meliorism,  p.  46,  in 
its  connection  with  the  antecedent  sentences,  runs  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Before  we  venture  on  metaphysics,  let  us  know 
what  physics  is,  and  before  we  make  statements  about 
the  unknowable,  let  us  define  what  is  knowable;  es- 
pecially let  us  have  a  clear  conception  as  to  what  is  the 
process,  by  which  that  cognizance  is  attained.  If  that 
is  understood,  I  trust,  that  from  the  nature  of  cognition 
itself  we  may  find  the  limit  at  which  our  knowledge 
comes  to  a  stand  and  where  the  province  of  the  unknow- 
able commences." 

This  is  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  quotation  is  out  of 
place.  The  quoted  passage  proves  that  when  I  wrote 
my  pamphlet  Monism  and  Meliorism  I  was  as 
strongly  opposed  to  the  negative  dogmatism  of  agnosti- 
cism as  I   am  now. 

I  take  the  opportunity  of  stating  here  that  my  essay 
Monism  and  Meliorism    is    not   yet  free    of  metaphy- 


696 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


sicism.  This  metaphysicism  is  expressed  in  the  view  stated 
on  page  4S,  that,  although  "all  objects  in  the  world  are 
comprehensible  "  "the  principles  of  cognition  are  in  them- 
selves incomprehensible."  I  say  on  page  47  "  by  means  of 
these  principles  we  are  able  to  comprehend  anything  in 
the  world — yes,  anything  except  the  world  itself,  and  so 
really  nothing."  I  have  changed  this  view,  which  Mr. 
Hegeler  classes  under  the  "  Reason  Superstition  "  of 
which  Max  Muller  speaks  in  his  lectures,  p.  36S  of  The 
Open  Court.  I  gave  expression  to  my  present  view 
in  the  editorial  of  No.  23,  "  The  Unknowable."  My 
former  position  was,  to  use  an  analogy,  as  if  1  declared 
the  whole  structure  of  mathematical  theorems  to  be 
recognizable  and  provable — except  its  axioms.  The 
axioms  being  their  foundation,  I  said,  "  thus  everything  is 
provable  except  the  whole  of  mathematics,  and  so  really 
nothing."  Now  I  say,  that  as  in  mathematics,  the  axioms 
?iee<i  not  be  proven,  so  the  ultimate  principles  also  lie  with- 
in the  range  of  our  possible  knowledge.  As  soon  as  they 
are  understood,  they  will  be  recognized  as  most  simple 
and  self-evident.  This  change  of  opinion  from  meta- 
phycism  to  positivism  is  due  to  my  study  of  modern  psy- 
chology, with  which  I  became  acquainted  during  my  stay 
at  La  Salle,  where  I  read  for  the  first  time  carefully,  part 
of  the  works  of  Ribot,  Hering,  etc.,  and  devoted  much 
interest  and  thought  to  this  special  subject.  p.   c. 

From  a  letter  of  Theodore  Stanton's  to  Galignani's 
Messenger  we  learn  that  Mme.  Jules  Favre  has  trans- 
lated Emerson's  complete  works  into  French. 


REFLEX    MOTIONS.* 

BY  G.  H.  SCHNEIDER. 

The  idea  of  reflex  motions  as  it  is  generally  applied 
in  physiology,  is  based  on  the  anatomical  fact  that  there 
are  certain  sensory  and  motor  nerves  which  are  histo- 
logically connected  and  physiologically  related  in  certain 
nerve  centers.  Generally,  motions  which  are  produced 
by  the  transference  of  the  irritation,  caused  by  stimu- 
lating external  sensory  nerves,  to  certain  motor  nerves 
by  means  of  the  central  organs,  are  called  reflex 
motions. 

Originally  only  such  motions  as  were  produced  when 
the  irritation  was  either  not  felt  at  all,  or  when  it 
caused  only  agreeable  or  disagreeable  sensations,  were 
called  reflex  motions.  Under  this  category  come  those 
which  depend  upon  the  irritation  of  the  mucous  mem- 
brane (coughing,  sneezing,  vomiting,  etc. );  those  which 
are  due  to  the  influence  of  heat  and  cold  on  the  skin, 
and  the  irritation  of  the  same  due  to  immediate  contact 
(the  sudden  withdrawal  of  certain  parts  of  the  bodv, 
respiratory  motions,  etc.);  those  'passing  through  the 
spinal  cord  when  sympathetic  nerves  are  irritated,  in 
which   case    we    do    not  feel   the  irritation;  and  finally, 

•Translated  from  the  German:  Der  menschliche  Wille  vom  Standpunct 
der  neueren  Entwickelungs  Tkeorien.    Berlin. 


such  motions  as  are  produced  by  the  irritation  of  the 
higher  senses,  only,  however,  when  this  irritation  causes 
sensations,  as  for  instance,  sensations  of  pain,  and  not  the 
perception  of  various  objects,  (involuntary  blinking 
caused  by  a  glaring  light,  etc.  ) 

All  other  motions  occurring  in  the  body  of  an  ani- 
mal, and  all  movements  of  plants  were  excluded  from 
the  domain  of  reflex  motions.  Whether  reflex  motions 
were  possible  in  the  sympathetic  nervous  system  inde- 
pendent of  the  spinal  cord  and  the  brain, — whether  the 
motions  produced  by  irritation  of  a  heart  or  intestine 
that  has  been  entirely  separated  from  all  other  parts  of 
the  body,  were  reflex  motions,  is  a  problem  that  had  not 
been  determined.  Joh,  Muller,  the  founder  of  the 
newer  school  of  physiology  felt  obliged  to  assume  the 
negative;  at  all  events,  he  did  not  consider  the  fact  as 
proven.  Marshall  Hall  limited  the  domain  of  reflex 
motions  to  the  cerebro-spinal  nerves,  and  thus  excluded 
the  motions  which  were  produced  by  irritation  of  the 
sensory  nerves. 

Opinions  also  differed  as  to  the  value  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  consciousness  in  reflex  motions.  Wrytt, 
Cullen,  Volkmann  explained  most  reflex  motions  as 
spontaneous  reactions  conforming  to  conscious  sensa- 
tions, and  thus  laid  special  stress  upon  the  psychic  im- 
petus. But  Joh.  Muller  considered  the  phenomena  of 
consciousness  as  altogether  superfluous  in  the  case  of 
reflex  motions. 

Joh.  Muller  said:  "As  regards  the  relation  of  sen- 
sation to  reflex  motion,  a  consciousness  of  the  former  is 
not  at  all  necessary  to  produce  the  latter.  According  to 
my  opinion  the  irritation  of  a  sensory  spinal  nerve 
causes  centripetal  action  of  the  nervous  impulse  toward 
the  spinal  cord.  If  the  irritation  reaches  the  sensorium 
commune,  we  have  a  conscious  sensation.  If,  however, 
on  account  of  the  severance  of  the  spinal  cord  it  does 
not  reach  the  sensorium  commune,  it  retains  all  its 
power  in  the  form  of  centripetal  action  upon  the  spinal 
cord.  In  both  cases  the  centripetal  action  of  a  sensory 
nerve  can  produce  reflex  motion.  In  the  former  case 
the  centripetal  action  simultaneously  became  sensation, 
in  the  latter  case  it  did  not;  but  in  either  case  it  is 
sufficient  to  produce  centrifugal  reflex  motion." 

This  opinion,  which  Joh.  Muller  entertained,  has  to 
the  present  day  been  accepted  as  the  most  compre- 
hensive definition  of  reflex  motions. 

Even  to-day  only  "  motions  which  are  the  immediate 
result  of  external  irritation  of  a  sensitive  organism, 
and  which  have  their  physiological  reason  in  the  central 
connection  of  certain  sensory  and  motor  nerves,  are 
unanimously  classed  as  reflex  motions."* 

Strictly  speaking,  then,  according  to  this  conception, 
neither  such  motions,  as  are  due  to  some  phenomenon  of 
consciousness  in   addition  to  the  mere  material   mechan- 
*Joh.  Miiller,  Handbuch  der  Physiologies  Vol.  I.  p.  621. 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


697 


ism, — nor  such  motions  as  are  produced  without  a 
differentiated  nervous  system,  as  for  instance,  move- 
ments of  the  lowest  animals  and  of  plants,  can  be  re- 
garded as  reflex  motions. 

Nevertheless  it  has  been  customary  to  designate  as 
reflex  motions,  also  those  movements  which  animals,  in 
which  only  the  lobes  of  the  brain  have  been  destroyed, 
make, — movements  that  very  clearly  indicate  an  ad- 
justment to  external  conditions, —  that  are  due  not  only 
to  sensation,  but  to  the  perception  of  an  object  in  the 
distance,  that  are  beyond  doubt  caused  by  the  phenomena 
of  consciousness,  because  they  come  into  existence  with- 
out the  co-operation  of  the  will- power.  On  the  other 
hand  there  is  ho  longer  any  hesitation  in  classing  the 
movements  of  lower  animals,  whose  organization  is  en- 
tirely devoid  of  nerves,  and  also  the  movements  of 
plants, — for  instance,  sun-dew,  Venus  fly-traps,  sensitive 
plants  etc.,  as  reflex  motions. 

The  analysis  of  our  actions  has  long  ago  demon- 
strated that  we  make  a  great  number  of  suitable  move- 
ments, which  are  unintentionally  called  forth  directly 
by  the  perceptions  of  our  eyes,  and  which  result  invol- 
untarily. Such  movements,  which  I  call  instincts  of 
perception,  are  usually  observable  in  all  habits. 

The  course  of  long  and  much  practiced  and  there- 
fore frequently  repeated  actions,  no  longer  depends  on 
individual  intentions;  but  it  depends  directly  upon  per- 
ception and  sensations.  The  expression  of  emotions 
shows  that  a  great  number  of  movements  are  uninten- 
tionally produced  and  their  course  determined  through 
the  perception  by  sight  of  such  phenomena  as  produce 
joy,  fear,  fright,  anger  or  any  other  emotions.  The 
same  is  the  case  in  the  imitative  movements  made  in  a 
hypnotic  condition.  They  are  made  without  having  a 
definite  object;  and  they  are  caused  directly  by  the  per- 
ceptions of  sight  and  hearing,  with  which  they  are  very 
intimately  associated. 

As  these  movements  are  caused  by  the  irritation  of 
external  sensory  nerves,  without  the  co-operation  of  the 
will-power  proper,  they  have  all  from  a  physiological 
standpoint  been  regarded  as  reflex  motions.  It  has, 
however,  been  found  necessary  to  classify  them  still 
further  as  "arbitrary  reflex  motions."  Even  to-day 
physiologists  are  not  sure  whether  or  not  these  move- 
ments depend  entirely  on  the  material  mechanism  which 
is  inherited;  and  it  is  a  characteristic  attitude  of  psychol- 
ogists that  they  have  not  been  able  to  inform  physiolo- 
gists in  what  respect  these  movements  differ  psycholog- 
ically from  the  above  mentioned  reflex  motions.  Nobody 
can  doubt  that  this  difference,  which  we  shall  further  on 
describe  more  fully,  is  purely  a  psychological  one,  while 
these  instincts  of  perception  do  not  differ  physiologically 
in  the  least  from  the  above  mentioned  reflex  motions. 

If  we  were  to  be  so  ingenuous  as  to  assume  that  all 
suitable  movements,  which  are  caused  by  impressions 


made  on  the  sense  of  sight,  depend  entirely  on  the  ma- 
terial mechanism  of  the  nerves,  and  that  the  phenomena 
of  consciousness  are  absolutely  superfluous,  we  would 
be  equally  warranted  in  asserting,  that  also  the  conscious 
intentional  actions  can  be  explained  as  depending  solely 
on  this  mechanism.  Then  we  would  have  to  acknowl- 
edge that  all  phenomena  of  consciousness  are  superflu- 
ous, and  the  question  would  arise  as  to  what  purpose 
consciousness  had  developed  in  animals. 

As  has  elsewhere  been  shown,  the  phenomena  of 
consciousness  are  not  altogether  superfluous,  but  have 
a  definite  object.  They  are  not  an  unnecessary  adjunct 
to  the  motions  just  enumerated,  but  these  depend  entirely 
or  at  least  partly  upon   them. 

As  I  have  already  demonstrated  elsewhere,  it  is 
altogether  wrong  to  regard  those  movements  in  which 
we  are  conscious  both  of  the  irritation  and  the  motion,  or 
even  those  movements  which  are  caused  by  the  discern- 
ment of  individual  objects  at  a  distance,  as  reflex  motions, 
in  the  sense  in  which  this  term  has  hitherto  been  used; 
i.  e.  as  motions  which  can  be  explained  as  being  due 
simply  to  the  material  mechanism  and  to  purely  physio- 
logical processes.- 

The  uncertainty  as  to  what  motions  are  to  be  con- 
sidered reflex  motions,  and  whether  all  reflex  motions 
are  or  are  not  to  be  explained  as  being  due  solely  to  the 
material  mechanism  of  the  nerves,  and  the  arbitrariness 
with  which  the  domain  of  reflex  actions  is  at  one  time 
limited  to  the  cerebro-spinal  nerves,  at  another  to  the 
sensor)-  nerves  of  the  brain,  and  sometimes  extended  so 
as  to  embrace  also  the  sympathetic  nervous  system,  and 
the  lower  animals  and  plants,  are  no  doubt  due  chiefly 
to  the  lack  of  effort  to  distinguish  purely  physiological 
processes  from  psychological  phenomena. 

Among  the  physiological  phenomena  there  is  no  such 
great  difference  as  that  which  exists  between  physiolog- 
ical and  psychological  processes.  Therefore  this  great 
difference  must  be  duly  observed. 

The  processes  in  the  lowest  animals,  in  the  plant  or- 
ganism and  in  the  sympathetic  nervous  system  are 
physiological  phenomena  just  as  much  as  those  which  in 
the  animal  organism  take  place  in  the  central  nervous 
system. 

From  a  purely  physiological  standpoint,  the  phe- 
nomena of  motion  occurring  in  the  central  nervous  sys- 
tem cannot  be  regarded  as  differing  radically  from  those 
occurring  in  the  sympathetic  nervous  system,  in  the  low- 
est animals  and  in  plants.  The  former  are  physiolog- 
ical phenomena  just  as  well  as  the  latter. 

The  difference  between  the  processes  in  the  animal 
nervous  system  and  all  other  processes  in  animal  and 
plant  organisms  is  due  to  the  presence  of  the  psychical 
element  in  the  former.  And  if  we  wish  to  distinguish  the 
processes  of  irritation   in  the  central  nervous  system   of 


698 


THE    OREN    COURT. 


the  higher  animals  from  all  other  irritations  in  the  ani- 
mal and  plant  organism,  it  is  only  by  means  of  the  psy- 
chical impulse  that  we  can  do  so. 

We  might  also  claim,  that  from  a  purely  physiolog- 
ical standpoint  the  irritations  in  the  central  nervous  system 
are  to  be  considered  as  radically  different  from  the  pro- 
cesses of  other  movements  in  the  animal  organism,  as 
also  from  those  in  plants,  because  in  the  former  case 
we  have  to  deal  only  with  differentiated  sensory  and 
motor  nerves. 

If,  however,  we  ask,  "  to  what  purpose  this  differentia- 
tion has  developed,"  we  must  answer,  that  it  is  not  to 
produce  a  group  of  phenomena  differing  from  other  vital 
proces-ses  in  physiological  respects,  but  to  render  psy- 
chical movements  possible. 

It  certainly  seems  remarkable,  not  to  say  absurd, 
that  while  we  designate  as  reflex  actions  those  very  pro- 
cesses which  take  place  in  the  animal  nervous  system 
in  the  seat  of  consciousness, — and  that  while  we  designate 
as  reflex  actions  those  movements  with  which  the  phe- 
nomena of  consciousness  are  invariably  or  generally  con- 
nected, and  in  the  case  of  which  either  the  irritation  or 
the  motion  or  both  are  plainly  felt, — we  nevertheless  ac- 
cept as  reflex  motions  only  those  processes  of  move- 
ments which  can  be  explained  as  being  due  solely  to 
the  material  organism  and  in  which  the  phenomena  of 
consciousness  are  superfluous. 

According  to  this,  the  conception  of  reflex  motions 
is  partly  physiological,  in  so  far  as  it  embraces  purely 
physiological  processes,  and  partly  psychological,  in  so 
far  as  it  relates  only  to  the  processes  in  the  animal  nervous 
system. 

But  as,  on  the  other  hand,  we  must  distinguish  psy- 
chical from  physiological  phenomena,  and  regard  both 
as  radically  different,  the  conception  of  reflex  actions 
which  has  obtained  hitherto  is  altogether  untenable. 

To  acquire  a  better  understanding  of  the  processes  of 
movements  in  living  organisms  we  must  make  a  distinc- 
tion between  physiological  and  psychical  reflex  actions, 
corresponding  to  the  difference  in  the  conceptions  of 
physiological  and  psychological  phenomena. 

Physiological  reflex  motions  are  processes  of  move- 
ments of  a  material  kind,  which  in  a  living  organism  are 
caused  by  particular  processes  of  irritation,  and  which 
have  their  origin  in  the  material  organization  and  the 
physiological  properties  of  the  organism.  It  seems  to 
me  that  this  definition  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  what  move- 
ments are  to  be  included.  To  this  class  belong  not  only 
all  reflex  motions  of  the  animal  nervous  system  which 
are  independent  of  all  phenomena  of  consciousness,  and 
which  are  due  solely  to  the  material  processes  in  the 
nerves,  but  also  those  motions  which  are  produced  by 
the  organic  or  sympathetic  nervous  system;  as,  for 
instance,  the  movements  of  a  segregated  heart  or  intes- 
tine when  irritated.     In  the  lower  animals,  in  which  the 


nervous  system  has  not  yet  become  differentiated  into 
specific  animal  and  organic  ones,  as  also  in  those  animal 
organisms  which  have  no  differentiated  nerve  substance 
whatever  all  movements  that  are  the  result  of  irritations, 
— no  matter  whether  these  be  mechanical,  chemical  or 
electrical, — in  so  far  as  they  are  independent  of  every 
phenomenon  of  consciousness  and  have  their  causation 
in  the  physiological  properties  of  the  organism,  are  to 
be  considered  physiological  reflex  motions.  Likewise 
all  movements  which  plants  make  after  being  subjected 
to  particular  irritations  are  purely  physiological  reflex 
motions. 

Thus  physiological  reflex  motions  differ  from  purely 
mechanical  reflex  motions  as  regards  the  physical  pro- 
cesses which  are  also  called  reflex  motions,  chiefly  in 
that  they  take  place  in  living  organisms  only  and  have 
their  cause  in  the  vegetative  process  of  life. 

Psychical  reflex  motions  on  the  other  hand  are  those 
which  are  caused  by  the  phenomena  of  consciousness 
and  which  have  their  origin  in  the  psychical  properties 
of  the  organism. 

To  this  class  belongs  every  movement  in  which  we 
are  in  the  least  degree  conscious  of  the  irritation  as  well 
as  of  the  movement.  Such  are  all  the  movements 
which,  in  vertebrates,  take  place  in  the  animal  nervous 
system  only.  We  must  moreover  consider  all  move- 
ments in  invertebrate  animals,  which  by  analogy  we 
may  suppose  to  depend  upon  the  phenomena  of  con- 
sciousness, as  in  the  case  of  man,  as  psychical  reflex 
motions. 

Two  mechanical  phenomena,  which  are  related  to 
each  other  as  cause  and  effect,  form  a  mechanical  reflex 
motion.  Similarly  we  speak  of  a  chemical  reflex  action 
(chemical  reaction).  Two  physiological  phenomena, 
which  are  related  to  each  other  as  cause  and  effect,  form 
a  physiological  reflex  motion ;  and  two  psychical  phe- 
nomena, which  are  related  to  each  other  as  cause  and 
effect,  form  a  psychical  reflex  motion. 

In  each  case,  in  the  psychical  as  well  as  in  the  physi- 
ological phenomena,  it  is  simply  a  question  of  cause  and 
effect.  As  we  cannot  trace  psychical  or  physiological 
processes  to  mechanical  causes — and  as  we  distinguish 
the  various  groups  of  mechanical,  physiological  and 
psychological  phenomena,  we  must  correspondingly  also 
distinguish  mechanical,  physiological  and  psychological 
causes — and  mechanical,  physiological  and  psychological 
effects,  respectively. 

A  physiological  reflex  motion  may  be  produced  by 
some  external,  mechanical  or  chemical  cause,  or  the  irri- 
tation may  be  caused  internally  by  the  process  of  life  of 
the  organism. 

But  there  are  three  classes  of  psychical  reflex 
motions.  In  the  first  place  psychical  irritations  may  be 
caused  by  external  mechanical  influences;  in  which  case 
the  successive  results  are  as  follows:     The  effect  of  the 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


699 


mechanical  cause  is  a  physiological  irritation,  the  irrita- 
tation  of  sensory  nerves;  this  irritation  again  becomes 
a  cause  and  produces  psychical  irritation  in  the  form  of 
sensation  and  perception.  It  is  this  last  named  irritation 
which  produces  the  psychical  reflex  motion,  as  impulse 
and  will;  this  effect  again  becomes  a  cause  whose  effect 
is  another  physiological  irritation,  the  irritation  of  the 
motor  nerves;  and  this  last  at  length  produces  another 
mechanical  effect,  such  as  the  movement  of  some  part  of 
the  body. 

Secondly,  the  psychical  reflex  motion  may  be  caused 
by  some  physiological  change  in  the  body;  and  lastly, 
the  psychical  irritation  may  also  be  produced  directly  by 
other  psychical  processes. 

No  matter  how  or  with  what  causes  the  reflex 
motion  may  begin,  the  two  psychical  links  are  the 
essential  features  and  at  once  determine  the  process  as 
a  psychological  reflex  motion. 

When  we  compare  physiological  and  psychical  reflex 
motions  which  are  produced  by  external  causes,  with  the 
mechanical  reflex  motion,  we  see  that  in  physiological 
reflex  motions  the  physiological  cause  and  effect  is 
inserted  between  the  two  mechanical  links — and  that  in 
psychical  reflex  motions  the  psychical  cause  and  effect 
is  inserted  between  the  physiological  links,  as  I  shall 
demonstrate  in  the  following  diagrams: 

Fig.  1.     Mechanical  Reflex  Motion. 


Mechanical 
Cause 

Fig.  2.      Physiological  Reflex  Motion. 


Mechanical  Effect  and 
Physiological  Cause. 


Mechanical 
Cause. 


Physiological  Effect  and 
Mechanical  Cause. 


Mechanical 
Effect. 


Fig.  3.     Psychical  Reflex  Motion. 
Physiological  Eftect  and  A  Psychical  Eftect  and 

Psychical  Cause.  /      \         Physiological  Cause. 

Mechanical  Eftect  and  1  -A  \      Physiological  Effect  and 

Physiological  Cause.        /  /  \  \        Mechanical  Cause. 


Mechanical 
Cause. 


Mechanical 
Effect. 


Just  as  on  the  one  hand,  all  mechanical  and  chemi- 
cal processes  may  be  resolved  into  mechanical  and 
chemical  reactions  respectively,  and  on  the  other,  all 
physiological  phenomena  may  be  resolved  into  individ- 
ual physiological  reflex  motions,  so  also  an  analysis  of 
psychical  phenomena  shows  that  they  are  composed  of 


individual  psychical  reflex  processes.  According  to  this 
not  only  a  few  involuntary  motions  such  as  coughing, 
sneezing,  vomiting,  scratching,  closing  of  the  eye- lids, 
etc.,  are  psychical  reflex  phenomena,  but  the  most 
complicated  actions  of  an  adult  human  being  are  com- 
posed of  several  reflex  effects,  as  I  have  shown  in  my 
book  entitled   The  Human  Will. 

Physiological  phenomena  differ  from  chemical  and 
mechanical  phenomena  in  that  the  former  serve  a  defin- 
ite purpose,  the  preservation  of  species.  In  the  process 
of  life  of  organisms  those  processes  are  always  related, 
and  causatively  connected  and  produce  reflex  motions, 
the  original  connection  of  which  is  favorable  and  thus 
suitable  for  the  preservation  of  the  species.  And  the 
systematic  as  well  as  the  individual  development  of 
organisms  shows  a  gradual  increase  and  higher  develop- 
ment of  these  suitable  causal  relations  of  various  pro- 
cesses. According  to  the  laws  of  evolution  this  seems 
to  be  self-evident.  For  the  fundamental  principle  of 
the  preservation  of  species  is  to  preserve  qualities  that 
preserve  the  species. 

Thus  in  the  case  of  human  beings  and  other  animals 
we  find  suitable  relations — i.  e.  relations  that  are  favor- 
able to  preservation  between  the  nutriment  taken  and 
the  secretion  of  the  glands;  between  the  process  of  di- 
gestion and  the  movement  of  the  bowels;  between  the 
nutriment  taken  and  the  rush  of  the  blood  to  the  digestive 
organs;  between  the  waste  of  the  tissues  and  the  supply 
of  nutriment  by  the  blood,  and  between  the  consumption 
and  the  frequency  of  the  heart-beats  and  the  movements 
of  respiration,  etc. 

These  suitable  causal  relations,  all  of  which  together 
constitute  the  vegetative  life,  have  gradually  developed 
according  to  the  laws  of  evolution. 

Numerous  suitable  causal  relations  between  various 
psychical  phenomena  have  evolved  from  the  same  causes. 
All  the  actions  of  a  human  being  depend  on  the  devel- 
opment of  these  causal  relations. 

As  we  shall  show  more  fully  elsewhere  these  suit- 
able relations  exist  between  the  feeling  of  hunger  and 
the  appetence  for  food;  between  the  feeling  of  disgust 
and  the  inclination  to  expectorate;  between  the  feeling 
of  a  lack  of  air  and  the  desire  to  breathe;  between  the 
perception  of  certain  objects  in  the  distance  and  the  im- 
pulse to  grab  or  to  avoid  them ;  between  the  perception 
of  an  individual  of  the  other  sex  and  the  feeling  of  love 
and  the  sexual  instinct;  between  the  perception  of  dan- 
ger and  the  impulse  to  flee  from  it,  etc.  Similarly, 
analogous  causal  relations  to  those  which  exist  between 
perceptions  and  the  corresponding  impulses,  are  also 
found  between  the  conceptions  (the  reproductions  of  per- 
ceptions and  sensations)  of  desirable  or  pernicious  objects 
and  the  feeling  of  desire  or  repulsion  that  they  produce. 

According  to  this  the  various  psychical  reflex  motions 
are  divided  into  three  classes.      1.   Those  which  are  pro- 


700 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


duced  by  subjective  sensations  and  by  the  immediate 
contact  with  external  objects.  2.  Those  which  are 
caused  by  the  perception  of  objects  in  the  distance. 
3.  Those  which  have  their  origin  in  conceptions  (the 
reproductions  of  sensations  and  perceptions).  Thus  we 
must  distinguish  between 

1.  Reflex  motions  due  to  sensation. 

2.  Reflex  motions  due  to  perception. 

3.  Reflex  motions  due  to  conceptions. 

This  classification  corresponds  to  the  structure  of  the 
brain.  The  reflex  actions  due  to  sensations  emanate 
from  the  spinal  cord,  the  medulla  oblongata,  the  cercbel- 
lum  and  the  thalami  optici.  The  reflex  actions  due  to 
perception  proceed  from  the  corpora  quadrigemina,  and, 
finally,  the  reflex  actions  due  to  conceptions  originate  in 
the  cortex  and  the  corpora  striata. 

In  the  development  of  life  in  general  and  also  in  the 
individual  development  of  human  beings"  reflex  motions 
due  to  sensation  develop  first;  then,  with  these  as  a  basis, 
develop  reflex  actions  due  to  perception  and  finally 
reflex  actions  due  to  conceptions. 

By  the  successive  and  simultaneous  combinations  of 
psychical  reflex  motions  not  only  instinctive  but  also  in- 
tentional actions  are  produced.  All  of  these  belong  to 
definite  groups  and  classes  of  reflex  phenomena,  which 
not  only  combine,  but  also  mutually  augment,  injure  or 
counteract  each  other. 

The  reflex  motions  due  to  sensation  and  perception, 
which  may  also  be  called  sensory  reflex  motions,  consti- 
tute the  instinctive  actions.  Intentional  actions  or  arbi- 
trary movements,  on  the  other  hand,  are  composed  of 
reflex  actions  due  to  sensation,  perception  and  concep- 
tion; and  this  in  the  following  manner — the  latter  always 
form  the  first  links  in  the  chain  of  reflex  motion,  thus 
always  giving  the  first  impulse  for  the  action,  while  the 
course  of  the  actions  is  determined  by  the  reflex  motion 
due  to  perception  and  sensation. 

Thus,  as  we  understand  it,  all  processes  of  nature, 
the  inorganic — i.  e.  mechanical  and  chemical — as  well  as 
the  organic,  and  psychical  as  well  as  physiological  pro- 
cesses are  reflex  phenomena.  The  relation  of  every 
effect  to  some  cause  is  a  reflex  phenomenon.  But  with 
reference  to  causal  connection  all  phenomena,  even  the 
psychical,  are  so  related.  We  are  never  able  to  do  more 
than  merely  trace  these  causal  connections. 

As  long  as  we  must  distinguish  groups  of  mechan- 
ical, chemical,  physiological  and  psychological  phenom- 
ena; as  long  as  we  cannot  yet  derive  the  phenomena  of 
one  of  these  groups  directly  from  those  of  another;  and 
as  long  as  we  must  be  content  to  consider  the  processes 
within  such  a  group  relatively,  just  so  long  must  we  also 
distinguish  between  mechanical,  chemical,  physiological 
and  psychical   reflex  actions. 

If  we  examine  the  phenomena  of  will  from  this  point 
of  view,  we  see  that  the  acts  of  will  in  a  narrower  sense, 


just  as  well  as  all  physiological  processes  and  all  phe- 
nomena in  general,  are  only  more  or  less  composite  reflex 
motions  combined  according  to  definite  laws. 


IMMORTALITY. 

BY    SOLOMON    SOLIS-COHEN. 

I  dreamed  my  spirit  broke  the  bars  of  sense 
That  hold  the  gates  of  consciousness  shut  fast, 
Threw  off  the  prison-garb  of  Self,  and  passed 

Into  the  wonder  of  omniscience. 

As  mists  that  rise  from  ocean,  and  condense 
In  clouds,  in  million  rain-drops  melt,  at  last 
Through  brooks  and  rivers  join  again  the  vast 

Primeval  sea — so  do  I  read  the  Whence 

And  Whither  of  the  soul. 

When  stream  meets  sea, 

Is  the  swift  river- wave  forever  gone? 
When  souls  rejoin  All-Soul,  cease  they  to  be? 

There  where  the  All  is  Thought,  and  Thought  is  One 
Within  the  Infinite  All,  eternally, 

The  thought  once  bound  in  me,  lives  boundless  on. 

DEATH. 

BY    A.    B. 

Out  of  the  future 
Cometh  an  hour 
Nameless  and  aimless, 
Armed  with  dread  power, 
Bringing  the  ending, 
And  by  its  call 
Life  is  dissolved, 
Into  the  All. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 


SOCIAL  STUDIES. 

To  the  Editor:  New  York,  Jan.  6,  iSSS. 

At  present  the  city  of  New  York  is  one  great  seething  cal- 
dron of  conventions,  assemblies,  unions,  lodges  and  meetings  of 
every  description,  kept  in  agitation  by  the  fires  of  social  and 
political  discontent.  Proofs  of  the  aggregation  of  wealth  and 
power  in  the  hands  of  a  few  individuals  and  corporations  who 
control  the  activities  of  the  country,  and  manifestos  of  resistance 
against  a  system  which  is  reducing  the  masses  to  machines, 
furnish  the  materials  to  keep  up  the  ebullition.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  professional  agitators  and  politicians  are  the  stokesmen. 
A  few  laboring  men  who  have  risen  from  the  ranks  of  their  fel- 
lows, either  through  genuine  convictions  or  for  the  sake  of  the 
reward,  devote  their  energies  to  this  work  with  eminent  success. 
Among  the  discontented  who  are  divided  into  factions  accord- 
ing to  temperament  and  development,  may  be  counted,  first,  the 
Socialists,  who  greatly  outnumber  any  popular  estimate.  Many 
a  staid  citizen  who  makes  no  sign  of  his  proclivities,  is,  in  private, 
an  ardent  propagandize!"  of  Socialism.  Count  him  not  therefore 
a  bomb-throwing  Anarchist,  whose  methods  he  detests,  though 
whose  execution  he  deplores.  The  true  Socialist  is  legally 
destructive  as  well  as  ardently  constructive.  He  tries  to  influ- 
ence public  opinion  through  newspapers,  tracts  and  at  the  polls. 
His  raison  it'c/re,  too  well-known  to  be  enlarged  upon,  is  founded 
upon  the  possession  by  the  few  of  the  complicated  means  of  pro- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


or 


duction.  This  condemns  the  wage-laborer  to  hard  and  hopeless 
poverty,  builds  up  immense  fortunes  and  creates  classes,  all  ol 
which  is  opposed  to  the  genius  of  democracy.  He  claims  that 
because  the  workman  has  no  means  of  competing  with  the  capi- 
talist, wholesale  production  constantly  increases,  while  none  of  it 
accrues  to  his  own  benefit.  He  declares  that  relief  will  be  brought 
about,  not  by  abolishing  the  present  system  of  production  at 
wholesale,  but  by  extending  it,  shorn  of  its  individual  or  corpo- 
rate head.  He  desires  to  have  all  production  organized  co-opera- 
tively, to  be  carried  on  under  the  direction  and  for  the  benefit  of 
the  whole  commonwealth.  He  wishes  to  see  the  soil,  belonging 
to  all  the  people,  tilled  according  to  a  scientific  plan;  to  have 
commerce  stripped  of  speculation,  and  an  immense  number  of 
middlemen  relegated  to  the  ranks  of  producers;  to  have  railroads 
and  telegraphs  operated  by  the  government,  and  to  have  lands 
houses,  factories,  mines  and  machinery  belong  to  the  people  and 
not  to  an  individual  or  to  a  corporation  He  does  not,  however, 
propose  to  abolish  private  property  with  capital,  since  a  man  may 
either  hoard  or  save  his  income  as  he  chooses.  In  a  new  social 
system  where  each  finds  his  place  and  his  work,  he  hopes  to  see 
the  dawning  of  an  earthly  paradise. 

With  this  end  in  view  the  Socialists  of  New  York  are  doing 
their  utmost  to  send  their  own  representatives  into  legislative 
bodies  who  would  introduce  such  measures  as  the  reduction  of  the 
hours  of  work,  the  prohibition  of  child-labor,  and  the  payment  of 
equal  wages  for  the  same  amount  of  work  done  by  men  and 
women.  They  have  already  between  fifty  and  sixty  local  Socials 
comprising  at  least  S.ooo  members.  They  have  very  lately 
entered  the  political  field  in  opposition  to  the  United  Labor  party 
under  the  leadership  of  Henry  George,  taking  the  name  of  the 
Progressive  Labor  party.  A  busy  place  is  their  central  office  and 
publishing  house  in  Second  avenue,  whence  books  and  tracts  are 
constantly  issued.  One  of  their  ablest  and  most  brilliant  writers, 
Lawrence  Gronlund.  who  is  an  authority  among  them,  lately 
held  long  conversations  with  Mayor  Hewitt  upon  socialistic  top- 
ics. No  refutation  of  the  land-tax  theory  of  Henry  GeDrge  has 
been  more  able  than  that  of  Mr.  Gronlund.  It  is  believed  by 
competent  judges  that  a  book  now  in  press  at  the  Appleton's, 
entitled  Wealth  and  Progress,  is  the  most  complete  refutation  of 
Henry  George's  theory  yet  given.  The  author,  Geo.  Gunton, 
Esq.,  had  two  articles  in  the  Forum,  one  in  March,  the  other  in 
the  preceding  April,  which  attracted  great  interest. 

The  Knights  of  Labor  were  not  organized  as  a  political  party, 
nor  are  they  acting  as  such.  In  their  Constitution  they  declare 
their  aims  are : 

1.  "  To  make  industrial  and  moral  worth,  not  wealth,  the 
true  standard  of  individual  and  national  greatness. 

2.  "To  secure  to  the  workers  the  full  enjoyment  of  the 
wealth  they  create,  sufficient  leisure  in  which  to  develop  their 
intellectual,  moral  and  social  faculties;  all  of  the  benefits,  recrea- 
tion and  pleasures  of  association ;  in  a  word,  to  enable  them  to 
share  in  the  gains  and  honors  of  advancing  civilization." 

Following  this  preamble  are  twenty  demands  at  the  hands  of 
the  State  and  of  Congress,  including  the  abrogation  of  all  laws  that 
do  not  bear  equally  upon  capital  and  labor;  the  levying  of  a 
graduated  income  tax,  and  that,  "  in  connection  with  the  post- 
office,  the  government  shall  organize  financial  exchanges,  safe 
deposits  and  facilities  for  the  deposit  of  the  savings  of  the  people 
in  small  sums."  They  also  desire  to  establish  co-operative  insti- 
tutions, and  are  enemies  of  the  wage  system,  which,  however,  they 
do  not  expect  to  see  abolished  in  one  generation  The  land-tax 
theory  is  not  entertained  by  them  as  a  body. 

In  the  local  assemblies  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  in  New  York 
and  its  suburban  cities  there  are  at  least  75,000  members.  These 
assemblies  have  been  well  called  little  republics  in  which  the 
members    learn    the   duties  of  citizenship.      Or  better,  they  are 


adidt  schools  where  social,  industrial  and  political  problems 
are  studied  with  the  earnestness  of  men  who  have  tremendous 
interests  dependent  upon  their  correct  solution. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  no  person  who  sells  or  makes  a 
livelihood  by  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks,  and  no  lawyer, 
banker,  gambler  or  stock-broker  can  be  admitted  to  their  rank>. 

The  Prohibitionists  are  rapidly  growing  in  numbers  and  influ- 
ence in  New  York.  Several  able  advocates  and  workers  for  total 
abstinence  have  lately  come  to  the  front,  and  they  are  reinforced 
by  the  aid  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  beside 
many  other  women  of  influence  who  do  not  belong  to  the  Union. 
Apparently,  the  Prohibition  party  is  a  factor  of  more  importance 
in  the  politics  of  the  State,  not  alone  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
than  the  labor  movement.  And  this  for  the  reason  that  it  is 
founded  upon  principle  and  composed  of  an  unpurchasable 
constituency. 

In  this  city,  whatever  it  may  be  outside,  the  influence  of  Henry 
George  is  on  the  wane.  His  following  is  not  chiefly  composed  <>f 
actual  artisans,  but  of  clerks,  small-traders  and  theorizers  who, 
deeply  convinced  that  sociologic  changes  are  necessary  and 
imminent,  welcome  any  doctrines  presented  so  clearly  and  ably 
as  his  own.  But  for  his  peculiar  views  concerning  land,  his  fol- 
lowing would  be  much  greater.  A  large  percentage  are  kept  in  the 
ranks  through  the  magnetic  eloquence  of  fervent  Father  McGlynn. 

It  is  an  open  secret  that  certain  Republican  leaders  aid  and 
abet  the  George  party  with  the  hope  that  it  will  draw  more  largely 
from  the  Democratic  ranks  than  from  their  own.  As  an  offset, 
the  Democratic,  although  a  liquor  party,  presents  the  anomaly  of 
encouraging  the  Prohibitionists  for  the  purpose  of  weakening 
their  rivals,  the  Republicans,  who  chiefly  fill  the  temperance 
ranks. 

One  of  the  kings  upon  the  political  chess-board  of  this  State, 
Governor  Hill,  with  that  tact  which  always  distinguishes  him, 
has  given  good  official  positions  to  some  of  the  leading  Knights  of 
Labor.  By  this  means  that  order,  as  an  organization,  is  for  the 
present  deterred  from  participating  in  the  political  campaign. 
Either  this  order  or  the  United  Labor  party  or  the  Progressive 
Labor  partv,  hold  the  balance  of  power  if  they  act  under  good 
leadership,  which  will  control  the  elections  in  this  State  and  the 
next  Presidential  election. 

But  another  organization  is  coming  to  the  front  which  is 
establishing  centers  called  Personal  Liberty  Leagues.  Its  name 
is  a  sufficient  explanation  of  its  nature.  It  is  charged  that  these 
leagues  are  acting  in  conjunction  with  liquor  dealers,  who  are 
determined  to  repeal  the  Sunday  laws  and  the  high-license  law 
which  militate  against  their  interests.  Many  citizens,  especially 
those  of  foreign  birth,  believe  it  unjust  that  they  should  be  deprived 
of  their  Sunday  beer,  yet  are  law-abiding  men.  Acting  with 
them  are  the  keepers  of  the  lowest  dives  and  saloons,  as  well  as 
those  who  stand  for  personal  liberty  as  a  principle.  Alarmed 
by  the  growing  influence  of  this  party,  many  clergymen  and 
others  are  holding  meetings  in  order  to  counteract  its  influence. 
Among  other  methods  adopted  is  to  ascertain  the  sentiments  ot 
candidates  for  public  offices  with  a  view  to  defeat  those  who  do 
not  pledge  themselves  to  oppose  the  conspiracy  against  Sunday. 
In  this  work  all  denominations  unite. 

Meantime  the  Woman  Suffrage  party  is  flourishing.  Some 
of  the  best  and  wisest  of  New  York's  citizens  have  lately  and 
publicly  pronounced  in  favor  of  restoring  to  woman  the  right  of 
full  citizenship. 

"  Have  these  political  parties  aught  to  do  with  scientific 
religion?  "  may  be  asked. 

Thev  have  everything  to  do  with  true  religion.  Mutual 
rights  and  duties,  economics  and  ethics,  incorporated  in  the  plat- 
form of  one  or  another  as  a  matter  of  party  policy,  are  held  sacred 
bv  a  growing  minority  of  leaders  and   of  the   rank  and  file.     Dr. 


702 


THE    ORKN    COURT. 


McGlynn  gives  a  series  of  lectures  on  the  Spiritual,  Rational, 
Moral  and  Religious  Characteristics  of  the  Cross  of  the  New 
Crusade,  in  which  he  attempts  to  prove  that  this  crusade  is  identi- 
cal with  primitive  Christianity.  Woman's  intuitional  and  ethical 
nature  is  making  itself  felt  in  a  greater  degree  than  ever  before, 
and  intellectual  and  moral  discipline  is  the  effect  upon  the  average 
workingman  or  woman  who  attend  the  meetings  which  are 
organized  in  their  behalf  by  party  leaders.  To  compete  with 
their  rivals,  if  for  no  other  reason,  they  are  compelled  to  furnish 
facts,  to  give  a  modicum  of  truth,  to  consider  the  rights  of  the 
individual,  and  to  deal  carefully  with  the  theory  and  practice  of 
industrial  problems.  No  fervid  bombast  upon  the  flag  or  the 
republic  passes  muster  now.  The  times  are  too  critical.  Men 
are  learning  to  govern  themselves — are  beginning  to  understand 
what  Democracy  means.  Women,  too,  are  at  work  as  a  power. 
At  the  fair  held  by  the  women  belonging  to  the  Anti-Poverty 
Society,  they  cleared  for  its  treasury  no  less  than  $15,000,  and  they 
were  almost  entirely  working-women.  This  society,  moreover, 
at  its  Sunday  evening  lectures,  when  the  largest  auditorium  in 
the  city  is  more  than  filled,  is  a  wonderful  school  to  quicken, 
inspire,  instruct  and  elevate  the  mass  of  its  members.  It  is  to  be 
noted  as  a  sign  of  the  times  that  all  these  new  parties  emphatic- 
ally endorse  woman  suffrage.  Hester  M.  Poole. 


REALITY  AND   ILLUSION  AS   TO    SENSE. 
To  the  Editor:  Asbury  Park,  N.  J.,  Jan.  3,  1888. 

"The  material  world  about  us  is  reducible  to  sensations." 
This  is  Mr.  W.  M.Salter's  definition  of  idealism,  as  given  in  The 
Open  Court  of  October  3.  That  is  good  so  far  as  it  goes.  Then 
there  are  two  classes  of  idealists:  Those  who  affirm  a  non- 
egoistic  extra  sensible  something  as  the  immediate  source  and 
cause  of  this  congeries  of  sensations  called  the  material  world; 
and  those  who  claim  that  the  individual  ego  is  that  immediate 
source  and  cause.  Of  the  latter  class  there  is  at  least  one  advo- 
cate. Against  the  second  of  these  views  Mr.  Salter  labors  to 
defend  what  he  considers  the  more  rational  doctrine.  He  thinks 
the  charge  of  "illusion"  is  made  against  the  true  doctrine  be- 
cause it  is  not  clearly  seen  and  understood  as  implying  a  cause 
beyond  ourselves.  This  question  of  the  nature  of  "  illusion"  or 
reality  is  what  I  wish  in  this  paper  to  discuss;  and  propose  thence 
to  show  that  it  has  no  logical  bearing  on  the  truth  or  reasonable- 
ness of  Mr.  Salter's  notion  of  idealism. 

What,  then,  are  sense-illusion  and  sense-reality?  According 
to  the  old  dualistic  and  materialistic  notion,  the  answer  would  be 
quite  different  from  that  furnished  and  required  by  idealism  of 
every  shade.  If  the  sense-world  is  really  non-egoistic,  then  a  real 
object  of  sense  is  non-egoistic,  and  an  illusion  is  a  subjective  state 
— subjective  in  nature  and  origin — mistaken  for  a  non-egoistic  ob- 
ject. This  in  old  times  was  the  universal  notion  on  this  subject; 
and  it  is  universal  now  with  all  uneducated  people  and  with  all 
who  are  not  idealists. 

This  view  cannot  be  consistently  held  by  any  idealist.  As  he 
makes  all  phenomena  egoistic  in  their  nature,  if  not  in  their  source 
and  cause,  it  follows  that  real  and  illusive  phenomena  are  only  two 
different  classes  of  subjective  states. 

How  shall  we  define  and  discriminate  these  two  classes?  To 
this  question,  without  explicitly  stating  it,  all  idealists  of  the 
popular  class  give  an  implicit  answer  to  the  effect  that  they 
are  discriminated  by  their  source  and  cause,  and  that  the  real 
sense-object  has  a  non-egoistic  source  and  cause,  while  the  unreal 
01  illusive  sense-object  has  an  egoistic  or  subjective  source  and 
cause.  So  far,  then,  the  popular  idealist  defines  the  real  and 
illusive  sense-object  just  the  same  as  the  old  dualist  and  old 
materialist.  This  is  doubtless  one  element  of  his  popularity.  He 
appears  quite  reasonable  to  the  average  mind,  because  he  is  not  so 
far  above  and  unlike. 


It  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  discuss  the  question  of  the 
origin  of  sense  phenomena,  but  only  to  define  an  illusion  of  sense 
in  discrimination  from  a  real  sensible  object.  To  say  that  they 
differ  in  their  origin  is  illegitimate.  It  is  illogical  and  unscien- 
tific. A  thing  is  not  real  or  unreal  because  of  its  origin.  It  is 
reallyjust  what  it  is,  whateverits  source  and  cause.  As  allcauses 
are  real  causes,  else  they  are  not  causes  at  all,  so  all  effects  are 
real  effects.  Therefore,  on  this  line  of  inquiry,  on  the  relation  of 
phenomena  to  their  causes  and  effects,  we  can  never  find  any  line 
of  demarkation  between  the  illusive  and  the  real  sense-object. 
Whether  illusive  or  real  all  phenomena  have  an  equally  fixed 
relation  to  their  causes  and  effects. 

Hence,  whether  the  cause  be  egoistic  or  otherwise,  the  effect, 
whatever  it  be,  is  equally  real. 

Besides,  as  the  non-ego  is  confessedly  unknown,  how  can  we 
know  whether  a  phenomenon  is  caused  by  it?  We  cannot  have 
any  such  knowledge,  and  we  cannot,  therefore,  determine  this 
question  by  this  method. 

Mr.  Spencer  gives  the  word  "  persistence  "  as  descriptive  of 
the  real  in  distinction  from  the  illusive  sense  phenomenon.  But 
"persistence  "  is  a  very  vague  term.  It  is  a  term  of  quantity  or  de- 
gree, and  it  gives  no  hint  of  the  amount  and  duration  of  per- 
sistence required  to  prove  reality  and  disprove  illusion.  It  is  too 
utterly  wanting  in  precision  to  be  entitled  to  any  place  in 
ps3'chological  science.  All  illusive  phenomena  persist  in  some 
degree;  and  they  persist  in  various  degrees.  The  same  is  true  of 
whal  are  called  real  objects.  None  of  them  are  eternally  per- 
sistent. Few  of  them  have  exactly  the  same  degree  of  temporal 
persistence.  Some  illusive  phenomena  persist  longer  and  attract 
wider  and  more  various  attention  and  confidence  than  some  real 
objects  of  sense.  There  is  therefore  no  principle  or  rule  in  the 
mere  idea  of  persistence  by  which  we  may  discriminate  real  from 
illusive  objects  of  sense. 

Still,  this  effort  of  Mr.  Spencer  has  the  merit  of  departing 
from  the  antiquated  method  of  finding  a  criterion  in  an  unknown 
cause.  His  effort  implies  that  we  are  to  find  the  criterion  of 
reality  and  illusion  as  to  sensible  phenomena  in  some  comparison 
and  discrimination  of  classes  of  phenomena.  This  is  the  method 
I  have  always  followed;  and  in  accordance  with  this  method  I 
will  furnish  a  criterion  which  I  think  will  satisfy  all  idealists 
who  give  it  sufficient  attention  to  understand  it,  unbiased  by  their 
old,  unknown  and  unimaginable  non-egoistic  criterion. 

Now,  as  all  phenomena  are  equally  subjective  states,  and  as 
their  source  and  cause  is  not  directly  known,  our  scientific  pro- 
cedure is  to  find  out  and  describe  what  are  the  characteristics 
which  men  have  generally  agreed  to  give  to  the  real  in  distinction 
from  the  illusive,  and  then  to  formulate  this  distinction  into  a 
general  law  or  principle.     That  principle  is  as  follows: 

The  real  sensible  object  is  a  phenomenon  which  conforms  to  all  the 
lazvs  of  sensible  experience,  and  the  illusive  object  is  one  which  does 
not. 

On  extended  examination  it  will  be  found,  I  think,  that  this 
is  a  definition ;  that  it  covers  all  possible  cases,  without  redundancy. 
All  phenomena  are  subjective  states.  Subjective  states  and  the 
subject  in  such  states,  are  all  that  we  ever  know;  and  the  direct 
knowledge  of  more  seems  forever  an  intrinsic  impossibility.  The 
known  difference  concerning  these  phenomena  can  therefore  con- 
sist only  in  their  different  relations  to  the  laws  of  sense-experience. 

To  the  hypnotized  subject  all  the  thoughts  and  experiences  in- 
jected by  the  operator,  however  unreal  or  irrational,  are  to  his  con- 
sciousness just  as  real  subjective  states  as  any  other  experience  of 
himselfor  any  other  man.  In  what  do  they  differ  from  the  other 
subjective  states  which  are  by  common  consent  called  true  and 
real?  They  do  not  conform  to  the  known  and  universal  laws  of 
sensible  experience.  They  are  known  to  be  peculiar  in  their 
personal  limitation  and  connection.     The  real  sensible  object  is 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


?°3 


that  which  everybody  experiences  or  may  experience,  while  the 
illusive  experience  is  confined  to  one  or  a  few,  and  to  special  con- 
ditions of  the  conscious  subject.  This  is  the  way  in  which  men 
always  actually  determine  between  illusion  and  reality.  They 
could  not  fully  and  accurately  formulate  their  method,  but  they 
follow  it  none  the  less.  Just  as  men  may  talk  well,  though  they 
cannot  well  expound  grammar.  This  subject  admits  of  endless 
illustration,  like  Spencer's  theory  of  Progress.  Here  we,  however, 
must  stop  or  The  Open  Court  will  close  to  us.  Enough  has 
been  said  to  show  that  the  question  of  sensible  illusion  and  reality 
has  no  connection  with  the  question  concerning  the  origin  of  sensi- 
ble phenomena,  whether  egoistic  or  non-egoistic.     Wm.  I.  Gill. 


A   REPLY  BY   MR.  WILLIAM   M.   SALTER. 
To  the  Editor:  Chicago,  Jan.  10,  1S88. 

In  my  article  of  October  13,  to  which  Mr.  Gill  refers,  I  simply 
endeavored  to  show  that  idealism  did  not  necessarily  imply  that 
there  was  nothing  in  existence  but  ourselves.  This  is  the  popular 
understanding  of  idealism,  and  the  position  of  some  idealists.  I 
did  not  question  that  the  latter  had  perfectly  good  right  to  be 
called  idealists ;  I  simply  questioned  whether  they  had  an  exclusive 
right.  My  use  of  the  word  illusion  was  simply  incidental ;  if  I 
had  said  simply  "creation  of  the  mind,"  all  the  purposes  of  my 
article  would  have  been  served.  Popularly,  "a  creation  of  the 
mind"  is  an  "  illusion,"  and  I  in  so  speaking  simply  followed  pop- 
ular usage.  My  only  object  was  to  show  that  sensible  phenom- 
ena, though  subjective  or  ideal  in  their  nature,  were  not  such 
creations. 

As  to  the  real  meaning  of  "  illusion"  I  am  afraid  my  thoughts 
are  not  altogether  satisfactory  to  myself.  I  question  whether  in 
philosophical  strictness  the  term  "illusory"  applies  to  sensations 
at  all.  It  applies  to  thoughts  or  expectations  or  hopes.  If  I 
imagine  I  can  walk  on  the  water  or  fly  in  the  air,  my  state  of 
mind  is  illusory;  for  I  cannot  convert  such  a  thought  into  actual 
experience.  Sensations  are  all  real,  whether  I  experience  them 
in  the  daylight  or  in  my  dreams,  whether  in  a  hypnotic  or  natural 
condition.  My  mistake  or  illusion  would  be  if  I  imagine  that 
what  I  saw  in  my  dream  I  could  see  in  day-time,  or  that  the  pains 
that  are  given  to  me  in  a  hypnotic  state  I  should  also  experience 
in  a  normal  condition.  All  pain,  all  sound,  all  color  are  real. 
An  imaginary  pain  is  an  absurdity.  I  I  such  an  expression  is 
used,  it  can  only  mean  that  the  pain  would  not  exist  under  other 
circumstances.  All  illusions  or  mistakes  are  in  the  mind  and 
made  by  the  mind,  not  by  the  senses.  This  I  have  stated  at 
length  in  the  Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy,  July,  1SS4,  pp. 
258-260.  I  have  been  exceedingly  interested  in  Mr.  Gill's  discus- 
sion of  the  subject;  I  entirely  agree  with  his  criticism  of  Spencer's 
criterion  of  "persistence;"  I  think  I  might  in  the  main  agree  with 
him  without  at  all  giving  up  my  contention  as  to  the  non-egoistic 
origin  of  sensations,  and  only  regret  that  I  have  not  time  to  con- 
sider his  position  in  detail.  William  M.  Salter. 


REPLY   TO   MR.   BENJAMIN   CROSS. 

To  the  Editor:  Barre,  Mass.,  Jan.  5,  1SS7. 

If  Mr.  Benjamin  Cross  will  examine  his  own  quotation  from 
my  article  in  vour  journal  of  August  18,  1SS7,  he  will  perceive 
that  he  abused  himself  where  he  states  "  I,  as  one  of  the  class  of 
spiritualists  included  in  the  so-called  humbugged,"  etc.,  unless 
Mr.  Cross  was  "converted  to  its  theories  (spiritualism)  by  some 
of  the  so-called  mediums  exposed  by  this  commission,"  for  he 
quotes  me  correctly  where  he  says  "  the  believers  in  spiritualism 
who  have  been  converted  to  its  theories  by  any  of  the  so-called 
mediums  exposed  by  this  commission,  will  feel  that  they  have  been 
most  egregiously  humbugged." 

Now,  was  Mr.  Cross  "converted  by  *  *  *  any  of  the  so-called 
mediums  exposed  by  this  commission?  "     If  so,  then  he  was  certainly 


included,  if  not,  he  will  perceive  at  once  that  he  has  done  him- 
self injustice  in  his  statement,  for  in  his  quotation  those  are  speci- 
fied and  no  other  "  humbugged  "  converts  mentioned. 

This  gentleman  says,  "  in  thirty  years  of  experience  in  spiritu- 
alism," etc.,  by  which  I  infer  that  he  has  been  a  believer  all  these 
years,  consequently  could  not  have  been  converted  through  Mr. 
Slade's  and  Mrs.  Patterson's  slate-writing,  nor  hardly  Mr.  Mans- 
field's sealed  (?)  letter-reading,  nor  through  many  of  the  mediums 
exposed  by  the  commission. 

He  goes  on  to  relate  phenomena  through  his  niece,  eleven 
years  old,  and  other  children  nine  and  ten  years  of  age,  and  then 
triumphantly  inquires,  "are  they  also  humbugging  me?  Let 
Ella  E.  Gibson  answer."  The  great  mistake  with  this  gentleman 
lies  in  imagining  that  I  have  asserted  that  all  the  phenomena 
called  spiritualism  are  a  humbug,  and  that  every  one  who  mani- 
fested it  was  humbugging.  I  never  said  any  such  thing.  How 
could  I  when  the  phenomena  have  accompanied  me  all  mv  life, 
and  for  thirty-six  years  similar  mental  phenomena,  as  he  describes 
in  these  children,  were  daily  a  part  of  my  existence;  1S52-1S63 
there  was  scarcely  a  day  but  what  I  "  saiv"  as  I  called  it,  for 
more  than  one  person,  and  was  lecturing  months  in  succession  on 
an  average,  daily.  I  called  names  and  dates,  diagnosed  disease, 
personated  both  the  living  and  the  dead,  described  accurately  per- 
sons and  places  I  have  never  seen,  etc.,  and  I  know  I  was 
neither  a  humbug  nor  humbugging. 

At  first  (1S52)  I  inferred  it  was  spirits;  but  as  I  was  constantly 
under  this  influence  and  never  entranced,  I  had  full  opportunity 
to  analyze  my  emotions,  conditions  and  facts  connected,  therefore 
perceived  it  was  not  spirits  but  the  result  of  my  own  unconscious 
powers.  These  little  children,  and  thousands  of  others,  are  no 
more  humbugs  than  was  I.  This  psychic  force  and  mental  per- 
ception is  soon  to  be  analyzed,  classified  and  assigned  to  its  proper 
place,  and  until  then  I  can  afford  to  wait.  The  time  has  passed 
when  every  mystery  not  understood  can,  with  reason  and  safely 
be  relegated  to  the  land  of  spirits,  as  in  the  dark  ages  when  a  god 
or  goddess  was  supposed  to  have  swallowed  the  moon  during  an 
eclipse. 

I  have  a  theory  that  accounts  for  the  genuine  phenomena 
about  as  fully  as  evolution  accounts  for  what  is.  All  that  is  has 
not  yet  been  discovered.  I  wrote  only  of  exposed  humbugging, 
though,  let  it  be  distinctly  understood  that  I  do  not  believe  any 
of  the  genuine  phenomena  are  caused  by  spirits,  for  /  do  not 
believe  a  spirit  exists  or  ever  did  exist.  Ella  E.  Gibson. 

WHAT   IS   PRISON  REFORM? 

To  the  Editor:  Dec.  22,  1SS7. 

Abolish  prisons,  keepers,  and  all  degrading  rules.  Institute 
moral  hospitals,  with  trained  instructors  and  rules  that  will  and 
may  be  enforced  without  destroying  self-respect.  Abolish  the 
idea  of  punishment.  Institute  treatment.  Abolish  sentiment. 
Abolish  the  slave-system  of  contract-labor.  Work  on  State  ac- 
count with  business  principles.  Make  each  hospital  pay.  Abol- 
ish the  definite  sentence;  set  the  patient  into  society  when  he  is 
cured  and  not  before.  Abolish  the  death  penalty;  giving  all  an 
opportunity  of  regaining  their  normal  social  and  moral  standing. 
Set  each  discharged  patient  into  society  with  all  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  a  citizen.  All  this  may  be  accomplished  by  Act  of 
Legislature,  and  would  certainly  reform  prisons. 

The  idea  of  punishment  is  as  old  as  history.  Old  ideas  are 
tenacious  of  life,  but  they  have  to  die  sometime,  and  the  time  has 
now  arrived  to  kill  and  cremate  this  heathen  idea  of  punishment. 
Within  the  present  century  many  acts  were  thought  deserving 
of  punishment  that  to-day  are  thought  best  to  be  treated  in  a 
scientific  manner.  The  time  was  when  insanity  was  punished 
with  beating,  stoning  and  death.  Lunatics  are  not  thought  to 
be  deserving  of  punishment  to-day,  they  are  subjected  to  treat- 


7°4 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


ment.  What  makes  the  difference  is  that  we  of  to-day  recognize 
the  fact  that  lunatics  are  not  possessed  by  devils,  but  are  diseased. 
No  one  outside  of  the  detective  force  who  has  given  two  consecu- 
tive minutes  of  scientific  thought  to  the  subject  of  crime,  but  has 
arrived  at  the  truth  that  it  is  a  disease — a  disease  of  the  morals. 
Like  consumption,  it  may  be  inherited  or  contracted,  acute  or 
chronic.  Like  mental  disease,  it  takes  many  phases.  It  may  be 
moral  imbecility,  or  moral  lunacy;  and  each  may  be  divided  into 
numberless  forms  of  the  disease,  each  bearing  a  distinct  aspect  of 
its  own.  Acknowledged  a  disease,  how  absurd  to  think  of  curing 
it  by  punishment!  Why  not  punish  a  small-pox  patient  into 
good  health. 

If  it  is  treatment,  not  punishment,  which  the  wrong-doer  is  to 
receive,  there  is  obviously  no  further  use  for  prisons;  and  austere 
officers  must  give  way  to  instructors  who  are  trained  for  their 
work.  To  secure  their  position  there  they  will  have  to  show 
something  different  from  a  record  of  the  number  of  human  beings 
they  have  hustled  into  prison  while  serving  as  policemen  or 
deputy  sheriffs.  Recognizing  the  patient  as  a  dual  being  there 
will  be  no  rules  that  crush  the  man,  in  the  effort  to  suppress  the 
criminal.  Indeed,  the  most  of  the  rules  may  well  be  left  for  the 
inmates  to  formulate  and  enforce.  This  will  develop  strength  of 
character  and  elevate  the  man. 

Common  sense  will  teach  that  there  should  be  no  outside 
interference,  as  by  contractors  and  their  hangers-on.  No  man 
can  be  morally  educated  when  his  whole  being  is  in  revolt  at  the 
thought  of  being  another  man's  slave  ten  hours  out  of  each 
twenty-four.  With  the  State-account  system  those  who  are  in 
control  of  the  hospital  are  not  hampered  with  a  third  party  who 
stands  between  the  management  and  the  patient,  ever  hungry 
for  the  dollar  to  be  gained,  and  whose  only  exclamation  when  a 
man  falls  down  ill  is  "Give  me  another!  "  With  other  heathen, 
the  contractor  must  go. 

The  system  of  working  on  State-account  is  easily  managed 
on  business  principles.  Surely  the  State  can  buy  raw  material  as 
cheap  as  can  a  citizen.  The  machinery  for  using  this  is  not 
monopolized  by  contractors.  The  markets  are  as  open  for  the 
State  to  sell  its  products  as  for  Citizen  Growback  to  sell  his,  nor 
need  there  be  injurious  rivalry;  no  product  of  labor  but  has  its 
quoted  price.  It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  the  State  could  not 
forbid  the  sale  of  its  products  under  price. 

The  principle  of  profit  as  now  defined,  will  be  eliminated 
from  institutions  for  moral  treatment.  The  profit  to  society  will 
yet  be  counted  by  dollars  and  cents,  but  on  another  basis. 
Whereas  an  institution  is  now  charged  with  the  number  ot  dollars 
it  annually  draws  from  the  public  treasury  and  is  credited  with 
the  number  returned  to  the  same.  When  reformed  it  will  be 
charged  not  only  with  the  dollars  drawn  trom  the  public 
purse,  but  also  with  the  difference  (in  dollars)  between  a 
healthy,  honest  man  and  a  sickly,  dishonest  foe  to  society.  It 
will  be  debited  with  every  failure  to  cure,  and  credited  with  every 
cure  made.  This  system  will  be  easily  established.  The  worth 
to  society  of  an  honest,  healthy  man  is  well  known.  The  cost 
to  society  for  the  maintenance  of  criminal  courts,  police,  jails  and 
prisons  is  readily  computed,  as  is  the  cost  of  depredations.  Strike 
a  balance  and  charge  the  deficit  to  the  present  system  of  treat- 
ing crime.  Radically  change  the  system,  give  it  ten  years'  trial, 
crediting  it  with  the  diminished  cost  of  depredation,  of  catching, 
trying  and  confining  criminals,  and  we  will  plainly  see  where  the 
"  profit"  is. 

Little  need  be  said  of  indeterminate  sentences.  The  pro- 
tection of  society  plainly  demands  that  a  criminal  shall  not  be 
let  loose  until  he  has  recovered  the  use  of  his  mi  ral  powers. 
No  wise  judge  can  foretell  how  long  a  time  it  will  take  to  de- 
velop the  man's  moral  faculties  stifficientlv  to  warrant  his  being 
6et  at  liberty.     He  might  as  well  attempt  to  say  ihat  some  insane 


person  should  be  confined  in  an  asylum  for  a  definite  length  of 
time,  whether  reason  was  recovered  or  not,  and  should  be  released 
at  the  end  of  that  time  even  though  raging  with  madness.  The 
definite  sentence  is  an  old  idea,  but  it  is  heathenish  and  must  go. 

Those  who  are  in  control  of  penal  institutions  meet  with  no 
more  pernicious  influence  than  that  exerted  by  certain  well- 
meaning  but  mistaken  philanthropists,  who  are  impelled  by 
kindly  hearts  to  slop  over  with  sentiment.  No  criminal  is  so 
hard  to  reach  as  the  one  who  fancies  himself  injured,  or  has  a 
grievance  against  society.  Aside  from  treatment  that  compels 
him  to  feel  this  resentment,  there  is  no  one  thing  which  will  so 
quickly  bring  this  feeling  as  to  have  some  tender-hearted,  benevo- 
lent person  tell  him  that  they  think  his  penalty  is  far  more 
severe  than  his  offense  warrants;  especially  now  that  he  has 
promised  to  pray  regularly,  and  has  resolved  to  abandon  his 
wicked  ways.  One  hour's  conversation  with  this  kind  of  a  per- 
sonage will  make  an  ordinary  convict  feel  that  he  is  the  most 
wronged  individual  in  the  world,  and  that  all  who  have  anything 
to  do  with  keeping  him  in  confinement  are  his  mortal  enemies. 
He  then  straightway  sets  about  formulating  two  plans:  First,  to 
practice  deception  for  the  grace  of  his  kind  admirer;  second,  how 
he  can  "get  square"  with  those  who  are  instrumental  in  keep- 
ing him  in  prison.  This  man  goes  out  at  the  end  of  his  sentence 
a  worse  man  than  when  he  began  it. 

Under  the  reformed  system  of  treatment  the  first  lesson  for 
him  to  learn,  would  be  the  beneficent  justice  of  his  having  been 
placed  there.  His  next  lesson  would  be  that  there  was  no  possible 
chance  for  his  release  before  death,  unless  he  actually  changed 
his  habit  of  thought  and  mode  of  life.  He  would  thus  be  thrown 
upon  his  moral  legs,  and  would  not  be  long  in  learning  to  use 
them,  for  he  would  see  that  it  depended  on  himself  whether  he 
was  to  remain  for  life,  or  for  a  short  time.  The  judgement  of  his 
development  would  be  based  on  strictly  ethical  grounds.  First, 
would  be  observed  his  conduct;  second,  his  character.  This 
latter  is  not  so  subtle  and  elusive  as  may  be  supposed.  Even  with 
the  present  crude  system  the  Warden  can  correctly  tell,  in  nine 
cases  out  often,  whether  a  man  will  go  right  or  wrong  when  he 
is  discharged.  How  much  greater  the  surety,  then,  when  the 
discharge  depends  on  his  belief  that  the  man  would  go  right! 

When  the  wrong-doer  has  been  subjected  to  the  thorough 
treatment  of  this  reformed  system,  and  competent  scientists  (for 
it  will  be  a  science)  have  pronounced  him  a  man  of  sound  morals, 
and  good  enough  to  be  trusted  with  his  freedom,  what  folly  to 
follow  him  with  social  and  legal  ostracism!  The  legal  stumbling- 
block  will  be  promptly  removed.  If  he  can  be  safely  trusted  at 
large,  he  can  safely  be  trusted  at  the  ballot-box,  and  to  give  evi- 
dence in  the  courts.  It  does  not  follow  that,  because  he  has  once 
been  convicted  of  violating  a  law,  he  now  stands  ready  to  sell  his 
vote  and  to  perjure  himself.  If  he  is  still  that  kind  of  a  man,  why 
let  him  loose?     If  he  is  not,  why  place  him  under  this  legal  cloud? 

It  is  often  averred  that  an  honest  man  cannot  be  made  by 
Act  of  Legislature.  It  may  be  so.  One  thing  is  certain,  a  dis- 
honest man  may  be  so  made;  and  I  am  not  alone  in  the  belief 
that  laws  may  be  so  framed  as  to  promote  morality  and  right- 
doing.  All  laws  are  but  the  reflection  of  public  opinion.  At 
present  one  hour  of  one  Sunday  each  year  is  given  to  the  con- 
sideration of  prisons  and  prisoners.  This  is  something  toward 
forming  a  correct  public  opinion  that  can  sometime  crystalize  into 
statute  law.  But  the  vastness  of  the  subject,  and  its  high  and 
immediate  importance  to  society,  would  warrant  the  expenditure 
of  more  time  and  thought  on  the  subject.  Eugene  Hough. 


ON    GRAVITY. 

To  the  Editor:  Detroit,  Mich.,  Dec.  6,  18S7. 

In   your   issue   of   November   10  is  an  interesting  article  by 
George  Stearns  entitled  "The  Mystery  of  Gravity." 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


705 


If  anything  could  and  would  give  light  on  this  subject  it  cer- 
tainly would  be  welcome.  Mr.  Stearns  seems  to  think  that  the 
idea  of  "attraction"  as  a  prefix  to  gravitation  is  absurd.  While 
the  idea  that  masses  of  matter  are  "  pushed  "  toward  each  other  by 
"  an  intervening  ether  "  is  in  the  line  of  truth  and  of  explanation. 
If  it  should  be  demonstrated  that  an  inraining  ether  pushed  bodies 
together,  would  it  not  be  reasonable  to  infer  that  the  cause  of  the 
inraining  of  the  ether  was  also  the  cause  of  what  we  now  know 
as  gravitation?  That  instead  of  causing  gravitation,  it  is  caused 
by  it.  That  this  action  of  the  ether  is  but  another  instance  of 
matter  obeying  the  same  law.  Does  it  really  help  to  explain  the 
action  of  large  masses,  if  we  learn  that  small  masses  (i.e.  luminif- 
erous  ether)  are  doing  the  same  thing?     Very  truly,     L.J.  Ives. 


BOOK    REVIEWS. 


Just  before  going  to  press  the    following   telegram  from    Mr. 
Hegeler*  was  received  at  the  office  of  The  Open  Court: 
Dr.  Paul  Cants,   Care  Open  Court : 

Your  testimonial  in  original  and  translation  should  be  pub- 
lished in  correction  as  editorial  foot-note.     Have  written. 

Edward  C.  Hegeler. 

Mr.  Hegeler  states  in  his  letter  that  the  item  in  the  Chicago 
Graphic  demands  some  further  explanation,  which  would  best  be 
made  bv  publishing  the  testimonial  given  to  Dr.  Cams  by  the 
authorities  on  his  resigning  the  position  as  Oberlehrcr  which  he 
held  at  the  Royal  Corps  of  Cadets  in  Dresden.  "  Oberlehrer" 
is  a  degree  which  is  higher  than  that  of  instructor  at  American 
colleges,  while  the  title  professor  is  reserved  as  a  further  distinction. 

Complying  with  Mr.  Hegeler's  wish  a  copy  of  the  document 
referred  to  and  a  translation  thereof  are  appended: 

Koniglich  SHchsisches  Kadetten  Korps. 

Herr   Oberlehrer   Dr.  Carus 

hat  die  Entlassung  von  seiner  dermaligen  Stellung  mit  Ostern 
dieses  Jahres  naehgesucht  und  erhalten,  weil  er  sich  mit  seinen 
Ansichten  iiber  Religion  nichl  in  Uebereinstimmung  befindet  mit 
dem  christlichen  Geiste,  in  welchem  Erziehung  und  Unterricht 
im  Kadettenkorps  geleitet  werden  sollen.  Er  hat  diese  Ansichten 
iiber  Religion  in  einer  im  Sommer  vorigen  Jahres  veroffentlichten 
Brochure  bekannt  gegeben,  ist  mit  denselben  sonst  aber  in  keiner 
Weise,  weder  beim  Unterricht,  noch  bei  anderen  Gelegenheiten 
provocirend  hervorgetreten. 

Herr  Dr.  Carus  hat  wiihrend  der  Dauer  seiner  Anstellung  am 
Koniglichen  Kadettenkorps  in  den  Klassen  Untertertia  und  Quarta 
Unterricht  in  verschiedenen  Disciplinen,  vorzugsweise  aber  in 
Lateinischer  und  Deutscher  Sprache  und  Geschichte  ertheilt  und 
dabei  praktische  Befahigung  und  sicheres  Wissen  gezeigt. 
Dresden,  den  iyten  Februar,  1S81. 

[L.  S-]  (§ez:)     von  Bulow, 

Oberst  und  Kommandeur. 
Royal  Corps  of  Cadets  of  Saxony. 

H  rr   Oberlehrer   Dr.   Carus 

has  tendered  his  resignation  for  the  position  which  he  has  hereto- 
fore held.  The  resignation  has  been  accepted  and  is  to  go  into 
effect  on  Easter  of  this  year.  He  resigns  because  his  religious 
views  are  not  in  harmony  with  the  Christian  spirit,  in  accordance 
with  which  the  training  and  education  of  the  Corps  of  Cadets  should 
be  conducted.  He  has  published  his  religious  views  in  a  pamphlet 
which  appeared  last  summer.  But  he  has  in  no  wise — neither  in 
his  teaching  nor  on  other  occasions — obtruded  these  opinions. 

Dr.  Carus,  during  his  appointment   at  the   Corps  of  Cadets, 
has  given  instruction  in  various   branches,  but   especially    in  the 
Latin  and  German  languages  and  in  history,  and  has  always  shown 
practical  ability  and  thorough  knowledge. 
Dresden,  February  17,  1SS1. 

pL   y  I  (Signed)     von  Bulow, 

Colonel  and  Commander  of  the  Corps. 

*  *.  Olllp.trc  this  item  with  the  foot-note  on  page  694. 


John    Keats.       By    Sidney    Colvin.      New    York:     Harper    & 

Brothers;   18S7. 

There  have  been  a  great  many  contradictory  opinions  put 
forward  regarding  the  life  and  the  life-work  of  John  Keats.  Thus, 
from  those  who  deny  him  any  true  poetic  originality  at  all — indeed, 
charging  him  with  taking  the  color  of  the  writers  he  happened  to 
be  reading  at  the  time  he  wrote  his  poems — to  those  who  can  only 
give  vent  to  their  admiration  in  aesthetic  superlatives,  there  is 
obviously  an  intermediate  region  for  even  the  most  placid  Philis- 
tine to  express  his  opinion.  Mr.  Colvin  has  taken  this  intermedi- 
ate region  without  the  least  sign  (so  far  as  I  can  discern)  of  any 
Philistinism  being  visible,  and  in  this  regard  Mr.  Colvin 
differs,  on  the  one  hand,  from  Matthew  Arnold's  supercilious 
attitude  toward  Keats,  and  on  the  other,  from  Mr.  Swinburne's 
fantastic  and  "over-languaged"  spouting. 

I  do  not  know  that  Mr.  Colvin  has  shed  much  further  light 
on  the  few  brief  facts  of  Keats' life.  The  poet  was  born  on  the 
29th  of  October,  1795,  in  London,  and  his  parents  being  in  very 
humble  circumstances  the  great  struggle  of  his  life,  as  I  gather 
from  Mr.  Colvin's  account,  was  to  "break  his  birth's  invidious 
bar."  We  follow  Keats  from  the  time  he  goes  to  Mr.  Cowden 
Clarke's  school,  at  Enfield,  until  1810,  when  he  apprenticed  for 
five  years  to  a  country  doctor,  at  Edmunton.  Of  course  the  turn- 
ing point  in  the  poet's  life  was  when,  in  his  seventeenth  year,  Mr. 
Clarke  put  into  his  hands  the  Ftsrie  3ueene,  and  led  to  the 
study  of  Chaucer  and  Shakespeare.  In  181 7,  Keats  gave  to  the 
world  selections  from  his  first  attempts  in  verse,  and  in  1S1S,  En- 
dymion  appeared.  Mr.  Colvin  shows  how  baseless  the  notion — - 
spread  by  Byron — that  Keats  was  "  killed  off  by  one  critique."  On 
the  contrary,  the  poet  suffered  from  a  number  of  causes.  He 
carried  within  him  the  seeds  of  family  disease;  he  was  alternately 
thrown  into  a  high  state  of  feverish  excitement  and  then  into  deep 
dejection  by  melancholia;  he  was  torn  and  distracted  by  a  passion 
for  a  woman  wholly  unsuited  to  him;  he  finally  was  vexed  and 
harassed  by  the  want  of  money  and  the  wherewithal ;  for,  as 
Edmund  Clarence  Stedman  well  says  in  his  recent  paper  on 
modern  poets,  it  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  poets,  like  caged  birds, 
sing  better  for  starving. 

Mr.  Colvin  has  apparently  given  but  slight  heed  to  Keats' 
letters  to  Fanny  Brawne.  In  this,  we  think,  he  erred;  because 
no  matter  how  much  one  may  regret  their  appearance,  the  biog- 
rapher of  Keats  must  use  them  intelligently  and  discriminately 
as  showing  the  character  of  the  man.  No  one  can  help  feeling 
that  the  last  days  of  Keats  were  rendered  doubly  painful  on  ac- 
count of  what  he  himself  calls  his  "horribly  vivid"  imagination. 
He  was  in  bitter  truth  "  all  touch,  all  eye,  all  ear."  There  cer- 
tainly has  not  been  in  recent  times  a  poet  whose  nervous  papilhe 
were  so  acutely  sensitive,  so  burningly  electric.  Says  James 
Russell  Lowell:  "  Was  he  (Keats)  cheerful,  he  '  hops  about  the 
gravel  with  the  sparrows';  was  he  morbid,  he  'would  reject  a 
Petrarchal  coronation,  on  account  of  my  dying  day.'  "  And  now 
the  end  is  come. 

When  Keats  fled  away  to  Italy  to  die,  he  felt  more  keenly 
than  ever  that  he  was  worth  saving.  Then,  he  asked  that  his 
epitaph  might  be :      "  Here  lies  one  whose  name  was  turit  in  -.voter." 

Thus,  on  the  23d  of  February,  1821,  there  passed  away  in  the 
modest  lodging  at  Rome  a  great  poet,  but  "the  world  knew  him 
not." 

It  was  only  after  people  read  and  re-read  the  legacy  be- 
queathed them  that  they  said,  "Oh!  the  pity  of  it.  Here  was 
a  sword  snapped  and  thrown  away  before  the  fight  was  half  over. 
Here  was  one  of  the  corner-stones  of  a  noble  temple,  never 
builded.  Let  us  take  home  the  lesson  and  example  of  his  life 
and  of  his  death." 


706 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


And  this  was  accordingly  done.  In  the  language  of  Mr.  Col- 
vin,  to  which  I  subscribe, — 

"The  first  considerable  writer  among  Keats'  successors  on 
whom  his  example  took  effect  was  Hood,  in  the  fairy  and  romance 
poems  of  his  Earlier  time.  The  dominant  poet  of  the  Victorian 
age,  Tennyson,  has  been  profoundly  influenced  by  it,  both  in 
the  form,  and  the  matter  of  his  art,  and  is  indeed  the  heir  of 
Keats  and  Wordsworth  in  almost  equal  degrees.  After,  or 
together  with  Coleridge,  Keats  has  also  contributed  most  among 
English  writers  to  the  poetic  method  and  ideals  of  Rossetti  and 
his  group.  Himself,  as  we  have  seen,  alike  by  gifts  and  a  true 
child  of  the  Elizabethans,  he  thus  stands  in  the  most  direct  line 
of  descent  between  the  great  poets  of  that  age  and,  whom  posterity 
has  yet  to  estimate,  of  our  own  day."  L.  J.  Vance. 

Legends  from  Story-Land.     By  James  Vila  Blake.    Chicago: 

C.  H.  Kerr  &  Co. 

This  little  book  is  as  pleasing,  both  in  subject-matter  and 
style,  as  it  is  unique.  We  have  sometimes  felt  a  little  like  quar- 
reling with  Mr.  Blake's  written  style  on  the  ground  that  it  culti- 
vates simplicity  of  diction  beyond  the  bounds  of  ease  and  natu- 
ralness, but  here  the  quaint,  simple  phrasing  of  the  legends  from 
story-land  forms  a  fitting  garment  for  the  stories  themselves. 

Mr.  Blake  treats  every  subject  of  which  he  writes  from  the 
double  point  of  view  of  scholar  and  poet,  bringing  to  the  discus- 
sion of  his  chosen  themes  much  nice  and  critical  knowledge,  gath- 
ered from  what  many  would  consider  rather  dry  sources  of  learn- 
ing, together  with  a  delicate  and  loving  insight  which  only  the 
poetic  order  of  mind  is  capable  of.  There  are  twelve  of  these 
legends  retold  here,  accompanied  by  a  brief  preface  entitled 
"  Story-Land,"  and  a  word  of  conclusion  on  "  The  Open." 

Story-Land  is  the  name  of  the  place  where  "the  story-lan- 
guage is  spoken  "  in  the  days  when  men  thought  over  the  things 
they  saw  in  the  world  about  them,  but  "  as  they  knew  little,  the 
better  part  of  their  thinking  was  wondering."  Each  of  the  legends 
is  found  to  contain  two  meanings,  the  true  and  the  untrue,  by 
which  is  meant  the  poetic  and  the  literal.  "One  meaning  is  just 
what  the  words  say  *  *  *  the  other  meaning  is  some  spirit- 
ual or  moral  truth,  which  lies  tenderly  packed  in  the  woods."  The 
spiritual  or  moral  truth  which  the  writer  aims  to  unfold  in  such  le- 
gends as  "  Tiresias  "  and  "  St.  Thomas,"  is  always  of  the  most  gen- 
eral order.  The  spirit  of  modern  scientific  analysis  given  to  defi 
nite  classification  of  everything,  is  noticeably  absent.  There  is  no 
attempt  to  make  the  story  of  "Balder"  and  the  rest  convey  any  par- 
ticular and  circumscribed  truth  after  the  manner  of  those  critics 
who  rationalize  the  horns  on  Angelo's  Moses  into  remnants  of 
ancient  sun-worship.  Doubtless  Mr.  Blake's  book  would  have 
possessed  additional  interest  if  a  greater  variety  of  interpretation 
had  been  put  upon  the  different  stories  told,  but  as  this  evidently 
lay  outside  the  author's  intention,  it  offers  no  fair  point  of  criti- 
cism. These  legends  from  Story-Land  are  written  with  the  single 
purpose  of  separating  that  which  is  of  a  false,  fleeting  character 
in  all  such  literature  from  that  which,  because  it  embodies  some 
living  idea  or  principle,  is  lasting  and  true.  Mr.  Blake  compares 
the  Story-Land  in  which  he  has  found  these  legends  to  the  wood- 
land, full  of  mingled  light  and  shadow,  that  primeval  state  "in 
which  the  people  speak  their  religion  in  strange,  wild  tales  of 
wonders  and  signs."  Around  the  woodland  is  the  Open,  "the 
blooming-place  ot  knowledge,"  and  in  the  Open  is  the  spire  of  a 
rational  faith  and  worship  built  on  knowledge. 

The  book  is  an  attractive  specimen  of  the  book-maker's  art, 
being  handsomely  printed  on  enameled  paper  and  bound  in 
dainty  and  original  design.  Each  of  the  twelve  legends  is  appro- 
priately illustrated.  The  sketches  are  all  good  in  design  and  help 
to  tell  the  stories,  but  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  mechanical 
part  of  the  work  is  not  of  a  higher  order.  c.  p.  w. 


Mr.  Kennan  contributes  to  the  January  Century  an  article  on 
"  Russian  Provincial  Prisons,"  based  on  personal  investigation,  in 
which  he  gives  a  minute  account  of  the  Knock  Alphabet,  the 
means  of  intercommunication  resorted  to  by  the  Russian  prison- 
ers. The  Lincoln  biography  deals  with  the  formation  of  the 
cabinet,  richly  illustrated  with  excellent  portraits  of  the  various 
members.  W.J.  Stillman  has  a  very  interesting  sketch  of  John 
Ruskin,  accompanied  by  an  excellent  frontispiece  portrait.  In  fic- 
tion there  are  contributions  by  Cable,  Eggleston  and  Stockton. 
In  poetry  there  is  a  very  pathetic  dialect  poem  by  James  Whit- 
comb  Riley,  entitled  "  The  Old  Man  and  Jim." 

St.  Nicholas  is  truly  a  magazine  for  young  folks  ofall  ages, 
for  those  who  are  for  the  first  time  awakening  to  life's  realities  as 
well  as  for  those  who  are  entering  upon  second  childhood.  The 
January  number  opens  with  a  beautiful  poem  by  John  G  Whit- 
tier,  "The  Brown  Dwarf  of  Riigen,"  very  daintily  illustrated  by 
E.  H.  Blashfield.  Henry  W.  Jessup,  who  spent  so  many  years 
as  a  missionary  in  Arabia,  contributes  a  novel  and  interesting 
article  on  the  "  Amusements  of  Arab  Children."  Mrs.  Pennell 
gives  an  amusing  description  of  the  "  London  Christmas  Panto- 
mimes," including  the  recent  representation  of  "Alice  in  Wonder- 
land." Other  features  of  the  number  are  a  description  of  "A 
Girls'  Military  Company,"  written  by  Lieutenant  W.  R.  Hamilton, 
and  a  seasonable  story,  telling  "  Where  the  Christmas-tree  Grew." 


The  leading  article  in  Scribner's  Magazine  for  January  is  a 
richly  illustrated  paper  by  E.  H.  Blashfield, — "The  Man  at 
Arms."  It  gives  the  history  of  armor  from  the  time  of  Charle- 
magne to  the  perfection  of  armor  in  the  Fifteenth  Century.  The 
illustrations  are  based  upon  old  MSS.,  old  prints,  and  upon  the 
military  manikins  in  the  Paris  Museum  of  Artillery.  Many  of 
the  suits  of  armor  described  are  connected  with  famous  charac- 
ters of  history  and  fiction.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  con- 
tributes "  A  Chapter  on  Dreams,"  in  which  the  origin  of  "  Dr. 
Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde"  is  incidentally  related.  Interesting  illus- 
trated articles  are  "The  Great  Pyramid,"  by  Edward  L.  Wilson, 
and  "Japanese  Art,  Artists,  and  Artisans,"  by  William  Elliot 
Griffis.  "The  End  of  the  Beginning"  is  a  subtle,  psychological 
sketch  by  George  A.  Hibbard,  which  must  come  home  to  many  a 
one.     There  are  also  poems  by  C.  P.  Cranch  and  T.  B.  Aldrich. 

Never  more  popular  and  prosperous  than  to-day,  the  Maga- 
zine of  American  History  opens  its  nineteenth  volume  with  a  won- 
derfully interesting  January  number.  "  Thurlow  Weed's  Home 
in  New  York  City,"  where  the  great  politician  resided  during  the 
last  seventeen  years  of  his  life,  is  richly  illustrated  with  exterior 
and  interior  views,  and  an  admirable  portrait  of  Mr.  Weed  in  his 
later  years  is  the  frontispiece  to  the  number.  The  graphic 
and  informing  description  of  the  house,  and  its  distinguished 
occupant,  is  from  the  ready  pen  of  the  editor  of  the  magazine,  who 
introduces  an  account  of  Mr.  Weed's  marvelous  experience  in 
France  at  a  critical  period  in  our  civil  war,  in  his  own  exact  lan- 
guage. A  fac  simile  of  one  of  President  Lincoln's  letters  to  Mr. 
Weed  accompanies  this  valuable  paper.  Other  interesting  articles 
are  "  General  Andrew  Jackson's  Account  of  the  Battle  of  Horse- 
shoe in  1814,"  never  before  published,  by  Gen.  Marcus  J.  Wright. 
"The  Discovery  of  Yucatan,"  by  Alice  D.  Le  Plongeon,  and  the 
"Historical  Sketch  of  Christ  Church,  New  York  City,"  an  able 
and  authoritative  paper  by  William  J.  Davis. 

The  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  January  opens  with  an 
article  by  David  A.  Wells,  "Governmental  Interference  with  Pro- 
duction and  Distribution,"  which  is  devoted  to  the  subject  which 
President  Cleveland's  message  has  made  for  the  moment  upper- 
most in  American  thought — high  and  low  tariffs.  In  "  Evolu- 
tion and  Religious  Thought,"  Professor  Joseph  Le  Conte  shows 
how  theological  ideas  have  gradually  and  from  time  to  time,  suf- 


THE    OPEN    COURT. 


707 


fered  modification  in  accordance  with  new  views  of  Nature  dis- 
covered  by  science.  To  the  question,  What  will  be  the  effect  of 
the  universal  acceptance  of  the  law  of  evolution  on  religious 
thought,  he  replies: 

"  There  can  be  no  doubt  Unit  evolution,  as  a  law  affecting  all  science  and 
every  department  of  Nature,  must  fundamentally  effect  the  whole  realm  of 
thought  and  profoundly  modify  our  traditional  views  of  Nature,  of  God,  and  ot 
man.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  we  are  now  on  the  eve  ot  a  great  revolution. 
But,  as  in  all  great  revolutions,  so  in  this,  the  first  fears  as  to  its  effects  are 
greatlv  exaggerated.  To  many,  even  friends  and  foes  of  Christianity,  evolu- 
tion seems  to  sweep  away  the  whole  foundation  not  only  of  Christianity,  but 
of  all  religion  and  morals,  by  demonstrating  a  universal  materialism.  Many 
are  ready  to  cry  out  in  anguish,  "  Ye  have  taken  away  our  gods,  what  have 
we  more?  Ye  have  destroyed  our  deepest  hopes  and  noblest  aspirations,  what 
more  is  left  worth  living  for?  Bat  I  think  all  who  are  at  all  familiar  with  the 
history  of  the  so-called  conflict  between  religion  and  science  will  admit  this  is 
not  the  first  time  this  cry  has  been  raised  against  science.  They  have  heard 
this  danger  cry  so  often  that  they  begin  to  regard  it  as  little  more  than  a  wolf- 
cry — scientific  wolt  in  the  religious  fold." 

"  Race  and  Language "  is  a  very  thoughtful  article  by 
Horatio  Hale  in  which  language  is  put  forward  as  the  chief  and 
surest  criterion  of  race  affiliations.  "The  Psychology  ot  Joking  " 
is  an  interesting  discussion  by  Dr.  J.  H.Jacksonv  in  which  we  are 
glad  to  see  a  good  word  said  for  punning. 


THE  LOST  MANUSCRIPT.* 

BY    GUSTAV    FREYTAG. 

CHAPTER  III.— Concluded. 

The  cold  demeanor  of  the  man  made  the  Professor's 
blood  boil.  He,  with  difficult)-,  controlled  his  rising 
anger,  and,  approaching  the  window,  looked  out  at  a 
bevy  of  sparrows  that  were  twittering  angrily  at  one 
another.     At  last,  turning  round,  he  began: — 

"  The  possessor  of  a  house  has  the  right  of  refusal. 
If  you  persist  we  shall  certainly  leave  you  with  a  feeling 
of  regret  that  you  do  not  know  how  to  appreciate  the 
possible  importance  of  our  communication.  I  have  been 
unable  to  avoid  this  meeting,  although  I  was  aware  how 
uncertain  are  the  impressions  formed  in  a  first  interview 
with  strangers.  Our  communication  would  perhaps 
have  received  more  attention  if  it  had  come  to  you 
through  the  medium  of  your  government,  accompanied 
by  a  requisition  to  commence  an  active  research." 

"  Do  you  regret  that  you  have  not  taken  this  course?  " 
asked  the  proprietor,  laughing. 

"  To  speak  frankly,  no.  I  have  no  confidence  in 
official  protocols  in  such  matters." 

"  Nor  have  I,"  answered  the  proprietor,  drily. 
"  Ours  is  a  small  province,  the  Governor  is  at  a  distance, 
and  we  are  surrounded  by  foreign  dominions.  I  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  court;  years  pass  without  my 
going  there;  the  government  does  not  bother  us,  and 
in  my  disttict  I  control  the  police.  If  my  government 
were  to  attribute  importance  to  your  wishes,  they  would 
probably  call  for  a  report  from  me,  and  that  would  cost 
me  a  sheet  of  paper  and  an  hour's  writing.  Perhaps,  if 
you  made  enough  ado,  they  might  also  send  a  commis- 
sion to  my  house.  These  would  announce  themselves 
to  me  about  dinner  time,  and  I  should  take  them  to  the 
cellars  after  dinner;  they  would,  for  form's  sake,  knock 
a  little  upon  the   walls,    and    I    meanwhile   would   have 

♦Copyright. 


some  bottles  uncorked.  At  last  a  paper  would  be 
quickly  written,  and  the  affair  would  be  settled.  I  am 
thankful  that  you  have  not  adopted  this  method.  More- 
over, I  would  defend  my  household  rights,  even  against 
the  king." 

"  It  is  vain,  it  appears  to  me,  to  speak  to  you  of  the 
value  of  the  manuscript,"  interposed  the  Professor, 
severely. 

"  It  would  be  of  no  avail,"  said  the  proprietor.  It  is 
questionable  whether  such  a  curiosity,  even  if  found  on 
my  property,  would  be  of  essential  value  to  myself.  As 
to  the  value  to  your  branch  of  learning,  I  onlv  know  it 
from  what  you  say ;  but  neither  for  myself  nor  for  you 
will  I  stir  a  finger,  because  I  do  not  believe  that  such  a 
treasure  is  concealed  on  my  propertv,  and  I  do  not 
choose  to  sacrifice  myself  for  an  improbability.  This  is 
my  answer,  Heir  Professor." 

The  Professor  again  stepped  silently  to  the  window. 
Fritz,  who,  although  indignant,  had  restrained  himself, 
felt  that  it  was  time  to  put  an  end  to  the  conversation, 
and  rose  to  take  his  departure.  "  So  you  have  given  us 
your  final  decision?" 

"  I  regret  that  I  can  give  you  no  other  answer," 
replied  the  proprietor,  compassionately,  looking  at  the 
two  strangers.  "I  really  am  sorry  that  you  have  come 
so  far  out  of  your  way.  If  you  desire  to  see  my  farm, 
every  door  shall  be  opened  to  you.  The  walls  of  my 
house  I  open  to  no  one.  I  am,  moreover,  ready  to  keep 
vour  communication  a  secret,  and  the  more  so,  as  this 
would  also  be  to  my  own  interest." 

"Your  refusal  to  allow  any  researches  on  your  prop- 
ertv makes  any  further  secrecy  unnecessary,"  answered 
the  Doctor.  "All  that  remains  to  my  friend  now  is  to 
publish  his  discovery  in  some  scientific  periodical.  He 
will  then  have  done  his  duty,  and  perhaps  others  may  be 
more  successful  with  you  then  we  have  been." 

The  proprietor  started  up.  "  Confound  you,  sir; 
what  the  devil  do  you  mean?  Will  you  tell  your  story 
to  your  colleagues?  Probably  these  will  think  very 
much  as  you  do." 

"Undoubtedly  hundreds  will  view  the  matter  exactly 
as  we  do,  and  will  also  condemn  your  refusal,"  exclaimed 
the  Doctor. 

"  Sir,  how  you  judge  me  is  a  matter  of  indifference 
to  me;  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  have  you  paint  me  as 
black  as  your  love  of  truth  will  allow,"  exclaimed  the 
proprietor,  indignantly.  "  But  I  see  that  all  will  be  ot 
no  avail.  Hang  the  monks  and  their  treasure!  Now  I 
may  every  Sunday  and  every  hour  of  your  vacation 
expect  a  visit  like  this  one — strange  people  with  spectacles 
and  umbrellas,  who  will  claim  the  right  to  creep  under 
the  wooden  trestles  of  my  dairy,  and  to  climb  on  the 
ceiling  of  the  nursery.     The  devil  take  this  Tacitus!  " 

The  Professor  took  his  hat.  "We  beg  to  take  leave 
of  you,"  and  went  toward  the  door. 


708 


THE    OPEN    COURT 


"  Stop,  my  good  gentlemen,"  cried  the  host,  discom- 
posed; "  not  so  quickly.  I  would  rather  deal  with  you 
two  than  have  an  incessant  pilgrimage  of  your  col- 
leagues. Wait  a  moment,  and  I  will  make  this  proposi- 
tion to  you.  You,  yourselves,  shall  go  through  my 
house,  from  garret  to  cellar;  it  is  a  severe  tax  upon  me 
and  my  household,  but  I  will  make  the  sacrifice. 
If  vou  find  a  place  that  you  think  suspicious,  we  will 
talk  it  over.  On  the  other  hand,  promise  me  that  you 
will  be  silent  with  respect  to  the  object  of  your  visit 
here  before  my  people.  My  laborers  are  already  suf- 
ficiently excited  without  this;  if  you  encourage  this 
unfortunate  rumor,  I  cannot  answer  for  it  that  the  idea 
will  not  occur  to  my  own  people  to  break  through  the 
foundation-wall  at  a  corner  of  the  house.  My  house  is 
open  to  you  the  whole  day  as  long  as  you  are  my  guests. 
But  then,  when  you  speak  or  write  concerning  the  mat- 
ter, I  demand  that  you  shall  add  that  you  have  done  all 
in  your  power  to  search  through  my  house,  but  have  found 
nothing.     Will  you  enter  into  this  compact  with  me?" 

The  Doctor  looked  doubtfully  at  the  Professor  to 
see  whether  the  pride  of  his  friend  would  stoop  to  such 
a  condition.  Contrary  to  his  expectation,  the  counte- 
nance of  the  scholar  was  radiant  with  joy,  and  he 
answered  : 

"You  have  mistaken  us  on  one  point.  We  do  not 
desire  to  take  away  the  concealed  manuscript  from  your 
possession,  but  we  have  only  come  to  persuade  you  to 
make  the  experiment.  It  seems  very  likely  to  us,  that 
we,  in  a  strange  house,  not  knowing  the  rooms,  and 
unused  to  this  kind  of  research,  shall  find  nothing. 
If,  however,  we  do  not  shun  the  ludicrous  position  in 
which  vou  would  place  us,  and  accept  your  offer,  we  do 
it  only  in  the  hope  that,  during  our  stay  here,  we  shall 
succeed  in  awakening  in  you  a  greater  interest  in  the 
possible  discovery." 

The  proprietor  shook  his  head,  and  shrugged  his 
shoulders.  "  The  only  interest  I  take  in  the  matter  is 
that  it  should  be  forgotten  as  soon  as  possible.  You 
may  do  what  you  consider  your  duty.  My  business  pre- 
vents me  from  accompanying  you.  I  shall  consign  you 
to  the  care  of  my  daughter." 

He  opened  the  door  of  the  adjoining  room  and  called 
"Use!" 

"  Here,  father,"  answered  a  rich-toned  voice. 

The  proprietor  went  into  the  next  room.  "Come 
here,  Use,  I  have  a  special  commission  for  you  to-day. 
There  are  two  strange  gentlemen  from  one  of  the  Uni- 
versities here.  They  are  looking  for  a  book  which  is 
supposed  to  have  been  concealed  in  our  house  ages  ago. 
Conduct  them  through  the  house  and  open  all  the 
rooms  to  them." 

"  But,  father "  interposed  the  daughter. 

"  It  matters  not,"  continued  the  proprietor,  "  it  must 
be."     He  approached  closer  to  her  and  spoke  in  a  low 


tone:  "They  are  two  scholars  and  are  crack-brained" 
— he  pointed  to  his  head.  "  What  the)'  imagine  is  mad- 
ness, and  I  only  give  in  to  them  in  order  to  have  peace 
in  the  future.  Be  cautious,  Use;  I  do  not  know  the 
people.  I  must  go  to  the  farm,  but  will  tell  the  Inspector 
to  remain  near  the  house.  They  appear  to  me  two 
honest  fools,  but  the  devil  may  trust." 

"I  have  no  fear,  father,"  answered  the  daughter; 
"the  house  is  full  of  people;  we  shall  be  able  to  man- 
age." 

"  Take  care  that  none  of  the  maids  are  about,  whilst 
the  strangers  are  sounding  the  walls  and  measuring. 
For  the  rest,  they  do  not  look  to  me  as  if  they  would 
find  much,  even  though  all  the  walls  were  built  up  with 
books.  But  you  must  not  allow  them  to  break  through 
or  injure  the  walls." 

"  I  understand,  father,"  said  the  daughter.  "  Do  thev 
remain  to  dinner?" 

"  Yes,  your  duty  will  continue  till  evening.  The 
housekeeper  can  superintend  the  dairy  for  you." 

The  friends  heard  fragments  of  the  conversation 
through  the  door;  af